Disclaimer: This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. No ships. Bashing around everyone.
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Informal Notes by Lily Evans 1975During the month of July 1995, Harry spent many hours reading his mother's papers and diaries. Here's some of what he read when he searched through her book bag.
The first things that Harry drew from his mum's book bag were the nappies, wipes, teething toys, and stuffed toys she'd kept there for her infant son. Dobby gave the nappies and wipes to a family that needed the items and Harry kept the toys for sentimental reasons.
Then underneath those baby items, he found parchments of school assignments, letters, and documents labelled Lily's Wild Ideas.
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LILY'S WILD IDEAS: Where Does the Garbage Go!Wild Ideas by Me! Lily Evans, third year witch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. May 1975. Soon to be Fifth Year Witch!
Every day, witches and wizards use simple charms to 'destroy' items that are no longer needed, broken, rotten, or inconvenient to retain. Likewise, the goblins use the same spells to rid themselves of expired contracts, and garbage. These simple charms work for everyone with the minimal jewels of magic to qualify as a 'witch' or 'wizard' in Magical Britain.
My question is what's going to happen when the 'null space' (other place or empty place) where stuff goes gets full? Will the spells not work anymore?
After researching through the library at Hogwarts, I have determined that the three most common spells used are Evanesco, Deletrius, and Defodio. They are all labelled as a form of transfiguration. I must discuss this with Professor McGonagall as soon as she has office hours again.
The easiest and most common spell used is Deletrius. Witches and wizards use this spell in their homes, offices, and on the street to remove garbage and refuse. (What do the house elves use? They banish stuff all the time!)
The next charm is harder to use and is named Evanesco. Only more powerful wizards and witches use this charm to vanish larger items. I'll ask some of the older wizards and witches about the use of this spell.
INSERT: I talked to Frank Longbottom (Alice's beau), and he says that when this charm is used, nothing is left behind. Longbottom hinted that the bad wizards use this charm to make people 'vanish' without a trace. When someone of note just vanishes, the ministry and short-sighted wizards always believe an evil wizard made them disappear. (21 May 75)
The hardest charm to use is named Defodio. Apparently, only wizards and witches who have mastered charms can use this spell.
INSERT: The requirement to be able to power the spell is to have Mastery of Charms, (Mistress of Charms for witches). 22 May 1975
Insert #Two: Goblins have their own version of this spell. It might even be that wizards appropriated (fancy word) the charm from the goblins. Anyway, goblins who have achieved the rank of Stone Carver can use this spell to excavate tunnels and caverns. .1975
Insert #3: Yeah, the goblins have their separate version, but Professor Flitwick advised me to never talk about that in any formal document. The goblins are very picky about wizards appropriating stuff. 29 May 1975.
End of term exams begin tomorrow so I'll put this away until late June.
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LILY'S WILD IDEA: The Presence of Detritus and Flotsam in Null SpaceWild Ideas by Lily Marie Evans, tired witch at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.
I think the fourth-year exams were harder – I know they were much harder than the exams at end of my first three years! My thoughts are all over the place! Does my magic grow and stretch because I am getting bigger or because it gets used more? Maybe it is a combination of both? I have lots of questions and the grown-ups don't like to answer them.
In an open discussion period with Professor McGonagall, I asked about Null Space. She didn't understand what I meant and asked me to explain. I told her that science had established that matter can't be destroyed – it is simply transformed into energy and light. Professor McGonagall scoffed and said that magic doesn't obey science. When another muggleborn asked if magic was just another field of science that hadn't been documented yet, I thought Miss Kitty was going to start throwing up hair balls in the transfiguration classroom.
Both of us were assigned detention though she didn't take any points (thank goodness!)
Now that I've thought about it some more, I am certain stuff that is vanished/banished/sent away GOES to that empty place. Is the stuff still there? Will it get full someday and not let witches send anything else there?
Summer break is coming, and I am going home to Mum, Da, and Petunia. We will go to the seashore, read books, and bake biscuits with mum!
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Ideas for Consideration of Null Space and the Implications for WitchesAn Idea by Lily Marie Evans, Fourth Year Witch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
This past summer, Petunia took me to task for being informal in my research with lots of inserted notes that make it hard to get from the top to the bottom of my idea. When I complained about having to write everything a second time, Petunia asked me how important it was for my professors (and me) to read and understand what I had discovered, concluded, or asked six months after writing it.
Petunia is write(sic) like always. I must send her a letter and tell her so!
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Harry shared these pages with his aunt one afternoon and Petunia sat in the lounge and cried for a time. When Dudley checked on his mum, she told him that she was just remembering how happy the Evans home had been. She ordered a scrumptious tea (with biscuits proved by Dobby) and regaled her son and nephew with adventures their father led the sisters to along the seashore, the holiday meals their mother laid on the table, and the Happy Christmas parties.
