The Hidden One

the second task

Rose and Harry told Hermione and Ron about the night before during Charms class. Hermione was upset that they had lied for so long about the egg, but she got over it when she heard about Snape and Moody. Apparently Harry had paid much more attention than Rose had, as she had been too freaked out to pay attention.

Hermione and Ron both agreed that the whole conversation was strange. Ron believed that Snape put their names into the goblet, but no one else was convinced. Hermione and Rose were the only two who properly banished their cushions into the box they were supposed to, despite the fact that they were still in conversation with Harry and Ron.

After class, Harry sent a letter to Sirius, much to the displeasure of Rose. Dumbledore warned her that ths ministry would be intercepting any letter she sent, meaning that she couldn't send anything. Rose had forgotten the mirror that Sirius had given her so she couldn't even use that. She could only send him one sentence at a time. It was quite annoying to not be able to talk go her dad when Harry could send him a letter, but she decided to get over it. The more pressing problem to her was figuring out how to breath underwater for an hour.

"If only you could transfigure yourself into a submarine," Hermione sighed. "But we don't learn human transfiguration until sixth year."

"Just accio some aqua-lungs-" Ron tried to suggest. He had already suggested them before and everyone said no.

"Ron! Please only tell us good suggestions," Rose mumbled, her face shoved into a book.

The quartet spent all their free time in the library and even had Professor Mcgonagall give them access to the Restricted Section. Unfortunately, they found nothing. With two days left to go before the task, Harry and Rose were both freaking out and had stopped eating.

Sirius had also requested for the date for the next Hogsmeade weekend. Harry quickly sent him the date.

"What does he want to know the date for?" Ron asked after Harry had sent Sirius the reply.

"I don't know," Harry mumbled. Rose just furrowed her eyebrows, worried for her dad.

"Let's just go to class," Hermione sighed. They had Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. He seemed to be saying sorry for the skrewts by continuing the lesson on unicorns that Professor Grubbly-Plank had started.

Hagrid took Harry and Rose aside while the rest of the class watched two unicorn babies play.

"Nervous?" Hagrid questioned.

"A bit," Harry replied. Rose snorted, knowing that they were both terrified.

"Don't be. You two are going to win. I just know it," Hagrid reassured them. They sent him a nervous smile, not believing his words at all.

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The afternoon before the second task was like a nightmare for Rose. She had already accepted that she was going to die or lose the task. She didn't know how to swim and she had no way to breath underwater.

"When do we let Hermione say I told you so?" Rose whispered fo Harry. They both agreed that they should've listened to Hermione when she told them to deal with the egg earlier.

"After the task," Harry decided. Rose nodded and went back to reading the book on water. Nothing told her how to breath in it for an hour.

"There's nothing!" Ron announced.

"There has to be something!" Hermione argued. Rose just leaned back in her chair and ran her hand through her hair.

"If only you two could be animagi. You could turn into a fish," Ron joked.