Jennifer’s POV
The taste melts in my mouth. I think I’m in heaven. Ahhh. Suddenly a boy nudges my shoulder, causing me to drop my piece of heaven. I feel steam start to escape from my ears, seriously. I take my chocolate chip, rice krispie, oreo sandwiches very seriously. I turn around, ready to murder him.
Suddenly he turns around and grabs both of my shoulders. What the heck? He starts to shake me. Is he crazy?
“Wake up!” I hear Bianca’s voice come out of his mouth. You have no idea how creepy it looked....
I open my eyes and see Bianca next to my bed. I feel a sudden craving now.... Bianca raises her eyebrows with an amused expression on her face.
I quickly get dressed and head to the Great Hall with Bianca.
“So what were you dreaming about?” Bianca asked as we take our seat at the Hufflepuff table. “You had a really angry expression on your face.”
I tell her my dream. She looked at me when I was done, then burst out laughing. Sigh. I have to give up hope that anyone will take my snack seriously.
We stand up to get to our first class of the day. Her brown braids grew about an inch and she grew a bit taller. I grab my things and reach in my pocket for my heaven. I pull out my beloved snack. Bianca must have seen the look in my eyes, as she looks at me confused. Like I said. No one understands. It’s a shame really.
I begin unwrapping my snack when someone nudges me on the shoulder trying to get to their class, making it drop to the floor. I widen my eyes and look up to see who made me drop my rice krispie sandwich.
….....my worst nightmare is coming true!!!!!
I look to see Collin, wide eyed, worry faced. He rushes back over.
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry. I was trying to get to class. Are you okay?” He spat out in two seconds tops.
“You made me drop....” I look down at the ground. Collin hesitantly picks it up and examines it with a weird look on his face. Much like many when they see my snack. I don’t blame him. I snatch it out of his hands and I begin brushing it with my fingers.
Collin and Bianca exchange a glance at each other. Luckily it was still wrapped when it dropped. So it’s still edible. I sigh a breath of relief.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about.” I say in a sweet voice. Collin nods in understanding.
“JUST DON’T YOU DARE DO IT EVER AGAIN!” Collin nods frightened. I smile back at him. We continue to walk to class as I carefully fully unwrap my snack. Our first class is Charms with the Ravenclaws. I stop dead on my tracks.
Bianca and Collin notice, turning around to see if I’m alright. I look at them slowly, shaking.
“Are you alright?” Collin asked hesitantly.
I take a deep breath and walk back up to them.
“Here, you can have it.” I say, passing the snack to him. He looks at me confused.
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“I broke the cookie trying to open it. It doesn’t taste the same. Considering you never ate one, try it.” I say simply. I never eat a broken rice krispie sandwich. Ever. It just doesn’t taste right. Mock me all you want. It’s my opinion.
Collin breaks it in half and hands the other half to Bianca, who takes it. They both take a bite. I wait for their reactions. They finally tasted heaven.
“Oh my gosh, this thing is amazing!” Collin exclaimed, taking another bite. I nod in agreement. Finally!!
“It’s okay. A bit too sweet for my liking though.” Bianca says, finishing it up. “Come on, about time we get to class.
Collin and I walk behind her. Eyes drilling on her back. How can she say that about a rice krispie sandwich?! It’s preposterous!
I go in and take my seat next to Bianca (the betrayer....) and Natalie. Charms was never my best subject, so I’m quite nervous. Collin takes the seat next to Bianca. Next to Natalie sits Joey and Zoey. I find it funny how their names rhyme.
“Hey.” I greet everyone. Joey and Zoey smile at me.
“Hi.” Natalie greets. “What took so long? Class is about to start.”
“Yeah....Can you make me more rice krispie sandwiches?” I ask politely, smiling at her. She looks at me questioning.
“What happened to the one I gave you for today?”
“It broke...so I gave it to Bianca and Collin...” I drift off. “And I can’t believe she didn’t think much of it!! It’s crazy.” I spat out, slumping on the seat. Natalie laughs.
Professor Flitwick goes to the front and stands on his usual stack of books. I hope he doesn’t make us do aquafenti this class. Oh, I mean aguamenti. He he....
