Queen of Hogwarts (GL)

Small reminder (th is replaced by z when it comes to Fleur)

~ Kiss this Challenge! ~

September twenty-sixth. Two weeks later after the Queen's first astronomy class.

The Queen is going to the Grand Hall to eat something, even somebody as amazing as her can't escape hunger.

The Moon is also with her, but unlike before when the two would converse, the Queen is silent. Due to the fact that she's walking behind her Moon whose hand is intertwined with a certain Weasley girl.

Ginny and Luna are happily chatting with one another, while they walk to the Hall, the Queen being an afterthought.

"I know that I said it won't be a hard thing to do, but this was too easy" She says to herself as she sees the freshly formed couple. After which she shrugs and can only think that the outcome was obvious even if it came easier than she planned for and all because she's the best.

September thirteenth. Thirteen days before.

Luna Lovegood's room where The Queen has living in since taking it over several days ago.

The Queen summons her house elf Etera by clapping three times in quick succession.

"You called, Miss?" Etera appears immediately. Never has she failed to appear when she was called and she doesn't plan the opposite to ever happen.

The Queen rolls her eyes "What do you think? You're in front of me, aren't you?"

Etera stays silent and waits for Lun to start telling her why she was called.

"Any news with Winky?" The Queen asks first before getting onto business.

"No, not yet. So far she has only said 'good morning/night' back to me and that's it. Everything I know about her is when she gets drunk and starts mumbling to herself"

"I see. Well, you're here to participate in one of my plans for me"

Etera nods, indicating for the Queen to continue.

"You'll have to play a part as a Human"

"Miss, you know that I don't like that. Not only does the potion feel strange to use, but being a human is already weird to me"

"And you know that I don't like when you complain" The Queen says back.

"... Fair point, so what will I be doing?"

"Being a learning subject for many girls. You will be kissed by them"

Etera sighs "May I ask for what purpose do I have to do that?"

"You may not. You will just stand there and wait for them to kiss you until what I want to happen happens"

"Okay, Miss"

While the Queen and her House elf Etera talk about the vague plan, Luna is sitting on her bed silently listening to them.

"Miss, I have a few... Apprehensions about the plan"

"Well, share them"

"If they will find out that they did that with an Elf, they will be disgusted and most likely enraged"

"First of all, are you doubting my plan?" The Queen asks with squinted eyes.

"No, Miss. Your plans are perfect. But there's always a chance for something unfavorable to happen"

"They will never know that fact. But if somehow they do find out, then it doesn't matter. Everything would be their own fault anyway, so they'd have only themselves to blame... Well, the smart few. Others would still look to blame somebody else and that somebody would be me, in which case they'd be too scared to voice out their opinions, thus, you'll be safe no matter what"

"Okay... My apprehensions have been answered" The house elf says calmly.

"That was fast" The Queen comments.

"When and where are we doing this?"

"Every day, starting today after classes. In a space made by me, which will be similar to the Room of Requirements, which reminds me that I should contact Dumbledore to ask him for a room that I can use for this"

"I see. Will that be all for now, Miss?" Etera asks, understanding the gist of her duty in the plan.

"Yes, you can go"

Etera apparates away when she got the confirmation.

"How will Etera transform into a Human?" Luna asks the Queen after the Elf's leave, she didn't want to intrude into their conversation.

"Polyjuice" The Queen answers her Moon sitting down on her bed and facing her.

"I thought non-humans can't use Polyjuice" Luna comments in wonder.

"And they can't, so you'd be right. It's my own variant. After a long time, loads of tries, and many wasted resources, I succeeded in making a potion that allows non-humans... Or at least house Elves to morph into humans and it doesn't work on humans anymore. So that detail technically makes not Polyjuice, but seeing as the effect is similar, I called it the Polyroyaljuice potion. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the time to stay the same, had to sacrifice it for it to work. An Elf can stay as a human for forty minutes maximum" The Queen explains patiently.

"You brewed your own original potion? That's a brilliant achievement" Luna states praisingly.

"Original..." The Queen repeats the keyword once "But yes, sure, I am amazing so it's just natural for me to accomplish such a feat"

"What is this plan? Why does Etera have to kiss girls and how will she do that?"

"Oh let me tell you, my Moon. And you can also join as a spectator. But before that, let me just use magiphone to reach Dumbledore"

"Okay"

The Queen pulls out her magiphone and dials in the number she assigned Dumbledore's magiphone and after some waiting, it got picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi there, old man. This is what I'll need you to do. Make a pin, a picture, or just a document of paper of some kind. Sign it, and add in big bold letters 'Approved by Albus Dumbledore' at the end, I will come to get it after classes, got it? Okay. Oh, and I will be occupying one of the less used rooms" With that, the Queen ended the call before Albus got a single word in, and then she faced her Moon.

"The plan is this" The Queen continues as if nothing happened, even though her Moon is looking at her incredulously.

Hours later.

The two Ravenclaw Lunas stand in front of an abandoned class door.

"So, what do you think?" The Queen asks Luna about the view.

