Some Harry Potter things : How Neville became Professor

After the battle of Hogwarts, Aberforth had become a special advisor for the trio. They didn’t call him their friend since he always advocated the Devil and in his own special way, helped them to see the flaw in their actions.

However they didn’t anticipate that Aberforth was now accessible to many people. His name had helped him fet acquinted and respected by people. On one of their visits to Aberforth, Harry, Ron and Hermione found Neville in the drawing room. Neville had a couple of books in his hands and looked rather, well, Neville!

Neville’s tremendous display of courage at the battle had given him the confidence he had always needed. Proven to be a worthy son to his parents, now Neville had found in his heart the courage to pursue his dreams. He had returned to Hogwarts to complete his NEWTs and had received a minimum of E in all his subjects. His grandmother was happier than she could ever be. She admitted that all she wanted for her grandson was to be himself. Now that he didn’t feel that he needed to be like his parents or anyone else, she stopped telling him what she wanted. This didn’t mean that she stopped telling him what to do. Often she told him about how to take care of the plants that Neville had grown in his little garden at home. Despite knowing that she was not providing the best solution, Neville was still scared of not obeying his grandmother.

From Aberforth the trio came to know about Neville’s interest in teaching Herbology. After completing his time in Hogwarts, Neville had spent months meeting fellow Herbologists and sharing his knowledge with them. Over time he authored several articles that got published in different magazines. He had become a kind of celebrity in the field. It was more due to his involvement in the battle of Hogwarts and him being friends with the trio. This was now the reason why Neville was sitting in Aberforth’s home.

Neville often visited Hogwarts to take suggestions from Professor Sprouts on his articles. In honesty, he felt best at home in those greenhouses where he had first discovered himself and something that he was good at. Now when he wad finally doing what he loved, he was still not happy. Atleast not completely. He felt that his work was slowly becoming about making experiences and retelling tales enumerated several times earlier. What he wanted was a quiet life where he could do his research and at the same time help others find their love for the subject. Aberforth had suggested that he tried for the job at Hogwarts. 

Professor Sprouts had wanted to retire for sometime now. She had seen quiet a lot of things. She had taught a lot of students. After the battle of Hogwarts, she had started valuing her life significantly. Initially she tried quite a few different activities like broom riding, potion making and ground keeping. However she failed in all of them. She found her calling recently and it was time she took it up seriously. She had informed Headmistress McGonagall that she wanted to now travel the world and meet the different wizards and witches. Unable to find a suitable replacement, Minerva had always succeeded in agreeing her friend to extend another year.

Aberforth felt that the time was right when Pomona got the break she deserved and Neville got the opportunity he wanted.

Ron was more than happy to take this up with Percy who had now become the senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. Ironically, the decree that Fudge had implemented that the Ministry can provide a faculty member if the headmaster or headmistress is unable to find had failed to do so.

Percy drafted the entire suggestion and Harry helped getting it approved by the Minister of Magic.

On a fine Tuesday evening, the trio and Neville answered a summon to the Headmistress’ office. Even though they were all sitting comfortably, the aura around Professor McGonagall was still the same. Sitting in front of her they were sure that they had done something wrong and had already started feeling guilty.

‘So the ministry is interfering with Hogwarts again?’ She said sternly, raising everyone to alert. She then smiled and gave a parchment to Neville. He read it quite unbelievingly. It was an offer for the post. ‘I do not need the ministry telling me about my students Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger. I do however appreciate your concern and willingness to help your friend. I wont be needing this however. It would be very kind of your Mr. Potter if you could return this.’ Saying so she handed Harry a parchment which was sealed with the Ministry seal. Later he came to know that she had returned the Ministry orders for Neville’s appointment at the school and instead given him the offer on behalf of the school directors. Now so much for crossing a toe out of line, the three were to return these to the Minister’s office, which seemed a well deserved punishment for not taking the easier approach.

