Chapter Fifteen: The Day The Music Died
Lily became the centre of attention and the epicentre of envy for the second time in as many days when, on Wednesday morning, a brown owl wearing a collar which sported The Kneazles' symbol landed beside her morning pumpkin juice, delivered a letter, nipped her finger in greeting and then flew off.
She stared at the writing on the envelope - unfamiliar and yet she was sure she knew who it belonged to. Her hands trembled. 'It's from him!' she hissed to her friends. 'It is - it's from Bobby - I'm sure of it!'
'Open it - go on - open it.'
'No - not here. Let's go back to the dorm.'
The bell for first lesson rang. 'I don't even care - we're bunking off, come on.'
'Lils - it's Potions!' Mandy said.
'Potions shmotions! There'll be more Potions tomorrow. I'm not waiting until break for this.' And, with many a furtive glance backwards at Professor McGonagall, the four of them scraped back their bench, got to their feet and scurried from the Hall and back up to the privacy of their dorm.
Down in the dungeons, James folded his arms across his chest and glowered, as Slughorn read out the register and Lily and her friends were discovered to be missing. 'What does she think she's doing?' he whispered crossly to Sirius. 'Bunking off lessons - since when has Evans done that? That's our thing. This Bobby Darrow is a bad influence on her - you mark my words!'
Up at the front of the classroom, Snape looked no less sour than James
But the Gryffindor girls' dormitory seemed a world away from the dungeon - and, far from the bitter lemon faces of the boys, the girls were in a state of high excitement. 'Go on,' Mary whispered breathlessly, 'open it then!'
With a trembling hand, Lily slit open the envelope and shook out the parchment - and then screamed and dropped the letter when she saw Bobby's name signed at the end.
'It is! It's from him - it really is!'
'What does it say?'
'He's answered the questions - and there's a personal note too.'
'Read that bit, read that bit!' the other three all clamoured.
Dear Lily, Mary, Mandy and Petra,
Thanks for sending us a copy of your magazine, we think you're totally rad for standing up for what you believe in. We hope you enjoyed the song we wrote for you - it was great to hear why everyone at Hogwarts is glad to be muggleborn, and we're glad to be muggleborn too! (and we remember Professor Kettleburn - has he lost any more limbs? And does he still look like a gummy walnut?) We've answered the questions you sent us (great questions by the way! This was our best interview yet) and we look forward to being featured in your magazine again.
Keep up the good work, keep on fighting the good fight, and never let anyone tell you you don't belong in the magic world. And together we can show this ridiculous Mortal Love Rodd what muggleborns are made of.
Best wishes,
Bobby, Roger, Richard and Kenny.
'Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!' Lily squealed, clutching at her heart. She hugged the letter to her chest. 'Just think - his hand actually touched this piece of parchment. And now I'm holding it in my hand … I don't think I can wash my hands ever again.'
'Careful - you'll crumple the letter,' Mary said. 'We need to keep it forever.'
'We should frame it,' Mandy said, pulling out her wand and conjuring a picture frame. 'We can put it on the wall.'
Lily was reluctant to hand the letter over, and she kissed it a fair few times before she let it be preserved behind glass… but then they turned their attention to the answers to their interview and spent an excitable morning squealing and laughing at what the band had written, and pinching themselves to see if it was real.
Lily and Mary bunked off Prep, and Mandy and Petra skipped Muggle Studies, when period three rolled around ('we're only doing it so we can learn more about Kenny and Richard - and today we can do that better up here') and continued to hide in their dorm - screaming into their pillows and rereading the letter until they knew it off by heart.
They didn't reappear in the main school until after break, when it was A History of Magic … and Binns did not notice that they spent the whole lesson still poring over the interview and getting it ready to publish in the next issue of Sabrina13 (which was due out in less than a week). He didn't notice the Hufflepuff girls sending envious glares their way, either. Or James' loud tutting. (Lily was oblivious to one and completely ignored the other. Who cared what bee in his bonnet Potter had? She had a letter from Bobby!)
They ignored everyone talking about them loudly over lunch, and smiled mysteriously at anyone who asked if it was true Bobby Darrow had written to them, and what had he said?
They spent prep preparing their magazine once again (unfinished homework was piling up, not to mentioned notes they would have to go over for lessons missed, but they did not care - nothing, not in the whole history of the world, magical or muggle, was more important than their getting a letter from The Kneazles).
