The Chamber of Secrets has been opened!

"Eadem mutata resurgo"

Some of my serpentine friends may have seen these squiggles before. Today is a very special day for ickle Izzie. A day to ponder and peek into my pensieve and once again be eternally thankful for the wondrous events of the last year. None more wondrous and wierd than the events of Wednesday 2nd January 2002. Yes I fudged the numbers in the following story - just to get a few more 2's in the date. But what else can one expect from a wannabee Gringotts Goblin? Once again Izzie will be visiting her special place to have a little Green Light Day party. I wonder what strange creatures I will encounter this time.


Out of the Darkness

After a wicked week at the office (St Brutus Secure Centre for Incurably Addicted Muggles) my sad weary little soul certainly needed a bit of rest and relaxation.
Arriving at my usual destination, that fateful Saturday 2nd February, I dismounted my broom and wove my way among the gravestones through the Garden of Arcane Delights to the shadiest spot imaginable, directly under the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There I sat serenely with my black hat, my Green Blitz racing broom beside me and my ever so precious and ancient copy of "Goblet" which Lord Voldemort had so kindly provided and was looking forward to an evening of unadulterated inspiration and world class wizardry.
Then appears, as if out of thin air, Wormtail and his faithful fanged friend Nagini.

"Greetings, Crawling Queen Snake and Your Right Royal Rattiness" I grovels to my unexpected guests.
"Greetings, Izmena, second daughter of Va'ada Ved'kara - the greatest Director of Dementors the Ministry has ever known. I bring you a cauldron of freshly picked golden apples."
Wormtail doesn't come empty handed. He too brings gifts. In his left hand, a broken glass and a wickedly wondrous bottle of red. In his right, not the Stone, not even the One Ring but a silver bowl shimmering in the light. Dumbledore's very own Pensieve!

As I gazed at the exquisitely engraved inscriptions lining the outside of this extraordinary object, I heard the whispering of my mother's voice. "Izmena, do not betray your ancestry. Beware of Rats bringing gifts. Have I not told you, never trust anything that can think for itself, especially a suspicious specimen such as this. Clearly full of the murkiest mudblood muggle-loving magic imaginable. I warn you again. Do not deny... do not be.....

But the voice of reason was fading into Oblivion as curiosity overcame me and I became enraptured by the writing of the runes. Against my better judgement I read...

"It matters not what some one is born but what they grow to be"
"It is our choices.... that show what we truly are........."
"There will be more rejoicing in Hogwarts over one repentant sinning serpent than over 99 righteous lions………………..."
"Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it"

My wand, seemingly of its own accord, commenced conjuring strange glowing green strands and placing them in the Golden Bowl. First came the Ma, Hausmeisterin Hilde and Rita Skeeter (that bad blooded beetle) but when I then saw my Master's face in the bowl, I was filled with an inexplicable sense of rage, disgust and revulsion. I suddenly realized that I did not want to see such dark creatures ever again.
Overcome by a beautiful blissful floating feeling, I found myself strangely compelled to cast an unbreakable charm as I slammed the lid on as tightly as I could…………

But what! He’s making funny faces at me, both himself and Hilde – telling me what a cosy comfy little turban I’ve got. That they have been good tenants – very respectable, always paid the rent etc etc. (Never mind that the place was such a God-forsaken topsy- turvey miserable maniacal mess the whole time they had it. An absolute pigsty!
But now I have seen the light. It’s me myself and I who choose just who to share or to let come for a visit in my newly renovated little nest.( There have always been those willing to let him into their hearts and minds but he must have slinked in when I wasn’t looking.)

It’s quite funny. Voldi, Vaada and Hilde were bad enough but you wouldn’t have wanted to see the creatures they used to bring round for dinner. I’d be lucky to get the odd Cornish Pixie. Peeves the Poltergeist was a regular party pooper and old squib Filch was never far behind.
But it was those damned Dementors that really got to me – creeping crawling scaly scurrying little horrors. The place was dripping wet all the time. Izzie kept slipping and sliding all over the place. But the worst of it was the heating bills. Simply horrendous. Have you folks any idea what a fortune it cost me in electricity and gas and most of the time the best I could come up with was a feeble flame the size of a gas pilot light. And even that was a major effort!
But now they’re gone, I’ve got more life, energy and money left over after paying the bills than I ever thought possible.
What a most magical present Wormtail’s pensieve turned out to be. God bless his faithful little soul!

More snaky snippets from the Chamber

"When we allow a story its soul, we can discover our own depths through it" T Moore

Green little me is very much a newbie. My first visit to Potterland was in November 2001. There I was thinking, if there was a turtle or hedgehog Hogwarts House, that's where I'd go. Been a toddling trudging turtle for as long as I can remember. A slow steady, loyal and persistent plodder and ever so terribly boring
If it's our choices that show what we truly are,
then I'll plod off to the badger's lair.