"It's... Something" Is what Luna chooses to answer with.

And oh boy is it an accurate description.

The Queen has planted arrow signs that lead to this place and made it so that nobody would vandalize the signs she cast protective charms all over them.

The door itself has multiple signs plastered all over it. The contents of those signs are all different.

First one of them says 'if you enter, you can't leave until you complete the tasks'

Second one tells 'enter, do the tasks given, earn a prize'

A third shows 'prizes differ, but everybody gets something. One of the prizes is always a large amount of Galleons'

The fourth goes 'none of the challenges will hurt'

Fifth one mentions 'physically'

And the last one states 'enter at your own risk'

And then, there is the signed paper document, that has a moving picture of Dumbledore in which he's writing the line 'Approved by Albus Dumbledore' on this very paper.

"I can't believe that you made a room of challenges just to make girls kiss Etera" Luna comments at the Queen who's looking proudly at what she has accomplished.

"Well, when I looked at my daily schedule I realized that I have two hours of free time and during those two hours I am always bored. So I decided to use one of those for this, while the second hour will be split into three equal pieces to hang out with my future wives excluding you. We spend time in our room, in class before and after, while eating and training, and just randomly when we happen to be together. Hope you're okay with that decision"

"I am, it's great that you want to spend time with the others. But you could've used up the two hours to do that instead of just an hour" Luna answers the Queen's worries, also adding an insight.

"I will, this thing won't last forever, a month at the longest"

"I see. You still haven't told me the end goal for this. You mentioned something about it to Etera"

"If I say it, it won't happen. So, you'll have to forgive me for not doing it"

"Okay. So, do we just wait now?"

"Ye, but we do that inside, as we shouldn't be seen. Because nobody will trust it and won't enter"

Luna nods and then follows after the Queen who opened the door to the Room.

And the Room extends in a line towards two big doors, both have a sign which read 'Boys enter this one' and 'Girls enter this one' respectively. And in the middle of the doors, there's yet another sign, which simply states 'Enter the wrong one and you will be punished'.

"Lun, what is the punishment?" The Moon asks interested.

The Queen chuckles at her Moon's question "I think this one is my best work yet. If they really want to enter the door that's not designated for their specific gender. Then that's what they will get. If a boy wants to be a girl and a girl wants to be a boy, I say let them which why that's what they will be transfigured into and then swiftly thrown out by not being able to follow such a simple assignment as entering a door they were assigned to"

"That's... One way to punish somebody. For how long do they stay that way?"

"I thought of doing it for a month, to drive the point that actions have consequences, but I know that would backfire as rumors would spread over time and nobody would come here. So I lessened that time to three hours" The Queen explains and then continues to say "While I do want Rumors spreading about this room, I want it to be good, thus I couldn't even do a full day since they'd have to be like that during classes"

"So, if I were to enter the boy's room, I will become one?" Luna asks turning her attention from the Queen to the specific door.

"Well, you would, if you could. I excluded certain people from this rule"

Luna turns her attention back to the Queen.

"Why? Is it because I and the others are your future wives so we get the privilege?"

"In this case, the answer's actually no. You see when you would enter a door, any of them, you will be welcomed into a different room entirely from what the others would. It's like a waiting room for us. So whenever you feel like it, you can spectate the others while they do their challenges"

"So that's how it is"

"I mean, if the Moon wants to experience being a boy, I can just provide that experience right now. But just know that I won't turn you into one for forever... Mainly because even I, the great Queen, have limitations to her powers, oh and the fact that even if I could do that, I would never tell you about it so you'd never know. I like you the way you are or whatever you'll become by yourself in the future"

"That's sweet, but don't lie to me. I wouldn't like that. And maybe someday I will take you up on that offer. I could use a Polyjuice potion, but I heard that they tend to taste awful most of the time, so I never thought of trying them"

"I won't lie to you or any of my future wives, so no worries there. But I will withhold truth when it's necessary, just like me not telling you the goal of this whole plan"

"It's okay, I understand that not everything can be shared all the time" Luna tells the Queen with a smile.

The Queen nods understanding "So, shall we wait for somebody to show up together, or do you have something else to do?"

"We can wait together" Luna answers.

"Let's go in then"

The two Lunas make it to the waiting room, which is filled with various goods, anything anybody would want is inside this room. But that's just a given for the Queen's chosen people... Whatever they could hope to have, will be theirs.

The two sit down and wait for a show to happen.

Luna can see just how huge both of the rooms are. If she was in that room, she'd be stopped by multiple walls and doors hiding everything, but here she can see everything as if she was looking through a window. She also sees Lun's house elf already waiting at the end of the girl's room with a potion in hand.

At first, she had her apprehensions about watching somebody doing this, but with how many interesting things there are inside the rooms, she actually wouldn't mind participating herself once.

But she knows that all of those distractions are not important. The only thing in that room that Lun cares about is Etera's part, which she knows that every girl will have to go through without exception... Except if they are third years and below, that way they don't get to participate in that event... And it's also something she couldn't do herself, thus she won't ask Lun if she could participate.

