Cold Beauty (Harry Potter)

The Second Task

For the month of January, Alexandra kept attending her classes as usual. Most of her classes were pretty decent, except Hagrid's, where they had to deal with blasts from Skrewts. Alexandra thought of Hagrid as a nice person but had to admit that his taste for dangerous creatures was unhealthy. 

During lunchtime and after class where Alexandra usually had some spare time, she went to the school library to do some research on a way to breathe underwater for the Second Task. There were several books about life underwater but none of them contained even one mention of a human being capable of breathing underwater.

Luckily, Nicholas and Bella always accompanied Alexandra to the library so she didn't have to deal with her disappointment alone. 

"Ugh!" Alexandra groaned as she settled her head on an open book. Alexandra, Nicholas and Bella were sitting at a table at the far back of the library. The table was scattered with several books. 

Alexandra sighed and slouched on her chair as she tossed aside what might be the fifty-seventh book she had looked through. 

Nicholas slipped a hand into Alexandra's as his other hand flipped through the pages of a book. This was a simple gesture but it helped to calm Alexandra's temper. 

Bella who was sitting on Alexandra's left was looking into a book as well. Alexandra looked at the two of them gratefully. Despite them having homework, they still agreed to accompany and help her with the Second Task. Alexandra hated doing this to them but was still glad for the help they provided. 

"Nope. Nothing here either," Bella tossed another book aside. Alexandra heaved another sigh. 

"Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle," Nicholas finally spoke after a while as he shut the book in front of him. "Maybe instead of researching on water, we should be doing research on potions or spells that could help."

"That's...actually a good idea," Alexandra sat up straight, now a little more hopeful than before. "I'm gonna go look through potions."

"I'll look through spellbooks," Bella got up from her chair and walked over to a shelf and looked for any spellbook that might be useful. 

"I'll help you look for the potions," Nicholas stood up and offered Alexandra a hand, which she gladly took and stood up. They walked over to another shelf together and looked around. 

For a few minutes, the three just stayed silent as they scanned through bookshelves, occasionally picking up a book and flipping through its pages and then putting it back when they didn't find anything relevant. 

"Hey, I found something!" Bella broke the silence as she showed them a book she just grabbed from one of the shelves. "This book might be useful. It's called 'Underwater-related Potions'. Has a pretty basic title but it says on the content page that there's a potion which can be used to drink to breathe underwater."

"Really?" Alexandra's eyes glinted with relief as she took the book from Bella, opened it and scanned through its pages. "You're right, Bella, this potion will definitely help me breathe underwater. Merlin's beard, you're a lifesaver!"

Alexandra stepped forward and put a sisterly arm around Bella's shoulders. 

"Honey, you would've been screwed without me," Bella playfully winked at her. 

"That," Alexandra grinned, "you are not wrong about."

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Throughout the month of January and February, Alexandra sneaked in and out of the Room of Requirement many times. She was brewing a potion when she was inside the hidden room. With permission from Severus, she managed to take a few ingredients she needed for the potion to come together.