Another filler chappy guys, sorry! xxx
“I’m winning?” I said in amazement. It was the morning after the second task and I’d woken to find Dad sleeping in the chair beside my bed; when he woke up he informed me that I’d slept for almost an entire day and that I was way ahead in the tournament.
“Well don’t sound so surprised!” Dad mused. “You’re very bright.”
I blinked at him and frowned as I edged away from him and said “who are you and what have you done with Severus Snape?”
“You’re so hilarious” he replied with his face as blank as an unused piece of paper “please remind me to advise you to not quit your day job.”
“There he is!” I cheered before sticking my tongue out at him.
Half an hour later Harry, Ron, Hermione and Fred turned up and dad took that as his opportunity to leave. “So?” Fred asked as he joined me on the bed “what was it like?”
“Unnaturally easy” I replied before looking at Harry “I have no idea what it was like for you but the only thing I struggled with was cutting Fred free.”
“I had an incident with Grindylows” Harry shrugged “but Fleur pulled out; not sure what happened but I ended up saving her sister.”
I laughed at his idiocy “you do realise that no harm would have come to them, right?”
He blushed a little as he mumbled “I’ve been told that multiple times, yes.”
“So, what happened to you guys?” I asked Hermione, Ron and Fred as I shook my head in amusement.
“Well, McGonagall took us up to Dumbledore’s office” Hermione replied “where Cho and Fleur’s sister were already waiting. He explained that we were the stolen items that you guys were supposed to get back and he was going to put us into a magically induced sleep; he promised that no harm would come to us and that we’d wake up as soon as we resurfaced.” She looked at Ron and Fred “that’s about it really. I don’t remember anything else.”
“I don’t either” Fred commented. “We were taken down to the lake and that’s all I remember; all goes blank until my head was out of the water.”
“Was pretty awesome though” grinned Ron “being part of the second task.”
“Even if you were asleep through most of it” Harry replied, with an even wider grin, which made Ron’s ears turn red.
“So what happened to you?” Fred asked “you looked worse than death when we got back onto dry land!”
“Extreme exhaustion apparently” I sighed. “The potion I took only allowed me to breathe underwater; I wasn’t protected from the cold and it was freezing!”
Hermione nodded “yeah, I’ve actually never seen your dad so worried before.”
Grinning, I said “he can be cute when he wants to be.”
Harry, Ron and Fred burst out laughing. “Cute!” Ron snorted “that’s a new way of describing him!”
“Oi” I told him “shut your mouth before I shove my fist in it.” He shut up immediately. I turned to look at Fred and Harry “Fred, just because I love you it doesn’t mean that that threat doesn’t apply to you too and Harry” I raised my eyebrows at him “you’re no exception either.”
“Feisty” Fred grinned “I like it!”
“So” Hermione interrupted “do you guys have any idea what the next task is going to be?”
I grimaced. I was not looking forward to the last task at all, not if the first two had anything to say about it. “No idea whatsoever. Harry?”
He shook his head “I don’t think we find out until a day or so before.”
“Are they actually trying to kill us?” I asked in annoyance “some warning might be nice!”
“Maybe that’s the aim of the last task” Hermione suggested “forcing you into the unknown.”
“Dad isn’t going to like that at all” I grumbled.
A couple of days later, the hype that the second task had created had died down and everything had gone back to normal…well, as normal as Hogwarts can get and Harry, Ron and I were messing around at the back of our potions lesson. The task for the lesson was to create artificial sunlight; I’d finished mine and Harry and Ron had all but given up on theirs so we were taking it in turns to blast the fly which was whizzing around the classroom and were awarding points:
0 points if you miss the fly
50 points if you miss the fly but get caught
100 points if you hit the fly but get caught
150 points if you hit the fly
200 points if you hit the fly without anyone noticing
300 points if you get Hermione to join in.
The aim, pointlessly, was to get the most points.
