Harry was kind of exhausted. He really didn't know how to feel about all these girls asking him to the ball. It wasn't that he was so overburdened with dates he'd become tired, rather, it was the constant flip-flopping of Hogwarts students as to whether or not Harry was a likeable person. One day, they're ostracising him and snickering about him, the next they're working up the courage to ask him on a date? He'd been quick to refuse quite a few prospects - at first, out of the principle of it. It was like Hermione had said about Krum, They only like him because he's famous. None of these girls actually knew Harry. They either just knew the Boy-Who-Lived or the Triwizard Champion; albeit, he'd much rather be known for the latter, at least it was something he remembered doing as opposed to whatever happened when he was a baby. But even still, vilifying him for being a champion one moment and then romanticising him the next? It was exhausting.
Pretty soon though, Harry realised he'd chased away one suitor too many. Who was he going to take to the ball? He'd had half a mind to ask Cho Chang, a pretty girl in the year above them. Harry had been thinking about her more and more at the start of the year and as Ron had told him, after the First Task, who could really say no to Harry now? But after Cedric's failed attempt at the first task, she'd been doting over him completely. She was making a very strong statement. Cedric Diggory was off limits to everyone.
"We all thought he was dead," Malfoy had said, the breakfast after Marissa had come back from her mystery absence. Harry had no idea where she'd been and every time it felt like he had a chance to ask her, something got in the way.
"He was terrified obviously, but more-so than the rest of you. He tried shooting a spell or two at his dragon but they just bounced off. Eventually, he looked like he was going to try casting a spell at some of the rocks, but then the dragon swung its tail around and knocked him clean over, rotten luck," Marissa had added. Cedric must've had some small shred of luck however, as the dragon had knocked him into its nest. Though he'd passed out from the blunt force, his arm hitting the egg technically counted as him collecting it - though he had scored the lowest and come away with the most damage - a broken arm and bruising everywhere. Thankfully, Madame Pomfrey was quick to rectify the harm and he was up and about a few days later, though his ego bruising would definitely take longer to heal.
Harry did feel bad for Cedric. Yes, this was a competition but it just didn't feel right to withhold such crucial information. "Ok, Harry. Think about it like this," Mary had said to him after he'd voiced his guilt. It had been written all over his face as Cedric had come in for a meal in the Great Hall for the first time in a week. "If that were you, if you were the one who had flopped the task, do you think he'd be sympathising for you? You know the puffs would just say it was your own fault for entering the competition and you knew what you were getting into. They'd probably be laughing at you. And you didn't even choose to be in this competition, Cedric did. His choice, his consequences." Harry did understand that, and honestly, his anger at Hogwarts hadn't quelled all that much. Yes, he had his friends back, but he was still annoyed at the disbelief most people had been showing him. If the roles were reversed, he was sure she was right. Hermione however, was inclined to disagree.
"I mean, yes its a competition Harry, but you're all just trying to survive really. Its not very sportsmanly, is it?" It wasn't very sportsmanly to call you a liar and ignore you for weeks but I guess this is different. Harry bristled. Cleo wasn't half wrong with that one. Sometimes it felt like Hermione disagreed with Marissa, just for the sake of disagreeing with her. They didn't need to be best friends, but Hermione really had to stick to her opinions without budging and was often critical of anyone who didn't accept her word as truth; Marissa would laugh it off but Hermione would just shut down, stop talking, show some level of disappointment - it was actually starting to annoy Harry.
He'd thought it would be easy to forgive and forget but, he did find his temper flaring a little more around Hermione and Ron too. Them abandoning him had done some damage to their friendship. He still completely loved them, he just… he wasn't sure what he was feeling. He could tell Ron was trying to hide his jealousy, and Harry did appreciate it, but there were some comments here and there that would get on Harry's nerves. Yes it had been nice to win, but it wasn't enjoyable, Harry hadn't asked for this - any of this, the fame from his parent's deaths, the battles against Voldemort, and now this tournament - he hadn't asked for any of this; why couldn't Ron see that? It would be fine, he told himself, as soon as this year was up, things could go back to normal.