"Fun fact, I wasn't going to include the boy's part of the challenge room. I was going to add a sign that only females are allowed at the initial door. But the more people do it, the more people go through this, the more of them will spread rumors which will lead to more of them coming to try it" The Queen comments randomly as the two continue to wait.

But Luna doesn't pay attention to it as she still investigates everything that Lun has done, all of this just for a room of challenges. What could she do if it was something important and it took all of her to do it? Will Luna even see such a time come to pass?

"You can do anything, can't you?" Luna comments after several minutes of silence between the two.

"Yes. A Queen has to be perfect and be above everybody and anybody else. It's to set an example for everybody. When capable people see me, they all try to reach the spot where I am, but no matter how much they try they will never be able to do that. The fact that they all eventually realize. By that point, they have three choices that they have to make. One, they give up and live with that choice for the rest of their lives. Two, they continue trying to reach my heights, never succeeding to do so and eventually destroying themselves from the inside out, both emotionally and physically. Third, they realize that by trying to reach me, they bettered themselves, thus giving up on reaching an unattainable goal and focusing on improving themselves instead. That's what I, the great Queen, am to all people. I must be able to do anything and everything to utmost perfection so that others could follow in suit" The Queen answers Luna's questions seriously. The Moon hasn't heard Lun be so serious before, so she was shocked when she did.

Luna also caught one specific word in the Queen's answer and she latched onto it.

"What about 'incapable' people then?"

The Queen's eyes meet Luna's and the only thing that the Moon can see is complete blankness as Lun answers her calmly "They are nothing, and a Queen doesn't speak about nothing"

And Luna gets a strong reality check from this conversation.

Her Friend meant it when she said it and it scared her for various different internal reasons. She knew that Lun had a darker side to her, she witnessed it herself the most after all, but she didn't realize just how dark it is. So far, every 'dark' encounter she saw the Queen be a part of had ended with a joke or a funny remark, or something similar like that.

And even when she heard all of the things that Lun did, it didn't seem to fully register, maybe it was because none of the things happened before her eyes and it was only words. Maybe the Queen's goofy and sometimes child-like behavior upset the balance between it.

But If she and Lun would meet a person who never even tried to 'reach' the spot that she is in, Lun would literally be blind towards that person as if they didn't exist. In fact, that wouldn't even be the case, there's no 'as if', the person just wouldn't be a thing to her. And that thought makes chills run down the young girl's back.

She hopes she never sees such an occurrence, nor even comes close to seeing it. She now also hopes that she doesn't see the darker side of her friend more than she has to. Both because she'd hate seeing the outcome, but also because she doesn't want to witness her friend being like that.

The Queen saw that she had scared her Moon, but she did nothing about it.

Her Moon and the others have to realize that she isn't a good person at some point.

Then they will have to choose if they want to continue associating with her for who she is or not. It's the choice she gives all of them.

Stay with her or not.

And for them to stay, they will have to accept her secrets, her good and bad parts, her happy and her angry moments, they will have to accept her whole entirety. And all of her won't be hidden from them to help them with the choice.

If they choose to stay with her in the end... Well, Luna Crimson will make it that that choice is the best choice of their entire lives, the Queen will make sure of that.

And so, the two Lunas wait in thoughtful and heavy silence for the rest of the time until somebody finally shows up.

And it was a group of five, two boys and three girls.

Luna who had time to recuperate her emotions over her freshly made realization looks on with interest as the students, who she thinks are fifth-years go through all the different tests, games, and challenges.

While the Queen doesn't pay attention to them at all and instead if looking at the room where Etera is in, the Elf has drunk the potion and has become a bewitching beauty, and to stay in theme, the woman she has turned into is on the younger side, looking like a seventh-year student.

Luna sees as the girls spend time completing the challenges, having fun together, and by their lonesome when the challenges split them up. She sees their excitement and happiness when they get awesome prizes prepared by Lun.

Expensive robes, rare books, the rarest materials for potions, creature eggs with given instructions on how to hatch them and treat them, and many more various kinds of items.

Luna smiles because of the sight she's watching, with a lot of happiness, but also some mixed in enviousness. she wants to experience something like that, to have a lot of friends and spend time with friends, laughing, crying, going through hardships, having fun and just being together, even if it's doing nothing.

Luna's eyes then travel to the bored expression-wearing Queen.

This person could provide her with that wish, in fact, she already did with a portion of it. And that's being a friend and giving her a chance to become friends with more people...

All she has to do is agree to become her wife in the future and she can have more of that and a lot more. But is that such a good idea? Is it really worth doing it? She will have to take a long time to think about it.

But she knows one thing for certain if she were to refuse with conviction enough for Lun to back off... Then she might become somebody that the Queen would be blind to because by then she'd be nothing to her. And that's a thought she doesn't want to think about for long.

Luna, then, sees the Queen's bored expression finally change into what she would have to call excitement. She cranes her head to where her friend is looking and she sees that the girls have finally made it to Etera's part and immediately understands why the Queen is looking so energetic.

