Chapter 26

~ Spoooky titles and the game's end ~

Back with the Royal Three.

"Well, she's coming, shouldn't be too long of a wait, it's just around the corner anyways" The Queen states putting away the magiphone.

"Fleur, Lun, how has your time been in the library of Hogwarts?" Luna asks the two.

"The normal one or the restricted one?" The Queen asks back.

"Both are libraries"

"Mhm... It was fine, had its ups and downs"

"Yes, I could say ze same, it's definitely interesting, zere's a wide selection of different kinds of books, not to mention zat I got to visit zis area of ze library, when some, if not most of ze ozer students had no chance to do so" Fleur answers after the Queen.

"How does it compare with Beuxbautons library?" Luna asks Fleur.

"It's bigger, but mainly due to having less variety in selection, mostly it's what would be required of us to know in life during school years and after it. Zere's fewer works of... 'entertainment'"

"Interesting, Lun, what were the downs?"

"Not going to ask me about the ups first?"

"I don't need to, I know them"

"Of course, well I will talk about the downs shortly, once all of us are here... And there she is" The Queen says spotting Hermione showing up, not winded at all, running through these long halls over the years and for many other reasons, has given the Gryffindor girl enough endurance and stamina.

"Hi Hermione" "'ello 'ermione" Luna and Fleur greet her.

"Hi, sorry I am late"

"It' nozing, not your fault anyways, since Lun had to call us back one after anozer, she left you for last, to give you more time to read"

"Oh... Well thank you, you actually got me on the perfect time of me finishing a book"

"No problem, now... This gives me an idea, an upgrade that's needed for the Magiphone, it needs to be able to call and connect multiple people, doing this one by one, isn't efficient in certain situations"

"That could be helpful" Hermione comments on the idea.

"Anyways, that's for later, now is now, so? What have you got?"

"Before that, Luna, what was that loud and screeching scream earlier?" Hermione asks turning her head to the dreamy Ravenclaw.

"A book"

"... Okay"

"And you? I've also heard a loud noise" Luna asks back.

"Haaah... A book" Hermione, after sighing, can only answer the same way that Luna had.

"I didn't hear either of those, guess I was too far away at the times it all happened" The Queen says, before continuing "But it seems, I wasn't the only one having problems with books in some way, I will tell you the 'down', a unique looking book just tried to eat my Queenly head"

"A book? tried to eat your 'ead?" Fleur asks in some disbelief, true, the world is magical and she can believe and even knows some books screaming and making loud noises, maybe even trapping you inside them in some way, but why would a book try to eat somebody.

"Indeed it has, was quite an experience, want to know the worst part?"

"I do"

"The book was useless to me, it was blank, that matters because it qualified for this game that we're having, so I would've been able to show you"

"Zat's ze worst part? So, I guess it failed biting your 'ead then"

"well, it had to, otherwise she wouldn't be standing here completely fine" Hermione interjects.

"Oh no, it practically swallowed it whole"

"... And you're fine?"

"Well, of course, I used a Protego before picking it up, the thing was so obvious, the only book that's pink and purple in a sea of brown, gray and black, so it had no effect"

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense, but perhaps the text is simply hidden beneath a charm or some hex?"

"Probably, otherwise I have no idea why it's even here, if it's only good for eating heads, but I couldn't bother with decyphering it at that time, due to being slightly peeved with the fact that it was blank to begin with" The Queen explains further.

"Fleur, did some book do anything to you?" Luna asks Fleur.

"No, my time here was completely normal, ze only difference I've felt with ze place, was zat zere was nobody zere"

"Well, now that we've talked about some of our experiences, let's get to it" The Queen steps in.

"Okay" The three say.

"I guess I will do the honors of going first" The crimson-eyed Ravenclaw states, by pulling the book from her bag.

"This, here, is named 'Art of Death', no author mentioned, at least as far as I know. I was a little surprised to find this book here in the restricted area, it's just an anthology of stories, the theme is obviously death in them, in various different ways and I had time to only read one of them, but nevertheless I quite enjoyed it"

"What's the story you've read about?" Luna asks.

"This particular one, peeked my interest at the very start, due to the reason of the character, which the reader, who was me this time, was following the perspective of an unnamed artist fascinated with everything death-related, they'd try to draw, paint, write poems, create lyrics about it, basically make 'art' in some way. Whenever somebody local died, they would be there, to inspect how and why they perished, examining as long as they could before people there would get annoyed with them and chase them away, once they were chased away, they would do their craft"

"zat sounds a little bit creepy"

"I suppose so"

"How does it end?" Hermione asks interested.

