Mayhem at the Ball - Challenge 2

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

Here are different opinions on how the murderer should be punished!

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

The punishment for the perpetrator of this dastardly deed? Of what, indeed, would an appropriate punishment consist? There are many things that come to mind, many of which include performing the duties of the Co-Head of House of Ravenclaw. But no, that is not an appropriate punishment! What if the person who did this felonious feat desires such a thing? POWER! No, no, I think of Hogwarts and the punishments given out to the people there – writing of lines, detention, points away from their House – those might be appropriate.

So first off, a punishment for the person who did this is – decontaminating all the Locker Rooms of all the Quidditch teams of all the Houses of HOL Hogwarts. Cleaning all the robes (and socks) and polishing up the Quaffles,and Bludgers. Polishing the furnitures in the rooms too. Cleaning the floor of old gobstones, empty sweets wrappers, stale potatoe chips, melted chocolate and dried unidentifiable remnants of prior meals. All of this without using magic. (Also, a requirement of no magic indeed to be used while in said Locker Rooms. They may not even have their wand with them. We don't need any curses or charms or hexes placed upon the gear of the different teams.)

Second – helping the House Elves prepare all the foodstuffs for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4 weeks in a row. Again this is done without using magic. In fact, this person could be relegated to the scrubbing of all the pots, pans, dishes, flatware and assorted utensils. No gloves, protective or not, are to be used in this punishment. Then, when that is done, the person must alphabetize and then dust off all the cook books in the kitchen.

The third thing would be to sit in front of the statue of Cassandra Lobiesk and sing to it all the songs of all the Muggle musicals of the 20th century. (If that doesn't bring her statue back to life, in sheer self-defense, nothing will! – If magic will help the sound of the singing, it may be used.)

The fourth, and final punishment would be to polish all the chandeliers in the castle. All of them, from the very basement to the highest tower, restoring the most filthy of light sources to an incandescent glow. Then to clean and polish all the windows of all the castle, letting in the natural daylight as much as possible.

Although it would be of a wonderment if these punishments actually help the person to feel any remorse for their foul deed, at least the castle will be a little cleaner and brighter.

BY TARMA BLACK

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

It is no small thing to determine an appropriate punishment for any villain, least of all one who ruined a beautiful end-of-the-year gathering (though, I must admit that the sleuthing thus far has been fun). However, there are several key elements that must be a part of anything handed down by the authorities.

First, the culprit must spend the rest of their lives randomly and unknowingly walking barefoot across LEGO pieces. This is non-negotiable. The pain of accidentally walking on LEGOs is a well-known frustration, but it can be avoided so long as you don't have LEGOs. But if you don't know when it will happen, that's a much better punishment.

Next, it is imperative that when this treacherous beast is out and about in the world, they always arrive right as the doors are closed, be it for the bus or train or the theater or a store. Basically, they will always be the person right after the last one allowed in.

Also, every restaurant and store is always out of their favorite thing, be it beverage, food, condiment, music, book, and so forth. Any construction work in their neighborhood will begin at eight in the morning, every day of the week. Their milk will always go bad before the expiration date. They will always wake up thirty minutes before the alarm and be unable to get back to sleep. There will always be hair in their soup. Their cable/satellite/internet will always cut out during the last few minutes of a cliffhanger. Their favorite shows will always have terrible, series-ruining finales. Their favorite sports teams will never win the big game. Their downloads will always fail at 96%, and their IRC connection will always be laggy.

These are just a few of the things that should -- and if I have anything to do with it, will -- happen to the person responsible for this terrible act of violence at our school.

BY COSMO B. MOTT

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

This case demonstrates a matter of severe consequences. The person wanted for the crime of ‘Chicken Dance Cassie’ is destined to a fate beyond the worst of which they can imagine.

Once in custody the accused will stand before the judge (and the cemented victim) to answer for their crimes of dark magic and subsequent murder. They will not merely have one consequence as a ruling but several, all relating to that of chickens and/or parts of the chicken. These consequences are not of a vegetarian/vegan nature. These consequences will not require the use of a wand.