"Finally! I should've made it shorter so they could get to Etera faster, what a rookie mistake" The Queen audibly comments looking at the view.

"I think the length of the challenges was really good, I'm happy with it"

The Queen gives a glance to her Moon, well if her Moon says that she's happy with it, then she won't alter it and leave it as it is.

The three girls get split up again and go in to meet Etera one by one after one another.

And as per the Queen's explanation to her house elf. Etera is to not move and stay in place the entire time with closed eyes. The only time she's allowed to move is when she is kissed and that includes her mouth and arms only. Mouth to make it more accessible to the ones she will be kissed by. Hands to hold the person for a specific time.

The first girl that made it inside the room, sees this very scene and approaches it confused. Then she sees, to the side of the unknown woman, a big podium with a clear explanation on it.

'Your last task is to kiss this woman on the lips for fifteen seconds. Your prize? A thousand Galleons and a reinvite to this magical place tomorrow. If you don't want to do it, then plant a kiss on her cheek and you will be allowed to leave, with a participation reward of two hundred Galleons, but you'll never be able to return here. Those are the only two choices you have in this challenge. You'll be stuck here for eternity if you make up a third choice of not doing it. Before you entered this place, you were given a specific warning that you can't leave this place without completing the tasks. Now choose'

"W-what? I-I have to kiss her?" The student lets out embarrassed after finishing reading the explanation. And then looks at the beautiful woman standing there waiting.

She steps back and looks at her in silence.

"Hello?" She calls out... But receives no answer.

She blinks a few times before stepping back up to her, she then pokes her in a few places several times, but she doesn't receive any reactions from her.

"... Are you even alive?" She asks, but yet again nothing.

She thinks for a bit, then looks at the lips of this woman. She shakes her head and steps back again.

She starts looking around the place for a possible exit. She takes a few minutes to do so, managing to find nothing even when she tried to do various spells that would help her in any other situation.

"The only thing to interact within this room is this Woman... That I have to k-k-kiss" The girl says to herself.

She looks at the explanation again and the words 'eternity' stays in her peripherals for a while. No way can that be true, right?

Then she thinks back on all of the other challenges she had to go through and the prizes she has gotten... With so many things that one would never get the chance to see in their lifetime. Yes, it can definitely be true.

"But would the headmaster approve of such a thing? Why?"

She then thinks of something... Something risky. This woman she's supposed to kiss is the only interactable thing here.

So the girl with poor judgment extends her wand and to test out the waters casts a Flipendo at the woman.

Which sizzles out and does nothing to her target.

"W-what?"

She tries again but with another spell, but again nothing happened to the woman.

Her eyes widen. 'don't make up a third choice' this sentence goes through her head.

She walks up to the woman again. She definitely doesn't want to return to this place, who knows what else awaits her?

She plants a very quick kiss on the Woman's cheeks and just like that the door behind her appears again. She quickly goes to it, she wants to talk to her friends. But as she opens it, it's the outside of the challenge room. She turns back but sees only a wall.

So having her prizes in the small bag that has a big space inside, it was the first prize she won, she waits for her friends.

"Meh, boring girl" The Queen comments annoyed at the student "And she wasted precious time too, I will have to think of a measure to deal with it, so that others wouldn't spend so much time in the future"

"What if you wrote in the explanation that if they take longer than two minutes to decide they would lose all the previous prizes? Instead of being stuck for eternity with the third choice?" Out of nowhere, Luna makes a suggestion.

The Queen turns her attention to her Moon and she blinks in confusion.

"Well, you seem to be quite invested in this. I am surprised actually. And your suggestion isn't half bad, I will think about it. I made it be like that to give them a sense of dread if they didn't make a choice, but making it a sense of loss and stress over a small time frame could provide better results"

Luna nods dreamily and goes back to watching, not commenting on the Queen's surprise.

The second girl in the group has made it inside the room.

She sees the same sight as her friend who was here previously, she reads the same explanation.

She looks at the woman, the lips... Then shrugs and just goes for it.

There are many good she has gotten from this place and there are many other things she has yet to see, one of her friends got something she hasn't, so she knows that there's more. This reinvite is too important, a simple kiss is nothing, be it with another woman or not.

Etera finally moves, her right hand going over the student's head, the left one on her neck. And she starts moving her lips in tandem with the Girl.

The girl got started at first because of the sudden moves but quickly got back into it.

The two kissed and never let up, well the Girl wouldn't be able to back down anyway, but she didn't even try to.

Fifteen seconds later, Etera stopped moving her lips and removed her hands, resuming the previously unmoving statue.

The girl confused about why the Woman stopped, continued trying to kiss her, even trying to pry open her lips to put her tongue in. But she got no response from her.

So confused she finally removed her face from Etera's and was slightly annoyed "Come on, open your mouth"

But she gets nothing for a response. The girl then tsks and shrilly lets out "Fine! Be that way"

She sees a door behind the Woman, so she goes to it and leaves Etera standing there alone like a statue.

