CHAPTER 9: TALL


"So this is what it feels like to be tall," mused Julia as she and Hermione walked down the third floor corridor to the hospital wing the night of the Gryffindor - Slytherin match. There had been a loud party going on in the Common room, and somehow someone had smuggled in fire whisky which a particular 6th Year that went by the name of Rhys Burlidge had obviously consumed too much of. He had stormed up to Julia, angrily demanded which git had put a shrinking curse on her, and as Julia protested that nobody had put a shrinking curse on her and that she really was this short, the 6th Year had cast a growth charm on her until she was about six foot. Hence, the embarrassing trip to the Hospital Wing to get the charm removed.

Julia stumbled for what felt like the fiftieth time in four minutes, narrowly missing a complete fall by grabbing a suit of armour.

"Honestly, Julia, Burlidge didn't make you that tall," Hermione laughed as she helped her friend re-balance herself.

"You want me to put a growth charm on you and see how it feels?" Julia demanded. "It's like walking on stilts...I don't understand how Ron lives with this."

"Speaking of those two, I wonder where they are - I didn't see them in the Gryffindor Common Room at all tonight."

"If I know Harry he'll be trying to figure out who that Flamel person is that Hagrid told us about."

Hermione glanced at Julia out of the corner of her eye curiously for some reason. "I expect you're right."

Julia blushed and gazed at the floor. She wasn't as focused on the Nicolas Flamel mystery as the other three were - probably because she hadn't seen the three-headed dog like they had and the trap door - but also because she was busy trying to solve one of her own. Her conversation with Ron over breakfast that morning had suddenly made her realize how little she knew about her own parents. Amelia rarely spoke of her sister or her brother in law, and though there were a few pictures round the house, Julia had always been too scared to ask her Aunt about anything. It was clear for Amelia that the pain of losing her family had never really left her, and Julia didn't want to open old wounds.

"Oh damn it!" Julia suddenly cried, turning to look at Hermione. "I've forgotten to hand in my Herbology homework!"

"...Julia that's the fourth late homework this month."

"You don't need to remind me Hermione."

"But you know what that means-"

"Shut up."

"Oh Julia - "

"I know."

"You've got a detention." Hermione all but whispered the word, as if it were not something fit to be said aloud.

Julia threw up her hands, but stumbled again when the movement sent her off balance. She hated being tall.

"Julia, our homework was to draw a tree." Hermione's voice was thick with disapproval and exasperation.

Julia smiled. "Have I mentioned recently how much I love Herbology?"

"Focus."

"Right."

"Professor Sprout already extended the deadline a whole week for you."

"I know, I know! Merlin, why do I have to get a detention at Christmas! My first detention, too."

"You're not getting any sympathy from me."

"You really don't get this whole concept of friendship, do you?"

Hermione looked offended. "That's really rude, actually."

"It's a joke."

"You've been using that as an excuse to insult me an awful lot recently. You can't just be hurtful and then think it's negated by saying 'it's a joke'."

"It's only insulting because you clearly don't get my sense of humour."

"Because it's not funny."

"I'm hilarious."

Hermione huffed. "If you work on meeting deadlines, then I'll work on being more sympathetic. Deal?"

Julia grinned. "Deal."

The two girls walked on in silence which was only broken by Julia nervously skittering behind tapestries to avoid the humiliation of being seen by another student, dragging Hermione with her.

After a few minutes of walking side by side quietly, Hermione began fidgeting. She glanced at Julia, and then opened her mouth. And shut it again. And then burst out: "Your first detention -"

"I know!"


Julia and Hermione managed to nab the best sofa by the Common Room fire that night. The post-Quidditch march celebrations had not yet entirely subsided, but the majority of the Gryffindor house had gone to bed. To Julia's intense relief, the Sixth Year Rhys Burlidge was nowhere to be seen.

Hermione flipped a page of her book. She was reading intently, and Julia jiggled her legs that were stretched out over Hemione's to get her attention. Her friend looked up.

"McGonagall'll let me go home for the weekend, won't she?" Julia asked frowning, not looking up from the letter she was busy penning to Amelia.

"I expect so - Parvarti and Padma Patil did it."

