Caleb wasn't really much of a researcher, but if there were extra credit points involved, he'd do it. He had no idea where to start, though. Thankfully, after browsing the aisles for a while, not finding much of anything, he heard some commotion nearby. Which was good, because his entire plan pretty much consisted of stalling until someone else found something.

Oh look, it was Simon, the Slytherin he'd met who was also in his year. COOL! He wandered over and peered over his shoulder at what he was looking at. Morgan Le Fay? Wasn't that some famous witch or something?

"That's odd, innit? Why would a witch want to cast a five month long winter?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Had it been five months since THEIR winter started? He couldn't even remember anymore.

Sniffling, Lux found that it was hard to keep her composure when there was the very real possibility that Bay had been turned into a Skygge. Her poor Lion. He would never be himself again, and she wouldn't be able to help him.

Not paying attention to the glance from Professor Flamsteed, she wiped her eyes. "But you think that it's the Cold Ones." Of course she didn't WANT it to be the Cold Ones, but he was right; the possibility was all to real. Darn those Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. If it wasn't for them, she wouldn't be so paranoid right now. To distract herself more than anything, she opened the book and started to flip through it. "Maybe there have been other great snowfalls like this in history. I don't know, Zander. I suck at research." She was a terrible partner, and she felt bad.

At that time, her attention was drawn to the Slytherin boy (Simon) as he eagerly called for the Professors to come over. The mention of Morgan La Fay and the Star Temple of Avalon caused her to gasp. "Did you hear that, Zander? This is HUGE." This.... THIS was definitely significant.

Ethan looked up from the article to Professor Flamsteed with a blank face. Obviously, the article was an insult to the man’s intelligence, but Ethan wasn’t going to rule it out just yet. With that, he folded the article again and carefully tucked it in between the pages of his notebook. Right. Onto a more legit source, yeah? The fair-haired boy eyed Simon as he got the codex off of the table, while he, picked a random book about Ancient Civilizations, and their obsession with Astronomy.

Ethan opened one book after another as he did some cross referencing, trying to make a pattern. He was pretty much on his own as he stood up and got other source materials that he thought was necessary.

Archeoastronomy.

According to what he found out, archaeoastronomy has something to do with ancient structures designed by ancient scientists to observe the stars, solstices, and such. It was surprising though how accurate they have been when they built these structures, given that they are muggles…or…maybe not? Ethan got his notebook out again, and wrote down some notes about the subject.



Ethan sighed as he was convinced that they were going nowhere with this. How, in the name of Merlin does this topic have to do with the Winter? The fair-haired boy flipped through his other notes, regarding the correlation of Astronomy with Ancient Runes. He also took note of the conversation he had with Simon earlier, with his best friend telling him that he overheard the Centaurs tell the Headmistress that Mars was particularly bright. Ethan set off from there first, linking Mars to the Teiwaz Rune, to the Norse God Tyr, who also represents the Ursa Major constellation, more known as the Great Bear. So…does the ‘great bear’ have any significance to this whole winter thing?

Of course his thoughts were broken by none other than…tadah! Simon. Apparently he’s got something out of the codex. He scooted closer to his best mate and read the passage he came across. Wait…what? Ethan blinked several times, then re-read the whole thing once more. Morgan le Fey? As in…Morgana? Morgana from the Arthurian Legend? MERLIN. “Wait. Star Temple on the hills of Avalon?” Ethan blinked, and absent-mindedly reached out for his notebook. He did come across the word Avalon. “Could it be the Glastonbury Tor?” the Slytherin said as he looked from his notes to Simon. “And that picture right there…Is…that the symbol of ‘Winter’s Wrath’? The one that she carved using her talon fingernails?” Ethan got the codex from Simon and inspected the image closely. “The inscription on the right though. They look like Runes to me…Isa and dismembered Hagalaz or…Naudhiz runes.” For now…that’s all that he can contribute. The Slytherin then handed the codex to the professors.

Yes, kind sirs. Go take a look.

