The Diary of a Witch, Volume I

CHAPTER 2: OCTOBER

1. Thursday, October 1, 1:00 A.M, Dorm,

I’ve decided that the voice I heard in the third floor corridor was a spell. I’m going to avoid it from now on. That, as they say, is that. Now, I really need to get some sleep.

Thursday, October 1, History of Magic,

TOP FIVE THINGS TO DO IN HISTORY OF MAGIC:

1) Doze/nod off/or (if you’re really ambitious) sleep. Like Morag MacDougal is right now. Someone should let him know he’s drooling.

2) Draw/doodle. Some of my best sketches have come from this class.

3) Daydream/zone off.

4) Tapping quills. Okay, so only I do this, but it helps pass the time. Plus, it annoys Lisa Turpin so it’s kind of fun.

5) Passing notes. The students only LOOK like they’re quiet!

Wednesday, October 2, Lunch, Great Hall,

Yes! We’re finally starting to do more difficult stuff in charms. We’ve gone over pretty much all the wand effects there are and now we’re going into the simple stuff like the light charm.

I haven’t gone near the third floor corridor entrance. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist. I didn’t hear a creepy voice and in case I did, I’m staying away anyway. If the creepy voice wants me to stay away from it, I have no problem doing that. Besides, I don’t need another reason to get in trouble. I’ve had two detentions already, I’d like to avoid more.

Speaking of which, I talked to Hagrid and he said the pumpkins are already blossoming! There are small little orange buds on lots of vines. I’m going to go over and check it out after class. It’s kind of cool knowing I helped made them grow. Okay, I only planted the seeds, but still, that’s helping.

Friday, October 4, Dorm Room,

Purple.

My hair is purple.

Okay, it’s only the two long bangs that frame my face and a few strands here and there but still. Purple. Oh well, at least it’s not pink. Actually, I kind of like it and I’m seriously thinking of keeping my hair like this, it’s different. No, I did not dye it. I’ve actually never considered dying my hair before. But now that I see it, I like it. Even if I sort of look like a anime character. I owe it all to Neville Longbottom. Though it wasn’t his intention either, it just sort of happened.

See, today in Charms class we were taught with the Gryffindors because Flitwick had somewhere he had to be this afternoon when they usually had their class and he didn’t want them to fall behind so we were paired up to try out the color changing charm. I was paired with Longbottom. I only know Longbottom by sight and reputation. He’s notorious for causing accidents in potions and has a very bad memory. Kind of like me times ten. My mishaps in potions are nothing compared to his. Thank God. I don’t need Snape disliking me any more then he already does.

But I had no problem with being paired with him, I just figured I’d keep an eye on him and make sure he knew the correct incantation and gestures for the charm. I mean if I feel bad about my klutz attacks imagine how he feels. But even I didn’t anticipate getting purple bangs out of the deal.

All the students were given these stones to change colors. The two of us practiced the charm and gave him a few tips on how to remember the gestures. Then I held up the stone we were supposed to change for him. He got the charm right. The problem is he was aiming the wrong way and the spell turned my bangs purple instead. Oh well, at least he got it right. It could have been a lot worse, Seamus Finnigan blew up his stone instead of turning it a different color.

I had to assure Longbottom I wasn’t mad, I guess he thought I was going to be furious. But I told him I was cool with it, and that I should really thank him because I now have a unique hairstyle. The look he gave me was hysterical.

Sunday, October 6,

THINGS TO DO

1) Finish History of Magic and Charms essay

2) Start Potions essay that’s due Friday

3) LAUNDRY!

4) Clean off desk (can’t see top anymore)

5) Return library books so Madam Pince won’t glare at me.

6) Send Angela and company a picture of newly colored hair (they asked in letter)

7) Perfect color changing charm for Friday’s quiz

Monday, October 7,

I think the teachers have all gotten together and decided to make the students suffer and give us a bunch of tests. Bet Snape came up with the idea and intimidated all the others into doing it.

This week I have four tests and two essays due and three tests next week. Coincidence? I think not. Teachers are evil sometimes. Especially potion teachers.

Wednesday, October 9, Lake,

It happened again.

I heard a weird voice. Only it wasn’t near the third floor corridor. It was here, near the lake. It was different from the other one. It wasn’t scary at all. All it said was “nice hair” to me sarcastically. I figured it was one of the students because everyone’s been doing that lately, they act like dyed hair is a offense or something. Turpin keeps eyeing it distastefully. Owen just kind of looked at it, looked at me and then shrugged. After that we went back to practicing the curse of the bogeys.

