Term 5

jgundz

Chapter 1: Welcome Back

The blazing forests of Mt. Greylock in autumn rose into view as the first year student princessrebecca1601 made her way towards the Star’s Rest Inn as her acceptance letter had specified. “I don’t understand why the portkey wouldn’t just take us straight there,” she huffed, her belongings weighing upon her back.

“My dad said it’s in Williamstown, an allied No-Maj settlement, and the Faculty had it warded just in case of trouble. Something about a large woman named Gaunt that has it in for the school? It’s all in our Ilvermorny: A History book.” PrincessSlytherin, another first year supplied helpfully. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear before adding, “Anyway, this was the easy bit. My cousin said the second mile up the mountain to the school is where it starts to really climb.”

They had just reached the Inn, but VictoriaTuel froze in her tracks. “Wait. We have to climb that?” she asked incredulously, pointing her finger at the mountain as if it had personally offended her. “Whyyyy? Surely they’ve heard of brooms.”

“Of course we have, but we Founders didn’t have that luxury.” A woman with brown hair streaked with gold that was much paler than her yellow robes said absently while she reviewed a packet of parchment. “First years make the journey on foot to learn that if you want something, you need to work for it.” She looked up with a conspiratorial grin then. “Plus, we like seeing Urthbert’s spines puff up every time we tell him he has to lead the way for the newbies, just like he did for us.”

“Oh, don’t pick on the poor pukwudgie,” chided Tahm42, the Head of House that was named after the magic beings that had led the way for the Founders to the spot that would become Ilvermorny, (and then offered their friendship and assistance to Ilvermorny indefinitely). She picked a bramble out of her olivine green robe with a slight wince. “And secretly, he loves it, even if he’s too prickly to let anyone know it. Heart of gold beneath those deadly quills, he has.”

Just then, the sound of falling glass and toppled benches was heard as Tids, the loyal Wampus kitten-that-is-no-longer-actually-a-kitten of the new Head of Wampus House Dory_42, dove under one of the tables, chasing after a mouse it had spotted. He was so large, the table lifted above him as he tried to squirm under, causing quite a few panicked first years to scramble backwards away from the hunting beast. Professor Dory rolled up the sleeves of her maroonish purple robes with a roll of her eyes to match. “TIDS!” she hollered warningly. The kitten froze, his head keening to the side, then he slowly began to inch his way further under the table, away from this new danger of his keeper.

Headmistress Saeraphine, secure in the knowledge that Dory, her quite capable CoMC professor had the situation in hand, straightened the skirt of her black dress and returned to her conversation with Jgundz, the Head of Horned Serpent. “He says essentially the entire continent is embroiled in war over this. Many countries are worried about the power France will have if France and Spain truly unite, but the late King of Spain did indeed will the kingdom to French prince Philip of Anjou.”

Jgundz was magicking away the pumpkin juice stain now darkening her teal robes after Tids’ adventure under the table and sighed. “I can see why he felt called to return. Dapperwulf has a great loyalty and respect for King Louis. If there’s a way to resolve the violence, he will do what he can to see it happen.”

Nodding her agreement before sipping at her plum hibiscus tea, the headmistress thought she saw a bundle of cloth floating past the stairs out of the corner of her eye, but as she turned to examine it, Yumesoraki, the Wand Maester for Ilvermorny called out for her attention. Looking positively frazzled, she asked the barkeep for a glass of her favorite firewhiskey before addressing the Headmistress. “That shragon is ENERGETIC. I could barely keep him from bounding off long enough to get a whisp of his wool. But success was had. I’m excited to find out what properties it may exhibit as a wand core.”

Jackson the barkeep came over with a troubled look on his face. “The uh… the bottle is gone.”

Yume’s head whipped around. “Gone?!” Shrinking slightly, Jackson nodded. Yume’s eyes widened and her mouth sunk into a disappointed frown. “But… but it was just here a couple hours ago when we came down to do our pre-student toast.”

“I don’t know what happened, Professor. I had it bundled away in an Ilvermorny scarf for safe keeping in one of the crates back there.” Jackson shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just vanished.”

Jgundz patted Yume’s shoulder. “We’ll get another bottle soon. Do you want a butterbeer instead?”

Yume’s eyes closed as if in pain. “There is no other bottle,” she supplied. “That was the last known bottle from the barrel used by Samwise the Hearth Keeper.” Her mouth pursed as she whirled to look at the students and began studying them with the type of intense focus only that particular Horned Serpent could muster. “Which one of them took it…”

She studied My_Butt, and quickly ruled the returning Thunderbird out. She’d just ask if she wanted some. Plus she was too busy arm wrestling Coop925, the returning Wampus. What about that fidgeting first year over there, with the large framed spectacles?… No, he looked nervous for another reason – Tids was observing the goings on of the Inn from the window beside the first year’s head and his paw was making delicate scratching noises as he mewed softly, wanting to join the revelry again.

She couldn’t pinpoint anyone that looked shifty enough to have taken it. “Fine. No wands. No wands for anyone till I get that sweet spiced burn back.”

Saeraphine did her best to keep from giggling, not wanting to upset her Wand Maester further. “Now, now Yume. Innocent until proven guilty. You can’t punish the students for something they might not have even done.”

Yume’s eye twitched slightly, and Saeraphine could have swore she heard a muttered wizarding curse before Yume replied, “I’m going to go play with the Shragon wool.” Exiting the tavern swiftly, Yume bumped right into a man who seemed to be peering into the Inn in search of something, wearing garb reminiscent of a trapper come straight from the woods. A sprig of Aconitum napellus was tucked hastily in his pocket, and the haphazard way he was storing such a dangerous plant as wolfsbane stopped Yume in her tracks more than the abrupt contact. The man, noticing her attention focused fully on him ducked his head with a quick cockney-accented “’scuse me, Miss,” and hustled away.

Her eyes followed him as he loafed away until something shiny and amber filled caught her eye as the sun hit it just right. There, behind the water trough for horses of the travelers who might stop briefly for a drink, sat her precious bottle of firewhiskey. Snatching it up and holding it up for inspection, Yume exhaled a sigh of relief when she found that the level was unchanged as when they’d left it that afternoon. I wonder where my scarf went that this was in. One of the Faculty must be playing a trick on her, she assumed, and turned to enter the Inn again with a loud remark addressed to no one in particular, returned to the bar with the precious cargo. “Very funny. Be glad I found it and not one of the students!”

“Wow” RileyHeavy exclaimed, “I never realized how heavy my trunk is.”

Grandpap easily carried two large duffle bags and tossed them onto the floor for a poor first year who packed too much. “Well, you might not be a Pukwudgie like myself, but with enough training you might get close,” Granpap puffed.

“Do you train?” Tangled2015 asked.

“What do you do that makes lifting all of this so easy?” Jenk1981 asked.

“I don’t need to train. We Pukwudgies are just naturally strong," Grandpap supplied proudly.

"However, we do need to do quite a bit of stretching so we don’t get stiff,” Grandmam interjected, lifting a suddenly protesting Grandpap easily over her head. Grandmam proceeded to show a few of the different stretches that she and Grandpap do every morning and evening. (Who knew Pukwudgies were so flexible?)

