Singing Gnomes
Sam burned holes staring at the Hogwarts letter that arrived early this morning while she was having breakfast with her Grandma.
She thought it would be a good and well-planned day; starting from heading to Diagon Alley to buy her fifth year textbooks and school supplies at Flourish and Blotts, and hopefully bumped to Mon and grabbed lunch before they could roam Weasley Wizard Wheezes and the rest of the store for a bit.
But no.
Her day might as well be partially ruined. First, when Sam’s Grandma announced that she decided to tag along because she had some business in Gringotts and then somewhere else - which means she would be in the premises, and which also means that chances of her Grandma to bump into Mon is high.
Then, Pierre - their house-owl brought about his daily morning letters and Daily Prophet with one happened to be for Sam; a sealed letter from Hogwarts which entailed about her being elected as a School Prefect.
“That’s great, Sam! You’re following my footsteps and your sister Neung’s as well.” Grandma congratulated her, “She even became the Head of Prefect in her seventh year. Maybe we might have another third Auror in the making.”
Sam was only able to nod and tightly smiled. Countless times her Grandma had mentioned following footsteps; is one person not enough? Her sister Neung is now in her third year training to be an Auror somewhere in the Balkans and Sam truly has no desire to be tirelessly out there fighting for her life.
Their house elves soon came to pick up their plates and clean the table once their breakfast was done and Sam just had to ask her grandma before she left the dining room.
“Yha ka,” Sam spoke, “may I ask if we are going to Diagon Alley separately or together later?”
Her grandma gave her a look, “Do you have plans to go elsewhere after buying your school supplies?”
“I want to meet my friend for a bit once I’ve bought my necessities.” Sam came clear, although she anticipated her grandma to forbid her.
Grandma hummed, “I thought since Neung isn’t here to accompany you this time, I should be the one to do so.”
“I’m in my fifth year now. I can take care of myself, don’t worry.” Sam assured her grandma, but the woman remained unconvinced.
“Wherever we go, there will always be bad apples lurking,” Grandma claimed, “but since you’re keen to meet that friend of yours, you may do so. But we will meet again at Leaky Cauldron once you’re done. I’ll be around.”
“Thank you, Yha.” Sam hugged her grandma, the latter merely caressed her back.
=
=
=
“Miss Amanantrukul,” Clifford, the greying hair wizard, tipped his crooked hat as she walked inside the Apothecary. “Replenishing ingredients are you?”
“As usual.”
Sam casually strolled about the Apothecary; memorising the rows and lanes by heart. Despite the smell of this particular store could pass as rotten eggs, she always finds it fascinating enough with all kinds of ingredients sealed and showcased for her to see and marvel at its works.
“I knew you would be here…”
A familiar voice came from the back and Sam straightened her back after crouching down to see a string of what seems to be basilisk fangs.
Mon’s hair was tied into two braids and her cheeks were pink due to the wind outside. Her shirt was as pink as her cheeks with a denim jacket encircling her waist. Though her nose was scrunching, lips jutted out in disapproval, Sam thought this girl was more fascinating than anything displayed in her favourite store.
“Mon,” Sam extended an arm out for the girl to come closer, which the girl was more than willing and engulfed her in a hug. “You smell really nice.”
Mon tipped her head up from her shoulder, “Well I might not smell as nice if we stayed in this place for long.”
“It’s not that bad,” Sam shrugged.
“Not that bad? It smells of…” Mon looked around, not wanting Clifford to hear, before whispering, “...rotten cabbage!”
Sam thought it smelled worse than that but she didn’t say it out loud. It was her turn to look around for Clifford or other customers before she left a small peck on Mon’s nose. The latter gave her one of those indescribable eyes and she knew she had to give the girl a proper kiss and so she did.
“This isn’t the most romantic place to kiss,” Mon said as they pulled away.
They went through their checklist together and bought whatever ingredients needed. Sam stopped for a moment to ogle and the darker side of the shop where moonstones shone a milky colour, ever so brightly. The stone was rather expensive, as it can mostly be found in the Scottish Highlands. Nothing that she cannot afford though.
“We’re using it for our potions class this year,” Mon spoke beside her, she too, gaped at the alluring light.
“I know. Our first lesson might be on making The Draught of Peace.”
“I don’t think so.”
Sam raised an eyebrow, “I know the curriculum. They would usually start with The Draught of Peace. It also came out for OWLs two years ago.”
“I’m not denying that but knowing our class, we’ll always learn about the properties first hand before we brew.” Mon smirked, knowing she was right while Sam merely glared at her. “And speaking of classes, have you decided the two additional elective subjects you’re taking this year?”
