Lily writes a diary during her 6th year at Hogwarts. It tells of her friends and of her changing relationship with James.
From the Unofficial Portkey Archive: https://portkey-archive.org/story/2426/
Lily's Diary - 6th year
AN: Reposted because of out of place pop culture - Thanks to the person who pointed it out to me.
Chapter 1 - At Home
Monday, August 16th 1976
Petunia stole my favourite Record. She says it's hers but she only wants it because I do. I mean by dinner time she'll be sick of it. She doesn't even like the band. I hate her so much. I wish I had my own room then she couldn't steal my things. Anyway hopefully soon she'll be out of here. She'll probably go stay with her boyfriend Vernon. That's why she's changing schools this year, because she want's to go to school with her boyfriend.
Mum's been really upset because me and Petunia fight all the time when were home. I really try and get along with her but she's just so darn annoying it's hard.
I got a letter from Jaqui today. She's invited me over to her house for the last week of the holidays. She said we should meet up in Diagon Alley and then I'll go to her house and we can go back to Hogwarts together. I reckon that'd be pretty cool, plus mum hates all the magical stuff. I think it's just too overwhelming for her. Just like it was for me back in first year.
Anyway I reckon I'll ask mum if I can go. She likes spending time with us, but seeing as Petunia isn't going back to boarding school this year I think she'll let me, especially seeing as she doesn't really like Diagon Alley much.
***
Well I asked mum and she said I can go, as long as I clear out my side of the room, because Petunia's friend from her new school is staying here this term, as her parents are travelling. So that's good it means Petunia will be happy Melissa can come over a week early and I'm happy because I get to go to Jacqui's.
Well I best write that letter to Jacqui to tell her it's all good and that I'll meet her in Diagon Alley on Saturday.
Tuesday 17th August 1976
Well for some reason Petunia's decide to make every day I'm still here torturous. She's been a pain ever since she found out I'm going to Jacqui's on Saturday. I wish she'd just grow up. Why can't she just leave me alone? Why's she gotta put as much torture as she can into everyday? It feels like she's got a plan sometimes. It's almost like she's worked out how to annoy me every single day. It's not as though I do anything to her. I know she hates me because I'm a witch. She thinks I'm a freak. Well one day when I'm finished Hogwarts I'll get her back for everything she's done to me over the last five years. I mean it she'll pay for it all.
***
I got a reply from Jacqui this morning when I woke up to Petunia's screaming at me to shut up the owl. I feel sorry for the poor bird, having to put up with that. I do but the poor bird - it shouldn't have too. I gave Saphi an extra helping of food to make up for it.
Jacqui had written to ask if we could meet at Flourish and Blotts at 11am on Saturday. I'll have to ask mum if that's okay. I better ask later though. I think she's a bit sick of me at the moment. I just had another fight with Petunia, the second one for today, and Mum said if I don't behave myself for the rest of the day I won't be able to go to Jacqui's at all. I guess I've just gotta hope Petunia doesn't try and pick a fight with me. I'm sure she will though. I hate the fact that this all depends on Petunia. She did tell Petunia that Melissa wouldn't be able to stay here the extra week if I wasn't going to Jacqui's so maybe she'll be a little nicer.
***
Well we've managed to get through most of the day without any major arguments, so things are looking good. I think it might be alright to ask mum now if I can meet Jacqui at Flourish and Blots at 11 on Saturday.
Mum said it'd be okay as long as I behave myself for the rest of the day. So now I'm trying to stay away from Petunia as much as possible so I can't annoy her. I succeed in this and mum told me after dinner that I could go.
I raced up the stairs and wrote to Jacqui telling her that it was okay. I took Saphi out from the cage I'd put her in for the day, and opened the window to let her out.
Wednesday, 18th August 1976
It's only three more days until I'm out of here. I know mum and dad mean well but I just can't stand it here. Petunia just makes life hell for me. Mum and dad are great it's just Petunia. I know mum and dad have given me a lot and allowed me to go to Hogwarts even though they don't know much about it. They get letters every now and then telling them how I'm going of course but they don't really understand it all. I think that's why I don't like it here as much, because it's hard to explain everything. I think I'll go live in the wizarding world once I finish at Hogwarts. I don't think mum and dad would be able to cope with having a fully fledged witch in the house, plus the amount of torture I'd have to put up with from Petunia. I wish they could understand the wizarding world but they really can't. I know they try but it's still difficult for them to understand.
Oh well, Jacqui's house will be great. Her whole family are wizards and witches so everything's magical. Everything's enchanted it's amazing. I remember the first time I went there, back in third year when mum and dad went travelling in the Easter holidays. It was so amazing I think I nearly fainted at the sight of all the magic. I wonder how she managed to cope without doing magic. I know I couldn't have. I remember I had to lock my wand up in my trunk so I wouldn't do magic. I don't know how she does it, but I love it.
Jacqui rang me up today. I taught her how to use a telephone in third year while I stayed there. She was fascinated by it and her parents hooked it up using magic so she could communicate with me in the holidays. She wanted to tell me that there was a wizarding carnival on near her house and she wanted to see if I wanted to go. Of course I did, anything that put me back in the wizarding world would be brilliant. I love my mum and dad but the wizarding world is where I belong and it makes me feel uncomfortable in the muggle world sometimes, especially seeing as Petunia keeps making me feel so different.
Thursday, 19th August 1976
Well I've had to start cleaning out my side of the room. That has basically meant packing for Jacqui's and moving anything that I'm not taking to Hogwarts to storeroom downstairs. Mum gave me a whole heap of boxes to put all my stuff in. I started off working out what I wanted to take to Hogwarts and packing all that stuff. Then I headed to the wardrobe and took out the clothes I wanted to take to Hogwarts this year. I then folded up all the other clothes and put them in a box and headed down to the storage room. I hate the fact that I have to do this, but mum doesn't want the slightest trace of magic around the house when Melissa comes, so she said I have to clear out all my stuff, just in case. I had to take down my OWLs certificate as that was pretty obvious. Mum said she'd lock it up for me. I was so proud of it. I got twelve OWLs which was all my subjects so I was quite impressed. I got the results for them two weeks after school broke up. Mum and dad were really impressed, though I don't think they understand what it means. There proud of me all the same though.
