Janet woke up an hour later, Su’s bed on
her right was still empty whilst Lisa, on her left was sitting on her four
poster practicing Transfiguration.
“Good morning. I was wondering when you
will be up,” Lisa greeted while clearing her notes off her bed.
“I was up earlier to reply my parent’s
letter, then decided to go back to sleep after Alpha left, since it was still
early,” Janet replied while pulling her four poster her four poster to change
out of her pajamas. “You had breakfast?”
“Nope, I am planning to, are you coming?”
At the Great Hall, there was not as many
people compared to weekdays, some students most probably prefer to catch some
extra sleep during the weekends and skip breakfast.
Janet and Lisa took a seat at the Ravenclaw
table and took some toasts. While buttering their toasts, Ernie, Justin and
Hannah approached them from the Hufflepuff table.
“Good morning. How are you doing?” Ernie
greeted Janet. They have hardly spoken to each other since the sorting.
Although they had Potions together, it was quite clear that Professor Snape
would never have tolerate them catching up with each other during class.
“Good. How about you? All of you,” Janet
greeted back, to Justin and Hannah as well.
“We’re doing good too,” Ernie answered on
behalf of Justin and Hannah, feeling glad that Janet has become more cheerful
since the first day he met her. “We are planning to go and have a walk around the
lake after breakfast. Would you like to join us?”
Janet turned to Lisa and Ernie, as though
understood her intention, “You friend is welcomed to join us,” he added.
Lisa nodded eagerly as a signal that she
would love to join.
“Ok, we’ll join you,” Janet answered and
suddenly realized that Lisa didn’t know Ernie, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I forgot to
introduce, this is Lisa Turpin. Lisa, this is Ernie, Hannah and Justin.”
“Hi,” Lisa waved.
“The trio wave and smiled back. “We shall
come over again after we finish breakfast,” Ernie said.
“Okay,” Janet continues munching her toast
while looking at the trio walking back to the Hufflepuff table.
Lisa watched the trio walks back with
interest, “You knew them for a long time?” she asked.
“Not really. We just met at Hogwarts
Express. Ernie’s dad and my dad were best friends when they were at Howarts but
they lost contact when we…” Janet paused suddenly, she was a syllable away from
exposing the fact that her family moved into mugglehood.
Lisa listened to Janet with interest,
waiting for her to continue.
“We moved out of the country. They bumped
into each other on our first day at the station. That was how I knew Ernie,
then Hannah and Justin,” Janet gulped a mouthful of pumpkin juice to cover her
guilt for lying.
“It must be great to have friends before
Hogwarts,” Lisa sighed with a slight tone of envy.
“I actually only met them on the first day.
That does not count as having friends before Hogwarts, I guess,” Janet replied
diffidently.
“You said you were out of the country,
where were you?” Lisa asked out of curiosity.
That question made Janet choked on her
toast; she coughed and drained a gobletful of pumpkin juice.
“Are you alright?” Lisa quickly pats Janet
on her back as she coughs to soothe.
Janet continues draining more pumpkin juice
while thinking of a way to divert the subject.
“Do you want more pumpkin juice?” Lisa pushed
another goblet of pumpkin juice towards Janet.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” Janet answered
hoarsely.
Lisa waited till Janet has calmed down and
repeated her question, “So where did you stay before coming back to England?”
Janet knew that she will have to answer
that, especially when it has been asked twice, “Japan,” she mumbled.
“Japan? Wow! What were you doing there?”
Lisa asked excitedly.
“My grandma’s Japanese,” Janet answered.
“What about your grandfather? Is he
Japanese too?”
“No, he’s English but they moved to Japan a
year before I was born,” Janet answered, this was not a complete lie though,
her grandparents did move to Japan but it was a year after she was born, when
her parents decided to convert into mugglehood. Janet gulped another mouthful of
pumpkin juice to calm her mind, she needs one for her cover story. She will
need to remember all the details she have conveyed to Lisa and make sure that
they are consistent when she has to repeat them to other people who ask.
“That’s so cool. I never got the chance to
get out of England. As a matter of fact, I hardly ever left Wiggenbush Isle.”
“Where?”
“Wiggenbush Isle. It is a small village. I
lived there all my life. You’ve never been there?”
Janet shook her head.
“You can come and visit us during the
summer, if your parents allow you to. Granny and Pops will definitely be happy
to have visitors.”
“I would love to! I am sure mom and dad
will be fine with that. You lived in a wizarding neighbourhood?” Janet said,
feeling glad that the subject has changed.
“If you mean the people living around us
are wizards, then I guess I am.”
“I live in a muggle neighbourhood. I have
never been to a wizarding neighbourhood before.” Janet finds it hard to conceal
her excitement, she have always wondered where do wizards live, whether they
have a whole neighbourhood to themselves or they are concealed within muggle
neighbourhood.
“Really? What about the time when you were
in Japan?”
Janet sat straight up as though something
struck her, this certainly caught her by surprise, ”That was a muggle
neighbourhood too,” she answered, trying her best to sound as casual as
possible.
“Oh, you must have known a lot about
muggles then.”
“Quite a bit.”
“I hardly seen real muggles before, just
Pops, but he has blend into the wizarding world that I sometimes forgot that
he was a muggle,” Lisa said.
“You can come and visit me too. I can bring
you around, my neighbours are all muggles and they are really nice,” Janet paused,
talking about home reminds her of Anna, who was still not speaking to Janet
eversince she told Anna that she will not be going to Queen Anne’s with her, and
also told Anna that she was a witch.
“Where do you stay?” Lisa’s question broke
Janet off her thought about Anna.
“I’m staying in Cherry Lane, Middlesex. Is
Wiggenbush Isle in London?” Janet asked back curiously.
“Not really. It is further up north in
Newcastle.”
“Oh, that’s far. How did you get to King’s
Cross?” Janet wondered if wizards take the Underground to the station.
“Apparate. Not me, of course. I am not of
age yet so Granny took me, and we apparated to King’s Cross,” Lisa answered
plainly.
“Oh,” Janet nodded pretending as though she
understood while she made a mental note to herself to ask her parents what in
the world is Apparate after Alpha comes back.
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