I mean, it's good we learn what to do against a boggart, right? But it was pretty awful.
Did you hear Professor Brutka yesterday? Said the boggart population is on the rise. Said he hadn't had nearly so much trouble getting them for Professor Lestrange to use as he would've if he'd still been in France. I asked him how boggarts, y'know, reproduce. But he wanted to get started on the lesson, so he didn't answer.
Speaking of. That was dead interesting what he said about serpents and Parseltongue and how rare it is for anyone to have a serpent as a familiar. How powerful you have to be. Like the Lord Protector. And how his magic binds his snake to him.
The snake bit was pretty nift. I like how Professor Brutka explains things. I'd never thought about how a snake isn't really made to be a familiar, like how it isn't its natural state, and what you have to do so you can control it.
But I did know that snake familiars can be used for some really ace stuff.
Salazar Slytherin came up with hexes and things that you can only do properly when you have a snake wrapped around your wand arm, or that you can only say right if you can speak Parseltongue. They had some descriptions of the hexes he created in the book I have about him, and it seems just sort of really snitch that only a few witches and wizards that ever lived could actually do that sort of magic.
I like snakes. But after that lesson I'm not sure I'd want one as a familiar, they're an awful lot of work. Whereas rats are actually bred to be familiars. As long as I feed Sebastian he sticks around and keeps me company, you know?
Yeah. And it'd be bad if you lived with someone who had a snake familiar. Bad for Sebastian, anywiz.
The big ones eat so much. I didn't know that. I mean, when he told us the Lord Protector's snake could eat a Centaur if it wanted to bother, that's just
And I think there are sort of two different kinds. There're ones that are really scary--stuff like, y'know, GIANT HAIRY HORRIBLE SPIDERS
er
or mummies or skeletons or evil clowns or manticores, y'know--
and then there're boggarts that are really so horrible the person can't make them funny no matter what they try--like your dead baby brother or yourself gone mad or someone you really like who turns around and they're all of a sudden a vampire or have their eyes gouged out or something else horrible you'd never expect. Those kind of boggarts aren't just dead scary, they make people really sad. Like Parvati. I keep thinking about how she looked
and how she sounded
it was really horrible
I think she had to go to Madam Pomfrey's afterwards.
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branchandroot
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 09:31 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 09:59 pm (UTC)Did you hear Professor Brutka yesterday? Said the boggart population is on the rise. Said he hadn't had nearly so much trouble getting them for Professor Lestrange to use as he would've if he'd still been in France. I asked him how boggarts, y'know, reproduce. But he wanted to get started on the lesson, so he didn't answer.
Speaking of. That was dead interesting what he said about serpents and Parseltongue and how rare it is for anyone to have a serpent as a familiar. How powerful you have to be. Like the Lord Protector. And how his magic binds his snake to him.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 10:18 pm (UTC)The snake bit was pretty nift. I like how Professor Brutka explains things. I'd never thought about how a snake isn't really made to be a familiar, like how it isn't its natural state, and what you have to do so you can control it.
But I did know that snake familiars can be used for some really ace stuff.
Salazar Slytherin came up with hexes and things that you can only do properly when you have a snake wrapped around your wand arm, or that you can only say right if you can speak Parseltongue. They had some descriptions of the hexes he created in the book I have about him, and it seems just sort of really snitch that only a few witches and wizards that ever lived could actually do that sort of magic.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:19 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:37 pm (UTC)The big ones eat so much. I didn't know that. I mean, when he told us the Lord Protector's snake could eat a Centaur if it wanted to bother, that's just
that means it could eat a wizard if it wanted to.
And that's
yeah
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:44 pm (UTC)Totally not helping me think happy thoughts, Ron.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:49 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:53 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:20 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 10:20 pm (UTC)So I guess I should just hope I never run into one ever again. Or if I do, it's with you, so you can just make it into a legless spider.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:11 pm (UTC)I mean, if you don't want to say, you don't have to, but
It was really horrible, then?
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:21 pm (UTC)boggarts, I mean.
And I think there are sort of two different kinds. There're ones that are really scary--stuff like, y'know, GIANT HAIRY HORRIBLE SPIDERS
er
or mummies or skeletons or evil clowns or manticores, y'know--
and then there're boggarts that are really so horrible the person can't make them funny no matter what they try--like your dead baby brother or yourself gone mad or someone you really like who turns around and they're all of a sudden a vampire or have their eyes gouged out or something else horrible you'd never expect. Those kind of boggarts aren't just dead scary, they make people really sad. Like Parvati. I keep thinking about how she looked
and how she sounded
it was really horrible
I think she had to go to Madam Pomfrey's afterwards.
So, yeah.
I guess yours was one of the second kind?
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:31 pm (UTC)I'd say Bundy's was too, actually. Did she come up with anything?
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:40 pm (UTC)Yeah, she did!
She made the Prefect badge open up and poke her cousin and she exploded like a giant balloon and went flying around with the air swooshing out of her.
Everyone laughed.
I don't think anyone likes Gemma Bundy very much. I mean, she is kind of a witch, innit?
Private message to Ron
Date: 2010-09-11 12:05 am (UTC)It was a dead girl who looked just like her, saying 'it was all your fault' over and over again.
She didn't even try to cast the spell, just stood there until Professor Lestrange got Vince out in front of her.
Re: Private message to Ron
Date: 2010-09-11 03:26 am (UTC)No wonder she doesn't want to talk about it. So it's about Regulus Black again. That's bad.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-10 11:43 pm (UTC)Ugh.
I just don't want to think about it any more.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2010-09-11 03:27 am (UTC)We'll think up other things to think about, yeah? Fisheye.