p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"As December slowly bled into January, and February crept nearer, there was an air of excitement among the students as the four champions were preparing for the second task of the Triwizard tournament. Bella knew from conversing with Harry that he was no further forward with his clue than he had been when they had first been given the egg. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Harry you cannot leave this to the last minute!" Hermione had scolded Harry one evening at dinner after he had simply refused to acknowledge the egg. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""He ain't leaving it to the last minute, are you Harry?" Ron interrupted. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm nearly finished, Hermione, okay?" Harry said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Hermione huffed, folding her arms across her chest. Everyone knew it was a lie but if Harry didn't want to try and figure out what the egg meant then it was his problem, no one else's. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Bella had joined Cedric in the library that same night for a study session and Cedric confessed to her that he wasn't having the best time figuring out the clue within the egg either. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I really am stumped, Bella, I don't know what I'm going to do." Cedric sighed, running his hands through his hair. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You'll be fine, you're smart, you'll figure it out eventually." Bella reassured him. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Has Harry had any luck?" Cedric asked. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Yeah that'll be right." Bella laughed. "He hasn't even looked at it yet." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""He won't have long left, the tasks in two weeks!" Cedric said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Try telling Harry that." Bella rolled her eyes. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Bella and Cedric abandoned their studies to discuss both their theories of what the champions could be facing in the next task. Cedric reckoned there would be some kind of battle while Bella was certain the champions would have to do something in the lake. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""10 Galleons says I'm right!" Bella cried after their debate had reached its peak./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm so confident I'm right that I raise your stake 20 Galleons!" Cedric yelled back./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Madam Pince appeared at their table moments after and shooed them from her library, branding the pair a nuisance. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Game on." Bella chuckled slyly as they shook hands in the corridor. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""We'll see who has the last laugh." Cedric replied with a smirk as they parted ways. /p
hr style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #000000;" /
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The week of the second task was upon them faster than you could say expelliarmus and Harry still had not figured out the clue within the egg. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Harry, you only have three days left." Hermione scolded. "You have to get a move on!" /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm trying, Hermione!" Harry replied through gritted teeth. He stood from the chair in the common room and stomped up the stairs to the boys dorm, slamming the door with a loud thud behind him. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""That boy will never learn." Hermione sighed as she dropped onto the sofa besides Bella. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You can say that again." Bella replied. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Suddenly there was a loud, frantic knocking at the common room door. Whoever was knocking was getting louder the longer they were ignored. One of the sixth year boys closest to the door disappeared through the arch to check who was there and returned a few seconds later with a pointed look at Bella. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""It's for you." he grumbled. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Who is it?" Ron asked. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Well I don't bloody know, do I?" Bella asked. "I'm sat here with you lot." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"She approached the door tentatively and stuck her head out slowly to see who was there. She relaxed slightly when she locked eyes with a disheveled Cedric who was dripping wet. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Bella!" Cedric cried as he set eyes on her. "I figured it out, Bella, I did it!" Cedric was now bouncing on the balls of his feet. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Well done!" Bella smiled brightly. "Why are you soaking wet though?" /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Irrelevant." Cedric said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm here to tell you to tell Harry that he has to take the egg and go for a bath -" /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Bella wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm being serious." Cedric said. "Tell him to take the egg to the Prefects bathroom and go for a bath." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""If I tell him to go for a bath with the egg he's going to look at me as if I have two heads." Bella replied. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Just tell him it'll help." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""If you say so." Bella said. "Now get out of the draughty corridors and to the heat of your common room before you catch a cold." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Yes, mum." Cedric chuckled. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"He gave her a little wave before he about turned and wandered off down the stairs to the Hufflepuff common room./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Who was at the door?" Freya asked. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Cedric." Bella replied, still looking slightly confused. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""What did he want?" Emily asked. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm still not entirely sure." Bella said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"She climbed the stairs to the boys dorm and knocked sharply on the door. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Who is it?" Harry grumbled. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Bella." She replied. "I hope you're decent because I'm coming in." