Potter stands there waiting for your answer. You could just walk away and not talk to the Malfoys, but… Arty is safe, and if there is any time you can get a natural conversation with them, it is now.

“Fine,” you hiss at him. “Just don’t give me away.”

“I had a Slytherin son, Elliot,” Potter says. “I know how to be subtle.”

You don’t approach Draco and Scorpius directly, of course. Instead, you wait until one of the house elves is close to them, then move to get one of the small honeyed-ham rolls they’re carrying, offering one to Potter and then simply, by coincidence, staying there in close proximity to Slughorn.

“Ah, Harry, m’boy! Come on in!” Slughorn says, opening space for you two in the circle of Malfoy suck-ups. “We were just discussing your old colleague’s new philanthropic projects! He’s quite a busy man!”

“Yes, the Malfoys have always had a large position in the wizarding world’s politics, and it is quite time we give back to the people who’ve done so much for us,” Draco says, stroking his goatee. “After our… despicable participation during the last war, the name Malfoy has been tainted. Along with the Headmistress, we helped change what was poisoning the Slytherin house, so that it was no longer built on the hate for muggleborns. I intend to do the same for our name’s reputation. Green has always been associated with Slytherin, cunning, the Malfoys and the Killing Curse. Yet silver is also a Slytherin color, the color of the Patronus. We should never have allowed ourselves to be defined by only one of them.”

You don’t know if the speech was prepared and Draco is a good actor, but to your best ability to judge, he truly believes what he’s saying. His tone is entrancing and the whole circle, except for Potter, hangs on to his every word.

“Once the issue with the missing student is resolved, we can once more focus our attention on it. We shall use the Christmas break to scour the entirety of the school looking for him, from top to bottom. Professor Potter will even help us get into the Chamber of Secrets itself, if the boy has somehow managed to find his way there.”

“I’ve checked it already, of course,” Potter says, firmly. Yet you can feel the hint of doubt, as if he doesn’t quite believe the lie he’s telling. The Slytherin in him is not perfect. “The last time a student disappeared, she was taken there. But all I found was the great skeleton of a snake. The great network of pipes, however, is a much greater issue, and if he’s somehow found a way to hide himself from the School’s detection enchantments, then the only way of finding him is to search inch by inch. Malfoy’s men will be of great aid.”

“So has there really been no development?” You ask, in the tone of voice a teenager whose friend is missing would ask. “I can’t think what would make Taylor just vanish like that. Even if he decided to leave…”

[Cont.]

>>5877359

“That’s what makes it so mysterious. We’d know if he’d left through any of the known secret passages, or flying. Apparition and portkeys obviously don’t work,” Draco says. “The reason Potter’s wife’s disappearance was difficult to solve back then was because the basilisk was tied to Slytherin’s credentials within the Castle, so it could come and go as it pleased. With it dead… Well, the number of creatures that could accomplish the same has gone to zero, as far as we’re aware. Even the Headmistress would leave an obvious and unremovable mark in the records.”

“We could attempt to use some stranger artifacts, if all else fails,” Scorpius suggests, looking at his father.

“Dark artifacts, which our family has taken upon ourselves to contain,” Draco says, sternly. “And which are properly registered with the Ministry. I would not dare to touch any of them, much less bring them into the school.”

“Artifacts which could be used safely,” Scorpius answers, perhaps with just a tinge too much annoyance. “Once the children are away.”

“Unfortunately,” the senior Malfoy says firmly, looking at his son with severity. “There are children who remain here for the holidays, so that will not. Be. Happening.”

Huh. That was an odd interaction, you think. Either the Malfoys are playing a part… or they’re not as well aligned as I thought.

“But those are dark matters which are better discussed in offices and gloomier places,” Draco says, making it clear the subject is settled. “There are greater and better things to discuss in such a party other than these grim matters. How are the Potion classes, Professor Slughorn? Any as brilliant as my Scorpius?”

“Ah, young Elliot here is showing great promise! I’m sure you’ve seen his battle?”

And so they start talking about the Battle Classes, only once wondering how Potter had managed to create the semblance of so many inferi, to which he only replies “with great difficulty” and laughs. Scorpius seems angry for only a moment, before his face goes back to being polite, smiling and nodding along with his father.

> Move the conversation to a new topic (What topic?)
> Try to get Scorpius away to talk in private (About what?)
> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
> Other (Write in)

>>5877360
>> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
don't think we'll be able to get more info without being too suspicious

>>5877360
>Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
>>5877370 yeah, im thinkig the same, if anything, we learn that the Malfoys arent exactly on the same team, that means cocksucker is on its own so far, for now lets just go back to our miniwaifu and have a lovely time, after all thebullshit we´ve gone through we really deserve it

>>5877360
>> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party

>>5877372
I think the next step would be to divide Scorpius and Cocksucker. Obviously we know he’s alive, but when he calls us out perhaps we can act as if we think he already killed Scorpius? And possibly list off everything he did to Lily, although obviously don’t mention her name.
If Scorpius isn’t a bad person, or just not naive, then it can help isolate Cocksucker further.
>>5877360
> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
Obviously keep the conversation going for a little while though.
Speaking of which, should we tell Potter that we didn’t actually come here to speak to the Malfoys? Or should we let him be confused on how we barely prodded them for information?

>>5877360
> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
Okay so we probably don't have to worry about Draco being an evil bastard. Probably.

>>5877360
> Try to get Scorpius away to talk in private (Ask about those artifacts, in the way a curious guy obsessed with ancient magic and such might do)
Good way to understand what exactly he's playing with and/or at.

Also... Didn't Potter tell us Voldemort killed the basilisk years and years ago? If so, then Draco Malfoy's understanding of how Ginny Weasley-Potter avoided detection is flawed. There must be another way. We should talk to potter about that, later.

>>5877360
> Try to get Scorpius away to talk in private (About what?)
Ask him about what kind of artifacts he might use, since we're just so desperate to know a way to find Taylor. Maybe we could find a way to help him out without his dad knowing? We don't really care about anything except finding Taylor, we just want our friend back, etc.

And then when he buys our memory loss worried about Taylor bullshit we tell on him to Potter and Draco. Fuck you bitch, get manipulated!

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>>5877360
So Draco and Scorpy aren't 100% on the same page, which is good. Means Draco isn't being mind controlled or anything. Scorpy seems to want access to the skeletons in the Malfoy closet, artifacts of dark power. It would be bad if he got was allowed to use them. Cocksucker's current host is less physically capable than Lily but is well connected and rich. Like, Potter is rich but the Malfoys are stupid rich.

I think we might be able to get more out of Scorpius if we got him alone, however I also want to enjoy the party with our wifelette Arty. And brain not working so well right now. I love the holidays.

> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party

>>5877503
>got was

Yeah brain not working too well and I was interrupted like 3 times trying to type that post.

>>5877419
Let the fucker be confused. I do think there is merit to the idea of trying to get Scorpios alone and prod for info on what artifacts he was referring to but there is a decent chance of him gaslighting us about them to make Elliot panic.

I wonder what Cocksucker is telling him to get him on board? Restore Slytherin's greatness? That we, personally are a danger to his house and the world in general? The same general spiel he gave Lily? That we fucked his GF when he was still in school and she said we were better?

>>5877529
>Little Elliott's aptitude
We were e en littler back then, and we've SEEN how we roll for such things now

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>>5877552
Don't need a mallet to hammer a framing nail; its all in how and when you use it.

Also, it may be a bad idea to enjoy the party with Arty in front of Scorpius since, you know, he can take that as an avenue to attack us with if he ever wants to. I just think we should be on our guard whenever cocksucker is around, use the opportunity to gaslight him instead of letting him make the first move.

>>5877360
> Go back to Arty and enjoy the party
If cocksucker’s here, even if we’re sure he’s with us, I still don’t want him slinking off anywhere near arty if we aren’t there.

>>5877652
I mean, he already knows we are with Arty. He taunted us about it at Last Light. Unless you are saying something different.

You listen to the conversation for a while, but it soon drifts into dull, everyday territory, such as the current affairs of the Wizengamot and how Elphias Doge is desperately looking for someone to replace him as Chief Warlock now that he’s reaching his mid-140s, and how Babajide Akingbade is doing a mildly acceptable job as Supreme Mugwump. Potter and Slughorn engage in a conversation about their students and their class preparations for next semester, and you are suddenly far more interested in whatever it is the house elves are serving than anything anyone is saying.

As soon as one passes by, you pick something up to eat and do the classic move of looking at your cup, visibly noticing it is empty, pretending to look around for a beverage that is not close by, looking pleased at something in the distance, then leaving to get some more of it.

Once you get your cup filled with something unfortunately not alcoholic, you go back to the much more pleasant circle of acquaintances that is Ms. Potter, the Scamander couple and Arty. The three interested in Magizoology are still talking excitedly, while Ginevra is leaning against the wall, swirling her cup of wine and casually looking around from a place that covers the entire room without appearing suspicious.

“Are they always this excited about magic beasts, Ms. Potter?” You ask.

“Only when they’re breathing,” she says with a smirk. “At least someone is enjoying the party.”

“Not much for these sorts of meetings?”

“Too Slytherin for my tastes. No offense.”

“Honestly, it might be too Slytherin for my tastes too. There are people in high places here, but most of them sound… hollow. Except for the Scamanders, the Malfoys, you and your husband… No one here seems to be all that powerful, or even important.”

“They aren’t, not in the traditional sense. But they have a loud voice, they have products in everyone’s houses. If you convince half of this room of something and get them talking, you guarantee at least a third of the votes in any Wizengamot session. Otherwise you wouldn’t see Malfoy caught dead in here.”

“Is he a threat?”

“Malfoy? Depends. If you get in his way, maybe. If you mess with his son? He won’t hesitate to burn every last galleon he owns to destroy you. But he has his own agenda, and he isn’t the same brat I hexed all those years ago, so I doubt you have anything to worry about, whatever it is that is happening to you.”

So Draco isn’t a problem as long as I’m not fucking with his son? You think. How wonderful.

“Potter, he… told you? About me?”

“That’s the secret for a marriage as long as ours, sweetheart. Never keep secrets from each other.” She smiles at her wine. “There is also another secret, but you’re too young to hear that one.”

“Right. Well, I suppose I should at least offer your friends the chance to get rid of Arty before she talks their ears off.” You push off the wall, nodding at her. “Thanks for the talk, Ms. Potter.”

“Any time, dear.”

[Cont.]

>>5877971

You approach the trio in time to hear Luna say “Well, actually it isn’t impossible that one of them has managed to swim across Gibraltar, though it would be far from their usual habitat. Though it would be easier than going around through Turkey.”

“Hey, what are you three talking about?”

“Uh, nothing,” Arty says, just a little too fast.

“Oh, Artemis here was just wondering if there was any chance of encountering a Nundu during her trip to Spain,” Rolf says offhandedly. “So we were discussing the possibilities.”

“Arty! And what do you mean, trip to Spain?”

“They said they have an expedition next July to Spain to search for a Catalonian Fireball, and they offered to bring me along on an internship!” She says, excitedly. Then, turning back to them, “Can he come too? I promise he won’t be any trouble!”

“I’m not a pet!”

“I’m sure we can find some space for him. He can sleep with the twins!”

--

The party moves on without any hassles. The music is not of the dancing kind, but the food is good and Arty is having a good time nerding out with the Scamanders, so you enjoy simply being with her. If nothing else, the party did serve its purpose of connecting people, even if it was your girlfriend who did it, not you.

The fact that it had somehow led to the couple roping her, and possibly you, into a search for a potentially extinct breed of Spanish dragon was worrying, but given that as far as you knew the world could very much end somewhere in the next six months… Well, just being alive to be worried about it would be good news. Besides, Arty hadn’t stopped smiling since the conversation, so you didn’t mind.

But the hour grows late and tomorrow you need to wake up early to make an emergency run to Hogsmeade and buy self-warming blankets, and Luna pats her pregnant belly and says it’s time to go home because she wants to eat french pineapples with cheddar, so you all say your goodbyes.

So you bring your tiny badger girlfriend through the halls and down back to the Hufflepuff common room's entrance.

“I’d invite you in,” she says, smiling. “But I don’t think Grubbly-plank would approve.”

“I could brew some polyjuice and sneak in, you never know.”

“But then you’d look like someone else, that would be no good. Best if we say our goodbyes outside.”

You kiss her. “Want to help me give warm blankets to poor giant spiders tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

[Cont.]

>>5877972

She walks towards the stack of barrels that hold the entrance to her common room.

“You know, the view from the upper towers of Hogwarts is pretty great, but I don’t think it quite beats the one of you walking away in that dress.”

She blushes, a final time for the night.

“Flatterer. Hel-ga Huff-le-puff,” she says as she knocks on the second barrel from the bottom, middle of the second row. The side of the massive barrel that is the entrance to the common room splits open, revealing Apollo, waiting on the exact same spot he’d been when she’d left. She giggles. “See you tomorrow, Elliot. Thanks for the wonderful night, and for the gift.”

She skips away inside towards her brother and the door closes behind her.

You go back to your common room feeling like the luckiest man in the world, at least until you make it to the entrance.

“Hello, Elliot,” Scorpius says, smiling pleasantly, alone in the stone halls. “Did you enjoy the party?”

Crap.

“Not quite my kind, but it was fun.”

“Good. Say, last I was here, I left something with someone. Could have been stolen, I don't quite recall. A small dark stone, an old replica from that old story about the Deathly Hallows. It is very precious to me, and I’d like it back.” He looks directly into your eyes. “I wouldn’t have happened to have left it with you, have I? I wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s toes to get it, you never know what small, dear thing might get crushed if I need to go looking for it myself.”

> What do you answer? (Write in)

>>5877974
I don’t think he knows we remember yet. If he knew for certain we knew then he’d just say it outright, since no one’s around. He’s testing the waters right now, so to speak.

> Act confused
> I don’t remember you ever really giving me anything. We weren’t all that close to each other anyway, were we? Unless you count tutoring as being close to each other.

>>5877974
>Support >>5877984
but also
>Ask about those artifacts, in the way a curious guy obsessed with ancient magic and such might do

>>5877984
this

>>5877985
Maybe we should even offer to keep an eye out for it as well? To sell the act further.
It should work. Everything we’ve done so far is a complete contradiction to what an Elliot with a passenger in his mind would do. The only ways I see our cover getting blown at this point is either if we slip up somehow, Cocksucker can sense Faith like she can for him, or he’s just insistent that we HAVE to be the one involved(which honestly isn’t ideal but not bad so long as Scorpius has doubts).
Either way, Christmas Break is when we’ll have plenty of time to get both Arty and Apollo up to speed though. For now though, next chance we get we should talk to Apollo. Both about our relationship with Arty(since we definitely shouldn’t have hidden that shit from him) and to look out for Scorpius, under the pretense that we think he may have threatened her to us using Slytherin-speak.

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>>5877974
>>5877985

Unless someone else comes up with something clever, this is okay. Maybe add:

>Oh, I don't think you would be stepping on anyone's toes if you wanted to maybe check your old bunk or around the common room, Scorpios. I'll even help you. Maybe you left it in some secret hidey hole? We are Slytherins. We all have our secrets. Wouldn't want someone to discover them. Don't worry, its not like I would go blabbing to Potter if you still have some more... interesting things stored as well, haha.