"Care to guess?" The Queen points a challenge to Granger.

"Hmm... What's the name of the story?"

"Art of Death, same as the book"

Hermione thinks for a bit, mulling over many outcomes, before settling on the one she feels is the right one.

"Due to the nature of the story's name and the 'fascination' with death... I think it ended with them somehow trying to make their own death their greatest art piece yet?"

"Impressive, that is correct, you think they succeded in making it though?" The Queen can't help herself from trying to challenge the girl even further.

"Yes... wait, no, it didn't work" Hermione changed her mind while in the middle of her answer.

"Oh?"

"At first, I wanted to say that they succeeded, because it would be a good end to a story... A 'happy' kind of story, but this book's theme is surrounded around 'death', so I don't see most, if not all of the stories ending brightly, there has to be a twist somewhere inside it"

"Quite brilliant, you are. The twist was simple. while preparing for their 'art', in the middle of getting some things, they were killed in an accident, meeting with the very object of their fascination, death. But not in the way they wanted. The moral of it all is that death comes to you unexpectedly and whenever it feels like it"

"Quite tragic, ze whole thing" Fleur comments.

"Yes, but it's only one of the stories from the book, I will read the rest later, some of them sounded interesting"

"As weird as the book seems, I'd like to get a read of it too" Hermione states.

"Good, we can do that together at some later date, now, I finished my 'presentation', who's going next?"

"Well, I guess I can do it" Hermione volunteers.

"This is the book named 'The Dark Forces:A Guide to Kill', at first I thought it was written by the same author that wrote 'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection', which was Professor Quentin Trimble, but it appears to be anonymously written and just like it sounds, it's pretty much the opposite of the Quentin Trimble book, it 'trains' one to become a killer in different scenarios, a lot of it sounded ridiculous to me, but there were some points that I couldn't refute, unfortunately"

"You 'ave read ze whole book?" Fleur asks.

"Yes?"

"In two 'ours?"

"Y-yes?"

"But zat book is so large, it probably has like four hundred pages"

"Actually, it has exactly four hundred and thirty"

"I guess, I can believe people now, when zey say..." Fleur thinks for a bit "Zat you read a lot"

"You didn't have to try in saying it nicely, I am used to hearing people calling me a know-it-all"

"Well, I don't see anyzing wrong wiz knowing a lot of zings to begin wiz, so it doesn't make a lot of sense for others to make it sound like a bad zing, but I wouldn't want to call you anyzing zat you don't like hearing"

"Thanks... I appreciate it" Hermione expresses gratitude with a smile.

"What was the most 'memorable' part of the book?" The Queen throws a question Hermione's way, after a brief silence between the group.

"There were a few, but if I had to choose, it'd be how the author described the three unforgivable curses. 'The curses, the so-called unforgivable curses, HA!, what a joke, they are nothing but a fool's, a coward's way of ending somebody's or something's life, those spells, tasteless excuses, they exist to incite fear in people's hearts and they do that job well, but that's what they should be left as, as an example of fear, nothing else, if one so chooses to kill with them, they forfeit their way in becoming a true killer and instead become simple one-track-minded monsters, for the moment they choose to do it that way, it means they had no 'better' and 'refined' way to do so, that they were too weak to do it in their own way, or any other way overall. They are all spineless, no finesse having, cowards', that's how the whole paragraph is written"

"Hmm... Yes, that would be memorable, I do somewhat agree with that statement as well" Says the Queen.

"You do?" Hermione asks with some surprise in her voice.

"Yes, well, the killing curse can't be defended against in any known way, right? So that means, if you do choose to use it, you were driven to that point for some reason, which means that you were, as the book said too 'weak' to finish the job without it"

"I suppose that's a point even if it's a little weird"

"Did you have any other option to choose from?"

"Three of them, but I used up all of my time on reading this one, so I had to take it"

"Good contender, no, who wants to go next?" The Queen says, looking between the two that are left.

"Moon, perhaps?"

"I didn't find anything" Luna answers when she was called.

"Oh... It happens, did you at least have a good time?"

