Session Summary

AI-generated Recap

Following the tremors of November 1939, the DIADEM students were placed on an accelerated learning program, with all three protagonists learning Expelliarmus and Engorgio/Reducio. Individually, Cassie mastered Slugulus Eructo, Relashio, and Pellucidi Pellis, while Basil learned Fumos, Immobilus, and Abscondi, and Vi acquired Protego Maxima, Finite Incantatem, and Reparo. Vi sought advice from her mother regarding her misfiring magic, but received a cagey response, while Basil received a signed cricket bat from his father to replace the one he used against the kktchen pixies. Cassie received a request from her mother, Lavender Weasley, to act as a "Secret Santa" for the Muggle children of Locharbor, an act that would technically violate the International Statute of Secrecy.

A significant portion of the session focused on Bernard the Niffler, whose persistent theft of Christmas ornaments led Cassie to develop a unique new spell: Objectum Revelio. Using this magic, the trio tracked Bernard to a hallway where he had been bribed by the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves with his own box of shiny baubles to prevent him from pilfering theirs. Following this levity, the atmosphere turned dark when Vi and Cassie pressed Basil for information about his mother; under blunt questioning, Basil admitted that he had killed his mother, Annabelle Featherstone. After a brief, distressed escape attempt, Cassie and Basil made peace over a cricket-bat-shaped chocolate before heading to the undercroft.

The trio attended Nearly Headless Nick's Festive Deathday Party, where they encountered a blue mote of light believed to be the essence of Eleonora Humblewood. This encounter triggered shared visions: Cassie saw a young, vibrant Eleonora, while Basil saw her as an older student writing at length in a grimoire. The gathering was then interrupted by the manifestation of the Yule Ghoul, a featureless silver soldier in a "Tommy" silhouette that seemingly transcends time, appearing to the trio exactly as it had appeared to Eleonora centuries earlier.

Before the party dissolved, Basil was gifted a transfigured rubber duck by the Yule Ghoul. The group also discovered a potential ancestral link, as they learned Eleonora’s Charms professor was Felix Bourne, a forebear of their current professor, Elara Bourne. The students finally left the undercroft for the deserted corridors, feeling perturbed and unsettled by the reappearances of these ancient entities.

Session Events

Event:: After the tremors of November 1939, the DIADEMs are put on something of an accelerated learning program. Cassie, Vi & Basil all learn Expelliarmus and Engorgio/Reducio.

Event:: Cassie learns Slugulus Eructo, Relashio & Pellucidi Pellis

Event:: Basil learns Fumos, Immobilus & Abscondi

Event:: Vi learns Protego Maxima, Finite Incantatem & Reparo

Event:: The Wizarding World is abuzz with hypotheses as to the cause of the tremors. Some blame Grindelwald, others blame Nazis and some blame a conspiracy of both. The Daily Prophet however has somehow learned of Kiko & the HVMC's presence in the valley and is increasingly demonising them, blaming either their 'out of control magic' or 'failed mining experiments' for threatening Hogwarts, Hogsmeade & even the very secrecy of the Wizarding World by risking Locharbor and the other mixed/muggle villages in Hogwarts Valley

Event:: Vi writes to Morwenna (Moira) Thorne seeking advice for her misfiring magic. None is given, her mother seeming somewhat cagey on the subject

Event:: Basil, inspired by his part in events with the Pixies in the School Kitchens, writes to Maj. Rudolph Augustus Featherstone DSO MC (Ret.) to ask him to send his old cricket bat. Instead he receives a spanking new top of the line one, signed by none other than Wally Hammond himself

Event:: Vi learns from Hokey that the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves continue to have difficulty with their magic and have been struggling to create the traditional Hogwarts Yule Log.

