The Queen's Mystery

The Search

The four Marauders began their search right after breakfast. Marlene and Emmeline were sitting down the table with Lily and Alice so the four boys walked over, and sat down around them.

"What do YOU want?" Lily looked at James, who was sitting next to her.

"Don't flatter yourself Lily." Sirius scoffed. "We're here for Marlene and Vance here."

"And what do you want with us?" Marlene threw her arm over Emmeline.

"We're here to ask you two a question." Remus explained.

"Shoot?" Emmeline smiled.

"We're trying to figure out the Queen's identity." Peter gave context, "and you two are on our list of possible suspects."

"Them?" Lily laughed.

"Us?" Marlene and Emmeline said in surprise.

"We don't even look like her!" Emmeline laughed.

"Well either of you could be a metamorphmagus." Sirius said sarcastically. "We don't know."

"Look," Marlene said, "Move on with your search. It's not either of us."

The four boys walked out of the great hall, upset but determined to continue. They moved on to Evelyn Zambini, who they found heading to the dungeons.

"Evelyn!" Remus called after her.

"What's up Remus?" She stopped and walked over to them.

"Hey so we are trying to find out The Queen's identity and-"

"It's not me." She cut James off. "I heard your conversation as I passed. So yeah, I'm not a metamorphmagus either. Now excuse me."

"We're getting through this list faster than I thought." Sirius crossed off her name.

"Now the Hufflepuffs," Peter commented.

"Do we really think Isabella is a suspect?" James said, looking over Sirius's shoulder at the list.

"We can't count anyone out." Peter shrugged.

"You barely even know Isabella." Remus scoffed. "You didn't even know she existed till this year."

Let's just keep moving." Sirius rolled his eyes.

Back in the great hall, Isabella, Regulus, and Pandora decided to head to the great lake. Isabella and Regulus walked behind Pandora who was picking flowers and making flower crowns. They stopped on the edge of the water and Isabella conjured a towel for them to sit on.

After a while Isabella cleared her throat. "Hey guys, so I wanted to tell you two something."

The past few days Isabella has been thinking about all her secrets and she thought it was time her best friends knew who she really was.

"So um well I have a secret I've kept from you guys and I thought it would be good if my best friends knew."

"Is it that you're the queen?" Pandora asked without looking up.

"What!" Isabella looked at her. "That wasn't what I was going to say but wait how do you know?"

"We're not bloody idiots," Regulus laughed. "We've tried talking to your fake self before."

"Oh yeah, that." she laughed, "I always wondered how that worked."

"Hold on," Regulus said, "What did you say? You said that wasn't what you were going to tell us."

"Oh yeah," Pandora smiled, "If not that, what did you want to tell us?"

"Um, okay," Isabella fumbled with her hands nervously. "Well building off the whole, I'm the queen stuff, um, I'm actually a princess."

"What?" Regulus laughed.

Isabella pulled out a picture of her family. "Yeah my family is the royal family of Folkca, and I'm third in line for the throne though."

"That's so cool!" Pandora squealed.

"So your parents are wizards and King and Queen of a small country?" Regulus asked, confused.

"Yes," she shrugged, "but they don't use it much anymore because we have people who help us. They didn't want me to have a hard time at school so that's why you've never seen them at the station. It's for both my safety and so I can have a normal school life."

"Okay so we've basically just learned your two deepest secrets." Pandora said. "I feel like we need to share too."

"I don't think I can top being a princess," Regulus laughed.

The three sat for a little longer as Pandora finished their flower crowns. Regulus had to leave early to go practice with the Slytherin Quidditch team and Pandora saw Xenophilius walking back to the castle. Before heading back for lunch, Isabella got rid of the towel before putting the flower crown Pandora made on her head and walking.

The Marauders had been working on their list all day and were on the last name. It would have gone faster but the Hufflepuffs were harder to find than they thought. Amelia had been in the kitchens, Charity in the library, and Hestia in the astronomy tower. The only name left was Isabella's and they felt so lucky when she walked into the great hall for lunch. No more running around trying to find everyone. Even better when she walked in hair flowing under a pretty flower crown, James all but fainted. His jaw was dropped, his cheeks flushed, and his heart beating faster.

"I think Prongs here's got a new crush," Sirius laughed.

James didn't say anything as she smiled, waved, and passed them, sitting alone at the hufflepuff table.

The four boys sat down and she ignored them till James cleared his throat.

"Oh, boys!" She acted surprised, "I didn't see you there. What do you need?"

"Come on Campbell," Sirius groaned. "Can we just ask you a few questions?"

"Why?" she asked as if she didn't know.

"We want to ask you if you're the Queen." Remus explained. "And you're the last person on our list."

"Let me just cut you guys off right here. You really think whoever the queen is, not me, would just tell you?"

"She's got a point," Peter said.

"I told you guys it wasn't her!" James said.

As they left Isabella felt Remus' eyes on her.

She looked over and James Potter was also starring at her. She blushed as he quickly looked away and she caught Remus smirk as he looked between the two.