5 December, 1997

This will be my first diary entry, because my mum got me a journal because an article in Witch Weekly told her that "journaling can be a very useful and relaxing activity for troubled adolescents." She said I could write in it, or I do the chores with her and Gin. Obviously, I picked the diary. Some people name their diaries, I've heard. Hm. Diary, I now christen thee...

Archibald

Mildred

Buddy

Roxanne

This is bloody stupid. I'm not going to give this a name.

I guess I should write about what happened yesterday.

First thought: I don't think I would be a very good cop. I don't know why I signed up for this. I realized this way too late.

"Well, what are you gonna do about that, idjit?" I muttered.

"Wot?"

"Talking to myself, Officer. Sorry." I realized my instructor was behind me, so I walked slower. Sometimes I wish I had shorter legs.

"Stop calling me officer, Weasley. It's just Dave." I hate it when people call me "Weasley."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks."

"No problem," he said. "Why ain'tcha in school? You seem smart 'nuff t'me." I fought very, very hard to not make some comment about how dumb he is. Because I know he's dumb, and he doesn't need to say anything to prove it. I can just tell. I hope that I'll never have to work with him after training.

"M'dazemprisen." And I knew what he was going to say before he said it, and I wanted to punch him.

"Wot?"

"My. Dad's. In. Prison," I said slowly. The way you talk to a kid. "So I can't go."

"Wot's he in for?"

"Because he likes Muggle machines." And Muggles. "And he didn't have the permits you need to keep them at your house."

"Oh," said Dave, happy with my explanation. "Well. That's nothing to be ashamed of. So long as you're on our side, I don't give a damn wot yer dad's done. For the greater good, eh?"

"Yup." I ducked my head in agreement and my chin touched my Trainee Policeman badge. I've been fiddling with the damn thing for months, because Percy's old uniform is too tight, and the badge presses into my neck when I move. I have five brothers and a sister, so I get a lot of hand-me-downs.

Bill is a clerk in a bank. He's got a French girlfriend but I don't think their marriage application will go through, because of Da. Or maybe it will, because she's not totally human, and that puts her on level with us blood traitors. I don't know.

Charlie wanted to study dragons, but he couldn't go to university. So now he works in animal warfare and I guess he likes that. I don't really know, because he works abroad for the military, so he can't tell us much of what he's doing. It's not really a big deal.

Percy works for the government. We don't talk a lot because we got in a really big fight when my dad was arrested. Percy reckons whoever turned him in did the right thing. But Percy probably turned him in, so he's kind of a biased source.

Fred and George (twins) are great, and they're on my side with the whole Percy thing. They want to run a joke shop, and I think they would be brilliant at that. Though I doubt they'd ever have the money to set one up. They're clever, though Mum doesn't really think so.

Ginny is the only girl; she's sixteen. I worry about her a lot. She's shy and quiet, and she doesn't stand up for herself enough. Fred and George are trying to help her on that, and sometimes she can be quite firey and funny. I wish she was like that more often.

But back to my story. Basically, he put me in charge of a few blocks in the Muggle segment of our town, and told me to patrol them and make sure everyone was behaving. It was really easy, because the blocks were small and I thought everyone was asleep. I walked around a few times, and I whistled a little loud. I figured that the muggles had a lot of mean, dumb, cops watching them, and I figured that I would be a good change from that, so I whistled to let them know that I was an alright sort of person. Not to brag.

After what felt like the millionth lap, I heard this weird, soft, crunching sound. Like something was moving in the snow. So I looked, and I guess I stopped whistling because the noise stopped suddenly, as if whatever was making it was scared I'd notice. At first, I didn't see anything, but then, pressed into the snow, I saw these letters:

HEI

No clue what that meant. But it looked like it had been written with magic, which was strange.

Walked some more, blah blah. I came back to where I started, and now it says

HERN

Still no clue. I was getting really confused, because as far as I knew, I was the only wizard in that area. Next lap, I got smart. I turned the corner like normal, then I ran around the block and hid in the shadows so I could see who was doing it. I didn't Apparate because I absolutely hate that.

I watched in the shadows, and I heard the noise again. Someone was writing in the snowbank,

HERMIONE

It was done in script, really neatly. I looked up in the window above the muggle tooth hospital, and this girl who looked like she was my age was sitting at the window. She was staring at the snowbank, and writing in the air with her index finger, and it was appearing in the snowbank. She looked very happy and maybe a little smug. I guess she was a muggleborn. I don't judge; I don't care. But it was really weird to see. And she wasn't trying very hard at all. I wasn't even sure if I could do that, without a wand!

Hermione must have been her name. So I wrote my name in the snow, and she stopped smiling and closed the curtains. I felt really awful.

It was an interesting night, in the end. I think I'm supposed to report her to Dave, but I'm not going to. Doesn't feel right. Before my patrol was over, I kicked her name so no one else would see it. But I whistled while I did it, because I didn't want her to think that I was getting rid of it because I was angry. I hope she heard, because she looked so scared when she saw my name.

-Ron