MJs Hogwarts Journal Chapter 31

Wednesday 25^th December

It’s Christmas. It’s here. It’s actually here. Okay, so I’m never normally excited about Christmas. At my house, it’s usually pretty boring and I end out stuck in my room watching some random Christmas film that’s on the TV, because I don’t want to be stuck with the petty pleasantries that you end out having to do with the family members that you don’t really get along with. Well this year it’s different. I’m at Hogwarts.

To start off with, being as me and Josie are the only girls in the school, we managed to convince Professor Flitwick, McGonagall and Dumbledore to let us share the same Common Room – but only for the holidays. As soon as everyone else comes back then we have to go back to our normal rooms. This means that I get to stay in the Ravenclaw Common Room – Professor McGonagall didn’t like the idea of me being all on my own in the dungeon over Christmas, so she managed to persuade the other professors to let me stay with Josie. Professor McGonagall is warming up to me more and more.

The Ravenclaw Common Room is amazing! To start off with, it’s like the complete opposite to the Slytherin Common Room. It’s at the top of a winding staircase, in one of the highest turrets in the entire school – just climbing up there made me feel like Rapunzel. That in itself is pretty cool. But what surprised me most was how you actually enter the room. There isn’t a door handle or a keyhole or anything like that on the door. Instead, is a golden eagle door knocker. In order to get into the Common Room, you have to knock the knocker, which then asks you a riddle. Only when you answer the riddle correctly are you allowed inside. I seriously have no words for this. I would get trapped out here forever. “What if you never guess the answer?” I asked Josie, when she first showed me.

“That’s the problem,” she replied. “That’s why Ravenclaws tend to be super organised, because if you forget your textbook and don’t know the answer to the riddle to get back in, you could be stuck out here for ages.” Okay, this is why I’m not in Ravenclaw. Thank you, Sorting Hat for deciding upon Slytherin. “Once, I came by and there were elven of us waiting on the stairs trying to figure out the riddle,” Josie told me. “And three of them were Seventh-Years.”

“Goodness,” I gasped. “That must have been a tough one.”

“It was,” Josie confessed. “But one of our Prefects got it eventually.” She never told me what the riddle was, but I’m actually glad that I don’t know. It probably would have been too complicated for me to try and comprehend.

As for the Common Room itself, it was very bright. There were lots of windows and light shot in from all angles. Being as the Ravenclaw Common Room was situated in one of the castle’s turrets, it was entirely round. I bet you could guarantee light in here every single moment from sun rise to sun set. And the colours – the whole room was made up of blues, bronzes, browns and the occasional silvery-grey. It made the room look so lively and full of energy. It made me want to be wide awake and doing something all of the time. No wonder Ravenclaws are always studying. Their room makes it so easy to do so.

*

Christmas! I woke up as soon as the sun appeared at the window. That was probably about eight o’clock. I couldn’t possibly sleep anymore. Josie was sleeping in the bed opposite me and I just had to wake her. Creeping over to her bed, I sat on the edge and gave her a poke. “Merry Christmas Josie,” I sang to her. Running a hand through her hair Josie groaned. “Get up! Get up!” I told her. There were presents to be opened. I wanted to open them, but I had already promised myself last night that I wouldn’t until Josie was awake. Pushing herself upright, Josie gave a stretch and smiled at me.

“Morning Mellie,” she smiled. Beaming back, I stared into her eyes for some time. I couldn’t help myself. Without her glasses on, I could see them more clearly. A vibrant stone-grey. Literally stone. They were such an unusual colour, yet I still couldn’t help but feel like I’d seen them somewhere else other than on Josie’s face. Grabbing her glasses, Josie slid them up her nose, before glancing at the few parcels at the bottom of her bed.

