Chapter 13
It was the morning that began Winter Break, and Jack was struggling to use a spell to pack his belongings because he couldn't find half of his clothes. By the time he succeeded most of his classmates were already gone for breakfast.
Gavin had had similar troubles, so they left on a boat together. Just when the boat was about to push off the shore, somebody shouted "wait!" from across the shore. The boat didn't stop moving, and the person was now sprinting across the snow-covered beach.
Jack and Gavin didn't see the point in waiting, as there were still three other boats, so they let their vessel continue on. They were three feet into the water and the hull was still scratching the bottom of the lake.
Aqua didn't stop at the shoreline, but rather continued to run and jumped in the back.
"Why didn't you wait for me?" she asked and hit them both lightly on the head.
Jack was about to answer when he realized the question was rhetorical. "Why didn't your robes get wet?" Jack said instead. "You just ran through the water and they're completely dry."
"I put an impervious charm on them," she answered.
A few minutes later the boat landed a short distance from the dining hall. It was on fire. Mekkler and Efural students who weren't lying on the grass (the snow had been melted by the fire), coughing were attempting to put it out, but with limited success.
"What happened?" yelled Aqua as she ran up to help.
"Zurak attacked us the minute the bell rang," Hannah answered. "They set the dining hall on fire. Whoever did it must have known what they're doing because water doesn't do anything to it. We all ran out, and a few of them ran in to get the flags. We think they have all of them now."
Jack and Gavin just stood there, not knowing what to do if water couldn't help. They didn't know any spells to help those who were coughing either. It seemed as if Zurak was going to win, despite the alliance.
Eventually the dining hall just burnt down to the ground and the fire went out. It was all the senior students could do to stop it from spreading. It was Saturday so there were no classes, when the bell rang and the two houses were walking slowly towards the Efural dining hall, figuring they would get some food before the bus came.
Their dining hall looked identical to theirs, the only difference being the banners on the wall. Even though it wasn't breakfast anymore, the tables were laden with toast, bagels, omelets and cereal.
The tension that had existed at the beginning of the alliance were long since gone, and as the despair of the morning wore off the dining hall was filled with chatter between inter-house friends.
Later that day the bus landed just where it had when it had dropped them off three and a half months ago. Jack and Gavin were near the end of the line and were forced up to the fourth deck, which was fun. Aqua and an Efural girl ended up sitting behind them.
Deciding to make it a tradition, the three played tag with their books the entire time. But after an hour or so almost every student on their floor had joined in. By the time the bus landed at its first stop a seventh year had added the rule of changing the book that's "it" red and all the others green. By the second stop some sixth years were saying they should enchant stones to do it automatically. It seemed as if Jack and Gavin had started a new business at the school.
Aqua got off at that stop, and now the fourth deck was mostly empty. The game of tag subsided with only them and five other people still on the floor. Finally Jack pulled out a book and began to read.
The book had wizards, witches, wands, and brooms. But Jack couldn't help but smile at how comically wrong it was. Finally the bus touched down in front of Jack's house when the sun had just finished setting.
Jack and Gavin quickly gathered their belongings and rushed out of the bus, eager to stretch their legs. As soon as they stepped off the bus the driver gave them a friendly wave, closed the doors, and took off again. It was an amazing sight to see a quintuple decker bus in the first place, and then to see one fly was one of the most wonderful things Jack had ever seen. Even though he had spent the past few months practicing and seeing magic, he still had to marvel at the charms placed upon that bus.
He turned around and walked straight into his mom, who pulled him into a tight hug. "I missed you so much," she said. "And you must be Gavin."
"Hello, Mrs. Skye," he said as he held out his hand.
"You can call me Mary," Jack's mom said, taking his hand.
"Mary, then," Gavin replied, the red in his face gone, replaced by a smile. "Thanks for letting me stay with you."
"Oh it's no problem," she said. "Just the Christmas spirit and all that. I just hope our home's comfortable enough for you, seeing as how your house must be full of magic and ours has none."
