2 - Riddles and Talking Armours

This is crazy, this is crazy, this is absolutely crazy! Although she kept wondering why she was even considering this, Haley decided to give it a try and take a bath in the Prefects' bathroom, together with her golden egg. Under the Invisibility Cloak, it was easy to get there once everyone else was asleep. Luckily, there were no grumpy caretakers or potion masters lurking around and blocking her path.

But wait- what was that noise? It came from somewhere behind her. Was someone following her? Haley turned toward the noise. It was just a cat strolling about. A white cat. She let out a relieved sigh – luckily it wasn't Mrs. Norris! – and turned toward the door to the left of the Statue of Boris the Bewildered, behind which the bathroom was supposed to be hidden. When she quietly whispered the password and slipped into the bathroom, she wondered again, what was she doing here? She was here now, though, and she wouldn't leave again without at least taking a short bath. There was nobody here, right? Haley wished Hermione was with her. She would surely know a spell or two that revealed hidden people.

Haley would have to find out the old-fashioned way then. "Hello? Somebody in here?", she called. No answer. "I'm taking off my clothes now," she singsonged playfully, but there was still no answer.

"Okay, then," she mumbled to herself and filled up the bathtub with water before starting to take off her clothes. Just to be sure, she kept her underwear on.

Haley waited. She waited for about 20 minutes and nothing happened. Or maybe she simply forgot what she came here for because the water was so nice. There was a kind of howling that pulled her out of her daze. Haley looked around for the noise – while making sure her private parts were concealed – when finally she spotted the gloomy ghost. "Myrtle!" Haley reprimanded. "What are you doing here?"

"How disappointing, it's you," the ghost pouted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" That was rude, even for Myrtle!

"Well, I hoped the lovely Hufflepuff champion was back again. Or even the little blond one with the haughty expression on his face." Myrtle giggled dreamily and promptly started her howling again.

Blond? Haughty expression? Was she talking about Malfoy, the irritating bane of her existence? What had he been doing here? And how had he known the password? Haley shook her head. She could think about that later. There were more important things at hand.

"Cedric was here? What did he do?" she asked curiously and in a coaxing tone.

"Well, he took a bath." Obviously. Haley had to force herself to keep up her cheerful demeanor.

"And he had this thing with him, this big golden egg. Just like yours. Did you really steal that from a dragon? You certainly don't look like you could. But Cedric… isn't he dreamy?"
Haley breathed in and out slowly, to keep herself calm.

"What," she asked with forced sweetness, "What did he do with the egg?"

"It was strange really, you see," Myrtle said. "He threw the egg into the water and..."

Haley didn't wait for more, instead she grabbed her golden treasure and dipped it into the water. She waited for only a second before diving underwater herself.

Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

The voices Haley heard once the egg was open seemed to come from another world. They sounded dream-like and dangerous at the same time. Dangerous because the singing was so beautiful it made her forget she had to get away from it to breathe.

Haley hurried to get her head out of the water and sucked in breath after breath greedily. The beauty of the voices had been so overwhelming that Haley didn't remember the words that were sung. So she took a deep breath and dove underwater again. This time she really listened to the words and after listening to it a few times more, she knew the lyrics by heart.

"The lake..." she mumbled. "They must mean the lake. So the Second Task takes place at the lake? Or even worse, inside it?" Haley sighed. "How am I supposed to stay underwater for a whole hour?"
Myrtle had started humming along to the egg's song, only stopping to throw in her own two cents every now and then. "Yeah, and without breathing at that. Now you'll only have to find out whose voices are calling so maliciously."

Haley got the feeling Myrtle knew more about this than she let on. It was time for some wild guessing! What creature could be living in the lake that sang like an angel? Ariel? The little mermaid? Haley chuckled to herself. But seriously, didn't Lupin mention something about merpeople in third year? "Perhaps… do merpeople live in the lake?"

Myrtle blinked. "Well, that was fast. How did you know? It took our dear Cedric almost half the night to figure that out." The ghost giggled again. Who knew what she was thinking about now.

"So… the merpeople are going to steal something that I have to get back within an hour?" Haley guessed. "Great! Then I'll only have to find out how I'm going to stop breathing for an hour."

"Exactly!" Myrtle agreed, "I hope our dear Cedric won't drown, though," she mused before adding, "On the other hand, it wouldn't be so bad, now would it? If he became a ghost..." She started to hum again. Haley had never seen her in such a good mood before! Except for that one time when Hermione had managed to turn herself into a cat, that is.

After getting out of the water and putting her clothes back on she left the bathroom, caught up in her own worried thoughts. Without taking notice of her surroundings, she turned a corner and ran head-first into a suit of armour.

