Starting the very morning after they'd taken their egg to the prefects bathroom for a swim, Harry and Hermione had spent the two months leading up to the second task trying to find some way for Harry to survive underwater for an hour.

But it had all been to no avail. By the time the fourth week of February rolled around, Harry was pretty sure they'd searched through every book in the Hogwarts library, as well as all of Hermione's own personal collection that she'd bought over the years from Flourish and Blotts that weren't in the library. But even their old faithful that'd never let them down before, Hogwarts: A History, couldn't provide them with an answer this time. And the second task was on Wednesday of that week — things were looking grim for Harry's chances of being able to recover whatever the mermaids were going to steal from him.

But never two to give up, Sunday evening found them sitting once again in the library, desperately searching for anything useful.

"Oh, this is no use!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and banging her head against the table. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets? That's just stupid. Magic could solve so many problems in this world, both magical and muggle, and that's what witches and wizards waste their time inventing spells for?" she complained to Harry in disbelief at the absurdity of the world she now belonged to — though she wasn't always sure she really wanted to admit that to people (Statute of Secrecy aside).

"Does it work on hair hair, too? You know, hair on your head?" asked Harry as he closed his own book that was providing no answers. "Because that at least could have its uses, maybe. Still sounds kind of stupid, though, but maybe not completely purposeless."

"Considering the fact is specifically says nose hairs, I'm guessing somehow not," answered Hermione, before letting out a long sigh. "This is hopeless. How has no witch or wizard ever invented a spell for breathing underwater? Other than the fact they're wasting all their time inventing nose hair ringlet spells."

But before Harry could reply, Neville walked up to where they were sitting and tossed an open book down on the table in front of them.

"I overheard you saying you were looking for a way to breathe underwater," he said. "Its called gillyweed.

"You have to eat that," pointing at the picture in question, "right before you go into the lake. It'll let you be able to breathe underwater like you need. And as long as you eat the proper amount, it will last you the hour you said you need to be underwater."

"How did you—?" began Harry.

"I was working on our Herbology homework, and flipping through this Herbology book Professor Moody gave me at the beginning of the semester, and I saw it. I'd heard you two talking in the common room about what Harry has to do in the second task, so I came over to see if you'd found anything yet, and show you this if you hadn't."

"Wow, thanks Neville!" said Harry. "We were completely stumped."

"You don't happen to know where we can get any of this gillyweed, do you…?" asked Hermione hesitantly.

"Sorry," replied Neville with a shake of his head, "I don't. Never seen or heard of it before this book, which is a little odd considering how many Herbology books I've read through over the years. But it is what it is. And I know it's not much help, but I figured I'd tell you anyway."

"No — thank you!" exclaimed Harry. "Now at least we have a possibility, which is a lot more than we had before."

"Just sorry I couldn't help you more — and best of luck finding some, or something else that will work. We're all cheering for you in the second task, Harry," replied Neville sincerely.

As Neville returned to where he'd been working on his homework before coming over, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Well, we at least know what we're looking for now. Maybe the library can finally come through for us."

"Hopefully — but there's only one way to find out," replied Hermione with a smirk.

So Harry and Hermione spent the rest of that evening, and the entire next day (when they weren't eating or in class), searching high and low for any sign of gillyweed. Together Hermione and Harry scoured the library for any books that might suggest where the water-plant could be found, and Monday night Harry used his invisibility cloak to search the greenhouses. But the elusive plant persisted in its absence.

They had also continued searching for any other magic that could help Harry breathe underwater, but they were no more successful at that than they were at finding the mysterious gillyweed, and were beginning to seriously lose hope of finding any way for Harry to complete the task.

~HP~

But Tuesday morning, Harry was startled awake by someone poking him.

"Ouch — stop that!" he exclaimed, reaching blindly for his glasses.

"Harry Potter must wake up, sir!"

"Stop poking me —"

"Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up!"

Harry finally found his glasses, and put them on.

"Dobby has come to give Harry Potter what he needs for the second task!" squeaked the elf.

"What?" said Harry. "But you don't know what I need for the second task—"

"Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter needs gillyweed to go into the lake!"

"How did you—?"

"Dobby heard the Neville boy saying Harry Potter needed gillyweed for the second task. So Dobby has been watching Harry Potter, and he has seen he hasn't been able to get any gillyweed, so Dobby got gillyweed for him, sir!"

He put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of slimy, grayish-green rat tails.

"And you're positive this really is gillyweed?" asked Harry warily, looking distrustfully at the blob that really did look like the picture in the book.

"Of course, sir, Dobby is one hundred percent positive."

After another moment's hesitation, Harry finally accepted that Dobby really knew what he was talking about, and gingerly took the gillyweed from the house-elf. "Thanks, Dobby. You're a life saver," he said sincerely.

"Anything for Harry Potter, sir. Anything! But Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir. Dobby will be missed if he doesn't return immediately — good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!"

Harry just got out "See you later, Dobby!" before the house-elf disappeared with a crack.

As it was too late to go back to sleep, Harry stuffed the gillyweed in his trunk and headed down to the common room to wait for Hermione to wake up. But when he got down there, he found Hermione already awake, going through three spellbooks at once.

"If that's for the second task, you can quit."

Hermione looked up quickly, startled by the unexpected break in the early morning silence of the common room. "What do you—?"

"Dobby just woke me up and gave me some gillyweed. I don't know where he got it from, but it looks exactly like the book, and he said he's a hundred percent positive it really is gillyweed."

"Not to question your house elf, but he doesn't exactly have the best track record helping you — any chance I could see it to check for myself, and see if it looks like the correct amount?" said Hermione. "I'd feel a lot better about it."

"It's up in my room, and I'd rather not risk waking anyone up going back in there right now," answered Harry. "But we can go look at it at lunch — I'd be more than happy for you to double check Dobby's claims. I know he means well, but he's caused a lot more trouble than he's solved."

So as soon as the bell rang for lunch that day, Harry and Hermione headed the opposite direction of everyone else, and headed up to Harry's dorm instead of the Great Hall. Pulling the ball of rat tails out of his trunk, he plopped it down in Hermione's hand.

After a careful look-over, Hermione finally said, "Looks legit to me, and exactly the right amount. I think for once Dobby got it right."