Term 6

jgundz

Chapter 1 - Welcome Back

The green pines and snow covered trees of Mt. Greylock in winter rose into view as the first year student kbowers44 made her way towards the the base of the mountain, acceptance letter in hand. “I don’t understand why the portkey wouldn’t just take us straight to Williamstown as usual,” she huffed, her belongings weighing upon her back.

“We can’t be using magic there with all of the ruckus being caused with the No-Maj lately,” mrmcgrath replied, catching up beside her. “At the end of last term, I heard that there was a mad breeder taken back to England and they had to obliviate some of the locals.”

“Yeah, there was also that strange letter that the breeder dropped. Seemed like he had a few people after him. I think that resolved itself, or at least that’s what my older cousin told me.” Ches18 remembered.

Finger tracing the golden knot pin of Ilvermorny, kbowers44 took in the winterscape as they trudged through the snow. At least the path to school was cleared a bit, by the pukwudgies no doubt. She’d heard a rumor they were watching over the students as they made their way up, to keep any first years from getting too turned around. “Okay, enough of this, they say the first mile is easy. The climb on the second mile, that’s where the challenge kicks in.“ mrmcgrath grinned, walking backwards and making a ‘come on’ motion with her hands to her new friend.

Huffing as she picked up the pace, Ches18 said, “You just want to get there in time to get some of Grandmam’s cheese pie.”

kbowers44 stopped in her tracks, a look of mild disgust on her face. “Cheese pie?” she questioned.

“Trust me, it is the noms.” Ches18 said. With that, she tugged on kbowers44 arm as they set off.

Upon reaching the top of the mountain and the Ilvermorny grounds, the students’ pins granting entry past the wards, the valley below sparkled into view. A white dusting of snow and ice was seen everywhere. Entering the castle, first years were directed into the main dining hall. It looked like Grandmam had been cooking for days in preparation!

“Pancakes!” mrmcgrath shouted in exhausted jubilation. “Oh my, how delicious! And look at all of the possible toppings. Honey, syrup, butter, sugar, lemon juice! It even looks like Grandmam was able to make pancakes out of…” she sniffed, “Bananas?”

“You are forcing me to make this ‘healthy version’ and I feel ridiculous.” Grandmam grumbled. At first, mrmcgrath thought Grandmam was addressing her, but when Grandmam continued, raising her voice towards Grandpap, she sighed in relief at not being the target of the perturbed pukwudgie. “Say that you like my crepes, old puk!”

“You know, just to put this out there..” a brave returning Pukwudgie student ventured, “I had a whole mess of crepes this morning. They're just like pancakes, maybe even better.”

“Wait, are they the really thin pancakes?” Grandpap asked.

Grandmam’s eyes bulged in annoyance. “You haven’t even looked at them! See this is what you get for being picky and judging the food by the name.”

“Oh, those are good,” Grandpap grumbled lowly.

“Man, these are really good!” Coop925 said, then suddenly, turned his head to look at westpancake with puppy dog eyes.

“You are not getting my pancakes, Coop925,” westpancake said pointedly, not even looking up. But it seemed he wasn’t interested in the pancakes at all anymore as Coop925 glomped westpancake into a big hug.

Across the room, bdbchick suddenly pulled wind_luver into a deep hug, while Hamsibian gave StaffieLass a hug from behind. All around pancakes were being abandoned for hugging.

“What the...? My pancakes smell… well good, but weird for pancakes. Like musky and minty. Hey, Professor Tahm, do your pancakes smell funny?” Yume said. Professor Tahm was in the middle of trying to hug Professor Junodog1. Shrugging, because that’s not really that strange, Yume opted for the bacon and dippy eggs instead.

“Musk and mint, no, it smells like lillies and cinnamon,” Professor Zindroth said.

“No….” Headmistress Jgundz said, exasperation in her voice as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Amortentia…”

“How do you stop amortentia?” rusgolden asked, narrowly escaping a hug as another student was glomped beside her.

“Well, it’ll go away after a day or two, metabolize that is, or you could give a detestful potion to counter it.” Emeritus Professor rbratt helpfully supplied. “The better question is why was a love potion in the pancakes?”

With all of the commotion going on, the little shragon fluff and merkitty came up to the table unnoticed. The merkitty, being quite mischievous, swiped two of the pancakes for itself and the fluff. My_Butt noticed the two stuffing their face with the pancakes topped with whipped cream and pointed out the two munching on pancakes to the staff.

“No…no, no, no! We are not doing this again! I am not having the Ministry come down here because a new hybrid popped up!” Headmistress Jgundz said, frustration evident in her voice as she began to get up.

“They shouldn’t be …compatible, right?” SeriouslySta queried with uncertainty, looking at a returning Horned Serpent student beside her.

“We don’t know, is part of the problem. Because they’re the first of their kind, it’s a bit of an unexplored avenue, their ways of reproduction,” Ariecpotter answered.

Yume hurriedly finished the rest of her crepe and pushed back from the table. “I guess we need to separate them for the day, and I’ll write an emergency provisional amendment.”

As soon as the little fluff and merkitty realized that everyone had begun advancing on them, they started slowly backing away, eyes darting to each person with suspicion. “It’s okay,” kiri127 cooed in the soft, sing-song voice one reserves for children and animals. “We just want to snuggle you, little fluff… snuggle you far away from the merkitty for a bit...” But the animals, wary of being cornered after stealing human treats, chose to bolt in opposite directions instead.

Hurriedly, the Headmistress instructed, “kiri127, kyog29, and Zensology -- you gals go after the shragon.”

