Chapter 15:
The final year examinations came in a blink of an eye. Everyone had their heads buried in textbooks or sheafs of parchment in which their notes were copied down. The strange routine took place all over again. Christine took everything lying back.
She had the smug pleasure of telling people, "Who told you not to revise earlier?"
So basically all she had to do was to flip through her notes one last time before the exam. Everything seemed like a breeze until after each exam, she would throw a fit like so…
(To Cedric) "OMG. I can't believe I underestimated the exam. I think I got question 15 wrong! What did you Ravenclaw friend get! Ravenclaw's are supposedly smart!" And so on and so forth.
But in the end she always did pretty well. This time, she managed it with mainly O's, three E's, and a T for divination. No matter how badly she wanted to quit that woolly "subject", her father wouldn't allow her.
"It looks good on your portfolio when you are applying for a job!" came his reason.
The trip back to Hogwarts was a long and tiring one, especially when you had to sit alone. Christine had amused herself by getting back into her old habit. With much concentration and will, she managed to bewitch long strands of coloured, stranded cotton used to knot friendship bands.
After his shifts, Cedric settled himself in Christine's compartment. Apparently, people had rather squished themselves with eight other people in one compartment rather than to sit with Christine.
"What are these?" he said, fingering the multi-coloured bands taped onto the windows.
"Friendship bands," she replied simply, completing another.
"Oh I see…Are you making one for me?"
Christine said with a smile, "Mayyyybeeee…"
Grinning, he sat himself and leaned his body against Christine's.
"I am sooo tired," he said sighing, closing his eyes.
Christine could not stop the many thoughts flooding into her mind…
His body is so warm…It's so hard and muscular…"Done," she said.
"Hmmm?" he said, opening his sleepy eyelids.
"There, for you," she said simply.
Taking it, he surveyed the friendship band and said, " It's black, grey, white, and pink!"
"Grey and black matches your eyes," she said, casually.
"Why pink?"
"Cause you're prissy," she said, grinning.
"I'll keep this," he said, placing it in his pocket, before falling asleep on Christine's shoulders.
"Wake up you lethargic being," she said, jutting her finger into his rib two hours later, "We're here,"
Taking in a deep breath, he put a hand over his face and stood up.When he did,Christine realized how warm her shoulder was. Alighting the train (with Cedric's help of carrying her large, heavy trunk), she was very much surprised to see her father, her aunt, her uncle, and her cousins there.
"HANNAH!" Christine screamed, totally forgetting about Cedric.
Christine jumped into her cousin's arms and gave her a long and warm lasting hug.
"Christine," Cedric panted, setting her trunk next to her, "Hello Sir," he said, addressing her father.
"You must be Amos' son!" Christine's father said warmly, reaching out a hand.
"Yes sir," he said, shaking it, "Pleasure to meet you,"
"And you. Hey Christine, meet you back at the muggle taxi stand ya?" her father said, ruffling her hair.
"Sorry, my dad actually wanted a boy but he got me instead. So sometimes... he kinda treats me like one," she said to Cedric after the big group of her relatives left.
"So I'll see you when the new school year starts," he said, "That's a long, long time,"
"Yeah, I suppose it is," she said, "Oh come here," she said playfully, pulling him into a long lasting hug.
As she drew away, she kissed his cheek. She quickly turned around, determined not to look at him in the eye. Why did I have to act like those klutzy bitches! She said in her mind, scolding herself in her head.
She realized that he was still clinging on to her hand.
"Let go Cedric!" she said, laughing.
Ignoring her protests to let her go, he leaned forward awkwardly like a little boy and kissed her on her lips….
"Are you feeling alright?" Hannah enquired, "Your face has been red since we left you back there with that boy,"
Both girls were lounging in Christine's room. Hannah and her family were staying over for the holidays.
"Did you do anything to you!" she asked, horror stricken.
"Hannah," she said, "Chill….Take a deep breath….That's it….No he didn't,"
"He's that Dig-something boy you have been telling me about, isn't he?" she asked.
"Yeah…" she breathed.
"Okay. Spill."
"What!"
"Spill it Christine, you haven't gone a day without telling me any of your secrets. Too bad I'm in Beauxbatons. Can't keep an eye on you,"
Throwing a mock scornful look at Hannah, Christine grinned and began to rhapsodize about Cedric to her which concluded in 2 hours. To Christine's annoyance, Hannah had fallen asleep just before she was about conclude.
The holidays passed quickly and not a day went by without Christine thinking about Cedric. A week before she had to leave for Hogwarts, she received a letter from a familiar, handsome grey owl in the middle of the night while Hannah was soundly asleep…
Dear Christine,
How were your holidays? Mine is pretty dull. Being seperated from my friends and all. Dad wanted me to follow him to work, to get an experience of what it was like working at the ministry and all.
extra boring stuff which Christine skipped
And, I just wanted to say that I miss you,
Love,
Cedric.
(sorry people, I honestly suck at letters)
"Quick! You are late!" Christine's dad bellowed, signalling Christine to run through the barrier.
