In Red Dwarf (a muggle TV show from the 90s) Lister (the main character) finds out that he is own father and abandons himself (as a baby) in a box with the word ‘Ouroboros’ on it; a symbol of the fact his life is a constant cycle.
Last week there was a delivery of oranges to the Great Hall with the very same symbol on it. Lots of people don’t understand the implications of it so I spent the last week looking through old Owl Post editions to make a brief timeline;
2023 Spring term
- Rumours appeared on the owl post written in orange juice, when the paper went near heat the message showed up. (Very Famous Five). Lots of nasty rumours cropped up about the professors during Dorchester’s takeover
2024 Spring Term
- Someone tried to kill Professor Priaulx leaving a note with an ouroboros drawn on it
- Ravenclaw, Jesma Pearl was poisoned and by her was another symbol of the ouroboros
- Ravenclaw, Gwen Ferox, was left a stone engraved with the ouroboros as a ‘threat’
- The divinations tower got ransacked and mice were released, again, the sign of the ouroboros was left
After studying all of these incidents I was reminded of CSI (another muggle TV show) where they would look at the EmOh of a criminal. EmOh is something to do with someone’s methods of doing a crime and strangely the EmOh of the Ouroboros changes each year, and the sudden escalation from rumours to attempted murder is a rather big jump in EmOh.
This change leads me to think, is there more meaning behind the symbol? Is the Ouroboros one person, or is it a symbol passed down from person to person? Like the proverbial snake, swallowing its tail, the cycle left ongoing… And will we ever find the first, the second, or those to come?
And now this. And less than a week after the arrival of the mysterious oranges, the Ministry of Magic come for Fox. Coincidence? Or is the Ministry latching on to the symbol too?
