Dawn Rivera

The Second Task

"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" says Hermione indignantly.

"Keep your voice down!" says Danny crossly. "We just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"

He, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I are sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to ourselves. We are supposed to be practising the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects keep flying across the room, Professor Flitwick has given each of us a stack of cushions on which to practise, the theory being that these won't hurt anyone if they go off target. Neville's aim is so poor that he keeps sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance.

"Just forget the eggs for a minute, all right?" Harry hisses, as Professor Flitwick goes whizzing resignedly past us, landing on top of a large cabinet. "We're trying to tell you about Snape and Moody..."

The class is ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone is having far too much fun to pay any attention. Harry and Danny have been recounting their adventures of the previous night in whispered instalments for the last half an hour.

"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispers, his eyes alight with interest as he Banishes a cushion with a sweep of his wand. "What...d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," says Danny, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion does an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something..."

"What?" says Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry, Danny...maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"

"Oh, Ron," I say, shaking my head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

Hermione and I Banish cushions in sync and they fly across the room and land in the box we are all supposed to be aiming at. Harry looks at me, and I find myself blushing as I look shyly down at my feet.

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione says, "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit -"

"-evil," says Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, Dawn, why are all these Dark-wizard-catchers searching his office, then?"

"Why has Mr Crouch been pretending to be ill?" I say, ignoring Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," says Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.

"You just want to think Snape's up to something," says Hermione, sending her cushion zooming nearly into the box.

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," says Harry grimly, and his cushion, to my very great delight, flies straight across the room, and lands neatly on top of Hermione's.

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Obedient to Uncle Sirius' wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry, Danny and I send him a letter by a brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody and Snape's conversation. Then I turn my attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing us; how Harry and Danny are going to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.