But no one was near me. Most people don’t spend much time near the lake on the account of the giant squid. I don’t mind the giant squid. It doesn’t bother me, and I don’t bother it. The voice kind of sounded like someone’s grandmother disapproving of something their grandkid has done. It least the grandmother’s on TV. I don’t know about real life grandmothers. I’ve never had one.

But that was the only thing the voice said. Nothing else after that.

What the hell is going on with me? This is starting to freak me out a little. I don’t think I’m crazy. Weird, sure. Unique, totally. But I’m hardly insane. At least I don’t think I am.

You know...the giant squid WAS looking at me when I heard the voice. The squid sometimes comes out of the lake and lays on the lake shore for awhile. It was doing that earlier and then left. But that’s impossible. Animals don’t talk.

At least I don’t think they do...

Friday, October 11, Hallway Bench, After Potions,

That was so unfair!

I shouldn’t get a detention just because the potion was RIGHT! Yes, the fire nearly burned Snape, but it was his own fault for standing in the way. Besides, he DUCKED.

Here’s the deal: today in potions we had to brew a fire breathing potion for our test. Why? I have no clue. I mean, when in my life am I going to want to breathe fire? But, whatever. Owen and I paired up like we usually do now and got to work.

The two of us have a system now: he goes to get the ingredients (since he is not clumsy like I am, it’s safer that way), I prepare the cauldron and the ingredients, then we alternate putting in the ingredients and he keeps an eye on the potion to make sure it doesn’t do anything it’s not supposed to. Like overflow suddenly. But that only happened once. Nothing major has happened and Snape has finally stopped keeping an eagle eye on me during class. Which is nice because that only makes me nervous. When I’m nervous I tend to drop stuff.

Somehow we put in to much lava powder. At least that’s what Snape said we did when I took the potion and a whole jet stream of fire shot out of my mouth and nearly burned Snape to a crisp. To bad it didn’t. Just kidding, much as I don’t like the guy, I don’t want him dead. Though I wouldn’t complain if he transferred to a different school.

After he nearly became bald he glared at me and was all “Johanson! You have detention tomorrow!”

I kind of blinked at him and was like “what?! Why?”

“For nearly burning your potions professor.”

Owen was as mad as I was. “That’s not a reason to give her detention!”

Snape glared at him. “Would you like to join her, Hollins?”

I kicked Owen in the leg before he could say something. I don’t need him getting in trouble for defending me. Though it is nice having a friend willing to defend me. None of the Ravenclaws stood up for me, I noticed.

Late Saturday, October 12, Dorm Room,

EWWWW!

I had to disembowel horned slugs for my detention with Snape breathing down my neck. Between the slugs and Snape it was not a fun evening. Plus, I got slug slime on my robe.

GROSS!

Sunday, October 13, Lunch, Great Hall,

I just found out that the first Quidditch game of the season is going to be on November 9. The game is going to be Gryffindor V.S. Slytherin but I’m still going. No way am I going to miss my first chance to see an actual Quidditch game.

I’m going to root for Gryffindor because they’re the underdogs. They haven’t won the Quidditch cup in the past seven years. I always root for the underdog. Besides I’m not that crazy about the Slytherins. Not all of them are like Draco Malfoy (thank God for small favors) but I’ve had a few run ins with some of them already. Yesterday I accidently ran into Pansy Parkinson (a Slytherin girl in my year) and she told me to “watch where you’re going , you clumsy oaf!” and that was after I had apologized.

I’m sure there are some decent ones. Like Blaise Zambini who is kind of quiet and doesn’t hang out with anyone. No one really knows much about her.

People are already starting to place bets on the game. I wonder if the teachers are aware of the fact that there is a gambling operation going around among the students? Oh well, what they don’t know can’t hurt us. I put one Galleon on Gryffindor to win. I’ve heard they have a new Seeker this year so maybe he or she is good. No one knows who it is. The team is trying their best to keep it quiet. I give a week or so before it gets out. Secrets do not last long here.

Monday, October 14, Library,

STUFF I NEED TO STUDY FOR:

History of Magic test on Thursday:

Chapters one through three.

Notes (borrow Owens)

Concentrate on impact wand had on magic for the essay part.

Defense Against the Dark Arts on Thursday:

Chapters one and two.

Know ways to fend off vampires, hags, and zombies.

Astronomy on Wednesday at Midnight:

Know placement of planets and major stars.

Wednesday, October 16, Afternoon, Dorm Room,

The first of the tests this week is coming up.

