Dear Mom,
Send me warmer socks.
Like the ones I have for bed.
I put them in the chair while packing and forgot.DO NOT LOOK ANYWHERE ELSE.
Yours lovingly,
Arthur Smith.
…
“Cedric wake up.” Arthur said putting away his quill.
It was still kind of dark outside probably due to it being winter but the time didn’t lie.
“We have to go do our morning routine. We don’t want to let them become stronger than us, do we?” Arthur called out to the boy.
It felt good to get back to his proper morning routine.
“Mmm..” came the sound from under the covers, “Mom said I shouldn’t go out too much into the cold. Besides we’ve already won the duel. Everyone says that they won’t bother us this year.”
Arthur took out his shoes from under the bed and tried to further convince the boy, “Cedric we can’t be lazy.” When there was no response Arthur tried something that he thought would work, “What if they start bullying our friends again?”
“We’ll beat them again.” Cedric said in a sleepy voice.
Arthur didn’t believe for one second that they would stand a chance if they fought again.
The more spells they learned, the nastier the fight would be.
And according to the Hufflepuff rumor mill pureblood Slytherins had this habit of learning the most obscure spell.
Whether that was because of their families, their house or just to brag, he didn’t want to take any chances.
Seeing that nothing would work on his roommate Arthur brought out his ultimate weapon, “Since the outside was full of snow I was thinking of getting a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and just walking around inside the castle.”
“I’m up. I’m up.” said Cedric throwing away his covers.
Always trust a Hufflepuff to want hot chocolate.
…
“And that is how you cast Verdimillious Duo and Verdimillious Tria.” Professor Edgar said as he finished demonstrating the spell, “You want to be careful with these spells because they can really hurt somebody.”
Arthur was very interested in what the professor had to say.
He would have liked to use these spell during the duel but better late than never.
He raised his hand to attract the attention of the professor and asked, “Professor I read that we can cast an orb of glowing green energy that explodes in a blinding flash of emerald light using Verdimillious. Can you demonstrate how it is done?”
“I can show you that briefly.” Professor Duke said as he took out his wand from somewhere on his person.
He slowly raised his wand over his head and paused, “You want to start with this posture because it gives you the most control.”
The professor then slowly spun his wand and chanted, “Verdimillious.” A green orb materialized right at the tip of his wand.
It was about the size of a tennis ball and sparkled with energy.
After that he pointed his wand to a spot right above their heads upon which the orb rapidly left his person and exploded in a blinding light right above all of them. Follow the newest chapters on novelping(.)com.
Arthur was very satisfied with the demonstration because he couldn’t even look above his head.
He could just imagine how he would use the spell.
Arthur gave the professor his undivided attention as he continued, “You want to rotate your wand in any direction to slow down your spell casting and think of holding back, to get the proper big orb. The orb will be green for Verdimillious and red for Vermillious. Just like the sparks themselves.”
Arthur could work with that.
He also appreciated the additional information about the red sparks charm.
He was about to thank the man when he heard him continue, “Did you know that once Professor Flitwick used this variation of the spell in the dueling tournament? He casted it silently and without any wand movement. He used the spell to reveal an invisible piece of transfigured wall. Did you guys know that he also won that dueling tournament?”
The combined class of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff sighed silently at that.
Everyone knew about the Charms Professor.
The ravens wouldn’t shut up about it and brought it up every chance they got.
The only thing Edgar Duke did, by bringing up that information was confirm to everybody that he was a Ravenclaw, through and through.
“Anyways,” the man continued after getting the hint from the silent stares pointed his way, “I expect you guys to know the history behind those spells in our next class which will be reserved to practice. We’ll continue today on a really interesting topic.”
Another silent sigh passed through the class.
If the first years had figured anything about House Ravenclaw by now then it was the fact that if they said anything was interesting, it probably was.
It was just that those bunch of nerds had a habit of overexplaining the topic.
And as Professor Duke had just demonstrated, he was a Raven, through and through.