“Watch out for small fires.” Professor Juno called out helpfully after them as the students scurried away.

“VictoriaTuel, Scruggla88, and Briaboo4, you all go after the merkitty. Now that merkitty is a wiley one, watch out for puddles to trip you up.” Jgundz finished. With a flick of her wand, she stacked the plates at her table to make it easier on those that were cleaning the tables. “I have to go to the library, research into a more expedient cure that doesn’t involve the use of skunk spray. Those Detestable potions are detestable for a reason…”

After much fuss, the merkitty and shragon were caught. Well, not caught so much as they were found snuggling by the fireplace in the Thunderbird common room. No shenanigans were had, it seemed. Just snuggles. Darn, that’s cute.

“We’ll watch over them tonight,” Thunderbirds kiri127 and My_Butt volunteered.

“Prevent any shenanigans,” My_Butt said with a grin while wiggling their eyebrows.

“Why can’t a semester ever start normally,” Professor Junodog said, eyes rolling.

“Oh, you like it,” Professor Zindroth replied, bumping her shoulder. “It’s one of Ilvermorny greatest strengths. Being abnormal.”

That got a chuckle out of Juno. “Indeed it is.”

Headmistress Jgundz gathered the students in the menagerie for their first CoMC class.

“Welcome students! I hope you have all survived this morning’s mishaps unscathed,” she announced. “Now since this morning’s overly friendliness was caused by Amortentia, we thought it only appropriate to educate you on one of its ingredients -- but only one. We do not need any more mishaps of this nature with a curious student trying their own brew.” She added, looking pointedly at a squirming Wampus.

“Well which one will we be learning about?” NelsonKatelyn inquired.

Jgundz smiled and brought out a metal box from the side of the room. She opened it to expose a thin, pale grey snake with red eyes. “This is an Ashwinder,” she began. “The Ashwinder is classified as a XXX beast. They rise from the embers of the dying fire and slither off into a dark corner to lay their eggs, leaving an ashy trail behind. Ashwinders only live for an hour, this one has about 45 minutes left and will collapse to dust when it has laid its eggs. Ashwinder eggs are red and give off intense heat. If they can be frozen with a Freezing Charm, they can be used in a Love Potion or eaten whole as a cure for ague. Since Ashwinders are created by magical fires, they could be found in many magical residences. However, if they manage to roam free and lay their eggs, the eggs will ignite and may burn the building down within minutes, which is why we take great care to watch them when they are found.

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.

jgundz

Why Amortentia? Attacks nearby

Of course the professors were going to be looking into the Amortentia potion being thrown into the pancakes. Grandmam was furious someone had ruined her pancakes, and as returning students could attest, no one ever intentionally ruins something Grandmam makes without consequences.

While looking through their schedule, brittk2013 notices that there is a new elective available. Herbology.

“Oh, that’s neat. I think I might try Herbology. Who’s teaching it this term?” brittk2013 asks.

“Professor Zindroth is. I heard that she went off to Kolkata India to gather langset fruit, rose apples, and dragon fruit plants. While she was there she learned about this thing called yoga.” Grandmajackie replied.

Walking to the herbology classroom, they see Professor Zindroth stretching out with some yoga.

During the Herbology lesson, the students learned about a few of the ingredients used in the Amortentia potion fiasco that happened last week. During the lesson Ches18 went to the lake to gather water lettuce, hydrillia, and clasping-leaf pondweed.

“Where’s all the peppermint? It looks like it was all cut.” Ches18 said.

“They’re all gone!” elisemaeh exclaimed running to the lake with Tara43634.

“All of the roses were cut down! karateninja101, elisemaeh, and I worked really hard to get those things to grow! The heads of the flowers are just cut off and thrown carelessly on the ground!” Tara43634 frustratedly growled.

“Mint and roses….” Ches18 quietly said.

“Amortentia uses both of those, and with what happened last week…” Tara43634 paused.

“That was no accident.” Ches18 prompted.

Rushing back to the castle, they noticed that the door handles had been replaced by ropes. Wait, was the castle playing tricks again. Really of all the times.

“Castle, trying to be cute again,” Calli1616 grumbles.

“Now, be nice, the last time someone insulted the castle, it decided to make all of the walls bright pink.” cpanus recalled.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad. Not like when it decided to remove the bathrooms from the castle.” lemurcat12 shuddered.

As if the castle had head the insult, more ropes appeared spinning around in the air.

Out of breath trying to jump through and around the ropes, the students made it to the staff office. Pausing to collect their breath, the students apologized to the castle and the ropes disappeared. How about that?

Knocking on the door, they were invited into the staff office. The a few of the staff members were having tea with biscuits.

“But seriously though, that doesn’t make any sense…” Professor Juno paused.

“We think the Amortentia ingredients were taken from Ilvermorny.” Tara43634 said.

“We’re not sure if the pancake incident was a research test or if it was a by-product.” Ches18 noted.

“The question I want answered is why.” Professor zindroth stated. “We were recently investigated by the MACUSA, and thank goodness we have Saeraphine over there representing us now, but I wonder if it was one of them.”

“Or maybe it was the people who threatened Timmy? That letter was rather threatening.” Headmistress jgundz mused.

“But why would they threaten Ilvermorny? Timmy was the one who, ah nevermind, you never know.” Proffesor tahm said.

“Regardless we need to look into this more. Bless their hearts, they don’t know what’s coming” yumesoraki said.

“I’ll send a letter to our MACUSA representative Saeraphine,” westpancake said. “She typically responds rather quickly.”