After all of the excitement from the day the students went back to relax in their common areas. The first years taking temporary residence in a special rest area while they were excitedly waiting to be sorted. “I can’t wait for next Friday! Which house will I be in?” mused ashdawg8790.

“I’m looking forward to haunting the common areas,” x_blackrainbow exclaimed excitedly while talking to one of the resident Horned Serpent ghosts GoBlue1981.

“Now, the trick to really messing with them is to...,” PaulaKro, the Wampus ghost, whispered to Lellyott1 and Atlrox2285 in a hushed tone.

Headmistress Saeraphine walked into the common areas and began to distribute bound notebooks to the students. “What are these books for?,” bdbchick asked, admiring the leather cover of her new;y acquired possession. Headmistress Saeraphine replied with a smile, “These books are for you to set some goals for while you're at school, so that you can reflect on what you’ve accomplished at the end of this term and see how far you’ve progressed.”

“Also to show those snooty other schools - with additional qualitative evidence - how our school is superior,” Talhonjik said under her breath.

jgundz

Halloween Special: Trick or Treat

Curious first years caitlanbassett and katsheare managed to convince a veteran student to show them where they would be sorted.

“This is the Statuary” lemurcat12 said. "This is the room that you will be sorted. We have in the past used this as a ballroom and a receiving room for other schools. I overheard one of the professors mentioning something about a special event later in the week.”

“Let’s check it out!” katsheare excited replied.

“Aww, come on. Let’s not spoil surprise,” lemurcat12 said thoughtfully and guided them away.

“We’ll sneak a peak later when no one else is around” caitlanbassett quietly said with katsheare nodding.

Later in the evening, after conversing with several other first years, all of the first years decided to join along to see what all the fuss was about. NelsonKatelyn opened the door to peak inside the room. “What the…” Upon opening the door the room has an orange hue to it. Professors Dory_42 and Arielluma look as if they’re decorating the room and dancing around with skeletons. It looks as if the entire room is decorated in pumpkins, floating candles, and is that a uni-bunnicorn munching on a leg of pork? There appears to be a set of statues with witches hats, monocles, and colorful garb with a large circular rug covering the middle of the room with a very intricate design.

Professor Jgundz looks to the entrance and spots you. Oh, my. It seems as if the Professors caught you snooping but could use your help with the decorations.

jgundz

The Sorting

“Now then,” Professor Arielluma said, leading the new students to stand in front of a large set of ornately carved wooden doors that rivaled those at the front entrance. "We know you've anxiously been waiting, First Years. It's time to enter the Statuary."

The Headmistress stepped forward. “While we are all Ilvermornians, you will be sorted into one of our four houses. These will be your greatest supporters, best friends, motivators, and mischief-making partners in crime.”

Zindroth raised her hand. “Pardon ma’am, but will you be sorting us? And if so, how will you decide?”

“No, I won’t be choosing,” laughed Saeraphine. “If only because I’d probably chose everyone for my own house - which may overwhelm Professor Jgundz a bit." Jgundz's eyes widened at the thought of keeping all the students of Ilvermorny in line, and she grimaced a smile as she motioned a "no" with her hands. Saeraphine continued, "The Guardians of Greylock will look inside you - body, heart, mind and soul - and make their choice.”

Professor Tahm42 glanced out the window at the swiftly setting sun. “Headmistress, it’s time.”

Saeraphine nodded and turned, striding towards the doors. The massive oaken slabs opened of their own accord, revealing the room within. And such a room it was. The two stories of luminous gray stone were intricately carved from floor to ceiling to show the stories of the Guardians drawn from the stories of the local native tribes, all the way up to the founding of the school itself. On the second story, a balcony with a twisted chestnut railing encircled the room completely. The returning students, those that had already been sorted, stood gathered at the railing, looking down at the first years in eager anticipation. Professor Dory_42 waited until the last of the first years filed in, then closed the heavy doors with a flick of her wand.

“Oh my….” gasped Timibotkin, staring at the sight in front of them. A large stone pedestal rested in the center of the room. At each of the cardinal points stood a statue. All were at least seven feet tall and carved from precious stones. To the East, sat Thunderbird - a great raptor whose feathers were of an opaque golden beryl, polished to a high shine. To the West, rose the Horned Serpent in marbled teal Chrysocolla. It had horns like an antelope and an opalescent, spherical jewel embedded in its forehead. To the North, was the Great Pukwudgie, sculpted from moss agate and at the ready with his bow and poisoned arrows. To the South crouched the Wampus, a strong, proud, panther-like creature with six legs carved in a deep color-changing purple hackmanite.

As the Headmistress stepped onto the platform, the statues moved as one - Thunderbird opened his wings with the booming sound of thunder, Pukwudgie drew his arrow and pointed it at the sky, the coils of the Horned Serpent rolled like the ocean in a storm as the sphere embedded in its head threw off a blazing light, and the Wampus threw her head back and screamed till the very walls of the castle shook. Saeraphine raised her arms and the statues quieted. “Students of Ilvermorny, may I present the Guardians of Greylock. One by one, you will step onto the platform and the statues will make their decision. Let us begin.”

jgundz

Chapter 2

As the faculty were getting ready to retire for the evening, Yume went to go speak with the Herbology expert, Professor Emeritus Rbratt06. “Did you see that odd looking fellow earlier with the funny accent?” Yume asked.

“Yume, that’s not nice saying that,” Rbratt said pointedly while sipping at her tea.

Nonplussed, Yume went on, “Well it’s rather odd for someone to handle Aconitum napellus without proper equipment like that.”

“I noticed that in his pocket too and thought it rather odd!,” Ejwilliams88, the returning Horned Serpent student stated. “Exposure to it can be dramatic. A miniscule amount in tea can be used to aid in sleep, too much can be devastating, obviously. Oh and the burns!”

“I’ll tell you what’s interesting about that herb! It can be used as an aphrodisiac for mermaids! It makes mermaids...umm, all hot and bothered if it’s concentrated enough in their water or directly on their skin,” Briaboo4, a Pukwudgie student stated, suddenly blushing after all attention turned towards her. “What?! We Puks read too…”

An unidentified Wampus was heard in the corner muttering, “Maybe that’s my problem. I’ve been reading the wrong books…”

Professor Jgundz had been walking around asking the students if any of them had borrowed a few books from the Horned Serpent library. “Honestly, who would borrow story books for this long is beyond me. Did you borrow them for a bedtime story for TIDS and that fluffy unibunnicorn thing?,” Jgundz asked, flopping in the nearby cushy chair in exasperation. “I’m really wanting to do a thorough inventory and create an updated list now that I’m the Head of Horned Serpent.”

“That fluffy unibunnicorn is an Al-mi'raj and no,” Professor Dory_42 emphasized. Dory continued sharpening her newly forged dagger, and helpfully supplied. “Jgundz, you’ll just need to place an ad in the Ilvermorny Crow for your lost items it seems.”

“Professor! You need to come see this!” My_Butt exclaimed as she and Theviolinmommy burst into the Faculty Lounge out of breath.

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Theviolinmommy said.

The staf pelted the students with questions, trying to get information about what had excited them so, and followed the students outside to the lake, TIDS faithfully following beside Professor Dory. The surface was placid, and Yume sarcastically quipped, “Don’t tell us you brought us all the way down here after seeing your own reflections in the water. I know you’re from a small village but surely someone has a mirro--”

My_Butt protested, interrupting the professor, “I swear it was right here! Sorry, Prof Yume, but there was a swimming cat in the water!”