Event:: Cassie receives an entreaty from her mother to help the poor folk of Locharbor. In support of Santa Claus they are to deliver gifts and cheering surprises for the muggle children in the village. This flies in the face of the International Statute of Secrecy, but typifies Lavender's care for 'the less well off' (muggles, however 'wealthy' in muggle terms)

Event:: Basil is informed by The Fat Friar that the strange blue mote, presumed to be some essence of Eleonora Humblewood (dec.), has been sighted hovering in the corner of Nearly Headless Nick (Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington)'s Festive Deathday Party

Event:: Bernard repeatedly escapes Cassie's pocket and keeps returning with extremely shiny baubles and Christmas decorations. Concerned for his safety when he takes longer than usual one time, Cassie begins developing Objectum Revelio, a spell of her own devising that she manages to master by seeking Bernard's favourite galleon, now made distinctive with shiny foil wrapping

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil locate Bernard in a hallway (using Cassie's self-made Objectum Revelio spell), where he is making off with a large shiny bow-tied package. On inspection this appears to be a gift for Bernard from the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves who have given him a box of his own shiny baubles, perhaps in the hope he will stop nicking theirs

Event:: Vi & Basil attempt Proficiency Training to learn Objectum Revelio from Cassie. Neither progresses on first attempt, but the process has begun

Event:: Vi begins to press Basil on his mother, Annabelle Featherstone (dec.), which Basil seems reticent to open up about. Cassie, far more bluntly, asks outright if Maj. Rudolph Augustus Featherstone DSO MC (Ret.) killed Annabelle Featherstone (dec.). Fearing for the effect it may have on his friend's opinion of him, Basil finally admits that it was he who killed his mother.

Event:: Distressed by the admission of his past, Basil runs from Vi & Cassie but is thwarted in his escape. Cassie catches up with him and after he reflexively (but unsuccessfully) casts Stupefy on her, she makes peace with a gift of a cricket bat shaped dark chocolate (as well as gifting Vi a mint truffle)

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil head to Nearly Headless Nick (Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington)'s Deathday Party in the undercroft, hoping to investigate the strange Humblewood mote that The Fat Friar reported

Event:: Cassie shares a vision with the mote of a young Eleonora Humblewood (dec.) whilst Basil sees her, slightly older, writing at length in an old grimoire - something he has seen her doing in previous shared visions

Event:: The Yule Ghoul manifests before Cassie, Vi & Basil at the Deathday Party; a featureless Silver soldier, identifiable from its silhouette as a Tommy. The DIADEMs learn that a silver ghostly warrior appearing in Yuletide season has been a legend in the wizarding world for years, but not actually seen for centuries.

Event:: During the course of events, Cassie learns through Eleonora's Mote that in her life, Eleonora had also encountered the Yule Ghoul. In fact that would likely have been the last time it was manifest. Cassie sees in a vision shared by the mote that the Yule Ghoul that looks like a 1930s British soldier now, also looked like that in Eleonora's era too - somehow it transcends time. Cassie got an uneasy sense that the Yule Ghoul knew this place and knew it well. As if it were a student of this place in this time.

Event:: Basil is connected to by some spectral force at the Deathday party. Perhaps Eleonora Humblewood (dec.) or perhaps the Yule Ghoul itself. But he is gifted a small rubber duck, identical to one seen in a vision where Eleonora's Grimoires were transfigured by a 14th century charms professor into this (or at least a) dick as well as a strange orb of some unknown type and purpose - if any.

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil question The Fat Friar about the visions and peculiarities they witnessed at the ghostly Deathday Party. They learn that the Professor of Charms during Eleonora Humblewood (dec.)'s schooling was one Felix Bourne (dec.), an ancestor of today's Charms Professor, Prof. Elara Bourne. No portraits of former Prof. Bourne hang in the castle, but the Hogwarts House Elves are responsible for portrait storage

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil leave Nearly Headless Nick (Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington)'s Deathday Party some time after it dissolves in fear and chaos. More perturbed than enlightened by the reappearance after centuries of the Yule Ghoul and their strange visitations from the mote of Eleonora Humblewood (dec.) they depart back into the deserted corridors