The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick

First Year Posts : 4

He wears a doublet and a tunic with a ruff, as he soars through wall after wall, gathering around anyone that would hear his heartfelt story. And it seemed like he was being successful, for any being passing by, at least stopped for awhile, with his voice radiating in their heads.

He is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, a wizard who was hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe. A wizard who died with half-inch of skin and sinew of his head still connected to the rest of his body. He was, whom everyone knew as Nearly Headless Nick, and on this night, he had a ballad to share.

It was a mistake any wizard could make
Who was tired and caught on the hop
One piffling error, and then, to my terror,
I found myself facing the chop.
Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve
A-strolling the park in the dusk!
She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth
Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk.
I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right
But the process of justice was lax;
They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock
Where they usually sharpened the axe.
Next morning at dawn, with a face most forlorn,
The priest said to try not to cry,
"You can come just like that, no, you won't need a hat,"
And I knew that my end must be nigh.
The man in the mask who would have the sad task
Of cleaving my head from my neck,
Said "Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees,"
And I turned to a gibbering wreck.
"This may sting a bit" said the cack-handed twit
As he swung the axe up in the air,
But oh the blunt blade! No difference it made,
My head was still definitely there.
The axeman he hacked and he whacked and he thwacked,
"Won't be too long", he assured me,
But quick it was not, and the bone-headed clot
Took forty-five goes 'til he floored me.
And so I was dead, but my faithful old head
It never saw fit to desert me,
It still lingers on, that's the end of my song,
And now, please applaud, or you'll hurt me.

Courtesy of Harry Potter Lexicon

Fifth Year Posts : 449

Hester clapped loudly, happily appreciating the ghost's song.
"That was wonderful!" she said. "You poor man..." She thought about everything that had happened to him. "Did it-" She stopped, unsure of whether or not to say the next part. "Did it hurt?" She felt embarrassed asking, but she was really curious.

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