I’ll be happy to get these three over with. While I don’t have to spend TOO much time studying on the account of my photographic memory (bless who ever decided to give me one!) I’ve been helping Owen with DADA spells so I’m studying more then usual. At least magic is more interesting then math and science.

Thursday, October 17, Dinner, Great Hall,

They’re all over with.

I think I did pretty well too. I’m not going to get the highest marks of course, Hermione Granger will get the highest marks. She always does. Turpin is mad about it too because she’s a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw, and a muggleborn like me. I guess she thinks only Ravenclaws can be smart.

I personally do not care who gets the highest marks. As long as it isn’t Draco Malfoy because then we’d have to hear him brag about how smart he is. Gag me.

Sunday, October 20,

THINGS TO DO:

1) Finish The Secret Garden.

2) Finish Hogwarts: A History. Return to library by Friday.

3) LAUNDRY

4) Finish homework

Monday, October 21, Way to Early, Great Hall,

That was totally rude.

Peeves the Poltergeist got into my room and dumped a bucket of ice cold water on me. AT 5:30 IN THE MORNING!!!!! Jerk. Why did he do this? Who knows. Probably just felt like being annoying. Peeves gets a kick out of annoying everyone. He usually leaves the professors alone and picks on the students. His favorite targets are the first years.

Personally, I don’t see why anyone hasn’t exorcized him. I’m sure the Headmaster could do it. From what I’ve heard, he’s the most powerful wizard of our time and was the only one that Voldemort guy was afraid of. That’s why he never attacked Hogwarts when he was going around killing people all the time for no good reason. Well, at least I don’t think it was a good reason.

Surely a guy that strong could exorcize a ghost.

You want to know the even weirder part? I’m up here in the Great Hall at 6:00 A.M. and there people here besides me. People get up this early voluntarily! Is that weird or what?

Tuesday, October 22, Breakfast, Great Hall,

I feel really stupid.

I forgot that today was my birthday.

That’s right. I turn eleven today and I completely forgot about it!

I didn’t realize it until I came down to the Great Hall and Owen greeted me at the door with a cheerful smile and said “Happy Birthday, Jubilee!” I was all “huh? What?” In my defense I hadn’t had my breakfast yet. I’m never really coherent until about 10:00 A.M. The fact that I got to be friends with Owen, who is another morning person, is still a surprise.

I’m even more surprised that he remembered it. I mean, we had one conversation about two weeks ago about when our birthdays were (his is April 15) and it’s been my experience that guys aren’t good with things like birthdays. But he remembered and I didn’t. Life is very, very odd.

He even got me a present, even though he totally didn’t have to. He got me a book called The Big Book of Magical Art which has all these pictures of magical paintings, sculptures, and other things. It’s great. I think I embarrassed Owen when I hugged him.

Late Tuesday, October 22, Dorm Room,

I came back from class and found a pile of presents at the end of my bed from Angela, Gerard, Giselle, and Jacob. None from Grandfather of course. He’s forgotten my birthday for the past eleven years, why would he remember it this year?

Angela got me a subscription to Witch Weekly which is this wizard mag that I know a lot of the girls read. She also got me a ACDC CD that I had been eyeing before I left. Jacob got me this great set of colored pencils which is good because some of mine have gotten really short and this one had colors that I didn’t have. Gerard gave me something called Grow Your Own Magic Herb Garden. It’s a kit of some sort and looks like it’ll be fun to try out. Giselle baked me a delicious batch of (sugar free of course) cookies and got me this book called Useful Everyday Charms.

What’s really surprising is that Mandy Brockelhurst had left a card and a box of Chocolate Frogs for me as a birthday gift. While she and I are on good terms we’re not the best of friends like Owen and I are. So this was really nice of her I thought. She doesn’t hang out with Turpin and Patil much anymore, I’ve noticed. She’s made friends with Parvati Patil (Padma’s twin sister) and Lavender Brown in Gryffindor and spends most of her time with either them or Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff. I’ll thank her when I see her tomorrow.

Late Wednesday, October 23, Dorm Room,

This is insane.

Nuts.

Impossible.

But it’s happening. I’m hearing animals and plants speak in my head. I’m positive of it. No, I’m not imagining it. It’s been happening all day. I heard the owls in the morning saying stuff like “out of the way! Delivery to make!” as they flew in to deliver the mail to the students. Owens’ owl said “bombs away!” when he dropped the mail in his hand from the ceiling. I kept getting distracted in Transfiguration and Charms because the birds outside the windows were having this singing contest and trying to outdo each other.

