The New Marauders and the Trickster God

Chapter 5: Sleeping and Potions

The second lesson this day was History of Magic. To say that this lesson was dull would be a massive understatement. Loki fell asleep after about five minutes of the monotone droning of the ghost teacher Professor Binns. He sat there his head resting on his left palm while he muttered something about sweets in his sleep.

Harry and Neville who sat on either side of him, exchanged a look after about five more minutes before Harry gently pushed Loki. Just enough to destabilise him. It was like slow motion when Loki's head slid from his hand, and he hit the desk before him with his nose ungently waking him up.

"Ouch!" came the not very eloquent reaction together with some curses from him while he rubbed his nose.

"You fell asleep," Harry chuckled.

"I don't sleep!" was the retort from him.

"Ah okay how would you call it then? Eye preservation?" Neville now also started trying to suppress his laughter.

"Okay, okay the great Loki has fallen asleep. But what other would you expect if one has to listen to the monotone droning of a ghost about goblin wars? I can't even hex him for that!" Loki growled quite loudly while he threw a ball he conjured at the ghost. It flew straight through him. After that, he slid down in his seat, conjuring up some chocolate for him and his friends.

Professor Binns, in the meantime, didn't even look up when the ball flew through him. He just continued his lecture. Only a few classmates looked at him dispraisingly, most from Ravenclaw who had the lesson together with them.

"Why can't you hex him?" Harry cocked his head.

"How shall I explain that...? Ah yes, there are two kinds of ghosts in the world. Normal ones are souls who didn't pass over to the afterlife, heaven or hell, respectively.

"Then, there are magical ones. Magical ghosts are like a footprint. You know all those pictures around here which can talk and seem to be like the real person? Those ghosts are pretty much the same only that those are corporal, can move freely and to some extent through magic interact with the world.

"While a normal ghost someday goes crazy because they are souls stuck here, these ghosts are just images of the original person. They have the memories and their individual behaviour but are images nevertheless. Because they have no physical form, I can't tamper with them," Loki sighed.

He didn't register that everyone around him listened to him instead of the professor because his information was fascinating and useful in life than something about wars long ago.

"Hmm I have never heard about those other ghosts," Seamus muttered from behind.

"That might be because those mainly appear in America and only very rarely here in Europe. In America, there are also people called hunters who hunt those ghosts down and forcibly send them onwards. Because as I said, those ghosts go insane after a while and then mostly start to kill people."

"Hunters...I have heard they hunt everything supernatural without mercy even the harmless ones," Neville stated. Purebloods tended to tell their children that, shouldn't they behave, hunters would come after them. It was their version of the boogeyman.

"Well, most of them don't. The hunters are more like the Aurors here in Europe who only hunt those who hurt or kill people without the paperwork. But as always, you have extremists who shoot first and ask questions later. Luckily most of these don't live long enough to do any real damage because they often are on their own. The other "normal" hunters hate such a philosophy and give them a wide berth. But if one of you ever goes to America, you should have them in mind. Because most of them know only the demon witches who made a deal for their powers. Hence, they are quite suspicious about magic."