Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I'm just an avid fan. I only own the idea of Cadmus Nicholas Flamel and Mr. John Truman.

Word Count: 4098

Chapter 30: The Egg Clue

Everybody seemed to get up late on Boxing Day. Cadmus wasn't particularly keen on spending several hours tutoring a bunch of thirteen-year-olds on complicated algorithms for their Ancient Runes homework. To be completely honest, his tutor students aren't that bad, sure they were hormonal and rowdy, but they still paid attention. Cadmus also experienced something new about Wizarding Britain, their newspaper and media were intriguing and somewhat entertaining. Cadmus said this because a couple of days after the Yule Ball, an article came out from the Daily Prophet. The infamous journalist of the article, Rita Skeeter, who was well known for her poison-pen stories, talked blatantly about the champions and their partners. She said, and Cadmus quoted, "Mr. Flamel and his partner, Miss Daphne Greengrass, danced under the spotlight like a beautiful couple. We all thought that they went to the ball as friends but, your lovely reporter thinks otherwise because they were caught outside kissing under the mistletoe. They surely love each other, so us well-wishers do hope their relationship turns out alright."

Cadmus laughed out loud, while Skeeter did not blatantly insult and criticize him and Daphne, she was still subtle in making hints that she disapproved of their relationship. Cadmus became more indifferent towards Skeeter when she wrote another article, this one more controversial.

A Desperate Plea

Written by Rita Skeeter

The Ministry of Magic, our grand government of Wizarding Britain- has been under a lot of fire recently for their handling of the cheating scandal, which involved two of their staff, the headmaster of Durmstrang, and Ms. Potter.

Minister Fudge has handed out punishments to each offender, but not all of us agree with his decisions. Mr. Potter, an offender of abusing his power, committing bribery, and aggression towards Harvard champion, Mr. Flamel, got fired from his position as Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and was placed under surveillance as an Auror. Mr. Igor Karkaroff is no longer a judge and Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute due to extreme bias towards his champion Viktor Krum and abuse of power.

Mrs. Potter did not play a role in the scandal; she was only remotely involved in the bribery of Ludo Bagman. Therefore, she is under probation as Hogwarts Charms Assistant Professor. Finally, Ludo Bagman received a hefty fine and a decrease in his job salary for accepting bribery as the head organizer of the Triwizard Tournament. Were these punishments fair? I interviewed several people on this issue.

"I'm tired of seeing people like Mr. Potter and Mr. Bagman easily get away with wrongdoing just because they are influential or have lots of money," said Mr. Amos Diggory, head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

"Potter has been getting leeways ever since he entered Hogwarts" Mr. Snape informs me, his lips curled into a dissatisfied scowl, "it only makes sense that he gets a slap on the wrist for committing some sort of wrongdoing, no matter how severe the case."

With so much disagreement from people like Mr. Snape and Mr. Diggory, no wonder the Ministry of Magic is so desperate to put out the flames. To do so, they sent Percy Weasley, assistant to Barty Crouch Sr., to make a compromise with Mr. Cadmus Flamel, Harvard Triwizard Champion. Percy Weasley was overheard pleading for Mr. Flamel to publicly announce the support of the punishments handed out by Minister Fudge to alleviate the outcries of injustice.

Did the fair and humble champion agree? No, Mr. Cadmus Flamel vehemently pointed out several critical concerns of his, regarding unfair points assigned and having an uneven playing field. If you think more about his words, Cadmus Flamel has a good point. But will the Ministry of Magic accept his suggestion and make the right and proper changes or ignore this chance of amending faults and restarting with a clean slate? Rita Skeeter, standing by to give our subscribers the hottest and most popular news on the line.

Cadmus was glad Rita Skeeter published that article because not a few days later, the Ministry of Magic took an active role and reselected several notable impartial people to be in the Triwizard Tournament committee. Those impartial members were to review the points given out in the first task, reassign them fairly, and also serve as reviewers for the other two tasks. Ludo Bagman no longer was a judge anymore; he was only allowed to watch the tournament as an organizer while Ms. Amelia Bones, a notable fair official, took over his spot. The new Durmstrang deputy headmaster's background was checked thoroughly before he was allowed to be a judge. And lastly, every offender in the scandal was to make a public apology in the newspaper to everyone, especially Cadmus and Cedric. Jamie Potter was exempt from everything because it was noted and confirmed that he played no part in the cheating and had tried to refuse help.

