Author's Note: You should know by now that clues and solutions for each leg of the Hunt are provided for you in the story, but in case you just now decided to read these, there's your reminder for the chapter. Also, a quick warning: I attempted to replicate Hagrid's accent in the books for his appearance in this chapter. It's only one paragraph, and I think it turned out all right, but if it bothers you, just skip from "A moment later, Hagrid answered" straight to Clue #5. As always, I make no claims to the Potterverse, I just enjoy playing in JK's sandbox.
It had been almost half and hour since Hermione had ended the Halt, and already Ron had noticed a few teams had drifted away from the Shrieking Shack. First Harry and Lavender, then Blaise and Mandy, and, having just looked around, it seemed Hannah and Theo had figured it out as well, as they were no longer nearby. What they had seen, Ron still wasn't sure, but it was beginning to frustrate him. As he and Hermione made yet another loop around the house, still utterly clueless, Ron feared that they might never figure it out.
As he looked towards the house, trying to have something brilliant enter his brain, something brilliant entered his eye instead. "Blimey!" shouted Ron. "That reflection bloody hurts!" As Hermione looked to where Ron was pointing, she noticed the reflection was coming off an open window she had failed to notice in every single prior trip around the house. "Ron, that's it! You've done it!" she cheered. "Accio clue!"
As she finished her spell, Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth. In her excitement at finally solving the puzzle, the idea of silent casting completely slipped her mind. As such, every other team still at the Shack heard her cast, and was alerted to the answer right in front of them. Thus, as Ron and Hermione read their clue and ran for Hagrid's, they heard eight voices cry in unison "Accio clue!"
A few minutes ahead of Ron and Hermione, Hannah and Theo arrived at the home of Hogwarts' Gamekeeper. Seeing no other signs around, Hannah walked over to the door and knocked politely. A moment later, Hagrid answered.
"Oh, yeh must be on the Hunt. Third team so far, good on yeh. I'm s'pose to give yeh some kind o' test or summat, but yeh've caught me cooking, so I'll jes' give yeh this." He stuck a clue envelope out the door, which Hannah accepted with a thank you. She brought the clue over to Theo, who read it aloud, seeing no other team in sight.
Clue #5: "Of land, sea, and sky, prepare to meet the one you've yet to traverse. You should try to arrive QUIckly, lest your Dilly-DallyIng Take away any Chance you have to complete the Hunt."
At first, Hannah was confused. The clue, as Theo read it, didn't seem to offer anything concrete about the next leg of the Hunt, other than pointing to their task having something to do with being in the air. Thoughts started whirling through Hannah's mind: the Astronomy Tower, the Owlery, maybe Ravenclaw's common room (she had heard it referred to more than once as the Aerie), somewhere over the grounds, possibly as far away as the nearby mountains, though she found the last unlikely. As she started listing off these possibilities out loud to Theo, he simply shook his head at each suggestion without offering a reason against them.
When Hannah's face began to get very red, suggesting that an outburst wasn't far away, Theo finally just handed the clue over to Hannah and said, "While I'm sure all of those are reasonable ideas, we're going to the Quidditch Pitch, because I doubt whoever wrote these clues is fool enough to not comprehend proper capitalization." As her eyes quickly danced over the parchment to confirm that Theo was right, he began slowly jogging towards the Stadium. As Hannah looked up from the clue to upbraid Theo for not just showing her the words in the first place, she noticed he had already departed. Though she longed to hex him for that, she resolved to wait until after the Hunt was over. The best revenge was the one you had planned and prepared carefully, after all, she thought as she chased after her teammate.