Thanks! Lots of thank you-s and a lot of hugs to Seldes Katne for beta-reading Hearts and Hourglasses before it's posted on Sugar Quill! She's a wonderful person and a fantastic beta-reader!

Reminder: Godric's alias is Godfrey. Salazar's is Sextus. Rowena's is Rachel. Helga's is Hannah. Rowena cast a spell so that everyone who hears them will hear them referring to each other by their aliases, but to their own ears, they hear each other's real names. It's a complicated spell.

Chapter 24: The Game

"Release," said Godric, and four bundles of colored sticks scattered simultaneously on the table.

"Pick up the loose sticks first, Ron," Harry heard Helga say as he began picking up loose sticks on his and Godric's section of the table. Hovering a foot above the table was a three-dimensional game board.

"Throw the dice, Rachel," Salazar said. Harry glanced over to him and Draco, who had already gathered all the loose sticks on their side. The other boy was now gingerly levering a green stick off a red stick.

As Harry turned his attention back to picking up sticks, he heard the click clack sound of ivory dice hitting wood.

"Six," said Rowena, and Harry glanced up to the game board. The blue token moved six spaces and landed beside a red square.

"Do we have a free red stick, Hermione?" Rowena asked her partner. Hermione nodded and held up a red stick. Rowena smiled and told her to place it on the game board. Harry stopped picking up sticks to watch Hermione.

When the red stick touched the game board, it glowed, shimmered and vanished. A scroll suddenly popped up out of nowhere in front of Rowena and Hermione. Floating in mid-air, it unrolled itself and showed its contents to them.

"Hmm..." Rowena conferred with Hermione before declaring, "Barrington Brothers' Smithy." Harry watched with wide eyes as a miniature building assembled by itself on the red square.

Sitting beside Harry, Godric groaned. "Rachel," he complained, "you know that's my favorite."

"I know, Godfrey," said Rowena in a mischievous tone, "if you happen to get Trapps Tilan's Library, we can trade."

"If I can get it," muttered Godric. Harry grinned. Godric was very serious about this game. Then he was distracted when Helga threw the dice. The three dice landed in the center on the table, rolled, stopped and showed triple sixes.

Salazar exclaimed with delight, and Harry was startled when the table began to shake, sticks scattered, and four new bundles of sticks appeared and dropped.

"Hannah, you are beautiful!" Godric declared joyfully. On the game board, the yellow token moved eighteen spaces and landed beside a yellow space. Ron placed the required stick on the board, and without looking at the scroll, Helga said, "Jippet Japp's Hospice."

Another building rose on the yellow square, and it was Godric's turn to throw. The dice showed ten, and the red token landed beside a green square.

"Oh no," Salazar grumbled. Godric looked very happy, and Harry quickly placed a green stick on the board.

"Scrimbles' Snakes Emporium," said Godric, without looking at the scroll. Harry snorted. That was most likely where Salazar sold his and Godric's basilisks.

It was Salazar's turn, and the dice showed twelve. The green token landed beside a blue square. "Trapps Tilan's Library," Salazar declared after Draco placed a blue stick on the board.

Pointedly ignoring Godric's glare, Salazar turned towards Rowena. Harry watched as two more scrolls popped up in front of them and exchanged places before vanishing. On the game board, the tiny blue flag flying over Barrington Brothers' Smithy became a tiny green flag. The green flag over the newly constructed Trapps Tilan's Library turned blue.

Then suddenly, four more scrolls appeared; one for each team. Harry read the scroll floating in front of him and Godric.

Orange is needed for each hut to build
Red can clear land for a farm to till
Violet to give for a well to dig

Harry quickly checked their stack of free sticks and breathed in relief to find that there was one red stick among them. While Godric placed the required sticks on the board, Harry quickly picked up more sticks. It was clear that sticks were quick to be in short supply, and he had to be careful not to jar other sticks since they would disintegrate if they are bumped by the stick he was trying to pick.

Harry hoped that someone would throw another triple sixes. It was getting very hard to pick up sticks. Also, Harry was very distracted by little wizards and witches now on the board and working on their farms. Their portion of the game board village was off to a good start with six huts, a well and one farm.

