Another simple question again Scabior!? What's been up with you lately? Huh? You've gotten a lot easier. The fact that Scabior's questions weren't hard was starting to annoy the crap out of him. So once again Nate simply just raised his hand and said "It HAS to be some very powerful dark magic at work here Professor. Like the magic that Voldemortist used on the snowy September day. Or even worse..........the same dark magic that Amarantha De Talone used." With every second his eyes grew bigger. "that can only mean one thing..........someone following there footsteps has arrive, or Lord Voldemortist or Amarantha has come back seeking revenge." Then he lowered his hands, and his eyes went back to normal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magical Soul

Raising her eyebrows Louisa opened her mouth to ask if he seriously didn't believe in wizardy gangsters, "Ar-"...

... but the train moved again drawing her attention completely away from Scabior. She wished the train moved on its own. It wouldn't be HALF scary now that Aspen was the one pushing it... and waiting. As if Louisa was supposed to push it back or something. So the head girl eyed it and crossed her arms.

As the professor started talking again, she abandoned the girl and whatever her intention was with the train pushing game. But the other Ravenclaw won't stop STARING and playing with this stupid toy. In one swift motion, Louisa clasped her hand on the train keeping it in place, "Stop staring at me." She told the girl without moving her gaze off Scabior's face.



She wanted to agree with Aspen's answer, about the interior extending effect of magic, but... her mouth refused to utter the words. So she just sat there. Most of the students already offered good guesses, no need to repeat any.

Aspen hadn't asked WHY the coal car hadn't been used during this year's train trip. But she DID have to - haaaaaaave to - ask the Head Girl:

"Why?"

Did it bother her? Make her uneasy? Afraid? Aspen's eyes DID leave the Head Girl for a moment to eye the train she'd latched onto, then back to the Head Girl for staring purposes. "Don't take it out on the train."

Aspen used her wand tip to TOUCH the top of Louisa's hand, the one on the train there. Just a TOUCH.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

It DID have a coal car yes! "No I have not checked Miss Odessa, I haven't been on the Hogwarts express in more than fifteen years." And why would have have wanted to check then? Pssh. He hadn't cared. "But your observation-all of your observations-" Anyone who had noted hat there was a coal car and it would be a waste to just have it there. "-are right in some sort of way."


--

"Some of you might ask, why the coal car was not used most recently, and the answer to that is simple, the whole train was shut down. All the engines. The Locomotor charm taken off. Everything completely shut down. What could have caused this?"

Hmm....because he phrased the question as what, and not who - he must not think the train's fail was caused by human error? Which was good, because Aspen hadn't ever really suspected anyone either. What was the point? No one, to her knowledge, had been robbed, kidnapped, murdered, or otherwise bothered by the train mess.

"The train is really old. Magic isn't limitless. Maybe it's time for a new locomotive." Shrug. Maybe they should go look at it and see.

And look at the coal car.

Um...No..just no.

O_____________O

That had NOT just happened!

With her mouth almost falling off, Renesmee stared at the Professor as her note flew up in the air and landed in his hands. Why? Why did he have to take it? She watched him read it and began squirming in her seat. She needed an escape...but there was none. If only she had the power to turn invisible, that was what she needed. That way her escape would have been as easy as pie, but that was not the case and as much as Nessie wanted to hide under a rock for the rest of class she knew she couldn't.

Good he was finished reading the no-- WHAT? He wanted her to READ it A LOUD? Wasn't it enough that he had already read it himself. Oh Merlin! This didn't seem to be getting any better, and the idea of an buying an invisibilty cloack was only growing in her mind.

"Um..do..do" Do I have to..she finished the sentence off in her mind, realizing that verbalizing it would only cause more trouble. "Al..alright..Pr..Professor." So embarrassed that she began shaking she got up from her seat and stood in front of the class.

"You..you seem to be close to Dy..Dy..lan, the snake captain." She couldn't help the stuttering, nor speaking fast. It was just so humilating. "I was wondering if ..if you could maybe s..s..spy on him forme?"

The whole world would judge her now? Wouldn't they? Just great. She shook her head trying not to let too many negative thoughts flow through her mind. It was over, or at least she thought. Deep breathe. No need to go all crazy..no need to cause havoc. "Um..I'm sor..sorry Professor..ma..may I go ba..back to my seat?" Because she had done what she was told.

