The next few weeks were much, much calmer. Classes were normal, there were no deadly Quidditch matches, and my biggest problem became trying to explain to my friends why I was spending time watching sports with Cedric instead of playing exploding snaps with them.
"Guys, you can come watch the game with us too," I said every time.
"No way! Muggle sports are boring!" they protested right back.
Lee came to watch one game with us, but unfortunately it was a really easy game with no real lead-change or nail biter moments, so he didn't come back.
It wasn't until lunch on Monday during the last full week of November that things started getting interesting again.
I sat down in the Great Hall and opened my laptop, trying to get an early start on my muggle work this week. At first, balancing two different school workloads was hard, but now I was in a pretty good rhythm. My online teacher usually posted a friendly message to everybody to start the week. This week's said we had a much lighter course load in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Thanksgiving! How could I forget about that?
"Hey, do we leave for Thanksgiving break at all this week?" I asked George, who was sitting next to me.
"What's Thanksgiving?" he asked through a mouthful of food.
"Ugh, dammit," I groaned, mostly to myself. "I forgot that's not a British thing."
"Wait, what is it?" asked Fred, joining the conversation.
"It's an American muggle holiday," I explained. "It's supposed to celebrate this historical event and like, the fourth Thursday in November is a day where we all eat food and spend time with family and give thanks for everything. It's a good holiday. Bruce always makes the best mashed potatoes..."
I trailed off, lost in memories of getting all the Avengers (and everyone else associated with them) gathered around the dinner table to spend time together. No fighting villains, no fighting each other. Just eating.
"Alexa? Are you okay?" asked George, snapping me out of my memories. I cleared my throat.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just feeling a little homesick."
"Well, maybe we can help!" said Fred. "We could do our own Thanksgiving, right here!"
"Yeah!" George agreed, looking excited. "Freddie and I can get the food from the kitchens. We've always known how to get stuff out of there."
"Aw, guys! That's a great idea! A bunch of friends and I usually do a Friendsgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving, so we can celebrate like that!" The wheels started spinning in my head, already breaking down all the planning and supplies we'd need. "Okay, I'll make a list of everything we need food-wise and get it to you tonight."
"Sounds good to us!"
"We'll start spreading the word tomorrow," I decided, turning back to my muggle homework. "Once I figure out where the hell we're gonna do this."
****************
Luckily for me, Monday meant double History of Magic in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to plan Friendsgiving. By the end of the period I had a food list for Fred and George, along with a rough invite list. I decided to search the castle before dinner for a location.
I quickly decided none of the classrooms were going to work; they weren't big enough, and they had too much of a school vibe. The Great Hall would be full of students having a normal dinner, so that was out. After looking around at a few more rooms and ruling them all out, I decided it might be a good idea to have it outside.
Normally, it would be way too cold to have anything outside right now. But this was Hogwarts, and I had magic. It wouldn't be too hard to make a nice tent set up with heaters and pretty decorations in the courtyard.
Once I'd found my location, I hopped on my computer to design some invitations. I made a cute little card that briefly explained what Friendsgiving was and where and when we were doing it, and I used magic to make a bunch of copies. As much as I argued that wizards were too reliant on magic, it seriously came in handy sometimes.
By the time I went to dinner, I had everything ready to put Friendsgiving into motion.
"Here you go guys," I said, handing invitations to Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, and Alicia.
"Friendsgiving... what's this?" asked Lee, scanning the invite.
"It's a muggle holiday that we're gonna celebrate on Thursday. Anybody's welcome to come, so spread the word! Invite anybody I might've missed."
My friends nodded, taking a closer look at their invitations, and I kept walking along the Gryffindor table. I came to Hermione, Ron, and Harry next.
"Hermione! Come to Friendsgiving," I said, passing them all invitations.
"Ooo! I've always wondered about the American tradition of Thanksgiving." Of course she had. "Thank you, Alexa!"
I waved over my shoulder and kept walking. I got the rest of the Quidditch team (Katie and Oliver), then came to Percy at the end of the table, nose deep in a book.
I debated for a second, wondering if I was really going to do this. Percy was a lot to handle, but he genuinely tried to help me and encourage me pretty much every chance he got.
Fred and George were going to kill me.
"Hey Perce," I said, stalling just a little bit. I glanced back at Fred and George, but they hadn't noticed me.
"Hello, Alexa." Percy carefully shut his book, then looked up to give me his full attention. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Have you ever heard of Thanksgiving?" I asked. No going back now.
"Hmm... I don't believe I have. What is it?"
"It's a muggle holiday that we're celebrating on Thursday with a bunch of food and friends." I held out one of my invitations. "I'd love it if you came."
"Oh, excellent! Thank you Alexa, I truly can't wait." Percy literally beamed at me, and I decided I made the right choice. No matter what the twins would say.
"Feel free to invite Penelope or any of your other friends," I said. Percy nodded, and I started heading for the next table over: Hufflepuff.
The only person I really knew from Hufflepuff was Cedric, but he was so friendly I figured he was probably close friends with half the house. I gave him a quick synopsis of what Thanksgiving was and how Friendsgiving was different, and he promised to bring plenty of his Hufflepuff friends with him.
"I could come early to help you set things up too, if you'd like," he offered.
"Oh, for the love of God," I said, rolling my eyes. "Hufflepuffs are too nice."
I started walking away towards the Ravenclaw table, and Cedric called after me.
"I'll be in the courtyard right after class!" I could hear the smile in his voice.
