October 2006
Ch 24: Halloween
"Do you plan any prank for Halloween?" Bob asked the girls anxiously.
"I haven't really thought of it," Lilly confessed, "but I'm open to any creative ideas," she added with a smirk.
"It should probably be something about pumpkins," the boy said. "Maybe a giant made out of pumpkins..."
The face both girls made indicated that they didn't like the idea.
"...or... you could give the teachers pumpkin-heads, or..."
Lilly seemed to like this idea. "Why give it only to the teachers, though?"
"You mean..." he wasn't sure what to ask.
"Oh, I think it will be very nice. Thank you for the idea!"
Lilly hugged him tightly for a moment and then ran happily to her next lesson, leaving the confused Bob behind.
The subject came up in later conversations several times, but Lilly quickly navigated to other subjects, not giving Bob any clue to her plans. Dianna was no better in that aspect.
It was Halloween eve already. The Great Hall was festive with the traditional decorations. The students were already sitting at the tables and the Headmistress rose at the head table to say a few words for the occasion, when a disturbance was noticed near the high windows, close to the ceiling.
Three large owls flew in, hooting loudly as they tried to balance a large pumpkin between them. They flew somewhat erratically to and fro until one of them screeched as it lost his hold on the pumpkin. The other two were unable to hold it and let go. The pumpkin fell noisily on the floor, between the head table and the students' tables, breaking up on the impact and spluttering its juices all over.
It took a moment for the headmistress, who was covered with smashed pumpkin juice, to recover and clean herself with her wand, followed by the other professors. It took the students a bit longer until they were all clean and able to look at each other. Something was definitely different. All their heads were changed to look like pumpkins, the hair looking like strands of that vegetable's fibers and the necks looking like its stems. The teachers were in the same condition, yet the headmistress, after overcoming her initial surprise, resumed her position and knocked on her cup with her spoon a few times, to gain the students' attention.
"As you can all see, somebody had invested a lot of effort to make this evening memorable. Whoever these may be, we should all thank them for a well played prank. I only hope this will revert to normal as soon as the holiday is over, just like last year's goodbye feast."
This made all older students cheer. Bob looked at his friends who seemed just as cheerful as the other students, yet some rapid highlights racing through the girls' auras were signs enough for him to know that they were the perpetrators of this prank.
It turned to be the main conversation topic for the next day as well, as nobody could ignore the "pumpkin look" of their fellow students. By dinner time, people's hair started returning to normal and they were all looking as usual the next morning.
It was Friday evening, when Lilly and Dianna were visiting Minerva's private quarters, that the latter asked: "How did you manage to enchant that pumpkin? Did you use runes?"
Diann replied. "We've not started learning runes yet and we're not confident enough to use them, although we've started reading the appropriate books."
Lilly took over. "We just set the pumpkin as an amulet, charging it with the appropriate charms and powering them with our own magic."
"And how did you make the owls cooperate?"
Lily smirked. "That was really easy. I changed into an owl and explained it to them the way they could understand. They actually enjoyed cooperating with the prank."
"I must congratulate you on this. It was extremely well played, and there was no way to trace it back to you. Even the magical signature found on the remains of that pumpkin was not yours. It was actually that of the Minister of Magic. How did you do it?"
The girls looked at each other and giggled a bit before answering. "The minister is a good friend with Dad. We sampled his signature last time he visited and told him what we may need it for. He laughed heartily and agreed to let us use it for any prank we wanted."
Madam Pomfrei lecture
The cooling weather had sent many students to their beds and also affected a few of the teachers. Despite having some patients recovering from various weather caused illnesses, Madam Pomfrei volunteered to give some health related lectures, replacing the charms professor who was still ill.
This time she was lecturing to second-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. She started by identifying the different aspects of the weather which could affect health and then she told her audience how to protect themselves from these elements and how to stay healthy.
Eventually she reached other subjects.
"You may not be aware of this, but each one of you has gone through a procedure to measure his or her magical powers. The results are a number in the range of zero to one hundred, represented on a logarithmic scale."
"What is a logarithmic scale?"
"This means that an increase of ten units on the scale is ten times more power, so it can represent a very wide range of magical powers. It is similar to our senses: our eyes and our ears also work on a logarithmic scale so that they can cover a wide range. Had it been linear then you would have seen most of the world as either blindingly white or deep black with very little in-between."
She paused to formulate her next topic. "Magic works in a similar way. We consider the ambient magic as base level, as zero. Every living being has a bit of magic, because life is magic in its own right. Microbes have a level of one, insects may reach up to three and mammals, including non-magical human beings, go up to ten. Magical beings go much higher, as you may expect.
To be considered magical you must pass the twenty mark. Anything below that and you are considered a squib. Most of you were measured in the range of twenty two to thirty when you first came here. You are expected to raise your power by five to ten points by the time you graduate, putting you in the adult wizard range of twenty-five to forty."
"Can anyone reach one hundred?"
"Probably not. That level is considered Godly, yet our instruments can't really measure anything above seventy or eighty. We assume Merlin was about eighty. Dumbledore was probably almost seventy – nobody really knows, and the dark lord was sixty-eight."
"How powerful was Harry Potter, then?" somebody asked.
"We are not allowed to disclose the power measurements of any living person. It is magically enforced."
"Can't you even tell us if he was about the same level?"
"Well, he wasn't. I believe he was much less powerful, which only makes his victory more astounding."
There was a moment of silence before somebody else asked: "Are all students below the thirty level?"
"No, only most students. There usually are exceptions. Some firsties have been measured at forty or above. A select few even passed the fifty mark."
Dianna and Lillian exchanged furtive glances. They didn't know their exact power level, but they were sure they were among the "select few".
Another student had a question: "Is there any difference between pure-bloods and half-bloods or muggle-born?"
Madam Pomfrei looked at him with a sad smile. He was the descendent of a high-profile pure-blood family, one which had kept the beliefs of pure-blood supremacy, although it had never accepted the more sinister approach of some, staying firmly on the light side. "There's no sharp distinction. Individuals may have power in the full range, whatever their origins. Yet there's the statistics as well. I find it that each year, the pure-bloods are faring lower than fist or second generation wizards and witches. Statistically, they are about twenty-four in average, while the rest average close to thirty. Even considering the top ones, I've never seen any pure-blood student above thirty, but I've seen quite a lot of others rated well above that."
He didn't seem to like the response.
Lilly was surprised when Brenda raised her hand. "I can tell that none in my family is very powerful, being at least six generations of magicals, while my friend Andrew, who is muggle-born is much more powerful."
This seemed to start many conversations among the students. Luckily, the bell sounded mere seconds later, saving the matron from trying to quiet her class.
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