The girl gets her prize for completing the task. A thousand Galleons which she doesn't really care for, but the reinvite in a letter form, now that? That's something she likes to see. She stashes it away on her instead of the bag, who knows if anything even stays there until tomorrow.

And then she leaves through yet another door, this time it leading outside, her friend also stands there.

"H-hey, did you get a weird task too?" The friend runs over to ask the girl that just came out of the challenge room.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a Woman that stood there unmoving and the challenge was strange"

"To kiss her?"

"Y-yeah, that"

"I did get the same one then"

"Yeah, yeah... D-did you do it?"

The girl pauses before answering, she remembers the re-invitation letter in her possession "No, just the cheek"

"Good, I did the same, I wouldn't want to come back here again"

"I feel you" The girl that lied agrees superficially. While her thoughts are on whatever she will be able to get tomorrow when she comes here alone.

Back with the Queen and the avid watcher Lovegood.

"Yes, haha, now that's what I wanted to see. Haha, she even wanted to continue" The Queen bellows out loudly.

She then sees that a few more students have made it inside the challenge room, she nods pleased. In due time, it will be fully stacked.

The Queen then throws a glance at her Moon who was strangely quiet, she thought she will get a remark or something because she realized that her Moon was interested in this.

So when she sees that her Moon was looking at Etera and the third girl who just entered intensely, she chose to stay quiet but had a small and cheeky grin plastered on her royal face.

The third girl who just read the explanation says out loud "This... This is the last challenge? This has got to be a joke. Fred, George? This ain't funny"

She says to nowhere particular.

"All of the other challenges were at least interesting and had a lot to think about while doing them, making the prizes worth... But this is just tasteless. Using a person like this for a practical joke. What a letdown, it killed all the excitement" With a roll of her eyes, she half-heartedly kissed the cheek of the woman.

Then she whispered "I hope you agreed to this, otherwise I feel sorry for you" And she leaves after that, never looking back.

Etera opened her eyes after the girl left and rolled her own eyes "Keep your opinions to yourself, little girl. Nobody asked for them" She whispered to herself and went back to being a statue.

The girl meets up with her friends and the first one asked her "Did you have to kiss a woman too?"

"Yes and I chose the cheek, what a bore of a challenge, can't believe that was the last one. Killed all the thrill that it previously had"

The first girl blinks... So the kiss wasn't the bad part of this situation? She then wonders if her thinking is too narrow, as she seems to be the only one perturbed by that fact. She will have to look into it.

While the second girl only smacks the third girl's shoulder and loudly says "Always in it for the adventure and nothing else"

Back to disappointed Lun and the disappointed for another reason Luna.

"That was just anticlimactic, at least if she was like the first girl, I would get to see a scene, but with this one there was nothing... Using her words, what a let down"

"what a let down" Luna lets out breathlessly.

The Queen hears her Moon repeat after her, her Moon surprised her yet again. But she doesn't comment on it, just continues to grin to herself.

Thirty minutes later. The Queen and Luna left the premise while deactivating all the spells, thus leaving the room to be just an abandoned classroom when opened.

She made herself invisible and then left her Moon for a minute. She added another sign on the door that told the time to be here tomorrow with that done she returned to her Moon.

She will have to think on how to make Etera's part better both timewise and success-rate wise.

Twelve days later, September twenty-fifth.

Today being the weekend, the Room is open earlier because it will also open later in the evening time.

The Queen improved the room a lot and her Moon helped with ideas for which she didn't even have to ask. Luna did it of her own volition.

Her Moon only skipped one day coming here because she had something else to do, but not including that, she was here every day to see the show.

The Queen beat her Moon on the attendance because she actually had to be here to catch if Ginny Weasley showed up.

And she knew that she would, mostly because she's a Weasley and a Gryffindor. Gryffindors have the highest attendance in the challenge room. The rumors spread just as she planned and every day there were more and more students showing up.

But it happened earlier than she expected as Ginny has just entered the challenge room. And when Luna saw that, she was confused.

She faced Lun and asked "Wasn't it supposed to take her inside here where we are? Why did she make it to the challenges?"

Now the Queen really wants to say that she didn't know why, but that would be a lie and she won't lie to her future wives. And she doesn't know if she can withhold the information either to not make it seem like a lie.

She chooses to just say the truth, but not fully explain it yet "Because she's the only one I excluded from the waiting room. She's the goal I rejected to answer you about"

"She is? For what?"

"I will choose to not tell you just yet, wait until she makes it to Etera, okay?"

Luna looks at Lun for a small while, before nodding and then keeping her gaze directed only at Ginny, ignoring every other participant.

The two Lunas spend time watching over Ginny's progress.

Since the first iteration of the challenge room, the tests were improved, and their difficulty stayed the same, but they were all given a time limit. The Queen also has calculated perfectly how many people can go through Etera with the time, thus she has made it so that the door, to the challenges, doesn't open after a certain amount. She has left a sign for all to read and know about it. so basically the whole thing became a first come first served type of deal.