Simon nodded in agreement when Caleb said that it was odd. "Yeah, it is odd. I don't know. A form of payback to Merlin and Arthur for somehow wronging her?" he mused. Simon didn't know exactly the details of it all but perhaps he ought to look for a book about Arthurian Legends.

Then Ethan was looking over at the codex. Yes, do see why this passage has so many links, dear Holmes! "I think so,said Simon and then blinked as Ethan took the codex right out of his hands. Hey! I was still... kinda looking at that, he thought but didn't say anything at all. Instead, he just listened to Ethan hypothesize about the whole thing. Winter's Wrath? Simon blinked. "I don't know... but it could definitely be that. As for what you were saying about the runes, that's what I was thinking earlier." He paused and re-examined the image one more time. "The picture looks like some sort of wall that could have been on an old temple or castle. But does it look Arthurian or Celtic?" he said, biting his lip. It looked more like something you'd find on a Mayan temple but he could be wrong. So the boy looked around at the books spread across the table for something that would help them distinguish between wether the carvings where Mayan or Celtic just so that they could be sure. "But maybe we should keep looking?"

Perhaps there was more information that the book could tell them?

Waaaait.

Where had Marigold heard the name Morgan le Fay? Was she Morgana, like from… Merlin's time?

Things were getting weird. And when Marigold walked over to Ethan, she looking over his shoulder and saw a some weird markings. WEIRD.

Okay, okay... Maybe he did think it was the Cold Ones... And further more, maybe he did think there was an army of them, just waiting in the forrest. Waiting to take their hearts and freeze them cold just like this winter! Buuuut, he couldn't say all of that to Lux. The girl was almost crying for goodness sakes! He couldn't handle water works. Not now. Not ever. No. "I don't think it is... I just thought it'd be a good idea since we learned about them in Defense?" That was a lie."I'm sure Bay is alright, Lux! I don't think there were any Cold Ones anywhere near him!" That was also a lie. Ahem. He just had to get Lux to stop thinking about it. "You don't suck at research, Lux. You-you... you're just distracted right now," yeah distracted thinking about Bay and Cold Ones and it was all HIS fault. Ah. Stupid Zander stupid stupid stupid. Uhum. Anyways.

Then, looking over to where Lux was momentarily watching Simon, he let out an audible gasp. He had no idea who this La Fay person was or this Avolon thingy, but if Lux said it was HUGE then it had to be..... Right? "I wonder what it means?" He eyed Flamsteed carefully, maybe he'd know something! He had to, Professors were supposed to know it all!?

Lux wasn't totally convinced by everything that Zander was telling her, but she did appreciate how he was trying to be reassuring. If she kept telling herself that Bay would be okay, everything would work out. He couldn't be a Skygge, she wouldn't allow it to happen. He would get better, Charlie had assured her of as much.

Seeing as he seemed a little lost about the new development, she decided to give a simple explanation that could always be expanded on. "Morgan La Fay is a powerful sorceress in the legend of King Arthur." Lux loved the stories of King Arthur, so she knew a fair bit about them. But it was all fiction, so what was going on here?

Penelope was researching long, cold winters. She hadn't really found out anything that she thought was important. There was some stuff about really cold winters, but it didn't look anything like what was happening now.



What was that someone said about Morgan La Fay? It might be worth researching her. Penelope went to look for a book that might have useful information about Morgan La Fay.

There she was! And look she'd gotten her own book too. They could add to the searches. Lex made room for Cassia where they sat at the table and gestured to the mountain of other books she could sort through once the one she already had proved to be of little use to her.

Wait what? Snort. "Interesting is hardly the word to describe that monstrosity Lottie's got. Dunno why she's so keen to kill her brain cells." Reading massive books for lack of any other options. Surely it was a slow torture the Professors were exacting but eh, nothing else to do and no other way to go without getting looks for being a Gryffindor about the whole thing.

