Category: Episode Enneagrams

Professor Fig has heard about the troll attack in Hogsmeade. We both know that Ranrok must be after the locket we found in Gringotts. Fig has discovered an inscription on the locket. When he reads it aloud, a map appears.

In Fig’s office, I look at the map. It’s a plain floor plan of Hogwarts, but I can see blue glows over the Library’s Restricted Section. We’re both eager to go investigate. Into his office walks Headmaster Black, though. Black wants him now, no excuses. Our trip will have to wait.

However, I have an idea. Sebastian once bragged that he could sneak into the Restricted Section. I find him in the hallway. When he asks for more information, I tell him about Ranrock.

My secret’s safe with him. It’s off to the Library tonight for adventure.

I meet Sebastian on a staircase overlooking the Library entrance. We’ll need to sneak in. Using the Disillusionment spell, we get past the Librarian and some ghosts. Peeves the Poltergeist catches us, though, in the basement.

Sebastian volunteers to chase after Peeves. I don’t want him to get in trouble on my account. He “likes to have friends in his debt”, he says, and goes back upstairs to distract the Librarian. I head down further, until a blue glow at the bottom reveals a hidden doorway.

Through the secret arch is the Athenaeum, a room of puzzles to solve and statue knights to fight.

At the end of it all is another pensieve, this one with a book floating over it. The book opens, revealing a section of torn-out pages. Liquid flows from the spine and the memory drops into the basin.

I see Rackham and Charles Rookwood, as well as two other people. (These four are The Keepers.) They stand on an overlook. Down below is a blighted hamlet suffering a drought. With a nod at each other, The Keepers intervene. Rackham sends ancient magic into the sky, bringing rain. The other three wield his ancient magic, turning the grey village into a blooming, green place. A father hugs his son, who uses a crutch and looks sickly. The little girl looks straight up at The Keepers on the hillside.

Later in the memory, the girl, Isidora, is now a student at Hogwarts. Like Rackham, she is the only person to enter as a fifth-year and to see the blue traces of ancient magic. She seems very excited. Rackham insists she train and study before she can learn how to wield it. In the wrong hands it could be very dangerous.

And then I’m bumped back to reality, sneaking out of the Library. Sebastian, caught by Peeves and the Librarian, insists that he’s alone and no one else was here with him. 

He’s right: my secret is safe with him.

In Charms class I learn accio, the spell that pulls objects (and enemies) to me. One of my classmates is Natty, a girl from Uganda whose mother is the new Divination Professor. Natty, in Griffindor, is kind and adventurous.

We learn levioso, the spell that floats objects (and enemies), in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I duel another classmate, Sebastian, in front of everyone. From Slytherin, Sebastian is a rule-breaker who’s also helpful and curious.

Using accio to play Summoner’s Court, a rare and delightful mini-game.

The houses don’t segregate as they do in the Potter books. Students mingle without making favorites. None of the rivalry exists (possibly because the game decided to avoid quidditch). Playing as a moustache-twirling Slytherin isn’t possible. Our student character can do a few selfish things, but nothing that would count as going to the dark side. (It’s one of the game’s weaknesses.) However, the game does use our perception of Slytherin as evil. We keep waiting for Sebastian to do something nasty. He’s not completely nice — he’s the person who teaches us the Unforgivable Curses — but he never stabs us in the back.

Continue reading “Hogsmeade”

Flying over the quidditch pitch in the fresh morning air … someday

Hogwarts Legacy (2023) is an absolute blast of a video game. It was so successful upon release that a sequel is in development. HBO is shooting a Harry Potter reboot series of the books. It’s a good time to like the Potterverse.

One of Legacy’s strengths is how it combines the expected lore we all know with a fresh story. The plot has nothing to do with Potter and takes place years prior — the late Victorian era — to the books.

Our character begins as a fifth year student who’s attending Hogwarts for the first time.

ONE

On a street in London I and Professor Fig, who’s quickly teaching me what I’ve missed for four years, load a carriage and prepare to travel to Hogwarts. 

TWO

A ministry official, George Osric, apparates in. He’s got news to share with Fig, but not here on the street. The coachman shakes the reins of invisible steeds and we fly away.

Continue reading “Portkey to Gringotts”