Harry Potter and the whimsical drabbles

by slytherinsal

Herein one or two one-shots, to which I may add more if the mood takes me, which cover the monsters from the id or other such trash which seem like a good idea at 3am when woken by drunks/cats/bladder/toasted cheese lying heavy

28. Chapter 28

The Sudoku spell

I dreamed this last night. So I thought I'd write it up.

Hermione opened a letter from her parents, and read it, frowning.

"'Mione?" said Harry.

"It's... odd," said Hermione. "My mum writes that they are on holiday in the country, where they might anticipate seeing horses, a place very like where we stayed with the Sarsens. We never stayed with anyone called Sarsen that I recall. And she says for my weekly mathematics challenge – she never has sent such a thing before – it's a special kind of sudoku problem which involves solving a sudoku where the starting numbers are in a two-axis pattern. See? It looks a bit like a star. And she says it is called i-ike-ike. Which sounds Japanese but.. this problem can't be solved, you'd have to have two threes in this column."

Harry looked. "No 'l'," he said. "Noel!"

"What?" said Hermione.

"It should be 'I Like Ike' but there's no 'l'. They are warning you that someone is going to pick you up at Christmas to put pressure on me. They've been captured."

Hermione gasped.

"Sarsen stones!" she said. "Stonehenge! White horses cut in chalk! Why, they've given a clue to their location, too!" She frowned. "And isn't Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire?"