The chosen rock and East Pond

Conflicting Priorities

Prof. Scamander’s 101st birthday is in less than two months, and Aaranya Susipetonen has not yet solved his puzzle about the East Pond gneiss. She fears that she might have to destroy the clue that Prof. Scamander found 78 years ago. So, Jalo Monivilja, an expert on eclogites and a renowned geologist from Newfoundland and Labrador, is helping her make the connection.

Jalo Monivilja belongs to the MeriPelle house of the Frazden School of Boundless Joy. To learn about this character, see Jalo Monivilja.

Aaranya is juggling three conflicting priorities:

• Her figure skating practice in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics
• Her final assignment at Rougemont (Québec) to secure her research position in the Yukon
• The rescue effort to release Prof. Scamander’s pet occamy, Ouroboros, from the muggle brain

She cannot chase all three at the same time, so which one will she let go?

An Excerpt

Aaranya Susipetonen: My assignment is to collect samples from Rougemont to test if the ultramafic bodies found here match those found on Duke Island in Alaska. Why are we wasting time on the west of St. Lawrence when Rougemont is on the opposite side? Jalo, I’m already running late for practice, and I fear that my team might leave without me.

Jalo Monivilja: The Susipetonens are known for their patience and resolute nature, Aaranya. Besides, you cannot chase three conflicting goals at the same time. So, decide which one is not worth the risk of losing the other two, and don’t rush with your decision just yet. We will be at Chibougamau for at least two days. I need to complete the alteration mineral mapping of the deposits here and examine the fluid-rock interaction for carbonation. Strange, but I thought you knew why we came to Chibougamau first and not go straight to Rougemont.

Susipetonen: I know only parts from here and there. Nobody told me the whole story. So, I have no clue.

Monivilja: Almost two years before Prof. Scamander’s birth, Ogilvie shared a detailed alteration map of Chibougamau with Prof. Tahtiavain because she wanted to hide the deathly hallows in Canada. You see, Prof. Tahtiavain left our Frazden school twice a year to visit her hometown of Kivikoski in Thunder Bay (Ontario), so she wanted a location that was unknown and within reach. Chibougamau in Québec made the most sense to her.

During the 1941 relocation of the deathly hallows, Prof. Scamander suggested East Pond in Newfoundland. My choice would have been either the Innuit mountain in northern Labrador or Baie Verte in Newfoundland. Anyway, they did not select Chibougamau because Cassandra Trelawney foresaw a commotion there in the 1920s, and so Rainbow Lake in Northern Alberta became the first location of the deathly hallows.

Trelawney was correct because the Canadian National Railway from Québec City to Cochrane (Ontario) was completed in the 1920s, which led to a mining boom. You now know our connection to this place, but you’ll have to ask Prof. Scamander what drew him to East Pond.

What makes East Pond special and which priority did Aaranya drop? Listen to the rest of the episode.

Podcast Note

This is a non-commercial project and a work of fiction, so everything herein is imaginary with some dangling facts. To use Kate Wolf’s songs, see Using a Kate Wolf song. You will hear a few seconds of two songs by Kate Wolf: Like a River (1980) and Old Jerome (1983).

Cover Image

Taken by Letty when she was in Saint-Hilaire, Québec. It is one of the Cretaceous Monteregian intrusions in the St. Lawrence Platform.

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