Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
A/N: Thanks to E.G. Potter (of Fanfiction.Net) for agreeing to be my beta. Enjoy the chapter!
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 33 - Jars
"I need a room where we can solve my egg," said Harry for the third time as he and Hermione summoned the Room of Requirement. Harry was holding his golden egg in one hand while he held Hermione's hand with the other. When Harry had tried opening his egg in the Gryffindor common room, it nearly deafened them all as an ear piercing sound echoed from the golden egg. They'd gotten their money from Fudge that morning, and Harry had sent his share to a magical orphanage. Then Hermione suggested that they work on the clue he had received a week before when he completed the first task. He knew he had to be missing something, so he hoped that this room would help him. A door appeared, and when he opened it, he was extremely surprised by what he saw. An indoor swimming pool, with two changing rooms, was in front of them. The wall had a huge painting of a family of merpeople. Harry looked at Hermione and said, "Well, let's go in. Apparently we need to take a swim."
"I guess so," said Hermione, unsurely.
They walked into the room holding hands and separated to go into the changing rooms. Harry found a huge beach towel, as well as a pair of swimming trunks. He quickly changed, leaving his fake glasses behind, and walked out of the room with his egg. He saw that the pool area was still empty, so he walked to the edge of the pool.
"Maybe you should try opening the egg under water," came Hermione's voice from the other side of the room. He looked up and his jaw dropped. He'd seen her in a bathing suit before, but he was sure he could never get used to the sight of her in a bikini. "My eyes are up here," she said, causing him to move his gaze to her face. Her cheeks were pink and she was smirking.
`Good,' thought Harry to himself, `she's not mad.' He then said, "That might be a good idea." He then ran to the deep end, holding the egg in both his hands, and jumped in, splashing Hermione in the process.
While he was under, he realized how much he missed his pool at home. He opened the egg up, and heard,
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching…"
He went above the surface of the water at that point. He could hear that the egg was still saying something. He looked around for Hermione, to see she was near him. He called out, "Come here and listen to this." He closed the egg while he waited for her. When she was next to him, he said, "We'll have to listen underwater." When he opened it again and they put their heads under the surface of the water, they heard and memorized,
"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 to recover what we took,
But past an hour - the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
"They're gonna take what I'll sorely miss!" complained Harry. "Why couldn't it just be another stupid egg?"
"The trick is to riddle the whole thing out," said Hermione. "The voices sound underwater. Probably the lake. What is in the lake?"
"Merpeople?" guessed Harry, pointing at the picture. "That's the only reason I can think of that the room would give us that picture."
Hermione smiled at him. "I believe you're right. Now we need to find a way for you to survive underwater for an hour." At that moment, two open books appeared at the edge of the pool. They swam to the books, making sure not to splash them. One appeared to be a book on plants of the Mediterranean that was talking about something called gillyweed, and the other was an advanced charms book, talking about the bubblehead charm. Hermione sped read both of those options, and said, "The bubblehead charm lets you breath under water indefinitely, but doesn't help you move around. Gillyweed lets you breathe underwater for only an hour, but lets you swim like a merman." Hermione then said, "I'd recommend using gillyweed, but keep enough with you for a second dose just in case."
Harry smiled, "Sounds like a plan to me. Do you have any idea where we can get the stuff?"
"I don't know," said Hermione. "There may be some at Potter Manor in the potions room."
"Dobby," called out Harry immediately.
The elf appeared on the surface of the water, and promptly sank below the surface. Harry grabbed him and put him on the edge of the pool. "Can't you swim?"
"Oh no sir, Dobby is not learning to swim. Dobby is busy serving his master, the great Harry Potter."
"I think you should learn how to swim, but first find out if there's any gillyweed at Potter Manor. If there is, bring it here."
Dobby beamed. "Dobby is glad to serve Harry Potter. Dobby is coming right back." He then disappeared.
Hermione said, "I hope Dobby finds some. I do, however, think we should learn the Bubblehead charm, in case we have to fight in an area with bad air."
"All right," said Harry. They learned the incantation so they could do it with a wand, and then studied what actually happened so that they could duplicate it without one. Just when Harry had perfected his, Dobby appeared with a jar full of some ugly weed.
