Never Is Our Always

The Black Lake Task 4

(Harry pov) (24th of February)

By the evening before the second task. I felt as though I was trapped in a nightmare. I was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, I managed to find a suitable spell, I'd have a real job mastering it overnight.

How could I have let this happen? Why hadn't I got to work on the egg's clue sooner? Why had I ever let my mind wander in class- what if a teacher had once mentioned how to breathe underwater?

I sat with Hermione and Ron in the library as the sun set outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them. My heart gave a huge leap every time I saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt..."

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron's voice said flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. 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 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. "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."

"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!"

She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.

"I know what I should have done," I said, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" Ron said.

"Or a frog," I yawned. I was exhausted.

"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," Hermione said vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions.

"Professor McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office... what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."

"...Hermione, I was joking," I said wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning..."

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Fred's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Ron, me and Hermione looked up. Fred, Minnie and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

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

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

"Why?" Hermione said, looking surprised.

"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim, though," Fred answered, wrapping an arm around Minnie as she fixed her glasses.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," George said.

Ron and Hermione stared at me, I felt my stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell Ron and Hermione off? Perhaps she'd noticed how much they were helping me, when I ought to be working out how to do the task alone?