ALL NOVEL Chapter 13
~ Corridor on the way to DADA ~
The quartet, comprised of the Queen, Lovegood, Weasley, and Granger, walks towards their respective classes.
"Ginny, can you count how many sales we did. And how many units were sold to what house" The Queen asks the Weasley girl, giving her all the papers that magically wrote the number of every book given away on each line.
"Sure"
"Thank you... Now" The Queen turns to Hermione.
"As promised, the book? You read it from start to finish, right?" The Queen asks Granger.
"Of course"
"Good... But it wasn't just one time, was it?" The Queen quirks an eyebrow at the older witch.
"Umm... No, I am almost at the end for the second time"
"Well, I hope you haven't missed anything important"
"I've read the whole thing, twice, what could have I possibly missed?" Hermione asks curiously
"There's way more to that book than what's shown in plain sight" The Queen hums out while turning back, leaving Hermione to figure it out for herself. Which, doesn't take long.
"It's charmed... Hiding secrets, isn't it?"
without turning back to look at Hermione, the Queen replies "You got it, there are weak charms, that are easy to break and harder ones, that are more difficult, but I have all the faith in the world that you can do it. So good luck with that. Naturally, the easier to break, the less valuable the information that's hidden... But it's still more valuable than the information available for everybody to see"
"Mhm, well I will get on that, but anyway, seems that we have to separate here, my class is on a different floor, bye Ginny, bye Lunas," Hermione says turning around, to walk away.
"Granger, wait for a bit"
Hermione stops and turns back around at the Queen's request with a questioning look.
"You forgot something"
"What's that?" Hermione asks slightly lost.
The Queen takes her wand out of in-between her ear and casts a quick 'Multicorfors'.
Hermione blinks at the action, looks down, seeing her new clothes, which look the same as Ginny's, she can see 'Hermione Granger, the Brightest Witch' written in beautiful cursive letters. At the back was the same emblem that was on her previous, sudden, and short-lived throne.
"There we go, way better, right ladies?" The Queen asks looking between Luna and Ginny for their approval.
"She does look more beautiful, didn't think that she was hiding such a figure behind the old robes, quite surprising that she hasn't had a boyfriend yet" Ginny compliments. While Luna only nods with a dreamy smile etched on her face.
"Ginny..." The Queen sighs out catching Wasley's attention, Ginny looks at her, seeing the Queen pointing at herself for a moment she was confused, before remembering.
"Oh, it's quite surprising that she hasn't had a boyfriend or... a girlfriend yet" Ginny repeats herself.
The Queen nods, pleased.
Hermione blinks again and starts to get flustered from the trio's intense looks on her now less hidden body and Ginny's comments aren't helping. She turns around and walks away faster than first intended.
The Queen chuckles and turns around to continue walking to DADA. But she hears Hermione's voice shouting a 'Thank you for the clothes' making her smile.
"Now, Ginny, what results do we have for ourselves?"
Ginny gets slightly startled at the question, she wasn't expecting to get asked so suddenly, right after teasing Hermione, but at least she has finished her appointed task.
"Right... I will go from the lowest to the highest"
The Queen nods.
"1. Hufflepuff-1 person bought 3 books, totaling 45 galleons"
"Ha, just as I expected, of course, the 'loyal' wouldn't do it, the fact that one did it is already a record, what buncha losers" The Queen bellows heartily.
"That's not nice, Lun" Luna reprimands the Queen, making her shut up in dejection.
Ginny not wanting to call out their interaction, continues.
"2. Slytherin-11 people bought 20 books, totaling 908 galleons..." Ginny pauses for a moment, before continuing, making the Queen think that such an amount might've been a little bit too much for... Weasleys. "now I wonder if they did it because they wanted to show off their wealth... Or was it for their friends, but whatever"
"Indeed, that book count is quite high, for the number of people"
"3. Ravenclaw-12 people, bought 12 books, totaling 182 galleons"
"Oh, that's surprising, didn't expect Ravenclaw to have so many students buying it... But it does make me wonder, do they not have friends or something?"
Ginny only shrugs at that snide remark, finishing up with the last house, her house.
