Chapter 6: I Discover the Lovely Blue Tiling in the Bathroom
Where I go comes the egg.
It's late in the afternoon. Classes are ending soon for all students. I'm sitting in the courtyard, hoping that I'll suddenly have an epiphany and figure the egg out. I've had enough sense to stop opening it after a few painful experiences, but nothing is making any sense. At first, I thought that the scream might have had something to do with a mandrake but I wasn't sure how much of a challenge that would be in any form. Hufflepuff versus earplugs.
I trace my fingers along the seam that runs from the top to the bottom of the egg. Maybe it's a deadly chicken. Or a duck. Or a different bird.
Or a platypus.
The thought has me grinning to myself as I immediately dismiss every single thought. Idiotic. But I have no idea what the egg could be. Maybe it's completely unrelated. Is that possible?
"Have you figured that thing out yet?" Moody asks as he halts in front of me, setting his hands on his hips. His frame blocks out the sunlight of the day, trapping me in his shadow.
"No, not yet," I say. "I can't make any sense of the thing."
"Have you tried putting it in water?" Moody asks suddenly, blinking his good eye.
"What?" I ask, shifting on my knees.
"Putting it in water. Have you tried that?" he repeats, staring down at me intently. I start to get a little uncomfortable under his gaze, trying not to stare at the eye that sweeps around wildly. I flinch when it lands on me for a moment, startling me out of my own mind.
"No, I haven't... Uh, should I?" I trail off.
"Well, I'm not telling you you should, given that would imply that I have favorites," he says with a smile that doesn't look quite right. His magical eye catches on me for a moment and I look away from him pointedly. "Take a bath with it, little lady, and I'm sure you'll get something out of it."
"Well, uh, thanks then," I say. "I'll try that out."
"Good girl," he says with a grin, stalking away.
I stand up and slip away quickly in case he decides to return. I rush through the hallway, feeling a little disturbed, egg cradled in my arms like a newborn. My firstborn child. I wish I had the foresight to bargain it away.
"Wait, Y/N!"
"Viktor, hey," I greet, a little out of breath as he catches up with me. "I actually have something to tell you. Uh, you know Moody?"
"The one with the eye?" he asked and gestures toward his face.
"Yeah, him. He told me to put the egg in water," I say as I try to hide how out of breath I am, but little pants punctuate each sentence. "I don't know if it's going to work yet but he says that it will."
Viktor furrows his eyebrows. "In water? Like the lake?"
"Yeah. Well, no... We've got a huge bathtub in the prefects' bathroom... It's safer than the lake in wintertime. Later, if you want, I can give you access to use it. I can give you directions and the password, and then-"
"Why not figure it out together?" he asks.
"Hm?"
"We can go together."
"Together?"
"Yes, I figure we will have more luck figuring it out of we work together, no?"
"Oh... uh, yeah. That sounds good. Um... we can meet up after dinner if that's okay. And then we can go from there?"
"Yes, that's okay," he says and nods, his eyes filled with an unsettling solemnity. Why did he look more handsome with that look in his eye?
"I'll see you then," I say and bite down on my lip, making to brush past him.
"Uh- wait," he says and sets a hand on my arm. My attention zeroes in on his hand. The rest of the world blurs into nothingness, and the only thing I'm sure of is that one point of contact. I stare at his hand as he speaks. "I want to ask you to accompany me to the Yule Ball."
"Yeah, definitely," I say with a nod. He pulls his hand away. The world feels colder. Then, he smiles at me, and everything might be okay again.
"I will be glad to see you later."
***
Once I finish my dinner, I excuse myself and tentatively make my way over to the table where the Durmstrang students are seated, my egg in hand. I feel like there are a thousand pairs of eyes on me even though I can't find them. As I near the bench where Viktor is seated, I can hear him chatting in Bulgarian, his words flowing from his tongue with the liquidity he lacks in English. I want to stop and listen, but his friends have spotted me, and grins grow on their faces. I can pick out his name in the next sentence one of his friends speaks, and then Viktor whips around. My eyes widen.
"Hello," he says, and his eyes are as wide as mine.
"Sorry, are you still eating?"
"Talking more than eating," he admits.
"Oh, no worries. Finish up and then you can come and find me at the Hufflepuff table. The yellow one with the blond dweeb grinning like an idiot," I say and point at the table that Cedric is situated at.
"Or you can stay here," he suggests and slides down the bench.
"Oh, uh..."
"It is your choice."
I bite down on my lip and slide onto the bench beside him. He smiles at me and returns to his plate.
"Viktor cannot keep his mouth closed long enough to eat," the boy across from Viktor says, his accent heavier than Viktor's.
Viktor glares at the boy over his fork.
"I eat fast," I say and shrug my shoulders, jolting when Viktor's thigh brushes against my own. Pathetic. "I'm Y/N."
