The Yule Ball's echoes lingered as students returned to classes, some more reluctantly than others. Even the professors seemed a bit dazed, save for one. Yes, we're looking at you, Professor Trelawney!
Perhaps due to lingering holiday cheer, most professors were uncharacteristically lenient. Incorrect answers were met with patient re-explanation rather than scorn, except, of course, for one stalwart figure.
Severus Snape, true to his calling, lashed out. "You snot-nosed troll! Are you brainless? Did the dancing scramble your wits? Your legs shake, fine, but why your hands? Get the potion order wrong again, and you'll be dancing for the rest of your pathetic life!"
He whirled on another student. "And you, Malfoy! What are you smirking at? Too much fun with your 'little girlfriend' last night? Homework times ten!"
"Er... Professor, I was with Harry last night. I don't have a girlfriend." Draco Malfoy stammered.
"You dare talk back? Homework times twenty!"
Snape wasn't just unfazed; he was positively incandescent with fury. The students in his class kept their heads down, whispering only after class, terrified of sharing Draco Malfoy's fate. Strangely, every house except Slytherin saw their grades plummet. Snape's point deductions rivaled Tom's own; had he dared to be so arbitrary, they would have been identical.
Other Heads of House, like Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick, usually hesitated to challenge him. However, seeing Snape's bizarre behavior, they decided to bypass him and complain directly to Albus Dumbledore. Snape only learned of this when Dumbledore summoned him for a 'chat.'
...
While classes continued, the Triwizard champions focused on the Second Task. Cassandra Volle sat in Tom's office, puzzling over the golden egg. She'd already learned the hard way that opening it unguarded resulted in near-ruptured eardrums. Thus, she sought Tom's assistance. If I lose my hearing, at least I won't have to go all the way to the Hogwarts Infirmary—Tom can fix it.
"What is the voice inside trying to convey?" Cassandra asked, using the alchemy she'd learned from Tom to dissect the egg's nature. She concluded it was essentially a tape recorder, storing a piece of sound. The noise wasn't meant to deter them, but to conceal information.
"The trouble is, the information... it's peculiar, practically inaudible," Cassandra admitted. Dumbledore wouldn't just use this to torment us. There has to be a method.
"You still don't know?" Tom asked, surprised.
"Should I... know?" she asked cautiously, fearing his sharp rebuke.
Tom remained silent, realizing she was simply being cautious. She opened it once, learned her lesson, and now refuses to open it again without careful consideration. He glanced at the "Heart of the Ocean" necklace she wore. "Try opening it again."
Cassandra hesitated, but obeyed Tom's command. This time, instead of a screech, she heard a soft, melodic singing.
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
An hour long you'll have to look,
To recover what by us was took.
"...In the water? Singing? Mermaids!" Cassandra exclaimed, bewildered. She looked to Tom, who remained engrossed in his book. "But why?"
"That so-called scream is the song of a mermaid," Tom said, turning a page. "Logically, you should be able to understand it underwater." Tom assumed Dumbledore wouldn't fault him for revealing this since Cassandra had already heard the mermaid's song.
Hearing Tom's words, Cassandra nodded, then looked puzzled. "But I'm not in the water right now."
"Because of that." Tom closed his alchemy book and gestured to the deep blue orb at her throat. "Remember Ariel? It allows you to communicate freely with aquatic creatures, and mermaids are aquatic creatures." He'd given her the "Heart of the Ocean" as an ornament before the Yule Ball because it wasn't particularly useful to him.
Cassandra knew it was a "mermaid's treasure" but lacked Tom's "system detection" to understand its properties. Tom then explained its general functions.
Cassandra felt relieved, not because Tom had given her something precious, but because she thought he had given it to her in anticipation of the Second Task. Sure enough, even though Tom is a bit of a goofball, he can be quite thoughtful sometimes.
...
While Cassandra deciphered the golden egg's secret, across the castle…
In the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor...
Cedric Diggory, still embracing the golden egg even while bathing, pondered its mystery. Since the Yule Ball, he'd carried it everywhere, trying to unlock its secret. He had been soaking for quite some time, and the bubbles that had filled the huge tub had mostly dissipated.
Cedric Diggory debated whether to open it again. In truth, he'd opened the golden egg countless times, but the repeated barrages of "mermaid song" had nearly turned his ears to mush.
"..."
Just as he considered this...
"Waaah..."
Moaning Myrtle drifted through the wall, entering the prefect's washroom.
Startled, Cedric Diggory dove underwater. Staring at the golden egg, he opened it.
---
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