Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Things were back to normal, or relatively normal the Monday after the first of January and vacation had ended. Classed started back up and everyone or almost everyone was ready to get back to work. Ron Weasley certainly wasn’t since he had never been given a Christmas break or time off. But then again he had stretched out his taking his tests for the end of term so long with his avoiding them and procrastinating that he hadn’t even finished his tests before Christmas and he was not ready to finish the last term by the time the new term started. It took Molly threatening to take his wand away and snapping it herself to get him to even study enough to take his tests and get a passing grade in them, and that was taking then three times anyway. She informed him that when he took the tests at the end of the school year he would only get one shot, and they would snap his wand. Did he want to live like a muggle for the rest of his life, because she wasn’t going to be around and do all the work for him all the time? He replied he would just marry a witch later on anyway so what did it matter? That set Molly off on a new tangent.
“What self respecting Witch would want a man that couldn’t even make it through first year Wizarding school, you tell me that?” Molly shouted.
“I’ll tell her I’m a muggle or a squib.” Ron thought quickly.
“So you would lie for the rest of your life, to a woman you would profess to love instead of trying to work a little and make a decent grade?” Molly asked getting madder and quite red in the face.
“I hate school! I always have, you know that! I hate studying! I hate tests! I hate writing reports! I hate every thing about it!” Ron shouted at his mother.
“What about money? She can’t take care of you all day and a house, and be expected to work as well. So that means you have to go out and get a job. And the only job you can get is a muggle job. So we are going to have to send you to a muggle school so you can get a muggle education to get a decent muggle job. Can’t have you being a rubbish collector or custodian now can we, they don’t make enough money to pay for a family.” Molly came back at Ron with that but he thought he had an answer for everything.
“Who said I wanted a family. Just me and a wife, is all that I need.” Ron stated, getting fed up with his mother and her demands.
“Well you will have to make enough money for a flat somewhere, since you are certainly not living here. And speaking of that, you won’t be able to say your muggle or even muggle born since once she meets your family the gig will be up. So you will have to change your lie to being a squib, and a little bit of research on her part and she will know that is a lie too, neither the Weasleys or the Pruetts have ever had a squib in their line so you can forget that lie young man. I give your lie six months at tops before she finds you out and is out of your life for good. If that long.” Molly glared at Ron.
“Also you realize when they snap your wand that means no more Wizarding chess, and no more broom don’t you?” Molly watched the shock look on Ron’s face and thought Aha maybe I have finally hit on something.
“What do you mean, I played chess and rode a broom long before I got my wand?” Ron came back.
“Ah yes but you are claiming to be a squib, and squibs can’t use those things, so no Wizarding chess, no brooms, no flooing anywhere, no learning to apparate, no chance at being an animagus, no possibility of being on the Chudly Cannons when you get older, none of that, it will all be gone for you. All because you are too lazy to work for it now; when you are just eleven years old.” That brought a crestfallen look to Ron’s face, it had always been Ron’s dream to joint the Chudly Cannon’s and become a famous quidditch player, but now, now that might not happen. For a moment Molly felt guilty about what she had said, almost. But if it brought this stubborn boy around to the facts of life maybe it was worth it.
She had tried everything with him, writing lines, extra homework, standing in the corner, even sending him to the shed with his father, but nothing had worked to get him to do his studies. And now it was after the new year and he hadn’t even finished his end of term tests yet. And the few that he had done he barely scraped an acceptable on the third time around. He refused to study for them and just kept failing the tests over and over again, no matter what she did. Maybe now he would work a little and focus on getting his tests done and a decent grade.
“Also do you think the Cannons are going to want someone on their team that can’t even scrape by an Acceptable after three tries on a test. I think not. They want the best, they deserve the best. You have to make at least all EE’s to get on their team I am sure. But for now ‘I’ will be happy with just all Acceptables. And we will work towards those double E’s later. You have the mind for strategy son, you could whip that team into something great, but you have to get on the team first, and to get on the team you have to work on your grades and study. The Cannons are all about hard work and focus. They don’t just play their games and go home, oh no, they are out there practicing daily and for hours a day, practicing passes, catches, dives and what not. They are a proud team and work hard together to get the records they have set. Although three players eaten by a dragon in one season is not a record that I think you should wish to repeat anytime in the near future. I think that you could set all new records with that team if you try hard enough.” Molly knew she was laying it on a little thick but it seemed to be working, Ron was getting a twinkle in his eyes and a look of determination about him.
He just nodded and grabbed the closest book to him, that he hadn’t flung across the room, and started reading. Alright she though, now she knew where to hit him, and how to reward him, the Cannons. Maybe she could get him one of their shirts as a late Christmas present, if he passed all his tests.
With that she went about fixing her, Ginny and Ron’s lunch like she had been planning to do when this had all come up. Corned beef on rye for lunch, and just for Ron, chocolate pudding, with orange sprinkles on it.
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Everyone was excited about what the first class of the new semester might be, Sirius had been really excited and unfortunately kept quiet about it, so it was this huge mystery and they were all guessing what it might be. But no one had been able to guess right so far, at least according to Sirius. Although he did say that gave him some great ideas for future projects.
“Alright class come on it we have a really fun project to work on this morning so come in and get settled.” Sirius stated as he waited for everyone to come in and find their seats. As soon as everyone was seated he began passing out small crystal bells to each student. Once each student had a bell he went up to the front of the class and explained, “Today we are going to turn these Bells into Snow Globes. This is quite a bit more complicated that previous transfigurations, but it is still a inanimate to inanimate transfiguration therefore you should be able to do it. The transfiguration comes in three parts, Compana-Globus-Nivalis, now that is a little complicated so we need to work on that for a minute, the first part Compana, means bell, the second part Globus means globe, and the third part Nivalis means snow. So try it with me and remember to say it slowly so you get enunciation on all parts. Compana-Globus-Nivalis, again Compana-Globus-Nivalis, one more time Compana-Globus-Nivalis, very good. Now I want you to understand that this is the most complicated spell we have done so far, and we will probably be working on this one for two if not three days so don’t worry if you don’t get it the first day. It is not an easy one to achieve. It takes a lot of focus and a lot of imagination to work this one.”
