Halloween
For anyone who’s wondering, Lily would probably never come to my house ever. After the boys (who now call themselves Marauders) put itching powder on the Slytherins it was game over.
“How did they even get into the Slytherin Common room?” Mary had asked. I did not join into this conversation in fear they would know I was lying.
“Because they are mad, irresponsible, foolish boys!” Lily had responded.
Then Severus had turned the boys in miniature yetis and all the sudden pranks were ok.
“It’s just payback! You can honestly say they didn’t deserve a little bit of it?” Lily had reasoned. The three of us said nothing. Honestly we felt as if we said any more bad things about Severus she wouldn’t be our friend any more. Not even Marlene said anything bad about Severus in front of Lily anymore. Tolerating her weird relationship with Severus was better than losing her as a friend.
I wasn’t sure the two pranks were equal. Yes itching powder is an annoyance, but none of the Slytherins seemed too freaked over it. The Marauders looked almost hurt when it had happened. Remus especially looked like his entire life just blew up in his face and everyone would hate him. Needless to say, we don’t talk about the pranks when Lily’s around.
We were in our dormitory sitting on the floor, I was teaching Lily how to play wizards chess while Mary and Marlene were playing cards. We were simply passing time before the Halloween feast.
“What do muggles do on Halloween? You don’t believe in ghosts or vampires so what are you celebrating?” I asked them, they were muggle experts.
“My neighborhood has a bonfire, everyone on the block comes and we roast S’mores and eat treats” Mary explained. Lily and Marlene nodded as if it was a common thing to do.
“We used to go to cemeteries and give gifts to ghosts. My parents always gave up sweets too” I said. I couldn’t imagine a Halloween where you didn’t know ghosts were real. Muggles seemed so fascinating, where wizards had magic, muggles created technology to solve the problem. Although muggle technology does not work at hogwarts, I think the magic overrides it.
“My sister and I dressed up as Marcia and Jan from the Brady bunch last year! Even our parents dressed up!” Lily shared and Marlene and Mary laughed. I felt a little out of the group.
“I love the Brady bunch!” Mary replied “I have almost all of the tapes. I miss watching it with my mum at home”
“I miss blasting the radio to Pink Floyd in my room!” Marlene piped up mimicking playing guitar and whipping her hair around. Two things stood out to me: Marlene liked something pink, I had no idea what a radio was.
“Who cares about radio when you can watch Donny Osmend on the Telly!” Mary ran and pointed to one of the many posters of boys she had hung. I always wondered who they were.
“You’re an Osmend fan? But Bobby Sherman is right there!” Lily pointed to another boy on a poster. The two of them laughed as Marlene rolled her eyes
“They aren’t even that good looking! Everyone freaks out whenever they show up but I don’t see it! They’re just boys! Right Hazel?” Marlene looked at me. I sat there awkwardly as I watched them realize I had no idea who they were talking about.
“Wizards don’t have tellys or radios do they?” Lily asked and I shook my head, before today I had never heard of such things let alone own them.
“You poor thing!” Mary came over to me “your missing out of witnessing Donny Osmend in action! He sings, dances, he acts. He’s everything!”
“There has to be some way to get a radio to work here, at least you’ll be able to listen to good music” Marlene wondered.
“Mary you have your own radio right?” Lily asked and Mary nodded “great! After holiday break you have to bring your radio. Until then we find as many spells that can help as possible!” Lily has so much confidence that I believed her whole heartedly.
“I know Hogwarts: A History says way muggle technology doesn’t work I just can’t remember. If we find out how, we can find out how to bypass it!” I went for my copy of the book.
“You’ve read Hogwarts: A History?” Marlene asked, judging me a bit.
“Well,” I started “I didn’t go to school before Hogwarts and I live in the middle of nowhere. The only kids around were James and Peter so I found ways to channel my boredom. I learned Spanish and French, I can guitar, and I’ve read many of our lesson books” I looked back at my friends to see them all starring at me. Each of them focused on a different fact.
“You didn’t go to school?” Marlene asked
“You play guitar?” Mary asked
“You’re trilingual?” Lily asked.
“Yes” I nodded, opening my book. I found it amusing that what was interesting for me was normal for them and vise versa. I flipped through the pages, I’m sure I read the reason muggle technology didn’t work. It would be really embarrassing if the answer wasn’t in this book.
“Got it!” I cheered, my friends started at me eagerly “it’s a muggle repellent spell, it makes their technology stop working or it causes the muggle to remember something taking them away from Hogwarts.”
“So if we find the counter spell..” Mary started
“We get the radio” I finished.