HP-Hogwarts Story So Far

Transcript Four

The Experiment

 

Kat looks around the hall. Madison and Lee are heading out. Kat says to them, "We'll see if we can get this to work as soon as possible. I'll start practising straight away."

She hadn't planned to do it like this, but things were obviously getting desperate. She called everyone over who was lingering. In the little group there was Cer, Morticia (who really was looking quite drained), Nimue, Illessa, Kali and Peesey.

"OK, she started. I'd like you all to watch, well make sure nothing goes drastically wrong really." She explained to those who didn't know about the idea of a mind share as opposed to a borrowing. And for those who'd not come across it before she also explained borrowing.

She turned to Nimue. "How do you fancy trying it? I know you fairly well so that will make it easier. And thanks for offering Cer, I just think if Nimue is ok with it I know her a little better." Kat smiled at Cer hoping that she hadn't offended her with this.

"What I'd like to do is do a brief borrow so that I can 'see' the 'shape' of your mind first. This is a little difficult to explain but that is how it seems. Then I'll try the share spell. What I'd like everyone else to do is make sure that no-one interrupts the actual spell bits, and just make sure we're not on our own really."

Kat smiled a nervous smile at the new Ravenclaws. "Bit of a leap at the deep end this isn't it really?"

So Nimue, what do you say.

OC Note: Mainly for Nimue here, but also useful for the rest of you.... Borrowing is ala Pratchett. - You leave the body and join another mind in another body... Mind-share is aka B5 and Eddings' Althamus where a part of mind is placed in a share with someone else, but the initiator never leaves their own body...'No more details are available at this stage'

Nimue looks slightly nervous especially with so many new faces around but she responds to Kat's enthusiasm with her own.

"Fine. Right well I think if we have a little space and someone to watch the door to make sure we're not disturbed too much. I take it I should be quite passive in this. Shall I lie down on the settee or on the floor or shall we sit opposite each other?"

She looks to Kat for direction.

Teressa who had gone unnoticed in the room, a trait she kind of liked, as it was easier to ease-drop. :) Was sitting just a bit away from the group in a high backed chair with the back of it faced towards the group so it looked to be empty.

Winifred entered the dining room quietly and quickly slipped into a chair. She grabbed some toast and jam and observed the experiment at hand.

Kat looked at Nimue. "Um, well you just need to sit down and relax." Kat was actually quite worried at the audience she was collecting, and suddenly grabbed at a distraction in the hope her nervousness won't show.

She looked towards the nervous group of new Ravenclaws, Sarah, Illessa and Kali. "Um, Kali, your wand, what was it like? Only I found this wand by the library door early this morning. Now what was it like?" Kat pondered. "Was it a sort of ebony colour? Longer than mine, about 10 and a half inches?"

Kat continued to ponder to the amazement of the others who had been expecting her to get on with whatever she was trying to do... "Now what I did with it was give it to Egreen. It was a bit like his wand, not exactly because he showed me his, but he said he'd try and find the owner. I don't know what he did with it. Oh, hang on, that's right I saw him talking to Marvo about it. I remember now because I wanted to talk to Marvo and he took one look at me and hurried out. Most strange. Anyone know where either Marvo or Egreen is they might know what happened to it."

Kali looks up to answer Kat, clearing the tears from his eyes:

"No, that doesn't sound like my wand. Mine was a redwood, looked a bit like Mahogany but wasn't, with some silver silken strands. I doubt it's like anything you've seen here before."

He pauses, and looks nervously from side to side, seemingly wondering whether he should continue or not. "They told me it was in my trunk. But it isn't. It's another one of their lies. Now I'm worried they were lying about Glyndwr too..."

With this he sighs and returns to his handkerchief, a thoroughly dishevelled looking character, with shoulders hunched and back bent over, Looking as though the woes of the world are upon him.

Kat realised that what she was supposed to be doing. "Oh, sorry, just nervous." She grinned

"Right Nimue. Just sit and make you mind a blank. Relax. Here," Kat digs in her bag and produces a notebook with a pencil drawing of the lake in it. She hands it to Nimue. "Try staring at that. It might help"

Nimue takes the picture and stares at it. Kat closes her eyes and it all appears to go quiet. Then Nimue puts down the picture, gets up crosses the room and makes a fuss of Illessa's cat Mantra. Then she returns to her seat. Everyone watches, waiting for something exciting to happen.