All around the room nothing but quiet could be heard as the students were focusing and thinking about what to make, “Let me show you what I received from Lily Potter, when I was sixteen. Now I have to say it is completely muggle but it might give you an idea or something.” And Sirius began taking around a snow globe of ice skaters but he wound it up and a music box began playing and the skaters began moving in a circle around the globe and everyone was in shock that the muggles could invent something like that. It gave several people ideas though and they closed they eyes and began to focus on what they wanted to do. About ten minutes later Sirius noticed Draco was siting staring at his desk in awe, and went to check it out. Sure enough he had managed to make a snow globe.
“Sweet Merlin. Mr. Malfoy that is exquisite. Mr. Malfoy please stand.” When Draco stood he though he was in trouble but then Sirius placed his snow globe in his hands and said. “I want you to take this creation around to each and every student here and show them your masterpiece, this is the best work you have done so far. Twenty points to Slytherin.” The snow globe was of a white peacock male with its plumage out and two white females standing near, all the snow was falling around them and everything was glistening in a snowy mixture of white and silver tinted flakes.
Malfoy strutted around the room showing off his snow globe, but instead of people making fun of his strut they complimented him on his beautiful globe and his artistic work. By the time he got back to his seat he was practically walking on air.
“Would you mind if I cast one spell on this piece for you?” Sirius asked.
“What? Why?” Draco asked looking panicked.
“‘Permanentem’, to make sure that the transfiguration remains permanent, this piece could become a family heirloom and I wouldn’t want it to revert back to a bell in a few years or so.” Sirius explained.
With that Draco happily nodded, Sirius had preformed that spell on several of his pieces before, especially on the quills that he had given his father for Christmas, which he had loved by the way. So Sirius performed the spell and then created a box and some wrapping paper for padding around the delicate globe, and Draco put the beautiful thing inside the box and then put an ‘Impervious’ spell on the box itself so the box couldn’t be damaged so hopefully the globe could not be broken. He told Draco to have his father to place an Impervious on the globe once he got it home just to make sure it was never destroyed just for safe keeping. And Draco nodded.
By that time the four at the front of the class had finished their first snow globe and it looked like they had all been thinking along the same lines again. Each one created a different snow globe of their Darcorns. Neville had Thunder in the middle of a snow storm with his mane and tail billowing out behind him. Harry had Storm raised up on his hind feet pawing the air with the snow racing around him. Luna had Ventus racing through a snow covered pasture at top speed. And Pavarti had Tonitru looking into a frozen lake at her reflection almost as if she was looking at her twin sister pawing at the reflection, snow flying all around her.
“Well you can definitely tell who enjoyed their ride during the snow we had the other day,” Sirius laughed, and awarded each one ten points since the three of his kids had never tried anything this complex before.
Surprisingly enough the next one to finish was Millicent Bullstrode, and her globe was a single large pastel rainbow colored snowflake with all the tiny snowflakes floating around it. Again ten points and a lot of praise went out for creativity.
New bells were handed out but no one had enough time to make another globe and several didn’t finish their first globe. Sirius told everyone not to worry, just think about what they wanted to create and be ready to start come Wednesday.
In charms class they had a rather brilliant class Harry thought. “This morning I had a student ask about how to make something unbreakable so I thought that would be an excellent charm to teach you all today. Usually it isn’t taught until much later in the year, but you are all doing quite well so we shall attempt it. The charm is ‘Infragilis’ and the wand motion is a slow circular motion around the object you are wanting to protect. So I want everyone to try it with me now. Infragilis.”
The class called out Infragilis and then Professor Flitwick corrected a couple of people who had their stress on the wrong part of the word, and then they all repeated the word again and he approved then went around and tested each individual to see if they got the wand movement down, on a small pillow, the size of your hand.
Harry, Neville, and Luna already knew an unbreakable charm, but they didn’t know this one so to learn a new one was great. When they spoke to Flitwick about it, he said that Infragilis was quite a bit stronger than the other spell that they knew, and would guard against almost anything. But then he laughed and said given their ability that the other one probably was good enough really, and that Infragilis would probably be like turning glass into stone.
Each of them quickly cast Infragilis on their snow globes and then wrote notes on the charm in their notes, wanting to make sure and look up the differences between the two charms they knew. ‘Ineluctabilis’ was to make something impenetrable while, ‘Infragilis’ is to make something unbreakable… now it made sense. Harry thought. So a window you would cast ‘Ineluctabilis’ on because that would keep out a rock or other projectile, but the snow globe you could drop it and it break and therefore you would want ‘Infragilis’. That is how Harry differentiated between the two. Professor Flitwick saw what Harry was writing and stated that he had it exactly right. Ineluctabilis was more for when you wanted to put up a strong barrier around something, and Infragilis was when you wanted to make the item itself unbreakable.
Each of them spent about half their lunch using Infragilis on their previous transfigurations. Then storing them away until they could put them in their trunks for safe keeping. Which they all discussed and decided they needed to do as soon as possible, especially with the snow globes bouncing around inside there now. It was bad enough with the delicate feathers they had done but they had never made something that was actually breakable before.
Then it was time for Potions class. This time around they were making a cough remedy for Madam Pomfrey if they did good enough that is. It was to be Wild Cherry Bark and Elderberry combination. The hard part with this potion was first boiling the Wild Cherry Bark down to a tincture, then the boiling and straining the Elderberries and turning that into a tincture. Then adding the rest of the ingredients Thyme, Marshmallow Root, Honey, Ginger, Eucalyptus and Peppermint, then boiling that all down to a heavy syrup.
The test on this one was rather simple, the color, viscosity and believe it or not, the taste. This is one potion you could tell a lot about it by it’s taste. So after they finished their cough syrup it had to be tasted before it could be bottled, and if it passed then it could be used in the medi-ward.
Believe it or not, Lavender Brown almost had one that was passable but it still had to have Professor Lovegood help her in the end. Goyle and Crabbe had to throw theirs away since Crabbe burn his to the bottom of this cauldron and Goyle allowed his to boil over and got scalded for his trouble. Oddly enough this time Finnigan had his almost completed when when he realized he forgot the honey and added it almost too late. But he managed to save it just in time. Thomas was making remarkable steps in his potions and was rarely messing them up now days. And proudly took the little glass bottles and funnel that Professor Lovegood handed out for him to use to bottle up his potion for the medi-ward, this was the third potion he had made good enough to use in the medi-ward and he was so proud of himself. Since this was only the fourth potion to be sent to the medi-ward, so that meant only his first potion, the boil cream didn’t make it. And he forgave himself of that one since that was the very first potion he had ever made. And his next one he received an Acceptable on it, it was just a matter of studying ahead of time and being prepared for class. He tried convincing Seamus of that but he still thinks he has the Finnigan curse or something like that, that had something to do with all Finnigan’s were horrible at Potions. Dean told him that was just an excuse and just went on studying and getting better grades. While Seamus seemed to be content to be at a level right above Crabbe and Goyle. At least he had only exploded two cauldrons and melted one…so far that is.