They were forced to put their notes away during Transfiguration. They neither dared bunk off from Professor McGongall's lessons nor do anything but try their hardest. Still, their best efforts were not very good today - and they lost many points for Gryffindor due to their distraction. (This only made Potter tut all the louder, though he had a cheek - he lost just as many every single day).
They were back with the Hufflepuffs for Herbology, and they delighted in driving the other girls mad by refusing to answer their questions.
'What did Bobby say?' Connie asked them.
'You'll have to wait for the magazine to come out.'
'Well - what did you write to them?'
'Just wait and see…'
After lessons, they bolted down their tea and then returned to the common room. They took over a large table near the fire, spread their notes out across it and then spent many happy hours alternately making their magazine, and rebuffing any curious Kneazle fans who came too close.
Lily could hardly miss the stares and the whispers from such close quarters, and her smile grew smugger and smugger - though she tried to suppress it. This was probably the best day of her life, and she would remember being the envy of everyone for as long as she lived. This was what it was like to go down in history…
She barely noticed when there was a tapping on the window, and Black got up to let in the owl which was delivering his copy of The Evening Prophet. She didn't look up as he gave the owl a knut, and then shook out the paper. She only frowned in irritation when he came to a dead stop - and didn't return to sit with the others and get on with his crossword.
'What's wrong?' she heard Potter ask - and she sighed to herself, wishing they would move further away. She wasn't interested in whatever they were talking about - and they should at least have the decency to talk about it somewhere else, away from her.
But, rather than Sirius returning to the fire, the other boys got up and gathered around him. She heard a gasp of shock from Peter, and a soft 'No!' from Remus… and then she became aware that all four of them had gone very quiet… and that all four of them were staring at her.
'What?' She snapped, throwing her quill down and unable to ignore them any longer. 'Why are you staring at me like I've got three heads?'
The boys all stood there, silently, still staring - looking uncomfortable. The paper twitched in Sirius's hand… and the first twinge of dread cut through Lily's irritation. 'What?' she asked again - and her voice was even more snappish now. 'What is it?'
Black took a step forward, seemed to change his mind, and then shoved the paper into Potter's hand and pushed him towards Lily.
'Er… Evans?' Potter sounded very unsure of himself (which was ridiculous, because the loathsome Potter was never unsure of himself). 'We've … we've just seen this in the paper…'
He dropped the paper down on the table in front of her and then backed off hastily. She looked down at it frowning, still aware of the boys watching her carefully.
Darrow Dead! The Kneazles are No More!
She read. Followed by:
Strange Mark in the Sky as All Four Band Members are Found Murdered in their Wirral Home
There was a photograph - it was like nothing she had ever seen before. A skull hovered in the night sky, picked out in stars - a snake poured out of its mouth, protruding like a tongue. And then there were wizarding photos of all four Kneazles, smiling and laughing, with their names and the caption "murdered last night" written beneath.
Her frown deepened … she did not understand what she was looking at. Bobby wasn't dead - she'd had a letter from him just this morning. This must be some mistake, or a joke that wasn't funny - a late April Fools perhaps … but she didn't understand why. Or why the boys were staring at her with those haunted, sombre eyes, as if any of this was real…
'What is it, Lily?' Mary asked, getting up and peering over her shoulder. There was a pause, where Lily was very aware of Mary standing over her, reading … and then Mary burst into noisy tears.
There were exclamations of concern from Mandy and Petra, who bustled to their feet and gathered around Mary, trying to soothe her - before they too laid eyes on what was upsetting her and cried out in horror themselves.
Across the common room, heads were turning - whispers rustled on the air. The news was spreading, like ripples on a pond, in ever expanding circles. And more and more people were drawn in, more and more tears, more and more whispers…
Mary, Mandy and Petra were huddled in a many armed hug, crying, their mascara dribbling down their cheeks in black rivers. The boys were still standing over her, watching her solemnly, and it seemed like the whole of Gryffindor Tower had gathered around her table, drawn like magnets to the paper, wanting to see the truth and then falling into a deathly hush, punctuated only by tears…
Lily was aware of them all, a crowd on the edge of her peripheral vision - half in shadow, while she was in the light, sitting totally alone in the middle, frowning down at the words and wondering why on earth anyone was taking this seriously? She had got a letter from Bobby just that morning. Bobby wasn't dead! He couldn't be. And the words in the paper just made her angry.