"Sorry," she muttered automatically, before realizing that it was only an armour! An armour with eyes. An armour with grey eyes that stared at her in surprise, reminding her of how Hedwig looked whenever Pig did something unexpected. Upon further inspection, she saw that the person was only wearing the metal helmet.

Still, how did he even see her under the Invisibility Cloak? Oh. In her hazy state of mind she had forgotten to put on the Cloak, instead she was holding onto one corner, dragging it behind her. Hastily, she pushed it into her bag along with the Golden Egg. It was a testament of how unnerved Haley was, that she didn't even question why the boy in front of her was wearing a helmet. For a moment no one said a thing. Then they both started talking at the same time.

"Did you follow me?"

"I didn't see a thing!"

What? "So you did follow me, you sneaky little pervert!"

"I told you, I didn't see a thing!" Haley had never seen Draco Malfoy this flustered before; the visible part of his face was almost as red as Ron's ears! Then he seemed to remember who he was. "As if I would want to know what you look like without clothes. I'll happily live without that nightmarish image in my head."

He was still a little red around the cheeks and for some reason this made Haley believe him. She simply had to believe him. Just the thought of any other scenario was unbearable.

"Fine. So what were you doing around here at this time? Shouldn't you be long asleep?"

"I was just… You shouldn't be up either, you know… Your hair is wet."

He said it like it was the most curious thing he ever heard. As if the state of her short raven locks somehow puzzled, somehow offended him.
"Yeah… because I took a bath. Malfoy, are you even awake? Are you sleep-walking right now? Is that why you're wearing this helmet?"

"What?" Finally he stopped looking at her hair and looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"I'm… what? I'm not wearing a helmet," he sad pointedly. Was he really sleep-walking? Or was he simply too embarrassed to admit it?

"And also, I don't sleep-walk, Potter. A Malfoy does not sleep-walk," he sneered disdainfully.

Haley had to roll her eyes. There he goes again. Stupid, arrogant git! She didn't have the patience for this. "Look, Malfoy. I'm tired. I'm confused. And as you cleverly noted, my hair is wet, so excuse me if I don't feel like throwing insults back and forth right now. Let's continue this tomorrow, shall we?" Exhausted Haley turned around and started walking in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.

"So… Diggory bailed on you?"

Haley stopped in her tracks. What was that supposed to mean?

"What are you talking about?" Haley whispered slowly, not making a move.

"Well, wasn't he going to help you with your egg? In return for… you know… certain favours?"

In one second Haley turned around and stepped up to Malfoy until she was right in front of him.

"What. Did. You. Say?" she growled, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"I just-" Haley grabbed the collar of his almost black, bottle green cloak, effectively silencing him.

"Why else would a guy tell you to meet up at night in a bathroom? Come on, how stupidly naive are you?" he spat venomously.

To say she was confused was an understatement. So Malfoy had been spying on her. How else would he know about the Prefects' Bathroom and the password and the egg? But what did he want then? "It wasn't – he wasn't – he didn't mean it like that. He-", she stopped, why was she even telling him this? "He's into Cho anyway. Everyone knows that." He's not the only one, Haley thought sadly.

"And what about you? Who sets your heart on fire?" The question left her so perplexed that she let go of Malfoy's collar. That's probably what he'd been aiming for. The manipulative git.

"As if I'd tell you that," she muttered, looking at the ground shyly and trying not to think about Michael Corner. Malfoy, unsurprisingly saw right through her.

"There is someone! There really is someone. I can't wait to find out who the unlucky chap is. Probably Longbottom or some other loser, right?"

Although he was laughing and seemingly had the time of his life, Haley had the feeling it was all fake. His heart wasn't in it. Presuming Malfoys had hearts. Yawning tiredly Haley mumbled, "Leave Neville alone, Malfoy. He's a hundred times better dating material than you anyway." With that and a superior look on her face she turned around again, leaving Malfoy finally behind.

"It's not Diggory, though, is it?" Malfoy called behind her. He was unbelievable.

Haley kept walking and only looked back for a second to answer cheekily,

"Guess you'll have to find out at the Yule Ball along with everyone else."

She winked at him and after turning a corner, put on her Invisibility Cloak, not looking back. She still didn't know why he had been spying on her.

...

Edit: This is betaed now :)

A/N: Who wants to find out who Haley goes to the Yule Ball with? Who do you think she should go with? You'll find out soon :) Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing and favouriting and following this little story! I appreciate it sooooo much :) On another note, I'm still looking for a beta for this. You won't have to do much, just make sure, my sentences don't sound too germanish or tell me, if I'm making up words that don't make sense in English! That would be a big help :)

Till next time,
Feather :)