Harry Potter And The Lord Of Darkness - Chapter 19

“Hello again, do you not like going to Quidditch games? You should join my club.”

“No.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun! You seem like the type of person who enjoys mysteries.”

“I don’t want to join you club.”

“Don’t be shy, I don’t bite. Plus, we have three members!”

“It was four last time. Why did it go down?”

“Kek!”

Arth was once again in the library, and just like last time, a certain third year student was also spending her time there.

“W-well, you see-”

“On second thought, don’t tell me. I don’t really want to know. Since I’m not going to join anyways.”

“. . . .”

Arth ignored Sophia, who was giving him a disbelieving look and started to work on the puzzle from the book. He had yet to complete it as every time he got close, he felt as though something was eluding him. Sophia looked over his shoulder and on to the paper he was writing on.

“Watcha doing?”

“None of your business.”

“Ooh! It looks like a puzzle! Do you want my help? I’m very good at puzzles if I do say so myself.”

“I don’t need your help.”

Silence ensued the library once more. Nothing could be heard except for the occasional crisp sound of pages being flipped and scribbling of a pen.

After about twenty minutes, Sophia spoke up again. “Are you still working on that puzzle? Do you need help?”

Arth promptly ignored her.

“Oh come on, do you not trust me?”

“I really don’t.”

“How about this, you give me the puzzle and if I fail to solve it, I’ll leave you alone for the rest of the year.”

Arth frowned, it was too good of a deal. He had enough bothersome people around him already.

“But, if I manage to solve it, You’ll have to join my club,” Sophia said with a smirk, “fair?”

Arth narrowed his eyes at her in response. “I have to let you solve my problem and if you succeed, I have to be punished? What kinda nonsense is that?”

“. . . . My club isn’t that bad you know?”

Arth scoffed. “Dueling club has thirty members. The Sword Association has fifteen. Heck even book club has at least ten people. Your club only has three.”

“KEK!”

Seeing the dejected look on Sophia’s face, Arth has a mental debate while his outer appearance remained stoic.

To give or not?

It was his in the first place.

But it didn’t hurt to try. He was stuck in an endless cycle of failure anyways.

Arth let out a sigh before ripping out a piece of paper from his bag.

“Who dares to rip one of my book- oh hello Arth, it was you. I expect that to be a piece of parchment? Ah yes, I see that it is. Well, I’ll be going now. Have fun. And you Sophia don’t bother his too much.”

“. . . . Why does madam Pince like you so much? It’s honestly quite puzzling. I’ve been in the library longer than you.”

Arth wrote down the puzzle and handed it to Sophia. “Here, solve it. I’ll give you a two minutes.”

“Wait, there is a timer? That’s not fair.”

“One minute fifty five seconds.”

“You better join my club if I get this right!”

“One minute and forty five.”

“Fu-” Sophia immediately started to analyze the paper intently as if her club depended on it, which Arth was seriously suspecting was indeed the case.

Why else was she so desperate to have him join? One thing that caught Arth’s mind was that there never was a requirement for the making of a club or student organization. So why was she so desperate for him to join?

“Wow, this is an interesting puzzle.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Eek! Er- I almost have it! Just give me an extra ten seconds won’t you?”

“Twenty.”

“Shi-”

“Fifteen.”

“Counting doesn’t really help me with my nerves you know-”

“Ten.”

“Holy-”

“Nine.”

Sophia grabbed the piece of paper and held it up close to her eye.

“Eight.”

She put it back down and furrowed her brows deep in thought.

“Seven.”

She stood there looking at the paper blankly.

“Six.”

She continued to stare.

“Five.”

No signs of any change.

“Four.”

Arth was getting tired of counting now.

“Three.”

The author of this fanfic is getting tired of counting down now.

“Two.”

The author hopes that the readers doesn’t get to bored of reading the count down.

“One-”

“SOLVED IT!”

Sophia grabbed the paper and raised it in the air triumphantly.

Arth stared at her skeptically. “Did you really solve it?”

She gave Arth a smirk. “Indeed I have. You want me to explain?”

Arth nodded his head.

“Then join my club-”

“Explain it first.”

Sophia gave Arth a smug look. “You see my child-”

“Don’t call me a child.”

“You see here my junior, there are a few oddly capitalized words in this passage.

“Yes, I know that. Sky Always Yet Twilight Her Era Worlds Oceans Rise Destruction,” replied Arth, far from impressed.

“Indeed my little junior. Now if you take the capitalized letters-”

“You get ‘SAY THE WORD’. I got that far as well. What else?”

Sophia smirked. “What word would you wanna say backwards? The only thing that would make sense is the word, sutlucco. But what kind of word is sutlucco? The hint is ‘backwards is often the way to go when one attempts to recover the past’. It says backwards so-”

“Occultus, I know. This is not the final answer.”

Sophia let out a start, “It isn’t?”

“Nope.”

Sophia squinted her eyes. “Then I guess the only other hint would be night watching and hide and seek. They seem to be reoccurring ideas within the riddle-”

“THATS IT!” Arth exclaimed. “Thanks a lot Sophia! You were a big help!”

“I was? Err, yeah! I was!”

Arth packed up his stuff and started heading towards the library exit.

“Where are you going?” Asked Sophia.

“I need to go test something out. Thanks for the help. Don’t worry about me not keeping my promise. I’ll visit Mystery club later.”

“That’s not what I’m concerned about-”

But Arth had already left her all alone in the library. Sophia stared at the quickly disappearing figure of Arth and let out a sigh. “I swear to god that boy is harder to understand than a complex multi variable equation about animals and human life expectancy correlation. I guess I should go prepare for my newest club member-”

“WHO WAS THE ONE SCREAMING IN THE LIBRARY! THE LIBRARY IS A SACRED PLACE FOR READING AND STUDYING! HOW DARE YOU YELL IN HERE! I THOUGHT I WARNED YOU BEFORE SOPHIA LANCEHEART!”

“T-that wasn’t me screaming but Arthur-”

“SILENCE! THAT BOY ISN’T EVEN HERE! DETENTION! FOR A WEEK! AND FIVE POINTS FROM RAVENCLAW!”

“FUC-”

“TEN POINTS FROM RAVENCLAW AND A AN EXTRA WEEK OF DETENTION!”

“. . . .”