***
Anyway Petunia's laid off me for a bit I think it's because she's realised that if we fight I'll be staying here. I hope that's it anyway, because I quite like the peace of it. Plus she's been out with her friends a bit these last two days so she's not here to annoy me. I hope she stays like this until I leave. She's not coming to Diagon Alley on Saturday anyway. Mum said Melissa can come over when I leave so she's staying at home. Hopefully this means that I get a bit of a break from her torture tomorrow.
Friday, 20th August 1976
Well it's off to Jacqui's tomorrow. I'm so excited about it. I'm even being really nice to Petunia. I finished all my cleaning up without complaining once, even when Petunia was picking on me and asking, “why can't you just wave that wand of yours and get all this stuff out of here?”
“I'm not allowed to,” I told her but she just wouldn't stop
“That's what you say. It's really because your so stupid you don't know how to.” She said. I wanted to hurt her so much then. I didn't though as mum warned me yesterday that if I got into one more fight with her I wouldn't be going to Jacqui's at all.
***
My Hogwarts letter came today. I was beginning to worry it wouldn't come before I went to Jacqui's. We'd only said Saturday because they normally gave you at least a week to buy your things. I got accepted into all my classes, which is good.
So my classes for this year are:
NEWT Charms
NEWT Transfigurations
NEWT Potions
NEWT Ancient Runes
NEWT Herbology
NEWT magical medicines studies
NEWT Muggle studies
NEWT Astronomy
NEWT DADA
There all the classes I wanted so hopefully I'll do well. I wonder what Jacqui's doing she didn't apply for as many subjects as me. I chose a range of subjects as I'm not to sure what I want to do when I leave. I'm interested in being a healer so that's why I'm doing medicine, but I don't know I've loved ancient runes so maybe I could do something with that afterwards. She wants to do some ministry stuff I think, she's really into the legal side of everything. Oh well I hope she did well. I think she wanted to start magical law this year. Anyway I'll have to ask her tomorrow.
Reposted because I forgot to name the Head of House. Sorry I'm very forgetful.
Chapter 2 - Jacqui's House
Saturday, 21st August 1976
Well I'm heading off to Diagon Alley soon. I'm so excited about it. Jacqui rang me earlier this morning to double check that everything was okay. We're gonna get there at 10:30 so that we can go and get some money out for me, plus I gotta ask the barman at the Leaky Cauldron if I can leave my trunk there until I leave with Jacqui.
I've double checked all my things to make sure I'm not leaving anything behind. Mum's come through and checked my room to make sure there isn't a trace of magic around the house. I'm sure it'll be okay though, mum's come up with enough excuses in the past for magical stuff. I suppose it's getting harder now though. I remember back in first year when we had people over and I'd left my wand on my bedside table. They came through and saw it and mum just said that I was doing an assignment on fantasy for school and had dug out a whole stack of stuff from when I was younger. I also remember when I'd left my Charms book on the kitchen table. Mum just said I loved reading fantasy stuff and that was the latest thing they where doing. Thankful they didn't look inside the book. Well I've double checked and I'm certain there's no magic around the house that Melissa could stumble upon anyway. Petunia would have to cover it up anyway because she wouldn't want her friends to know that her sister's a witch.
Anyway Mum's yelling at me to take my stuff down to the car as we've gotta leave soon. I better go before she has a fit at me. Mum's always been one for punctuality. It's normally good but it can get really annoying sometimes.
***
I'm at Jacqui's now it's as amazing as ever. It's even more spectacular then it was when I was last here. I've missed the magical world so much. Diagon Alley was amazing me and Jacqui just went running around everywhere. They've got new flavours at the ice-creamery so we hung around there for a bit. I had the Sweet Dream flavour, Jacqui had Sugary Delight. Mum talked to Jacqui's mum while we went and brought our books for school then we went to the ice-creamery.
The only bad thing was that we ran into those bloody pranksters from school, James, Peter, Sirius and Remus. They were being such a pain, they were picking on this poor first year kid. I mean geez could you get any lower. At least pick on someone there own age. I mean come on, that's just horrible. The poor kid, I hope they didn't scare him too much.
Well Jacqui's now got this huge and absolutely gorgeous bedroom. I think her parents expanded it so there was plenty of room for the both of us. Anyway its absolutely amazing being in a magical house. There's so much new stuff to discover. Jacqui doesn't understand why I'm always into exploring her house. I guess she must've gotten over it when she was a lot younger. She still plays along with it, and acts all surprised and happy when I find something new. She's a brilliant friend.
Sunday, 22nd August 1976
Jacqui did well in her OWLs she got ten, which was all her subjects. She got accepted into all her classes too so that's good. She's still thinking of going into the legal stuff after school so she picked up magical law this year. She's been pretty set on that idea for a while now.
I went exploring the house this morning. I get so lost here though. I have to keep remembering everything's magical and that doors don't always go where they appear to go. I have to get used to it again. I ended up in the lounge room when I tried to get to Jacqui's room. Her mums really understanding and helps me out a lot. She keeps reminding me “Now, Lily, remember you have to think about where you want to go to get there. Don't worry dear you'll get used to it soon.” She's very helpful.
We're going to the Wizarding Carnival on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited about it. Jacqui says it's there every three years. She's told me about all the rides and things. I've never been to a Wizarding Carnival before so it'll be an interesting experience. They have a quiditch game on too, so that'll be good. I love watching quiditch it's such an exciting sport.
Me and Jacqui had a look through some of our books we brought yesterday. I brought the latest book in the Secret Powers series. I love those books there the best series. It's all about this young wizard who has to hide his powers because he lives in an entirely muggle village. He's a really powerful wizard and it's about how develops that power in secret.
Jacqui reads Muggla. That's about this muggle girl who goes to a boarding school, but discovers that one of the girls there is a witch who's living in the muggle world. I like those ones too but I like Secret Powers more. I think Jacqui likes Muggla more because she's never been in the Muggle world before. Where she lives is mostly witches and wizards. There are still a few muggles but not as many as where I live and she doesn't associate with them much.
