A/N: Bet you never thought you'd get part 3 so soon now did you? If you think I was teasing you with the last chapter, you might think the same thing with this offering. This is somewhat of a short chapter, as it is focused exclusively on Harry and Hermione, but the other characters will have their moment in the limelight soon enough. I hope you all enjoy.
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After one more sweet kiss, Harry had gotten off Hermione and sat next to her as she got up in turn. Working up the courage to go through his little scheme, Harry began slowly,
"Well er - the second task barely a week away. We should get started on the egg clue right now, while everyone's out."
"Now? Um, I was planning on studying for a bit. How long will this take?" Hermione asked.
"You might have to skip studying tonight because we can't come back until everyone's asleep." Harry responded tentatively.
"What do you mean? Are we going somewhere?"
"Well, Cedric gave me a bit of hint to use the Prefect's Bathroom."
Hermione eyed him suspiciously; not knowing why they needed to go to a bathroom to do this. Sensing what Hermione was probably thinking, Harry quickly started again.
"The egg opens…and it's quite loud. We can't exactly do that with everyone sleeping just upstairs." Harry added.
Silently agreeing, Hermione crossed her arms as Harry quickly ran to the boys' dorm to get both the golden egg and his Invisibility Cloak. Putting it over the two of them, Harry led them to the Prefect's bathroom and locked the door behind them with a satisfying click. The bathroom was rather gorgeous to say the least. Illuminated by a candle-filled chandelier, the entire bathroom was made out of white marble. In the middle of the bathroom, a large rectangular tub that was also made of white marble lay sunken into the floor. It was rather large for a tub, with nearly a hundred golden faucets standing around the tub's edges. Each one had a differently colored jewel embedded in the handle. The tub itself was so large that there was a small diving board on it. There were many other regal decorations of this bathroom, but Harry couldn't help but try to figure out what a bath had to do with this clue.
"So what now?" Hermione asked.
Harry almost went ice cold when he realized what he had to say. One of two things would happen: either Hermione would be furious with him, or she would go along with it. Regardless of how it would play out, he had to try.
"Erm, Cedric said that in order to figure out the egg…youhavetotakeabath." Harry rushed.
Even though Harry had spoken quite quickly, Hermione knew exactly what he had said.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled fiercely.
It was time for damage control, and Harry didn't waste a moment.
"I promise I won't look at you…" said Harry.
Hermione eyed him for a moment, apparently having a dozen thoughts running through her mind at once, before she finally made up her mind.
"Fine…turn around." Hermione ordered.
Harry was quick to oblige, turning around to see a picture of a mermaid sleeping on the wall. Hermione had obviously grabbed one of the fluffy white towels that were all sitting in a corner, and Harry couldn't help but gulp as he heard Hermione disrobing.
"Okay, I'm done." Hermione said quietly.
When Harry turned around, he saw Hermione standing there wrapped in one of the white towels. She looked amazing. The towels was wrapped tightly enough that Harry could clearly notice the figure she had gained over the last summer. She went straight down before, but now her petite, womanly development could not be ignored.
"Harry, you're staring." Hermione pointed out.
"Oh. Um, sorry." Harry uttered sheepishly as he walked past her and took one of the towels.
As he began to undress, Hermione had kept her back to him and began to fill the tub. Luckily enough, it was a bubble bath. A thick barricade of foam would hide what neither of them wanted seen at the moment.
"Alright Harry, turn around. I'm getting in." said Hermione.
In a moment, Harry had turned around only to hear her towel drop and the water ripple in disturbance. Hermione then turned around herself, careful to keep herself well hidden under the foam covered water. Harry removed his towel and set it aside the tub before taking the egg and getting in. It was almost comical, as both Harry and Hermione blushed profusely when they finally turned to face each other. Hermione was almost completely submerged; with nothing visible save for everything above her collar bones. The same could be said of Harry, as he didn't want Hermione to see his bare chest. Harry knew he was skinny, regardless of the fact that he was toned for his frame and by no means scrawny. The two were careful to maintain a healthy distance from each other, not wanting anything funny coming into contact.
"So er, what do we do with the egg?" Hermione asked, excited and embarrassed at the same time to be sharing a bath with Harry.
"Um…" Harry muttered as he racked his brain trying to figure out what to do.
"I'd try putting in the water if I were you." said a familiar voice.
Harry almost jumped out of the water in alarm, but restrained himself given who would have seen him. It was Moaning Myrtle, who was sitting atop one of the taps.
"Myrtle!" Harry croaked, "We're - we're not wearing anything!"