If the accused has been found guilty of the heinous crimes committed against the Head of House he/she/it will be taken into custody. Their diet will consist of only chicken flavoured products including, but not limited to, chicken flavoured potato chips, chicken fillets and cream of chicken soup. Any/all vegetables will be seasoned with chicken salt.

For entertainment purposes whilst imprisoned the accused will be treated only to chicken related material such as books on how to raise chickens, a wonderful collection of poultry magazine subscriptions and clear instructions on how to perform dances of chicken variety.

To give the accused a sense of responsibility whilst imprisoned he/she/it will be required to rear a chicken from egg to fully formed chook. A journal must be kept by the accused to ensure maximum retention and understanding of the chicken’s lifestyle and needs. An incubator complete with bedding, food and lighting will be supplied by the custodians whilst the chicken is in egg/chick form.

The final consequence for the murder of Cassie will include supervised visits to five farms in total (including the notable children’s farm north of the river) and will be required to complete a number of hours of service (that of which is yet to be confirmed) to each farm with a focus in working with chickens.

These consequences are put forward to ensure the severity of the perpetrator’s actions will not be forgotten. Long may Chicken Dance Cassie rest in peace.

BY DOLLY FRAZER

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

You wonder how I’d punish the murderer, right? Ok, listen then: First of all we should take her wand, so she isn’t able to protect herself against our evil punishment *evil laugh*. So, then we would go down to the river that flows into the lake next to the forest. There I have prepared the punishment chair. The murderer would have to be placed on this chair. One had to take off her shoes and socks, bind her arms and legs at the chair. And here it comes: squirrels! Their bushy tail goes up and down while eating some very delicious nuts. And it would tickle the murderer so much, he couldn’t stop laughing! And I would just sit there, next to her, eating potato chips and watch her being tickled by such cute squirrels. And she would beg us to stop. She would admit everthing and would beg for mercy. But for a murder she should be at least punished until the light is gone *another evil laugh*. Maybe I would be so kind and stop for a minute a few times, so she can breathe a bit. ^^

And maybe I would have sympathy and stop early. But only to continue with other things. I would make her carry all my books for the next year. And let her do every displeasing job I would have to do.

And of course she would have to write an excuse letter to the whole school. And why not letting her clean the bathrooms for a year. All things that make her really regret what she did. Because punishment is only working when it is really hard, so you wish it would stop, but of course not too hard, I mean this is all rather playful, isn’t it? At least we managed to revive Cassy, so it was more of a bad joke, no need to really punish the “murderer”. But doing unpleasant jobs and being tickled is I think funny and appropriate for a really bad joke.

BY LAMIA BRICKLEY

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

The lightning flash had gone away and the culprit who turned Prof. Cassandra Lobiesk into stone was finally caught between two booksheets. It was all a wonder that the culprit was caught. The only thing left to do was to punish the culprit, but how were we going to do this. Turning Prof. Cassandra Lobiesk into stone was a huge crime among some of the people around HOL.

But let’s cut the chase, how should we punish this devious potato chips eating culprit? Well of course we had to take away it’s chips. Just only taken away the chips wasn’t enough. But how could we do that. Just flicking with out wands wasn’t enough to punish this culprit.

So we started scheming and plotting for the perfect punishment. Some were less perfect than others. Someone offered that we should punish the culprit the old way. But then again punishing someone the way Muggles punished Witches in the past, wasn’t really a great idea. Who would want to defill a perfectly healthy river? Rivers were there to swim in.

Letting the culprit read a book, just didn’t seem like a punishment. It more likely seemed like the perfect reward for turning Prof. Cassandra Lobiesk into stone. With some difficulty Headmaster Ulol Kimil had to turn this punishment down.

So we had to think even further for a punishment. While enjoying tea, biscuits and coffee we went on with our discussion. After many cups of coffee and lovely tasting biscuits, although I think there were some hiding cupcakes among those biscuits, but who knows. We finally thought of the perfect punishment for the culprit. A punishment nobody had thought of and would benefit some people. Since the culprit put a lot of people to work, to figure out who turned Prof. Lobiesk into stone and they had to do the work left laying around by Prof. Lobiesk, the culprit had to take on all the paperwork and nasty chores of all the HOH’s and dHOH’s from all four houses for entire month.