Threatening our snack-sized wife is not a good idea Cocksucker. We can make implicit threats as well. Fuck with her and we will take everyone down with us.

>>5877974
>>5877984
>>5877985
I’ll support.

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>>5877999
You also have some good points. Really need to have Apollo start with those Occulmency lessons but we can at least let him know Scorpius might target Arty because of an issue he has with us and to be on guard. And to not fucking body the guy. Like don't even be around him if you can help it but keep an eye on his sister, more than normal at least. Arty has a problem with getting star struck so maybe tell her to not listen to Scorpius if he tries to tell her something and don't be alone with him if she can help it, while we are in the forbidden forest tomorrow.

I don't think talking about how we are going to deep dick his sister, albeit with better phrasing, would be a bad idea either. He isn't dumb, I am pretty sure he has noticed what is going on with use by now. I think Arty has probably talked to him some at this point too. We were the first person he came to after she failed with her patronus after all and then she made him apologize for chimping out.

>>5877984
>>5877985
Supporting.

>>5877974
guy, as much as i would like to think that he can be confused by our acting, i dont think it´ll work...
he HAS to know that we know and its taunting us
i will support acting for now to get rid of him, but we HAVE to alert both Arty and Apollo to be on their toes, and i dont mean tomorrow, i mean as soon as we get rid of scorpious

god dammit, HeadQM, you couldnt give us ONE perfect night, could you?

>>5877999
>looking in our eyes to sense faith

God I hope she learned how to suppress herself too. We need to keep this bluff up.

If he knew we were original us, he'd definitely be more open about it.

>>5878115
Implying he won't tail us for confirmation he rattled us. If we let them know, it has to be done indirectly.

Itd be funny if we got him to think raven is the new opponent.

>>5878118
I think if Cocksucker could ID her, she would be able to tell. I hope at least. She was able to confirm he was in Scorpy, but I don't think it was b/c of the mindlink thingy they can do with each other. Our connection with her is stronger than before, so I hope that is helping some rather than being a liability.

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So I have been thinking. Is Faith Helga Hufflepuff?

Her as she was when she was young? The wiki doesn't say how she died, and in the memory the dementor brought out when she saved us, she was with Merlin and 3 others. Merlin and 4 of his contemporaries. Sound a bit familiar? They said Salazar left the school over the muggleborn disagreement but he may have come back to help them when the void into Nothingness the people in the memory were facing appeared. That or one of the other people was the 5th Founder perhaps.

The void to Nothingness may have been contained by their efforts, becoming the Veil, that archway in the ministry, however in order to contain it Helga/Faith either sacrificed herself along with at least 1 other founder, Cocksucker or who he was before going mad after being trapped for Forever in the void, or was pulled in accidentally.

Faith has brown hair like Helga, blue eyes like her also, is well endowed like a young Helga likely was, is adept at conjuring food like Helga, manifested a yellow trimmed table cloth so Hufflepuff colors, can use ancient magic...

Cocksucker being Salazar also kinda makes sense in a couple of ways if for no other reason than he hates Faith enough to consider ripping her out of us when we were dying just so he could torture her and both his host happen to be purebloods. Mean while we are muggleborn and Helga was a strong proponent of muggleborns.

Just seems like quite a few pieces fit pretty well.

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>>5878242
Out of curiosity, what makes you think Helga was well-endowed? Just a general Hufflepuff vibe because they're 'soft'? I guess she was described as round/plump, but then again this seems to be a point against it, since I don't remember Faith ever being described as fat.

Anyway, it would be weird if the founders manifested as their teenage selves despite growing to adulthood and even old age. Also: would an ancient blood purist like Salazar Slytherin really consider someone like Lily Potter II pure-blooded, when her grandma (Lily I) was a muggle-born?

>>5878242
didnt we influenced a bit the look of Faith? it was also a thing from the beginning that PRIOR to us giving "HER" a name, it was refered as "They"
i may be misremembering thing, but i think we had a choice of selecting their gender at one point, i dont think HeadQM would have giving us that choice if that were the case, this is something HeadQM would had planned since the very beginning and giving us that option completly contradicts that

>>5878262
we decided NOT to influence her appearance

>>5878251
In the pictures on the wiki, Helga is plump but also has fairly good sized knockers. I am just working from the assumption she was thin when she was younger since people do put on weight alot of the time as they get older. The images are her when she is middle-aged of a bit older. I also assume that is the age her description refers to.

I think the bare minimum for Salazar was at least one magical parent to go to Hogwarts, and even though Lily I was muggle born, both of Lily IIs parents are from wizard parents. I am less sure about Salazar=Cocksucker because we know way less about him.

As for the age reversal, the ministry dumped a bunch of time turners through the Veil like they were tossing car batteries in the ocean; basically fucking time up in there, putting time back into the void. Could have sscrewed up the 2 who escaped. She is also not physical, she lives in our head; what she appears like now may just be her half recalled "ideal" form. From a story telling perspective, Faith being young makes it harder to try and guess who she is. Would be the same if she was any of the legendary Arthurian women suggested before since I don't think any of them were teens when they died or disappeared.

>>5878262
>>5878264

This. And she voice was always described as feminine before the manifested a body.

>>5877984
>>5877985
Support.

“Faith, you think he still buys that I don’t remember him?”

“Maybe… In a world without Lily, maybe enough variables would have been altered that I’d end up in someone else. It’s difficult to foresee what stays the same and what changes when time is forcefully bent like that,” she replies in your head. “His connection with Scorpius must be as weak as yours was with me months ago. I’m not sure if they can even talk to each other at will yet.”

“So it’s possible he doesn’t know… Very well, then.”

You immediately become someone who has never seen the Stone of Resurrection in person, much less seriously considered using it.

“Huh, I don’t remember you leaving anything with me,” you say, frowning. “Other than Potions, we didn’t have that much in common. Maybe you left it somewhere hidden? I’m sure you must have had plenty of hideouts in the castle, every Slytherin does.”

He frowns, looking slightly annoyed.

“I’m sure that’s the case then, if it really isn’t with you. Just keep what I said in mind, you know. Just in case. You never know when those kinds of things can come up again.”

“Right. Oh, and about those artifacts you mentioned during the party,” you ask, feigning curiosity. “Do you really think one of them can help find Taylor?”

“Sure. There are many dark arts that could be useful. Father is reluctant to use them, of course, but I’m sure they could be used to discover what really happened that night. I’m sure they’ll show you and Ms. Cobris were not involved in his disappearance in any way.”

“What? You think I did it?” You ask, sounding horrified.

“It is a possibility, of course. The people who can have the most reason to want to hurt you are the ones closest to you. They’re the ones who know your secrets, after all. The ones who know all your hideouts, as you said. If Taylor managed to find one of yours, one you didn’t want him to find… Who knows what sort of thing you’d have done if that was the case.”

And if one were to use an ancient and dark artifact to create the evidence, you figure, why, a theory such as that could very well land on Draco’s ear, couldn’t it? What clever little snake you are.

“Well, I suppose Draco must know better than us what can and can’t be used safely,” you say. “I’ll trust his judgment.”

“I suppose we will,” he says, with a forced smile. “Have a good night, Elliot. Keep in mind what I said about the stone.”

“You too, Scorpius. I’ll send you an owl if I find anything that looks like it.”

He leaves and you stumble into the Slytherin common room, heart beating through your chest.

He had, without a doubt, threatened Arty. Did that change your schedule on telling her the truth? Or should you keep hiding it until they are fully trained? You didn’t know. It was too much to think about right now, your perfect night ending on a sour note.

You go to bed, to dream of tiny badgers in yellow dresses.

[Cont.]

>>5878343

Instead, you find yourself in the forest once more. The stream of water has become a creek, water now flowing freely. The grass is a more vivid green, and Faith is looking in a mirror, like a fake copy of the true Mirror of Erised. Within it, you can see her, and you can see three other forms, their faces obscured.

“Hey,” she says, without looking. She looks just a bit plumpier than before, almost as if all the food she’d conjured before had affected her form.

“You know, they say you shouldn’t stare at that mirror for too long. A man wiser than me said that it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

“I don’t have a life, Elliot. All I have… All I have is this forest.” She spits the words, angry. “All I have is the beast, and this river and you. This… this isn’t a life! It’s better than the darkness from before but… I want to be out there! I want to be with them, whoever they are. I want to remember!”

You sit by her side. It’s easy to forget that all this time you’ve been loving Arty and basking under the sunlight, she’s been here, in the gloom of this forest. To escape hell only to find herself in purgatory, with only a too-small window into heaven, and then to be shown your happiness is so far away from your reach that you can’t even see it…

The Mirror of Impossibility, what a cruel thing.

But it is what makes you wonder. It isn’t just one specific thing. It’s the yellow table-cloth, the food, the brown hair. It’s the kindness, the power, the gentle eyes.

It’s the Sorting Hat offering you another house.

It’s that no one knows what really happened back then.

It’s Potter saying that Scorpius had said that he was doing what he was doing for the sake of Slytherin. That it might have been literal.

It’s the four friends in the Mirror.

It all points to a possibility, one that isn’t certain, but that doesn’t hurt to ask.

Someone from the time of Merlin who could control Ancient Magic. That group had to be small, and someone with that amount of power was unlikely to be forgotten by history.

So it wasn’t a stretch to consider that maybe, just maybe, she could be one of the Ancient Magic wielders you knew by name.

“Faith… Do you think there’s any possibility of you… Of you being Helga Hufflepuff?”

And she looks at you… and her face changes. Not a lot. It is still young, it’s still lively… But it is now something you recognize from the paintings. The shades in the mirror clear and you can see their faces.

A muscular young man with his red mane of hair, beard only starting to grow.

A tall woman in a blue dress with pale skin, dark hair and sharp eyes.

A monkey-ish teen with ambitious gray eyes and the beginnings of a goatee.

And a plump girl with brown hair and the kindest eyes you’ve ever seen.

The four Founders, as they were when their bond was strongest.

“I… I think…” says Helga Hufflepuff, in almost a whisper. “I think I might be.”

>>5878242
Well done, anon. Also, fuck you for guessing my twist

>>5878353
be honest, you doing the twist now because that anon guessed it or was the timing a massive coincidende?

>>5878361

Because he guessed it. It was a twist that could be easily checked by the MC, had plenty of evidence to back it up and Elliot would have asked if he'd thought of it. It would be unfair of me to ignore it for the sake of keeping my story structure intact.

I planned on revealing it at the end of this Act, which would probably be at the end of the thread, if my timing goes well. It is fine, I have more tricks in my pocket.

had it been a twist that couldn't be checked (like is Professor Quirrel actually Voldemort, or something like that, it would take more effort. But she was close to it herself, slowly morphing closer to her original form, a gentle push is all it took)

>>5878367
Out of curiosity, how far into the next update were you before you saw that post and had to rewrite the entire next segment?

>>5878371
Fortunately, not far enough that I had to rewrite anything. I'm writing the rest of the update now, just wanted to get this part out soon and see what happened

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>>5878347
Fucking CALLED IT!

>>5878353
Lol. Not my fault you write well enough to make me re-read the threads a couple of times boss. Once again, great work QM.

>>5878397
Well dang, can't argue with results. Good job, anon.

So are we gonna keep calling her Faith or start calling her Helga?

>>5878403
She said before she wanted her real name back, after she figured out she was a real person at one time.

It would be kinda messed up to keep calling her what we did before she learned who she was. Unless she wants us to.

All 4 founders escaped and have thier own agendas, just none as malicious as Cocksuck/Salazar. Amalia might have Rowena in her. Might explain her hyper-competence in our battles; she has usually been the MVP from the very 1st one where her and Elliot were the only 2 people left out of the Raiders at the end. Reaching here but my sides would be meeting Taylor on the moon if I went 2 for 2.

Guessing this correctly made my night. I might roll like shit but my OCD/ADD could at least do this.

>>5878347
Our brain ghost was Hufflepuff Prime the whole time. What is it with Elliot and Hufflepuff girls?

>>5878421
snakes and badgers are rivals in nature, i guess in this case the rule of "opposites atract eachother" works

>>5878421
To be perfectly fair, at the very beginning there was a chance she'd be Ravenclaw depending on how you played Elliot/how I wrote him, but it was soon obvious that it would be Hufflepuff.

Honestly, I'm just happy I got away with blatantly copying the basic premise of BG3, up to the point of allowing you to "design your mind-guardian" and not being called out on it

--

“The Helga Hufflepuff?” Linda asks incredulously when you tell her the news the next morning.

“Shhhhh! Yes! Her. She was as shocked as I was. But it didn’t reveal anything else, didn’t unlock any new memories. She asked for some time to process it, and to be fair I need some time too. And, well, it makes it easy to figure out who’s in Scorpius' head, doesn’t it?”

“Oh Merlin. We’re facing Salazar? I knew he was a racist dickhead but… Well, it wasn’t as if I was going to feel guilty about killing him either way. So what? You think he offered riches to Malfoy? More?”

“Who knows? He controlled Lily by force, but Scorpius he needs to convince. But I know that if Salazar showed up in my head and ordered me around, I’d probably do what he said.”

“Does that change our plans?”

“Maybe. Maybe we could tell Draco? Tell Scorpius what Salazar did with Lily? I don’t know. Ah, crap! I’m late! Sorry, got to go!”

You dash through the dungeons and off the main door, where Arty is waiting for you.

“I don’t mind waiting,” she says. “But you do know that if you don’t make this delivery, my boyfriend will be forever hunted by giant spiders, right?”

“Trust me, I’m very aware. Shall we go?”

The trip to Hogsmeade is quick, though not cheap. You burn the rest of your allowance into self warming blankets, and drag the heavy box in a sled through the snow. Soon you’re wading through the forest, floating the box in front of you.

“Should we… call out to him? Going around shouting a massive spider’s name in the middle of a dark forest doesn’t seem too smart.”

“Lumos!” She says, as your wand is busy. “Just have to find a spider and follow it.”

“Could just be ‘Follow the butterflies’. Is there a creature that you can find following the butterflies? Hopefully one that doesn’t have the capacity to eat my face?”

“No. The Great Siberian Moth attracts butterflies, but its diet is composed exclusively of Slytherin faces.”

“Good to know. Another reason to stay out of Siberia.”

It takes a while to find a spider who seems to be headed into the forest instead of out. With Arty being far too comfortable as she walks through the dark woods, you head deeper and deeper into the forest. It doesn't take long for you to start seeing webs. Once they start being thick enough to impair your movement, Arty stops you.

“Good, this should be close enough. Now put the box down and speak his name into the web.”

“What?”

“The web can take the vibrations for hundreds of meters. Honestly Elliot! Do you not pay attention to our classes?”

[Cont.]

>>5878440

“Clearly, not as much attention as you do.” You bend down towards the mess of webs on the floor and say clearly. “Arahuios, I come to fulfill my oath to you.”

There is silence for a few seconds, which stretch into minutes. When you move to speak again, Arty shushes you. Eventually, you hear the sound of hundreds of paws skittering through the floor and the trees.

“Uh… How do we know it’s really him?” You ask.

“Acromantulas are awfully territorial. They’d have tried to kill us already if he wasn’t expecting us.”

“Oh, good to know.”

Hundreds of glinting eyes in sets of eight appear in the darkness. One of them, the largest set, approaches close to the floor.

