by Jamie Noel Koslarevic
Now that the bright light and wonderful autumn temperatures are back, we can all relax and stop looking at the clocks around the castle like they robbed our grandmothers. While most of the people had learned by now what all this darkness stuff was about, some of you may be still wondering. So come on in, sit down, let me tell you a story.
A bit more than a month ago, so goes the story, a student has heard from some of our living impaired friends that there was a clock. A really annoying grandfather clock that went off at odd hours. And as a bunch of growing teenagers we do understand annoyances, right? So that student decided to help the ghosties and attempted to fix the clock. But as we all know stuff like that takes even adults years and years of training – even if we like to think we can do it – and something went wrong. Well sh*t happens, yeah? In this case that was that the clock was anything but fixed. It went haywire, and its clock face went bare.
And in came the darkness and with it temperatures that became colder and colder over time. We found out that this did not only affect Hogwarts. Hogsmeade was shrouded into the same dark ice sculpture status. But the rest of the country seemed fine. It took several weeks until we found out what was behind this darkness and it took its toll on people. Living in what felt like eternal darkness, being frozen into popsicles is no fun and tempers ran hot… well cold rather, innit? Some people were pretty mad to be honest, going bonkers. Some were afraid -no shame in that my mates-, others thought it would never ever end. Rumour-, Theory- and Imaginationland could have been able to run on the energy we spent on them (Some of them you can read in “Nora’s Corner; Nevermore” released October 8th). Meanwhile each day it felt that it just got colder and darker.
The school had been equipped with lanterns by prefects, passed to the student body because for a while Bluebell flames were the one flame to work. But eventually even those had to be relit over and over. This was clearly magical darkness, like someone had turned off the sun, or covered it with an impenetrable fog. Eventually we were told by the House Elves that we need Turnips and surprisingly found quite a bunch of those around the castle, where they surely did not belong, and handed them in to the elves who made lanterns out of them. Now for those of you who read my article on the origins of Halloween know that Turnips were the OG Jack-O-Lanterns to ward off evil spirits. Wicked, innit?
The areas lit by those turnips were surprisingly warm and light, they were like little oases throughout the desert, void of warmth and light. Hopes to be able to celebrate the Pumpkin Festival in a regular Fall Weather were smashed – it was still wicked though.
And then we found the first piece of the missing clock face. Hopes were raised and a whole group of people from all houses began to obsessively search all the nooks and crannies, collecting numbers. They were stored in one location to make the final assembly easier – No use having to run and find everyone again to put it together in the end, innit? With every piece found the hopes for an end to all this were raised higher – as you know these hopes were not for naught after all we do live in the light again.
During the Halloween feast we learned the clock has been around for quite some while -300 years or something- and it didn’t do this for the first time. Apparently some ghosts or portraits knew and decided to wait until the last day to tell us. If you think of ‘The final countdown’ you are not far off. We had 12 more hours to fix the clock or it would stay dark for at least another year.
Imagine dozens of kids sick and tired of living in antarctic weather conditions storming every corner of the castle to find 6 missing clock numbers and four clock hands. But you know what? They did it! Students of all four houses worked together and piece by piece put together the clock face. As soon as the last number was fitted into its place, the clock rapidly seemed to catch up time or at least that is what it looked like, and upon its chime the ice cold was gone, the skies opened, the moon brightened the sky and it started to rain.
How is that better? Mates, rain means it is too warm for snow and we’ve been living in a weather cold enough that even snow didn’t want to stay after hitting the ground. I know of a few students that stayed up all night, to watch the sun come up again in the morning, for the first time in a month. To say that a few tears of relief fell is not an understatement. No shame in admitting that. I’ll say it. I definitely shed one or 10, dancing in the rain that felt like the warmth of summer after the last month.
So this was the story of the magical clock that brought us darkness and ice. How did that clock actually work? Not sure anyone actually knows, but I think we can safely assume ‘Magic’ had a big deal to do with it, maybe even everything. That was not just some fog, yeah? It was like the sun was gone. Where is it now? I am not sure but I assume the Headmistress has put it into a place far away from not only the students, but the living impaired who may be bothered by a clock chiming at the wrong time. Let’s hope it stays away, yeah?
