Happiness can be Lost, can be Challenged

He sat on the secluded beach staring at the ripples on the surface of the lake. Why did his whole life have to end up brandished in the papers? It wasn’t even his bloody life, it was lies and things taken out of context to make the most outrageous story possible. Things had been getting better since the day Remus had successfully gotten everyone to stop wearing the badges, and getting to go flying with Krum and enjoying time with his friends and then going to the dance with Draco. Everything seemed to be getting better, only for Rita Skeeter to ruin it all in one made up article. Now everyone would be judging him and more rumours would be flying around about him making his way round the school. This article would mess everything up and with the second task only being a month away he didn’t have time to deal with people and figure out the egg clue. He chucked a rock into the lake watching it sink down and sighed loudly.

“Harry.” He heard two voices shout in sync before the twins appeared crawling into the beach area.

“I’m not in the mood guys.”

“In the mood for what, we are…”
“… only here because we figured…”
“… you would be hiding here and…”
“…your guardian and friends are…”
“…. worried about you.”

“Sorry, I came here for some space.”

“It’s about that blasted article..”
“…isn’t it. Don’t listen to that vile…”
“…woman everyone knows she…”
“…makes up stories for her own…”
“…benefit and everyone else’s loss.”

“Everyone in school will still make a big deal about it and I genuinely don’t have the energy for it anymore.”

“If anyone tries anything you know…”
“…we are always happy to get revenge…”
“…now will you come out with us so…”
“…Severus can stop running around…”
“…like a headless chicken.”

He sighed before getting up and following the twins back through the hole behind the rock and back up to the castle where Severus was pacing the entrance hall.

“You keep giving me heart attacks, how on Earth are you able to disappear so easily.”

“Had to learn how hide quickly I guess. Sorry for worrying you.”

“It’s ok, you don’t need to be sorry because you are allowed to need space and to want to be alone. I just get worried when I can’t find you despite knowing you are most likely near by.”

“I hate that woman.”

“Everyone does, don’t worry I have already got Sirius contacting the prophet to retract the statement and considering the scale of the mistake the ministry made against him it will be very hard for them to refuse a request.”

“How did you manage to reach him so fast?” He asked shocked.

“When a parent has a child that is in trouble everything is possible.” Severus smiled at him and side hugged him to lead him back to their quarters.

***

Sirius had thankfully been successful in retracting the article meaning school wasn’t complete hell, there were a few students who brought it up but he could ignore them, but his one issue was this bloody golden egg. He had been trying valiantly for weeks and couldn’t figure it out at all and now he had less than a week left to figure it out. He was contemplating just outright asking Krum on one of their weekly flying sessions but also knew that both of them used those couple of hours to forget the tasks. He had taken to bringing the egg around everywhere with him incase he got inspiration which was why he was currently walking towards Transfiguration glaring at the egg with his friends walking worriedly beside him.

“Harry, do you have a minute?” A voice shouting stopped him in his tracks and when he turned he saw it was Cedric jogging to catch up with him so he gave a look to his friends who quickly left to class leaving him alone. “ by the looks of it you haven’t found out that egg yet have you?”

“No and it’s driving me crazy.” He groaned.

“Take a bath with it, use the prefects one, password is pine-fresh. It gives some great insight.” Cedric winked.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, you helped me with the first task it’s only fair. I’m not sure how the other champions are doing though, you talk with them more than me.”

“Me and Krum don’t speak about the tasks when we hang out and I only study with Fleur occasionally and she hasn’t brought it up.”

“I’m guessing they have an idea by now unless they are really good at hiding their stress.”

“Well anyone has to be better than me in that area.” He joked.

“Why do you think I took pity on you? Although if you don’t mind I need to get to class now before Flitwick has my head. Remember what I said, prefect bathroom and I would do it quickly.”

“Thank you.” He said again before turning and heading for his class once again, wondering when would be a good time to go for a dip.

The lesson seemed to drag on forever as he impatiently kept sneaking looks at the egg meaning that by the time it was over he was desperate to get to the prefect bathroom, so he ran straight down to the dorm to dump his bag and collect his cloak before sprinting back to the common room to head out the door but was stopped by Severus entering the room.

“What are you in such a rush for?”

“Erm why are you here?” He tried to divert attention because Severus had been pestering him to figure out the clue weeks ago so wouldn’t be happy to know he still had zero clue.

“I’m here to check up in my house if that’s alright with you now if you want to stop diverting why are you in such a rush?”

“I have an idea for the egg.” He mumbled.

“Harry you still haven’t figured that out.” Severus groaned annoyed. “The task is on Sunday, I told you to figure it out weeks ago.”

