Monday, 18 December
5:45 p.m.
Argh, it just never stops! Last week was project/random assessment week (good news - our Charms presentation went really well and although Neville's Babbling Beverage wasn't perfect, he did actually babble when Snape made him try it, although it was in a tongue that I'm not even sure is a real language and he didn't stop for three hours), and now this week seems to be pop quizzes week. Today Professors Vector, Flitwick, and Umbridge all gave us pop quizzes. The Arithmancy one wasn't that bad, and Professor Vector had hinted that she would give us one today, so I revised for it last night. The Charms one wasn't too difficult either. But I think Umbridge gave us one just to be nasty, and the quiz was so utterly pointless that I had to repress the urge to walk out in protest.
Question 1: According to Table 4.1: Number of Cases of Misused Hexes in Britain in the Last 10 Years (Chapter 4 of the textbook), how many cases of misused Bat Bogey Hexes were there in 1990?
And it wasn't even an open-book test! Even I didn't know that off the top of my head! The answer was twenty-four - I looked it up after class - but how is anyone supposed to memorize every number in every table in the text?! And the class read Chapter 4 nearly two months ago! SHE IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!
What made it even worse was that I overheard Malfoy and Crabbe cackling about the quiz in Potions; Umbridge had given their class warning about the quiz, and she even told them which tables and figures to know from the text! That is totally unfair! If Malfoy gets a better grade on a quiz than me I'll never hear the end of it. And he'll know exactly what I've gotten because Umbridge reads everyone's grades out loud after she's marked a test or quiz, even grades from other classes. She says it builds character. I say she takes a perverted pleasure in humiliating the students who failed, the hag.
I never thought I'd say this but I really want to get out of here and go home for Christmas. Or rather, go on skiing holiday for Christmas. At least I'll be with Mum and Dad. I mean, I'm not the greatest skier in the world and I actually spend most of my time falling down, but I certainly can't tell Ron that now because he thinks skiing is so neat and that I'm some sort of expert.
"So you strap pieces of wood to your feet and then go sliding down a mountain?" he exclaimed incredulously when I was trying to explain the concept.
"Well, yes…"
"That's mad!" Ron said, but he looked at me rather admiringly.
"But it's not as if you just go barreling down the slopes; there's a technique to it, you see, and you control your direction and your speed," I explained.
"Still mad…" Ron said appreciatively.
He's been bugging me to tell him more about skiing every chance he gets because he finds it so amusing. I'll admit that it's sort of nice that he's paying me so much attention and that he thinks I'm so "cool" because I do something that he's deemed barking mad. But I'm running out of stories and I'm afraid he'll find out that I'm really not that great a skier and that I've only really done it a few times.
Only two more days! I don't think I'm alone in counting down; it seems like everyone's feeling quite resentful towards the place lately. All Ginny can talk about is seeing her parents and Bill, and her Mum's Christmas dinner. Harry's going to the Burrow for Christmas as well (although Ron forgot to tell poor Harry he was invited, so Harry was sulking about until Ron finally mentioned it to him yesterday, the idiot). I wonder if Percy…no, I don't think he will. Poor Mrs. Weasley. Christmas at the Burrow would be something…but I'm spending the holiday with my own family, of course. I can't believe I haven't seen Mum and Dad since June.
Weekly Goals
1. Learn to ski better (obviously there are no books in the library at Hogwarts pertaining to the subject…but perhaps I could pick something up when I get back to the Muggle world, or convince Dad to let me take lessons this time - with a real ski instructor, not him).
2. Survive barrage of pop quizzes.
3. Christmas shopping? (When? Where?)
4. Write to Viktor.
5. RELAX! (After Wednesday, of course).