No longer in the light of his elder brother, he was wise in his own ways and people were coming to see that. Soon he had become an important part of the Wizarding world. However, he preferred his quiet life in his home with the portrait of his sister. An additional portrait of his brother now stood beside this. Often the three of them chatted and introspected on problems at hand. Albus and Aberforth still had their disagreements often ending with Albus’s abrupt departure from the frame or Aberforth’s threat to bring down Albus’s painting. It was as normal as things could get and it was as wonderful as never since Percival’s arrest at the Dumbledore’s home.

Simply curious

I am not promoting or endorsing anything but I use this Wynk app to listen to music. Its got a fairly huge list of songs and I am more or less able to find all songs I want to listen to! It gets a little annoying with respect to the ads - ofcourse I can always pay to get rid of them!

Off late they have come up with this ad of theirs which displays when you open the app or while the ad is playing.. and its pretty amusing!

Now I am wondering if they already have lakha of people who have upgraded to their premium annual membership - why do they want others to do so as well?

I am not complaining about the ads here!! I just found it pretty amusing!
I mean from my point of view - I am getting the service I want with sometimes 30sec ads which can still be skipped - fyi Wynk team! Also I believe with their app upgrade, they have become a little rigorous with the ads. The frequency has increased. If lakhs of people have taken the membership, this increase is not quite justified. Secondly if lakhs of people have taken the membership then I assume that the ad is not relevant. People are not going to take the membership because an ad tells them to.

Anyways!! Something I found amusing so thought to share 😉

The life of Hermione Jean Granger Weasley :: The spinning toothbrush

In addition to being the Minister of Magic, Hermione was also the mother of two Weasley children who grew up with other Weasley children and three Potter children. It was such a struggle to ensure her children learned to make the right choice that she sometimes considered that being the minister was the easier than being the mother.

Worst happened when her husband took fancy of spending more time with his brother George as the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes became uncontrollably popular and Hugo started accompanying his father on frequent trips to the store.

While Hermione’s daughter Rose had taken after her, Hugo had somehow taken after Peeves - or so said Ron, his father. Hugo and Rose shared the room under the attic and Hugo gave a soaring competition to the ghoul in creating havoc. Even grandmother Weasley had modified her ancient magical wall clock to include a new action - ‘Doing something they should not’, where George and Hugo spent most of their time!! None the less he had grown up witty and loving. He had also inherited his grandfather’s love for the muggle artefacts.

Just before his seventh birthday, Rose and he had spent an entire month with their muggle grandparents. While coming back, Hugo had packed a lot of things that he did not carry while travelling to the place. Later under strict supervision of George Weasley, Hugo practiced to transform an electric toothbrush to an electric broom, with the help of Ron’s wand that he had helped himself with as Ron was sleeping.

A loud noise and the shake of the entire burrow was something that made everyone stop doing whatever they were. Arthur Weasley was the first one to reach Hugo’s room, from where the noise had come, and see the situation inside. A moment later he came out calmly to tell everyone that the situation is under control and it was all fine. Just as he had come, he disappeared back into the room and closed it - with magic as well as the new technology password lock Hugo was presented for his previous birthday by his muggle grandparents. It was not one lock but a combination of multiple locks. So someone would need to repeat ‘Alohomora’ a couple of times before the lock would open and this would be sufficient time for Hugo to clear away something that his sister, mother or grandmother should not see.

What Arthur Weasley saw made a smile grow on his face. The toothbrush had been magically engorged and spilling water all around while spinning at a tremendous speed. George was standing in a corner looking at the object spinning crazily in the room. His eyes sparkled like they had some idea as to its use. Hugo simply stood transfixed, unable to believe his own creation. Having spent his many years in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office, Arthur Weasley’s first reaction was of horror. However his retirement, George and his grandchildren had had a bad affect on him and had only spiked his spirits to experiment with muggle objects. Slowly a grin spread over his face.

The loud noise had not gone unnoticed and the voices from the room did not stop. A couple of minutes later Hermione decided to open the door anyhow. She was the Minister of Magic and if something was happening that shouldn’t, she needed to do something about it. She looked at her husband who had now woken up and was standing by her side. Taking his silence for approval, she started performing the counter spells to open the door. Ron however, had learnt to keep his distance from places where George might be involved.