Arthur dipped his quill in the inkpot and got ready to take notes as Professor Duke continued,
“The topic is zombies. Now, zombies are creatures from Haitian folklore comprised of a human corpse, resurrected and reanimated from the dead by a dark sorcerer to be an unwilling slave. They are vey similar to Inferi but we must keep in mind that they are not the same thing.”
“Zombies also hate fire similar to Inferi. In fact as a general rule of thumb if you find yourself dealing with any form of necromancy, use fire. The Hindus figured that part out long ago. In fact it’s so well known among them that even their muggles cremate their dead…Yes Ms. Turner?”
“Just call me Anna, Professor.” Anna said putting down her arm, “Can you clarify what exactly the difference between a Zombie and an Inferius is?”
“The main difference is that Zombies can be naturally formed, while Inferi are only ever artificially created. Professor Quirinus Quirrell my colleague and the Muggle Studies professor has been invited to deal with a Zombie somewhere in Africa. I’ll ask him if he can somehow procure the corpse for Hogwarts. Is that satisfactory Anna?”
“Not really.” Anna replied from her seat, “How would I know what to do if I can’t recognize the creature?”
Professor Duke silently stared at the little girl and realized that she was actually being serious.
Respecting her question he too seriously replied, “If you ever encounter a pale smelly creature with white eyes your response should be always be to burn and run.”
“Burn and run?”
“Burn and run.” Professor Duke nodded and continued, “Now, American sorcerers traditionally believed that the sorcerer could use a zombie’s soul, or part of it, to sustain themself. That thought has been refuted because if you actually see the historical records not even one sorcerer has survived long after doing it… Yes, Mr. Smith?”
“Just call me Arthur, Professor…”
…
“Do you want to build a snowman?” Arthur asked the Hufflepuffs watching the snow blanket the Hogwarts ground.
They had just finished lunch and they had nothing else to do.
Their next class was Astronomy late at night.
“Lets do it.” Anna said, “I’m going to make the biggest one.”
Before they could leave though, they still had something to plan, “Patricia, you know anyone with a camera?” He asked her specifically because she was the only one among them that had made other ‘friends’.
“A camera? Why?” asked a confused Patricia.
“I’m thinking of sending pictures to my parents.” Arthur said, “They should know how I spend my time with my friends doing non dangerous activity.”
“That’s a great idea.” said someone right from behind them.
It was Fred Weasley.
“Count all of us in.” George continued as he always did.
“All of us?” Arthur asked confused and turned to look where the twins pointed.
The first year Gryffindors had already smelled the activity out.
They always did manage to find themselves in the adventure.
…
Arthur levitated the carrot right where the nose should be and slowly pushed it into the head.
He was finally satisfied with how their snowman turned out.
That’s right, theirs.
The idea was that whoever could build the biggest snowman would win the bet.
Arthur thought that the idea was really stupid but Cedric agreed, given the offer of a rare chocolate frog card he didn’t have.
Arthur didn’t have any personal stake in the situation.
Angelina Johnson had taken multiple photos of them doing the activity and that was all that mattered.
It was one of those polaroid cameras so he had already returned the camera to Patricia for safekeeping.
All that was left was to find someone to develop the photos into magical ones.
Getting back to the activity at hand, Cedric took the lead and started to walk towards the Gryffindors, who hadn’t even managed to build a snowman half as tall as theirs.
Arthur and the others watched him talk to the griffins when Lee Jordan said something and pointed towards their taller snowman.
Cedric turned to look and hurriedly started signaling them to look at their snowman.
They all turned to look only to find that it had already collapsed.
It was clear that they had forgotten to check the structural integr…what were those redheads doing near their snowman?
“They sabotaged us.” Lucian screamed as he picked up a handful of snow and started chasing the twins leaving the rest of them stunned.
After a brief pause Anna squealed and started running too while shouting, “SNOWBALL FIGHT!”
Arthur looked at Flora, Teddy and Patricia standing there not knowing what to do.
Since he was the oldest one it was up to him to control the situation from getting out of hand.
“Stay here.
I’m going to join Cedric.” In the most serious tone he could muster he said, “It’s nearer and harder to miss.
Keep moving and always lookout for the snowballs.” He took off as fast as he could.
He had to get there before the twins warned the rest of the Gryffindors.