She flipped a few pages further into her book before hearing that Simon kid read some eerie poem thing....about a 5 month winter? The Gryffindor turned in her seat to watch him as he went on but the more he spoke was the more confused she felt. "A witch? 5 month winter?" Hadn't she JUST asked how they'd know if they were cursed? This seemed legit. How many months had it been snowing now? Maybe it was almost over and they'd be able to leave early for their distress?

At the mention of runes on the side of the page Lex got up, gesturing for Lottie and Cassia to do the same before walking over to the boys by the Codex. "What runes? And does it say anything more about the witch...? Or how they finally unfroze the winter?" That was the most important part of it all, no?

Simon glanced up to see the Gryffindor Prefect heading over there way. Oh? She was asking about the runes now? "Well. They're here on the right hand side of the image. They're kind of hard to see but if you squint a little it helps," he said and then scanned over the text again. After rereading it again, he glanced up to the Gryffindor Prefect and pointed at the page that he and Ethan had been examining.

"It doesn't really say how they saved winter; however, it does say that the bind runes - which I'm assuming are the marks on the right hand side of the wall- were carved by Merlin himself to seal her curse away still remain on innermost chamber of the Star Temple of Avalon." He blinked his blue eyes. Did that mean La Fay's curse had escaped? And did that also mean an impromptu field trip to the Star Temple of Avalon? He doubted the second thought that crossed his mind because there was absolutely no way of getting out of the school at the moment. Or was there a top secret way that no one was informing the students about? Hmmmm...?!

Anyway, he had a question to ask. "Does that mean that possibly someone's unleashed La Fay's curse? Who would want to do that? And why? Does someone have a grudge against the school?" he asked, glancing up at both Professors again with a concerned glance. Who would want to do that AND why would they want to freeze Hogwarts of all places?

Ethan placed the book down on the coffee table, sighed, and sat back. Nothing was making sense. Right now, he just focused his attention on Simon’s words. The other Slytherin boy tried to connect what he found, to their current situation. How in bloody hell does a centuries old wizard and witch be so significant, right now? Ethan spaced out for a while as his thoughts went back and forth to the past and present.

Ethan held up his hand, and leaned towards Simon. “This is clearly a repeat of what happened before. What’s written on the book,” he said gesturing to the book on the table, “is definitely a clue.” The blond boy eyed the picture, then to the few students who too, became curious. “What if…the carving’s replicated somewhere inside the castle?” It’s a possibility, yeah? As for Merlin’s bind runes, “If the carving’s replicated, then it’s clearly missing those bind runes over there. Because surprise, surprise, we still have snow.”

Nooooooooooow. If his theory’s correct, then are they to look for the carving? Hmm? Hmmmm?

Lucy heart her classmates who were talking about something.
Lucy remembered that her father had told her of this witch lived in the time of Merlin..
But was going on at the castle?
Someone had used an ancient curse...
Lucy was confused..she remained silent to listen..

Toby had already found himself completely off track from where he'd started, but not intentionally. He'd found his attention easily waning and before long, had wandered off to a bookshelf to look for books around runes. It had started when Airey had mentioned something about the snow taking so long to melt, which for reasons had made Toby think of that Isa rune. He'd missed the discussion about the Book of Mysteria, and anything about protection runes, and become more or less transfixed with looking through the book he now had.

Still musing on all sorts of possibilities, Toby spoke up.

"The protection wards around the school, do they go around the school like a bubble, or do they go miles up into the sky?" ... Uhhhh... "If there are protection wards of c-"

At that point, Tobias had finally looked up and become aware of a bunch of other people who looked pretty absorbed in what they were doing, and surrounding another book. Well, they all looked like they were making more headway than Toby, so he figured he'd try and join the fun research party group.

Not even finishing his sentence, Toby was up again with his runes texts under his arm. He approached the group of kids, all of whom he recognised to some extent, and looked around curiously.

"What? What's happening? I miss something?" He'd probably be better at looking through books with other people than on his own, after all. Very easily drawn off-track, this one. The Hufflepuff peered towards the weird codex thing people were talking about so he could work out what was going on without someone having to go over it all again.

