Things Treasured

Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting her HoM assignment. Since we began studying the Chamber of Secrets, I have been enthralled with the idea of the basilisk. I had real all of the information provided in class!

Basilisk: A wizard-bred Dark creature of enormous power, this extremely poisonous giant serpent (up to 50 feet in length) is brilliant green in color with long thin saber-like fangs and bulbous yellow eyes. A basilisk can live for at least 900 years given an adequate food supply, and as it can eat most vertebrates (including humans), this is not difficult to achieve. The male can be distinguished from the female by the scarlet plume on its head, but basilisks are usually magically rather than normally bred.

How terrifying! I was on a mission to find evidence of this enormous and deadly creature. Armed with my wand I descended into the depths of the Chamber. I brought the illustration from our text!

Stumbling around in the semidarkness my foot caught in something and I took a spill forward! My wand skittered out of my hand and bumped against the wall of the Chamber. Something was under my hands, it felt like leathery paper. I picked up my wand and called forth Lumos Maximus!

In my wand light I saw the shed skin of a massive serpent! This was it! This is what I came looking for. The green had gone out of the skin and it was a pale papery color. I cut a piece of the skin from the mass of shed coils and Tucked it into my bag.

When I had finished exploring the Chamber with the class and returned to Ravenclaw Tower, I took the skin into the lab. A bit of magical experimentation later, I had fashioned it into a continuous circle, returned the flexibility of its original state, and enchanted it to no longer decay. I present to you with pride, my Basilisk Headband!

Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw turning in her Ancient Runes assignment. Naturally being a Ravenclaw I was eager to begin studying. I creaked open “Magical Mysteries Resolved: Interpreting your Runes 2nd edition” to begin reading. Naturally, I got a paper cut the moment I opened the book. I scanned briefly over all of the descriptions and meanings. With my nose jammed in the book, I wasn’t watching where I was going and tripped right over my Fabulous Twin boppingbeth while she was busy studying.

Just then, our Head of House drew our attention to a magical door that had appeared in the common room! It caused such a flurry of excitement that I momentarily forgot about my studies. There was a lot of chatter about how we might get such a mysterious door OPEN!

Of course we tried Alohamora… and for some reason my wand backfired and I got a nasty sting in my hand. Thinking it might have been an odd sort of boggart that took the form of an unsolvable riddle, I tried Ridikkulus!! But It sort of rebounded and I got a nasty headache.

Well I gave up and went back to my studies. My eyes fell on the rune Algiz.

Algiz - Protection, a shield. The protective urge to shelter oneself or others. Defense, warding off of evil, shield, guardian. Connection with the gods, awakening, higher life. It can be used to channel energies appropriately. Follow your instincts. Keep hold of success or maintain a position won or earned. Algiz Reversed: or Merkstave: Hidden danger, consumption by divine forces, loss of divine link. Taboo, warning, turning away, that which repels.

With the luck I had been having, and this new adventure of trying to get this mysterious door open, I decided THIS was the rune for me. So I whipped out my wand and embedded the rune over and over and over again into my headband.