Monday, 23rd August 1976
I met one of Jacqui's friends from across the road today. Her name was Grace and she goes to Serlin, that's a smaller school and it's a little closer then Hogwarts. Grace doesn't board she goes home everyday after school. She a seventh year and she's going to do an exchange program when she finishes school. Grace was gonna come to Hogwarts but Serlin opened the year before she was going to come to Hogwarts so she went there instead. All the people in this area get a choice between Hogwarts and Serlin, so Jacqui decided she wanted to go to Hogwarts because her older brother had gone there. Grace is an only child so she went to Serlin.
Grace is coming to the Wizard Carnival with us, so I'll get to know her a bit better. I got her name and address anyway so I can send her an owl while where at school. Grace is gonna stay over the night with us and were gonna floo to the carnival tomorrow morning. We want to get there really early so we've gotta do all our packing tonight.
Tuesday, 24th August 1976
The Wizarding Carnival is today. Were about to head off to it. I can't believe I'm awake so early - it's only 6:30. Jacqui's mum insists that we have a proper breakfast before we head off. I know, I know `Breakfast is the most important meal of the day' yeah I'm told that all the time at home too. I guess something's don't change in the wizard world and the muggle world.
I was sitting in the lounge room for half and hour before we were allowed to leave at 7:30. I went through my things so many times before we went to double check that I had everything I need; my money, camera, diary, a pen and some snacks. At 7:30 Jacqui's mum couldn't stand our impatience anymore and said we could go. The carnival didn't open for another hour, but we wanted to get there early to beat the crowds.
***
Well the carnival was amazing. The quiditch game was very exciting. They had the two local teams playing each other. It was the final of there competition for the summer I think. I was surprised when I realised that James was playing chaser on the winning team, they called themselves The Griffins. There were actually a few other Hogwarts students in the team too, though I don't know their names. I guess I was surprised because I didn't know there was a competition outside of school. James is a pretty good quiditch player. He mightn't be all that nice to the younger kids but he's awesome at quiditch.
The rides were amazing I can't remember what they were all called but they were incredible - much better than a muggle carnival. There were so many water rides it was awesome, especially seeing as it was such a hot day. They cast spells on you when you came out though so you were dry again.
We met up with James and his gang after we'd been on a few rides. We all congratulated James on the quiditch game. I don't like him that much but he is in my year and in another two years we'll all be leaving the place - I'd at least like to get along with all the Gryffindors. Jacqui decided to challenge them to a race. She decided that we'd see who could go on the most rides before five when we had to go home. We each grabbed our carnival passes and ran off in different directions trying to work out the fastest way to get on all the rides. The boys were at an advantage because they had one more person then us. Jacqui decided that we should go on all the less popular rides now because at lunchtime there wouldn't be as many people and we'd get on quicker.
Well even though we didn't win we still had an awesome time doing it. The boys beat us by five rides so it was really close, especially given the fact we were one person short. Just before we left I went and brought some more of the caramel fairy floss. I loved that
stuff. I'm so used to the pink stuff it was amazing to see all these different colours of it. Jacqui and Grace are used to all this but they understand why it's all so surprising to me and go along with it.
***
Once we got home me and Jacqui dumped all our things in Jacqui's room and headed over to Grace's. Grace chucked all her stuff in her room, and then went and showed us the present she'd got off her dad for her birthday. It was this little mini TV, it was in black and white but it was pretty cool. I think her dad magically enchanted it or something. It looked like an ordinary TV that had been shrunk a lot. I wonder if we'll ever get something like that in the muggle world that'd be amazing.
Well at 7:30 Jacqui's mum came over to get us for dinner. I told Grace I'd write to her from Hogwarts. After dinner we went up to Jacqui's room and talked about the day. I got kindda annoyed when Jacqui asked “So what's going on with you and James?”
“Nothing, what makes you think anything's going on I hate him.”
“You used to hate him but you don't anymore. If you still hated him you wouldn't have stuck round while we were talking to him.”
“I'm just being nice to him. That doesn't mean anything. We're leaving Hogwarts in two years and I want to at least get along with all the Gryffindors.”
“Sure, whatever you say Lily, but really you can tell me if you do like him.”
“I don't like James Potter, Jacqui now stop it!”
“Alright, alright.”
I can't believe she even thought I liked him I mean he's such a pompous git. I'm just being nice to him because I don't want to leave and not have gotten to know the Gryffindors. I mean how could anyone think such a thing.
Wednesday, 25th August 1976
Well we didn't do anything overly exciting today. It's around a week until we go back to Hogwarts. I can't wait to go back. It'll be great to see everyone again. Maybe Jacqui's right. Maybe I don't `hate' James anymore, but I'm defiantly not in love with him. He's starting to grow up though I suppose.
I phoned mum this afternoon. She told me not to send owl's this term because Melissa was going to be at our house and that would be a little obvious. I told her I'd ring her from Jacqui's and see if I could find a more muggle way of sending messages to her throughout the term. I asked Jacqui about that and she said that you can send posts the muggle way at Hogwarts, and that there's a box near Dumbledore's office were student's with muggle parent's can send letter's if there parents don't want to use owls. I told mum about that and she said that'd be fine. I don't think she'd like to go through a term without hearing from me. I must remember to tell Professor Mart not to send owl's to my house this term. I think there's a list up in the common room that people can put there names on if they don't want owls sent to there house, and would prefer letters to be sent the muggle way.
Thursday, 26th August 1976
We went down to the park today. Grace and her friend Fiona were there so we talked to them for a bit. Fiona goes to Grace's school. They start on Tuesday, but Grace has to go in on Monday because she's a seventh year and they have an orientation for the first year students. I wish we'd had something like that at Hogwarts. I wouldn't have been so scared if we did. Though I suppose you'd miss out on the fun of catching the train with everyone else and missed crossing the lake. Plus the sorting wouldn't have been a huge surprise if we did have that. I mean I think the surprise of that is really good. It's funny when you watch the sorting and you see a whole bunch of really scared first years come in thinking they'll have to do something horrible, and then you hear that collective sigh of relief when they find out they've just gotta put a hat on. I remember thinking `a hat what's that going to do? How ridiculous' I suppose a lot of first years must think that at first; Even those from wizard families who are told horrible things about it by there family.
When we got back to Jacqui's her mum told me that there was a letter from Hogwarts for me. That was odd I'd already been sent our letter with all our books and stuff. Oh well I went and got the letter from the kitchen table and opened it to find my new 1976-1977 prefect badge. I didn't know we got new ones for each year. There enchanted so that it reads Gryffindor Prefect and then changes to read 6th year. James is the other Gryffindor 6th year prefect.
