Chapter 12
Day Two, here we go.
Hermione had intended to go directly to Mrs. Fogg yesterday upon arriving back at the school, only to find that the principal was away from the premises on important business. That just meant she'd have to meet with her this afternoon, and Hermione had made sure before departing for the museum that Mrs. Fogg would indeed still be there this time. She would just have to survive whatever the kids threw her way today, and she was certain more mayhem was to come. Her kids were the Terrible Ten, after all. The best Hermione could do was be ready for the first sign of trouble.
The map for today had an orange route, which resumed the tour almost immediately where the one yesterday had ended, with the exhibit adjacent to the Amber one. The memories of yesterday's incidents came back to Hermione as she and the class walked by the exhibits, and it was all she could do not to shudder at the thought of them. The kids, however, made no effort to conceal their giggles as they clearly remembered the same things. Rather than tell them off, though, Hermione elected to simply clutch the cuffs of her brown and tan-striped shirt in anger until they reached their first new exhibit. It was one devoted to Victorian-Era artifacts.
The main attraction of this exhibit was a collection of simple-looking wooden boxes. Most of them were opened, with the appearance of a coffin, in addition to them being behind protective layers of glass. Upon seeing them, Hermione darkly mused that all that was missing were vampires rising up from inside the boxes.
"Look!" exclaimed Benjamin. "There's one out in the open!"
He was right. At the far end of the room, sitting on what looked to be a miniature stage with red curtains draped behind it, was another one of these wooden boxes. It was perched on a table and like the ones on display in the glass cases, the top had been removed.
The kids all immediately ran over, stopping in front of the rope that cordoned it off from crowds.
Watch them like a hawk, Hermione told herself sternly before following in their wake. Spanking Miles yesterday had, in hindsight, seemed to cause more damage than help. Thus, Hermione started to wonder if there was anything she could do to punish these rascals that wouldn't rebound negatively on her.
"What does it say, Hermione?" asked Aggy as she pointed at the information plaque. "What is it?"
Hermione stepped up to the plaque and positioned herself so that she could read from it while being aware of any movements the kids might make. "It's called a Magician's Box. During this time period, Muggle magic stage shows had reached a high in popularity, and one night, an actual wizard was in the audience of one these shows. He was so impressed by a box that seemingly separated a person's body into pieces, that he began work on a box that could achieve the same results. He succeeded, but rather than deciding to implement it as a torture device, the wizard instead marketed it as a joke product. This was due to the person inside the box feeling no pain once their body had been separated into different pieces. The enchantment on the box still holds strong to this day. Once someone gets inside, all it takes is simply pushing sections of the box away from each other."
"Wicked!" remarked Torics, momentarily reminding Hermione of Ron. "I wish we could see how it works!"
"Well, nobody's supposed to touch it, so we can't find out." Hermione crossed her arms and glared evenly at her group. At the same time, she noticed that no one else had entered the exhibit yet.
"Maybe there's a doll or a test dummy inside of it," suggested Lori, standing on tiptoe in hopes of getting a better look at the inside of the box.
"It wouldn't matter anyw-"
"I'll go check!" declared Torics, cutting off Hermione. He darted underneath the rope separating the stage from them and climbed the stairs leading onto the stage.
"TORICS! Get back here!" Before going after him, Hermione shot the other kids a sharp glance. "Nobody move!" She didn't wait to see their reaction as she stepped over the velvet rope.
If anybody, especially someone on the Museum staff, were to walk in right now and see Torics so blatantly breaking the rules, it would be more trouble for Hermione than for him. And that's the last thing she wanted, or needed, given the incidents the day before. By the time Hermione had reached the little boy, he was peering inside the box.
Hermione came up behind him and firmly took him by the shoulders. "You are in big trouble, young man!"
Torics just kept staring into the empty box. "No … nothing in here," he said offhandedly.
From the new vantage point, Hermione could plainly see slots for the occupant's arms and legs to rest in, rather than them dangling out in mid-air.
"Come back down before someone comes in and sees you up here!" Hermione attempted to drag him away, but Torics grabbed tightly onto the side of the box.
"But we want to see how this works!" he protested.
"So we'll just use you as our little test dummy," said Tony snidely from behind Hermione. She hadn't even noticed him creep up onstage.
There was no time for any words of protest before Hermione felt someone wrap their arms around her legs and someone else pin her own arms to her back. Retrieving a roll of duct tape from his back pocket, Torics hopped up onto the clear space of the table holding the box, undoing a bit of it and tearing it off. He promptly placed it firmly over Hermione's mouth, patting it down to make sure it was on nice and tight.
Torics jumped down so that he was out of the way. "Push her in!" he ordered.
Hermione felt a few pairs of small hands, one of them strategically placed on her butt, push her forcefully down towards the open box. All the while, she had one thought on her mind: Nooooo!
She landed face-down inside, her body fitting into all the nooks and crannies.
"Quick! Seal her up!" she heard Torics say.
