A Whole New World Chapter 10
To say that Harry and Draco were enjoying the fame that came with being Tournament champions would be the understatement of the century. Both Slytherins appeared to only be experiencing an impossible increase of arrogance, especially Harry. Draco kept his cool demeanour about him at all times, but Octavia noticed the frequent smirks and triumphant glints in his silver eyes as he received shouts of praise from passing students.
Draco had received the highest score from the judges in the first task, due to his lack of his injury, his creativity with transfiguring a rock into a basilisk, as well as his dexterity. Draco never explained how he managed to be engulfed in flames without charring himself in the slightest, nor did he enlighten anyone as to the spell he had used to block the fire that attacked him. It was rather odd, however, that whenever he was asked the same repetitive question, he glanced at Octavia. She didn't really understand why. Perhaps it was due to the reminder of what had happened to her that day, two months ago.
When Draco had been successful in retrieving the golden egg, Octavia had fallen unconscious due to a random haemorrhaging episode. Madam Pomfrey had diagnosed its cause to be from the stress of her two friends competing in the dangerous tasks, and had kept her in the infirmary for two weeks straight. Octavia still had to return to the hospital wing once every Friday night to receive a health assessment, ensuring that she would not suffer another strange episode.
Octavia didn't mind all that so much- she was just glad that Professor Snape hadn't written to her parents about the health scare. She had no doubt in her mind that her mother would pull her out of Hogwarts if she learned of the haemorrhage.
Things had quickly returned to normal at the school after the first task. The excitement remained, and was only increased by the approaching second task that would take place the next day, but classes had resumed, and school was the same. Even the champions resumed their studies, although Draco and Harry were hardly doing so in that moment.
Draco currently napped beside Octavia in History of Magic, his face resting on the open book atop the desk. Harry did as he always did in History of Magic; he fired spit-balls at the ghost-teacher.
Octavia wanted to scold the hell out them. For neither Harry or Draco had yet to figure out the clue to the second task, so in her opinion, they were wasting their valuable time. The last thing she wanted was for either of them to enter the second task without sufficient preparation. They had to know what they were up against, and all they knew so far was that it would be worse than dragons. Much more dangerous, and incredibly difficult. Yet, they lazed around and ignored the golden eggs that served as their clues.
For that reason, Octavia didn't pay attention in the class. She poured over a useless tome, hoping that she would somehow find the answers in its pages. The book that she had borrowed from the library that morning was a standard dangerous creatures book, and she had no idea what she was searching for. Mostly, Octavia just skimmed the pages, looking for the word 'egg'. It was hardly surprising that she wasn't successful, for she wasn't exactly the sharpest witch around. But any attempts to help her friends were better than none at all. Especially when Draco snoozed beside her, mumbling in his sleep.
"How much longer?" Pansy groaned, thudding her forehead against the desk.
"Hour and a bit," Octavia mumbled after checking her watch.
"I might die from boredom," Pansy grumbled, seated between Octavia and a nodding Harry who evidently agreed with the brunette.
A knock sounded at the classroom door, but barely anyone noticed. The teacher continued to drone in a monotonous voice, and the majority of students continued to sleep. The knock sounded out again, and again, no one really noticed except Octavia, Pansy and Harry.
After a moment the door creaked open, Marcus Flint stepping into the classroom. He frowned at the oblivious teacher before shrugging and scanning over the students swiftly. When he spotted Harry and Draco at the table closest to him, he swaggered toward them.
"Potter," Marcus hissed. "Snape wants to see you and Malfoy in his office."
"Now?" Octavia quirked her brow as Draco began to rouse.
"Was I talking to you, mudblo-"
It happened so quickly that it was a complete blur. One second, Draco was waking up from his sleep, rubbing his hands over his tired face, and the next, he was standing, grabbing Marcus's throat and shoving him against the stone wall.
Octavia blinked stupidly as Draco clutched the boy's throat tightly, Marcus's face growing purple rather quickly. Draco looked practically murderous, even frightening Octavia with the sheer rage that radiated from his tense body.
"What was that?" Draco whispered softly, only serving to increase the danger emanating from his pores. "I dare you to call her that word, just once. I would love an excuse to rip you apart in front of the entire school."
Harry leaned back in his chair, his head turned as he watched the scene with a wide grin. Pansy watched with raised brows, Blaise and Theo twisting around in their seats, snickering at the expression of fear that Marcus sported.
Marcus tried to speak, probably an apology, but the vice-like grip on his throat prevented anything but sputters and wheezes. Draco abruptly released his hold on the Slytherin one year their senior, Marcus dropping to the floor as he coughed and wheezed.
