Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter twenty-one

The following days to the second task were mostly spent in the library. The four were constantly looking for a spell that lets Harry breathe underwater for at least an hour. They didn't find anything. Cedric told Faith he already knew something but Faith didn't want him to tell her what it was so she couldn't tell Harry. That wouldn't be fair.

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron announced when he put his tenth book away. 

"Sure it can. If Cedric can figure it out on his own, we can do it with four," Faith sighed, not really believing her own words. 

"There is nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Draught Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the whole lake,"

"There must be something," Hermione mumbled, scanning the index of an old charms book. "They'd never have set a task that is undoable,"

"They have," Ron said. "Harry, 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," The boys both leaned back, this close to giving up, until Ron shot back up again. "Or, you can have Faith go instead of you and she'll just get herself some gills with your head,"

"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione was not giving up so fast. "There just has to be,"

"Yeah, and not by cheating," Faith told Ron's idea off. "And besides, I don't even think I can do that,"

"I know what I should've done," Harry leaned his head on his palms with a sigh. "I should've learnt to be an Animagus, like Sirius," Faith looked up confused.

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" Ron said excitedly. 

"Who is Sirius?" Faith asked and all of them then realised what Harry just said. "You don't mean Sirius Black ... right?" That was the only Sirius that Faith could connect to Harry and he tried to kill Harry last year! The three looked at each other but didn't know what to say.

"Er ... Ron's nephew Sirius," Harry tried to recover. 

"Ron doesn't have a nephew called Sirius," Faith told him and Ron face-palmed, Hermione rolled her eyes. They all knew Harry was lying. "I've been to all of Ron's birthday parties, all of every Weasley for that matter, before Hogwarts and no one has even mentioned a nephew 'Sirius',"

"OK, we promise we'll explain after the task," Hermione said with an apologetic look as she read through the last few pages of the book. Faith nodded, she was a little caught off guard. From what Faith knew, Sirius Black tried to kill Harry the year before and when he was caught, he escaped again. What was going on now? Her deep thoughts were interrupted by the frustrated Hermione.

"Oh, this is no use!" She slammed her book close. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," Fred mentioned from behind them. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?" The four looked up at them.

"What are you two doing here?" Ron asked. 

"Looking for you," George told him. "McGonagall wants you, Faith. And you, Hermione," Faith and Hermione looked at each other. 

'Why?" Hermione asked confused. 

"Dunno ... she was looking a bit grim, though," Fred said with a shrug.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," Faith looked at Harry. What if Professor McGonagall was going to tell them they can't help Harry because of their connections to the other champions? Would Harry be able to solve it with Ron?