Enjoy this exclusive excerpt from Emma Round & the Holy Rowlings by Kenneth Alan Moe. The scene finds Emma and her best friend in an intense Harry Potter trivia competition.
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Emma and Sylvia had prepared well for the Harry Potter costume and trivia party on Saturday evening in Paradise Valley. Both dressed as Hermione (without the Harry additions) and took on the trivia challenge as the Hermione Twins. By luck of the draw, they would go last.
With only two teams remaining, the most any of the others had been able to answer was six questions in succession before missing one. The penultimate team, billed as the Trio, Two Guys and a Gal, had answered six correctly and were ready for the seventh.
“Excluding Harry Potter for technical reasons, how many specifically named Hogwarts students died while they were still enrolled at school? And what are their names?” the host said.
“I want to say four,” said the gal. She looked at her male teammates who nodded. “Four,” she reaffirmed.
“Correct; and their names?” said the host.
They conferred in whispers, and then the gal said, “Cedric Diggory, Vincent Crabbe, and Colin Creevey for certain. We’re drawing a blank on the fourth at the moment. This is not our answer, but it might be Lavender Brown, except that the text says she was wounded but still alive. She might have died and the readers don’t know it. There were plenty of unnamed dead at the battle of Hogwarts.”
“I need an answer,” said the host.
One of the guys whispered in the gal’s ear, and she looked up and said, “Regulus Black.”
“Is that your final answer?” the host asked.
“Yes,” said the gal.
Emma looked at Sylvia and mouthed, “Moaning Myrtle.”
Sylvia grinned.
“I’m sorry, Regulus Black is not correct,” the host announced. “It is possible that he may have still been in school at the time of his death, but the indicators are that he had already left Hogwarts when he visited the cave with Kreacher, and there is no textual evidence to back up his being a student when he died. She turned to the assembly. “Anyone?”
A chorus of “Moaning Myrtle” filled the room.
All three of the Trio did face palms.
Emma and Sylvia would need seven correct to win.
Emma looked at Sylvia and grinned.
“OK,” said the host, “we turn now to the Hermione Twins.”
Emma and Sylvia shifted in their seats, ready for the challenge.
“We’ll start with an easy one. Name the first train station mentioned in the series,” the host said.
In unison, Emma and Sylvia shouted, “Paddington!”
“I wasn’t done with the question,” the host said. “Please wait until I look at you for a response. And a more subdued response would be appreciated.”
“Oops, sorry,” said Sylvia.
“To continue,” the host said irritably, “name the book and the city of said station.”
“Book one, Philosopher’s Stone,” said Emma.
“London,” said Sylvia.
“Correct,” said the host. “Staying with the subject of places, here is question number two. In addition to many fictitious places, Rowling has mentioned more than one hundred actual place names throughout the seven books. Only two, however, are cited in each of the seven books. Name them.”
Sylvia looked at Emma and smiled. Emma nodded. “The first is the same as I answered in the previous question. London,” Sylvia said in a sober voice.
“And the second is also related to the previous question,” Emma said. “King’s Cross Station.”
“Correct! Now onto question three. Pensieve is an apt name for a device in which to see memories re-enacted, making association with the word pensive, meaning meditative, reflective, or contemplative. But it is also an anagram for a famous fantasy family. Name the family and the author who created them,” the host said.
“Too easy,” Sylvia responded without consulting her partner. “Emma and I were talking about this on the way here. The family name of the children in C. S. Lewis’ Narnia novels is Pevensie, the letters of which rearrange to spell Pensieve.”
“Correct! But the questions get harder as we go along, so don’t get too smug,” the host declared. “Counting Harry’s scar, Voldemort created seven Horcruxes. Each was destroyed by the act of a different person. Name each Horcrux, who destroyed it, by what means, and which house the destroying person belonged to while in school.”
Emma and Sylvia conversed quietly for a moment before Emma began their answer. “Harry, a Gryffindor, stabbed a basilisk fang into Tom Riddle’s diary. That’s one.”