Four bodies were found this morning in the home of the Liverpool based band "The Kneazles" which were later confirmed as being the band members themselves: Bobby Darrow, 26, Roger Smith, 24, Kenny Green, 26 and Richard Clarke, 25. They were found spread around their home, Darrow out on the front lawn, Smith in the kitchen and the other two upstairs in their rehearsal room. It is believed they were killed by the Killing Curse - though Smith's remains showed signs that he had been tortured first.
The Kneazles first rose to prominence in the Summer of 1972 with their instant hit "Enchant Me Do". They followed this up with a string of number one singles - culminating in their recent song "I'm Glad I'm Muggleborn".
But as well as bringing muggle "Rock and Roll" to the magical youth and enjoying massive popularity, they also drew criticism from some quarters for their determined and outspoken pro-muggleborn stance and their habit of publicly poking fun at the mysterious leader of the Knights of Walpurgis, the Dark Lord, himself.
Criticism which perhaps boiled over last night, when a wizard or wizards unknown entered their home and murdered the four in cold blood.
Further to the brutal killings, a mysterious mark was fired up in the sky - perhaps to signal the darkness which lay beneath. The image of a green skull, with a snake in the place of its tongue still hovered above the house when neighbours went to investigate and found the slaughtered songsters.
Coming hot on the heels of a purposeful mass muggle killing, this attack on prominent muggleborns is being seen by some as an attack on the muggleborn community in general, and by others as an ushering in of a new order of blood purity and magical might.
The families of the four have been notified and muggle funerals will be held for them. It is believed that the Ministry of Magic will not be sending a representative.
This was just ridiculous. Total and utter nonsense. Balderdash, even. Finished with her reading, Lily looked up at the surrounding swarm of students. 'What are you all gaping at? None of this is real - it can't be.'
Everyone just stared back at her, silent and serious - and fear prickled along her spine. 'It can't be!' and she pushed her chair back and barged through the crowd, headed for the dorm stairs.
'Lily!' she heard Petra call after her.
'Evans -' Potter shouted.
'It's not real!' she yelled over her shoulder and then she thundered up the stairs, three at a time, crashed through the door and threw herself down on her bed. The letter they had framed, just this morning, hung on the wall, the light bounced off the glass, drawing her eyes to it. Well, there it was! Proof he was still alive.
She scrambled up, stood on her bed and took the frame down, opening up the back and taking the letter out. His hand had held this parchment just … hours ago. There was a faint trace of sandalwood on it from his aftershave, for Merlin's sake. This was a real, tangible sign that he was out there. He could not be dead on his own front lawn, taken away in a box and buried in a muggle graveyard - not while Lily held this letter he'd only just written!
She heard the sounds of the other girls on the stair, coming up to bed - still whispering and whimpering - and she found she did not want to talk to them. She drew the curtains of her four poster around herself and hid behind them, as the door was pushed open and her friends came in.
'Lily?' She heard Mandy say - and she heard all the anxious questions loaded in that one word: was she in there? Was she alright? Was she ready to talk?
She ignored them all - and pretended to be asleep, listening in to the three of them getting ready for bed and fuming that they were still acting like this was real.
'I just can't believe it … just this morning, we were so happy - and they were already…' Mary sniffed, before breaking off. Behind her curtains, Lily imagined her crying silently, her shoulders heaving. 'How can this have happened? Roger… gone!'
There were more whispers, comforting murmurs, tears and sniffs and then all the girls said good night to each other and climbed into bed, to lie in the dark alone with their thoughts.
'Night, Lily,' Petra said.
Lily ignored her, ignored them all, and stared furiously up at her canopy. The letter was still clutched in her hand, crumpling under her grip. It took a long time for the other girls to fall asleep, for the sniffles and whimpers to stop and be replaced with steady, regular breathing - and the whole time Lily lay there and seethed at them. They had no business believing the rubbish that was printed in that paper - after all, half of what was in there these days was total nonsense from the Knights of Walpurgis, and no one in their right mind believed any of that. So why should this be true? Everyone needed to stop pretending, because their belief was making her afraid - and there was nothing to be afraid of. She had proof - in her very hand - that Bobby was OK.
As the clock ticked round past midnight and total silence reigned save for the deep, even breaths of the sleeping girls, Lily decided that - if the letter was not proof enough for everyone - then she would find more proof that The Kneazles were still alive and well.
