Sunday 15th
September
I’m starting to get really bad with writing in here
already. It’s just that there are so many things that I want to learn to do. I
want to prove to Professor Snape that I can make the perfect potion. I want to
be able to identify all of the plants in Herbology and name what they are used
to heal. I want to be able to cast charms on my first attempt and transform one
object into another. Then there is the History of Magic – no matter how boring
Professor Binns is, I’m determined to learn all about my magical, ancestral
past. After everything I’ve heard about the one they call You-Know-Who and the
Wizarding War, I’m really determined to study everything that there is to know
about Defence Against the Dark Arts too – even if it means teaching myself.
Then there’s Astronomy as well. I’m constantly stargazing, trying to understand
the night sky a little more each time. Aside from the lessons there’s
socialising with fellow Slytherins, meeting up with Josie, exploring the
castle, trying to find my way around the library, fighting over bathroom time
with my roommates, retracing my steps around the castle to try and remember my
way and recall which are the steps
that disappear. Goodness just writing that list was exhausting. I just can’t
help it. I want everything to be perfect. It’s not just a case of wanting to
learn everything in one go either; I know that I need to prove to my parents
that they made the right decision in letting me come here. If I fail, they
could easily send me to a normal Muggle school, back home, next year. I can’t
let that happen. I just can’t.
Jed and I agreed not
to take another outing to Hagrid’s hut this week. After what happened with
Josie last Sunday (and we still don’t know what), we were both a little worried
about having the two of them meet again. It was a bit of a shame though,
because I really wanted to ask Hagrid about the Care of Magical Creatures
class. We already had to buy the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ book, but I was
disappointed when I found out that we won’t even be studying Care of Magical
Creatures until the third year – how unfair. I have a sneaking suspicion that
this will be my favourite class. I guess I’ll just have to wait to find out
though.
After doing some homework, Jed,
Josie and I took a wander around the school grounds. We just started strolling
around in the grassy/rocky area that surrounded the castle. With the sun
lowering in the sky, it poked out at awkward angels through the trees blinding
us at ever given moment. I adjusted the snapback baseball cap that sat on my
head, then dove my hands into my jeans pockets. “You know what I’d like t’
know?” said Jed as he kicked a stone towards the wall.
“What?” Josie asked as I shrugged.
“Why the Forbidden Forest’s forbidden. I’ve heard all the
stories ‘bout dangerous creatures ‘n’ things, but d’you really think that
Dumbledore would keep all those things in there if it’s so close t’ the
school?” Jed declared. I must admit, I hadn’t even thought about this before.
It was a really good point.
“The creatures are probably more scared of us than we are of
them,” Josie told us. “They probably only attack as a way of self-defence.”
Attack? Oh great, I hadn’t even thought about creatures attacking me. It was
bad enough having to digest the idea of wizards shooting spells at me – now I
have to worry about ferocious beasts as well.
“Do you want to know what interests
me?” Josie asked.
“Go on then,” said Jed as he turned to her.
“After the feast on the first night, Professor Dumbledore
warned us that the third-floor on the right-hand side of the castle is out of
bounds. Well, if you think about it that’s a lot of castle. I wonder what
they’re hiding there,” she pondered.
“Whatever it is,” I told her. “It sounds scary. Didn’t
Dumbledore threaten whoever dears enter there with death?”
“Yup,” Jed nodded. “Even the Weasley twins know not to mess
with the big D on this one.”
I felt like the time had come for me
to unveil my little bit of news. I was quite proud of myself actually. I’d done
loads of research and learnt a lot about the wizarding world without really
meaning to. “Guys…” I said a little more hesitantly than I meant to. Without
realising it, I had stopped walking. Noticing that I wasn’t with them anymore,
Jed and Josie turned back towards me.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jed, as Josie’s eyes widened as
she stared at me.
“I need to tell you something,” I confessed.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jed.
“Are you okay?” Josie worried.
“I’m fine,” I laughed as they came back to my side. “I’m
fine.” The creases in Jed’s forehead lifted and Josie smiled at me as she
tilted her head a little. “I just wanted to tell you that I’ve decided… I don’t
care about flying anymore.” Josie threw her hands to her mouth as she gasped,
while Jed’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“What?” they both cried.
“But I thought you loved the idea of being able to fly,”
Josie said with a pout. “What happened to wanting to be like Samantha in the
opening to ‘Bewitched’?”
Holding a hand up to stop the conversation, Jed snapped,
“Wait! What on Earth are you…?” His sentence trailed as the confusion furrowed
onto his brow.