The scrolls vanished after a predetermined amount of time, and Rowena threw the dice. Again, she got another six, which placed the blue token right on Trapps Tilan's Library.

All of a sudden, the room shimmered and turned into a library. Harry was so surprised, he accidentally knocked away a lot of sticks, which immediately disappeared. "Ack!" yelled Ron, who had also lost a lot of sticks. Even Hermione and Draco lost many of their sticks when they all suddenly ended up in Trapps Tilan's Library.

The library seemed small and rather dingy, but that was because dozens of tall narrow bookshelves were crammed into space the area of, say, the Gryffindor common room. There were small tables and spindly-looking chairs scattered throughout the room. All the windows were open and bright slats of sunlight-patterned rectangles of light on the rough stone floor. Countless dust motes danced lazily around and were seen only when they passed through the sunbeams.

Suddenly, a wizard in dark gray robes walked out from between the bookshelves and went through the game board table and through Draco.

Draco paled whiter than a ghost, and Helga said to Rowena that perhaps it would be better if they went back. Rowena nodded and reached out to tap the blue token on the board with her fingertip. The room shimmered again, and they were back in the game room in Wvelte.

"That was incredible," whispered Ron after several moments' of silence. Harry looked over to him as Godric asked curiously. "You've never played a game like this?"

"Sure, I have," answered Ron, still looking impressed, "but no one's ever made a game that changes the room you're playing in into the interior of a location in the game. That was so cool!"

"That library we were in was a real place, wasn't it?" asked Hermione. She still looked a bit startled.

Rowena replied hesitantly, "It was a memory, but there is or there was a place known as Trapps Tilan's Library. I frequented it."

A memory... thought Harry. He stared at the game board with its minuscule buildings and little wizarding folk. So, it was also like a Pensieve.

Salazar looked thoughtful, and he commented to Godric, "Since they don't know about this game, I suppose we never got around to marketing it then."

Godric nodded slowly and murmured, "I suppose." Then, both wizards fell silent, and Harry noticed that they were avoiding Rowena and Helga's questioning eyes. Helga simply looked curious, but Rowena was beginning to look frustrated. She looked as though she wanted to question Godric and Salazar, but she didn't since Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were there.

The room fell into an uneasy silence, and it was Salazar who broke it. With a peculiar blank expression on his face, he told Rowena to go on with the game. For the first time, Harry saw Rowena give Salazar a sharp penetrating look. It reminded him of Professor McGonagall when she was at her strictest, or of Hermione when she was being stubborn.

Harry was certain that once he and the others left Wvelte, Rowena would be after Godric and Salazar for answers, not subtly nor gently, but in the same way that Hermione had tried to bully people into joining and supporting S.P.E.W.

Salazar faced Rowena's formidable glare unflinchingly, and Rowena's eyes narrowed at him. "Hermione," she suddenly said in a calm yet dangerous tone of voice, "place the white stick on the board."

Helga looked surprised by this move. Godric's face turned wary, but Salazar's expression remained unchanged. Harry watched curiously as Hermione took out the single white stick from their pile. It was one of the two rarest sticks in the game since there was only one white colored stick in the bundles of colored sticks, which had thirty-six pieces each. Harry had no idea what the white stick would do in the game.

Instead of simply disappearing, as the other sticks had done when placed on the board, the white stick glowed and flashed. The blue square upon which stood Trapps Tilan's Library lit up. A colored disc suddenly appeared, floating a foot above the game board. It was a foot in diameter, and its center was aligned precisely with the center of the table. A thin iridescent blue thread flowed down from it, and its free end attached itself to Trapps Tilan's Library.

Harry jumped when invisible trumpets blared, and a scroll popped into existence in front of Godric and Harry. It unrolled and on it was written:

The building of Hogwarts has begun!

Gryffindor has none out of three hundred sixty points
Ravenclaw has one out of three hundred sixty points
Hufflepuff has none out of three hundred sixty points
Slytherin has none out of three hundred sixty points

Game ends when one House is complete!