"We know," the boy says and grins, and Viktor sends another deadly glare across the table. "Viktor has quite the... big lot of compliments to give. I hear you fly."
"I do," I say and try to assess the boy. "Do you?"
The boy nods his head. "Not like Viktor, but I do play."
"Which is why you have to tantalize him on the ground. Because he would beat you in the air?"
Viktor smiles, and the boy across the table does the same, amusement spreading across his features. "I like you," the boy says and holds out his hand. "I'm Teodor."
"Nice to meet you, Teodor," I say and extend my hand.
"The pleasure is mine," he responds and kisses the back of my hand, eyes flitting to Viktor.
Viktor's face is impassive as he finishes his dinner and downs the rest of his drink.
"Ready, Y/N?" he asks. I nod and pull my hand from Teodor's with a shy smile, standing. I lead Viktor from the Great Hall, chewing on awkward silence.
"So," I finally say as we reach the first staircase, "Teodor is one of your friends?"
Viktor's eyes crinkle as one corner of his mouth raises in a grin. "You could say that."
"He seems nice."
"He's not," Viktor says, but the fond smile on his face remains.
"I have a friend like that. Cedric. He taunts me whenever he gets the chance, but I do the same to him," I say.
"Cedric is the one who follows you around like a lost puppy?" Viktor asks.
"That's the one," I say and smile. "Unfortunately, we've known each other our entire lives."
"It is the same as me and Teodor."
"That's the best and worst kind of friend," I say.
"I agree."
I smile at Viktor and let my eyes fall to the floor. We continue on in silence until I come to a stop before the door to the prefect's bathroom.
"Here we are," I say and shoot a glance at Viktor. "Pine fresh."
The tall door clicks open and I push through it before setting my egg down on the ground.
"This bathroom is only for prefects, head students, and Quidditch captains," I explain as I round the edge of the bathtub to turn on the water. "It's honestly not used much except for during the quidditch season, which we don't have this year."
"Do you play or just fly?" Viktor asks and takes a few steps closer to the tub to watch the water pool in.
"Uh, yeah, I play. I'm a chaser," I tell him and shut the water off when the tub is filled.
"A chaser," he repeats and looks to the ceiling. "Are you good?"
"Well, uh..."
"You do not have to be modest," he says and waves his hand dismissively. "I have seen you fly. If you have half as much coordination as you have grace, you would be excellent."
"Well, I was the leading scorer," I say and grab the egg. "I was going to break a school record this year."
Viktor's eyebrows rise. "Really? Then I would like to see you play."
I laugh. "I won't get to anymore. This is my seventh year."
"I will play you."
"I might be good by Hogwarts standards but there's no way I could hold my own against you," I say and shake my head.
"Why is that?"
"You're... you. Honestly, you're the best seeker in the league," I say with a chuckle. "I don't mean to make you uncomfortable talking about it."
"No, it is fine," he says. "I do love quidditch, and to talk about it. It is just difficult to only be known for it at times. But it does not bother me to talk of it, especially when I am the one who talks of it first."
"It seems like it would be tiresome to talk about it so much," I admit. "I guess we should try to get this going." I gesture toward my egg.
Viktor nods and stands up straighter. I kneel at the edge of the tub and carefully dunk the egg under the water before leaning back and opening it. The shrill screeching echoes through the bathroom, and I hear Viktor grunt as he clamps his hands over his ears. I whimper and drop the egg, hearing as it splashes into the water.
"Ah, I'm so sorry," I mumble sheepishly. "I thought that would work."
"It's okay," he says and hovers at the edge of the bath, staring down at the water, where bubbles are rising from where the egg is submerged.
"I'm sorry," I apologize again and begin to kick my shoes off to retrieve the egg.
"No, no, allow me," he says and pulls his shoes off.
"No, it's fine. I was the one who dropped it."
"I don't mind," he says with a grin. "I love to swim anyways."
Viktor's hands find the hem of his sweater and he tugs it off, letting it drop to the floor. I catch a glimpse of a pale torso and dark hair before I look at the ground, cheeks aflame. My breathing becomes something that sounds suspiciously like panting.
Wow, I never noticed what a nice shade of blue these floor tiles are!
A splash sounds, and a warm drop of water lands on my hand. I tentatively raise my eyes. Viktor's chest is still exposed, and his muscled shoulders gleam with water. He dunks under the water and fishes out the egg, making sure it's clamped shut as he tosses his wet hair back with a flick of his chin. I blink at him. Is he real? He must be some sort of a hallucination. Humans aren't supposed to look so flawless in this situation. I would look like a drowned rat in his position.
"I will go under with it. If I do not come up, leave me for dead," he says and grins at me, sending one last wary look before he plunges himself under the water. I watch as bubbles once again rise from the bottom of the bathtub, and Viktor doesn't recoil in pain, which leads me to believe that he has either figured it out or he's drowned. I keep my eyes on his pale back, watching as water pools in the groove that spans the length of his back.