"I did, there was one book that I thought of bringing here, but it didn't meet the required words"

"And that is?"

"The one which screamed at me when I closed it after reading some of it, 'Magick Moste Evile', evil wasn't part of your words"

"Well, quite unfortunate, did it have its author's name written?"

"Somebody named Godelot"

"At least it had a named author"

"Mine does too" Says Fleur "And seeing as Luna's turn 'as ended before it began, I will go next"

"I had three choices, both Lunas had none and two respectively, how many did you have?" Hermione asks Fleur.

"Well, it seems I lucked out on it, I 'ad nine"

"Say... those books wouldn't be from the eighth line, would they?"

"'mm? No, zey were from the seventh, as a matter of fact, ze eighz (eighth) one had nozing for me"

"Good, go ahead then"

"Okay, but just so you know, zis game is mine, I will be winning it" Fleur announces, before continuing "Now, as I said, zis book 'as a credited author... Well if you can count it zat way, since all it says 'Written by ze best Pureblood Prankster in ze world' and ze book is called 'Deaz! Blood! Murder! Kill! - Pranks! Riddles! All Around!', and just like it sounds, it's all about murder riddles and bloody pranks"

"It has all of the words I said, the coincidence is pretty amusing" The Queen comments after Fleur stopped her short explanation, just like she and Hermione did.

"How is it that you're so confident in winning?" Hermione asked.

"Because of what Lun just said, it has all ze keywords, zere's no way it will lose"

"Fleur has a point" The Queen states, agreeing.

"Wha- Don't tell me you're already casting your vote?" Hermione inquires befuddled.

"It seems I am, even if it's a little bit early"

"But that makes no sense, besides, we all, minus Luna, said some of the content from our books, we can't go into deciding before that" Granger vents a little.

"I didn't realize you'd get into the game so much, it's good that you're enjoying yourself"

"I... Ah... Uh..." Hermione mumbles flushed from being called out, but she quickly resets "Yeah, I am not having a bad time"

"It may be because of the books that surround us" Luna dreamily interjects.

"Perhaps, anyways, Hermione made a great point, Fleur, tell us some riddles from this book" The Queen says turning her attention to the French lady.

"Of course, 'ow about I read two riddles and one prank? Is zat okay wiz you zree?"

The three nod at Delacour's question and so, she opens the book randomly and reads the first thing she sees.

"To most, it brings fear, to others, it brings sadness, to some, it brings joy. It may come slow, it may come fast, but it has a time set for all.

But wherever it goes, whenever it appears, whatever it touches, it spares none, what is it?" Fleur cranes her head back up after she finished reading.

"That's obvious, first of all because the book is centered around it, so it's not even effective, second of all, it's just obvious" Hermione throws in a little, tiny rant after hearing the riddle, she also repeated herself just in spite of the book.

"It's Death" Luna answers after hearing out Hermione.

"Yeah, zat wasn't a 'ard one"

"Though, joy? When does death bring joy?" Hermione asks nobody in particular.

"When one wishes another dead and it happens" The Queen answers.

"That's pretty dark, but even so, shouldn't it be like a... Select few? Some is a little bit too many of a description, there can't be that many people like that"

"Not necessarily, pretty sure when the 'one who shall not be named' Voldemort died, a lot of people were treating it as a joyous occasion and most of the sorrow was for his victims and the Potters, so the 'some' checks out with situations like these. And why are people so fearful of his name, it's just a name..." The Queen yet again answers Hermione, but somewhat trails off-topic at the end.

"I... Yeah, I suppose that's true, fine" Hermione agrees with the Queen, but doesn't say anything on the topic of the Dark Lord's name and neither the other two, to them it's just 'natural' to not say it, probably since it's been drilled into their minds, hearts and souls by this point.

"Well, let's find ourselves anozer riddle, 'oping zis one will be a little bit more difficult... Even if all of zem 'ave pretty much ze same answers" Fleur states and again randomly opens a page, reading the first thing she sees.

"Sometimes I'm wet, sometimes I'm dry, but there's loads of me everywhere. Sometimes I may be seen as blue, but don't be fooled, for I am always red. What may I be?" And Fleur can't get her head back up fast enough as she hears the annoyance dripping off of Hermione's voice.