Kat opens her eyes. "Well that worked." she said. "That was weird. I had to fuss that cat," said Nimue. "It was like I was persuaded to do it." She looked a little happier now. So did Kat.

"Ok. Look at the picture again." Kat again closed her eyes. Then she opened them again. "Oh, Nimue, you never told us!" she exclaims.

Nimue opens her eyes with something like shock. "Tell you what!", for a second she looks a little confused and ready to bolt but quickly calms down. "My goodness.. what was that about. I hadn't realised I was thinking about that." She smiles at Kat, calmer now.

"I guess it does work." Without any prompting from Kat Nimue begins to concentrate on the picture again (obviously now getting quite into the experiment) and closes her eyes.

Kat carried on with the trying to settle a bit of her mind into a small space in Nimue's. She hadn't realised that this would happen.

She could read Nimue's mind. "Oh, my." she said. "I don't really want to know the password to get in your common room. And you might be right about your dream. I'll help you research it if you like."

Nimue opens her eyes again. "Joss!" she exclaims, "Is that true?"

"Oh, you weren't supposed to find that out. And before you say it I know I thought of that one. And don't say anything." Kat is starting to blush as she realises that she really didn't expect this. Nimue looked at Kat, slightly worried.

"I think that will do for the moment. I think we need to find out how to block our own thoughts... It's a little confusing finding out sooo much about you all at once! Concentrate on picture again."

Everything goes quiet.

Inside Nimue's head Kat says, "Um, Nimue, can you hear this?"

"Yes"

"Um, I can't get out again!"

They both open their eyes and look at each other very worried....

Marvo 'STORMS' in....

Pushing past whomever was watching the door he rushes up to Kat and Nimue, pushing them apart. A small static spark flashing as he does so.

'By the... What do you THINK your doing! Do you have ANY idea how dangerous that is???'

Marvo look VERY angry!

Kat looked shocked. She stared at Marvo, not sure what to say. Nimue was physically shocked for a few moments at the forced separation.

Marvo looks sternly at both Kat and Nimue, crossing his arms. 'I hope you realise that by doing that you could have left your minds open for who knows what to enter!'

Nimue looked guilty and began to say something to Marvo in explanation and found to her horror she wanted to call him 'sweetie' or some such endearment. This made her stop mid syllable and blush furiously.

She was glad Achel was not in the room - this was an awful feeling to have. She would ever live this down. She gave Kat a somewhat anguished look as if to communicate without words to her friend what she was feeling.

At Nimue's 'almost comment' Marvo flushes slightly.

'And it looks like you've got yourselves all muddled up! I 'suggest' you both go and try and sort yourselves out.. now!'

He points to the door.

Kat hears Marvo's suggestion, and looks at Nimue. Neither says a word. She takes Nimue's hand and leads her out of the room obediently.

Marvo, looking slightly 'shocked' that Nimue and Kat did as he asked, stands for a moment then looks around the room.

'Erm.. Well...'

He sees a number of faces he either has not seen before or only seen in passing.

'Hello. In case you don't know, I'm Marvo. Third Year Prefect of Gryffindor House. Pleased to meet you all..... Have I missed anything?'

He pulls up a seat and sits, smiling innocently and picking up an orange which he starts to unpeel.

Kali shrinks back further, assuming that Marvo must be someone really important given his entrance and subsequent barking of orders( he doesn't know any different - it is his first day at Hogwarts after all). He is not that subdued that he fails to notice the exchange of glances and blushes between Marvo and Kat, and curiously between Nimue and Marvo as well. What can be going on here? Most confusing.(he doesn't know any different - it is his first day at Hogwarts after all)

Mental notes made, he withdraws back within himself, muttering under his breath about "wands" and "Them".

Marvo looks at Kali as he sits next to him and turns his head.

