Even though life at Hogwarts could never be considered normal, I did get back to my usual routine after Thanksgiving. I kept waiting for Quidditch to pick back up, but apparently the next match wasn't until January.
"That's ridiculous," I said to Oliver one morning over breakfast. "Each team only plays three games a year?"
"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" he shouted back, absolutely lighting up.
I shouldn't have mentioned it.
The rest of my classes kept going as usual, and as we got closer and closer to Christmas break I discovered my new favorite thing about Hogwarts: no semester finals.
In my muggle school, we always had massive tests in every class right before Christmas break. It was a week full of awful stress, especially when you had to make time to buy presents in between studying and being at school. I kept waiting for the ball to drop and for one of our teachers to mention a final, but no one said a word.
One morning, I decided to just ask Fred and George about it. It was Monday morning and we were all going home for Christmas this upcoming Sunday, and I didn't want to get hit with a surprise test that I somehow missed hearing about.
"Hey guys," I started, bringing the subject up over toast at breakfast. "Just wanted to make sure... we don't have any massive tests in our classes this week, do we?"
"What?" cried Fed.
"No!" exclaimed George.
"Why would you think that we do?" asked Fred, starting to look a little panicked.
"It's normal to have big tests before break at my muggle school," I quickly explained, trying to calm them down. "It just seemed too good to be true that I could really avoid that here."
Both boys visibly relaxed, slouching back into their seats.
"Oh, thank goodness," sighed George. "No, the only thing we have coming up before we all go home on Sunday is another Hogsmeade visit."
"Oh heck yes! I'm gonna buy so much weird magical stuff for my family..." I trailed off, already trying to plan things out in my head. I'd have to be careful; I didn't want things like that magic teacup somehow ending up in Loki's hands and literally coming back to bite me later.
"Say, Alexa," started Fred, leaning in closer and lowering his voice. George did the same. "You've already memorized the Marauder's Map, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I have. Why are we whispering?"
"Well, we were thinking about giving the Map to Harry. Ron told us he hasn't been allowed to go to Hogsmeade. The muggles he lives with are absolutely horrible, and they wouldn't sign the permission form."
"So we were thinking we'd spread some Christmas cheer a little early," George continued. "Pass on the Map and point Harry in the direction of the one-eyed witch."
"Guys, that sounds like a great idea. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No, we've got it covered," said George, leaning back to sit normally again. "We just wanted to make sure you didn't need to relearn anything."
"Thanks for double-checking guys," I smiled, going back to buttering my toast. "But don't worry, I've got a crazy good memory. I don't think I'll be forgetting that Map for a long, long time."
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The nice thing about taking all online classes was that I really didn't have a final for any of them either. I just had to have all my work done and turned in by the end of the week, and I was good to go. We had a few tests to complete on our own time included in that work, but nothing I couldn't handle.
I sat down in my last class of the day, double History of Magic, and opened my laptop to start working on my online homework. History of Magic was the most boring class with the most inattentive teacher, so it became routine to do most or all of my online homework during that class period.
This was not my best plan. Essays and homework for HoM always took me much longer than they should, since I had to go learn everything myself from books, and God help me when we eventually got to test time. But I was here now, and it just wasn't worth it to change my routine.
Despite spending the full two hours of class working diligently, I couldn't quite slog my way through all the muggle work. Fortunately, between Tuesday morning's class and Friday morning's class, I managed to finish everything off without doing work outside of school.
By the end of the day on Friday, I was completely free from all academic responsibilities.
As soon as the bell rang for Transfiguration, my friends and I were leaping out of our seats. Professor McGonagall wished us all a happy break and we barely had time to call "you too!" over our shoulders before we were out the door and headed for Hogsmeade.
"You four go on ahead," said George as we got closer to the castle doors. "Freddie and I need to take care of something first."
"We'll meet up with you later!" Fred called over his shoulder as the two headed off down a side corridor.
"Any idea what that was about?" asked Lee.
"Yeah. They're giving Harry an early Christmas present," I answered. We watched Fred and George go for another minute, then continued on our way to Hogsmeade. As we got outside and began walking the snowy path, I was suddenly struck with inspiration. I stopped in my tracks. "Guys. I just had the best idea."
"And what's that?" asked Angelina.
"Okay, I know we were planning on going to Hogsmeade today to do Christmas shopping and whatnot, but we can still get all that done tomorrow, right?" My three friends nodded, looking extremely curious to see where the hell I was going with this. "Okay, good."
Without another word, I left the path and marched into the deep snow.
My friends were looking at me in total confusion. I ignored them, instead using my wand to make a little snow fort before bending down and packing the perfect snowball. Then, without warning, I whipped around and nailed Lee right in the face.
"Snowball fight!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, immediately taking cover to make more. Angelina, Alicia, and Lee quickly followed suit, making their own snow forts with magic and then diving into the snow to make snowballs the muggle way (which was also the more fun way).
I darted out from behind the walls of my fort and landed a few good hits on Alicia, then Angelina snuck up behind me and damn near buried me in snow with a massive snow boulder. We continued like that for a few minutes, the four of us lost in a furious storm of snowballs flying back and forth, and then I decided to call a truce.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Timeout!" I yelled, not daring to look over the walls of my fort. Slowly, I peeked my head around to see my three friends doing the same.