Quietly, she drew back the curtain, swung her feet off her bed and made her way back down to the common room.
…
Up in the boys' dormitory there were no tears but nevertheless they were very serious and very sorry. 'Was it him?' Peter asked. 'The Dark Lord?'
'Of course it was … Well, he probably didn't wield his wand himself, same as with the giants. He probably sent his Knights to do it. It was probably my cousin, Bellatrix.'
'Do you think the Ministry will act this time?' James asked.
'They're not sending a representative to the funerals, just like they didn't send one to the funerals in Wales,' Remus said.
'Things are getting more serious - someone has to do something.'
'There isn't an appetite to do anything yet. It was just muggles … now it's just muggleborns. They've been ignoring disappearances for years, this won't make them act. Not unless there's a public outcry.'
'Surely there will be?' Peter said.
But Remus only shrugged. 'These murders were a warning - not to cross Lord Voldemort. Anyone who complains, well, they're crossing Lord Voldemort … I imagine everyone will be very firmly keeping schtum, unless they want it to be their deaths in the paper, their house under that mark.'
He lay back on his bed. It was the full moon in less than a week and his bones were already starting to twinge. He thought back to this time last month, when the worst they had to worry about was Sirius being accused of pushing a suit of armour on Ellis Stebbins, and how badly things had deteriorated since then. He wondered how much worse the situation would be again by the next full moon, how many more people would have died. He hadn't felt so much dread at the thought of the future since he had been accused of committing those werewolf attacks last year
'Sshh - d'you hear that?' Sirius said suddenly, raising a finger to the air and going still. Everyone listened. 'It's a sort of crackle - static - from downstairs.'
They crept downstairs to look, and peered around the edge of the stairway into the common room. Lily was sitting there, all alone in the dark, the fire had died out and the candles were low. She had switched on the wireless and was station hopping, an intent look on her face as she played with the dial and found nothing but white noise.
The boys frowned at each other, wondering what she was up to, and then crept back up to bed before she could catch them spying on her.
…
It was well past midnight, and so the two official WWN stations had long since shut down for the evening. But Lily had listened to the wireless enough times to know that wizards had pirate radio, just the same as the muggles did, and that sometimes bands would perform illicit jam sessions on these unlicensed stations late at night.
If she could just find the right frequency, find The Kneazles playing a spontaneous gig right this minute, then she could prove to everyone that the band wasn't dead and that the paper was lying. She twisted the dial, the static hummed, she kept turning... her heart leapt as she landed on a station and a singing voice cut through the crackling white noise:
Hey hey, we're the Nifflers…
And sank again as she realised it wasn't them. She twisted the dial further.
And I danced in the light of the silvery moon and the founders smiled, it was the twelfth of June
The jangling, strange sounds of prog rock band The Magic Unicorns floated across the common room. She grunted in frustration and twisted the dial even harder - and got the growling, gutteral adrenaline fueled aggression of Lethifold, the heavy metal band. Another twist and she was hit with musical whiplash as the savage snarling became a sappy love song sung by Roddy Hewitt, the Warbling Warlock.
She kept on turning the dial, swinging it back and forth, and then jerking it in tiny increments, as she hunted down another station. But there was nothing, just the fuzzy hissing of dead air, the whining of the signal fading in and out. No one else was hijacking the airwaves tonight.
Lily couldn't understand it (she refused to understand it, there was a chill of dread crawling up her spine but she was being obstinate). Bobby and the others should be on the wireless tonight - of all nights. They should be refuting the claims that they were dead, they should be laughing about it, they should be putting the words of the newspaper article to music and writing a song about the whole, silly misunderstanding!
Instead there was just silence. Static and dead air and no Kneazles.
She began to tremble - and the truth crept treacherously across her brain. No! She thought, shutting the idea down as quickly as it came. She gripped the letter in her hand, shook it at herself as if to prove it was real. Bobby had written to her. He had written to her . She had got the letter this morning. He could not be sending letters if he was dead! That was just common sense, that was just…
The traitor inside her mind whispered again, asking her how long it would take an owl to fly from the Wirral to the Highlands… and then it whispered once more, telling her Bobby had been found in the garden…
Her breath exploded out of her in a sob, and she gripped her letter even tighter so that it started to crumple in her hand. No! She still kept thinking, still wanting to refuse to believe - but a film was playing in her head now: of Bobby, writing his letter at the kitchen table, going outside into the evening sunshine, calling his owl down from the trees, tying the letter on and then … and then…
She didn't even realise she was crying until her tears dripped onto the letter, forming splotchy, circular water marks on the parchment and causing the ink to run.
