Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction using characters and elements from the world of Harry Potter, created and trademarked by JK Rowling. I do not claim ownership over any Harry Potter characters or the Harry Potter world. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and is not claiming to be any part of the Harry Potter canon. Thank you to JK Rowling for letting me play with the characters and not suing me for writing them into a new situation.

Light of the Moon

Chapter 8

"Moonrise," King Riddle commented, his eyes hard on hers. All trace of his almost-jocular manner was completely gone.

"How did you know?" Hermione asked, shutting off her alarm. It occurred to her that maybe she should have made it more subtle.

The King remained unmoving for a moment, and then he turned to walk back toward his throne on the dais. He said, casually, over his shoulder, "I always know when the moon rises."

The chamber was very dark now. During the time they had walked around the room, the light from the sun had almost completely gone and the moon had not yet risen high enough to give off very much of a glow. Hermione's eyes had begun to adjust, but losing Riddle suddenly in the darkness reminded her that she needed light to work by.

A Lumos verified that there were no torches or lights in the room. With a couple of quick spells, she fashioned several balls of light that she attached to some of the corners of the room. They could be dimmed or snuffed with a simple command, but easily relighted. This kept her from having to divert her energy into maintaining light.

Riddle's face was once again visible, but there was no expression to indicate whether he found her solution impressive.

As she approached the fountain, she realized she didn't need a light to read the riddle written on the fountain. It glowed serenely.

She examined the words again, knowing they'd had time to settle into her mind.

Artemis lets loose her shaft, 'Twixt dusk and dawn, To pierce the heart of fire.

Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and of the moon. The 'shaft' would refer to an arrow from her bow, but clearly also referred to—"Moonlight," she whispered to herself. The time between dusk and dawn was when the moonlight would shine the brightest.

"Yes," Riddle confirmed for her, making it clear even tiny sounds would carry to his ears in this room. His voice sounded very amused again. "So your friend said, as well. That part of the riddle is not very difficult to guess, which is why I allowed her to carry her message out to you. It didn't tell you anything you wouldn't have immediately deduced on your own."

Shocked, Hermione turned to him. "You knew?" As soon as she said so, she realized that of course he would know. He'd not only had an entire evening of conversation with Luna, which she couldn't remember, he also had access, if he had so chosen, to all of their library browsing history. He would have known exactly what they were researching and why.

It irritated her to be a source of amusement to him. She scowled, and turned back to the riddle.

Taking a breath, she refocused her concentration on the words in front of her.

Poseidon's bounty, Seven from one, To release your heart's desire.

The 'heart of fire' and the 'heart's desire' were obviously the cube, still engulfed, but not consumed by, the flames surrounding it. Riddle had said as much when he told her the task was to free the box from the fire.

She read the riddle again, noting the reference to Poseidon, god of the oceans.

It must be a reference to water, and so the fountain was more than just a decoration and a convenient location to present the riddle. It was not included in any of the pictures she'd seen of the Throne Room, so it was possible it was an addition especially for this contest. 'Seven from one' might be a reference to the seven seas.

Fire, water, moonlight. There was a connection between these things, and it barely required any intelligence at all to discern as much. She was almost disappointed before she remembered that dozens and dozens of witches had tried and failed to solve this riddle. It could not be so easy.

She looked at the box again, trying to avoid making eye contact with Riddle. It was difficult, because he was like a magnet for her gaze, and she knew every move she made was being closely watched by him.

What would an obvious person do? What would be the most logical way to put out a fire?

Douse it with water. She could not create water, she could not bring in water from another location. Fortunately, she was provided with an abundance of water.

But that couldn't possibly be the answer. And if she tried, and used up all the water trying to put out the flames, she couldn't make more.

Muttering under her breath, she took a very small quantity of water from the fountain, and she funneled it through the air to the box. It landed on the surface and promptly disappeared. From this distance, it was hard to tell whether it absorbed into the box or burned off. She didn't see any smoke, so she was disinclined to think it burned.

At any rate, it definitely had no effect on the flames. So she would conserve her source of water,until she knew better what it was needed for.

She'd been remiss in not examining the box more closely. It shamed her to admit it, but she felt nervous walking so close to the King as he sat on his throne. It was different from when he was standing beside her, talking easily.

She climbed the steps to the marble pedestal and did her best to ignore his eyes.

The blue flames flickered and danced, in constant motion, neither growing nor shrinking in size or scope. At the heart of the fire sat the little box, and its surface glittered with a variety of colors from the light reflecting off of it.

She reached out her hand to test the heat, but pulled her fingertips back immediately. It may not have burned like a regular fire, but it gave off just as much heat. Any closer and she was sure her flesh would burn off.

