Chapter Twenty-One
It's Gonna Be A Busy Term
"So, are you going to tell me what this mood's all about?"
Mia was sitting on the train back to Hogwarts with Reuben. He'd been quiet all morning, listening to her story of her Christmas holidays – the run up to Christmas with the Weasleys, the day itself and Boxing Day with her parents there too, and then the following week at home for some peace and quiet. But now Mia was determined to figure out what the problem was.
"It's nothing," Reuben said. "Really, Mia."
Mia rested her head on Reuben's shoulder. "C'mon. What's up?"
Reuben sighed. "It just hasn't been a peaceful holiday, that's all. The Rabbi – the one who said flying was work and Krys wasn't allowed to play Quidditch on a Saturday – was really rude to Mum and Dad when we went to the Synagogue for Hanukkah. And then Dad said maybe the Rabbi was right, and we should start practising again, and we weren't proper Jews if we didn't, and Mum disagreed, and they spent most of the holidays arguing. So, quite frankly, I'm glad to be back at school."
Mia hugged Reuben's arm. "What d'you think about it all?" she asked.
Reuben shrugged. "I don't really care, to be honest," he said. "It doesn't make any difference to me – it's not like I'm there to go to Synagogue every Saturday anyway... I dunno, I guess I agree with Mum – being Jewish is more my culture than my religion. Sorry, this must be boring for you."
"No more boring than my holidays must've been for you earlier," Mia said.
"Well, let's talk about something else," Reuben said. "You went to the Ministry Quidditch match, right? Tell me all about it."
The two of them talked about Quidditch over lunch, only stopping when they were joined by Louis.
"Third wheel!" he said happily, sitting down opposite Mia and Reuben. "Hi guys!"
"What've you done with Ailie?" Mia frowned.
"Lost her," Louis shrugged unconcernedly. "So, Mia, everyone's dying to know: what was in that present from Reuben?"
Mia's Christmas present from Reuben had eventually arrived two days after Christmas, and it had soon become apparent why – Reuben's owl had first flown to Grimmauld Place and then been redirected. As well as Reuben's neat handwriting, the label bore Lily's scrawl of 'at her own house – in Kent.' The owl had arrived late in the afternoon and had stayed overnight, sleeping in Felix's cage whilst he was out hunting.
"A broomstick servicing kit, and some chocolates – which were delicious," Mia said, smiling at Reuben. There had also been a mushy love note, but she wasn't about to tell Louis about that.
Lily and Mac came into the compartment, hand in hand.
"Hey, guys," Mac said, sitting down beside Louis and pulling Lily down onto his knee.
"Hey," the others echoed.
"Good holidays?" Mac asked, and then, without waiting for a reply, he launched into a recount of his holidays, including all the pranks he and his oldest sister's husband had played on the rest of the family.
"Your brother-in-law sounds almost as immature as you," Mia observed.
"Hey, I'm not immature," Mac protested. "I just like to have fun. Speaking of fun, who's up for a game of Exploding Snap?"
"I feel like that might be quite difficult with me on your lap," Lily giggled.
Nevertheless, they managed by getting a couple of trunks down from the overhead racks and using them to make a seat at the end of the table, which Mac sat on, giving up the real seat to Lily.
Over the course of the afternoon, people popped in and out, with Ailie eventually coming to join Louis, and Lily and Mac going off on several walks up and down the train. It was pitch dark by the time they reached the castle, and after dinner Mia was only too glad to head up to bed.
"Quidditch practice tonight, guys," Samuel said, sitting down opposite Mia and Reuben at breakfast the next morning.
"Already?" Reuben asked.
"Already," Samuel said firmly. "The Slytherin match is less than three weeks away and we have to win."
"We'll be there," Mia promised.
"Mia, would you send out MIs to everyone?" Samuel asked. "I've got frees this morning, but I've also got an essay due this afternoon which I haven't quite finished."
"No worries," Mia said. "Just the team, or reserves too?"
"Reserves too, I think," Samuel said. "Cheers, Mia. I would've got you chocolate for Christmas, but I figured you'd probably be all chocolated out, so I'll wait a while if that's okay?"
"Perfect," Mia said.
Whilst she was eating, Mia wrote one MI with the details of the practice, and then used a spell to copy it ten times – seven copies for the reserves and four for the other members of the team who didn't know about the practice yet.
