Hi, I'm back with the next chapter for Agent Potter. Some questions or comments will be answered in this chapter, but not all of them ;) Happy Reading and thanks for all your comments.

Solving the Riddle

The egg was a riddle; that much was clear. He had narrowed it down to another magical language. The question was which one and how could you be able to understand it? It couldn't be connected to the language learning exercises. If you didn't know which language it was, you had too many possibilities to consider. Nobody would be able to find the right one except by coincidence. And the organizers couldn't set up a task with a clue nobody would be able to solve by just guessing. They had been given three months to figure out the task and prepare for it. So there had to be a reason for the long time.

Alright; back to the facts, he was looking for a magical language, he knew immediately that no human language was based on screeches. So what were the possibilities to understand the language? Even if the riddle was backwards it wouldn't turn to screeching. Gobbledygook and Elvin were out; he had had Sirius give him an example of both languages out of curiosity before their trip to Egypt.

So he needed to narrow the possibilities down. Perhaps it had something to do with the creatures living around Hogwarts. The second task was always a quest. The champions had to puzzle out the location of the task and what kind of obstacle they would have to face to get to the prize of the task.

He had now a few possibilities where the task could take place. There was the forbidden forest, there lived enough creatures to make it dangerous, and one of them might speak the language that was produced when the egg was opened. They could set up some kind of maze, though that seemed to be more likely for the last task from former Tournament records. They could imitate a foreign landscape or they could use the lake. Wait the lake made sense. Nobody really knew what was inside besides the giant squid. The students only spent their time at the side of the lake, perhaps having their feet in the water. Even in May and June, the warmest months they spent at Hogwarts, the weather was too cold most of the times to want to go swimming in the lake. Even the warmest days didn't normally exceed 22°C.

If he was right, then the most logical way to understand the screeching would be to put it under water. Well, that could be done; he just needed to make a trip to the Room of Requirement. Asking for a swimming pool would be easy. And it wouldn't be that bad if he was wrong, he could think about the other possibilities if this idea turned out to be a dead end.

Harry entered the common room with his egg under his arm and a huge grin on his face, which had Hermione question him immediately.

"Harry, why are you grinning like that?" Then she seemed to notice the egg.

"You have figured it out already?" She asked excited.

Ron, Ginny, Neville, Fred and George heard her and came over.

"Did you really figure it out, mate?" Ron asked.

"Yep. I have been pondering what the screeching could be. I came up with it being some kind of foreign language. I don't know of any kind of human language that produces those screeches, even if it would be spoken backwards it would sound normal, well like jumbled up normal. So I thought about magical languages, like Elvin or Gobbledygook, those two I knew about. Then I decided that it would be improbable that they would just have us guess the language the clue was in. There had to be a trick to get the clue.

"I thought where the second task could be located. I mean it had to be somewhere around Hogwarts. We know from our research about the Tournament that the second task is always a quest with a clue from the first task. You have to figure out the location and the probable obstacles during the three month period between the first and second task. So I thought I'd try to think of the possible locations first instead of the language as I didn't get further with that. I came up with the Forbidden Forest, a maze somewhere on the grounds, a transfigured landscape or the lake.

"I thought the lake would be the most practical thing to use. Even if I did wonder what kind of boring task that had to be for the spectators. Well, it made sense that if it was the lake, I'd probably be able to understand the clue if I listened to it underwater. So I took the map, my egg and went looking for an unfrequented bathroom to put the egg underwater and listened. Well, it worked and now I know the clue." He proudly declared.

Harry grinned broadly, tantalizing them.

"Spit it out, Harry." Fred said.

"Yes, you don't want us to think of…" George continued.

"…interesting ways to make you spill." They both ended.

"Hm, I'm interested with what the two of you could come up." Harry said pondering.

"Please, Harry." Ginny begged using Puppy eyes.

"Aw, aren't you an adorable little puppy girl." Harry teased her and patted her head.

Ginny upped the ante and began pouting. Harry just smiled at her. Then he had a funny idea.

"Dobby." he called.

The house elf popped into the common room.

"Harry Potter sir has called for Dobby?" The elf asked excitedly.

"Yes, Dobby, I hope you're doing well." He said.

"Harry Potter sir is too good, asking if Dobby is well." The elf nearly cried from happiness.

"I take that as a yes. Well, Dobby, could you please do me a little favour? Ginny here is looking so adorable that I think she would like a lolly. Could you get me one for her? Oh and as I don't prefer one girl over the other I'd also like one for Hermione as well." Harry asked.

