It was Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, the talk of the school for the past few days, talks about how they thought that the Hufflepuff seeker Cedric Diggory, would outplay Harry. I thought it was a load of codswallop. Harry was a brilliant player, nothing's going to stop him, we need to win this game if we want to sit on top of the table. The game was something the whole school looked forward to, however, due to bad weather and some accidents in the air, it was postponed to Boxing Day.
The days to Christmas were less daunting, lessons, even the less merry Profesor's lessons, were relaxing and soothing, and even amidst all this somehow the other day Snape cracked a smile and spoke ruefully, "Ah, how I miss the days I were in school!" Transfiguration, now that we had completed the winter schedule, became much more fun, we were trying to do 5th-year transfiguration, not to much avail, but McGonnagal's demonstrations made it fun.
I spent more and more of my time with Ginny, sitting in a tangled heap on an armchair in the common room, the blazing fire washing sleep over us, Ginny turned around and looked at me to talk about something, "Johan, you know Katie Bell, she's in the Medical Wing now as we speak!" I suddenly got quite frustrated, Katie was important to our game, but could Wood find a replacement in time?
I got up and pulled Ginny to her feet too, "Come on, you're coming with me!"
"Where? Why? It was so comfy in front of the fire!"
"Medical Wing, Katie's there, we can ask if she is alright, and if she isn't I've got an idea and it involves you. I grabbed her hand and held it as we walked down the many stairs and halls until we finally reached the bottom of the medical wing, we climbed the stairs ferociously and ended up in an out-of-breath mess near Katie's bed. Madam Pomfrey looked at us with distaste.
I acknowledged, Wood's existence with a fist bump, and since Katie was out cold, I had to ask Wood the crucial question, "Can she play?"
"Nah mate, there isn't any fight left in her to get back up in two days, Madam Pomfrey said it'll take her a week!"
"What did she do?" asked Ginny.
"She was practicing on her broom, but she fell off and broke a segment of her spine, you see bone regrowth is somewhat easy, but spine regrowth in particular takes a long time, it's an intricate procedure!"
"Listen Wood-" I said, "I think I know someone who would be an excellent chaser!"
I walked back a bit to hold Ginny by the shoulders, and Wood did his usual pacing and looked up and down, "Johan, she looks like a good chaser, can she fly though?"
"Of course, she can fly, better than Fred and George I'd say, she's a Weasley, it's in their blood mate."
"All right you better run along, see you on Christmas, Johan, and Ginny!"
Ginny and I walked down the stairs of the Hospital wing in silence or at least part of it before she turned around and ran into me, tackling me with a bear hug, "Thank you so much, I've always wanted to play for the team, I won't let you down!"
I looked a Ginny, with my mouth open like a fish, swimming around in confusion due to the sudden burst of affection that Ginny showed me, "Of course, you'll be fine Ginny, better than fine!" I kissed her and we began walking again back to the common room.
The next morning was filled with screaming and laughing in the boy's dormitory as the presents arrived marking the beginning of Christmas, I had a large heap of presents at the foot of my bed but there was also a package that lay between me and Harry, it looked as though it was meant to be shared, I lunged for it and opened the package and out fell a cloak, a card too.
The card read:
Dear Johan and Harry, Our dear sons!
After much argument and silliness between your mother and I, we have decided to give you my ancestral invisibility cloak, it is powerful, it can probably shield you from many things, like getting food from the kitchens, oh by the way just tickle the pear in the painting near the Hufflepuff common room. Hehe! Your mother just told me off for writing that!
Love,
Your Parents, Lily and James!
Harry took a moment's look and said to me, "I don't want the cloak, you keep it, it fits for more of your evil, night wandering plans!" I looked at him with an innocent face and then tucked the cloak into my trunk. We dove into the presents at the foot of our bed and began to rip open them, Mrs Weasley's usual stuff, Sirius had sent me the latest broom maintenance kit, Ron got me a chess kit, Harry got me a gob stones board, Hermione a book on the greatest wizards of the twenty-first century and Ginny had gotten me a gold bracelet that was bewitched to always take me to her when I wanted it to.
I had gotten Ron the latest Chudley Cannons broom-ware kit and hat, I got Harry a 1000+ sweets assortment from every flavored bean to chocolate frogs, I returned Hermione's favor and got her a book with the greatest wizards and witches of all time, I taped her picture to the back of the book which made her laugh. My parents, I got them matching dress robes, and Sirius a muggle magazine bundle full of pictures of hot women. He wrote back to me saying I'm the best Godson ever.
Ginny came down from her dorm, wearing the gift I gave her, a silver necklace that I had bewitched to protect from all minor jinxes and curses, even some of the slightly stronger ones like leg-locker, body-bind, or Flippendo. She walked up to me and after we shared a kiss, much to our friend's distaste, all five of us walked to the great hall for Christmas Lunch!