Next was Defense Against the Dark Arts and today they were going to work on a new spell today according to Professor Longbottom. Today they were going to work on tripping hexes. At first most people scoffed at the idea of a simple hex being worth learning. “
’Concido’ or the tripping hex could be very useful if your being chased or you have someone that is pursuing you and you need to get away. A moments distraction is all you may need to get away or get an advantage in a fight. In a duel if your opponent takes up a dueling stance and you use ‘concido’ then they trip and loose their footing, that gives you a moment you can send a real spell at them, perhaps ’stupefy’ and or ‘expelliarmus’ and you have won your fight. Without bloodshed I might add. So I want everyone to practice this one seriously, the hex for this one is Concido. The wand movement is a simple point and shoot movement so it is easy to do. And easy to go from one spell to the next. To start with aim at the person’s feet or and then call out ‘Concido’. I want everyone to call it out clear and concise before we try this… Concido! Excellent. Again… Concido! Good, looks like you have the spell down now let’s get you divided up and see how we do with this one. Once again he paired them up the same way as always with the same partner seem to work well with each other, and he really couldn’t put Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti with anyone else in the class but another one of the four, so he was limited as to what shuffling he could do.
All around the room people were tripping and falling and getting up from falls, all except from the four at the side of the class where no mere tripping jinx could get through their shield so they practiced without a shield and just dodged the hex and casting instead. Soon they were tumbling and cartwheeling all over the place in order to avoid the hex then landing in a crouch and aiming and taking a shot to try and hit their opponent with the tripping hex. It became a dance and a battle all at once, everyone else in the room stopped what they were doing to watch what the four were doing and just stood there mesmerized by the quick movements and tumbles of the four of them. At least until Professor Longbottom called an end to it and decided to go onto the next thing for class.
“Alright now, you just witnessed how you can focus solely on this one spell and distract an opponent to the point that all they are doing is dodging you and too busy to do much but dodge and try and hit you but if you area good enough they can’t land a hit. Very good kids and thank you. Now we are going to move on to a slightly different one, the jelly legs curse, again basically the same thing but it will keep the pursuers from running after you. It is Locomotor Wibbly pronounced, LOH-cah-MOH-tor WIH-blee, and it is very distracting, it can be stopped with a simple Finite Incantatem if you can aim at your legs long enough to say the words, which is rather hard while your wobbling around trying to remain standing. Best thing you can do is try and find a place to sit down, aim at your legs and do the counter curse then get up and go about your business. Now this one this curse is longer and takes more effort to cast so I recommend using the tripping hex first then the jelly legs curse to make things after to make thing even more inconvenient for your attacker. So let’s see if you can get the pronunciation down. Remember to stress the LOH and MOH on the first word and WIH oh the second now let’s here it. Locomotor Wibbly, again Locomotor Wibbly, one more time some of you are still putting the stress on the wrong sections of Locomotor now again Locomotor Wibbly.”
The class repeated the phase over and over until it got it right to the Professors satisfaction and finally he allowed them to start trying to use the spell on the target dummies. Then after he was sure they were capable enough at the target dummies he allowed them to start on working in teams again. Although he did insist if you cast it on someone that you also cast the Finite Incantatem on them so they didn’t have to walk around like that and possibly get hurt in the process.
Pavarti managed to get in a good shot with Luna but Neville thought that Luna just wanted to know what the jelly legs felt like and enjoyed the wobbly feeling too much to ask her to finite it, mainly due to her giggling and laughing so much when she got hit by the curse. Afterwards Professor Longbottom didn’t look happy, he frowned at her and said ‘You aren’t suppose to like getting hit by that one Miss Lovegood.” But she just giggled more and twirled around on the spot and nodded. He just shook his head and headed over to see how Pansy and Draco were doing.
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Dinner was interesting that night, not the food mind you but the fact that everyone was talking about the day that they had had. They were also talking about the Basilisk and what all happened. While only about half of them even had a clue about what had really happened, but it was interesting to see what the others thought really happened and in some cases the ideas were a little bizarre what they thought. Seamus was pretty sure that a Banshee had gotten into the school somehow and was scarring the students into statues with her screams and that the only reason no one else had heard her screams was because she had always picked deserted hallways to attack. Seamus tried to get Dean to tell him what it was that he remembered about the whole thing, but Dean only could remember a set of big yellow eyes, and then waking up. With very little in between. Harry was pretty sure he remembered a little more than that in between because he was a lot more introspective than he used to be, which was really odd for the young man. He wasn’t as boisterous as he used to be, and he would just sit and stare at nothing every now and then. Which was also unusual for him, Harry thought about asking Madam Pomfrey if she thought Dean should have some kind of counseling or something, because of the way he was acting wasn’t normal at least not normal for him.
Harry was just glad that people weren’t bothering the other ones that had actually gotten petrified too much, although they seemed to be getting their fair share of attention. Hermione seemed to be ignoring it well enough. Justin Finch-Fletchly seemed to be getting a little frustrated and just wanted to eat his meal in peace but Miss Clearwater seemed more than happy to explain what she experienced to anyone who asked, although she merely had something similar to what Dean said. She seemed to have all the patience in the world with all the questions and the curiosity of all the students around her though. Harry made a point to thank her for her patience later. It seemed that soon enough though the subject over at the Ravenclaw table switched from the petrified students to the classes of the day, and the snow globes were the most talked about. Hermione brought out her creation, and showed it off, which was a breath taking rendition of Procella as she pranced and posed in the snow the other day for her parents. Justin didn’t quite get the spell right so he didn’t have anything to show. But Padma also had a rendition of her Darcorn, oddly enough she had done a scene of Fulgura looking into a frozen lake just like Pavarti had, and seeing her reflection and pawing at it. Su Li had managed to make a pair of ice skates that sparkled and glistened as the snow twinkled around it. Anthony Goldstein did a scene of a snowman with a big tall top hat.
From what it appeared Sirius had had his Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff class that followed the their own class the same assignment as their own, and had them make snow globes as well. And from what Harry could tell it was a hit in their class it was a hit as well. He wondered if it was the same in all their classes, if they always had the same things they learned just different classes. He had to assume so, because it didn’t make sense for the teachers to teach the two classes of first years two separate things or teach them at different rates, that just made extra work for the teachers. What a nightmare. No they had to be teaching them the same thing each day they had one grade level, especially on the day they had two grade levels.