Christine hurriedly pushed her trolley in the direction of the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, vanishing through it after she hastily cried out, " BYE-DAD-LOVE-YOU-DON'T-FORGET-TO-FEED-MY-HAMSTER"
Throwing her trunk into the luggage compartment and jumping onto the moving train, she waved goodbye to her father who had decided to see if she had gotten onto the train safely. Finding an empty compartment at the end of the train, she settled herself in and closed her eyes, ready for a good nap until...
"Oi quit shoving git!"
"No YOU quit shoving!"
"No YOU!"
"NO YOU!"
"Let us all keep quiet and peaceful..." Came a ridiculous, forced calm voice.
" sensored Chinese swear words"
"What the hell..." Christine said as her sleepy eyelids flew up at the familiar language reached her ears.
Just then, three girls stumbled into her compartment, tripping over each other. It was obvious they were sisters. Two of them were identical in height, build, and appearance but the other was more petite and sweet looking. All of them were Chinese too...
"Oops..." said one identical sister.
"It's your fault Kimberly!"
"I'm so sorry! We are new and we couldn't find a compartment!" exclaimed the petite looking one.
"No no...It's okay. It gets kidna lonely in here after a while... Go ahead and have a seat," Christine said graciously, wanting to make a new friend.
"Thanks..." Replied on identical twin.
"Are you sisters?"
"Yes," Replied on of the identical ones, "Triplets actually, to be more exact,"
"Jermaine here is the odd one out," One of the identical ones said, nodding to the petite sized girl.
"So...My name is Lynette Zhang, most people call me Lyn. I'm the oldest of the three," said one, grinning.
"I'm Kimberly Zhang, second of the triplets,"
"And I'm Jermaine!" quipped the youngest.
"We are not in the first year, mind you," nodded Kimberly.
"We transfered from Beauxbatons," said Lyn.
"So we are in the fifth year," beamed Jermaine.
"I'm tweedle-dumb," grinned Kimberly.
"I'm tweedle-two," Lyn said, grinning in an identical sort of way.
"And Jermaine is..."
"TWEEDLY-TWEE!" exclaimed both identical sisters.
Ignoring them, Jermaine turned to Christine and said, "So what is your name? You look Asian too,"
"Christine Lin, nice to meet you. And yes, I'm half a chinese," she said.
"Cool!" Kimberly exclaimed.
"Omg, so you know what I said just now?"
"Pretty much yes, you called either one of your sisters a-"
"Let's not go into that shall we?" Jermaine said.
"Anyway, where are you guys from? China...Or something?"
"Nahh..." Kim replied.
"We're from Winchester. That small, boring old town," Jermaine replied.
The conversation continued for hours and during that time, Christine drew her own conclusions...
1. Jermaine was the hardworking one who excelled in acedemics.
2.Lyn was smart, but Kimberly influenced her to fool around and be a slacker.
3. Kimberly was rather intellectual, but she was more of the happy-go-lucky one.
4. All three were mad.
"Anything off the trolleys dear?" a kind plump lady asked through the slightly opened compartment door.
"I'll have a pumpkin pasty please," three sisters said all together at once.
"And you dear?" the matronly woman said, looking at Christine.
"I'll have a..."
"Get a pumpkin pasty!"
"Yeah they RAWKKK!" Lyn said in a loud voice.
"Okay then, one pumpkin pasty,"
When the trolley lady stepped out, all three sisters tore out the foil wrapper and began eating it.
"Sorry, we're just really hungry,"
"Yeah we totally missed breakfast,"
"Cause our mom wanted us to be there early,"
Then the compartment door slid open...
"Hey Christine..." Came a familiar voice...
Lynette choked on her pasty, sniggering, she said in a small voice, "Hey Christ-yy babyy..."
Ignoring her, Christine said to Cedric, "Hey ced what's up?"
"Nothing, I'm doing my prefect duties now and all, just sort of wanted to pop by,"
"These are Kimberly, Lynette, and Jermaine," Christine said, indicating to the triplets.
"I'm Cedric Diggory, nice to meet you,"
Spotting his prefect badge, Kimberly retorted, "You're not gonna book us right?"
"Book?"
"Demerits,"
"Depends..." he said, grinning before stepping out.
Christine lookedat the triplets, trying to find a look of lust on their face.
"Not my type..."
"Yeah...Too pretty for me..."
"Rather ugly if you ask me,"
Taken aback, Christine kept quiet before one of them gained their common sense...
"OH..."Kimmy exclaimed.
After they got off the train, Christine felt like she had known the triplets for her whole life. They were extremely funny and friendly. They headed for the feast and the three sisters joined the first years for the sorting. All three were sorted into Gryffindor. Surprise Surprise.
"You see, all the boys in the family went to Durmstrang,"
"And the girls went to Beaxbatons,"
"But our grandmother was from Hogwarts,"
"And she was in Gryffindor too,"
The triplets wereextremely abosrbed in conversation with the rest of the members of Gryffindor house. They were all extremely sociable and funny and neer failed to put a smile on anyone's face. Somehow, Kimberly and Lynette reminded one of Fred and George...
Hey people! I know this chapter is kinda boring but this is where I introduce the triplets. Kimberly and Jermaine are actually my really good friends. Well, Jermaine is like a sister to me and stuff. And Lyn? She's me. but my full name isn't Lyn. ((: The next chapter will definetly be more interesting but I made a mistake. Christine is taking her OWLS in this year. Not the last. ((: