Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Seventy-One

The next day at breakfast, Harry sat down next to me and looked at me with an expression that screamed "I have a plan." I was worried he was going to pester me about the vision until I caved and told him about it. Luckily Harry instead launched into an explanation of how he hadn't actually figured out the egg he'd retrieved from the first task (which was no surprise at all) but that Cedric Diggory had given him a tip on how to do it.

"Take a bath with it?" I asked.

"Yeah, I thought it was weird, too."

"Well, okay, then. Did you do it?"

"No... Cedric also suggested I use the Prefects' bathroom. He gave me the password for it."

"I guess it would make sense to do it there," I said. "That way you can... I dunno, deliberate without any distractions."

"Actually... I was wondering if you'd come with me?"

I blinked. "You want me... to come and take a bath with you and the egg."

"Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds wrong."

"When you say it at all, it sounds wrong."

Harry's face started turning red. "Can you please just come?"

Having the power to make Harry flustered was a power that would drive me mad. It was impossible to resist. He was too cute when he was flustered.

"Okay, I'll come with little baby Harry and help him get his egg clean," I cooed, trying to fluster him even more. Then I frowned. "Wait, no —"

Harry put his head down on the table beside his plate of toast.

"Oh, Morrigan, that sounded even more wrong. I'm sorry."

"What's this about getting Harry's eggs clean?" asked Fred, sliding onto the bench across from us.

"Yeah, are you two up to something we don't know about?" added George, sitting next to his twin.

I felt my face grow warm. It was no fun flustering Harry when someone was trying to fluster me, too. "I said 'egg,' singular. As in one egg."

"Harry only has one egg?" George asked in mock sympathy. "I'm sorry, Ash."

Harry's forehead made a loud thunk on the table. I was pretty sure he had hit it on purpose.

"We were talking about his golden egg," I explained. "The one Harry got from the first task."

"Ah yes." Fred nodded. "That makes more sense."

"Much more sense," George agreed.

"Yes, we're very glad to know that you're talking about Harry's golden eggs and not his egg eggs," Fred said.

"Very glad indeed," George added, "because if you were talking about his egg eggs instead of his golden egg, we would need to have a very uncomfortable conversation."

"Can we please stop talking about my eggs?" Harry asked in a muffled voice.

"Harry, mate, we were only clarifying which of your eggs you were talking about!" George exclaimed.

"Well, now you have your answer," I said. "And you can be on your merry way."

"Rude," the twins said in unison. They picked up their plates, holding their heads high, and marched dramatically down the table to sit on either side of Lee Jordan.

"I think I have just felt the true meaning of the word 'mortified,' " Harry announced.

"I think I felt it, too," I muttered. "Do you still want me to go with you?"