…
The girls were woken up rather rudely by the lamps being lit - although it was still the middle of the night and pitch black - and their curtains being roughly pulled back, so the full force of the light hit them right in the eyes. 'Wha- What's happening?' Mary yawned, screwing her eyes up for what little protection from the sudden glare that offered..
Lily stared down at her, fully dressed, wide awake and fiercely alert. 'There's no time to sleep,' she told her friends. 'We need to rewrite our whole issue of the magazine before Tuesday. We're going to dedicate the whole thing to remembering The Kneazles.'
…
They skipped all their lessons for the next two days, and barely came out of their dorm (from what they could glean, though, lots of girls were missing lessons since they had heard the news - far too many for the teachers to punish - and so they were turning a blind eye, and citing exceptional circumstances, instead).
On Sunday, the WWN took the decision to cancel that evening's Wiz Hits Top 40 , out of a mark of respect for what the world of music had lost - and so the girls worked uninterrupted all through the evening and the night, and finally finished their magazine in time to put it to bed on Monday morning.
…
Monday night was the full moon, and Remus had spent most of the weekend dozing on his bed, trying to ignore the fire in his bones and moaning gratefully every time one of his friends gently told him they had just finished some of his homework for him.
The night itself was not the worst; they were shorter and warmer now spring was here and summer was on its way, and that meant the transformation did not last as long. It was still every bit as painful as normal, though, and Remus was glad when it was all over and he was recovering in the Hospital Wing, aided by copious amounts of chocolate and Hippworth's Healing Tincture.
At breaktime the boys' brought him the latest issue of Sabrina13, and he was not surprised to see The Kneazles adorning the front. Inside the cover was a copy of the letter the band had sent to the girls, now published for the whole school to read. Then there were biographies of the band members, and a charting of the band's success, starting with a reprint of Rita Skeeter's article from last year, entitled " Kneazlemania!" (Remus had forgotten Pete had sketched the illustrations for Rita's notorious rag, but here were his drawings of Bobby and the rest, faithfully reproduced as part of the history of the band's rise to superstardom). There were photographs of all the Kneazles graffiti around school, and sound bites from superfans and a shopping list of all the Kneazles merch that had been on sale at the point the band had died.
There was an article on the astrology of The Kneazles - their star signs and birthstones, and why these meant the four of them had been of a uniquely artistic temperament, destined for greatness and fame but also destined for a tragically early death. ( "Much like myself, Bobby was born under the Aquarius sign of the zodiac" Lily had written. "The Aquarius is a rebel at heart - a revolutionary. We always stand up for what we believe in and fight for what is right; we have the power to change the world in the most unexpected of ways. But no fight is without risk, and no soldier can assume that their life will be a long one - so what we do with the time we have is what really matters.")
There was an in depth analysis of every Kneazles song and the meaning behind the lyrics, and a reprint of the article the girls themselves had written about the band and their muggle inspiration in their muggleborn edition of the magazine. And then, right towards the end, was the interview between the girls and the band, with an explanatory paragraph at the top.
Although it seems impossible, it was just a week ago that we sent these questions to the boys - after Bobby offered us an interview live on air the preceding Sunday. This is the final interview the band ever gave, and we are honoured that they gave it to us. Although tragedy has marred our publishing what should have been the highlight of Sabrina13's short life, we hope you can still enjoy this as it was supposed to be enjoyed, and can celebrate this last opportunity for the boys to let their spirit shine through.
S13: First off, thank you so much for letting us interview you. We are your biggest fans and this is the greatest honour of our lives. Our first question: what is your first memory of accidental magic - and, as muggleborns, what did you think was happening?
TK: That's such a great question. I (Bobby) remember being very young - about five or so - at the fair, there was this large teddy bear as a prize for winning the coconut shy and I wanted it so badly, but I couldn't throw for toffee. I remember staring at the coconuts and them just falling off their stands when I glared at them. I don't know if I did any magic before then, but that's the first I remember. At the time I was too young to think it was strange, but I remember my mum and the fairground man being totally stumped. According to Kenny's mum, he was moving his toys around by magic since he was a couple of days old - but then according to Kenny's mum he was walking at nine months and got seven NEWTS (he didn't) so maybe take that with a pinch of salt.