Theviolinmommy interjected “With fins!”

“What?” Professor Ariel said mildly puzzled. “Cats don’t care for water,” she pondered aloud, just as TIDS jumped into the lake.

TIDS returned to the surface -- and was playing with what looked like another cat! Returning to the shore, TIDS escorted the little kitten back to his human family. The Faculty gasped as it got closer and mewed at them sweetly. It looked like a kneazle crossed with a mermaid.

“How in the world could this have happened?” Dory asked.

“I am stumped. Then again I didn’t think that a sheep and dragon could’ve reproduced, so….” Arielluma said quietly.

Professor Jgundz threw her magic out like a blanket across the lake, scanning for others in the dimming light. “It’s alone. The poor thing looks underfed and there were no others nearby.”

“Oh, you poor little Merkitty,” Professor Tahm42 cooed picking it up and stroking its fur.

“Merkitty?” My_Butt asked, reaching out a tentative hand to pet it as well.

“Well what else would you call it?” Professor Arielluma pointed out.

“It’ll stay in the Pukwudgie house,” Tahm said emphatically, already cuddling it close. “Those Wampii kittens will be too rough, and the Occamy in the horned serpent house are getting too mischievous.” Turning her attention to the snuggling bundle in her arms, she said soothingly, “Let’s get you something to eat, hmm? How about some sushi?”

After feeding the poor little Merkitty some bits of fish and milk, Tahm42 went to the common rooms to see if any of the students had something to keep the sweet little thing in. Finally, Tahm42 made it to the Thunderbird dorm as a student was leaving the room. “Evening Profes-- WHAT IS THAT?” Junodog1 exclaimed, dropping her parchment to the floor in surprise.

“This is a sweet little Merkitty of unknown origin. We’re going to get him healthy enough so that he can go back to the lake, and hopefully find out how in the world he came to be.” Tahm informed the Thunderbird Stormbringer.

“What are you going to keep him in? I mean, I see you have a stasis of water over its fins, but…” Junodog1 asked as the shock of the sight wore off and she stepped closer to examine.

“We’re looking into that actually. Do you or any of your housemates have anything?” Tahm asked.

“I’m not sure, but there might be. Come on in and we’ll see.” The Stormbringer encouraged. Junodog1 gathered up her dropped parchment and escorted Tahm into the Thunderbird common room. Immediately, multiple students came up to see the little Merkitty.

All of the commotion woke up a sweet little bundle of fluff that was resting in part of the fireplace. The little Shragon came out and shook off the soot from its wispy wool. The Thunderbirds had adopted the little Shragon as a mascot of sorts. Sheep and Magellan reveled in the peace and quiet when the little flame proof fluff hangs out elsewhere in the castle. Who knew that a sheep crossed with a dragon would have such energy??? Magellan seemed secure in the knowledge that those stick wavers would keep the little fluff safe. (Though the little fluff still needs a name and everyone in the houses are still debating on it.)

The little fluff walked over to Tahm and the merkitty. Both the merkitty and shragon seem entranced while staring at one another, both such odd creatures. Both sniffed hesitantly at each other. The little shragon fluttered its wings excitedly and snorted a small puff of smoke causing the merkitty to sneeze a few times, and Tahm’s arms to get coated with soot.

“Ahh here’s something!” Rosetigger exclaimed carrying a unique looking bubble of water. “My friend back home said I would never use this, but ha! I knew I was right to bring it! This is not like a normal fishbowl. You can go in and out of it as much as you want. This should be perfect for the little merkitty,” she said as the merkitty sniffed it curiously.

“Now all we’ve got to do is figure out how to get it to travel without one of us being there all the time. Or just set it up in the Pukwudgie common area.” Shinton1618 said.

“What do you think little merkitty?” Rosetigger asked as the merkitty cautiously poked its nose in the water and then swam inside doing flips and circles. The merkitty then proceeded to poke its head in and out of the water from the side, under the bubble and at the top of the bubble.

“I think it likes it.” Shinton said, giggling as a paw reached out to swat at her finger.

The water bubble was lowered to the level of the floor. The little shragon fluff poked its nose up at the water bubble and stuck its head inside. When the shragon pulled it back out, its head was drenched. The lil fluff, obviously enjoying this new play environment, jumped inside the bubble with the merkitty and began swimming around.

“Well, I guess we better expand this bubble, as it looks as these two appear as if they enjoy each other's company.”



In the Wampus common room….

Professor Dory had gathered all of the Wampus students together, and had them sitting before her as she stood sternly with her arms clasped behind her back. “Now, I know that students don’t really have a use for arrows, but I am missing my iron and silver tipped ones, and the last people in the forge have been Wampus students...”

“Wait! My practice hammer is missing too!” Cpanus said. “Maybe whoever took my hammer took your arrows? But mine didn’t go missing till this afternoon.”

“Well, I was there this morning. Working on a brand new project that I’m very excited about. A collaborative effort with, umm, well I can’t talk about that right now, but yeah, now that you mention it, I remember wondering if someone had used the arrows for something because they were gone. I did notice TIDS wandering about though?” Coop925 supplied cautiously.

Professor Dory looked pointedly over at TIDS who was chewing on a sword pommel while in SuperCatie80’s lap with a look of ‘meh’. “Nah, arrows are too easy for TIDS to bite through. He learned his lesson last time with the tongue splinters I think.”

jgundz

Care of Magical Creatures

As the students settled down into their seats in the Magical Creatures Menagerie, Professor Dory glanced over to the corner, where TIDS and Sheldon were curled up together, confident that they would not disturb the lesson (She had made sure they had already met the animal the class would be studying, so their curiosity was satisfied).
“Good morning class and welcome to Term 5 Care of Magical Creatures. I’m excited to be taking the class this term while our esteemed Emeritus Professor @rbratt06 takes some time off to focus on research.

Before we meet this week’s creature, we need to go over the basics again, for the First Years and as a reminder for the rest of us.
The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, which is part of the Ministry of Magic in the UK, classifies magical creatures on a scale from 1 (X) to 5 (XXXXX) as follows:
XXXXX: Known wizard killer / impossible to train or domesticate
XXXX: Dangerous / requires specialist knowledge / skilled wizard may handle
XXX: Competent wizards should cope
XX: Harmless / may be domesticated
X: Boring
There are three categories of magical creatures: Being, Beast and Spirit. The definition of a Being is "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws". Loosely defined, a Beast is a magical creature that does not have sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community nor bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws. And, a Spirit is, naturally, a ghost (both human and non-human), spirit-beings, and non-beings.

