Dangerously Close

I grumbled furiously, slamming my hand on the table. "Harry, for the last time, I can't talk right now!"

“But if you’d just listen-”

“I’m busy trying to save our bloody arses,” I mumbled, running a hand through my hair.

“Rose, I’m trying to tell-”

“For Christ’s sake, Harry! Unless you’ve come to tell me a way to figure out the damn egg, I really can’t-”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Harry exclaimed, stomping his foot on the ground.

“Bloody hell, Rose,” Ron said from behind him as he sat up from his lounged position on the red couch. “Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? What’s got your knickers in a twist?”

“Oh shut it, Ronald,” I groaned. “Continue, Harry.”

My brother sighed and grabbed the egg. “Cedric told me to go to the prefect’s bathroom and just meddle things over. He also told me to bring my egg. It’s a long shot but I think we should give it a try.”

I tapped the bottom of my chin. “That Diggory boy is too smart. It could work, but we have one problem.”

“And that would be?”

“We don’t even know the bloody password!”

“I do,” he said with a cheeky smile.

I tried glaring at him but his attempt at being goofy made me burst into laughter. His face softened and I ruffled his hair. “You’re a goofball, but in all seriousness, we should get going now before it gets too dark,” I stated, shutting the book closed and wrapping my hands around the golden egg.

Harry nodded, suddenly serious again. “Yeah, we don’t need to get caught by McGonagall.”

“What would you even make as an excuse,” Ron questioned.

“‘Oh, Professor, we were just sneaking out to go to the prefect’s bathroom past curfew to bathe with our eggs, it’s all good,” I sarcastically remarked.

“Or you could just make up an excuse about skinny dipping,” Ron suggested.

Hermione slapped his arm with a textbook. “Ronald! Stop being disgusting and stalling them! Just go, and good luck.”

I gave her a small smile before I began running out of the Gryffindor common room and out to the open of the large castle.

As I ran down the stairs, past corridors and classrooms with my brother following, it was hard to believe or even think that this was our life now. We were attempting to sneak into a prefect’s bathroom to find a way to save our lives, as odd or perilous as it sounded. And it wasn’t that I even wanted it - if I could I would have rid of the Tournament or stopped any of us from competing. Sadly, the Ministry’s control was too much.

Not to mention the fact that the tasks would continue to get even more dangerous. If the first task almost took our lives, we had to prepare for the worse and expect the unexpected. When it was you and your fourteen year old brother in it together, fighting to stay alive and make it through, odds were never in your favor.

I was snapped out of my deep thinking as Harry stopped at a door. I stopped as well, watching as he whispered “pine fresh.” I took a step in, my eyes widening at the sight.

The bathroom was almost the same size as the common room, if not already. A large stained glass painting was straight ahead from my sight of a mermaid who was combing her hair. The whole area was absolutely breathtaking, but the large bathtub the size of a pool in the middle with the thousands of floating bubbles was what astounded me most. Not to mention the fountain that shot out colorful water.

I sighed in awe as Harry began removing his clothes. I groaned in disgust, turning around. “My god, I don’t need to see this. Hop in quickly, please.”

I could hear him chuckle. “We’re siblings, Rose, for God’s sake.”

“Just get in the goddamn water,” I complained. “And don’t you dare look!”

I heard a small splash and waving of water. As he kept his back to me, I quickly stripped down before grabbing my egg and climbing down into the tub. Due to my short height, the bubbles were touching the top of my neck.

“Now what,” I asked.

He shrugged and reached over for his egg. “I must be out of my mind.”

His fingers lingered slightly over the top as he turned it, letting it open. A loud wail broke out, and I shrieked, covering my hears. As fast as it started, it ended as it was closed again.

“This was bloody stupid,” I said under my breath.

An obnoxious and rather high-pitched giggle broke out through one of the stalls, startling me as I turned around to see Moaning Myrtle. “You know, I’d try putting it in the water if I were you,” she simply suggested.

I bit my tongue to refrain from bursting into hysteric laughing as Harry shuffled nervously in the water awkwardly. I could tell he was absolutely terrified as the creepy girl ghost moved towards him.

“That’s what the other boy did, the handsome one. What’s his name, oh, Cedric!”

I giggled, ignoring the slight jealousy bubbling in me. This was too amusing.

Harry chuckled nervously. “Erm…”

Myrtle gave me a may-I-please look, and I nodded, smirking as I continued attempting to prevent laughing. “Go on, open it,” she coaxed.

He nodded, tugging his bottom lip in his teeth as he dunked it underwater and opening it. The bright yellow light lit up the water, making it even clearer. We immediately sinked our bodies in. I was half expecting a muffled wail, but instead, I heard singing. I listened carefully as the melodious voice spoke.

“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.”

I jumped back up, sucking in some air into my lungs. I could hear coughing which I assumed was my brothers. I rubbed my eyes and opened them, as I tried to understand what I heard.

“W-What did that mean?”

“Myrtle, there aren’t..merpeople...in the lake, right,” Harry asked, raising a brow questioningly.

“Ah, clever boy. It took Cedric ages to figure out.”

She was fairly close to him, making him shift uncomfortable as she lie her head on his chest.

All I could do was finally burst out laughing for two seconds, before I felt a sudden pang in my head. The feeling felt new and foreign considering I hadn’t felt it in forever, but I could tell what was coming.

”Professor McGonagall, why does Dumbledore need us,” Hermione questioned, raising a brow.

The elder teacher kept her mouth shut as she curled her lips into a straight line. Rayne, Ron, and Hermione were following her closely and curiously, wondering what was going on.

The gargoyle turned, revealing the staircase leading up. They quietly kept their pace the same as they strolled upwards. When the door opened, their mouths were clamped shut. They shut their eyes, about to scream in terror but before anything could be said, all that could be seen were spells shot at their bodies, petrifying them completely, causing them to look like dead, lifeless bodies.

I snapped out of my trance, and I rubbed my forehead. One part of the song was finally clear now, but what I couldn’t understand was simply how we would manage to stay underwater for an entire hour, and what we’d do to fight back whatever we encountered.

I bit my lip as Harry shot me a glance. I just gave him a fake smile but quickly removed it as I put a hand on my face.

The second task was not going to be easy.