In late January, Harry still hadn't figured out the clue for his egg. Now, he, Brooklyn, and Hermione were standing out on the bridge that overlooked the Black Lake, and Hermione was lecturing Harry after he admitted lying about figuring out the egg already.

That's when Cedric came up to them, giving Harry a hint about how to open his egg by going into the Prefect's bathroom and take a bath, giving them the password, 'pine fresh'. Brooklyn didn't see how this would help, but ended up tagging along, wanting to see this clue for himself.

Now Brooklyn had concluded that this was the nicest bathroom he set foot in, it felt great to just hang out there with his brother in the warm water, watching the different colored soap spew out from the faucets, some of them smelling like lavender, even. For a while, Brooklyn just laid back against the wall of the tub, eyes closed, while Harry looked over to the egg.

Brooklyn yelped as he heard the terrible screeching of the egg, Harry tried opening it again, jerking him from his relaxed state.

"Shut it off!" He yelled, covering his ears. Harry did, and Brooklyn sighed in relief.

"How are we gonna figure this out if this stupid egg keeps screaming at us?" Brooklyn then asked, glaring at it.

"I don't know," Harry mumbled, looking quite hopeless.

"I'd try putting it in the water!" Called a familiar voice. The brothers turned to see Moaning Myrtle there, coming out of one of the toilets and grinning at them. The both of them blushed and tried covering themselves, realizing they were being watched by her without them knowing.

"Long time, no see you two!" Myrtle greeted, though she fixed them with a hard stare. They had promised to visit Myrtle at one point, but had forgotten.

"Oh, hi." Brooklyn greeted, still feeling slightly embarrassed that she had been peeking in on them. Myrtle floated into the bathroom, smiling. "I was circling a blocked drain the other day and could swear I saw a bit of Polyjuice potion."

Brooklyn frowned. Polyjuice Potion? The only time they've ever used it was during Harry's second year. Could somebody else be using it?

"Did you see who was using it, Myrtle?" The gargoyle questioned. She shook her head.

"No. I normally don't watch others unless it is something interesting, and they hide themselves quite well."

"Myrtle, did you say try putting the egg in the water?" Harry then asked, and she smiled.

"That's what he did, the other boy the handsome one, Cedric Diggory. And Brooklyn, if you wanted to know, Katie was in the girls bathroom this morning, talking to her friends about you, and your time together at the ball. I think she might be drawn towards you."

Brooklyn felt the heat again, not just from the water. Did he have to go red in front of Myrtle? Seriously? But, perhaps having Katie talking about him wasn't the bad part, it was Myrtle nosing in on it.

Maybe Katie still really does like me, Brooklyn then realized, a small smile beginning to form on his face.

"Well? Go on. Open it!" Myrtle encouraged, and Harry put the egg in the water, opening it. And Brooklyn thought he could hear strange choir music coming from it, but it was muffled.

"Should we try going under water?" Brooklyn suggested. Harry then realized and he nodded, and the two of them put their heads under, the music now even louder and Brooklyn could understand it:

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're sorely miss

An hour long you'll have to look

To recover what we took

But past an hour the prospects black.

Too late it is gone, it won't come back.

They resurfaced, Brooklyn had accidentally swallowed water that made him cough.

"Myrtle, there aren't merpeople in the Black Lake?" Harry asked in a nervous tone, and Brooklyn was surprised at this news, he himself have never seen a mermaid or a merman, but have heard legends from Hudson and seen pictures in his Fantastic Beasts book.

That would be cool if I could somehow meet one, he thought in interest, while Myrtle and Harry discussed the clue, eventually finding out he had to find a way to breathe underwater for an hour to get back whatever the merpeople would take.


Brooklyn later that day found himself near the shores of the Lake, just staring at the water in frustration after unsuccessful research. He threw a rock in the water, growling in frustration. How the heck was he going to have his brother survive the depths of this blasted lake and keep an eye on him?

"Hey, you!" A voice suddenly called, making Brooklyn jump, drawing his wand and looking around, eyes glowing.

"Where are you? Sneaking up on somebody isn't funny!" He demanded. The voice laughed in a humorous tone.

"Boy, you sure are defensive, but I'm not going to hurt you! The name's Brody, by the way!"

Brooklyn continued looking around near the trees, trying to find this Brody person. He sure knows how to stay invisible.

"Down here, in the water!" The voice called. Glancing down, Brooklyn shouted out in surprise and disbelief: a young merman of all people was grinning up at him in the shallows. He had pale almost green skin, a long fish's tail, and had messy gray hair. But his blue eyes didn't seem fierce, rather, they seemed lively and perhaps friendly.

Brody laughed at his surprise. "Never met anybody like me, huh?" Brooklyn shook his head, still in shock that he was meeting a merman for the first time.

Would my Clan believe me when I tell them about me meeting a merman named Brody? Brooklyn now pondered. Hudson, probably.

Now knowing this merman wasn't going to attack, Brooklyn lowered his wand, and he sat down on the shore near Brody, who put his hands on his hips, smiling.

"So, uh, what made you come here to meet me?" Brooklyn asked awkwardly.

"Well, my chief says to stay away from gargoyles and anything else from the surface. But I thought, they couldn't be all bad, could they? But when he told me of how they went extinct, I didn't want to believe him, so I researched as much as I could, and I read that not all of them were wiped out. I got excited, and when I saw you, it got even better! I've always been fascinated by the surface world, and studied the language of this place, so the people in this world can understand me! My kin don't speak very much english except for my Chief whenever he speaks to the Headmaster here. But what is your name?"

