Chapter 51: Oil of Green Revenge, Room of Rewards, and Black Binders (2/2)
”Eustorgius Nerva.” ” Vindictus Viridian.” ”Hildebrand Forsbergs.”
Quinn visualized every single first and last name in his mind, looking at their meanings from their root language and culture. Every name appeared in front of a mental image of Quinn, and it would immediately turn into its closest meaning before Quinn would swipe his hand, and it would disappear, and the process would be repeated with a new name.
Celtics, Roman, Germanic, and Old English meanings floated in his mind; tens and tens of words flashed in his mind at an occlumency-aided speed that was remarkable for someone Quinn's age.
”Wait, a second!” shouted Quinn. He swiped his hand from left to right, and a pair of words appeared in his mind.
Vindictus Viridian.
'Vindictus is derived from the Latin vindicta, meaning revenge, and the surname Viridian from the Latin Viridis, meaning green.'
'Revenge' and 'Green' floated in Quinn's mind, and he switched the words to get ...
”Green revenge,” he whispered and slowly opened his eyes. ”... I found it.”
He looked at the horde of portrait people and asked, ”Who among you is Vindictus Viridian?”
A lady stepped in front of the group, and that confused Quinn, ”You are Vindictus Viridian?” He thought it was a guy's name.
The lady shook her head and spoke, ”No, Mr. Viridian left. He doesn't like noisy places, so when we spoke all the names, he left because it got too noisy.”
Quinn clicked his tongue and asked, ”Where can I find him then?”
Another portrait spoke from the herd, ”Y-Yeah, we can't tell. Mr. Viridian doesn't like that, says that it just attracts more noise.”
Quinn looked at the entire herd of staring eyes and asked, ”Anyone else who wants to speak up?”
No one spoke and just shifted on their painted feet. Quinn was surprised by this and thought Vindictus Viridian might be an important man.
”Alright... ladies and gentleman, you were helpful. You may leave and go back to your lives... I mean frames.” The portraits weren't alive, so telling them to continue on with their lives was wrong.
”Sorry about that,” said Quinn before walking away to a place with no portraits. He leaned against a wall, crossed his arms, and began thinking.
'Let's see. Who is Vindictus Viridian?'
He wanted to check if there was someone with the name in his memory. A faraway look appeared in his eyes as Quinn dived into his mindscape and started looking for anything that would mention Vindictus Viridian.
After a minute or two, Quinn finally found a mention of the name in his memory and was surprised to see that Quinn did know a lot about Vindictus Viridian.
”Professor Vindictus Viridian, potioneer, author, and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the early eighteenth century. Now, I see why the portraits weren't willing to speak about him.”
During his lifetime, he published a famous book on minor dark charms known as Curses and Counter-Curses: Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges.
A book that was still extremely famous among students in Hogwarts and could be found with a large part of the student population. In other words, he was still a best-selling author centuries after his death.
Focus returned to Quinn's eyes as he moved away from the wall and exhaled, ”He will be on the sixth floor. It won't be difficult to find him.”
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- (Scene Break) -
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”Damn, it was hard to find you!” exclaimed Quinn as he stared at the portrait of Vindictus Viridian. He had to look at every portrait frame, and through extraordinary events, Vindictus Viridian's portrait frame was the last one he found.
Vindictus Viridian looked up from a book he was reading and stared at Quinn, ”You are the boy who was asking for names. Why have you come to find me, child?”
Quinn observed the portrait frame, which covered the whole door to a room, and said, ”I want to get in there.”
The portrait of Vindictus Viridian was guarding the room to the Room of Rewards, a secret room at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that noted students' various achievements. It was different from the Trophy room on the third floor. Quinn didn't know how it was different, but he didn't care about that.
'Damn, Friar really thought this through, didn't he? If I just thought about the next part of the riddle. I wouldn't have spent all that time searching for this,' thought Quinn.
The next part of the riddle was about rewards and accolades. If Quinn figured that out, there was a chance he might not have to spend so much time wandering around.
”No, you can't. Students aren't allowed to go inside,” said the portrait of the ex-headmaster.
”Why?”
”Because I say so,” said Vindictus while going back to reading his book.
Quinn squinted his eyes before asking, ”Is it because there is a rule against entering the room, or is it just because you just don't want to open the door?”
”The latter,” answered Vindictus, not looking at Quinn and reading his book.
”Alright, if this is how you want to play.” Quinn turned away from the portrait and walked to a place where a Vindictus couldn't see him and took out Recon.
”Let's see if you are so stuck up after this.” He looked at the map and found the thing that would help him show up Vindictus.