"Come on," Harry laughed, grabbing his books and standing from his seat. "Snape wants to see us."
Draco nodded as he collected his own belongings, Octavia gazing up at him with a soft smile. When he met her sparkling hazel eyes, his cheeks turned pink and lips twisted into a smile. Draco cleared his throat, averting his eyes as he blushed and exited the classroom swiftly, Harry at his heels.
Once he was able to breathe without issue, Marcus climbed to his feet and glanced at Octavia.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
Octavia sneered at him in response, not forgiving his almost verbalised racial slur. He didn't care. Marcus turned and ran out of the classroom, Blaise and Theo laughing at his cowardice.
Sniffing snootily, Octavia turned back around in her chair, Blaise and Theo twisted around to face her.
"Find anything?" Blaise asked through a yawn, stretching his limbs.
"Nope," Octavia shook her head, glancing down at the book he was referring to. "It's hard to find anything when I don't know what I'm looking for."
"Search for anything that mentions shrieks that sound like a thousand quills scratching against a blackboard," Theo said.
Octavia hummed, agreeing wholeheartedly with his comparison of what the golden egg sounded like when opened. It was the most cringe-worthy, skin-crawling, ear assaulting noise that she had ever heard. And how that noise was a clue to the second task was simply beyond her comprehension.
"We better figure it out soon," Pansy sighed. "The task is tomorrow."
"There's no way we'll figure it out on time," Octavia said. "Honestly, they're not even trying. It's like Harry and Draco don't care at all."
"They're trying," Theo countered. "They were up all night in the dormitory reading books and stuff."
"That's why they've been so tired lately," Blaise added. "I don't think either of them have slept much in the past week."
"Maybe if they didn't leave it all to the last week we wouldn't be having this problem," Pansy said.
Theo grunted in a neutral response, not agreeing nor disagreeing with Pansy's statement. Blaise hummed, seemingly losing interest in the subject that they had discussed incessantly for the past few weeks.
"Hey, O," Blaise said, leaning toward her desk.
"Mm?" Octavia hummed distractedly, having already begun to read her tome again.
"You should be careful with that book," Blaise smirked. "Merlin forbid you learn anything."
"Shut up," Octavia scowled.
"You have ink on your face by the way," Blaise grinned widely.
Octavia instantly moved her ink-stained hands to her face, patting over her cheeks as she searched for the ink stains that didn't exist seconds prior. Blaise laughed as he watched her smear blots of ink all over her own face before she caught on to his prank.
"I actually hate you," Octavia groaned, grabbing a spare piece of parchment and dabbing at her face.
"Love you too, Tavs," Blaise winked before turning around in his chair.
She stuck out her tongue at the back of his head, but of course, he didn't notice. Not only did he have his back to her, he was already riffling through his bag for a dungbomb, planning on ending the lesson prematurely.
Like he had done in every lesson that entire day.
Octavia chewed her bottom lip as she frowned, sporting an expression of utter confusion and concentration. Pansy and Theo knelt by the coffee table, pouring over several open tomes as Blaise lounged lazily by the fireplace, hardly helping at all.
The second task of the Tournament was set to begin in the morning, but they were now facing more hurdles than they were before. Draco and Harry had somehow partly figured out the clue that was the egg, claiming that the shrieks turned into a song when they listened to it underwater. Octavia had no idea how they had come to discover that the egg sang underwater, but suspected that it had a lot to do with Professor Snape's earlier summons of the two champions.
Now that she thought about it, Professor Snape appeared to be assisting Harry and Draco in their tasks. For before the dragon task, she and Pansy had encountered Snape in the dungeon corridors, talking with Harry and Draco in whispers. Both champions appeared rather shocked that morning, so it was likely that Snape had told them about the dragons that they faced shortly after. That would explain their calm demeanours when they had entered the arena to find a dragon protecting eggs, and had already planned out their strategies. And now, after seeing Snape in his office, Harry and Draco all of a sudden knew the song that golden egg sung. It was very peculiar.
Yes, Snape was their head of house, as well as Draco's godfather. But the rules were absolute; the champions were to stand alone. No assistance was to be offered by faculty members. So why was Snape helping them? A question that Octavia didn't have the answer to, and a question that should be left for another time. There were more pertinent matters to concern herself with.
"Say it again," Pansy ordered, glancing up at Harry who was sprawled out on the leather sofa, facing the coffee table.
"Come seek us where our voices sound," Harry droned, having repeated the song a hundred times. "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 recover what we took. But past an hour, the prospect's black; too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
"Mermaids," Pansy nodded, saying what they already knew. "Obviously in the Black Lake."
