Looking up Banshees

Samantha entered the library quietly, Mary following close behind. Knowing her way around the huge place, the witch headed straight to the back where she knew books on Magical Creatures were stored. The section was divided into several sub sections and she quickly located the demon section.

Riffling through the Bs, she came across what she was looking for and gestured for Mary to take a seat on the table nearest to them so they could both read and discuss their findings.

Mary followed her friend into the library and, being there only once herself, she let Sam lead. Finding the book, Sam gestured her to sit down.
"What's the book you have there?" Mary asked her. After looking around this section, it seemed like a nice, quiet place and the girl loved it right away.

“This book is called Break with a Banshee. It should give us some insight into how Banshees act,” the girl said. Turning to the inside jacket, she saw the author’s name again emblazoned in fancy gold script. “The writer is apparently really famous or something. He’s listed all his awards here,” she pointed to the cover. “Though why he would include a Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile award is beyond me… what does that have to do with his academic qualification?” the girl wondered aloud, her eyebrows rising higher in curiosity.

Mary laughed at the author of the book Sam was holding.
"I guess he was a self-loving git..." she said and suddenly realized she had to talk quietly in library, she didn't want them to be thrown out.
"I hope what he wrote was right, though." the girl whispered.
Checking her Herbology notes, Mary then took a parchment and some quills out of her bag.
"We have to write an essay about the differences of Mandrakes and Banshees, right?" she asked her friend in a low voice.

“Difference and similarities both, I guess…” Samantha commented, flipping through the pages, her expression became more and more quizzical as she read on.

“Mary… I don’t get it, all through chapter three, he goes on about some potion that makes his hair look shinier than usual… and chapter four seems to be all about his favorite brand of hand lotion. I’ve skimmed over a hundred pages and there isn’t even a mention of a Banshee yet,” the girl asked, puzzled.

Mary raised her eyebrows and wondered what kind of self centered prat wrote that book.
"Check the end, perhaps there'll be a mention of Banshees there. You know, in the last sentence." girl suggested jokingly.
She got up to find any other books about the plant they were supposed to write about. She had a feeling they won't find anything particularly usefull in the book that was about how shiny someone's hair is.
Why do they still have his book in here, anyway? Mary thought to herself, frustrated.

The Slytherin followed Mary’s advice and skipped to the end of the book. Reading the penultimate chapter, she finally found an excerpt about the demon they were researching.

“It was with bated breath that the crowd watched my blonde head tilt an inch to one side as I smiled my award winning smile and wielded my wand on the offending Banshee. I needn’t have bothered for it was so terrified by the sight of my handsome stature and lovely eyes alone. So much so that is simply started running. It ran and ran and ran as fast as it’s legs would carry it and I didn’t even have to cast a single spell. The townsfolk cheered my name and a few even burst into tears, swearing their eternal loyalty to my name.”

“This can’t be right,” Samantha muttered distractedly. “Banshees don’t run, they float or hover…”

Seeing that Mary had already gone in search of more reliable material, she joined the girl. Rudely snapping Break with a Banshee shut and dismissing it as a fictional piece of rubbish.

Mary wondered what upset Sam so much so she picked up the book her friend had snapped shut and read what it said about Banshees.
Unable to help herself, she burst out laughing quietly.
"Helpfull." she commented. Who is this guy? she thought to herself and checked the cover.
Gilderoy Lockhart. The name rang a bell and Mary remembered a discussion in a class, History of Magic, probably and his name came up. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what he was.
"A professor!" she said in a loud whisper. "He was actually a professor here at Hogwarts. Can you imagine, being taught by a creep like him?" black haired witch asked her friend and went looking for books about the demons rather than thinking about that bloke.

After a moment of searching, Samantha saw Mary going through a few books that looked promising. “Hey Mary, what have you got there?” the witch asked, putting forth her hand for the book.

Mary handed her the book and Samantha quickly read the simple text on the rather plain cover. “Popular Demons of Ireland… Hey, I think this is what we need.”

Mary handed the book she found to Sam who looked really excited about it. Mary smiled enthusiastied and sat down again, her friend following.
"So, does is say anything bout our demon?" she asked the other Slytherin eagerly.
She couldn't wait to be done with Herbology homework and get to relax a little bit. And then get back to work.
She shook her head and focused on Sam, who was telling her what it said in that book.