What could have caused it...what...　Well, wasn't that the million galleon question that everyone wanted to know. Wasn't everyone still sort of asking what had caused the Hogwarts Express to stop so suddenly THIS term? Had the Ministry put Professor Scabior up to this? Asking Hogwarts students to come up with theories since their young minds and imaginations often got the best of them so that they could pick and choose a few to theorize on their own?

Okay, so maybe Kurumi still thought that Mr. Creeperdooble from the Department of Transportation that had appeared on the train was too suspicious and shifty to be be trusted.

So...back to the topic at hand. Why coal car being used? Hand up. "A permanent form of Finite Incantatem was cast on it? Someone who perhaps thought that doing so would prevent a nonmagical object from transporting students to Hogwarts?" Since dark magic and other theories had been thrown out there already, why not? Crazy pureblood familes were out there and all that.

And then Kurumi sort of just staaaaaaaaaaaaaared at Nessie, sort of blushing for her. Poor thing...

Dylan had been sitting there, absorbing all the information being tossed around the room; his quill flying over his parchment. The Slytherin was a bit sour about this line of questioning/topic...Ever since that 'discussion' with the Ground's Keeper and the Headmistress, if you could call it a discussion...Meh, more like a blatant attack against him and his fellow Slytherin leaders.

Pfft. If they thought they'd had the last word...SOMEONE was severally mistaken.

However, those thoughts were for another time and place...but for now, he finished copying the notes...



...and then continued to listen.

Of course, in the spirit of things, he just had to offer his two cents on the subject. *hand raising* "I think, as many others said, it's just a case of spells wearing off. Sometimes even powerful spell-work has to be reinforced. Perhaps this was just an example of one of those times......."

..........Do what??

Turning his full attention on Dixon, the Slytherin Captain GLARED. What was up with this girl? Why couldn't she just leave him alone? It was like she was obsessed with him.

Who had she been writing that note to? Someone was going to be in A LOT of pain when this lesson ended...

So...Ella was a little hurt that Nessie wouldn't just ask her and Alice to spy on this Dylan character for her. They were Hogwarts best detective team since...well since any other detective team had ever detected things at Hogwarts! Sheesh. The third year scribbled next to her notes a little reminder to make business cards or something. They could totally come in handy at times like this. And no, Ella didn't judge Nessie for wanting to spy. For all she knew this was for top secret Quidditch purposes in which case the third year was totally on board. Mhm!

As for what Professor Scabior said about her answer, she frowned slightly. So the minister hadn't put any shield charms on the train until after the second attack? That was a little careless, yeah? Though perhaps she thought no one would want to do any harm to a train full of students and professors. Hm.

The whole discussing about what might have caused the entire train to break down, backup options and all, had Ella a little perplexed. She shuddered at the thought of dark magic being the cause but couldn't really count that out, it was a good guess. Since she agreed with the fact that it could simply be the train's spells wearing off, the third year just continued to scribble notes quietly.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

Theodore didn't have an answer to this question. Instead, he just scribbled down one or two other other answers mentioned, then held his face in his hands and watched the train on the track in front of him.

His head kind of hurt.

The dark magic was the only thing that was really floating around his head. It was probably a former!Ravenclaw who was behind it. He hated to admit it, but they were the smart kind.

...
Yaaaaaaawn.

Ariana honestly wasnt paying attention.. Something about the train.. and it didnt run on the coal but was there for a reason or something or another.. she only wanted to know why the train had stopped just a few months earlier. She settled her head back in her hand as she scribbled her notes down with her left hand because you know, She was left handed and all, though she did look up when she heard the word "Slytherin" and she thought someone had lost points for some reason but when she looked up she saw a girl standing there... wasnt she the Quidditch captain for ravenclaw.. No Hufflepufff. Ravenclaw had that weird guy.. She didnt know the purpose of her up there or why she had mentioned Slytherin Anything But Ariana didnt like it.

He was a bit smug about being right about Locomotor Locomotive, however West rather thought that if they all just got his and Aspen's dad to look at the train, he'd fix it in a second. That would solve everything.

West was inclined to agree with his sister except for one fact, "If its just charms failing, wouldn't the express be working again by now? I heard its not. And wouldn't it have been easier just to restore them charms at the time instead of doing portkeys? And you said it was taken off? So maybe its more about why it was taken off. Maybe it was a distraction on account of nothing else much seemed to happen, maybe its just to make people focus on the train when really its not about that at all." Maybe. But that wasn't exactly what the .... West looked at the Hufflepuff captain suspiciously. He liked her well enough, she was pretty cool, but why would she spy on Dylan? Oh yeah. Back to answering.