“Well it’s not exactly simple to figure out how is it? So if you don’t mind I’m going to follow through with my idea and will get back to you with the results.”

“Don’t get cheeky with me Harry, I know your stressed out but I’m just trying to help.”

“It would help if you would let me go do this.”

“Ok but please come tell me once you have figured it out, I may not be able to outright help you but I could at least point you in some direction.”

“Of course I will come tell you, I only didn’t tell you about the dragons because you weren’t supposed to know. This one isn’t as secretive.”

He wrapped himself in his cloak once he was out the common room and made his way up to the prefects bathroom but when he made it to the corridor he stopped and tried to be completely still. Moody was walking down the corridor towards him and he didn’t want to alert the man to his presence so he couldn’t be caught about to break rules. He sighed when finally the man had walked past him and was still going but the relief was short lived when Moody spoke.

“Don’t let me get in the way of whatever you were about to do Potter, the eye may see all but I don’t tell all.” He shivered at the fact he could never fully hide from the man, but also knew that right now he didn’t have the time to dwell on it, figuring out the clue being his top priority.

He scampered into the bathroom quickly and locked the door behind him before turning on a few different taps and undressing while the bath filled. He placed a towel and the egg on the edge before slipping into the tub.

“This is complete madness.” He whispered before unscrewing the egg causing the wailing screams to echo around the room before he managed to shut it up again.

“The other boy had much more luck when he placed the egg under the water.” A simpering voice sounded from his right and when he whipped his head around he saw it belonged to moaning Myrtle. He groaned internally, his last interactions with the ghost had been rather disturbing.

“I guess it’s worth a shot.” He mumbled then he took of his glasses and took a deep breath before submerging himself and opening the egg. Surprisingly, this time instead of wailing a beautiful song played through the egg.

‘Come seek us where our voices sound
We can out speak above the ground,
and while your 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 prospects black
Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.’

He gasped for air as he re-emerged playing the words over in his head a few times.

“The mermaids in the black lake, they are going to take something and I have an hour to retrieve it before it’s lost.”

“Very good Harry, Cedric took far longer than that to figure it out.” Myrtle smiled at him. “Your very smart Harry.”

“Thank you Myrtle.” He replied awkwardly.

“My offer still stands about you sharing my toilet it you die during this tournament. Although, I would appreciate if you could stop pouring Polyjuice down it, it clogs the system.”

“I haven’t made any polyjuice this year though.” He ignored the toilet offer for obvious reasons.

“Whoopsie I guess I just figured it was you who was being a bad boy again this year.” Myrtle winked.

“Would you mind leaving so I can get out in peace please Myrtle.” He tried to say kindly not wanting a pervy ghost watching him change.

“I wouldn’t have minded a little look, but I guess I can give you some privacy. Come visit me anytime though.” He received another wink and then Myrtle had disappeared back down the toilet.

He really hated the weird situations he got into in this school. He sighed loudly before getting up out the bathtub, draining it and then heading back for his common room wondering how on Earth he was supposed to last an hour under water.

***

He was really freaking out; he had only just barely learned how to swim last summer at the safe house but that was over a year ago so he was not confident that he would still have the ability to do it, not only that but it was humanly impossible to hold your breath for that long. He had gone to Severus as soon as he had figured it out but other than give him some sympathy there was nothing the man could physically do so he had had to go search the library.

Searching the library was not going well at all, he had been there every free moment he had had, even his friends had joined to search through the books, but no one was having luck with anything. There were a few spells or transfigurations, but they were all so advanced he didn’t want to risk trying it only for it to cancel when he was down there. He slammed the latest book he had been searching shut and wacked it back onto the table.

“Nothing, there is nothing that can help me. I bet the other three have it all sorted out because they are advanced enough to cast the bloody spells but no, I’m incompetent and I am going to drown. Isn’t my life just absolutely fantastic.” His ranting brought the attention of Draco and Hermione who were the current unfortunate people helping him.

“You are not going to drown Harry, we will find something, I promise.” Hermione attempted to comfort him, but he could see on her face even she didn’t believe what she was saying.

“The task is tomorrow morning, I don’t have time to find something, learn how to accomplish it and make it to the tournament. I think I should just give up now and I will just tread water for the hour, oh wait I don’t know how.”

“At this point just go to McGonagall and ask to be transfigured into a fish for research purposes.” Draco tried to lighten the mood.

“Ha-ha very funny.” He said sarcastically. “There isn’t any point in me reading anymore, I think I am just going to go to bed and try get some sleep so I can at least be well rested for this torture.”

