At first glance, the video told me absolutely nothing. It started with the suit rising into the air, it got a little bit of the storm, then it shot back to Earth as soon as I got suplexed by a bunch of wind. Fortunately for me, Ana and the armor did a lot more than just record a normal video.
Magic interfered a little bit with the readings we could get on the suit, especially from a distance, but I still managed to get some information. From what I could tell, the person at the center of the storm should by all reason be dead.
For just the few minutes we got readings, all the person's vital signs were going haywire. Even accounting for the massive amount of error that magic has proven to cause on electronic systems, the person at the center of that storm should be decomposing in the grass by now.
I couldn't image that the wizards were so blind that they completely missed a corpse just off the Quidditch pitch, but then again they were insanely blind sometimes. Fred and George hadn't said anything, and I knew nothing that big would be a secret, so I decided to hike down to the Quidditch pitch to see if I could find the body.
It was a grim mission, and one I wasn't looking forward to. I was also still bruised as hell, and it was getting dark by the time I actually managed to make it to the pitch.
"Okay Ana, where about should our mystery wizard be?" I asked.
"Hmm... I don't see anything that would indicate a body, dead or otherwise, but the last known position of the person in the storm was 200 meters straight ahead."
"Great. Thanks Ana." I thought it was odd that she wasn't seeing any signs of a body, but I assumed that was due to some magical thing too. When I got to the spot she indicated, however, I found absolutely nothing. "Are you sure it was here Ana?"
"Yes. Even with the magical interference, I can say with 100% certainty that the person in the storm was at this spot."
"Alright, well take the suit and do some laps, I guess. Let's see if we can find anything."
Ana and I circled for over an hour and didn't find anything. Since it was now dark, I decided it would be safe enough to just fly the armor straight back into the castle through the window of my dorm room. If someone saw me, chances are they'd chalk it up to a hallucination or a Dementor or some weird magical cause like that. I was too tired to walk all the way back to my dorm, and I had too much work to do to waste that kind of time.
I had no idea how anyone could survive the kind of readings that Ana and I got, but since we found no trace of the person they must've managed it somehow. Magic could do some crazy things, and I guess insane survivability was one of them.
I wanted answers now more than ever, and I decided a knowledgeable wizard would be a good place to start. Percy was the most book smart person I'd ever met, so I decided to start with him. Fortunately, dinner time was just finishing up when I got back to the castle, and I managed to catch him coming out of the Great Hall with Penelope. As soon as he caught sight of me he rushed over, looking incredibly worried.
"Alexa! Are you alright? What are you doing out of the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey said it was likely you wouldn't be healed for a few more days!" he exclaimed.
"Well hello to you too," I said, cracking a smile. Percy gave me a look that told me he didn't think I was funny, so I quickly moved along. "Thanks for worrying Perce, but I'm totally okay. Madam Pomfrey checked me out and gave me the greenlight. I'm good to go."
Percy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Still, you should be resting. Get some food and then get to bed."
I wanted to reply with a nice sarcastic "Okay mom", but I still needed information from Percy so I didn't. Instead, I said, "Don't worry Perce, I will. Just one quick question though. Have you ever heard of a wizard being able to create storms? Like, massive wind and torrential rain type storms?"
"Well, yes, there is a spell that will allow wizards to alter the weather, but it's only effective to a slight extent."
"So like... some massive, crazy storm that looks terrifyingly supernatural? Not something a wizard could do?"
"Absolutely not. Magic doesn't work that way."
Clearly not entirely true, but I didn't want to get into it.
I sighed. So I wasn't going to get a nice easy answer. "Okay, thanks Perce. I'll see you later."
"I'll check up on you later tonight!" he called after me as I headed for the Great Hall. I gave him a thumbs up without turning around, too exhausted to talk my way out of that visit. I entered the Great Hall, counted to ten to give Percy time to leave the entry way, then turned around and headed for Professor Lupin's office. If book smart didn't know what this thing was, maybe somebody with real-life experience would. Professor Lupin was the only teacher I really felt comfortable going to with this. I knew he would actually listen to me, and he wouldn't tell a bunch of other people or send me back to Madam Pomfrey.
I knocked on his office door, and to my relief, he answered.
"Alexa!" Like Percy, he seemed extremely surprised to see me up and about. "I thought Madam Pomfrey said—well, it doesn't matter. Come in and have a seat, I'll fetch some tea and chocolate."
"Professor, you're the best." I drug myself through the door and flopped into the nearest chair. As much as I hated to admit it, Percy was right. I needed to go to bed soon.
I felt immediately better when Lupin came back with hot tea and a ton of chocolate.
"This tastes so good right now," I sighed, diving into the chocolate.
"I'm glad." Professor Lupin smiled, but I could still see the worry in his eyes. "Now, if I may ask, what on Earth are you doing out of the hospital wing so soon?"
"Madam Pomfrey checked me and cleared me, I'm fine," I replied. Professor Lupin raised an eyebrow at that answer.
"Alexa, I know a few things about the difference between fine and not fine. You are not fine."