“Hello class, today we will be learning the mending charm which is a spell that fixes most broken objects. The incantation is Reparo. Now say it with me."
“Reparo.” says the whole class.
“Good, now in front of you on every table there are a few different broken objects. I want you all to try and fix them. Everyone try now.”
In front of me is a broken tea cup. I point my wand at the cup and say “Reparo” The cup fixes but after a few seconds it falls apart. Oh gosh, charms just hate me don’t they?
“Open your books to page 143. Homework is to write a seven inch essay on the colour changing spell. Your job will be to figure out the incantation for the charm and how it works. You may use books as reference. There should be no talking.”
He gives us some time to start our homework in class considering there's a fair bit of time left. I flip through my beat up copy of The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2) by Miranda Goshawk. The entire book is falling apart, but I guess I have to deal with it. I reach page 142 and flip the page. The page number reads page 144.
…..you’ve gotta be kidding me. The entire section of the spell is gone?! By this point, Natalie is already done her essay. Talk about fast. I nudge her and point to her book. She hands it too me.
I re-open. Her book is in perfect condition. Mine looks like it went through some natural disaster or something.
“Hey, can I borrow your textbook since your done?”
“Yeah, of course. Here.” she says.
“Thanks, how did you finish it so fast anyway?” I ask.
“Oh, I did it yesterday.” she says.
“Yesterday? We just got this assigned today. Are you a Seer? What's going to be on the charms exam?” I say as Professor Flitwick dismisses us and we walk out the door.
“I’m not a Seer. I just predicted he would give us a essay on it so I did it yesterday. After a year I found a pattern. Professor Flitwick always gives essays for the next charm in the book.” she says.
“Oh, but what if you predicted wrong?” I ask.
“Then I would have done extra work.” says Natalie like she didn’t care at all she did more than necessary.
“But then you would have done a bunch of work for no reason at all. You could have spent that time doing other stuff.” I say.
“Well, then it would have been extra practise and I don’t have much else to do anyway.” she says.
“How can you have nothing to do? There’s so much to do that sometimes I end up staying up till twelve just to finish it.” I say surprised. Do all Ravenclaw’s just sit in their dormitories and do homework all day?
“Well that’s how it works out for me. Anyway need to get to my next class. See you later.” she says as she follows Zoey and Joey in another direction.
Well I need to find Natalie some more hobbies. She should spend her time doing fun things, not homework. I can’t stand doing homework while she does extra? We’re like opposites but maybe that’s why we’re friends.
***
THE DUELLING CLUB
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A
DUELIST/DUELER?
THEN THE DUELLING CLUB IS THE
CLUB FOR YOU!
LEARN JINXES, HEXES, CHARMS AND MANY
MORE.
WHO KNOWS? IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE SOMEDAY!
IF YOU WISH TO JOIN COME TO THE GREAT HALL
TOMORROW AFTER CLASSES.
Cool, a dueling club. That would be so much fun. Maybe the four of us should join. After last year, I think that we should become way more prepared, especially after what the Sorting Hat said about people who have succeeded before. I go to find the others to ask them about the club.
I find the three of them in the library.
“Hey,” I say as I sit down besides Natalie.
“Hey, have you seen the notice on the board about the duelling club?” asks Michelle.
“Yeah, I was just about to ask if we should join. It could come in handy someday.” I say.
“That’s what we thought. We were just going to find you but then you showed up.” says Tamara.
“Who do you think runs it?” asks Michelle.
“It could be a teacher or some students. There used to be a Duelling Club at Hogwarts but it was disbanded twice. The first time because the professor lost his memory somehow and the second time was when Voldemort was defeated and the need for it became useless.” says Natalie.
“But why would they think we would need it again?” asks Tamara.
“I don’t know, maybe they thought we might need it after what happened last year and what the Sorting Hat said. It did say that danger is everywhere.” I say.
“True, I hope this club is good. It could help us if we’re in trouble someday.” says Michelle.
We all nod in agreement.
