An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The twins, Lee, and I spent another hour sneaking around the Malibu house, setting up pranks to surprise my family the next time they came for a visit. I made a mental note to try to sway everyone in the direction of a beach retreat as soon as possible, and then the four of us rejoined our other friends in the blanket fort to finish the night out with a movie marathon. Our setup in the Tower was perfect and ours, but watching my friends react to the high def and the surround sound in the house's living room after living with a projector and a portable speaker for two years was absolutely priceless.

When I finally opened a sling portal back to Hogwarts at the end of the night, all of us were smiling and leaning on each other, glowing with happy relaxation. I loved it, and from the way the twins gave me extra tight, long hugs before heading upstairs to go to bed, I got the feeling they did too.

Their birthday celebration had been a success, and exactly what all of us needed for a break.

We had to do quite a bit of work over the weekend, but we managed to maintain the more relaxed energy despite that. With a two week break for Easter just one week of school away, the light at the end of the tunnel had started to shine brighter than ever.

"So are you guys planning to go back to Grimmauld?" I asked the twins as we walked side by side to the Room of Requirement. We had our last meeting of the DA before break tonight, which put an extra bounce in my step on top of what the twins' birthday had done. They both shook their heads.

"We've got too much work to do for the joke shop," said Fred.

"And we won't be able to get any of it done with mum hovering," added George. I came to a full stop in the hallway, hands on my hips, and fixed the twins with a frown.

"You're kidding. You two are skipping a break for work? Now who needs an intervention?"

"Nice try, Alexa," said George. He grinned, then he and Fred moved to either side of me, linking their arms with mine and tugging me down the hall with them. "But you just gave us a break."

"Our birthday was the perfect no-work intervention. It'll hold us over until the other side of the holidays."

I shook my head and rolled by eyes, but didn't put up too much of a fight. I had absolutely no room to criticize people for prioritizing work they were passionate about, after all.

The twins knew that as well as I did, and although they didn't say anything, I could see them gloating with their smug smiles and chins held high. I huffed a little, but when we stepped through the doors to join the rest of the DA, I lost interest in anything other than Harry's lesson of the day.

He announced at the beginning that we'd be doing Patronuses. I'd done them before, as had the rest of my year, but we were really the only ones who'd had decent practice. Remus Lupin was the only completely competent DADA teacher we'd ever had, and even then, a little extra practice certainly wouldn't hurt us.

"Alexa?" called Harry after giving the room a brief of our lesson for the day. "Care to demonstrate with me?"

I grinned. I knew exactly why Harry had asked me, and I didn't mind one bit. We stood back to back at the front of the room, everyone watching us eagerly. The ones who knew about my Patronus watched with excitement, while everyone else just looked curious.

"Alright then," said Harry. I conjured up my latest happy memory, in the water with my friends in Malibu. "In three, two, one."

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" we shouted at the same time. Right on cue, the glowing, silvery form of the Hulk burst out of my wand and started rampaging around the room. I heard gasps and shouts, especially as the Hulk met Harry's glowing stag Patronus and they started moving around together. I turned to him with a grin.