Rosalyn was back at that house again, The Riddle House. But instead of Frank, it was her climbing the stairs up to the room.

She got to the landing and heard. "No, my lord, I just meant- perhaps if we were to do it without the girl-"

"No!" The cold, raspy voice spoke once more. "The girl is everything! It cannot be done without her, and it must be done exactly as I say!"

The man with the brown, messy hair stepped up and knelt down. He said. "I will not disappoint you, My Lord."

"Good," The voice said, she was then distracted by the dirty great snake coming up the stairs and slithering towards the room. Rosalyn (in her dream) moved her feet to let it pass and then tuned back into the conversation in the room. The female hissing voice came, and the man hissed back.

He then said. "Nagini tells me the old, muggle caretaker is standing just outside the door."

Pettigrew came to the door again, but the raspy voice spoke. "No. Step aside, Wormtail, so I can give our guest a proper greeting..."

The face, even though she wasn't quite sure who's, the green light, falling, the kettle...

"Rosie! Rosie!"

Hermione shook her awake. She looked up at him and said. "Mione?" In a very tired voice.

"Yeah, your were flailing around, you alright?" Rosalyn nodded, she was sure she was.

Hermione, however, had red, puffy eyes that looked like had been rubbed a thousand times, and a sad expression on.

"I tried to warn him," Rosalyn said. Hermione immediately knew what she was talking about. "I tried to say, but he doesn't care, he was just pissed at me for saying. He's jealous, Mione, if you want to date Viktor, you can."

Hermione sighed. "It's fine, Rosie. We can talk about this in the morning."

And so the two of them went back to sleep, both getting the remainder of the night in before they woke up.

☆☆☆

In the next week or so, Rosalyn started to really worry about the egg. After all, she hadn't made any effort to try and crack the clue inside it, and she had never opened it since it made half the common room deaf.

She and Hermione were now walking on the bridge, Hermione saying hotly. "You said you'd worked out that clue weeks ago!"

That was true. On the run up to Christmas, Rosalyn had told her friends that she had worked out the egg to stop them worrying about her, but she knew she'd have to break the news to them sooner or later.  And although now wasn't the perfect moment, it was the only one available.

"The task is two days from now!" Hermione said.

"Really? I had absolutely no idea, not like everyone's talking about it," Rosalyn said sarcastically. Then she spoke bitterly. "I suppose Viktor's figured it out."

"Wouldn't know, didn't actually talk about that," Hermione said shortly. This, at least, made Rosalyn feel a bit better as Hermione explained further. "Actually we don't really talk at all, Viktor's more of a physical being."

Rosalyn smirked at her and Hermione sighed. "What I meant was he's not particularly acquisious. Mostly he watches me study, it's a bit annoying, actually."

Now Hermione looked at her, something in her eyes that Rosalyn had never seen before. "You are trying to figure this egg out aren't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rosalyn asked inquisitively.

Hermione looked down. "Just means these tasks are designed to test you, in the most brutal way, they're almost cruel." She walked round the other side of Rosalyn. "I'm scared for you. You got by the dragons mainly on nerve. I'm- I'm not sure it's going to be enough this time."

Suddenly another voice entered the conversation. "Rosaleen?"

Rosalyn swiveled on her heel and saw Tristan. This was the first time she had seen him since the ball.

So she walked away.

Tristan ran to catch up with her, "Rosaleen! Rosaleen, wait!"

"I have nothing to say to you, Tristan, so why say anything at all?" Rosalyn asked coolly.

"Non! Non! We can fix this, you and I, we can be together-"

"No! We can't." Rosalyn said harshly. "Insult my friends, insult me. Now for the love of Godric can you stop being such a-"

"Rosaleen, we were meant to be toge-"

"NO!" Rosalyn had yelled so forcefully that he stopped. She walked towards him, saying. "We're done. Now please can you leave me alone?"

She walked off after that, wanting to be alone with all her thoughts playing in her head-

But then someone else stopped her. "Potter?"

"What? Another person here to piss me o-"

"Her name's Rosalyn."

That voice made her turn.

Cedric was stood behind her, Rosalie next to him, their hands intertwined. Who had said what was obvious to Rosie.

"Yes, I know that," Cedric told his girlfriend with an amused eyeroll, looking at Rosalyn with a bit more scrutiny. "How are you?"

"Spectacular," Rosalyn lied.

Rosalie saw right through it, scoffing. "Yeah, I know that's not true, but for the purpose of this conversation, I'm gonna keep quiet."

Rosalyn frowned between the two. "What is the... purpose of the conversation?"

