by
Catherine King
It was Christmas time again. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were happily walking into the Charms classroom, which had a number of golden spheres floating along the walls, and Professor Flitwick gave Neville extra cerdit for a horrible mistake.
“Remember, everyone,” Flitwick squeaked, trying to get a good view of everyone while needing a stack of books just to see the top of his desk, “not everybody can make a Christmas garland blossom out of their wand. Give an applause for Mr. Longbottom.”
The class went to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and when they walked in, Professor Gradison was reading a book entitled “The Magic of Christmas” by Joycee Merry, and was also singing, “Come, they told me, pa ru pum pum pum, our new-born king to see, pa ru pum pum pum…” Then she looked up. “Oh, sorry, I was just singing my favorite Christmas carol, ‘The Little Drummer Boy,’ and I didn’t hear you come in…”
The class had a good lesson involving killer Christmas trees that run around and freak the Muggles out of their skulls, and then the Ministry of Magic having to get the trees, replace them with real trees, and do a Memory Charm on the Muggles.
Walking up to the Gryffindor common room that evening, discussing their plans for the holidays, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just rounded a corner when Ron stopped.
“Whassa matter?” asked Harry.
“I dunno,” said Ron, “I just have the feeling that we’re being watched.”
Hermione and Harry shrugged, and the trio walked on, not even wondering if Ron could be right - oops, I think I did it again.
A strange mist all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere, stopping them in their tracks. Out of the mist came a face, a face that looked more like a white, flat snake face than anything. That - that thing stared at them straight in the eye, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione did a very stupid and yet very wise thing: they ran away from the face and were forced to do their homework in the library, and didn’t go back up until Hermione had finally triple-checked all of their homework, which gave Ron and Harry some time to study for the end-of-term tests before the holidays. But they were still a 1,000% freaked.
When Professor McGonagall made a list of who would be staying, Harry was almost startled to see how few people were staying. Hermione didn’t even sign up.
“My family is going to have a reunion at Christmastime,” she explained. “My older sister’s boyfriend, who, last year, learned that I’m magical, wants to hear about my magical life. And it’d be nice to see my family again. You ought to have some of Aunt Teresa’s strawberry-rhubarb pie, and my dad’s mother makes these delicious cookies - oh, I cannot put it into words. Of course, Mom and Dad approve, even though they’re dentists, remember? And I want to see Olivia, she’s my 2-month-old cousin, and a big cutie, also Aunt Cookie…”
Professor Sprout taught them about evening glories in Herbology.
“Now, evening glories are the total opposites of morning glories. They bloom in the afternoon, and seem to shrivel up in the morning. The evening glory is a fine ground cover for shade and needs a lot of water, but the hardy, climbing morning glory is extremely drought-resistant and loves sun. However, both of them will cover a great amount of space if not pruned.” She paused while the whole class copied down all of this. “Though white, usually speckled with blues, pink, and purples, Muggles seldom notice the plants. They are formed in the same way. The morning glory has heart-shaped leaves, wheras the evening glory has circular leaves. The morning glory is a Muggle plant, but the evening glories are wizard plants.”
Charms involved making warm, soft snow appear out of the tips of their wands. It made them all shiver with delight. Care of Magical Creatures was filled with tiny creatures that looked more like mounds of snow than anything else. Hagrid called these weird things Culstines.
“When Muggles spot ‘em, they call ‘em abominable snowmen,” Hagrid told them. “Some call the guys ‘abominable snowmen from Pasadena,’ whatever the *%!@ that means.” Hermione and Dean Thomas grinned. They were the two Muggle-borns of the group. They knew that Pasadena was a city somewhere in Southern California (I wish this could take place in The Golden State - Ha! J).
The Divination lesson was the most boring yet - trying to form a picture in the mind from the flames (snore). Harry wasn’t concentrating, however. His mind was arguing, something like this:
Id: HELP!! I am being held by an almost crazy woman!
Super Ego: Wait, was that a horse in the fire?
Ego: Professor Trelawny is not crazy, and the only thing I see in the fire are bright ribbons of flames - very boring, after a while.
Id: What on earth am I doing in here on this beuatiful day? This is the only life I’ve got! AAAAHH!!
Super Ego: Next time try a drink of water and a few deep breaths.
Ego: I kinda agree with him, ya know…
“Alright, now class is dismissed,” said Professor Trelawnley.
“Oh, Professor,” said Lavender Brown breathlessly. “I wish it could last longer.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Parvati Patil.
“Me, too,” whispered Ron in an undertone to Harry. “I needed some sleep, and I couldn’t see anything anyway.”
Herbology was next, and Neville hurried to get partnered with Sally-Anne Perks (hee hee). Harry, Ron, and Hermione were partnered with Susan Bones.
“Can you believe that we’ll soon be leaving Hogwarts?” she asked as they poured dragon dung on a heap of tiny Sprisen plants. “I mean, it still seems like we have a million things to be taught. Hogsmeade has become third nature, almost. By the way,” she looked around to see that no one was watching, “I overheard this: there is a church in the back of the school, called the Hogwarts Chapel, and seventh years must make a special retreat to it, for one whole day, to pray and stuff like that. The retreat shall take place the day before holiday starts. All the Houses will be going separately.”