“We’ll do a quick sweep of the castle grounds to see if anything else is missing or out of the ordinary.” PaulaKro said.

“In the mean time, go to your CoMC lesson.” Professor tahm said.

“I will walk with you.” Headmistress jgundz said, leading them away.

Professor jgundz gathered the students in the menagerie for their second CoMC class.

“Welcome students! While some of the other staff are searching around for anything that’s out of place we are going to learn about how one of the other ingredients are made for Amortentia"

“Well which one will we be learning about?” whitefire78 inquired.

Prof jgundz smiled and a glass container filled with saltwater floated across the room. “These are shelled mollusks. Some of you may call them oysters. They’re quite tasty with a little hot sauce. The oyster is classified as a X non-magical beast. Oysters produce pearls, and pearl dust is used to make Amortentia. Saltwater pearls tend to be more round and luminescent. A natural pearl begins its life inside an oyster's shell when an intruder, such as a grain of sand or bit of floating food, slips in between one of the two shells of the oyster.In order to protect itself from irritation, the oyster will quickly begin covering the uninvited visitor with layers of nacre. Layer upon layer of nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, coat the grain of sand until the iridescent gem is formed.

“Pearls can be artificially created if someone puts a grain of sand there, right?” 220Dani asks.

“That’s right!” Professor JGundz replies.

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.

*Pan over to a shragon and merkitty playing. Oh, look a little unicorn is playing with them. Such epic cuteness. It could only be cuter if….no…..do they all have big fluffy bows on their heads? And is the air around them sparkling? But how is the merkitty floating that high in the air? It’s like they’re sitting on a horse*


Back in the dining hall, the staff and students have gathered for supper. Grandpap calls everyone to go outside.

“We’re roasting things on the fire outside tonight,” Grandpap puffs. “And in the coals too. The char gives it a good flavor.”

Everyone gathers as Professor tahm charms some of the toadstools to turn into low sitting tables while Professor juno places a warming charm around the area. The icy white snow makes the stars somehow appear even clearer than normal. It is a beautiful night out. On the tables the meals suddenly appear. It’s a sweet potato feast! Coop925 looks at the sweet potatoes with pain, while Yumesoraki looks for some garlic and pepper to add.

After enjoying the delicious food prepared by Grandmam, your gaze goes out to where Deerfield is. It’s a little brighter than normal at Deerfield. It’s normally rather dark by this hour. Wait is that smoke?

jgundz

Attacks on Deerfield

As the students gazed out to Deerfield, they noticed fire coming from the small town with echos of yelling and crying out.

“No, not here.” GrandmaJackie said.

“We knew that this might happen,” Professor tahm said. “It’s why Dapperwulf went to try and resolve those issues at French court. It seems the French decided to attack here now.”

“Of course England had to declare war on France and Spain. This has just further exacerbated the tensions of the natives with the colonists.” ashdawg8790 cried.

“And we’ve worked so hard to be on good terms with them too.” Emeritus Professor rbratt06 said sadly.

“Well, what are we standing around waiting here for? Let’s go help them!” DanielleFayeS said.

“We’ll need some people to stay here and watch over the castle.” Headmistress jgundz said.

“Let’s put a post of three people in each direction,” yumesoraki stated.

“SeriouslySta, Cpanus, and BeeQueen2016, you watch around the stables and gamehouse. Ariecpotter, Briaboo4, and 6andromeda9, you watch near the lake. 220Dani, ashdawg8790, and Ches18, you watch front doors. Calacolindo, alisonbarkerjevne, and Calli1616, you watch the back. And cunning_linguist and ejkinsey84 you guys go up in the tower and be on lookout.” Professor tahm42 instructed.

“This would’ve been a great time to make sure everyone knows how to produce a patronus,” zindroth grumbled.

“Yeah, let’s make that the next lesson.” Junodog said.

At Deerfield….<trigger warning>

Due to the nature of what happened at the Raid of Deerfield, Massachusetts in Queen Anne’s War on February 29, 1704, we are providing a warning on the following part of the story. During Raid of Deerfield many of the residents fell to their invaders, with some captives being forced to march to Canada. You may open the spoiler to read this part of the story or skip over it.

Massive havoc had been wrecked over the small town. The tall wooden fence enclosing the area was burning. Looking around are the bodies of what looked to be around fifty men, women, and children. Blood soaked the ground in spots, with some people crawling gasping at the air around them. Some of the residents were looking around in a haze confused as to what just happened. All of the stocks of food were raided and any winter crops had been razed to the ground.

Working quickly, Professor yumesoraki instructed the students to use Aguamenti to put out some of the fires. Hearing the neighing of horses, the students were horrified to see the stables on fire. Rushing to the stables past the warning of Headmistress jgundz; Zumbaforever and wind_luver rushed into the stables to try and get some of the horses out, while VictoriaTuel and whitefire78 used stabilizing charms on the roof and doors so the horses could get out safely. With one horse remaining the weight of the ceiling began to shift. The charms could only hold out for so long. The little horse and wind_luver carefully made it out of the just as the ceiling finally caved in behind them.

Looking around to find survivors, workmani & Tara43634 found a pair of children, an old woman, and a few families that had managed to hide during the attack. They relayed their story of horror. How the natives and French had attacked and dragged off family members and neighbors. How some of them were no longer with us. Where were they going to live? How would they survive? Would they ever see their families and neighbors again?

“Rest assured that we will help you in any way that we can. Let’s look around for any other people, and we will take you to Libertyville. It will help them be prepared for an attack. We will try and help you set up some protection as well.” Professor Tahm42 said.

