Chapter 3
Jacop was grounded, for how long Joan did not know. The next day was a sunny, windy day, perfect for soccer, but Jacop would not come out.
The light was on in Jacop's room. As usual, the curtains were closed, and one could not see anything beyond them. Joan walked cautiously up to the window and knocked. There was no reply. She tried again. And again. And finally, after the 5th attempt, Jacop reached under the curtains and held up a letter.
Joan,
I am really sorry but I cannot play with you anymore. As a punishment, I'm
grounded, which means that I cannot exit the house (do Muggles get grounded?). I don't know when it will end, but given the severity of my misbehavior it will probably be the rest of summer.
Joan couldn't believe her eyes. The rest of summer, in the house? And Jacop wasn't even protesting it; he seemed to think he deserved it!?
Before you go berating my mom, I'd like you to know that it was Mr.
P's punishment. I think my mom freaked out to much to think; y'know, she's deathly afraid of the Ministry. Joan, for you to stay safe from the ministry, still don't tell anyone.
Kyler was right, my mom personally made sure that the Petunies didn't tell anybody, not even the Greepins. I think she actually gets my point, she was mad but now she's not really upset once I told her why I told you. You can imagine Mr. P, though, the only thing that would have made it worse was if I were his son.
Kyler is finally not being ignored. He's back to being quiet, though, so I don't know how long that will last. Jane, Frederic and Kyler can't get out due to a practice protective enchantment Ms. P put on their living room that went wrong; Mr. G is working on reversing it. Meanwhile, I'm teaching them how to play Go Fish with what they call a muggle deck, and I have to say their catching on quick (to the fact that the "fish" are cards).
I'm almost done with homework (about 55%) given how long I have to do it, so I suggest you use this time to get caught up on yours, so that if I get out before the end of summer we can play together the whole time left. Well, see you next year (hopefully I'll be un-grounded by then), maybe sooner, have fun with your muggle friends!
Her heart sank at the letter. Joan didn't have any other friends, even the kid who lived on the other side of her home didn't like her. It was her secret. And now she wasn't going to be able to play with Jacop, or even talk to him! The lights went out in Jacop's room, but Joan didn't leave. She stared at the windowsill, where two clay action figures were pointed at each other. She smiled.
Three years ago, she and Jacop had made the action figures out of clay, molding them into make-believe heroes. Joan had made her's with red armor and a large, grey sword, whereas Jacop had made his with strange yellow armor, a belt with strange things, but most confusing, his weapon was a stick. Joan had laughed, saying that her sword would slice it into bits in no time, but Jacop simply laughed and shook his head. Both stubbornly believed that their action figure was the most powerful. To this day, Joan was puzzled as to why, of all the weapons, Jacop would chose a stick, a twig.
But as she thought, her eyes drifted to something else: the window lock with the letter beside it. Then she got an idea. She ran home to get her special ninja turtle pencil and began to write a letter of her own.
Dear Jacop,
We can talk to each other! All I have to do is wait 'till supper time (I'll know
'cause of the lights), then I can give you a letter! And you can leave your
letters out the window, where I'll pick them up. Have fun with the Petunie's,
and I hope the rest of your summer is as OK as it can be, being
grounded…
P.S. I don't have too much summer homework, at least not now before 4th grade.
She ran out to the window, and waited until the only lights on were in the kitchen. Not missing a moment, she slowly pulled up the window a crack. She left her letter on the windowsill, ready to close it and leave, when it occurred to Joan that the windowsill was quite deserted. He would never see it, covered by the curtains, nor would he on the incredibly dusty floor below them. Joan took a deep breath, and tried to think, but the only thing that came to her was her determination to communicate with Jacop. She took one last look at the lights, which seemed to show them walking…
Joan ran a few yards back before she even interpreted what she saw. They had gone from the kitchen to the Petunie's part of the joint home. Of course, she thought, they're eating with the Petunie's… They have to bring them food, and of course the ever-kind Susan would stay to give them company…
This sealed it for Joan. As quietly as she could, she lifted up the window, and cautiously set her left foot in, then her right, then the rest of her body… Then Joan came out from behind the curtains, the husky light from the setting sun lighting the room.
Nothing could have prepared Joan for what she saw. If they were supposed to be concealing magic, she finally understood why the curtains were always kept shut. A grey owl ate something that Joan guessed must be owl feed. There were posters of things and people Joan had never heard of, and see could have sworn that one winked at her…
A chocolate frog jumped around the room, and she gasped as a person from a poster walked out of their picture, went to a blank poster, talked to the person in the poster next to it, then walked back. She looked around, and nearly fell over as she saw all the other pictures doing the same, some even using objects and taking friends back with them! It was utter chaos until one picture, slightly hidden in the back of the room, called for attention. "SILENCE! Don't y'all know a muggle when you see one?" And, after a burst of murmuring, anything that could stop, did.
