"That's brilliant, Hermione!" Harry finally exclaimed, taking the book and beginning to read. Daphne sat down next to him and began reading while Hermione simply waited for them to finish. When Harry was done he handed the book back to Daphne and started practicing the wand movements. "Have you tried this one yet?"
"No, not yet." Hermione answered. "I don't think it is supposed to be a difficult spell, but I didn't want to risk trying it without someone else there to help me if it went wrong."
"What do you mean, went wrong?" Harry asked.
"I was worried that I might get the bubble to appear but not the air in it." Hermione answered. Harry nodded, agreeing that would be a bad result.
"Well, here goes nothing…" Harry said, starting the wand movement that began with him waving his wand around his head and ended with him tapping himself on the head. As he finished he clearly and forcefully said the incantation: "Aer Caputus!" and was rewarded with the sight of a transparent bubble forming around his head. He had been nervously holding his breath as he cast the spell, a fact which took him several seconds to realize. Hesitantly, he took in a breath and was pleased to find that it was normal, breathable air. "It worked!" Daphne rushed over to him and gave him a hug in congratulations, and then began to poke at the bubble with her finger to see if it would break. The bubble remained intact, even when Daphne stopped using her finger and started trying to burst the bubble with a quill.
"I think this will work, Harry. The bubble is a lot stronger than it looks." Daphne said approvingly. "Now try to cancel the spell." Harry nodded and tapped himself on head again which caused the bubble to disappear. "Good!" she said in encouragement.
"Now you just have to try it underwater." Hermione added.
"I was thinking about that," Harry responded, "and now that I have a way to stay underwater I want to start exploring the lake. That way I will have a better idea of where I am going for the second task. Before I do that though, I need to figure out what is living in the lake. I know there are Merpeople, grindylows, and the giant squid but what else?"
"I'll look into it, Harry" Hermione said eagerly. "Oh, and if it makes you feel any better Viktor hasn't been able to figure out how to get the clue from the egg yet."
"And how was your date with the international Quidditch star?" Daphne asked, resulting in a small blush from Hermione.
"It was… good." Hermione answered, still blushing and smiling. Daphne laughed a little seeing how uncomfortable the other girl was gossiping about her date.
"Cedric already knew." Harry said suddenly, referring to the egg, "Professor Moody told him." As he said that he got the feeling that the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's behavior was very odd. Why would he tell Harry about the first task but not Cedric? Or tell Cedric about the second task but not Harry? If he just wanted someone from Hogwarts to win it would be better to tell them both. Moody also tried to help him plan for the first task, but he had not done anything like that this time. 'Maybe Moody is just mad, like everyone says.' Harry thought, trying to shake the confused feeling.
"That was nice of Professor Moody." Hermione said. But Daphne's face had a small frown on it, causing Harry to wonder if she was having thoughts similar to his. Before he could continue that thought Hermione was talking again, asking him a question. "Harry, is there another room somewhere in the castle we can use? This is a great location and it's private, but it's also too small."
"I can check the Marauder's Map for something else, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe I could ask Dobby." The second he said Dobby's name the small house elf popped into the room, throwing himself at Harry's feet.
"Is Master Harry Potter calling Dobby?" he asked, happy that Harry wanted him there. Harry, meanwhile, was a little uncomfortable with the affection the elf was showing him.
"Dobby, do you know of somewhere in the castle we can practice magic? We would need it to be private like this room, but bigger."
"Maybe, Harry Potter, sir." Dobby said, looking thoughtful. "Dobby will look and ask the other house elves. Dobby will not disappoint you sir!" The small house elf disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, leaving Daphne laughing at the elf's odd behavior and Hermione muttering something about 'poorly treated elves'.
"If there is a better place in this castle, Dobby will find it." Harry assured them both. "Alright, now you two should practice the Bubble Head Charm. Like Hermione said, it isn't that difficult." The rest of the evening was spent with them learning the new spell and testing what they could do with it. Neither of them was able to successfully perform the spell on their first try. Daphne finally managed to do it after ten minutes of trying, and Hermione five minutes after that. By the time they finished experimenting with the new spell if was late and they decided to call it quits. Hermione left for the Gryffindor common room while Harry escorted Daphne back to the Slytherin dorms.
On the way it was hard to miss the stares they received whenever they passed by the other students. What was most amusing to them was the variety of expressions on the faces of the people who were staring. Some were angry, others fearful, and a great many of them were simply interested or confused. Harry and Daphne either laughed it off or ignored them, not wanting to deal with people asking them to explain their relationship. Not that either of them was quite sure how to define that relationship at the moment either. Both were curious what the other thought, but neither of them had brought up the topic. For now neither of them minded that, content to just enjoy the moment. Things might get difficult in the near future and they were not eager to take on any more worries.
Unknown to them, at that very moment a fresh round of attacks from the Daily Prophet was being printed and prepared for delivery courtesy of their least favorite reporter: Rita Skeeter.
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