Basil: "Why are you so worked up?"
Basil couldn't help but interrupt.
He found it strange. In his past life, The School for Good and Evil movie didn't come out until 2022. How did Madison know about it now, in 2017?
Also, Madison—the stereotypical 'dumb bitch' character from a teen drama who loved her cliques—since when was she so articulate and logical?
Madison: "I used to love Disney movies when I was a little girl. I even auditioned for the role of Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid. I never thought I'd lose to a Black girl like that."
Sophie: "Oh, so you're just bitter because you lost the role. But you forgot, you're not in Hollywood anymore. And Disney wouldn't pick a D-list celebrity anyway."
Having spent time with Madison, Sophie's tongue had gotten sharper. She also now knew who the "Big Six" studios in Hollywood were.
---
Inside a tower surrounded by bookshelves, a female voice, sounding like a narrator, echoed through the room.
"Rafal mistakenly believed his scheme was flawless. But with the absence of a Good avatar, the School for Good returned to its old ways, empowering Dean Dovey and the other professors like never before. Dovey easily detected the Blood Magic on Beatrice and expelled it, protecting [—]'s purity. [—] also learned the importance of purity."
A massive golden book lay open, a giant blue quill scribbling down everything the female voice narrated.
This was the Storian.
It had written every fairytale on the shelves, and now, it was writing the story of Rafal and his true love—Sophie.
At least, that's what Rafal believed.
In the tower, Rafal still wore his brother's face.
Right now, he was furious. "Why?! Why can't the Storian see Arthur's presence?! It can't even write his name, not even his fake alias, Basil Granger!"
A cowardly thought floated into his mind.
Keep pretending to be Rhian. Wait for Arthur to graduate and die of old age.
With Ultimate Evil, he didn't need a perfect balance of Good and Evil for immortality anymore—that was why he dared to kill his brother in the first place.
Just wait. Wait for the strong to die, and I will remain the strongest.
Haha! With my supreme intellect, I always find a way!
The Storian's voice chimed in perfectly: "Rafal's idea was sound. Possessing endless time, he was destined for victory. As long as he didn't draw [—]'s attention and allowed [—] to graduate smoothly."
Rafal smiled. "Sophie, my destined bride... it seems I must give you up."
However, no one else, including Basil, knew that Rafal had chickened out just like that.
But Basil didn't have the energy to think about that right now.
Although in the real world, his body appeared to be napping on a lounge chair in the garden, his consciousness—and the World Case—had already entered the Club.
Inside the warm wooden cabin within the World Case.
"It's almost 9. Put your clothes on," Basil reminded her. "Oh, right. Scourgify!"
The power of the cleaning charm bypassed the red stains on the white sheets.
The scent of intimacy and all traces of their activity vanished from the cabin.
Madison, who had been curled up like a kitten in the corner of the bed, wiped the corner of her mouth, wrapped her clothes around herself haphazardly, and limped as she stood up.
She walked over to Basil and leaned against him.
She purred, "Let's stick to answering trivia questions today. They won't be able to tell if I'm sitting down."
Basil nodded. The suitcase appeared next to his sleeping body in reality.
Their consciousnesses then appeared on the sofa in the Club's lounge.
About ten minutes later, Sophie rushed in.
She glanced at Madison—who was wrapped only in a sheer black sleeping robe with nothing underneath, clinging to Basil's side—and thought, Clothes still on. Looks like Madison hasn't scored yet.
Relieved, her brow smoothed out, and she sat on Basil's other side.
"What's that black stuff on the corner of your mouth?" Madison went on the offensive.
"Chocolate." Sophie wiped her mouth. "Guess what talent Robin Hood's daughter awakened? Basil, no spoilers."
"Making chocolate?" Madison guessed, scrutinizing Sophie's expression. "Really? What a weird talent. A Black person making chocolate... if we get a White character making milk and an Asian making bananas or curry, that would be a complete set."
Sophie shrugged. "Pretty much. Her ability is turning matter into edible chocolate. Permanently."