“You came, Friend of Friend of Hagrid,” he says, in a deep, bassy voice. “I did not truly expect you to do so.”

“I honor my agreements,” you say, flicking your wand so the top of the crate opens, revealing its contents. “We agreed on warmth. Here it is.”

He stretches one of its long, hairy paws into the light and picks up one of the many wooly blankets. They are garish in tone, as they were the cheapest ones you could buy, but Arty had said Acromantulas weren’t very good with colors.

“It is warm,” he says, toying with it, gently rubbing it through his pincers. “You have fulfilled your obligation, and I have fulfilled mine. Now, tell me… Now that you no longer have anything to offer me, Friend of Friend of Hagrid… Why should I deny my children the taste of manflesh- What are you doing!?” He hisses, and you turn to see Arty scratching the belly of an acromantula about three feet wide, who seems to be very much enjoying it.

“Uh…” the small acromantula says in a shy guilty tone, almost frozen in place. “She… She seemed nice and I…”

“Get back into the darkness!” Arahuios bellows and the smaller acromantula quickly scuttles away from view. He turns back towards you, sounding both furious and embarrassed. “Leave!”

You do so, and wait until you are far, far away from the forest before laughing about it.

--

All your trunks are closed and you are ready to go back home. If you wish to talk to someone or do something quick before you leave, however, there might still be some time for that.

> Talk to someone (Who?)
> Do something else (What?)
> Go home

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>>5878421
It is a bit funny to me that Arty, while more petite than Helga sounds, also has blue eyes and brown/auburn hair and she was one of the options for Helga's initial appearance when she physically manifested. And like the post said, we were pretty close to being a 'Puff ourselves.

On that note, just saying that Arty would make a good Gryffindor according to Potter. I would die if Godric was in her head but she just doesn't listen to him because she thinks he is just a stress induced hallucination or something.

>>5878442
>See if we can get Potter to arrange a meeting with Draco Malfoy, in private, without Scorpius

>>5878442
should we tell her now about scorpius? or are we telling her and Apollo when we get to our home? if so i guess now is a good time

>>5878442
Do we know anyone in our little circle who’s staying in Hogwarts for Christmas? Amalia? Riley? Talon?
Anyone we’re at least friendly with works. I want to ask them to send us any updates regarding the investigation to us via owl.
Having a good line of communication from home to Hogwarts is a massive benefit, and it’ll mean we won’t have as much catching up to do on Salazar’s progress.

>>5878443
Hoping this happens because it would be really funny if it did.
On that note, we do have an easy way to check. If Helga has been suppressing herself, we could just have her not do that for a moment, have her talk to us, and see if Arty hears her through looking into our eyes. IIRC we could hear Salazar even though we had only talked to Helga once before by doing that, so we can just repeat that but for Arty.

>>5878440
>I got away with blatantly copying the basic premise of BG3, up to the point of allowing you to "design your mind-guardian" and not being called out on it
Oh don't worry, I noticed. You HACK FRAUD!

>>5878442
> Go home

>>5878443
I really doubt it but it would be kind of funny.

>>5878454
We should probably do it now, just in case Scorpius tries something before we leave. I kinda wish we had been able to see if Arty could have tried to convince the mer-people to half ass their search of the lake...

>>5878442
>>5878493
I will support this, as well as:
>Hug and bid good-bye to Linda. Tell her to write if anything comes up.
>Talk to Potter. The Ministry and their goons can't just black bag us at Hogwarts but ask if there is any chance of them doing so when we are at our home.

I wonder if mom and dad are going to toss us spending money for gifts since we are now broke due to spider blankets. We need gifts for them, Arty, Apollo, and Linda. Or maybe QM will just hand wave it and say we got those before spending the rest on those blankets.

>>5878510
That is true.

>We scan Arty with Helga
>All we hear is sobbing and screams begging her to just believe he is real
>He has been in there for a decade with her just ignoring him and is slowly going insane from it

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>>5878517
>mfw

>>5878517
Nah son
>Scan arty
>Hear Godrick in her trying to egg her on to go find a Manticore because it'd be cool
>She agrees

Alright, final update of the year! Probably won't update tomorrow, but I'll be around if anyone has any questions! Thanks for participating and have a great new year!

--

You knock at Potter’s door, and moments later his voice comes from inside.

“Come in, Elliot.”

“How did you know it was me?” you ask, entering. He’s looking slightly more disheveled than usual, sleeves on his shirt folded while sitting on a comfortable chair reading the newspaper and drinking something amber.

“I have a spectral eye in my forehead that can see through walls.” He says, nonchalantly. “Either that or a minor enchantment on the door, one of the two.”

“Right. I just wanted to check up on you if… Well, I’m going home for Christmas and I was just wondering if there was anything that would stop, say, your friends at the Department of Mysteries from bursting through my door and taking me to study my brain.”

“No, I’m afraid you will be exposed to all the harms of the world while you’re out of Hogwarts. I’ll be sure to personally send your address to them.”

“You are in a very good mood today, aren’t you?”

“Trust me, Elliot, nothing makes a teacher happier than getting rid of their students for two solid weeks.” He puts the newspaper down and gets up, smiling. “But I doubt you’re at risk from the Ministry. If you don’t return, I promise I’ll personally bring down the building searching for you, how about it?”

“I’m honored you’d start a war with the ministry because of me, sir.”

“Well, it would be more to really test my battling skills, but your kidnapping would play a minor part in my motivations, yes.”

It is truly odd to see Potter this merry. He’s never gloomy, but right now he seems positively ecstatic. Strangely enough, now that he’s closer, you can see scratch marks on his exposed arms, almost as if he’d been in a clawing match with a particularly vicious cat.

“Well, if you say so, sir. Thank you. And merry Christmas to you and the family.”

And, from somewhere deep in the office, you hear Ms. Potter’s voice shout back “Merry Christmas to you too, dear!”

And you leave the office, unsure if you should be blushing or laughing.

[Cont.]

>>5878829

“Elend, you’re staying, right?” You ask, dragging your trunk out towards the train station. Even some of the students that are staying go there, to say goodbye.

“Yep,” the gryffindor answers. “Fifteenth anniversary of my parents' wedding, they’re going on a trip with just the two of them. Why?”

“Could you keep me up to date on what happens with Malfoy’s investigation? I’d love to know if they find something.”

“Sure. Owl or patronus?”

“Owl. My parents are as muggle as yours, we don’t want a glowing bird to show up when I’m buying a turkey at the supermarket.”

He laughs. “Fair enough. See you next year, commander. Have a good end of year!”

“You too, lieutenant.”

You reach the station and most of the kids have already boarded. Arty is waiting for you.

“I… I’ve never boarded the train,” she says. “Actually… this will be the first time me and Apollo leave the magical world since I was eight.”

“You’re worried?”

“Terrified,” she says, with only a slight tremble before walking into the train.

You, Apollo, Arty and Linda manage to secure a cabin for yourselves, and soon the smoke blows and the massive locomotive starts moving. The trees move away and, slowly, Hogwarts disappears in the distance, the great lake vanishes and Hogsmeade can no longer be seen.

“Well…” Arty says, biting her lip. “Bye bye, home. See you in two weeks.”

You put your arm around her, rubbing her shoulder.

“Hey, you’ll be fine. You’ll be with me and Apollo.”

“I know,” she says, resting her head on your shoulder. “But I still get that feeling in my stomach that I don’t quite know if it comes from butterflies or wasps buzzing in there.”

--

You four ride the train, with you, Arty and Linda chatting and Apollo simply being there, for the most part. When Arty mentions that they’ve both finished the preparatory exercises of Occlumency and can start the classes when they return, a thought comes to your mind.

This is probably the most privacy you’ll have with them for the next two weeks. If you want to tell them the truth… This is the best time for it, at least until the way back. Theyr mind is not fully protected, but then again, neither is yours.

> Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.
> Don’t tell them yet. No point ruining their Christmas with it.
> Tell them a partial truth (What?)

>>5878831
its time
>Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.

>>5878831
> Tell them a partial truth (The Malfoys may or may not be bad people, but they're currently closely tied to the danger that took Taylor from us, and Scorpius in particular is dangerous... So don't be alone with him, and tell Potter if they start asking anything weird, trying to get you alone, or snooping around in your mind)

>>5878846
Support.

>>5878846
this

>>5878831
>>5878846
Support. We can tell the whole story when they actually start the classes.

>>5878831
>> Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.

I think the difference between full truth and
>>5878846

are pretty minor if either of them get mind scanned and the full truth might make them more prepared.

I also think I have a good idea of Salazar/Cocksuckers plan.
Basically, he had planned to harness the power of the repository's ancient magic to allow his host to manipulate it as he was did and combine that with the resurection stone to use it in a way modern wizards can't. My guesses are to help him find the tomb or grave of the 5th founder and then either with the stone or via other means, bring him back enough that he could steal the mans power. What power you ask? The man who built the school must have had incredible power to modify it and its enchantments, in a way that is greater than even what the teachers and Headmistress can, and we have seen the crap they can pull. So at this point he would have ancient magic in massive quantites, complete control of the greatest wizarding school in the world and if he managed to kill Elliot by then, control of an Entity that can just unmake people/events.

He would be all but unstoppable at this point. Past this, his final goals are a bit vague but removal of all mugglborn from Hogwarts would be simple; he might even try and go as far as unmaking every muggle on earth. Total Muggle Death.

We denied him the repository, thankfully, but who knows how many sources of ancient magic are kicking around still.

Happy New Years fuckers

>>5878886
I'm mostly worried that telling Apollo that Arty was threatened will cause him to go fucking berserk and get himself or someone else killed.

>>5878831
> Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.
Fuck it lets dump all that trauma and cosmic terror on them. Apollo's going to be fucking livid, I just hope he doesn't try to murder Scorpio/Salazar the first chance he gets.

>>5878896
Well right now is about the safest place to do it, given we are on an isolated train full of wizards. If he chimps out, there are enough people to stop him and its not like he can turn the train around. He will also have 2 weeks before we return to cool his jets and Arty can calm him down. Thats my logic.

Happy New Year!

>>5878831
> Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.

>>Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.
>>5878833
>>5878886
>>5878902
>>5878992

> Tell them a partial truth
>>5878846
>>5878857
>>5878858
>>5878870

Perfectly balanced, as big votes tend to be. I'll go to sleep and roll a d2 if it's still tied when I wake up.

>>5879870
>>Share the truth with them. They need to know now that Scorpius threatened Arty.

>>5878846
>>5878846
Supporting. This may be the safest place to tell Apollo in the event he goes apeshit, but not in the event someone is listening in on us, and with many other wizards here, who knows who could be listening in on us?

>>5879898
Wait I’m dumb we’re alone. Never mind tell them the full truth.

I wonder if we could check ourselves for any bugs before hand? Can you use magic on the train? I doubt Scorpius planted one on any of us but still, if we can we should.

>>5879932
supporting this, lets make completely sure we dont have anything tracking us

>>5879933
I just googled it and magic is kosher on the train, so no reason not to. It there are tracking bugs, there might be listening bugs.

If Lily was erased, who discovered the bugs Ron planted on us at lunch a while back?

>>5879898
I think the main risk is us telling them and then they get their minds read by someone, say from the Ministry or Scorpius/Salazar pulling some fuckery. Our occlumency lessons are more advanced than theirs at the moment.

>>5879950
It said that the bugs died as we walked into hogwarts in… I think it was thread 2?

>>5879932
Also supporting checking for bugs.

>>5879870
I mean they don't need to know what they're fighting over... that might be too much.

But knowing there's a fight, but they're probably safe from it for now is a good move.

Still, what's stopping the Malfoys from having bugged us. It's probably safer to be as 'clean' as possible until we're in the enchantments protecting Hogwarts

>>5878846
Supporting this too.

>>5879932
+1

You look at Linda, and she knows what you’re about to say. She nods, and the two of you get up and start to cast spell after spell. You don’t know all the twenty-three enchantments that are recommended when speaking something of true importance, but between the two of you, you cover most of it.

“You two… I told you there was danger in my life, and that I was going to wait until you two could protect your minds to share it with you. But that danger is growing faster than I thought. So… I’m going to tell you. I’m going to tell you everything. If either of you don’t want to know, you can leave. I won’t blame you. It is the thing which killed Taylor. It’s more dangerous than anything we’ve seen before. Worse than Grindelwald.” You sigh, putting your wand down. “Worse than Voldemort.”

Arty wraps her hand in yours. Apollo nods, giving you the go ahead.

“Harry James Potter had a daughter. Her name was Lily. She was in her seventh year, she had the flaming red hair of the Weasleys, she was strong and fierce and kind. She was the Head Girl, and the leader of Gryffindor’s army. During the second week of class, she asked to meet me at night. I thought I was going on a date.” You grin as you remember the day, which now seemed so long ago. “She instead took me to her father, who said that neither he, nor she, nor Hogwarts itself had any records of my existence.”

And you tell them of the girl inside your head, and you tell them of Merlin’s Last Light, of what the creature inside Lily had done to her. You have to stop several times, your voice unsteady. When you can’t speak, Linda takes over. You tell them how Taylor died, how you lost your arm. She tells them how the battle ended. You tell them that the shadow escaped. You tell them how you freed the power in the repository. She tells them how she fought to keep you alive.

You tell them how time could not stand being so completely rewritten, so it had simply readjusted instead.

You tell them of the darkness inside Scorpius.

You tell them how he’d threatened you and Arty.

And, finally, you tell them the name of the woman inside your head.

“Helga?” Arty asks, barely a whisper, her face strewn with tears.

You nod, and a gentle voice whispers inside your head.

“Yes,” you tell her. “And she wants you to know she’s proud of you. Of both of you.”

“I… I don’t… I don’t know what to say.” She pulls you close, cupping your cheek gently resting her forehead against yours. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” She turns to Linda. “You too. I’m so, so sorry.”

“If it hadn’t been us, it would have been someone else,” Linda says, the only one who hadn’t cried, as if her tears had run dry. “We survived. Someone else might not have.”

“And Potter… He still can’t know?”

[Cont.]

>>5880510

“We don’t know,” you whisper. “Faith… Helga thinks he can’t, but she isn’t sure. I decided not to risk it. Can you imagine what he’d do if he had the power in that repository, if he knew what his daughter went through?”

“He’d break the world,” Apollo says, in a tone of cold fury. His eyes are red from the tears and his hands are strangling a piece of the windowsill that had come off in his hand from how hard he’d gripped it. “He’d carve time itself to undo it, or burn all magic in the world to cinders trying.”

“I don’t know what is coming… But Potter might be the cause, willingly or not. So I kept him in the dark, even though he tries his best to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile, I’m trying to avoid Scorpius and Draco and Salazar for long enough to figure out who was the Fifth Founder and where he is. Like with Merlin’s Last Light, we don’t know where it is or what we’ll meet there. But we have to go, because the alternative is letting the world end.”

Arty stays in silence for a long, long time. When she finally moves, she turns to you. She takes your left hand and gently pulls the glove off, revealing the deep, dark scars that cover it. She wraps her hands around yours, and kisses it, once, twice, thrice. When she speaks, there’s steel in her voice.

“We’ll beat Salazar. We’ll beat the creature inside you. And we’ll find a way to help Helga. No matter what it takes. And I’ll be right beside you, until the very end.”

You wrap your arms around her and hug her tight.

