The Quiet One

7. Home for the Christmas Holidays

I get a letter, not too far after the heat incident, with details of Frankie's 10th birthday.

It sounded like he had a lot of fun. But it is Frankie, and he is always wanting to be front and centre.

When the Christmas holidays come around, we get to go home. I choose too, because I didn't last year. I won't next year, because I'll have Frankie with me. Still, it's always nice to see Mum and Dad.

On the train ride back, Birdy sits with me, and Eddie, because we all decided to go home.

"It's been quite a good half year already, hasn't it?" asks Eddie.

"Yeah, I guess it has been. Nothing much even happened though," I say.

"We did learn lots of incantations to practice over the holidays," says Birdy. Of course she would bring that up, she's a nerd!

"I'll probably remember to do them, but probably not."

"I'm definitely going to. I want to get good marks in my tests this year."

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The lolly-trolley lady comes around with a Santa hat and the trolley full of festive sweets.

"I'll have uh… two pumpkin pasties please," I say, and hand over the money.

Birdy doesn't get any, but Eddie does. He buys about 5 liquorice wands, and a few pumpkin pasties.

He eats so much it's not funny.

We munch on our treats and chat. I fall asleep a little bit.

I feel Eddie's eyes burning on me as I'm sleeping.

I feel like we're gonna stay friends for ages. I could be wrong, but I feel like the three of us could be like the Golden Trio.

I could be wrong.

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When the train gets back to the station, I see Mum waiting. It's always just her.

I don't mind though. She's always so nice to me.

I quickly get off the train, and get my luggage.

I go over to her, and we go back through the barrier, into the muggle world.

There's snow. Everywhere. There is only about 2 days until Christmas though.

When we get home, I walk inside, and see loads of Christmas decorations. I think it's Mum's favourite holiday.

The staircase is weaved in tinsel, the kitchen is slathered in numerous festive decorations, and the usual 6-foot Christmas tree is still in the same place in the lounge room.

Each year Mum decides on a different colour theme. This year is purple and silver. It looks amazing.

"Mum, you've done outrageously. It looks amazing!"

"Mm, I know. I think we should have purple more often."

I go up to my room and put my trunk in my wardrobe. Then I go back into my room.

I like the blue on my walls. I definitely like purple more though. I might just keep it blue for a little bit more though.

It's a light blue, kind of a baby blue. I've had it most of my life. The other time it was a greyish colour like the rest of our house.

I go back downstairs. Mum's prepared some Christmas cake and has put it on a pretty plate.

I sneakily take a piece and go into the library.

Well, technically it's a half library. The other half is Frankie's toys and whatnot.

He's in there, playing a game with Dad.

"Oh, hey April!"

Dad stands up and gives me a hug.

"Hey Dad."

"You happy to come home?"

"Yeah. Even though Hogwarts is my home, this is actually my home," I joke.

"Well, what do you want to do while you're here?"

"I think you should keep playing that game with Frankie or he'll be a bit grumpy…" I whisper.

"You're right. I'll see you later."

He sits back down and I go out to the kitchen again.

"There's a few spare decorations, if you want to put some in your room?" I hear Mum say.

"Nah, it's alright. Could I put them somewhere else?"

"Yeah, sure. They're just under the tree, right there."

I go over to the tree and see a cardboard box with some colourful things in it.

I pull one out.

It's a mini Christmas tree, with fake snow. It almost looks like a real pine tree!

I also find some mini decorations to go with it, so I take them and the tree and go up to my room.

I put it on a spare space on my bookshelf. It looks very festive.

I go back downstairs to Mum.

"Hey…" I ask.

"What do you want?"

"I was wondering if I could do a mural in my bedroom."

"A mural! Wow," she sighs. I hope she'll let me. "Of course. I know it's a unique way of expressing your personality, so go ahead! Enjoy!"

I hug her. "Thank you so much."

I've already got some paints so I take them out. I do a pencil sketch on the walls before I use the paint.

I make sure I make the painting look real, otherwise it would look funny.

It's a maple leaf.

It's basically my spirit plant, or tree, or whatever you want to call it.

It's mainly because it's the thing that made me realise I was a witch.

Ahh. Sweet memories. Sweet, sweet memories.

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Boom!

Holiday chapters are always the worst ones to write because there is never any inspiration! I liked writing this though,  it was a bit Christmassy.

Comment, vote, go crazy GOODBYE

~ Sydney