Sylvia said, “Dumbledore, who was a Gryffindor while in school, used the sword of Gryffindor to crack open the Slytherin ring. That’s two.”
“Ron, a Gryffindor, used the sword of Gryffindor on the Slytherin locket. That’s three,” Emma said.
Sylvia continued their response. “Hermione, a Gryffindor, used a basilisk fang to destroy the Hufflepuff cup. Four.”
Vincent Crabbe, a Slytherin, created the fiendfyre that caused the destruction of the Ravenclaw diadem,” said Emma. “That’s five of them.”
“And Neville, a true Gryffindor, used the sword of Gryffindor to kill Nagini.” Sylvia said with a note of pride in her voice. “That’s the sixth and last of the intentional Horcruxes.” She turned to Emma and said, “You have the honor of naming the seventh.”
Emma smiled with confidence. “And Voldemort, Slytherin of Slytherins, committed partial suicide by casting a killing curse which slew the Horcrux in Harry’s scar.”
“Well done,” the host declared. “Here’s your fifth question. With one exception, the names of students in the sorting ceremony are fictitious. Who is the real person, in which novel does this person appear, what house was this person sorted into, and why did J. K. Rowling do this?”
Sylvia took this one. “In Goblet of Fire, Natalie McDonald was sorted into Gryffindor. Natalie was a nine-year-old Canadian Harry Potter fan who was suffering from leukemia in the summer of 1999. She wrote a letter to J. K. Rowling, which reached the author after Natalie had died. Rowling communicated with Natalie’s mother and decided to memorialize Natalie by including her name in the sorting.”
“That’s five correct,” said the host. “One more right answer and you’re tied for the lead. Here is your question. Because of the time-turner episode in Prisoner of Azkaban, where Harry and Hermione go back in time to rescue Sirius and Buckbeak, the day lasts 27 hours, making it literally longer than any other day in the series. This is also one of those rare times when Rowling specified the day of the month. What was the date that the time turner events occurred on, day, month, and year, and what is the historic significance of that date? Also, name the title and author of a famous book connected with this date.”
“I’ll take the first part, and you can do the second,” Emma said to her partner. “This longest day was June 6, 1994, which happened to be the fiftieth anniversary of the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II.”
“It was commemorated in Cornelius Ryan’s famous book, The Longest Day,” said Sylvia. “Incidentally, the action on this particular day in Prisoner of Azkaban extends for 103 pages, the second largest number of pages in the series devoted to describing the events of a single day. The largest number of pages devoted to a 24-hour period extends from dawn on May 1, 1998 to sunrise the following morning. Rowling devotes 227 pages to the day that begins at Shell Cottage and ends with Voldemort’s demise.”
“Correct, but too much information,” said the host. “I was planning to ask about the most number of pages devoted to a single day.”
“Really? I’m sorry,” said Sylvia.
“Not really,” said the host. “I just like to puncture know-it-alls. Anyway, the Hermione twins are now tied for the lead. If you get the next question right, you win. Are you ready?”
Though the experience was more fun than serious, Emma’s body tensed and her hands went cold. Her competitive instincts took control, and she focused on the challenge ahead. Sylvia experienced the same sensations as Emma. “We’re ready,” they said simultaneously.
The host gave a sly smile. “J. K. Rowling makes multiple references to the Wellington boots left outside on the lawn at the Burrow. These boots were named for the Duke of Wellington. What was the Duke’s real name, and how does this represent a visual pun?”
Sylvia looked at Emma and whispered, “Do you know this one?”
Emma nodded and spoke aloud to the group. “The Duke of Wellington was Arthur Wellesley. Thus the boots make a nice pun on Arthur Weasley.”
“Congratulations,” said the host. “The trivia crown goes to the Hermione twins, Emma and Sylvia.”
For the next hour, Emma and Sylvia basked in the praise of fellow Potter geeks. Friends pressed glasses of mead on Emma, but she declined, saying, “No thanks. I’m the designated driver. I’ll stick with non-alcoholic butterbeer.”