His hand stayed up as he continued, "Maybe its got something to do with politics. Like how the Board of Governors were on the train." Politics made things come to a grinding halt all the time. West may have been just twelve, but he knew that much.

West smiled back at Sophie, glad she'd sat with him.


... would they get to play with the trains?

Maybe it was magic that made all the other stop. It kinda of made sense to Nigel. But West's answer was sounding better and better the more Nigel heard it. He was really smart. Nigel felt he should at least try and answer the question. Even if his answer was completely wrong.

"Professor, Could it be possibly for someone to use a large scale Finite Incantatem?"

This did start to sound like the work of a Dark wizard that did not want kids to go to Hogwarts.

Yes, what had caused the entire train to shut down? After a few weeks Silvia was still thinking about that from time to time, and she was sure she wasn't the only one who kept returning to that night at times when thoughts wandered away from the present.

She continued to scribble down notes as they appeared on the board, and when she looked up she raised her hand. "Something may have interfered with the spells, and it must have been something powerful if the representative from the Department of Transportation couldn't just recast the Locomotor Spell. Even if it requires multiple people to cast a strong enough spell to get something as large as the train moving, there were other adults on board who could have helped if that was all it required to fix the problem. Dark magic," as several of her classmates had mentioned, "is a possibility, though there may be other explanations." But just who would want to stop the train, and for what reason? They had all made it safely to the school with only a few minor injuries, so it did not seem like stopping them from getting to school was a likely reason. Unless they simply had need for a delay. It would match up with past incidents of similar nature. But then, who knows, the cause could be something entirely different.

Merlin, Elliot WAS paying attention...honestly....she was starting to get just a tad annoyed...but she didn't say anything. She just raised an eyebrow and scribbled down some notes.

Teachers. Were. ANNOYING.

And no, Elliot was NOT answering anymore questions for you, Scabior Man. Because SHE WAS SO PAYING ATTENTION FJHFHERFHKERGH. So she kept her mouth shut and....and...

took notes.

Sierra sat there, a thoughtful look on her face, until finally she raised her hand. "Professor, there has to be something else operating the train besides just magic alone. Otherwise, if someone happened to innocently cast Finite, the train would just stop all at once, right?" she asked. It made sense to her. That was the spell that ended all other spells in effect...

Maybe somebody did cast Finite...

"If somebody did this on purpose, though, they must have only wanted to slow us down, not prevent us from getting here at all. They'd have stopped all over access points," she said, working through some thoughts.

Why would they have wanted to slow them down?

...and none of this really had anything to do with what the professor asked, so maybe she should dd a little something else. Ermm... "So I think somebody needed us stalled for something, but...I can't imagine what."

Sutton stared at the notes she had taken down about the Hogwarts Express thus far and considered the professor's question, trying to think of any possible reason why the train had stopped... something different than what all of the other students had said. Just because the majority came up with one solution didn't necessarily mean it was correct. For once, Sutton thought that perhaps not having much knowledge of magic would be helpful because she was beginning to wonder if magic sometimes became an easy answer.

He had said that everything in the train had stopped working... it literally broke down, just like a Muggle train would do, and it had broken down to the point that even using a Muggle fuel source wouldn't have made the train move, so it simply had to be more than just that the spells had been taken off of it. There was something more to it...

More needing to think aloud than answer the question, she raised her hand to speak. "Professor, I think my classmates here have made some really great suggestions, but I don't know... I just... I agree with the Slytherin prefect, I guess. I feel like there's something more to it, something more than just a spell someone cast on it to make it stop working. First of all, it didn't just stop like it did the time with the dementors... because other fuel sources wouldn't power it, like you said, so for all intents and purposes it was broken or completely locked up somehow.

Also, I mean, what was the point? To cast a spell to lock up the train, which is surely embedded with incredibly powerful magic, would have taken a lot of skill, planning, time, and power, and for what purpose? The train itself stopping didn't cause any harm, and there were other ways to get the students here, and someone with that much knowledge and talent would have realized that. Yes, some students got hurt taking the portkeys and such, but they couldn't have foreseen that or planned it. So, crashing it wasn't the intent like the second time.

What other reason could there have been to stop the train?

