บท 16: Suspicious Halloween
"Come on, say it?" Ayato kept poking on Ymir's cheek with a pout.
As the cold winds of mid-October began to show their presence, the students started wearing charmed cloaks to keep away the cold.
It was on one such cold day that the news club members once again found themselves eating breakfast together at the Ravenclaw table whilst idly chatting.
Ymir sighed. "I already said it once."
At this point, they might as well declare the Ravenclaw table to be their secondary club space with how often they gathered here.
"But that was yesterday! Can you say it again today?" Ayato grabbed the end of Ymir's sleeve and shook it to and fro, acting much like a clingy girlfriend, pleading.
The corner of Ymir's eye twitched.
"Fine." He said helplessly. "Ayato-senpai."
That made Ayato still, eyes glistening happily, and then, his wand started emitting little pink bubbles. "Wah- I don't know why, but somehow, I feel really happy whenever I hear that."
Probably homesickness. Ymir thought to himself.
"Really? That's all it takes for you to be happy?" Anthony, chewing on his garlic bread, joined in. "Then, Ayato-senpai. How does this make you feel?"
Ymir leaned away from Anthony, reaching for the cream to add more to his chocolate drink.
"Hmm... I don't know." Ayato crossed his arms and said thoughtfully. "There's a considerable difference between you saying it and Ymir saying it."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Anthony furrowed his brows. "Are you less happy with having me say Ayato-senpai?"
Ymir dipped a cookie in cream.
"Somewhat. Maybe it's because of the gap-moe." Ayato began to mutter words that only he knew the meaning of. "After all, Ymir is less likely to call anyone senpai than Anthony. Or, maybe it's because Ymir is just cuter than Anthony."
Anthony sputtered, offended. "I'm cute too, okay?!"
Ymir discretely added more cherries to his chocolate drink.
"By the way, if you don't mind me asking-" Pansy regarded the older Ravenclaw member. "How did you and Ymir become friends so quickly?"
Ymir blinked. He never actually thought about that. Their relationship just came so naturally that it almost felt as though it was fated. Strange.
"I'm Japanese, he's German." Ayato shrugged as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's only natural that we'd gravitate towards each other."
Perhaps it was because they had a matching sense of humor.
"All that's left is an Italian, then we'd be complete." Ymir joined in on the joke.
As they shared an amused gaze, most of the purebloods were confused. They really should read up on muggle history more.
"I get it." Padma snorted in amusement. "I mean, I'm Indian, so it's only natural that I dislike British cuisine."
Suddenly, there was a commotion at the Griffindor table, prompting the club members to look up curiously.
There, they saw, a team of a dozen owls struggling to lift a long parcel, heading straight for Harry Potter himself, who scrambled to make space on the table.
"Huh. Must be a broom, judging from it's length." Draco muttered as the rest nodded in agreement.
"After the last news report, I'd have thought the professors would do something about it considering the discontent of the other houses." Daphne said glumly. "But I guess even this isn't enough to get the Headmaster to reconsider."
If the Headmaster was so easily swayed by the opinions of the masses, he wouldn't have been one of the most influential people in all of Wizard Society. Ymir thought.
"What did you expect? That they'd actually cancel Harry Potter's eligibility to join the Quidditch team? Or that they'd allow Schreiber to join too?" Anthony sneered. "Impossible!"
"If they took back Potter's eligibility, they'd be admitting that they really had preferential treatment towards him." Ayato pointed out. "And if they allowed Ymir to be on the Quidditch team too, then the other Houses would want the same treatment as well."
Ymir nodded in agreement, taking a sip of his chocolate drink which finally cooled enough to be just at the perfect temperature.
"It's a lose-lose situation for them, so they just decided to pretend the issue didn't exist." Pansy huffed indignantly.
"Still, since the Headmaster isn't acknowledging this matter, the one who'll bear the brunt of the other houses' dissatisfaction would only be Harry Potter, with him being the only one who benefits from it." Blaise mumbled as he chewed the last bit of his waffle.
"Well, I guess that settles our news headline for next week." Padma shrugged, not really caring much about the matter like everyone else did.
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"Now, when we compare the two Dark Lords side by side." The professor spoke clearly behind her podium. "You will notice that while their motives might be similar, the actions they took to reach their goals are vastly different."
With Professor Bagshot teaching history, it became clear to the students that their History classes would undergo a big change.
They can no longer nap without repercussions, and the lessons will actually contain things other than the Goblin War.
Recently, their lessons were about a topic that, for some reason, many people tended to gloss over. But, after all, this was history class, and it was important to study matters that many might not like.
