PRINCESS ➳ harry potter , draco malfoy (OLD VERSION)

56 || The Second Task

"How does it go again?" Katie questioned earnestly as she chewed the end of her quill. It was late into the night of February twenty-third, and she and Harry were in the library trying to work out the egg's clue for the Second Task.

Harry yawned before speaking. "Come seek us where our voices sound... We can not sing above the ground... And while you're searching, ponder this: We've taken what you'll sorely miss... And hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took... But past an hour — the prospect's black..."

"Too late, it's gone, it won't home back," Katie finished. "And you reckon it's merpeople?"

Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "That's what Myrtle said. What are they going to take, though?"

"I'd be more worried about how you're going to breathe underwater for an hour." Katie said with the quirk of an eyebrow.

"I could always use the Summoning Charm to get a pair of aqualungs." Harry suggested glumly. Katie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"A pair of what, sorry?"

Harry blinked at her before his face dropped in realisation. "Er — nothing — it's a Muggle thing."

There was a shuffle of footsteps as Ron and Hermione rounded the shelves. Hermione placed a large stack of books down on the table before taking a seat, while Ron dragged himself along behind her, looking as though he would rather be anywhere but the library in the present.

No one uttered a single word as they all flicked through piles and piles of spellbooks, desperately scanning for anything that could help Harry breathe under water, but they found nothing. Nothing.

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron said flatly. "Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"There must be something." Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired that she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have." Ron said, snapping a book shut and sliding it away from himself. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."

"You could always become an Animagus like Sirius," Katie jokingly suggested with a yawn. "Turn into a goldfish whenever you please."

"Or a frog." Harry mumbled.

"I'd love to be an Animagus." Katie said absent-mindedly as she turned another page.

"You damn near became a werewolf last year." Ron stated.

Katie's mouth momentarily twitched into a smug smirk. "Got the scar to prove it."

"You shouldn't joke about that!" Hermione snapped. "You could've been really hurt, Katie."

"Yeah, well, unluckily for you, I'm still here." Katie responded and Ron snickered, earning them both glowers from Hermione.

"Oh, this is no use," Hermione cried as she slammed a book shut. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," came the voice of Fred Weasley. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Katie looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves, accompanied closely by Chris.

"What're you three doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you," George told him. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."