Daughter of Mine | Harry Potter

XIII.

Hermione and Lalia had grabbed each other's hands as they nervously watched the boys. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly. Harry knew Ron was about to apologize and found he didn't need to hear it.

"It's okay," he said, before Ron could get the words out. "Forget it."

"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've -"

"Forget it," Harry said.

Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.

"Well, look at that, my two favorite bloody idiots back together," Lalia joked.

The girl became unsettled when Hermione burst into tears next to her.

"There's nothing to cry about!" Harry told her, bewildered.

"You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before anyone could stop her, she hugged both the boys and dashed away, now positively howling.

"I'm going to go find her," Lalia said, she kissed Harry on the cheek and hugged Ron before running quickly after the girl.

---

That evening, the group headed to the Owlery to inform Sirius about the successful first task. During their walk, Harry informed Ron about Sirius's worries about Karkaroff.

"Fits, doesn't it?" he said. "Remember what Malfoy said on the train, about his dad being friends with Karkaroff? Now we know where they knew each other. They were probably running around in masks together at the World Cup ... . I'll tell you one thing, though, Harry, if it was Karkaroff who put your name in the goblet, he's going to be feeling really stupid now, isn't he? Didn't work, did it? You only got a scratch! Come here - I'll do it -"

Pigwidgeon had been overexicted, making tying the letter to him difficult. Ron snatched the owl out of the air and held him still for Harry.

"There's no way any of the other tasks are going to be that dangerous, how could they be?" Ron went on as he carried Pigwidgeon to the window. "You know what? I reckon you could win this tournament, Harry, I'm serious."

Hermione frowned at Ron.

"Harry's got a long way to go before he finishes this tournament," she said seriously. "If that was the first task, I hate to think what's coming next."

"Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" said Ron. "You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime."

"Wait, Ron that's brilliant!" Lalia exclaimed, jumping on the balls of her feet.

"What, no that lady is -"

"No, not Professor Trelawney! Me! I am here, Harry's personal seer and we haven't thought to try orb gazing once!" Lalia had a large smile on her face at the hope that she could help Harry in the tasks.

The trio was silent as they stared at the excited girl.

"Well, we could at least try it," Hermione said, turning to look at the boys. With a glance at each other, they nodded.

"Tomorrow?" Harry offered.

The group confirmed that Lalia would attempt orb gazing tomorrow and turned to leave the owlery.

"Well, we'd better get downstairs for your surprise party, Harry - Fred and George should have nicked enough food from the kitchens by now."

Sure enough, when they entered the Gryffindor common room it exploded with cheers and yells again. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice and butterbeer on every surface; Lee Jordan had let off some Filibuster's Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks; and Dean Thomas, who was very good at drawing, had put up some impressive new banners, most of which depicted Harry zooming around the Horntail's head on his Firebolt, though a couple showed Cedric with his head on fire.

The group sat down and helped themselves to some food.

"Blimey, this is heavy," said Lee Jordan, picking up the golden egg, which Harry had left on a table, and weighing it in his hands. "Open it, Harry, go on! Let's just see what's inside it!"

"He's supposed to work out the clue on his own," Hermione said swiftly. "It's in the tournament rules ... ."

"I was supposed to work out how to get past the dragon on my own too," Harry muttered, so only Hermione could hear him, and she grinned rather guiltily.

"Yeah, go on, Harry, open it!" several people echoed.

Lee passed Harry the egg, and Harry dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and prised it open.

It was hollow and completely empty - but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud screechy wailing, filled the room.

Everyone had moved to cover their ears, with the exception of Lalia who gripped Hermione's thigh next to her.

"Mione," she gasped out as she felt her vision fading.

Hermione nudged Ron who saw the blue glow creeping into Lalia's eyes and quickly stood to block her face from view.

"Shut it!" Fred bellowed, his hands over his ears.

"What was that?" said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. "Sounded like a banshee... . Maybe you've got to go past one of those next, Harry!"

Ron and Hermione ignored the argument about the sound going on behind them, they instead watch the light in their friends eyes flash for a few seconds, before her normal grey stared at them with horror in it.

Ron collapsed back on the couch, relaxing from his tense position. Hermione quickly grabbed Lalia's hand, rubbing her thumbs over the girls hand to calm her.

"Harry," Hermione hurriedly called the boy over, but she was distracted by the Weasley twins, who she then attempted to interrogate about the kitchen entrance.

"What happened?" Harry asked, sitting down in between Ron and Lalia.

"I don't know. The egg made that awful sound and her eyes turned blue again, it stopped when you closed it," Ron rushed to explain.

"Hey, it's okay. You're okay," Harry said, running his hand over her hair.

She smiled softly at him, before nodding slightly.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," she stood slowly. Her legs felt weak, but Lalia pushed through, reassuring the boys that she was okay to walk to the tower alone.