"And finally with the most sales. Gryffindor-52 people, bought 65 books, totaling 981, I would be proud... if it weren't for the fact that most of them probably bought it because of the extra prize of the charmed paper that shows the remaining pranks from my brothers and your game"
"Touche"
"8 people seems to have been thrown to the back of the lines and made to pay 2 more galleons" Luna comments lowly.
"So the total overall: 76 students, a clean 100 books and..." Ginny slightly trails off, thinking of the number of galleons, trying to calculate it.
"2116" The Moon helps out Ginny.
"Thank you, Luna"
"And that's that, what a good first day of sales. Now time to share it accordingly"
The Queen taking her wand yet again points it at the bag that holds the galleons and starts floating them all out of the bag, now every single coin is floating above the trio's heads. And she starts her distribution.
"Okay, here, take one of these small bags to hold your share" The Queen gives them bags of their own before continuing.
"Now on the count of three, the galleons above us will fly towards your respective bag in fast speed, oh and there should be a number written on how many items are in the bag, but since it will be only galleons, for now, you'll know the amount right away"
Ginny and Luna nod, waiting for the 'magic' to happen.
"One... two... three!" And in a few blinks of an eye, the coins are no longer floating above the girls, now they are all tucked inside the bags.
Ginny looks down at her bag, only for her eyes to pop out, with an open mouth she looks up to the Queen, then looks down to look at the bag again and repeats the action multiple times in bewilderment.
Luna squared better, she was ready for something 'unexpected' from the Queen, but it still initially surprised to see an amount of such magnitude given to her.
"Why?... how?... what?" Ginny can't comprehend what's happening, she expected a hundred, maybe a few at the best-case scenario, and that already would've been more than she deserved for something so minuscule... But she never in her lifetime expected to get half of all earned revenue...
Both the Moon's and Weasley's bags read. 1058 items inside... Meaning that they are practically richer than they have ever been individually, than most other students in Hogwarts and one of them is richer than her parents. And all of that just from selling books for a short while, which weren't even theirs, to begin with.
Ginny stares at the Queen still not having the ability to return to her previous composure.
"What? You do realize that I am the richest witch in the whole country... I don't need something so meager..." The Queen says as if it's not a big deal, quite amused at the fake redhead's expression.
"I... That...You..." Ginny seems to be still beyond shocked, a blabbering incoherent mess.
"Congrats Ginny, you're now the most wealthy Weasley, at least at this very moment"
The Queen says as she moves on, grabbing her Moon's hand and trekking to their upcoming class, she would've grabbed the Gryffindor's hand too, but, unfortunately, the Ravenclaw duo is having DADA with Slytherin and not Gryffindor.
And the two Lunas have left their third member who was doomed to be late to her own class because of what just happened... But Ginny doesn't care, she is still high off of the money she has received, so even losing points to her house couldn't snap her out of her daze, which will persist for the whole day, if not longer.
The Queen and her Moon having finally made it to the class, barely, closed the door just as it started.
Lovegood started going to her seat thinking that the Queen will follow her, but the Queen walked past everybody, straight to the teacher, that was looking at everybody with a crazy look, but then turned both of his eyes towards the girl approaching him.
Lovegood doesn't really like the ex-Auror as a teacher, his teaching methods are too... much.
"Hello there, Crazy-Eye" The Queen can be heard loud and clear by every student, sounding cheery.
"What do you want, little girl? and it's Mad-Eye" Moody answers without much patience.
The Queen pauses for a moment, stares at the professor silently, then slowly starts to hum.
"How are your children doing?" The Queen asks all of sudden, making Moody confused.
"I don't have any, now go seat so we can start, otherwise you'll lose house points"
But the Queen, yet again pauses and hums, but longer than the last time.
"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't, there's no person alive which would like to wake up to your ugly mug"
The Queen says, turns back, and goes back to sit with Luna, still slowly humming, mysteriously.
Moody's eyes, particularly his mad, magical eye, glare at the girl walking away with anger. He will get her for that disrespect, it's good that he can cast unforgivable curses behind his mask of a Hogwarts professor.
As the Queen finally sits down near her Moon. The ex-Auror starts the class.