"Of course, Harry Potter sir. Dobby will get you two lollies for your girls."

The happy elf popped away only to re-appear again with two lollies for Ginny and Hermione a little later.

"Thanks a lot, Dobby, for helping me with this." Harry said smiling at the elf.

"Dobby gladly helps Harry Potter sir." He said before popping away again. Harry gave Ginny her lolly and held the one for Hermione out for her.

"Harry, you're incorrigible!" Hermione said partly angry with him for making Dobby get the things for him and partly amused for this little joke. She took the lolly.

"Oh thank you for the lolly, Harry!" Ginny said imitating a little girl and happily began sucking the lolly.

The twins were laughing, Ron and Neville were grinning. This was like Harry to make little jokes like that. He had become really witty about comments and how to handle situations after he returned after his first holidays. It had been strange at first but by now they had got used to it.

"So, do you think that you could grace us mere Hogwarts students with the clue you have figured out?" Fred asked.

"Why didn't you ask properly from the start, of course I'll tell you." Harry answered gracefully getting swatted over the head by the twins for it.

"It goes like this:

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'll sorely miss.

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour – the prospect's black

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

They all waited until Hermione had written everything down. She had started writing with her lolly sticking out of her mouth as soon as Harry had begun reciting the poem.

"Okay, what does this poem mean?" Ron asked.

"Well, the first part is easy." Hermione began. "As Harry said, he thought about the task being in the lake and as the egg was understandable under water, he will have to face those who gave that clue in the lake. The only underwater creatures I have heard of having a language that humans can understand are merpeople, this must be where he has to go. Then the fourth line tells us that they will take something he will sorely miss, I don't know yet what that could be.

"The time limit's defined in the fifth line, he has one hour to get back what has been stolen from him. What I find strange are the last two lines. It seems fishy that he won't get back whatever was taken if the time runs out. That would be thievery and I can't imagine the Ministry who is organizing this to want be accused of that. Especially not when Harry is involved."

"Yeah, Fudge is too afraid that Harry will politically kill him like he did Umbridge. Gran was laughing so hard when I described what you did at the end of last year to her." Neville told his friends.

"I can imagine she didn't make many friends during her career. It's always better to have friends or friendly acquaintances in high positions than enemies. It was important to get her out of power as soon as possible." Harry said wisely.

"Are you intending to go into politics?" Hermione asked interested.

"Only if I can't prevent it. I'll have to represent my family in the Wizengamot as I'll inherit the seven seats my family gained through history once I come of age. I'll still let my current proxy vote for me with a few exceptions. I'll only show up for really important meetings. Like trials of high class criminals." Harry answered.

"Who is your current proxy?" Ginny asked.

"Andromeda Tonks. She is a healer at St. Mungo's and her husband has a lawyer's company where he works with three others. My family affairs are kept in order by that company. They also manage the Black estate."

"Black like in Sirius Black?" Ron asked shocked.

"Yep, Andromeda is Sirius Black's cousin, but don't worry, she doesn't support Voldemort, her husband is a muggleborn wizard called Ted. They are really nice people. And Andromeda has no doubt that Sirius is innocent. She just never got the Ministry to interrogate him under veritaserum. I found out he never had a trial. It makes me wonder if Andromeda could be right and somebody set him up. I mean my parents wouldn't just name anybody my godfather, wouldn't they?"

Fred, George, Ginny and Neville heard this for the first time. Ron and Hermione knew that he was Harry's godfather but not that he didn't have a trial. But Harry just needed to sew doubt against the Ministry. Sirius would not be found if he didn't want to be. He was too good for that.

"Harry, do you know if your parents named him your godfather the old pureblood way?" Neville asked uneasily.

"You got me there; I don't even know what you're talking about, Neville." Harry confessed.

"Well, from what Gran told me, in the muggle world the godparents are just named and in case the parents die the child will be raised by said godparent. In the wizarding world, especially in the old families, and the Potters are one of the oldest left in Great Britain, there is a stronger ritual. The godparent swears a magical oath to protect the child and never willingly endanger it. It's one of the few blood rituals which haven't been outlawed by the Ministry because the pureblood families would riot.