I have to admit, I felt a little guilty. I felt like I had more presents than her and I didn’t want her to feel sad by that. I had written to Viki before Christmas telling her how I wouldn’t be coming home, so she got my parents to send me their presents. It was super nice of them. Gathering my gifts, I perched on the edge of Josie’s bed and we opened our gifts together. I got some books from my parents and a new hoodied jumper – I pulled this over my head straight away. It was a marl-grey with a green silhouette of a cobra in the centre – very Slytherin-like. I was surprised that my parents or Viki paid so much attention to my letter. They also sent me a pair of shoes and some colourful pots of ink – up until that moment I had only been writing with a navy-blue ink pot, now I have some more blue, a black, red, green and pink. That was pretty cool. From Viki, I had a green silk scarf – I had pestered her for one after seeing how cool Josie looked with one tied in her hair. I can’t help it; I wanted to copy her. Next, I opened my present from Hagrid. It was a little hand-carved, wooden figure of Fang, no doubt he had carved it himself – how amazing was that. Hagrid cares so much about me that he was willing to spend his time and effort to make me something. I felt my eyes become a little teary as I gazed down at my Mini-Fang. The next present that I opened was a gift from the girls, Priscilla, Scarlett and Pansy. They had given me a cute little notebook covered in daisies. It was really pretty – almost too pretty to use.

I placed all of my things to the side, placing my last two gifts in front of me. One was from Jed, the other from Josie. “Whose should I open first?” I asked her. Having been staring at a piece of paper in her hands, Josie shuddered, before looking up at me.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “Miles away.” I asked her again, whose present she wanted me to open first – hers or Jed’s. She shrugged.

Being as Josie was sat in front of me, I decided to leave hers until last and open Jed’s first. I have to admit, I kind of cheated here – I had already shaken it to see what it sounded like. It rattled. Tearing off the paper, I laughed when I saw a huge packet of ‘Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans’ – it was so Jed. I loved it. And a chocolate frog. Then I opened Josie’s. “Awww,” I grinned as I opened it. Inside the small, green, tissue paper wrappings was a green and silvery-grey friendship bracelet and several sheets of stickers. “Thank you, Josie,” I smiled as I clambered over the bed to hug her. She looked over at me and smiled, before leaning forwards into my hug.

“Sorry it isn’t much,” she muttered.

“Josie, it’s perfect,” I beamed, “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

“I made Jed a bracelet matching yours,” she told me, as I got her to tie it around my wrist. “And Fabian’s got one like mine,” she said as she twisted her wrist to show me the blue and bronze one around it.

Josie liked her presents too. She had gotten a fun-looking book about witch stories that someone from home had sent her (although I couldn’t get her to say who it was), a carved, wooden mouse from Hagrid, a small, fluffy owl toy (that actually looked a lot like Jed’s owl, Peggy) from Fabian and his friends and a box of sugar, lollypop-like quills in lots of different colours from Jed – he did include a note to tell her that they weren’t magically enchanted in any way, so that they wouldn’t taste weird, unlike the ‘Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans’, she seemed quite pleased with those. From me, both Jed and Josie had a box of Muggle Christmas chocolates. I had gotten Viki to send them over for me. I had no other way of getting them anything otherwise. The older students had ways though – they were allowed out of the castle grounds to Hogsmeade village, where there were, apparently a whole bunch of wizarding shops. Josie seemed to like her presents though. “Thank you, MJ,” she sang, as she leaned over to hug me. “I just feel bad that what I got you wasn’t a lot. I know you said that you liked the stickers that I used in my journal, so I thought that you might like some of your own.”

Josie was right there. I did mention to her, several times, that I liked the stickers that she put in and on her journal. There were flowers, butterflies, fairies, cupcakes as well as pumpkins, skull and cross bones and lots and lots of colourful stars. She writes in there every day too, which is impressive. I try to, but there is no way that I could write down every single little detail all of the time.

Watching Josie move her presents from her lap to her pillow, I noticed that she had opened the envelope that Hagrid had given to her several days ago. “You opened it?” I said excitedly, as I pointed to Josie’s envelope.

“Yeah,” she replied, not really taking much notice.

“So?” I asked eagerly. “Who’s it from?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug.

“Well what does it say?” I asked her.

“Nothing really.” Nothing? I’d heard that one before and look at what that ended out meaning.

“What do you mean nothing?” I asked holding my hand out for the piece of paper. “Let me see.”

Looking down at the parchment, Josie stared at it for a moment, deep in thought. Picking it up, she passed it over to me, biting her bottom lip. Holding a small piece of thick, softly textured card in my hands, I stared down at the one word in the centre:

Sorry

“Is that it?” I asked her.

