***

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Astrid had been trying to figure out the diddly dang golden egg for a week now and still had no luck. Every time she tried to open the egg, a high pitched yelling came out, deafening for a few moments.

"Well, I wouldn't bang it if I were you. You knows what that would do." Daisy said from her spot on the ground. The shorter Hufflepuff had invited Daisy and Rhea to the Black Lake to help her figure out what to do with golden egg she had gotten. While Daisy was sat on the lush grass covered ground, the Gryffindor has propped herself up against a tree close to them.

Astrid lowered her arms from over her head as she was about to hit the egg on a log. Frustrated, she walked over to the two others and put the golden egg on top of her satchel so it didn't roll away. She walked over to the waters edge and grabbed some of the flattest rocks she could find so she could skip them.

"Have you tried opening it a different way? Like not from the top?" Rhea asked as she inspected the egg, turning it over to see if she could find anything to help. "Yes. You were there, you saw." Astrid said as she threw one of the rocks as far as she could.

"Yeah, it almost broke my eardrums." The Gryffindor said as she relived the moment. As she was messing with the egg, the top popped open and the screams were unleashed. The Hufflepuffs covered their ears while Rhea was scrambling to close it once again. Once it was closed, they all took and second but Daisy seemed to realize something.

"Wait, why does that sound familiar..." She said mostly to herself. She rummaged through her bag and grabbed her 'Defense against the Dark arts' textbook and started to flip through the pages. Being curious people, Rhea and Astrid walked over to her and watched what she was doing over her shoulders.

"Here it is, Sirens! 'In ancient legends, Sirens were mysterious creatures that would lure sailors into their watery deaths. In modern day, they have evolved so that people wouldn't be able to understand their songs unless they were underwater.'" Daisy read off the page as Astrids eyes widened at the discovery. Before Daisy and Rhea has even raised their heads up, the shorter Hufflepuff peeled off her sweater and button up shirt.

"Astrid! What are you doing?!" Daisy shouted at her in surprise. Nobody was around but still! But Rhea, being no help in stops their innocent friend, clapped her hands and leaning back to her tree, saying, "Now it's a party!"

Astrid, who was now only wearing a small tank top and a pair of tight short shorts, walked to the water up to her waist, which wasn't that high. Something you should probably know about Astrid was one of her biggest fears was deep water. She hated it and it terrified her. Drowning was scary and she didn't like going into the water that much in general. So if this was the next task, to put it simply, she was screwed.

She sucked in as much air as she could, put her hand on top of the golden egg in her other hand and closing her eyes before letting herself sink into the water. She undid the clasp and the once high pitch screams were beautiful singing voices, confirming Daisy's theory.

Come seek us where our voices sound

We cannot sing above the ground

And while you're searching ponder this

We've taken something you'll sorely miss

An hour long you'll have to look

And to recover what we took

But past an hour, the prospects black

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back

Once the song was over, she kicked her legs and returned to the surface. Rhea and Daisy were waited on the shore for her. Astrid panted as she trudged out of the water. Her Hufflepuff wrapped her in a towel and rubbed her arms to warm her up a little.

"Are you ok? Also, where the duck did you get a towel from, Daisy?" Rhea asked Astrid before directing her second question at the other Hufflepuff. The girl in question simply shrugged and said, "I always come prepare."

"The next task is an underwater task. They are taking something from each champion and then we have to get it." Astrid said quickly as was shivering from the cold water. Jumping in with little to nothing was probably not her best idea.

"Ok..ok. You know what, we are going to help you and get you over your fear of deep water. At least enough for you to complete your task." Daisy said trying to be the positive one of the situation as she brainstormed ideas for what she could do.

Astrid nodded along before saying, "Ok, but first I have to tell Cedric and Harry."

***

Once she was dried off, except for her hair, and dressed, she walked into the castle and to the courtyard where she knew she'd find Cedric and his friends.

Astrid walked over to them and tapped one of his friends on the shoulder as Cedric watched her. "Hi, can I borrow Cedric for a second?" She asked very quickly as she needed to find Harry as well but he wasn't in the courtyard.

"B-but we wer-" She quickly cut the poor stuttering boy off as she said, "Great, because I wasn't really asking!" Before grabbing the make Hufflepuff by the arm and pulling him away where she had a hunch Harry might be.

"Astrid, where are we going? And why is your hair wet?" She didn't answer as they had already made it to the bridge and she could see the familiar mop of messy dark hair. Astrid quickly walked over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and asked, "Hey can I borrow him? Thanks!" She didn't give them time to answer as she already started to pull him away with surprising strength, not that they were going to question it.

"Astrid, what the bloody he'll is going on?" Harry asked as they finally stopped at the other end of the bridge. Both boys looking at her and confusion and surprise, mostly confusion.

"You have to go in water with the egg to figure it out. That's how you figure out the egg." She said as she panted slightly, not even breaking a sweat from that much running around. They looked at her incredulously but nodded as they thought about what would happened by putting the egg in water.

"Good luck." She said with a small wave and big smile as she walked away. Probably to dry her hair.