Healing the Broken

Chapter 31- The New Ghost

Hermione strode into the library, Ron and Harry a good few strides behind her, talking anxiously. She dashes into an aisle, running her fingers over the spines of the books as she checks their titles and genres, searching for the correct group.

"Figures that we can't have one normal year at Hogwarts without something happening that we need to stop-" She was murmuring to herself. She picks up a large, heavy book, ad brings it back towards the table, where she drops it down loudly. Many people turn shush her, and she scowls. "Shush me do you? Turn back around or I'll find a reason to give you detention." She spits at them, pointing to her Head Girl badge.

"Tsk tsk. Abusing our power, are we?" Ron says, and Hermione whacks him with a scroll.

"I'm not abusing my power. I said I would find a reason- no way are they not doing something bad." She nods her head over to the group of Slytherins,of whom were hunched over in a tight group. "Now, I believe I've found the solution to our problem."

She wipes a thick layer of dust off of the cover, and Harry and Ron both walk around the table to peer at the book title. The Rules, Powers, and Properties of Ghosts, by Amerthia Vishwegan.

Recently there have been several strange things happening around Hogwarts- items being knocked over and high, cackling laughter in deserted hallways. Naturally the teachers narrowed the suspect down to be a ghost- and so they decided that, until they could figure out which ghost did the damage of scaring and even harming the students and could get them to calm down, the ghosts would have to be locked up.

But even after every ghost, including Peeves, was locked up, the incidents kept happening. Hermione, Harry, and Ron had been thinking about it in the common room during their free period, when Hermione thought about all of the deaths that had occurred at Hogwarts. The Battle of Hogwarts had undoubtedly left many possible ghosts, and so immediately Hermione had rushed to the library, Harry and Ron jogging to keep up with her.

"Maybe we should make a list of things that have been happening first." Hermione says, and seemingly out of nowhere she grabs a quill and some parchment out and sets it on the table, beginning to write a title.

Ron frowns. "Why do you get to write?"

She glances at him. "Did you want to?"

He shrugs. "Not in the slightest. Continue."

She shakes her head and continues making the list.

Strange Occurrences at Hogwarts

-All of the library books flying off the shelves and attacking the students.
-The disappearance of Dennis Creevey.
-Torches all going out at once.
-Students getting attacked physically when nothing seems to be there.
-Rattlesnake in the boys bathroom.
-Girl's bathroom toilets blowing up in sync at midnight every night, causing a flood on the main floor.
-Random things shattering- mirrors, windows, vases.
-Students getting the feeling of walking through a ghost upon them every day at least once.

Hermione nods in satisfaction. "I think that's a pretty good summarization of what's been going on." She turns and opens the book that she had pulled down, turning the the table of contents. "How to catch a ghost, properties of a ghost... how to tell if there is a ghost present. Page 147."

She flips through the pages until she finally finds page 147, where a moving picture of the Bloody Baron sits underneath the title. "Ghosts are strange beings. To become a ghost, you must have a desire to stay- one so strong that it will keep you rooted to wherever it is that you pass at. A desire this strong is hard to come by, and occasionally ghosts stay even if they have no desire to stay. If they feel a harsh hatred for the place or the people there, they will be made a ghost and given the choice to haunt the people they hated for so long. The only other way to become a ghost besides hatred and desire is if you were killed in a particularly horrible way. If you think about Nearly Headless Nick, a ghost at Hogwarts, for example, you will find that he was killed brutally- this may be the reason as to why he was a ghost. Now, it is not the question as to why they are stuck here with you, but if they are for sure stuck here, or if you're just hallucinating. Many things can tip you off that there is a ghost present with you-strange occurrences for example. If there are random things shattering, moving, flying off of shelves with no logical explanation, then perhaps there is a ghost. Strange disappearances, things that didn't happen before- also, stop and consider if there was ever a death in your area. If so-"