The rest of the holidays were spent with Daphne and other friends. With the Yule Ball behind him Harry found the holidays very relaxing. He and Daphne had become a couple, without Harry ever really having thought about it. When he questioned her, it was much like when he asked her to the ball. She had said, "Of course we are dating. Don't worry dear." Klaus had laughed quite a bit at that. But alas the break came to an end. And, Harry found his schedule back in place. Except this time he devoted more time to studying and homework, more time with Daphne, and more time working on the egg.
The increased workload would have most students going mad, but Harry had long since learned how to manage multiple tasks and time wisely. A trait he had to pick up from the Dursleys. The extra time with the egg had started to mix with his extra time with Daphne, and that was how he, or rather she, broke the clue. They had been sitting next to the shore of the Black Lake after another failed attempt to interpret the egg.
As Harry opened it again, Daphne in desperation to save her ears from the agony of its call had taken the egg and thrown it on the ice nearby. Said ice not being nearly thick enough to support the weight of a golden egg the size of a small dog broke from the weight, and the egg sunk down. It was only a couple feet out so Harry cast a little blasting curse to break the ice in between and waded to get it. As he neared he expected to hear the high pitch screams again, but instead he heard soft murmuring. Leaning down he brought the egg out of the wonder to hear the shrieking again. Quickly he dropped the egg and it stopped. Deciding to see if the water was just muffling it he dunked his head under the water. To his utter surprise it was a sweet soft voice.
It was mermish! It was unintelligible above water because mermen could not speak out of water! Quickly grabbing the egg and closing it he ran to Daphne and gave her a kiss as thanks. She sputtered confusedly, but was glad that he was happy. Since that day Harry had begun his research into underwater spells. From the message Harry deduced he would need to retrieve something from the Merfolk and Daphne had told him that a tribe lived in Black Lake. So he needed some way to get down to the bottom of the lake. He had so far considered bubblehead charm and self-transfiguration. Self-transfiguration was much beyond his skills in transfiguration and bubblehead was not ideal as it made it harder to see and if it popped he would be out of luck.
So for a month Harry tried to find something else. So far he kept running into issues, either it was beyond his skill or had some weakness that was outside Harry's comfort level. Eventually it was his ritual's book that provided the answer. He had been rereading an earlier chapter where it mentioned, and thankfully described, the water splitting ritual. This ritual did not require any great sacrifice or had to be at a particular time or day. It did require some blood from the caster and some kind of staff referred to as a serpent staff. That last bit had thrown Harry, what was a serpent staff? He had asked Daphne, Klaus, and others if they had heard of it, but none had. He was barred from asking the Professors, as it dealt with the Tournament, so Harry was stuck searching the Hogwarts library.
And, that was where he found himself on this Monday evening. He had asked the Hogwarts Librarian about any references to serpent staves or splitting water. She had given him a few books, but so far nothing was making sense.
"Reading about Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea?" Harry was started out of his thoughts by none other than Henry's friend Hermione.
"Excuse me?"
"That picture is of Moses and the Jews fleeing Egypt right?" She was pointing at a picture from an art textbook, so far the only thing that had somewhat connected to Harry's search.
"Moses? Is that the wizard here?"
"Wizard? Umm...maybe, he is a major figure in Judaism and Christianity. He split the Red Sea and led the slaves to Israel." That sounded familiar to Harry, something he had forgotten since coming to live with his aunt.
"Huh. If he was a wizard, this staff he used would have been a wand substitute."
"Perhaps. If I remember, according to the bible it was a gift from God, who transformed it from a snake. I think that was it, though I haven't read it for a while." Could it truly be that simple? A staff transfigured from a serpent? Harry would need to test that out. "Are you doing a paper about possible wizards in muggle history?"
"Oh, ya. For my history course. Thanks!" Harry quickly grabbed his things and left. He started going over where he could test the ritual. He needed a body of water, something isolated so none could see his idea. He still had about a month till the second task, but it was best to test the ritual, maybe the text forgot some portion.
Later that night Harry snuck out of the ship and made his way towards a little closed off portion of the lake. Making sure no one was around, Harry quickly cast Serpensortia, summoning a simple garden snake. Transfiguring it into a staff, Harry got ready. Cutting his palm, Harry smeared his blood down the length of the staff. Reciting the incantation, raising the staff to the sky, and plunging it into the ground beneath the water. Suddenly a blast of wind came forth and started pushing the water apart. Quickly a little path had formed leading from one end of the shore to the had directed the staff and ritual to cut off only a small portion parallel to the beach. Pulling the staff from the ground Harry went to walk through, but as soon as he did the wind disappeared and the water reconnected. The ritual must require the staff to remain still. Hmm...the test had been successful so far he would test it further tomorrow night.
With Harry's second task, the idea confirmed his workload became easier. He would sneak out to practise at night on the ritual, for an hour or so, and thus was free to spend more time on his regular studies in the afternoon and evenings with Daphne.
It all settled nicely. Until the morning of the Second Task. He was supposed to meet Daphne for breakfast, but she never arrived. Speaking with Tracey, she mentioned that Daphne had to meet with Professor Snape that morning for some reason and had yet to return. Harry hoped her meeting would be done soon, he really wanted her to see the ritual as he had not told her his plan and they had discussed rituals often. Well, soon his concerns were pushed aside as he and the other champions were called down to the lake.
Once arriving Harry and the others found a couple of tents and large stands for spectators. The champions were shepherded into one of the tents where they met with the cheery Mr. Bagman once again. Harry barely caught himself from sighing at the sight of the man.
"Ah morning, morning. Lovely day is it not? So I hope you figured out the task, yes?"