Now for the fun, @shinton1618, please bring in this week’s creature.” The Thunderbird student entered carrying what looked like a big bundle of fluff. The bundle lifted its head and squealed in delight at the sight of all the students.
“The older students will recognise this as the offspring of the Thunderbird dragon, Magellan and his Sheep. As such, our little Shragon is a new species which makes it quite complicated to categorise. Our dragons are listed as XXXXX Beings as they are not domesticated, but have agreed to live with us. Sheep are no-maj animals which don’t fit into the classifications, but it is suspected that this individual, must have some magic and would therefore be a X Beast at best. It remains to be seen exactly what category the little Shragon fits into, but I would tentatively place it as a XXX Beast (It is quite a handful already and we suspect it will still manifest some powers.)” Professor Dory was keeping the Shragon distracted during the lecture by scratching its head, which it clearly enjoyed.
“The rest of the class time will be taken up by all of you getting a chance to interact with our little bundle of fluff, but please try not to excite it too much as that tends to end in chaos, as the Thunderbird students will testify to. I would like to thank the Thunderbird House for adopting the little fluff ball as the parents were exhausted from the first few weeks while the students were on vacation.”
The students had great fun with the newest creature although it did get a bit excited and some of them had some great stories to share later as a result.
As the students were leaving for their next class, Professor Dory reminded them that there was homework for this class, but it was an optional class and no free passes were allowed.

jgundz

Chapter 3

In the kitchens…

“Where is it?” Grandmam exclaimed. “We’re missing all of our butter, cheese, and milk. There is a dairy fiend on the loose!”

“Oh, you mean like the nice couple we knew about 20 years ago who took all of the butter from the local villages?” Grandpap recalled fondly. “Nice fellows. Loved inducing chaos on those humans.”

“Oh, but not when it’s my DAIRY!” Grandmam exclaimed. “How else am I going to make that cheese pie!”

Timibotkin had heard Grandmams call of woes for the lack of dairy. They personally preferred jam on their toast but their housemates Kullerva and VeggieOmNomNomivore would be quite upset.

“I’ll go check the Pukwudgie common areas,” Timibotkin replied. “Maybe they had a cheese and wine party and forgot to mention it.”

In the hall by the Wampus common area
“Of course it’s only Wampus and Horned Serpent who’ve had stuff taken,” Kisame29 grumbled to rusgolden.

“You think it’s something to do with Thunderbird or Pukwudgie?” Westpancake asked.

“I don’t know, but they’ve been extra chummy lately with the shragon and merkitty being good friends.” Kisame29 said.

“Well it’s not like Occamy and Wampii will get along very well due to their nature, and our houses have been rather competitive with each other over the past few terms,” Westpancake reminded.

“Maybe we should do a little detective work to see where all of these items have gone.” Kisame29 suggested.

“A Horned Serpent and Wampus alliance? Wait, this doesn’t count during Quidditch Matches right?” Westpancake asked.

“Goodness, no. We’re still going to wipe the floor with you.” Kisame29 said.

Westpancake just grumbled, “Yeah...right….”.

Walking quickly Westpancake and Kisame29 made their way to the Horned Serpent common area to plan their course of attack.



In the Thunderbird common room….

“Has anyone seen my Featherstone cage,” Calacolindo asked.

“Did you misplace it somewhere again,” kiradelong3 teased.

“No, I had it on the nightstand and haven’t moved it.”

“Hey, my bird activity center is missing too,” rlshelor said.

“Weren’t you playing with the little fluff with it last night?” Calacolindo asked.

“Well, yeah, but I put it back after we were done.” rlshelor said.

In Pukwudgie common room….
Books, papers, and bottles were flying out of a trunk. “Where is it?” VictoriaTuel frantically asked. “ I made that health potion for the assignment, but it’s gone!”

“Are you sure you made it?” Briaboo4 asked.

“Of course and Eamycul was my partner for the assignment so they can verify!” VictoriaTuel exclaimed.

“Where’s my crystal bottles? Man….those were special ordered to amplify the effects of certain potions. I wanted that bonus in the advanced assignment,” sue_01 sadly said.

Some Thunderbird students pass in the hallway, upset that they’ve had items missing.
“You too?” Briaboo4 asked.

“Yeah, we’re starting to wonder if it was someone in another house, but with you guys missing things, that narrows it down to Wampus and Horned Serpent.” kiri127 said.

“Horned Serpent would be the type to run random experiments and Wampus would be the mischievous type…” RileyHeavy said.

“How about a little payback?” Briaboo4 said with a smile. kiri127 and VictoriaTuel nodded mischievously.

Meanwhile near the lake….a shragon and merkitty play.

ButterballBookworm was floating through the nearby walls going back to their own common room when they overheard the Pukwudgie/Thunderbird discussion. They quickly made a detour to find 25thombert and let them know an attack was coming before going to the HS common room.

“They blame us?!” 25thombert exclaimed in the Wampus common room. “But we’re missing more than they are!” They went to grab arrows off the wall forgetting they were among the missing items.

“We need to move up that rendezvous with the serpents now.” 25thombert said to ButterballBookworm, recalling their previous plan. ButterballBookworm floated off quickly to find the serpents and tell them to meet in the forge.

“What? But we didn’t take anything,” Jenk1981 replies to the wampus ghost. “Fine. It’s on.”

“We need an alibi before we go off and induce some chaos over at the Thunderbird common area,” rusgolden says thoughtfully.

“Hmmm, I wonder if Professor Dory would give us one,” Jenk1981 paused. “Professor is quite upset with Wampus arrows being missing again.”

rusgolden and Jenk1981 went off to find the CoMC Professor.

Care of Magical Creatures

Well, I have received a variety of funny stories about what that little Shragon has been up to in the past week. It reminds me of the first term we had the Wampi kittens, but I think Thunderbird has a bigger challenge with one creature than we did with a whole litter! Hopefully the new friend who arrived this week will help with keeping the little fluff bundle entertained.

On to this week’s creature, which is obviously the Merkitten that has arrived at the Castle. Again classifying this animal is a bit of a challenge, especially as we don’t even know how this one came to be. It appears to be a mermaid crossed with a Kneazle. Merpeople are classified as sentient beasts, by choice and would fit under XXXX or XXXXX, while a Kneazle (which we will learn more about next week) is XXX Beast (when not bred with other animals.) Can anyone name a famous half-Kneazle? I would suspect that our newest little friend would fit into the same as the feline parentage and be a rather more mischievous than usual, XXX Beast. If you have not had a chance to visit yet, chat to the Pukwudgies and ask if you can meet the newest addition to the Ilvermorny family.

jgundz

Chapter 4

“Well crap baskets, we’re out of corn. We need that to make corn pudding for the feast with the local natives.” cardbucfan said.

“ButterballBookworm said that they were using it to make cornbread.” LavaDoll said.

“Maybe we can ask the natives if they can bring a few extra ears?” cardbucfan suggested.

“Guess who’s come to visit?” as Lady Vale bursts through the doors.

“Oh no,” Professor Emeritus RBratt06 gulps. “I better warn Professor JGundz.” Professor RBratt sends a sparkling Sylveon patronus to the Horned Serpent common room. Sylveon uses Misty Terrain in the hall. It is super effective.

Sylveon arrives at the HS common room and bounces up to Professor JGundz and relays the message of the arrival of some rather interesting relatives. “No, no, no, no! They said they wouldn’t visit! And the last time Lady Vale and Master Gunther were in the room together for 10 minutes they destroyed it from all the jinxes and hexes!” jgundz said frustratedly to Professor Tahm who had stopped by for tea.

“Well, we could try and keep them separated,” suggested DixieHealthy2015.

“No,” jgundz sighed. “Because I’ll need to be near both of them otherwise they’ll think I’m playing favorites. I wish family gatherings weren’t so stressful.”

“You know what we could do” Gawworthington said and then paused. “We could try and beat the record.”

“What record?” Ches18 asked.

