On the way to Owlery, Tom was in a good mood.
He felt that his magic seemed to have undergone some unexpected changes. He didn't know what this change would be like, but it was definitely not a bad change.
But this good mood faded a lot after entering the castle and going up a few flights of stairs.
Because while climbing the tower, a Peeves suddenly came out from the wall next to him, holding a large bucket of dirty water in his hand, intending to pour it on Tom.
I have to say that things like Peeves are actually very annoying.
But they are truly difficult to deal with. As long as they are in the castle of Hogwarts, these elusive things that are different from ghosts cannot be completely eliminated.
It is said that some people have tried to use various magics to try to eliminate Peeves, but there is no way to eliminate it.
Even if they are completely destroyed in a short period of time, they will always appear again after a period of time, and then perform more extreme pranks.
In the castle, the only one who can intimidate them is Bloody Baron. As long as his name is mentioned, these Peeves will run away in fear.
And Baron is Slytherin's guardian ghost, so compared to other colleges, Slytherin's students encounter Peeves's pranks much less frequently.
But today, I don't know how it came about, this Peeves actually wanted to sneak attack Tom, the first-year chief Slytherin, who is also the recognized first-year leader.
However, before its action was complete, Tom discovered its traces.
If it were normal, he would have directly knocked its bucket away and then threatened it with Nick, which would have saved a lot of trouble.
But today, when he thought that the letters he just wrote were almost going to suffer because of Peeves's prank, he wanted to punish them.
Although I know that ordinary magic cannot cause any harm to these ghost-like beings. The most you can do is to use Petrificus Totalus to make them stay in place, but this kind of painless punishment is obviously not effective enough.
So, today, Tom plans to do a new test.
Just before, his magic had improved, so it would be good to experiment on Peeves.
You must know that Peeves's existence form, according to Tom's speculation, is either a special ghost or Earthbound Spirit of the castle.
Ghosts are somewhat different from other ghosts in the school. You must know that those ghosts are often transformed after the death of famous wizards related to Hogwarts.
Just like Bloody Baron, he was once a student of Slytherin, and then died in the forest due to an accident. He neither completed the task nor came back alive.
If his ghost hadn't suddenly appeared in the castle, maybe someone would still be waiting for news about him.
Although I don't know why only a few of the so many dead wizards can become ghosts in Hogwarts, their existence has also been studied somewhat.
Apart from bringing a chill to the wizard who passes through their bodies, they can hardly interfere with any object in the real world.
Even if you want to open the door to the lounge for the little wizard, they can only provide the password. If you really want to activate the command to open the door, the little wizard still needs to do it himself.
Their existence seems to be just to prove the past history of Hogwarts, just like the large number of paintings in the castle.
However, the movements of those magic paintings are limited, but there are no restrictions on the movements of ghosts.
But Peeves is different. They can use real objects and attack the little wizards directly. Although their fists have little power, they like it very much. They grab the little wizards' pants, hang them upside down, and watch them embarrassed.
What's more, they can always use various pranks to show their presence.
Even senior little wizards want to try pranks.
Moreover, judging from the fact that those ghosts have little recollection of past events, Peeves seems to have been born not long ago. It likes to talk about the little wizards who have been pranked by them in the past, and they also like to tell rumors that are both true and false.
Therefore, some people speculate that they are very special ghosts.
But Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts Galatea·Merrythought in Hogwarts seems to have her own opinion. In her opinion, these Peeves seem to be a special kind of Earthbound Spirit, or tower spirits generated by the castle--
"Hogwarts is too old. Even among all the magic schools Wizarding World now, it is also the oldest one. Such a long time has left too many traces on the castle itself... Some things are good, and some are bad..."
"But whether it's good or bad, it's all integrated into the protective magic of the entire castle..."
"Have you ever thought about what the core driver of Peeves is?"
After someone asked about Peeves, Madam Merrythought dedicated a class to talk about these creatures, and even continued to develop the students' own thinking during the class.
"It must be a prank..."
Many young wizards have put forward their own opinions, but only this answer has been recognized by the vast majority.
"Yes, no matter what they want to do, you will find that they are actually doing it for pranks... In fact, from the beginning, they did not intend to harm you. Of course, psychological harm does not count..."
Hearing this, some of the little wizards in the class blushed, obviously because Peeves had lost face in public, but some of them laughed a little gloatingly.
"You have to know that since their core drive is playing pranks, a way that children like, it means that the reason for their initial birth must be related to the innocence of children, or they were created by little wizards from the beginning..."
"What?"
"That's right, what kind of little wizard can create such a disgusting thing..."
"Even Tom can't do this..." Someone looked at Tom, seeming to want an answer.
And Tom also fell into thinking after Merrythought the Witch prompted him here.
Merrythought didn't care about the children's quarrels, but just watched them quietly.
"Yes, don't talk about you. Even if I were to produce it, I might not be able to do this... But what if their producer is not a wizard? But many wizards?"
The class immediately exploded, "What do you mean, many wizards come together to make a ghost that can only be used to play pranks. This is too boring..."
Seeing that the topic still went astray, Tom could only remind him helplessly.
"What if the birth of Peeves was not intentional?"
"What do you mean?"
The little wizards around him still didn't react for a while, but some eagles still seemed to be aware of the meaning of this sentence.
Merrythought was still surprised that someone could think of this so quickly, but seeing that it was Tom, she was able to accept it. After all, this child was recognized as a genius wizard.
"Yes, in my opinion, perhaps the prank ideas of young wizards from past generations were absorbed by the castle, and then this special existence was born..."
"They have no life, will not die at all, and will not feel tired or bored. They are always running around the reason for their birth. This is just like the Earthbound Spirit we are going to talk about in the third grade..."
"It's just that the magic of Hogwarts is so complicated that the Earthbound Spirit that was born here has even more magical places..."