Paragraph 13 : Wizard Woes

Two events caught the attention of the students in the next week. While the four friends were blissfully taking advantage of their new capability, the gloom brought by these two events ensured that the mood of the school was the opposite of the four friends' one. First, Gryffindor's Martin Hift struggled because his father was now bankrupt. Mr. Hift Senior was an inventor, the chief executive of Hift Magicharms, and his latest commercial venture was about simplified prophecies that could be mass-produced, but with a major drawback : their reliability was much lower than that of real prophecies. Another executive working for Mr. Hift Senior, Mr. Traister, seeing that his boss was reluctant to market a product still not very reliable, had taken over the business, leaving Mr. Hift Senior penniless. For Mr. Traister had argued in front of Magicharms' Board of Administrators that, if Mr. Hift Senior was allowed to indefinitely delay the sale of the simplified prophecies as long as an increase in the reliability of these was not guaranteed, they might wait forever, and lose their investment. Mr. Traister had convinced the Board that Mr. Hift Senior was acting opposite to the best interests of Magicharms, and that therefore he had to be fired and his shares confiscated. The Daily Prophet, instead of reporting the story in its entirety, had only copy-pasted the official version of it publicised by Mr. Traister and the Board. As a result, the wizards and witches of England were able to purchase the defective product that Mr. Hift Senior had diligently tried to keep off the shelves of the shops. Martin Hift's father was portrayed, just like Mr. Traister and the Board of Magicharms wanted, as a selfish businessman who had acted to deprive the magical community of a wonderful product, because he was jealous of the rightful inventor, Mr. Traister. Another sinister story, closer to home, hit the students soon after. Edward Songer, a fourth-year Ravenclaw student, had been reprimanded in a Charms lesson, but not for something as inconsequential as sending paper planes across the room. The Ravenclaw-Slytherin class was aimed at practicing a spell allowing to share briefly knowledge and intelligence in order to find a solution to a problem. Obviously, neither the Ravenclaw participants, nor the Slytherin ones had failed to use this peculiar setup to exchange sarcasms. Professor Flitwick, intent on getting through the implicit message that even Slytherin students and students of another House could be great teammates, had requested from every Slytherin student to pair with a Ravenclaw student. Grumpy Slytherins and Ravenclaws had therefore assembled in couples. In the end, the least popular Slytherin student - a permanently cold girl - was associated with the least popular Ravenclaw student - a clumsy boy who was regarded as not handsome - of that year. This prompted another Slytherin student to address the Ravenclaw boy in the following way :

Look at your date, and keep in mind it's the best you'll ever have

A Ravenclaw girl snapped back at the Slytherin trash-talker :

Stop talking, you are facing a boy, and with your gentlemanly attitude, that's the thing closest to a girl that you'll be able to date yourself

A lot of laughter ensued from most of the neighbouring Ravenclaws and Slytherins. This was the best result towards friendship between the serpent's House and the eagle's House that Professor Flitwick achieved, since when practice began, Edward Songer, who thought the idea was brilliant, used a different spell. For Edward Songer, a true member of Ravenclaw, had a vast knowledge, and was able to prove it. The spell he had picked yielded similar results to that they were supposed to cast, and on top of that, made it possible to bind the minds for a longer time, without the quick exhaustion brought by the textbook spell. There was just a little flaw in Edward Songer's reasoning. Among the wizards either, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Professor Flitwick had barely heard the spell chosen by Edward Songer that he lifted it with a commanding 'Finite'. The room became silent, and Professor Flitwick told Edward Songer :

You will stop the practice here, Mr. Songer. I will need a word with you at the end of this class

Edward Songer, surprised to see Professor Flitwick so stern and eager to admonish him, moved to a bench, and would sit there till Flitwick dismissed the class. In the meanwhile, Professor Flitwick had let the other students resume the practice, which took place in a most studious, quiet, and somewhat oppressive atmosphere. Shortly after, Ravenclaws who had researched Edward Songer's unusual spell let emerge disgruntedly that the charm was relying on dark magic. More specifically, it was dealing with soul manipulation, a trait that was typical of dark magic. Surprisingly, Flitwick seemed satisfied with Songer's explanation, and he didn't receive detention. Actually, Ravenclaw didn't lose a single point for the House Cup. However, an insisting rumour spread. According to it, Songer had found the book 'How To Become a Dark Wizard', and had started applying its evil teachings. Songer would have used the Imperius Curse itself on Flitwick in order to preclude any punishment that would be a sure sign of very deep wrongdoing. As a result, everybody seemed to have forgotten that the four friends had received detention while looking for the book, and have dropped the assumption that they were infatuated with dark magic.