10. Watching Movies

The following week passed without any unusual occurrences. Harry and Ron got over their fight about the cup. Harry played his best at their practice on Friday afternoon and Ron was very satisfied and absolutely sure that they would win. He even said sorry to Harry for shouting at him. What Ron didn't know was the reason for Harry's good spirits, which made him play so well. Had he known that Harry had just been happy because he was going to meet Elena Santos, he surely wouldn't have been happy at all. However, he didn't so everything was well. Harry had thought about the matter for some time and he had concluded that he wasn't doing something that bad after all. He was just going to watch a couple of movies with Elena. There was nothing wrong about it – it was a normal muggle activity. It couldn't harm anyone, right?

On Saturday morning Harry went to the room of requirement. Just before he reached the entrance Pimki appeared before it.

"Good Morning, Harry Potter!"

"Morning! Is Elena already in there?"

"Yes. Mistress told Pimki to wait for Harry Potter and to let him in", she said and opened the door that appeared.

Harry went in and Pimki closed the door behind him. He looked around - the room looked quite differently than before. The walls were icy blue like the carpet, which had also big white snowflakes on it. The TV was the only thing that was the same. This time before it stood a big white couch with a table in front of it. The room looked very icy, but fortunately it was still very warm. Elena was standing in the back of the room nipping on her cup – looking at Harry while he looked around the room.

"You didn't think that I would let it the way it was the last time, did you?"

"Not really."

She smirked. "Some hot chocolate?"

"That would be nice."

Elena handed him an other cup.

"How was your training yesterday?", she asked him while they got seated on the couch.

"Very good."

"Mhm."

"It was. Why don't you practice actually?"

"It's very cold outside."

"And the fine Slytherins don't want to catch a cold."

"If you want to see it that way. However, if you ask me normal people don't go outside to train when it snows – except for winter sports of course, but that doesn't count. Even the muggles are clever enough not to play football outside in winter."

"What do you know about football?!"

"Quite a lot for your information, but that's not the point. Besides we're going to win the cup anyways, no matter how much you practice."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes."

"And how are you going to do it? Poison all of our players maybe?"

"Of course not. We'll beat you on the field. You'll see. Do you want to bet on it?"

"For what?"

Elena thought for a moment. "One wish."

"What wish?"

"The one who wins can ask the other anything and he has to do it."

"You aren't going to ask me to kill myself, are you?"

"Don't be silly. No such things, but if you're so afraid that you might lose.."

"I'm not, I know Gryffindor is going to win. I accept the bet."

Elena just smiled and turned the TV on.

Harry stretched smiling while Elena turned off the TV and the DVD player.

"That was it for today", she said.

First they had watched "Tomb Rider" 1 & 2 and then "Meet the Parents" & "Meet the Fockers". Harry was beginning to understand what Elena meant with taking a break from the magical world. He hadn't thought about it the whole day and it was great.

"It's already after curfew, but I suppose you won't have any problems going back to your common room without being caught, Harry."

"No, but can't we stay here little longer. It's not that late."

"There aren't any movies left."

"What about the box on the stereo?"

"What?", Elena looked to where Harry was pointing. There was indeed a DVD box on the stereo.

"Oh, that one. It's not supposed to be here. I just got it yesterday and wanted to watch it last night, but the Transfiguration homework took me more time than expected. Pimki probably thought that we would watch it since it was left there."

"So why don't we watch it now? You aren't already tired, are you?"

"No, I'm not, but I'm not sure you'll like it."

"What is it about?", Harry thought that he would watch anything just to be able to stay longer in the room of requirement with Elena.

"About World War I."

"Aha."

"You know what WWI is, don't you?"

"Of course, I learned a bit about it in muggle school."

"OK, it's about the first Christmas during the war in 1914. I watched it last Christmas and I really liked it."

"Let's watch it then."

Elena stood up to put the DVD in the player and then sat back on the couch next to Harry turning the lights off.

"Now it's almost as if we were in a movie theatre", she smiled at Harry and started the movie.