'Sorry. I didn't catch that. . Have I seen you before? I'm Marvo Pleased to meet you'

Kali jumps. "Oh... Hello...Did I say something? Sorry I must have drifted off..."

He seems (as would appear to be the norm in Hogwarts) reluctant to say any more, and pauses for a long while, but when Marvo doesn't say any more he suddenly starts babbling again

"Oh, why can't I remember?.....Why did they have to do it?.....If only I could get my books and wand back, and Glyndwr of course, everything would be fine.... Then I'd be able to sort THEM out....But I probably wouldn't be able to remember how to use them anyway...Oh why oh why"

Once again he jumps, pauses and regains his composure.

"I'm sorry, I really shouldn't be saying all this. There's nothing that can be done about it now. Thank you for asking though."

Kali shakes Marvo's hand, and his (Kali's) eyes light up knowingly for a moment. He drops Marvo's hand and smiles a knowing smile. Bowing, he says "Pleased to make your acquaintance, oh magnificent one"...

Marvo looks somewhat shocked by this. but quickly regains his composure.

He looks deeply into Kali's Eyes. 'There is a hole in your mind'. Who did this to you? what is the last thing you remember? Keep calm and we will try and help you'

Marvo's voice is calm, but with a waver in it denoting some concern.

It is noticeable that Kali is treating Marvo with a great deal more respect, since the hand-shaking incident...

"Of course, oh magnificent one, your word to obey."

It's almost as if he were addressing some higher being. And he appears a lot calmer now.

"I don't really remember anything before I was ill. Simply I was ill, then I got better and I was sent here. Everything before that is blank. Except at nights. Sometimes things come back at nights, and I try to make a note of them when no one is watching."

"The notes should be hidden in my night-gown, in my trunk. If the Magnificent One is willing, and we can find it, I will show it to you."

Ceridwyn can't believe what she'd just seen. Marvo separating Kat and Nimue, and then ordering them outside. She thinks to herself, where's he been all this time? He never misses out on any group activities. Cer looks at Marvo after Kali's greeting, and says, "So, where've you been, and what's wrong, you seem upset, or worried about something."

Cer looks seriously at Marvo, then at Kali, wondering what he thinks of all this. "She was just trying to help Madison, you didn't have to be so forceful, Kat knows what she's doing, besides, it's Madison's only chance." Cer looks at Marvo with slight anger.

Morticia sneers. "Why are you so surprised, Cer? This whole school is going downhill! Marvo has more authority among us than the teachers, and you know what, I don't even think that's wrong, because they don't care about what's going on here!"

"Nobody but Snape has even TALKED to Riala, as far as I know! Yet the whole school is whispering about her and accuse her of murdering Josslin! Nobody seems to care about her! She's really upset but people don't even look at her! I see Joss' death and Nimue gets upset because I'm being unfriendly to her five minutes afterwards!" She knocks her chair over when getting up.

"I'm sick of this all! When you're done playing the attentive bystanders to a strange experiment tell me. This is something that the TEACHERS should work out, not US! We're CHILDREN! Playing with minds is something else than playing with toy wands! And it's far too dangerous to be allowed if you ask me. I should tell Snape or Dumbledore what is going on here!"

Morticia was without doubt most upset.

Marvo looks sadly at Morticia, wishing he hadn't teased her so much at the start of the term.

'Your probably right 'Tish, and the teacher really are doing all they can. But don't you feel it's our 'duty' to try and help? in any way we can? I for one can't just sit around and wait for whatever it is to happen. Please. Help us? your dreams are horrible for you I know, but they are really important, I'm sure of that. and I pr... I'll tell the teachers of anything we find out'

Morticia shrugs sulkily. "I just don't want to hear any more of all of this. I can hardly wait for Christmas. Home!" She sighs. "I wish I could go now. I want to get away from here." She looks around the room. "I'm dreading the day of the Ball already. Egreen doesn't seem to be too keen on spending time with me, and I'm not in the mood for dancing. Yay. That's gonna be fun."

Marvo turns to Ceridwyn and smiles.

'I'm sorry Cer, I really didn't mean to upset anyone. I was just... Worried. I mean, with everything that's going on, I just don't want anyone getting hurt'

He looks back at Kali, then back at Ceridwyn.