She made noises of dissent through the tape, but they went unheeded, because Hermione was trapped fully in the box moments later. Everything suddenly went dark.
They are SO dead!
Sounds of scurrying and shuffling came from around the box and pretty soon, Hermione felt the box being stood up straight.
"Wow, this is very light!" said Lori from outside.
"Yeah, even with someone like Hermione inside," agreed Miles, "whose butt looks like it'd be big enough to make it heavy on its' own!"
Hey! My butt HAS filled out a little more, but it's not THAT big! Wait – why am I arguing like this?
The kids chuckled at the joke nonetheless.
"Oh, look at this!" said Alice.
Hermione heard a soft scraping noise, and suddenly found her line of vision opened up. Through the new opening, she had a rectangular view of the exhibit, and there were still no other people there.
"Hi!" Alice waved at Hermione pleasantly through the peep hole.
"Alice, go stand guard by the door and make sure no one comes in yet," said Torics from somewhere behind Hermione. Through her view, Hermione saw Alice nod and race over to the doorway. "Now comes the fun part!" Torics' voice bubbled with giddiness.
Alice nodded and ran to her post.
"Wow, this box looks like a real human body!" proclaimed Bruno. "I didn't notice 'til now."
"And, look, there are slides on each part that open up so you can see everything better," observed Barrin.
Well, what a relief! Hermione thought bitterly. She felt a sudden tapping against the headpiece.
"Alright, Hermione," said Torics delightedly, "are you ready to be split up?"
Hermione made a noise of protest through the duct tape, but wasn't sure if it carried outside the wood.
"Here we go!"
Panic set in as Hermione started to struggle with futility, but just like the innards of the giant teddy bear, there wasn't much room to move around.
A beam of light appeared where the box broke off into its space for the occupant's left arm, signifying that the kids had removed that particular limb. Pure adrenaline instantly kicked in, with Hermione's mind telling her to scream in pain, but despite the circumstances, it felt as if her arm was still attached and not currently being carried off to Merlin-knew-where. It was then that Hermione remembered how nobody felt excruciating pain while in this box, leading her to reason that the designer must have been bloody good at his job.
Relax, just relax.
But Hermione found it harder and harder to do so when each body part was being removed as easily as one would pull apart warm pieces of bread. The other comparison that was brought to mind was that Muggle game where the object was to remove small wooden blocks from a tower without toppling it. After her left arm came her right, and then the kids moved down to her legs. The removal of her lower appendages caused what remained of Hermione to plop down a few inches on the table, making her feel like she'd been shoved down to sit in a chair. Not once did blood spurt from her separated limbs.
After her extremities were pulled away, Hermione tried flexing her fingers and wiggling her toes, but felt nothing. She imagined that if the movements had worked, though, then the kids would've said something to alert her to it.
This is SO weird, the young witch thought. She got angrier by the second as the kids continued. Those evil … those wicked … I'm going to KILL them!
"Do you see anyone yet, Alice?" asked Torics.
"There are a few people in the hall," replied Alice. "But none of them are coming this way now. Still, hurry up."
"Right. Just one more thing."
Hermione didn't have long to wonder what Torics was talking about. First, she heard the slide on the compartment holding her waist slide open, already setting off alarm bells in her head. Second, Hermione felt a grubby little pair of hands come around her hips and find her belt buckle. They proceeded to undo it before moving on to unfasten her pants button and zipper.
Hermione tried protesting as the situation escalated, but her words were muffled by the tape. She went as far as trying to wriggle her body in an attempt to move away from those hands, but the box kept her from that goal. All the while, she repeated one phrase over and over in her head: Not my butt, not my butt!
That did nothing, however, to quell the extremely uncomfortable feeling Hermione felt as that pair of hands tugged at the fabric of both her pants and underwear until her bare bottom was in full, unobstructed view. Her cheeks flushed red, embarrassment setting in at the fact that her rear was exposed to them yet again, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"Really, it looks like our butt inflation prank wasn't that necessary," chuckled Miles.
If Hermione's mouth hadn't been covered by duct tape, she would've retorted with, "My butt is none of your business," but all she could do was growl incoherently. And she had to admit deep down that she was rather happy that her body had developed so well recently. What she objected to was it being used to humiliate her.
"Make sure that can be seen well!" ordered Torics about Hermione's separated butt, which was carried away someplace. "And keep taking her pants off in the leg boxes. Her shoes, as well!" Hermione could only assume his orders were carried out, as she couldn't feel if they were.
This is just a bad dream, right? I mean, this is too weird not to be a dream. Wake up! Come on, WAKE UP!
"People are coming!" declared Alice as she retreated back into the room.
"Okay," said Torics, "as long as we keep the rest of her hidden, nobody should suspect anything. Everyone just act normal. Are the other boxes open?"
"Yes," answered Benjamin. "The rest of her is in plain sight!"
