The Diary of a Witch, Volume I

Chapter 5: January, 1992

Wednesday, January 1, 1992, 12:30A.M.,

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Owen and I rang in the new year by letting loose some Filibuster Fireworks near the lake. After some convincing we got Mandy to join us. She was afraid we’d get into trouble but relented after I reminded her that they couldn’t really give us detention during vacation.

We took turns setting off the fireworks and later on Fred and George Weasley joined us and set off their own collection. Those two are a riot, they kept saying that their real names were Gred and Forge. We also brought out some Pumpkin juice Owen’s mom sent him because he’s addicted to the stuff.

 All in all a great start to the new year. I almost didn’t hear Aqua at the bottom of the lake grumbling about the noise we were making.

Saturday, January 4, Dorm Room,

 Everyone’s coming back tomorrow.

Thank God. I don’t think I stand much more of this quiet. It was nice for a few days but after awhile it gets boring. I even miss Padma and Turpin’s gossiping. Is that pathetic or what?

 Owen and I got into trouble with Filch earlier because we taking turns sliding down the floor in the Great Hall in our socks. Is it our fault the library is closed? No. They need to come up with more entertaining stuff for the students to do over vacation so we don’t have to resort to having sock sliding contests.

That’s what I told Filch when he told us off anyway.

He wasn’t impressed.

Sunday, January 5, Great Hall,

Everyone’s back!

 YAY!

Wednesday, January 8, Dorm Room,

 The snow is gone!

 All right! I can see the grass now. Hear them too, they were cheering as the sun melted and kept chanting, “the sun! The sun!” over and over again.

I also found out that the next quidditch game is on the eighteenth and will be Slytherin v.s. Hufflepuff. Whoever wins this game will be playing Gryffindor. Then Ravenclaw will play whoever loses that game and that will decide who will be playing in the Quidditch final.

Saturday, January 11, Library,

 Do you know how many biographies there are on Dumbledore?

 A LOT.

 Then he’s in a lot of books that have mini-biographies in books. For instance there’s a whole chapter dedicated to him in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century. I know when he was born, when and how he discovered the twelve uses of dragon blood, and that he likes tin pin bowling and chamber music (that’s on his Chocolate Frog trading card).

 None of this however helps me figure out what he’s got Fluffy guarding in the third floor corridor. On the bright side, if I ever have to do a essay on the guy I’m golden because I probably know more about his life then HE does.

Tuesday, January 14, History of Magic,

 This is the lamest essay project that I’ve ever heard of: My Family History, two rolls of parchment. Come on Professor Binns, couldn’t you have come up with something more interesting? Never mind, forgot who I was talking to.

 He’s not the only teacher to assign a project either. In Potions, Snape assigned a potion for each student to make and is having us write a twelve foot essay on the development and uses of the potion. I got Burn Healing Paste. In Herbology, we have to record the growth process of the plant we get assigned to. In Transfiguration, we have to do a two roll parchment essay on turning objects into animals. Though why I would want to turn a teapot into a mouse is beyond me. In Charms I have to write on the impact Charms had on magic, twelve feet of parchment. In Defense Against the Dark Arts I have to write a essay on the Dark creature of my choice. I’m thinking of doing hags.

 All of these are due at the end of January.

I’m going to be very busy the next few weeks.

Wednesday, January 15, Lunch,

 All the first years got My Family History for their topic essay. Owen, Mandy, and Hannah have been chatting about their history. They’ve got a lot of info because their parents are real big about that kind of thing. I guess it’s a wizard thing because Dad never talked about the Johansons and where we came from. I know a little about Mom’s side of the family but only as far back as Granddad and Grandma. Unlike Mandy who said her family all came from Germany and goes back as far as the 1500s or something like that.

 I guess I’m going to have to write a polite letter to Grandfather asking for info on the Johansons. Or maybe I’ll ask Jacob, he always liked to tell me stories about the manor so maybe he knows where we came from.

Thursday, January 16, History of Magic,

 ROUGH DRAFT OF LETTER TO GRANDFATHER:

Dear Grandfather,

 Hi, it’s Jubilee.