Little did I know that my sad dreary existence as a timid pathetic Hufflepuff house elf was soon to come to an extraordinary conclusion.
I was in for a NASTY big surprise. That was all before I got to the Goblet. I did not prepare by enduring those obligatory long dark nights of the soul in Azkaban but went straight to the Goblet after a minor detour in the Chamber of Secrets.
Well. Let's just say- at first Goblet was so good that I just could not put it down (well, not till 3 in the morning) but then it got bad, so awfully bad, I had nightmares for weeks. I got totally and absolutely SPOOKED! Is there more to this than just a simple children's bedtime story or am I simply such a squeamish sensitive little soul?
When i finally got round to Azkaban Professor Lupin says to me
"Told you so. You should have never gone to that graveyard without first taking my DADA lessons." And it did make sense when he said "There are horrors in your past that the others do not have."
But who else could help me? I certainly didn't know any folks in dreary Dursleyland who had visited the graveyard and the few that had weren't about to admit it.
I thinks to myself, I can't go on being tormented by these formless nameless foul soul sapping beings. May be if I go back and take a good look around (And not rush like we all do the first time to see what happens next) maybe that will help. By this time I had taken those Defence against Dementors lessons. So I plodded back up there on New Year's Eve (with a very large supply of chocolate)
Still got somewhat spooked but did notice things that I hadn't seen the first time. I suddenly discovered the true significance of that strange little squiggle on my arm that I have had for the last 11 years. O dear. O dear. Guess I will just have to plead the "Imperius" defence.
Wormtail, his cauldron and wickedly wondrous vial of red - this very creature who had given me such awful nightmares, like a flash of green lightening I suddenly realized why and not only were the nightmares gone but those creeping crawling slimy hooded but no longer nameless creatures who had been squatting in my soul for the last 11 years also disappeared and haven't darkened my door since!
With the help of Wormtail and Lupin I was able to do after 11 days what I had tried and failed to do by myself for the last 11 years. (Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask)

I am still under the Imperius curse but thanks to Lupin, Wormtail and friends (Not to mention Dumbledore's pensieve), this time it is no longer Voldi (and his miserable minions) who is holding the wand but MYSELF and it is simply the most amazing blissfull wonderful floating feeling.
"Due to Circumstances beyond my control
I am Master of my Fate and Captain of my soul."

Surely there must be other house elfs that Harry has helped set free or are they all hiding in their broom cupboards? After all, it is not the sort of thing you can admit to in a dull colorless boring logical rational "There is no such thing as magic!" Dursley dominated world. At least not if you don't want to end up in St Brutus!

So if you ever see a green creature slinking round the graveyards with a pet rat, bottle of red and a large book with a dragon on the cover then you can be sure it is little ickle Izmeina celebrating her "Dark Mark Day " resurrection party!

In the immortal words of the Master himself
"Eadem mutata resurgo"

The Spell has been broken

Early morning Wednesday 2nd Jan 2002, it was a bright and sunny day. But Izzie woke up freezing and shivering and totally terrified. Cold clammy creatures had been stalking my dreams for the previous three weeks. But this time they had come ever so close to giving Izzie big squishy Dementor kisses. A few seconds were all that lay between waking and remaining in an eternal state of soulless Zombiedom. But they were not going to give up so easily.
A little while later was pottering on the web at the Min of Fin (where I'm training to be a Gringotts Goblin) and followed the green brick road to a most intriguing and informative site. It also happens to be quite hilarious if you do a google translation.

"Voldemort verkörpert das Böse schlechthin, und das steckt auch schon in seinem düsteren Namen, den man in die französischen Bestandteile "vol de mort" zergliedern kann: "Flug des Todes", "Rasende Vernichtung" ("vol"=Flug, "voler"=fliegen, sich schnell ausbreiten; "mort"=Tod), vielleicht aber auch "einer, der dem Tod entflohen ist"."
From http://www.eulenfeder.de

This little phrase "Rasende Vernichtung" - well it's not quite untranslatable but does have er... connotations that are lost when translated. Grindelwald and all that dark Durmstrang stuff. Izzie translates it rather loosely as 'Annihilation Unlimited' but there is also a most suitable turn of phrase in "Goblet of Fire' - the chapter with the unforgivable curses and the little incident with the spider - the invisible something - 'the rush of speeding death'

What is all this spooky stuff supposed to signify? Well a couple of hours later- a peek in the pensieve revealled the most strange strands. I suddenly seen apparently disparate things in a whole new light. Monsters and demons that had remained hidden in the darkness for many years - pushing my buttons and pulling my strings - with an agenda of their own - which certainly did not include Izzie's happiness. But once I seen them for what they were -their power over me was gone. For the first time I recognized them as the illusion they really were the whole time. They suddenly disapparated - in a flash of green light - so to say.
They have not returned to haunt me since.

"Understanding breaks the spell
The broken spell brings change...
You can do anything on earth
For it is no longer you who do it."

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
It's not my eleveny oneth birthday today
Just my oneth. And Izzie is ever so HAPPY!

Ickle Izziegal's got herself a birthday present.
You'll never guess what she's got in her pocketses.
It's mine. All mine. It's my birthday present.
And no tricksy nasty horrible hobbitses is going to steal it from me.
Time to wander in the marshes it is. And see the green lightses.
Ickle Izziegal loves the green lightses.

Oh and big squishy kisseses to the serpentses and badgerses and all Izzies' other friendses.
Izzie has even been learning Parseltongue so she can speakk with the snakeses. But only two words she knows. Two ickle words "Aaaaaassssssshhh Naaaaazzzzzzg...!"