***
After classes I meet up with Michelle, Tamara and Natalie and we go to the Great Hall together. We enter the Great Hall. Most of the students I see are older than us. Oh I see a few of our classmates. A number of them are in Gryffindor, a few Ravenclaws, 2 Hufflepuffs and 4 Slytherins. I look to the center of the room. The four house tables have been removed and now in the centre is a huge platform which I guess is meant for duelling. It’s as long as one of the house tables but a bit taller. Surprisingly, the platform was quite fancy and what I guess was meant to be elegant. It’s gold and silver and very flashy. Wouldn’t that just distract everyone and blind everyone before they even got to duel. Weird. The leader of this club has some weird taste.
Soon the doors of the Great Hall open. Everyone goes silent and looks in that direction. There stood a woman with long flowing robes in gold and silver. Did she make sure her outfit matched with the platform? This is just getting weirder and weirder.... She walks to the front of the room, wait no, more like struts to the front of the room.
“Hello students. My name is Arianna Warrington. You may call me Ms.Warrington.” The lady said, with her head high. “I am the leader of the Duelling Club. All of you may be thinking who I am as I am not a professor here. I am going to be the assistant of Professor Harris. Now everyone partner up and stand in front of them.”
I partner up with Tamara while Natalie and Michelle partner up. We stand in front of each other like we’re instructed and then we we wait for more instructions.
“Good, now everyone’s partnered up. On the count of three you’re going to start dueling. No serious injuries please. I would have to file a lot of paperwork and I have better things to do then that. Everyone ready? Okay, three...two...one...Go!”
Tamara strikes first.
“Expelliarmus!”
Uh..think quickly..That’s it! “Protego!”
“Stupefy!” says Tamara quickly.
“Protego!” Okay..I need to stop being on the defensive side.
“Impedimenta!”
“Protego!” she says back.
“Rictusempra!”
“Protego! Expelliarmus!” Before I get the chance to block the spell my wand flies out of my hand and lands halfway across the room. Wow...got to work on moving faster. Before you know it, the first meeting of the club is over.
“Well...the first meeting of the Dueling Club is over so everyone may leave now.” says Professor Warrington from the podium at the front of the Great Hall. “Everyone pack up. A notice will be posted on the bulletin board for the date of the next meeting. Write your name and year on the piece of parchment on your way out.”
The four of us meet each other and write our names down as we walk out. Well that was a pretty good meeting. Hope the next meeting is better.
***
After breakfast I have Herbology with Gryffindor. I walk down the the greenhouses with Bianca and I meet Tamara there.
“Hey Tamara.” I say.
“Hey,” she says.
“Did you see the notice for the next DC meeting?” I ask.
“Yeah, tomorrow before lunch.” she says.
“What do you think we’ll learn?” I say.
“Maybe a charm or jinx or we’ll just duel again.” replies Tamara.
“I hope we learn something new.” I say.
“Yeah, I thought that’s what we would do.” she says.
Then Professor Longbottom walks in. He puts this funny plant in front of everyone. It’s green and it seems to be covered in boils. Weird...but then what’s normal in the wizarding world?
“Hello, class. Today we will be repotting a plant called Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Now don’t poke it or...”
Suddenly a boy from Hufflepuff gets covered with this sticky goo along with a couple of other Hufflepuff’s. That’s not going to come out...
“...you’ll get covered in stinksap. The plant has a special way of protecting itself which is by releasing stinksap. Next time please listen to the instructions before touching a plant. You’re lucky that stinksap isn’t poisonous. It can actually cure you of being shy, timid and nervous all the time. It will come out though if you know the right spell. I remember doing that quite a few times when I had that plant. I even got it all over Harry Potter once, luckily he wasn’t angry with me. Now this is quite simple actually. Just try to avoid touching the boils on the plant and you should be fine. Everyone get started.”
We all pot the plants but not without a few more explosions of stinksap. Soon the room starts to smell horrible. We’re dismissed early as it’s kind of hard to stay in the greenhouse without fainting from the scent and I don’t think Professor Longbottom would want that.
