Aymee Parker B2 - The Cursed Mark

Chapter 8 : Too much

A little later that day, as Professor McMahon predicted, Professor Flitwick arrived in the Ravenclaw's Common Room for an announcement.

The students had stormed seats, chairs, armchairs and even the rugs. No one wanted to miss Flitwick's announcement at the risk of missing important information. Aymee and the other second-year students had settled at a large study table a little away to be able to chat. As soon as they had taken their seats, Duncan had taken five crumpled, half-torn copies out of his pockets. The group of students leaned over the surviving copies, forming a sort of brainstorming cocoon in progress.

"What does it mean, in your opinion?" asked James. "Who could have done that?"

"It's about misfortunes and karma ..." said Grant. "Do you think that's what blew up the candlestick?"

"No," said Megan. "It was a student who exploded it."

"A spiteful person," declared Duncan, crossing his arms, his eyes fixed on the torn pieces of paper. "This is a revenge."

Aymee remained silent while reading the little message in a loop. She felt like there was too much info and at the same time not enough. Was this the 'big thing' Annelise had been talking about? The first of them who understood the message would win? No, it would surely not stop there. Aymee turned her head to the door of the common room when she heard the familiar click, like most of the students.

Flitwick remained in the door's entrance and looked at the students one by one. He waited a moment before speaking, thoughtful.

"As you know, strange events took place in the Great Hall this afternoon. The seven students affected by this... this jest were taken to the infirmary to make sure it was not dangerous and to undo the spell. I will personally take care of finding a way to end it. The daily activities of the school will continue during this time. We ask you to behave as normally as possible. If you have information about the Mark or the one who started it, come immediately to let me know, or to another teacher. Questions?

"What happened to the candlestick?" asked a fifth year white student. "Why did it explode?"

"Dumbass," whistled a brown man sitting close to him. "It has already been said that it was a student who cast and explosive spell."

"Yes, but why? How could he notice? Wouldn't that be the student responsible for all of this? We should all have our wand examined to see who casted that spell. That way, we'll know who it is and everything would go back to normal."

"The student who did this should be rewarded, not punished," declared a seventh-year redhead with glasses. "The candlestick chains had dropped and it would have shattered on students. What they did proportionately reduced the damage."

"Getting machine-gunned is not what I call reducing the damage."

"It's better than being smashed! Plus, the pieces did not have a very strong velocity. You wouldn't have died."

"What if it got into my eye!?"

"You'd have a cool pirate eye-patch?"

"That's enough," coughed Flitwick, stamping his foot. "Thank you for this information, Miss Finnigan. Do you know who the candlestick was going to fell on?"

"No, too many people blocked my eyesight." The redhead shrugged.

"It was going to fall on three Snake girls. One of them had the Mark."

All eyes turned to Aymee. She blushed when she realized she had just spoken. It came out on its own.

"Slytherins, you say?" asked Flitwick.