With that settled, everybody, except for the culprit, were happy.

BY FUMEI SHIROKURO

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

I can’t believe someone would do such thing to Cassandra! But that is a good opportunity for me to shine and show off my detective skills. I wonder what would I do if I was to catch the murderer…

Firstly, I would probably take the incriminated out for a walk, down the river, where is peace and quiet, and I would play the ‘good cop’, trying to make him/her believe I do understand why taking so harsh action against Cassie. Maybe like that, they will cooperate. But if things don’t go well, I will take the ‘big guns’ out. Hmm…I wonder what would Snape do?!

Firstly I am going to confiscate their wand and make sure they can’t do any kind of magic. That way, they can have any shortcuts from what it’s supposed to come next.

Then, I would play a game. More like a word search puzzle. But instead of the actual puzzle, I would make them find those words from a book. The largest and most boring one I can find. And just to top everything up, I would switch the lights off. With no source of light in the room, not even windows and obviously no magic, they will have to read the whole book in order to find the words. I am sure they will be locked out there forever…

Now, if I find out the murderer is a female, what would be a better punishment than loads of fat food. So, on top of the word search puzzle, I would get her to eat a never-ending bag of potato chips. Of course, she wouldn’t know the bag is never-ending…That’s the point!

I promise I will grant their freedom if they finish these 2 tasks. I mean, they should thank me. It’s a bit better than Azkaban…

BY AILIME WRIGHT

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

In light of the recent murder case, I, Ciara Black, am going to set the scene in which our murderer is punished for his or her crimes.

First we shall sentence them to the most difficult game of hangman anyone has ever played. The solution should be long enough to fill a somewhat smallish book – smallish so that we can remember all the words, not to give our murderer any pity! However, Professor Sehovic has said that no one should be hanged so we shall also make our gallows a work of art (we can call in the likes of the most wonderfully talented Fu if needed) so that they are forever on their toes but we are still following all the rules.

Second! As we are all aware, potato chips are delicious. Extremely delicious. Therefore the murderer shall show their penitence by henceforth refusing to consume so much as a single potato chip, with the penalty of handing in their wand. I know there will be cries of too harsh a punishment and there will be moments where we will feel we must waver, but we must remember Professor Lobiesk and stay strong.

Finally, we will send the murderer on a (chipless!) journey of self-discovery so that they can truly understand their actions and ensure that they never repeat their grave mistake. They must cross mountains and rivers, valleys and tunnels, and they will probably even miss the Quidditch World Cup finale as a result, which we all know is the most terrible and ultimate price to pay – they might not be able to find out the results for weeks! When they return, they will be a different and - hopefully for us - much less murderous person.

Oh and we should probably get them to fix Cassie before they go. That might help too.

BY CIARA BLACK

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

How would we punish that person who turned Cassie into a stone while doing the chicken dance? Here are my suggestions. I would call it the three-part deathly intervention.

First of all, in the first month, the person being punished would not be part of the students with food privilege, meaning, they must pay the food they would be eating, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It would cost a lot for them to have a complete meal for thirty days. In addition, no desserts for them in whatever time, whatever form - may it be pie, potato chips, muffins or any delicious sweet snack in any time of the day, whatever amount they would pay for it. This punishment is to remind them that no murderous drama should intervene dinner, food and the people enjoying food at a party. That for sure cost a lot for the administrators of the party.

In the second month, they would not have the privilege of using any of the comfort rooms in Hogwarts. It would be required that they would take a bath in the river, or whatever they want to do in there. This punishment would remind them of the freezing feeling when you are outside bathing in the the extreme cold water - the same thing when they froze Cassie in the great hall incident.

The third month would be a horror to the punished one. They would experience one month being wandless. Having their wand taken from them, they would go to classes without them, spend time doing everything without magic and many other miserable things I would not enumerate here. This is to remind them of the privilege of having a wand, and that it must not be used in evil things, like freezing someone doing a chicken dance.

