The month or so leading up the Second Task had gone by in a blur, and despite the core four's constant attempts at figuring out a way for both Harry and Charlie to breathe for an hour underwater, they still hadn't found anything.
When classes continued after the holidays, Charlie spent majority of his spare time in the library to research, meaning Hermione was undeniably thrilled. They still had yet to talk about what they were to one another, but that didn't stop them from snogging secretly amongst the bookshelves when no one was looking.
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In fact, their inability to keep their hands off of one another would, quite expectedly, get in the way of them making any progress when it came to the Second Task situation. However, luckily — or unluckily, depending on how you look at it — Viktor Krum would make a daily visit to the library just so he could see Hermione.
Imagine his unamused face when every time he saw the bushy haired girl, she was accompanied by the, undeniably better-looking, brown eyed boy. Krum's constant lurking, however, would definitely force the two Gryffindors to worry about something other than their sexual tension.
Charlie did find it odd how the Bulgarian was so obsessed with the bushy haired girl. To Charlie's knowledge, Hermione and Viktor only talked a couple of times and then went to the Yule Ball together, but that was it — surely that wasn't enough time spent to warrant such behaviour.
However, Charlie didn't find it necessary to question Hermione about it any longer. He believed her when she said that he was the only boy on her radar — not to mention, her constant attack of kisses was more than enough proof of her honesty.
So, Charlie turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him; how to survive underwater for an hour.
He sat with Harry, Hermione and Ron in the library during the evening the day before the Second Task, 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.
Charlie'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. Absolutely nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, 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 Charms with her nose about an inch from the page. "They would never have set a task that was undoable."
