When I got up in the morning, I felt like super-girl. I stared at the wall and magically conjured a mirror. I looked better too. The rings around my eyes had gone and my brown, layered hair was no longer tangled, it was perfectly straight. The Beautifying Charm I had put on my pillow did work. My hands weren't rough from helping 1st years with their bags. Instead they were soft. I practiced magic a little by applying make-up. Oh! How I loved magic! I put on my freshly laundered robes (the house elves must have done it last night) and I trudged downstairs. Tyresa was reading the Daily Prophet, her legs tangled in a twisted shape. " I have been waiting for you for about 2 minutes!" she screamed. I shake my head and sigh.
Tyresa is my other best friend and one of those time freaks. You would think she's geeky and wears mad scientist glasses and dress pants all day, but she's so cool. Tyresa is skinny. Too skinny. Almost anorexic. She eats lunch and everything so, I have no idea how she does it. She does a lot of dancing with her Muggle mother. She always speaks her mind and wasn't even afraid to start a petition letting girls wear skirts as Hogwarts uniform. She gets straight A's and she's into theater and art. She's been trying to get a Christmas pantomime although Dumbledore always says, "At least you don't have a memory of the last one!" and declines. She's pretty but she is single and never cares if those stinky Slytherfreaks tease her. She's preppy and she's on a dance team called the Silver Fly but she accepts everyone! She's closterphobic but she's enthusiastic and great! She's not very popular but she's friendly and fun. She has a ton of stories to tell. Of course, my favorite is the one where her little sister swallowed her two front teeth eating a hamburger. She always talks about her favorite princesses for Dinsey or Dimsey or something like that. They're mermaid and a girl who marries a beast. Bella and Arielle. Or Berielle and Arra. No, it's the first one.
"Hey Ty! Let's go! We have that new lady for Defense Against The Dark Arts!" Tyresa glows. "Oh! Yes! Professor Chester—I mean MacKenzie. I would like to meet her. She seems wonderful. Let's go. We head towards the Great Hall and grab a muffin. We eat on the way to Defense Against the Dark Arts. When we arrive at the DADA room , we see, not a battlefield replica, like last year, but a pair of giant swinging doors. In front, is the teacher. Professor Chesterfield isn't wearing wizard robes. She's wearing a t-shirt that says " Imagine Whirled Peas!" and some bright purple yoga pants. She flicks her wand and before us appears a closet. We open the closet and discover a large stash of "Save the Environment" shirts and yoga pants. In the end, I pick one that says "Make Cookies Not War" and some black yoga pants. Ty has a hard time picking a shirt. Finally, she grabs a "Free Range Human" tee shirt and orange yoga pants. We start to head over to the bathroom to change, but MacKenzie sharply says, "No!" and waves her wand to make the clothes come on us. She then hands us a mat to match our yoga pants. Mine is black, Ty's is orange and MacKenzie pulls out a purple one. She then leads us through the doors. I clamp my mouth shut to keep from laughing. Tyresa does the same.
We are in a room of Gryffindors and Slytherins, in yoga pants and t-shirts. She points to an open space and tells us to put our mats down and stretch. Jake is across from me. He's picked a "Save the Planet—It's The Only One With Girls" shirt and black yoga shorts. He's doing odd stretches and reading out of the textbook. "I put that you didn't need to buy a textbook," says MacKenzie, "because I felt it was rude and unfair to expect you to get a textbook. I bought six hundred of these books so that my Karma would be replenished! They are yours. You will need them, the many years I will teach here. She wiggles her wand and books fly and hover above our heads. She then claps, and they drop in front of us. I read the title: Forget Defense: Let's Try Incense: A Simple Guide to the Magical Aspect of Yoga. I snort and then cough loudly to cover it up. Jake rolls his eyes. "Open the book to page 3!" says MacKenzie and the class flips their books to page 3. There is a note and a picture of an octopus looking happy.
Welcome, my friends, to the magical art of yoga, a simple practice that has been carried out for thousands of years. In the first chapter, you will learn about flexibility and how it can help you in complicated situations. This is Ziggy the octopus. He will be assisting you with yoga. In the book, you will see him in pictures, attempting to do yoga. As you are a human and Ziggy is a cephlapod, it may look different in the pictures. The first thing we will do is called octopus breathing. Ziggy gets excited when he does octopus breathing because he is an octopus. Follow Ziggy. First, close your eyes, take a deep breath and say, "Mememememem!" until you feel like an octopus. Then get up and walk around, waving your hands or tentacles. This is octopus breathing.
I stare at MacKenzie. She gets up and says, "Mememmemem!" and walks around waving her arms, bumping in to an ugly Slytherin, Marcus Flint, too many times. To everyone's amazement, Ty gets up too. Then I do. Then Jake does and everyone is walking around saying, "Memememememem!" and knocking each other down. In the end, Marcus Flint starts doing it too. MacKenzie makes us sit down and read more and learn some poses. She notices our glances and says, "Shall we do more octopus breathing?" and then stands up and screams, "MEMEMEMEMEMEM!!" We follow suit. When we leave, MacKenzie is less crazy. "Your homework is to read about vinyasas and create your own ready to be performed on Thursday at class. The best one will win a bag of Honeydukes chocolate. And we'll do that one at warm-up. Good bye!" and she slams the doors. We look at our t-shirts and wonder if we're allowed to keep them. At that moment, our shirts and pants vanish and our Hogwarts robes come back.