Simon nodded in agreement with Ethan’s observations. It did seem like a repeat that happened years ago but a question arose in his head. Did Morgan La Fay actually exist or was it all a bunch of hocus pocus fish-wives tales? Despite what others may have thought at this present moment, Simon felt as if they must have existed because this was the closest piece of information that they actually had to the do with the extreme winter weather that they had endured at their school for the past five months or so. “Right. That’s possible, but if it was somewhere in the castle wouldn’t we have found it by now?” he asked the group of students and the Professors. “Unless…” He paused and his blue eyes widened in realization of a possibility. Simon had answered his own inquiry.

Before he could explain the answer to that question, Toby had come over. Oh hey fellow friend! Simon gave him a friendly smile and then explained what they had discovered. "Well, there was this passage about Morgan La Fay, a five month winter, and the Temple of Avalon. Basically what the text is describing is how Morgan La Fay used a spell to make a five month winter and Merlin had to use binding runes to stop it," he began pointing at the excerpt from the epic poem, then the description, and then lastly the picture below. " Ethan is suggesting that those carvings may have somehow been replicated in the castle. The problem is where are they in Hogwarts." Which lead to Simon's question.

“What if the runes are in a place that aren’t accessible to students? In a secret passageway or something? For all we know, it could be behind a portrait or statue,” he said. And moving all of those portraits and statues would be painful. Was there a spell that allowed them to locate runes. His brow furrowed when he glanced at the picture in the codex again. How did they know which ones would actually bind La Fay’s spell? And could Professor Botros re-bind the runes to stop the spell from keeping the school forever in the eternal winter?

She nodded as professor Airey settled her train of thought. It would have been awful if ALL of those things were repeating. She just wondered how they had ruled out Dementors, and when. Beverly would have asked, but something strange was happening.

Muttering and whispers and...

Morgan La Fay.

Creepy. It sounded like her grandmother's name. Wrinkling her nose and allowing her curiosity to take over, she approached Ethan's table where apparently something had been found. Listening to the her housemate (Simon), she rested her hands on the table.

"What if the runes were torn down during the last battle?" she asked out loud. Did that make them doomed?

Good Merlin, couldn't the Heating Charms hold themselves longer for 10 minutes? Shivering and rubbing his arms for some extra warmth, the astonomer removed his wand from his enchanted breast pocket and gave it a wave to try and repair the enchantments on the area. Should at least help for...a few minutes. Sigh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward Penguin

He walks over to Professor Flamsteed. Professor. I'm not sure if this means anything. It is interesting. Perhaps someone has found the Cailleach's staff and is using it to control the weather around Hogwarts? It was worth a shot any way.

The astronomer turned his attention towards the Hufflepuff, hanging on the boy's every word. "Anything is a possibility," he nodded. "Will definiately keep it on the back burner," he continued, giving his noggin a firm pat with his head for emphasis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

While she was scanning through the book, she asked something that had been bothering her for awhile now. "Professors, has anyone tried the Floo system?" Like, even briefly? Even just for a short communication?

"Dodgy...at best, very dodgy," he muttered with a hint of a growl in his tone. That summed it up, didn't it? He could only assume that the extreme cold was causing some sort of chemical reaction to the school's powder and the fireplaces themselves. They were unreliable enough that he was unwilling to risk the transport of his suits though them at least.

SPOILER!!: poem people...although I didn't quote everyone...yeah XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emms

Simon turned the next dust covered page, carefully blowing on it first to get rid of the excess amount of dust. Once some of the dust had been removed, his blue eyes focused on the page that he was reading. His eyes widened as he read the text.

"After the nights grew long and the famine months upon
Woe unto those who had wronged her darkened soul
Morgan la Fay flew to the Star Temple on the hills of Avalon
on wings of jet black and contempt
To stone she carved - with talon fingernails -
the symbol of Winter’s wrath
Black magic she cast to curse the land
and bring forth winter eternal" he whispered softly to himself.

