Chapter-24: The Tale of Beedle, The Bard

The month of March brought a little warmth to the castle of Hogwarts. And with the new winds, the atmosphere of the castle became more tense, because exams were just around the corner. And every kid who had not studied and spent their year dilly-dallying around was now on their toes. The number of children in the Library had increased significantly, and Ronan didnt like that. He quite liked the way the Library used to be, with no sound to be heard, only scribbling of quills reverberating throughout the place. Now he could hear along with quills the murmurs of children and loud tudding noise of people slamming the books on the table.

And the worst of them all was Hermione, who was sitting in front of him. She had these huge stacks of parchments before her, these were his notes. She had color-coded them and was looking through every single one of them while memorizing the way to brew a Strengthening Potion.

Ronan on the other hand the copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard in his hands, and lesiruly reading it, when he heard, "Ronan," he looked up, Hermione was glaring at him, "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Reading your Christmas present. By the way, thanks for the gift."

"No what are you doing reading stories? Our exams are just 10 weeks away. Are you not worried?"

He immediately shook his head, "No. You are worried about your exam?"

"Yeah," she almost shouted. "I am, I get stressed just thinking about it."

"Well you should have studied then.." Her nose started flaring with anger like an angry gorilla.

"And why are you reading this here? Why dont you go outside and then read it."

"It is because of those Slytherins.. They have been bothering me," He said casually.

"Other Slytherins? Why?"

"Oh yeah," He leaned in, "You dont know about the latest news about me, do you?."

Hermione looked confused, "What news?" So, he told her how his year went. How he first thought that he was muggle-born like her, but then he got to know about his father, and how now he had inherited the title of the Black family and the inheritance that he had just got.

"Are you going to live alone in the house?" She asked, horrified by the idea. While he nodded nonchalantly.

"Living alone would be a better option for me." He said, "I will be able to get to Diagon Alley whenever I want. I will be able to read my books in peace."

"But I thought that you were going to stay in Hogwarts."

"Well that was the plan, but now, I dont want to stay here," He said, "Madame Pince would lock the library for holidays, I wont be able to read anything here. The only thing that I would remotely be able to do is explore the castle, and I have done that already."

"But you will be alone there, surely no adult will allow that."

He shook his head, "I will not be alone. Apparently, my house comes with a House Elf, that old bugger would take care of me."

"What is a House Elf?"

"Dont ask, you would not like what they are,"

"Why?"

"Just dont," he said, "So as I was saying, Slytherins who were not talking to me before, thinking that I was a half-blood, came swarming back to me. They want to talk, befriend me.. It is a pain in the ass. And this is the only place where hardly any Slytherins turn up."

"I dont what is going on in your life… But you should really study Ronan. Exams were not going to be that easy, you know. Professor McGonagall is very strict. I heard from a senior.."

"You know what," He cut her off in between. "I will go study. In my common room" With that he took the book and left the Library. He didnt want to hear any other lecture, especially from her. She did this yesterday as well, and the day before yesterday too. Hermione is a good girl, but she thinks a lot.

When he entered the common room that day, he saw Blaise and Daphne sitting together, going through what looked like Snape's Strengthening Potion homework. He sat down beside them and was about to open his book when Blaise placed his parchment before him.

"Ronan look at this," he said, "Will Professor Snape will be happy with this?"

Begrudgingly, he took the parchment and read its contents. He passed the parchment back to him and asked, "He will throw this in the rubbish bin,"

Blaise looked alarmed, "Wait, why?"

"Ask Daphne, she will help you," with that he opened his book again, but then he heard, "This knuckle-head copied my homework," Daphne spoke.

He looked at her, and she was glaring at him. He sighed and put the book aside, "Alright." He said, "The problem with your homework is that it does not have every detail about the potion. When one is supposed to turn up the heat, when we are supposed to turn down the heat? Also, after adding wolf fangs, one is supposed to churn the potion clockwise, three times. And then anti-clockwise, four times. You didnt mention,"

Daphne's eyes widened with realization, she instantly started erasing her work with her wand, while Blaise on the other hand copied whatever she was doing. It was then Pancy accompanied by another girl sat down beside him, he didnt pay her a lot of attention, nor she did to him. Pancy was busy talking to her friend. So he went to read his book.