S13: How did your family react when they found out you were magic? And what was it like for you finding out you could go to Hogwarts?
TK: Getting that letter still feels like it was the greatest day of my life. We talk a lot, as a band, about how suddenly everything seemed to make sense - like we were given the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. I'm sure every muggleborn knows what I mean when I say I always felt different, I always knew there was something else about me. Roger says that the other kids at school were afraid of him, and he was always lonely, because strange things would happen around him and no one wanted to be there when they did. I think for all our families there was a sense of relief that there was an explanation for why we didn't fit in, and then pride in our abilities and excitement for us joining a new world - as well as sadness. It's always sad to leave something behind. Richard has a twin brother, who is a muggle, and it was difficult for them to be separated and I think (quite naturally) his brother was jealous. It was very hard for him to be the "normal one" while Richard got to be the "special one". But all families have difficulties they need to navigate, and the point of a family is that - no matter how difficult the situation is - you muddle through together in the end.
S13: Listening to your music is one of the greatest things about being at Hogwarts. What was your favourite part of being at school?
TK: I will always say Peeves, I love that pesky poltergeist and all that zany stuff he gets up to. And just getting to live with your mates - yeah, I think that was the best part: all up in the dorm, staying up past midnight, laughing and talking and then kipping in the back of A History of Magic the next day. Of course, we all still live together and we still stay up past midnight, laughing and talking and playing music - but somehow it isn't quite the same as being in the dorms. It sounds stupid - but there really is something magical about being at Hogwarts. They really are your golden years.
S13: Since you've left school, what is the best part of the adult wizarding world and which bits don't live up to expectations?
TK: This is getting to the tough questions now! I think the best part is that the magical community is so small that you really get a chance to do something you love, as there's not too much competition. I'm not being modest when I say we would never have made it as pop stars in the muggle world. I think the percentage of people getting to live their dreams is higher in the wizarding world than the muggle one (Richard's brother is training as an accountant). The bits that are less than satisfactory though is - without question - the ridiculous notion of blood status and the importance too many wizards place on it. It's the class system on Power-Up Potion, and it has no place in any modern society.
S13: You do a lot of activism around muggleborn rights, why is that so important to you?
TK: Because they are our rights. And we are lucky enough to have a platform to make this stand. Your own magazine showed how difficult these times are for people like us, and it showed us that we are making a difference to them. That is massive - and it means so much. We'll only stop fighting for muggleborn rights when we have equality and recognition, or when we're dead - whichever comes first.
S13: You are currently the only people making fun of the Dark Lord and his Knights, are you ever afraid?
TK:Of them? No. They're bullies, and you stand up to bullies - you laugh at them. It's the only way to defeat them. Should Mortal Love Rodd ever come knocking and make his hate filled and ridiculous demands, then you look him in the face, say "no" and refuse to step aside for him. That's the only way to defeat him. That is what will change the world. What I am afraid of is people refusing to say "no", of them standing aside and letting him win out of apathy or cowardice.
S13: Now for the fun questions - your first song was "Enchant Me Do" which includes the lyrics "no love potions, no heady brew" - but have you ever brewed a love potion.
TK: Only in Potions class!
S13: If you went to Diagon Alley right now - what would you buy?
TK: Roger says he needs new dress robes. But I would get a coconut jelly ice cream from Fortescue's.
S13: What really is the hardest spell you ever learned?
TK: The Patronus charm was really hard. And learning to apparate. We all splinched ourselves more times than we can count - various body parts were left around Britain.
S13: Which would you rather kiss, the giant squid or an acromantula?
TK: Rodge says the giant squid. He couldn't do with all eight eyes looking at him as he snogged a spider (I'd be more put off by the pincers, myself)
S13: "All you need's a wand" is a nice idea - but what else did you need to survive Hogwarts?
TK: Plenty of clean underwear and a good broomstick.
S13: You advised Merlin to learn his counter jinxes. Which is your favourite?
TK: I was always partial to the jelly legs jinx. Sometimes I hit the others with it just for a laugh.
S13: And finally, why are you glad you're muggleborn?