After dinner everyone gathered in the common room and worked more on their bells. Harry came up with an idea for one that was Hogwarts itself in the middle of a snowstorm, it was beautiful depiction of Hogwarts high in the snow covered hills surrounding it, it looked so majestic. Pavarti created one with a stack of books that had a Gryffindor scarf thrown over them sitting out in the snow. Luna created one that was a crumple horned snorkrack digging a hole in the ground. Neville created one with a Unicorn and a Darcorn running and playing in the snow together. Each placed an unbreakable charm on their new creation and placed them in their little boxes then put them in their seven compartment trunk to wait until Wednesday to show to Sirius.
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Tuesday started out really interesting, they talked about the great witch hunts in Great Britain between fifteen-sixty and seventy hundred. Everyone was excited to get into class to start the talk about the difference between the muggle and magical trials. Of course Luna, Neville, Harry and Pavarti took the front row then Dean and Seamus and finally Lavender at the back as usual. On the other side they had moved a couple of chairs around so that now it was Nott, Zabini, Greengrass, Bullstrode, and Davis on the front row, followed by Malfoy and Parkinson, and finally Goyle and Crabbe.
“All right people, calm down we have a lot to cover, The British or Eastern European Witch Hunts started in middle of the fourteenth century but really didn’t reach a peak until fifteenth century. Now one famous person that was involved in the fourteenth century was the Trial of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester in, fourteen-forty-one is a famous example who received life in prison and it was primarily for a political purpose not because she was actually proven to be a witch.” Professor Lupin began.
“By the middle of the sixteenth century though people were getting put to death in horrific manners for something so simple as having a mole, owning a cat, having a flea bite on them, any older woman that did not have a husband to speak for her was instantly suspected of being a witch, no matter her actions, anything from having a bad reputation, to neighbors that didn’t like you could cause you to be accused. If a person had bad crops they would accuse the closest old woman they could find and call her a witch. Then the entire neighboring community would join in and they would send for a witch hunter to test the accused witch. The most famous was Mathew Hopkins in he is said to have tested over a hundred witches and proven all but three of them to be witches.” He continued.
The Professor was on a role. “They executed by drowning, burning at the stake, beheading, impaling, and even hanging. The last person to be killed in Britain was Janet Horne in seventeen-twenty-seven, she was accused of being a witch because her daughter was born with a birth defect of her hands and feet. The neighbors stated she tried to turn her daughter into a pony to take her around to do her witchcraft but didn’t succeed and they tried to kill the two of them. The daughter escaped but the mother had a form of what is commonly called dementia in the non-magical world, and didn’t realize what was happening so she was tarred and feathered then paraded down through town in a barrel and warmed herself by the fire that was meant to burn her at the stake. Finally, she was put to death by burning at the stake. All total there were over one hundred people, mainly women, killed as witches. Normally they were hanged. Unless they were accused of another crime then their life usually ended on the stake.” Professor Lupin stated.
“Is there any questions so far?” He asked.
Pavarti raised her hand and he nodded to her and she asked, “There were over five hundred people that were accused, were any of them actually witches or wizards?”
“In all of those five hundred and thirteen people to be exact that were put to trial there were one hundred and twelve people that were executed. Of those, none were actual witches or wizards, once again. When they were looking for warts or flea bites or blemishes on the skin a simple Concealment Charm or Glamour and no one saw anything that the individual didn’t want to be seen. Most of the individuals that were accused were merely women that lived alone, that were accused and they had no defense against the accusations. Sometimes it was something as simple as owning a cat, since every one knew that cats are the messengers of Satan himself. Especially black cats they are the highest on the hierarchy of demonic pets or familiars.” Professor Lupin explained.
Daphne Greengrass raised her hand and Professor Lupin nodded at her, “Did all those people end up getting convicted of being a witch, did they mostly die either hanged or burned at the stake?”
“Actually there were several of the people accused of being a witch that didn’t live long enough through the torture waiting for a trial in their prisons, to be hung or burned at the stake.” Professor Lupin noted.
“They tortured them before they even went to trial?” Tracey Davis asked raising her hand.
“Very much so, horrible torture, trying to get them to admit that they were witches before they were even going to trial, and the torture was gruesome. Women were forced to sit on red hot stools because they were believed to have had sexual activities with the devil. They were deprived of food, water and sleep for days on end, stretching until the shoulders were pulled from their sockets, bindings so tight it cut off the circulation in the extremities, flogging, thumbscrews, and water torture are just a few of the ways they were tormented. As I said some never even lived long enough to make it to their own trial.” The Professor stated.
There was mumbling throughout the class and hands raised throughout the class. Professor Lupin picked Malfoy next. “What was the worst thing that was done to them?”
Professor Lupin grimaced and said “It appears in the fifteen hundreds Germany ran rapid with witch hunts and they were the most violent it seems. They would cut off an ear, or a hand, disembowel, use binding, stretching, something called the torture wheel, floggings, blinding, even skinning and burning to get a confession before a trial. Any method they could to get someone to break, but I think probably the skinning someone alive would be the worse thing they did. Although disembowelment comes in a close second.”
Neville raised his hand and Professor Lupin nodded towards him. “Who was the first person to be executed in the British witch trials?”
“That would be Agnes Waterhouse she was put on trial in Chelmsford, England in fifteen-sixty-six for supposedly using witchcraft to cause illness in her township. Her eighteen year old daughter Joan was also accused but testified against her own mother in order to save herself, and her mother was hung and became the first woman executed for witchcraft in England.” Professor Lupin stated.
“Now I know you all have a lot of questions and that this is an exciting subject so we will be spending at least a couple of classes on it, don’t worry. I just want to let you know that you do have an assignment on this, I want you to read chapter eleven and twelve of your books and I want a eighteen inch report on the European Witch Trials. Now you can choose any specific country or do a little of them all, or focus on the torture or on the trials themselves, or one specific trial, or person of interest, how they started, how they ended, the subject is really up to you. The good thing is that the report isn’t do until next Thursday that is not this Thursday but a week from then. So you have over a week to complete this assignment. Again I think your problem will be narrowing down the subject area you pick and not getting carried away with it. Read those chapters and write down any questions you might have. Do a little research and bring your questions into class, it may help clear up your report and it may help others decide what they want to focus on as well.” Professor Lupin said just as the bell rang.