He closed Recon and walked back to the portrait.
Portrait-Vindictus sighed as he looked at Quinn, ”Boy, I will repeat, you aren't getting -.”
”Summa Praemium.”
Portrait-Vindictus stilled in his chair and turned to face Quinn, ”What did you say?”
”Summa Praemium. Now, open up. Let me through. Reveal the treasure... Get out of my way, grandpa,” said Quinn, smirking his face off. He had read the password for Room of Rewards from Recon and now was rubbing it in Vindictus' face.
Portrait-Vindictus didn't say a word as the door to the Room of Rewards opened up, but he did stare at Quinn the whole time.
Quinn stared back at the ex-headmaster as he strutted his way into the Room of Reward.
The inside of Room of Rewards wasn't filled with trophies or awards. But with shelves and shelves of black leather binders, with names written in gold on the spines of the binders.
He didn't touch anything in this room because of paranoia and just took slow steps to explore the room. He didn't want to make any unwarranted moves in here. Quinn had no plan to have a repeat of the last year.
After an infuriating amount of time, Quinn finally concluded that he could walk normally in this room without triggering any deadly trap.
”Phew... that was stressful,” sighed Quinn. He finally relaxed his tense body and just looked at the room. It wasn't anything special, just shelves of black leather binders and nothing else.
The first thing he did was cast tons of detections charms on one of the black binders to check if they were safe to pick up, and the result was that there was nothing on the binders other than preservation charms.
Quinn picked up the binder and opened it to read it. There were tons of parchments inside the binder that told a story about a student named Paige Winthorpe. She was a student around three hundred years ago, and in her time as a Hogwarts student, she was made a prefect in her fifth year and continued her way to become a Head Girl in her seventh year. She was a top scorer in her exams in her time, and it showed in the report cards attached in the binder. Paige Winthorpe wasn't only good at academics; she excelled at sports and part of the Slytherin Quidditch team from her fourth to the sixth year. In short, Paige Winthorpe of Slytherin was an exemplary student.
Quinn picked up another binder and saw similar facts about another student and another one and one more. He went through five of these binders, and every single one of them was some kind of valedictorian or similar, someone who shined in Hogwarts in a way or another.
”Do I have to read all of these binders?” asked Quinn as he remembered about the line in the riddle.
[If you want to taste the reward,
accolades you need to appreciate.]
It made Quinn think he needed to 'appreciate' the accolades that were written in the binders. They showed the student career of the brightest students of Hogwarts, and these binders showed their accolades.
Quinn looked at the hundreds and maybe thousands of binders and dreaded going through this much material. He enjoyed reading, but only if it added to his knowledge or if he enjoyed reading something. And, he had just read those five binders and Quinn was sure that it would get boring real quick.
”I-I am going to through the room once again. Have to check it to find if I missed something,” said Quinn, hoping that he missed something. He didn't want to read everything in this room.
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- (Scene Break) -
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October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. A sudden spate of colds among the staff and students kept Madam Pomfrey, the matron, busy, her Pepper-up Potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward.
Quinn, too, had spent an amount of time in the Hospital Wing, brewing Pepper-up potions for the season-changing cold, helping the matron with the brewing load. In return, she answered every healing-related question he had.
A profitable exchange for both.
On the vault of side things, Quinn had little luck finding anything in the room. So, he had no choice but to read the binders. He would spend a lot of time in the Room of Rewards reading about many students.
It turned out that the Room of Rewards was reserved for the very best of the students of Hogwarts, and every year, the professors would sit and have a meeting to decide who would be admitted into the Room of Rewards.
Those binders held every remarkable detail about the students and the teachers' remarks about the student. Stunning recommendation letters and proof of character from faculty if the students needed them.
Quinn was sure that if any students had these, they wouldn't need a resume for the start of their career. Just pick one of these binders and walk into a place of hiring, and they would seriously give you a look over.
But, despite that, Quinn still didn't enjoy reading them, but he didn't have a choice. He just read the black binders and practiced magic while reading them.
Portrait-Vindictus tried to change passwords, but his efforts were for nothing as with Recon, no room in Hogwarts was blocked to Quinn. Of course, except the Chamber of Secrets that opened up with Parseltongue.
Speaking of Chamber of Secrets, while Quinn was immersed in reading the black binders, October passed, and Halloween arrived.
And, Halloween at Hogwarts with Potter's fate was always eventful.
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Quinn West - MC - Solving Riddles, reading tons, brewing medicine.
Portrait-Vindictus - Portrait of Ex-headmaster - Likes quiet.
Poppy Pomfrey - Matron - October is her peak season.
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