Friday, 27th August 1976
Nothing much happened today. Me and Jacqui just hung around at her house. I went exploring a bit more, but I don't think there's much more new stuff to discover now. We watched a bit of TV. Jacqui showed me the Wizarding channels which I thought was pretty amazing. They had like fifty different channels. I showed her what the muggle TV's like and she seemed to think it funny that there were only a few channels.
Jacqui's older brother Damin is coming home this weekend. That's pretty exciting. He works in banking so he travels a lot. Anyway he's coming home to see Jacqui off to Hogwarts.
Saturday, 28th August 1976
Well we spent the majority of the morning cleaning up the house for Damin. Jacqui's mum wanted it to be perfect, as apparently Damin only comes home twice a year, so it's a big thing when he comes home. I felt slightly out of place but Jacqui said that it was all fine, plus he knew I had a friend staying this week.
When Damin got here everything went a little crazy for a while. I just went and sat in the lounge room and let Jacqui and her mum do all the running around seeing as I didn't know what to do. Damin was a pretty interesting guy. He's been to heaps of places to establish wizarding banks like the US and Australia. He told us about all the stuff he's been doing like working out what security measures were needed, and tracking down trolls and other magical creatures.
Sunday, 29th August 1976
It's three days till we head back too Hogwarts. Damin went into London today because he had to get some stuff before he leaves tomorrow. We went over and saw Grace and Fiona today. Fiona's a sixth year like us, did I mention that. Anyway she's doing a couple of courses that me and Jacqui are doing so I told her I'd send her some stuff that we get from Hogwarts. She said she'd send us some stuff too. Grace told us she'd help the three of us out next year. She wants to travel next year, so I don't know if she'll be able to but she seems like a really nice person. Anyway we said goodbye to her because she's gotta go in to school at seven tomorrow and we wouldn't see her before she left.
Monday, 30th August 1976
Well Grace headed off to that orientation thing this morning. Fiona's still here and she's coming around later today. Damin's leaving after lunch today. He seems like a really nice guy. Anyway before Fiona comes over me and Jacqui have to start packing our things for Hogwarts. I can't wait to go back it'll be great. Damin said that we might get a couple of surprises when we get back to Hogwarts. I wonder what he means. He wouldn't tell us though.
***
Fiona came over after Damin left and we played a couple of games of wizard chess. I've only played a couple of times but I'm actually pretty good at it. Fiona brought over her broom and we went outside and played a game of tag. I'm not that great a flyer, and Jacqui lent me her spare broom. Jacqui plays quiditch on the Gryffindor team, she's seeker so she's pretty fast. I lost but it was pretty fun. We said goodbye to Fiona because she starts back at school tomorrow.
Tuesday, 31st August 1976
Well back to Hogwarts tomorrow. We spent most of today packing our things for Hogwarts. Jacqui lives a far way away from Kings Cross station so we have to leave early. Her mum told us to have all our things packed tonight so we wouldn't be in such a rush tomorrow. We have to drive to the station of course because there's so many muggles around. As Jacqui's mum doesn't have a car we're taking the Knight Bus. I've heard about that. I've never been on it though. Jacqui says it's really fun, but kindda scary at first. I reckon it'll be interesting. Jacqui said a few of the other Hogwarts students catch it, and they have a special area for the Hogwarts students when term starts. She emphasised the fact that James and his gang all catch the night bus. I have no idea why she's so insistent that I like him, because I don't.
Chapter 3 - Start of Term
Wednesday, 1st September 1976
The Knight Bus
Well the Knight bus was interesting. We sat with James and his gang because all the others who caught the bus were younger kids. James and his crew still went about trying to scare the younger kids but it didn't have as much of an effect as I suspect these kids are used to them and their wizarding kids anyway so you can't really scary them with stories about ghosts and Boggarts and stuff. They still had there fun with all there pranks though. They had a bit more of a shot scaring the kids on the train though. Anyway James explained a bit about the bus to me. They attempted to scare me about it but it didn't work I'm used to them and there pranks now.
The Knight bus is pretty interesting. The drivers aren't that great at driving, but it doesn't really matter seeing as the muggles can't see it or feel it. It's this purple triple storey bus. We were all on the top storey because that's where the Hogwarts students where put. They allocate seats for the start of term because of all the different schools going back and so it's easier to get everyone off.
They take about three different schools on the start of term. Hogwarts get dropped off first because we catch the train, they take a couple of the kids from Serlin. Fiona and Grace caught the bus with us today so we spoke to them a bit. They normally use the floo network to get to school but they wanted to see us off to school so they caught the bus today. It's mainly the younger ones from there school that catch the bus or the muggle born kids who don't have the floo network. There was also this other school that was on the bus too. I can't remember the name of that school though. They were on the second storey so I didn't talk to them much.
The Hogwarts Express
Once we got to the station me and James headed off to the prefects compartment for our usual meeting of introducing the new head boy and girl and going over what prefects have to do, and pairing up with the fifth years so they get some idea of what they have to do. We pair up with the fifth years for about four weeks to show them all the stuff they have to do so that they get to know it, after the four weeks there on their own.
The new head boy and girl are Martina Batts and Jordan Digg. I don't know them that well. Martina is in Ravenclaw and Jordan's in Hufflepuff so I don't see them around much. The twins, Belinda and Rowan Hayles are the fifth year Gryffindor prefects. I've met them before Belinda's a really nice kid, it's just kindda weird having twins as the prefects but oh well. I hope James behaves himself and doesn't mislead Rowan. Anyway I told Belinda about what she has to do and then we went and patrolled the train for a bit. I told her she just had to walk around the train every half hour or so to make sure there was no trouble and then I left her and went to see Jacqui.