"Now, last week I showed all of you, minus the new student, the unforgivable curses, there's no need to show it again for one person, it isn't practical, so she will be continuing with the rest of you, this week and through most of the semester, you will be put under one of those curses, to be more precise, the Imperius curse, to teach you how to resist it, in case you need it for the future"
The teacher stops for a second, seeing unhappy faces and so he continues.
"Now, stand up, all of you and line up, one after another, I will use the curse and if you can break out of it, you'll pass, I don't expect many of you to do so in the first class, but I do hope that at least a few of you can do it by the end of the semester for this will be the whole test. Every two classes, I will use a little bit more power for the curse, so that it wouldn't be too easy"
The students are still sitting, speechless at what they are hearing from the crazy ex-Auror, the said ex-Auror looks at his students not pleased.
"Go, go on, stand, the longer it takes, the less time it is for you to learn, stand up and line up"
And everybody starts standing up, as fast as they can, but they don't start lining up, nobody wants to go first.
"Right, seeing as there no volunteers, line up in your name order, from A-Z"
The students groan and start lining up when they clearly don't want to, out of fear.
The Queen is still sitting at her seat, she's only looking straight at the professor in a trance, for the first time in the whole day, barely paying any attention to her Moon, or anybody else.
But she had to stand up, once Luna poked her shoulder, snapping her out of her staring, so she stood up and along with her Moon, went into the already formed line, it's good for the two Lunas because they are one after another.
"Okay, Andrew McCauley is up first," The professor says loudly, the called out boy, meekly walks in front for the whole class to see.
"The Imperius curse can be fought, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it..." Moody adds as he points his wand at the Ravenclaw student... first victim.
"Imperio" The teacher shouts out and the magic hits the boy.
The student started to feel wonderful inside like he was floating in the air, he stopped worrying about everything that was going on, the class, the teacher, the curse, all that he felt was happiness, pure, unbridled happiness. He was relaxed, so relaxed, never in his life did he experience relaxation like that. Barely noticing everybody staring at him, or him doing anything at all.
But just like the sudden wonderful feeling started, it has also suddenly ended, he starts blinking, confused about what just happened, he looks down, only to see that his shoes and socks aren't on his feet, but instead, the shoes, stacked on one another, while he wears the socks on his arms... He looks up at the teacher, then at his classmates in confusion.
"How... In how much time did all of this happen?" The boy asks.
"67 seconds" The professor replies.
So he felt happiness for 67 seconds, when he thought it lasted hours, only for it to be ripped away by the bubbling embarrassment that's making its way up to his face, all because he's wearing socks on his hands.
"Okay, go on, to the back of the line, next!"
The boy didn't have nearly enough time to come to terms with what transpired, before he was forced away, still with confusion he passed by another student, whose turn it is.
"Mr. McCauley"
The boy stops in place, turning around when he heard the professor call out to him.
"You forgot your shoes"
The Ravenclaw blinks, then with red ear tips dives back to take the shoes in his hands, hearing a few chuckles, mainly for the Slytherin. And runs back quickly to the line, finally slipping the socks off of his hands and putting them back on his feet, along with the shoes.
"Anika Levine, let's see how you fare against it," The professor says to the now, new victim, but this time a Slytherin girl.
"Imperio" He shouts again... "Imperio" and again... "Imperio", again... "Imperio" another one, every few minutes.
One after another, the students are forced to embarrass themselves without realizing or being able to stop what they're doing. And along the way, it's time for the first Luna, that being Lovegood.
"Next! Luna Lovegood!" Mad-eye says loudly.
The dreamy blonde steps up in front of the whole class, most of who were already embarrassed and the other ones in waiting, had enough of laughing at others, dreading their own fates... However, none of them are missing this. Loony, getting embarrassed? They are staring right at her, in waiting.
"Imp-" Moody starts shouting out the curse, only to be unexpectedly stopped.
"Wait a minute"
He pauses and looks at who dared to interrupt, only to see the Queen, his next victim... And unlike for others, when he did weaker versions so that the students felt nice, he is waiting for her... He will try to make it as painful as possible.
"What is it? Ms. Crimson?"
The Queen walks in front, standing near her Moon, really close, flinging her arm around her shoulder unexpectedly. Lovegood goes stiff for a slight millisecond out of the suddenness but relaxes shortly after.
"So, ex-Auror, I see you like playing with your students, I can respect that, but what about more excitement? What about a deal to make this a heck of a lot more interesting?"