"Okay, whatever, you're right. I'm still sore as hell, excuse the language, and all I want to do is sleep. But my only injuries are bruises and I have too much to do to sit in the hospital for the next few days where Madam Pomfrey won't let me do anything. Come on Professor, if you know about not being fine you must know about this too."
Professor Lupin was silent for a few moments, slowly sipping his tea, and then he started nodding.
"You're right Alexa. I do know about this. About hurting and needing to carry on anyway. I would just caution you not to push yourself too hard. Know your limits. Know your breaking point." I wanted to say something to that, but I couldn't figure out what. Before I could decide on something, Professor Lupin spoke again. "But, I'm sure you didn't come here to get more advice to take care of yourself, which I know you're already getting from plenty of your friends. What's on your mind?"
"I still appreciate the advice Professor." Lupin smiled, and I continued. "I was just wondering if you'd ever seen or heard anything about wizards being able to create massive, terrifyingly supernatural storms. I asked Percy, but he said book-wise that wasn't remotely possible."
"And you think someone with a bit more real-world experience may be able to tell you something Mr. Weasley wouldn't know about."
"Exactly."
Professor Lupin leaned back in his chair to think. "Well, I can honestly tell you I've never heard of that before. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means I've never seen it."
"Dammit, I was really hoping this was going to be easy. Sorry for swearing."
Lupin smiled. "Alexa, my friends and I said far worse when I was your age. Just try not to say it in class, and I don't mind."
I laughed a little at that, but quickly stopped when the motion hurt my ribs. "Ugh, okay, I think I need to go to bed now. Thanks for the tea and chocolate, Professor."
"Anytime. And I'll be sure to let you know if I hear anything about wizards being able to make massive, supernatural storms."
I grinned. "Thanks Professor." I gave him a wave as I headed out the door and back to my dorm. I wanted to keep researching until I found answers, but as soon as I got to the Common Room my body went on autopilot and collapsed straight into bed. It had been a long, exhausting day, and I still had a lot to do. I would need all the rest and strength I could get to keep working on this stupid problem tomorrow.
****************
The next day, I woke up around noon feeling much better. I was still sore as hell, but I could at least walk without wanting to quit and take a nap every twenty steps. I wanted to get back to work immediately, but none of my friends would let that happen.
"Alexa, you need to take care of yourself. Now more than ever," insisted Angelina as she and Alicia dragged me down to the Great Hall as soon as I was awake.
"Ugh, fine. But then I'm getting back to work."
My friends just shook their heads like they couldn't believe I was really that crazy. It was Monday, unfortunately for me, but McGonagall, Flitwick, Vector, Sprout, and Binns were all perfectly aware of what happened to me and were letting me miss the day to get some rest. My friends were taking notes for me, which left me some free time after lunch to investigate the weird storm with a non-sleep deprived brain.
I fielded about a million questions from everybody at lunch, and only the bell threatening to make them late was enough to give me some space. I had to tell the story of what happened a million times, and I could tell only half the people who heard it actually believed it happened. I guess the murderer breaking into the castle overshadowed the hurricane on the Quidditch pitch.
Finally I got some space and headed back to my dorm to do some research. The wizards so far had no idea about any massive storms, but I figured the muggles might've noticed if this was a pattern. I was going to go into all the old records I could find and see if I could draw a connection between the storm on Saturday to any that happened in the past.
To my surprise, I immediately found what I was looking for. About damn time that I found something easily.
Apparently, there had been two massive, spontaneous storms that wreaked havoc in the UK just since we got back from Christmas break.
The first had been January third in London, just a day after the Hogwarts Express brought everyone back to school. The second had been a few weeks later, this time much closer to Hogwarts in Glasgow. Reasonably, whatever caused those two storms could've made it to Hogwarts to cause whatever happened on the Quidditch pitch too.
The first two storms were nowhere near the same magnitude of the one on Saturday, but the storm size also grew from London to Glasgow. Was this thing just going to keep getting bigger and bigger? Would it come back? If so, when? And how would we be able to stop it?
All good questions, and I didn't have any answers. That needed to change as soon as possible.
After considering my options, I decided to turn to the library for guidance. Just because Percy and Lupin had never heard of anything like it didn't mean it didn't exist. It might just be some weirdly obscure knowledge or something.
I headed to the library, but as soon as I got there all the energy and motivation immediately drained out of my body. There were so many books, and I had no way to search them quickly. If there was a spell to control f books I didn't know it, and there was no way I was going through each of these individually. I needed to figure out a way to do this faster or it would be years before I learned anything.
Eventually, I decided on what I felt was the best course of action. I was going to scan all the Hogwarts books into my computer. That way I could control f everything and I could search from anywhere. It would take some time, but with magic and technology combined I should be able to do it within a few weeks. The time commitment would be worth it.
Of course, this whole process would go much faster with help. I decided dinner tonight would be the perfect time to do some recruiting. Until then, I would catch up on all the other things I had to do, like muggle and magical homework.
Hogwarts always kept me busy, if nothing else.