A/N: Okay, downloaded the app on my mobile. Now I have over 4000 notifications. LOL. Most are fav's and follows, but it is still a bit daunting. Not sure I ever manage to look through them all, but I did look at the reviews once in a while, so I don't think I missed any. Thanks for all the participation!
Filch
Harry and many of his friends and other students had gone to the quidditch pitch to play some impromptu pick-up games on their new last day of the break. It became quite the happening until it started to rain in fat and very cold drops that turned into quite the torrential downpour.
So, they quickly packed up and drudgingly fought their way back to the Castle. Some tried to fly, but soon gave up, because they got blown off-course while not seeing where they were going.
"Why can't it be a little colder and snowier?" Ron whined, cold rain running down his face, nearly blinding him. "This is the most miserable weather, ever!" A gust of wind hit him full in the face, carrying quite a lot of the ice-cold water as if showing him just how much more horrible the weather could get.
Fortunately, they soon entered the Entrance Hall and got out of the worst of it. The last students hurriedly pulled the great doors closed and everyone sighed in relief.
They were then debating where to go now. The Great Hall, in search of hot chocolate, or their dormitories, to change into try clothes.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
The shocked students reacted without thinking and did a reverse-Lockhart (as Ron would call it later), they all hit Filch with the counter-curse, simultaneously.
Right in the face.
At least 20 of them.
Filch dropped to the ground like someone had cut the cords that had held him up.
Mrs Norris, who had also been hit by at least two counter-curses fluffed up mightily and hissed at them.
"Shit!" Angelina dropped her broom and ran to Filch, feeling his pulse. "He's alive. Someone go get the Matron!"
Draco and Harry didn't drop their brooms but instead mounted them and flew at breakneck speed to the Hospital Wing to get Draco's mother.
They were lucky not to fly into anyone with this seemingly helpful but also very dangerous stunt.
It looked like the healers of the castle had their own way of moving around quickly, as they were told to wait in the Hospital Wing after they had yelled about the emergency in the Entrance Hall. Mrs Malfoy called out she would soon be back and then ran into her office.
Harry expected her to come out with a healer's bag or something, but she didn't.
Later they learned that Headmaster Malfoy and Professor Snape had arrived at the same time as Mrs Malfoy and that they had quickly taken charge of the situation.
The two boys were entertaining themselves by practising drying charms on their clothes and looked quite rumbled by the time the adults arrived with the still unconscious Filch (and Mrs Norris who was very much awake).
They heard Mrs Malfoy say, "I don't understand it, Lucius. You better get No. 15 and maybe even No. 1. This is unheard of!" and saw Headmaster Malfoy rush into her office.
Professor Snape saw them standing by the doors and asked what they were doing there.
"We alerted mother to the emergency," Draco answered smartly. "She told us to wait here."
"I see." The professor waved his wand over both boys, and they soon looked pristine and put together again.
Harry looked down at his clothes in wonderment. He loved magic! And he needed to learn that spell!
"Do any of you have an urgent medical issue that needs to be addressed? No? Then you may go."
They trudged out reluctantly and walked back to the Entrance Hall, their brooms on their shoulders. They discussed if they should fly again but decided against it. They probably wouldn't get away with it again.
So instead, they were discussing what might've happened with the caretaker, because the papers had said that the counter-spell wasn't dangerous in any way or form. And now the second person had dropped out cold after getting hit with it!
They also wondered why everyone had cast that particular spell and concluded that the new sport of de-cursing every portrait was at 'fault.' That spell was the most cast one in Hogwarts at the moment after all.
The next morning, their first real day of school for this calendar year of 1993, the students opened their papers – that many more had a subscription of now – and found the following article:
Filch De-Squibbed
In a surprising and fortunate event, some students of Hogwarts managed to do the unthinkable. They gave the magic back to a Squib!