Such as the two Wizarding Wars.
"But, if you'd ask me, I personally think killing billions of muggles is a stupid idea." Professor Bagshot said humorously. "After all, the saying that 'Even ants can topple an elephant with their sheer numbers' is not a joke."
Immediately, Ymir felt that he was going to like this new professor.
Though, not the same could be said for many students, particularly, those from families who'd lost people to one or both of the wars.
By the end of the class, many students left with complicated expressions; some were grateful to have learned something new, some were in disbelief of the gall the professor had for even discussing that topic, while most were more neutral about it.
On the other hand, Ymir was glad that his History notes finally had some new contents, leaving him in a good mood for the rest of the day.
The only thing that slightly disrupted it was when he encountered Professor Quirrell while he was walking in the corridors, heading for their Potions class.
The professor didn't really do anything bad. He just left him a cryptic message.
"If you want the Cerberus, maybe you'd have a chance on Samhain eve." He patted him on the shoulder and left.
What was that about?
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On one late afternoon, the news club members gathered in the benches of the Quidditch pitch, some holding cameras, while others brought out their quills and parchments, ready to write down their reports.
And the reason for this was because Parvati, once again, somehow managed to find out when Harry Potter was undergoing secret training with the Griffindor Quidditch team captain, Oliver Wood. So, now, the news club was getting ready to gather information for their newspaper articles.
"I just want to know... Why am I needed here?" Ymir asked, clueless to why he was also dragged along when he'd much rather continue his experiments in the privacy of his bedroom, which wasn't actually that private considering that Anthony also slept there. "I'm the editor, not a reporter. I shouldn't be needed here."
"Well, that's because-" Draco started to explain, turning to look towards Ymir, but then immediately shielded his eyes upon the sight of him. "Eugh. Don't stand directly under the sun, Ymir. I'm about go blind."
Curiously, the other members looked towards him, only to do the same action as Draco did after.
"Is there something wrong?" Ymir asked, confused. Why were they doing that?
With her back turned towards him, Pansy kindly explained. "You're reflecting too much light, Ymir, dear. For everyone else's eyes, I'd like to ask you to move under a shade, please."
He's not that pale... right?
"Oh. I see." Ymir said blankly and moved towards the shadows. "Apologies."
"It's like the world sucked out all his colors when he was born." Blaise chuckled.
"And here comes Potter!" Anthony warned them. "Everyone, hide!"
They all slid under the benches, cameras aimed in the gaps.
❄️❄️❄️
October 29,1991
02-Gaia
Observation Entry #81
I have been strictly watching over the original animals of Gaia for several rotations now, and so far, I have not seen any signs of mutations.
The horned rabbits were still peacefully hopping about, nibbling on the fallen leaves of Yggdrasil, the white sparrows were flying around, creating nests on the branches of the Bleeding Weeds, the pale squirrels scuttling here and there, making their homes amongst the trees, and the white deers joining the rabbits in foraging on the leaves.
The only notable difference so far is their increase in population. Particularly the rabbits.
They breed so fast that in a few more rotations, I'm afraid the entire island would be taken over by rabbits.
Perhaps, it is time to slowly introduce predators?
But, for safety's sake, I'd have to move the initial experimental location to Terra.
Hopefully, it would go well. It's about time that I check up on Terra to see if any of the other plants survived too.
For now, if the animals continue to show no signs of mutations, I have come to the conclusion that objects with physical bodies that are brought from the outside will mutate, but those brought from outside that have no physical bodies will not.
Creatures created from within the space will also not show any mutations. So, perhaps, the mutation is like a virus that functions like white blood cells; outside intrusions are classified as bacteria which the white blood cells immediately try to assimilate, thus causing them to mutate.
It might not be entirely correct, but for now, that was the closest theory I could get.
Entry End
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"Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too." Standing on his stool behind the podium, Professor Flitwick demonstrated the wand movements slowly to the students. "Never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
It was the morning of Samhain, or what muggles refer to as Halloween, and pumpkins were everywhere. Even the air seemed to be lathered in pumpkins, making it feel a bit greasy with every breath he took.
This is not festive. This is dizzying.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Ymir uttered the spell clearly and flicked his wand towards the feather, causing it to float gracefully upwards.
"Wonderful, Mr. Schreiber!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed in praise. "Ten points to Ravenclaw!"
On this day, Ravenclaw first years, as always, would be sharing Charms class with Griffindor where they would be learning about the floating spell; one that Ymir already knew, but was perfectly fine with doing revisions.