***
In the morning while I’m sitting there eating rice krispies cereal an owl crashes into my bowl spilling cereal everywhere. Why does everyone hate rice krispies? They’re awesome. That owl is not getting a tip. I take the newspaper and just let it finish my cereal. I’m not going to eat it after that. I read the headline:
Man Mysteriously Murdered
by Renee Skeeter
Yesterday, Bob Burkes, Auror was found in his house lying in his bed as if sleeping peacefully, but that is not even close to true. Mr. Burks was found dead at about 12PM when his wife, Mrs. Burks found him dead after coming back from a vacation with close friends. There were no witnesses and there was no trace of the house even being broken into. “No sign of struggle was found but only a small clue was left behind, a small gold watch with the initials W.F. engraved on the back.” says Harry Potter, Head of the Auror Office. So far no information has been found that could indicate the reason for Mr. Burkes murder. The Ministry would like to ask that if anyone knows any information about this watch, who its owner could be and information about Mr. Burkes to please contact the Auror Office.
But who could have done this? Has He who must not be named risen again? Have the Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban? Is the Ministry covering it up? Will there be another war? Keep reading to find out.
Poor guy. He was murdered in his sleep. He didn’t even get a chance to try to stop whoever killed him. I wonder who it is...No one has the initials W.F that I know of and could Voldemort really be rising again? That would be horrible. I need to talk to the others about this.
I walk out the front door and go to our usually hang out by the lake. We were planning to do homework outside while the weather is still good. The three of them are already there. They’re reading the Daily Prophet so I guess they saw the article.
“Hey, did you see the article about that man being murdered?” I asks as I sit down beside them.
“Yeah, we were just discussing it now.” says Tamara.
“Who do you think it was?” asks Natalie.
“I don’t know, but the initials seem familiar. I just can’t seem to match it with a person.” I say.
“Well this article is a bit opinionated. It seems to have a bunch of predictions at the end that I bet half aren’t even true.” says Michelle.
“I think I’ve read somewhere that Rita Skeeter, I guess the writers mother wrote many insane opinionated articles too. Most of them are lies too. I’ve seen some, they’re pretty misleading.” says Natalie.
“I guess we just can’t believe her predictions at the end but I think the event is actually true.” says Tamara.
“Yeah, I don’t think she could lie about something like that.” I say.
“Why do you think he was murdered though. What’s so important about this guy?” asks Michelle.
“Well he was a Auror. Maybe he did something and someone wanted revenge.” says Natalie.
“But who? No one was put into Azkaban recently or even charged. There hasn’t been much dark activity these days.” says Michelle.
“Yeah, I haven’t seen much in the papers till recently.” I say.
“Same.” says Natalie.
“Yeah, but what’s happening? Shouldn’t all the chaos from the last wizarding war be over?” asks Tamara.
“Do you think a new one is maybe starting?” says Michelle.
“I hope not. That wouldn’t be good.” I say. “After last year I don’t want anymore things to happen.”
“Yeah, I agree.” says Natalie.
“Same.” says Tamara and Michelle.
Just then Keith comes walking toward us.
“Hey, mind if I join you? I’m bored.”
“Sure.” says Michelle, smiling. He sits down beside her.
“So, what are you guys doing?” asks Keith, glancing down at the newspaper on the ground in front of us. His gaze darkens.
“Oh, I guess you were talking about the murder of Bob Burkes...You know he was one of my relatives. He’s my uncle.” he says solemnly.
“Oh, we’re so sorry for your loss.” says Michelle.
“It’s okay, it’s just that I don’t understand why anyone would want to kill him. He’s a good guy, an Auror too. He was always kind to me and was my favourite uncle.” says Keith looking at the ground.
“Sorry, if this upsets you but do you have any idea who might have the initials W.F? The article mentioned it. Maybe it could help find who killed your uncle.” says Natalie.
“No, it’s fine. I wish I knew but sadly I don’t. I’ve done everything I can to help the Auror Office but there’s not much I can do.” he says.
“Is there anything we can do?” asks Tamara.
“No, not really but if you find anything about why or who murdered my uncle or even any ideas about who W.F could be to tell me.” says Keith.
“Of course we would tell you if we found anything. Who would we be if we didn’t.” I say.