“Yep,” she replied with a shrug. “The only other thing, is my name on the envelope.”

“Not much to go on,” I said, passing it back. “D’you have any idea who it’s from?”

Shaking her head, Josie shrugged again, as she said, “The only person that came to mind was Hagrid, but that was ages ago… we’re fine now… and it’s not his handwriting. I don’t really know anyone else’s besides yours and Jed’s though.” Sliding the piece of card back inside its envelope, Josie added, “It’s probably just some prank. I’m not even gonna think about it.” She slipped the envelope into the top of the drawer in her bedside cabinet.

Although I didn’t want to mention anything to Josie, I did think about the mysterious letter for a while. And I bet that she did too. It was definitely from someone trying to make an impression – that was fancy paper; the kind that I can only imagine you would get fancy invitations on. It was thick and had a soft, slightly bumpy texture to it. I tired picturing the handwriting in my head:

Josie    Sorry

Just like the paper, it too was fancy. I’m certain that I’ve never seen anyone’s handwriting that looks like that. Not at Hogwarts anyway. Someone must have really tried hard to disguise their handwriting, so as not to be detected. And why tell her not to open it until today? Well I guess Christmas Day is a time for forgiveness. So, it does make sense… but who needs to apologise to her? Maybe Josie knows someone that Jed and I don’t. But how did they know Hagrid would give it to her? Great, now I’m the one thinking too much into it.

*

Wow! That is all I can say about the Christmas dinner. I was completely speechless. Okay, so it was me, Josie, Potter, Weasley, the Weasley twins, the Weasley Prefect, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid and Filch. There were loads of roast turkeys, mountains of potatoes, cauldrons full of vegetables, white and silver boats full of gravy and cranberry sauce. There were sparkling juices, hot chocolate and eggnog – the teachers all shared a bottle of red wine, while Hagrid drank an entire bottle to himself. His eyes went so red, as did his cheeks. By the end of the meal, he was leaning against Professor McGonagall and kissed her on the cheek. What was more surprising was that she never raised her voice or slapped him, like I was expecting her to; instead she just giggled and blushed. I think she had had too much to drink too.

After dinner we all pulled crackers too. Except they weren’t the Muggle crackers that I was used to back home – these were wizard crackers. Potter was first to pull one with one of the twins – Josie told me his name was Fred, but I don’t know how she could tell the difference between him and his twin. When they pulled the cracker, instead of going off with a little pop, there was a giant bang – like a cannon. There was a bright blue spark. Smoke clouded us. Whilst we wafted our hands about, trying to clear the air, I felt Josie flinch beside me. As the smoke cleared, I could see why. Three live, white mice scurried across the table. Real mice! That was the prize. I’m thinking Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, will end out catching and eating them. There were party hats and jokes inside too.

By the end of the feast we had all pulled crackers ad gotten prizes. I pulled my first one with Josie. I won, but ended out with two snails and a slug. I did get a green party hat though. I pulled my second cracker with the youngest of the Weasley’s (Potter’s freckled friend). He won that one and let’s just say, Mrs. Norris has a lot more mice to catch. Josie pulled her second cracker with the other twin, George. Josie actually won that time, although I have a feeling that George let her. She got a handful of real caterpillars from her cracker. “I hope they turn into butterflies,” was the first thing that she said when she saw them. I would have been more worried about there being caterpillars in front of me to even think about their evolution – I guess that’s why she’s the Ravenclaw.

After the cracker pulling, the Weasley twins invited both me and Josie outside to play in the snow with them. It was absolutely amazing. The seven of us had a snowball fight. It lasted for hours. The twins, Josie and I were on one team, whilst Potter, his lanky friend and the Prefect were on the other. We won! The twins really were so much fun to hang around with. It was like having two extra hyperactive Jed’s running wild all day long. The two of them are so full of energy. They never seem to tire out.

*

When we all came back inside, the boys did invite us to hang out with them in the Gryffindor Common Room. It did sound like fun, but Josie and I decided that it was best if we just went straight back to Ravenclaw’s instead. The twins seemed a little disappointed by our departure from the group, but part of me still thinks that they preferred being around Josie than me; Josie completely disagrees though, she thinks George has a thing for me. I definitely don’t see it.