"Oh, yes, I heard from the head of your house, Fillius, about you and your games, what? Trying to get more house points again?"
"Indeed I am, now what do you say?"
Mad-eye starts thinking, he doesn't know what she has up her sleeve, but... Like this he has less of a chance to get into an undesirable situation because he had 'hurt' a student, he could just say that the student... asked for it. But he isn't stupid, he knows that the girl before him isn't as much of a joke as the other children here, if the old fool Filius is to be believed.
"Well, first let me hear what you have in mind, only after that, can I answer"
"Constant Vigilance and all that, right?" The Queen mockingly asks.
The ex-Auror only glares at the girl in silence. The Queen seeing that crazy-eye isn't having any of it, just resumes with her deal.
"Well, you used the curse on the students in various times, one of them only 40 seconds, another 73 seconds, it's inconsistent. So, here's the first part of the deal, Lady Lovegood right here? You are to use the curse on her for 60 seconds, no longer, no shorter and if she can resist for at least a third of it, that being 20 seconds, doesn't matter if it's at the start, the end, the middle. It has to be 20 seconds in total, you are to give her 70 house points because she'd be the first student to resist the curse at least for a little bit"
"Hmm..." The teacher thinks for a bit, his magical eye jumping around "That's doable, but what's next? You only mentioned that it's the first part of your deal"
"Of course. But that's for later. You will be able to refuse the second deal even if you accept this one"
The DADA professor looks at the Queen, then at the other Luna, seeing her looking to the side, in his eyes, this girl should be the easiest target yet, she's barely paying any attention, so he makes up his mind.
"Okay, I can agree to that"
"Great, let me motivate her for a little bit"
"Right..."
The Queen looks at her Moon, Luna looking back at her, the Queen's eyes go down a little to her rapier necklace and she lightly smirks. Luna of course caught all of that, it seems that they have already won the first deal without much hassle.
"Your target? To win. Your goal? To beat the odds. Your reward? Awaits in your victory. For you're the one that's worthy of the Queen... Good luck, Soulier Moon" The Queen winks lightly and steps back, to allow the teacher to cast the curse on Luna.
To everybody else's ears, this was pure gibberish, barely motivational spiel, but they won't start questioning the Queen's nonsense. To the teacher, it was odd, if anything it was weird. But to Luna? It was obvious, that those words were directed to the blade that's around her neck, for she's the only one that knows the name of the rapier and knowing that the Queen has her own secret family spells, understanding that the word 'Soulier' was a secret incantation, for what? She doesn't know, but she knows that it will help her.
"Okay, go ahead, Professor," The Queen says and resumes her humming.
Mad-eye only nods his head lightly and raises his wand. And for the dozenth time, he shouts out the curse.
"Imperio"
And so, the first Luna was hit by the curse, standing in place, half relaxed, half-conscious of her surroundings, but try as she may she can't move by herself.
"Spin around" The voice of the ex-Auror passes through Lovegood's ears, as she tries to disobey, she starts slowly spinning around.
The teacher seeing this madly grins, thinking that this will be too easy. The Queen would disagree.
"Lay on the ground"
Luna hears the command from the teacher, but unlike the last time, she also hears another command.
"Resist"
In the middle of her relaxed state, she recognizes the voice, but it's slightly distorted. IT's the Queen's voice, but there's something else mixed in.
Moody seeing that the student isn't doing what she was told, tries again.
"Sit on the ground"
Lovegood's leg muscles twitch, starting to move, but again, she stops and stands still by hearing the same word as before.
"Resist"
The teacher seeing that it's not working, not wanting to lose to some third-year student, strengthens his hold on the girl and with the remaining time calls out his last command.
"Stand on one leg, one hand on head, and start laughing"
With the harder hold on the girl, the professor expected it to work like a charm. Only to see the girl raising her leg, putting her hand on her head... But there's no laughter, he waits for a few seconds, but there's nothing.
He shouts slightly aggravated "Laugh"
Luna now hearing the command fully, as if she wasn't under the control of the curse anymore, instead of laughing, puts her hand and legs down, standing still yet again. But strangely, she didn't hear the second voice telling her to resist.