I could tell they all had snowballs ready to go at a moments notice, just in case someone decided to break timeout.
"Fred and George are going to come out here any minute," I said, leaning out a little more. "I say the four of us call an official truce and decimate them on sight."
My friends' faces all broke into grins and they quickly agreed. We rearranged our forts to make one big wall that we could peek out from behind, made an arsenal of snowballs, and waited for the twins.
We didn't have to wait long. They came strolling out of the school doors together, looking very pleased with themselves. I guess things went well with Harry.
"Okay, on my mark," I whispered as the twins got closer. "Wait for it... wait for it... three, two, one... NOW! ATTACK!"
Lee and I came flying around the right wall of our fort and Angelina and Alicia swung out from behind the left one. The twins didn't even have time to yell before they were completely covered in a dusting of snow, and I was already popping back behind the wall for more ammo.
"Alexa!" roared Fred. I peeked around the corner to see a terrifyingly mischievous grin on his face.
"We're gonna get you for that!" George agreed. I could see him building a massive fort with his wand, and I suddenly realized I may have made a mistake.
Oh well, no going back now. My only choice was to be all in.
"No magic to make snowballs!" I yelled, bursting out from my hiding place and pelting the twins before ducking back behind a new drift I made. Any order we started out with quickly disappeared as the Hogwarts grounds became a battlefield for a snowball war.
We started out with rough teams, but now it was everyone for themselves. I even saw Fred hit George in the back of the head with a snowball before cackling and running off.
A few minutes into our epic battle, another group of students came out the castle doors. Adrian and Myrah were walking towards us, probably on their way to Hogsmeade, with no idea of what was about to come.
I didn't hesitate, grabbing as many snowballs as I could and rushing towards the pair.
"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" I bellowed, pelting them with my projectiles. They both looked mad at first, and I worried that I'd just ruined our new friendship, but then Adrian got this gleam in his eye and Myrah started packing snowballs.
"Oh, Alexa. You have no idea the mistake you just made," said Adrian, grinning at me wickedly. I didn't waste a second before I took off running, cackling and gathering snowballs along the way. I should've known my Slytherin friends would be out for blood as soon as I got them involved in the snowball fight.
Perfect.
The rest of the battle was absolute chaos, in the best way possible. Adrian and Myrah destroyed any order we might've had with their crazy surprise attacks that left you face down in the snow with no idea how you got there.
As the battle raged on, more and more students kept joining in. I saw Cassidy sprint by, looking terrified and exhilarated at the same time, and I managed to sneak up on Cedric and dump a massive snowball on his head. We kept going until it got too dark to see anymore, and by the time we all headed in for dinner, I'd be willing to bet we had half the school out there with us.
"That was awesome," I declared, grinning and shivering as we walked back to the castle.
"You're bloody right," agreed Lee with a megawatt smile of his own. As we sat down in the Great Hall, almost everyone continued laughing and talking and calling to one another, regardless of what house they were in.
It was the first time I'd seen it happen, and it would probably never happen again, but still. It was nice to see, and as far as I was concerned, it was the best possible way to end my first four months at Hogwarts.
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The next morning, my friends and I got up early to go to Hogsmeade. We all had a lot of shopping to do and barely enough time to do it. We had to stay until just before the curfew, but somehow we managed to get everything.
I woke up on Sunday with everything packed (having a trunk like the Tardis made packing easy), and Angelina, Alicia and I walked down to breakfast to meet the boys. We loaded onto the train barely an hour later, all slumping down into a compartment for the journey ahead.
"This feels so weird," I said, looking around at Fred, George, and Lee. "I mean, we were just here four months ago. But it feels like it's been so much longer."
"Suddenly being in a magical world will do that to you," said Fred. "Now, who's up for a game of exploding snaps?"
We laughed and talked the rest of the way home, and I found it hard to say goodbye once we got to the platform in London. As much as I wanted to see New York again, it was going to be a long two weeks without my awesome new friends.
All that sadness melted away, however, when I parted ways with my friends and saw my dad. He was standing in the middle of the platform in a Black Sabbath t-shirt and sunglasses, sticking out like a sore thumb from all the wizards. I didn't realize how much I really missed him until he was standing right in front of me.
I ran over and gave him a hug, burying my face in his chest. We could talk over video chat every day, but that still couldn't replace the feeling of giving him a hug and feeling him kiss my forehead. I missed this.
"Dad. It's so good to see you again," I said, pulling back to look at him.
"It's good to see you too sweetheart." He smiled, and I could tell that he missed me as much as I missed him. Maybe even more. "Now, let's get going. We have a flight to catch back to New York, and there are a ton of people waiting to see you back home who are going to be very mad at me if I don't get you there as soon as possible."
I grinned, and we loaded my trunk onto a cart to take it out of the station. It was going to be a long flight home, but right now nothing could ruin my mood. I would take a thirty-hour flight by myself with a crying baby without complaint as long as I knew I was on my way to see my family in person again.