“Until the very end,” she repeats, and for just a moment, you have no doubts that she’s right.

--

Once you’ve all calmed down, it is time to strategize.

“We can’t just kill Scorpius,” you say. “If we do, Salazar will just escape again, and Draco will hate us. We need to find a way to either extract him, whatever sort of creature he’s become, and trap him. But we have no idea how to do that. So… we need to stop his plan in its tracks, instead.”

“How?” Apollo asks.

“That is a fantastic question. It seems likely that… Merlin, the Interdict, the Four Founders, they’re all connected. In the old stories, the ancient tales, the greatest of magics are not done with only speech and the wave of a wand. We don’t know why that is, just like we don’t know why Wingardium Leviosa makes things fly, we just know that it is true. . You must perform specific actions, make significant choices. Spending your strength temporarily isn’t enough; a ritual requires permanent sacrifice. They don’t necessarily need to be big, but they need to be significant.”

[Cont.]

>>5880511

“The Unbreakable Vow, for example, requires three participants. The one who receives the Unbreakable Vow must be one who could have come to trust the Vower, but chooses instead to demand the Vow from them, and they sacrifice that possibility of trust. The one who makes the Vow must be someone who could have chosen to do what the Vow demands of them, and they sacrifice that capacity for choice. And the third wizard, the binder, permanently sacrifices a small portion of their own magic, to sustain the Vow forever.” You shake your head. “It’s a magic that should have been banned a long time ago, if it wasn’t just so useful to the Noble houses.”

“Fiendfyre requires the sacrifice of a drop of blood, forever lost,” Linda says. “And I’ve heard of one that needs a rope that has hanged a man and a sword that has slain a woman, but I couldn’t find out what that one does.”

“Indeed. But even then, these things are minor, relatively speaking. But as far as we know, Merlin, though a great wizard, was still bound by the rules of magic. So, the obvious question is… What would a ritual that binds the whole world take?”

“You… you think that-”

“That the Interdict of Merlin was made with the lives of the four Founders. There may be more that was sacrificed, I’m not sure.”

“The Cup of Sorrows,” Linda says. “You said there was an artifact that could be used to bind the whole world, and Ravenclaw left it with Merlin for safekeeping.”

“And he repaid her by banishing her and the three others to the darkness beyond time as a sacrifice to create the Interdict. That’s the gist of it, yes. It probably cost Merlin his life, too, as it’s said it was his last work. And with Merlin dead and the four Founders gone, all the knowledge that they held vanished. But there is someone else who knew a great deal about magic. Whoever the Fifth Founder was… Salazar wants to get to him, and I don’t think it’s simply to meet an old friend. I’m assuming he’s dead and whatever we’re looking for is in his tomb, that there’s not actually a thousand-year-old man walking around. Whatever the case, he’s either incredibly powerful or has something incredibly powerful with him. We need to find him first.”

“Why did he call him ‘Fifth Founder’?” Apollo asks. “They knew each other, shouldn’t he just call him by name?”

“I don’t know. Helga… Her memories have been lost, most of them, and a lot of what she knows comes from me. She can’t even teach me the spells she knew in life. The same could be true for Salazar, since Lily didn’t know his name, he didn’t either. I’m not sure.”

“So we study, find where the Fifth Founder is hiding, go there and, what?” Arty asks. “Take his power hoping we can use it to kill Salazar and the Beast inside you?”

[Cont.]

>>5880512

“We find him and see where we go from there. We don’t know what we’ll find, making plans past it is useless. We just ready up, get as many supplies as we can, as many resources and as much knowledge as we can… And deal with whatever comes when it comes.”

“While finding time to study enough to pass our exams,” Linda says. “Don’t forget that.”

“Uuuugh! I have O.W.L.s this year!” Arty says. “I don’t have time to deal with a world ending abomination!”

“Congratulations, now you know how Potter felt for his whole stay at Hogwarts.”

--

The rest of the trip goes off without too much trouble, except for when the lady with the food cart comes and accidentally triggers your wards, which causes a ruckus that gets three different prefects involved. Half an hour and minus twenty points for both Slytherin and Hufflepuff later, you’re stepping down onto Platform 9 3⁄4, having reminded the twins that they couldn’t, under any circumstances, do magic here.

Arty and Apollo follow you and Linda looking apprehensive, and when you step through the magical barrier separating the magical world from the muggle one, they frown at the smell. But you smile at the stench of smoke and the car noises from afar. It’s home, after all.

You two approach the three adults and the kid in the distance, which are a fairly odd combination together. The man is short and a little pudgy, but has a full head of blond hair just now starting to gray, wearing a fancy but well worn black coat to fight the cold weather. The woman by his side is maybe an inch shorter than him, with black hair and crinkles near her eyes from smiling so much. She wears faint makeup with a red lipstick, and at least three layers of coats, though she's still shivering.

The pale woman and girl talking to them, however, are explosions of color. In fact, with their matching green coats, yellow scarves and white knit caps, they look like enormous sunflowers who have forgotten what season they are in. As soon as they see Linda, they come running at her, while your parents prefer a more dignified, slow approach.

“Hi, mom,” Linda says, approaching the two colorful figures. “Hey Baubau.”

“Raven! Oh, I missed you so much!” The woman hugs her tightly. “Did you run out of makeup? I thought I had bought enough for the whole year!”

“No, it’s… it’s fine. I just got tired of it. You… You can call me Linda now.”

The woman pulls back and looks in her daughter’s eyes. Her energetic tone mellows out.

“Right,” She says in a soft tone. “Do you want to go home, get under a blanket and tell me all about it?”

“Yes,” Linda says, voice straining on her throat. “Yes, I do.”

The woman waves goodbye at you and your parents, and they leave quickly, the little girl asking a barrage of questions at her sister, all going unanswered.

[Cont.]

>>5880513

“So,” your mother asks, approaching. “You two are Elliot’s new friends. I hope you’ve been keeping him out of trouble.”

“We try our best, but he really doesn’t make it easy on us,” Arty says, smiling.

“Arty, Apollo, this is Helen and Kendrik, my parents. Mom, dad, this is Apollo, Arty’s brother, and Arty, my… uh… girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend? My little boy got a girlfriend!?” You mom says, far too loudly, hugging you excitedly and making a point of embarrassing you as much as physically possible.

“Mom!”

“What!? I’m just hugging my son! Can’t a mom hug her son now that he’s got a girlfriend?”

“See son,” your dad says. “If you’d told me that you’d gotten a girlfriend in your letters, I could have prepared her and calmed her down, but you didn’t. So you only have yourself to blame, really.”

“Yep, I’m aware,” you say, having to force the air out through your mom’s death-hug.

She gives an equally tight hug to Arty, who is already being called her daughter-in-law, and to Apollo, who looks extremely uncomfortable, and soon you five are in the car.

“So, I was thinking,” your dad says. “It’s a three hour drive from here to our house in Cardif, and I don’t feel like driving six hours tomorrow again, so how about we go right to that Diagonal Alley you love so much so you can buy some Christmas gifts for your friends, huh? I know it’s a bit late but it should be fine if you do it quickly. Either that or you can come tomorrow by train without the boring adults to keep track of you. What do you prefer?”

> Go to the Diagon Alley today
> Take the train early tomorrow

>>5880514
>Diagonal Alley
kek, i see that common mistake is still alive
>Go to the Diagon Alley today
best to get stuff done now so we have as much free time possible later

>>5880514
>Go to the Diagon Alley today
He makes a fair point. We can do magical secret santa!

>>5880514
> Go to the Diagon Alley today

>>5880514
> Go to the Diagon Alley today

>>5880513
>we didn't undo the wards

And now Potter, and the Malfoys, know something happened. Our bluff has been destroyed.

>>5880636
No. For all they know we were just some dumb students playing around with magic.

>>5880514
>> Go to the Diagon Alley today

>>5880636
Damn.

>>5880636
I doubt it. I think it was just meant to be a comedic aside. QMs usually don't ounish players for stuff like that without giving us a chance to avoid it or at least a roll.

>>5880536
I support magical secret santa.

>>5880514
> Go to the Diagon Alley today

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>>5880514
>> Go to the Diagon Alley today

Hope you had a good New Years, QM.

>>5880636
Linda and Elliot are Slytherins. Warding your train car to some degree is par for the course. I think it will be fine.

So, according to what I found, a galleon is worth about 5 pounds, which seems really fucking low, but just something to keep in mind when we are shopping. Apollo presumably doesn't have any money aside from maybe a small stipend and Arty can get embarrassed by expensive stuff as well as being pretty broke as well.

>>5880514
> Go to the Diagonal Alley today.
Also, ask mom if we need to buy a ring there or if she has one she'd like to give us.

>>5880808
That would be fucking hillarious. Arty would turn red as a beet and the glare Apollo would give us would drop the temp in the car by like 10 degrees.
With all the stuff about being together till the end, whether it is ours or hers, we did pretty much tell her we are going to marry her.

>>5880867
Teenagers say stuff like that, but actually talking about rings and marriage will make it more 'real' and explicit in a way that may be a bit... MUCH for her poor little heart.

>>5880876
True enough. The girl I was with in HS and college, we really thought we would get married when we finished university. Didn't work out.

>may be a bit... MUCH for her poor little heart

Also true. But if we can not die by the end of the school year, I wouldn't be opposed to getting engaged, with marriage after she finishes Hogwarts. 2 year engagements are pretty common to give people time to save money and plan weddings.

>>5880888
>trips
i fully support this, once we manage to erradicate cocksucker for good, marriage is the next immediate goal

>>5880896
Hopefully we can take care of this before school lets out, that way we don't have to deal with Salazar AND what ever BS is sure to happen in our 7th year.

I hope getting rid of him doesn't make Helga disappear as well. If possible, I'd like to help her get a body somehow or at least manifest outside our head. She is cool and the most chill of the founders.

I wonder if part of why Salazar want to find the 5th founder is because that might let him get a body. If he wants to rule the world, I am sure he would prefer doing so in his own body vs. puppeting someone else's.

>Salazar wants revenge on the “5th Founder”
>Revenge implies they did something to him
>Salazar’s main group in legends consisted of 5 people: the 4 Founders, and Merlin
>Merlin is implied to have betrayed them all to create the Interdict of Merlin

So the 5th Founder is just Merlin then, right?

>>5880924
nah, it cant be that straight forward, i´ve came to that conclusion too, but its way too easy

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>>5880924
>“And now, I get to take this enormous pot of power from its cage, kill you, and use it to wrench that gate from that tiny little soul of yours. Then I can saunter away to find the Fifth Founder and take his power. Or maybe I’ll kill you first and then break open the repository, it doesn’t really matter. That gate inside you should hold for long enough even after you’re dead.”

>“You… You want to release the creature?”

>“Release it?” It asks, almost laughing. “I want to control it! I want to open its cage, tackle it to the ground and wrap a leash around its neck. I’ll use it to take back everything Merlin took from me! From us! And when I have it on the palm of my hand, I’ll use it to break the world in half and reshape it in my image. You have no idea how long I spent in the darkness. For you, forever is just a concept. For me it was a reality. No. Longer than forever. Far, far longer.”

He refers to Merlin by name but just refers to the 5th Founder as... the 5th Founder. Makes me think they are two different people.

>>5880636

What >>5880709 said. As a general rule players should never be punished for a choice made by the characters without player input, much less when for comedic effect.

>>5880785

The exact conversion ratio between real world money and muggle money shall be handwaved, because the official rates are fucking insane (and because any time a QM tries doing it, the players attempt to game the system to make infinite money). I’m trying to come up with numbers for things like Arty’s wage, and none of the numbers even remotely make sense with what we’ve seen in the books with the Weasleys.

Like, a wand, a thing you will use for your entire life, costs seven galleons, and the conversion rate is supposed to be 1 galleon = £5. Ollivander is going to need several side-hustles if he’s only selling like, a hundred of them, once a year to the new students. At the same time, the Triwizard tournament’s prize was 1000 galleons, and was viewed as something that helped kickstart Fred and George’s business. Sure, it’s a decent chunk of money, but I doubt you could buy a huge store on the wizard equivalent of Broadway for that amount of cash.

So, like Rowling did with any sense of coherence and balancing of her books, it shall all not be referenced, and simply work by QM’s fiat.

>>5880768

You too, anon!

--

You’re soon parking, or trying to find somewhere to park, in Charing Cross Road, London’s traffic being as unpleasant as usual. Your hand itches to flick your wand and magically shift some cars to the side, but no. You wait as your dad goes around the block four times searching for a spot instead of just going a street over and parking there, and, finally, you step out into the fresh and cold London air.

“Does everywhere smell like smoke?“ Arty asks, scrunching her nose and scratching at her school-provided second-hand muggle clothes that look about thirty years out of date. She’d never bought muggle clothes before, as she'd never been in muggle territory.

“Just the fun places. Come on, the Leaky Cauldron is right there.”

“Me and your mom will be just going into that restaurant right there,” your dad points. “That pub of yours gives me a headache.”

Muggles couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron, but Squibs like your parents were simply “heavily disincentivised”. They wouldn’t notice magical things if you didn’t point them out or it got directly in their way, and would generally frown when interacting with the things they could see, though the intensity of the discomfort varied. Your dad got a headache from simply glancing at the old pub, while your mom could look at it, but had gotten a migraine from going into it once. The old caretaker, Filch, lived in the Hogwarts castle without a problem even though he was a Squib.

Or maybe he had a constant migraine, and that’s why he used to be such pain in the ass. He retired in the previous year, and you hear he’s living somewhere far away with about a dozen cats.

[Cont.]

>>5880985

There is a glance between your parents, some sort of mental communication they had acquired after being together for two and a half decades, and your father ropes Arty and Apollo into a conversation. Meanwhile, your mom pulls you aside, opens her purse, pulls some bills out, frowns, then pulls some more before handing it to you..

“Is this enough?”

“Mom!” You hiss, quickly pocketing the money. “Don’t just wave money around! This is way too much!”

“Well, consider it your Christmas allowance. I want you to go and buy your girlfriend a good christmas gift.”

“I already got her a gift earlier.”

“Well, then you’re going to go get her another gift, because only a bad boyfriend would let his girlfriend pass their first Christmas day together without a gift.” She frowns. “And… in your letter, you mentioned they’re under the school’s care, right?”

You nod.

“Then don’t forget to share some of that money with them, so they can buy some nice things too.”

You already know Arty’s not going to like that, but you nod.

“Thanks mum.”

You hug her, and approach your father just in time to hear him say “And then, of course, during the Second Great Fire in 1940 this whole area was destroyed except for that one building right there, which baffled us muggles who didn’t know what it really was, of course.”

“Dad! Don’t start lecturing at them just because they’re too polite to stop you!”

“Son, talking endlessly about the things you love to people who pretend they’re paying attention is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”

“Oh, he knows,” Arty says, laughing. “Don’t get him started on Atlantis, or he’ll talk your ear off!”

“Hey!”

--

A few minutes later, you, Arty and Apollo are exiting Gringotts with a small bag of gold, silver and copper coins.

“Here,” you say, taking a few of each in your hands and stretching them to each of the twins. “Courtesy of the Hallaster family.”

Apollo takes it. Arty, of course, glares at you, hands on her hips.

“That’s not a gift.”

“It is. From my mom and dad to you. It’s just in its raw form instead of already preprocessed into merchandise.”

