Harry Potter's Coolest Aunt

Chamber of Secrets are open

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October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterwards. Aishi, who had been looking pale recently, was bullied into taking some by an extremely worried Harry.

The steam pouring from under her hair gave the impression that she was fuming mad. Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, Harry enjoying the rainy day with his mom, Krishna playing the flute and lifting the moody students and Hagrid pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds.

Cedric Diggory's enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened, which was why Harry was to be found, late one stormy Saturday afternoon a few days before Halloween, returning to
Hufflepuff common room, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud.

As Harry squelched along the deserted corridor he came across somebody who looked just as preoccupied as he was. Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, was staring morosely out of a window, muttering under his breath, „...don't fulfill their requirements... half an inch, if that..."Hello, Nick," said Harry „Hello, hello," said Nearly Headless Nick, starting and looking around. He wore a dashing, plumed hat on his long curly hair, and a tunic with a ruff, which concealed the fact that his neck was almost completely severed.

He was pale as smoke, and Harry could see right through him to the dark sky and torrential rain
outside. Many ghosts could sense Harry as Hades and Thanatos magical legacy so they respect him a lot and he respects them back.„You look troubled, young Potter," said Nick, folding a transparent letter as he spoke and tucking it inside his doublet.„So do you," said Harry.„Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved an elegant hand, „a matter of no importance...It's not as though I wanted to join... Thought I'd apply, but I don't fulfill the requirements."

Despite his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face.
„But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted suddenly, pulling the letter back out of his pocket, „that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?" „Oh-yes," said Harry, who was supposed to agree.
„I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule. However-" Nearly Headless Nick shook his letter open and read furiously: „We can only accept huntsmen whose heads have parted company with their bodies. You will appreciate that it would be impossible otherwise for members to participate in hunt activities such as Horseback Head-Juggling and
Head Polo. It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must inform you that you do not fulfill our requirements. With very best wishes, Sir Patrick Delaney- Podmore.›"

Fuming, Nearly Headless Nick stuffed the letter away. „Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my neck on, Harry! Most people would
think that's good and beheaded, but oh, no, it's not enough for Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore." Nearly Headless Nick took several deep breaths and then said, in a far calmer tone, „So-what's bothering you? Anything I can do?"

The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. It was Mrs Norris, the skeletal grey cat who was used by the caretaker, Argus Filch, as a sort of deputy in his endless battle against students. The only person she does not out is Aishi who always fed the cat and gave her belly rubs.

Harry remembers when he caught her letting Norris rest on her lap in the Hufflepuff common room. That was the best moment for the red-haired twins to do their iconic pranks.