Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Scotland Gryffindor Boys Dorms (Harry Potter's room) Wednesday, June 10, 1998 (early evening)
Re-reading the note that Malfoy had passed to Harry during Potions class this afternoon, Hermione took a deep breath and slowly let it out, her mind a riot of thoughts over its contents.
Eros – Sat. 7pm, RoR Pick 3 F, 3 M - 6 & 7 yr. only – must be Gryfs! No cherries.
Too chicken? Godric Save the Queen, was that no-count Ferret serious? He really wanted a six-on-six, evenly gender-mixed game of Eros & Psyche this Saturday night in the Room of Requirement, pitting his Housemates against the Gryffindors?
She snorted in partial amusement, partial incredulity. The blond git was so obvious sometimes! Clearly, Malfoy wanted to get even for losing the Quidditch House Cup this last weekend, their last game of their high school experience. She bet it just ate at the pure-blood, overachieving snob that Harry Potter, a half-blood who did so extraordinarily well in classes and out on the Quidditch pitch on mostly sheer talent, had beaten him one final, irrefutable time. Now, he was apparently looking for revenge.
Bloody hell, that meant he'd do anything to win, wouldn't he? Having intimate knowledge of the Snake's most afflicting moves, for she had been on the receiving end of his scathing taunts, cruel looks and occasional hexes more than anyone else in school, she wondered if she could really do this?
Eros was a legendary magical card game that had its origins in the decadently wicked Masked Gentlemen's Clubs of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England. The objective was rather simple: you played from the time the first card was turned until the final question card was read, and all turns had come to a close. Whichever team had the most players standing at that point won.
More specifically, the game was played with an even number of participants on two teams, evenly split between genders, and was typically engaged in a location that would remain secret to all except to the currently engaged players. It was comprised of four blank decks–so named Partners, Interrogations, Forfeits, and Deeds–the content of which was determined in advance by the players themselves.
The first deck, Partners, was simply a deck made up of the names of all participants in the current game set. These cards were charmed to create a magically binding contract with anyone who signed their name to them; once you accomplished that, you were bound to play the current game set to its completion–much like Jumanji in that way, Hermione thought. The signatory release also bound you to an Oath of Secrecy; in effect, you were gagged from talking about the specifics of what happened in the game with any outsiders.
Once all players had signed their Partners cards, the women put theirs into a pile, which was then shuffled. The men–the Eros component to this whole shenanigan, as he represented the primordial God of Sexual Love–would then take turns drawing a card of his intended Psyche, the mythological woman Eros fell in love with. That witch would then remain the man's committed partner throughout the entirety of the game set. Once every player was matched up, they held onto the card of their associated partner, as it assured the connection between the two of them until the completion of the game.
After partners had been determined, each player was then given two blank Interrogations cards that he or she would fill-in with two questions of their choice. They were also given two blank Forfeit cards which he or she would assign a heinous punishment to, and two blank Deedscards, from which he or she would dispense a delicious reward to balance out the punishment. This was done twenty-four hours in advance of the game's beginning, to give time for players to think up suitable content for their cards.
In the case of the Interrogations cards, the questions you made up were required to always start with the phrase, "If you had to…" What you asked after that was entirely up to your deranged, little mind. You wanted to be positive, however, that you would only write down a question that you wouldn't mind answering yourself, out loud, in front of all of the other players. The challenge was therefore to balance out your insane curiosity of the other players' secrets versus your own comfort level in dispensing your confidential information to those same people.
On the night of the actual game, everyone's Interrogations cards were put into a single deck and shuffled well. Then, taking turns in a clockwise direction, a player was to draw a card and read it aloud. Each question represented a 'round,' which would only end once all players had either answered the question, or refused to answer the question. There were consequences for either decision, of course.
For players who actually chose to answer the Interrogations question, they were compelled to do so with honesty, as the enchantment on the bespelled deck coerced the truth from a person's mouth as if they'd been dosed with Veritaserum. When they completely answered the question, they were then allowed to draw from the Deeds deck. This set of cards was made up of suggested 'rewards' for the players who showed remarkable courage in answering the questions put to them, and because this "compensation" was determined by the players themselves in advance, the Deeds card drawn could vary between something as simple as a foot massage to something a little more risqué, such as claiming a kiss from your partner, to the full kit and caboodle of engaging in full-on sex with your partner. The partner, in this case, had no choice but to submit to the Deeds card's requirements placed upon them, or they would be required to bow out of the game. If a partner forfeited the game, both players were 'retired,' with the surrendering half considered the 'loser' for their team's final number advantage. It was akin to a 'Truth or Dare' sort of situation.
To add to the excitement, the charm on the game itself allowed any number of accoutrements to magically appear as necessary to fulfill a Deeds card's requirements. Hermione was guessing that they just popped into the air and then were whisked away when no longer needed, although she had no idea how a card deck could be spelled to do such a thing, honestly. So, one could literally put just about anything down on a Deeds card and the magic would assure that any necessary items to fulfill that card's requirements would be made conveniently available.
On the other hand… if a person was
uncomfortable answering a question from the Interrogations deck, they could choose to pass and draw instead from the Forfeits deck. The intent of this deck was to punish those who wimped out. These cards were penalties made up by the players, too, and contained shocking and scandalous fines; anything causing permanent physical damage, blood loss, or psychological trauma was caveat understood as absolutely notbeing allowed, and no spells were to be used against anyone for any reason, according to the rules. Everything had to be physically performed on your partner, not magically. The trick in writing up your Forfeits cards was to balance out what you wanted to discipline others with versus what you, yourself, would tolerate acting out, in case you picked your own card.
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