Piper Kingsley: The Child Of The Moon

Chapter 13 Holiday Discoveries

    Piper entered the great hall one morning in December, and it was practically empty. The corridors were crowded with students heading home for the Christmas break, so Piper had no problem finding a seat at the Gryffindor table with Harry and Ron, who looked like they were playing chess.
    "What are you doing?" Piper asked, sitting down next to Harry.
    "Shh. Need to focus." Ron said. Piper slightly rolled her eyes and watched.
    "What we doing?" Rory asked, sitting across from Piper.
    "Ron doesn't want anyone to speak." Piper whispered. She turned her head to see Leo run in, looking like he was going to speak and Piper shook her head. Leo looked confused and came over to see what was going on.
    "Knight to E-5." Harry ordered, and on of the black pieces on Harry's side of the board moved forward three squares and towards Piper two squares. Piper sat back in awe. She's been a wizards world for half a year, and is still surprised by what she sees. Ron stared at the board, thinking hard.   
"Um, can we speak now?" Leo asked.
    "Queen to E-5." Ron ordered, and one of his pieces moved to where Harry's last piece ended, stood up from a chair, and hit Harry's piece, breaking it in two.
    "That's totally barbaric!" Hermione budded in from behind Harry, pulling along her trunk.
    "That's wizards chess." Ron stated, "I have never lost a game, except to my brother Bill."
    "Why aren't you packed Ronald?" Hermione asked.
    "There was a change in plans. My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. So, me and my brothers are all staying here."
    "Good. You can help Harry and Piper then." Hermione started sounding like a drill sergeant, "They'll be looking in the library for information on Nicholas Flamel."
    "Hermione, we've looked in every history book in their. There's nothing to find." Leo stated.
    "Have you looked in the restricted section?" Hermione hinted.
    "Ok, we're obviously a bad influence on you." Piper said with a giggle, "So, looks like me, and your siblings are the only Ravenclaw's staying around." Piper gestured at Rory and Leo.
    "And me, my brothers and Harry are the only Gryffindors." Ron stated.
    "Hey, why don't we do Christmas together?" Leo suggested.
    "What do you mean?" Rory asked.
    "Well, the only Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's sticking around, are all friends, why don't we all stay in one common room for Christmas?" Leo suggested. Piper smiled at the thought.
    "That sounds fun." Piper said.
    "Yeah. My sister might not go for it, but sure." Rory said.
    "Are you all serious?" Hermione budded in.
    "What now?" Ron asked.
    "We aren't allowed to go into other houses common rooms. You'll get into trouble, take both your houses out of the running for the house cup."
    "Ok, maybe we're not so much of an influence on you." Ron laughed.
    "You know what, fine. Do what you want, but I, have nothing to do with this." Hermione made her way out of the great hall and amidst the crowd of students leaving.
    "Rory, let's go find our siblings. We'll do it in the Gryffindor common room." Leo said.
    "Sure. Let's go." Rory and Leo got up and walked around to the Ravenclaw table. Piper smiled as she continued to watch the chess match.

The Ravenclaw common room was very quiet. People were filing out with there bags, trying to catch the train home for the holidays. Piper took the opportunity to get ahead with her homework. She had to finish an essay for Professor Snape, a four hundred word paper for Sprout and other smaller project for her other classes, by the time classes resumed.
"Homework now Piper?" Lauren asked
    "Got nothing else to do, and it has to get done at some point." Piper argued.
    "Ok then, but remember to have fun too. You can't bury your entire life in school." Bethany said before running off with her friend. Piper giggled and rolled her eyes before sinking back into her textbooks. She jerked forward when she heard a loud screeching noise. Piper turned around and saw Willa pecking at the window. Piper got up and saw the barn owl flapping about trying to tell her something. After a few moments of screeching, Willa flew off down the hill towards the hut at the bottom, still screeching.
    "Stupid bird." Piper huffed. She put on her winter wear, stored her wand in her boot and made her way across the snow covered grounds. She followed the sounds of the crazy owl to find Rory waiting in the field beside Hagrid's house.
    "You put the bird up to this eh?" Piper asked.
    "I only asked if she knew where you were." Rory laughed and drew her wand.
    "Why do we have to practice in the snow?"
    "We have to keep our skills sharp, and we can set fires without getting in trouble." The girls laughed and aimed their wand at the snow.
"Incendio." Piper said. Red sparks flew from her wand, and a fire was set where they landed, melting the nearby snow.
    "Nice one Piper!" Rory praised. She raised her wand, and swished her wrist, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Piper's wand was lifted from her hand, and floated above her head, "Sneaky." Piper smiled as Rory giggled. Piper jumped for the wand as someone came stomping out of the hut. Piper turned around to see Hagrid trekking up the hill, and Rory dropped the wand on her head.
"Hey!" Piper giggled at Rory, "Where you off to Hagrid?"
"I'm uh, off to get a tree for the great hall. Can't have a Christmas feast without the tree eh? Oh and uh, you've got visitors." Hagrid explained. Piper and Rory looked past Hagrid and saw Leo and his siblings running down the hill.
"Hey guys. Why are you out here in this weather?" Leo asked.
"She convinced an owl to screech at me." Piper joked.
"Come on. Two weeks of no classes, we've got to make sure we don't get rusty with our magic." Rory justified.
"Uh-huh," Laura started, "Well, we got the password to the Gryffindor commonroom."
"Sweet!" Piper said.
"Yeah. The girls'll take Hermione's room and the boys will fill up Harry and the Weasley's rooms." Leo explained.
"It's only safe to do Christmas Eve night and Christmas night. We should leave the morning after Christmas." Lynden added.
"No problem, so tomorrow night." Rory concluded, everyone nodded.
"So what is the password?" Piper asked.