Days passed, and before everyone knew it, the new term had begun. With the new term starting, Cadmus decided that it would be an excellent time to start figuring out whatever clue was in the golden egg. He had until February 24 to figure out the egg, which seemed like a lot of time, but Cadmus knew that time flew by really quickly. Cadmus knew that if he didn't immediately start preparing for the second task promptly, he would be behind all the other champions. However, he felt a lot better now that certain actions were taken to correct the wrong.

Cadmus' first attempt opening the egg, came with a shock because a loud piercing wail filled the room. Luckily Cadmus had set a strong Silencing Charm around the dorm, so no one else suffered the deafening scream like him. The reverberating sound of the wail echoed in his head for many hours, which caused him to have a headache. Several attempts of trying to comprehend the wailing proved to be futile, so Cadmus decided to set the egg aside and go to the library to research the history of the Triwizard Tournament. So for a week, Cadmus was in the Hogwarts Library searching through many books for answers to his problems. By January 10, the head librarian Madam Pince had gotten used to his presence when he would be the first person to enter the library the moment it opened in the morning and be the last to leave when it closed. After hours of long research, Cadmus finally found something that caught his eye:

The Triwizard Tournament, first instigated in 1294, is a magical contest held between the three largest wizarding schools of Europe; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Durmstrang Institute, and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. One champion from each school chosen to compete in three tasks that test magical ability, intelligence, and courage. The winner receives the glory of winning the Triwizard Tournament and a monetary prize of one thousand galleons. In Tournament history, most of the first tasks tested champion's daring with some sort of dangerous creature. Many of them backfired like the 1792 Triwizard Tournament when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to catch went on a rampage and injured three judges. The second task had more variable tests, from a difficult obstacle course full of traps to doing a magic relay, however, almost every second task in history involved some sort of foreign language. The third task-

Cadmus did not read any further because he had found information that could help him. Almost every second task in history involved some sort of foreign language. That's it! The only reason why he couldn't understand the wailing wasn't that it was inaudible, it was because the wailing was in a different language! Genius! Cadmus quickly jammed all the other books back in their spots on the bookshelf and approached Madam Pince to borrow the book.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Flamel. What can I do for you?" Madam Pince greeted as she pushed the frame of her glasses up on her nose. Cadmus eagerly gave the book to her to see. Madam Pince glanced at the title of the book and gave a slight smile; she turned the book around to show the title to him again. "Hogwarts: A History? I suppose you are extremely interested in learning about this school, huh?"

"Um...yes. Hogwarts is very interesting" Cadmus responded casually, not telling the head librarian his reason for taking out the book from the Hogwarts Library. Madam Pince gave him a small smile and silently stamped the little book card. Cadmus grabbed the book and quickly dashed out of the Hogwarts Library, his heart beating with glee that he was one step closer to figuring out the egg clue. If only he knew what language the wailing of the egg was in.

As Cadmus made his way to his dorms, he passed by Alastor Moody, who was talking to Jamie Potter. Cadmus thought they were just talking about some schoolwork or something. Alastor Moody gave him a sort of nod when Cadmus walked by before Moody turned his back around to continue speaking with Jamie Potter. Cadmus thought that was a little odd, but his thoughts vanished when he spotted Neville a couple of stairs above him.

"Hey Neville, wait up!" Cadmus shouted as he skipped over several steps athletically and caught up with Neville. When Neville saw Cadmus approaching him, he broke into a smile.

"Cadmus!" Neville greeted, shifting the things to his left hand to clap Cadmus on the back. "How are you? Sorry, I just had so many things to do. I didn't have time to talk to you." Cadmus shook his head.

"No, no, don't worry Neville. It is my fault too, I had a busy schedule. So, what do you have there?" Cadmus pointed at the books under Neville's left arm.

"Oh, just a couple of Herbology books Professor Moody gave me last term, I was planning on returning them. Here, see this one" Neville said, showing Cadmus Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. "I've got a couple of interesting ones too, like this one." Neville held up Languages of the Wizarding World.

