Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Ninety-Eight

The Egg

"I still don't understand why he had to go," Ron was saying as Harry walked into the Gryffindor common room, "it's just weird he would leave like that don't you think."

"Yes and I said as much the first time you brought it up," Hermione sighed, "it's nice to know that all you caring about discussing with me is Harry," she continued to huff and Ron's ears started to turn red like they normally did when he was annoyed or embarrassed by something. Hermione's eyes dropped as she looked away from Ron, the both of them looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Er … hello," Harry said, thinking his friends might need a form of distraction from their uncomfortable silence.

"Harry," they both turned to smile at him, a similar look of relief on both of their faces.

"So, you missed me," Harry beamed as Hermione hugged him and Ron slapped him on the back.

"Yeah," they both said at the same time then turned to smile sheepishly at each other.

"Well, I've got loads to tell you," Harry said, "You know, so you'll understand why I had to go."

"How long were you standing behind us?" Ron narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his friend and Harry's grinned told him it was long enough.

"I think it's best if we go to the Room of Requirement," Harry avoided the question, thinking that he didn't want anyone to over hear him, but he had to tell his best friends about what happened over his short holiday.

"Okay," Hermione said, the two seemed to be happy to leave and he wondered how his friends had been getting along while he was gone. "How was your visit with your dad?" she asked as they walked, figuring that wasn't what he wanted to make sure wasn't over heard. She was right and Harry happily explained how this visit with his dad was much better than the last and he'd probably be able to visit again in the summer.

Once inside the Room of Requirement, Harry told his two best friends everything that Remus had told him and Sirius and then about the discussion he had with his guardians afterward. Both of his friends took the news in silence, but Hermione's expression was thoughtful where as Ron's continued to look moodier.

"Er … what's the matter?" Harry finally asked his friend after he finished explaining.

"What the bloody hell is a Horcrux?" Ron asked, "And why the hell are you acting like I know what the bloody hell you're talking about?"

"I … told you … didn't I?" Harry asked confused, trying to recall if he told Ron about this or not and now that he thought about it he didn't remember having that conversation. "Er … sorry …"

"How long have you known about this?" Ron asked looking at Hermione with a raised eyebrow and she looked uncomfortably between him and Harry.

"I'm sorry Ron, I thought I told you about this, but I think by the time I saw you I didn't really need to bring this subject up and then I just thought I had already told you," Harry tried to explain.

Ron looked back at Harry taking in his expression he sighed. "So, are you going to tell me what the Horcrux thing is already?"

"Basically it's the reason why Voldemort is still alive to haunt my life," Harry grimaced and then explained it as best as he remembered Dumbledore telling him a year and a half ago, though he left out what had happened when he had faced the locket that had encased a piece of Voldemort's soul in it.

"So … this means … that You-Know-Who is closer to dying … right?" Ron said frowning. "Well that's brilliant right?" he smiled as Harry nodded his head, but it vanished because his friend didn't look too happy. "What's the matter?"

"We still don't know how close we are to making him mortal," Harry frowned though that wasn't really what he was thinking about.

"I'm sure we'll … or Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius will figure it out," Hermione said softly and Harry nodded his head. It was only a few minutes after that that she made an excused about having to do homework and left the two of them alone.

"She's usually less obvious about her exits than that," Ron said, smiling fondly at the closing door that Hermione had just walked out of.

"She probably realized that there's no need for pretense anymore with all of us," Harry chuckled himself before grimacing again. "Look, I really am sorry about not telling you before."

"Nah, it's okay man … I can understand why you wouldn't want to talk about this too often," Ron said.

"All this happened not long after our second year ended," Harry continued anyways and Ron frowned moodily at that, though he was trying to hide it. He was trying hard not to let this all bother him, but it felt like they were keeping him out and the fact that Harry didn't realize it didn't make it hurt any less. "The diary … it was a Horcrux too …"

"What?" Ron gasped.

"I didn't know at the time … it was during the summer that I found out … but it was one," Harry said. "I found out about it when I came across this locket in Grimmauld Place. It was Slytherin's Locket and I … er … sort of opened it using Parseltongue."

"Of course you did … who wouldn't speak Parseltongue to a locket," Ron rolled his eyes and Harry almost smiled at that before continuing.

"My dad's image sort of came out of the locket … this was before I meet him and the locket dad told me all of my worst fears," Harry shuddered at the memory, it still bother him now though he had proof that it wasn't true.

"And of course you wouldn't want to talk about that," Ron sighed, understanding much better why he hadn't heard about this before now.

"I wasn't really sure if I wanted to tell Hermione about this but you know how she is … she knew that something was bothering me and … well, somehow I ending up telling her everything."

"I hate when she does that," Ron grimaced knowing the feeling.

"Me too … though not really because most of the time it helps," Harry smiled and grimaced at the same time. There was silence between the two friends until Harry decided to change the subject. "So, did you guys really only talk about me while I was gone?"

Ron grimaced, "I think I prefer talking about Horcruxes to that."

"That bad, huh?"

