Golden egg

Golden egg
Object information
Made	Before 1994
Usage	To give clues about the Second Task
Owners	Harry Potter (24 November, 1994-24 February, 1995) Cedric Diggory (24 November, 1994-24 February, 1995) Viktor Krum (24 November, 1994-24 February, 1995) Fleur Delacour (24 November, 1994-24 February, 1995)

"If you look down at those golden eggs you’re all holding, you will see that they open … see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg — because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it!"

— Ludovic Bagman explains the purpose of the golden eggs.

The golden egg was a magical device and the goal of the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. It was about the size of a regular dragon egg and placed among the female dragons' eggs, where Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter had to retrieve them. This was very difficult, considering that they only had Wands and their knowledge of spells.

The eggs contained disembodied merpeople voices singing a song to the champions, letting them know that they had to come to the lake and rescue something very valuable to them, which turned out to be a person very close to each of the champions. As the voices were those of merfolk, they could only be understood underwater. If opened in open air, the egg would screech and make a horrible racket.

Harry Potter did not pay much attention to the egg the first weeks, the reason being him thinking he had hordes of time. He did not figure out the clue until he took the advice of Cedric Diggory and "took a bath" with the egg. With the urging of Moaning Myrtle, Harry opened it up underwater. After some contemplation, he asked Myrtle if there were merpeople in the Black Lake. When she confirmed this information, Harry got out of the bath and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room. Along the way he fell through a trick step in the staircase and dropped the egg, after seeing "Bartemius Crouch" on the Marauder's Map, which he assumed to be Barty Crouch Sr. Caretaker Argus Filch found the egg and, because Harry was under his Invisibility cloak, assumed that Peeves had stolen it. The egg was returned to Harry after Professor Moody, who was really Barty Crouch Jr., secured the egg from Filch.

The egg's clue

The Golden egg when it opens.

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.

Behind the scenes

• In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, the golden egg is floating over fire.
• In the book, the egg is with other dragon eggs, while in the film, the egg is alone.
• In the film adaptation, the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th lines are cut:

Film version

Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
An hour long you'll have to look,
To recover what we took.

• The soundtrack for this is named "Underwater Secrets" and lasts 2:26 minutes, although only half of that time is the merpeople 's song from the Golden Egg .

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Harry Potter LEGO Sets

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