Cadmus' eyes shone with interest. Languages. Just what he needed. "Would you mind terribly if I borrowed that book, Neville? I'll return the book to you as soon as possible." Neville did not hesitate to hand the book on languages over.

"I just finished reading it this morning. It's pretty interesting. Did you know that sometimes plants communicate in their language too?" Neville asked, splitting into a soft smile when he talked about his favorite subject. "Anyways, tell me about Harvard, I've never heard much about other wizarding schools." Cadmus grinned and excitedly talked about all the fun things they did in school, the large garden they tended for study, and the dueling club.

At last, they arrived on the seventh floor and stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Hey Cadmus, there's a Hogsmeade visit on Saturday. Do you want to come with me?" Neville invited.

"Hogsmeade visit?" Cadmus asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Yeah, there's a little magical village called Hogsmeade. There are lots of stores, oh, and there's the Three Broomsticks. They've got the best butterbeers. It's pretty fun, but it gets boring if you go alone. I go with Hermione every time, but she's staying behind to study, so I'm going by myself" Neville explained. Cadmus thought about it, whatever this Hogsmeade visit was, it sure sounded like fun.

"Sounds like fun, count me in. Do you mind if Daphne tags along?"

"I don't mind at all. So you're coming to Hogsmeade on Saturday?" Neville confirmed. Cadmus nodded his head, and Neville let out a sigh of relief. "Great! Meet me by the great Hall entrance Saturday, I'll make sure you don't get lost or something." Cadmus laughed as they both turned their separate ways to their dorms.

Cadmus entered the Harvard common room with a smile on his face; he made a promise to himself that once he figured out the egg clue, he would treat himself to a nice butterbeer at Hogsmeade. Cadmus walked into his dorm room, and he saw that he was the only one there, which allowed him to have some peace to himself. He opened up his suitcase and took out the golden egg that sat at the bottom of his first compartment. Cadmus stared at his golden egg for a long time before he opened up Languages of the Wizarding World. The first section listed all the human languages known to man. English. Latin. Hungarian. Swedish. Mandarin. The list went on and on, but none of those languages seemed to match the wail of the egg.

When Cadmus reached the second section, which listed animal/creature languages, the door to the dorm room flew open, and Jacob was standing in the doorway, holding a note in his hand. Jacob handed it to Cadmus and said, "They want to see you in Dumbledore's office. All the other champions are there too."

To Mr. Cadmus Flamel,

Meet me inside my office for some matters that concern you and your fellow Triwizard champions. Your head professor will be present. I enjoy Acid Pops.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Cadmus frowned, this was different, he had never been in Dumbledore's office before. He wondered why Dumbledore called him there. "Right now?" Cadmus asked.

"Yeah, as soon as possible," Jacob answered. Cadmus groaned and got up, his legs cramped from sitting down too long.

"I guess it's really important," Cadmus sighed as he grabbed the map and did a cursory check to see if his wand was in his wand holster before he left Harvard Tower. Opening the map, he scanned the surface for directions to Dumbledore's office. He saw Krum, Jamie Potter, Cedric, his father, and a couple of other people crowded inside Dumbledore's office. Cadmus quickly made his way to the office but found that the gargoyle guarded the staircase to the office door.

"Password?" the gargoyle bellowed in a deep voice.

"Acid Pops?" Cadmus asked with uncertainty, unsure if the sentence in the letter was a hint to the password. The gargoyle leaped aside much to Cadmus' astonishment to reveal a moving spiral staircase that led him up to a door. Hushed talking reverberated beyond the doors so Cadmus could hear Dumbledore talking seriously to his father. Cadmus was about to knock on the door when everyone suddenly lulled, and he heard Dumbledore say, "Come in."

Cadmus cautiously opened the door and walked in, taking in all the occupants in the office. His father gave him a nod when Cadmus's eyes landed on him. Dumbledore's mouth widened into a smile, and he parted his arms to welcome him. "Ah, you're here. Mr. Flamel, this is Mr. John Truman, the head of the tournament committee. He is here to tell you some new information."

