More Important Than Any Broomstick [Harmione]

33. Jars

"I need a room where we can solve my egg," said Harry for the third time as he and Hermione summoned the Room of Requirement. Harry was holding his golden egg in one hand while he held Hermione's hand with the other. When Harry had tried opening his egg in the Gryffindor common room, it nearly deafened them all as an ear piercing sound echoed from the golden egg. They'd gotten their money from Fudge that morning, and Harry had sent his share to a magical orphanage. Then Hermione suggested that they work on the clue he had received a week before when he completed the first task. He knew he had to be missing something, so he hoped that this room would help him. A door appeared, and when he opened it, he was extremely surprised by what he saw. An indoor swimming pool, with two changing rooms, was in front of them. The wall had a huge painting of a family of merpeople. Harry looked at Hermione and said, "Well, let's go in. Apparently we need to take a swim."

"I guess so," said Hermione, unsurely.

They walked into the room holding hands and separated to go into the changing rooms. Harry found a huge beach towel, as well as a pair of swimming trunks. He quickly changed, leaving his fake glasses behind, and walked out of the room with his egg. He saw that the pool area was still empty, so he walked to the edge of the pool.

"Maybe you should try opening the egg under water," came Hermione's voice from the other side of the room. He looked up and his jaw dropped. He'd seen her in a bathing suit before, but he was sure he could never get used to the sight of her in a bikini. "My eyes are up here," she said, causing him to move his gaze to her face. Her cheeks were pink and she was smirking.

'Good,' thought Harry to himself, 'she's not mad.' He then said, "That might be a good idea." He then ran to the deep end, holding the egg in both his hands, and jumped in, splashing Hermione in the process.

While he was under, he realized how much he missed his pool at home. He opened the egg up, and heard,

"Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching..."

He went above the surface of the water at that point. He could hear that the egg was still saying something. He looked around for Hermione, to see she was near him. He called out, "Come here and listen to this." He closed the egg while he waited for her. When she was next to him, he said, "We'll have to listen underwater." When he opened it again and they put their heads under the surface of the water, they heard and memorized,

"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."

"They're gonna take what I'll sorely miss!" complained Harry. "Why couldn't it just be another stupid egg?"

"The trick is to riddle the whole thing out," said Hermione. "The voices sound underwater. Probably the lake. What is in the lake?"

"Merpeople?" guessed Harry, pointing at the picture. "That's the only reason I can think of that the room would give us that picture."

Hermione smiled at him. "I believe you're right. Now we need to find a way for you to survive underwater for an hour." At that moment, two open books appeared at the edge of the pool. They swam to the books, making sure not to splash them. One appeared to be a book on plants of the Mediterranean that was talking about something called gillyweed, and the other was an advanced charms book, talking about the bubblehead charm. Hermione sped read both of those options, and said, "The bubblehead charm lets you breath under water indefinitely, but doesn't help you move around. Gillyweed lets you breathe underwater for only an hour, but lets you swim like a merman." Hermione then said, "I'd recommend using gillyweed, but keep enough with you for a second dose just in case."