“That… that’s not how it works! I have my own money!”

You know a lost fight when you see one. “Fine. Here, Apollo, have these too.”

So you walk through Diagon Alley, passing all the stores which are old news to you, but which they have only seen twice before, when they were brought here to get their wands. While Apollo is constantly frowning, scanning the stores meticulously, Arty is looking into her bag of coins and muttering.

“And then there’s Annie and Jill and Tobias… That’s just ten Sickles for each… And plus an owl to send them…”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m seeing how much I have to spend for each present.”

You peek inside the bag, and are pleasantly surprised to see there’s a decent amount of gold in there.

“Arty, how many people are you buying gifts for?”

[Cont.]

>>5880987

“Well, there’s everyone in my army, then the people in my year in Hufflepuff, then the ones I’m helping train, and…” She says, counting on her fingers. “And then there’s you and Apollo and Linda. Should I get something for the teachers?”

“Arty, that’s the most insanely Hufflepuff thing I’ve ever heard, so much so that Helga Hufflepuff herself is snickering in my head and telling me to stop you. You don’t need to buy a gift for everyone you know!”

“But what if people hear that they didn’t get a present from me and someone else did!? That wouldn’t be fair!”

“Arty, Christmas doesn’t mean going bankrupt. I’ll get a gift for you, Apollo, Linda, maybe my other lieutenants if I find something I think they’ll like and I’m feeling generous. Everyone else can take a hike, they’re not entitled to gifts.”

“But- but-”

Apollo steps in front of her, crouching down until he’s eye-level. Then he flicks her in the forehead.

“Ow!”

“Elliot is more normal than us.” He says. “Don’t question when normal people tell you you’re being weird.”

“I’m the one who tells you that!” She says, rubbing her forehead. “And he’s not that normal!”

“He said few gifts. Get few gifts.”

She frowns, pouting.

“Fine! But if people hate me because of it, I’ll say it’s your fault!”

--

The three of you walk around, but it soon becomes obvious that you have a problem. Namely, you all need to buy gifts for each other, but it ruins the surprise of Christmas when you see the thing that’s being bought.

“Right, so we split up, buy our stuff, then meet back here in an hour.”

They both nod.

“And no buying gifts for the entirety of Hogwarts.”

Arty scrunches up her nose and shows you her tongue before leaving in the direction of a bookstore. Right, now comes the problem of what to buy her.

You have three ideas. First is a pouch that is bigger on the inside. You won’t manage to buy one that’s as big as yours, but… Maybe you could get one with an air-refreshment spell? It won’t be like the fabled Scamander’s trunk but… it’s a start.

Second is proper enchanted robes. She’s using just plain robes, but you could get some with cooling and warming charms. If she ever needs to fight in the snow, doing so without five layers of clothing will certainly help.

Third is good old jewelry. She’s bought practical clothes and school supplies, but nothing properly for herself, not for luxury. It’ll be nice to see her with something beautiful of her own.

What will you get her?

> A pouch that’s bigger on the inside.
> Enchanted climatized robes
> The most beautiful necklace you can find that fits in your budget
> Other (Write in)

>>5880989
> Other (Write in)
Are there any magical or quasi-magical items in Harry Potter lore that help with befriending/taming a pet beast? it's bad form to get someone a pet without asking, but the means o acquire and care for their own pet when ready...?

>>5880993
she can barely make enough for herself, i dont think getting her a pet is the wisest idea anon

>>5880989
> A pouch that’s bigger on the inside.
while i feel she would appreciate this, im not sure if this is something she REALLY needs
> Enchanted climatized robes
my inner min-maxer says that this would be the best gift, but my inner roleplayer says that she would be slightly offended over getting her whats technically "school supplies" since she is so adamant about it
> The most beautiful necklace you can find that fits in your budget
i think this one might be the one, something "extra" that wont get in her way and shows our love for her in a materialistic way
and if we could charm it so it could also have a secondary use, that would be awesome, tho im not entirely sure what that secondary use could be...

>>5880985
Squibs, huh? Didn't see that coming. So are we technically even muggleborn? Squib-born? Since squibs are just, like, failed wizards, would that make us a pure blood? And I am glad I am not the only one who though that conversion rate was fucked. Maybe if they are talking about pounds from 1900 it would make some sense.

>>5880989
This is very cute. Apollo telling Arty she is being weird is the reverse Uno of the year.

> Other (Write in)
A pair of beautiful earrings. She had to borrow some last time, so it would be nice to give her some that are hers. Also she looked really, really good in the ones Talon lent her.

Why did he have nice looking girl's earrings? You think him and Andre are friends? Hahaha.

>>5880989
>The most beautiful necklace you can find that fits in your budget
I think it’s cute.

If necklace or my suggestion wins, I think we might try to get her something with her birthstone; peridot btw.

It is often a yellow-green color, which kinda works as she is a Hufflepuff dating a Slytherin lol.

>>5880989
>Omnioculars. A really nice pair.
Literally the perfect gift for her. The basic ones are cheap as fuuuuck, so I imagine one that's decked out with 'the works' is still within our price range. Seriously, it suits her hobby the BEST and it suits her new life-threatening situation the best.

>>5880989
>The most beautiful necklace you can find that fits in your budget
Earring are good as well.

>>5881033
I'll support this too. And maybe we can charm it with something that could help her?

>>5880989
>Arty scrunches up her nose and shows you her tongue before leaving in the direction of a bookstore. Right, now comes the problem of what to buy her.
I mean we didn't ask mom if there was a family ring we should use...so wedding ring?
But if we don't want to kill her with a heart attack and ourselves with Apollo, badger shaped broach? Maybe with a snake about it. Oh and Omnioculars.

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>>5880989
>>5881133
If we can afford to get the binoculars and a small piece of nice jewelry I will switch my vote to that. Silver hair clip? Bangle? I do like the snake with badger; show the world she is ours. If you fuck with her, the might of Lord Hallaster will fall on you like the fist of a furious god.

>>5880989
>>5881002
+1

So hypothetical question, if during his adventures, Elliot finds a way to undo the Interdict of Merlin by IDK, destroying the Cup of Sorrows which is holding it together... should we do it? We have at least some idea of what unchecked magical power and progress can look like. See the Atlanteans and the fucked up shit we can infer from the artifacts we know they made. At the same time we can also see what gimping Wizardkind has caused; mad men desperate to leave a legacy, suffering which could have been stopped or fixed, an end to the age of wonders, ect.

I would vote yes, if for no other reason than to spite Merlin. He sounds like a dick who though he knew better than everyone else.

>>5881033
I can support this.

>>5881074
I'll support this instead of >>5880993 (my original vote)

>>5880989

>>5881256
He may have in fact had a really good reason that Helga/Faith just can't remember yet. Maybe Salazar, or someone, was already trying to rewrite time or do something else monumentally malevolent with old magic

>>5880989
>>5881074
Supporting.

>>5881559
My original theory was that it took the 4 founders sacrificing themselves to seal the void they were looking at in the memory Faith remembered when the dementor attacked us. My only issue was that Salazar doesn't strike me as the self sacrificing type. The prospect of the Nothing void destroying everything might have convinced him? So Elliot might be wrong that they were used to power the spell that created the interdict?

Didn't Merlin create the time turners? Hmmmm.

First, you take care of Apollo and Linda. For him, you get three new sets of nice robes, as Arty had told you. For Linda you find a very niche store that sells pieces from a wizard game that also uses animated pieces, like wizard chess. The game itself is an insane mess of rules, but the pieces themselves are sold separately, and you can see her making plenty of use of them in her mock battles.

For your three other lieutenants, you pick each a large pack of chocolate frogs. And, finally, after looking around to see if there wasn’t a small hufflepuff watching you from afar, you enter a store for quidditch apparel. Ten minutes later, you’re leaving with a wrapped package containing a brand new, far too expensive Ominocular, which can zoom, slow down, freeze and replay actions at will. You didn’t buy it for Quidditch, of course, but the ones at Magizoology stores were much worse than this one.

You had tested with a cat that was passing outside the store, and watched as it jumped in excruciatingly slow motion and swatted a fly on the wall. Yes, this would do nicely.

You leave the store and go back to your meeting spot, where Arty and Apollo are already waiting for you. He gives most of the money back to you.

“How many presents did you buy?” You ask, raising an eyebrow.

“Two.”

“Is it for me and Elliot?” Arty asks.

“Yes.”

She sighs.

“Not that few gifts, Apollo!”

So the next half hour consists in you two helping him pick people to give gifts to, then helping him pick the gifts. He was truly hopeless, and it honestly made you a bit excited to see what in Merlin’s name he could have possibly gotten you.

As the night falls proper, you three make a quick stop at the owlhouse to send off the gifts, then at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, where you try to pay but Arty shushes you and pays first, and head out enjoying your treats. You meet back with your parents, who have purchase bags of their own, and after a quick dinner at the closest McDonalds, which utterly bewilders Arty, you all embark on the long trip back home.

Arty stays with her face glued to the window the whole trip, watching the lights pass and asking questions about everything (How do the street lights work? How does the car move without magic? How are the buildings so tall?) and you answer them as best as you can. Eventually, you start smelling the distant salt air of the sea, and soon you’re parking in front of your home in Cardiff.

It is, admittedly, a large house for the number of people who live in it. Your parents had bought it when they were planning to have a second kid, but it never happened, and with you going away for most of the year a lot of rooms go unused. Fortunately, that means there’s a spare bedroom.

[Cont.]

>>5881843

The first thing from the entrance is the tv room, also known as the library. One half of the wall to the left of the tv is covered with your father’s history books, the other with your mom’s law books. Another wall has your section, a mixture of fantasy, science fiction and exoteric books, and alos those books that don’t fit in any of the other places, including at least one row of cooking books. The tv room has a small stair that leads to a slightly elevated area which holds the fancy-looking dining room (which is really only used when you have visitors) and a small but stocked bar, mostly filled with wines, from your mother’s clients, and whisky, from your father’s colleagues. It connects to the kitchen and to a set of stairs, which leads to a corridor with your parents’ bedroom, a guest room turned storage room and now, hopefully, turned once more into a guest room, and your bedroom.

On the corner of the tv room is a Christmas tree, still undecorated, of course.

“Let me show you where you two will be staying,” you say, taking them upstairs.

“I hope you two are alright with sleeping in the same room,” your mom tells Arty and Apollo. “If you aren’t, I’m sure Elliot can lend you his room and sleep with your brother instead, Arty!”

“We’re fine, thanks Ms. Hallaster!”

“Please! Call me Helen!”

“Ok, Helen!”

--

After the long train trip and the long car trip, you’re all tired and sleep comes easily. It is fairly strange to wake up under this strange ceiling. The bedroom is, of course, the same way you left it. Your computer is still there, unused but not gathering dust as your mom would never allow any part of her house to be dirty, much less when you are here.

You get up and out of your bedroom only to see a completely disheveled Arty in her pajamas, still looking half asleep, a messy head of bed-hair.

“Hufgnh…” She groans as she zombies past you and into the bathroom.

“She’s always like this when she wakes up,” Apollo says. “She needs a few minutes to get started. Screaming loudly in her ear also does the trick, but she will try to hex you afterwards.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” you say, laughing. Then you notice a pile of folded clothes on a chair against the wall with a note on top of it.

Elliot always told me wizards didn’t know much about us, and I think they forgot to look at how we dress for the last few decades. I took the liberty of buying some things a little more current while you three were in the Diagonal Alley. I hope they fit! We can go shopping for more later today!

One brushing of teeth, dress-up and a whole frowning Arty later (“But it isn’t Christmas yet, she shouldn’t be giving me a gift!”, quickly followed by a flick to the forehead from Apollo), you three make your way down for breakfast.

[Cont.]

>>5881844

“So,” your mom says. “I think we could eat, go to the market get a few things that are missing for Christmas, get you two some new muggle clothes-” Arty squirms in her seat as you expected, “And then you three are free to enjoy the afternoon! And at night we can decorate the tree. What do you think?”

“Sounds good! Have you started defrosting the turkey yet?”

“Elliot, this isn’t my first Christmas feast!”

“Just asking!”

Once all the purchasing is done… Where do you plan on taking Arty and Apollo?

> To the mall, show them the muggle society
> To the beaches, there won't be any sun, but they at least can see the sea for the first time
> Take them to the park, see if you can catch a glimpse of any birds
> Take them through the tourist route, showing them the history and all the Doctor Who-based stuff
> Show them what video-games are
> Introduce them to the wonders of the internet
> Other (Write in)

>>5881845
> Take them through the tourist route, showing them the history and all the Doctor Who-based stuff
And when our autistic friend gets over-stimmed...
> Take them to the park, see if you can catch a glimpse of any birds
We have something mellow we can do that he'll enjoy.

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>>5881845
quick question, how many "days" are we spending here and how many of that will be an actual update? cuz i want to make the most of it and i wouldnt mind taking our time with this section, after the cosmic horrors and unending battles, a nice extended comfy session feels like paradise to me

>To the beaches, there won't be any sun, but they at least can see the sea for the first time
i think they would appreciate the wonders of the vast sea, specially Arty, we could also tell her a bit of the many muggle sea creatures, we could get her interesed in oceanography once we tell her that only like 5% of the muggle ocean has been explored

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>>5881845
>>5881850
Supporting this.

>>5881856
>quick question, how many "days" are we spending here and how many of that will be an actual update? cuz i want to make the most of it and i wouldnt mind taking our time with this section, after the cosmic horrors and unending battles, a nice extended comfy session feels like paradise to me

I agree 100%

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>>5881845

>>5881850
>>5881861
Or wait, wouldn't it be better to wait to bird watch till like the day after Christmas, so Arty can try out her new omnioculars?

I will change my park vote to:
> Introduce them to the wonders of the internet

Because it has the potential for hilarity. Also I love that they got to try the pinnacle of muggle cuisine, MickyD's. Amazing.

>>5881863
If internet wins, this needs to be the BGM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1BneeJTDcU

>>5881845
>Take them to the Mall. Make sure to stop by the mall's Arcade. You WILL destroy Apollo at something.

>>5881856
You arrived in the 22nd of December and leave on the 5th of January, so two weeks. As for number of updates, I'm thinking this next one, then Christmas, then two more (maybe one extra for New Year's if I can come up with something), so four more updates, maybe five.

But, as usual, that can change depending on the direction my writing takes me (or if Voldemort decides to come back from death for the exclusive purpose of kidnapping your girlfriend for no good reason, or some equally horrible tragedy happens :) ).

>>5881845
>> Take them to the park, see if you can catch a glimpse of any birds
>> Take them through the tourist route, showing them the history and all the Doctor Who-based stuff

>>5881845
So we have a few hours to kill? Nice.
> To the beaches, there won't be any sun, but they at least can see the sea for the first time
Then
> To the mall, show them the muggle society
And after that we can chill out with a combination of
> Show them what video-games are
> Introduce them to the wonders of the internet

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>>5882003
>if Voldemort decides to come back from death for the exclusive purpose of kidnapping your girlfriend for no good reason, or some equally horrible tragedy happens :)

I am almost more excited to see what Arty and Apollo got Elliot than to see what I got for IRL Christmas.

The MVP for me was either this really nice heated blanket, because I am always cold, or the new competition pistol.