And just like that, the class hears clapping, from none other than the Queen.
"Good work, Luna. 21 seconds of resistance and 6 seconds of complete control, totaling 27 seconds"
Lovegood slightly smiles, before walking back to the line, not paying attention to the teacher, even if she can feel him staring at her.
"There you go, Crazy-eye, now... the points?"
The ex-Auror's magical eye jumps back to the Queen, he calls out the points, while being annoyed inside.
"70 Points to Luna Lovegood and her house of Ravenclaw, for being the first one to resist the Imperius curse"
"Good, good, now, since it's my turn, how about that second deal? Hmm?" The Queen calls out.
"What is it? Girly"
"Right, right, it's pretty simple. So I want you to not hold back and cast as powerful of a curse that you can and order me one specific thing and if I resist doing it, I get 100 points and 30 extra points for something else"
The other students start murmuring, the girl before them did some crazy things in one day, but this? This might be the craziest thing yet. Not only did she request an enormous amount of 100+30 points, she asked for the strongest curse possible from the ex-Auror.
If Moody could grin evilly, he would, but he has to keep up appearances. so he only shows a slight frown.
"And? What is that one specific order? And what about the 30 extra points?"
"Well, the order? Simply put, it's an order for me to attack, hurt, hex, anything along those lines to a person of my choosing, if I even remotely touch a hair on the person, I lose the deal and you win, If I disobey you completely, I win"
"You... want me to order you to hurt a fellow student?" The professor stares at the girl bewildered.
"Indeed"
"With my strongest curse?"
"Ugh, is that hard to understand, yes, that is exactly what I want to happen," The Queen says slightly annoyed.
"So, the 30 points would be to the person participating?" The teacher asks.
"Yes, they would be"
"Is that... an incentive for them to agree to this deal of yours?"
"Sure... It can be whatever you want it to be" The Queen remarks nonchalantly.
"Who is this person?" Moody prods for information.
"Nuh-uh, you agree or disagree now, otherwise I am not saying"
The teacher thinks for a bit, the annoying girl before him seems confident, even if there's no way she'd ever resist his strongest curse, there is one thing he needs to do to eliminate any chance of it happening, he can't allow it.
"I will agree" He starts saying, the Queen raises an eyebrow awaiting a 'but'.
"But only one condition of my own"
"Hmm, well okay, it's only fair"
Moody raises his hand and points it at the previous girl who just got points. The Queen following to where he's pointing only to see her Moon being targeted.
"You are not allowed to choose her for this deal"
'Ooh,' The Queen lets out an amused sound. "Constant Vigilance at its finest" She adds in mock, yet again.
The ex-Auror ignores her, letting his arm down, waiting for an answer.
"Well okay, I agree"
"Good" The teacher smirks lightly "Now, choose"
The Queen turns around to look at the students, all of them trying to hide behind one another so that they wouldn't get picked. The Queen's eyes meet with her Moon for a slight second, before she turns back around to face the professor.
"I got it"
"And? Who is it?"
"Me, of course"
Everybody blinks hearing the unexpected answer, the teacher himself seems to be lost for the first time since the students have met him.
"But..." Moody starts to say something but gets cut off by the Queen.
"Look, I never told you that I can't choose myself, I am a person after all. So it's valid and you've already agreed, so there's no backing off, so get on with it"
Moody tsks lightly, raising his wand to target this irritating girl, she wants the most powerful Imperius curse he can muster? Fine, let her feel pain, let her feel anguish.
"Imperio"
Just like that, the Queen is hit by the spell... But unlike the others who felt warm, safe, relaxed, and happy. The Queen is feeling quite the opposite.
She's feeling dread, pain all over her body, she feels uncomfortable, empty. She feels as if she wasn't even alive in one moment, only for it to change to a feeling of her blood boiling in another moment. However for her? This is something she's used to, so she can only mentally laugh, this is the good stuff.
For her? It's as if she was in a middle of a battlefield, in a middle of a war, fighting and slicing through multiple people at once while her whole body is in pain from the injuries she has received, her blood boiling from adrenaline, her heart feeling empty because of how much life she has ended, uncomfortable from her enemy's blood seeping through her battle-armor. And the feeling of not being alive, which she gotta say is a pretty accurate feeling for she has already died once before, so she has felt it once.
