"But weren't the Enchanted Paintings put away?"
A young wizard watching from the side suddenly chimed in.
"Yeah, and wasn't the effect on the Enchanted Paintings different from this?"
Another young wizard echoed him.
Cypher was about to answer when a flash of insight struck him.
He froze on the sofa just as he was about to speak.
"That's what I think as well." Filius Flitwick saw Cypher frown.
He cleared his throat softly and explained in Cypher's stead.
"The magic was cast on everyone long ago."
"The Enchanted Paintings were put away days ago, yet this only happened tonight."
"It may be a controlling curse. Within a specified period, they must see something again to either reinforce or alleviate its effects, or else it will erupt."
Hearing this, a wizard who had grown up in the Muggle world eagerly cut in.
"I know about this. Some families use regularly administered alleviating antidotes to control people. Once they stop taking them, at best they suffer pain worse than death; at worst, they die on the spot, irreversibly."
Pain worse than death was the lighter outcome? Dying on the spot was worse?
Everyone except Cypher gave the young wizard a huge eye roll.
Even Filius Flitwick was briefly stunned before nodding and saying that was roughly what he meant.
"However, we suddenly isolated everyone, so the person behind this had no time to control them all."
"By my estimate, all the young wizards will return to normal by noon tomorrow at the latest."
"The culprit likely wanted to completely control all the young wizards, then use the threat of death to put pressure on the Ministry of Magic and achieve his goal."
"No!" Cypher suddenly rose and sprinted out of the common room.
Before anyone else could ask what had happened,