Sam grunted, ushering the girl out from the Apothecary into the bustling street ahead. Her eyes scanned the street just in case her grandma would emerge out of nowhere.
“...and you’re taking?”
“I’m staying with Care of Magical Creatures but I’m adding on Arithmancy.” Sam answered.
“Same, but I’m going with Ancient Runes instead.”
“That’s such a boring subject.”
“I would say the same for Arithmancy.”
“There’s a lot of translation to be done for that,” Sam muttered, holding the girl’s hands as they pushed inside the ever- packed Flourish and Blotts to pick up their new sets of textbooks. They went their separate ways for a bit to search for their new elective textbooks and Sam later found Mon by the stairs, apparently done with her shopping and scouring the book in her hand.
Sam peered at the content, making Mon jumped a little. “That looks terrible.”
Mon took the Arithmancy book jutting out from Sam’s bucket and flipped some pages open. “This is what my nightmare would look like.”
Sam snatched the book away before Mon had more to tease. “This year might just be a mini nightmare for everyone.”
“Is that so?” Mon asked, “It’s not often I see a Sam Amanuntrakul getting jumpy over exams.”
“OWLs and the fact that they had elected me to become a….” Sam swallowed her utmost disinterest before venemously spitting out the word, “...prefect.”
“Sam…” Mon’s eyes turned to saucers, “Me too…”
Maybe she would kiss Mon right there and then at that moment, though Sam proceeded to thank the heavens that she had someone else to share her despair over this new responsibility.
****
The amount of homework that the fifth years received was absolutely bonkers.
Last semester, the fourth years were already grumbling about the increasing workload but it seemed to have tripled now that they’re about to sit down for OWLs this year.
The Professors were repeating the same line of how serious the exam was as it would lead to each students’ career path before sitting for NEWTs in their seventh year - if they were eligible and passed their OWLs of course.
Sam was accustomed to studying, it was like a hobby she’d say but add on with the prefect’s responsibilities that she had to do as of late, it was messing with her schedule. Like right now, she had to roam the entirety of the sixth floor for about half an hour to ensure there’s no students who went out past their 10pm curfew.
The only good thing about this was that it's the same floor as Ravenclaw’s Tower but the downside was she still had a long way to walk from where she was at. As Sam flicked off the light from her wand after peering into one of the unused classrooms, noticing the board written with things she barely understood, she then heard some bangs like firecrackers.
“....please don’t let it be the poltergeist,” Sam muttered under her breath as she made her way to the source of the sound.
Ghosts are a common sight in Hogwarts and they are very much harmless and mostly nice. Unlike Peeves the poltergeist, he is such a menace and loves to play tricks. If you threaten him, either he will cackle at you or will do something entirely embarrassing and make the place a chaos. Sam wished none of the above.
Sam mumbled, ‘Lumos,’ and light shone through her wand as she entered an unused bathroom and saw that there were some chocolate frog wrappers on the floor before moving ahead to 6A. She slid the door open and came head to head with someone who was carrying books that spilled to the floor in an instance at their collision.
“Mon?” Sam rubbed her head, while the girl mirrored the same action. “What are you doing here? I’m patrolling the sixth floor tonight.”
“You sure have a head made of steel,” Mon picked up the books, “I left my Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms in my Ancient Runes class so I had to take it back because this new piece I have to translate is really making me go nuts.”
“But you’ve broken the curfew.”
“I know,” Mon pouted, “but I’m also a prefect in case you forgot.”
“You’re not on duty today. I can take points off from your House, you know.” Sam folded her arms.
“I’d love to see you try, Sam…” Mon took one step forward, hugging her textbook tight to her chest.
One thing Sam noticed about Mon now that they are together was that she gets bolder; before this the girl wouldn’t really care to retort back to whatever she said but now she challenged back and it made Sam go absolutely crazy.
Sam swallowed, pointing her hand to the other direction, “Go back to your common room before I changed my mind.”
Mon almost rolled her eyes and she was about to leave when Sam pulled her wrist, making the girl almost toppling once again. “Sam!” Mon stood facing the expressionless Sam who had one crucial intention, staring intensely at the girl’s lips.
“Are you trying to ask for a goodnight kiss?” Mon questioned.
Sam answered by cupping the girl’s soft, fluffy cheeks before lingering on a kiss long enough for Mon to forget that she had two unfinished pages of runes to be translated.
“Cmon…” Sam tugged the sleeves of Mon’s jumper, “I’ll send you off to your tower. My patrol shift is almost over anyway.”