I don't know, I mean... I just... feel like trying to understand the what isn't as important in this case... or really in the study of history as the why is because the why brings Truth, and to me... that is what history should do.."

Sutton looked around at everyone with wide eyes, and her heart pounded in her chest as she swallowed a hard lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat.

Perfect time to go off on a rant, Sutton...

Looking back down at the desk, tears threatened at the corners of her eyes from her embarrassment of talking so much about things she didn't really understand. "Sorry, Professor..." she quietly mumbled, staring at her desk.

Oakey waited patiently for Renesmee to pass the note back to him, what kind of favor could she possibly want him to do? He quickly jotted down the last few bits of actual notes for the class the best that he could. That's when he noticed the piece of parchment slipping from Renesmee's hands and into Scabiors!

He looked a back at his Quidditch captain worried for her, she must feel so horrible right now having been caught, maybe he should take the fall for her. Before Oakey could speak up and claim that the note was his Renesmee did as Professor Scabior had ordered and she read the note...sort of...aloud.
Oakey was shocked at what Renesmee wanted him to do! Spy on Dylan, how would he even do it? It was true that the two of them grew close since the beginning of the year, and now kind of have a fragile friendship. That was it though it was a very fragile friendship. Dylan had a short fuse that even he would set off very easily.

He glanced over to where Dylan was sitting and could already see that his friend's fuse had been lit. Quickly turning back around he pretended to jot down a few more notes.

"Somebody probably removed all of the charms making the thing actually work, and then disabled the backup coal car somehow. Like, maybe they banished all the coal or froze the conductor," Emmanuelle answered. Well, it seemed much more reasonable than all the charms failing or anything like that. "As for the why that some of my classmates were talking about, maybe it was some kind of political agenda? Maybe some of the adults that were there that night need to be looked at as suspects.....?" And yes, she knew that included the Headmistress. Though Em didn't think she had anything to do with it. After all, she was ultimately responsible for all the students, right?

Wait a minute, what? Did that girl just say what she thought she did? Spy on Slytherin? Stupid Puffer.

No, Vivi was fairly certain that the Hogwarts Express, a brightly colored old fashioned steam engine that only crossed a specific set of tracks 6 times a year was an anomaly and would draw the attention of Muggles. The good professor might have pfffed over her suggestion, but she noticed he wrote it on the board.

She settled back into her seat and tilted her head, considering the question as her classmates offered their own suggestions. These questions were so speculative, so... much guesswork that it didn't feel a thing like other history classes, where she was used to dealing in facts and figures and conversations about who started what war and why.

Finally, she roused herself and raised her hand. "Professor, a spell that merely stopped the spells wouldn't have stopped the mechanical parts of the train, and we would have been able to use the coal. Whatever happened, it must have stopped both the magic and mechanical parts - is there a single spell that can do it, or would it have to be a combination of spells?"

Someone was long winded. Scabior listened though, eyes set and nodding his head slowly encouraging her to continue. "Well yes, it would be lovely to know why the train stopped. But how can you expect to know one without the other. The why and the what are interlaced. Once one is figured out the other should fall in suit, and figuring out the why on its own at the moment is much more difficult."

Now to the other Puff.

"No." She was not allowed to go back. He had half the mind to ask her to read the note out LOUDER. Actually-"I don't think he heard you." Scabior pointed at the Slytherin Captain. "This time speak a bit more clearly, everyone in the room should be able to hear." Yes, everyone needed to hear since it was SUCH an IMPORTANT note.
Was there a single spell? Scabior shook his head after a few moments of thinking. "There are not any that I know of." Even in terms of advanced spells? No. He could think of none.

Anyways, "A lot of you are thinking correctly, in the terms of past events. It very well could have been a break down of old spells, and if the train was back in Hogsmeade station right now I'd assume that very thing. But it isn't, and so that is highly unlikely." Even if it was just a giant Finite Incantatem. "Dark magic could also be a good guess as well, considering the last two times the train stopped. Clearly at the moment no one knows exactly what stopped it, but the only way we can figure out is by looking back in the past. That and of course testing various methods out." Now with THAT said, he jabbed his thumb once more at the train behind him.