TK: Everyone should be proud of where they come from, I want to make that plain. When we say we're glad we're muggleborn, that we're proud of our status, we don't say that to take anything from anyone else. I'm glad I'm me. I hope everyone is glad to be themselves, I hope everyone is proud of their families and sees the merits of the way they were raised. I hope no one wishes they are anything other than they are. And I also mean that I'm lucky enough to come from an amazing family, to have been raised by wonderful people, and I'm glad I belong to them and no one else. They happen to be muggles - and that's all there is to it. But having said that, I'm glad I'm muggleborn because it means I get the best of both worlds. I can draw from and be inspired by the best that both worlds have to offer. I don't think of it as "straddling both and belonging in neither" as Mortal Love Rodd would have it, but instead I have my own special place in each and it is a privilege to be able to say that.
S13: That is the end of the interview, thank you for answering our questions.
Then, underneath, the girls had written as a postscript:
RIP Bobby, Roger, Kenny and Richard. Thank you for the music.
Remus stared at this for a long moment, feeling a lump in his throat. He turned to the very last page and felt his stomach lurch, as - in stark contrast to the sentiment of the previous page - he was suddenly confronted with the ugly images of the green skull which had hovered over the band's house and some of the defaced Kneazles graffiti from Hogwarts' own walls - with "Mudbloods Out" scrawled beneath it.
We are facing some very dark days,
The girls had written
Where some very dark beliefs are taking hold; ugly ideas about how someone's worth is predicated on who their family are and not on their own actions and abilities. We believe this is a very dangerous path. We believe this is the first step necessary to convince ordinary people to do terrible things.
There is a famous quote from a muggle philosopher "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities".
It is an absurdity that muggleborns do not belong in the magic world, and it is an absurdity that muggles are "lesser humans". The Dark Lord will try to make you believe these absurdities. We include the above photographs to remind everyone, not that atrocities will follow, but that they are already taking place. And that they were not committed by shadowy, faceless figures - but by real people, just like you.
The Kneazles stood for equality, they knew that all humans are equal and all wizards are equally magical, and they were proud to stand by their words. We, at Sabrina13, are committed to continuing their fight. We urge you all to join us.
And then, written on the inside of the back cover, was a single sentence. A simple, five word statement:
You Know Who Did It
Just reading it made Remus's heart beat faster in his chest, and he felt hot and tingly and more than a bit panicky. It was such a bold statement to print in a magazine, available to be read by the children of the Dark Lord's followers. The Kneazles had been killed for standing up to Voldemort and here, in the very issue celebrating their life and mourning their murder, the girls were making a stand of their own. He wasn't sure he had ever seen anything so brave - if slightly foolhardy - in all his life.
When he left the Infirmary he took the magazine with him and stashed it carefully in his trunk along with his Lord Voldemort chocolate frog card. He had a feeling that, much like the card, this issue was worth keeping; that it would prove to be - as James would say it - one to show the grandchildren.
…
The next day it was a week since they had heard the news about the deaths. That evening, the wireless was switched on and the whole of Gryffindor house gathered round and listened in sombre silence, as Celestina Warbeck sang "Hey, Merlin!" as a tribute to the fallen band.
Merlin, Don't feel bad,
Take a nasty hex- and make it better
Remember to learn your counter jinxes
Then you can start - to make it better
There were sniffles from around the room, but they were quickly stifled. Even Celestina herself sounded unusually throaty as she sang, as if she was suffering from a bad head cold.
Merlin, Don't be scared
You were born - to learn all this magic
The moment you wave your first magic wand
Then you are strong - you can make it better
And anytime you lose your way, Merlin, OK
Remember this world can be cold and scary
But keep in mind and don't forget there's wonder yet
Love, kisses, unicorns and fairies
Remus looked down at his hands, examining his thumbnails and trying not to be afraid for the future. Peter sat on the floor, his face was a closed book and it was hard to tell what he was thinking, whereas Sirius gazed into the fire - his eyes were stormy - and it was clear he was angry. James sat quietly in his favourite armchair, his face solemn, and - for the first time ever - he listened to a Kneazles' song without complaining.
Merlin, you know it's true
You can help so much - with all your power
Remember let people into your heart
Then you can start - to make our world better.
Lily rested her head on Petra's shoulder. Tears were trickling silently down her cheeks. Petra reached out and squeezed her hand, and they stayed that way for the rest of the song.
So open up and say it loud, Merlin, be proud
You don't have to wait to make our world better.
And always know it's not just you, Merlin, it's true
For we can all work, to make things better.