>>5882003
If we have two weeks, and there are only six things on the list, can we try to do everything in a frantic whirlwind that will get us stern talking to by our girlfriend?
Also, the Cardiff University does have a lot of Arthur studies. Maybe swing by the museum for terrible attack by Salazar or Mordred?

>>5882224
That would be amusing. I really do want to milk this down time for all it is worth.

And I guess Kendrick is a History Prof. at the Uni while Helen is a lawyer? That would give Elliot a pretty comfy life. Not millionaires but I knew a bunch of kid with similar setups when I was in HS, since it is a college town.

This update is taking far longer than usual due to the simple fact that I have never actually been in anywhere in the UK that isn't London, and I'm having to google what the fuck Cardiff has that is in any way interesting so Elliot can show it to them.

One day, I'll learn to plan these things. But it is not this day.

>>5882381
I did the same. But for weird shit. There's a harem room in the castle.

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>>5882389
Harem you say...

First, you five go to a clothing store, and after a while Apollo and Arty come out with enough clothes to spend the week without having to use Hogwarts outdated dresswear. Arty in particular looks adorable in a bright pink winter coat she picked herself and which, for only the time since you've known her, fit her properly. Fortunately for you, she also has no notion of muggle pricing to know you mom bought them good clothes.

Once that’s done, you five go to the nearby supermarket, your dad mostly to push the cart and pay for stuff while you and your mom go through fetching some missing ingredients.

“Do we have wine?”

“Mom, we always have wine. You basically stockpile wine.”

“Not my fault people think lawyers survive on a diet of wine and fancy cheeses.”

“I don’t hear you complaining about the cheeses.”

“And you never will. But they could afford to vary a bit.”

“I’ll let them know you’re drinking exclusively tequila now.”

“Ha! Not since I had some from a plastic jug at college and woke up feeling like death on the next day. But I wouldn’t say no to a nice gin, or even a cocktail. Say, isn’t brewing potions basically magical bartending?”

“I know at least ten different potioneers who would hex you if they heard you saying that.”

“Good thing I have my brave and powerful son to protect me. Do your friends drink?”

“They’re fifteen and sixteen.”

“Doesn’t answer my question,” says the woman whose upbringing was half of the reason you were put in Slytherin. “And you know it very well.”

“I haven’t seen Arty drink and Apollo definitely hasn't. You… probably don’t want two magical kids getting drunk for the first time in your house. Things could get messy really quick, most of all with accidental magic.”

“Here’s some wisdom from your elders: you don’t have to drink until you puke every time. You can stop after one glass. I was just asking to see if they’d drink the champagne during New Year’s.”

She looks over her shoulder to where your father is talking to the twins and helping them place one of each different kind of extremely industrialized and brightly colored muggle candy in the shopping cart and convincing Arty that, no, it's really no problem at all.

“They’re… special, aren’t they?” She asks. “I mean, Taylor and Raven were different but… They have something else, don’t they?”

“Sort of. I told you they were orphans in my letter, but… They had a complicated childhood, in more ways than one. It… left some scars, though I think Apollo got the brunt of it. I think he tried his best to protect her from the worst. She has problems letting people give her stuff, even got a job because she doesn’t want to use the school funds, and he… we’ll you’ve seen it. And he goes absolutely feral if anything threatens her.”

[Cont.]

>>5882642

“I’ve worked with some children from troubled homes,” says the woman whose upbringing was half of the reason you were almost put in Hufflepuff. “It’s never easy. Some get really possessive, some get really aggressive, some grow reclusive. Some think they always need to be a good kid, or they’ll get beaten or abandoned again. Best you can do is be there for them when they need it. That and get them a trained professional.”

“No therapists in the wizard world, unfortunately.”

“None?”

“In a world with mind-reading and potions that let you impersonate someone else easily… People who know everyone else’s deepest secrets would be too big of a target, and everyone knows that. And those who are powerful enough to not care about that risk have bigger things to do, so the profession just never really appeared. That’s as far as I can guess, at least.”

“Then you can be a good friend,” she says. “You can’t change the whole world, Elliot, but you can help the people around you. If everyone did that, if everyone were to just add a bit more light to the people around them… Why, then I would be out of a job, but at least the world would be a better place.”

“Also, while they’re away,” she continues, making sure they’re still out of earshot. “You said she’s a fifth-year student, right? Do wizards have anti-pregnancy potions or should I buy you a box of condoms?”

“Mom!”

“Don’t you ‘mom’ me! She’s the first girl you brought home and I know my share of teen parents and I don’t intend on letting my son become part of that statistic!”

“No, we’re nowhere close to that yet!”

“Well, if you ever get to that, don’t be stupid. Does Hogwarts have sex-ed?”

“I am not discussing this with you in the middle of the supermarket!”

“Oh, shush, no one’s listening. So, do they have it?”

You sigh, shushing the giggling Helga inside your head. “There’s a corner of the infirmary with anti-pregnancy potions that you can just go and get without anyone seeing or talking to you.”

“Oh good! At least they do something they’re better than us. Maybe that’s why there are so few of you.”

“That and the genocidal wizard a couple decades ago.”

“That too.”

--

Once you’re done with your purchases, you go back home and you, Arty and Apollo depart. First you have no clear direction, just wandering the streets and enjoying the cold winter air.

As you walk, you talk about the city, getting a handle on what part of muggle culture they know and what part they don’t. Arty remembered “the bright moving paintings”, but didn’t know what they were called, so you tell her all about about it, your favorite tv shows, and of course, Doctor Who, which every good british boy was contractually obliged to watch, if only at the very least the Christmas specials. Any time you pass by somewhere interesting, you tell them about it, the city filled with old and fond memories.

[Cont.]

>>5882643

It is winter, so when you enter the Royal Arcade it is filled with people trying to get out from the biting cold. It is one of seven old Victorian structures with hundreds of local shopping boutiques, restaurants, cafes, stores, the whole lot, a strange mix of old and new that works, making the whole thing cozy and modern.

Arty is clearly loving stopping on every single shop window to look at all the new stuff, but it doesn’t take long for her to stop.

“Is there somewhere less crowded?” She asks, and it doesn’t take much to figure out why. Apollo is looking to be positively on what you can only call attack mode, tense, hand constantly flinching to where his wand is hiding before he catches himself, as if a group of death eaters could jump out from the nearest coffee shop at any instant.

Before a tragedy happens, you leave, heading north towards Bute Park, a massive stretch of green that covers a great chunk of the city, the old Cardiff Castle watching over you nearby. The morning snow has mostly melted, but the grass is still wet, so you find a small coffee shop with outside tables where he can relax.

“Uh… thanks.” He says when you sit down, looking sheepish.

“It’s fine. It was a bit too crowded today, people doing last minute Christmas shopping.”

“It was fun watching you talk,” Arty says. “You sound just like your dad did when he was talking about London.”

“Yes, Taylor said the same thing when he came to spend Christmas,” you say, with only a slight tinge of dread. “Ever since last year my mom started getting our voices confused if we speak when she’s not looking. I’m hoping to at least avoid khaki shorts in my future.”

“I think robes suit you much better.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of golden vests imbued with the power of Merlin, but yes, robes will also do fine.”

You order and soon you each have a cup of steaming hot chocolate in your hands.

“If you’re not too afraid of the cold, I was thinking we could come here some day after Christmas. Right before the sun rises. There are swarms of birds that come to go for the bird feeders or the trees.”

“Ooooh, I’d like that! You’d mentioned there was a park close to your house, but I was thinking it was a small thing. This place is huge! I mean, it has a Castle! Who even lives there?”

“No one, really, it’s just a tourist attraction now. We can visit it later. But my dad works right there,” you say, pointing at the great buildings of the Cardiff University, right beside the park. “I think the main buildings are closed now, because of the holidays, but we can still see the grounds. And I think the Ice Bar should be set up close to it!”

“What type of bar specializes in ice?” Arty asks, confused.

“No, the bar is made out of ice.”

“That sounds impractical,” Apollo says.

“It is, that’s why it only exists in winter. And you have to book a time slot beforehand, if I recall correctly, so it shouldn’t be too full if we go.”

[Cont.]

>>5882644

Once you’re done with the hot chocolate, you head for the university. It’s one of several buildings that surround a large rectangular garden, which include a library, a church, a museum, the police station, the crown court and the city hall, all bundled up in a single huge area. You’re passing by the Ice Bar in the way there when Arty squeals.

“They have an ice rink! I haven’t been ice skating in forever!”

Oh no.

“The lake freezes every year, Arty,” you say, your voice strained.

“Yeah, but transfiguring good ice skates is really hard and I didn’t want to borrow one and I didn’t have the time! Can we go?”

Ice skating. You had tried it once when you were seven, fallen on your face and hurt yourself. Then an irresponsible uncle had let you watch a slasher movie where the killer chopped someone’s head off with an ice skating shoe, and then every time you came close to it you thought about falling and someone skating over your hands and cutting them off, so from that day on you had decided to stay firmly on solid, non-slippery land, thank you very much. If you had to go on ice, you’d use spiked shoes, and not simply slide on what was basically two blades haphazardly tied to a shoe.

Taylor had asked for the same thing when he spent Christmas with you, and you had gone with him, and your legs were shaking so bad you could barely move and your hands couldn’t unclamp from the railings, some deep, primal fear taking hold. It’d been so bad he hadn’t even mocked you about it.

“Oh, you have to buy a ticket,” she says, reading the signs over where people gracefully glide over the frozen surface. “Can I borrow some money to go? I promise I’ll pay you when we get back to your home!”

It’s now your turn to feel like you’re in attack mode, every muscle tense, like an aracnophobe faced with an acromantula, except yours is white and has knives at the end of its feet. There is no way stepping into this doesn’t end poorly for you.

> “I’m… Out of money.”
> “You two can go, I’ll watch you from here.”
> Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too

>>5882646
>Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too
anything, and i mean ANYTHING! for our miniwaifu, we doing this!

>>5882646
> Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too

Watching Elliot eat shit on the ice is too good to pass up. Maybe Arty would be so kind as to hold us while we glide around, petrified?

>>5882653
Exactly. what the wifelette wants, the wifelette gets. I would laugh my ass off if Apollo turns out to be some kind of skating protege, doing spins, pirouettes, jumps, ect

>>5882646
>Go Ice Skating, but see if Helga will help you cheat. Or at least give you some tips, damn it!

>>5882676
>"Let me guide your skates"

Kek.

I am fine with Elliot sucking at this, personally.

On the topic of Helga though, our last interaction was kinda sad. I wonder if our connection is strong enough to let her body jack us, with our permission? Let her enjoy somethings at least for a little while, like real food. I trust her enough to be okay with that.

>>5882707
i´ll support this, everyone gets a gift, including her, she could use our body to re-experience some stuff, who knows, maybe it could trigger some memories

>>5882646
> Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too

>>5882707
>Helga bodyjack
As nice as this would be, I don’t think it’d be a good idea. Isn’t she still holding back the beast inside of us? If she takes control then who’s gonna fight it back? Us? As good as we are, I dunno if we should do that.

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>>5882727
I mean, we would ask her if it would be safe to to it before, just for a little while. And I think the beast is more or less on lock down following Last Light. We haven't had it interrupt of dreams with her since at any rate.

And like:
>>5882717
said, it might be a nice gift.

On the more practical side, if we ever get incapacitated, knowing she can take over for a bit might save our lives. Remember how Salazar was able to just no sell a pair of stunners from Linda and Taylor when he was using Lily's body?

>>5882646
> Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too

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>>5882530
Indeed I did. 'Harem' inspired Arab Room.

>>5882642
>>5882643
>Says the woman whose upbringing was half of the reason you were put in Slytherin
>Says the woman whose upbringing was half of the reason you were almost put in Hufflepuff
I love this line, I just wanted to tell you how good this was.

>>5882646
> Accept that you’re going to die in a painful and humiliating manner, in front of Arty, and that she’s going to laugh over your corpse, and go skating too
But also >>5882676, with the caveat that she fails too 'cause they didn't have good ice skates back in the day. So we can both land on our ass and have a laugh at it.

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>>5882530

>>5882646
We've already given both of them the truth. We CAN ask if we can let Helga relive ice skating with them. Hell of a thing to go skating with the creator of your house.

>>5882646
>>5882661

You know what, I will change to:
>>5882661
>>5882949
What these guys said.

>>5882957
I meant
>>5882949
>>5882676

>>5882834
Aw, thanks anon!

--

“... Helga, I…” you think as you step into line. “I might need you to take over a bit.”

“You want to use up your connection with me, one that can supercharge your magic far beyond normal capabilities and help you defeat enemies that would be otherwise invincible, to go ice skating?” She asks, amused.

“Uh… yes. Because… you know… I figure you miss seeing the sun and the wind and… everyone deserves a christmas gift and… uh, something like that.” YOu say, with some difficulty coming up with reasons.

“I see, so you’re not doing this because you’re terrified of stepping onto that ice, you’re doing it because you’re a good, considerate person, is that correct?”

“Uh, yes?” You answer as a man puts a pair of skates into your shaking hands.

“Too bad, I don’t feel like it.”

“Helga!”

“You need to face your fears, that’s what courage is all about!”

“I’m a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor!”

“Then talk your way out of it. You made this choice, not me.”

“Come on, help me out here!”

“Ah, so you do want my help!”

You put on the shoes and start shimmying your way to the ice, hyperventilating.

“Yes! Yes, I do!”

“Say the nice word, then.”

Your boots touch the ice.

“Please!”

“Hum, since you’re asking so politely, then sure. I still can’t fully take control, even when you allow me to, but let’s see what I can do for you.”

> Roll a d100-25 (-50 from the fear, +25 from your newly reinforced connection with Helga), Bo3

Rolled 20 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5883043
oh man, this is gonna be fun

>>5883047
>-5
oh, we are actually dying here...
not killed by a cosmic horror, but ice skating...i guess thats ONE way to be remembered for eternity

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Rolled 49 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5883043
Guide my Skates!

>>5883056
Fuck, did not notice it is MINUS 25.

These first two rolls don't count right, QM, haha

Rolled 58 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5883043

So we nearly immediately trip and eat shit, even with a powerful ancient witch making us suck less, bowl over an entire family of 4, break our nose on the ice, then gel our skate stuff in the wall. EMS has to be called to free our foot and out face from the frozen blood pooling around it.

>Helga has lost respect for you
>Arty is reconsidering being by your side till the end, since the end will probably be you slipping down some icy stairs and breaking your neck
>Apollo just looks smug while triple pirouetting with his leg above his head

>>5883047
>>5883056
>>5883064
Elliot is so fucking bad at ice skating even Helga can't save him from planting his face into the floor.

>>5883071
Nah that's what would've happened if we got a 1.

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>>5883138
I mean 33 isn't as bad as it could have been, I guess. I feel like we have rolled about that bad on an unmodified d100 before.

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>>5883047
>>5883056
>>5883064

Rolled 18 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5883043
COMICALLY FAIL! COMICALLY FAIL! COMICALLY FAIL!

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While we wait for the hilarity to ensue, some things:

Our connection with Helga is now stronger than Cocksucker/Salazar's was when he was with Lily, based on the bonus. This is good.

If we have to confront Scorpius, we should probably not mention the voice in his head is Slytherin prime and just keep calling him Cocksucker.

