Two Souls

Chapter Thirty One

         The rest of the holidays drifted by quite slowly to say the least. None of the Slytherin girls had noticed I left the ball early and Draco's been consistently ignoring me. On New Year's Eve, he snogged Pansy under the mistletoe right in front of me. It was disgusting.

Even Blair has been ignoring me, and whenever I'm near Malfoy she gives me odd looks, as if she knows what we did on Christmas night. It didn't help that she nearly found Draco's jumper lying in my drawer — I quickly alerted her attention somewhere else before shoving the jumper in the bottom of the drawer.

Life for the Slytherins have been pretty uneventful otherwise, I must say.  I had forgotten all about the Yule ball after a week. After I wrote to Grayson and Francesca about how much of a disaster it was, I was determined to help Harry, Ron, and Hermione figure out a solution to the second task. Cedric had hinted to Harry that it had something to do with water — so we sat in the library, attempting to find a solution.

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron says, tearing feverishly through pages of paper. "There's nothing. 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," I chime from across the table. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable," I tell the three of them. Hermione nods with me in agreement.

"They have," Ron says. "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."

"Absolutely not, Ronald!" Hermione shrieks. "There has to be a way of doing it, there just has to be!" She seems to be taking the library's lack of useful information as a personal insult since it had never failed her before.

"I know what I should've done," Harry says defeated. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."

Although I've never met Sirius, he's Harry's uncle who's escaped from Azkaban. Harry has been writing to Sirius for the entirety of the year in secret. An Animagus is a wizard who can transform into any animal they'd like.

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish anytime you wanted!" Ron says.

"Or a frog," Harry says, yawning.

Hermione sighs. "It takes years to become an Animagus and you have to register yourself and everything," She says vaguely. She squints down at the index of one her books. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember . . . you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office . . . what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it — "

"Hermione, he was joking," I tell her wearily.

"I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning," Harry adds glumly.

"Oh this is no use!" I snap, closing the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," Fred Weasley says from behind me. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

The four of us look up. The twins have just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

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

"Looking for you," George says. McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you two also — Amelia and Hermione."

"What? Why?" Hermione asks, looking surprised.

"Dunno . . . she was looking a bit grim, though," Fred tells the four us whilst shrugging his shoulders.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," George says, looking at the three of us.

My stomach drops. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell us off? Perhaps she had noticed how much we were helping him, when he ought to be working out how to complete the task alone?

"We'll meet you when we go back to the Common Room," Hermione tells Harry as Ron and I stand up and walk over to the twins. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"

"Right," Harry says uneasily.

Fred and George take us out of the library and in the direction of McGonagall's office. "Have you any idea what she wants with us?" I ask Fred curiously as the two of us walk in sync down the hallway.

Fred shrugs. "Hell if I know. I'm quite curious myself. You three are a particularly well behaved group for the most part," He tells me.

The twins take us further down into McGonagall's office. Despite having attended Hogwarts for nearly six months now, I've never seen McGonagall's office. It was a quaint little area that was dimly lit and neatly decorated.

"I've been expecting you three," McGonagall drawls. I notice that there is a small girl next to her, with icy blue eyes and pale skin. She looks identical to Fleur, which only heightens my curiosity as to why we are here.

"Tea?" McGonagall asks politely, circulating around four cups of tea to the four of us. I notice that she hasn't given any tea to herself.

The liquid inside the tea cup is much darker than actual tea. It looks as if it could have been potentially contaminated with some sort of substance intended for the four of us to consume.

Ron and the little girl gladly drink the tea, while Hermione and I look a little more skeptical. "Er — what exactly is this, Professor?" I ask suspiciously.

McGonagall frowns. "That, I cannot tell you. Drink up!" She insists, lifting the cups of tea higher.

Hermione and I exchange a wary glance before drinking the entirety of our tea cups. If anything, I trust Professor McGonagall, so whatever happens to us is meant to occur.

"This tea tastes funny, don't you think — "

Before I can finish, I am set off into a deep sleep.

—
Hi!! Happy second task of the Triwizard tournament!! So I realized I'm at chapter thirty and I'm only six months into the series (I want to finish with the Wizarding War) :O
so I'll try not to drag it out as much x