Once I sat down in the carriage Jacqui asked about who the head prefects and new fifth years were. I told her the heads were Martina and Jordan and that the new Gryffindor prefects were the Hayles twins. She like me didn't know much about Martina and Jordan, she'd heard about them around the school of course but she didn't know them. She knew the twins though and was quite impressed that both of them had made it. We knew that both of them wanted it because they'd mentioned it at the end of last year. It was still surprising that they both got the positions though. We discussed that for a while and then Alice knocked on the door. Alice is a year older than us she's in seventh year. So when Alice arrived we started talking about our holidays and what we'd all done. Alice had gotten a summer job at one of the shops in Hogsmeade over the summer so that's why we hadn't seen her much. We told her about the Wizard Carnival and all the other stuff we did in the holidays. Then she asked us about our OWLs. We both did well so it wasn't a bad topic. Alice asked what we wanted to do after school. Alice wants to do some DADA stuff not sure exactly what though but she's brilliant at DADA she was always top of the class in it. I can't believe she'll be leaving at the end of the school year. She's been a really great friend to me ever since I arrived here.
Arrival at Hogwarts
Well the train finally arrived back at school. I had a quick word to Belinda before jumping into the horseless carriages with Jacqui and Alice. I've been told that Threstals are used to draw these carriages. Apparently you can't see them unless you've seen someone die. I've heard about them but I've never seen them, for obvious reasons. They sound like the most amazing creatures.
Once we got to Hogwarts we got out of the carriage and headed up to the great hall. The hall was as beautiful as ever. I think you appreciate it more every year. It's so gorgeous with all the candles floating in the air and the house colours on all the tables, its incredible. There were already heaps of people in the hall by the time we got there. The three of us headed over to the Gryffindor table. I spoke to Belinda as she arrived and told her we had to take the first years up to the common room so to stay behind after the feast. When James and his crew came in I had a quick word with James, about not scaring the younger kids, and to set a good example for Rowan. I mean gee I have no idea how he got to be prefect but he should at least act like it sometimes.
We got a fair few new Gryffindors in the sorting this year. That was pretty good. James started telling them horrible stories as usual. I wish he wouldn't scare them. It was funny watching the kids react when they found out all they had to do was put on a hat though. It always is I suppose. Oh well the feast was splendid as it always is.
At the end of the feast James, Rowan, Belinda and I waited around and took the first years up to the common room. It was so good to be back there again. Once I got there Jacqui came running down the stairs and told me I had to see the new rooms. I had no idea what she was on about but I went up anyway. It was absolutely amazing. We've got these absolutely gorgeous beds now, and we've got our own study room. I think there's more stuff too. Jacqui told me we've got our own desk and bookstand. It sounds brilliant I'll have to go check it out a bit more tomorrow. It's been a long day and I'm tired.
Gee I've written a lot for one day, two pages that must be a record for me. Oh well I best stop now, classes start tomorrow and it's getting late.
Thursday, 2nd September 1976
Classes started today. My timetable's pretty good this year. I have at least one free lesson a day. I had Charms, Transfigurations, Ancient Runes and DADA. They were all the usual start of term stuff, giving out the syllabus and going over what we'll be doing this year. It's a bit different to last year though because it's NEWTs not OWLs. The classes are a lot smaller than they were last year and it's not done in houses anymore we have everyone at the same time. That was kind of interesting there are a couple of people in my classes who I don't really know because we've never had classes together.
I had a better look around our new dorms today. It's much better than when we first started, and now we don't have to study down in the common room with everyone else. It's always been so noisy down there. The study room is shared with the boys which could be annoying but we'll see. They've still being pulling pranks and stuff but I think that some of them are starting to be a bit more serious about stuff. I wish they wouldn't pick on the younger ones. I'd rather them pick on Snivellus than pick on the younger ones.
I noticed we've now got our own closets. That's good we don't all have to share the one. It did get kind of irritating having to share. Especially over the last few years when you were more concerned about your things being looked after. The fights that sharing a closet have started over the last few years were ridiculous. I mean you always have arguments about people moving your clothes or that someone had dropped your favourite jacket on the floor and didn't pick it up. At least those days are over.
Friday, 3rd September 1976
Everyone's still adjusting to school again. I talked to Casey this morning she was one of the first year girls that James and his crew scared on the train. She was a muggleborn. She reminded me a lot of myself at her age. I talked to her on the train for a little while after I got rid of James and his gang. She seemed like a nice kid, just like me in the respect that she was very scared about coming. “Everything's so new. I have no idea what I'm doing,” she told me. That's probably almost exactly the same thing I'd said on my first day.
I put my name on the list of students who would rather have letters sent to their parents by muggle post. I wrote next to my name first term only. I wrote a letter to mum telling her that I'd gotten her okay and that everything was going well. I wondered over to Dumbledore's office to post the letter. There was a note above the box which had the address that parents could use to write back to the students. I took the address down and put it in the letter and posted it. The return address was to a post box near Hogsmeade. Apparently the post office there got the mail and sent it to the students by owl. The post box is enchanted so that the letters to the students don't get picked up by the postmen.
Chapter 4 - September
Tuesday, 7th September 1976
Well not much has happened since Friday. The monotony of school has started to sink in and the novelty of our new rooms and classes and being back here has worn off. I got a letter from mum today she said that she got the letter alright and that everything is going well at home.
Jacqui is still tormenting me and insisting that I love James, which I most certainly don't. She thinks that I like him because I'm always yelling at him and never the others. I only yell at him because he's the ring leader of the group, the others just go along with it. Maybe if he grew up a little more I might like him but not now noway. She's been on about it ever since this morning when James and crew turned all the water in the bathrooms green. It didn't do anything really, didn't smell or anything it was just coloured water, but it was a shock. I'd gotten dress straight away and walked over to the study room and there they all were laughing. I screamed at James and told him that if he didn't turn the water back to its normal colour right then I'd tell Professor Mart and that he'd lose his prefect privileges if he wasn't careful. Don't know what would happen if he did lose them though. I mean he was second choice in the first place. Remus was originally the other Gryffindor prefect but at the end of last year declined the offer to be prefect this year. I'm not sure why though. I guess he just found it too difficult. Plus he got sick quite often, about every month he'd be off sick. Maybe it was something to do with that.
Thursday, 9th September 1976
I had my first proper magical medicines lesson today. Up until today we'd only been doing half lessons and going through what was involved in the subject. The subjects pretty full on and involves heaps of different forms of magic so the first week of lessons we just went over it all. It's taught by Professor Blaine (our DADA teacher) and Madame Drell (the nurse at the hospital wing). It's really interesting. We're only doing theory work at the moment because we need to understand how all the fields of magic work together. Professor Blaine teaches us the theory stuff, and Madame Drell supervises us when we do practical work.
