Winter Magic

Madison Bell fiddled with the instrument in her hands. She was waiting, very impatiently as her best friend Natalie might add, for the bell to ring so that she could get started with the music. Mr. Morello, the tall, thin, and somewhat balding teacher, was handing out the new scores of music, and the second he had placed it down on the stand before her, she had gotten jumpy. Madison couldn't wait to get her hands on it.

"So," Mr. Morello began, and Madison groaned inwardly. He was infamously known for his never-ending speeches. Once he had talked for more than half of their class period - forty-five minutes! Really, if they wanted to listen to droning lectures about accents and crescendos and fortes, they would have signed up for the strictly theory course.

"We have a new piece of music before us," he continued, using the same line he always did when they got a new piece. "And we do not want to merely make sounds. We want to create music!" Most of the students rolled their eyes. Beside Madison, Natalie elbowed her and mouthed the words How many times have we heard this? Madison shrugged before holding up her hands and flashing her ten fingers as many times as she could. On the other side of Natalie, the last clarinet named Julian sat, desperately trying to hold in his laughter.

"Today we will simply look over the music and learn the notes and the rhythm. By next class, I expect you all to have taken your instruments home and practice the accents and dynamics." In the back, Zack groaned. He played the tuba, and it was nearly impossible for him to bring it home on a regular basis.

"That said, please pick up your instruments and begin at measure five. Yes, we will be sight-reading Sophia," he informed one of the flutes who had raised her hand. "I'll give you a bar for nothing to get the tempo. Ready? Instruments up, and...one, two, three, four!" Mr. Morello brought his conducting stick down through the air, and a low note boomed out through the room. Madison wrinkled her nose and concentrated on her music. Her fingers tried to fly over the keys to make the notes. After a few moments of struggle, she gave up and lowered the clarinet from her mouth. Natalie did the same. Most of the class was utterly lost.

"Alright, alright!" Mr. Morello called out, tapping his stick against the stand before him to silence the rest of them still playing awkwardly. "You people are a Grade Ten class! You've been playing for three years! I expect that you can play this music!" Madison flushed, glaring at her sheets of music.

They practiced for the rest of the period - nearly seventy minutes - before stopping just before the bell rang. It was surprising; they'd gotten the first half of the song down perfectly, and were well on their way to getting the rest done too. Madison's bottom lip hurt; she had to curl it over the teeth a little to play the clarinet. She was pretty much used to it by now, mostly since she'd been playing since Grade Seven and practiced a lot.

Madison popped a piece of gum into her mouth and chewed. There were so many good things about the Muggle world that most of her family had never experienced, like gum and CDs and those lava lamps she could watch for hours on end. She was a Squib; a person born to a wizarding family that had to magical powers. Her older sister Katie went to a wizarding school called Hogwarts, and as much as Madison wanted to go there too, she knew she was much more at home here at Whilshire High.

She knew a lot about both worlds; she followed Quidditch with the wizards and English football with the Muggles. She drank pumpkin juice one morning and a cherry Slushie the next. To be certain, Madison was positive she had the best of both worlds. The only thing she needed to make things perfect was a boyfriend.

Of course, she'd tried to date some of the band guys. Chase was too overprotective, and Seth was a little too wild. He was fine as a friend, but any more than that and it was just too much. Cody wasn't confident enough; he didn't take risks like she did. And the rest of them were just her friends. And none of the other guys at school seemed to want to know her.

Madison brushed her brown hair aside with a flick of her hand as she caught up with Lillian, the best flute player in their class. They had known each other since they were tiny, and shared an overabundance of memories.

"Lil," Madison called. The short blonde whirled, immediately causing a traffic jam of people behind her. A Grade 12 grumbled under his breath and pushed through a knot of shorter kids. "Hey Lil, I wanted to ask you something." Madison pulled a stack of small papers out of her pocket and shuffled through them. Lillian looked on with interest. "My birthday's a couple weeks from now," Madison continued. "I was wondering if you would come." Lillian rolled her eyes and took the invitation that was being handed to her.

"Of course, you psychotic loon. Why wouldn't I go?" She slipped the paper into her own pocket. "What do you want?" Madison flushed.

"Nothing. I just want you to come."

"Whatever. You're getting something anyway." Lillian waved and merged back into the crowd of students moving to their next class. Madison followed her example, making her way to History.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mom!" Madison called, throwing her backpack on the floor and taking off her shoes without untying them.

"Madison? I thought you had jazz band tonight." On top of her regular classes, she had joined up with jazz band, and they practiced twice a week after school.

"Cancelled." She walked into the kitchen and sat down on a stool. She eyed the clock that sat above the stove. There wasn't any numbers on it, just pictures of the family members and little sayings around the edge. The hand with the smiling, waving picture of herself was currently swinging from Travelling to Home. Katie's, as always, was sitting on At School. Occasionally it would go to Travelling (when she went to Hogsmeade) or In Pain (when she got hit with Bludgers during Quidditch), but otherwise it stayed still.

"Can you believe it's almost Christmas?" Mrs. Bell bubbled, her voice cheery. "Just a few more weeks. And Katie will be home! I'm sure you've been missing her." Madison nodded, hardly paying attention. Her gaze was transfixed on the little picture of her sister, who was grinning. What she would give to have her own picture sitting at At School beside Katie's. At Hogwarts. She'd only been there once, when she was smaller, but it had been enough to fuel her daydreams for the following years.

"Are we going to pick Katie up at the station this year? Or is Angelina going to bring her?" Personally, Madison hoped they would be bringing Katie home themselves. They'd be able to see her sooner, even if it was only by twenty minutes.

"What do you think?" Mrs. Bell asked, raising an eyebrow at her youngest child. Madison leapt to her feet.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!" She hugged her mother tightly around the middle.