Normally, a fire would need oxygen to continue burning. She decided to smother it and see if it had any effect. Creating a shield of tightly woven streams of air, she surrounded the cube and the fire. Slowly, she contracted the shield until the space within was barely bigger than the box itself. The fire should have burned through whatever oxygen it had, or the size of the flames should have been affected by the change in air currents.

Nothing happened.

It was not susceptible to air or water.

She supposed she should try fire and earth, also.

The fire was easy to come by; it was simply igniting the oxygen already in the room. When introduced to the blue flames, her own fire simply died out.

Earth was much harder to procure. After several moments in thought, she finally decided that stone constituted earth. And there was quite a bit of it in the room.

She hesitated, however, uncertain about how Riddle would react to what she was about to do. He had said that everything she needed was in the room. She hoped that meant he was willing to overlook her use of stone to conduct her experiments.

Squaring her shoulders, she pointed her wand at the statue of the woman in the middle of the fountain, and, with a slicing hex, she cut off her head.

Riddle remained motionless, though she could tell from the set to his mouth that he was not pleased at the damage she'd done to what was probably a priceless statue. Surely, he hadn't wanted her to break up the marble flooring?

With a few more spells, she turned the woman's head into a pile of fine gravel. Shaping it into a few thin layers, she levitated them towards the box, once again attempting to smother the flames.

She was unsurprised when nothing happened, but at least she had plenty of data to consider.

The flames were impervious to physical elements. They were clearly magical in nature, and would respond to something magical.

She returned to the now-headless woman in the fountain, and read the riddle again.

Moonlight was definitely the key.

Looking up, she saw the oculus was beginning to glow with the light of the moon as it rose higher. It was time to try to get it to 'pierce the heart of fire.'

Concentrating, she cast a levitation spell on the box to move it farther under the oculus where the moonlight could shine on it. To her surprise, it wouldn't budge. It was very small, and likely didn't weigh very much, but she couldn't get it to shift even an inch.

Curious, she attempted the levitation spell on the marble pedestal, which should have moved easily. It, too, resisted her magic.

Using a very strong wall of air, she pushed it against the box, with the same results. Just to be sure, and partially to see what Riddle's reaction would be, she sent a tiny blasting spell at the pedestal. It didn't rock at all in the blast, though the things around it, like Riddle's throne, shook.

Riddle appeared supremely confident in the ability of the item to withstand her spells. It was clear the placement of the box was very intentional. She'd have to find a way to get the moonlight from the oculus to the box.

Walking back to the fountain, she knelt in front of it, reading the words to herself. The solution to the riddle was in the room. The answer involved the moonlight, but the box wouldn't move into the moonlight.

For several moments, she sat in silence, contemplating her options. She looked up at the oculus above her, which was beginning to glow brighter as the moon rose higher. With a simple measuring spell she got the exact distance from the oculus to the box.

It would have to be reflection, she decided. But while it made sense, she couldn't figure out how it was related to the part of the riddle that involved 'Poseidon's bounty.'

But after several more moments with no other ideas, she decided to at least test the moonlight first.

Now her problem was finding a reflective source.

Her eyes were drawn immediately to all the glass cases that were nearby. She eyed them, trying to gauge how much glass she'd need to divert a shaft of moonlight towards the pedestal that was entirely in shadow.

While Riddle didn't tense up, Hermione would say that he was very interested in her interest in those cases.

Quickly, before he could react, she cast a Bombarda at the nearest glass case. It happened to be the one with all of the statuettes. She expected to hear the shattering of glass, maybe some magical feedback, and so she also cast a catch-all spell that would prevent the glass shards from exploding outwards.

It was all done with quite a bit of skill and grace, Hermione thought with pride. Unfortunately, nothing happened, except the energy from the blasting spell rebounding back into the room.

The force from the spell knocked her backwards, and when she looked up to see what had happened, the glass case remained completely untouched. Once again, Riddle was stone-faced, his confidence making it clear he didn't expect her to succeed in her assault on his cases.

Awkwardly, Hermione climbed back to her feet, realizing belatedly that the white robes had slid quite a way up her thighs. Fortunately, her dignity remained intact and, as she stood, the robes slid back into place.

She dusted her hands off, and readjusted her grip on her wand. Gritting her teeth, she cast a much more powerful spell at the case, hoping to find the weakness that would cause the glass to crumble. This time she buffered the energy to prevent the rebound blast, so when the spell failed to work, it simply looked like she'd done nothing.

Glancing at Riddle, Hermione was irked to discover he was wearing that same faintly amused expression.

She narrowed her eyes at the case. She needed glass. She needed something to reflect the moonlight onto the box. In quick succession, she cast the same spell at all of the other cases, in case one of them was weaker than the others.

When the outcome remained the same, she could almost feel Riddle's silent laughter at her back.

Turning to look him square in the eye, she raised her wand straight up at the only other glass in the room and cast her spell once more.

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