Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 29
"I thought that you two had already figured out the clue?" Hermione asked in Charms class the next day.
"Well, we did," Harry lied. "We just…we just needed to make sure…"
We were all supposed to be practicing Banishing charms in class today, but the three of us figured that we had more important things to do - such as figuring out how we weren't going to drown during the next tournament. Earlier this morning, Harry and I had discussed what exactly our plan was going to be. Unfortunately, neither of us had one. Harry didn't want to talk about that though. He was more interested in the incident between Moody and Snape the night before.
"He searched through Snape's office?" Ron asked after Harry finished explaining. "What do you reckon he did that for? Maybe that's what Dumbledore hired him to do in the first place - you know, keep an eye on Snape and Karkaroff."
"I don't know," Harry said. "It's fairly likely anyway."
"Wait a minute," Ron said suddenly as he sent a pillow flying in the opposite direction. "What if Moody thinks that Snape put your names into the Goblet of Fire?"
"Oh come off it," I said angrily. "It wasn't him - stop blaming Snape for everything!"
Out of anger, I quickly banished away an object close to me and sent it soaring for the target that was set up for us to hit. Not that anyone was actually aiming for this target, but I figured that it was better than aiming it at Ron's head like I really wanted to do.
"She's right Ron," Hermione sighed and sent something towards the target. "You both blame Snape for everything and you've always been wrong."
For the remainder of the class period, we all went back and forth on why we thought that Snape's office was being searched. Of course, no one wanted to listen to my rant on Moody and how he was just being paranoid and how he really was mad. All they wanted to do was talk about how Snape was planning our murder. They were just as bad as Moody sometimes.
"What are we going to do about this task?" I asked once we were heading out of class.
"You're idea is as good as mine," Harry sighed. "I have no idea…"
"If only we had learned to do Transfiguration on humans!" Hermione said. "But it's far too risky to try that now."
"I wonder where we're going to go now," Ron said in a false-cheery voice.
We all laughed because we knew exactly where Hermione was going to take us. When in doubt, she always took us to the library even if no one wanted to go in the first place. But I guess that we didn't have much choice anyway - we had to come up with a plan unless we planned on drowning. All of us spent hours searching through all different types of books, but it was no use. None of us were able to find anything.
The only thing decent that happened was two days before the task when the familiar barn owl came with a letter from Sirius. It was rather disappointing though because of how short it was and what exactly it requested.
"Why does he want to know when the next visit to Hogsmeade is?" Harry asked.
"Who knows," I sighed. "It's the weekend after next though - send that back to him."
There wasn't any hiding from the second task though. On the evening before the tournament, I had a group of people sitting in the library with me. There was Harry, Ron, Hermione, and George who were all trying to help us come up with something.
"This is ridiculous," I sighed and put my head down into a book. "There is no way that we're going to make it through this one!"
"I'm sure we'll find something," George sighed and rubbed my back.
"Well, we haven't found anything yet…" Harry said. "And it's tomorrow morning, so the odds aren't exactly in our favor."
We continued to search for some kind of charm for a long time before Neville showed up looking for the majority of our group.
"Come to help?" George asked. "We could sure use it."
"Actually, I came here to fetch a few of you," Neville said. "McGonagall said that she wants you, Ron, and Hermione up in her office now."
"What for?" Ron asked.
"No idea," he shrugged. "She looked kind of angry though."
They all wished us good luck before they left the library. However, Neville decided that he'd stay and help because everyone else had to leave. He wasn't much help though, then again, no one had been much help considering we hadn't found anything.
"Well, that's that," Harry slammed a book shut. "I'm finished - I don't care anymore. I'd rather drown in the lake tomorrow than look at another book. Good-night."
We watched as Harry angrily stomped out of the library. I couldn't half blame him either. This was getting a bit aggravating. I couldn't believe that it was this difficult to find something that could help you breathe underwater.
Neville and I didn't stay in the library much longer because Madam Prince said that the library was shutting down for the night. She had kept it open extremely late just so we could look further, but it didn't help much. It was midnight now, so I couldn't imagine that she wanted to deal with us any longer now. With complete loss of hope, both of us walked out of the library and back up towards the common room.
