The Art of the Possible

Hogwarts new Headmistress stood there, staring at Jasper, the Portrait Painter, who will create this art of the possible. She briefly felt guilty for destroying Professor Mavrick's portrait. But only briefly.

February Fortescue
Writer, Slytherin

Headmistress of Hogwarts Professor Amanda Dalloway breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had only recently become Headmistress and things had gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least. In less than one hour's time spent in her new office, she had ordered her fire crab, Godric, to incinerate previous Headmaster Maverick's portrait, because (he? it?) wanted to control her and the office and report her to the ministry for her hourglass collection, and Headmistress Amanda Dalloway was having none of it. She was relieved when the Board of Governors voted to allow her to keep her position: apparently, no one else liked Professor Maverick's Pompous Portrait, either.

Somehow, it seemed really odd to Amanda that someone was coming today to paint her own portrait. She had only been the Headmistress for just over a week. It made no sense!

She heard a knock at the door and an average looking wizard entered the room and introduced himself as Jasper. He announced he was there to begin the process of creating her portrait.

“That's impossible!” Amanda cried. “I've not been Headmistress very long! What could I possibly share with future Headmasters and Headmistresses? Is this some kind of payback for destroying Headmaster Maverick's portrait?”

“No, not at all!” Jasper reassured her. ”Trust me with creating your portrait. It's not impossible at all. It's a special form of magical art that's been passed down through my family for generations. Let's call it the art of the possible!”

“Ok, I'll give it a chance. So, how does this work? Do I take a blank canvas into a closet and teach it to act like me?”

“Gosh, no! Where on earth did you hear something like that?”

“I remember reading it somewhere,” Amanda replied. “It seemed like a legitimate source. Oh, well, nevermind. So, how does this work?”

“See this canvas? It looks like an ordinary mirror, correct? I'm going to place it here in this office, directly across from you. Since it looks exactly like a regular mirror, no one will ever suspect otherwise. The mirror is designed to only imprint yourself onto its surface and will absorb your personality, your actions, your speech, how you make decisions, and so forth. When Hogwarts senses your magic has left the castle and you have passed away, the mirror, instead of reflecting back what you have shown the mirror, will reflect your image back out into the world.”

Hogwarts new Headmistress stood there, staring at Jasper, the Portrait Painter, who will create this art of the possible. She briefly felt guilty for destroying Professor Mavrick's portrait. But only briefly.

“Wonderful! I'm ready, Jasper!”