Shifted: Book One

Chapter Twenty Two - The Hidden Clue

"Do it, I dare you", Hazel hissed back, not giving in to Draco and certainly not afraid of him.

The distant noise of students chatting and footsteps slowly approached closer and closer to them. Draco swiftly took a step back, put his wand back in his pocket and stormed off before anyone caught the two. Hazel caught her breath back. Draco was defiantly intimidating, but not fearing. She didn't fear him at all, the only thing she did fear was if anyone found out out her true past, how she shifted to Hogwarts. For if anyone were to find out, it would destroy everything.

The sky was getting darker and darker as time flew by, classes went quickly. She decided to skip dinner in the Great Hall to catch up on some more studying, she had missed so much due to her mistakenly shifting into her fourth year, not her first. Nevertheless, she was determined to make up for lost time.

She was back in the common room now, reading a book on spells in front of the sizzling fireplace. It spat tiny flecks of gold and consumed the entire room with heat, good thing it was winter!

"Ahem", a nervous throat cleared from behind.

Hazel was startled, and immediately turned around to see Harry stood behind her shyly.

"Can I sit?", he asked politely.

Hazel was still heartbroken over what had happened at the end of the Yule Ball, but she didn't want to dwell on it. She sheepishly shrugged and said yes, causing Harry to take a seat beside her.

"You didn't show up for dinner, I was just a bit worried", Harry admitted, glancing over to Hazel who was reading her study book, he then turned his attention to the fire.

Despite what had happened, the fact Harry felt worried over Hazel not turning up for something simple such as dinner made her feel wanted. Of course, she didn't like the idea of any of her friends worrying, but in that moment, she felt needed by Harry. Harry shifted, now facing Hazel.

"The next task, it's hard to explain, just take your egg and listen to it underwater in the girls' bathroom", he explained, now catching Hazel's attention.

She looked up in confusion, for a moment she had completely forgotten about the egg.

"Promise it won't let out a deafening screech like last time?", Hazel joked, lightly chuckling.

Harry shared a laugh, reassuring her to do as he says.

"It will make a lot more sense if you listen to the sound underwater first", he replied, smiling at Hazel who had formed a small grin.

A moment of silence waved over the two as they sat, looking into the fire. They watched the flames wriggle and project warmth around them. The glowing embers leaped and twirled in a firery dance, twinkling like stars in the hot swirling air.

"You're not a second choice, Hazel", Harry blurted out as Hazel glanced over to his regretful and sorry eyes.

She looked deeply into his eyes, as though she was trying to read his thoughts. Hazel couldn't bare to feel this way about Harry. She really cared for him, more than anyone. She's never felt this kind of way about anyone in her entire life, despite only knowing him for almost 5 months. Though he always felt more familiar to her, probably because she wasn't really from his reality, but that was something he didn't need to know. She felt as though they were the last two missing puzzle pieces to a big and beautiful picture of Hogwarts; Hogwarts connected them together, their home brought them together.

"It's alright Harry, let's just move on from it", she said with a little smile.

Harry smiled and leaned his elbow on the edge of the sofa, slightly slipping too far and causing his head to slip off his rested hand. Hazel contained her laugh whilst Harry embarrassingly acted as though nothing happened.

"I'm gonna look at this egg, I suppose", Hazel suggested, leaving her seat and heading upstairs to retrieve her egg.

Harry was about to open his mouth, but no words came out. He sat in silence, nodded and smiled as he watched Hazel walk away.

Hazel was in the girls' bathroom, she filled the bath with foamy bubbles and hot water. She felt refreshed and cleansed, as though all the negativity had been rinsed off her skin and vanished down the drain, never to be seen again. She held her egg and pulled it down with her underwater. She held her breath and opened the egg when it was completely consumed by the bath water.

"Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground, an hour long you'll have to look, to recover what we took", an enchanting and feminine voice sung from the egg whilst it lit an illuminating golden light.

Hazel took her head out the water and gasped for air, she was never good at holding her breath under water. The sea was one of her biggest fears after going through a traumatising and almost deadly fate when she was a child. She stared at the, now closed egg, in wonder. Repeating the phrase in her head, she swiftly wrapped a freshly laundered bath towel round her soft skin, grabbed a piece of parchment paper and pencil conveniently lying around and quickly noted it down.

"Come seek us where our voices sound..."
"We cannot sing above the ground..."
"An hour long you'll have to look..."
"To recover what we took..."

What did that mean?