'I've been about. As a Prefect I've had to help the Teachers out with some of the investigations, nothing interesting, and Yvette had a problem I helped sort out. But I'm here now and.... Is there anything else to eat around here? apart from Oranges that is?'

'Oh, and Dum..... I over heard that all the teacher were accounted for at around the time of Joss'... Joss'...... Well, All the teachers were accounted for then, and The School defences haven't been compromised, so whatever did.. it.... Was either someone, or something in the school or... A Student!'

Marvo turns towards Kali.

'Look, don't feel pressured to say anything about what happened. in your own time will be fine. And if you need a Wand. I'm sure I can sort one out for you.' Marvo Smiles and look to the door, obviously feeling slightly guilty for the way he treated 'the girls'

While this little drama played itself out: Illessa returned to the question of her locator ball and Kali's missing wand.

'It should do, it works on anything, if you have a strong mental image of the lost item a picture will appear in the ball, like I say, mine is old and not particularly good, but I'm sure that if you treasure your wand and cat as much as you seem to you should have no trouble getting it to work'

Illessa points in the general direction of the Ravenclaw common room 'the dorms are round there, we can go whenever you're ready'

Marvo smiles at Illessa.

'You have a Locator Ball? That's wonderful!'

He leans closer and whispers 'Here, take some of this'

He takes his hand from his pocket and puts some fine dust in Illessa's hand

'It's 'Enhanco Dust' your not supposed to have it, so keep it quiet, but it might help the ball work better.'

Then some house Elves enter carrying a large urn of tea and a couple of plates of cakes and sandwiches. 'Wonderful!' Marvo shouts and starts to tuck in.

Sarah had been fascinated by the experiment and its aftermath.

She accepted an orange with thanks from another student and happily munched it.

When Kali bowed and addressed this Marvo person as 'oh magnificent one' she practically choked on her orange slice. The look on Marvo's face. She sussed out that both Marvo & and the Ravenclaw girl who'd been so nice to her were both prefects. Maybe this was how prefects acted, just took charge and organised people!

Kali looked like he might be a lot of fun once he got all his stuff sorted out - lost wand and all. Maybe she would join Ravenclaw house as suggested. After all she knew she wasn't all that good at studying & figured that being around all those brainy types in Ravenclaw could come in handy.

Everyone in the room seemed in such a state: sleepy Madison, the sickly & rather confused Kali as well as the elegant looking Slytherin girl who looked as though she seriously needed a bath and a tidy up!

"So", she said during a lull in the conversation in the direction of all but no one in particular, "Who here is on their House Quidditch teams? I know I'm far too late to make a team this year but I'll certainly be out there cheering you on!"

Marvo looks almost dumbstruck at Sarah! Talking about Quidditch now? He sighs and picks up another sandwich.

The talk about Quidditch seems to finally raise Morticia's mood a bit.

"Oh, the Slytherin team is made up by third years really. That is... no. Arivel left us, so we lost our captain."

"I'm a beater on the team, so is Mathias... where is he, anyway?" She looks at Ceridwyn. "You know, we should really start practising again and we need a replacement for Arivel. Who should be captain?"

Ha, Sarah thought, gottcha.

She agreed with what the Slytherin girl, Morticia, had said about this Marvo person. He did swan about as though he was in charge and she had wanted to say something that cut across his little drama.

Morticia, the bedraggled one, did seem somewhat over-wrought over the situation - very tense - ... French.

She addressed Morticia, "So you gonna grass them up then?"

Morticia smiles. "Well... I sure want to kick the Gryffindors'.. behinds this year." She grins broadly and glances at Marvo. "Especially since Wart-b-... I mean, Marvo, is on the Gryffindor team."

"So, do you play Quidditch? Are you good?"

OC: Explanation for Sarah: Morticia used to call Marvo Wart-boy (because of his family-name) for a very long time until very recently when she asked for truce after being lectured about manners by her father.

"Pretty good. Though if I'm going to be assigned to Ravenclaw old Marvo's girlfriend is prefect, so she'll probably mind-zap me like she did to that wimpy Gryffindor girl."