“Look at one more book, please. The three of us will get one more book before you can give up.” Hermione reasoned with him.

“Fine, one more book.”

They were silent as they scanned through the books they had chosen, only the sounds of pages turning breaking the silence, well that was until footsteps sounded, a wooden clunking within the mix, and two people rounded the corner.

“Malfoy, Granger, Dumbledore has asked to speak with you in his office.” Moody said with a terrified looking Neville standing beside the man.

“But we can’t leave Harry alone here, it’s the night before the task.” Draco protested.

“That’s why I brought Longbottom here, saw him on my way up and thought he could sit with Harry while I take you two. So, come along, we don’t want to keep the headmaster waiting for any longer than necessary.”

“We will have to go.” Hermione whispered to Draco who was looking at him conflicted.

“It’s fine Draco.” He smiled weakly.

“Fine, but we will come get you as soon as we are done.” Draco pecked his lips before getting up with Hermione and following Moody out of the library.

“Thank merlin this is what he wanted me to do, for a minute there I thought I was in trouble for some reason, that man is truly terrifying.” Neville let out a sigh of relief as soon as Moody was gone before scanning the table in front of him. “What’s with all the research? I don’t recognise any of these books from our class textbook list.”

“I need to figure out something for the task tomorrow but honestly it is hopeless, none of these books have been any sort of help.”

“Is it something I could help you with, I know I’m not as good as Draco or Hermione, but I could be a fresh pair of eyes if you want.”

“It’s nice of you to offer Neville but unless you happen to know how to hold your breath under water for an hour you cant help me.”

“Actually, I might be able to help you with that.” Neville said excitedly, he just looked at the boy in disbelief. “I personally haven’t tried it before obviously, but I read a herbology book recently that had a plant in it that could be helpful. Have you read anything about Gillyweed during your research?”

“No, I had been looking at spells and stuff. Why didn’t I think about plants before?” He groaned.

“Because you were stressed out and probably forgot that plants have magical properties.” Neville offered. “Why don’t we find a few books about Gillyweed and see if it really is a viable option.”

“Thank you so much for this Neville.”

“I’m glad I could be of some help.”

They collected as many books as they could that had any sort of chapter on Gillyweed and the more he read about the plant the more he thought this might actually have a chance of working. The only issue was he wasn’t exactly sure where to get it.

“Have you found something that tells you where we can find it?” He asked Neville.

“Erm not exactly but I did see it can commonly be used for Potions, maybe you could check the potions cupboard. I’m sure Professor Snape would turn a blind eye for you.”

“You’re a genius Neville, I will go down to the cupboard before I go to bed tonight and I will be sorted. Well except from the fact I am not confident in water, but I read that the Gillyweed gives you an ability to swim so half the issue is out the way. I really can’t thank you enough for this.”

“It was really not a problem, although I best get back to my common room because it is well after curfew now.”

At Neville’s comment he checked the time surprised, somehow, they had spent the last 2 and a half hours reading and Draco and Hermione had not returned in that time. He figured that maybe they had returned to their common rooms, thinking he would have already left the library, so he went with Neville to Gryffindor and waited outside the portrait while the other boy checked if Hermione had come back. His nervousness increased when Neville came to tell him the girl hadn’t been seen but he tried to calm down, maybe they both went to Slytherin, it wasn’t that rare for Hermione to spend the night in the girl’s dorm down in the dungeons. However, when he reached the Slytherin common room and went up to his dorm room to see all his friends there minus Draco and Hermione he couldn’t kid himself on anymore. Something wasn’t right, that meeting with Dumbledore should not have taken this long.

He thought it over for a while and then realised, the mermaid’s song – ‘We’ve taken what you will sorely miss’. The song hadn’t meant an item like he had originally thought, it had meant a person close to him. But then, why we’re both of them taken? He didn’t think on it that long, the only thing on his mind was worry for his friends and how they had unwillingly been brought into this awful tournament. He knew he was too worked up to get to sleep on his own and without Draco there to cuddle into, he picked up his weighted blanket and with a quick goodbye to his friends headed over to his quarters.

Severus was already in bed with a book when he cautiously opened the door but when the man-made eye contact with him, the covers were lifted in invitation and the book was placed down. He crawled into the bed, getting as close to his guardian as possible despite the fact he was overheating with both the duvet and the weighted blanket.

“Are you alright? Do you want to talk about it?” Severus asked softly. He just shook his head and curled in even closer. Severus shut of the lights in the room and lay down fully, stroking his hair gently. “I’m right here if you do need me at any point tonight.”

That was an extremely high possibility, he sighed, it was going to be a long night for both of them.