Professor tahm sent a fox patronus back to Ilvermorny relaying what transpired and that thejaypill and Spirit_Samurai would be sent with the small group as an escort.

Pausing sadly, the party split returning to Ilvermorny.

A fox passed by a rabbit. Messages at the same time? Uh-oh.

At Ilvermorny, they had problems of their own. The professors were right to keep some people there on guard. Professor Junodog and zindroth felt poking at their magical barrier, and they weren’t stopping. No-Maj didn’t come to Ilvermonry unless if they had permission, and typically turned around feeling chilled and spooked when approaching the castle. No, this had to be magical folk. Magical folk, who were not in-tuned to the barrier’s magic.

With a sudden crack, the barrier near the lake broke. The mermaids in the lake dove under the water into their alcoves where few could reach. Wearing masks, these individuals were unidentifiable. kiri127 quickly sent out a rabbit patronus to Professor jgundz while rusgolden cast a quick protective barrier around the two and the lake. Those extra lessons after class paid off! Passing by the nearby brush, the two masked individuals disturbed a nest. Oh, boy. They disturbed the Fairy Queen’s winter estate, and she was pissed.

While the masked individuals had somehow managed to piss off the fae, Talhonjik and Scruggla88 hurried back to the castle unnoticed. They ran to the stables. If nothing else, Magellan would be very protective of Sheep.

At the stables, the dragons were restless. Talhonjik and Scruggla88 revealed to Cpanus and BeeQueen2016 what had happened.

“They were wearing masks, and not very good ones either! They managed to run into Queen Titania’s winter estate, and so they were being attacked while we made our way here.” Scruggla88 said.

“I’ve sent a patronus to Professor Junodog who is up in the tower. “ Cpanus said.

“What about the people at the front door?” wind_luver asked.

“I’ll send one real quick.” whitefire78 said, forming a terrier and sending it off.

“Really, a terrier?” Zumbaforever queried.

“What? A terrier is a good patronus.” whitefire78 replied.

Chuckling they noticed Magellan had started pacing again. Sheep of course was munching on strawberries that Magellan had specially picked for her.

While Dante was glaring at the paddock and suddenly walked out to the entrance. The horses, thestrals and unicorn were pacing in their stalls. The merkitten and shragon were playing in the equine stalls paid no mind to the unrest. The merkitten was again floating in the air. Oh, right thestrals, that’s why the merkitten was floating the other day. It looks as if the merkitten, shragon, and unicorn colts are playing cards while wearing big pink bows, no wait they’re blue, now they’re purple. I guess they change with mood. Wait, how can they hold the cards?

Dante suddenly puffed up, eyes narrowing. Lancelot joined beside him. A blast of fire came from their mouths as you could hear muffled voices outside attempting to knock out the dragons. Their cloaks singed and arms were burnt. Squealing in pain, the intruders retreated. Yeah, you don’t want to mess with our dragons. Dante and Lancelot looked at each other shook their heads. It sounded like the dragons were chuckling at the event that just happened. They returned to their paddocks un-worried.

Professor Junodog rushed to the stables seeing the masked intruders fleeing. The students relayed what had happened.

“Well, I almost feel bad for them. Normal salve won’t heal dragon fire burns. You need some very expensive ointment for that. And it will only minimize the scarring.” Professor Junodog commented. Re-erecting the barrier, all intruders had been removed.

“I’ve been communicating with the party at Deerfield and it wasn’t pretty. The attack tonight wasn’t out of nowhere. It was timed.” Professor Junodog explained.

The Deerfield party had arrived back at the castle. It was so late, that the breaking of dawn could be seen.

“I need some sleep” Tara43634 said yawning.

“Sleep? I’m way too wired to sleep right now!” workmani said.

“Well, I was going to go through plants that aid in sleep tomorrow, well now today’s lesson for herbology, but I suppose learning about some yoga that can help you sleep will work for now.” Professor zindroth explained

*A deep cold starts to fall over the land*

Headmistress jgundz gathered the students near the lake at the fairy queen’s winter estate. The fairy queen looks quite pleased with herself. Apparently some of the students took it upon themselves to help repair her estate and was willing to be seen.

“Welcome students! Today we will be talking about the most wonderfully beautiful fairy.” Headmistress jgundz announces

The fairy queen preened and made a high pitch buzzing sound at the compliment.

“The fairy is a bit of a vain creature. They like to groom themselves, and communicate by high-pitched buzzing noises and laughing. They possess a weak magic, but can attack fiercely if insulted or when evading predators.”

“Their wings are used in certain potions, which we don’t do,” looking pointedly at the fairy queen, “but removal of their wings hurts their vanity more than them."

Fairies are a XX Beast classification.

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.

jgundz

Who led the attacks??

Overnight a hard frost had taken over the land. It may not be the beautiful snow laden land from when you first came to Ilvermorny, but now it was bitterly cold.

Wind_luver & briaboo4 are tasked to walk to the dragon food stores. Remember no mutton….

“This cold is nothing compared to what we have to deal with back in London” wind_luver quips.

“It’s just as cold in Michigan. My old grandmam had this special wand that she had crafted to use in crochet. Imbued extra warmth throughout the body. She also used it for other projects that would charm clothing to never be lost. My father tended to lose his jackets often growing up,” briaboo4 chuckled.

Upon arriving at the dragon food stores, it is noted that all of the meat is frozen solid. Yeak.

“Well, apparently Dante had no issue eating the cold meat.” gam3rguy said.

