The pressure lingered harmlessly over all of them for a few moments before it seemed to have become coloured in a tinge of 'happiness'?
But with the minds of gods being a can of worms, dealt like a hot potato, no one dared even entertain the thought of peering into the 'emotion' in their mind.
All except Hermione, who was rather inquisitive.
'The goddess is happy?'
'Happy to see Astoria?'
'....no that didn't seem to be the case. 'She' only turned happy after a few seconds passed…seconds that 'She' would've used to look at us.'
'Perhaps someone here piqued her interest?'
'....Harry?'
'...oh? It could also be this room…since it seems to be so special.'
Before Hermione could think any further, a ball of light appeared in the air a few feet above Astoria's head.
'Huh?'
Everyone was taken aback by what they saw, for the ball of light didn't seem to emit any light at all. Even though it was coloured a pure white that seemed to resemble a simple Lumos Charm, it cast no shadows.
The light sank slowly, like a feather, twirling around as it swayed due to the currents in the air.
Anticipation built up in the minds of all the people in the room as they paid attention to the strange light ball to see what it would do.
While for others it was just a scene to witness the miraculous powers of a God in real life, to Hermione who knew that the source of all magic were True Gods themselves, it was more of a scientific curiosity as she watched carefully trying to understand if there was anything she could glean from it to strengthen herself.
Everyone in the room stilled as their breaths settled, each making sure not to disturb whatever was happening in their own way as they watched the light ball fall.
Just as the ball was about to touch the floor, however, it stopped causing everyone to feel even more confused.
giggle giggle
"Huh!?" Harry was the first one to react as he looked around himself while the rest of them were still surprised that they seemed to have heard the Goddess giggle to herself.
All of a sudden they were no longer at Hogwarts.
Their entire surroundings were drowned by thick grey fog.
Gone were the plain old walls. Instead, what replaced them was a thick waterfall of grey fog which formed opaque curtains that appeared to have sealed them away from the world.
Cedric almost instantly wanted to apparate away, but his eyes dilated for a second before he forgot what he had been meaning to do.
Luna only looked around in confusion before looking slightly above them.
Astoria, still kneeling, had her mouth hanging open as her mind started to panic. 'The ritual failed and I contacted a mysterious entity!?'
'How!?'
'I chanted all the encantations perfectly!'
'Did I not!?'
Astoria didn't want to believe that she had messed up. Especially not when she'd been taught these words ever since she could speak so that she could ask the Goddess of Fortune for help whenever she could.
But not believing it only meant something worse.
It meant that another god had hijacked the ritual!! Which meant that the god was either stronger than the Goddess of Fortune or…
…that she was dead…and that someone else had taken her place.
Astoria shivered with fear since she was the one who had opened the connection to this new entity.
Hermione's reaction, however, was the most pronounced.
Her mouth instantly clenched as she saw the person sitting at the far end of their vision.
Hermione's mouth opened and closed several times in the span of a few seconds as she failed to form words.
'Mr. Error!?'
...
Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier.
Loki stole space to teleport around the wall of his room in the Room of Requirements into the one Hermione and Co. had created.
Although the concept of space was wonky inside the Room of Requirements, for Loki who had studied the room extensively, he knew its tricks like the back of his hand, and as such was able to pull off the teleportation seamlessly.
It took Loki a few seconds, however, to react since almost as soon as he teleported into the room, he found Luna staring directly at him.
'....who keeps their spirit vision on all the time? And how can she even still see me without losing her mind altogether because of my Mythical Creature form! I'm a demigod, aren't I!? Do planters have some unique method to dodge madness? Or is it because they're inherently…'maddened'? Like Lee and Luna?' Loki questioned himself as he belatedly realised that Luna could directly see his soul.
As such, Loki brought his finger to his lips to indicate silence.
But Luna kept staring at him.
'Oh!? Does she not know who I am?'
'Can she only see my soul…no that's not why she's still staring at me…did she assume that as long as she stays silent she can stare at me all she wants?'
'...yeah…that's probably more like it.' Loki nodded to himself before he was about to sign that Luna shouldn't look at him, but before he did, Loki noticed Luna's shoes were missing.
A frown formed on Loki's face almost immediately.
Luna hadn't changed the shoes he'd 'gifted' her ever. Even though she outgrew them after two years, she extended them using her own transfiguration skills and made sure to keep them clean and tidy.
Loki and Luna even transfigured stitches of various creatures they met while they explored the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake.
It was an invaluable record of their friendship, much like a diary.
So to see her bare feet once again, Loki found himself annoyed at the implications they brought up.
'What happened to your shoes Luna?' Loki asked by mouthing his lips.
Having been ordered not to speak, Luna spoke by manipulating her spirituality intricately into letters which then formed words-
'Nargles…'
Luna didn't have to say any more since Loki immediately understood.
Not wanting to ruin his mood right before his prank, Loki clenched his fists and decided to 'deal' with the 'matter' later before mouthing words at Luna once again-
'Pretend like you don't see me.'
Luna nodded and, since no one noticed their quick conversation, she went back to staring at the various things in the Room of Requirements.
'When should I execute my plan?' Loki wondered as he watched everyone move around the Room of Requirements to explore it.
For a few seconds even Loki was entranced by the various creatures that lived in cages hung high up in the ceiling.
Loki could see that the cages were 'drugging' the animals to stay asleep, and how they were reinforced with wards to make sure that whatever was trapped inside would remain inside forever unless let out on purpose.
The animals weren't very dangerous, but they weren't creatures that lived on the edge of the Forbidden Forest either. The creatures were mostly rated XXXX or XXX, but even some rather tricky and pesky creatures to deal with XX ratings.
And given how each X in the classification meant the number of times you'd die if an average wizard fought one, it was safe to say that they were dangerous.
'Hmm…nice room I guess…but why'd they bring Tory here?' Loki wondered and when he heard Hermione's explanation, he nodded, 'I guess that makes sense.'
Loki was looking forward to the ritual since he'd never seen Daphne perform the ritual for the Goddess of Fortune before and it seemed like a great god to know more about.
As such, when Loki saw Astoria perform the ritual, he hid himself using the thin veil of Grey Fog he could still control after hiding Tom's body in the Spirit World to make sure that unless he made any big movements or the Goddess herself wished to find him, he would remain hidden.
Except when the ritual finished, Loki sensed the gaze fall upon him almost immediately.
Loki sensed 'joy' like everyone else too, but that wasn't what his focus was on right now.
'HOW!!!!????'
The ball of light fell into the room and Loki suddenly felt a terrible premonition of absolute danger if the ball was allowed to land in it.
Before anything could happen, Loki's instincts reacted to steal the ball by turning it into a rune so that it wouldn't be able to do anything.
Except midway through his theft, Loki realised that his sense of danger could've been misconstrued by the Goddess of Fortune, a weaver of fate, who was literally looking at him right now.
But it was too late.
As soon as Loki's spirituality touched the ball of light, it froze.
And to his horror, before he could react, Loki felt someone snatch his control over the Grey Fog as he found the Sefirah Castle manifesting in the Room of Requirements.