I tear my eyes away when he stirs, emerging from the water with a gasp for air, the egg sealed between his hands.
"It's a song," he says in astonishment.
"A song?"
"Yes. Come and listen," he says. "I will get out if you want."
"No, it's fine," I assure him. I pull my wand out of my pocket and slip off my sweatshirt so that I am just in a t-shirt. I lower myself into the water, pleased when the warm water encases my body.
"You ready?" he asks. At my nod, we both dunk our heads under the water.
I prepare myself for the shriek of the egg when Viktor unclasps the egg, but instead, I hear voices. A song, just like Viktor said.
"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 recover what we took,
But past an hour — the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
I gasp for air as I resurface and push my hair back from my face.
"Pretending as if I didn't almost just drown," I pant, "something underground... or underwater? Probably underwater if the egg had to be underwater, right?"
"That makes sense. What could it be then?" he asks as he wipes away the water that's beading on his dark eyelashes.
"I don't know... if it's referring to the lake, there're a lot of weird things down there. A giant squid, for sure."
"I have swum in it," he says with a horrified face.
"And you survived," I laugh as I pull myself onto the ledge of the tub, wringing my shirt out. "I don't know what the song is referring to exactly. But it sounds like we'll be underwater for an hour, which is a challenge in and of itself."
He grunts to himself and places the egg beside me. It rolls over and lands against the side of my thigh, the metal warm from the water. "And something will be taken?"
"I'm guessing we'll have to retrieve something like for the first challenge," I say as he hauls himself from the tub. I force myself to look away again. If I'm going to think like a savage, I can at least not act like one outwardly.
"Maybe it will have a clue for the last task," he suggests and grabs his wand to dry himself off with. I do the same and pull my sweater back on.
"Well, I guess I should get back to my common room," I say and pick my egg up from the ground.
"May I walk you?" he asks.
"Oh, uh, it's out of your way. It's actually in the basement of the castle."
"I do not mind, as long as you do not," he says and furrows his eyebrows, wringing his hands before him.
"Well, um... Then yeah, that sounds fine," I say and pull the door open, holding it for Viktor. "So, is this your last year at Durmstrang?"
"Yes, it is. After this, I will be playing for Bulgaria full-time," he says as we walk.
The urge to change the subject crashes into me full force, but I remember when he told me that he enjoys talking about quidditch when he's the one who brings it up.
"I know that you're really good, but I've never actually seen a quidditch game. Not Bulgaria or any other team," I say and look at him. "I mean, besides here, of course."
"It is not much different, I imagine. Quidditch is quidditch."
"One of my friends saw you play at the cup. He said that you were the best he's ever seen," I say slowly. "I'm sorry. I don't want to seem like some crazy fan or anything."
"No, it is fine," he assures me. "My father taught me to play Quidditch when I was very young. He was the one who taught me the Wronski Feint. I had never used it in a game until the cup. He told me that it is one of the most difficult moves in quidditch, but that every seeker should perform it at least once to prove their skill. I tried to practice it when I was a child but I never got it right until the World Cup."
"That's amazing. He must be so proud," I say.
"He was. My grandfather was the one who got him interested in quidditch," Viktor says fondly as he casts a shy smile at me. "He tells me that his father would have been very proud too."
I look to the ground. I can't handle looking at his smile when he's speaking in such a low tone, when so much emotion tugs at his vocal cords.
"What about you?" he asks. "You say that you are a chaser."
"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm on the Hufflepuff team and that's about the end of my accomplishments," I say as we near the basement.
"The record that you were talking about earlier; what was that?"
"Well, I would have been the first Hufflepuff chaser to score ten thousand points, but the Hufflepuff team isn't the best to begin with so there's not much competition," I say and shrug.
"Ten thousand points? That is one thousand goals," he says and looks at me.
"Yeah, over a few years though," I say with a shrug as my cheeks grow warm. "I was less than a hundred goals short but I would have gotten that this year if we had gotten to play."
"That is still very impressive."
"I, uh, got a big chunk of the points on a match that lasted twenty hours. I took a little break between, but I scored 750 points in one match," I explained. "We still lost though, believe it or not."
"Now I really want to play you," he chuckles.
"Maybe one day," I say. "This is me." Viktor nods and folds his hands before him. The movement catches my eye and I examine the way each of his fingers is positioned.
"I will see you later then. Thank you for helping me with the egg."
"You're welcome, Viktor. I actually had fun," I say with a shrug. "Thanks for coming."
Viktor bids me goodnight and excuses himself as I enter the common room. Glad no one is there to question me about the next task, I make my way to my dormitory and shove the egg in my trunk.
"Au revoir, bête noire," I mumble as I slam the trunk shut.
And now a message from my dog:
\=-p'';p0p;
Wow, what an eloquent man.