Despite the miraculous effects of the potion Madam Pomfrey had administered, it took nearly an hour before Harry felt confident enough to navigate the corridors of Hogwarts and reach the Gryffindor tower on his own without incident. The self-enhancement he had utilized during the first task had certainly taken its toll on his muscles. Still, considering the brutal fate of the other champions at the hands of the magical creatures, he supposed he couldn't complain too much about just feeling a bit overworked.
As Harry left the first aid booth, he noticed the crowd of spectators had largely dispersed. The only one remaining was Rita Skeeter, lingering around in search of a juicy story for the Daily Prophet. She seemed to remember, however, not to approach the illustrious Harry Potter without his legal representative present, so she wisely held her tongue. Not that Harry minded...
What weighed heavily on Harry's heart was the realization that he would have to make the trek back to the castle alone, with no one there to congratulate him on completing the task. However, as soon as he stepped through the castle's front doors, that all changed. In the antechamber, Hermione, Neville, the Slytherin girls, nearly all the members of the Defense Studies group, and the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team awaited him, alongside a significant number of Hufflepuffs. They were all there to congratulate him, and while the Hufflepuffs were mostly curious about Cedric, their well-wishes felt genuine.
After satisfying their curiosity, the young Potter found himself surrounded by his housemates as they made their way back to the tower. Yet, as they approached their destination, an unsettling feeling began to creep over him, as if he were about to face a significant confrontation. Despite his hopes that he was mistaken, his intuition proved correct. The moment he entered the portrait hole, he was greeted by an infuriated Ronald Weasley storming up to him.
"Potter, you cowardly slimy bastard! What was that today?!" Ron yelled, spittle flying from his mouth. "Using cheap tricks that only cheating Slytherins would accept?! You're a disgrace to Gryffindor!" A ticked-off nerve twitched on Harry's forehead; after the emotional toll of the first task, he found it hard not to absorb Ron's venomous accusations, and some of it hit painfully close to home.
"And what did you expect me to do, Weasley, charge at a five-headed monster with a sword?" Harry shot back, his tone sharp with anger. "Unlike some people..." he added, casting a pointed look at Ron, "...I'm not foolish enough to commit suicide for the sake of 'bravery.' I'd much prefer to stay alive and in one piece." Unfortunately, this admission only seemed to fuel Ron's anger further.
"How dare you!..." Ron's hand reached instinctively for his wand, but before he could take aim, he found himself frozen in place by a mild paralysis curse.
"I'm going to cool down," Harry said, perhaps more harshly than he intended, as he sheathed his wand. He turned on his heel and marched out of the Gryffindor common room. Hermione, recovering her wits first, hurried after him, dragging Neville along. Their departure seemed to snap several onlookers back to reality, and moments later, Katie too slipped out of the common room, determined to find and comfort Harry.
Despite knowing that he wasn't in the right mindset to achieve much, Harry instinctively made his way to the library, clutching the golden egg in his arms. It was a peaceful retreat from the annoyances of the world, a sanctuary where he could gather his thoughts away from Ron's undeserved outrage. Once he reached his favorite nook deep within the library, he set the golden egg down on the table and stared at it.
He realized, perhaps for the first time, that the surface of the egg was adorned with intricate reliefs: crashing waves of a stormy ocean transitioning into vibrant flames of fire, which morphed into rocky mountains before shifting to fluffy clouds, only to revert to waves once more. It was mesmerizing.
Suddenly, he sensed someone approaching him from behind. A moment later, gentle hands wrapped around his torso, and his head found rest against a pair of soft breasts. Looking up, he was greeted by the sight of Draconica, who was holding him in an affectionate embrace.
"'Nica?" he murmured softly.
"Harry, are you alright?" she asked, her gray eyes filled with concern. "I had a feeling you needed me, and…" Her words trailed off as they locked eyes, a deep silence enveloping them. Finally, Harry smiled, and she rewarded him with a sweet kiss on the lips. Grinning back at him, Draconica slid into his lap, her right arm draping comfortably over his shoulders. "So, what upset you so much?" she whispered as she nestled against him.