"Blood, the answer's blood, this book is stupid and bad. Maybe if we didn't know its name, it could be some sort of a challenge, but this 'famous' prankster, may have had the creativity, but lacked the mind to do it"

"I think the riddles are fine" Lovegood expresses her opinion "The problem is as you said, we knew of its name"

"I suppose, but even then, they are too easy"

"'ow about you try to make one?" Fleur requests Hermione.

"Uh... Umm... I guess I can try" Hermione starts thinking of something and she blinks as she gets something "it's short, but it should be fine with the time I used to think of it, ahem. I am always near, but at the same time, I am also far, what am I?"

"Well, since we are on the topic of 'death', that's the answer, but that could also mean a shadow since if you look from different points of view and at different times, it seems farther or closer away, there is probably some other answers that fit, but you get it" Says the Queen.

"Well, I didn't say I was good at it"

"Neither did I say that you were bad, nor did I say that the book was good"

"I liked it" Luna compliments it.

"... Thank you Luna" Hermione says after a slight pause.

"Anyways, the bigger question is what is the book even doing in the forbidden section, either I don't know what the word 'forbidden' means, which is obviously unlikely, or the forbidden section shouldn't even be forbidden to begin with. I can understand your chosen book being here, since 'learning to kill' is seen as forbidden by most, but even my one shouldn't be here unless there's a magically jinxed story inside it, when if you finish reading it your arm... Explodes or something"

"Perhaps it was the Weasley Twins that put it there, the other part of the book is for pranks after all and they all sorts of ways of getting around Hogwarts undetected" Hermione suggests.

"If they did do it, why would they put it here? It makes no sense to do so when nobody will find it and see it" The Queen says as if it was obvious.

"But Fleur found it" Only to be shut down by her Moon.

The Queen opens her mouth and, unladylike, it stays open for a second, before it closes due to her needing to reset her thoughts.

"Yes, Moon, you're right, she did, thanks for reminding me"

"You're welcome" Luna lets out innocently.

The Queen looks for a moment at her smiling Moon and even in a situation like this, she can't herself in doing the same.

"Anyways, we can just ask them later. Now, how about Fleur finds one prank that we can hear about and then we vote to finish the game"

"Got it, let me find somezing, just a second" The French woman says and gets her head back inside the book, but this time it stays there longer since she actually tried searching for a prank.

"Zere we go found one" Fleur says, before reading the well put down information about it.

"For zis prank, pick a person zat you don't really like, but don't really 'ate, since zis one is just an inconvenience for two days. Once you read the incantation of ze spell while focusing on one of zeir ears wiz your wand pointed at it, zat ear will enlargen itself about five times, making zem look ridiculous, ze best part? You'd zink zat it would 'elp zem to 'ear better, but it's just ze opposite, zey will be barely able to 'ear from it. Oh and ze ozer best part? For boz (Both) nights while ze spell is active, zat ear will bleed, it won't be painful, but it will be uncomfortable enough to make zem unable to fall asleep"

"That's just mean" Says Hermione after hearing it.

"It's not that bad" Luna refutes Hermione.

"How is it not?"

"The pranks of the Weasley twins are mostly on the same level, some of them are even worse" Luna explains.

"... Yeah, I guess they are, just not being able to sleep like that, sounds truly inconvenient, reading books while feeling tired like that is quite an annoying thing to do"

"I don't zink zat should be your first issue wiz it" Fleur comments on Hermione's priorities.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Ze bleeding? Ze ear looking disproportionate to ze ozer one? I feel like zose two problems are more of a worry"

"They are bad, yes, but if somebody does happen to do it to you, there's nothing you can do about it, so the sleepless part sounds worse because of that. Obviously, you could just go to Madam Pomfrey and she'd help fix it early, but still"

"Short answer, the prank is bad in all ways, so it doesn't matter which part of it is worse" The Queen plays the devil's advocate, even if she doesn't truly believe it to be all that 'bad' "What's the incantation?"

"Oh, let me read it out. 'Big, bigger. Large, larger. Make this ear worse. cause it bleeding'"

"Straight to the point, I see" Adds the Queen.

"Yes, just don't think of doing it on somebody, I already saw some student walking out the Great Hall with animal parts, nobody needs to see a big ear" Hermione directs her words to the Queen.

"I promise not to do so, but only because this spell and probably any other inside that book is quite below me"

"... Good enough" Is all that Hermione can say.