The trees in the courtyard were complaining about the squirrels who keep annoying them. The flowers we handled in Herbology kept shouting at the students who were repotting them to be gentle, they had feelings. That voice I heard near the lake? Was the squid. Her name is Aqua and she’s apparently fifty years old.

So now I can hear animals and plants talk. I am a freak. I’m not telling anyone about this. If anyone found out...well I don’t want to think about what could happen. I’m going to try and find out if there have ever been wizards who had this...ability. If you want to call it that. As far as magic gifts go this one is kinda useless. I think I’ll ask Granger if she knows of any books in the library on magic gifts. She ought to know. She’s in there practically every time I go in. I’m beginning to think she lives there. I don’t want to ask Madam Pince because I don’t want her to get suspicious. Granger probably won’t ask me too many questions.

Thursday, October 24, Library,

Well there are lots of books here on magic gifts and abilities. A WHOLE SHELF! This is going to take me forever to get through! If my ability isn’t listed here then I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Hopefully I can find something that will tell me how to turn the off switch of this thing on because animals and plants DO NOT SHUT UP! You know how they say humans are the sociable species? They got nothing on animals and plants. It’s gotten even worse since they seemed to have figured out that I can hear them and now try to engage me in conversation. I’ve found I can answer them in my head or out loud and they understand.

Now they won’t leave me alone.

Figures.

Sunday, October 27, Dorm Room,

I still haven’t found an explanation for...whatever you want to call this.

Part of the reason is that there are a lot of books on the subject and another part is that I still have homework to do. Plus Owen and I have been starting to get ahead in the Defense book. He’s gotten a lot better at spell casting, now we just study as we hang out. The spells we’re casting are getting harder and classes are getting more interesting because we’ve pretty much gone over the basics.

I can’t wait for Charms this week because we’re going to be learning the Wingardium Leviosa charm which makes small objects fly. It’s the trickiest charm we’ve done yet. Plus it looks really cool, on Friday Flitwick made a book fly across the room.

Another problem is I’m trying to keep this thing a secret. I haven’t told Owen or anyone about it. Though I think Owen knows there’s something up with me because he keeps looking at me like Angela does when she knows I’m not telling the truth. Whoever said Hufflepuffs aren’t smart are idiots.

So I have to be discreet about reading up on the magical gifts. Not to mention when I’m “talking” to a animal or plant. I try not to do that too much. I’m trying to ignore this thing until I can figure out how to stop it.

It’s not easy, especially when you wake up in the morning to find a squirrel outside your open window singing “O What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma at the top of his lungs. The only reason I know it’s from Oklahoma is because Giselle and Angela are musical fiends and made me watch every Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. They were okay, though I could of done without getting “Do Re Me” stuck in my head.

Monday, October 28, Breakfast, Great Hall,

Wow.

You should see the Great Hall. It’s always been cool, but now it’s even cooler!

Sometime last night the staff put up Halloween decorations since it’s Thursday. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because you get to dress up in costumes and you get lots of candy! It’s a junk food addicts dream come true. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to dress in a costume because they don’t do that at Hogwarts. But that’s not going to stop me from wearing my ghost earrings on Thursday.

Anyway, the floating candles have been replaced by floating Jack-O-Lanterns (the pumpkins I helped Hagrid plant, at least something good came out of that detention) and there are all these bats flying around the ceiling. What’s really funny is that the bats are having a contest to see who can make the most students duck. I know I shouldn’t have laughed when Pansy Parkinson shrieked as one dive-bombed her but I couldn’t help it. And it’s not like I was the only one laughing.

Wednesday, October 30, Lunch,

I made a feather fly!

It took awhile, but I did it!

I LOVE magic!

Late Thursday, October 31, Dorm Room,

Okay, what idiot let a TROLL into the school?

I know it didn’t get in on it’s own, trolls are stupid. So someone let it in. Probably as a prank or something, though I don’t think it’s really funny. For one thing it was kind of freaky when the feast (which was even better then the Welcoming Feast on the account of there being buckets of candy at the center of all the tables) was interrupted by Professor Quirrel running into the hall shouting “Troll in the dungeon! Thought you ought to know.” and then fainting (some DADA professor, huh?).

All the students immediately panicked until Headmaster Dumbledore shouted silenced and told the prefects to lead us back the houses while he and the professors took care of the troll. I guess they succeeded because I haven’t heard any screams. Except for the female pigeon telling her kids to pipe down, she’s trying to sleep, outside.

What a way to end Halloween.