"If somebody knew what kind of ceremony they used, you could try to clear his name or at least get him a trial if you want to. If he was bound by the magical oath, he couldn't have betrayed you and your parents without losing his magic. And as we know from the reports of the attack on the muggles and that wizard Pettigrew he had to have done it if it had to make sense. But then again, why would he attack Pettigrew if he hadn't been the traitor?"

Harry was really impressed. Neville didn't show it often but he was smart. Harry just couldn't figure out why he had so many problems with spell casting. Potions he could explain with his immense fear of Snape. But the other subjects should be better.

"I'll ask Professor Lupin if he knows, he was their other closest friend back then, he should know. But if they used the ceremony then somebody paid good money to send Sirius to Azkaban. I bet it was somebody who wanted to get the Black fortune. Hah, tough luck, I'm the heir." Harry cackled.

"You're the Black heir?" Ron asked astonished.

"But don't tell it anybody. Sirius will hasn't been changed since 1980. I think he intended to have me his heir until he had children of his own. Everything to spite his hated family. Professor Lupin told me stories. He doesn't really know what to believe. He wants to believe Sirius is innocent because he and my father obviously were like brothers. But the facts seemed to speak against him." Harry explained.

"Who would have inherited the Black fortune if you weren't heir?" George asked.

Harry grinned evilly.

"Draco Malfoy. His mother was born a Black. And he is the only other male descendant. Andromeda has a daughter who is I think Charlie's age. Never call her by her first name, though. When I met her and Andromeda introduced her to me as Nymphadora I could see her flinch and after her mother was out of earshot she more or less threatened me to never use that name. She wants to be called Tonks."

Harry didn't mention Bellatrix Lestrange. He knew of the fate of Neville's parents but it was his secret to share.

They shared a good laugh about Draco losing the Black fortune to Harry.

"So another question. Have you heard about the Yule Ball that will take place on Christmas Day?" Hermione asked.

"Yule Ball?" Ron asked.

"Another tradition of the Triwizard Tournament dear little brother." Fred informed Ron.

"Yes, McGonagall told us today in Transfiguration. I think she will tell you tomorrow, that's when you have her next from what I remember of your timetable." George added.

"How did you know, Hermione?" They asked together.

"Please, I share a dorm with the two biggest gossips in our year. All the girls our year and above seem to be talking about is which girls Harry and Cedric will be asking out to the ball." Hermione scoffed.

"Eh?" Ron asked. "Why would Harry ask a girl to the ball?" He asked clueless.

Harry meanwhile went through a mental list of the pretty girls at Hogwarts he could ask to go with him to the ball. Thankfully he had been taught to dance. Secret agents blended in at every social event and balls were just common for official events in high society. He had been so glad that Miss Moneypenny had listened to his pleas and didn't give Stacey the job of teaching him. That would have been so embarrassing. And it was not healthy to give any 00 agent blackmail material on you.

"Ron, the champions of the Tournament have to open the Ball with their dance partners." Hermione scolded Ron.

This shocked the redhead.

"Well, I'll think about who I'll invite to the ball, I still have some time left. For now I want to get the preparations for the second task started. I need to find a way to breathe underwater for one to one and a half hours. I don't know how long it would take to find the merpeople in the lake. Does anybody know a method? I open the meeting for an all-out brainstorming." Harry declared.

Harry walked through the corridors at the MI6 headquarters for a short in person report. It was the first day of the Christmas holidays and he had got away from school via the floo in Professor or also Agent Sinistra's office. Curiously he wondered about the fat bug in the jar Agent Sinistra carried with a smug look on her face. They had been told Agent Carter would be taking their report. He was a 34 year old muggleborn wizard who had been kept from the positions he had qualified for in the Ministry. They had dumped him on a low no-rise position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

He was one of their spies at the Ministry. He had entered the service when he had been 22 and frustrated with the way things worked in the wizarding world. He had been top of his class, had managed eight NEWTs, six of them with O and two with EE. He had been head boy and had looked forward to a great career. Well if it wouldn't have been for the discrimination of muggleborns. Now he was a middle class agent who supplied the MI6 with international magical information. Crouch was an idiot in his position and his attitude had cost Britain many allies. But pureblood Britain didn't need allies of course. Carter could only shake his head at that arrogance.

"Alright, M and Agent Black are busy, so I'll act as your contact for now. First I was told to congratulate on your performance this year, Agent Potter. You're fulfilling the parameters of your mission so far. How have you planned to continue?"