"I'm sure it'll be great," Gavin answered, his smile growing wider with every passing second.
"Oh here I am, making you two stand out in the cold," Jack's mom said suddenly. "Let's get you two inside before you freeze to death or somebody notices the way you're dressed."
Gavin was wearing his robes and cloak, while Jack had on jeans, a shirt, and his cloak. They rushed inside, eager at the suggestion. The cabins weren't heated so it was, quite literally, a warm welcome back home.
Jack took off his cloak and threw it into a closet by the door, and motioned for Gavin to do the same. He still looked very out of place with his robes rather than muggle clothes.
"Do you have muggle clothes, dear?" Mrs. Skye asked.
Gavin shook his head no.
"Well when the family comes over you can borrow some of Jack's."
Gavin looked over at Jack worriedly, clearly not having thought of meeting Jack's entire family. Jack just shrugged to say that they'd just have to hope for the best.
"Now remember Jack, we've had to tell the relatives that you're attending a normal boarding school, so keep that in mind when they come around. And Gavin, I'd appreciate it if you'd pretend the same."
Gavin nodded in agreement, barely listening as he looked around the house. "What does this do?" he asked, picking up a telephone.
"You can use it to talk to people anywhere like they're in the same room," Jack answered, stifling a laugh.
"Why don't you just use the Floo Network?"
"I don't know what the Floo Network is, Gavin," Jack said.
"Right, I'm still thinking 'magic,'" Gavin said.
"Of course," Mrs. Skye said. "Jack why don't you show him around the house and answer any of his questions. I have to do some laundry."
So Jack and Gavin walked all around the house, explaining everything from lamps to smoke detectors. Gavin seemed amazed by everything, wondering how they could possibly work without magic. Jack was able to explain some things, like lamps and dishwashers. But refrigerators and microwaves were beyond him.
As a result they spent most of the next few days on the internet, researching electrical appliances. Gavin was in awe of how muggles managed to do many things with electricity that wizards did with magic. Airplanes especially amazed him ("They're made out of metal!" "They fly faster than most brooms, and without magic!").
Jack couldn't help but laugh at some of the things Gavin didn't know or was perplexed by.
They were having such a good time researching, sledding, and having snowball fights that they almost didn't notice when it was Christmas Eve. Gavin actually came downstairs in his robes like normal and then realized he would have to change into some of Jack's clothes like whenever they went outside.
Seven minutes later he stood in jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. He looked very uncomfortable. "I can stand coats and sweatpants, but why do you wear these? They're so uncomfortable."
"Really? I think they're fine," was Jack's reply.
Gavin's annoyance with muggle clothes didn't seem to last long, as twenty minutes later he was wolfing down scrambled eggs and freaking out that he wouldn't do a good enough muggle impression.
"You'll be fine," Jack assured him.
"But what if I say something that wizards consider normal and muggles think of as pure fantasy?"
"Like what?"
"Like some joke about how much the Chudley Cannons suck!"
Jack didn't know what Gavin was talking about, but decided it wouldn't help to point that out. "If it really worries you so much, just pretend you're too shy to make very much conversation. My relatives are boring anyways, you probably won't want to talk."
So when Jack's aunt showed up, Gavin said hi and kept mostly to himself. He and Jack lazed on the couch as more and more relatives arrived. Gavin seemed transfixed by the conversation about politics, although Jack was struggling to stay awake, having heard the conversation a hundred times before.
Eventually Gavin became more confident in his muggle speech and partook as best he could with his limited knowledge of muggle politics. Once he mentioned the war, but Jack saved him saying he meant the drug war in Mexico.
Dinner was almost as delicious as the opening feast at Zeme's, although it was dampened by the ongoing 'discussion.' Finally they began to filter out, much to Jack's relief.
"I don't know what you mean by 'boring,'" Gavin said to Jack while they were getting ready for bed. "That was one of the most interesting days of my life."
"Yeah well they have the same conversation every single time they come over," Jack replied. "It gets old."