Cedric sighed slightly. "Look I- I realise I never paid you back for telling me about the dragons."

"Forget about it," Rosalyn said immediately. She was feeling slightly guilty about her outburst earlier, and she didn't need his hero attitude. "I'm sure you would've done the same for me."

She moved to turn away, but Rosalie got ahold of her shoulders, turning her back round. "Oh, no you don't, girl! Listen, I have no idea what he's about to tell you, but I think you want to hear it!"

Rosalyn allowed her friend to turn her back round and sighed, looking at Cedric.

"Um... you know the prefect's bathroom on the third floor?" Cedric asked.

Rosalyn frowned. "What are you getting to?" She asked warily.

He leant in to her ear. "It's not a bad place for a bath."

"What?" Both Rosalie and Rosalyn asked as he drew away.

"Don't worry about it," smiled Cedric to his girlfriend. Then he turned to Rosalyn. "Just take your egg and mull things over in the hot water."

Rosalie shrugged. "Don't know what shit's coming out of his mouth, but anyways, see you later."

Rosalyn sniggered as Rosalie said goodbye and the two of them walked. Rosalyn looked at Hermione, who looked back, both thinking the same thing. Why the bloody hell would I need to take a bath to work the egg out?

☆☆☆

However, Rosalyn did decide to take the hint, and, concealed by night, she was in the prefect's bathroom now. She had never even been there before, but she was glad she was there now.

The 'bath' was the size of a small swimming pool, and there were about six toilet cubicles on the edge of it. However, this wasn't the thing that had Rosalyn in awe, that was the taps.

There were about a hundred of them, and each of them expelled a different kind of bubble bath or water. Rosalyn spent so long playing with the bubbles that she suspected it was one am by the time she stopped playing with the bubbles. She had a red swim suit on as she didn't want to be naked if she was found, and she was now swimming amongst the bubbles and trying to work out the egg.

Suddenly, she saw a magical stained glass window light up. It showed a picture of a mermaid sitting on a rock.

Looking at the egg that she had lain on the edge of the pool, she said quietly to herself. "I must be mad."

She reached over and undid the clip on the top. Suddenly that ear breaking screech filled the room again and Rosalyn quickly shut it, scared someone was going to find her out.

She looked at herself in the mirror next to the pool. "I'm definitely mad."

"He! I'd try putting it in the water if I were you."

Moaning Myrtle was sitting, hands on her chin, in a toilet cubicle which was open. Rosalyn rolled her eyes.

"Myrtle!" Rosalyn said.

"Oh, it's you," Myrtle said coldly. "I thought it was your handsome brother. But it's you, Rosalyn, long time no see."

She flew out of the toilet, into the air. "I was circling a blocked drain the other day, and I could've sworn I saw a bit of polyjuice potion in it. Not being naughty again, Rosalyn?"

"Polyjuice potion?" Rosalyn asked, frowning. "Kick the habit. Myrtle, did you say try putting it in the water?"

Myrtle dived into the pool and made a stupid cough, then said. "That's what he did. The other boy. The handsome one."

Rosalyn sighed. "Depends on your idea of handsome," she muttered under her breath. Then she remembered Rosalie and stopped.

"Cedric," Myrtle clarified.

Rosalyn instantly grabbed the egg and plunged it into the water. "Well go on, open it," Myrtle said.

Rosalyn turned the clip on it. Under the water, she heard a faint muffle of a tune. Words. Words of a song. This definitely wasn't the scream she had heard previously.

She sighed and took a deep breath, then ducked under the water. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but the words of the song were clear in her ears as she listened.

"Come and seek us where our voices sound
We cannot sing above the ground
An hour long you'll have to look
To recover what we took..."

Having heard that, and being out of breath, Rosalyn popped her head up out the pool. Her red hair was in her face and her lungs felt like they had been ripped out, but she had the clue, she had it, finally.

She started to cough, to try and get some water out of her system, and Myrtle mocked her with these horrible high pitched noises.

"Myrtle?" She asked as she came to and the ghost of the toilets sighed. "There aren't- merpeople in the black lake are there?"

"Ahh, very good," Myrtle looked at her with a smile and Rosalyn stared back. "It took Cedric ages to figure it out, almost all the bubbles were gone."

Rosalyn sighed and closed her eyes. "Have they- taken something from us?"

"Might have," Myrtle said, smirking.

Rosalyn looked at her. If what Myrtle said was true, and what the clue had said, then she would have to find out a way to breath under water for an hour in about a day.

How?