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Excerpts from Diaries of Lily Evans Fifth YearAfter getting through the parchments and school assignments, Harry Potter found his mother's diaries in the book bag that the castle returned at the end of the year. During July, he read the diaries and shared parts of them with Aunt Petunia. There were many hours with teary eyes reading about Lily's adventures at Hogwarts, her discoveries, and her love for her parents and sister.
The diary from her fifth year – 1975-1976 – proved to be very interesting. Petunia located several boxes of letters that Lily sent home during her years at Hogwarts and shared them with her nephew.
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18 September 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Hogwarts is back in full swing with the Poncey Princes of Gryffindor fighting with the Silent Snakes (and Claws) over the crumbs of Dumbledore's largess. (Mum would tell me that I'm being too alliterative with such illusions and Da would laugh at me. Petunia would try and parse the sentence and show me three ways it could have been better written).
Something is different this year – Alice Feltworth is already setting up revision schedules for all classes to prepare us for the OWL examinations in ten months. And she is broadcasting her plans and demands to the whole of fifth year. Very Gryffindor!
The Idiots Four (Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew) laugh at Alice in public but Lupin has asked to study with us. He offered to act as a buffer from the other Idiots Four and of course Alice agreed to keep the peace in the Common Room.
There are days I wish I had let the hat put me in Slytherin where I could plot and plan without everyone expecting me to share every detail in the common room. But Severus explains every time that I would not have survived in the Snake Pit – muggleborn are never accepted there and half-bloods have a hard time until they prove themselves.
Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff would have been better, yeah!
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23 September 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Peter Pettigrew stole my diary yesterday. I haven't figured out how yet, but I will. And he didn't like the fire that burned his fingers and face when he tried to open the book and steal my secrets. Lupin helped Pettigrew with the flames, but Potter and Black just laughed. When I summoned the diary from the floor of the common room with wandless magic, Black whistled and tried to chat me up saying how impressed he was. The pounce asked if I wanted to visit a broom closet with him!
Alice Feltworth and Marlene McKinnon intervened – Alice threatening to write to Potter's mother about Black's antics with witches – and the berk backed down. Potter was polite for once and asked me about the charms I had used – and merely grinned when I declined to explain.
With the bloody Death Eater Insurrection raging across Magical Britain, Hogwarts is a mess of pureblood strife and infighting, but they refuse to leave the muggleborn out of the fight. I must never forget that the purebloods are in charge – never forget that for a second, Muddy Lily Evans!
Because of Pettigrew's injuries, Professor McGonagall forced me to apologise to him for burning his fingers. She assigned the creepy boy detention for attempting to read my diary but never mentioned theft or even asked how the creep got into the girl's dormitory to steal the diary.
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14 October 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Charms is my favourite class – it used to be Potions where I always partnered with Severus but the pranks from the Idiots Four and the jinxes from the Snakes make that class less than ideal for learning. Professor Horace Slughorn keeps good control, but he must leave for any reason, there is always chaos within minutes. I've learned several shields for protection – always your person first, then your classmates and then the cauldrons. Wait – I should cast the shield over the cauldrons before we start any potion. That way I can protect Gryffindor from any mistakes that cause cauldrons to explode.
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27 October 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!I can't talk to anyone here – I can't trust anyone or share my ideas with anyone. When I mentioned to Alice and Marlene an idea I'd had to protect my person from spells in the potions classroom, my dorm mates rushed to the common room to tell Frank Longbottom and Sirius Black.
My idea is to have a rock with runes on it to provide a shield around me.
Alice and Marlene were both surprised that I was mad at them! Frank was interested – he's working on his classes to take the NEWTS next spring – but of course Black refused to consider anything. He laughed and described the 'muddy witch' using tiny tools to carve runes on a tiny rock.' Pettigrew laughed along with Black, but I think Lupin wanted to talk about the idea.
But I refused to share my idea after all the jokes and jabs. I noticed that James Potter looked thoughtful. I don't know if that is a good thing or not. Potter is a pureblood prince from the soles of his dragon hide boots to the top of his head. Does he think no one sees all the charms that are embedded in his glasses?
Professor McGonagall thinks the sun shines out of Potter's backside in transfiguration class.
Alice and Marlene keep encouraging me to catch the eye of a pureblood prince (Potter?) if I want to have a good life in Magical Britain. And they refuse to believe that the other side of the portal at Kings Cross Station is better. They've never visited 'muggleland' and believe the codswallop taught in Muggle Studies.
They both will have to be careful the next week – their shampoos are going to cause them both to sneeze on wizards with lots of snot and phlegm at inappropriate moments. And the prank is one that Black, Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew created and tried to give to Severus.
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31 October 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Halloween! Samhain! I love the magical version of this minor muggle holiday! The rituals to commune with magic and the dead sound good but Headmaster Dumbledore refuses to allow us to practice any of the old rituals. I have found a deserted classroom that the house elves allow me to use, and they protect it for me. I wanted to reward them and learned by a couple embarrassing experiments that the only gift the elves can/will accept is yarn, small bits of cloth, needles and string. (They sew their expanded pockets on the inside of their tea towels to hide things).