I think the creek/stream in our dreamscape probably represents our bond and connection with her, as it has been slowly growing from basically just a trickle

If we can, I would like to have a dream Christmas with Helga. It might not be as good as the real thing but it is a nice gesture. The only 2 things that can affect her are us and the beast, so maybe if we concentrate, we could manifest a small gift that would stay with her, like a hair clip or something.

Elliot's mom has the second most Slytherin job possible as a lawyer. Only a politician would trump it.

We need to, with Arty's help, make it clear to Apollo he can't fuck up Scorpius, that in fact both of them need to stay as far away from him and his dad as possible.

When we get back to Hogwarts, after we asses the situation, we need to start preparing, as do our allies. Brewing extra potions, finding some one to help tutor us and them in battle magic, researching what we can about Salazar and the 5th founder, ect. Since Arty is our little social butterfly, maybe try and see if she can establish a loose info network, at least with the 'Puff girls.

We need to train transfiguration with Apollo. After us hosting him and his sister for 2 weeks, surely we will be close enough that is an option. If we were better last time, we might have been able to save Taylor. Likewise, when we do Potions with Arty, we should get him and Linda there too if possible to maximize efficiency and the number of brews we have on hand.

We need to check on the Stone and the Library at some point. I suggest testing the stone to make sure Scorpius didn't find it and replace it with a fake in order to get our guard down. It is what I would do, after all. We don't have to use it but trying to reducio it or something might work. I doubt the real deal could be affected by something like that.

While I am very glad I am finally done with my previous hospital job, I am now very bored with the holidays done. Might come in handy for this quest lol.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

>>5883198
supporting all of this

>>5883138
>Nah that's what would've happened if we got a 1.
my man, i got a -5 when i posted from work...

I was hoping to get the scene out before going to sleep, but my penchant for drama and my chronic inability to write a fucking lighthearted scene and not turn it into a discussion of trauma, phobias and PTSD is really getting in the way.

I'll just delete the two and a half pages of text I wrote and write a scene where something nice happens to Elliot for a change, because Merlin knows he deserves it, but that means no update before I go to sleep today, and I have a busy day and night tomorrow, so next update will take a while. These updates without a clear objective are really difficult for me to write, for some reason.

A question to pass the time: If there are two large scenes, two updates worth of it, with no important decision to be made between them (say, this ice skating and then Christmas), do you prefer that I:

> Hold until everything is complete and post a massive update
> Post the first scene when I finish it, then the next when it is ready, without a question prompt in-between them
> Post the first scene, ending with a mostly unimportant/minor roleplaying question, then work on the second one while the voting goes on, knowing it might take longer as I need to take the voting into account

>>5883309
>> Post the first scene when I finish it, then the next when it is ready, without a question prompt in-between them
this one feels optimal, that way WE get content
(You) dont get to feel like you arent doing anything
and it gives everyone something to look for that we know WILL come out relatively soon instead of just randomy waiting for whatever the next update will be

>>5883309
> Hold until everything is complete and post a massive update
I'm fine with waiting.

>>5883309
>What ever is easiest and most enjoyable for you to write. If you want to dump a huge scene, do that. If you want to season the second part with a bit of RP flavor, do that.

Personally, if it is not more strssful or annoying, I like:
> Post the first scene, ending with a mostly unimportant/minor roleplaying question, then work on the second one while the voting goes on, knowing it might take longer as I need to take the voting into account

The characters are a big part of why I love this quest so anything that fleshes them out more is great. And I, like a couple of other people want to milk our break for all it is worth.

Thanks for your hard work HeadQM. Have a good nap.

>>5883309
>> Post the first scene when I finish it, then the next when it is ready, without a question prompt in-between them
It's a good way to give anons something while not burning yourself out.

>>5883309
> Post the first scene, ending with a mostly unimportant/minor roleplaying question, then work on the second one while the voting goes on, knowing it might take longer as I need to take the voting into account
This is just my personal preference as player, but ultimately you should pick the option that makes you feel best about continuing.

>>5883309
>> Post the first scene when I finish it, then the next when it is ready, without a question prompt in-between them

Speculation time. Who do you think Rowena would be in, assuming she's in anyone at all?
My guess would be that she'shiding inside her own daughter's ghost, due to the strong connection between the two, in Harry and directing him in a subtler way than the others, possibly with a weaker connection due to the fact that he's already an adult, or the most likely theory brighton, since he's supposedly the most clever and is upset he was sorted into ravenclaw instead of his preferred house, which the sorting hat would usually take into account.

I am finally back from a baby shower and some other fun with old friends and not ready to go to bed, so while having a couple of drinks, I did a quiz for wand specs for Arty. Or as best as I could, trying to answer like she would.

>Cedar wood with a unicorn hair core, 11in and unbending flexibility

Which is kinda fun since it is the same wood as Elliot's and Arty had mentioned her core was Unicorn hair once. I think that means better at charms with it but I am not sure what malus would correspond. Dark Arts?

Does anyone have the link to what QM used for Eliott's wand?

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>>5884419
Brighton would be a decent bet. I also half joke about it being Amalia.
She is smart, has been the MVP in a lot of battles, and was what looked like a possible love interest in the first thread so she might have had the chance to be a bigger part of the story.

Potter would be horrible, since he is already clever. Or maybe he is clever b/c of Rowena? Hmmmm.

Who do you think Godric might be in? Once again I had "jokingly" suggested suggested Arty. She is stupidly brave and Potter said she would have made a good Gryphindor. Maybe that was what the hat 1st suggested, but she went with Hufflepuff because Apollo was in that house and she saw how he hadn't made any friends over the year he was there with out her?

Riley could also be an option I suppose or maybe her sister?

>>5884434
Godric? I actually give that one to Apollo. He's brave when it matters, and fair. Remember, he explicitly refused chances to increase his odds of winning when it would have been convenient for him to do so, simply because he wanted to win on his own merit. He also showed sportsmanship by giving a pseudo-tie to another team. And despite his fears of flying, he tackled every challenge that required it of him. Despite his trouble in populated spaces, he went to the mall with us. He also favors a simplistic approach that I feel Godric would like, for example...just recruiting as many people as he can in the second to last battle.

>>5884437
As for why Godric wouldn't be speaking up or helping in any way noticeable by whoever he inhabits, well...Godric isn't the type to gang up on people. I think he'd keep to himself and maybe silently encourage people to do their best with their own power. He'd only step in if it really, really mattered.

>>5884419
>>5884434
It could be that they didn't even manage to escape the void like Helga and Salazar did. I don't think they'll show up anytime soon.

>>5884439
>I think he'd keep to himself and maybe silently encourage people to do their best with their own power. He'd only step in if it really, really mattered.
He's not Kreia from KotOR 2, if he's just hanging back and watching it all happen I'm going to be pissed off.

>>5884446
I mean, he might not even have a remote idea that something's wrong depending on who he's in. And if he's in one of the twins, he wouldn't have known until very very recently...and if he didn't try to communicate in any way prior, his connection is probably very, very weak, so he'll have to start building it up to be able to communicate the way Helga does.
Either that or the void might spit him out later. I don't think Helga and Salazar got spat out at the same time, given how much more time Salazar had to work.

>>5884437
>>5884439

That does make some sense. Apollo was pretty brave to confront their dad/caretaker when he was diddling Arty as well. Granted, I am sure there was plenty of anger, but it does take courage to stand up to a full grown man when you are like 8 or 9. Hell, along with the magical twins thing, Godric might have been lending Apollo some power that he uses subconsciously, which is part of why he is so strong.

Apollo might not even realize the voice in his head is someone else, since he has brain problems, or maybe those brain problems keep Godric from actively communicating with him? He has also been described as impulsive by Linda, which might fit Gryffindor Prime.

From the wiki, Gryffindor was:
>he was respectful and fair, choosing to wield a sword instead of magic against Muggle combatants out of a sense of fair play as magic would be a most decidedly unbalanced weapon in a duel against a simple sword. In addition to showing his sense of fairness, his deference to the duelling style of opponent also shows a need to challenge himself, proving his worth and courage,

Could be, though I am not 100% the other Founders escaped the Nothingness. We also have 1 1/2 years left. Could be we haven't even met thier vessels if they got out.

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>>5884448
Forgot to add, yeah, Apollo never tried any underhanded or tricky tactics other than setting up a gramophone to distract us...

If either of them have their own mind ghost and neglected to mention it after we told them everything...I would not be happy.

Merlin had the same fate as the others, afaik. Could he be with someone? Who?

>>5884494
Elliot THINKS Merlin might have gone down with the others, and that it was to create the Inderdict. I personally think the Founders died/were used in a ritual not to create the Inderdict, but to seal up the Nothingness void we saw them facing in Helga's memory. I think this is what created the Veil in the Ministry basement.

Personally, I think Merlin survived that and then used his own life and the Cup of Sorrows to make the Inderdict after the Founders were gone, possible because unchecked magic is what caused the void Helga remembered to form.

>>5884494
Knowing him, probably his own fuckin' painting. I have my doubts that he would create it for the sole sake of telling obtuse riddles about the cursed vaults. It smells of a contingency plan to me.

>>5884502
Shadowruns!

But trapping your "soul" in a painting sounds like hell on earth, honestly. Wouldn't put it passed him but damn...

I suppose we can add that to the list of shit to do when we get back: Check out Merlin's painting for conspiracy reasons.

>>5884528
>trapping your "soul" in a painting sounds like hell on earth
It strikes me as a vast improvement over the alternative that Helga's stuck with. Watching another person's life through a tiny little window and being stuck in a lifeless mindscape for god knows how long.
I would imagine the painting's "will" would be incredibly easy to override, and whenever he doesn't feel like being an active participant he can default to the painting's programming...which still acts exactly like he does. And if he wanted to tell something to someone, he wouldn't really have to go mindcrushing like Salazar or hope that his host passes the message along like Helga. There's a lot of freedom, going from nothing to a living painting.
Bonus points for getting to go on adventures through other paintings nearby and hit on the hot painted babes.

>>5884582
Eh that sounds like it might be okay. Granted I am a bit fuzzy on exactly what painting are? Do they have any real consciousness or are they just like a program meant to replicate the subject's behavior? Can they learn and change? Surely they don't have a soul? They can take commands from people they think they should take commands from... are they basically NPCs from an RPG, repeating canned dialogue and walking the same routes again and again until the painting is destroyed?

>>5884603
The portrait people have their personalities and behaviors set by the wizard or witch that enchants it, usually whoever drew the picture. Traditionally this involves giving them a few set phrases they can parrot and some basic routines they can go through, and in 99% of cases that's it. But as we see in the Headmaster's Office (and with Merlin's own portrait), a portrait can be painstakingly instructed to expand its capabilities, possibly with the aid of adjustments on the enchantment itself. Enough effort put into it can make them an extremely convincing copy of the original, but they never stray from what they're 'taught' or 'instructed'. I think it's safe to say they don't have a soul, but something LIKE a soul is always a possibility.

>>5884603
They're essentially a very well-designed AI chatbot designed to mimic the mannerisms and attitudes of one specific person, and some attempt to respond to user/passersby inputs by saying what they think their 'character' would say.

>>5885192
That is basically what I was imagining. So IF Merlin's soul or what ever did end up is his painting, you could say we would have a "Ghost in the Magical Machine". Oh-hohohoho

>>5884603
Paintings are a memory etched into paint, a memory made by the painter. It doesn't know anything about the person that the painter didn't, and it has just as much soul as ChatGPT. It doesn't hold new memories for long, it can't learn, and new events will slowly fade away from their "mind". Some even say ghosts are a self-made "painting" carved into the environment by the wizard's death. They also suffer from lack of a memory related to recent events (which is why the History of Magic classes related to the recent Wizarding War is lectured by someone who isn't a ghost), though some say that they're unable to learn simply because they're not where they belong.

This is in the quest, of course. In book-cannon, it's never truly explained or explored.

>>5884423
>Does anyone have the link to what QM used for Eliott's wand?
I think just I got all possible values from Pottermore or the wiki and rolled on them, but it has been a while.

--

You hold on to the railings around the rink with an iron grip, thanking your winter gloves for hiding your white knuckles.

“Come on, Elliot!” Arty says, sliding past the entrance and into the middle. “Woooooo!”

“Elliot, if you want me to help you, you need to let go from the railing,” Helga says in your head.

“Uh-huh. Got it.”

“You’re not letting go.”

“I’m aware.”

“Anytime you want.”

“Uh-huh.”

Arty comes towards you almost flying then turning at last second, braking and stopping right next to you effortlessly.

“Is there something wrong?” She asks.

“No! No, I’m, ah, it’s just been a while since I’ve been skating and, uh, I’m out of practice,” you lie, hoping to Merlin she takes the tremor in your voice for cold. “You go ahead, I’ll be right with you.”

“Ok!”

She slides away again.

“Ok, gently now, Elliot,” Helga whispers softly in your mind. “One hand at a time. Relax, I got you.”

You forcefully pry your left hand off the railing, then your right one. There is lead in your stomach, colder than the ice around you. Your body is stiff as a board.

“Ok, I’ll nudge you in the right direction now, but you need to relax.”

“If I relax, I’ll slip and fall!”

“You won’t slip, I’ll guide you.”

“You said you couldn’t take control!”

“I said I couldn’t take full control, I can still help you. Here, let me just-” You feel her trying to move your leg and instinctively fight back against the intrusion in panic, pulling back with force, far too much force. Your leg slips backwards, propelling you forwards. You stumble , wide eyed as you frantically try to regain your balance. “No- Don’t- you just need to- Stop fighting me!”

[Cont.]

>>5885381

But you don’t have the brain power to answer, every neuron firing in some variation of a high pitched scream of horror as you swing your arms and legs wildly around, trying desperately to get back to the safety of the railing, but it’s too far away, so you flip around in place, out of control as each movement you do just takes you further and further away and more and more off center, until both your legs come out from under you and you fall, your back hitting the ice with a thwack! and a scream of horror. You immediately curl up in a ball to avoid having your fingers chopped by an errant skier, sliding through the ice like a scared, upturned turtle until your back hits the opposite edge of the rink.

You hoist yourself up and out of the ring and into the wet grass outside.

“Ow.”

“Elliot! Are you alright!?” Arty asks, sliding into a halt by where you’re lying down.

“Ego is plenty hurt,” you say, looking up into the sky. “Body is mostly fine.”

“Are you doing that thing boys do where they need help, but the only person available to help them is a girl, so they don’t ask for help and end up embarrassing themselves?”

“I did ask for help from the one living in my head, but even she couldn’t do anything about it.” You sigh. “I can’t do it to save my life. My body locks up when I think that if I fall someone could slide over my fingers and chop them off.”

“You know wizards can just regrow them, right?”

“Not the point!”

She giggles.

“Come on up, let’s see if two Hufflepuff girls can’t help you.”

“You just want to see me fall again.”

“That too. Come on, what would you do if I was bound in chains, helpless, in the middle of a frozen lake with a horde of undead coming for me? Just let me die because you can’t skate over?”

“I’d summon a broom.”

“Anti-flying magic.”

“Apparate.”

“You don’t know how.”

“Spiked boots.”

“Too slow, I’d be dead by the time you arrive.”

“Let you die and go find another Hufflepuff to date.”

“I’d come back to haunt you, you’d be doomed for life.”

“I have a beast from the darkness beyond darkness in my head. I figure I’m already pretty cursed.”

“I guarantee you I’d be worse.”

