"Throw it in?" Harry asked in amazement. "What if it gets spoiled?"
"Don't worry, you won't go wrong if you listen to me!" George patted his chest and assured, "After all, this is a special alchemical product for the semi-finals. It's not that fragile."
Harry looked at George doubtfully, and thought that it would be good to try anyway. So he gritted his teeth and threw the golden egg into the water.
With a "splash", the golden egg fell into the foamy water and quickly disappeared.
"And then?" Harry was stunned for a moment, then turned to ask George.
"And then you have to jump in too." George grinned, and secretly attacked Harry from behind, pushing him into the bathtub.
"Hey, wait, I haven't changed my clothes yet... Gulu Gulu..."
The water here was very deep. He stood up, but his toes could only barely reach the bottom of the pool. Harry accidentally choked on a large mouthful of water.
After a while, he struggled to the surface and glared at George who had a smirk on his face.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm helping you!" George had no idea what he had done wrong, and instead said with a grin, "Why don't you go check on your golden egg?"
Harry took a deep breath and decided to find out the information about the second event of the semi-finals first, and then settle the score with George alone.
He swam back and forth in the water twice before he finally found the golden egg in the hot, humid and foamy water.
He dived into the water and fished out the golden egg.
There were balls of colorful mist floating around, and the atmosphere made Harry dizzy. He didn't notice what changes had occurred to the golden egg in the water.
"It doesn't seem to be responding?" Harry asked.
"Why don't you try opening it?" George said.
Harry stretched out his arms, lifted the golden egg with his wet hands, and cracked it open. Suddenly, a piercing scream filled the bathroom, echoing and vibrating between the marble walls -
But the sound was as inexplicable as always, and mixed with all the echoes in the bathroom, it was even more puzzling.
He snapped it shut, fearing the noise would attract the other prefects and Filch.
"George, you're not playing any pranks again, are you?" Harry looked at George suspiciously and asked with a frown.
"Who do you think I am, Harry!" George shouted indignantly, "No matter how much I like playing pranks, I will never make fun of your game!"
"Think about it carefully. Did I just ask you to jump into the water with the golden egg?" He sat on the edge of the bathtub and said to Harry.
"Yeah, am I not standing in the water holding the golden egg now?" Harry still looked very confused.
"Think about it, Harry. If the egg can be solved by just soaking it in water, then why did I bring you to this bathroom?" George said, "I mean - you bury your head and the golden egg in the water, and then open the golden egg..."
"Is that so?" Harry was still a little skeptical.
However, keeping in mind the mentality that he was already here, he took a deep breath, dived underwater, and opened the shell of the golden egg once again.
Now, as he sat on the marble at the bottom of his bubble bath, he heard a chorus of strange voices from within the cracked golden egg in his hand.
Harry clenched the golden egg in his hand in surprise, and listened attentively to what those strange voices were singing -
“Seek us, where our voices are heard, we cannot sing on the ground.
As you search, consider:
We have taken away your most precious treasure.
You only have one hour.
To seek and reclaim what we have taken, to bury hope when the time comes,
It is completely gone and will never see the light of day again."
After hearing this, Harry stepped on the bottom of the water with his feet, floated himself up, and emerged from the water full of bubbles.
He shook his head, pushing his hair out of his eyes, and took a deep breath with a green face.
"Did you hear anything?" George asked excitedly.
"I heard it..." Harry said thoughtfully, "'Look for us, where our voices come from...' Actually, this hint doesn't need to be said... Wait a minute, I need to listen to it again..."
As he said this, he dived again into the foamy water.
The song of the golden egg was sung three times underwater before Harry could barely remember it.
He surfaced again and called out to George anxiously, "George, do you have paper and pen?"
"What's the matter? Can't you remember?" George asked.
"I can almost remember it, but I'm afraid I'll forget it after tonight." Harry said, "It's better to write down the contents here as much as possible, just in case you miss something!"
"Let me look..." George said as he rummaged through his pockets, "... Ah, here I find it. There's a color-changing feather pen and a piece of parchment that I usually use to record my inspirations."
"A color-changing quill? Isn't this the magic joke prop you and Fred were researching?" Harry asked worriedly.
"No problem. As long as you write in a specific way, the color-changing feather pen can write clearly enough." George said confidently, "You can read it now. I'll write it down for you."
After they had memorized all the songs word for word, Harry finally climbed out of the bath in wet clothes and sat next to George.
"I have to look for those who can't make sounds on the ground..." He said slowly, "Hmm... who could that be?"
"I think it's obvious." George raised his eyebrows. "What else could it be except those underwater animals?"
"That's right," Harry nodded. "The first task is to face a dragon, so it should be reasonable for the second task to face some magical animals that live in the water. And this time we only have one hour to find those 'treasures'."
"So here comes the question, how do you stay underwater for an hour?" George asked pointedly.
Harry was stunned.
Yes, swimming in the Black Lake in such a cold weather is already difficult, not to mention that those so-called "treasures" must be in the deepest part of the Black Lake... How can he hold his breath for an hour and persist until he finds those "treasures"
"Don't think too much about it for now." Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit tense, George used his usual strengths and made a face at Harry. "It's not too late to think about it slowly during this period. There are still two months before the competition starts!"
"Yeah, that's right." Harry nodded slightly.