“The record for how fast we can get someone to leave the castle while not directly telling them to leave.”Gawworthington said.

“What’s the current record?” Ches18 inquried.

“Twenty-two minutes and five seconds. The record is held by My_Butt and Paukakro. I think there was a combination of attacking marshmallows and a dancing tea set. Granted this was also happening when Maegallan was singing songs for Sheep, so that could’ve helped the time.” Gawworthington said.

“So, I have an idea,” Theviolinmommy says. “It involves some rambunctious little Wampii.”

“Those Wampii are not little anymore,” Professor Tahm pondered out loud.

Professor Tahm sent her little fox patronus to Professor Dory. The would need the CoMC expert to pull this one off.

A little later, in the dining hall….
“Well, I told your Uncle, about you teaching here, and you know he told me all about your cousin, and how she got a position in the Ministry!” Lady Vale said.

“The Ministry, now why don’t you try for a position like that. Not that the position you have is bad mind you, but you could at least do that. But then again, your cousin is a bit more determined than you.” Master Gunther said sitting at the table. Professor Jgundz quietly getting more frustrated by the minute while keeping a calm facade. Finally she sends a patronus under the table to Professor Dory.

A fluffy Grizzly bear cub patronus ambles under the table to Professor Dory. Scratching its ears it says, “Activate the plan. NOW. I can’t take it any more!” the patronus relays before disappearing. Professor Dory, chuckles and sends an otter patronus back, sliding under the table to Professor Arielluma and Professor JGundz relaying the message that it’s time to activate, “Plan: Oh, my TIDS”. Professor Dory has been looking forward to this. Professor Dory transfigures a few pieces of cheese to be mice that spread grape jam and places them under the table.

TIDS who was sitting calmly near the other Wampus kittens sees the scurrying of the mice. TIDS twitches and looks back and forth between the mice and Professor Dory. TIDS wants to tackle all of the mice, but the last time he did this the tables went flying and the human stick waver was not happy. I am a mighty protector of this castle. This is an outrage! Twitching, TIDS sees Dory give a nod of approval. YES!!!! I will show how I am the best protector of this castle!

TIDS bounds under the table chasing the cheese mice. The table pops up under Master Gunther’s plate causing the food to hit their face and clothing as Professor tahm42, rosetiger, katsheare, and Tangled2015 lean back to avoid the food flood. The Headmistress and Horned Serpent students lift their food from the table in case TIDS starts to go their way as if this is a normal thing. The other Wampii cats seeing their brother TIDS chasing the mice under the table looks fun. The other Wampii begin to chase the mice under the tables and benches. Thorn and Wampi knock up the bench that Lady Vale and Master Gunther are sitting at causing them to fly up in the air and appears as if they are going to land on the food on the table. Oh, dear.

“Nooooo!!!!!!! Not the pumpkin pie,” Yume cries as she grabs the pie out of the way just before Lady Vale and Master Gunther land on the other food.

“You could’ve suspended them in the air you know,” Holly_Belle said. Yume shrugs.

Dory un-transfigures the mice into cheese and Wampii catch and eat them. The Wampii take their kill back near the fire and begin to happily munch on the cheese mice (such great protectors of the castle). While the Shragon and Merkitty continue to play in the water bubble splashing about not noticing the chaos.

“Well I never! You could’ve prevented me from landing in the food, but you saved the pumpkin pie instead” Master Gunther said lifting themselves off of the food while Lady Vale grumbles.

“But there’s the chance you could’ve landed on the pumpkin pie, and I’ll be frank, I value the pie more.” Yume said walking back over to her seat carrying the pie. tm_meadows08 and junodog1 chuckled under their breath and quickly stopped as Lady Vale and Master Gunther glared at them.

“We’re leaving! Your mother will hear about this!” Professor Jgundz, just shrugs and goes, “meh.” Lady Vale and Master Gunther storm out of the castle.

“And that is a new record ladies and gentlemen!” Gawworthington exclaims with a timer that says 20 minutes 32 seconds. Paulakro and My_Butt look mildly irritated that their record had been broken but that just means that they would have to break that record again later.

Professor Tahm42 writes down the number in the Book of Ilvermorny Records while Professor Emeritus Rbratt, rfillbeck711, and PrincessSlytherin (counts towards detention minutes) quickly use a cleaning spell before their other guests arrived with that delicious corn pudding!

The local natives are escorted in by rlshelor, jenk1981 , and kullerva arrive at the hall and set the corn pudding, corn bread, grits and fish, sliced South African Biltong, and sweet potatoes roasted over coals. Coop925 and Yume look at the sweet potatoes and shake their heads with an emphatic no.

“Sliced Biltong????” Professor Dory says excitedly.

“We had a member of our tribe visit South Africa as an ambassador yesterday, and they made sure to pick some up because they remembered how much you like it.” the native ambassador proclaimed happily.

Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Dory leaned against the front edge of her desk, clearly excited about the day’s lesson. As soon as the students settled down, she began talking.
“Welcome everyone. I hope you have all taken the opportunities to meet the two interesting specimens we have studied so far this term. I will admit that I find them particularly fascinating, although as a rule, I prefer normals to hybrids (except for the Stormtrooper Ball Python, which is a thing of geeky beauty.)
Last week we mentioned a creature we have not yet studied, the Kneazle. So we shall be focusing on that species this week. Few of you will know that there actually a few Kneazles living in the Castle. They are normally found in and around the Wampus Den, but the Wampii themselves are so much more rambunctious that the Kneazles tend to look for the more peaceful areas. Ah, here is my assistant for the day, @brittk2013 is a Wampus First Year, but our beautiful Bailey and Bella love her so I asked her to help with today’s class.” The teacher scratched the animals on their heads when the student came over, with two large felines draped over her shoulders. Their purring was audible over the usual classroom noise and the newer students were comforted by the proof that the animals could be peaceful.

“Kneazles have a very high level of intelligence, are independent and occasionally aggressive, and have an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and distrustful people, which isn't always convenient for mischievous students. They can also safely guide their owners home (magical GPS???). Because of their aggression towards certain individuals, Kneazles have a XXX classification if they are not interbred with another species. They make excellent pets if they like a witch/wizard. Kneazle owners are required to have a license to own one though. As these live in the Castle, they are on the school’s permit, so please ensure they do not hide in your bags before you leave at the end of the term. (Trust me, the paperwork for that is a nightmare!!! Thanks, TIDS!!!)

Those who have not yet met them are welcome to come up in small groups and play gently with the cats and I am very happy to answer any questions about them. Can anyone name any famous half-Kneazles in the wizarding world? (Sorry, no bonus points there.)”

jgundz

Chapter 5

What a whirlwind of a term so far. With all of the items going missing from the students, it had caused a bit of a rivalry to appear that was rather uncommon, but with all houses having items going missing it’s becoming apparent that maybe it might be the work of an outsider.

But such an odd array of items to go missing. Story books, arrows, hammers, little cages with playsets, potions, and bottles. What could that mean. I suppose we should be happy that a student hasn’t gone missing otherwise we would have to report this. Last term there was such chaos with the competitions with the other schools and before that there was the chaos with Gaunt. A rather tame semester.

However, the students were not satisfied with the items going missing.

“Seriously, it’s weird that stuff is going missing like this.” kiri127 said.

