The Fall and Rise of Ravenclaw Tower, Part 2

Republished from the Potions thread.  I submitted this Illusion Candle in honor of our beloved Head of House.

I, Soprano1, tell this tale as it was told to me by the people who were a part of it all. Although I was active in the beginning of the tale, Part 1, I fell down a Rabbit Hole and was transported to Madam Pomfrey’s care for most of the events described here. I dedicate this story to the wonderful Isisonearth, who was Ravenclaw’s Head of House when the Tower fell and planted the seed from which it sprouted anew, and who leaves us for Calm Peaceful Retirement and Lab Antics on Thursday next.

Silverwing26 and MightyGoodYarn decided to wait until morning, for reinforcements, before exploring the big hole in the Lab floor, and Silverwing locked the lab door to keep innocent First Years from falling in and meeting my fate. SFCorgi arrived on the scene and realized that she might just have left some blue yarn on the Mutation Table. As we all know, leaving things on the Mutation Table almost always causes some kind of fiasco. Fortunately for me, SFCorgi was on top of things and borrowed Foxy’s Flying Beddy-Bye to bring me to Madam Pomfrey. Yakira, whom I’d revived briefly to stupefy, awoke and went for coffee, and TriGirlJ, who had bumped her head in the fracas, also went to the infirmary, with Terrence and Oscar, faithful Merry Beasts, steering..

And out in the Common Room, innocent Ravenclaws were serving up s’mores.

BrineyDeep and RChrispy made plans to save George the Knitting Gillyweed’s portrait--the one with the scientists in which he was trapped--and GazeboGal realized that the blue yarn on the Mutation Table was from the Infinite Cone of Gifted Blue Brushed Mystery Yarn, which yarn has a Deep History among Ravenclaws and lives with many (I have Alot of it myself, actually), and has the mysterious ability to regenerate and spread everywhere. The idea that it might have Mutated… well. IsisonEarth was horrified.

The Tower continued to be rocked by faint booms throughout the night, and I had horrible nightmares in the infirmary. What does Swedish furniture have to do with anything? Some mysteries will never be made plain in conscious thought. And Isisonearth discovered that the cracks were getting worse, and retreated to her office. Merry Beasts, like Ielith’s Ember, were becoming worried, but could be distracted by marshmallow creme.

The intervals between booms became shorter and shorter, and upset the marshmallow creme, which dripped on the floor and into the cracks. Brave students, including Danemum, gathered outside the lab to form an exploratory party.

Isisonearth called Ember over and tied a blue ribbon with a small pendant on it around Ember’s neck, and told her that if trouble arose, Ember should fly glide with it to the grounds and meet Isisonearth there.

The Tower continued to grumble and the Mallet of Sanity thought to go at the cracks again--but fortunately was fascinated by the Marshmallow Creme and distracted. Yakira was quite upset that her coffee kept being, er, upset. And then, the Mallet began to strike at the cracks, and wise Ember climbed to the window seat in Isis’s office so she could, if necessary, glide to safety with her pendant.

The students outside the lab prepared to go in, and then Isisonearth declared the need to evacuate the Merry Beasts and move the books off the lab-side bookshelves. Ravenclaws everywhere rose to the call:Save the books! Students and Merry Beasts begin running to find their treasured possessions, and SFCorgi tied a rope around her waist and headed into the lab. TriGirlJ returned from the infirmary to report that I was still being kept there for observation, but I had told her to go through the Rabbit Hole! I don’t blame them at all for thinking I was mad. After all, I was still barely conscious, and mumbling about seeing Rowena Ravenclaw.

BrineyDeep, TriGirlJ, and Silverwing26 followed SFCorgi into the Lab, and Isis rallied the other students for evacuation. They discovered that the Infinite WIP on the Mutation Table was a part of an Exploding Snap project: a Perpetually Exploding Knitting Machine, which caused the explosions. And I am afraid I have to commemorate this statement by BrineyDeep… posterity needs to know.

Yakira and Ielith began casting Reducio on the books to make the packing go faster, and Eightlegeddj contemplated transferring to Beauxbatons for the rest of the year. Silverwing and TriGirlJ organized a rescue of the Squidlings named William, and it was discovered that it would not do to simply allow the Machine to run out of yarn, because the yarn it was using was Isis’s Infinite Cone experiment. It might have been something like this, but even if not, how cool, right?.

And through the mayhem of students running everywhere, Isis calling out orders in her inimitable style, and the incessant booming coming from the lab, Ember watched from her perch--and then, Brave Little Wyvern, she Jumped.

The Machine began mutating, the Mallet went on whacking at the cracks, somehow the students and Merry Beasts were all being led to safety, and IsisonEarth called for upperclassmen to retreat. The Rising Seventh Years formed a last defense with Isis, and Ielith grabbed the last of the books and fled down the stairs. The students’ stories went on for pages, glimpses of what each experienced through the last moments of the Tower’s existence. Toppington von Monacle performed his heroic rescue of MightyGoodYarn (but she has told that tale elsewhere!) and, just as she touched down safely to the ground, the Tower exploded! It fell to the ground, leaving all Good Claws unharmed.

