Reason 19: I get told all the important information even if I'm not there

Okay, so I managed to avoid going to the duel with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville, no matter how much Hermione begged me to go with her. She wanted to tell the boys off and thought that I could help her as they 'would listen to me'. I felt slightly bad saying no to her, but the powers in control of my life really should have tried harder to get me to go if they wanted me to be a major part of the plot.

As it stands, I didn't go, but both Harry and Hermione went into great detail when telling me their side of the story. Harry also told me and Ron about the package that Hagrid picked up from Gringots. It's really very annoying that I can't tell them exactly what is going on, but if I change as little as possible, then the timeline won't change and there will be no possibility of things going much worse than in the books! So, when Harry and Ron are discussing theories about the stone, I tend to go and sit with either Hermione or Fred and George.

In true MS fashion I've become closer to Fred and George than I ever thought I would. It started after I asked them how they managed to do one of their pranks. I couldn't believe how much complicated magic they had to use to make the pranks work! I think my enthusiasm endeared me to them or something, because they now will occasionally call me over to sit with their friends in the common room. I love talking to them, getting to know people who weren't a major part of the plot. I don't have to constantly worry about what I say around them, unlike any of the Weasleys or anyone in my year.

Since half of Fred and George's friends are on the quidditch team, they all got very excited when both Harry and I were sent brooms by McGonagall. I wasn't expecting one because I'm not going to be on the team on anything, but every quidditch fan in Gryffindor is in awe that we're going to have two Nimbus 2000s in the tower. I have to admit, it's making me more excited to finally be able to see a match!

Reason 20: My family is very powerful

It took me about 2 hours, but I finally managed to find a book on my family in the library. It was a book on the politics of the wizarding world and how all the important political families grew in power. Apparently, the Shafiqs didn't believe in marrying into the other Sacred 28 families to gain power due to not liking the idea of marrying family members (rather sensible if you ask me). They liked to distinguish between romantic love and family love and didn't really want any cross over. Therefore, they married into lots of smaller pureblood families with less power who still had pure bloodlines. These smaller families then died out or had only squib descendants, so the Shafiqs would gain whatever land and resources they had, from seats on the Wizgamont to castles and mansions.

I've been thinking since I found this information half an hour ago. If these squibs had descendants, at least one of them would probably have magic! So I most likely have long lost family here at Hogwarts! But how to find out?

I suppose, in lots of fanfiction I read on my old world, Gringots ran some sort of blood testing trial or whatever the author decided to call it. I hate to rely on fanfiction logic (I mean I've been complaining about it the entire time I've been in this world), but maybe I could ask McGonagall if one of those exists.

Reason 21: Unless I am actively trying to stay out of the main plot, I end up stumbling into it anyway.

I hadn't forgotten that a troll was going to be let into the school by Quirrel exactly, I had just forgotten that it was today. Thankfully I haven't had much interaction with Quirrel outside of lessons, nor do I seem to have any sort of connection with Voldemort on the back of his head. But today was the first time one of his actions affected me.

I had been in the library writing the last entry when I realised that I was very late for dinner. So I packed up and started running to the Great Hall, before I heard someone crying in the girls toilets. I couldn't leave them to cry alone! But it turned out to be Hermione and that was when I remembered that it was Halloween, the day that the Golden Trio fought a troll.

I'm actually glad that I was there. In the books, this was the moment when they became such good friends. I think I may have felt a bit left out if I hadn't been there to experience this with them, even if I got troll snot on my robes.

Okay, so I'm fully aware that the duel doesn't happen the day before Halloween, nor does Harry get his broom Halloween morning. But can we pretend that it did, just for the sake of this? This chapter would have been too short if split into two, and the last chapter would have been a bit too long if I stuck the start of this chapter on the end of it. So, can we pretend? Please?