Wand Maester Yume’s raven patronus was seen quickly flying down the hall.

“Huh, she rarely uses her patronus,” Kisame29 said.

Shortly after, Professor jgundz’s grizzly cub and Professor rbratt06’s Sylveon were seen sprinting to the staff room with said staff running a few minutes behind them.

“Did you find them?” The Headmistress asked with a cold sweat seen running down her neck.

“No, I’ve searched in the gardens and the dragon stables. I could’ve sworn I saw Sheep glowing, but that’s for another day.” Professor Arielluma said.
“I’ve checked the forge and where all of the magical creatures are held.” Professor Dory quickly replied.


“What’s going on?” kri127 asked.

The staff look amongst each other concluding that they would need some help.

“Katsheare has gone missing. It appears as if they were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night, and none of their bunkmates know where they went. We’ve searched the majority of Ilvermonry castle. There are only a few places that we haven’t checked yet.” the Headmistress sighed.

“We still need to check the Ravenry and all of the stairwells.” Professor tahm42 said.

After making it to the top of the northern most stairwell, junodog1 and my_butt paused to catch their breath.

“You know, I don’t remember there being a northern stairwell. What classroom is supposed to be here?” junodog1 asked.

“I don’t recall. Well, the castle does tend to change itself as it pleases, though adding a whole new area like this is strange. Either way, katsheare wasn’t in any of the stairwells. Where else is left?” my_butt said.

“I’m not sure, maybe…” junodog1 paused looking at the ground. “What is that” junodog1 said while pointing at the ground.

A muddy footprint appeared to be on the ground leading into the room with the cracked door. The footprint didn’t look human.

“I think we should go get some assistance,” my_butt mumbled as the two ran off to find the staff.

Near the staff quarters…

Junodog1 and my_butt sprinted until they found the CoMC professor and relayed what they saw. Now, there’s plenty of odd creatures at Ilvermorny, but they are isolated to very particular parts of the castle and that part was not where they were supposed to go. Professor Dory quickly motioned to Professor Arielluma and Professor Jgundz to join the party and see what was in the northern stairwell. The group quickly made their way there to see quite an array.

Making their way up the stairs, the staff notice that this stairwell wasn’t normally there.

“Well, the Guardians of Greylock do tend to change things up on us rather quickly.” Professor JGundz said. “I remember when the ravenry only had 2 floors and the castle added more.”

Peaking in the cracked door, a sight was beheld.

““What the...the story books!” Professor Jgundz said.

“My arrows,” Professor Dory happily cheered!

“Quite a few items indeed and quite a few odd creatures….” Professor Arielluma paused.

Looking around the room an array of rather young magical creatures were either napping or playing.

“Wait is that the Shragon and Merkitty? How did you two get up here?” Professor Dory said.

Both the Shragon and Merkitty paused their playing and decided to splash the staff members. Obviously they wanted to play. Placing a few rubber duckies in the water their attention was diverted. Maybe that’s the purpose of a rubber duck?

“Ok, enough of this let’s get the other staff here.” Professor Jgundz said sending her patronus to find Professor Rbratt, Professor Tahm, Headmistress, and the Wand Maester.

The patronus reached the other staff members at the time they had converged with a few other students. They quickly made their way to the northern stairwell quite puzzled at the newest fixture at Ilvermorny. As they made their way inside it was a sight to behold. A light snoring was heard from a pile of sheets in the corner. The sheets were gently lifted to reveal the missing student katsheare.

“What, wah?” katsheare mumbled. Upon seeing the staff members and fellow students the student quickly cleared their thoughts. “Oh, wow. You would not believe the night I had. There was this big hairy thing that turned invisible every so often that carried me here in my sheets. I don’t think it realized it carried me and just plopped the sheets here in the corner and put these random creatures on the sheets. I didn’t want to move, so I’ve been hanging out here.”

“What kind of a creature turns invisible?” ssilverr1215 asked.

“Well, I’ve only heard of one kind. A demiguise. It’s kind of like a long hairy ape that can see the future. And turn invisible. They’re really quite rare. Phineas Fletcher brought one to the US back in the 1620s. That one escaped and bred with a ghoul making the hidebehinds that are in the nearby woods.But how would...no, why would one come here?” Professor Dory thought outloud.

“Alright, so we need to find this demiguise so it doesn’t get hurt,” Professor Dory instructed. “It is a protected magical creature and it is our responsibility as magical citizens to help it.”

“NelsonKatelyn and cpanus hide in the corner in case if it comes back. The demiguise won’t hurt you. They’re rather gentle creatures.” Professor Emeritus Rbratt instructed. “PrincessSlytherin and Briaboo4, go to the gardens and search there. Demiguises are herbivores and may have taken some food from the garden.”


Professor Dory quickly pens a message and hands it off to rusgolden. “Take this to the ravenry. This is urgent and needs to go out quickly. As much as I hate to say it, we need to notify the Department for Regulation of Magical creatures.”

No sooner had rusgolden left, when a rustling was heard coming from the closet. Professor Tahm gently opened the door to see the demiguise feeding a baby mooncalf. The demiguise looked startled and disappeared from sight. The staff slowly backed away and spoke in soothing voices attempting to earn the trust of the frightened demiguise. The poor thing had marks around it’s wrists and neck as if it had been chained. All of the students and staff laid down on the floor to show that they were not threatening offering a few pieces of fruit and vegetables in front of the demiguise.

The demiguise slowly nibbled at the fruit calming down.

“We should go for a bit,” Professor Dory said. “It should make the demiguise trust us more. Maybe one person stay behind incase if something happens.”

Kullerva and jschmid2 volunteered to stay behind to play with the Shragon and Merkitty while keeping an eye on the demiguise.

The remaining students and staff returned down stairs to discuss some of the plans that needed to be made moving forward.

In the hall…

“Did you see the marks on the demiguise’s hands and neck? I feel rather nervous about this. First we get a Shragon. Then a Merkitty arrives. And now a demiguise that looks as if it were imprisoned. The Magical Department of Regulation of Magical Creatures will be investigating the school because of this.” Professor jgundz said.

“We’ve provided them with a safe home, away from the No-Maj. What could else could they possibly want?” jls1661 said.

“Do you recall the Allear? They were a mix of Giant Eagle and Elf. There were only a few of them. And then they went away.” talhonjik solemnly said.

Horrified, the students and staff scrambled to find instances where this was not the case. As the students scrambled one student pulled out a roll of parchment for a type of accord.

“Ah, I am so glad I was researching magical half-breeds. It’s the Blinkling Accord. About 200 years ago Blinkings came into being by some Halflings breeding with the Blink Dog. There was a mad breeder from London’s East End on the loose who created a wide array of creatures outside of the Blinkling. Hmm, let’s see they had a Merg, which is a human breeded with merfolk, a Draconic, which is a half-dragon breeded with a humanoid. They are covered by this accord.” ches18 read.

“Was the mad-breeder ever caught?” Professor Tahm asked.

“He was imprisoned for a few decades before he was let out at the ripe age of 82. One of his daughters was quite a famous magizoologist, but disappeared after an adventure to South America.” ches18 said.

“So, maybe we could create an amendment to this accord,” westpancake suggested. “They won’t hurt the demiguise, but maybe this could be covered.”