“Yeah, but Mageallan is a bit pickier and lit his on fire.” thejaypill snorted.

Passing by the paddocks they notice an odd stick with rune markings on it. Odd.... the jaypll picks up the stick and swishes it around causing a minor explosion nearby.

“Oh, my that’s a wand. I wonder if one of the students lost theirs already?”gam3rguy mused.

“It doesn’t look like a wood that the Wand Maester uses. It’s Hawthorn. My cousin who graduated a few years ago has that kind.” thejaypill said.

Moving back to the castle they turn the wand over to the Wand Maester who was meeting with the MACUSA representative Saeraphine and Headmistress JGundz.

“No, they did not procreate. Either they’re still too innocent for that or it just can’t happen. We’ve put the spells in place in case of an Amortentia mishap or any other kind of intentional forced breeding. Not dealing with that.” HM Jgundz said.

thejaypill handed the Hawthorn wand over to the Wand Maester.

“Hmm, Hawthorne. Nine and three-quarter inches long.” Looking down the wand she placed her ear to the wand. “Dragon heartstring. Expensive wand..shame to be paired with a Hawthorne. Really a better pairing would’ve been..” Yume paused as everyone around her glared.

“Right, to the point, made by...Gervaise over across the pond. Not sure who this is owned by. “ Yume said.

“But it’s obviously not any of ours, and any Ministry staff. They would have much better cores.” ME Saeraphine noted. “You should put it in the vault. The owner will show up at some point.”

Professor Zindroth’s squirrel patronus came up to HM JGundz. “Yeah, we’ve got a masked guy who is looking around frantically around the lake. He keeps shouting where is it. He’s fending off students right now. We’ve got him cornered. Assistance would be appreciated.”

“Well, that might be him. Let’s put this in the vault and see what the henchman has done…”HM JGundz said.

Arriving at the lake, students are found to be handedly duelling the masked man. Shots of purple and blue fly across to field to be deflected back at the casters and the trees.

One of the branches begins to fall as the masked man tumbles away while blasting a yellow beam across the field almost hitting BeeQueen2016.

“Nope. I’ve got a fun spell for him.” My_Butt says as she gathers 3 marbles out of her cloak. Placing them on the ground she turns them into toy soldiers. “Me and kiri127 have been working on this spell for…..um…”

“Fun” kiri127 quickly interjects. She and My_Butt engorge the toy soldiers to become the size of a troll. Charming them they begin to march towards the masked man.

The masked man had a touch of trouble with the toy soldiers. He managed to take them down, but one of the soldiers managed to rip off half of his mask and his hair binding had come undone, forcing his black hair to spill out over the left half of his face.

“I’m having serious deja vu from Phantom of the Opera,” katsheare says.

“Phantom of the Opera? Nah, this is more like Zoro. But less debonair.” rikkejohnsenrij quips.

“No, no. The Dread Pirate Roberts! Wonderful story Princess Bride!. “ bdbchick says as they are interrupted.

“ENOUGH! ENOUGH with the prattling about people with masks! Do you have any idea, what is at stake here? It was supposed to be an easy job, they said. It would just be students they said. BUT no. You have to actually be, “ the partially masked man yells.

“Langlock” westpancake boredly says forcing the half masked man to have his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. Some of the older students chuckled remembering an incident from a few years ago.

“Incarcerous” rusgolden encanted binding the masked man causing him to fall to the ground as he dropped his wand to the ground.

Thejaypill picked up the wand as Grandmam easily picked him up over her head and started walking to the castle tossing him up a few feet every step.

“I am always amazed at how ridiculously strong Grandmam is.” Scruggla88 said with awe.

“Well, you must remember that Pukwudgies are inherently strong.” Professor Tahm42 beamed.

“It’s all about your inner warrior,” Grandpap puffs, “and stretches, but that might just be a Pukwudgie thing.”


Arriving back at the castle, a new room has appeared. How convenient to arrive for our guest. Grandmam tosses the now unmasked man onto the floor and goes back to the kitchen.

“I’m going to make some tea and biscuits. Do you want anything” she says ignoring the man grumbling on the floor.

savvyrose88 says, “Some biscuits would be….”

“No thank you Grandmam,” 6andromeda9 quickly interrupts, “we need to take care of business first,” looking pointedly at the man on the ground.

“Right, I’ll leave you some out on the table for later then,” Grandmam winks.

Wand out of sight and in a charmed room the man starts twitching. “Give me my wand. I need it now.”

“Yeah, no.” savvyrose88 says.

“No, I need it, I’ll cut a deal. Yeah, that’s right you found that other wand right? That’s J Stewart’s. Don’t know his first name, never really told us. He had me looking for it when he dropped it visiting here. Expensive thing has been in his family for years. I mean, my original wand was a Willow with a Kelpie core. Weak little thing, so I got this beauty that you have in your hands their. Unicorn hair. Wonderful thing.” the man babbled. “Look they’re going to meet at the bar next week. Celebrating that weird Irish holiday and to collect their payday. Recon and intel still provide a good payday even if we couldn’t get that little fluffy sheep dragon spawn. It’s all about who’s willing to pay you or get you out of a bind in our world. And they were paying a steep price. Gosh, all the things I would’ve bought….” her rambled on.

“And so what’s your name then?” 6andromeda9 asked finally tired of the rambling.

“My wand and I’ll give you my name,” he stubbornly replied.

“Fine” savvyrose88 said, handing the wand over.