"The second task is rescuing an object or a person from the Black Lake at Hogwarts. I have one hour to accomplish that. I have already narrowed down the possibilities to stay underwater to gillyweed and the bubblehead charm. I'll start with taking gillyweed as it has the additional advantage of increasing my mobility underwater. The bubblehead charm is my contingency plan. I don't know who they will place in the lake if they take a person.

"The most logical possibilities are my friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger or my date for the Yule Ball Ginny Weasley. I'll use the ball to show my dancing abilities and will blame my aunt on wanting to torment me with dancing lessons as Dudley could make fun of me for them. They still haven't figured out that I moved out of the place two and a half years ago. The third task will probably involve different obstacles in form of a maze. Normally they hide the Triwizard Cup somewhere at the centre of a maze or at the end of a line of obstacles."

"Alright, Agent Sinistra, what are your observations of the staff and what is the meaning of the beetle?" Carter asked her.

"I'll start with the beetle. This is Rita Skeeter, who I found out with the help of the map is an unregistered animagus. I was keeping an eye on the map for suspicious characters to find out who put Agent Potter's name into the Goblet of Fire. I have spelled the glass unbreakable and also put a ward around it that prevents her from transforming back. I wanted to put her in custody here. We need Agent Potter with a clean public slate. She tried to spread lies about him which backfired for her.

"But she is known for finding nuggets of truth and spin lies around them. I decided to eliminate the danger to our operation in the beginning. My main suspect for putting the name in the Goblet is Moody. From my observations of the map when it should show Alastor Moody it shows Barty Crouch. It's weird that Mr Crouch seemingly more or less disappeared from the Ministry and is calling ill from his home by owl." Agent Sinistra explained.

"Yes, I know that. We have already started an investigation on his house. It seems something is off there. The man never took a day off work in all the years I was trapped in his Department. And he would never put somebody as inexperienced as Percy Weasley in charge. I think he is a prisoner at his home under the imperius curse. We just need to find the one controlling him. Both would be invaluable to question." Carter confirmed.

"Next part of the mystery is Karkaroff. The man is getting twitchy. He has betrayed the Death Eaters to save his own hide. Something is telling me he knows more about what is going on behind the scenes. You said that you're monitoring Crouch's house. Have you regularly detected his presence?" She asked thinking about something.

"Yes we have. We see him through the windows. He has stayed there for the whole time we monitored the house." Carter confirmed.

"Crouch junior." She said while snapping her fingers. "There was a son of Barty Crouch who had the same first name. He was convicted to a life at Azkaban but died a year after that. Crouch's wife died soon after her son. If my theory is right, for whatever reason Crouch exchanged his wife and son's positions. His wife used polyjuice to maintain her cover. Perhaps she was fatally ill. With polyjuice she would keep the form of her son even after death. That is the only explanation I could think of for the map showing Barty Crouch in the position of Alastor Moody if you're sure that the older Barty Crouch is staying at his house."

"I'll send a message to the team at the house to arrest anybody in the house. We need to be sure. If you're right Moody will stay at Hogwarts without a change, if not, well we already need to find the real Moody. He is probably kept somewhere at Hogwarts to get information how to behave without raising suspicion. Potter, you're best suited to do covert investigation at the school. Use your copy of the map to find the real Moody. I guess the marauders only didn't find very special places. If you find him, see if you and Sinistra can get him out, if not wait for further instruction."

Carter looked at a report he had been given for this briefing.

"Any other visions or dreams about Voldemort, Potter?"

"None that I didn't already report. Have the research specialists had any success finding a method to destroy or transfer a soul-piece from a human container?" He asked calmly.

They had deducted that Harry's scar was probably a horcrux. A detection spell had confirmed it and at the beginning Harry had needed some time to get to terms with it. Q had promised to find a way to get it out of his body without killing him permanently. He had a theory and was running tests to see if he could prove it.

He had said: "Just because the magicals didn't find a way to do it before, that doesn't mean there isn't a way. Leave it to me."

Harry trusted Q more than the things wizards believed to be immovable truths.

"Not yet, but Q reported he is getting closer. The first series of tests was successful. He just needs to run the second and third series. He expects to be ready this summer. Until then we'll use the benefits those visions give us."

Harry nodded. He had got used to the mentality of the agents working from MI6.

'Shit happens, we are at the centre normally but we'll take anything they throw at us and do our best to have it backfire at them.'

So that was chapter 7. Hope you liked it. Till next time. For those who don't want to wait, check out my other stories if you didn't already.