"They've taken something," Octavia frowned, chewing her lip relentlessly as she concentrated hard. "And it's in the Black Lake … and you have to get it within an hour."
"Great," Harry scoffed. "We have it all figured out. Oh, except the little tiny minuscule issue of breathing under water for a whole hour. Other than that, thanks guys, you've been a great help."
"No need to be a prat," Pansy rolled her eyes. "We're doing all we can, Harry."
"Well it's not enough, is it?" Harry bit, throwing the book from his lap onto the space between himself and Draco.
"Maybe you should go to bed," Pansy suggested coldly. "You need to get some sleep before the task, and honestly, you're being a pain in the ass."
Harry stood from the sofa and stormed off without a word, evidently going to bed, but with quite the chip on his shoulder. Octavia got up from the other sofa and scurried over to sit next to Draco, sitting cross-legged beside him as she resumed reading her heavy tome. Draco gave her a side-glance, raising his brows slightly before he smiled and returned his attention to his book.
"How long does it take to learn animagi?" Theo asked, reading a page on the self-transformation.
"Three years, give or take," Blaise answered, lounging casually by the fireplace.
"Oh!" Octavia gasped, tapping her hand excitedly against her book. "What about this? It says 'the scuba-spell'! They use it in the Red Sea."
"It only lasts for fifteen minutes," Draco said with a small smile, praising her while thwarting her suggestion.
"What if you just come back up for air every fifteen minutes and recast it?" Octavia suggested.
"It's effects aren't that great," Draco shook his head. "The more I cast it, the less time it works for."
Octavia heaved a heavy sigh, returning her dejected gaze to the tome.
"It was a good suggestion," Draco said quietly, nudging her on the arm. "It really was."
"Yeah, well," Octavia grumbled. "Doesn't really help you out, does it?"
Draco's brows knitted together as he observed the side of her face, noticing the dark circles around her tired eyes.
"You are helping," Draco whispered softly.
Octavia shrugged lamely, not accepting his gratitude. How could she when they weren't any closer to truly assisting them? Yes, she sat there and read countless books – more books than she had ever read in her entire life! But it was all for naught, for they hadn't discovered anything that would help Harry and Draco breathe underwater for an entire hour. She would only accept his gratitude when she was certain that they could perform the task safely.
But that prospect was seeming less likely by the minute.
Octavia frowned as someone nudged her gently, attempting to wake her from a deep drowsy sleep. She could feel the dampness of drool on her chin and down her cheek, and her eyelids were as heavy as a tonne of pickled toads. Her neck was stiff and her spine ached from her tangled sleeping position, her head resting on something hard and totally uncomfortable. Again, another nudge shook her body lightly, the sound of a soft whisper creeping into her evaporating dreams.
"Octavia, wake up," Pansy whispered. "We have to go."
Groggily – and quite huffily – Octavia fumbled around and pushed herself into a sitting position as she yawned. Opening her weary eyes, her eyelids drooping, Octavia creased her brows as she glanced at her surroundings. She wasn't in the dormitory that she shared with Pansy and Daphne, but in the Slytherin common room. How odd. She must have dozed off while she and the others searched for answers in the piles of tomes around them.
A light blush swept over her cheeks and nose as she released exactly what she had been sleeping on. Partly the leather sofa and partly Draco Malfoy. Her brows shot up as she pushed herself away from him entirely, having evidently been resting her head on his lap. And now Draco sported a wet patch of her drool on his black trousers. Lovely. That's not incredibly embarrassing or anything.
"Come on, O," Pansy whispered, causing Octavia to flinch. She had almost forgotten that Pansy was there in her dazed stupor. "We have to go."
"Go?" Octavia repeated, rubbing her hands over her face.
"Professor Snape wants to see us," Pansy hushed, taking her arm and helping her to her feet.
"I'll go shower first," Octavia grumbled.
"We can't. The Bloody Baron says that he needs to see us right now. He says it's really important."
Octavia stifled a yawn so as not to wake the others. Blaise, Theo and Draco were all fast asleep around the simmering embers in the fireplace.
"What time is it?" Octavia asked sluggishly.
"Six in the morning," Pansy answered. "Don't worry, we have plenty of time to get ready for the task. But we have to go now."
Octavia nodded lazily, her eyelids drooping as Pansy dragged her through the silent common room. She was honestly so tired to the point that she didn't even harbour a spark of curiosity as to what the Professor could want with them. And she was so utterly dejected about not finding anything to help Draco and Harry in the task that she wished for nothing short of a bloody miracle.