You groan, sliding back into the arena and leaning on the railing to try to stand up.

“Yeah, yeah. If I die from a skying-shoe to the throat, it’s your timeline that gets consumed by darkness.”

“Grab my hand, focus on letting me pull you before you try moving yourself, no, not like that, no, you’re gonna fall-.”

What follows is ten full minutes of slipping, falling, screaming and flailing and cursing every single god you can remember. When the torture finally ends, you’re tired and sore, leg and hands shaking, but, fortunately, with all digits still attached. You climb out of the rink and shove the damn bladed shoes into the hands of the man waiting at the exit.

“Thanks for the show,” he says, to which you respond with a very polite “Go fuck youself.”

Doesn’t take long for Arty to catch up.

[Cont.]

>>5885382

“Hey, wait up!”

“Sorry,” you sigh. “I really don’t like ice skating.”

“I noticed. You could have just said no, you know?”

“But then I would have lost this wonderful opportunity to sulk about it.”

She laughs, then places her hand against your cheek, pulling you down.

“Well, thank you for humoring me.” She kisses you. “Maybe next time we can try it in the frozen lake far away from everyone so you don’t have to worry about your fingers.”

“Maybe next time we can try staying on solid ground?”

“Say what, then next time you pick something that terrifies me for us to do together, huh?”

“I’m not sure you can be terrified. Even Potter said you’d be a great Gryffindor.”

“Did he, now? But courage doesn’t come from not being afraid, but from facing your fears. And even if you did fall on your butt on that ice, you did face yours. And there’s also the whole thing about also facing an unspeakable horror. All things considered, I’d say you make a pretty good Gryffindor too.”

“Arty, that line only works on Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws! Any Slytherin worth their salt would be offended!”

She kisses you again.

“I see. Is that kiss enough for you to forgive me?”

“Make it two.”

She does so.

“Now,” she says, looking around. “Where is Apollo?”

You find him doing laps on the rink, going faster than you thought was humanly possible with the manager of the place frantically and uselessly shouting at him to slow down, and you get close just in time to see as the grip of the ice fails on a curve and he’s sent flying over the railings, face first into the dirt.

“See,” you tell Arty, who is no longer at your side but instead running to check on her brother. “I told you those things were dangerous.”

--

The night is made out of two things. First, starting the preparations for next day’s dinner, which your mom planned to have enough food to feed an army of about three hundred famished barbarians.

Second, is decorating the tree. Your mom appears with five boxes of decorations, putting one on the hands of each of you, and you set out spreading them onto the tree. Your dad’s in charge of the lights, while you, Apollo, mom and Arty place the balls, bells and other baubles.

“What’s this one?” Arty asks about an ugly brown thing in a transparent plastic ball.

“That’s something Elliot made when he was five, no, six, in school for Christmas,” Your mom answers. “It’s supposed to be Santa, made of clay.”

“Yes, and it was Santa for about three hours until someone shook it and broke it to pieces. She still puts it up every year, though I don’t know why,” you add.

“Well, I think it’s cute,” Arty says, hanging it on the tree.

“See, your girlfriend has good taste.”

[Cont.]

>>5885383

You roll your eyes and keep on hanging the decorations until there is only one thing left. Using the muscles you’ve gotten from training for Potter’s battles, you pick up Arty and lift her up so she could place the star on top, which came with a tiny golden fairy dancing around it (two Sickles, five Knuts at Gambol & Japes, anti-muggle enchantment included). It is very clear to see who placed which set of decorations, as only Apollo had put his in a precisely spaced, evenly distributed manner.

“So, how do you like your first Christmas tree?” you ask.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, placing two packages under it. One, you know it is Apollo’s new trunk. The other one’s yours.

“You have no idea how curious I am to see what you got me.”

“Well, you’re going to have to wait a couple of days. I hope you enjoy it.”

“I’m sure I will. Now excuse me, because my father’s trying to make a cocktail with three ingredients in equal parts and failing at it, and the potioneer in me can’t stand for that.”

“See?” Your mother shouts from the other side of the house. “I told you it was the same thing!”

--

The 24th arrives with snow, a white Christmas gently covering the streets and with no signs of relenting, to the misfortune of Apollo and your dad, who are outside hanging late Christmas lights. Fortunately for you, the fire is roaring in the fireplace and in the oven as you and your mom prepare the meal, with Arty frantically trying to help where she could.

The turkey is in the oven, you are seasoning a set of pork ribs which aren’t very Christmassy, but that is a sort of tradition in your household because your dad loves them, your mom is putting together the salad and the punch, while Arty spent the last hour preparing sides which both you or your mom would have made in ten minutes, tops.

“This recipe has no consistent measurements!”

“Which one are you making?” You say, peeking over her shoulder into the old, handwritten book. “Oh, just know that when that book says it’s a cup of something, it isn’t a cup as in the actual measurement, but that one brown cup over there that belonged to my grandmother, who wrote that recipe.”

“You wouldn’t believe how long it took us to figure that one out,” your mom agrees.

“Whyyyyyy?”

“‘Cause that’s the cup she had available.”

“But… But she could have just measured it later. You two could have measured later and fixed the recipe!”

“Why? We have the cup.”

“Aaaaaaargh!”

And so, the day goes, with a lot of work and preparation. Finally, there’s one last thing to decide on… A dessert.

> A Strawberry Cheesecake, a classic, thick, heavy, decadent, and a lot of damn work
> Chocolate Brownie with Creme Brulêe, simple but easy to screw up, yet very gentle and refined
> Chocolate Fondue, to eat together in front of the fireplace, while enjoying some wine and good company
> Other (Write in)

>>5885384
>“Why? We have the cup.”

You have no clue how many recipes my grandma and mom have that rely on an ancient non-standard measuring devices or the like. Since grandma died, we have never been able to replicate her lace cookies because we don't have the old measuring things she had used for 50 years when making them, despite having her "recipe". I can make really good ones but they aren't the same.

>Individual chocolate lava cakes with vanilla or sweet cream ice cream on the side

They are super simple and quick, so Arty can help, and when well made they slap.

>>5885384
>>5885438
+1

>>5885384
But we already have a Christmas pudding drying on a hook. We should use that, with brandy and set it on fire and make sure the one that has the coin goes to Apollo or Arty.
And if these votes are tied I mean, we can always have a lot of desserts...

>>5885384
>Chocolate Fondue, to eat together in front of the fireplace, while enjoying some wine and good company
perfect for cuddling next to the fire

>>5885438
Sure lets do this one

>>5885438
Supporting.

>>5885384

>>5885438
>>5885459
>>5885652
>>5885889

Throughout the day, owl by owl delivers its package and a small pile forms beneath the tree, filled with all shades of wrapping paper. It’s far more than usual, but that is to be expected given that there are three wizards in the house, and all of them are army generals, so this year’s flock is considerably bigger and dad needs to keep on refilling the bird feeder so they can have something to eat before departing once again.

And the new experience of not only teaching someone how to cook, but also getting nitpicked on everything you do by the disembodied voice of the woman who created a third of all food-related charms used in Hogwarts to this day, to which you firmly and politely say “Shush, grandma. Here we do things the muggle way.”

“Arty,” you say, handing her a bowl with chocolate chips and butter with one hand while you mix some eggs and sugar with the other. “Can you microwave this for me? Do it for a minute, check if it’s melted, then do it again until it's all gooey.”

“Uh… ok. I can do that.”

You keep whisking the eggs with a mixer (which even Helga remarks is extraordinarily convenient), until you have a thick, pale yellow mixture that looks gorgeous.

“Arty, is that chocolate melted yet?” You ask, not taking your eyes off your mixture.

“Uhhh… No.”

“Huh? Just-” you turn around to see her looking completely lost in front of the machine, which she’s obviously never used before. You snicker. “Asking the witch to use the microwave. What could go wrong, huh?”

“It’s not my fault, your thingy is broken!”

You gently take the bowl off her hands, place it in the microwave. “This machine warms things up, really quickly. You choose the time here, with these buttons, then press here, and it will heat up for that amount of time. Just don’t put anything made of metal in it, or it explodes.”

“It explodes?”

“Eh, dramatically catches fire, more like. Still, we don’t want that to happen.”

Once the chocolate is melted, you pour into the molds and set it somewhere the ants won't reach.

“Shouldn’t we cook it?” She asks.

“Not now. I’ll put them into the oven once we serve the food, they take ten minutes to bake.”

“I don't know what that thing you put in is, but if it is like anything I've baked you’ll either burn them or undercook them,” Helga says in your head. “It won’t bake evenly that quickly.”

“That’s the point. Welcome to the twenty-first century, Helga. The culinary arts evolved a bit in the last thousand years, let’s see if they impress you.”

--

By nightfall the lights are shining around and in the house, the food is slowly being taken out of the oven. Your dad has the same Old Fashioned on his hand for the past hour, your mom is on her second glass of wine and trying to convince Arty to try some, you are slowly sipping your beer while Apollo is frowning at his steaming cup.

“Are you trying to transfigure that juice into wine with the power of your mind?” You ask.

[Cont.]

>>5885996

“Trying to figure out what's in this.”

You take the cup from his hand and take a sip.

“Cloves, lemon, sugar, no,… demerara sugar, whiskey, touch of cinnamon. Not bad. Did my mom give this to you?”

“Your dad.”

“Huh, maybe he’s starting to listen to me. Just… try not to drink too much. I’ll get you safely drunk at Hogwarts, if you want, but I’d prefer keeping my house whole for Christmas.”

“Ok.”

“You’re still frowning.”

“There’s a gift from Riley.”

“What about it?”

“For me.”

“And?”

“I don’t get it.”

“Maybe she just wants to thank you for the Battle Class win?”

“My army told me she hated it.”

“You don’t have to like a gift to want to repay it.” You take a sip, watching from afar Arty give in and sip some of the red wine, then scrounge up. “Or maybe she just… you know… likes you.”

“Like you and Arty?”

“... Maaaybe?” You say, cautiously.

“Why?”

“Who knows? The heart works in mysterious ways.”

“Right.” You two stay in silence for a while. “I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“With honesty, whichever way you decide to take it. And privately, so if anyone says no you don’t get embarrassed in front of everyone.”

“Right,” he says, nodding. “Uh, thanks. For the advice and this whole thing.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for. Now, I think I can smell the ribs being done. Dinner’s ready!”

--

It is funny to see that even though Arty has eaten Hogwarts’ feasts for the past five years, you can still surprise her with food. You have all the classic Christmas food, of course, but you also have plenty of modern goodness that the wizarding world has seemingly never heard of. You prepare a plate with a bit of everything before sitting down to eat.

“You know,” you think. “I think that if we ration our connection well, you can taste a bit of everything, even the dessert. You haven’t eaten anything real for a while, haven’t you?”

“I… I can summon things on my own,” Hufflepuff says. “If I override your tastebuds, you won’t taste them as well as you should. You worked hard for it.”

“You don’t need to hold control the whole time. Besides, I eat it every year, and I’m sure there’ll be leftovers for tomorrow. Come on, dig in.”

“You’d have done well in my house, indeed.”

Your hand takes the fork and knife and cuts through the turkey in your plate, before taking it to your mouth. You chew, and it is an interesting sensation. The flavor is deeply dulled, like food without salt and seasoning. Still some of it passes through, and it’s enough for you to know it’s delicious.

“Fuck,” you hear her say. “This is good.”

“Told you,” you say with a grin. “Now let me try it.”

[Cont.]

>>5885997

The plum-sauce basted turkey is phenomenal, the ribs are melting, the buttery green beans with garlic are just the right amount of crunchy and salty, the roasted potatoes are golden brown, the cranberry sauce that your dad always pours liberally on top of his entire plate is just perfect. There is silence as everyone starts eating, you and Helga switching control of your mouth every few seconds.

“What even is this?” she asks as you eat. “This isn’t a real fruit, is it?”

“Roasted pineapples. There was a whole continent that was discovered between now and then, and they had some pretty great fruits of their own. Wait…” You realize as you take the fork to your mouth. “Dad, when did potatoes arrive in Europe? And cocoa?”

“Late fifteen-hundreds and mid-seventeeth,” he answers, mouth full. “Why?”

“Just curious,” you answer at the same time you think, “Oh Merlin, you've never eaten chocolate before! You’ve never eaten potato before! You never had french fries!”

“What are those?”

“Oh, you can be sure I’ll show you the next time we pass by a McDonalds! But first, let’s get some of those ribs!”

You chew, thinking of the world of unexplored cuisine you can show her during the next few days and grinning all the while.

“So, Arty, how did you and Elliot meet?”

She takes a while to answer, mouth full. Meanwhile, you’re taking a swig from your beer (“Why is it bubbly? Beer in my time wasn’t bubbly!” Helga helpfully informs you), so you’re unable to step in.

“He helped me deal with a bully when I was buying a new cauldron, and then we met in the restaurant I work in the weekends, and he did an impassioned speech about finding Atlantis, so then when Battle Class started he was the first winner, so I figured I’d ask him for help since he’s not in my year.”

[Cont.]

>>5885998
“Battle Class?” Your mom asks, curious. “Elliot didn’t mention anything about a Battle Class. What, specifically, does one do in Battle Class?”

Crap. You know that if you take over the conversation, your mom will be certain that it is ten times worse than whatever you reveal to her. You can only hope Arty-

“Oh, four people in each year were selected to be commanders of armies of other students, and every couple of weeks the armies fight each other,” Arty says, oblivious to the fact that your mom would probably not be very excited about her son her being involved in what was basically the wizard version of an organized street fight. “Me and Apollo are also commanders!”

“Really? How interesting!” Your mom says in fake excitement. “How do the teachers stop people from getting injured in those fights?”

“Well, magical healing is really good. As long as no one uses a dark curse, we can heal almost anything!”

“I’m sure it’s done safely, dear,” your dad says, in his calming tone of voice. “I can’t imagine the teachers letting anyone get seriously injured.”

“Oh no, it can get pretty dangerous.” Arty adds, oblivious to your plight. “Wasn’t there one time one of your potions went off on someone’s hand, Elliot? I remember someone saying someone had to have their fingers regrown, but don’t remember who.”

“Yes, Elliot,” your mom says, glaring at you. “Was it your potion who blew someone’s fingers off?”

Crap.

> “Uh… Not on purpose.”
> Tell them that accidents happen, but most battles are perfectly safe
> Say Arty must be misremembering, you don’t recall anything like that ever happening and people are prone to exaggeration
> Other (Write in)

>>5885997
>Helga cursing because food is too good
we need more interactions like these, witches reacting to muggle stuff will never not be fascinating to me, almost like those stupid reaction videos but actually interesting. more of Arty and Helga plz

>>5885999
shit, i kinda want to be honest here, we dont wanna test mom here, who knows if she´ll find a loophole in Hogwarts stuff with her lawyer powers and manage to sue them and get us out of there
>Tell them that accidents happen, but most battles are perfectly safe

>>5885999
> Emphasize that you have SPECIFICALLY attended seminars between each match wherein the Headmistress and Battle Class Professor both emphasized how they would be preventing repeats of previous accidents in future battles
Just like the gradual development of safety equipment in Muggle college sports. It's totally normal!
Best of all, it's not a lie! Even if wizard notions of safety will NEVER converge on more practical, Muggle definitions

>>5885999
>Deer in Headlights