Unharmed, perhaps, but still--their world was at their feet in rubble. BrineyDeep and MightyGoodYarn both looked as if they would lose hope. But Isis spoke calmly to the Brave Little Wyvern, and GazeboGal began to sing the Ballad of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Isis took the pendant--a tiny replica of Ravenclaw Tower--from around Ember’s neck, and all the Ravenclaws joined in a circle, holding hands together and lighting the tips of their wand, singing their Ballad in eight-part a cappella harmony. SadieLou joined hands with a first year and took Toppington’s proffered tail, and told them all to concentrate and Trust in Isis!

TheRealKarity and AWellKnitLife joined them, trailing Merry Beasts behind, and as their magic combined, a blue slate roof rose from the ground, the top of a brand-new Tower. As it flew upward, they spotted their dormitories and favorite bits inside, and FricknFrack came running up just in time to join the Claws readying themselves to head back inside. I proudly defied Madam Pomfrey and shook off visions of POANG furniture, and brought up the rear of the group.

Tower History: The Fall and Rise of Ravenclaw Tower, Part 1

This is Part One of the Fall and Rise of Ravenclaw Tower.  I, Soprano1, tell this story, because I Was There.  I publish it in honor of Isisonearth, who yesterday told us that she will be stepping down as Head of House.  Without her superlative magical skill, the new Tower might never have risen, Phoenix-like, from its own ashes.

Naturally, the fall of Ravenclaw Tower began with a party! And we had reason to celebrate, too: We had won the House Cup!  It was August 14, 2010, and MightyGoodYarn awoke with a stunning headache. The Ravenclaw Common Room was a mess, and there was fondoo and champagne and virtual martini glasses scattered everywhere, but the thing that caught MGY’s attention was the cracks in the Common Room floor.

Despite Isisonearth’s best intentions in locking up the Lab during the celebration, the structure of the Tower had been compromised.  SFCorgi, TriGirlJ, MightyGoodYarn and I all put our heads together to try to figure out what to do.  Corgi suggested pectin, and I hauled out my Dark Detectors to try to figure out the cause (because naturally, it couldn’t have been too much partying!) Corgi developed a recipe for floor crack repair, and in answer to Catdragon’s query about whether anything had been left running in the lab, TriGirlJ admitted that she had, indeed, begun an experiment in there before the Lab’s closure prior to the party.  

In an act of uncharacteristic bravery, I opened the Lab door to find that indeed, the cracks were worse in the Lab than in the Common Room, and TriGirlJ and I decided to try to go in and fix it before Isisonearth awoke.  We donned hard hats and lab coats, dragonskin gloves and face masks, and plunged in.  Foxy tried to help by licking up and rolling in Corgi’s Floor Crack Pectin--apparently fur helps strengthen sealant. We rescued Selene Gazebo’s hangover remedy candies, and sealed the door from within to prevent harm to partied-out Claws and innocent NQFYs.  And we dug ourselves in until Sunday morning.  

The Mallet of Sanity may or may not have started whacking at the cracks--was that all in Ielith’s head?  Sadly, it might not have been.  And then Isisonearth came out of her office... checking in on TriGirlJ and me, she discovered that we’d locked ourselves in the Lab and that the cracks were worsening.  TriGirlJ and I could not see each other, and there was a loud, horrible noise that forced us to shout to each other.  TriGirlJ shone a light so that I could make my way past the cracks toward her.  But there was one crack that opened up beneath me and I fell in!  TriGirlJ, trying to rescue me, knocked herself silly, and both of us lay dazed and confused for long minutes while out in the Common Room, excited Ravenclaws still hearing the news about our House Cup triumph toasted Isisonearth with more champagne drunk from the House Cup, and crowned our Mad Scientist, Darwinia, who won by knitting eleventy-billion colorwork stockings.  

Ielith ran in circles, hopping over cracks and trying to calm down. Life outside the lab went on normally for some time, and then TriGirlJ finally came to and realized that I had fallen down a might big hole in the Lab floor.  Ielith suggested that TGJ knit a rope to help get me out, and so she began.  Fortunately she had knit the i-cord rope out of the glow-in-the-dark yarn we’d made in the Lab earlier in the term, because it was dark down there!  Although I was barely conscious, I was able to grab the rope, and TriGirlJ hauled me to safety.  

I was, apparently, muttering incoherent mutterings about a Rabbit Hole and Rowena Ravenclaw, and for no reason anyone could discern, right before losing consciousness I Stupefied Yakira.  And for the rest of the Tower’s demise, I was unconscious, despite MightyGoodYarn’s best efforts to wake me.  I spent the whole adventure in the Hospital Wing under Madam Pomfrey’s care, and only woke in time to sing the new Tower into existence.

Tune in next week for Part Two of the Fall and Rise of Ravenclaw Tower.