A/N: I was thrilled by the response to chapter 13, so here's a new chapter.
Disclaimer: I. Own. Nada.
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The Other Way
Chapter 14: Helpful Hints
Fred was just stepping out of the Great Hall after breakfast on Saturday when Mad-Eye Moody cornered him.
"Come this way, boy," he said growlingly, and Fred followed, not wanting to question the ex-Auror.
As Moody led him to his office, Fred started to get worried. He didn't recall being as much of a nuisance in any of his classes, so what could Moody want?
"Don't sit, I just need to speak with you without anyone else overhearing. Have you made any headway on your egg's clue?"
Fred looked taken aback. Teachers weren't allowed to really discuss the tournament with the champions.
"I...er, no," Fred admitted.
"Well, take it for a bath. Prefects' bathroom would be a good idea. I know you're pretty good at finding all the secrets of the castle, I don't need to tell you anymore."
He stood as if it finalized everything and Fred left.
Take the egg for a bath. Okay, I know I said Moody's brilliant and everything, but a bath? He can't be serious. Fred thought disbelievingly.
Still, that night, he snuck out of the dormitories, egg in hand, and found the prefects' bathroom on the fourth floor.
"Pine fresh," he whispered to the door. It swung open and Fred walked inside.
It was a cavernous room, with marble ceiling, floors, and tub. Or rather, swimming pool.
The silver taps on the side of a twenty foot diameter tub had different colored gems on them. Fred experimented with the first; it turned on the water, which was a deep, crystal blue.
The next taps were all sorts of bubble baths; fluffy as cotton candy pink bubbles, thick blue bubbles, small white bubbles that looked like snow.
After ten minutes, all the taps had been turned on and the tub was overflowing with a colorful array of bubbles.
Fred undressed, grabbed the egg, and slid into the bathtub. For a moment, he just enjoyed the warm water in contrast to the drafty halls of the castle at night. Then, he grabbed the egg and opened it.
An ear-splitting chorus of screams echoed around the tall walls of the room. Fred shut the egg as fast as he could, massaging his ears.
"What the hell?" he said, staring at it.
He picked up the egg, and tried opening it while it was upside down. It was exactly the same.
After fifteen minutes, Fred figured that Moody must have been pulling his leg. Fred tossed the egg into the water, where it sank to the bottom of the tub and opened. Fred braced himself with his hands over his ears, and tried to find the egg with his feet to close it.
But no screams managed to pass through his ears. He slowly removed his hands and listened.
A floaty melody was coming from the egg. He took a deep breath and ducked under the water.
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground.
An hour long you'll have to look,
to recover what we took.
But after that the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
Fred, hearing that the song was done, shot up from under the water and brushed his wet hair out of his eyes.
"Er...what?" he said blankly. He dived down again, listening to the voices singing over and over. After ten minutes of this, he stared around the room as if looking for an answer.
He found it.
A portrait of a mermaid preening herself hung over the door. She combed her hair with a fish bone brush, and giggled as she pointed at Fred.
"Merpeople? They're kidding." he had learned about merpeople last year, knowing that they were violent if anyone tried to take something from them. And his task was, obviously, to take something special to him from them.
An hour...he obviously had only an hour to get whatever it was...but from where?
He figured that was the least of his worries. He needed to know how to breathe underwater for an hour. The first thing that came to his mind was human Transfiguration into an animal, but that was dangerous.
Fred swam across the pool and reached for one of the fluffy white towels sitting neatly in a pile. He climbed out, dried himself off, and dressed in his uniform again quickly. It was one in the morning, and no doubt he would be in serious trouble if he got caught out of bed another time.
Luckily, he managed to get back to the common room unscathed. He went back up to his dormitory, closed the door, and fell asleep.
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Hermione got up at eight on Sunday morning, and almost went back to sleep when she remembered that the Hogsmeade trips started at eight thirty.
"Oh no!" she said, and hurriedly showered. She used a quick drying spell on her hair, rubbed the Smooth and Simple potion over her brown locks, and looked for something to wear.
"No, no, no, no, where is it?" Hermione said, tossing clothes out of her wardrobe over her shoulder.
"Aha! There!" she said, picking up her favorite long-sleeved shirt, a periwinkle cashmere sweater, and best jeans. She pulled on her fur-lined boots, wrapped a scarf around her neck, and pulled on her warmest coat when she saw that more snow was falling outside her window.
It was 8:27 when she took the steps three at a time into the common room. Fred was sitting, talking to George, Lee, and Harry, while Ron sat away, glaring at his brother moodily.
"Hi, hi, okay, let's go," Hermione said, not wanting to be late.
Ron and Harry made to get up, but Fred beat them to her side.
Harry looked at her in confusion. Hermione looked apologetic.
"I'm sorry, but Fred asked me to go with him," she said, eyeing Ron nervously. He looked as though he might explode.
Harry grabbed his sleeve and said, "That's fine."
All of them exited the common room at the same time, half jogging to make sure they'd get to the carriages on time.
"You're cutting it close, lads, and lady," Filch said, looking disappointed that once again he couldn't send anyone back for being more than five minutes late.
Fred smiled cheekily at him and pulled Hermione into a carriage.
Today would be a good day...his first official date with Hermione, and he had the egg clue figured out.
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A/N: I realllly wanted to submit this so I ended it a bit sooner than planned. The next chapter will be Hogsmeade.
-DSA