“We need a representative over in the Magical Congress with all of the stuff that is going on here at Ilvermonry. I mean *kitten* Hogwarts has a representative at Wizengamot and the Ministry across the pond.” Professor Yume sighed.

“So, who wants to represent Ilvermonry in this?, Yume? You’re good with paperwork and administrative stuff, ” Professor rbratt said.

“*kitten* no, I can not do bureaucracy. Although I can help you guys with the paperwork for it, and I can get that amendment in before the night is out for approval, I would end up irritating people. How about you Professor Dory? You have very thorough knowledge of magical creatures and can quickly make judgments on magical creature threats . You could represent us.” Yume said.

“Mercy no. That would be admin *kitten*. Professor Emeritus Rbratt is better with admin than myself.” Professor Dory replied.

Professor Emeritus Rbratt shook her head with an emphatic no.

As the staff debated among themselves, Briaboo4 came forward with a sprig of Aconitum napellus. “I found this near where we found the merkitty. It looks as if it were placed there.”

“Do you think someone intentionally tried to cross-breed a merfolk and a kneazle?” Headmistress asked.

“First the Shragon, which seriously how did that happen, and the merkitty, and with the Demiguise showing up….I don’t know.” Professor Rbratt06 paused.

“You would need some serious knowledge to be able to cross-breed like that,” Yume said.

“Or be completely mad.” Professor jgundz offered.

“Yeah, mad-breeder on the loose again. It wouldn’t be unheard of….” ches18 trailed.

Care of Magical Creatures

Ok, I know everyone is super interested in today’s lesson, based on what we have just discovered so let’s get straight into it...

We have covered the fact that demiguises are peaceful, herbivourous creatures who turn invisible when frightened. They have precognitive sight (which means they can tell the future), and this, combined with the invisibility, makes them very challenging to find and catch. They resemble an ape (closest to a gibbon, ask me later about the beautiful one I met on one of my holidays) with large black eyes and long silky hair.

It is most likely that they were classified as XXXX because of the fact that special knowledge is required to catch them, not because of any danger, although they will bite if provoked.

It is important for us to protect this creature and not let it become public knowledge that we have one, as they are highly sought after in the hunting trade. Their pelts can be used to create invisibilty cloaks (although these do eventually turn opaque and lose the ability to turn the wearer totally invisible.)

One final interesting fact, the number zero in the runic alphabet is based on the creature’s ability to turn invisible.

jgundz

Chapter 6: Finals

The whole school was up in arms. There were members from both MACUSA and the Ministry investigating Ilvermonry regarding the magical creatures that have “magically appeared” at Ilvermonry. Someone didn’t do their paperwork appropriately is what they keep saying and are looking for any documents that are out of place. Wand Maester Yume hates audits.

“They’re messing up my organizational system for my paperwork and not filing them back correctly! I want them gone!” Yume groaned and stomped her feet.

The Ministry officials came out of the office commenting out loud, “but seriously how is that so organized? And there’s paperwork in there for things that haven’t even happened, but could happen so that it can go out at a moment’s notice. It is as if they are constantly expecting an audit.”

“I was subject to a random audit once for wand core usage, and I was rather organized then, but they dinged me because I had to sign off on two sides of the document and date, but on one side I forgot to put the year. It’s unpleasant to be audited, so of course we’re prepared.” Yume quipped.

“It feels as though they’re looking for something to knock us for,”westpancake whispered.

“I mean, I know the Ministry can’t do anything here at Ilvermorny, but MACUSA could add oversight,” ariecpotter whispered back.

“This why they suggested to get a representative at MACUSA…”lemurcat12 noted solemnly.

In the Thunderbird common area…

“Both the merkitty and shragon are quite cross right now. The little fluff has been sulking in the fireplace for the past day because it can’t go play with the merkitty with all of the MACUSA people everywhere.” my_butt said.

“Why are they being kept separated,” cardbucfan asked.

“MACUSA is concerned about their magical interaction, something about causing explosions,” shinton1618 said.

“That’s absurd. They’ve been fine for months!” cardbucfan exclaimed.

Pausing as they heard the door open with what sounded like Ministry officials barging in.

“We need to get a sample of the Shragon’s blood,” the Ministry official claimed.

“You will do no such thing,” Professor Arielluma exclaimed. “There is nothing that you could possibly use that for or even for testing. And you have no paperwork authorizing this. OUT!”

“We’ll be back with the proper paperwork. Maybe we should extend this to how animals are tested for rabies in this paperwork.” the Ministry official huffed.

“Oh, hell no.” my_butt struggled with rosetiger and kiri127 holding them back. The officials should be lucky that only a few students were in there at the time.

In Yume’s office…

“We need to check in on that Blinkling Accord Amendment I’m going to pop over and threaten, I mean strongly influence them to get the approvals through,” Yume said. “Kisame29, ches18, and PricnessSlytherin come with me, we’re going to have a lesson on how to get paperwork through in an expedited fashion.”

A raven patronus arrived at the Headmistress’s office, “Follow the officials around. I’m taking a few students to get the Blinkling Amendment pushed through. Professor Arielluma is guarding the shragon, Professor Tahm is watching the merkitty, Professor Dory has the Wampii kittens out with the other magical creatures that we found in the northern stairwell, Professor JGundz is watching our occamy, and Professor Rbratt is watching the Dragons and Sheep. Magellan is pissed by the way, so exercise caution. I would advise putting a few bands of students together to try and locate the instigator from all of this mess.”

The Headmistress paused, and popped over to the officials. Plying them with a smile and a piece of shragon wool, she guided them to their next room to see the merkitty. Pleased that they got something from the Shragon they seemed as if they were more pliant to the Headmistress.

Professor Tahm met them at the door. She was already informed of what they threatened to do with the Shragon, and was not having it. She let them in to see the sweet little merkitten taking a nap. She provided them with a piece of merkitten fur shaved at the neck but would not let them approach the little dear. The officials left after taking general measurements.

“I don’t like it!” bsilver1215 exclaimed.

“They’re going to try and take them away or worse. I heard the message!” VictoriaTuel said.

The poor sweet merkitten had been rather solemn that it had not been able to play with it’s shragon buddy. Ah, the times of frolicking in the little bubble was such fun last week…..

The headmistress guided the officials out to the next item on their agenda...the dragons and sheep.

Dragon Pens….

So, to say Magellan was pissed would be an understatement. There were these other stick wavers that were trying to poke his Sheep. The normal stick wavers seemed to be speaking rather loudly to these other stick wavers in the long robes. Magellan paced inside his pen looking to see his sweet sheep having some of her wool shorn. Oh, no. Her fluffy locks! It was bad enough that he couldn’t see his little fluff, though the little Shragon assured him that sleeping in the fireplace was quite nice, he knew that something was up with these other stick wavers. No one messes with his sheep.

Lancelot and Dante gently encouraged Magellan to stand down. Instigating things now would not work well for Sheep and the little fluff, and he knows the stick wavers would never let true harm come to them. Huffing, Magellan plopped down as Sheep came back to the pen, nosing at Magellan to let him know she was ok.

There was only one place left for the officials to go….the northern staircase.

Meanwhile at the MACUSA Registry…

“Now, I’m not saying that you need to approve this paper work now, nor that you need to put it at the top of the list, but we happen to know that a review meeting is occurring in five minutes.” Kisame29 said.