All of these feelings, oh how much has she missed them, if she had full control over her body, she'd laugh maniacally, but sadly all she can do is experience such heavenly emotions inside, while on the outside she's standing still in place awaiting her orders.
"Take out your wand" The teacher's first order comes out.
The Queen's body moves on its own, raising her hand to her ear, taking her wand, and holding it tightly.
Moody internally grins, this is fun.
"Turn it around, point it towards your stomach"
Yet again, the Queen's body moves and she does just as the command ordered.
"Take your other hand and raise your dress a little and finally move your wand so it'd touch your stomach"
The cursed Queen does as she was told, gripping her dress shirt, lifting it slowly, and sticking her wand to her stomach.
"And... Cast a 'Stupefy' spell" He orders finally, thinking that his job is done here.
Only for nothing to happen "Cast a 'Stupefy'" Moody orders again.
"I said, 'Stupefy' yourself" The ex-Auror commands less patiently.
The Queen, however, doesn't move at all on the outside, while on the inside she reminiscing.
Well, this was nice... Sadly, none of this is real, she has no idea if she'll ever be a part of something like this again, at the same time she wants to experience it, she does miss it sometimes, but at the same time, she also wants only peaceful times. Yes, life is never truly peaceful, but she still doesn't want too many problems. So after a while of feeling all the emotions, she simply and easily breaks out of the curse, for her Will doesn't allow her to be controlled, by anybody else other than her loved ones.
With the last thought being, there's no need to live in the past, when there's a future waiting, she's back in the DADA classroom.
The Queen blinks looks down and sees that her wand is pointing at her naked stomach. She chuckles thinking that she may have spent a little bit too much time feeling high off of the curse-induced deliriousness.
But now that she's back, she just removes the hand holding her clothes, letting it slide back down, hiding her stomach and she puts back the wand in her ear, looking back up at the teacher, waiting to see if he tries to order something else.
"Take your wand in your hand again" He tries again.
"How about... No?" The Queen says back.
And just like that, the ex-Auror is left standing confused, thinking how did this girl break out of his curse, he didn't hold back at all, yet she broke out of it...
After a momentary silence, there's clapping yet again, this time however is from the other Luna, The Queen's Moon. The other students looking at Loony clapping, start doing the same. Even if they don't like the crimson-haired girl, they are still impressed at what they've witnessed.
The Queen raises her hand lightly in a stopping motion, the applause stops "Now then, the points?" The Queen asks the teacher with a raised eyebrow and a prideful smirk.
With rage bubbling inside the teacher calls out in defeat, yet again. "130 points to Ravenclaw and Luna Crimson as a part of the deal made between me and her"
"Thank you... Professor" She hums slightly and moves back to her Moon, who after stopping her clapping has resumed staring at a random spot on the ceiling.
With his mood ruined the ex-Auror says something that made the students left to be cursed, sigh out of relief.
"Class is over, dismissed, go do whatever you want, wherever you want, I don't care. Bye," Moody says and turns around to go back to his office.
Lovegood starts walking towards the door to leave the room, but she stops looking back to see the Queen standing and staring in the direction their teacher has left.
"Lun" She calls out, snapping the Queen's gaze back to her.
"What's wrong? You've been... out of it since we got here"
The Queen again only hums, for what seems a hundredth time in this class alone.
She walks closer to her Moon, casting 'Muffliato' and not a weak one like before, this time as powerful as she can muster, nobody can hear this.
"Let's go to Dumbledore, we need to see him"
Luna blinks dreamily, tilting her head to the side slightly.
"Why?"
But she doesn't get an answer, only to be grabbed by her hand and being already on their way towards the headmaster's room.
"Lun? What's going on?"
The Queen finally stops in place, turns around to look at the blonde girl, finally saying something.
"That DADA teacher..."
Luna tilts her head lightly to the side "What about him?"
"I don't know who that is... But that's definitely not the Crazy-Eye I know" The Queen finishes saying and resumes walking, faster than before, while tightly gripping her Moon's hand.
Luna realizing that something's extremely wrong doesn't resist the Queen's hold, she even starts trying to keep up with her to get to Dumbledore faster.
~ End of Chapter 13 ~