I found Cassidy and David and gave them each a pack of invitations, entrusting them to spread the word to all our friends and WWHRS members. I looked at the Slytherin table, but like Hufflepuff, I didn't really have any friends there. It seemed wrong that one house was completely missing from our Friendsgiving celebration, so I made a mental note to make some new Slytherin friends tomorrow. Fortunately, my Tuesday started with History of Magic with the Slytherins. The perfect opportunity.
****************
"Alexa! How could you!"
I was in the middle of planning which Slytherin to approach first, sitting in class before Binns arrived to start teaching, when I heard Fred yelling from the door to the classroom.
"What?" I asked, turning around in genuine confusion. I hadn't told them about my Slytherin plan yet, so they couldn't be mad about that.
"You invited Percy to Friendsgiving?" George demanded, giving me a stern look that seriously reminded me of his brother.
"It's not enough that we have to spend every family meal with him," continued Fred. "We have to share this one with him now too?"
I sighed. "I'm sorry guys. I probably should've given you a heads up. But look, Percy's been nothing but nice to me while I've been here, as annoying as he can be sometimes. I can't leave him out."
Fred and George groaned and rolled their eyes, slumping into their seats in front of me.
"Sorry guys! If it makes you feel better, you don't have to sit anywhere near him."
Fred and George didn't turn around, but their postures relaxed and I figured we'd be fine. I turned my attention back to the task at hand: making friends with one of the Slytherins in my class.
Eventually, I decided my best course of action would be to just talk to the first Slytherin who walked into the room. Couldn't hurt to try the direct approach, right?
Unfortunately for me, Cassius Warrington was the first Slytherin to walk in. We were already decidedly not friends from Quidditch, but I decided to try anyway.
"Hey Cassius," I said, getting his attention as he walked to his usual table. "How's it going?"
"Better before you spoke to me."
He sat down without another word or even a glance in my direction. I felt this flash of anger, and I was about to stand up and tell him off when Lee sat down next to me and leaned over to whisper.
"Psst. What are you doing?"
I took a deep breath and turned back to Lee, consciously forcing myself to let go of what Cassius said. He was a jerk, but I didn't care.
"I'm making friends with a Slytherin," I said, giving Lee a determined look.
"Why?"
"Don't be like that! We want all the houses represented at Friendsgiving. Besides, I'm sure not everyone is a cranky asshole like Cassius." I said the last part loudly over my shoulder, aimed directly at Cassius. It helped me get rid of the last bit of anger still stuck in my system.
"Alexa, are you sure this is such a good-"
"Hold that thought Lee, someone else is coming in." I turned in my chair to see Adrian Pucey walk in with Myrah Abdoll. They didn't sit with Cassius, which gave me hope that they would be nicer.
I stood up since Binns wasn't here yet and walked over to Adrian and Myrah's table. I pulled a chair over and sat across from them, and they both gave me suspicious looks.
"Hey guys! What's up?" I said, refusing to be deterred.
"...What's going on here?" asked Adrian, sounding ready to jump up and fight me any second. That was probably fair, since most of Hogwarts and my house especially were not very friendly to the Slytherins.
"Okay, here's the thing," I started, deciding to stop beating around the bush. "I'm planning a friends-dinner-holiday-celebration thing and when I was handing out invitations yesterday, I realized I was friends with somebody from every house but Slytherin. I decided I didn't like that, and I wanted to do something about it. So, I was hoping I could come to class and make friends with you guys today."
Myrah and Adrian still looked skeptical, so I continued.
"I already tried to make friends with Cassius, but he shut me down real quick." I paused. "I mean, I kinda walked into it I guess. I asked him how his day was."
Adrian squinted at me, sighed heavily, then spoke. "And what did he say?"
"I believe his exact words were 'better before you spoke to me'." I cracked a smile, and with my cue Adrian and Myrah started laughing with me.
"I mean, you did set him up quite well for that response," offered Myrah with a smile.
"That is very true," I admitted. "I really gotta stop walking into that stuff. I guess this is why I wasn't in Ravenclaw."
We all laughed for a little while longer, and I could feel their tension and apprehension going away. Adrian and Myrah were still being careful around me, but we'd made amazing progress in a span of about five minutes.
None of the other Slytherins came over to us, but I hung out with Adrian and Myrah for the rest of the lesson. They were genuinely fun people to be around, and by the time the lesson was over I decided they were the perfect addition to Friendsgiving.
"So what's this holiday celebration thing you were talking about?" asked Adrian as the bell rang to signal the end of class.
"Well Adrian, I'm so glad you asked. It's an American muggle holiday where you give thanks for the things in your life and eat a ton of food." I pulled out two invitations and passed them across the desk. "It'll be a ton of fun, trust me."
"Alright, we'll be there," Myrah decided with a small smile.
"Awesome! And hey, feel free to invite any other friends you want to. Even Cassius, if you really have to." I barely managed to get the last part out, but for the sake of friendship I did it.
"Nah, don't worry about that," said Adrian. "We don't like him either. He's a complete arse and he took my spot on the Quidditch team."
"Seriously?" Adrian and Myrah nodded. "Well damn, I'll tell the twins to go rough on him with the Bludgers when we finally get to play you guys."
Adrian laughed. "Thanks Alexa. See you in a bit."
"See you guys!" I waved to my new friends as they left the classroom, getting weird looks from my friends and theirs alike.
"Really Alexa?" asked Fred as we headed to our next class.
"Ah, don't worry guys. Trust me, you're gonna love Adrian and Myrah. You'll get plenty of time to get to know them, too, since they're gonna sit with us."
"You're kidding, right?" asked George.
"Nope! Don't worry, it'll be a great time."
My friends rolled their eyes and shook their heads, but I ignored them. This was shaping up to be the perfect Friendsgiving.