This had a surprisingly small effect on the scene. A furry, muti-colored creature with small horns and wings got out of it's box and flew around the room. A teapot was hopping around, trying to catch a strange, blue bug.
A cloudy, cracked mirror hung on the door. Joan looked straight into it, but jumped backwards in surprise into a battered, multi-colored semi-transparent lens when her reflection mumbled something that sounded like "Back to braids go, you…" Shadows moved about in the lens, but when Joan looked behind it, there was nothing. She had the uncomfortable feeling that the he posters were analyzing her, watching her every move.
A broomstick lay against the wall farthest from the window next to the door. Next to it was a stack of old books, glass bottles and… feathers?
A large trunk with clothes sticking out sat under Jacop's bed, which reminded Joan of the beds that her cousin Nicholas slept on at camp. It didn't stand out among the clutter.
A clock on the wall with a bunch of hands on it caught her eye- except when Joan did a double take, there were no numbers at all! Each hand had a name on it, and Joan looked at it, trying to figure it out. Jacop, Ms. D, Jane, Ms. G, Frederic, Kyler, Ms. P, Mr. P, Mr. G. Words were carved into the ring around the clock in Jacop's handwritting, Adjusted to work with the current time. Where the numbers would be, there were locations, and Joan understood. Ms. P was on Work, Jacop was on Home… but there were "numbers" that weren't locations as well, like Mortal Peril. She laughed; it seemed overly dramatic.
She turned to the wooden desk in the middle of the room. A colorful, glass top sat on it's side. It had the words No-one can sneak up on me; I can tell when your coming. Beware the nearoscope! Bewitched by Frederic, Jay-To, Lenny, and Jacop. Joan spun it idly as she took in the rest of the cluttered desk. A bottle of ink with a quill in it was in the corner of what seemed like an essay on a scroll. It was a strange sight, as if she had gone back in time in the middle of the future. A bunch of books and scrolls that looked like notes were scattered around. A wooden, handmade hand was lying on top of one book called Bewitching Clocks of All Types. On it, the name Joan was carved. But I don't live in the house…
A stick lay next to the essay in a book called A History of Magic. The page seemed to be talking about some kind of… goblin revolution? Joan appeared to have read right, as she saw that Jacop's essay started with The goblin rebellion of 1612 affected modern day Hogsmeade in the following ways… On the chair was a book with the title Hogwarts: A History. Joan, still wondering what Hogwarts was, opened it up and started reading. She hadn't finished the first paragraph when she realized what Hogwarts was: a school. So this was the boarding school all her neighbors went to every year! Joan made a mental note to find out the address so she could send letters. She put the book down, having found out what she wanted. Then she picked up a book, Magical Drafts and Potions, but found it much too complicated. It seemed like some magical recipe book, but it talked about strange things, like Horned Slugs and Bezoar Stones. She set the book down, and eyed another one, named The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3. Under the desk below it, two more books laid closed, the two previous books in the series. Joan, deciding that the first book was a good place to start, picked up The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 and started to read.
She had to re-read the introduction many times before it made sense, and once it did, Joan's first thought was that a more appropriate title would be The Standard Book of Charms.
That Don't Use Dark Magic, she added.
Joan flipped through the pages gently, pausing at some moving pictures. However curious, she didn't read on, as all of the strange things were too much to take in for one day, let alone spells. Then she heard the thumping that meant that they were back in the kitchen.
Joan panicked; she couldn't possibly get out in time. The glass top started spinning and whirring, perfectly matching Joan's nervousness. Joan stuck the piece of paper that was her letter into The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. The thumping grew louder, the top continued whirring loudly, and Joan could tell that someone was going down the stairs into Jacop's room. Joan realized that it would give away her presence if the old book was on his desk when he so clearly didn't need it, but with no time to spare, she slammed the book shut, threw it under the desk, and just as the book landed with a loud thud, Joan jumped out the window. The door slammed open, and as Joan carefully closed the window she caught a glimpse of Jacop picking up the stick. The window closed just in time, but Joan could hear through it Jacop as he shouted "Is anyone there? Show yourself - Homenum Revelio! Oh-oh, good… You naughty little Fluffers, are you causing a ruckus flying around again? I know it's not as big as Jay-To's room, but he's on vacation this summer…" Joan breathed a sigh of relief, while Jacop's was out of exasperation. "Why I even agreed to take care of him, I have no idea… Never would have done it had Jane not made me… I wish they would leave me alone, I really do."