"Dobby is finding several jars of gillyweed. Dobby is hoping one is enough for Harry Potter."
"According to the book, one handful is all you need for an hour," said Hermione, "so this is more than enough. Thank you Dobby."
"You is welcome, Miss."
"Thanks a lot," said Harry. "You saved me from a lot of trouble."
"It is Dobbys greatest pleasure to help Harry Potter! If Harry Potter needs nothing else, Dobby is going back to Potter Manor."
"That's fine, Dobby," said Harry, and Dobby immediately disappeared.
"Err," said Hermione, "Want to try out the gillyweed, so that you'll be used to it?"
-
About an hour later, Moony and Padfoot entered the room, surprised to see a swimming pool, two books, an open jar of some kind of weed, and Harry's golden egg. They looked into the water and saw Harry and Hermione apparently snogging at the bottom of the pool. As they watched with mild amusement, a minute passed. Sirius shouted, "I'm going in there!" and jumped in, robes, shoes, and all. He grabbed them, and noticed they looked a little strange with slits on their necks, but pulled them above the surface, anyway. When their heads were above the water, they finally started acting like they were drowning; only they were trying to get back under. Finally, Sirius realized that the jar must be gillyweed. He let them go and got himself out of the pool. He quickly did a thorough drying charm on himself while Moony laughed, and a chair appeared behind him. He sat down and waited, noticing that's what Remus was doing. They didn't have to wait long. Within ten minutes, both teenagers, now looking and breathing normally, came out of the pool and started drying themselves.
"What were you? Why were you? Where'd you get?" Sirius asked once they had their towels wrapped around them.
"I've been preparing for the second task," said Harry.
"You were snogging on the bottom of a pool," said Lupin with a smirk. "I don't think that's the second task."
Both teens blushed. Hermione said, "We found out that for the second task, Harry will have one hour to find something at the bottom of the lake. He decided to use gillyweed for that, and we were trying it out."
"Wh-Where'd you get the gillyweed?" asked Sirius.
"I called Dobby and he said we had several jars of the stuff at home, so he brought us one."
"So you tried it out and decided to see what it's like to snog without even having to stop to breathe?" asked Sirius. He then smirked and said, "I'll have to try that some time with Professor Brooks."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, and then at Padfoot. "Really?"
Sirius nodded, "We made it official yesterday. Anyway, we're leaving on that mission with Dumbledore in less than an hour, and we wanted to give you the map back before we go." He then produced the Marauder's Map, already active. He handed it to Harry, who opened it and looked at it. Sirius said, "I'm sure you'll notice that Professor Karkaroff's name is in red. Now watch my name." He then turned into a dog as his name on the map turned green.
Harry said, "Wicked!" and then Sirius changed back.
Remus said, "Now look at the front introduction to see your names."
It now read, `Messer's Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, Sharp-Eyes, and Miss Wide-Eyes present…'
"You just have to press your wand onto your names and say, `I accept,' and it will copy a bit of your personality into it so that it will properly insult anyone who tries to read it without the password," said Lupin.
"We hope you approve of your names," said Sirius.
Harry chuckled, "Sharp-Eyes, huh? Is that about my eagle vision or my new healed vision?"
"Yes," said both Moony and Padfoot together.
"Wide-Eyes," said Hermione. "I know that an owl's eyes are bigger than human eyes, but really? Couldn't you have called me something else?"
"We wanted your name to be similar to Harry's," said Sirius. "It's like you share the last name of `Eyes.' Of course, if you absolutely refuse it, we'll change it."
Hermione took a deep breath. "I suppose I'll accept it."
They accepted the names and the older marauders left the map with the new marauders.
-
A few hours later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the Gryffindor common room studying together, when they both felt the familiar irritation that indicated that an Animagus was near. They looked at each other, and then discreetly looked around. The only living thing they could see was a beetle. The beetle fell to the ground, stunned, and then Harry conjured a jar and put the beetle in it. He then said, "I've made the jar imperturbable, and also put up an anti-apparition ward around it. Whoever this is won't escape. Let's find out who it is." Harry pulled out him map and pointed his wand at it saying, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
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