Now, to make it easier for the students to learn new spells, Professor Flitwick always liked to put students in pairs, so while one was practicing the spell, the other can point out their mistakes.
"Like this? It's not working though." Anthony pouted, looking glumly at his unmoving feather.
"No, flick it sharply. Don't drag it too long." Ymir explained as he showed his roommate the wand movement again.
Until now, it has served to be an effective system, but, sometimes, it can prove to be more of a headache for some, especially when they were paired with someone they didn't like.
Such as what was happening on the table parallel to Ymir's and Anthony's.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron Weasley shouted at his feather, clearly overdoing the wand movements with all the unnecessary flailing he was doing. It was obvious that he was getting frustrated by the lack of reaction his feather was showing no matter what he did.
"You're saying it wrong!" The bushy haired girl who was Weasley's partner, snapped. "It's Wing- gar -dium Levi- o -sa, not Levioh-saah, make the 'gar' nice and long."
Beside Ymir, Anthony cringed, having overheard their conversation as well.
"Do it yourself then, if you're so clever." Ron Weasley snarled at her, making it clear that they did not like each other.
"Fine!" The bushy haired girl huffed and rolled up her sleeves, wand poised and painting to the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa."
The feather floated up gently, rising for feet into the air before steadying at that height.
"Oh, well done, Ms. Granger!" Professor Flitwick gave her due praise for her achievement. "Ten points to Griffindor!"
By the end of the class, more students had succeeded in casting the spell, but, still, Ron Weasley, who'd been in a bad mood for the entire duration, never managed to make his feather move.
And, as Ymir and Anthony exited the classroom, heading for their next class with Slytherin, they overheard the tail end of a conversation between Weasley and Potter.
"-no one can stand her." Weasley said as they passed by them. "She's a nightmare, honestly."
Towards what was obviously a conversation badmouthing someone else, Ymir did nothing but raise an eyebrow. After all, it had nothing to do with him.
Anthony, on the other hand, listened in, intrigued.
Then, someone knocked into them, passing by in a hurry, and Ymir caught sight of bushy hair and teary eyes. Most likely the subject being badmouthed.
Well, if they're going to talk bad about someone behind their back, atleast they should make sure that they're far enough away that they won't be overheard.
Ymir sighed. Not his problem, either way.
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"Are you sure this is safe?" Anthony asked for the nth time as he levitated his bed away to make space in the middle of the room for whatever Ymir was trying to do. "Like, it's not suddenly going to blow up the entire room, right?"
Ymir raised an eyebrow. Did he look like someone who'd do experiments that he wasn't sure of?
"It is safe, I have made sure of that." He answered seriously as he carried the mysterious egg in his arms. "The runes are only to ensure this egg hatches well."
He carefully laid a large, square parchment, measuring 6ft in length on all sides, on the floor.
Looking at the complicated runes on the parchment, Anthony crossed his arms sceptically. "And I don't suppose you can tell me what exactly hatches from this egg?"
Ymir placed the egg in the middle of the parchment. "I don't know."
"What-" Anthony choked. "What do you mean you don't-"
Looking up briefly, Ymir tilted his head in confusion. "Is it important that I know?"
"Well, if you're going to hatch it in our bedroom, then of course it's important!" Anthony felt frustrated.
"I see." Ymir nodded, making sure everything was perfect with the runes. "I will make sure to find out next time."
"Next time?!" Anthony couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That-"
"I'm starting." Ymir placed both hands on the parchment.
"Ughh!" Anthony groaned and proceeded to throw his body into his bed, completely giving up on his roommate's common sense. "Just be sure you're done before dinner time. We can't miss the Halloween feast."
Moments later, the room was slowly lit up with a smokey haze as the runes surrounding the egg were activated with magic.
Seeing the egg gradually absorbing what was left of the soul orbs around it, Ymir felt that the time was right, so, raising his wand to his temple, he silently conjured up the copy of his mind that he prepared beforehand, and pulled it out.
As the wand slowly pulled away, on its tip, dangled a brilliant silver string containing all memories and thoughts Ymir wanted to impart on his substitute.
At that moment, the egg finally stopped absorbing the orbs.
Focusing his eyes on the blank soul protected within the egg, he took a deep breath and angled his wand steadily.
Whether he succeeds or not depends entirely on this single moment.
And...
Now.
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LordOfRot
LordOfRot Ayato is so easy to write and I have no idea why. It's just so fun writing down his character and how he and Ymir just blend seamlessly despite their difference in personality.
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