The next day, Christine skipped breakfast because of the feeling of a hundred rocks piled in her stomach. Instead, she did what she should have done the previous day. She was itching to sketch something, a building of some sort. Taking her sketch book and her bag, she went out to the lawn and sat on the fresh lawn. She began sketching when she noticed Cedric lying on the stone bench with a few of his friends laughing. That was shen she realized that he had the most amazing and prominent jaw line. Before she knew it, she started to sketch him and his jaw line, drawing an exact replica of him, laughing. It was like as if she was being possessed, she and that pencil.

Then when his friends noticed that she kept looking at them, they nudged him and began whispering. She looked at her artwork she ever so unknowingly drew. Shocked at the perfectly drawn picture she held, she drew a big cross over the page, ripped off the piece of parchment, crumpled it, and flung it into her bag. Combing her fingers through her brown tinted hair, she stood up and made her way to the dungeons, carelessly and unknowingly dropping the piece of crumpled parchement.

By the time she made it back into the castle, Cedric noticed the piece of parchment and tried calling her back but to no avail. He gingerly unfurled the piece of parchment and saw her drawing…

boring border please ignore

The play rehearsal became more frequent, drilling the cast to perfection. By the time the day came to perform, everyone (including the tardy Christine) was well prepared and could roll the lines off their tongues.

The evening came when Professor Dumbledore announced the arrival of the visitors, " My dear students! This week, Hogwarts will be a host to the students of a country so distant from our own. They have come to see how we study and live in the castle of Hogwarts, and will definetly make part of the large audience on the night the play in performed, I would like to welcome the students of the LuXing Institute for the Magically Gifted, who have traveled a long way from China!"

The great hall doors flung open and students dressed in Red inner suits and Black robes entered. The students were dressed in uniforms just like the ordinary Hogwarts student, but instead of grey/black and white, the colour of their school was red. Their outer robe, like Hogwarts, was black, but with a different school crest which depicted a single Chinese word. Their headmistress followed behind them, standing tall and proud of her talented students. They walked infront of the school and took an elegant bow, causing the students of Hogwarts to applaud louder. Then Christine heard one of her fellow classmates gasp, saying that the boy in the middle was the direct descendant of the great wizard who invented many useful potions and spells during the Qing dynasty.The group of students then split into four and sat at the four different tables: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, while their headmistress sat by Dumbledore who welcomed them again, and gave a sign, allowing them to resume their meal.

Surprisingly, the tall Chinese boy and his friends had settled themselves at the Gryffindor table on seeing Christine (a Chinese, well, half). They shook many out stretched hands, introducing themselves and making new friends. Not surprisingly, their names were obviously unpronounceable to the students. (The tall boy's name turned out to be Qing Jun Hao) Happy to see the Chinese, Christine attempted a small smile and stretched out her hand, greeting them in Chinese. Jun Hao seated himself opposite Christine and immediately took the liberty of calling her by her Chinese name. In no time, they were engaged in a fluent Chinese conversation while the rest of his friends lingered amongst the rest of the students.

Cedric coincidentally glanced at Christine and locked eyes for a few seconds before she turned away. Christine's house mates on the other hand, was amazed at her ability to speak Chinese (obviously, they had not heard her speak it before) and was asking her for direct translations, in attempt to learn and talk to the visitors. For the first time in Hogwarts, Christine actually laughed, not because of revenge or seeing people getting hurt, but because she was happy.

The new students joined in on lessons and learned new things with the Hogwarts students and enjoyed the company of them. Jun Hao seemed quite intrigued by Christine's interesting character and looks and spent most of his time with her in the library studying. He too had captured the eye of many Hogwarts girls. Cho Chang got herself aqquainted with another boy from LuXing, (much to Christine's annoyance)talking in a heavy Chinese accent.

What interested the students was the wands which these students carried. They were exactly like the one Christine carried. They were long and had these intricate carvings on them and a comfortable handle at the base, wonderful for spell work and Transfiguration.

The week drew to a quick close and they performed the RnJ play. Tammy, (to Christine's amusement) felt so sick that she threw up on the surly Slytherin who was the Chorus before going on stage. But something went very wrong when it came to the wedding scene… something very wrong…

Cedric was about to do the pressing thing with their foreheads when Christine tripped over the base of the pew and landed her lips on Cedric's. Her eyes shot open and exasperatedly looked at Abigail who sternly warned her not to ruin the scene. Their lips locked for a few seconds, (big scream from Ravenclaw girl who was silenced by Tammy's wand). They quickly recited their lines, ending the scene and went backstage. Christine avoided Cedric for the rest of the evenings, refusing to look him in the eye. When the play was over she curtly apologized for…

"….Whatever happened"

He was equally embarrassed as she was and quickly turned away. Christine noticed that Jun Hao was surly the next morning when they parted, looking extremely grumpy but promised to write to her.

Christmas came quickly and surprisingly, many students signed up to stay at Hogwarts for the festive season. It turned out that their parents thought it best for them to stay protected by Dumbledore against Sirius Black. Much to the student's delight, Dumbledore decided to have a Christmas dinner, where dress robes would be worn and dancing made compulsory. The theme was a masquerade, so the students were required to make or buy their own masks. His logic was : We can still join in on the festive fun, no matter how many crazed killers are on the loose!

Christine resumed her surly and grumpy attitude to the rest of the school. Not wanting to visit her material conscious cousins for Christmas, she decided too to stay back for Christmas. Dance partners (dates) were required and invitations flew all over the school, boys asking girls for their hand. Everytime a boy, good looking or not, tried approaching her, she would shoot a venomous look at him which sent him running off in the other direction. It turned out that there was this "dare" by the boys, to invite Christine to the dance. Winner bagged ten galleons.

Cedric settled next to her when she was dappling her legs over the Black Lake, reading, asking her if she had a date to the dance.

"I don't dance," she replied coldly, carrying on with her book, which made Cedric walk away.

"Package for you Miss Lin!" said a rather cute first year (in Christine's opinion, he was an annoying kid).

People stared at her and that large package. She opened the envelope addressed to her and realized that it was from her father.

Dear Christy,

I can't force you to go to Aunt Elizabeth's house for Christmas if you don't want to, but I heard from a fellow colleague at work, Amos Diggory, that there will be an upcoming Christmas dance. As I don't recall you packing any sort of dress robe, I sent you your mother's favourite Dress Robe. Though she only got the chance to wear it once, I am sure that she would have wanted you to wear it.

Merry Christmas! Love you loads,

(Chinese word for dad) Ba.

She grabbed the package and walked back to her dormitory, opening the massive brown thing on her bed. The dress was beautiful. It was white in colour and was streaked with silver and gold. (I'll let your imagination linger people, if you imagine it in your perspective as "beautiful", it would truly be nice to the you, the reader x) )

She found a silver necklace with a diamond encrusted heart pendant in the box and a pair of sweet diamond earings. A pink mask decorated intricately with sequins was also found inside. Too bad I'm not going though she thought, carefully putting away the magnificent dress.