"That's funny," Tony laughed, watching the beard grow longer. "You can see yourself how bad this looks. Oh wait, I have something else special in mind. Since I'm Muggle Studies professor, let's remember the occasion by taking a good old fashioned muggle photograph of this nice long beard." He snapped a photo. "I think we should take another one after it grows a bit longer, as well. And perhaps I should post these in my office, some place prominent, wouldn't that be special?"

Tony stopped for a minute. "Wait, you might be on to something there," he said thoughtfully. "As long as it isn't dangerous, it might be a real kick to market that kind of thing. People could change their appearance at will, it would make a brilliant disguise. Wait, what am I saying?", he said, wondering if this was all a trap to lure him in. "How does the beard feel? Is it itchy, and does it feel weird? Tell me how it feels, because I'm sure not ever using anything that looks like that myself!"

Tony listened to Lina describe what the beard felt like and resisted the urge to try and feel iti. It was hard, he really wanted to put his hand on it and see what it felt like. "It looks kind of like a lamb's wool," he said finally. "I bet lambs must itch all the time." Finally, he reached his hand out and touched the beard. "It is soft," he said. "Neat!"

"Yeah, we'll get to that in a little while," Tony said. "Not yet. I think we still want to take some time and appreciate the splendor and wonder of this magical and amazing beard of yours."

"It's getting worse," said Tony. "Look how long that thing is getting. Man, you look worse even than Sarah did. It reminds me of this old man I saw in this fairy tale one time." He started to laugh. "Here, let me take another picture of that, otherwise no one would believe it."

"Oh, I read it in this muggle fairy tale called The Hut in the Forest by the Brothers Grimm", Tony said. "Actually, from the way the Brothers Grimm write I think they were probably wizards or something writing for muggles. The writing is somewhat like Tales of Beedle the Bard, and some of the tales kind of remind me of that, even though the stories are different. So I really think those brothers were wizards, yes indeed I do. Anyway, in the Hut in the Forest, there is mention of a very old man with a very long beard, and I think your beard is getting as long as his! Look at it!" Tony laughed again.

"Wouldn't that be something?", Tony laughed. "I think it's okay now, though, we can move on. Are you ready to write your essay and the letter to Sarah? Make sure you mean them, because I'm going to screen them and make sure that the letter sounds sincere especially. So I'm counting on you to do a good job."

"Of course I do!", Tony said with glee. "I'm always prepared for that kind of thing." He handed Lina a quill with a very fluffy green feather, the same exact color as her beard, along with some green ink and pale green tinted parchment. "Ah, my favorite! Don't you think these will fit the occasion splendidly? It's so much fun to color coordinate things. Now, you may go ahead and get started, do you have anything specific in mind?"

Tony smiled in approval, now that Lina was getting to work right away. She was an interesting student, that was for sure, much smarter than most of the others and somehow different. It was clear to him why she had been sorted into Slytherin and he smiled to himself, proud to have been part of the same house. It was a known fact that Slytherin was the best house of all, no question about it. "Good, go on," he said.

Tony walked over and read the words that Lina had written. "Well, this seems to pretty much take care of what I had in mind for your essay," he said. "Now the only thing you have left to do is write the letter to Sarah. That is, as long as it meets with my approval." He sneered. "But what you've written here is fine, very well worded, in fact."

Tony laughed at the thought of Sarah being offended by the sight of the green paper and ink, the fact that it might remind her of having a beard, and then caught himself. "Oh, excuse me," he said, sounding only half sincere, he was certain. "Green is fine, it isn't quite the same shade as the beard and I think it looks really nice, don't you agree? After all, it's only natural that a Slytherin should write on green parchment and with green ink, it definitely is a fitting thing. Though I would hate to see anyone writing on yellow paper with yellow ink, I'm not even sure anyone could read that, to tell you the truth." He guffawed. "But it's fine, go right ahead."

Tony read the letter over. "Yes, I think that says it all. I can see that you didn't mean to scare the poor girl. In fact, you really do seem to be trying to perfect your inventions so that you might make a profit in the future from them. I certainly couldn't argue with that." He grinned. "I wish you luck with that, in fact I think you'll go far. Just try to remember to choose people who are willing for your little experiments next time. And do let your volunteers know what they are agreeing to test, what is supposed to be happening as a result of them participating in your experiments, so that they don't freak out when they start growing a green beard, or something like that. We really don't want that sort of thing happening in the Great Hall, now do we? And by the way, I agree with you, dark green paper with silver ink would be beautiful, truly the best combination ever, especially if the paper had little snakes embossed on it."

Tony smiled. "Do be careful, and the best of luck to you. You do have your antidote with you and ready, I hope?"