HUH?!?!?
The young wizarding detective in training was stumped. What did THAT mean?

Wasn't Morgan La Fay from around Merlin's time? And Avalon...The Star Temple. Sure, he understood some of the references from reading and watching some of those muggle things dedicated to the Arthurian Legends but still what did THAT mean? Simon had no clue. He read the excerpt and his eyes widened to the size of saucers when he read about a five month winter. Five months? How long had their winter been? It had been a long one but he wasn't sure if it had been less or more than five months. It certainly felt more than five months.

His eyes wandered down the page and then he saw the image. Squinting, he tried to see what was possibly written on it. There were a couple weird marks on the right hand side of the page. Were those runes? If they were, then the second one that he could see sort of looked like the letter 'H'- was that Hagalaz? Then the third one could be a flipped Laguz? He couldn't make out those symbols so perhaps he was getting way too ahead of himself. But what about the carvings on the temple wall? They were hard to make out as some of them had faded or had a large crack running through it. He squinted his eyes and then nudged Holmes. "Ethan. Look. here," he whispered pointing to the page that he had just read.

Before saying anything else, Simon figured that he should show THIS to the Professors. He raised his hand up simply and then began waving his hand rather quickly. "Professors? I found this description here in the codex. It's about a five month winter, Morgan La Fay, and the Star Temple of Avalon. I think you should both take a look at this," he said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Caleb wasn't really much of a researcher, but if there were extra credit points involved, he'd do it. He had no idea where to start, though. Thankfully, after browsing the aisles for a while, not finding much of anything, he heard some commotion nearby. Which was good, because his entire plan pretty much consisted of stalling until someone else found something.

Oh look, it was Simon, the Slytherin he'd met who was also in his year. COOL! He wandered over and peered over his shoulder at what he was looking at. Morgan Le Fay? Wasn't that some famous witch or something?

"That's odd, innit? Why would a witch want to cast a five month long winter?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Had it been five months since THEIR winter started? He couldn't even remember anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emms

Simon nodded in agreement with Ethan’s observations. It did seem like a repeat that happened years ago but a question arose in his head. Did Morgan La Fay actually exist or was it all a bunch of hocus pocus fish-wives tales? Despite what others may have thought at this present moment, Simon felt as if they must have existed because this was the closest piece of information that they actually had to the do with the extreme winter weather that they had endured at their school for the past five months or so. “Right. That’s possible, but if it was somewhere in the castle wouldn’t we have found it by now?” he asked the group of students and the Professors. “Unless…” He paused and his blue eyes widened in realization of a possibility. Simon had answered his own inquiry.

Before he could explain the answer to that question, Toby had come over. Oh hey fellow friend! Simon gave him a friendly smile and then explained what they had discovered. "Well, there was this passage about Morgan La Fay, a five month winter, and the Temple of Avalon. Basically what the text is describing is how Morgan La Fay used a spell to make a five month winter and Merlin had to use binding runes to stop it," he began pointing at the excerpt from the epic poem, then the description, and then lastly the picture below. " Ethan's is suggesting that those carvings may have somehow been replicated in the castle. The problem is where are they in Hogwarts." Which lead to Simon's question.

“What if the runes are in a place that aren’t accessible to students? In a secret passageway or something? For all we know, it could be behind a portrait or statue,” he said. And moving all of those portraits and statues would be painful. Was there a spell that allowed them to locate runes. His brow furrowed when he glanced at the picture in the codex again. How did they know which ones would actually bind La Fay’s spell? And could Professor Botros re-bind the runes to stop the spell from keeping the school forever in the eternal winter?

Airey wasn't going to field any of the questions about carvings on the walls of the castle's exterior, or really anything pertaining to runes, as that was far from being his forte. Instead he looked towards the Ancient Runes professor with his mouth hanging open like a bass. Yes...what about all that?