After a busy day of lessons where she was given four different pieces of homework, Mia didn't really feel like Quidditch. She felt like she'd rather be getting on with her homework, otherwise she'd fall behind. When she voiced this to Lily at dinner, Lily agreed.
"I mean, I'd rather play Quidditch than do homework, but since there's so much of it, it would probably be more helpful to crack on with that."
"At least it's not raining," Mia mused, looking up at the enchanted ceiling which reflected the sky outside.
"Bloody freezing, though," Lily said.
Mia laughed. "I think you've been spending too much time with your Uncle Ron over Christmas," she said.
"HEC meeting tomorrow, guys."
Lily and Mia looked up to see Matilda, Emma and JJ sitting down opposite them. It was Matilda who had spoken, of course.
"We'll be there, Matilda," Mia promised her.
"So long as we don't have Quidditch practice again," Lily put in, "which is where we should be right now. C'mon, Mia."
"Aww, but I've got so many new ideas to talk to you about," Matilda pouted. "We're going to start a-"
"Tell us tomorrow, Mattie," Lily called over her shoulder. "I'd forgotten what it was like to be talked at constantly," she told Mia as the two of them walked down the gangway between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables.
Emma and JJ caught up with them in the Entrance Hall.
"Hey, wait for us!" JJ said indignantly.
"Oh, I forgot the practice was for reserves too," Lily shrugged. "Hey, what are you going to do if we do have Quidditch practice on a Friday?"
"Get Matilda to move the HEC meeting," JJ said, pushing open the front doors. "She won't like it but... HEC meetings are easier to move than Quidditch practice."
"Can you imagine asking Sam to move practice two weeks before a match?" Lily laughed.
"How were your holidays, Emma?" Mia asked, falling into step beside the younger girl as Lily and JJ began imitating Matilda and Samuel having an argument about whether the HEC or Quidditch was more important.
"Good," Emma nodded. "It was great to be with my brothers and sisters again."
"How was Steve?" Mia asked. She was always worried about Emma when she went home, even though her step-father hadn't hit her or her siblings since her dad had had words with him last summer.
"He was fine," Emma shrugged. "He shouted at Evie and made her cry when she was being hyper and crazy on Christmas Eve, but Mum actually stood up to him and he even apologised. Then I spent New Year with Dad and Astoria and Scorp, and that was great too. We had fireworks on the beach at midnight."
They reached the changing rooms and girls parted ways with JJ; since there were so many of them with the team and reserves both in attendance, Sam had decreed they might as well use both changing rooms and have boys and girls separate. A few minutes later both teams were assembled on the pitch in their red Quidditch robes. As there were so many spare robes of various sizes, Sam had received permission from Madam Hooch to kit the reserve team out too.
"Alright, everyone!" Sam shouted, calling the team to order. Up until then, Reuben and Kyle had been playing a game of chicken, taking turns flying at each other and trying to spook the other person into moving before they swerved at the last minute; and the three first year girls on the reserve team had been stood in a circle, plaiting each others' hair. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the Slytherin match is two weeks on Saturday, and we have to win if we want to stand any chance of winning the Cup this year."
For the next hour, Samuel put both teams through their paces; first through a series of carefully thought out drilled, followed by a match between two mixed up teams. Mia found herself defending goals from Reuben, Kyle and one of the first year girls on the reserve team, whilst Samuel instructed Emma to release the Snitch whenever she wanted and not tell him about it. Nevertheless, he still beat her to it two times out of three.
As the team walked back up to the castle in high spirits, Mia reflected that, although Quidditch hadn't been what she wanted to do tonight, it had been exactly what she needed. She hadn't realised how much she'd missed the exhilarating thrill only flying could bring, and when they reached the inviting warmth of the Gryffindor Common Room, she was able to settle down and make a start on her mountain of homework.
The following evening, Mia walked down to the greenhouses for the HEC meeting alone, having left Lily and Mac snogging in the Entrance Hall. When she reached Greenhouse One, the four second years who headed up the HEC were reorganising the tables into the middle of the room, and Professor Longbottom was pottering around tending to the plants.
"Mia! Where's your badge?" Matilda asked accusingly as Mia went over to help with the tables.
