Melody Conrad 1954-present

The Sylvia Seven: (from the left going clockwise)

• Melody Conrad is an outgoing girl who loves to play around and cause mayhem( like Fred and George Weasley); she has blond hair and green eyes. Melody comes from Flordia. She likes to set off fireworks during class to annoy the teachers! She really likes playing jokes on people, especially Prof. Gillybob.
• Felic Aguilera is talkative; she has black hair & brown eyes. Felic Augleria is from Texas, and is Dame Rumor herself.
• Nikki Hill parties like Melody Conrad but not as wild... blond hair, brown eyes. Nikki Hill is from Maine. Loves to play jokes but not get into trouble like Melody!
• Laina Tuttle is really shy, with red hair and green eyes. Laina Tuttle is from Idaho and loves reading, but she doesn't get how to do potions yet.
• Destiny Storm and Symphony Starr Grivit are twins: they are bookworms with brown hair and brown eyes. The twins come From Washington D.C., love reading books, and hate getting into trouble.
• Ashley Lamb is shy; she has blond and brown hair with brown eyes. Ashley is from Maine and basically loves to talk about boys with her friends... and is deathly afraid of trouble.



• Prof. Harold Gillybob (New York State) is their principal; good lad that he is, he was Mr. Mischief as a lad and is notoriously lax on discipline.
• Tim Swopes of Virginia is Melody's biggest crush, the blond-haired, blue-eyed, speedy little captain of the Sylvia Quidditch team. Although he's two years older than Melody, he thinks she's rather cute... and funny as all heck, especially when she explodes things "by accident" and somehow manages to get away with it.

The Adventure: Hogwarts of America, 1965

Melody, Nikki, Ashley, Felic, Laina, Destiny, and Symphony come to Hogwarts of America. They are sorted into Sylvia House with the purple-haired artists and the party animals, and become friends. Under the tutelage of the jolly and somewhat reckless Principal Gillybob, they drink deeply at the fount of knowledge (what-EVer!) and over the course of the year manage to foil the nefarious plans of a villain.

Mr. Saradas Malvito's the divination teacher that year, and Miss Delphina Casus is the assistant principal's secretary. She's really really pretty, like Ann Margaret with lots of 60's hair, and he likes her a lot. Everybody knows that Malvito went on trial for killing his rich parents shortly after he got out of school, but since he was acquitted ("poor little orphan, put through all that after such a devastating loss"), Delphina doesn't give it another thought and thinks he's sweet.

Now her boss, the nasty assistant principal (think Evil Conservative from "Mr. Holland's Opus") is doing something evil like trying to get the Divination program cut from Hogwarts because it's "dark magic." Strange and uncomfortable things start happening to the assistant principal. He fails to depart.

Malvito decides to put an end to all of this and plans what should be a really nasty potion prank that will send said meddler home in a body cast to recuperate and thus prevent him from messing with the divination program. But he overdoes the prank and the guy gets killed. "Oops! Oh well. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Bwahahaha."

Natch, authorities coming zooming in to investigate, and our girls decide to be sleuths and figure out whodunit. (They're clear, of course, that it was foul play.) Suspect 1, mean ol' Mrs. Matilda Crosswire, who was observed to Feel No Sorrow or Pity when the guy died. (Not that Mrs. Crosswire is ever big on nice human things like feelings.) Suspect 2, slinky Groundskeeper Miss Dowzabel Nightshade, who has been seen sneaking around the Potions lockers. Mr. Malvito's name does come up once or twice... he is kind of creepy, but since this undeniably kind Divination Master has been going out of his way to be so very nice to them all year, he's not exactly the world's likeliest murder suspect.

When the authorities finally decide that it's a murder, everybody panics, classes are suspended, and the school board says that everyone will be on the Hogwarts express going home in two days because the school is no longer safe. Aack! No! Don't close the school!

The Sylvia Seven set up a trap to smoke out the murderer the night before they're scheduled to leave. It works. They're surprised to see who's taken the bait. ("But... but... he was so nice...") Melody or Felic or somebody makes usual impassioned, "It was YOU!!!" speech with list of things "we should have known about you." Fails to notice that while she's "arresting him," he's locking the door behind her. Locked door is discovered. Panic ensues. Malvito makes usual villain speech about he knew all along they were going to get in his way and he tried so hard to be nice to them and now they've trapped him anyway and so now he's going to have to do away with them too and it's all their fault. "Meddling kids!" etc.

Just when he's about to zap them (when else) guess who comes out of the closet, wand raised in rage. It's Delphina, who's followed her boyfriend and is now crying and furious. Usual impassioned, "You lied to me, you evil wicked slimeball!" speech. We have the satisfaction of seeing Malvito turns to white quivering jelly at being caught in attempted murder of small children by the woman he loves. Standard, "Wait... no... I can explain...!" Obviously he's not going to kill her. So Delphine calms down and stops crying but is still mad as heck; she turns to the girls and says, "Out." "But--- the door-- !" "Is now open. Go!" and they all run off and get the principal and the cops.

When the cops come dashing into the divination room after Delphina let the girls go, they find the place empty. A nice letter from Delphina is on the table, saying that Saradas did everything, explaining how he didn't mean to, and mentioning that they have left for "greener pastures" to start a new life. This is absolutely bizzarre, not all of the authorities buy it, the investigation officially continues, but Hogwarts is saved from being closed down. A warrant is put out for Saradas and Delphina... "wanted for questioning" only. The girls end up getting a large Award at the end of the year. It's not said for what, and they assume it's for catching a murderer, but then someone in the high ups drops a hint, and they realize that they were only honored for catching a thief. That's Prof. Nightshade, whom they caught stealing out of the Potions cabinet during their sleuthing. The year ends with a reasonably cheerful, "Oh well, at least we saved the school. And we caught a thief. Which is a good start, I guess."