Drat, Harry had another question he had wanted to ask, he quickly noted it down on his notes and saved it until next time and he noticed that Pavarti and Neville were doing the same thing. Then he packed up his things and headed to Greenhouse One, today they were going to start a new plant if he wasn’t mistaken.
Madam Sprout had a nice healthy stock of Dittany or Dictamnus albus, available for them to work with and was excited to get started. “Alright everyone come closer, come closer. We are going to be working with Dittany now, or Dictamnus albus. Now all of the plants you see before you were created from cuttings, so they will actually bloom this year. If they were grown from seeds it would take two to three years for them to bloom, that is something to note about this plant in particular. You always want to start it off as a cutting if possible, it takes less time to reach maturity and less time to produce flowers. Now something to also be aware of, while dittany is a healing plant and essence of dittany is used in many topical healing salves, the oil that produces the lemony scent you are smelling right now, may cause skin irritation in some people so do be careful when you handle them, put on your gloves just in case.” And Madam Sprout put on her brown gardening gloves and began to show everyone how to repot the smaller dittany plants.
“These plants will grow to be between two and four feet tall so they need to be in these larger pots, so our project for this quarter will be transferring these dittany to the larger pots and taking care of them. First let’s get their new pot ready, at the bottom of the pot lets put the gravel, these plants prefer evenly moist, fertile, humusy soil that does not become soggy. So we put a layer of gravel in the bottom of the pot to protect the roots from root rot from too soggy soil.” Then she proceeded to do just that, with little pea size gravels she had sitting in a bucket there, “About an inch or so should do it nicely.” She stated.
Then she reached over to a bucket of sand and got a little shovel full of that and put about an inch of that in the pot. “Now you want to put about an inch of plain old sand on top of the gravel to kind of cushion the roots, it sort of babies them and keeps them from being crushed in the gravel beneath them.”
Next she reached into a bucked of dark mulch and took out a small shovel full of mulch “Now you want to give the roots some protection so put about three inches of mulch in the pot.” And she did just that. As she did that each student was filling their own pot just as she was, following along with her step by step.
Professor Sprout then went to the next bucket a lighter brown but still dark brown mixture, “This is a fertilizer mixture of Dragon dung, rabbit dung, and shredded newspaper. You will notice the little white flakes in there every now and then, that is the newspaper. Some people use actual sawdust but I like to use newspaper to help with recycling and all. Dittany likes the soil to be a little alkaline so we use forty, forty and twenty on our percentages for this mixture. So put that in next, so about three inches on it as well.” And she proceeded to follow her own instructions.
“The top layer is two inches of fresh compost, it is a good hardy mixture of compost and soil, so just put two inches of that. It will give your plant all the food that it needs for the next couple of days and help prevent shock from being moved from one pot to the next.” She got her a healthy scoop of compost from the little bucket and scooped it into her pot and then looked up to see if everyone was doing the same. “Alright then we are ready. I want each of you to make a hole about the size of your fist in the middle of your soil mixture, and about four inches down in the mixture that you have in the pot, so go through the compost and into the fertilizer mixture that you put into the pot but not all the way down into the mulch. You want to give them space to grow.” Professor Sprout pushed her hand into her pot and went down about up to her wrist into the pot and stopped and pulled her hand out.
“Now for the next step. Take your Dittany, and gently grasp it around the base, you will notice it has a nice strong almost woody base or stem, so grasp it close to the soil and pull it up from there and gently lift it and anything that comes up with it and place it into the new pot. Watch what I do, it may make it easier to understand.” Professor Sprout then proceeded to follow her own instructions slowly so that everyone could see what she was doing, and lifted the Dittany plant up out of it’s original pot and then gently placed it down into it’s new pot. “Now gently pack the soil mixture in around the plant, but do not pack it too hard, we don’t want to bruise the roots. So firmly yet gently, like so.” Again she demonstrated.
Everyone began to transfer their plants as Professor Sprout began to straiten up her area and go over some of the specifics of how to take care of the plant later. She explained that each one of them would be responsible for their own plant, and to put their name on the new bucket some where to signify it was theirs once they were finished.
“Essence of Dittany has been used for ages to heal wounds, for arthritis, rheumatism, women’s monthly cramps, for fevers, for an anti-bacterial, seizures, skin problems, kidney or gallstones, and stomach disorders. And those are just the non-magical uses, magical uses they have been used for ages to promote astral projection, speaking to the dead, promote visions, and if used with silver it can cure werewolf bites, it will prevent the victim from bleeding to death from the bite but not cure them of lycanthropy, it is also a great aid in any fire based magic as it is also known as ‘the burning bush’ and contains volatile oils that when in the hot sun of the summer may catch aflame without actually doing any damage to the plant at all.” She stated as she watered her plant and checked it once again.
“Now are their any questions?” Professor Sprout asked.
“Yes Miss Bones.”
“How tall will the Dittany be when it is fully mature?”
“It will be anywhere from two to four feet tall, depending on the plant, it may bloom as early as two feet or it may take it until it is fully four feet tall before it blooms. We shall see. But they are very fast growers so we shall see.” Professor Sprout answered. “Yes Miss Lovegood.”
“What color are their flowers?”
“That depends on what kind of plant you have gotten, these that we have before us, should bloom a pink or purple colored flower if I am not mistaken. But they can be any where from a soft yellow to a bright red, and of course purple depending on what plant you have harvested.”
“Mr. Smith you had a question.”
“You mentioned the Essence of Dittany and then you said that the oils can be dangerous and can cause allergenic reactions, aren’t they the same thing?” He looked confused.
“Good question, no the Essence of Dittany is gathered directly from the flowers and the oils are excreted through the bark or stem of the plant. Now for homework I want you to do a diagram of the Dittany plant with special details on the flower itself. You can do it in any medium you like and it can be colored or black and white is fine as well. Now I expect it on Thursday so please have it ready.” She stated just as the bell rang and people put their hands down and began to clean up their areas and get ready for the next class, Care of Magical Creatures.
