Week 5 Story: Arabian Nights, Hermione-style

We find ourselves back at Hogwarts this week, checking in on the Golden Trio and their adventures.  As we look for them, we can see into the Dark Forest.  We see Harry & Ron trying desperately hard to sneak something out of the forest while also trying to avoid being seen and caught.  But where is Hermione?  Upon further searching, we find her talking to a centaur, trying very hard to keep him distracted.  "But sir, I swear if you'll just listen to me a bit longer, you'll find it's a very interesting story" exclaims Hermione.

"I will listen to your story," replies the centaur thoughtfully, "but it better be very interesting or I shall have to go and examine whatever was making that racket farther into the forest."  So Hermione begins to tell him the tale of the "Merchant and the Genie" which soon morphs into telling the tales of three old men travelling along the same road, trying to also distract the genie and save the merchant's life.  The centaur agrees that this is an interesting story, but he really should go and examine the strange noises in the forest.  Hermione hears more struggling in the forest and realizes it must be her friends, so she quickly tells the centaur "Yes, that is a very good tale, but it is nothing like the tale of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp!"  She begs that if the centaur would just listen to her next tale, he'd find it even more fascinating than the last.  The centaur agrees to listen because he knows he has heard many strange noises in the forest before and surely this can wait a bit longer.

Hermione goes on to tell the tale of the poor merchant's son, Aladdin.  She tells the thrilling tale of how a cunning African magician tricks Aladdin into a cave to retrieve for him a lamp.  Aladdin finds himself locked into the cave and accidentally releases a genie from a ring the magician had given him.  He uses the genie to get out of the cave & goes home to his mother.  He & his mother accidentally release a genie from the lamp as well.  Soon Aladdin finds himself deeply in love with the Sultan's daughter, a princess.  He knows that he will have to prove himself worthy to the Sultan if he wishes to marry the princess so he gets the help of the genie of the lamp.  Soon the magician hears of the things going on in the Sultan's kingdom & realizes it must be Aladdin and the genie of the lamp.  The magician goes & steals away the palace and the princess, taking them back to Africa.  The Sultan threatens to kill Aladdin if he doesn't return the princess so Aladdin uses the genie of the lamp to get him to Africa & proceeds to trick the magician into drinking poisoned wine.  He uses the genie to transport, himself, the princess, and the palace back to the land of the Sultan, where they all live happily ever after.

By the end of the story, Hermione has heard Ron and Harry sneaking quietly back out of the forest.  The centaur agrees that she has entertained him quite well and lets her go back to the castle grounds while he goes to check on the noises he heard earlier.  Hermione gratefully escapes back to the castle grounds, meeting back up with her friends who are most appreciative of her help.  They all agree to never try to have to trick the centaurs again because they are very intelligent creatures after all.

(The princess that Aladdin falls in love with)

Author's note:  I used a very brief summary of the tales from "Arabian Nights" in this story.  As I am using a Harry Potter theme for my final Storybook project, I thought it fitting to go ahead and get into practice with this story as well.  I gave Hermione the task of telling the tales to distract a centaur while Ron & Harry are busy in the dark forest.  Quite like Scheherazade, Hermione only needs to tell the stories long enough to distract someone and as the tales are quite thrilling, that is easy to do with Hermione's bright mind.

Bibliography:  "Arabian Nights" from the UnTextbook.  Weblink.