The first thing my mind seemed to be able to process was ‘I’m dead...my dad is going to kill me!’ But then, I thought, if I was dead then why was someone shouting?
‘There should have been more security! For God’s sake, Albus, she was poisoned!’
‘The champions knew that the dragons weren’t safe, Severus, her wounds aren’t life threatening and I expect-’
‘Aren’t life threatening?’ The first voice boomed back in unmistakeable anger ‘the Matron said that she could be blind!’
I squeezed my eyes tight, groaning at the raised voices before opening my eyes to see that Ron, Harry, Hermione and Fred were sat around me with their heads cocked toward the voices. “What’s going on?” I asked, irritated.
My friends turned to me. “You’re awake!” Hermione exclaimed “how are you feeling?”
“Not blind or anything?” Fred asked with a smirk.
“No” I frowned “why?”
“Well, your dad is pretty annoyed that your dragon spat poison in your face” Ron stated.
I blinked at Ron “what are you doing here? I thought that you believed everyone else when they didn’t believe Harry.”
He shrugged still looking a bit guilty “I finally saw sense.”
“Took you long enough” I growled. I had no idea where my bad mood had come from but it didn’t feel like it was going to disappear any time soon.
“Good, you’re awake” the matron said as she bustled in “how are you feeling?”
I opened my mouth to speak but Ron got there first “she’s in a really bad mood.” I glared at him.
“Hmm, yes, it’s an uncommon side effect; you should feel better soon but until you do, I suggest that you stay away from anyone that might set you off.”
“So can I go now?” I asked impatiently.
“Yes, you may.”
We’d been sitting in a tent which had been erected as a temporary first aid station. Harry informed me that Cedric had been treated for burns, Harry for cuts and me for having poison spat at me. He then went on to tell me that he’d scored 40 (10 from Bagman, 9 from Dumbledore and Crouch, 8 from Madame Maxime and a 4 from Karkaroff) and that I’d scored 35 (9 from Dumbledore and Crouch, 6 from Bagman, 7 from Maxime and another 4 from Karkaroff). Marks had been taken off for injuries and Karkaroff was just being biased toward his own champion.
“Not bad” Fred grinned as he passed me my egg “for someone who got spat at.”
I hit him playfully before taking my prize and shook my head but said nothing as we stepped outside and saw that dad and Dumbledore were still talking.
They both looked around when the group exited. “Lilly!” Dad strode over to me looking furious; he was probably annoyed that I’d made him show an emotion that wasn’t anger.
“I’m alright” I told him airily “I’m not blind, see.”
“I can’t believe you had that dragon!” He fumed.
Rolling my eyes, I said “well I didn’t pick her out deliberately you know.”
“Well done, Miss Snape” Dumbledore stepped forward “your plan was simple yet ingenious and it was one of my favourites by far.” He looked up dad “who knew that the two youngest champions would overshadow the others?”
I grinned, thankful for the compliment “thanks, sir.”
The common room was packed when we finally clambered through the hole and all of the students gathered around begging to know what the clue was. I looked down at my egg and saw that could open; I pointed this out to harry who dug his fingernails under the groove and prised the egg open but almost immediately shut it when a horrible screeching noise erupted from inside. “What the bloody hell was that supposed to be?” Ron grimaced.
“Maybe it’s a banshee” Fred suggested.
“Or mum singing in the shower” George interjected.
I frowned, thinking deeply; I’d heard that sound before but I had no idea where, it just felt like a distant memory or perhaps a dream. It made me think of water…maybe I’d fallen asleep in the bath…I don’t know but I had a niggling feeling that water was part of the clue; either way, it reminded me that I needed a bath.
A couple of weeks passed before I thought of the egg again; we’d been busy preparing for the yule ball which was a dance that all of the champions were having to attend. Naturally, I asked Fred to come with me but Harry hadn’t been successful in asking anyone yet. It was the day of the ball when I finally headed for the bathroom with the egg tucked under my arm; I hadn’t shared my thoughts with anyone else because I wanted to be damn sure that I wasn’t mistaking the noise for something else.
The whole place was empty when I got there which gave me time to run myself a bath and sit in the warm water, thinking about what to do with the egg before I remembered a conversation I’d had with Dumbledore when I was about eight years old.
I’d lived at Hogwarts during term time with my dad before I was finally old enough to attend the school and one morning I’d been sitting by the lake, staring down into its murky depths. Every so often I could have sworn that I saw a face peering back at me but by the time I’d leant in for a closer look, it had disappeared.
“I wouldn’t get too close” Dumbledore’s voice warned me, making me jump. I’d had no idea that he was even watching me.
“Why?”
“The lake isn’t empty of creatures” he came and sat down beside me “we have a large population of merfolk right at the bottom.”
“What” I frowned “like mermaids?”
“They’re not quite as friendly as stories would have you believe.”
“Merfolk” I frowned as I left the memory behind and blinked down at the egg before pushing it under the water and opening it. It didn’t screech like Harry’s had done but I could hear nothing else either so I took a deep breath and slipped under the water.
‘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 and hour, the prospect’s black,
Too late it’s gone, it won’t come back.’
I ran all the way back to the dormitory with every intention of telling Harry of my discovery but when I got there I was snagged by Hermione.
“Where have you been?” She fumed “I thought you wanted me to do your hair!”
Then all thoughts were lost as she practically frogmarched me back to the girl’s dormitory.