pretty girl diggory- R.Weasley

4:9

                                        SLEEPING POTION

By the evening before the second task, Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare. He was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, he managed to find a suitable spell, he'd have a real job mastering it overnight. Why had he ever let his mind wander in class - what if a teacher had once mentioned how to breathe underwater?

He sat with Hermione, Celeste, and Ron in the library as the sunset outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them. Harry s heart gave a huge leap every time he saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt..."

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron's voice flatly said from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"Any idea of what Cedric is doing?" Harry asked Celeste.

"No," Celeste muttered. "he knows I'm helping you so he won't even tell me where he's practising."

"I know what I should have done," Harry said, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" Ron said.

"Or a frog," Harry yawned. He was exhausted.

"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," Hermione said vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office... what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."

"Hermione, I was joking," Harry said wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning..."

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Harry, Ron, George and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you," George said. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Celeste."

"Why?" Celeste said, looking surprised.

"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim, though," Fred said.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," George said.

Ron and Celeste stared at Harry.

"You two should continue looking for books to help," Celeste said, standing up.

"Wonder what you two did," Fred said as they walked to McGonagall's office.

"Did you two get caught snogging?" George said, raising his eyebrows.

"Or worse?" Fred questioned.