Basil: "No, later in the movie, Dot—I'll call her that, it sounds like a pet name—she can conjure high-temperature flaming chocolate balls in her palm. She laughs maniacally while destroying things with them."
Madison: "Sounds a bit like Bellatrix Lestrange."
Basil: "Exactly. Now that I think about it, she's actually the craziest of your three roommates. Not harmless at all."
Sophie: "Really? She speaks so softly and always smiles. If she weren't, you know, ugly, she'd fit right in at the School for Good."
Madison: "Alright, enough about your freak roommates. Let's start the club activity. Trivia time."
Sophie: "Duh, what else? You've watched the Harry Potter movies and read the books at least ten times. You even follow Rowling on Twitter. No one knows Harry Potter better than you."
Basil's eyes lit up.
Madison suddenly felt a sense of impending doom.
Ten minutes later, the trivia session ended.
Just as Madison was about to log off and take a shower, Basil stopped her.
"Wait, Madison. I need to know about my world. I've only seen the Harry Potter movies. I need to ask you about some details."
Madison: "Some details?"
Basil: "A lot of details."
Sophie decided to stay. "I'm joining too. My body is in bed right now; I can stay here until dawn."
"Tch, Country Girl." Madison turned to Basil. "Do you need a pen and paper?"
Basil shrugged. "I have an eidetic memory. I can recall everything I've seen or heard."
"I just finished my first year."
"Start from the second book. Differences between the movie and the novel."
Madison's eyes went wide. "You're only a first year? Oh my god."
She licked her lips. "I actually—"
Basil deadpanned, "I'm 18 right now. Traveling between worlds isn't as simple as in novels. If not for the System's protection, those seven years would have been wasted."
Madison looked strangely disappointed. "Oh, not 11? What's the date over there?"
Basil rolled his eyes. "June 6th, 1992. Saturday."
Madison: "So you just finished exams. What about Quirrell? You didn't let the Sorcerer's Stone get destroyed, did you?"
Basil: "The Stone is in my vault. Quirrell's ending was the same as the movie. Dead."
"I'll just tell you everything you're curious about in one go."
"My name is Basil Granger. No relation to Hermione. First year, Gryffindor."
"Roommates with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."
"Unlike the movie, the Diary entered Hogwarts early and was destroyed by Dumbledore."
"Lucius Malfoy died at Voldemort's hand."
"Sirius Black was released early; Peter Pettigrew went to prison."
"Can we start now?"
Madison raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. One last question. In which world did you watch the movies?"
Basil looked nostalgic. "2023, Youzhou, Dragon Kingdom. Too bad I can never go back."
He wondered who would inherit his house and savings.
His twin sister? She was pregnant with his child.
According to the plan, he was supposed to marry her.
He quickly got serious. "Alright, let's start, Madison."
Madison made an OK sign. "Let me think. Chamber of Secrets, book two..."
"Peeves... well, he wasn't in the movies, everyone knows that."
"Dobby... right, Dobby!"
"In the book, he was incredibly anxious and polite. Not like in the movie where he's jumping on Harry's bed the moment he walks in—rude and annoying."
"He just levitated a cake and dropped it on the floor to make noise, which summoned the Ministry owls. The Dursleys' guests, the Masons, were terrified of birds, which ruined the business deal."
"The movie cut the fact that the Dursleys didn't know Harry couldn't use magic at home. They cut the warning letter entirely. Instead, they had Dobby drop the cake right on the guest's head."
"Which ruined the deal."
"That totally broke his character. Dobby is careless, but he's not malicious."
"That's probably why in the seventh movie, some movie-only fans didn't understand why book fans were crying over Dobby's death."
"It also killed a foreshadowing plot point. In the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, that warning letter is used by the Ministry as evidence that Harry likes to use magic outside of school."
"It was precisely because of that warning letter that Uncle Vernon knew Harry couldn't use magic legally. He realized Harry couldn't do anything to him, which is why he dared to lock Harry up."
"The movie completely ignored that logic."
"The movie also cut the scene where the Weasley twins pick the lock using Muggle methods, which adds so much to their character. Instead, they added a satisfying scene of Vernon falling out the window."