She has duplicated actual rooms too, the two gender doors instead of leading to two different paths now lead to sixteen paths, all of them the same for the day. The only room females have to wait for their turns is the Etera room and yet again first to come are the first to be served... Oh, and boys don't have anything like that so they can just leave without waiting.

They see as Ginny passes all of the challenges with moderate ease, only a few does she struggle on. As she completes every task she becomes more and more cheerful as she gets rewarded with free things. Well, not all the prizes make her show the same emotions, mainly the book kind, she looks at them neutrally and just puts them inside the bag, but not inside the one she got from this place, the one the Queen gave her earlier.

Eventually, Ginny makes it to the waiting room for Etera and she has to spend some time snacking on things before it's her turn.

"Moon, it's time to stop being only a spectator, you'll be joining the game for a short while" The Queen suddenly says, snapping Luna out of her gazing Ginny daze.

"I am?"

"Indeed, unlike every other girl who had the same explanation on what to do in Etera's room, Ginny will have a similar but at the same time different task"

Luna takes a moment to think about Lun's words and what they could imply. And eventually, she comes to a conclusion that she feels is right.

Only getting in there will prove if she is, she doesn't want affirmation from Lun as that might ruin whatever strange feelings she has now and this way the expectations she has built up wouldn't hurt too much if she was wrong about what's about to happen.

But she trusts Lun, even more than before. During these almost two full weeks and many sessions of watching players, the two talked about many things and even though there is residing darker side to her friend, she knows that none of that would ever be directed towards her and as long as she's with Lun, she should be able to calm her down if anything happens.

Luna goes through the door that the Queen led her to and as the door closed she heard Lun say "Have fun, good luck, do what you want, and use the Revealing Charm"

And so, Luna waits in a dimly lit circular room with no entries or exits. She waits for Ginny to arrive.

Meanwhile, the Queen claps thrice to call Etera from her standing spot. Etera appears immediately.

"Miss?"

"It's time, go change the things"

"Finally... I will be able to stop" Etera comments.

"Maybe, if everything goes nicely. Now, go"

"Yes, Miss" With that Etera apparates away.

Etera changes the signs on the podium, and the Queen changed the layout of Etera's place, changing it from the previous singular big room to two smaller ones, one of them holding the explanation and the other holding Etera.

Etera also puts a charmed blindfold near the instructions and apparates away from the room and back to the Queen, she gets to watch what happens next as a spectator for the first time, this is the Queen's little treat for the hard work. Getting kissed hundreds of times wasn't hard, it was standing still in one place while being a human, and now that was extremely hard.

And just as Etera vanishes from the room, Ginny comes inside it. She inspects the whole room seeing a big door leading out of this room before her eyes land on the podium with what she assumes is her next instructions.

She comes up to them and reads it out loud.

"This is your last challenge. Behind the door is another girl. Your task is to take this blindfold and put it on your eyes. The blindfold will not be able to be taken off for three minutes after you go into the next room. Your goal is simple, to be kissed by the other girl for the three minutes..." Ginny stops reading the rest as what she just read registers in her mind.

"What kind of challenge is this? I'm not doing that, no way. I am not kissing anybody, especially somebody I don't know or can't even see" He says to herself confidently.

"Hey, whoever made this place, let me go. I am not going to do this one" Ginny shouts quite loudly, if somebody was in the room with her they'd have to cover their ears.

She of course gets no answer, just like many others before her, and no matter what there will be no answer.

"Hey! Do you hear me?" She shouts again, even louder.

Ginny didn't read any of the signs on and near the entrance to this place. She heard rumors that the prizes are really good and all one has to do is a few simple tasks. So when she came here, she saw 'Challenge Room' written in big letters and the approved document by Dumbledore and just entered it. Thus she has no idea that once one enters they can't leave before finishing.

"Are you listening? I want out of this, let me go" She shouts another time. She received nothing but the echo of her own voice.

After several seconds of nothing, Ginny not knowing what to do continues reading the instruction.

"Where did I leave it" She scans over the explanation until she finds where she was "For the three minutes that the blindfold will be active. Take this paper with you to the next room when you put on the blindfold. Now if you don't want to do this, all you have to do is walk through the door without the paper and the blindfold, but be warned, it will be a big mistake. The prize for doing this task? twenty-thousand Galleons and a lovely experience"

Ginny's mouth stays open out of shock.

"T-t-twenty th-thousand???"

Ginny stares at the number, taking a double-take and even a triple-take as she scrubs her eyes between each look and blink. No matter how many times she blinks or scrubs her eyes, the amount stays the same.

No, that's wrong, the amount did change and not for the worse.

It rose all the way to "Twenty-five thousand?!" The Weasley girl stares with wide-open eyes.

This has to be some sort of joke? Right? Who would pay such an amount for a kiss that lasts only three minutes, it should be... Wait what is she thinking? Ginny shakes her head to get rid of that thought. She won't do it.

She glances at the paper and her knees go weak as she drops the paper and herself to the floor.

She can't comprehend what's happening, this truly can't be real. This amount could help her whole family live for years without problems and then some, no way did she see it correctly, no way...

