ONLY LIGHT. harry potter

╰➢ the second task

It was so deep that her feet barely touched the bottom, and she actually did a couple of lengths before swimming back to the side and treading water, staring at the egg. Highly enjoyable though it was to swim in hot and foamy water with clouds of different-colored steam wafting all around her, she needed to dunk the egg in the water. The task was in two days.

Nicole took a great breath and slid under the surface — and now, sitting on the marble bottom of the bubble-filled bath, she heard a chorus of eerie voices singing to her from the open egg in her hands.

"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."

When Nicole let herself float back upwards, she let out a loud scream at the sight infront of her. Harry was near the edge of the water, golden egg in hand.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Nicole screamed, placing a few bubbles infront of her so her friend wouldn't see her. The girl was only in her underwear, luckily for her the bubbles were thick enough to cover her body.

"H-hermoine said—"

"GET OUT!" Nicole shouted in anger. The boy hurriedly put his shirt back on and grabbed the egg, running out of the prefects bathroom.

—

"Hermoine, I told you! You were supposed to tell him to not go in there yesterday!" Nicole hissed, dropping her charms book with a loud thud. The Librarian shushed her, but Nicole just rolled her eyes and stared at her friend, expecting an answer from her.

To her displeasure, Hermoine wasn't alone. Harry and Ron were with her.

"I'm leaving—"

"No." Hermoine said sternly, looking behind her and showing Harry a look, her eyes darting over to Nicole.

"Why?" Nicole crossed her arms.

"Harry doesn't know how he'll hold his breath underwater for a whole hour. He needs your help."

"Easy, Harry. The Bubble Head charm." Nicole said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "I've practiced it with Ellis this morning. It's really not that hard to master."

"I'm not as good as you in charms, Nic." Harry deadpanned, deciding that their feud from weeks ago was less important than the fact that he might get something important from him stolen. "And how exactly am I going to practice it? It's not like I can walk to the lake and dunk my head in."

"Easy." Nicole said, taking a seat beside Hermoine. "The prefects bathroom. That's where I practiced."

"Hold on." Ron, who was silent the moment Nicole came spoke up. "You said you practiced it in the Prefects bathroom... and you said that Ellis helped you... does that mean—"

Nicole turned bright red, trying her best to deny whatever Ron had in mind. Her friends knew she was lying, though. The girl was stuttering over her words, which she never did before.

"Hate to break up the skull session." the voice of Mad Eye Moody came beside Harry. "Professor McGonagall wants you in her office."

Harry, assuming it was him, stood up.

"Not you, Potter, just Weasley and Granger."

"But, sir, the second task is only hours away, and..." Harry's eyes darted over to Nicole's, who just shrugged at Harry.