Now that Josie and I had some alone time, I made it my Christmas Day goal to try and get as much out of her as possible. Sitting opposite her in one of the Ravenclaw armchairs by the fire, I realised just how little I know about her. Both she and Jed are my best friends, but I see so much more of Jed. I know what his parents do for a living, I know that they approve of Muggle families, that he’s into Wizard-Rock music, that his favourite colour is dark blue, his favourite food is a pumpkin pasty, he wants to be Beater on the Slytherin Quidditch team someday, he enjoys being centre of attention, he wants to own a little country house and have lots of exotic pets and when he grows up he wants to be an member of the Invisibility Task Force (which pretty much means that he wants to help find ways of keeping magical things invisible from Muggle families so that they don’t get suspicious – kind of like the whole Diagon Alley thing).

But Josie… I don’t even know her favourite colour. I know she like to read and one of her favourites is Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’, but other than that I just have assumptions that most other people could probably make: she’s shy and quiet around most people until you crack her surface, but she doesn’t like letting people near, once you get to know her she’s definitely fun to be around. Some of the remarks that she comes out with at Jed sometimes surprise me. She can be quite hot-headed when she wants to be. And I love her individuality – she has no intention of copying what everyone else is doing and she never throws a comment back at anyone’s sly remarks about her fashion sense. That may sound like a lot, but anyone could tell you that if they bothered to observe her for long enough. The stuff that I know about Jed, I know because we’re close and we talk. It’s stuff that I only know because we spend so much time together talking about anything and everything. Now’s my chance to get to know the real Josie.

“So?” I said with a yawn as I put down the book that I was flicking through. I wasn’t really reading it – just looking at some of the pictures. Josie slid her quill between the pages of her notebook and pushed herself forwards. “What’s Christmas like at your house?” I asked in the most conversational tone I could muster.

“Nothing special,” she said as her eyes darted to the flames in the fireplace. She stared at it for some time. I watched the reflection of the fames dancing in her glasses.

“Do you have a lot of family over, or is it just you and you parents?” I asked her, curling my knees up towards me.

“It’s nothing special,” she said again, as she glanced over towards me. Opening up her notebook, she leant against the arm of the chair and continued to write. “It’s just the usual really, except with a bigger dinner and a visit from Santa for the young ones. Someone usually ends out in a fight, but that’s just a typical day really.”

“Sounds like my house,” I told her with a laugh.

Alright, she was rather vague, but that was a little more out of her than I’ve had before. Going for my next step, I asked her what her parents did. Sadly, I never got an answer. Josie bounced up from her seat, saying she was going to the toilet. When she came back my question seemed long forgotten and felt a little rude to try and ask it again so soon. One positive thing from this though, was when she came back Josie said to me, “You like to read, don’t you MJ?”

“Yeah, why?” I asked as my eyes widened.

“I was wondering if you’d heard of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’?”

“Have I?” I exclaimed. “It’s one of my favourites!” We then spent the next hour talking about pirates, treasure, sailing ships, various film adaptions, our favourite characters, our favourite pirates – Josie knows an awful lot about Pirateology, which surprised me. I feel like I need to go look so much stuff up now about Calico Jack, Edward England and Bartholomew Roberts – if only there were a Muggle library around. This girl is just a walking, talking encyclopaedia of cool stuff.

She writes stories too – something else that I didn’t know we had in common. I see her writing all the time, but part of me just assumed that it was schoolwork; you know being a Ravenclaw and all. Boy was I wrong. “It’s based in a Muggle school,” she told me when I asked her about it. “It’s kind of about the school lives of three friends, but things turn weird when they discover that one of their teachers has magical powers. I guess it’s like the stuff that I wished about before I found out that I was a witch and came here.”

“Wow!” I squealed. “It sounds so cool. I write stories about a kid who discovers that he has magical powers too!” Again, we talked and talked and talked about stories. This is one of the reasons why I love this girl – even though she’s so clever when it comes to knowing all the magic stuff, she understands all of the ordinary Muggle that I love which I could never discuss with any of the Slytherins. I think it’s definitely safe to say that I get the best of both worlds.