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Harry was sitting at the bottom of his bed. The egg was propped up against his pillows and he was staring at it as if the clue was going to magically appear and slap him in the face. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""What is it?" Harry asked. "I'm kind of busy at the moment." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""There's no need to be snarky with me, Harry." Bella said. "I'm actually here to help." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You're not allowed to help, remember." Harry replied, finally turning around to look at her. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Well, not help exactly." she said. "I'm here to tell you to take the egg and go for a bath." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""What?" Harry asked, looking at her like Bella had predicted. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Cedric came to tell you to take the egg to the Prefects bathroom and to go for a bath. I don't know why, he didn't tell me - he just said it would help." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I don't suppose I've got anything to lose." Harry said. "I'll go later when everyone's in bed and I won't get caught." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""It must help otherwise Cedric wouldn't have come all the way up here to tell us." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""That's true." Harry agreed. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'll leave you to put your thinking cap on." Bella said. "Just don't do too much or you might burn out your functioning brain cell." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You're so funny." Harry laughed sarcastically. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I know." Bella replied with a smirk as she closed the door behind her./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The others grilled her as soon as she arrived back in the common room and once she had finished her story they all wore identical looks that she had when Cedric had first told her. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I don't see how it's going to help." Ron said sceptically. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Well it's better than nothing." Hermione said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""That's true, Ron." Bella said. "Harry hasn't been doing anything anyway so he might as well try." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"That night Bella and the others sat in the common room as Harry made his way through the silent corridors to the Prefects bathroom. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Do you really think this will be helpful?" Ron said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""There's no harm in trying." Freya said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Cedric wouldn't have said to do it if it wouldn't." Emily added. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Exactly." Bella said. "Have faith, Ron." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"After an hour had passed the group were starting to become restless, thinking something may have happened to Harry. Just as they were deciding to go looking for him, Harry walked back through the portrait hole, dripping wet from head to toe, puddles of water forming around him. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""It worked." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Harry then spent twenty minutes telling the tale of his bath with the egg in the bathroom. When he finished everyone was looking around at each other, all with puzzled looks on their faces. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"em"Come seek us where our voices sound, /em/p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"emWe cannot sing above the ground. /em/p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"emAn hour long you'll have to look, /em/p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"emTo recover what we took"/em/p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""But - what does that mean?" Hermione asked. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I don't know." Harry replied sadly. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Well at least we're getting somewhere." Bella said cheerily. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I say we pull an all-nighter and try to figure out what that riddle means." Emily said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"And so that's what they did. By the time morning came Harry had fallen asleep sprawled across the coffee table; Ron was curled up on the arm chair and Hermione, Freya and Emily were asleep on the couch - all lying on top of one another. Bella was the only one still awake as the sun rose over the Black Lake. She was sitting at the window seat, staring down over the grounds of the castle and at the Black Lake, watching the Giant Squid bobbing up and down in the water./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Like a lightbulb being switched on, something clicked in Bella's brain. She sat up, still looking out at the Black Lake. 'above the ground' she was repeating over and over in her head. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Guys! Guys wake up." /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Bella hurried over to them, shaking each one until they woke up. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""What's going on?" Harry asked, rubbing his eyes./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I know what the egg means!" Bella replied eagerly./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"If they weren't awake before, everyone was awake now, listening to Bella's every word./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""The Merpeople." Bella started. "They live in the Black Lake 'we cannot sing above the ground', right?" /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""That makes sense." Hermione said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I reckon you're going to have an hour to find something that belongs to you that Dumbledore's hidden in the Black Lake." Bella said./p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Harry stood very quickly and wrapped his arms around Bella, causing her to stumble back a few steps. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Thank you! I would never have figured that out." he sighed. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Now you have the last two days to figure out how you're going to breathe underwater for an hour." Bella said. /p
p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'd forgotten all about that bit."/p