Cadmus looked politely into Mr. Truman's blue eyes as he firmly shook hands with him, who flashed him a kind smile in return.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Flamel. Call me John," Mr. Truman said, as he took off his black top hat. John cleared his throat quickly before he started to speak. "Per request of the Ministry of Magic, a couple of my colleagues have reviewed each of your performances. According to a standard score rubric, we have reassigned all your points fairly to discourage any biased judging."

"So our rankings in the tournament will change? Isn't that a little too harsh?" Jamie Potter blurted out, not at all perturbed at his rude behavior for speaking out of turn. Viktor Krum nodded along with Jamie Potter to show that he agreed with his declaration.

John took a deep breath and calmly said, "This is the fair and proper way to judge, Mr. Potter. Yes, your rankings will change." Jamie Potter opened his mouth to add some remark, but he paused and sat back into his seat.

"So, let me show you your positions right now. Mr. Krum, you are in fourth place with thirty points, originally you had thirty-two points. We gave two points for pure determination, but no more because you managed to destroy all of the real dragon eggs. Mr. Potter, you are currently in third place with thirty-two, originally you had thirty. We gave you the appropriate two points, but no more because you were hurt badly," John Truman announced, reading off his clipboard.

Viktor Krum shrugged and accepted his ranking because he knew that he was at fault for allowing Karkaroff to tell him about the dragons. Jamie Potter didn't protest either.

John continued, "Mr. Diggory, you are in second with thirty-seven points, previously you had thirty-four. You showed exceptional transfiguration skills. We commend you for that even if the idea didn't work." Cedric gave a satisfied grin, happy that he got a fairer score than before.

John turned towards Cadmus and smiled, "And Mr. Flamel, you are in first place with forty-three points. Your performance was spectacular, you demonstrated true capabilities, and showed compassion even towards the fiercest and most dangerous creatures on earth."

Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands together, "Excellent! Good job, all of you. I believe Mr. Truman has one last thing to tell you before you leave."

"Ah yes, take good care of your egg!" John exclaimed, grinning like a madman.

"Take good care of the egg? You make it seem like we should dress it up in fancy clothes!" Jamie Potter laughed, jocularly.

John did not seem to laugh, so Cadmus knew he was being serious. He replied with a straight face, "Yes, something like that." That was when Dumbledore decided to end the meeting and told everyone to go back to their dorms. Nicholas stood up and made a gesture for Cadmus to leave and follow him. Slowly everyone left Dumbledore's office, Cedric and Jamie Potter led out by their Head of House Pomona Sprout, and Krum escorted by his new headmaster.

When Nicholas and Cadmus were out of the proximity of the others, Cadmus turned to his father, "Dad, where can I find a language detector?" It was an unexpected question, but Cadmus thought that his father hid the surprise pretty well. His father smiled, "I know just the place."

Just two days later, Cadmus received a package from a post owl, which contained a shiny blue rectangular device. It was a refined language detector that Cadmus ordered from his father's friend's company. Cadmus decided to use it as soon as everyone was out of the dormitory. When the boy's dormitory cleared out, Cadmus erected a strong silencing ward around himself and dorm before he turned on the language detector. A small green light flickered on, showing that it was working. He took a deep breath, dug his fingernails into the groove of the golden egg, and prised it open. The wailing filled the room once again. 20 seconds later, the language detector flashed blue, and Cadmus shut the golden egg.

Cadmus grabbed the language detector and saw Mermish. Mermish. The language of the Merpeople. What did Merpeople have to do with the egg? Merpeople lived underwater. Did he have to dump the egg in water for it to give him some hint?

'I suppose I should give it a try. It's better than not doing anything' Cadmus thought as he put his new language detector into his suitcase. Cadmus grabbed his golden egg and rushed into the bathroom. Their dormitory bedroom wasn't a particularly large bathroom, but it was spacious enough to accommodate two boys. Cadmus opened the warm and cold water taps and waited till the bathtub filled with lukewarm water. He took the egg and set it into the bathtub until the top was fully submerged. Cadmus opened the egg and squeezed his eyes shut as he braced for the wailing, but it never came. Instead, he heard an incoherent gurgling song coming out of the egg.

