>>5771951Brighton had won with <span class="mu-i">fourteen</span> soldiers remaining, you hear afterwards. Even Apollo hadn’t been able to beat the piercing cry of the mandrake before being stunned, his whole army collapsing either from the scream itself or from opportunistic stunners while they were writhing on the floor.
Elend and his soldier had fallen with the wail too, as he’d taken the Extendable ears and the sound had propagated through it, and Raven hadn’t been able to fight off fourteen people with only two soldiers.
It was, by collective agreement, bullshit.
“As professor Longbottom can tell you,” Potter had told you all afterwards. “The mandrakes are available at the greenhouses and can be taken for specific uses upon request. Brighton submitted the request. Professor Longbottom submitted it to me to ensure impartiality. I approved. Neville guarantees me he made no suggestions to Brighton. He thought about it himself, for the same reason Hugo thought about the Extendable Ear, I figure. Familiarity.”
“And his earmuffs?” Weasley had asked. “We aren’t allowed to bring more than one magical thing into battle. He bought enough for his whole squad!”
“He also brought wands and clothes which are all enchanted with anti-summoning charms. Shall I ban those too and have you fight naked? Ban heavy coats if you plan to use freezing spells? In any case, the earmuffs were <span class="mu-i">not</span> magical. They are simply good earmuffs. The cry of the mandrake easily penetrates flesh, but has difficulty with most mundane materials, like your robes. A quick enough <span class="mu-i">quietus</span>, <span class="mu-i">stupefy</span> or even <span class="mu-i">incendio</span> would have sufficed, too.”
“As an advice for all of you in the future, if an enemy throws something in the room you’re in, destroy it first and investigate later. Any other questions?”
You all leave Potter’s office fuming.
“It’s <span class="mu-i">fine</span>,” Taylor says. “You can’t expect to win every time.”
“I’m fine with losing,” you say. “Just not to Brighton!”
“I think I can hex him from here,” Raven says, pointing her wand. “Want me to try?”
“No,” you sigh. “Not worth it. We’ll stomp him next time. We don’t have time for detention. We need to follow up on our research. We have one week until the end of October, then November, and we still know little of what we actually need to do. I’d like to have some wiggle room, maybe make some potions whenever we have to get to the light.”
“Then we need to find a way of getting into the Restricted Session, and I’ll need some time to study it. Any ideas on how we do that?”
> Talk to Professor Potter, say you need it to help with your “issue”> Ask for Lily’s help. As the Head Girl, she has access to the Restricted Session> Sneak into the restricted session at night> Other (Write in) 