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“This week we are going to be exploring Bowtruckles. Now why are some of you laughing, Bowtruckles are nothing to laugh at, they have vicious claws and are very protective of their chosen trees.” Mr Lovegood started. “They are extremely smart little creatures but they do have two weaknesses, woodlice and fairy eggs. They can be lured away from their protected tree for a few moments so that you may harvest some of its wand quality wood, that’s right, they only live in trees that maintain a high enough quality wood that wands can be made out of them. This is one way wand makers can tell if a tree is good to harvest from, is if it has a Bowtruckle infestation. The one thing you must take note of is they always go for they eyes when you try and get close to their tree to harvest, so protective eye wear is always suggested. They are listed as a class XX animal with the Ministry of Magic just for reference, so they are not on the protected animal listing. And are normally reach a maximum height of about eight inches. Their coloration is anywhere from green to brown and they can be smooth to bark like, just depending on the tree of their choice.” Mr. Lovegood pointed out the coloration of the bowtruckle that he had in the little tree he had on display.
“Now some Non-Magicals think they are what are called a ‘walking stick’ or Phasmatodea from a distance, but they are clearly not when you get closer you can see the difference. It is quite evident, but I guess if you are a Non-Magical and you don’t want to see something, you create something in your head that makes sense out of what your eyes are seeing, even if it is not what the truth is, it is what I call a convenient truth. Something that may or may not be the real truth but it is the truth for right now and it is convenient for the moment so you will work with it.
“What I want each of you to do, is draw a diagram of each part of the Bowtruckle and label each piece accordingly. Notice the thorax and abdomen are two separate sections and see how each hand has four fingers with no opposable thumb. Something that might be noted at this point is that they are extremely good at picking locks, so locking them away in a box or something is not going to work, but putting them a jar with a latch is better. Just make sure there is proper ventilation for it to breathe.” Mr Lovegood stated. “Putting in a bedding of wood shavings and a nice supply of woodlice will keep your Bowtruckle quite happy. Now Bowtruckles are commonly found in Western England, Southern Germany and Scandinavian wild forests. Although they seem to migrate with the weather to warmer climates as the seasons change. They are easier to find during the warmer months because they tend to burrow during the colder months and hibernate for a short time each year, at least those in the wild do. Those in protected habitats do not follow this same routine due to the pre-established climate controlled atmosphere that is provided for them. Once the first frost hits their chosen tree they tend to wish to start a burrow and will create a safe shelter to ride out the harshest part of the winter.”
“On pages eighty four through eighty seven in your books you will find the information on Bowtruckles and I want you to look that over a little and be sure to do your diagrams. Now, each of you get some of these wood lice and find a perspective tree and try and lure your Bowtruckle out so that you can do your diagram. And yes I know that it is pretty much going to look like a stick figure, har har har, very funny. Just grab your woodlice and get to work, Mr. Corner.” Mr. Lovegood shook his head, as if he hadn’t heard that joke a few times already. He began setting out little pots of woodlice for everyone to grab and Goggles to protect their eyes just incase they managed to get a Bowtruckle with an attitude.
The rest of the class went pretty smoothly, each student managed to get a pretty good rendition of a Bowtruckle down on parchment, then they all sat around and began to label the different parts of its body by looking in the book on page eighty six, there was a complete drawing in the book already done with each section properly labeled and easy to understand. So if you didn’t like your rendition of the Bowtruckle you could just copy it out of the book, if absolutely necessary that is.
By the end of class Luna had managed to charm a Bowtruckle to eat the woodlice right out of the palm of her hand and this allowed everyone to get a really good look at the creature, causing her father to just shake his head and sigh. First Darcorns, now Bowtruckles…he had to quit wondering what next. Professor Lovegood thought.
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Everyone gathered into the large room, in the middle of the room was a huge oval table with more than enough chairs for all the staff that they had here at Hogwarts could sit at comfortably. On the table were refreshments, pots of tea and tea services, and plates of sandwiches and plates to go with them, as well as a fruit plate and a veggie plate, and a plate of little desserts…mainly little cakes and cookies. Everyone came in and grabbed a cup of tea and made it for them selves and some fixed a plate of goodies and took it to their seat others waited, but everyone found a place to sit down and then the chatter began.
The Headmistress came in and fixed herself a cup of tea from the closest pot and grabbed a few little cakes and some strawberries and melon balls, then sat down at the head of the table.
Sirius got him and Remus some tea and sandwiches and some little cakes and handed one plate and cup to Remus and sat down next to Frank who was just getting to his seat. Alice gathered her and Frank some tea and sandwiches and fruit, with cookies on the side then took it over to Frank and reached over to pick up her’s.
Persephone and Xenophilius both grabbed their own plates of goodies, mostly cookies and little cakes and then they got themselves some tea and joined them on the other side of Alice.
And it went like that all the way around the room, each Professor came in and picked out what they wanted and sat down, chatting quietly amongst themselves until the Headmistress cleared her throat.
“Alright people I believe we are all hear, let’s get to this meeting. I know that there is a lot to cover and some of you have class in an hour so we will need to hurry through a few things. First, our first years, any major problems that we need to discuss?
“Vincint Crabbe and Gregory Goyle of Slytherin house are both the lowest students in my class. They continuously perform sub-par work. Even if I stand over them and give them personal help they still manage to get the potion wrong, melt the cauldron, explode their potion or forget an ingredient. They have yet to hand in an acceptable potion this school year. At this rate the both of them will be failing Potions. Their homework barely brings their grade from T to P level and that is if I ignore penmanship, spelling and grammar. Half the time they barely even get the homework in on time as it is. Usually it is at least one class late, so even if they somehow manage to scrape by a P on the paper it must be graded one letter down because it is late, so it automatically goes down to a T.” Professor Lovegood stated as she sipped her tea and went through her grading book. “And I have repeatedly told them this would happen too.”
“I agree, I have to spend at least half of a class period with just the two of them and work solely with them to get them to understand how to do the transfiguration, while the rest of the class is working way ahead of them. Even then they are just barely doing the most basic of transfigurations. The more complex ones like the snow globe we are working on right now they haven’t been able to do at all yet. And their homework, well… I would rather read chicken scratch than read Mr. Crabbe’s rendition of what he considers an appropriate paper to hand in. Between the marked out words, smudges, ink blots, and food stains I can barely read it most of the time, if I am lucky I can grade it at a P level, but to be honest they deserve a T. If I had handed something like that to you, you would have had me redo it until it was presentable and not even accepted it until it was, then given me a T, for all my effort just for content.” Professor Black stated waving his sandwich at the Headmistress.
“I have the same problem with the two of them, shoddy papers, bad class performance and almost no papers finished on time.” Professor Lupin agreed.
It seemed like every teacher that had Vincint Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had the same experience with them. They all stated they were spending so much of their time trying to help the two boys in class that they were ignoring the rest of the class and therefore the rest of the class was suffering for it.