"Nothing much, just that idiot got under my skin." Harry sighed, causing a delicate eyebrow to raise at him in silent inquiry. After a brief pause, he explained, "He accused me of dishonoring Gryffindor because I didn't tackle the hydra head-on." Draconica rolled her eyes. Using one's intellect should never be a crime. "Stay with me for a bit, please," Harry requested quietly as he pulled 'Nica closer, her small smile providing all the assurance he needed.
Unfortunately, their moment of bliss didn't last long. Less than ten minutes in, Hermione burst into the library, still pulling Neville along with her.
"Oh, there you are, Harry! Oh…" Hermione stopped abruptly as she registered the intimate scene before her, heat spreading across her cheeks as a traitorous thought crossed her mind—that she too would love to have someone to share such tenderness with. Neville, beside her, was similarly blushing, envying Harry for his good fortune. Realizing they weren't alone anymore, Draconica slid off Harry's lap and settled into the chair next to him, yet she maintained contact.
After a long silence, Hermione broke the tension, stammering, "U-uh... Harry, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine now," he replied. "Apologies for snapping at everyone back in the common room. Our illustrious Chosen One just managed to anger me with his ridiculous accusations about being disloyal to Gryffindor because I wasn't reckless facing the hydra." He paused before adding, "Don't worry, I won't let him get under my skin like that again."
"Well, since we're all here..." Draconica interjected, keen to change the subject from the unpleasant encounter with Ron. "Why don't we try to figure out what this golden egg is all about? It seems unlikely the champions had to retrieve it from a nesting mother just for fun," she said, gesturing for Hermione and Neville to take a seat across from her and Harry.
"I wouldn't put it past them," Harry replied wryly. "But you're right; according to Mr. Bagman, there's a clue to the second task inside." He ran his fingers across the cool, ornate surface of the golden egg, pausing just above the ring that encircled it. "These runes likely hold the key to opening it." They would have to be there for a reason.
"Let's see them," Hermione said, producing a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill from her jacket. She began to copy down the runes from the egg's ring:
ᚵᛖᛖᚺᛏᚾᛖᛈᛟᛟᛏ_ᛖᚱᛖᚺᛞᚾᚨᚹᚱᚢᛟᚤᛋᛋᛖᚱᛈᛏᛋᚢᛃᚵ
"Hm..." she sighed. "Maybe they're expecting the champions to know a bit about curse-breaking and have set up a runic ward that needs to be broken before the egg can be opened?"
"Let me see," Draconica responded, leaning closer to the parchment. After scrutinizing the symbols for a minute, she ultimately sighed in frustrated resignation.
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't be a good riddle if one could solve it in a couple of minutes," Harry commented, although he thought to himself that it couldn't be too difficult either; after all, the champions were expected to have some time to prepare before the second task after receiving the clue from the egg.
The group spent the remainder of the afternoon in the library attempting to decipher the meaning behind the runes, but fortune was not on their side, and none of their theories brought them closer to cracking the egg's riddle. Eventually, they agreed to take a break and revisit their ideas with fresh minds in a couple of days.
As they prepared to leave the library and head downstairs for dinner, Draconica reminded everyone that Daphne and Tracey had missed the day's brainstorming sessions but should also partake in solving the egg's riddle. Agreeing with her sentiment, Harry cast the Geminio charm over Hermione's parchment, causing it to multiply into six copies. While these duplicates weren't permanent, they would last long enough for the group to record the runes somewhere more durable.
~/ *** \~
In the days that followed, the relentless tide of homework from their professors left Harry with little time to work on solving the riddle of the golden egg. Due to his busy schedule, the few ideas he managed to come up with were swiftly dismissed by Hermione, who found flaws within each concept. To make matters worse, it seemed that the Slytherin girls faced similar struggles in cracking the runes as well.
That changed on Thursday lunchtime when a note from Daphne found its way to Harry, informing him that they had likely found a solution. Her request for him to bring along the egg to their meeting suggested that the girls were confident in what they had discovered...