There was a notice on the board today saying that all sixth years would have a meeting with there head of house next week to discuss there OWL results and Career options. We had one of these last year - though last year it was basically to explain what we needed in our OWLs. Anyway I'm on Tuesday when I'm off lessons. I think they've tried to organise it so that were not missing lessons because everyone I've talked to seems to have there's when they haven't got a class.
Saturday, 11th September 1976
I got an owl from Grace today. She says she's enjoying being back at school, and that 7th years a pretty full on year. She told me a bit about her school too like I asked. I'm really interested in what other wizarding schools are like. She said it's pretty much a mini version of Hogwarts. They have houses, but their not sorted by a hat. They have a prefect system but it's not as big as here. They only have one prefect from each house and they don't have heads. She also said they can learn some muggle subjects there too because there aren't so many students. Some students do Chemistry to help them with Potions, and they can do muggle Ancient History and Ancient Runes. Grace does that. She said it's really interesting to see how close the muggles are at working some of the stuff out. I think I'd like to study both but obviously with Hogwarts being so big it's difficult. Maybe I can do that at Uni.
Monday, 13th September 1976
Well I got that careers thing tomorrow. It's in the afternoon after my Ancient Runes class. I'm not sure what I'm gonna say though I suppose just the same as I did last year - Healer or something. I might travel for a bit. Oh I don't know. Why do they want us to make these decisions now? It's not as though we're leaving yet. This whole careers thing scares me a little. I don't know maybe it's just the uncertainty about my future, but everyone goes through that don't they?
Ancient Runes was really fun today, though it always is for me I love the subject. Maybe I should think about doing something related to ancient runes. Anyway we got our major project for the year. We have to choose a civilisation and research how they developed, how wizards/witches helped/hindered them and how magic developed in the civilisation. It's actually really interesting. I'm doing Thera. We did that in fourth year. I found it really interesting, I think it's because I'm muggleborn and had grown up hearing the stories about Atlantis. I never thought it was really though, even when I found out I was a witch I still just thought it was a story. I guess he wizarding born ones have heard it so many times that it's a little overdone on them. Some of them have even been there.
Tuesday, 14th September 1976
Well the careers thing was today. It was just with professor Mart as it was last year. That was alright though because I can talk to him pretty easily. There's some teachers I can't talk to very easily like our potions professor, he's really kindda mean and he doesn't like me anyway because I know a lot. Snape likes him, though Snape is that sort of person. James and crew hate him too (Professor Loccan by the way did I mention that) I think that's about the only thing I have in common with that lot. They used to always pull pranks on him all the time, though seeing as there not all in the class this year so I guess James has started to behave himself a little bit.
Anyways back to the careers thing. Professor Mart said if I am really interested in Ancient Runes there's this special uni. I could go to, to do stuff like that. I told him about Grace's school and how they do some muggle subjects too. He told me that at that Uni I'd be able to study both the muggle and the wizarding subjects. He said if I was really interested in it he could organise for me to do some courses there next year. My marks are good enough. I can count it as a NEWT subject and it'll be credit towards uni. I think it sounded really interesting. I told him I'd think about it and tell him later. I actually think I might do it. I'll send Grace an Owl asking her what she thinks.
Friday, 17th September 1976
Well not much has been happening around Hogwarts. There's a new bunch of pranksters in third year. They associate with James and crew and I think there training them up to take there place. I wish they wouldn't encourage the younger kids but there's not much I can do about. I keep telling James he shouldn't encourage them but he always acts like he doesn't know what I'm talking about. I can't prove that he's doing it but I'm so sure he is. Why else would a sixth year associate with a third year, especially James Potter. James is so arrogant. That's what I hate about him. He's cute, you'd have to be insane not to think that but he's so bloody arrogant. I know he likes me because he keeps trying to impress me when he's away from the rest of the group. I guess if he just grew up a little I'd go out with him, but at the moment he acts like a twelve year old.
Anyway I sent that owl to Grace about doing Muggle and Wizarding Ancient Runes. I've looked at the stuff Professor Mart gave me. The uni sounds pretty good. I can do heaps on Atlantis too. They have this whole thing on the muggle analysis of it. I don't know though. We'll see what Grace says.
Monday, 20th September 1976
Well I got a letter back from Grace today. She says that course is what she does. Apparently her school was the first to participate in it. She said it was really good and that you can chose what civilisations you want to study. She told me if I'm interested in Atlantis to have a look at doing Crete because there Minoan too and the muggle and wizardry comparisons are really interesting. I'd heard Crete mentioned in passing in my stuff on Atlantis but I don't know much about it. Apparently the muggles are yet to translate the texts of that society, the wizardry world have translated it but she said it's really interesting. I might have a look into it and decide what I think about doing it.
Wednesday, 22nd September 1976
I got another letter from Mum. She says the system is working well and that everything is going well with Petunia and Melissa is good. She said Petunia likes her new school, though I had no doubt she would. She's now going to school with her boyfriend Vernon. I hate him he's so rude and he's ugly too. I don't know why Petunia likes him I mean he's worse then James.
Charms was interesting today. We were learning how to play music on CD's instead of records. They've had CD's in the Wizarding world for a while now but we're learning how to play music from a record on a CD because there smaller. It was one of the occasional cross culture things we do with the muggle and wizarding worlds. A lot of the full blood kids think there stupid. I guess they think that Muggles are primitive but I think it's really interesting learning how we can incorporate both the wizarding and muggle world. I mean essentially we all have to deal with both worlds at some stage. That's Dumbledore's reason for doing them - to teach us about both worlds. Even those in Hogsmeade have to go outside the village every now and then. That reminds me we should be having a Hogsmeade visit sometime soon. I haven't heard anything about one yet. I guess it'll be next month sometime. It might be Halloween - we normally get to go then or just before. Oh well it's up to the teachers really anyway. I just hope we get one soon. I can't wait to go to all the shops again. It's been so long.
Monday, 27th September 1976
I've been thinking about that muggle and wizarding Ancient Runes course that Professor Mart mentioned. I talked to Jacqui and Alice about it. Alice said that I should do it because I like all that stuff. She's right though - I do love Ancient Runes. I do so much extra research in the subject because I'm interested in it and in this course I get to chose what I study. Jacqui said it'd be a good opportunity if I want to go into that sort of field after school. I think I might I'll talk to Professor Mart about it later.
