Winter Magic

The next music class brought a very unexpected surprise, one that Madison wasn't sure if she liked or not.

"I have been searching for a place for us to play at before the Christmas holidays," Mr. Morello was saying. A few people looked at him expectantly. "I finally found a place that will be perfect, a place that has not seen a band for several years." Madison narrowed her eyes. They better not have to playing at another old folk's home; those places always smelled so bad it made her want to gag. "I just happen to have some contacts in the wizarding world." Instantly everyone froze.

"The wizarding world?" Alyssa murmured under her breath. Mr. Morello nodded, ignoring the reaction he had gotten.

"Yes. A man by the name of Arthur Weasley." A few people snickered at the name. "He works for the Ministry..." This didn't mean much to many people. "And with people like ourselves, which they call Muggles."

Macon raised his hand, and Mr. Morello pointed at him. "Why do they have to call us such a weird word?" he asked. "I mean, we call them wizards, which is a pretty cool word. It starts with a 'w' for God's sake."

"I don't know Macon, and that's not the point. The point is, Mr. Weasley has four children who currently attend..."

"Oh my God," Madison breathed. Mr. Morello paused to look at her.

"Yes, Madison?"

"They don't go to Hogwarts, do they?" He looked at her in mild surprise.

"Yes, in fact, they do."

"Two of them aren't named Fred and George, are they?"

"How do you know this?" Mr. Morello demanded. "Not too many Muggles know the Weasley twins, which is a good thing, because those two are wild."

"My sister goes to school with them. They're in her year." Mr. Morello raised his eyebrows.

"You have a witch sister?" he asked, not in a mean way. People leaned forward and stared at Madison in intent interest.

"And a witch mother, wizard father, et cetera, et cetera. I'm a Squib." Mr. Morello crossed his arms, regarded her silently, and then quieted the muttering class with a slight wave of his hands.

"Well, then at least we have someone who will be able to deal with the twins," he joked. Madison lowered her head. She'd met the redheaded twins once or twice, when she'd gone with her parents and Katie to the station. They were (not literally) joined at the hip, devilish and always in trouble. They had a little brother, whose name she couldn't remember, and a little sister who Madison had only heard about.

"But that isn't the point," Mr. Morello said, picking up his train of thought once again. "I have talked to the headmaster of the school, and he is quite pleased with the thought of having a Muggle band playing at the school. He wants to show some of the pureblooded students something from our world. Some of them have never put foot into a 'regular' house, as we would put it." Cody, a saxophone player, rolled his eyes at that.

"When are we going?" Natalie asked, waving her hand wildly in the air.

"Two weeks from today. It will be on the last day of school for the students there, and we will be able to get a ride back on the school train."

"School train," Macon interrupted again, hardly believing what the teacher had jut said. "The school has a train? Where is it anyway?"

"No one is really sure," Mr. Morello said, and the class exploded.

"What is with those wizards anyway?"

"Are they totally paranoid or what?"

"A train? I mean, come on!"

Madison tried to block out the words that were discriminating her family and her sister's school. Didn't they realize she would have gone there if she hadn't been born a Squib? Natalie put a reassuring hand on her arm; she had known about Madison's family for years, and had met Katie two summers ago. She had wanted to go along to the Quidditch World Cup (Bulgaria versus Ireland) with them after hearing about Katie's games at school. Of course, they hadn't been able to get another ticket, and it hadn't worked out.

Mr. Morello rapped sharply on his stand and called for order. "Calm down everybody. It's not a big deal, really. Right now, we have to work on our music, and figure out what we can play for our concert." Madison heaved a sigh, picked up her clarinet and wished she had a piece of music that could express what she was feeling right then - a wash of sadness mixed with an eruption of pure joy.

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

Madison owled Katie as soon as she got home that night. Her great horned owl, named Rover as a joke by her sister, flew out into the setting sun, and Madison began to wait for an answer. It would take a day or so, she knew, but she wanted an answer right then and there.

She did get her answer a couple nights later, and Madison rushed to her room to read the parchment.

Sunny,

This is awesome! So it's your band Dumbledore told us about? Well, he didn't say band, per se, just 'live entertainment.' The Slytherins won't believe this. They'll think he's totally and completely off his rocker. Which is fine, because we all know he really isn't.

I can't wait to see you! I won't tell anyone that it's a bunch of Muggles (and my sister the Squib) who are playing. I don't want it getting around to the Slytherins. Merlin knows that if they knew, they would have a prank set up for you to second you walked into the school.

Katie

P.S. Watch out for the twins. They have a whole new line of tricks that they're just waiting to use on unsuspecting people. You may want to warn your class to beware the redheaded twins with the innocent smiles.

Madison giggled at the post-script, then folded and tucked the parchment under her pillow. Two weeks. That wasn't really that far away.