Just then, through her viewing hole, Hermione saw a small crowd of tourists wandering into the exhibit. Out of desperation, Hermione racked her mind for a spell to perform nonverbally that would fix everything in a flash, but found herself too shocked to think coherently. The only thing on her mind right now was, Get me out of here!
Outside, the kids had positioned themselves casually by a few of the stands in the exhibit, but still close enough to where they had placed Hermione's body parts on display. There was a certain symmetry to the placement. Each of her now-bare legs were the first things to be noticed upon looking at the surroundings. They stood atop the first two pedestals lining the door. Hermione's arms, the shirt sleeves on them rolled all the way up, were angled on the next two pedestals so that they were directed to what sat near the head of the room on a table that hadn't been there before. Serving as the centerpiece, of sorts, was Hermione's "butt in a box," sitting in plain view in front of the rope that cut the rest of her off from public access as if such a thing was one of the most common elements in the world. Beyond that crude display were the boxes that concealed Hermione's head and torso.
The first person to notice that oddity was a conservatively-dressed woman of mid-age who gasped loudly and put her hand against the base of her throat in surprise. From her vantage point, Hermione could make out the affronted expression on the woman's face.
"Is that a … a … bottom?" Clearly, she considered herself above using the term 'butt.'
"Yeah, it's a butt!" giggled a little boy whom Hermione didn't recognize. He laughed into his palm and pointed, his body shaking from the muffled guffaws. There were more contained outbursts of laughter following this.
Hermione felt her cheeks blush even more as she spied a young man who looked to be in his early 20's come up for a closer look.
"Quite rotund, isn't it?" he remarked with a smirk.
Despite the situation, offense briefly overcame Hermione. Could anyone NOT comment on my butt - Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden poking sensation on her right leg. So, I can feel when others touch me, but I can't move my limbs myself. Bloody brilliant!
"These are incredibly life-like!" proclaimed the gray-haired man who was poking Hermione's leg. "Are they … real?"
"No!" Torics suddenly spoke up. As he stepped forth from where he had been standing, Hermione could see that he held the pamphlet that had been in her pants. "Someone on the Museum staff said that they're parts of a test dummy that the museum uses to show how these boxes work."
Liar! Hermione began to make desperate noises through the tape, hoping against hope that someone, anyone, would hear her. But nobody seemed to.
"Really?" asked the man, who had the distinguished air of a professor. "Well, they did a remarkable job with flesh tone, not to mention muscle structure." He reached out and grazed Hermione's leg with his fingers, even squeezing slightly, as he said that last part. Not that she could, given the restrictions of the box, but it made her want to lash out with her foot.
"I've heard that the makers of this dummy spent a long time trying to get that stuff right," lied Torics again.
"Ingenious," said the man as he stroked his chin.
With the man's back turned, Torics shook in silent laughter. His classmates were all doing the same.
Hermione's thoughts then went to her right hand, the fingers of which were being flexed in and out of a fist. "I could swear this was real," admired the brunette teenage girl who was behind the movements. "Though I could do without the sight of a naked arse."
The feeling's mutual, Hermione thought acidly.
"I think it's funny!" said a raven-haired young boy who was standing directly in front of said body part, admiring it a bit too closely for Hermione's liking. He began studying the box itself. "I don't see any sign that says not to touch it, so I wonder if we can?"
No, you bloody well can't! Don't even THINK about it, you little brat! Hermione made more angry noises through the duct tape.
"Of course you can!" said Miles, who came over to join the other boy. At the same time, Hermione felt what seemed like a stick of some sort whack against her left calf. "We've already touched it, and no one said anything. So, go ahead!"
Azkaban might as well get a cell ready, because I'll soon be arrested for ten counts of murder!
It started out with the boy merely poking at the center of Hermione's right butt cheek with his index finger. In-between the pokes, Hermione felt someone tickling her left foot, and it was the weirdest feeling to want to wiggle her toes in response, but not be able to.
The butt poking quickly turned into pinching, and Hermione let out high-pitched sounds of protests that carried through the tape, but not out into the exhibit.
By now, Hermione's class was almost keeling over from laughing so hard. They were starting to earn stares from the other tourists.
"Andrew!" It was the voice of the woman who had first noticed Hermione's butt. "That's not appropriate! Get back over here!"
"Just let me do one more thing, Mum!"
What is he talking ab-
Andrew smacked the center of Hermione's butt with a stinging force that caused her to yelp through the tape.
"Andrew!"
"That was fun!" proclaimed Andrew before he went over to rejoin his mother. This left Miles alone with the "butt in a box," and he turned to where he knew Hermione could see him and shot her a wicked grin which clearly said, "Payback time."
"Anyone else wanna give this big bottom a few whacks? There's said to be a spell on it that can turn the cheeks red when smacked!"
Like clockwork, a queue of eager kids, none of whom Hermione recognized from the school, formed.
NO!
"Give it your best shot!" Miles smirked, stepping aside and allowing the first kid to step forward and give Hermione's butt his best smack.
Damn these kids!