Josie and I filled Jed in on Muggle
television and my favourite programme – ‘Bewitched’. He didn’t seem to follow
on too well. I had tried to have a conversation with Jed before about
television, but he never understood it. He just kept asking, “So how do all the
people fit inside such a tiny little box if you don’t use magic?” The concept
of electricity to wizarding-folk is almost as complicated to grasp as magic is
to Muggles. Wow, I’d never thought about it before, but maybe electricity is a
type of magic – it’s the magic that you use if you don’t have powers. Hmm, I’m
liking this Muggle-born thing; I get the best of both worlds.
Sorry, long tangent. Anyway, after
we kind of managed to loosen Jed’s confusion, I revealed my sudden change of
mind. “I’m just saying, why do we have to learn to fly?” Jed raised a finger
towards me as he was about to interrupt (no doubt by telling me that flying was
the best way to get around) I spoke over him. “Nope,” I snapped. “I’ve done my
research and there are loads of different ways for witches and wizards to get
about. There’s something called floo powder, which I think is a little bit like
flour that you hold in your hands, then stand in a fireplace and shout the name
of your destination. As you throw the powder to the ground you zoom up the
chimney and magically reappear in the fireplace of where you want to be.” Jed
didn’t seem that impressed with my explanation. He’d probably already travelled
by floo powder loads of times. Josie smiled and nodded at me though, so I kept
going: “Then there’s a portkey, which is designed to take you to one specific
place when you touch it. You can enchant a mode of transport (such as a Muggle
car or motorbike) to fly and you just steer it as though you were driving on
the road, but it would be flying. Then there’s this thing called Apperation,
which is a bit like instant teleportation from one place to another, but I
think that you need to be seventeen in order to that.”
“And hold a license,” Jed added.
“Another one that I found was
something called a Vanishing Cabinet,” I told them. “It comes in two pieces.
One is placed where you are, I guess, and the other is in another place, so
when you step inside one, you appear in the other. And the last one that I
found has something to do with toilets. It’s a little bit disgusting actually.
In fact, Jed, you might know more about this than me,” I said as I looked at
him, but I turned to Josie, wanting to finish my little speech. “Apparently the
Ministry of Magic get to work by flushing themselves down the public toilets in
London, which sounds completely disgusting.” Josie pinched her eyes closed and
shuddered, while Jed laughed.
“They don’t do that anymore,” he said holding a hand to his
stomach from laughing. “You-Know-Who made the workers of the Ministry travel to
work that way during the Wizarding War. No one’s flushed themselves down a bog
in over ten years.”
“Well that’s good to know,” I chuckled.
As Jed patted me on the shoulder, we
turned back towards the castle and began making our way up the steps. “Mellie,”
Josie sang out. “What made you give up on your dream of wanting to fly? Just
because there are other methods of transportation, it doesn’t mean that you
should give up,” she said and gently brushed her hand against my left elbow.
Okay, so maybe Josie went a little too far by calling flying my dream. I’d be
happy by just being able to cast one spell (and not being the last kid in the
whole Year to do so). I admit that I really, really wanted to learn to fly a broomstick, but the reality of it
happening was starting to look so slim that it was upsetting me.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, MJ,” said Jed with half a smile. “You
can’t be good at everything.”
“Thanks,” I muttered looking back at him.
“Unless you’re José,” he mumbled, leaning towards my right
ear.
“Hey!” Josie exclaimed, leaning over me. “I heard that.”
“But it’s true,” Jed smirked. “You are good at everthin’.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!” Josie squeaked.
“Guys,” I sighed, throwing an arm around each of their
shoulders. The plan was that by pulling them both to my sides in a sort of hug,
they’d get along. Let’s just say that wasn’t the first time they’d been
bickering.
“Sorry,” mumbled Josie, trying to
pull out from under my grip. I locked my elbow tighter around her. I waited for
a while, but after Josie apologised, Jed said nothing. Stepping inside the
castle, I flicked his ear.
“Oowh,” he
projected as Pansy passed us by. I watched as her head shot towards us. I
flicked Jed again. “Hey,” he roared. “Cut it out.”
“Don’t you have something to say?” I asked him.
“Like what?” he grumbled.
“A sorry wouldn’t go amiss.”
“Fine,” he sighed rolling his eyes. “José, I didn’t mean to
call you a know-it-all. I’m sorry, ‘kay?” Josie shrugged at him. “You’re just a
teeny bit of a know-it-all,” he added with a cheeky smile. I glared at him.
“What?” he gasped. “She is in
Ravenclaw. She knows more than I do anyway.” My eyes shot from Jed to Josie. I
let out a breath seeing her smile.
“It’s okay,” she sighed. “I guess I kinda deserve it.”
Grinning from ear to ear I pulled my friends tighter for a big hug.
- Josie -
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