Harry blinked at it and was about to ask Godric about it when the clattering of dice distracted him. Helga had taken her turn. The dice read nine, and a tiny ebony black badger ran nine spaces from Jippet Japp's Hospice. As it stopped beside a red square, Harry stared at the badger and looked at the other tokens. Their red token was now a mini golden lion, which was pacing impatiently around the square it was in. Salazar and Draco's green token had turned into a coiled silver serpent. Rowena and Hermione's blue token had become a bronze eagle, which was perched atop Trapps Tilan's Library.

Thankfully, Godric started to explain to Harry the rules and objectives of the game. There were three main objectives. The most obvious was acquiring as many territories (squares) as possible. Developing one's area of the game board was also important since a player needed to fill out certain requirements such as wizard population. These little game wizards in turn would increase the production of the player's territories.

It was their turn at dice now, but before throwing them, Godric nodded towards the game board and told Harry, "Watch what the little people do."

On their side of the board, they had six huts, which seemed to be able to accommodate three little people each. As Harry watched, six little wizards and witches in teeny scarlet robes began working on the single farm they had. Half of these six went over to the well and took out the tiniest wands Harry had ever seen. These wizards began summoning water out of the well to fill up buckets.

Harry had to tear his eyes away from them so that he could see what the other dozen little people were doing. Three of them, Harry saw, were heading towards Scrimbles' Snakes Emporium while the other nine just seemed to be lounging around their huts doing nothing.

"Scarlet Simeons' Tavern," declared Godric, and six more wizards headed out. Harry frowned, wondering why six were going to the tavern while only three had gone to the snake emporium. He looked over to where Scarlet Simeons' Tavern was and noticed it was on a red square.

Harry paused then looked over to Trapps Tilan's Library, which had six wizards in dark blue robes gathered in front of it. As he watched, half a dozen tiny heads nodded in agreement, and all of them went inside the library.

"If it's your own color, production will be more efficient," Godric said suddenly, and Harry glanced at him. The older wizard nodded over to Jippet Japp's Hospice. Harry looked over to it just as a tiny wizard in dark brown robes came out of the building. He was holding a white bundle in his arms, and he walked over to a witch who was standing beside a neat pile of bundles in front of the hospice. The witch nodded and wrote something on a minuscule scroll she was holding with an equally tiny feather quill. The wizard placed his bundle on the pile and went back inside the hospice just as another wizard came out, carrying a similar bundle.

"What are they making?" Harry asked Godric in a low voice.

Godric answered, "Since it's Jippet Japp's, medicines and bandages mostly."

Harry suddenly noticed that their people had reached Scrimbles', and they seemed to be arguing in front of the shop. It was on a green square.

"Why don't you exchange squares with Lord Slytherin?" suggested Harry.

The look Godric gave to Harry made it clear he didn't like the idea.

After all players had their third turn at dice, scrolls again popped up before all of them. Their scroll said:

The more the better, the price's still the same.
Red for food violet for water oranges for houses

You currently have ~~~
Six houses with three tenants each, which makes 18!
A farm and a well with six farmers, good! There is enough food for all!

"Hmm...," murmured Godric thoughtfully. Harry watched as he picked up a rainbow colored stick, all the oranges they had left and a violet stick. These, he handed to Harry, who placed them on the board. The rainbow colored stick, Harry saw, flashed red before vanishing.

Three more huts, a farm and another well appeared on their side of the board. By now, each of the teams had three squares, and the game board was starting to look quite confusing with little wizards and witches traveling all over the place.

"You and Lord Slytherin made this game?" Harry asked Godric in a hushed voice filled with awe. Godric, who was looking over their domain, nodded distractedly.

As the game proceeded for the next hour, Harry learned a few more important things about the game. New bundles of sticks appeared when all four players made complete rounds around the board. Harry was thankful for this especially, since in the last few turns, game play barely advanced due to the lack of sticks.

Another important event occurred when all tokens made complete rounds. The products or packages made by their workers could be converted into sticks. For example, thirty tiny bundles of medicines from Jippet Japp's Hospice could be made into a single yellow stick. Forty-five bundles would be required for a red, blue or green stick. Random or rainbow-colored sticks cost sixty bundles each, and they could only be turned into any of the above four colors when used.