Impatience gnawed at Harry throughout their double Transfiguration class, time dragging as he eagerly awaited the bell. The same sentiment lingered during Defense Against the Dark Arts, even though Professor Moody's lessons were typically anything but dull. When the bell finally rang for the end of the period, Harry hurriedly shoved his belongings into his bag and raced up to the Gryffindor tower to retrieve the egg…
Arriving at the library, he found his study group already gathered around their usual table. He was taken aback to see Astoria there too, presumably having accompanied her sister.
"So… Daphne?" Harry asked, eager to discover the answer to the egg's riddle. The older Greengrass shook her head.
"It was actually Tori who came up with it," she said, a proud smile crossing Astoria's face upon being recognized. Harry was momentarily shocked; second-years like Astoria typically didn't have Ancient Runes yet. Daphne read his confusion and explained, "Well… this little genius decided to study runes next year, so she began borrowing my notes. Although she hasn't gone beyond the alphabets, it seems that might have helped her crack the riddle when the rest of us couldn't."
"Mhm?" Harry prompted, intrigued. Astoria flushed slightly, hesitating before she spoke.
"All the runes correspond to matching letters in the English alphabet." Harry had noticed that earlier but thought it was merely coincidental—there were only so many runes without corresponding English letters. Perhaps he shouldn't have overlooked that detail... "And…" Astoria paused to place a parchment on the table, revealing a scrawled message:
geehtnepoot_erehdnawruoysserptsujg
"It still doesn't make sense," Harry stated, puzzled. "Am I still missing something?" This time, Daphne replied.
"Read it backward, starting from the empty space in the center," she instructed. Raising an eyebrow, Harry followed her directions:
"To pen... To open the egg, just press your wand here?" As the realization dawned on him, he could hardly suppress an urge to face-palm over how easily they had been misled into thinking the riddle was something more complex. Although Astoria's solution could still be wrong, it seemed more promising than many of their prior theories.
Deciding to test it immediately, Harry turned the golden egg so the empty space was facing up. Drawing his wand, he pressed it against that spot. For a moment, he thought it might all be in vain, but then he heard a satisfying click as the top of the egg opened like a blooming flower.
"By Merlin's beard," Harry gasped. Inside, a glass cylinder with ornate gold stoppers on each end contained a silver key, accompanied by a piece of parchment that likely held vital information about the upcoming second task.
His mind began to race with possibilities of the challenges that awaited him. Before he could delve further into his newfound thoughts, he noticed Astoria rocking nervously in her chair. "Mhm?" he prompted.
"I solved the riddle for you, shouldn't I be rewarded?" she asked, her cheeks tinged with a soft blush as she attempted the puppy-dog eyes technique.
"And what does the lady want?" Harry teased, fully aware of his debt of gratitude. Tori blushed even deeper, mumbling her answer as if it were a secret.
"...A kiss." Harry realized he had anticipated this; while aware of Astoria's crush on him, he hesitated, uncertain how to react. Glancing at Draconica, he noticed she was equally surprised but gave him a subtle nod of assurance, trusting that he wouldn't take things too far.
Understanding her signal, Harry redirected his focus back to Tori, ever so slightly flustered. "Okay," he said. Blushing fiercely, Tori stood up, raising herself on her toes, closing her eyes in preparation for what she hoped would be a fervent kiss. Instead, Harry only brushed his lips against her cheek, a lighthearted tease.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, puffing up her cheeks in protest, to the amusement of everyone around.
That evening, Harry carefully read through the parchment he had discovered within the egg. It revealed that the second task would revolve around retrieving an object. Unfortunately, the document provided minimal details about the specific challenges or creatures he would have to face, but it did indicate he needed to recover four items, each linked to one of the four classical elements.
Figuring that the water-related object would likely be hidden somewhere near or even within the Black Lake was a straightforward deduction. Yet, he had no concrete ideas on where to locate the remaining three items. With over three months before the task, he opted to stay calm, certain that clues would arise as the date of the task approached.