*

When it was time for tea, Josie claimed she wasn’t hungry. “I ate too much earlier,” she told me. “You go on ahead… I’ll be fine.” I really didn’t feel like leaving her. It didn’t seem right. She definitely didn’t overfill her plate earlier – everyone else probably ate twice as much as she did. And we used up so much energy running around with the Weasley brothers, surely, she must be starving. ‘Maybe Josie just wanted a little time to herself,’ I realised as I made my way down to the Great Hall. She’s by herself so much that maybe spending so much time with me was a little too much for her. Maybe? I decided that I’d bring her some food up when I came back.

I still can’t get over how exciting it is to sit at the teacher’s table. I feel so important. The plates where filled with turkey sandwiches, crumpets, cheese crackers, trifle and cakes. It was almost as big as the feast earlier. Everyone asked where Josie was. “Arw,” sulked Fred. “I liked having another red-head around.” Professor McGonagall didn’t really approve of my leaving Josie on her own, but I promised that I’d take her up a piece of cake.

Walking back up to the Ravenclaw tower my cheeks were stinging from laughing too much. I pressed the backs of my fingers into my cheeks as I reached the top of the stairs. My stomach twinged. I stared a head at the eagle knocker. I licked my lips, as my palms grew sweaty. I was on my own. I had to answer a Ravenclaw riddle on my own. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and knocked. “Where may you find roads without carts, forests without trees, cities without houses?” asked the eagle. My mouth dropped. What the…? How in Merlin’s name was I supposed to get that?

“Think MJ, think,” I muttered to myself. Closing my eyes, I steadied my breathing as I tried to picture everything that the eagle had said. A road with no carts… well witches and wizards don’t drive… forests without trees… isn’t the definition of a forest a place filled with trees… maybe the trees have been cut down… and a city with no houses… maybe it’s a deserted city that got destroyed… That still leaves me with nothing. “Okay,” I whispered to myself. “Just picture a map.” There was a creak. My eyes shot open. The door had unlocked. Frowning I pushed it open. “Oh… of course,” I realised. “A map.” A map has roads, but no vehicles are on it; it has forests located, but there are no trees and it labels cities, but it doesn’t show any buildings. Now that was clever.

Entering the Ravenclaw Common Room, I spotted Josie curled up by the fire sewing something. Nearing her I said, “I brought you back a piece of cake… if you want it…” Looking up, Josie thanked me, but showed no signs of taking the cake from me. I placed the plate on the arm of the chair, which she was sitting on and watched her sew. “Whatcha makin’?” I asked her.

“Oh,” she smiled, looking up at me. “It’s just a felt flower. A jumper went into a hole, so I’m making this to cover it up.” She held it out towards me. She had cut out some deep-purple petals, two green leaves and a small swirl of yellow for the centre.

“Did you make all that while I was gone?” I asked. Josie nodded. “Without magic?” She nodded again. Wow, this girl was creative. “That’s amazing,” I told her. “I wish I could do that.”

“Of course, you can,” Josie smiled, and she spent the next half an hour trying to teach me. She makes it look so easy. Sadly, it’s not. It’s so fiddly and time consuming; I don’t know how she has the patients to make it. “I’d have made you one had I known you liked it,” she told me once I had given up.

“It’s fine,” I told her with a laugh. “I’ll just stick to writing. At least I’m semi-good at that.”

*

I couldn’t believe it when it was time for bed. Today has just been so much fun. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before: A real Christmas, with people who are happy to be in each other’s company. I got to spend the entire day with Josie. And I’ve made friends with the Weasleys – especially the twins. Even Potter doesn’t seem that bad anymore. I guess it just takes a day to get to know someone to change your mind. I can’t wait until tomorrow. Priscilla is letting me borrow her owl, Lysander, to send letters to anyone if I want to over Christmas. She’s on holiday with her parents and she didn’t want to have to keep her owl locked up in a cage (her father is a Muggle and he’s apparently not too keen on having Lysander around), so she’s left him at Hogwarts. I’m going to write to her, Jed and my parents tomorrow and tell them all about Christmas at Hogwarts.

- Josie -