Thank you, Hogwarts House Elves!
I have expanded my charms knowledge and adapting elven magic to make my book bag that is impervious to water, spells, and dirt. This bag was made by my father using his leather working tools. The bag keeps everything in order, and I can summon anything by thinking about it! This idea has wormed its way into my classes on Arithmancy too.
Alice thinks I am skiving off revising but I am so far ahead of everyone else, revising with my classmates becomes a tutoring session for them. (Oh! Mum would smack my head for being a stuffy swat! Da will laugh at me and Petunia will worry that I am bored. I shall write to her tonight!)
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4 November 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!I made the protective stone! First, I reviewed the runes used on the rock to generate a powerful shield. It took a couple afternoons to test the different clusters, but I referenced multiple books. Then, I picked up a smooth stone from the shore of the Black Lake. I smirked but said nothing to Black after I enlarged the stone and drew the runes on the smooth surface in bright muggle pens.
But before I started carving, I decided that the harder stone is much harder than the slate we use in Runes Class. This means I'm more likely to make a mistake.
That night, I researched the charms to soften things. There's a charm for use in the kitchen to soften hard chocolate! That worked perfectly when I pumped some more power into the spell.
I must give credit for the idea about pumping more magic into a spell came from Potter. He told me how magical people must practice and use their magical core(?) to have more power. This is an unfair advantage to the pureblood students – despite the legal prohibition to use magic during the summers, the purebloods get to practice and stretch behind wards at their homes.
But I believe that wizards are still short-sighted to not look at different applications for ordinary charms.
After I softened the stone from Black Lake, I carefully cut out the runes needed. Then I released the spells that softened and enlarged the rock. Once it was returned to normal size, I shrank it to fit in a little pouch sewn in my brassiere.
The shield stone works perfectly! My person is protected from almost every spell thrown at me! And I can easily cast the shield to protect the cauldrons around me in potions class.
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1 December 1975 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Working with Professor Filius Flitwick (the best professor at Hogwarts!) I have found an area of magical study that has been ignored – no, not ignored – just never explored before. Null Magic – where banished items go! I have had the idea for many months, but this is the first time I have formally put it together.
Magical people disintegrate things all day, every day. They have different spells (levels of power and difficulty) that 'remove' things from existence. Every day they use these charms (always charms) to transfigure (?) trash or garbage, spoiled potions, old clothes, and yard waste into 'nothing'. But SCIENCE states that you can't destroy something – you can change the state of matter (into energy and light), but you can't destroy it.
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8 January 1976 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!Professor Flitwick and I argued for a month. Over the winter break he spoke to several goblins and consulted with some Unspeakables (who the heck are they?) Anyway, now he says that I was correct that the disintegration charms don't destroy something – just move it to another plane of existence. But then he asked, "So what?"
Our discussion continued and he explained that goblins had been using spells to carve out tunnels and caverns underground for almost three thousand years. What difference did it make if the stone was 'sent' somewhere else? And wizards had been disintegrating things for at least two thousand years.
Flitwick was in a bad temper at the end of our discussion and assigned me to write a two-thousand-word paper on the most common spells used to dispose of trash or excavate stone.
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5 February 1976 The Personal Private Diary of Lily Evans, Witch!It was easy to find the information on the charms in the transfiguration textbook. The charms are listed in the appendix of the book for each year. Basically, there are three spells- Evanesco, Deletrius, and Defodio. They are all charms that depend on a wizard's understanding of transfiguration and power. The better you are with transfiguration, the easier you can cast these spells.
They are all charms – I must discuss with/ask Professor Flitwick why transfiguration depends on charms? (McGonagall told me to discuss this with Potter – WHY WOULD I TALK WITH THAT INSANE IDIOT?) The library had several good books that discussed the theory about why tranfig uses charms?
Deletrius- The easiest charm to cast. It is used in homes and offices to remove garbage and refuse. House elves use their version of this spell in the kitchens.
Evanesco- This charm requires more magic. It's used to vanish larger items without leaving any residue behind. Frank Longbottom told me that the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord make people 'vanish' without a trace using this spell, but not all of them can use it. Longbottom told me that Death Eaters leave the bodies when they want to scare the wizards and witches with the dead bodies. In the Death Eater Insurrection, some people just vanished – like Hank Trumbell. He was developing a new spell to construct strong buildings that were fire resistant. He and his whole family vanished one night. They didn't run away because their wands, pets, food and clothes were untouched.
Defodio - The third charm is the hardest to use. Only wizards and witches who have a Mastery in Charms, and goblins who have achieved the rank of Tunnel Carver can use this spell to excavate tunnels and caverns. They shape the tunnels and caverns as they vanished stone into nothingness.
I shall call the place where everything is sent Magical Null Space. And once OWLS are complete, I shall consider – investigate – if I can use the Finite Incantatem spell to call things back from Magical Null Space.
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