"In the flying car, they originally talked about house-elves serving wizards, the ghoul and gnomes at the Burrow, Arthur Weasley's job, and the first mention of the Burrow's location—Ottery St. Catchpole."
"But to save time, the car conversation was cut."
"Same with Harry de-gnoming the garden and the ghoul introduction at the Burrow."
"Go on." Basil was shocked. He didn't expect Madison to know Harry Potter this well. She was clearly a book purist who had issues with the movies.
Madison cleared her throat. "The movie also cut Lucius Malfoy's lecture to his son. He told Draco not to openly oppose Harry Potter, to go with the flow, play both sides. He complained that Draco's grades were worse than a Muggle-born like Hermione."
"The actor probably didn't know that part. That's why he improvised that scene where he tries to use the Killing Curse on Harry outside Dumbledore's office."
"Lucius Malfoy would never have the balls to do that."
"Also, the Weasleys were frantically searching for Harry separately in the book."
"In the movie, they're just casually buying books in Flourish and Blotts!"
"And Harry's broken glasses were fixed by Mr. Weasley in the book, but the movie gave that moment to Hermione?"
"The book set up Lockhart as a famous adventurer, and Hermione had read all his books before going to the shop. So her admiration made sense."
"The movie cut that. It made Hermione look like a fangirl who was just attracted to Lockhart's handsome face." (Madison gagged slightly).
"In the book, Mr. Weasley actually got into a fistfight with Lucius Malfoy, which gave Lucius the chance to slip the diary into Ginny's cauldron."
"In the movie, they just exchange a few snarky words. The diary slip looked awkward."
"The reason Harry and Ron were late to the train was cut too."
"They also cut a funny line where Harry says the Dursleys haven't given him pocket money in six years."
"That was foreshadowing too. It implied the Dursleys treated him okay before he turned six."
Basil: "That's a bit of a stretch."
Madison glared at him. "It also foreshadows his weird reaction when he leaves the Dursleys for good in the seventh book. Of course, the movie cut those reactions too."
"Movie directors always love deleting scenes that make characters three-dimensional."
"And the mystery!"
Madison was getting angrier as she spoke, standing up and pacing steadily.
"The second book felt like a detective novel. Ginny's deteriorating state, spiders fleeing the castle, roosters being killed, the diary vanishing, the monster in the Chamber, the petrified ghost, the water on the floor, the burnt camera..."
"But the movie director cut all the key details that linked them together!"
"The movie became mediocre."
"Basil, where was I?"
Basil raised his hand. "Professor Montgomery, Harry and Ron were blocked at the station, talking about pocket money."
(Sophie quietly logged off. She figured in this state, Madison wasn't going to be seducing Basil anytime soon.)
Madison took a deep breath. "Right. Next is the flying car to Hogwarts."
"The damn director added a scene here. It was supposed to be a boring, hot, thirsty trip, but they made it look thrilling."
"Couldn't they have given that screentime to the earlier car ride?"
"When they arrived at Hogwarts, it was Snape—who actually cares about Harry the most—waiting at the gate to catch them."
"In the movie, it was Filch. They also moved Harry discovering Filch is a Squib to this scene."
"On the first day of school, they were supposed to get the Howler before Herbology."
"The movie moved it to lunch after class."
"Herbology was supposed to be with Hufflepuff, but the movie added Slytherin."
"Lockhart's class was mostly unchanged."
"But they cut all the little details of him being annoying in other professors' fields. Teaching Sprout how to care for the Whomping Willow, teaching Hagrid how to treat Kelpies, teaching Snape how to duel..."
"This also highlighted Hermione's foolishness, ignoring all the red flags because she trusted Lockhart."
"Speaking of Hermione. She only knows book smarts. She doesn't know wizarding slang or culture. Ron is the one who knows all that."
"Like when Hermione gets called a 'Mudblood' in this movie. In the book, she and Harry didn't care because they didn't know what it meant. Hermione didn't cry. It was everyone else who got angry."
"Later, Ron explains what Mudblood means."
"But the movie made Hermione explain it."