James third year gang pulled another prank today. I hate how James does that. I reckon if he knew how close he was to me liking him he'd stop. I'm not gonna let him know that though. He has to work it out on his own. He's been after me for a while now and all he needs to do is grow up and I'd go out with him, but until then I won't. It's mean but he's gotta grow up at some stage and I don't want to go out with a little kid.
Friday, 30th September 1976
Well it's the end of another week, and another month for that matter. This month has gone by fast. I guess it's just being back at school and having heaps of stuff to do. I wish I didn't have to go chasing up James for all the pranks his third year group are doing.
Hmm what else? Oh yeah I spoke to Professor Mart about that ancient runes course thing. He said he'll send off for some stuff for me. He told me I can start up in January if I want. That sounds pretty cool, I think I will.
Well schools back to the ordinary now. Everything's just the way it always is. It's good to be back.
Author Note
Hi everyone. I'm so sorry I haven't updated this story for ages. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer though. I'm preparing for my final exams at the moment and don't have much time to write. As I mention before there have also been family issues which have come up which have also kept me from writing. My exams finish on the 10th of November so hopefully sometime around then I will be able to update. If you would prefer I can email you out the sections as I write them. Otherwise you'll just have to wait until after my exams. I do intend to finish the story though. Please stay with me and I'll update the story as soon as I can.
Gemma
Hi everyone sorry about the long wait between chapters. I've been busy with exams recently. Anyway here is the next chapter and hopefully I can update much faster now.
Gems
Chapter 5 - Birthday and Quidditch
Friday, 1st October 1976
Ah the start of a new month. Wow this year has gone by fast. October already terms half over now. We've covered so much already, I've no idea how I'll remember it all for the exams in June. Oh I'm applying for that ancient runes course, did I mention that already. I probably did, I can't remember and I'm much too tired to read through all these entries and check.
There's a Hogsmede weekend in two weeks, on the 16th. We're all pretty excited about that. There's a rumour going around that there gonna let seniors go to Hogsmede on Halloween too. It'll be pretty cool if they do let us. I doubt it's true though the amount of rumours that come through this place is huge, but one that's actually true, that's pretty rare.
Classes were pretty uneventful today. James, Remus and Sirius were even well behaved in potions today. That was quiet surprising seeing as they normally pull most of their pranks during potions class. I guess there's just such an opportunity for them to in potions. Their always doing awful things to Snivellus I do wish they would leave him alone sometimes, though he does deserve it at times. He can be so rude.
Sunday, 3rd October 1976
This weekend has been a pretty busy one. We had a prefect meeting today to discuss the progress of the fifth years and how they are coping doing duties on there own. We also discussed the upcoming open day. It's a new thing but Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to allow parents (particularly muggle parents) the chance to see the castle and what their kids were doing. Basically us prefects have been asked to show parents around the castle and answer any questions they have.
We've also got a stack of homework and study to get done this weekend. We have mid course exams coming up soon so the teachers are giving us a lot of work to prepare us for them.
Monday, 4th October 1976
Well classes are quiet hectic at the moment. I've barely had anytime to spend relaxing what with prefect duties and all our homework. I don't know how James does it. I guess he must just be naturally smart because I've never once seen him studying and he always gets such good marks. He's always out playing Quidditch with Sirius and Peter. Oh that reminds me there's a quidditch match on this weekend - the first game of the season. Gryffindor get to start the season off because we won last season. Only narrowly though but we still won. It's the first time we've won since I was in first year. We've had a bit of a losing streak since then. We've always narrowly lost in the last game so it was heaps good last year when we won. There was a massive celebration in the common room all night after we won. Hopefully we've broken our losing streak now and can win again this year.
Tuesday, 5th October 1976
It's Jacqui's birthday on Friday. It's one of the few occasions when I actually work with James, Peter, Remus and Sirius. We have always organised her party for her and James and crew are always the best at finding great ways to surprise her. I wonder where it'll be this year. Last year it was in the room of requirement. That's a pretty cool room that is, it transforms into whatever you need if you know how to do it. James and Sirius are in charge of finding a location and organising how to surprise Jacqui on the day. Remus and Peter are responsible for food. They sneak into Hogsmede to get it. They let me in on that secret last year when I was stressing because I didn't have a present for her. Me and Alice organise the decorations and do the invitations for everyone.
So yeah Alice and I have been sitting around in the common room all afternoon trying to sort out the decorations and stuff. It's her seventeenth. I think she is going to get her apparation license over the Christmas holidays.
Wednesday, 6th October 1976
James told me today during our morning prefect duties that they'd work out where to have the party for Jacqui. It's such a good idea. Seeing as the quidditch game is on Saturday they thought they could get some flying in so they decided to perform an enchantment on the pitch so that everything would float above the pitch. The idea was that everyone brought their broom or borrowed one and flew around to all the places at the party. They were also going to perform another enchantment so that there would be an invisible floor above the pitch for those who don't have brooms. It sounds good.
I've told Alice about it. She thinks it's a great idea. Anyway we've started working on the invites and I guess we'll pass them out tomorrow morning.
Thursday, 7th October 1976
Well I woke up early this morning and headed down to the common room to meet Alice. We'd decided to use a spell to send the invites to Jacqui's party out. It was a really complicated one that I haven't even learnt yet. Alice learnt it a couple of months ago and she's really good at it. She practiced a couple of times sending stuff to me and Jacqui and it worked really well. The only problem we had was that she can only do two invites at a time so it was time consuming. We did it by houses and year groups so that the letters weren't going to two different places. I was in charge of sorting all the invites into houses and year groups. We left the sixth year Gryffindor girls out though. We didn't want Jacqui to find out about the party early. I gave out the invites to the sixth year girls while Jacqui was in the shower. They all seemed pretty excited about. Everyone else found their invites on their pillow when they woke up. Everyone seems to be really excited about it, and they seem to like the choice of venue.
Classes today were pretty average. I was too preoccupied with working out the decorations for Jacqui's party to pay much attention anyway. I'll ask Jacqui what we did and catch up later.