"So, let's vote, I will start, since I don't need to think about it, I vote for Fleur's choice"

"And it's all because of the title?" Hermione throws a question, even if she already knows the answer to it, she just felt the need to ask.

"Indeed, the fact that it had all of the words that I suggested, is enough to win me over in this particular challenge"

"Well, I will vote for yours, because the book sounds decently interesting and I wouldn't mind reading it even now" Hermione states her vote.

With that, it's one for the French and one for the Reincarnated.

"Well, since Luna doesn't have a book we can vote on, Fleur" The Queen says Delacours name, bringing her attention to herself "Unfortunately you won't be able to vote and will have to leave it up to Moon to decide the winner. As per the rules we have established, you can't vote for your own choice. That means if you were to vote, there would be a few complications. First being, if you voted for Hermione, then Luna would be able to choose from the three of us and while it's great that way, it changes things when you have to vote for her and only her to do so unless you were going to choose her book anyways"

"I wasn't, I would 'ave voted for yours, I don't see myself reading and 'training' myself 'ow to kill, no offense, 'ermione" Fleur interjects the Queen.

"None taken, the choice wasn't the greatest, but I took it because I've read it, I wouldn't vote for it myself even if I had the option anyways" Hermione explains to Fleur.

"Good then, there's no need to dwell on the first point, so, the second being, if Fleur votes for mine, as she just told and then Moon voted for mine too, that means I would've won anyways, making Fleur's vote just being somewhat redundant. But here's the kicker, the third, if Moon instead voted for Fleur's, then it'd be a tie, robbing the other of a chance to victory and nobody is happy, I mean, it's fine and I don't mind a draw, but it just feels unsatisfying"

"Yeah, it's fine, I understand and I zought somezing like zis was going to 'appen ze moment Luna told us she didn't 'ave anyzing to show, besides I am 'appy with letting Luna decide ze outcome" Fleur says after hearing the Queen's explaining.

"What if Luna chose my book? I mean, I don't know why she would, it's really bad, especially when you haven't read it" Hermione asks "It'd be a tie between us then"

"A tie that way is okay, mainly due to the fact that if everything went as I thought off at first, then a tie could have never of happened, because of four total votes, but with three, a tie can actually happen" While the Queen, Hermione, and Fleur are conversing with each other on this topic.

Their conversation gets cut off by Luna saying "I vote for Fleur"

"Uh..." Fleur clears her throat "Well, I win, just as I told you zat I will"

"Congratulations" Says Luna first, the Queen, and Hermione saying the same after her.

"So, what do I win?" She throws a question the QUeen's way.

"I don't know actually, didn't think of it" The Queen answers nonchalantly.

"Then, what did we do zis for?"

"For fun?"

"I mean, It wasn't all zat bad, exploring zis place was also interesting, but for some reason, I feel unsatisfied"

"Don't worry, Fleur, I said that I didn't think of it, in time I will and then you'll get your prize, for now, you can gloat over us and me especially, that you beat the Queen on something when even the teachers of Hogwarts couldn't do it yet"

"I might do zat" Fleur comments.

"Well, Hermione, Moon, Fleur, thanks for participating in this little 'game'. Seeing as we are finished here, Fleur, want to go to Madame Maxime to talk about you staying with us?"

"Sure"

"Moon, coming with uS?"

"No, tell me about it later"

"Yeah, of course, well we'll be going then, Hermione good luck with whatever you were going to do here in the library, see you two later" The Queen says her farewells and starts walking away, Fleur following right after, also saying "Bye 'ermione, bye Luna"

"Bye" Both of them respond to her.

There are only two left inside the forbidden section, both of them stand in silence, Hermione feeling a little bit awkward about it.

"You wanted to win, didn't you?" Luna asks Hermione, breaking the silence.

"Umm... I might have" Grangers answers after a pause.

"Well, maybe next time you'll do it"

"Why didn't you leave with them?" Hermione asks her own question after another brief moment of silence.

"Lun forgot to put back the book and made Fleur do the same, so I know that they'll be back after talking with Madame Maxime"

"Now that you mention it... So are you just going to wait here?"

"No, I just wanted to remind you to do the same"

"Oh... Thank you" Hermione expresses gratitude awkwardly because she didn't need a reminder to do so.

"You're welcome, well I'll be going now, see you, Hermione" Luna says with a wave of her hand and starts walking away, she also hears farewells from Hermione.

~ End of Chapter 26 ~