The Headmistress thought about it for a moment and then asked for suggestions, “What would you have me do?” She asked looking out to the Professors before her.
“Since contacting Mr. Brown seemed to help, to a degree that is…” Xenophilius started.
The Headmistress interrupted, “Wait, what do you mean to a degree? I thought Miss Brown’s work was getting better and she was showing up for classes on time.”
“Oh she is showing up for them, and is as quiet and as far away in the back as she can possibly be. She refuses to answer questions, and she barely tries in class, if she tries at all.” He stated. “Every since Messers Black and Longbottom, and Misses Lovegood and Patil got chosen to be Darcorn riders from her class she has become quite … jealous of them. More so than before even.”
“How is the work she is handing in?” The Headmistress asked
“Oh she makes sure that it is on time and is exactly what we ask for and not one line more. If I say a twelve inch paper on the Witch Trials of Great Britain, you can bet your last galleon it will be stretched to fit exactly twelve inches but not one line more.” Professor Lupin stated. “And it will get an A on the paper over all, but barely. She will give a basic, no frills, facts only, no real research, no opinions, no suppositions, no imagination, maybe one resource report, and to tell you the truth most of the time I think she just rewords what is in the main book and cuts out all the supposition in the main book and just looks for the cold hard facts and puts them in and that is it.”
“She does the absolute minimum in my class as well. When we turned a stick to a quill, everyone was making these magnificent quills and hers was a plain brown quill, I gave her two more sticks and the same thing, a plain brown quill, no size variance, no color variance nothing, just a standard plain brown quill. She did the assignment, but the barest minimum so that she didn’t get a zero for the day. On the snow globe that everyone did she just created a flat field and it snowing. Nothing in the field, no snowman, no animals of any kind, nothing just a flat surface, not even a tree, or a hill.” Sirius added. “Even Seamus Finnigan who usually blows things up his first try made a rather fetching pheasant quill his second try on the quills.”
The little charms professor stood on his chair and stated “I think Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle are at the bottom of my performance listing. But if I had to list the most difficult student it would be Miss Brown still. She does the homework assigned, but as stated, exactly what is assigned. It is like reading the textbook all over again just reworded. Even Miss Granger who tends to be quite technical will send in a thirty inch paper with at least three references and a good supposition but always at least ten inches more than I ask her to write and always from multiple references. Miss Brown sometimes uses a reference or if she is using more than the occasional reference she isn’t documenting it properly.” Filius noted.
“I think she is doing just enough to keep from having her father come here and get on to her but not enough to actually be up to her normal standard of work. I honestly think she could do quite a bit better. Her star chart isn’t even half filled yet, she is going along with the class, and only with the class…she hasn’t done any outside work at all, no exploration, no filling in on her own, no curiosity that I see in any of the other students. Miss Pavarti Patil’s star chart is complete, so is Miss Lovegood’s, Mr. Longbottom’s and Mr. Black’s, Miss Granger’s, Miss Bones’, and Miss Abbot’s. And Miss Padma Patil’s is almost done as well. They are all fighting for top of the class right now.” Sinistra smiled.
Professor Sprout spoke up about then. “Well she quit with the fake allergy show she was doing, but she just doesn’t seem to want to get her hands dirty at this point. She will do what is necessary for class, but she is in and out of the class so fast you would think that we had dragons in the green house waiting to bite her. I had Miss Abbot follow her after class one day and she said she ran to the nearest bathroom and spent nearly ten minutes scrubbing the dirt from underneath her nails and whining about it the whole time. And right now we are working with Dittany, so that was a day we wore gloves the whole class. Therefore there should not have been any dirt underneath her nails to begin with.”
“That about sounds like her work in potions, she hates touching half the ingredients that we work with and complains constantly about it when she has to work with anything she finds unpleasant. Even something as simple as valerian root because it smells bad, no fuss, no mess, just it smelled bad. But she complained the whole class…and loudly too. I finely had to dock her points to get her to shut up about it. I think that is the first points she has lost since her father corrected her since she turned pale white and clammed up for the rest of the class, not saying a word…to anyone.” Persephone stated.
The Headmistress made several notes on her pad in front of her and then asked, “Is there any other troubled first years we need to take note of.” Thankfully the room was quiet after that and they moved on. “Alright what about individuals going above and beyond. I think we all know That Mr. Black, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Lovegood, Miss Bones, and Miss Abbot are expected to be above and beyond so unless you have something especially outstanding on them let’s focus on the other students.”
“Normally I don’t make these kind of meetings because there really isn’t that much to discuss, but with those new brooms… I have seen some real talent out there. Students are actually learning how to fly, how to maneuver, how to manipulate those brooms at a much younger age, I bet we have a bunch of new quidditch stars next year.” Her golden eyes were just sparkling, as Rolonda spoke.
“Miss Granger is definitely working better now, she doesn’t try and hog all my attention, all the time. She waits to see if anyone else will answer until she raises her hand and then she just raises her hand like anyone else. No more trying to compete with everyone to be first or faster than anyone else. But she always has the right answer when she is chosen, and now that she is acting properly I am actually choosing her to answer the questions on a rotating basis with the others. I find the questions she asks to be well thought out, insightful and curious so I like picking her to ask a question, it definitely brings about a good conversation.” Remus commented. “Mr. Malfoy is another one that is working hard now too, his papers are well thought out and well written, the penmanship is perfect and neat, and some of the questions he brings up in class are perceptive and observant. He is definitely one to watch.”
“I agree. Mr. Malfoy’s potions are either perfect or near perfect every time and his papers are getting better each time. He is finding better sources and spending more time on his work so he is doing so much better than he did when he first started doing them. This quarter I don’t think he will get anything less than an a EE from me.” Persephone stated.
“Padma Patil is one in my class that I think is going to be right up there with the top five, her love of Astrology just glows out of her, she loves to look at the stars and knows almost all of the legends associated with each one. She is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the stars really. I think the only reason her chart isn’t finished yet is because she gets distracted by writing about the stars and telling me about the stories from her country, which I love by the way, and forgets where she left off on her chart.” Sinistra stated with a smile.
“I know he is in your top five but Neville Longbottom is a prodigy when it comes to plants, that boy doesn’t have a green thumb, he has a green hand. I have never seen a child work so well with plants and know the language of plants so well in my life. In all my years of teaching I have never found someone like him before, a pure pleasure to teach.” Pomona practically giggled.