“Thanks a lot guys.” he says.
“Not a problem.” says Michelle.
“Yeah.” I agree.
“Well it’s time to go to the Duelling Club meeting.” says Natalie.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot with everything happening.” says Keith.
“We could tell Professor Harrington you couldn’t make it today if you want.” says Tamara.
“No, it’s okay. I think a quick duel would clear my mind.” he replies.
“Okay, then. Let’s go.”
The five of us walk to the Great Hall and find a sign posted on the door.
DUELLING CLUB
MEETING CANCELLED
TO BE RESCHEDULED
NEXT DATE WILL BE POSTED ON
THE BULLETIN BOARD IN EACH
COMMON ROOM
~Professor Warrington
“Well, I guess I’m not going to get to duel today.” says Keith.
“I wonder why it’s been cancelled.” I ask.
“I don’t know. I guess Professor Warrington had something to do.” says Natalie.
“Probably, or she got sick.” says Tamara.
“So what do you want to do now?” asks Michelle.
“Well we only have 30 minutes.” says Natalie.
“Well Quidditch tryouts are soon.” I say. “Want to go practise?”
“Sure, I don’t want to get kicked off the team.” says Tamara.
“Same.” says Natalie.
We go to the Quidditch pitch and get out our brooms. We take out the balls and start practising. Natalie and I pass the Quaffle back and forth and work on scoring while Tamara is flying around looking for the Golden Snitch. Michelle and Keith work on knocking the Bludgers around and making sure they don’t hit us. Practise was going great till Melanie and Milly come strolling in.
“Hey sis, can we join you guys?” asks Milly.
“Sure.” says Michelle. I could tell by her expression she didn’t want Melanie there. I guess she didn’t want anything to happen again.
Melanie takes the Quaffle from Natalie and I when its in mid air right in between us.
“Hey, we were using that!” I yell angrily. She continues to zoom away.
That was rude. She starts doing this zig zag movement which I remember reading about in Quidditch Through the Ages. What was it called again? Oh, yeah the Woollongong Shimmy. It’s meant to confuse Chasers on the opposite team and I guess make you harder to chase. I’ve tried it before but it’s not the best idea to try it on a school broom. I almost fell off the last time I tried that.
“Hey, Keith! Did you see that? I’ve mastered the Woollongong Shimmy. I’m definitely going to make it on the team.” says Melanie.
Wow...what a show off...and looking at the way she’s doing it she’s doing it wrong. She’s going way too slow. She’s actually making it worse. I doubt she read most of the instructions. Soon when the Quaffle is flying through mid air I take it back.
“Hey, that was rude!” she yells.
“Well you did that too!” I yell. “So why can’t I?”
I throw it to Natalie who throws it to Milly.
“Hey Milly could you give me that back?” says Melanie sweetly, trying to bribe her sister. She looks at her and then I say.
“Hey Milly could you please pass the Quaffle to me?” I say.
Milly looks back and forth between the two of us wondering who to pass it too.
“Pass it to me!” yells Melanie.
“No, Pass it to me!” I yell.
Milly continues to look between the two of us still trying to decide. Finally she decides not to choose at all. She passes it to Natalie.
“Natalie, could you please pass it to me?” says Melanie trying to bribe my friend.
“Natalie, can you please pass it to me?” I say.
“I’m not passing it to anyone. It’s time for lunch.” says Natalie as she flies down with the Quaffle and puts it back in the case. Reluctantly I follow but not without glaring at Melanie first. I can’t stand that girl! She’s just so mean, bratty and such a show off its driving me nuts. I can’t understand at all why she’s a Gryffindor. Did she bribe the Sorting Hat? When I get down Natalie takes out a small bag of miniature Rice Krispie Sandwiches.
“Here, you can pay me later.” she says as she hands me the bag.
“Thanks.” I say throwing one in my mouth.
“No problem. Don’t eat too many though. It’s lunch and I not making any more of those for at least three days.
“Fine.” I say putting the package in my bag. I walk off to the Great Hall and sit down for lunch. Professor Warrington isn’t there, I wonder why?