While still on the floor, she inches her head to the fallen paper, she sees that it's blank, so with shaking hands, she takes it and turns it upside.

She did that while having her eyes closed, maybe she didn't have enough rest or got tired from classes. She did come here without eating, as she knew that not everybody gets to participate here.

Eventually, with heavy breaths, she opens her eyes and it's right there, just what she saw, just what made her fall to the ground out of pure shock.

'Fifty Thousand Galleons' the original amount has since been doubled.

Her fingers slowly gloss over the prize and her initial refusal to do such a task has all but disappeared, as she primes herself for it by talking to herself.

"It's just a kiss, a long one, with a girl, a stranger... Just a kiss, deal with it and after today you will forget it due to your mind being on the money... Yes. Ginny, Ginevra Weasly you can do this" Ginny slaps her own cheeks, and stands up, with the paper in hand.

She picks up the blindfold, but doesn't put it on, she looks at the paper.

"The amount went up when I spent too long accepting the test... And or when I thought of refusing it..." She stares at the instruction paper intensely.

And then shakes her head powerfully "No, don't be greedy and don't risk it, before you lose everything, just go while you're ahead" She states to herself and with a nod, finally puts on the blindfold.

She can feel it magically lock into place, she tries to move it to the side or untwist the knot, but nothing happens, it's as if she was touching steel that's soft on the inside.

She of course put on the blindfold right near the door, so she wouldn't hit a wall or something. She hears the door opening and she slowly, but surely steps into the last room of her journey to this place.

Luna Lovegood has been waiting here for quite a while, she went through a multitude of emotions in the meanwhile.

Excitement, longing, anxiety, sadness, acceptance, and lastly blankness.

At first, she thought that whatever will happen, she will still see Ginny and be here with her alone.

Then her mind started going awry as it thought what if Ginny refused to do whatever her task was?

And after that, nothing was in her mind, she just wanted something to happen.

It finally did, as the door which she was gazing at opened, and in stepped the girl she first wanted to be friends with and that turned into something more along the way. The beautiful and fiery Ginny Weasley. The one that Nargles loved and never touched.

The Gryffindor girl had a blindfold on and a blank piece of paper turned in her direction.

Then she remembered what Lun said, use the Revealing Charm.

She takes the wand which was stuck in between her ear and casts the charm by saying "Aparecium" while pointing the wand at the blank paper.

Ginny who heard the spell being cast, can only wait for what is about to happen. But she can swear that the voice is familiar, she just can't put her finger on who it is.

Luna sees text appear on the paper so she reads to herself.

'If Ginny is holding this paper and wearing the blindfold, she has agreed to three minutes of being kissed by you. Enjoy'

As she finished reading, her gaze then turned to the lips she has dreamily stared at a few times before.

Luna doesn't move and just keeps looking at Ginny's face, or what can be seen outside of the area around the blindfold.

Back with the Queen and Etera.

"Come on, Moon, whatever it is that you're thinking about, stop it and just go for it. Don't waste this perfect chance. It doesn't matter that she's wearing a blindfold or it isn't how you imagined. Just do it" The Queen says out loud towards the view of the girls not moving from their spots.

Etera is also watching this with curiosity, but she chooses to stay silent, unlike her Miss.

"Uhm..." Ginny lets out confused, she has been standing still for a good minute, but nothing has happened, no kiss, no touch, just the cast spell of which she can't remember the effect of because of the situation.

Ginny letting out that noise finally snapped Luna out of her thoughtful stupor.

She moved a little closer, now they stand face to face, their breathes colliding, thus being felt by the other person.

Ginny goes stiff as she finally feels the stranger girl approach her.

"I'm sorry"

The Weasley girl gets confused by the words to come out of the familiar voice. But that confusion doesn't last long as instead it's replaced by a slightly wet feeling on her lips.

It went as it arrived, very quickly. Ginny barely even felt anything from how quick it was. But she knows, that she has just kissed somebody for the first time and that somebody is a girl who she can't see.

But besides that, she can't say to herself that she didn't like it. It was soft, quick, and enjoyable.

Ginny's head rotates to the side wondering if anything else will happen.

Luna seeing that the Gryffindor girl isn't perturbed by their kiss and this cute action of hers made Luna's body instinctively move by itself.

The lips of the two girls meet once more. But this time they stay there, for several seconds.

And they separate again, both getting red in the ears.

Ginny can't believe that she's feeling disappointed that it didn't last any longer. It shouldn't be like that. But somehow the impairment of vision is making every other sense more intense.

The shallow breaths of the girl that kissed her, the soft lips of said girl, and the slight bodily and facial touches that happen every so often. All of those feelings are just so strong. And when combined, it's overwhelming, in fact, she actually wished for it to continue.

Before she came in here thoughts like that never would've crossed her mind. She thought that she will deal with it and get it over with by standing still for three minutes and then leave with a grand prize.

But... She can't hold herself. Can't hold herself back from doing this.

