Chapter 22
DOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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I HAVE HARRY POTTER NAILS AND THEY'RE SO COOL
And I've been introduced to a site called Figment, which is very much like Wattpad. I will be putting my other HP fanfic, Forever Magical, onto Figment. I also have a 1D fanfic going on there, that won't be on Wattpad. So if anyone is on Figment, I'm Angel Smith. Search me up!
"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.
"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"
He, Ron, Hermione and I were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to ourselves. We were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance.
"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past us, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody...."
This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay us any attention. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour.
Since I'm a horrible listener, I only caught a few things. There was something about Myrtle and an egg in the bathroom.... I dunno.
"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). "What... d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"
"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something...."
"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry... maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"
"Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"
She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. I banished mine and it landed right on top.
"FUCK YES!" I cheered.
"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit -"
"- evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"
"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Its a bit funny, isn't it, that he cant manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"
"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.
"You just want to think Snape's up to something," said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.
"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," said Harry grimly, and his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's.
Obedient to Sirius's wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr. Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody and Snape's conversation. Then Harry turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.
Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charm again - Harry had explained about Aqua-Lungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an Aqua-Lung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy - it was too much to hope that no Muggles would spot an Aqua-Lung zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts.
"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing...."
"Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head," said Harry. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody; he might do it for me...."
I snorted.
It's a good thing Fred finds my snorts cute.
"I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turned into, though," said Hermione seriously. "No, I think your best chance is some sort of charm."
So back to the library we went. Our constant library searches started to remind me of a our first year, when we were searching for Nicholas Flammel. Unfortunately, that search was a hell of lot more successful than this one was.
Time seemed to be moving faster. Soon it was just a week before the second task. Then it was five days... Four days.... Three days....
With two days left. Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of the brown owl he had sent to Sirius. Sitting on his right, I glanced over at it. He pulled off the parchment, unrolled it, and we saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written to him.
Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.
Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank.
"Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harry's shoulder. "Here - take my quill and send this owl back straight away."
Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again.
"What's he want to know about the next Hogsmeade weekend for?" said Ron.
"Dunno," said Harry dully. "Come on... Care of Magical Creatures."
Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could. I didn't know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.
Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.
"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies... don' mind boys so much.... C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want... give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps...."
Everyone clustered around the unicorns. They were beautiful. I noticed Harry and Hagrid go off to the side to talk. I couldn't hear them over the "Aww"s of the other students, but by the looks on their faces I had a feeling I knew what they were talking about.
By the evening before the second task. Harry still hadn't found a spell that would work. Even if we did find one by tomorrow, how would he master it before tomorrow?
We 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 us.
"I don't reckon it can be done," said Ron's voice 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 Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."
"They have," said Ron. "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," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."
An Animagus was a wizard who could transform into an animal.
Thought you should know.
"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.
"Or a frog," yawned Harry. He was obviously exhausted.
"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione 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," said Harry 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?"
Harry, Ron, Hermione and I looked up. My boyfriend and his twin had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.
"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."
"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised.
"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred.
"We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George.
Ron and Hermione stared at Harry, who looked rather pale. I had a feeling that he was worried that they'd been helping him too much.
"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron - both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"
"Right," said Harry uneasily.
"And I'll meet you at the statue of Gregory the Smarmy," Fred whispered in my ear.
By eight o'clock. Madam Pince had extinguished all the lamps and came to chivvy Harry and I out of the library. Staggering under the weight of as many books as he could carry, Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room while I went to the statue of Gregory the Smarmy. Fred was there waiting.
"Hey you," I said to him. He gave me that mischievous grin that he and George shared. He kicked the base of the stature four times and a passageway revealed itself. Fred took my hand and led me in, the entryway closing behind us. I couldn't see anything. I put my hand on the wall next to me to get my bearings.
"Lumos," I heard Fred whisper. He was sitting against the wall opposite from the one I had my hand on, the grin still on his face. He patted the ground next to him. I went over and sat down. I rested my head against his shoulder.
"Why are we here?" I asked him.
"So was can be alone," he said casually.
"Mmm," I said. "So have you and George got your money from Bagman yet?"
"Not yet, no," Fred replied. "George and I are getting pretty impatient."
"I bet," I said. "How'd you know that Ireland would win but Krum would get the snitch anyway?"
"We didn't," Fred admitted. "We went with the most unbelievable result, hoped for the best, and got scammed."
"That was all your guy's savings..." I murmered. Fred nodded.
"Joke shop's looking a little out of the reach now..." Fred said sadly. I knew all about Fred and George's dream to open a joke shop greater than Zonko's. With their sense of humour, I knew it'd be great.
"You'll get the money somehow," I told him.
"I don't know about that, but I know one thing," Fred said.
"And what's that?" I questioned.
"I got something more important than money this year, and I'm not going to let her go," Fred said, leaning in to kiss me.
"Wait," I said. He looked at me curiously. I took his wand out of his wand. "Nox."
The tunnel went black and I allowed Fred to kiss me.
The next day was the second task. I was a bit worried, because Hermione wasn't in the dorm when I got back, nor was she there when I woke up. She also wasn't at breakfast, and she was still missing when it was nearly time for the task.
Fred, George and I headed down to the lake together and took our place in the stands. I scanned the crowd for Hermione and I still couldn't find her.
"Where on earth is she?" I thought aloud, expressing my frustration.
"She'll turn up," Fred said to me as the tournament began.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, I focused on Harry, wondering what he came up with. Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled the handful of something out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake. He went under and I saw no more.
I noticed that all the other champions had gone under too, so now all we could do was wait.
After a while, Fleur returned without whatever was stolen from her. Apparently she had been caught by the grindylows. A while longer, one minute out of the time limit, Cedric returned with Cho Chang. I realized people who were important to the champions were those that were stolen. I gasped as I finally realized where Hermione was.
"What?" Fred asked me.
"Hermione's at the bottom of the lake," I said, immediately biting my nails. She had to be Krum's hostage. Harry's would be Ron's, since it wasn't me. I had no clue who Fleur's would be, considering the guy she went with to the Yule Ball was sitting right in front of me. Fred seemed to come across the same conclusion.
"Ron's down there..." he said, looking pale. Even though he took every chance he got to make fun of his younger brother, he did care.
"With the merpeople," I agreed. Fred put his arms around me.
After a while longer, well out of the time limit, Krum returned with Hermione. But Harry and Ron still weren't back.
"Where are they?" I said, my nails now only stubs.
"They're coming, love," Fred said, though he sounded as if he didn't believe it.
Finally, Harry, Ron, and some blonde child resurfaced.
"Yes!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down, cheering with the rest of the crowd. They were rescued out of the water and the judges began to discuss stuff. Finally Bagman began to speak again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows....
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."
Applause from the stands.
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look. "We therefore award him forty-seven points.
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."
"Idiot," I muttered to myself.
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However... Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
"Alright maybe he's not as much of an idiot as I thought," I determined.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes. The stands started to file out.
As we made our way across the grounds, I decided Harry would from now on be Moral Fiber to me.
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