"So, what's this I hear about the great Harry Potter not having a date to a dance he's supposed to be opening?" Malfoy said with a smirk. It was the last week of term and it was somehow going way too fast and way too slow at the same time. The Yule Ball was rapidly approaching so between that and Professor Snape's end of term quiz, there had been a lot on the boy's mind. Professor Snape had maintained his foul mood with his students but Harry had felt less targeted recently. After facing a Hungarian Horntail, Snape definitely wasn't the worst thing Harry was facing at this school.
"No," Harry sighed, "Who are you taking? Ma-"
"Pansy. Parkinson." Draco nodded towards the end of the table towards his date for the ball. Ron let out a barked laugh. "If Potter doesn't have a date, I know for a fact you don't either Weasley," quickly changing that laugh to a frown. Though Draco hadn't been directly insulting to the Gryffindors, he was quick with his remarks. They were interrupted by what was becoming a common noise at either the Slytherin or Gryffindor tables, the sound of Marissa and Hermione arguing. "Look at how devastated Winky is! She's not stupid, she just knows she's not able to do what she wants to do anymore." The house-elf argument again.
"I'm not calling her stupid, I'm just saying once she realises - " Hermione retorted.
"What? That you're right and the house-elves have just needed you to come in and enlighten them? I get it, they're treated badly. You can advocate for better treatment but you're cursing them by pushing them towards freedom. They literally hate you." Marissa wasn't smiling. These arguments felt like they were getting more and more heated.
"Oh! I know!" Was Ron about to add to debate? Malfoy gave Harry a look. How well could this go? "You guys are girls!" Malfoy scoffed, this was going to go terribly.
"Astute observation," Marissa raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well spotted, Ronald," Hermione turned to look to him, somewhat suspicious.
"You two, can go to the Ball with me and Harry!" Harry dropped his face into his hands, the embarrassment of Ron asking them out on his behalf like this completely engulfing him.
"No." For the first time ever, Hermione and Marissa actually seemed to be on the same page.
"Why not?" Ron was completely oblivious, this is amazing. At least Cleo was enjoying it.
"Well for one Ron, I have a date already," Hermione snapped. Harry looked up, that was a surprise, she hadn't let on to that at all.
"And secondly, thats a terrible way to ask someone to a dance," Marissa smiled somewhat pitifully at Ron.
"No, you do not, Hermione," Ron focusing on the wrong point in this conversation, "You don't have to make things up, we don't have dates either." Do you think she'll slap him?
Hermione's face grew red. She might, Harry hissed back, genuinely not sure when Ron was going to stop putting his foot in his mouth. She promptly stood up from the table, "I'll have you know Ron, someone noticed I was a girl a lot earlier than you seem to and asked me earlier this week. I don't have to lie about anything at all. Go find someone for yourself, or go alone, just don't lump me in with you," she stormed off. A slightly awkward silence surrounded the table. Draco's face seemed to go a little red as he tried to hold in a laugh.
"Hmm, yes it does seem to me that," Marissa appeared to be deep in thought, "Yes, yes that's it, I've got it!" She looked pointedly at Ron, "You're a moron." Malfoy couldn't hold it in anymore and began cackling as Ron threw his fork down. "Now what are we gonna do?" Ron grumbled.
Harry looked over at Marissa. Why didn't he ask her? He had thought she and Draco would be going together but he'd clearly shut that down. She knew more about Harry than a lot of other girls at Hogwarts and maybe it could be kind of fun if he went with her.
"Theo asked me," she smiled like she'd read his mind and preemptively answered. At least it spared him the embarrassment of rejection. Theodore Nott was another Slytherin. He'd never been completely awful to Harry, even in previous years, he was just another student. He didn't really have time to consider his friend's date. What was he going to do? At least if Ron didn't have a date, it wasn't like he'd be expected to dance in front of everyone on his own. This could be humiliating. He followed Marissa's eyes as he heard giggling go past them.
Harry, no.
Desperate times, Harry hissed back, standing up to approach Parvati and Lavender as they fell into peals of laughter.