“The one I think we should all watch out for is Pavarti Patil, that one is at the top of the class right along with our five in almost every class I have talked with. She is a true gift in transfigurations and she sends in the most brilliant papers. She sat down with Harry, Neville and Luna the first class she had and hasn’t left their side since and her grades reflect it. Everything she does in class is brilliant, artistic, imaginative, and perfect. She is headed for straight O’s or my name isn’t Sirius Black.” Sirius stated.
“Absolutely. Out of the four potions I have sent over to the Medi-ward, her potions have all qualified with a strait O, on each one. She has yet to get anything less than an O, in my class. And on a couple of papers I actually gave her extra credit due to content and insightfulness.” Persephone stated.
“Same here, you should read some of her history papers. Her work is an absolute joy to read, I have actually found a fact or two I had to look up and found them correct and had to give her points for teaching the teacher something. It is a blast, I think it is a competition between the four of them in my class to see who can come up with the most obscure facts and who can make me look up the most information per paper. I end up having to shell out extra points nearly every report to those four.” Remus laughed.
Frank nodded his head. “Pavarti is not as good at defense as our three but she is getting there, and considering their years of training that is saying something. They are spending a lot of time with her and giving her all their little secrets on how to do things, and helping her along the way. Her work is amazing and she normally matches Luna in class spell for spell, although the strength of her spells still needs work.”
The Headmistress nodded. “So our top students, other than our known five of course, are Hermione Granger, Pavarti Patil, Padma Patil, and Draco Malfoy? Two Ravenclaws, a Slytherin, and a Gryffindor. Will wonders never cease. All right, it appears we have some individuals that make out job a little easier around here after all.” She said with a smile. “With the known Five and those four that makes nine outstanding students we have this year. And three that are troubled students. Let’s see if we can get Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle tutors before we contact their parents. Then we can say we have tried every avenue open to us when and if we are forced to make contact. Persephone, if you could start making me a list of available individuals that would be willing to help I would appreciate it. As far as Miss Brown, I will speak to her and state that her work must show improvement or we will be forced to contact her father. If she states why, I will inform her that class participation and attitude were some of the things that were expected to change and they have not. We will give her one final chance then contact her father again, at that point it is out of our hands.” The Headmistress made a couple of notes on her pad and then went on to the next year.
The meeting carried on like that for the next hour or so, noting any problem student, any student that needed guidance, and any outstanding students for each year. Accolades were handed out for each year and special notes were made in a variety of different areas, with different students.
“Alright that is the students, now how about your classes, any new ideas or new happenings going on?” The Headmistress asked.
Sirius nodded, “The kids actually came up with some interesting ideas for new transfigurations. Like plain white tea cup into a tea pot. Hopefully, a interesting one at that. A hat box into a hat. A shell into a bell, rocks into socks, they got carried away with the rhyming the other day and got me thinking of new things so I wrote them all down. A dragon figurine into a stuffed dragon. Things along those lines, and their ideas keep coming, it’s great. Next year I won’t have a problem at all with new and different ideas for first years.”
Filius happily agreed, “With so many of these students so far ahead, I am having to rewrite half of my curriculum just to keep things interesting for everyone. I am going to have to figure out how to make it challenging for them this semester too.”
“That telescope the kids bought me for Yule is a huge hit already. The details it can see are remarkable, I would never imagine something so small could be so powerful but it is…it’s like…ha ha ha magic.” Sinistra laughed.
“Restocking the medical ward seems to be the goal of my class, any first and a couple second level potions are on my agenda. They already did Burn Cream, Stomach Soother, Boil Remover, and Cough Syrup. We have Throat Soother, Bruise Cream, Muscle Relaxer, level one Headache Potion, and Essence of Dittany on the lists for this semester.” Persephone noted.
“We are scheduled to have some unicorns, some thestrals, a few crups, and even some five tail kinsunes if I can manage them, this semester. Hopefully, my friend in Japan will have a new litter of kits that we can show off
and I can convince him to let me borrow them for a few days. He is usually pretty good about it so we shall see.” Xenophilius smiled.
“Right now the thing that is exciting my kids the most is the muggle witch hunts and discussing them. So this semester we are going to go more into the witch hunts surrounding individuals such as the ones done by King Uther Pendragon, and the history of French Inquisition, the story of Balthasar von Dernbach, the Spanish Inquisition and in particular Alonso de Salazar Frias, and the story of Pendle Hill. I think my crowd are going to go nuts over all the supposed ‘witch’ hunts that landed only three true witches in their history.” Remus couldn’t help but smile as he looked down at his planner, he was almost as excited as he was sure the kids would be.
“My class is practically eating up spells as fast as I can put them out there so we are going to be covering the Flipindo jinx, Aguamenti and Glacius, the Rictusempra Charm, the Mimblewimble Curse, Locomotor Mortis Curse and the Colloshoo Spell at least, maybe more if we have the time.” Frank stated thinking about how fast his students were picking up the spells, but also how he was having to focus on Crabbe and Goyle so much as well.
Rolonda spoke up last again, and stated that she is actually going to have the time to go over some of the basics of quidditch with the school as a whole this year; since they have decent brooms, and she can move along a little faster.
With that they went on to the next years and followed the same pattern, talking about new ideas and possibilities especially in Astrology with their new telescope.
The Headmistress was thrilled to see her Professors so excited with their new students and getting such good reviews with some of their older ones as well. “All right now just one more thing to cover, due to the fact that we have come into a nice bonus from the Basilisk that our four managed to kill this year and the percentage that they donated to the school, we have some spare spending money in our till for classes, and supplies. So what I want from each of you is a list, a list of books, supplies, ingredients, what ever you need to make your class easier just make me a list. We are going to draw lots to see who gets chosen, in what order. I am going to try and make sure that everyone’s request gets covered but please let’s not ask for the moon this first round, yes I said the first round. Hopefully if we have enough funds we will be able to do this twice. So pick the things you truly, desperately need in lot one, and those things you would just love to have in lot two. Then let’s see where we can go with it. I am putting a substantial fund aside for our Library to update and expand it quite a bit, so do keep that in mind as well. Check with Irma when you write out your list, she may already be ordering what you are looking for, or be able to order it for you instead.” The Headmistress smiled at all her staff as they all got out pieces of parchment and began to write things down almost immediately. With that the meeting called to a close because of first bell was about to ring, and some of the Professors had to head out to teach, those that didn’t sat around and talked about their list a little, tossing ideas off of each other some, and comparing notes of what they already had written down.