However, after just a minute of it, Harry was staring at the TV screen not believing what he was hearing.

"Why are the children saying such things?!"

"Because they really had to learn such poems in school at that time. The movie is based on real facts - just the characters are fictional", Elena said pausing the movie, which was called "Merry Christmas". "It shows how awful and senseless the whole war was and that very good in my opinion. The soldiers from the different countries are even talking in their mother tongues – English, French and German. It makes the movie seem more real. It's brilliant, but we don't have to watch it if you don't want to."

"I do. I just didn't expect something like that, but I really want to see it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

Elena pressed "play" and the movie continued. Harry tried to remember what he had learned about the war, but the only thing he could think of was that it had started because someone had been shot and then all the countries declared war to each other. And of course many people were killed.

By the end of the movie Harry was watching it fascinated and at the same time not really believing that something like that could have actually happened. And then just as the German soldiers were getting on a train Harry heard a sniff. He looked at Elena and saw tears running down her face.

"Ellie?"

"It's so unfair and sad."

Harry touched her shoulder not really knowing what to do. Elena sniffed again and then she put her head on Harry's shoulder still watching the movie.

"They're being punished for not fighting on Christmas", she continued, while the train took off and a sad song could be heard.

"They're just being sent to an other place, it's not that bad", Harry said not very convinced himself.

"Not that bad?", Elena repeated quietly. "They have almost four years of war before them. How many do you think will survive for so long? And the French officer will probably never ever see his child. He was sent to Verdun and the Germans and French just killed each other there for months without achieving anything."

"You really do know much about the muggle world", Harry tried to change the topic, because Elena still had tears in her eyes.

"I just love history and that time is one of my favourite. I'm not sure why, but I think it stared with "Titanic" – my favourite movie ever."

"What is it about?"

Elena raised her head and looked at him surprised.

"You haven't even heard of "Titanic"?"

"No. Is that bad?"

"It's one of the tree most seen movies of all time. Most people know about it even if they haven't actually seen it or don't really liked. We'll watch it next time", she said and then leaned against Harry again.

"And you know the people really believed what they were told then – that the Germans are evil and the other way around. Do you remember what the priest said to the new soldiers and the poems in the beginning? I myself wouldn't have believed that it was possible if I hadn't read that book shortly before I saw the movie."

"What book?"

"The last book of a children series. I had read six of the books when I was younger in Bulgarian. I didn't know then that there were two more books, but last year I read something about it and remembered that I had really liked the books, so I bought all of them in English and stared to read them. When I got to the last one I understood why it hadn't been translated into Bulgarian – it wasn't a children's book at all. The first books were lovely - about an orphan girl called Anne, how she got adopted, went to school later college and then married and had six children. However, the last one was about her youngest daughter and how she grew up during the war - the author wrote many things from her own diary of the time in the book. The family was living in a small village in Canada, but all the boys went to fight for Britain. And everybody in the village talked all the time how dangerous the Germans were and how they wanted to take over the world. And the only person who understood that the war was absolutely senseless and wanted peace was treated like a traitor and a madman and his daughter ran away because she was ashamed of him. And she also killed my favourite character – the only one who actually died from the main characters.."

"The daughter of the man killed someone!?"

"No, the author. His name was Walter and he was the only one from the boys who didn't really want to fight and kill other soldiers. But with everyone saying how the Germans would kill them all if they managed to get to Canada, he decided that he had to help "save" the world from them and a year later he was shot just like that. However the worst of all was when a little boy drowned his kitten – he "sacrificed" it so that one of the older boys who had been caught by the Germans would return alive. Can you believe it? Drowning an innocent little kitten for someone who has chosen to go and fight knowing what may happen to him. Poor little kitten. I just couldn't do anything to any cat - even Mrs. Norris – I love them too much, but the author apparently didn't. And the little boy was the son of the minister of the village, too, not some bully… drowning a little kitten…"

Harry waited for Elena to continue, but she didn't – she had fallen asleep. Harry tried to make sense of all she had just said while watching her outlines in the dark, but he fell asleep too – not five minutes later.