The Darkest Bequest (Hogwarts Mystery Book 1)

Chapter Three - Mushrooms

I've been living with my grandparents for the past few months, while Mum and Dad are wandering around the world, hopelessly trying to find Jake. During these past months, I've grown specially attached to my grandfather. Not that I'm not close to Grandma. I specially enjoy helping her with her potions and baking things with her, but I feel that Grandpa is more opened. He's always ready to share a piece of wisdom, to teach me now things and, above all, to offer me intellectual challenges. I guess that's what I like the most.

One of our favourite things – that became sort of a matinal tradition – is riddles. Every morning he'd come up with a different one; he said that I could only eat after I had solved it. It was our private joke and I loved every second of it. I don't remember every getting one wrong, because every time I answered, he'd open a big proud smile and hand me my breakfast.

Those memories fly back at me instantly, as soon as I step foot in front of Ravenclaw Tower. After dinner, we are guided through dark corridors and infinite staircases, until we reach a beautifully intricate door, made of solid wood, with a bronze eagle head right in the middle, that stares severely at us. The details are so perfect that one could swear that it is alive.

"The door is enchanted," one of our Prefects, a girl named Samantha Phillips, tells us. "It you tell you a riddle. If you get it right, it will allow your passage. If not, it will remain locked."

Rowan looks at me with excitement. "I love riddles."

We wait in front of the door and the eagle begins to move. It just looks around at first, as if it is acknowledging us all. Then it opens its beak and speaks with a dulcet toned voice. "Only those of quick wit and mind are permitted to enter Ravenclaw Tower. If you wish to join your peers, you must prove yourself by answering the following riddle."

I smile, understanding why Grandpa began the riddle tradition with me. He was, above all, preparing me. It makes me feel closer to him and I want to do my best to make him proud.

"What is a room no one can enter?" the eagle asks, smoothly.

Rowan frowns, but I giggle. I think about it for a moment.

A room no one can enter...

From what I've come to learn with Grandpa, the answer would probably contain the word room. I cross words in my head, trying to find one that could make sense.

Bedroom... bathroom... classroom... ballroom...

"A mushroom," I answer, anxiously.

"Correct," the eagle says, and the door opens, allowing us to enter.

"Way to go, Athie!" Rowan says, looking at me with a big smile.

Our other Prefect, a boy named Chester Davies, flashes me an impressed glance. My smile broadens as we enter our common room.

It is a gorgeous, wide and airy circular room, with a breath-taking view of the mountains. The domed ceiling is painted with thousands of flickering stars. There's a concave bookcase in one corner, protected by two tall pillars with bronzy eagles on top. Right between them, like a guardian to all knowledge, is an amazing marble statue of fair Rowena Ravenclaw. I walk to her, astonished. She looks so realistic that it seems to be looking at me.

"See that tiara on her head?" Rowan says, standing next to me. "It's her lost diadem. It's said that it had the power to bring great knowledge to whoever wore it. That's why her daughter Helena stole it. She was trying to be more intelligent than her mother."