"No! I won't believe you until you prove it to me!" Hermione said indignantly as she folded her hands and stared right into Loki's eyes.
Daphne meanwhile continued to draw the comic strip she had been assigned for their first release of this year while simultaneously working on arranging the articles Hermione had written harmoniously with the appropriate images.
"Mione, I really am a seer!"
"No!"
"*sigh* fine then, why don't we set up a test for me to prove to you that I am a seer.", Loki said with a defeated expression.
Hermione's eyes widened slightly not having expected Loki to really be willing to prove it to her, but then she immediately calmed down and focused on the task.
"Fine then, I'll write down a few random numbers on a piece of paper and place it in an envelope when you're out of the room–"
"Let me guess, you want me to figure out the numbers you've written without opening the envelope?" Loki interrupted since he wanted to get this over with so he could open his new future-telling store in the Hogwarts Honest Mill office.
He had gotten the approval from McGonagall and Snape, even though it came with several restrictions like not revealing the existence of Beyonders and the usual.
Hermione's eyebrows twitched at Loki's impatience but said nothing since the argument between them had been brewing for long enough and she wanted to end it as soon as possible.
'Hmpf!! He thinks I can't catch him! How silly!! I'll make sure to trick him so he always keeps guessing!'
"Alright then, I'll leave the room, make sure you do what you want to do and see that I have no way of knowing exactly what you've written down. I won't do this twice so anything missing is your fault!" Loki said and walked out of the room.
As soon as he did, Hermione turned towards Daphne and spoke with a frown, "Don't tell me you believe him Daph."
Daphne cast a casual glance at Hermione, shook her head, and then went back to working to finish her work, she would be paid extra if she finished extra work after all. Even though she was a princess and had a lot of money, she felt like more would only help.
"Hmpf. Then I'll show you all how meaningless all this is!"
Hermione picked up a parchment, dipped her quill in some ink and then scribbled on a few random numbers in various corners of the parchment.
Once she was done, she rolled up the parchment to stuff it into her robes to keep it hidden from Loki, but then she gained inspiration as she saw the empty floating bubbles on Daphne's comic strips causing her to pause.
She pulled out the parchment and made a few changes before smiling in satisfaction and rolling it up again to stuff it into her robes.
Happy with her experiment and trick, Hermione was about to open the door when she found it opening on its own.
Loki had opened the door and stepped inside even before Hermione called him back.
"I came in because I realised that you were done."
"Huh? Ho-"
"Because the wind told me you were done." Loki interrupted with a meaningless answer that he used to annoy Hermione and get on her nerves.
"Fine don't tell me if you don't want to, that's not the test anyway, tell me what the numbers are.", Hermione said with her hands folded away with pride.
Loki looked at Hermione, smiled and then began speaking, "The number fifty-three is written on the right corner of the parchment you used, the number sixty-four is written on the left corner, and the number One hundred and ninety-fifty thousand five hundred eighteen is written on the centre of the parchment."
"How- No! Is that all?" Hermione asked with a smirk as if she'd won this thing.
"Of course not. If I was a third-rate seer, I would've stopped there. But you struck out the numbers and drew balls and boxes all around the parchment just to 'confuse' me, so that you could win easier, didn't you?" Loki said with a smile that got on Hermione's nerves.
Hermione clenched her hand tightly and then looked at Loki in anger as she said, "I will figure it out! I will figure out exactly how you found out!! And then I'll prove to everyone in the castle that you're a fraud!"
"No. You will do no such thing." Loki said calmly. "I told you already, it would be your fault if you didn't find a way to outsmart me. Now you'll be a good little kitten and not bite me!"
"Kitten!!?? Kitten your foot!! Don't-" Hermione started saying but got interrupted by Loki again.
"A feisty little kitty aren't you."
Hermione feeling indignant turned towards Daphne for support, but she was sporting a smile that she was forcing to remain hidden by biting the bottom of her lips "Argghhh!!! You two!! I know you're colluding with each other somehow!! And I'll make sure I find out!!"
Hermione walked back to her desk and began to read all the articles she was going to publish in the next newspaper issue, the first of this year.
"....you're welcome to try.", Loki said and moved to Daphne to hand over his advertisement and the money he required to publish it in their newspaper.
Of course, Loki used the lowest possible price he could by discounting himself as the owner of the newspaper and paid only about five Galleons for a full-page advertisement for a week.
The advertisement itself was very plain and minimalist, Loki didn't want to overburden himself immediately. As such he wanted to depend more on word of mouth to bring him more customers than the advertisement itself.
'I need to gain sufficient experience in acting out the character of a seer first, only then will I be able to fool the masses.'
On the advertisement were the words in the centre, written big and bold-
Want to know if the person you love loves you back?
Or got a deal you're worried about?
Maybe you want to know if you can break the curfew tonight!?
Loki's Musings is the right place for you.
As a world-class, renowned seer, Loki can find the solutions to your problems with just a sickle.*
Worry not, for Loki is here!!
Find him in classroom 2-21 after classes on the weekends.
*Terms and conditions apply.
Daphne scrutinised the advertisement, which had a picture of Loki in the background. Loki was looking right at the reader with a small mysterious smile, but Daphne didn't say anything else, only going back to finish her work.
'How nice of her!'
'I guess she knows it's rude to ask Beyonders about their powers and sequences.'
'But seriously….'
'If Professor McGonagall never told me about it, I wouldn't have guessed on my own that all the Noble family's kids are all at least Sequence 6 since birth…how convenient…'
'I guess I can understand why Professor Snape was so worried about me now…and why he wanted to turn me into a Beyonder so soon…'
'It was to allow me to contend with those that might use their Beyonder abilities on me…'
'But why isn't Malfoy a Beyonder then? I doubt even Professor Snape would've been able to stop him from using his powers…'
'Corruption? Were his parents' Beyonder Characteristics corrupted because they are Death Eaters?'
'That could be a reason I guess…'
'Either way, I'm looking forward to studying about Beyonders under Professor McGonagall from the next week…'
Loki was satisfied seeing he didn't have to prove anything else to Daphne and stepped out of the room to get some fresh air.
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