"I had my eyes closed when you two got in, though I couldn't help but wonder what the two of you would be doing in a bath together." she replied.
Harry and Hermione said nothing, merely glancing at each other with a light blush.
"Myrtle, we appreciate you coming to visit us. But um, do you think you could excuse us until we're done?" Hermione asked as politely as she could.
"Have at it then. I wouldn't want anyone else to catch me bathing with a boy if I was in your place." Myrtle said rather slyly. As she floated away, Myrtle turned her head to say one last thing, "You might want to put you your head under too when you open it."
As Myrtle disappeared, Harry simply looked at Hermione apprehensively before submerging the egg and opening it. This time, it did not release that horrible wailing noise, but instead a song that neither of them could distinguish came from it. Without needing to say a word, Hermione nodded at Harry and shut her eyes tightly as he did the same before sliding under the water. Once underwater, they could hear the song clearly.
"Come and 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 to recover what we took,
But past and hour - the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
When Harry and Hermione came back up again, both of them had a bewildered look on their faces, and Hermione's hair was flattened against her skin, the bushiness of her hair unable to withstand the wetness.
"What did that mean?" Harry asked rhetorically.
"It's obvious isn't it?" Hermione stated, "you'll have to find an underwater creature. Probably from the lake since that's the only water around here."
"Um, I suppose. What kind of creatures live in the lake besides the squid?" Harry asked.
"Well there's all sorts. They're all listed in Hogwarts: A History. But none of them actually speak, besides Merpeople. They sound rather horrid above water, but you can understand them underwater." Hermione said triumphantly.
"So Merpeople are going to take something I'm going to miss, and I have an hour to find them?" Harry recapped.
Hermione simply nodded, before reaching for her towel. Harry did the same; careful not to look at her or be looked at as he put the egg on the side of the tub and took his towel. Harry was most surprised at what he saw when they both were out of the tub. Without asking Harry not to look, Hermione had turned around and let the towel move aside where she had the two ends wrapped. Harry gawked at her as she dried off slowly, her entire back and most of her legs exposed to him. She really did have a beautiful body in addition to her face, but one would not have thought that since she was always covered in school robes with half a dozen books in her arms. Hermione knew he was looking at her, but she didn't mind. There was something appealing about Harry seeing her nearly naked back. She had never thought of herself as attractive, so to have an effect like this on Harry was a boost to her own self esteem. She had always prided herself on her book smarts and head knowledge, but she never thought that anyone let alone her best friend could ever want her as a girl, and not just a personal search engine. As fun as it was to tease Harry like this, Hermione quickly got him back to his senses by slightly turning her head to him in order to see him through the corner of her peripheral vision. Harry then realized that he was staring, and quickly patted himself dry, hoping that he could stay calm enough as to not awaken any unnecessary appendages so to speak. Once they were dressed, albeit with wet and messy hair, Hermione looked at Harry and approached him.
It was then that Hermione decided to experiment a little, in order to quell her own curiosity and to realize part of her romantic potential as a young woman rather than just a bookworm. Never one to be romantically adept or aggressive, Harry was shocked as Hermione did something she had never done before. Stroking the side of his face with her hand, Hermione leaned into him to taste his lips with her own. As she opened her mouth, granting Harry access to her tongue, she started to kiss him rather differently. This was not just a passionate kiss of affection; this kiss was saying something else. This kiss expressed nothing other than pure unadulterated want. Harry gave into the feeling and sent the same message back to her with his own lips and tongue, before Hermione ended it with a gentle closed-mouth kiss. She then backed away from him and licked her lips as though she was assessing the reaction she got from Harry. Smiling in satisfaction, Hermione backed away and left the Prefect's bathroom. Harry stood there dumbfounded and at a loss for words. In his stupor, Harry could only say one thing:
"Wow…" his voice quivered with a small hint of excitement in it.
Harry never thought that Hermione ever had it in her to tease, let alone know how. But wherever she pulled that little performance from, it was brilliant. Harry's mind was just starting to wrap around the fact that Hermione was truly a warm blooded girl, even if it was often shrouded in books and cleverness as she would have put it. Grabbing his Invisibility Cloak where Hermione was waiting, Harry took the Marauder's Map from his robes and activated it so that he could navigate back to the Common Room, before he noticed a dot representing Bartemius Crouch ran around back and forth inside Snape's office.
"Harry what is it?" Hermione asked.
"Someone's here Hermione. I don't know how, but Barty Crouch is in Snape's office." Harry answered as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak over the two of them.
Hermione knew before it happened what Harry was clearly going to do: he was going to want to see what Crouch was up to.
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