Mia looked down at her robes. There was a smattering of Mac-made badges there – mostly Quidditch ones and the one which had originally said '4th Years Suck' but which Louis had bewitched to say '4th Years Don't Suck' instead – but her HEC badge wasn't among them.
"Oh, I don't know," she shrugged. "It'll turn up, I guess."
"If you've lost it, you'll have to pay Mac a sickle for a new one," Matilda said firmly.
"Yeah, alright," Mia said, rolling her eyes as soon as Matilda turned her back.
Professor Longbottom grinned at Mia, then said, "Mia, are you okay to keep an eye on things here if I go to some of the other greenhouses? I won't be far, so come and get me if there's any trouble."
Mia nodded. "I'll make sure they don't get out of hand, Professor," she said. Since the first meeting in September, which had been gate-crashed by a bunch of indignant sixth years, there hadn't been any trouble with older students, so Mia imagined the most likely thing she'd have to look out for would be the second years getting carried away with a crazy scheme.
The greenhouse began to fill up. Lily and Mac arrived, hand in hand. The usual group of first years came in together, including Eiley, the Keeper for the Gryffindor reserve team. Mia ended up sat between Emma and Eiley.
"Okay!" Matilda said one the last person, Louis, had shut the door behind him. "Welcome back, everyone. First off, I have an update for you on tree planting – Hagrid says we can do it as soon as it's done snowing and thawed for the spring, which probably won't be until the middle of March."
"Boo!" Mac said. "Stupid Scotland."
Everyone laughed.
"We've been thinking we should do a big campaign to get everyone at Hogwarts to come down and plant a tree," JJ said. "So we're going to start a poster campaign and we need a catchy slogan."
"The minibeast hotels look like they've had a lot of visitors," Mia put in. "We had Care of Magical Creatures last and Lily and I had a little look at them."
"They could probably do with some repairs, though," Lily put in, and Archie, who had been appointed secretary halfway through last term, wrote it down.
"Yeah, speaking of repairs, we thought we should divide up the castle and go around and check on our posters – take down any that are tatty and damaged, and maybe see where we could put up new ones," Matilda said. "Professor Longbottom only said we could put posters up so long as we didn't make the castle a mess, so in a minute we'll split up into groups – a few people to do the weekly wildlife check outside and the rest to each take a section of the castle to check on posters in."
"But first, Matilda wants to tell you about this term's big new initiative," JJ grinned. "Honestly, Mattie, I'm pretty amazed you managed not to lead with it."
"I have some self-restraint," Matilda said indignantly, which several people tittered at, Mia included.
"She keeps it well-hidden," Lily whispered to Mac, plenty loud enough for several people nearby to hear.
"We want to de-stigmatise second-hand uniform," Matilda said importantly. "It's so much better for the planet to buy second hand, but people with second hand uniform get teased for being poor. We want to make it cool to buy second hand. So... ideas on how to make it happen?"
Eiley raised her hand. "At my primary school, we had a bring and buy uniform sale at the end of every term. People would donate things they'd grown out of and could buy new things. The money went to the PTA." Several people looked confused at the acronym and Eiley explained, "it's the Parent-Teacher Association. They used to spend the money on new playground equipment and stuff."
"That's a great idea," Emma said shyly. "Maybe we could let people take one item for every item they donate – give tokens or something."
"Or we could charge a few sickles per item, and then use the money to put on a social event for the whole school at the end of term," Mac suggested. "Like a barbeque by the lake or something. Knowing the money would go to something fun would encourage people to donate and buy stuff."
"And we could do a poster campaign to get people interested in the idea in the first place," Lily said. "If someone can think of a cool slogan."
"We could have a fashion show competition thingy," Hugo said, somewhat confusedly. "Like everyone who wants to enter has to make a costume to fit a theme, only using clothes they already have, and the winner gets free tokens for this swap-shoppy thing."
"Hugo Weasley's fashion show," Louis laughed. Hugo started to go as red as his hair.
"Shut up, Louis – it's a great idea," Mia said.
"Yeah, Louis," Archie grinned.
"Okay, let's figure out how this will work," Matilda said, taking charge. In the next five minutes, she dished out jobs. Mia found herself part of the deputation to Professor Longbottom to ask about the fashion show. "Because he likes you, Mia," Matilda said.
What with Quidditch and the HEC, not to mention having a boyfriend and her actual schoolwork, Mia could tell she was in for a busy term.