“The Banshee is an Irish demon made popular in Muggle literature as an omen of death. Muggles often describe it as either a very beautiful or an extremely ugly woman. The cry of the Banshee has also made in into Muggle Media.”

“However, what Muggles fail to notice is that a Banshee does not cry to signify death, it is it’s main method of feeding. A banshee is a specter and therefore feeds on life itself. It opens up its mouth to sallow life force into it’s being, giving it a little more substance. The “shriek” is a sound of it forcibly snatching life from its victim,” the girl read aloud to Mary.

"Wow." is all Mary could say. She had no idea Banshee was something like that.
Trying to focus on their assignment, she closed her eyes.
"So, both Mandrakes and Banshees give out a cry. But Mandrake's cry can kill you, while Banshee only announces killing by crying out. Did I get that right?" she concluded with a question.

"Yes, that seems to be the gist of it," the witch confirmed.

"The book goes on to say that a Banshee can grow quite powerful if it has fed too much. It becomes almost solid and needs an experienced witch or wizard to banish it. Normally, it's classified under pests and hardly ever preys on humans because it isn't strong enough. It mostly gets by on small mammals..." the girl continued, lost in her research.

Mary wrote their research down on a piece of parchment and then stood up to find any other books on the subject. She found one (Great Britain and its demons), but it said exactly the same as in Sam's book.
Sighing, Mary listed through the book to find anything else about the Banshees.

Samantha surfaced from her reading to notice Mary had gotten another book, the title looked promising. At this rate, they would be done pretty soon. "Mary, does your book mention anything on how to deal with a banshee? Other than smiling at it," the girl scoffed at the earlier text. "Mine says that one has to seal it's mouth so it can't emit the shriek and kill the one trying to banish it."

"No, it doesn't say anything...wait, yes, here it is!" Mary said, her nose buried in the book.
"One would not die from a Banshee's shriek if one was able to prevent it." she turned the page, thinking it would go on about how to prevent it, but it was the end of the chapter.
Mary looked up, her eyebrows raised.
"Well, that was helpful..." she shook her head in disbelief. Putting the book back on it's shelf, she sat down and wrote what Sam said.
"Let's just use yours. How did you say again? Shut it's mouth, was it?"

"Yes, and if the demon isn't mature yet, even a simple silencing charm can do the trick. It also says here that if a relatively weak Banshee tries to attack a strong living thing, it will simply dissipate into shreds and fly away in the wind. This is apparently because it's too weak to swallow such a huge amount of life force."

The girl closed her book. "Okay, let's review, A Mandrake and a Banshee have one thing in common, they both shriek and use their voice/sound as their primary weapon."

Mary listened to what her friend told her and wrote everything down on that piece of parchment.
Nodding along to what Sam was saying, Mary put down the quill and read what she had written.
"Well, we shut a Mandrake up by putting it in dirt or soil or something. Or we prevent it from shrieking by using earmuffs.
A Banshee is more complex. We literaly have to shut it's mouth." Okay, it wasn't written exactly like that, but whatever.

"Yes, we have to cast a charm on it or plug it's mouth somehow," the girl nodded. "It should also be noted that they both grow in a similar way. Young Mandrakes only knock you out while immature Banshees can't attack stronger being."

"The main difference between the two is that Mandrakes, in addition to their fetal cry, also contain poisons while a Banshee's only means of attack is the shriek itself. Also, Mandrakes are... well, physical things while Banshees are just spirits."

"Ok, so are we done here? With the research, I mean." Mary said when she wrote everything down. She felt so much pressure lately, the Quidditch tryouts when she had no idea of how to fly, this researching, another Herbology homework, all of the classes and she just started to help that lovely Hufflepuff girl to help the animals in the lake.
With a sigh, Mary ribbed her head as it started to hurt. She then reminded herself that she wasn't alone in this. Sam offered to help her and Mary was so thankfull for that, she couldn't put it in words.

"Yes, I think this should suffice for the homework," the dark haired witch nodded, closing the book softly. "I'll just check this out and if you want to have a look, you can take it from me. We're going to be studying in the common room all evenings anyway," she tried to make light of a very real situation.

Getting to her feet, she made her way to the perpetually scowling librarian and checked the book out. Having done that, she made her way out of the library, Mary following close behind.