"Mmm, so did Seamus Finnegan, but he swears he wasn't homesick."

Hermione lowered her book slightly, raising an eyebrow. "You're not homesick, are you?"

"A little," the smaller girl admitted. Her conversation with Ron had suddenly made her all the more acutely aware of her parentless status, which made her miss the only family she had left even more. "...But seeing as McGonagall has a vendetta against me, I doubt she'll let me go."

"Rubbish, of course she will. You always over-exaggerate everything, Julia."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Do n- oi! There's Ron and Harry - don't tell me you two've been in the library. I might die of shock."

"We were in the library," laughed Harry, and Julia feigned a heart attack, collapsing theatrically to the ground. Harry rolled his eyes and took her now empty seat whilst Ron sprawled out on the carpet next to Julia, letting the massive stack of books in his arms spill out around them.

"We tried to figure out who this Flamel person is," added Ron, poking through the books with a pessimistic look on his face. "I read for three whole hours and I only got through two chapters."

"Impressive," said Hermione, dryly. Despite herself, however, she did seem interested. She picked up one of the heaviest books - A History of Alchemists in Wizarding Britain - and turned the volume about in her hands. "So no luck then?"

"None," said Harry, flatly. "I don't want to look at another book again."

Ron sniggered. "Yeah, that'll do wonders for your education."

They laughed, but just then, Ron's family owl, Errol, appeared at the window with a tin that was unmistakeably one of Mrs Weasley's famous care packages.

"Food!" Julia jumped up from the floor and unlatched the window, letting the bird in along with a gust of cold air and a few flakes of snow - meanwhile, Ron, utterly disregarding his mother's lengthy-looking letter, dived for the tin before Julia could.

"Get off! That's my food! Is your last name Weasley? No!"

Something hit Ron hard on the back of the head and he yelped, spinning round.

"Don't be such a bloody pig, Ron!" George or Fred (was there a way of telling which?) yelled across the room. "Share the food!"

"Yeah!" agreed the other twin, sauntering over. "It's not just for you, Ronnikins."

There was a tussle for the biscuit tin between Ron and the twins that the twins predictably won - with Julia egging them on from the sidelines.

"Oi!" Ron growled, as George held him in a headlock and Fred opened the tin to reveal a glorious mound of freshly baked brownies. There commenced another, shorter, fight over who would get the biggest brownie slice, and as portions were divided, Hermione snatched up the letter that had accompanied the baked goods. "Honestly you lot," she snapped, pursuing the words on the parchment and reading random comments of Mrs Weasley's not aloud. "...your neighbours have moved out...oh and Fred 'n George - your Mum's furious - Percy told her about you blowing up Filch's closet - "

"-git-" said Fred, casually, through a mouthful of brownie. Hermione frowned.

"-and she says well done to Harry for making the Gryffindor team. And tells him to be careful - "

"-best not tell her you almost swallowed the snitch and crashed your broom, then-" said George to Harry, sagely.

"- and she hopes that Ron isn't giving me and Julia too much trouble."

Julia grinned.

"-typical," moaned Ron. "She always sides with you if you're a girl. Ginny gets away with murder in our house."

The letter was put away, and after a general rant from the Weasley boys recounting the number of times their younger sister had escaped punishment based on - according to them - her gender and the fact she was the youngest, a Gobstones tournament was established.

It was, therefore, long after midnight by the time Julia and Hermione trooped off to the girl's dormitories for bed. They stood side by side brushing their teeth in the small bathroom, mute with tiredness. They crawled into their respective beds - Julia had warmed to hers after she discovered the house-elves put hot pans underneath the mattress to warm the sheets - and then subsequently fought over who had to get back up and turn off the light.

"G'night Hermione," Julia whispered, sleepily, after Hermione had successfully bullied her into getting up. She snuggled back under her covers.

"Night Julia."

Julia was just drifting off - sleep was pulling her away from the land of the waking quickly - before she had just enough time to register that the hole in her chest, the one that had been aching since the conversation with Ron that morning, wasn't hurting anymore.

Julia wouldn't figure out why until a few years later when she was older and wiser - when she figured out that family didn't have to be bound by blood.