The First Riddle The First Riddle

Recounting the Tale

Suddenly, there was a snick as the door opened itself, and the student entered the crowded room.

A prefect noticed her entrance, and looked around behind her as if expecting someone else to come through the door.  As the student approached the stairway to her room, the door closed, and the prefect asked, “Who let you in?” 

“The door knocker did,” she replied.

“You answered the question correctly?” he asked, then caught himself.  “Of course, you would have had to.  What did it ask you?”

She told him.

“And you knew the answer?” the prefect asked, clearly impressed.  “That’s from a muggle myth.  The knocker usually only uses that one on, well, first-year purebloods.  How did you know the answer?”

“I read The Quibbler” she replied simply.

“That rag?” replied the prefect skeptically.  “They printed the story of Œdipus?”

“No,” responded the student “but there was an article on the Ambulatory Diurnal Mandrake.”

The prefect was completely dumbfounded by this response. 

The new student felt compelled to recount the entire episode, though she skipped over any details of the exchange that she thought might embarrass the knocker.  There was many a guffaw and snicker from the growing audience.  By the time she finished, she had garnered the attention of the entire room.

“So,” the prefect began when she was finished, “you’re telling me that you got in without giving the correct answer of ‘a man?’ ”

“Well,” she replied, “the knocker tried to convince me that I didn’t give the correct answer, but it was quite reasonable about the whole thing.”

“Reasonable!” an older student exclaimed.  “I once got detention for a week for being in the hallway after curfew.  I returned plenty early, but that hard-headed knocker kept me from entering for two hours straight!“

Following Through

The new student managed to extricate herself from the ensuing tirades against “Old Metal Beak” and went upstairs to her room.  After retrieving the required issue of The Quibbler and some spell-o-tape, she circumvented the complaining crowd of students and went back outside.  As the door closed behind her, she considered how the knocker might read a newspaper.  High on the wall opposite the door was a torch.  Perfect, she thought, and spread The Quibbler out on the wall beneath the light.  “Can you read this from there?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the eagle.  It seemed to stare at her meaningfully, and she thought, Oh, right, “eagle-eyed.”  She carefully mounted the paper using the spell-o-tape.  As she approached the door again, she promised the knocker, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll turn the page so that you can finish the article.”  Suddenly realizing that she was once again outside of the closed door, she blithely raised the knocker and let it perform its sonorous task.

The eagle asked, “What is your name?”

“Luna Lovegood,” she replied.

“That is correct,” replied the knocker, and the door opened once again.

The End

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