“Doesn’t matter anyway. With the amount of spells and charms we’ve placed on him, he can’t use it at Ilvermorny anyway. Or on the local area. Or on any No-Maj,” Professor zindroth oted thoughtfully.

“We were rather thorough. Besides, a good fellow like this could be a great help to us, and I’m sure we can reach an arrangement and use you as a contact point. I’m sure you would like to have a reduced or nonexistent sentence for all of this,” Headmistress jgundz smiled.

Grabbing the wand he breathed a sigh of relief. As if a piece of him was missing was now part of him again. He must be addicted to magic like some folks are addicted to muggle tech.

“Oh, right, I’m Murph Breathnach. At your service.” the man said

“Alright that’s enough for now, you guys need to go and check in on the thestrals. I think they got spooked earlier.” Headmistress jgundz said walking out of the new room.

Headmistress jgundz gathered the students in the stables near where the thestrals lie. Some students were confused as they saw nothing. ME Saeraphine provided them with some Ministry approved thestral viewing glasses.

“Welcome students! Today we will be talking about the thestral." HM jgundz began explaining

Black winged skeletal looking horses nervously looked around with all of the people looking at them.
“They're quite gentle, really…” ariecpotter says passing out hanks of meat for the students to toss to the thestrals. The thestrals approach the students from the smell of the bloody meat.

“But people avoid them because they're a bit...different or thought of as unlucky. They can only be seen by people who've seen death." HM jgundz was telling them. “They’re classified as a XXXX beast, and it’s highly discouraged to have them, and illegal in certain cases. That’s why we have a copy of our approval letter in their paddock for easy reference.”

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.

jgundz

St Patty's Day

The staff and students at Ilvermorny had spent all week working on a plan to capture the scourers. Charms were needed to ensure no one would be able to escape after the plan had commenced.

“No we also need an anti-apparation shield,” westpancake argued. “Although it’s rare that wizards can apparate without their wands, it’s still possible.”

“If we are able to disarm them and weaken them, then it shouldn’t be a problem,” Professor tahm countered. “We want to make sure that we can get out in case if this goes south. Similarly for the students.”

“How about having a portkey?” wind_luver suggested. “That should provide a good compromise. And have it lead to one of the magically protected rooms at Ilvermorny so that even if something happens, their magic will be negated.”

“A port-key may work, and I suppose we could set the timing on it to only be able to transport every time there is a zero on the clock, so 11:00-11:10. 11:20, 11:30, etc...,I think ME Saeraphine got us permission to create portkeys to return to Ilvermorny because of the location,” Professor yumesoraki said shuffling through a set of papers nodding emphatically after finding the document.

“So what will be our object?” briaboo4 asked questioningly.

“Oh, I got it! It’s going to be a celebration for St. Patrick’s day right? How about a glass of water? No one there will be trying to drink that!” ariecpotter said chuckling.

With the port-key created(with some very special parameters), everyone began going over their assignments.

“BeeQueen2016 & brittk2013 you will be grooming the horses right outside the pub.” Professor zind instructed.

“Workmani, kbowers44 & riverpond25, you will stay at the castle with Professor Juno for when we bring these people in.”

“Ches18 & Professor Tahm will be with Professor Yume at the end of the bar with the, umm, distraction part of the plan. Make sure to have a few whiskey’s and special items with you.” HM JGundz said shaking her head chuckling. Yeah, that’ll be a distraction. It’s a good thing that katsheare has worked so hard on their illusion magic to make this work.

“lemurcat12, melonpaul, nefariousjedi, & bdbchick will be at the back table playing cards.”

“Which card game should we be playing?” bdbchick asked.

“Something loud and argumentative! Like….Rook!” melonpaul said.

“I don’t know how to play Rook, how about something like Hearts or Spades?” lemurcat12 said.

All nodded that they could play Hearts or Spades.

“So, who’s going to pretend to try and drink them under the table?” HM Jgundz requested.

Wand Maester Yume’s hand immediately shot up in excitement.

“Are you sure you can do that with your part of the distraction that you need to be doing” ariecpotter questioned.

Yume sadly lowered her hand. “Fine….I’ll just take my 3 whiskeys at the corner…”.

“We could get the barkeep in on this. Have him announce the challenge with a reward of free drinks for a year.” spirit_samurai suggested.

“Yeah, most people won’t turn that down,” coop925 said pointedly while looking at a very sad Yume.

Alright let’s get the rest of our goals for this mission set, and let’s go get them!

Everyone in their positions, the pub was in full celebration mode. Green shamrocks were hanging from the rafters and a free drink on every table. The barkeep was happy to oblige Ilvermorny wishes after a generous donation was made to the pub. Murph Breathnach joined a set of men at the table, tipping his hat and loosening the scarf around his neck. The black haired man looked at Murph questioningly, but Murph shook his head no. Ah, so that must be J Stewart who is missing his wand.

The barkeep made his way to the center of the pub and cupped his hands around his mouth to shout out, “Alright you lot, it’s time for the 5th annual jig and drink competition! Winner gets free drinks for a year!”

“Oi, free drinks for a year? *kitten* yeah!” Murph exclaimed with the two other fellows clinking beers.

“We might only be here for another week, but I can drink like a king for a week!” the tall red headed man claimed.

“You? Hah! I’ll drink you under the table! And besides, no one can jig like me.” a short black haired man with a splay of freckles on his nose shouted back.

“Oi! O’Malley that’s cheating!” the short black haired man shouted! “That’s not a jig!”

“Shout your hole Stewart, it’s how we do it in the south!” the red headed man replied coarsely.

