CVI. THE SECOND TASK

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By the evening before the second task, Mia felt as though she were trapped in a nightmare. She was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, she managed to find a suitable spell, she'd have a real job mastering it overnight. How could she have let this happen? Why hadn't she got to work on the egg's clue sooner? Why had she ever let her mind wander in class, what if a teacher had once mentioned how to breathe underwater?

She sat with Harry, 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 them. Mia's heart gave a huge leap every time he saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt. . . ."

"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," Harry said, "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. "Mia, 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." Mia chuckled as she nodded. 

"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. 

"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 Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Mia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Harry. 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.

Harry and Hermione stared at Mia, who furrowed her eyebrows. 

"We'll meet you guys back in the common room," Hermione told Mia as she got up to go with Harry, both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"

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