When we got there, I couldn't go to sleep. I just sat down in the common room because I knew that there was no hope of even getting a single second worth of sleep knowing that there wasn't anything we could do to prepare for tomorrow. Neville sat down with me, but I could tell that he was just trying to help me because he looked completely exhausted.
"We're going to die," I sighed. "This is it…"
"Come on," Neville said. "There has to be something - anything!"
"We just looked through everything!" I said. "There isn't anything in that library that could help us - there isn't a single charm."
We stayed silent for a moment, because we both knew that I was right. We had no plan. It was going to be a bit embarrassing when Harry and I showed up to the black lake the next morning…
"Does it have to be a charm?" Neville asked suddenly.
"What?" I asked. "Well, I guess not."
"What about a plant?" he said.
I looked up from my chair and right at him. What was he talking about?
"What if you used Gillyweed?" he stood up suddenly.
"What's that?" I asked.
"But where would we get it?" Neville said as he began to pace. "I'm not sure if Professor Sprout has it…it's not a very common plant…perhaps Professor Snape has it…maybe we could go by and ask…"
He had gone to talking to himself at this point because I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I had never heard of this sort of plant, then again, Neville was obsessed with learning about plants. He knew more about them than anything else in the world.
"Neville, what is-?" I started.
"Let's go now," he demanded.
Suddenly, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up out of my chair. Before I knew it, I was being all but dragged out of the common room and out into the halls of the school. I was about to protest and say that it was after hours, but when was that ever relevant?
"Neville - hold on!" I said and tried to stop, but he was pulling me right along.
"What - we have to go there now," Neville said. "He might have it in his store!"
"Have WHAT?" I asked.
"Gillyweed," he said simply as we turned around the corner.
"And that is?" I asked.
"It's a plant - it can allow you to breathe underwater," he said quickly. "It's rather rare though, so it's difficult to come by."
"And this can't wait until tomorrow?" I asked. "Snape's probably asleep by now - it's nearly two in the morning!"
"Oh please," Neville laughed. "The amount of times you have been caught by him after hours and you honestly believe that the man sleeps at a decent hour?"
"Good point…" I murmured.
Before long, we were down the staircases and standing at the foot of Snape's door. I could hear someone's footsteps going around in the office, so I knew that he wasn't asleep - just as Neville had predicted. We knocked on the door and stepped back, just in case he decided to barge out.
"Come in?" Snape said skeptically.
I opened up the door and walked in to find Snape putting a large stack of books back into a shelf. When he saw us standing there, he raised an eyebrow. His eyes went from Neville, to me, then to our hands that were still joined together. When we noticed this, we quickly separated and looked around awkwardly.
"Can I help you?" Snape sighed.
"We were wondering if you had any filly-" I started.
"Gillyweed, sir," Neville said nervously - he was still scared of Snape.
"For what, may I ask?" he asked as he set another book in the case.
"It's for the tournament tomorrow," I said. "We have to be able to breath underwater."
"Right…" Snape muttered.
Neville and I looked at each other and back at him in confusion. Did he not understand or what?
"Well…can we use some?" I asked. "Please?"
"I guess so," he sighed. "It's in the stores…"
"Can I…?" Neville asked while pointing in the direction of the stores.
"Don't touch anything else in there Longbottom…" Snape muttered.
Neville nodded and quickly walked over towards the cabinets. I would have done it myself, but I didn't even know what this looked like, so I left it up to him. I walked over and helped Snape put the last of the books back in their proper spot.
"Shouldn't you have gotten this earlier?" Snape asked. "It's kind of late."
"Well, Neville just thought of it," I said.
"So what were you planning on doing before Longbottom came up with that idea?" Snape asked.
"Drowning was my best bet," I nodded.
Snape rolled his eyes just as Neville came out with an odd looking herb in his hands. It looked disgusting, but I imagined that this was my only hope on not dying, so it would have to do.
"And your brother?" Snape asked. "What are his plans?"
"If you don't mind, I would like to take some for him as well," I said.
