*Harry's POV*
She walked into the classroom, refusing to look at me. A small part of me was glad she wouldn't even attempt to speak to me, but a large part of me wanted her to say something, something to give me closure. Violet looked dreary, pale, and just miserable. Professor Trelawney continued her hollering, but nothing she said could distract me from the pitiful sight of the girl I had become so infatuated with. When class was dismissed, she rushed out of the class, no chance of me catching up to her. I shouldn't have wanted to catch up anyway.
My day went on painfully, and when I went to eat dinner in the Great Hall, I found my portion of the table surprisingly empty. My eyebrows furrowed, but I sat down anyway. Where could everyone be? A couple minutes past, and finally, Hermione, Ron and Danni collapsed in their spots. Hermione was patting Danni's back, who was red with fury, her hair muddled with spots of soot.
"Merlin, Danni! What got into you?" Ron exclaimed. I looked at the three with confusion.
"She was taunting me, she was asking for it practically!" Danni cried, angrily stabbing her fork in a tray of cooked vegetables.
"Wait, guys, what happened?" I questioned. Hermione shook her head, pulling her hand away.
"Danni picked a fight with Pansy."
"In my defense, she told me that I couldn't produce a proper 'Protego' charm."
"Well, her legs are still locked, and I don't know how long it's going to take Madame Pomfrey to fix it. Maybe you shouldn't have produced such a powerful charm," Hermione suggested. Danni shrugged, the bright color of her skin finally cooling down.
"Why didn't Draco call her off?" Ron asked curiously.
Danni smashed her hand on the table, inhaling deeply, "Don't say that name, ever!"
"Jeez, I didn't know!"
"Yeah, well you guys were right. He's disgusting and evil, nothing else to him."
Hermione let out a sigh, "I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way, Danni."
"I'm sorry I did too," She growled, "Now, if you excuse me, I should be going now." On that note, she shoved herself out from the table, stomping out the doors.
"They must have had a huge falling out," Ron observed, snatching a turkey leg from a plate to his right.
"Yeah, but that's a good thing, right? Malfoy has been increasingly suspicious lately, I really think he's up to something. Danni could have gotten caught up in it if she stayed around," I explained, taking a sip from my cup.
Hermione crossed her arms, letting out a huff, "Maybe Malfoy isn't always up to something. Danni was genuinely happy with him, it's possible he's not all bad."
"Or maybe he was using her and she found out. Draco isn't the 'nice' type, I've never heard a nice thing come out of his mouth, actually," I said, frustrated.
Hermione placed her hands on her hips, grumbling, "Ugh, boys."
Later that night, on my way to the Gryffindor Common Room, I bumped into a familiar figure. "Cedric?" I inquired, adjusting my glasses.
Cedric looked a little fazed, but he wiped off his robes, and nodded, "Hey there, Harry. Listen, I have a clue to the next task."
"Clue? Why would you tell-"
"I owe you one since the dragons, despite everything that has happened this past week or two. Just, bring the Egg with you into the bathroom," Cedric murmured, making sure no one could accidentally hear him.
"Bring it with me?"
"Yeah, you'll figure it out. Now, I've got to go, good luck!" Cedric smiled, then rushed off into the shadows. After sneaking into the Common Room and getting the Egg, I decided to go grab some clothes and take a shower to clear my thoughts and see if I could figure it out. I hoped no one was in there, I would have hated to fail and scare them. I had so many trials and errors, every time resulting with the same eerie screeching noise erupting from the Egg. I placed the Egg on the edge of the bath, and eased myself into the pleasurably warm water.
Multiple thoughts raced through my mind. Why would the egg have to be in the bathroom? Why did Draco and Danni stop talking? How was Violet doing? When was Sirius going to contact him? "Sirius!" I hissed, remembering that he wanted to talk to me a month ago, but I had never responded. I felt like a total dunce, and promised myself that I would talk to him before the next task.
"Why the 'serious' tone, Harry?" I heard someone coo. There was only one thing in this castle with that wispy, whining voice.
"Myrtle? What are you doing in the boys' restroom?" I exclaimed, attempting to cover myself up.
"Oh, you know me, I just love to have some fun, that's all." She giggled mischievously.
"Well, it would be fun if you could help me solve this," I grumbled, looking angrily towards the Golden Egg. My reflection appeared, distorted, as if to mock me.
"Maybe you should try listening to it in a different setting, hmm?" Myrtle suggested, sitting next to me in the water. I scooted away, considering the things she said. Then it hit me. I snatched the Egg and pulled it underwater. Then I twisted it, and instead of the horrifying noise it produced for me regularly, a collection of beautiful voices hummed this riddle:
"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."
At the end of the riddle, I shot up, breathing rapid, shallow breaths. Myrtle let out a little cackle, clapping her hands together.
"Good job, Harry! You're a lot sharper than the last boy!"
"Last boy?"
"Tall, handsome fellow. A real charmer. He was sitting here for hours trying to figure out the puzzle. So long, almost all the bubbles were gone," Myrtle smirked, drifting towards me. I grabbed my towel, and quickly stood, wrapping it around myself before she could see anything.
"Thank you for your help, Myrtle, but I must get going now," I said, trying to find a good excuse.
"Maybe I'll see you around," Myrtle called out, giving me a wink.
I practically ran back to the Common Room, towel wrapped around my waist, Egg in one hand, clothes in another. When I got inside, I slipped in my pants, and slid into my bed, careful not to make a sound. The last thing I wanted was to disrupt one of the boys. I promised myself I would go to sleep early, but the riddle kept ringing inside my mind taunting me. I needed to figure it out soon, the next task was closer than I thought. I also needed to contact Sirius as soon as possible, because the chances of him knowing something about the riddle was very likely. Maybe make amends with Violet while I was at it. But all of that could wait for one night, because exhaustion swept over me with one clean swoop, taking me as its next victim.
Soooo yeah, I hope you guys liked that chapter. The next one will be from Violet's POV, so stay tuned for that. If I don't post a chapter tomorrow, this story will be updated two weeks from today, because that's my new schedule for Ignition.
This coming week, I'll be updating my Star Wars fanfic "Hyperdrive", so if you're waiting for Ignition to get updated and you like Star Wars, go check it out! So yeah, new Hyperdrive updates this week, and Ignition updates either tomorrow or two weeks from now.
Don't forget to review, inbox, share, comment, whatever you like! Any feedback is good feedback to me, it helps me get better and I love hearing from you guys! Don't forget, stay awesome, Gotham. -April