White, black, orange and violet sticks, on the other hand, could only be gained by picking them up.

The House color sticks, as what Harry had began to think of them as, were also used to upgrade territory squares. Buildings could only be upgraded three times, and the number of people working in them increased by three with each renovation. Production also increased proportionally.

Harry also found out that white sticks could only be used when a player landed on his own square as Rowena had done very early in the game. Materials could only be transferred to Hogwarts if a white stick had been played on a territory square. It turned out a House point equaled three hundred and sixty packages.

Godric also told Harry that building Hogwarts usually didn't begin until midway through the game when each player had already gained a good number of squares and when most buildings had been upgraded to second level.

"Early in the game," said Godric, "it's better to have the packages turned into sticks rather than have them go up to Hogwarts immediately; however, what Rachel did was also a strategic move since the first convoy link to Hogwarts becomes its cornerstone and cannot be destroyed."

Harry glanced at the shiny colorful threads connecting Hogwarts to the squares below. Right now, there were six blue threads, five yellow threads, three red threads and three green threads. They had been playing for nearly three hours now.

"They can be destroyed?" Harry queried as the Gryffindor lion token padded six spaces to stop beside Barrington Brothers' Smithy.

He blinked when Godric slapped a black stick, a red, a violet and an orange stick on the game board. Trumpets blared again, and this time with drums beating in the background. Harry watched with mild shock, as six tiny wizards in dark red robes ran towards the smithy, where three little wizards in dark green robes were coming out.

A takeover? Harry thought as he watched the pint-sized wizards duel with each other.

"Sir?" Harry heard Draco say loudly, and he looked over to other boy who was looking a little embarrassed since Salazar had fallen asleep while leaning against him.

Godric stood up with an expression of disbelief on his face. "Oh no... that's not fair-"

"Thank goodness," said Helga interrupting Godric with a sigh of relief. "He finally fell asleep- Godfrey, don't you dare wake him up!" she hissed sharply just as Godric was about to shake Salazar awake.

"He has to be pretending," grumbled Godric, "I was about to take the smithy." Harry shook his head at his House's Founder and at Lord Slytherin. Both wizards had been undermining each other throughout the game. That was why their teams were so far behind the other teams.

"There is a way to make sure," Helga reminded Godric, and she asked Rowena, "Is Sextus really sleeping, Rachel?"

Rowena nodded with a smile. She had since regained her usual gentle demeanor during the course of the game though Harry felt that she will not be letting up on Godric and Salazar anytime soon.

It's better that they don't know that Lord Slytherin left Hog- Rowena suddenly looked towards him sharply, and Harry almost hit himself for thinking about it.

Harry quickly stood up, causing Ron and Hermione to look at him curiously.

"We should really be going to bed now," said Harry, hoping he sounded reluctant and not nervous.

Godric looked at him curiously then nodded with a smile. "Yes, it is very late already."

Harry was glad when Hermione followed his lead quickly. "We had a wonderful evening," Hermione said to Rowena who was slow to look away from Harry.

"It has been an enjoyable evening for us as well," Rowena said warmly.

Godric and Helga escorted Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco to the hall outside. Before they were sent down, Helga gave Ron her ebony badger pin. Ron was very red with embarrassment, but Harry could see he was ecstatic. Harry grinned when Helga warned Ron she would take her pin back if he misused it.

When the four students arrived in the entrance hall, Draco nodded at them silently before heading down to the dungeons. He went away so quickly that Harry didn't have a chance to say good night to him. Ron and Hermione didn't even seem to notice that Draco had left, and on their way to Gryffindor Tower, Harry had to explain to his friends why he was in a hurry to leave Wvelte.

To be continued.

Game notes:
Each bundle consist of thirty-six slender sticks: one white, one black, three reds, three greens, three blues, three yellows, six violets, nine oranges and seven random sticks.

There were seventy-two colored squares. There were eighteen red squares, eighteen green squares, eighteen blue squares and eighteen yellow squares.

Three dice are used. With an average throw of nine, a player can clear or go round the game board in eight throws.

Chapter 24 has ended. Please go on to the next chapter.

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