We hustle back to our common rooms for a spot of free time. Pinned on the notice board is a note announcing the Hogsmeade weekend in three weeks. We begin our vinyasas. After a free period, we have Transfiguration and we head down, whispering about MacKenzie and what yoga has to do with the Dark Arts. We come up with nothing. In Transfiguration, McGonagall makes us practice 4th year material like turning rabbits into slippers and chairs into swords. After that we discuss some more things about the teacher on our way to Potions where Snape tortures us on O.W.L. level potions. Then we head up to lunch. Jake sits with the Weasley twins. I sit with Ty. Mum's owl is flying toward me. It lands on the butter dish and drops the letter. Then she soars away. I open the letter.
Dear Mint,
I hope you are having a good first day. I just want to tell you that your father and I have rented a tiny and cozy cottage in Hogsmeade for the month. I know you have those weekends where you can visit the village. Send us the next date and we can arrange to meet you.
Mum
P.S. Bring Itsy, I got her some toys!
I smile. Itsy is my Puffskein. Jake has one too. We bought them together. His is Bitsy. Itsy and Bitsy. The best of friends. I look over at Ty, who has been reading over my shoulder. "Wanna go? Meet my parents and shop?" Ty is enthusiastic and I go up to the Owlery with her to send an owl to Mum. After that, Jake, Percy and I head back to the common room for 1st year check-up. The buddy system is going well. Jay and George are having a conversation about pranks they've played. Fred and Lee were talking about the Chudley Cannons. Andrew was counting to 20 in every language he knew, greatly amusing Kelp. Alizza was sitting next to Annie trying to design a dress for her. Musik and Cara are giggling furiously. Joy is going around screaming, "MEMEMEMEM!" making Alley laugh so hard, she almost choked. They must have had DADA. Even Percy laughs at Joy's amazing Professor Chesterfield imitation. The 1st year check-up is half a period so we write the first years all passes and we head to Care of Magical Creatures.
Percy walks ahead of me and Jake so Jake and I can talk. "Umm, Mint," he says, "I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me on the 24th. Do you want to?" I look at him, embarrassed. "Jake, I already said I'd go to see my paents, they have a cottage there, with Ty. Maybe another—" "No. If you like Tyresa Faerieton better than me, that's FINE!" says Jake rudely. Ugh! Jake storms away and begins having forced conversation with Percy, who looks like Christmas has come early because he has a friend.
"Miss Ackerman!" says Professor Kettleburn to me, "I am disappointed. You're late!" he says as though I murdered someone. " So are they," I say, pointing to Percy and the other boy next to him (I'm trying not to say the word Jake. Oh! I just said it!), "I'm confused why you aren't mad at them!" Professor Kettleburn sighs like this is first grade stuff. "Miss Ackerman, I expect more out of you. Turn to page 95 in your books. We'll begin with the Lethifold." I don't read the page. A Lethifold! Big deal! I know everything about Magical Creatures which is why Kettleburn loves me so much. I used to be teased about it. People would call me Kettlegirl and Teacher's Pettleburn. During the Christmas holidays, Mum and Dad would take me to the Magizoo to view some cool Magical Creatures. I practicially memorize the signs on them. I'd bring Jake too.
Jake. I wish he wasn't mad at me. But I should've known. I should've just asked Ty to cancel. She doesn't mind that I liked Jake better as a friend. I guess I don't anymore. I wish Ty and Jake could just get along. Even though they dated in fourth year and had a rather nasty break-up doesn't mean that they can't be friends. I don't think th—"Miss Ackerman! You're not paying attention! If you answer this question right, I won't give you a detention. And there's no reason you shouldn't know it. I've been lecturing you on it for the last 40 minutes. Here you go. What is so unique about the Lethifold's murdering pattern?" says Professor Kettleburn, a sort of evil look in his eyes. I can tell he'd love to tell the staff all about the drop in my good streak.
"The Lethifold," I recite, "is known for its strange murder pattern where it leaves no mess or sign of a fight!" I say and Tyresa laughs and coughs at the same time. Jake scowls. "Well Miss Ackerman," huffs Kettleburn, "I am surprised that you would get that. This is sixth year prep. No detention. Class! Your homework is to research Janus Thickey and his convincing story about the Lethifold attacking him. Then write to St. Mungo's and see if they can gve you any information. Good bye!" and we shuffle away to the castle. I automatically float towards Jake and then I remember he's not my friend anymore.
I float twoards Ty. She looks at me. "What's going on between you and Jake?" says Ty, observing me like a hawk. I sigh, loudly, too loudly. So loudly that Jake notices at me and scowls again. "It's about you! He's mad that I'm taking you to Hogsmeade to meet my parents." I said quickly. Ty gasped. "Oh! Mint! I didn't tell you. Oliver Wood asked me to come to Hogsmeade with him. Oliver! The cute one! Of course I turned him down because—" I stop Ty. "Why'd you turn him down?" Ty looked at me like I was dumb. "Because I'm going with you! Your parents have never heard of me! I wanted to meet them!" I shake my head. "No! Ty, go with Oliver. Go! He wants it, you want it," even I wanted to go alone, "and he likes you!" Ty gasps again. "Thank you Mint! I'll go and tell him!" and she dashes up to find him.
Someone tugs on the back of my sleeve. At first I think it's Jake and I say, "Finally!" and I hug him. I look up. It's Oliver Wood looking very confused. I let go of him and start apologizing. He stops me and asks, "Come to Hogsmeade with me please! All the ther guys in my dormitory have dates except me. You two are the prettiest in the year and—" "No! Ty went to go find you to say yes!" I say and Oliver breathes a sign of relief and leaves. I head back to the common room. Musik and Joy and Jake are there. Jake leaves when he sees me and Musik and Joy. Musik and Joy stare at me. I shake my head and run to the dormtory. I fling myself on the bed and sob myself to sleep.