"Come on, let's go back to the common room together," George said, "I think you should have a good night's rest."
…
In Charms class after the Christmas holidays, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat alone at a table at the back of the classroom.
By the second half of the semester, the practice of the Flying Spell had basically come to an end. The spell that the little wizards were going to practice in this class was exactly the opposite of the Flying Spell - the Expulsion Spell.
Because things flying around in the classroom could easily cause unfortunate accidents, Professor Flitwick gave each student a large number of soft cushions for practice, so that even if the spell went astray, it would not hurt anyone.
Professor Flitwick's choice was indeed very foresighted. Many young wizards were not good at spells, such as Neville. He was too inaccurate when he chanted spells, and he always accidentally made some heavy objects fly all over the room.
For example, the thick pile of books under Professor Flitwick's feet.
Professor Flitwick had fallen off his books several times, all because Neville had used a banishing spell to pull the books out from under him...
Fortunately, there was a little witch by Neville's side, Hannah Abbott, who was pretty good at spells. She was able to correct Neville's flaws and omissions in his spellcasting in time, so that he wouldn't completely cast the Exorcism Spell on Professor Flitwick.
Since the Christmas ball, Hannah and Neville have become surprisingly close. Neville likes Hannah's kindness, while Hannah thinks Neville's simplicity and clumsiness are cute.
In contrast to these two little wizards, Ron and Hermione's relationship has never been reconciled.
Although after Professor Sprout's persuasion, Ginny and Harry told Hermione the reason why Ron behaved like that, so that Hermione was no longer as angry as she was at the ball, but Ron's awkwardness in his heart could not be easily resolved in a short time.
Hermione and Krum maintained a good relationship, which made Ron jealous for a long time. He always liked to make a few remarks to Hermione whenever he had nothing to do.
Of course, there is at least Harry as the glue between Ron and Hermione.
As the holiday came to an end and the second task of the Final Four approached, they needed to turn their full attention to the pressing problem at hand - how could Harry survive underwater for an hour on February 24th.
Ron was inclined to use the Summoning Charm again - Harry had told them about the use of water-scuba tanks on the Muggle side, and Ron thought that Harry could get a set of water-scuba tanks from a nearby Muggle town.
Hermione flatly rejected the suggestion.
"Ron, even if Harry learns how to operate the scuba tank in the required hour under the impossible circumstances, he will definitely be disqualified," said Hermione.
"He would certainly be violating the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy - flying a set of scuba gear across the countryside towards Hogwarts without being seen by Muggles is a pipe dream!"
"You're just making up stories!" Ron said to Hermione unconvincedly, "Can't we get a set of scuba gear in advance so Harry can learn how to use it first and then wear it directly into the water when the time comes?"
"That means using other tools, which is also against the rules of the game." Hermione emphasized, "The rules of the game clearly state that warriors cannot use tools other than wands during the game."
"So what do you think Harry should do?" Ron snorted, waving his wand and accidentally smashing the cushion in front of him onto Neville's head. "Oh, sorry, Neville! I didn't mean to..."
"I think the ideal way is to use Transfiguration and turn Harry into a submarine or something." Hermione looked up, waved her wand, and placed a cushion lightly in the box in front of the blackboard.
"Unfortunately, we haven't learned advanced human body transformation yet. That's something that we'll only learn in sixth grade... And if we transform ourselves without fully mastering it, the consequences will be disastrous..."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to walk around with a diving telescope on my head." Harry waved his wand as well, and to his surprise, his cushion landed right on top of Hermione.
He then lay down on the table and said in self-abandonment, "What do you think... If I provoke Professor Dracula during the competition, will he get angry and use Transfiguration to turn me into a fish or a penguin..."
"I think he's more likely to turn you into a duck, the kind that can only stare at things underwater but can't get them from the water," Ron complained.
"Forget it, don't even think about using Transfiguration, Harry." Hermione shook her head helplessly and said, "In that case, I think you'd better use a spell..."
So, Harry, Ron and Hermione once again went into the library and buried their heads in those dusty tomes, hoping to find a spell that could allow people to survive without oxygen.
During lunch hours, evenings, and entire weekends, the three of them spent time in the library, searching hard.
Hermione went to Dracula again and wrote him a note, approving her to use the books in the restricted section, and even asked for help from Madam Pince, the vulture-like librarian -
However, they found no solution, no simple, effective spell that could enable Harry to stay underwater for an hour and come back alive.
After all, his age was too much of a disadvantage, and he didn't learn a lot of things.
Until the last afternoon before the Final Four, Harry and his friends had not figured out how to deal with this underwater competition.
Harry knew very well that even if by some miracle he suddenly discovered a suitable spell, it would be difficult to master it overnight.
How had he let things get to this point? Why hadn't he started working on the clues provided by the golden egg sooner? Why had he been absent-minded in class—perhaps a professor had mentioned how to breathe underwater
The sun outside the window was setting. Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting in the library, anxiously flipping through spell books. There were several piles of books on the table in front of each of them, and they couldn't see each other.
Whenever Harry saw the word "water" in a book, his heart would skip a beat, but on closer inspection, he saw that it usually referred to two pints of water, half a pound of chopped mandrake, and a newt.
However, just when they were about to fall into despair, a turning point occurred at an unexpected time -
As Harry's rival, Cedric walked in one minute before the library closed and handed a book to Harry.
…
…