I was in the lead; Ron and Harry had given me 200 extra points for hitting the fly with an engorging spell which made it triple in size and in its surprise, flew into the back of dad’s head, without him noticing, before rebounding into Malfoy’s potion which splattered the golden liquid over the maker and sent him blind. We were then caught due to the fact that we were rolling around on the floor laughing whilst Malfoy was lead up to the hospital wing by Pansy.
Hermione pretended not to know us so her 300 points were lost due to her inability to let loose during a lesson.
“Did you think it was funny to waste the whole lesson?” Dad asked as he bore down on me “did you think it was funny to send Malfoy blind?” I’d taken the blame, thinking that dad would be easier on me than he’d be on Harry.
“In all fairness” I interrupted “I’d finished mine to NEWT standard and it’s only temporary blindness.”
“That is not the point!” Dad snapped, glaring at me “30 points from Gryffindor and a weeks’ worth of detentions!”
I gawked at him “but dad!”
His eyes flashed angrily “no buts, Lilliana! You were messing around for the entirety of the lesson; you will be in here at exactly 6 this evening for your first detention, now get out unless you want to lose more points!”
Seething, I slung my bag over my shoulder and stalked out, slamming the door behind me. “What did you get charged with?” Harry asked as I met him, Ron and Hermione in the entrance hall.
“A weeks’ worth of detentions and lost 30 points.” I grumbled.
“Well, you were messing around” Hermione stated “though it’s unfair that you took the whole blame.” She shut up at the look on my face.
When 6 rolled around I left my friends in the great hall and dawdled down to dad’s office; I was in no hurry to get there.
“You’re late” came his greeting when I finally walked through the door.
“But what, five minutes?” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.
“Five points from Gryffindor” he stated “maybe tomorrow you’ll be on time. You’re cleaning out the stock cupboard.”
I looked over at the cupboard where the potions ingredients were kept and saw that it was in such a state of disarray that I had no idea where to start. “You’re kidding me!” I groaned.
“No, now get to it; I’ll be back in an hour.” And he left.
Ingredients were everywhere; in the wrong boxes, on the floor…I started to wonder if he’d made the mess himself just to give me something to do. I started sorting through it, making piles on the floor before putting everything away; I hadn’t even skimmed the edge of it by the time dad returned, studied what I’d done and let me go. It was much the same for the rest of the week but on the final day I eventually finished with ten or so minutes to spare, so I started poking around.
I’d climbed a couple of shelves and was reaching for a box, that I’d noticed a few days ago, which was locked; I’d been curious about its contents since I’d found it and, now I had time, I wanted to know what was in it but as I reached for it my elbow knocked a vial which was full to the brim of some gooey purple substance and sent it to the floor where it smashed and in my panic, fell from the shelves and hit the floor with a load crack beside the split potion.
“Ouch” I groaned as I regained my sight, my head had smacked against the stone floor and was now throbbing horribly. In an effort to heave myself back up, I put a hand into the potion and felt it make contact with my skin. It attached its self to me and grabbed on. “What the heck?” I muttered, trying to shake it off but was having no luck. My hand now looked like a purple rubber glove.
I brought it to my face to inspect it and caught its scent; it smelt wonderful, like all of my favourite things combined. I continued to inhale its heavenly scent and failed to notice that my vision was becoming blurred around the edges, giving the room a disco look about it.
I giggled to myself as I looked around; everything seemed to jump and glow when my eyes made contact which made me laugh even harder and that’s how dad found me, sitting on the floor of the stock cupboard and laughing hysterically and something that he couldn’t see.
“What are you doing!” He cried as he grabbed me and pulled me out.
“Tidying” I replied, still giggling. “Hey, do you have any cookies? We never made cookies at home, we should make some!”
“I’m a potions Master not a Chef!” He told me sternly as he grabbed my hand and groaned. “Lilly, what happened?”
“Everything” I gasped as I looked at a candle and was entranced by all of the colours it created.
“Lilly, this is not to be touched! It was supposed to be in my private stores!” He tapped my hand with his wand and I felt the purple gunk break contact with my skin. Dad then escorted me back to Gryffindor tower, put me to bed and left, leaving me to get over the effects of the mystery potion by myself.