Investigations by the Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries (DoM) showed that the students had fled the weather outside, which had taken a bad turn, and gotten surprised by the caretaker, who had just returned a day late from his time off over the Yule break. The caretaker saw all the muddy footprints and started yelling, and the startled wet and still half-blinded students reacted without thinking and cast the counter-spell Redianormalis at the man all at once. At least twenty of them did.
Dear reader, you might remember the articles from the 29th of December, where we wrote about the possibility of immunising a person to The Spell and its price by hitting a target at least ten times at once with the counter. The target would never be able to use The Spell on themselves afterwards and could not be influenced by the negative effects of The Spell either.
But no one had ever thought of the possibility of the existence of Squibs being the byproduct of someone casting the Spell in the presence of a magical child or the mother- But this seems to be the horrible reality.
And we all wondered why the existence of Squib children was becoming more and more commonplace. Or if maybe the taboo about their mere existence was lessening.
There have been rumours about families disposing of Squib children by killing them in the past but not anymore for centuries.
We at the office of the Daily Prophet must confess that we have a hard time not vilifying the magical folks responsible for this atrocity. But we were asked not to do so, as the people in question didn't do the deed out of evilness but ignorance.
Thanks to the students at Hogwarts, who are casting the counter-curse left and right all the time we were told, we now know how it might be possible to help the Squibs.
It's not sure if this will work every time or if this was an exemption. So, we implore all of you not to try this yourself, but to bring the Squib in question to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Mr Filch didn't skip off into the sunset after the counter was cast. No, he fell unconscious and needed medical and magical attention. So again. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
If you're an older Squib who has still ties to the wizarding world and wants to get back what was yours in the first place, please come to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries or contact the Hospital by writing to them, if you're unable to come yourself. Our world will do anything to help righten this wrong!
Hogwarts has already offered to host classes for children and adults alike if you're wondering how to get a magical education. Mr Filch has already agreed to become the first adult student at Hogwarts!
The Great Hall was incredibly silent even after they had read the papers, which were handed around and read by everyone.
Only the rustling of paper could be heard and some sniffling. Until Marcus Flint jumped up and yelled into the quietness, "That bitch!"
The children looked in shock at the fuming sixth-year who looked like he didn't know what to do with his anger.
Headmaster Malfoy got up and said calmly but with a bit of an edge in his voice, "Mr Flint! Language. Please meet Professor Snape in his office, he'll help you find them."
The teen ran out of the Great Hall and Professor Snape hurriedly walked out of the side door.
Headmaster Malfoy continued, "And to all the others who have information about the whereabouts of an abandoned sibling or other family members, please come to one of the staff members. Anyone will try to help direct your search to the proper authorities. You also may want to write down anything you know about a person you know about and give it to me. The password to the headmaster's office is 'magpie'."
Quite a few children rushed toward the staff table. Coming especially from Slytherin but also Ravenclaw and even one Gryffindor.
Headmaster Malfoy blinked at the unexpected mass and sighed, "We cannot cancel lessons for another day. At this rate, there'll always be something. But the first lesson for today needs to be cancelled, it seems. So, attend the classes at ten, please."
There was no great cheer this time. This was just too horrifying to see the students who had rushed to the staff table being led out of the Hall and other students sitting at their house table, writing up all the information they had about a missing loved one.
Harry looked around and saw that even the five Weasley children were talking animatedly but quietly about their accountant Squib-cousin and what to do about him. In the end, they decided to write to their dad about it. As he would've read the papers too and most certainly had acted already.
"This Hospital, St Mungo's, will get swamped today," Harry whispered to Hermione, who nodded looking serious.
"I just hope this method works for the rest, as well," she said quietly.
"Me, too! I wonder if Filch's temperament has changed now. And did you see if his outward appearance changed for the better?"
"I wasn't there, remember? You were playing Quidditch."
"Er, right. Well, let's get out of the Great Hall for now and leave the ones looking for a Squib family member some space."
Hermione nodded and off they went.
A/N 14-12-2023: Added a few words to the second paragraph because there were some good questions why the students didn't just fly back to the castle.