Weasley feels the girl's lips once more, still as shy as the first two times. They stay there for several seconds again, but when they were about to move away, the hands that were holding the paper still let it go and instead grabbed the girl's head to keep it there and the other hand went over the girl's shoulder and grazed over the neck.

Luna who didn't expect such a thing to happen is slow to reciprocate Ginny's surprise attack. But when Ginny licks her lips with her tongue she resumes kissing her too, thus the two return to harmony as they kiss each other with passion thrown into the mix.

But no matter how much they like the new sensations they are feeling, neither of the two, is brave enough to go further, so they stay at the minimal level of kissing.

Maybe someday they will try it with their tongues, Luna can only hope for such a day to arrive.

Their heads move from side to side, and their lips move in tandem as they have the time of their life. But only Ginny throws in a little bit of tongue as she licks Luna's lips, Luna doesn't try to do that herself.

Meanwhile in the waiting room. The Queen is clapping elegantly while nodding her head at the sight, Etera can't help herself but join in with the Queen's clapping.

The two girls are so lost in what they are doing that they don't realize that more than five minutes have passed, two whole minutes over what Ginny was supposed to do.

Luna finally gathers enough courage to put her own hands over Ginny's body, one of them going on her back, while the other one goes over her neck.

But due to inexperience, she clipped the edge of the knot on the blindfold when going on the neck, thus making it so that the blindfold, that was covering Ginny's eyes, slide down from her right eye.

Ginny who felt the distracting feeling of the cloth removing itself from her eye, was forced to open her eyes. To make it acquainted with the dim light, she blinked several times.

And when her normal vision returned, she finally saw who she was kissing. Her one eye widens. And in surprise, her head pulls away and her mouth utters "L-Looney?" No wonder her voice was familiar. And since the Queen wasn't here she didn't stop herself from calling out to Luna, not by her name.

Lovegood hearing her the old nickname again startles and jumps back from Ginny, whose hands are left floating in the air.

The two look at each other silently with red tomato-like faces. They just stare and don't say anything, neither knowing what to do at the moment.

"Uhm... I... I will just go, okay?" Ginny gets out somehow.

Luna can only nod, her mouth not working correctly, so she doesn't trust herself to speak.

"O-okay, yes... I... I'm going" Ginny adds awkwardly, nods to herself, and moves past Luna to the exit.

Luna lets her go past her with no intention to stop her, she has no idea how she will interact with her after this. She just doesn't want to be not allowed to talk to her, that alone would be fine with her.

Luna hears Ginny walk away further and further, and the door handle being pulled by her.

But it stops and she hears nothing for a while. But then, Ginny speaks to her, clearly after she hears a clearing of a throat

"Would... Would you like to hang out later today?"

Luna turns around and sees a goofy, but brave Gryffindorian smile on her crush.

Luna also breaks out a smile, but hers is always stuck to being the dreamy kind and nothing else.

"S-sure" She chooses to say just that, as she still doesn't believe in her own ability to speak.

Ginny's smile turns brighter "Brilliant, I will contact you later" And with that Ginny turns around to leave and get her... Prize, but somehow she feels that the amount of Galleons is actually a small prize in comparison to what she just experienced with a certain Looney... No, Luna.

Luna is left alone standing with many different emotions, but the main one being ecstasy.

Shortly after, the Queen appears in her vision.

"Good job Luna, I knew you had it in you. Let's go back to the waiting room, you probably need a rest"

"Y-yes, that is a good idea" Luna answers breathlessly.

Hours later, evening.

The Queen enters the Challenge waiting room for the last time, tonight they will be closing and Etera will be free from it.

"Moon, you here?" She says loud enough for it to travel the whole room.

"No, but I am" The Queen hears a voice which she likes, a particularly french sounding one.

"Fleur, it's nice to see you here. I see you stumbled your way into here"

"I did. I didn't however expect any of zis. I was going to test myself wiz zis 'Challenge Room' I heard about, yet when I entered ze room wiz two of my friends. I appeared here and zey happened to be zere" Fleur points to her friends who are together and audibly talking about where she could have disappeared off to.

"Well, sit down, and seeing as my Moon isn't here, I will explain everything from start to finish. You're in for quite a story"

"Okay, but can I try ze challenges after?" Fleur agrees and asks a question after doing so.

"...Yes, Fleur, you can do that"

"Good" Fleur states simply and sits down on a comfy-looking sofa. The Queen walks up to her and sits on another one across from her. And so, The Queen starts by narrating everything that she, her Moon, and Etera have done during the past two weeks.

Night time. The Queen and Fleur are preparing their beds for sleep when suddenly the door to theirs plus Luna's room opens.

And in walks a happy-looking young and pretty Ravenclaw girl.

"Well?" Fleur asks the newly arrived Luna.

"Yes, Moon, well? What happened?" The Queen repeats.

"...I have a girlfriend" She answers happily after a slight pause due to the sudden questions from the two women.

Back to September twenty-sixth.

The Queen is still following after the couple.

She smiles proudly at her accomplished work and whispers a silent goodwill prayer to them.

"You two deserve it"

~ End of Chapter 28 ~