And soon after the pair left, coming out from a disused classroom nearby were Opp and Pooh, face red after trying to be quiet in one of the cubicles in the unused .Their hands holding boxes of green and red; products from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes that they managed to smuggle into school. They were relieved their accidental use of Basic Blaze Box didn’t get caught even after making mini explosions; despite Sam wasn’t a big fan of becoming prefect, she was notorious on deducting points whenever rules are broken.
“Thankfully Mon managed to distract Sam,” Pooh spoke, as they rushed to another staircase going down. “I’m glad we have her to cover.”
“Gryffindors don’t desert their comrades.” Pop chimed, they giggled as they scrambled back to their common room.
***
It was about 3 months till OWLs and the amount of students spending time in the library is getting larger within each week. Sam doesn’t own the library but she does sit in a particular spot and to see someone else occupied it soured her mood that already was since yesterday's incident.
They had Defence Against The Dark Arts; she was chosen to be in a mini duel with Seng, a well-liked Slytherin Seeker. Professor Teddy instructed them to only use light jinxes and curses that they had recently learned this year and try to disarm the attacker as quickly as possible. Sam was a few seconds late to block Seng’s Impediment Jinx and there she was moving in slow-motion. Her grandmother would surely be embarrassed if she found out; but she didn’t.
Sam then proceeded to sit somewhere in the middle section; where a group of sixth years from Hufflepuff were chatting more than studying. She tried to block out the girls giggling and opened her Intermediate Transfiguration textbook and did her light reading about Vanishing Spells when all of a sudden, lurid pink petals started to fall onto her books.
“What the hell……”
Sam and the rest of the students looked up to the ceiling of the library to see charmed petals falling in a slow, enchanting manner all around them.
“....is someone pulling a prank?”
“No, silly. It must be the decorations for Valentine's Day.”
Valentines, Sam slammed her book shut, surprising the Hufflepuff girls next to her, that was the last thing on her mind with OWLs occupying half of her brain. But of course Hogwarts would celebrate it; they celebrate every single thing here and now that Sam has a girlfriend, she wondered if Mon was looking forward to celebrating it as well.
Sam gathered her books and quickly made her way out of the library and to the Great Hall where she spotted Seng downing his breakfast like a bear with some of the Slytherin students.
“Seng,” She approached the table and a few onlookers looked at her curiously.
“Hey, Anantrakul…” Seng wiped the smeared jam on his lips with a napkin, “If it’s about yesterday, I’m so–”
“Where’s Tee?”
“Tee?”
“Yes, where are they?”
“They’re already at the Quidditch pitch. We have practice later.”
And before Seng could say another word, Sam sped off to the pitch. She was just in time to spot Tee putting on the brown headgear on their head.
“Tee!”
Tee squinted before realising it was her, “Oh, Sam! Why are you here?”
Tee was someone Sam knew since they were kids; both coming from pure-blood and significant families so they met often outside school when they were forced to tag along to some parties or events.
“Did you know Valentine's Day is near?”
“Duh, it’s this Tuesday.” Tee picked up their bat and started to motion a swing back and forth.
“What are you doing for Valentines?”
“What am I doing for Val—” Tee’s hand stopped mid-air, “Wait, you’re not asking me to be your Valentine aren’t you?”
“No, you idiot!”
“Oh, thank God… I thought something happened between you and Mon.”
“So what are you doing that day?”
“Hmm, not much option here if you ask me Sam. Though…you could try and bring her to Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop.”
“What’s that?”
“A tea shop; but imagine cramped, steamy and pink.”
“That sounds like a nightmare.” Sam frowned.
“Well, it's a haven for happy couples. Plus, the drinks are nice and it’s super popular for Valentines, so you might wanna book in advance.” Tee suggested, before patting her shoulders, “Give it a try, I think Mon will like it. I know Yuki did.”
***
Sam got her first Valentines that year and it wasn’t even from Mon.
That particular day, dwarfs dressed in cupids came to deliver Valentine's messages; either in the form of letters, gifts and the worst; singing poems. Sam happened to receive just that.
Her eyes as dark as the ink,
Thinking about it I can barely sleep a wink,
I wish she was mine, She’s one of a kind
The muse that has stolen my heart.
Sam was too stunned to speak though the rest of the Ravenclaw long table were half cheering and half giggling at what just occurred. She quickly ate her food and scrambled back to the common room; hoping no encounters with any dwarves though she met one at the staircase yelling her name and shoving a box of heart shaped chocolates to her from Lord knows who.