The Wild noise inside had made the clicking of the locks almost inaudible. Every click only made Hermione be faster to reach the next one. She silently prayed that her son was alright in there and more importantly he wasn’t breaking any rule!

Hermione entered the room to find a wildly spinning toothbrush which was trying to clean everything and everyone inside. There was water everywhere. The ghoul was jumping in the attic to meet the rhythm that the brush was creating. Meanwhile, Arthur, George and Hugo were busy trying to spell the brush to tame it so that it follows their directions. So far, they had no luck.

In just one of these moments she wished that living in a muggle home where trace prohibited an underage wizard to perform magic was seriously better. She stood dumbstruck assessing the scene before her while Molly was shouting behind at the three people. She took Arthur and Hugo to get them cleaned and to ensure Hermione didn’t give them a hard time. George didn’t need telling. He had disapparated the moment he saw his mother. Molly Weasley had grown soft as a grandmother but she was still a very ferocious mother to her children and they didn’t step a toe out of line in front of her, atleast.

When Hugo left, Hermione saw something that he had dropped. It was a wand. She held her head in her hands not able to believe from where her son would get a wand. Then she realised that it was Ron’s wand. She looked at him, with anger. Ron, the only one in the room didn’t know where to look or what to do. Without any word, Hermione knew that it had been Ron’s carelessness that had caused the whole episode. She raised her wand slightly, pointing it right at her husband. A black flash shone and a second later there were streams of spiders following Ron as he sped wildly screaming ‘Blimey! Its school all over again! This woman is crazy! Sometimes birds and now SPIDERS!!’

Screaming, he ran out into the lawn to get away from the spiders as much as he could.

I did the unimaginable !!!!!

Life is all about extending your comfort zone.. going out there in the unknown and mastering it. It is very simple to do something you know but it is extremely difficult to make something you don’t know, simple. Well naturally, blogging is something that comes naturally to me. It gives me immense pleasure to pen down (type) my thoughts and let them generate a flow of imagination. Yet, sometimes.. just one of those times.. I like to venture into the unknown and do what I don’t usually do. This time, I did something really unimaginable!!

The story begins that due to some really amazing mobile network providers (sarcasm .. since such an entity doesn’t exist ) I am forced to keep two mobiles ( also due to the fact that my mobiles - both of them - can accommodate only a single sim card ). It keeps me on my toes to keep checking them and that is something really hard since I am quite forgetful. It also has its benefits - one I use for talking to other people; the second is a personal one - contains my games and the editor where I type this content. Anyways.. it started out being difficult but now I am quite accustomed to this.

Then one fine day our very old neighbours come to visit us. They are quite simple and humble people. They come for dinner and we talk like people did in the 1980s (no thanks to people using digital communication to keep their personal spaces quite huge to be impenetrable!)

Anyways.. so usually I don’t talk much using either of my phones. Even then the phones were in my room and I was in the dining area - cooking, eating, chatting and happy! When they got up to leave, it was quite late and dad offered to drop them to their accommodation. I went to bid them farewell and notified that there was an empty seat in the car. Greedy for more moments for sheer and simple happiness, I told my mom that I am going as well and sat in the car.

The entire journey to drop them to their accommodation and back was roughly twenty minutes. I merrily talked to everyone while we went and then with my dad while returning. Not even once did I feel that I am disconnected from the world. I was actually more connected than I had been in a long time.

Only when I came back home I realised that I had taken the trip without either of my phones - those phones I carry even to the washroom - those phones that have replaced most of my friends with contacts - those phones which have replaced my watches with digital timed display - those phones that have replaced my mother waking me up with alarms - those phones that are a part of everything I do - from writing this blog to listening to songs - from singing to watching news - every little to every major thing imaginable! And the best part - I realised that I am fully capable in their absence. I was also happy!

Yes, I don’t deny that I need these. For instance these phones provide me quick ease to talk to my grandmother who is some distance away. This phone also enables me to type out this content wherever I am and whenever I want. But I don’t want to be smart because the phone I hold is a smart phone! It should be the other way around.

So yes - I am glad that I did something that most of us usually don’t do. I found happiness without any digitalisation.