"Oh, the Ravenclaws aren't really that bad... Kat is very nice." Replied Morticia.

"I meant nothing by it - she did seem nice except for her taste in friends.

Anyway, do you practice here only in teams? The school I went to last year was in Canada and so we had lots of space for flying and we'd just play each other for fun all the time."

"We don't have much time to play except in training, which is too bad. But hey, if you're interested, we could well ask permission to do some one-on-one bludger-beating or so, that'd be fun! Maybe some of the others could join... that'd be Quidditch without rules, just for fun." Morticia seems to get really excited.

At Sarah's remark about Quidditch Cer perked up from the previous conversation with Morticia. "I'm the keeper for Slytherin", Ceridwyn said to Sarah. "So, you like Quidditch eh? Do you play, or just watch?" Cer looked at Morticia seriously, and in an instant seemed to transform from the Quidditch conversation to the serious issue at hand. "You're right it doesn't seem as if the teachers care about what we do. Although I think that may have more to do with the restrictions on the Forest and Greenhouse 6. I don't know what to think of all of this, that's why I haven't taken any obvious action, I don't like to be a wallflower, but I don't like to act before thinking about the circumstances. I've kind of been playing everything by ear, this whole year has been so strange as of late, and I haven't really had any time to analyse it because I've been so taken aback. If you think you should take action, then do it, go with your intuition, it's rarely wrong." Cer, realising she'd said ! more than she normally says in a week seems self-conscious and withdraws into the chair she's sitting in.

Morticia is quite surprised at Ceridwyn's sudden change of topic. "Uhm...well. I mean, I know what I feel I should do, but I don't want to. I don't want to be the squealer who calls the teachers." She sighs. "Most of all, I want to leave Hogwarts."

She blushes, embarrassed to have said more than she intended.

At Morticia's last remarks Ceridwyn looks genuinely sad. "Leave Hogwarts?", she says stunned. "You don't really want to do that do you?

Maybe just a few weeks of less stress, low key events, and lots of Quidditch - that's what you need. C'mon, you can't leave Hogwarts, we'd be down a great beater... and besides," Cer very shyly says, "you're my friend".

Morticia forces a smile. "I know, I know... my dad sent me an owl after Joss... well... he wanted me to leave for Beauxbatons right away, I told him I'd think it over. I just want to get away from here for a little while to get all this out of my head. Do you know I dream Joss' death each night? I even see it when I'm awake! Over and over again..."

She buries her head into her arms and slumps down on the table.

"Yes, definitely a player not a watcher" Sarah replied to Ceridwyn, helping herself to some tea. By the time she'd finished, Ceridwyn had started discussing serious issues with Morticia, so Sarah sat and munched a while wondering if the Ravenclaw prefect, Kat would ever return so she could settle this dormitory issue.

Morticia does remember her soon, though. Quidditch seems to be one of her favourite topics. "So what position do you play? I'm a Beater. I guess it's just my thing, I can be pretty aggressive..." She grins. "My dad was a Seeker once, so Quidditch is real family business. My twin sister Morgaine is a Keeper in Beauxbatons where she goes to school."

Teressa realising all to full in hearing a conversation with out being a part of it has run out of this one. So calmly as to not LOOK like she had been ease dropping, she stepped up from her high backed chair that had been facing opposite this little group. She walked around it and sat down with the group.

"Morning!" she said pleasantly. "OH! Sarah! question are you any good at Quidditch? cause if you are we(Ravenclaw)would love you on our team! We were so desperate for players that we resorted to the 2ed years! Acuk! Not a pretty picture, so we'd be more than glad to welcome you onto our team."

Teressa smiled. Is any one interested in astronomy at this table? Just curious because there's been some real interesting stuff happening out there lately

Teressa yawns. Hey Marvo, is that the Daily Prophet? May I see I thought I heard something interesting was in it.

Marvo looks slightly nervously at Teressa's request to see the Daily Prophet. 'No!, erm... that yes. yes, but no, there's nothing interesting in it'

He places his elbow on the plate, as if trying to hide it's presence (but not very successfully)