She stayed in the dormitory till mid-noon and later put on her knitted pink cardigan; something which she had only worn once after Mon gave it to her during recent Christmas. Sam met the girl who was already there by the oak doors, her hair let loose though sleek and shiny. An also - pink - overcoat donned on her and her lips looked glossier and inviting than ever.
“Aww, you’re wearing my cardigan!” Mon pulled her by the waist into an embrace.
“Hmm,” Sam pulled away, “what happened to your hair?”
“Oh, you noticed.” Mon encircled her arm as they made their way with the other students to Hogsmeade. “Just tried out some hair products from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes for Valentines special.”
“Aren’t their products banned?”
“Not all. These are all harmless,” Mon explained, “They have hair products, some light potions here and there…and oh, chocolates as well.”
“Chocolates…”
“I received some earlier.”
“Me too.”
“And a poem so I’ve heard.” And when Sam groaned in annoyance, Mon laughed, “Who was it from anyway?”
“No idea. But they must be out of their mind. That was the worst poem to ever exist in the history of poems.”
“You’re so harsh. By the way, are you bringing me to Madam Puddifoot’s?”
“Huh? How did you know?” Sam made a mental note to interrogate Tee later.
“Well, Three Broomsticks is that way and you’re taking this road instead.” Mon pointed out, “I’ve never been here before but Yuki said it’s well-known for couples.”
“I’m starting to think this is a bad idea.”
Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop located at the side road of the High Street and they had to climb up cramped, rickety stairs that squeaked every few steps. A girl in her mid 20s brought them to a gaudy table near the windows. Sam eyed the tacky and frilly decorations surrounding the crowded room and she wished she could use the Vanishing charm on herself right there and then.
“...well, it’s not so bad.” Mon sipped her chamomile tea once the waitress served them.
Sam spotted familiar faces like their Head Boy, Saint with an unfamiliar guy, a few tables in front of them. There was also that girl from her Arithmancy class holding hands with her boyfriend, chuckling at some joke the boy just cracked.
“So what are your plans after OWLs?” Mon’s question brought her back to momentary ogling.
“I don’t know…but I feel like I will be restless throughout the break while waiting for our results.”
“I know, which is why I have a…proposal.” Mon gave her one of those ‘up-to-something’ smiles.
“I’m listening.” Sam put her right hand on top of Mon’s left.
“Why don’t you spend a month with me during summer break?”
“A month?”
“Okay, I know your grandma is pretty strict and all. How about a week then?”
“A week?” Sam sighed, “Mon, I have to convince her a few times to let me go to Diagon Alley alone this year which was a partial success plan since she was there too in the end. So how can I even convince her of this?”
“Well you haven’t even asked her yet.”
“I have a feeling I know what her answer will be.”
“Fine then…” Mon mumbled, retracting her hand back to her lap, leaving Sam’s own on the small table.
Sam heaved another sigh, feeling mildly irritated that the topic of her Grandma was brought up on Valentines Day of all days but she knew how cagey the woman is and she doesn’t want to put Mon’s hopes up on her suggestion. But she hated to see how the girl opposite her was avoiding eye-contact and unknowingly pouting at the same time all because of her.
“Alright…” Sam resolutes, “I’ll try…I’ll try and ask her. But I’m making no promises, okay?” Sam easily reached out across the small table to pull the girl’s chin’s up.
“Promise?”
“Yes, I promise.”
“Okay.” Mon’s adorable smile returned to her face, “Also, I think she seemed at least friendly to me when we met at the Leaky Cauldron that time. Did she say anything else once I left?”
“Not particularly,” Sam recalled, “I told her you’re one of the best students in school and she asked what your parents do and when I said your mom is a Hotel Manager and she asked is it something like a Leaky Cauldron innkeeper. I completely lost it.”
Mon covered a hand to her mouth, hiding her laughter. “I think that must be the exact image she conjured. You have to write up a good plan for this, Sam.”
“Not just me, we!” Sam pressed, “I definitely can’t ask for her permission before having everything entailed and planned properly.”
They continued to enjoy their time together. Just when Sam thought the place wasn’t bad at all, a floating, golden cherub suddenly landed on top of their table throwing pink confetti all over them with some landing in her tea. And to make things more horrendous, the couple next to them started to make out like there’s no tomorrow and few other tables were snogging as well including their Head Boy. It has become a complete kissing fest.
Sam pleaded with her eyes, signalling Mon that they should go which she agreed. They paid for their tea and cakes before heading out to a more secluded, private place near the Whomping Willow to have their own kissing fest.