'I probably need to put my head underwater to understand what the song is' Cadmus thought as he wondered whether or not he should fetch his swimming goggles. He always had a spare pair of swimming wear in his suitcase in case he made an unexpected change of plans to go dive in the ocean. Cadmus quickly discarded that idea because he was eager to find out what clue the egg gave him. Not second-thinking himself, Cadmus took a deep breath and then dunked his head into the bathtub. A chorus of eerie voices sang to him from the open egg in front of his head.

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.

(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Egg, and the Eye)

Cadmus took his head out of the water, letting the information sink in as he sat cross-legged on the stone bathroom floor, his hair dripping wet from being in the water. Cadmus put his head under the water one more time before he had the whole song memorized. As he was drying his hair with a bath towel, Cadmus recounted the contents of the song.

Come seek us where our voices sound. So underwater and near the merpeople colony. But where would the merpeople be living underwater? The closest water source to the castle was the Black Lake, said to have a Giant Squid living there. Alright, so the second task would be at the Black Lake, and he had to find the merpeople. He would need to be able to swim underwater for a long time without needing to breathe.

We've taken what you'll sorely miss. Cadmus leaned back in his chair, his head spinning with conclusions. The merpeople would take something he would miss dearly, a prized possession or something. An hour-long you'll have to look. But past an hour - the prospect's black. Too late, it's gone, it won't come back. Great, so there was a time limit of one hour to retrieve whatever the merpeople had taken from him. Cadmus growled, if they took something valuable from him and it got lost, he would make whoever responsible pay him recompensation.

As soon as his hair was dry enough, Cadmus quickly combed it and dashed over to his bed, crouching low to retrieve his suitcase that was kept under his bed. Now slightly more fearful of people invading his personal belongings, he triple-checked all the security wards and password locks on his suitcase before he closed it with a relieved sigh. There was no way anyone could steal his belongings from his suitcase to use for the second task now.

Confident, Cadmus was able to continue with his day worry-free and had a great time playing wizards chess against some of the Hogwarts students at noon (he won most of the games). In the afternoon, Cadmus found the opportunity to ask the Weasley twins about the merchandise that they sent him for Christmas.

"Oh, it's just a couple of joke items we invented"

"We are currently refining Extendable Ears, dead useful if you want to eavesdrop on the others.."

"...on any conversation, anywhere."

Cadmus found it amusing and impressive that Fred and George managed to invent all these unique items and was pleased that he got a test sample of their products. He got a real nasty nosebleed, but overall he had a fun time. Cadmus listened to the twins talk about their dreams of opening a joke shop. When Cadmus spotted Daphne in the dormitory that evening, he told her about the Hogsmeade visit on Saturday.

"Saturday? I have to revise for Mr. Kim's exam. I won't have any time," Daphne responded, frowning slightly. She would be delighted to visit Hogsmeade with Cadmus, but she couldn't afford to receive an abysmal grade on her exam.

"Please, Daphne? I'll do a study session with you, you know I'm the top student in Charms," Cadmus pleaded, "I promise it will be special." After a long moment of debate, Daphne finally caved in and agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him on Saturday.

"So, this will count as a date?"

"Yes, if you want it to be" Cadmus answered happily.

"Alright then, it's a date" Daphne concluded with a soft smile on her face. Cadmus was pleased, he had figured out the egg clue and got a date with Daphne at Hogsmeade. Things couldn't get better.

A/N: You know what to do now. Share your thoughts in the review section! So Cadmus figured out the egg through a different strategy than canon Harry. It was by pure coincidence that Neville had the right book for Cadmus to use. For the next chapter, I am thinking of having that nighttime stroll except Jamie Potter bumps into Cadmus. Maybe Cadmus returns the borrowed book directly to Moody instead of Neville to save all the troubles, then there will be some encounter and dialogue between Cadmus and 'Mad-Eye Moody.'

Also, check out the link in my profile to a new poll I made. Choose your favorite chapter from chapter 20 to 29! The poll will be closed on 8/21 so you have about 7 days to vote! If you missed the previous poll for chapters 1-19, I will put that old poll right up after 8/21.

Stay safe and happy,

mintloveme523