Voldemort and the big, nasty...

I was being chased by Voldemort in a circle around a very crowded, slopy, cobblestoned village block in the late evening. He was quite intent on killing me. The only way I was able to keep ahead of him and out of his reach was to repeatedly teleport myself to slightly different spots ahead of me while running. However, I wasn't very skilled at teleportation, so, in order to cast the teleport spell, I had to actually describe to myself, out loud, where I wanted to teleport to (like, "the spot over there next to the general store" or "just to the left of that group of people"). So I was just barely quick enough to stay out of his reach.

We went in a circles around the village block a few times, when finally I managed to teleport myself such that, when Voldemort appeared behind me again, there was a very nasty, large, bright orange arachnid beast behind him, who apparently had it out for Voldemort, and was capable of killing him physically without using magic.

Voldemort was so busy chasing me that he didn't even have time to react before the arachnid killed him. Score.

Dude! Jet trails!

In a restaurant with a group of friends (guys and girls). One friend comes in from outside the restaurant, saying "Dude! Jet trails!" It seemed like he really wanted someone to take pictures. A couple of us (including Greg) come out to see what is going on. Outside the restaurant was an interesting little area. Despite being outdoors it was almost completely surrounded by urban-relic type walls and most of a ceiling, so that there wasn't much way to see beyond the enclosed area. But in front of us, where most of the people crowded around were staring, was a long opening revealing something of an alley or passageway with another wall behind it.

I heard a droning noise, figuring it must be the plane my friend was talking about. I trained my camera on the only possible place we would see anything (the passageway), and a few seconds later, it looked like two planes, one chasing the other, passed through from right to left. I was taking as many pictures as I could (multiple exposure setting) but I only caught a glimpse of part of the pursuing plane. It was a lustrous muddy greenish brown color. Someone mentioned that it must be a "commando unit", which got them pretty excited.

We waited, and a little while later the droning came back and so did that second plane, passing through the passageway again. I didn't catch much more on the camera the second time — I was having a hard time positioning the shot through the viewscreen. But very soon after, a motorcycle came through the alley and stopped right in front of us. A military guy jumped off the bike, threw (or launched) something that looked like a grenade towards the crowd, said something cryptic, and said we had "two minutes".

My group ran back into the restaurant to say what had happened. I was going to show my pictures, when I noticed that: a) the latest batch of pictures came out in sepia for some reason, and b) even though Greg and I agreed that the military guy had come in on a motorcycle, the pictures on the camera showed him getting out of his airplane (which was smallish, and had propellers in interesting places).

We got ready to evacuate down to the basement of the restaurant where hopefully the explosion wouldn't hurt us. But we had some leftover pizza in boxes on the table from some other occasion, which we had been dragging around with us (it was mixed slices of pizza from two or three different places). I grabbed a slice of onion-studded pizza and we went off toward the basement. Unfortunately there was a bit of a line. Before we even got to the basement door, we heard voices from various places around (even some still outside) counting down... 3... 2... 1... But there was no explosion.

After giving a few more seconds for good measure, the crowd started coming back outside again. Now the military guy was standing by a bus, telling everyone to board. Two guys (the equivalent of Fred and George Weasley) were tossing rocks at the explosive, and it did actually ... barely.. explode. It went off with a low thud. I thought I saw the military guy chuckle a little.

On top of the bus, surrounded by low guard rails, were a bunch of horses (actually, I think they were Przewalski's Horses). I had a feeling we would be needing those horses wherever we were being taken. I also still felt suspicious of the military guy, and wanted to make sure he wasn't trying to get us all killed (again). So as I passed by the right side of the bus, I quickly peeked underneath and check for bombs attached the bottom of the bus. Instead, I saw a family of very vicious looking dogs. They didn't attack me, thankfully. I thought to myself something like, "Note to self: Circumprescription counterproductive. Stick to the club house."

As we were about to get on the bus, a friend of mine noted that the crowd was being organized into groups and people needed to take positions. He thought I should consider "first bass" or "second bass". I was pretty sure we already had a first bass guy, and I didn't think I was yet talented enough with bass to take that position.

The science of wordless spellcasting

I'm Harry Potter. I wake up in my bed, in the bedroom of a pretty normal looking modern Muggle-style house. The opposite wall, across the room and parallel to my bed, had built-in bookshelves from the ceiling down to about 3 feet off the floor. Below each column of bookshelves were three drawers.

In the previous dream, just before I woke up, a friend of mine had used the spell "fermata" to close the front door of a house we were getting ready to go into. I decided to test the opposite spell, the spell for opening things, "abierto" (I have no idea if either of these are real spells in the Harry Potter universe). I point my wand at a drawer and speak, "abierto". I mess around with my pronunciation, at first rolling my "r", then switching to a British (RP) "r". Then I start stretching out the pronunciation slowly. That's when I notice something weird.

I decide to experiment. I point my wand at the drawer, thinking the word "abierto" in my head, while starting to say "aaaah" out loud. In anticipation, the drawer begins to open. I push it shut. Interesting. Now I point my wand, think the word "automatic", and start to say "aaaah" again. This time nothing happens. Iiiiinteresting. I test it a few more times, then rush downstairs to tell Hermione.

Downstairs in the house, there are a lot of other kids (presumably other students) milling around. I walk into the small kitchen, where Hermione is making herself breakfast alone. I excitedly tell her to guess what I found out. She says "Hmmm... could it have something to do with..." (I forget what she referred to, but it wasn't remotely related.) I shook my head, smiling. Then I explained to her what I had found out, with "aaah" and "abierto" versus "aaah" and "automatic". You didn't need to say the whole spell, you just had to be focused on the right spell and begin speaking the spell.

"Woww, cool!" said Hermione, meaning I had told her something she didn't already know. And I was happy that she was excited.

[Note: This has everything to do with me currently reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.]

The crispy ceiling

Harry Potter 6 was just about to come out in theaters, but the plot had nothing to do with the real movie. The protagonist was some other boy Harry's age. Can't remember much more than that. I was thinking about the movie while lying in bed (possibly a top bunk or loft bed) in a bedroom whose ceiling resembled that of the upstairs bedroom (on the right) at my grandma's house in New York — the ceiling was tiled, and it slanted down at a 45° angle on the side above my bed. The lights were off and there was only dim ambient light in the room.

While lying there in bed, I was poking at the diagonal ceiling with my foot. The first time I poked it, it made a satisfyingly crispy sound as the fiberboard tiles cracked slightly. I noticed at this time that much of the rest of the ceiling further away was in disrepair, with many of the tiles mostly destroyed. Being slightly OCD, I kept poking at the ceiling with my foot for a little while.

Hugging at Hogwarts

At a school/academy with a bunch of classmates. We are almost to our classroom, in a semi-covered courtyard reminiscent of a place in Hogwarts (a small open central grassy area with covered corridors surrounding it). A couple classmates are teasing me about this girl that I like (also present) who likes me too. She was cute (in a wholesome sort of way), somewhat short, shy, and golden blonde. I couldn't decide who she reminds me of in real life, but she seemed very familiar to my waking mind.

Because of my classmates' prodding, rather than being ashamed for no reason, and despite no official relationship between us, I walked over to her and gave her a hug from behind and started talking to her. Worked out pretty well.

Rubbish... rubbish...

/ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯ "Rubbish... rubbish... a word, little girl."

- Plump, purplish, short witch, swinging her arms to shoo people

(Extra marking indicates intonation.)