Time flew, and early December arrived. The snow covering the grounds sometimes reached two feet deep, and the ice on the lake was thick enough to stand on. The owls had raised their delivery fees by twenty percent-the snowy weather had greatly increased the rest they needed after each delivery.
Hogwarts, that ancient magical Castle, stood unafraid of wind and snow, and everything proceeded in an orderly fashion. After one bold experiment, Brian had become the mother of three children-oh, it was rather sudden, but life did love springing surprises on people.
This surprise meant Brian needed to prepare three more Christmas presents, and he knew the effort he spent on those three would far exceed what he spent on all the others combined.
For Brian, taking good care of the newborns was naturally the most important thing, but plenty of other amusing incidents worth mentioning were quietly unfolding and continuing to develop.
For instance, the students had stopped paying attention to Professor Quirrell's stammer and started wondering what sort of drink could be so irresistible that he wore a little jar on his person every day, taking a sip now and then like an addict.
Some students insisted it was garlic extract. "I'm glad Quirrell's finally on the right track-I always said applying garlic externally was useless against vampires. Just look, ever since he started taking it internally, his mental state's been a hundred times more normal. What? You don't think so? Well, at least the strain on our noses is a hundred times lighter."
Other students boldly theorized that Professor Quirrell had turned into a full-fledged vampire, and the jar contained fresh blood. This explained where a batch of bloodsucking leeches recently missing from Snape's storeroom had gone. "That's exactly what happened-Quirrell draws purified blood out of the