Hermione's efficiency was truly astonishing.
After learning that the line was written in Mermish, she deciphered it in just one evening.
What left Harry and Ron rather exasperated, however, was that the line was clearly only a hint about how to open the Seashell.
The logic was the same as before: as long as they read the Fish-Folk words aloud correctly, they could open the Seashell. And given how rarely Fish-Folk script was used, there was probably quite a lot of room for imprecision.
Hermione, for her part, did not think her gift for languages was so great that she could achieve flawless pronunciation after half a day of self-study. Yet the Seashell opened on only her second attempt.
Opening it, however, did not make Harry and Ron any happier.
The instant the Seashell opened, it let out an incredibly piercing screech that made their eardrums ache, forcing them to hastily snap it shut again.
"What was that just now?" George asked incredulously.
Harry and Ron both liked showing off, and Hermione had a taste for it too. Having discovered the clue that unlocked the third task, they were hardly going to hide somewhere deserted and work on it in secret.
It had to be in the Common Room, in front of all the young lions.
In fact, if they had not been worried about people from the other schools picking it up, Harry and the others would even have liked to do it in the Great Hall. Clearly, though, their performance had gone wrong this time.
That screech had nearly laid out everyone in the Common Room.
"I don't know either." Harry rubbed his ears frantically. They were still buzzing in waves.
Then everyone turned to Hermione. But she merely frowned and shook her head. "I don't know what