But then his attention was pulled towards Mr. Simon and his most recent finding...and the moderate panic that ensued after. The runic theories being thrown out were giving the man a headache, so he was going to ignore those as well. "Let me take a look at that," he nodded as he leaned over the Slytherin and read the passage. Oh yes, this had been the story he had been briefly referring to at the beginning of the term in his lesson, so he was briefly tickled by having pieces of the story filled in. Briefly being the key word. Terminology was also seemingly pointing towards the winter solstice...just when had is started really getting cold around here? "Winter is extremely crippling to crops, Mr. Newell," he replied gravely with a brief glance towards Miss Cambridge as he recalled their conversation in the kitchen. She was leaving Javy's creatures alone still, yeah? "Especially back in the time of Morgan la Fay. Could very easily have been trying to weaken the kingdom this way." But that was pure speculation.

Dark wizards tended to have motives that were...dramatic and rather illogical.

And again, he glanced towards Professor Botros for all the runes talk because it was essentially going in one ear and out the other. However, something else caught his attention - and mostly because of conversations he had had with Medea over the course of the term. "Someone want to tell me what a chort is?"

A chort?

Simon blinked. Why did that word sound so familiar? Hadn't he read about it somewhere in a textbook. Wasn't that a demon or something? Now what was it? Hadn't the author mentioned that the muggles had deemed it a 'demon' but instead it was just very, very, very bad news. But also wasn't it apart of some type of mythology?

"Does it exist in our world? I thought it was a evil creature-demon-thing from mythology..." he said, trying his hardest to remember something about it. He couldn't remember anything so he supplemented his personal gut feel at the moment about the whole creature. "If they do exist then it sounds like very, very, very bad news."

And if it existed, just how could they stop it. He glanced at the older students and the Professors with curious blue eyes.

All sorts of stuff was happening and people were getting all worked up over some Slytherin's findings, but Sophie was off at another table keeping to herself - she was sidetracked by a chapter in a book about archaeoastronomy that she was sure was not applicable to their current situation, but she was fascinated nonetheless. Any time someone walked by, she flipped the pages as if she was hunting for something groundbreaking, but then she'd turn back to where she was and keep reading. Absorbing as much information as possible.

She was vaguely tuned into the conversation the others were having, though, and caught a few select words, enough to draw her gaze up from the textbook in front of her to peer at the group gathering. Morgan la Fay? Merlin? She squinted at Flamsteed's question - chort? Wasn't that the demon Romanos had taught them about last term? She knew it was. She'd been incredibly interested in it at the time.

"Erm, professor," she decided to finally chime in, her hand raised, "we learned about those last term in Professor Romanos' class. The chort's a demon in... Slavic mythology, I think it was, born from a flame, and they're really big and fast and super smart and bring destruction and disease wherever they go." She remembered asking Romanos why they were that way - what their motives were - and recalled getting a less-than-satisfying answer. Nobody even really knew, and that bothered her.

And then she froze.

Hadn't... Romanos also said that... it was strange, since they were born from fire, that... they brought... cold wherever they went? Often in great storms? Blizzards... like... what they were experiencing?

............

Sophie didn't add that thought. Maybe she was wrong. No. She shook the thought away, her jaw locked tight, and suddenly seemed very interested in her textbook once more, her eyes still wide with racing thoughts.

Couldn't be.

This was very interesting, and Lux found herself crowding around Simon and everyone else who was peering at the book.

She wanted so bad to believe that they were on to something here - especially if it would help Bay feel better - but she was afraid to get her hopes up too much. If this was a dead end... NO, she needed to think positively. There was definitely something fishy going on here..

"A Chort? They aren't real... are they?" Even though they were taught about in Defence Against the Dark Arts last term, they had to be myth. Because otherwise it would be just plain creepy.

A chort.

Beverly blinked in professor Airey's direction. She hadn't even heard all of whatever article her housemate had found. Now peering over him and skimming the thing, she took a small step back and twisted her bracelet around her wrist.

Welp. If it was a migration of chort they were sort really...in trouble.

