Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 55 ⚡️

By the evening before the Second Task rolled around, Vega was starting to become positively stressed out over Harry's current situation – or the lack thereof. She also knew that he was not a good swimmer (he had never learned how to swim) and she had to personally teach him how to. But even if they had taught him basic swimming, they still needed to find a way for him to breathe.

They were at a threshold that even if they found out a solution for their problem, by some miracle, Harry would have no choice but to perfect it overnight and then perform it the following morning. And after seeing how long it took Harry with the Summoning Charm, Vega was very concerned now.

Whenever Harry had to learn something seriously, Vega had noted that he always got froze up and took too much time to get a control of it. She was scared that the same would happen this time.

In the end, Vega found herself following Harry, Ron and Hermione back to the library, where the four of them remained until the sun set outside the large windows. They continued to tear feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of book on the desk in front of each of them. Vega traced her finger down the pages, looking at the unending spells.

"I don't reckon it can be done," 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,"

"Well, they have, haven't they?" Vega asked, yawning as she turned the next page over. "They set a task that is undoable for an average Fourth-Year," She peeked at Harry over her stack of books.

"Harry," Ron said. "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 – unless you can stick under the surface while Vega goes and get your treasure as well,"

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

Hermione seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before. Vega rubbed her face, trying to relax and go back to searching.

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

"You could've tried that but you can't pick the animal you want to be," Vega pointed out, now very interested. "It would've only worked out if you shifted into a water creature, not land or air one,"

"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..."

"At the very least, it can take you a month," Vega informed them. "Because it needs a full moon cycle to create the potion required for it – and you need to keep a Mandrake leaf under your tongue – so that will take some time... I have heard that it tastes quite bad as the juice seeps through,"

"Hermione, I was joking," Harry spoke up as he watched the two girls wearily. "Vega, I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning..."