The barkeep came up and verified that it was just a regional difference in dancing. “Alright you guys, it’s time for drinks! Two shots of whiskey, a pint of beer, and a reuben in 5 minutes then we jig again.” he announced.

“Free food too? Nice!” the two henchmen high fived.

Sitting at the bar they consumed both of the shots, beers and reuben in under five minutes, and got ready to jig again. This time their moves were a little less crisp but still rather impressive. Four of the competitors were cut from the competition.

“This round is 1 shot of whiskey, and a shot of whiskey dropped in a beer,” the barkeep smirked.

The henchmen shot the drinks down with no problem, and then proceeded to jig again, but there were a few missteps this time. It was apparent that the drinks were starting to get to them, but they made it to the last round.

“Alright, you two gents, this is the last round, or rather the round only five have made it to with dignity intact,” the barkeep claimed.

“and only two after it for that matter,” they heard another patron whisper.

The barkeep placed a set of special teal colored glasses with a serpent etched in the bottom of the glass.

“The Yume Special is a little stronger than my normal drinks….it tends to well...ah, you’ll find out.” the barkeep said chuckling.

Looking at the teal colored glasses hesitantly, they sniff the drink. It doesn’t smell any different from normal whiskey.

“Please it’s not that bad” they heard from the end of the bar where the Wand Maester and Ches18 were sitting; a teal glass in her own hand drinking it quickly and placing it down.

“I am not going to be outdone by a short smarmy red-head,” the red headed O’Malley shot back downing the drink quickly with Stewart. Wincing at the strong burning sensation, both felt the need to close their eyes.

Upon opening their eyes, the world became a little bleary, but it quickly clears. Looking over to where the woman who drank the Yume special had been, they found in her place was a large black and white bear holding a big glass of cider with a stalk of bamboo sticking out of it doing some communication motions to a dolphin sitting there clapping their fins. The bear placed the glass down and grabbed the piece of bamboo that was in the cider and began to munch on it as a piece of fish flew into the air and into the dolphins mouth.

“What the *kitten* is that!” Stewart pointed over at the large bear and dolphin chatting.

The barkeep looked over only seeing katsheare who seemed to be concentrating at the piece of paper in front of her. Huh, I guess the professors had to hop out.

“There’s a bear sitting at your bar! And a dolphin” Stewart said continuing to point at the bear as the bear threw a chewed up piece of bamboo at him. “Did you not see that!?!”

The barkeep picked up the bamboo piece which was transfigured to him as if it were but a crumpled piece of paper. “Hey now, don’t be throwing things in my bar” he prompted throwing the piece of bamboo back to Stewart.

The dolphin chuckled and proceeded to squirt water at the two henchmen soaking them.

“I told you that some people have a problem with the Yume special,” the barkeep sighed.

At the card table, lemurcat12 and nefariousjedi were trying so hard not to laugh at the situation at hand. bdbchick & melonpaul failed miserably and were trying not to roll on the floor in laughter. Collecting themselves they continued their game of hearts and spades.

Hopping down from the stool, the panda got on the ground. The dolphin hopped on top of her back and they made their way to the card table and sat down as if they were to join them in a game of cards. The students kept their faces straight as Stewart and O’Malley made their way to the table.

“Please tell me you guys see the bear and fish thing sitting by you?” Stewart begged.

nefariousjedi looked at him quizzically. Looked at where Yume and Professor Tahm sat, and then looked back at him again.

“You had the Yume special didn’t you?” bdbchick inquired.

“Yeah, I tried the double of that once….we don’t talk about what I said or did.” lemurcat12 said as the panda and dolphin decided to make faces at the two nerdowells.

As they were distracted melonpaul managed to fish O’Malley’s wand out of his pocket, quickly placing it in their own pocket while nefariousjedi finagled Stewart’s backup wand. It was 11:18.

Bringing the portkey glass of water to the table katsheare sat down asking about the status of the game while inviting Stewart and O’Malley to sit down before the next round of dancing in 5 minutes. Professor Tahm and Maester Yume left the table and went outside to change back into human form away from everyone so that they could hop on the ride back using the portkey.

“You know what helped me with the Yume Special? Outside of a good English breakfast, if you’ll believe it was a massive hug surrounded by people. Something about blood circulation and heat dissipation or what not.” wind_luver said. All of the members at the table surrounded the two into a big group hug as melonpual grabbed the glass of water smirking. As the clock struck 11:20, everyone disappeared popping into Ilvermorny’s special waiting room.

“Alright enough of this non-sense,” Stewart spouted suddenly disentangling himself from the group taking in his surroundings. Quickly reaching for his pocket for his spare wand he noticed was missing.

As quickly as he reached for his wand, “incarcerous” was used for both men incapacitating them.

“I suppose we should let the interrogation specialists do their thing,” lemurcat12 said looking over at rikkejohnsenrij, kiri127, & jls1661 who stayed behind at the castle.

“Oh, I’ll go get the popcorn,” DanielleFayeS excitedly walked off to find Grandmam for snacks for the show that was about to occur.

“Hey Proff Zindroth, there’s a rune glowing on the back of his neck,” fourathomej stated.

“Crap, that’s a tracking rune. And that looks like a Ministry tracking rune. We’re going to need to make this quick before whoever put this on them gets here.” ME Saeraphine said.

“Too late, the protective spell has been breached. Put those wands away in the safe. Professor Juno did you make that paperwork in case of you know what.” HM JGundz inquired.

“Right here,” Proff Juno replied holding a set of papers in hand. “These papers will allow us to prosecute or attempt to prosecute any individuals who breached our grounds. Check their ankles for two purple dots.”

