Star of Gryffindor - Book 1

Chapter 9 - A Gryfflepuff Snowball War

By Tuesday, Wren looked like she was ready to give up on life. Why? She did not want to sneak into the restricted section, and she promised to immediately tell a teacher if James and I so much as thought about it. However, we knew we needed to get in there. Maybe we would find a spell that would be easier than Polyjuice Potion.

Wren moaned and put her head on the table. Albus and I were doing homework, but she was trying her hardest to find a way around the restricted section's rules. No luck, apparently.

"This is hopeless," she mumbled.

"You could always just let me sneak in," I said, not glancing up from my Charms essay. We had to turn in a foot of parchment about how the Wingardium Leviosa spell worked.

Wren looked up and frowned at me. "No. That's against the rules, and you'll get caught, and you'll lose even more points, and you'll get detention, and you'll be banned from the restricted section for life, and then we'll never be able to get in."

Albus raised his eyebrows. "Whoa, Wren, since when were you a pessimist?"

Instead of answering, Wren sighed and put her head back on the table. "Can we please talk about something else?"

"Have any ideas?" I asked irritably, not really paying much attention. I only had an inch left, but I had no idea what to write. Where was Rose? She was smart. Maybe she could help.

Wren stood up and moved to a spot behind my chair. I tried to ignore her as she read over my shoulder. "Why don't you write about the effects on the subject of the spell? You've explained how to do the spell. Tell the results as well."

I nodded, impressed. Thank goodness I had a genius for a best friend. I don't know how I would have gotten through all my homework in the first few months without her. A lot of the magic seemed to go over my head sometimes.

I scribbled away furiously for about five minutes before finally reaching the end. Albus seemed to have taken Wren's advice as well because he laid down his quill at the same time I laid down mine.

Wren smiled. "Now that you're done, can we talk about anything other than the restricted section?"

"Ok, fine!" Albus answered, laughing. "How about your family? You don't talk about them much."

Wren nodded. "Well, there isn't much to talk about. I live with my grandparents, because my mom is on secret assignments with the Magical Congress. I don't really know what she does. She visits occasionally, though. My dad... I haven't seen him in years. My grandparents are pretty old, and let me do whatever I want, really." She shrugged. "There's not much to my family."

"What's America like? Do you eat hamburgers for every meal? James says there are bald eagles everywhere."

Wren started laughing. "James doesn't know what he's talking about. Do you two only drink tea, and say 'cheerio' all the time? Of course not. That's just a stereotype."

Albus's cheeks were red, and he muttered something like "Oh, ok."

"What about you, Astra? What's your family like?"

"I don't know. They gave me up when I was a baby." I didn't like talking about it.

Wren nodded. "Right. But haven't you ever wondered who they were? Who you are? If you found out, you wouldn't have to be a Lewis anymore."