The egg. Harry really didn't know what to do with this screeching egg. To be fair, he'd not really tried with it, but now he didn't have assignments or dates to worry about, it was the only thing the girls were nagging him about. He didn't know if he liked it better when Hermione and Marissa agreed on something - when they stood together, it was impossible to fight against them. He had til the end of February, and really he'd rather forget about the egg and pretend this year was somewhat normal. The next task loomed very far in the distance, he'd rather forget about it.
"Have you tried taking it to the Room of Requirement?" Marissa broached. They were sat in the library together reading through old records of the tournaments again. Hermione had managed to rope Ron into doing homework with her and when Harry thought saying he was working on the egg would get him out of it, Marissa had walked by offering to help keep him focused on the task.
As they combed through older and older books, Harry felt more and more hopeless. Though there had been some link in the first tasks of previous tournaments, the second task just seemed to be completely random tests of different skills. To add to that, so many of the records they read detailed brutal injuries to the players in the tournament, this next task really didn't seem any easier than the last.
"What would that do?" Harry was halfway to taking a nap in the tome they'd opened. All these books were way too old in some weird ancient English language he couldn't understand and the quiet mustiness of the library just had a way of putting you to sleep.
"Well, you said it becomes whatever you need. And remember, just thinking of the tournament made it turn into a training ground - maybe if you think of a way to figure out the clue in the egg, it'll give it to you?" It wasn't the worst idea ever. For a moment, it felt like a bit of a cheaty method, asking Hogwarts itself to solve the clue, but Harry couldn't really think of any reason why not to try it. They gathered their bags and headed for the Room of Requirement.
As the door formed in front of them, they stepped inside and were faced with a lake?
The room had expanded to look like a large valley. Green rolling hills surrounding this large body of water in the middle. They stepped forward. Harry felt Cleo slip off his arm, any chance she had to explore outside she took. She slithered off towards some shrubbery growing by the lake. He wasn't sure if she'd find the mice she was likely looking for. This looked like a place that would be teeming with natural wildlife, squirrels and birds and rabbits but not a tweet or whistle or scurry could be heard. It was silent. It felt, a little creepy even.
"Try opening it again?" Harry listened, opened up the egg and immediately closed it to trap the screaming, wailing cacophony inside once again. "This is useless. I'm just going to have to wing it."
"You absolutely are not, you know what happened to Cedric last time, they aren't going to give you the hard task first and then get easier with them, you know." Marissa grabbed the egg from him and began heading towards the lake.
"What are you doing?" He followed after her, completely confused.
"I don't know, why did the room give us this big lake? Maybe you need to wash the egg or something?" Harry was willing to try anything at this point, why not?
They sat at the edge of the lake as she held it under water. Nothing happened. "I bet the other champions know, Dumbledore's the only headteacher who won't give any hints about what's going on."
"Yeah, cause he's a Gryffindor and you guys are terrible at winning anything. Too scared to play dirty," she began opening the egg under the water.
"Three," Harry held up three fingers to her, "three house cups in three years, where are your wins again?"
"Harry, I swear to Merlin, if you bring up that stupid house cup one more time, I will literally push you into this lake," she threatened, a slight glint in her eyes.
"Oh, yeah? It just doesn't feel so stupid when we're the ones winning it," Harry laughed before splashing some water from the lake in her direction. The sudden spray caught her off guard and she dropped the egg into the lake.
"How. Dare. You." She glared at him in fake-anger, wiping the water away from her eyes. She looked down at the lake, before standing up in front of him. "Well, someone needs to get your egg," she said, taking just a second too long to push Harry in; he grabbed hold of her robes dragging her in with him.
The lake wasn't as horribly cold as they'd expected, but as they began treading water to get back to the surface, they could hear the low murmur of a song coming from below. They finally broke to the surface of the lake, taking in big gulping breaths before looking down and seeing the egg, open, glinting in the faux sunlight of the room, bubbles slowly rising from it to the bottom of the lake. Without a word, they looked back at each other, took a deep breath and returned to the lake, seeking out the egg and after a few dips in and out of the water, finally writing down the whole song trapped within the egg.
The first new chapter I've written in a while ~ I really want to know what you guys think of Marissa specifically, she's my first every OC so I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas :) As always, thank you for reading 3