Professor Zindroth took her wand over their ankles and two purple dots began to glow.

“Great! So we have proof that they breached our protective spell. It’s not enough to hold them here, but it’s enough for the Ministry to hold them so that we can present our case.” Professor Zindroth nodded.

Ministry officials marched up to the front of Ilvermorny knocking on the door. HM JGundz politely answered the door as officials attempted to march past her to the location of the would be criminals. The castle rug decided to slide out from under them. Apparently it didn’t take insulting the HM highly.

“Why to what do we owe the pleasure?” HM JGundz inquired.

“We have been tracking two individuals for a year now, and have discovered that they used a portkey,” a short stout blonde woman stated as she stood up.

“Why yes we do have two such individuals in our custody, we had planned to question them about some supplies missing from the school, and chaos that they may have induced.” JGundz politely said.

“Well, that won’t be necessary, the Ministry will be taking them into custody,” a taller balding man quipped.

“Well that’s quite alright, we’ll get our answers at the trial,” Professor Tahm said boredly.

“Trial?” the man questioned.

“Why yes, we have paperwork on file with the Ministry to allow us to question, interrogate, or even file a claim against anyone who enters Ilvermorny un-invited with the exception of esteemed persons like yourself as you are always invited here,” Professor Tahm noted while looking down at two purple dots that had appeared on their ankles unnoticed.

“I’m sure that is unnecessary, it’s only a few supplies gone missing,” the short woman pointedly said with a gesturing wave of her hand.

“I’m afraid it is, as the safety of our students is of the utmost importance, and as a Ministry official I am sure that you would agree. It’s why I came down here earlier today to discuss some of the policies and paperwork,” ME Saeraphine said as happymommacat, karateninja101, & momcasciotti looked at the officials with the saddest puppy eyes you could ever hope to see.

“Fine, they’ll have a trial in a few months, and you can do what you need with…” the balding man said as he was interrupted by Professor Juno.

“That’s nothing you need to worry about, we have an appointment for a trial in 5 days. We’ve already submitted the paperwork and had it approved.” Profssor Juno explained

“How could you get that approved that fast?” the Ministry official asked with a look of fury and confusion.

“You forget who we have on staff here,” Professor Juno chuckled looking over at ME Saeraphine and Professors Zindroth sitting at a table as Tahm and Yume walk by chuckling.

“We believe in efficiency here,” HM JGundz beamed. “It’s why we do so well.”

Walking into the room the officials gather the men who struggled on their way out. “Where are their wands,” the short official inquires.

“I don’t know,” melonpaul replies.

Gathering the men into official shackles, they are moved to the front of the castle to exit via a portkey to the Ministry.

“Moving on, they must have dropped them when they were using the portkey, now ME Saeraphine, I had noticed you placed a document for a competition…” the woman stated but was cut off as they popped out of the castle.

“Alright, I was really hoping to not have to do the trial thing, but I’m glad we did the paperwork just incase. It’s time to gather our evidence.” HM Jgundz said

But, first let’s go down to the gardens for an herbology lesson.

jgundz

Gathering Evidence

“Alright guys we have a few days to get all of our evidence in order so we can see what in the world is going on. “ VictoriaTuel said.

“Yeah, the amortentia might be why we have the merkitty, and possibly the shragon, but I think that Magellan is sincerely in love with Sheep though.” PaulaKro said while floating around the gathering of students.

“Sheep has got to be magical for that to have happened….” Dory_42 emphasized as Sheep and Magellan nuzzled.

“ Alright, we’re going to split up and gather all the evidence we can to make for a convincing trial.” HM JGundz nodded. “Horned Serpents, you’re with Wand Maester Yume. You go through the paper trail that was set up in case if something was to happen and make sure we don’t have any loose ends or loopholes that they can exploit.”

“Wampus, you’re with me. We’re going to go get all of the amortentia pancakes that were placed in stasis, take some pictures of the cut down plants, and gather a few of those plants that will react with the skin for people who have frequent exposure to amortentia.” Zindroth commanded.

“Pukwudgie, we’re going to look into what magical burns look like. When I looked at Stewart’s hands, it looked like it had been scarred by some type of magical burn. Let’s gather some more information for what a dragon’s magical flame will do to skin. If they’re skin is similar, we can put that forth as evidence that they were here, or that they were dumb enough to mess with dragons elsewhere.” Professor Tahm chuckled.

“Thunderbird, we have their cloaks that they seemed to have left here in their haste to leave. I believe I saw some Wampii fur and shragon wool on their, which should’ve been impossible unless they had been around them.” Professor Juno instructed.

“And of course we have their wands that they seemed to have left, and will be able to demonstrate the two purple dots on their ankles.” katsheare concluded.

“Didn’t we say that we didn’t know where they were?” cunning_linguist questioned.

“Ahh, but that’s the beauty of it, the person who answered them did not know where they went, at that time anyway, and they neglected to ask anyone else.” melonpaul smiled.

jgundz

Announcements

We are proud to announce that Ilvermorny won our trial against the Scourers that were after Timmie and all of our fantastic beasts. Well done to everyone who helped us find all the evidence around the castle grounds.

In the process of finding all the evidence some rather odd items were found scattered throughout the castle, and the staff is hard at work analyzing them. We look forward to sharing what information we find with you at a later date.

Ilvermorny has also received a few communications from other schools of witchcraft and wizardry as of late. It appears our time in the spotlight has gained us some attention worldwide. We hope you share our excitement to find out where this attention will lead us in the future.