“We know that there are officials who told you to put this on the bottom of the pile and to skip the previous cycle on review.” PrincessSlytherin said.

“Ok, fine. I’m cutting your funding for Project 234Y.” Yume replied and started walking off.

“You wouldn’t do that. That’s unethical,” the Registry minion replied.

“No what’s unethical, is that we put in that amendment for the previous cycle and it didn’t get looked at. You are technically in violation of statute 23.45.5a.” ches18 said.

“If this is not covered at the review meeting, which we will be attending as it is available to the public, then there is the possibility that I might find your funding source cut from the next cycle or lose your application.” Wand Maester Yume provided. “I’m on the council for MACUSA-FTA funding, and I might just place your items on the bottom of the pile or revoke privileges permanently.”

“Fine, fine, it’s on the top of the pile, here, see,” as the official placed the document on the top of the file.

“Excellent, PrincessSlytherin stay with the nice official here and escort them with the paperwork in a few minutes. I want that stamped with three copies made,” as ches18 produced 4 approval forms.

“Why so many copies,” PrincessSlytherin asked.

“One for the MACUSA, one for Ilvermonry’s safe, one for me, and one to be placed in a separate location.” Kisme29 replied.

A tear came to Yume’s eye. “I’m so proud.”

MACUSA Review of Blinkling Accord…

“Wha, the Blinkling Accord, someone wants an amendment on this old thing. Is there anyone here to defend it?” the official paused before attempting to tear it up.

“It won’t tear!” the official exclaimed, “which means someone is here to defend it.”

Smiling broadly the group stood up and requested that they review the form. Refusing to recognize an official seal from a school such as Ilvermorny in their presence would not go well for them. And they wanted to attend some of the parties that the families of some of the members were known to have.

“Is that you ches18, how is your family? I haven’t seen you since you were little! What are you doing here?”

“Doing quite well thank you. We’re just trying to help some poor creatures who need help,” ches18 said solemnly. “We just want to make sure that they’re safe and protected.”

The officials reviewed the application.
“Honestly, it looks rather standard. Protection of magical creatures, though I must admit these are some new ones. A shragon and a merkitty? You guys doing breeding experiments?” another official asked.

“No Mam. We always do paperwork before accepting magical creatures at Ilvermonry. We have the forms for merkitty and shragon residence right here.” PrincessSlytherin said bringing up official documents.

“Ah, so you do. So, this is just an amendment making them protected is what it looks like. That seems fair enough. Oh, you have a second application it seems for demiguise and moon calf residence. Where did you find those.”

“We’re not sure where they came from. They just appeared in the northern stairwell one day and we wanted to make sure that we were covered in expedited fashion.” Yume politely said.

“Ah, very good, very good. Well, I don’t see why we can’t approve both of these now. I mean who, better than a school to house these creatures where they can be safe,” the official said while stamping each of the applications and their respective copies and handing it to Kisme29.

Kisame29 handed it to Yume for inspection. Everything was in order.

“Let’s go back before the Ministry tries something stupid.” ches18 said.

Yume sent her patronus back to Ilvermonry to race ahead of them to let them know it went through.

Back at Ilvermonry…

“The officials are writing up their official report in the other room,” bdbchick said as Yume, Kisame29, PrincessSlytherin, and ches18 came in.

Yume and ches18 handed the papers to Professor Arielluma and Professor Tahm, who looked at them and smiled broadly. They went through the door in the middle of the meeting with the headmistress.

“Ah, Professors Arielluma and Tahm! You look as if you have something important to say,” the headmistress smiled sweetly.

“Yep! The Blinkling Accord Amendment and Residence amendments were approved. No experiments can be ran on the shragon, Sheep, or merkitty outside of taking a little fur.” Professor Arielluma beamed.

“Wha, he was supposed to delay that going through the meeting.” the MACUSA official mumbled.

“What was that?” Professor Tahm queried.

“Nothing, nothing, congratulations. Well we were finished here. Everything checks out with that approval now I suppose. We’ll be off. But anymore mysterious half-sheep dragon type combos come back we will be seeing you again.” the official warned.

The officials left out the door. One of the officials pulled a note from the door and handed it off to Professor JGundz.

“It seems you guys had a note while you were out,” walking off.

It’s me you’re looking for! Now ain’t that sweet! The first clue to find me will be a treat. Look for it where you make something to eat!

“The eff? Let’s go to the kitchens.” wind_luver said.

Grandmam and Grandpap were a little irritated as the group approached. “Some odd fellow with this Cockney accent came by and left a note. Said my cheese pie was the best,” Grandmam beamed.

Now that you’re fed, go and look for a clue where a dragon lays it’s head!

“Dragons, oh, dear.” everyone thinks while heading off to the dragon pens.

There’s a small fire at the dragon pens. It looks like someone irritated Magellan as he is spitting fire and protecting Sheep with his tail. A fire-proof piece of parchment is seen floating in the air.

The next place you’ll need to look, is the place you find a book!

The library you say as you run to the bookshelf

Making your way to the bookshelf you see a glowing note sticking out from one of the story books.

Have you heard the news? The next clue can be found where you keep your shoes.

The mudroom you cry and run.

Inside of a boot you peek with a note glowing purple…

Don’t tear the room apart! Just take a look in the stuff for art!

Art, ah the paintings in the hallways!

A tiny slip of paper is seen flitting around the room. One of the students quickly grabs it as if it were a snitch.

Looking for the missing link? Take a peek inside the sink!

Hurriedly you make your way back to the kitchen.

“That odd young man came back for another piece of my cheese pie,” Grandmam beamed, “oh, and to give you this.”

Looking for the final prize? Go where you can look into your own eyes.

Rushing off you make your way to a mirror in the great hall to where you see a list reflected in the mirror.

Find these items, do these acts, and soon you shall see, only the best will I reveal me.

Care of Magical Creatures

This cute little bird is called a Diricawl (known to no-maj as a Dodo). It is a XX Beast and is native to the African island of Mauritius. They are plump, fluffy-feathered and flightless with an ability to disappear and reappear elsewhere, similar to our apparition. They have a reputation for being rather dumb animals, but I don’t believe they deserve that as they show a great ability to learn. This guy is very used to people and as long as you all stay calm and gentle, he will not disappear on you if you want to come up in small groups and meet him. He likes having his feathers ruffled gently.

jgundz

Announcement of Mad Breeder being caught

The Mad Breeder “Timmy” has been caught. He will be escorted back to England to await trial for misuse of breeding creatures. He has a letter that he wants the fellows at Ilvermorny to have. As soon as someone deciphers it we will relay that information to you!

In other news: the Wizengamot and MACUSA has given Ilvermorny the task of providing new homes for these creatures as we are the most fitting location (and they saw the Shragon - Merkitty friendship and couldn’t break that up and were kinda sorta blackmailed gently pushed ^.^).

Crumpled Letter on the floor...

Sir Timmy,

Where are the magical creatures you spoke of? A half cat-mermaid? People would pay good money for this. We paid you gold to make these creatures, as you have made fantastic beasts before. We would hate for you not to keep up your end of the bargain. If you do not keep up your end of the bargain we will expose you. We may not have magic, but we will find you. You and the rest of those magical folk. We know there’s a school here in America now.

But of course none of this will be a problem will it, Sir Timmy?

All the best,