Brody said all this very fast, reminding the gargoyle of Hermione. And he definitely seemed very bright and adventurous for a merperson, plus Brooklyn was impressed by the way he spoke English.

"Name's Brooklyn," he replied, starting to grin. He guessed Brody wasn't so bad.

"It's nice to meet you! But how come you were throwing rocks in the first place?" Brody questioned curiously. Brooklyn then knew he had to tell Brody about what was going on.

"Well, there's this tournament happening at Hogwarts, the TriWizard tournament, and currently the second task involves your tribe," he answered. Then Brody gasped.

"I think I heard my chief saying our village was going to get involved with this crazy tournament," he exclaimed.

"And, my human brother, Harry Potter, was chosen for the tournament, even though there's only supposed to be three. This new task requires him to breathe underwater for an hour. Is there a way to do that?" Brooklyn asked. He was disappointed when Brody winced.

"Sorry, friend, but that's when I can't really help, yeah, I know, I'm a merman, but I really don't research a lot of the ways for you air breathers to breathe underwater. We don't have those books in our libraries."

But then Brooklyn had another idea. "Well then, maybe you can watch over my brother in the lake when the tournament starts, since I can't join him there? I would appreciate it."

Brody looked surprised, and a little unsure about following a human for their weird sports, especially when he heard about Harry being this gargoyle's brother. But he saw the insistence, care, and love for this human, Harry Potter in Brooklyn's eyes. If he couldn't help with the breathe underwater part, he could certainly help with ensuring that Harry got out alive. He could get the story of how they met at another time.

"Consider it a merman's honor to protect him, but if any of my kin try to attack, he'll have to defend himself, since if they catch me defending a human against my own family, that wouldn't be good news. The chief would either kill or banish me," Brody then agreed. Brooklyn gave a sigh of relief, now knowing that he had a friend in the water to watch over his little brother.

"Perhaps, if this goes well, I can show you what I can do with my wand here," Brooklyn offered, pulling out his redwood wand. Brody looked excited now, and then the gargoyle demonstrated, as he thought of celebrating the end of this tournament with Harry.

"Expecto Patronum!" Brody stared, as a silver and gold Phoenix came out of the end of Brooklyn's wand, flying around the merman's head, singing its song. His eyes shone at the beauty.

"Golly!" He gasped, as the Patronus then disappeared. "That would be wicked! I think we're gonna be good friends, Brooklyn!" Brody held out his hand, and Brooklyn accepted it, proud that he had been able to befriend somebody else in this strange magic world, and a merman, at that!

He waved goodbye, watching Brody dive back into the water and made his way up to the castle.

They were now sitting in the library, still trying to figure out how to help Harry breathe underwater. Brooklyn couldn't remember how many books he must've opened by now, possibly a hundred. He declared this the second worst study after the Sorcerer's Stone. Eventually Neville ended up being a big help, offering Harry the idea of using Gillyweed, a plant to help people breathe underwater!

Moody suddenly came, and his face looked grim.

"Hate to break up this study session, but McGonagall would like to see you in her office."

Harry began to stand, as did Ron, but Moody shook his head at the two of them.

"Not you, Potter and Weasley. Just Granger and Brooklyn."

What? Brooklyn thought in confusion, as he followed Hermione and Moody, glancing back at his brother who looked worried.

"Brook, you don't think we're in trouble for helping Harry, do you?" Hermione asked nervously. But Brooklyn shook his head.

"I'm sure Dumbledore would be fine with us helping him, this is possibly for some other matter," he guessed. The door to McGonagall's office opened, as she gestured them all inside, looking as grim as Moody. In the office, was Dumbledore of course, and practically all the judges for the tournament, including Barty Crouch.

Dumbledore then stood, smiling at them all.

"Ah, I see we're all here, then we can proceed!"

Brooklyn gave a small sigh, now knowing they weren't in trouble, but obviously something else must be going on to call him and Hermione. Even Cho was there, with another girl he guessed was Fleur's sister.

"You all have special connections to the four Champions. Brooklyn, since you're Harry's bond brother, you'll be the one he tries to save."

Say what?! Brooklyn thought in shock, eyes wide in disbelief. Was this the reason they were called here, to play the part of victims to the mertribe? As Dumbledore talked to the others about who was saving them, Brooklyn began to understand why, this was a test to see how strong his and his brother's connection was.

Eventually they guided each of them to chairs where the teachers would put them in an enchanted sleep. Only until they reached the surface will they wake, once Dumbledore assured the group they would be perfectly safe.

As they finished with Gabrielle and moved onto Cho, Brooklyn noticed Hermione looked scared.

"Are you okay?" He asked when they sat down in the chairs.

"It's just that-I'm not very good at swimming. What if—." Brooklyn put a comforting hand around Hermione.

"Like Dumbledore said, they wouldn't let any of us drown. And Krum will make sure you get out safely, too," he said assuringly to her.

She then knew he was right, and felt a little better.

"See you later, then!" She called, as the teachers began to work on Hermione, causing Brooklyn to chuckle.

At last, it was Brooklyn's turn. Pomfrey nodded to him encouragingly and the teachers began the spellcasting. Feeling the spell taking effect, Brooklyn prayed while he fell asleep that Harry would get through this task alive, and that Brody would protect him.