"He can have some," Snape said. "If he comes to get it himself. He has to have some responsibility, right?"
"I guess," I said. "So, I'll send him down tomorrow morning, if that's okay."
"Sure…" Snape muttered.
There was a moment of awkward silence and Neville looked as though he wanted to crawl into the nearest hole just to get away from the potions master. It would have been amusing if I wasn't still nervous about the next task. Now that I had a plan, I realized that I would actually have to participate.
"Go to bed," Snape said. "The both of you look tired."
"Yes sir," I nodded with a smile.
Neville and I walked off towards the door without any argument. Just as I was about to step out, Snape spoke up again.
"Good luck with the task tomorrow," Snape said. "Though I'm sure you'll do just fine…I never had any doubt about that…"
…
The next morning was an absolute hassle. I didn't get hardly any sleep at all before I was woken up by one of the other girls in the room who said that I should be waking around then. When I got down to breakfast, I couldn't eat even if I really wanted to.
"Where's Harry?" I asked Neville.
"I think that he's still sleeping," he told me. "I didn't want to wake him up because I figured he could use all the sleep he can get…"
"That's true…" I said. "But he also needs to stop by Snape's stores to get that plant."
"I left a note there, so he should be fine," he nodded his head.
Then I realized something. No one else had joined us for breakfast yet - Ron, Hermione, and George were all missing from our little group. I looked across the table a little ways and saw Fred and Lee Jordan sitting together.
"Hey Fred - have you seen George?" I called over to him.
"No, he didn't come in last night," he told me. "I thought he was with you, if you know what I mean."
He winked and I rolled my eyes and let out a small laugh. I couldn't help but wonder where they all were though. I hadn't seen them since they were called out of the library the night before. What had McGonagall wanted with them? I wonder if they would be back before the tournament started…
Harry never showed up and neither did any of the other three that were missing. I wanted to go up to Harry's room to see if he was there, but McGonagall told me that I had to go down to the lake with all of the other champions. She assured me that he would be checked on before the task started.
"Where could all of them be?" I asked Neville irritably on our way down to the lake. "You would think that they would want to support us anyway…"
"I'm sure that something came up," Neville said. "They'll be here soon enough - don't worry."
"Yeah…well…it's getting irritating…" I mumbled.
Before long, I was standing around with the rest of the champions who all raised an eyebrow when I showed up with Neville and not with Harry.
"That iz not ze right boy," Fleur said. "Where iz he?"
"He's running a bit late," I said.
Neville couldn't stand with me much longer before the judges came over to give us a little bit of instruction. Not that we really did get any instruction from them considering they weren't supposed to help us.
"Emily, where is your brother?" Dumbledore asked me.
"Funny, I was just about to ask the same thing…" I said while looking around.
The stadium around us was filled with people already and I still hadn't seen Harry at all. Where was he? The entire school along with the other two visiting schools were already seated, so I could only imagine that he would be arriving soon.
Just when I started to panic, I saw his messy black hair amongst a group of late arrivals. He seemed to be in a bit of a panic and I started to wonder whether or not Snape had given him the gillyweed. That's when I saw it sitting in his hands.
"I'm here - I'm here!" he shouted.
"Well it's about time," Percy Weasley said annoyingly. "The task is about to start - where have you been?"
"How about you calm yourself down there Weasley," I said. "Let him catch his breath!"
"Are you all right Harry?" Dumbledore asked him.
"Fine, just fine," Harry answered.
He gave me a look that told me that we would talk about it later. Thankfully enough, there was a high possibility that there actually was going to be a later at this point in time. I could only wonder what was lying beneath the water that was in front of us.
"Okay, are we all ready?" Bagman asked us.
"I think that we're about as ready as we'll ever be," I answered.
Thanks for reading - I hope that you liked it! I know that was an odd place to stop the chapter, but I didn't want to start off the second task yet. I sort of wanted it to have its own chapter, I hope that you all won't get too angry with me about that. Well, it's for certain this time - the second task WILL be in the next chapter - sorry for saying that last time.
Tell me what you think!
