Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament (Goblet of Fire)

Chapter 40: The Second Task (Part 1)

Yet again, Harry had had another dreadful dream. And out of all of the days, he had to dream the day before the Second Task.

It was the pale boy, which hadn't surprised Harry that much to be honest, this was the fourth... fifth time he had visited his dreams? He's lost count...

One thing however, which seemed different, was that he had recognized where he was taken deep within his slumber.

The Three Broomsticks was visible a little farther up the cobblestone path, which was lined with small, mushy piles of the remaining snow, but mostly puddles of water. The pale boy crinkled his nose in annoyance at the 'splish splosh' sound beneath his feet as he walked, effecting his usual element of stealth.

By the time the boy had walked within the main street of Hogsmeade, where The Three Broomsticks was far behind them, and Harry vaguely remembered the path from Honeydukes, the stranger did something extremely surprising.

He turned around, and looked Harry dead in the eyes. And the way his dark brown eyes stared towards him, Harry knew that he was aware of his presence.

And then, he a small smile curved wickedly onto his lips, as he spoke a few simple words,

"I hope you know how to swim."

And then the dream vanished, and Harry was awake.

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Percy was pretty excited when he went to breakfast in the morning. In fact, after multiple visits in the kitchen, he had finally convinced some of the house-elves to serve platters of blue pancakes... and today, February 24th, was the very first morning he had found them on the table. Other Gryffindors gave the blue food weird looks, but he didn't mind... More for himself.

At least, he was in a good mood until Thalia came to sit next to him. But something was off, she looked... upset. He couldn't quite place it, but once she had given him a worried, sympathetic look, he was sure something was going on.

He tried to change the subject casually, "So... Where's Annabeth?"

Thalia's face paled at an alarming rate, "She... uh..." Thalia rubbed the back of her neck, "Do-do you remember what the egg said? About taking what matters most?"

Percy's face hardened, as he slammed his fork against the table, "Where is she?"

There was a pause, until Thalia cleared her throat and muttered softly, "Dumbledore said... he, uhm... may have mentioned..." she finally had the nerve to say it, talking quite quickly,

"She's at the bottom of the lake."

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When Harry had opened his eyes, he had a moment of deja vu when he spotted the round, abnormally large eyes staring at him the second he had woken up.

"Dobby!" he jumped, and pushed himself upright to face the house elf standing on his bed.

"Mister Potter must wake up, sir! He needs to hurry!"

Harry grumbled, picking up his glasses from his nightstand, returning to his groggy, sluggish state after the abrupt startling, "Oh? Why's that?"

"The task starts in 10 minutes, sir! Mister Potter must go!"

The Gryffindor sighed, brushing a hand through his hair, "It's no use, Dobby... I have no idea how I'm going to make it through this time..."