"Bloody hell Harry, it's been really awkward just being near her," Ron groaned. "I mean we talked a lot when we were at the ball, but she was bloody with that ruddy pumpkinhead. She danced with him all night and she looked like she had a good effing time …"

"Why don't you ask her …" Harry started to suggest, knowing how his friend was going to react and wasn't disappointed.

"Are you mad? I'm not going to bloody ask her that!" Ron growled.

"I know," Harry smiled, amazed and yet expecting that he was feeling better after his confession a few minutes ago seemed to melt as he talk to his best friend.

"Which means the topics that were left to us to talk about were school work, the weather, and you," Ron grimaced. "Is it a wonder I leaned towards you … at least we could come up with a new crazy adventure you might be doing."

"Why would I be having an adventure?" Harry asked bemused.

"You … are … Harry … Potter …" Ron said very slowly as if that was the only way that Harry would be able to understand him and laughed when Harry punched him in the arm. "Sorry mate, but it's true. I think you can find an adventure brushing your teeth."

"If you said brushing my hair you would have been right," Harry said, moving a hand through his permanently messy hair.

"Nah, that would be too easy," Ron laughed as Harry stuck his tongue out at him and the two friends soon left the room to go back to the Gryffindor Tower.

O

"You're one hard guy to track down," Cedric said as Harry turned around to face him, they were in a crowded corridor as most people were heading down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Er … sorry?" Harry said, trying not to grimace at Cedric as he thought about him going to the dance with Cho, but it was difficult.

"I … er … have something I need to talk to you about," Cedric said and Harry had a wild thought that it would have something to do with Cho, but still followed the older boy when he went into a now empty classroom.

"What's this about?" Harry asked.

"Have you figured out the egg clue yet?" Cedric asked and Harry nearly smiled, of course it would be something like this.

"Not yet," he admitted, only now realizing that he hadn't worked on that at all during the holiday and that the second task was approaching rather quickly. "I better get working on it, haven't I?"

"Try taking a bath … er … with it," Cedric said.

"You're pulling my leg," Harry said making a face and Cedric shook his head.

"No … it sounds weird, but trust me, it will make sense once you do it," Cedric smiled sheepishly and then added on thoughtfully, "and you'll probably want to use the prefect bathroom … the password is pine fresh."

"Okay," Harry said warily and Cedric chuckled.

"It's not a prank I swear … I just owe you one for the first task," he said and then left the room, leaving Harry to think. Right now, he wasn't the biggest fan of Cedric Diggory but he knew that didn't have anything to do with the actual boy but the fact that he was going out with Cho. Which meant the information that he got was probably right, and it would be foolish to ignore it.

"What was that about?" Ron asked as Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table with his friends. He quickly explained what Cedric told him.

"And that's really supposed to help? … Taking it to the bathroom?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Harry shrugged, he didn't really get it either, but felt confident that was the truth. Resigning himself to that, he thought that he would figure the egg clue out tonight. That was why he snuck out of the common room at nine and made his way to the prefect's bathroom. He wasn't sure why he was going to the prefect bath when, as Hermione had said, the Room of Requirement would have been able to give him the means to work on this clue without having to leave so late at night, but he felt it was important.

The prefect bathroom was nice and there seemed to be a pool sized bathtub in the middle of it that Harry immediately filled, feeling rather stupid as got into it with his egg in his hand. If someone walked in on him right now … argh.

Still, he tried to open the egg but it cried as it always did whenever he had opened it in the past. Frowning as he closed it again he wondered if this was some kind of a trick after all, but he waved that off as he tried opening the egg again, this time under the water. He could not hear the screaming and he didn't think that was just because of the water … the noise that did come out of it actually sounded pleasant now, though it didn't make any more sense than the screaming. Frowning again, Harry hesitated only a moment before he lowered his head under the water as well. As he did so he heard sing coming from the egg.

… ast an hour- the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back"

Then there was a pause in the song before it started over again and he realized that he had missed the first part of the song because he forgot to close the egg.

"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 lifted himself out of the water talking a deep breath and thinking about what he heard and soon realized that he needed to listen to the song again.

"Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground," Harry frowned, that was the part of the song that told him where he would have to look …. Clearly this was making reference to the egg only making sense underwater, which meant …

"The lake," Harry groaned; the next task was going to be in the lake. Of course, if the first task was dragons … why wouldn't the second task be in the lake during the middle of winter. That makes perfect sense. He now wonder how he was supposed to find something in the lake … it was huge and he didn't even know where he was suppose to start looking. As he looked around the bathroom hoping to find something to help him his eyes rested on the picture of the sleeping mermaid and he realized why Cedric had told him to come to this bathroom … he was sure now that he was going to have to look for merpeople. It seems like things were just getting better.

Feeling that he knew as much as he was going to, he quickly got out of the bathroom, checking his map to make sure that the coast was clear and paused in his step as he saw that Barty Crouch was in Dumbledore's office. That didn't make sense, the last he heard Mr. Crouch wasn't feeling well, Percy had even came to the Yale Ball in his stead? Why would Mr. Crouch be talking to Dumbledore? He shrugged it off figuring it must have something to do with the tournament, though why they had to meet at ten at night he wasn't sure, but that was between them. Harry then focused on the corridors closer to him and walked back to the Gryffindor Tower.