"On my desk is a miniature Hogwarts Express. Up and running, unlike all of yours. The one on my desk is the original and all of yours are copies. However they are all broken and have stopped because of it. Why? I broke them." It had been fun too, but only since they were copies. He could never break the original. Kyroh would not respond well to that. "Everyone on the left side of the room have trains that have stopped like just like the Express did on September 1st 1993. Everyone on the right side have trains that have stopped and crashed like Express did on September 1st 2048 and lastly, everyone in the middle have gotten a train in which both the spells and the mechanics of the train have stopped like this recent incident." He pointed indicating which side of the room was which in case some students still didn't know their lefts from rights. He wouldn't put it past some of them. "You will work with your partner and attempt to fix the trains based on what you know about how they broke down. If you lot need any help take a look at the original train-" the one on his desk "-but do not touch. Or you can call for me." Sometimes a little spell work was required in History of Magic.

OOC: You guys get to choose which side of the room you are on! Work with your partner and try out different spells or poke the train or set it on fire in attempt to get it moving around your track. A minimun of five posts is required to get the max number of points. Have fun with it guys!

Kurumi's eyes were still sort of stuck on Nessie and widened a bit more when Professor Scabior told her she should be...louder. While Kurumi hated to see one of her close friends in such an, erm, awkward situation...she HAD been passing notes AND in THIS man's lesson. Professor Looneywood probably didn't have the Inner Eye to notice such things, so they could pass notes there. This man, well, he was just scary.

Yep.

Squirming in her seat a little, she turned her violet eyes on the train in front of her and then, for the first time since the lesson had started, looked to the person sitting next to her. "So....any ideas?"

Jory was sitting on the left side of the room so that meant he got the train that had stopped alone.

Time to partner up. "Shall we get started?'' he asked the person sitting next to him as he examined the train. Really, trains brought back loads of memories from his childhood.

Milton may have seemed like he was glaring at Scabior, but he wasn't. He was LAST year because of reasons, but this time he wasn't actually glaring. He was just concentrating really hard. There were plenty of reasons why the Hogwarts Express could have stopped moving and there were a few occurrences in the past that might have been related. They just had to figure out what it was this time. And they had to make their darn train move again.

After he was done glaring concentrating, Milton shook off the glare and stared at the train. Since he was on the left side of the room, he had one of the trains that had stopped like it did in 1993. Hmm. "So," he said to whoever was sitting next to him, "Any good ideas?"

Theo didn't immediately understand the exercise. Did they have to use magic to get this thing going? What was the pointttt? He'd never likely grow up needing to know spells about how to get a train going if it decided to break down. Theo hated trains anyway. But anyway, he turned to Ella and sighed.

"So..." Wanna start things off cos he didn't have a clue? "I guess we just try the spells that are on the board?" He shrugged. He liked the look of that locomoter one.

But Ella could do that part because he would explode the whole train set if he tried.

Jinx? Personal jinx?

Kurumi's cheeks flushed slightly as her and Miltion pretty much said the exact same thing at the same time and she turned her attention to the train on the desk. "Um...we should probably go over one more time about why the train stopped exactly. Make a sort of detailed outline as to what happened..." she said as she glanced up at the board again. "1993....was when the Hogwarts Expressed was stopped so the dementors could board it. Or, maybe they were the ones to stop it..."

Did that mean that dementors like...sucked all the happiness from the Hogwarts Express and made it stop? That was ALMOST an amusing thought.

Blink.

They kind of just said the same thing. Weeeeird. Milton shifted slightly sideways in his chair to face Kurumi and the train more. "Right. Good idea." Milton pursed his lips a little bit. Kurumi brought up a good point... "Do we know if the dementors were the ones to stop it? Can they... do that?" Or did they just float around and suck out all the happy out of everything? Milton apparently didn't know a whole lot about dementors.

"Since they were looking for Sirius Black, maybe the Ministry had something to do with it. The Transportation people could have stopped it." So many options. Bleh.

Cassia listened to what the Professor said and the students' answers. Though she wondered how other students seemed to know so much. Or maybe it was just her with the poor knowledge. Anyway, guess what! Cassia did understand most of what were they talking about .About the train breaking and that kinda stuff.

The second-year glanced down at her train. Or you know the fake one that was broken by Professor Scabior. So they were going to repair it.

She looked at the Gryffindor girl sitting next to her. You know they might as well work together. Unless the lioness didn't want to. But Cassia considered her as a partner so it's kinda too late for the girl to change her mind.

"Are we on the left or the right?" The girl asked curiously. "I mean on Professor's Scabior's left..right or ours?" Cassia wrinkled her forehead. She gets confused about directions and stuff. Don't freak out Lioness the girl is smarter than this. hopefully