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Hearing this, Richie and Seamus both walked over to Neville.
Richie stepped up beside him and looked down at the floor. Beneath a removed floorboard, there was a small, hidden compartment. Inside it lay a palm-sized, yellowed piece of parchment.
Seeing the two of them come over, Neville eagerly snatched up the parchment to examine it.
Under their watchful eyes, a line of dancing text slowly materialized on the previously blank page:
> Born of loyal hearths, dancing in a place of warmth; the silent guardians await the arrival of the seeker of secrets.
"What does that mean?"
Seamus looked at the other two, who were already deep in thought, his face scrunching up in sheer confusion.
Why would a hearth be loyal?
Was this "place of warmth" supposed to be their beds?
And what was all this about guardians and seekers...?
Seamus was completely lost.
Neville blinked and replied, "I'm not entirely sure either, but I think it wants us to follow these clues and find this 'place of warmth'!"
"This piece of parchment might literally be part of a puzzle!"
"Look..." Neville said, gesturing at the parchment in his hand. "These rough edges right here—it definitely looks like it was torn from a larger sheet."
Richie nodded in agreement. Just as he was about to say something, Hermione's voice echoed across the room.
"Hey, do you know what I just found?"
The three boys turned around to see Hermione standing at the back of the classroom, hugging a massive, heavy book.
"I was digging through the library for ages, and I finally found a clue in this History of Classic World Architecture."
Slightly out of breath, Hermione lugged the massive tome over to their makeshift desk and flipped it open.
[Hogwarts Castle] "Look at this line right here."
Richie and the boys gathered around the table. Following Hermione's finger, Neville subconsciously read the small print aloud:
> When the ancient castle was first built a millennium ago, the Four Founders hid profound, unsolved mysteries within. Secrets flow through the stone walls and hidden corridors; those who solve them shall earn the Founders' reward, drawing generations of students to quietly seek them out in the dead of night.
(The "Four Founders," naturally, referred to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff).
"Oh, is this... talking about sneaking out after curfew?"
"So the actual point of wandering the castle at night is to find these unsolved mysteries and claim the founders' rewards?"
Seamus blinked. "Ron told me that every Gryffindor is basically required to sneak out at night at least once during their first year. He said it was the only way to prove our courage..."
Hearing that, Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Courage is absolutely not proven by breaking school rules! That's just a pathetic excuse used by greedy rule-breakers to justify themselves!"
Hearing Hermione's harsh reprimand, Neville and Seamus immediately looked away, feeling incredibly guilty.
They had totally bought into Ron's brainwashing and were actually planning a group midnight excursion. But now that they knew past Gryffindors were sneaking out for some supposed reward rather than to genuinely prove their bravery... the whole thing felt a lot less noble.
Hermione ignored them and looked straight at Richie.
"I suspect this classroom contains one of those unsolved mysteries left by the founders. It's entirely possible that their residual magic is the exact reason we've been able to focus so intensely on our studying in here."
Listening to Hermione's analysis, Richie turned to Neville.
"Hermione, you might actually be right."
Neville pulled out the torn parchment and placed it flat on the desk.
"Oh my God..."
"Loyal hearths... a place of warmth..."
"Is this a riddle?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. "So it's actually true? We really found a founder's mystery?!"
Despite how confident Hermione had sounded a moment ago, she was actually secretly doubting her own theory. After all, Hogwarts had been around for a millennium. With so many generations of students passing through, even if the founders had left something behind, shouldn't it have been cleared out centuries ago?
How could there possibly be anything left for them to find?
But now...
Richie was genuinely intrigued. Wasn't this basically the equivalent of an Easter egg in a video game? Solve the riddles, collect the puzzle pieces, and claim the ultimate loot.
Looked at that way, it was actually incredibly fun.
"So what's the answer to the riddle?"
Seamus tilted his head. "You don't think it literally wants us to go check our beds, do you...?"
Seamus's comment drew everyone's attention back to the riddle on the parchment.
"Hmm... I don't think it's quite that literal," Hermione said, shaking her head. "'Born of loyal hearths'... could 'hearth' refer to the fire in a fireplace?"
"And as for 'loyal'..."
"It's Hufflepuff," Richie said quietly.
The other three looked up at him.
"Right before our Sorting Ceremony, Professor McGonagall said something specific: 'Gryffindor values bravery, Hufflepuff values loyalty, Ravenclaw values wisdom, and Slytherin values ambition.' I think the 'loyal' part here directly points to Hufflepuff House."
Hearing that, the other three nodded in complete agreement.
"Wow, Richie, I can't believe you remember something from that long ago." Neville pressed his lips together, clearly envious of Richie's memory.
Richie shook his head and continued.
"So, 'Born of loyal hearths, dancing in a place of warmth' is probably referring to the Hufflepuff common room."
Hermione frowned. "Then what about the 'silent guardians'? Statues? Portraits? Do any of you actually know what the inside of the Hufflepuff common room looks like?"
Neville and Seamus both shook their heads.
It went without saying for Richie too; he had never set foot inside the Hufflepuff common room.
Wait a second...
The Hogwarts kitchens?
Richie raised an eyebrow and looked at his three struggling friends.
"I know someone who might be able to help us."
---
Led by Richie, the four of them headed down to the basement level of Hogwarts Castle, stopping right in front of the kitchens, near the Hufflepuff common room entrance.
It didn't take long for Richie to track down his favorite foodie friend: Wendis Baratheon.
"Whoa, that's a lot of people. Did you guys get detention, Richie?" Wendis asked in surprise, munching on a cookie as she looked at the four first-years.
She naturally assumed they had been kept late by a professor, missed dinner, and were coming to the Hogwarts kitchens to scrounge for food.
"No, Wendis. I came looking for you." Richie cut straight to the chase. "I need a favor."
"A favor?" Wendis paused, then dusted the cookie crumbs off her hands.
"Whatever it is, just tell me. I mean, I'm not promising I'll do it, but I'm not saying no either. It entirely depends on how hard it is."
Wendis flashed a cool smile and stylishly blew a stray wisp of short hair out of her eyes.
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