Friday, 8th October 1976
Preparation
Well today's Jacqui's seventeenth. Alice, James, Peter, Remus, Sirius and I got together early this morning to finalise the plan for tonight. The party is going to start at 7:30 just after dinner. Seeing as its Friday we can run late as curfew isn't till midnight and the quidditch match doesn't start till after lunch. Anyway James and Sirius are going to perform the enchantments on the pitch at lunch time and Remus and Peter will sneak into Hogsmede and get the rest of the food and pick up presents. Then just before dinner me and Alice will start decorating and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter will start setting up the food and stuff. It should be really good. Now our only problem is trying to distract Jacqui. She knows were planning something big and she's been trying to find out what exactly for the last couple of days. The plan to fix that is that we always have at least one of us with Jacqui while the others are setting up.
Setting up took longer than we though so we skipped dinner to finish it all off but it was worth it. We had fun setting up anyway. James kept getting himself tangled up in the tinsel we got to put around all the tables. I guess he's not used to doing things the muggle way. Everything has to be done using magic for him. I don't know how he survives the holidays not being able to do magic. Though I suppose he'll be of age next time so he won't have to worry about it. Well coloured everything with red and gold (the Gryffindor colours) and Alice and I performed a charm to get glitter to sprinkle all over the tables but not get in the food.
Surprise
At seven I left and went and took over from Sirius in keeping Jacqui away. Everyone was due to arrive at 7:30 and I was to take Jacqui when I got the signal from James. He'd given me a fake sickle and told me that it'd heat up when they were ready. The plan was that once I got the signal me and Jacqui would head towards the quidditch pitch and just as we got there James would set off the magic fireworks which he'd enchanted to read `HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUI' in red and gold letters. It looked fantastic. I'll have to get copies of the photos that they took. I've got a couple of photos of it on my muggle camera. I can't afford a magical one. James is fascinated by my camera he's hardly ever seen muggle stuff in his life. Anyway I told him I'd get him prints of my photos if he got copies of the magical photos.
The Party
Jacqui loved her party. She was so surprised by it all. She knew we were planing something but she didn't think it would be anything as big as it was. She loved how the guys had organised it so you could fly around or walk, which ever was more comfortable for you. Remus brought her, her broom shortly after she'd arrived and she went and had a fly around and said `hi' to everyone. After a while the Marauders got a half-sized game of quidditch going at the opposite end to where the party was set up. It ended up being a practice for tomorrow's game and it was mostly Gryffindors against Ravenclaws. Gryffindor won which could be a good sign for tomorrow's game but then again it wasn't against the actual quidditch teams of either house so you never know. Hopefully we'll win though it'd be a great start to the season.
Presents. Jacqui opened her presents at about nine after she'd had a good look around the pitch and joined in a bit of the quidditch game. I got her this gorgeous silver photo album. It was really interesting. I saw it in the gift catalogue that Hogsmede send out it's cover is this beautiful silver and I had it enchanted so it says `Six years of a wonderful friendship, with many more to come. ~ Lily Evans' and it's enchanted so that it's feels as though theres only a few pages in it, but it expands to fit as many photo's as you want. I put all the photo's I have of the times Jacqui and I have spent together. It looked really good and she loved it. The Marauders got her a box of chocolate frogs, some magic fireworks and the new Muggla book. She loved it. She got stacks of other stuff too from everyone else at the party, she got lots of lollies and chocolate.
Packing up
Well the party finished at around 11:30 so that everyone had enough time to get to their common rooms before curfew. It finished with some more fireworks by the Marauders and then everyone said goodnight and headed to their common rooms. The marauders, Jacqui, Alice and I stayed back and packed everything up. The marauders took off the enchantments on the pitch and then the seven off us headed back up to the common room. It was after midnight by the time we reached the castle but there weren't any problems with that especially seeing as me and James are prefects. James had an invisibility cloak and so did Jacqui as she'd got one from Alice at the party. So Remus, Sirius, Peter, Jacqui and Alice shared the invisibility cloaks and went back to the common room. After everyone had left me and James headed up to the fifth floor for our prefect duties. I told James he didn't have to bother and I could cover for him if he wanted to get some sleep before the quidditch game, but he offered to stick it out. We finished duties at two and heaped back to the common room to get some sleep.
Hmm today was a really long day. So much happened and I was so busy. Anyway I better get some sleep so I'm awake for the quidditch match tomorrow - well today now.
Saturday, 9th October 1976
Well today's the start of the quidditch season - Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. The game they had a the party might be a good sign that we'll win but as I said it wasn't the whole team of either side so it could mean nothing. Anyway the games not till after lunch so we've got a bit of time beforehand. I woke up late this morning but I guess I was pretty tired after yesterday.
I still can't believe the party came off so well. We didn't end up with any problems - well aside from the time it took to set up. It all went really well and James and I didn't end up in a single argument he was actually quiet nice. I've no idea how the teachers didn't find out about it though. I think James but a silencing charm around the area or something but that wouldn't explain how they didn't notice the fireworks and stuff. Oh well nothing went wrong so no point worrying about it.
Everyone's really excited about today's quidditch match. It's the first for the season and everyone shows up to see the first game of the season. The majority of the time everyone comes to the final match but sometimes the house that lost in the semi-finals can get really bitter about it and not show up. It's usually only the Slytherins that do that. Slytherin is about the only house I have trouble getting along with. They can just be so rude. But maybe it's true what they say `all bad wizards come from Slytherin'.
I headed down to lunch with Jacqui and Alice. Just about everyone had something to show which side they were supporting in the quidditch shortly afterwards. We ate lunch with the Marauders - We all seem to be getting on a lot more this year. Oh well it's about time I'm sick of all the stupid fights we used to always have. James left a little before the rest of us so he could go get ready for the game. We all wished him good luck as he left. Once the six of us finished our lunch we headed over to the quidditch pitch and up into the stands.
Well the quidditch match was awesome. We won but only because Mark caught the snitch. If he hadn't we wouldn't have won, we were so far behind. It was 30-80 before Mark caught the snitch. We're lucky that the snitch gives you 150 points so it ended up being 180-80. Anyway everyone is celebrating now and I should head back down to the party. Wow two parties in two days - I'm gonna be so tired tomorrow. Oh well at least this weekends been a bit of fun, and makes a change from school work. Plus next weekend we've got a Hogsmede visit so that'll be fun.
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