 Everything is going fine here at school. I’ve made friends and have decent grades. The reason I’m writing is that my History of Magic teacher assigned a project about family history and I don’t know much about the Johansons. If you know anything about where we come from could you tell me please? This project is worth forty percent of our grade so I want to do well.

 I would really appreciate any help you can give me.

 Love,

Jubilee

 Is it me or does this sound like a business letter? And is the fact that it’s to my Grandfather really sad?

Friday, January 17, Potions,

 Why do we have to do potions that stink? Oh and the color? Looks like a cross between vomit and the stew that was served last night for dinner. And Owen wonders why I don’t like Potions. Oh, better stop writing, Snape is coming this way.

Saturday, January18, Common Room,

 Hufflepuff won!

 Which means Slytherin is out of the running for the Quidditch cup. HAH! Take that, Draco Malfoy. Serves them right anyway for trying to cheat yet again. You would think they would have learned by now.

 So Hufflepuff will be playing Gryffindor sometime in February. At least something will be happening that month. I swear February is the most boring month ever. It’s gray, dull, and depressing. There aren’t even any interesting holidays except for Valentines Day which is the stupidest holiday ever invented in my opinion. Good thing it’s also the shortest month of the year.

 Believe it or not, Grandfather actually came through for me, he sent me a big book about the Johansons yesterday. Jacob also sent me some stories about the manor that might be interesting to write about. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with info that will fill up two rolls of parchment.

Tuesday, January 21, History of Magic,

KNOWLEDGE OF FAMILY HISTORY:

MOM’S SIDE OF THE FAMILY:

 My Grandmother: Chihiro Inoue lived in Tokyo, Japan her whole life. She met and fell in love with my Grandfather: Jung Lee when he came to Japan from China. They married a little while after they graduated from college and had my mother: Sakura Lee. Grandmother died when my Mom was two and my Grandfather decided to move to the US. They moved to California. Mom got accepted to the Culinary Institute of America and graduated from there. She got a job as head chef at a restaurant in San Francisco. Shortly after she met my Dad, they fell in love, got married and had me. Grandfather died five years before I was born.

DAD’S SIDE OF THE FAMILY:

 My branch of the Johansons all lived in Sweden until the early 1800s when a bunch of plagues hit the country. While most of the Swedes went to America my ancestors: Alice and Henry Johanson came to England because Henry was offered a job running a factory.

 They got land, built a house and settled in the Moore area of England for the next few generations. My Great Grandfather Patrick Johanson opened up his own investment business that grew and earned the family a fortune. He eventually built the manor where I live now in the early 1900s. The company is now run by Grandfather (THAT’S what he does!!!).

 Grandfather met my Grandmother Olivia Smith at Oxford where he went to school. They married and had my father: Jack Johanson. Grandmother died a year after my father was born. My Dad went against my Grandfather’s wishes for him to take over the family business and moved to San Francisco where he opened a martial arts school. He met my mother after saving her from a mugger and she enrolled in his school for self defense lessons. They obviously fell in love and here I am.

 So I have Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and English blood in me. No wonder I’m weird.

Thursday, January 28, History of Magic,

 Well, I just turned in my family history project. The info I had didn’t entirely cover two rolls of parchment so I added a small family tree and fooled around with spacing and made the title really big. I also made a more creative title: The Tangled Web of the Johansons and the Lees.

I should get a hundred on this. A ninety-five at the least.

Saturday, January 25,

THINGS TO DO:

1) Finish up Potions essay and potion.

2) LAUNDRY!

3) Stop listening to headphones in History of Magic, even though Binns never notices.

4) Start taking notes in History of Magic, you never know, he might say something that isn’t in the book.

Tuesday, January 28, History of Magic,

 HA! Perfect score on my family project!

 Okay, so I got a few points off for grammar mistakes but that’s about it. I did well on my other projects too. Well, I got a eighty in Potions but that was only because Snape didn’t agree with some of the things I said in my essay.