"I need the map" whispered Harry to me in potions, I raised an eyebrow "why?"

"Please?"

I agreed but I swear I did not know he was going to use it for the egg.

"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" saidHermione indignantly. 

"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to —sort of fine-tune it, all right?" 

We were sitting at the very back of thePotions class with a table to ourselves. We were supposed to be brewing poisons. 

"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Snape passed us. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape andMoody. . . ." 

This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Harryhad been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour. 

"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, as I stopped him for burning himself "What . . . d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape aswell as Karkaroff?" 

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, buthe's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cauldron bubbled and frothed. 

"Careful" I hissed "the book says--"

"Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stayhere because he's giving him a second chance or something. . . ." 

"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening. "Harry . . . maybe Moody thinksSnape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!" 

"Oh Ron," I said, shaking my head sceptically, "wethought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out hewas saving Harry's life, remember?" I read the instructions; leave to simmer. . . I was thinking . . . it was true that Snape had saved his lifeonce, but the odd thing was, Snape definitely loathed him, just ashe'd loathed our father when they had been at school together.Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggestthat he should be suspended from the school. 

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin,even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so whyshouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit —" 

"— evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are allthese Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?" 

"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage tocome to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of thenight when he wants to?" 

"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," saidRon, sending a cushion soaring into the window. 

"You just want to think Snape's up to something," said Hermione. 

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he'son his second one," said Harry grimly. I sighed. 

Obedient to Sirius's wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explainingall about Mr. Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody andSnape's conversation. Well, I made him. 

Then Harry turned his attention in earnest tothe most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwaterfor an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charmagain — I had explained about Aqua-Lungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggletown. I squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an AquaLung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualifiedfor breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy — it wastoo much to hope that no Muggles would spot an Aqua-Lungzooming across the countryside to Hogwarts. 

"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigureyourself into a submarine or something," I said. "If onlywe'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think westart that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don'tknow what you're doing. . . ." 

"Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope stickingout of my head," said Harry. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody; he might do it for me. . . ." 

"I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turnedinto, though," I snorted. "No, I think your bestchance is some sort of charm." 

So Harry, thinking that he would soon have had enough of thelibrary to last him a lifetime, buried himself once more amongthe dusty volumes, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though us, Ron, andHermione searched through our lunchtimes, evenings, and wholeweekends — though Harry asked Professor McGonagall for a noteof permission to use the Restricted Section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian, Madam Pince, for help — wefound nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend anhour underwater and live to tell the tale. 

With two days left, Harry started to go off food again. The onlygood thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of thebrown owl we had sent to Sirius. I pulled off the parchment,unrolled it, and saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written tous. 

Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl. 

I turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank."Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read thenote over my shoulder. "Here — take my quill and send thisowl back straight away." 

I scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tiedit onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again. Whathad he expected? Advice on how to survive underwater? He hadbeen so intent on telling Sirius all about Snape and Moody he hadcompletely forgotten to mention the egg's clue. 

The overload of work didn't help much. Late last night I finishing my last essay, as soon as I finished I packed everything in and rested my head on Zoe's shoulder. Zoe, who was usually happy to offer her shoulder for my head leaning purposes shrugged me off. "Need my shoulder Ems," she said, biting her quill for her ancient runes lessons. So, I rested my head on Draco's shoulder, he chuckled. 

"Tired?" he asked. I nodded

Professor Snape entered the common room, everyone looked alert. 

"Ms Potter" he said "Professor Dumbledore wants you in his office."

What? Why? I silently got up and followed Snape, stiffling my yawns. We reached the gargoyle and Snape called "Canary Creams!" I muffled a laugh, seemed like Fred and George's treats had gotten to Dumbledore's ears. 

When we got up, I saw Hermione, Cho Chang and a girl with silvery-white hair. 

"Ah, Ms Potter" said Dumbledore, please take a seat" I sat on the last remaining seat and glanced down. There were delicate cups with tea in them, the steam made me oddly sleepy. I stayed away from it. 

"I'm sure Ms Potter and Ms Granger at least, already know what clue the egg holds" said Dumbledore glancing at us "please repeat it."

Hermione did at once:

"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." 

I was confused. What did this have to--oh. 

Then it hit me. "Not a what" I whispered, everyone turned towards me "a who." I looked around "us. Someone close to the champions. Someone who--" my voice catches "--who'll they'll miss. I must be Harry's, Cho is Diggory's, You--" I glanced at the girl "must be Fluers, and Hermione your Krum's." 

"Excellent Ms Potter" said Dumbledore "very excellent"

I wasn't done, I whispered the last lines "But past an hour — the prospect's black,Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

Chang caught on, "w-what happens if they don't come for us in the limit?" she whispered "will we--"

"You will not die" said Dumbledore sharply "the champions might, but you will not. Nor will you feel anything, you need to drink the tea. 

I glanced down at it. Then without warning, Cho grasped her cup and gulped it down. So did the girl, and Hermione. 

I glanced at Dumbledore, then back at the cup. 

Dumbledore. The Cup. Dumbledore. The Cup.Dumbledore. The Cup.

I gulped down the tea.