Jack went to bed that night, thinking of presents and realizing how left out Gavin would feel in the morning.
They woke up on Christmas morning and 6:30 and tip-toed down to the tree, brilliantly lit by the lights.
"At the orphanage we used candles," Gavin remarked, a bit nostalgically.
"You put fire, in a tree?" Jack asked.
"Well the adults fire-proofed the tree with magic," Gavin said.
They went up to the tree, it had three packages under it. There was a rectangle, which Jack was sure was a book, and two long skinny packages. Jack wasn't sure why there were two, until he looked at the labels, one of them was for Gavin.
"This one's for you," Jack said, handing him the package.
"Who's it from?" Gavin wondered.
"My parents," Jack said. "The wrapping paper is identical to mine."
"Your parents got me a gift?" Gavin said, the smile that accompanied Christmas grew even wider than it had when he met Jack's mom. "That's so nice. Why though?"
"I don't know," Jack said sarcastically. "It couldn't be because no presents have shown up for you in the mail, or that they like you, and there is no way in Merlin's pants that it's for Christmas."
Gavin sat on the floor, holding his present, just staring at it with his grin that made him look ever more like a wolf than he already did. Jack's parents woke up in a few minutes and they started opening presents before breakfast.
Jack opened his book first, it was entitled Easy and Uncommon but Useful Charms for the Beginning Magi. After thanking his parents Jack and Gavin began to open their identical presents at the same time.
As soon as he ripped the paper, Jack knew it was a Nimbus 3000, he saw the golden inscription where the paper had been ripped. He eagerly tore the rest of the red and green paper off in less than three seconds. Jack really admired the broom for the first time, the subtle curve and invisible cushion allowing you to sit comfortably, the sleek tail and elegant golden foot rests, but mostly the enchantments.
It was as if he could sense them. A long string of Latin sounding words popped into Jack's head. Almost unconsciously, he split the words up into levitation, forward, turning, and braking charms. There was no question in his mind that they were the right enchantments for this broom, and he also did not doubt that if he had more knowledge of magical theory he could tweak just a word here and there to make it even better.
There were many thanks and hugs after that. Jack couldn't help but think that Gavin seemed more sincere than he did, but of course they were the same. Of course Jack and Gavin wanted to try them out right away, but Jack's parents pointed out that if they went around riding flying broomsticks in the middle of the day right above the city, somebody would notice them.
A few days later, Jack's dad drove them out to the woods so they could test out their brooms. Along the way Jack's dad gave a lengthy and in-depth description of how a car works for Gavin, who was listening intently. It took almost two hours to get to a spot in the woods that looked deserted enough, and then they walked for half an hour to get away from the road.
When they finally emerged in a small clearing that they could take off from, Jack and Gavin were thankful just to be able to give their legs a rest. Which they did, of course, by testing out their brooms.
Jack's dad lay back in the tall grass and watched the boys zooming above him, occasionally worrying when one took a sharp turn or went really high only to dive bomb towards the ground.
Gavin and Jack were completely at ease, trying rolls and dives, and racing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jack felt which incantations were being used depending on what he did. He turned right and the spell that allowed him to do so came to light. He eventually learned to ignore it and focused on flying.
Four hours later they had to go home so they would be in time for dinner. The two friends reluctantly alighted upon the ground, both slightly unsteady from flying for so long.
Although he couldn't use magic to pack, Jack found it much easier now than he had at school. It might have been because he left most of his robes at school so there was less stuff to sort through. When Jack had changed into his robes and had his cloak and bag ready, he went downstairs to where Gavin was already waiting.
Unlike when it had first come, the bus arrived in just ten minutes. Jack helped Gavin heave his heavy trunk onto the bus, and they went to sit down on the first (and so far, only) floor.
After the first stop, a seventh year was selling green and red rocks that would change color when it hit an opposite colored rock for four sickles each. Jack bought two, one for him and one for Gavin. Soon the entire bus was utilizing them to play tag even more rapidly than before.