Maybe staying inside the castle was a good idea. Not that she was cowering out of a great battle, but Beverly Wayne would rather live to fight another day.

"They also have a knack of disappearing for years and suddenly reappearing. I don't think scientists have come up with reason why," she added after the Ravenclaw (Sophie) Merlin forbid they were the problem here, but if they were...WHY the bloody hell did they choose Hogwarts. Couldn't they have gone to Durmstrang? They were used to weirder stuff over there for sure.

"And according to Professor Romanos they have a destructive nature," she ended.

Beverly was at a stump. She already freaked herself out once. History was history for a reason, right? So that they knew of what happened years before them and learned avoid those type of things. But...how could you avoid something that disappeared and reappeared all of a sudden?

Was this clipping worthy enough to freak out over?

She glanced at Airey. So. What do you think? Were they doomed yet?

A CHORT?!

Grayson, who had been poring over books and old newspaper clippings silently and had ONLY gotten up from his seat to carefully peek at the poem in front of Simon, found himself looking up from another book. His eyebrows were furrowed as he looked from person to person as they answered. ESPECIALLY over towards that Ravenclaw girl (Sophie) who had given out the most piece of information.

MAN, why hadn't HE been here last year to learn more about this? It sounded like a cool topic, you know. One that would have been USEFUL to learn, especially if these weird buggers were the ones that were causing this freak weather. Heh. And to think he was all set on pinning the blame on the Cold Ones.

He DID know a tiny bit about the creatures -- because they sounded cool -- so Grayson finally shut the book he had been poring over and spoke up. "Aren't they territorial and whatnot? Usually keeping to one place? But they've been migrating West from Eastern Russia sooooo........" Shrug. Could THEY be here? And more importantly, had anyone taken useful notes from this lesson last year? Especially the part about how to defend yourself against them? Because if so, Grayson wanted a peek at them.

Lux was NOT liking this talk about Chorts. It was seriously creeping her out. Were they migrating here? As much as she wanted to believe that these creatures were myth, everything that was happening at Hogwarts fit with Chorts.

OH NO!!

Gasping, Lux put her hands to her mouth. "What if a Chort hurt Bay?!" This was all way too distressing for her. Something had happened to him in that forest. He had been in the Hospital Ward for TWO WEEKS so far and still hadn't been released.

Maybe it was the paranoia talking, but she was now thinking that he had been hurt by a Chort. The thought made her cry.

In the legend of King Arthur... Huh? Zander didn't want to explain that he had no clue about any of this stuff... So instead he just nodded. "Oh, I get it." Which he didn't. Rightoh. Anyways.

The Gryffindor eyed Airey curiously as the Professor began walking over to the book. He had no idea what this chort business was about, but if it was as bad as Sophie and that other chick made it out to be, then could they not have those invading the school?

Also, how come everything always came back to Romanos? Maybe Zander was right and SHE was the one to make all these bad winter things happen. HA! He curiously looked over at Sophie and wondered if she remembered his theory too. Mhm. Romanos was totally fishy. Yup.

Chort? Wait..hadn't they learnt about that sometime? Yes! There was Ravenclaw Sophie mentioning it. And since she had covered most of the important information, he decided to stay quiet because he didn't really have anything to add.

But poor Lux. Adi felt so sorry fro his friend. She needed a hug. He'd give her one after class. Botros or Airey or both might not approve if he gave it now.

Hayden had been flipping through one of the books sitting on her table. But it wasn't very interesting, not even interesting enough for her to remember the name. She hadn't found anything about winter but the book was pretty thick so there may be hope yet. But she lost interest in her book when she heard several people talking about a poem they found in a book. About Merlin? And Morgan la Fey? What did Flamsteed have to say about it?

A chort? Hayden had no idea what that was, though the other kids seemed to. She was just a first year so she had not learned about it last year, unfortunately. So she tried to half pay attention to the conversation in case they drew important conclusion, but the other half of her concentration was dedicated to try and find something about a chort in her book.