"Pancy," Daphne spoke, "The Strenghtning Potion homework that we did together, it was wrong. Give it to Ronan, he will check it for you,"

Ronan wanted to strangle Daphne at the moment, he was already regretting that he didn't to the Room. It was then that Pancy passed him a piece of parchment, he looked at her and she had a smile on her face. He hated this habit of that girl, whenever she needed something from someone, she would act as if she was the nicest girl in the whole world, while her true face stayed hidden behind her fake smile.

Begrudgingly, he took the parchment and looked through it. "What the hell were you eating when you wrote this?" he asked.

"Why?" She asked innocently, "What is wrong?"

"Whoever wrote this is an idiot. Tartar fruit should not be cut into, it should be crushed. There is no outline about how one should handle Flobberworm Mucus, and Professor Snape would take note of it. Also, there is no mention of a mixing technique. This is utter trash, and this parchment is about Girding Potion, not Strengthening Potion."

Pancy took the parchment from him, and then turned towards her friend, "This is yours, Julie,"

Julie was a second-year student, and she looked a little concerned about his comments, "How much marks do you reckon Professor Snape would give this?"

Ronan answered honestly, "You are lucky that you a Slytherin, if you were of any other house, Professor Snape would have tear you a new one."

Blaise then spoke, "Hold on.. How do you know about this Girding Potion? Isn't it a second-year topic,"

"Your point?"

Daphne then spoke, "How do you know it?" And then from behind Julie spoke, "And this advance level potion as well. How do you know so much about it?"

Once again, he honestly replied, "I completed the second year potions about a three months ago."

Pancy was astonished, "You completed it?"

"Yeah. It was not difficult. I am still behind History of Magic and Astronomy, but who cares about that stuff."

Then Julie suddenly joined in the conversation as well, "It is something! You are a genius!"

The narcissistic man that has been hiding inside Ronan, came out, "Tell me something that I dont know dear."

Daphne then asked, "Wait, so you can perform every magic that we would study in the second year?"

"I can perform charms and transfiguration that we will study in the upcoming year," He spoke truthfully, "As far as potions are concerned, that is something that I cannot say anything about. I didnt have the chance to make the potions, so cannot say whether I will be good at them. But I have read every theoretical knowledge that one needs to know about making them."

Pancy then made a face, "You sound like a Ravenclaw."

He passed a big smile, "Believe me, that house would have suited me better, if my ambitions were not greater than my thirst for knowledge."

Soon, everyone went back to do their homework, Julie also joined them and redid her work. While he went back to his book, which was pretty interesting in itself. Beedle's stories resembled Muggle's fairy tales in many respects, for instance, virtue was usually rewarded and wickedness punished. However, there was one very obvious difference. In Muggle fairy tales, magic tended to lie at the root of the hero or heroine's troubles, like the wicked witch had poisoned the apple, put the princess into a hundred years' sleep, or turned the prince into a hideous beast

In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, on the other hand, we meet heroes and heroines who can perform magic themselves and yet find it just as hard to solve their problems as the Muggle heroes do. Beedle's stories had helped generations of wizarding parents to explain this painful fact of life to their young children, magic caused as much trouble as it cured. It was a very interesting read for someone who had not grown up reading these stories.

But when Ronan was reading the book, he came across a story that made him shift in his seat. It was a story called, The Tale of Three Brothers, he had never heard the name of that story before. But the thing was, the story itself seemed very familiar to him.

This story was about brothers who met Death on the road and avoided its clutches and each in turn received a gift from it, although Death attempted to twist each boon into a bane. The first brother asked for a weapon that would always win any battle, a weapon worthy of one who had cheated Death. Death snapped a twig off an elder tree and gave it to him — the Elder Wand. The second brother asked for something to give him power over Death, for he had lost his loved one before this encounter. It was also an attempt to humiliate Death. Death gave him a river stone, which, by the terms of the deal, became the Resurrection Stone. The third brother, however, did not trust Death and asked for something that would allow him to avoid Death. Death was trapped by his words and handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility. The brothers continued on and went their separate ways.

Time passed. The first brother provoked a duel with a wizard he disliked, left him for dead, and afterward boasted of his unbeatable wand. He was killed that very night by someone who had heard his boasting, and wanted the wand. The second brother found misery when he brought his former lover back to life with the Resurrection Stone and learned she had been happier dead, ultimately committing suicide in order to truly join her. The third brother hid from Death his entire life using the cloak until he finally reached a ripe old age, and he gave the cloak to his son. He and Death finally "met as old friends", and departed as equals...

There was something familiar about the story, but Ronan could not put a finger on it. But he figured that if this story is familiar to him, then it is related to Harry Potter movies in someway. And he just needs to find out, how?