Hidden Secrets ☆ HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE | 1 [BEING EDITED]

15 | ice creams & travel plans

❝ I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh start, one more try, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. ❞ — J. B. Priestley

   The wooden wall clock hanging over the counter struck four p.m. I wrapped my hands around my tall glass of foamy Butterbeer and took a slow sip. Two weeks ago, I sat at this exact table in The Leaky Cauldron with Sibi, Mike and Oswald June, drinking Butterbeer again and discussing vividly about the new school year.

   After leaving the pub that day, we continued our school shopping and were done around lunchtime. I suggested we went somewhere for lunch, even offered to pay for the food, but they had to go, so they politely declined my offer. Although it was sad to see them leave, I knew I couldn't force them into staying, so we parted ways and promised we'd meet again before the school year started.

   Funny, really, but now I could truly call Sibi and Mike friends. Who would have thought that one day, I'd come to appreciate the company of the two people I butted heads with so much at first? But I'd come to realize that life had an interesting way of proving you wrong sometimes. And deep inside, maybe, just this once, I was glad about it.

   "Fancy another drink?" Tom the barman asked with a warm smile from the counter.

   "Thank you, Tom," I said. "But I have to go up to my room and study."

   I gulped down the last sips of the delicious nonalcoholic drink and placed a few Galleons on top of the table before getting up to leave. I walked up the flight of stairs that led to the rooms and pushed open the door to my left, the one I had been staying in. My room was a chaotic mess. Textbooks, notepads, quills, crumbled pieces of parchment paper, white and bronze-colored feathers, clothes and empty bags of jelly beans scattered everywhere, to the point where it looked like somebody had broken in and spent hours rummaging through my things.

   "I really need to learn how to cast that Cleaning Spell properly," I muttered to myself, walking carefully over to my bed and letting myself fall backwards on it.