"We are to retrieve something stolen at the bottom of the lake?" It was Jacques' lightly accented voice that answered, steady and calm.
"Ah, not something. Someone!" Someone? They put people down there? Wait who? These questions flashed before Harry's eyes the moment Bagman uttered the word. And, from the looks of it, similar ones went through the others' thoughts as well. "You are each tasked with retrieving the person you would miss the most. Mr. Diggory, Ms. Cho Chang; Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley; Ms. Delacour and Mr. des Cartes your sisters; Mr. Krum, Mrs. Granger; and Mr. Black, Ms. Greengrass." The whole time the man was smiling like he was talking about the weather. Harry's nerves spiked, they put people under the lake, in the hands of merfolk? What could these people be thinking? Harry quickly shook his head. It did not matter. Bagman soon left the champions to speak to the crowd.
"You do know we are going under the water, Raven?" Viktor slightly startled Harry. Following the older student's look, Harry saw he was referring to his broom that he brought. The other champions also seemed to be considering what he was planning with it.
"Yes, thanks Viktor, I am aware." The others shook their heads, with Henry even muttering to himself about fools, and house-elves? No, Harry must have misheard. It did not matter, Bagman was calling them out.
"Give a grand welcome to our champions! Now each has an hour to retrieve their hostage, and they will be graded on their choice of spell and its effectiveness. On the signal you may begin." Boom! That must have been the signal. Harry looked and watched the others, Viktor a partial shark transfiguration, very advance; Diggory and Delacour both used the bubblehead; Jacques used some spell that Harry saw no obvious effect but dived in; and Henry had some plant which seemed to partially transfigure him into some fish thing. Harry quickly cast a spell to point to his desire. This hopefully would point him towards Daphne, but was unsure. The wand ended up pointing out to the lake so it hopefully worked.
Now to summon a snake, casting Serpensortia Harry summoned a western taipan, a very quick and deadly snake. Harry chose this snake as the more dangerous snake the stronger the ritual, and he did not wish to risk bringing a magical snake into such a crowded area. Quickly transfiguring it he moved to the edge of the water.
Harry could hear Bagman puzzling about his actions to the crowd when he began the ritual. He cut his hand, smeared his blood, recited the ritual and struck the ground. For a second nothing happened, and Harry became worried that he had made a mistake, and then suddenly the winds came. They were stronger this time than his last attempt, perhaps his need and intent helped fuel it. Either way a giant amount of wind came and started pushing the water apart. Within a minute it had done its job and Harry could see down the length of the lake. And, low and behold there tied to a pole of some sort were the hostages. They had been kept in place being tied to the post, but all the merfolk had been pushed with the water and were held back by the wind.
Grabbing his broom Harry flew down. Quickly freeing Daphne, Harry pulled her onto the broom and flew back. Safely landing, Harry made sure Daphne was fine. She seemed to be in some magical trance, but was breathing, so it must have been placed by the teachers. His inspection complete, Harry moved over to the staff and pulled it from the ground. Suddenly the ritual ended and Harry became extremely exhausted. The magical drain of this ritual did not occur until it ended, which while different from normal casting was not uncommon in rituals. The problem here was Harry's exhaustion caused his transfiguration on the serpent to end and he soon found himself holding a western taipan. An angry, scared western taipan. The snake moved with lethal speed and Harry found himself bitten and suddenly losing consciousness. Harry thought he heard someone yelling and felt the snake let go of him, but that was it before darkness claimed him.
Awareness seemed to come back slowly and the first thing that Harry could process was an older female voice.
"Dementors, Dragons, and now purposefully putting children underwater! Why do I keep working here! I swear that we never had anything as stupid and ridiculous as this when I was a child!"
"Mmmm." Harry couldn't help, but make a noise as he tried to sit up and open his eyes. Upon his eyes opening, Harry was soon greeted with the owner of the previous voice and found it to be the Hogwarts nurse.
"You Mr. Black are a lucky man! Thankfully that snake was not able to poison you too much before they dispelled it, but you will be sore. Now drink this." Suddenly a dark brown/blue potion was handed to him. Looking at it made Harry reconsider and as he looked to tell the nurse he was fine, Harry was met with a stern glare that said he would not be getting out without drinking it. Weighing his options, Harry quickly drank the vial and found the nurse moving off to some other patient.
Looking around, Harry found that some of the hostages were here, and Fleur, who had looked better. On noticing her gaze, she responded,"Grindylows." Shite, while Grindylows were not a threat individually, a school of them could, and had, killed a wizard or witch. Harry's survey of the room soon ended as Daphne stormed in, looked at him and slapped him. Gaping, Harry had no idea what he had done to deserve that.
"That is for me waking up to the sight of you being bitten by a venomous snake!" Suddenly she leaned in and gave him a mind breaking kiss, "And, that, well that is for saving me." Then the girl had the nerve to give Harry a giant smile. By Merlin, Harry had no idea what was going on. "Oh by the way you scored points. You lost a bit for almost dying at the end."
"I, ah, uh… who came in first?" That should be a safe question.
"Actually it was Potter with 45, then des Cartes and you at 41, Krum at 40, then Diggory at 39, and then Fleur at 35. It seems your spell knocked Diggory off course and that put him far behind the others."
"Huh, so I am tied with Potter for first?"
"Yep, interesting no? The two youngest in the lead? He got extra points for being second to the hostages and returning with not only his hostage, but Fleur's as well when she did not arrive. But, come one you need to tell me about the ritual!" Harry had to smile at the girl's curiosity and soon followed her out and back to the castle.