In case you wonder in what book I find these punishment, there is nothing to worry. It is still considered a light punishment, I think. Hopefully you find my punishments reasonable enough for that horrible chicken dance killer.

BY SIRIUS FUDGE

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

The Murder should be punished by first having to clean up the ballroom by hand, no wand work what-so-ever. It’s probably a bit messy as after all our partying there are probably some soda and potato chips on the floor . They should then have to sort all of Cassie’s cards, flowers, books, lighted candles and toys and if there’s not enough create more for her. Or even if there are a ton create more, she needs to be told how she wonderful she and that she was dearly missed. They then should work in the greenhouses for a couple of weeks. Mandrakes, although they may not have the power to retrieve Cassie help others who have been turned into stone, they should help retrieve them. They should also start the HOL chicken farm dedicated to raising chickens in memory of how terrible it is to be stuck as a chicken. After all chickens do not live exciting lives, and can’t fly very far like Cassie’s used to doing also they get prayed on by foxes a lot and bears and well everything even rivers. They should then help out with Quidditch referring so that the refs can take well deserved breaks. While they are referring they should also help out in the Hospital Wing tending to Cassie’s roommates and making sure they recover. But they should stay out of Cassie’s way: After all revenge is a dish best served cold!

BY LILLY ANDERSON

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

The trial took place in the dungeons of the lower levels of the Ministry of Magic. During the trial, the fifty members of the Wizengamot looked austere and wore plum-colored robes embroidered with a silver letter W. The trial was brief and concise. The accused presented no witnesses and as was usually the case, nobody with legal knowledge spoke on behalf of the defendant. As soon as a verdict was reached, the sentence was by delivered by the Chief Warlock.

This was a most unusual case. Although the crime was premeditated, the victim was in a state somewhere between living and dead. The expectation was for a full recovery, especially with the advances in magic today. So the sentence was dramatically reduced and considered by most to be very light.

The “murderer” was banned from HOL and sent on a quest to find a way to revive the victim. Only potato chips and pumpkin juice could be brought along for sustenance. The “murderer’s” wand was confiscated and only the spells contained in Sony’s Wonderbook: Book of Spells were permitted to be used. Creating electricity for the Wonderbook was the “murderer’s” problem. The quest would start in the Forbidden Forest and proceed through the Black Lake. The “murderer” would have to find a river troll named Grog and convince him to take them to Maleficent’s castle. If successful, the “murderer” would have to convince the evil Maleficient to return to HOL and resuscitate the victim or at the very least give up some tears to be used for the same purpose. But the harshest punishment of all was that the “murderer” was banned from both Quidditch play and match attendance until such time that the victim was revived.

BY POLARIS BLACK

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

If I wanted to punish someone, perhaps the murderer of my beloved Head of House, who is definitely not me, by the way, I would tie up the culprit and place him or her into a large canoe.

Naturally, the wand of the murderer must be confiscated. I would be sure to supply the person with the bare minimum or nothing at all. No light source will be provided for when it gets dark, except for the natural light of the stars and moon.

Without a light source, there would be no point in putting a book in the canoe. Plus, it would already be difficult for the murderer to read anything, especially a book since he or she is tied up and has no access to his or her wand.

Even crazy murderers must eat, so I plan to provide the person with some type of nourishment. Perhaps some stale potato chips? That seems to be an appropriate choice. All the salt in the potato chips would make the person thirsty. Sadly and ironically, the murderer would be completely surrounded by water but unable to drink any of it.

I am hoping that this canoe finds its way down a winding river with plenty of rapids. It would be great to see the person get drenched as he or she passes through all the rapids. Be sure to place an Unbreakable Charm on the canoe, though. I don't want the murderer to be able to get away if the canoe snaps into pieces.

I wonder if anyone will even take this suggestion seriously. Hopefully, this nonsense rambling might confuse a few people. But surely, someone will realize there are much better methods of punishing a murderer. Who would even take a murderer's advice on how to punish a murderer?

BY SCARLET LESLIE