CHAPTER XXI:
the second task

( February 1995 )

"YOU TWO ARE AN ACTUAL NIGHTMARE FROM HELL." Alexander scoffed as he treaded on the long and creaky bridge at Hogwarts with his two closest friends. That morning, Cedric and Ginger both woke him up earlier than he needed to be for the first day back using their scrying mirrors. It didn't seem so bad for most, but most didn't know they woke him up with very loud and annoying shouts of his name at four-thirty in the morning.

"Perhaps, but you love us either way." The duo shone their brightest smiles at the sleep-deprived boy.

"Completely debatable." He rolled his eyes at them.

      As they continued to walk down the bridge, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter came into view. They seemed to be having a weary conversation with each other but Cedric hadn't noticed as he inched closer to them. "Hey, Potter," Cedric interjected their conversation. The two fourth years turned to face him and his Ravenclaw friends who accompanied from behind.

      "Cedric." Harry awkwardly nodded acknowledging the Hufflepuff.

      "How are you?" Ginger sighed watching the two boys interact. Cedric was terrible at small talk and that was a fact the entire castle could account for.

      "Spectacular."

      "Look I realized I never really thanked you properly for tipping me off about those dragons."

      "Forget about it. I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

      "Exactly. You know the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor?" Harry nodded. "It's not a bad place for a bath." The four teens listening to Cedric furrowed their eyebrows confused by his words.

      Ginger heaved a sigh and approached Harry closer to be beside Cedric, "stop being so cryptic. If I hadn't known what you were trying to say, I'd also be confused." She elbowed him in the side. Now turning to the younger boy she kindly smiled, "take your egg to the bathroom and put it in the water with you for the next clue." Her mannerisms reminded Harry of having an older sister speak to him, gentle and knowing, but also with the feeling if he messed something up and she became disappointed in him he would feel bad.

"See?" she raised an eyebrow at Cedric, "that wasn't so difficult, now was it?" Cedric rolled his eyes but smiled at the two fourth years before departing with them.

      "WHY MUST THIS BE SO DIFFICULT?" Cedric groaned like a child throwing a tantrum.

      Ginger and Cedric had been in the library, Alexander was nowhere to be seen as he had been off studying in his dorm, Ginger was only reading near Cedric while he had been attempting to find a way to breathe underwater for the second task. Ginger was mentally idle during his desperate complaining to even give any thought to his conundrum. "Ginger, can't you see I'm struggling over here?"

      Her word-filled eyes snapped at him confused, "what?" she stared at him expectingly.

       "I'm trying to figure out how exactly I'm to spend an hour underwater," he spoke in a duh tone. Ginger's mouth formed an oh shape while putting a bookmark in her book and closing it.

      She put her head in her hand while taking a moment to think about the topic. Cedric impatiently awaited an answer but never verbalized his frustration on her full well knowing she would probably shout at him for it.

       "Bubblehead."

      Cedric cast an insulted expression on his face, "what'd you call me?"

      "I didn't call you anything, you marble." He furrowed his eyebrows at the insult. "Bubblehead. The charm. Use the bubblehead charm for the task that's two days away."

      The Hufflepuff nodded agreeing to her idea.

      "What would you do without me?"

      "Drown." He shrugged.

      "I've got a question." She scooted her seat closer. "Say you drown during this task–"

      "Already off to a spectacular start, Gin."

      "What would you want to come back as? It could be anything you could dream of."

      He pondered the thought as her eyes searched his face for any form of a response. "Butterfly."

      "Butterfly?"

      "Butterfly. they're the most dramatic and poetic things to be reincarnated as. No one wants to be reincarnated as a ferret or grasshopper."

   "I'd very much like to be reincarnated as a ferret," she defended with a grin, satisfied with his answer.

"Well, ferret, I think we better be going to bed before Filch catches us as this ungodly hour." He exaggerated the ungodly bit seeing at it was only nine-thirty.

"I agree."