Christmas with my family and me?'
Ralph tried to look surprised. 'What? No, no, I'd never want to impose on your big family gathering, what with all the, you know… I couldn't. No…'
James frowned. 'Ralph, you prat, if you don't come home with me for the holidays, I will personally perform a random transfiguration on you with your own wand. How about that, then?'
'Well, you don't have to get pushy about it!' Ralph exclaimed, then his face broke into a grin. 'Your mum and dad won't mind?'
'No. To tell you the truth, with all the people that'll be in and out of the place, I'm not sure they'll even notice.'
Ralph rolled his eyes. 'I meant about me being on the… you know, the wrong side of the debate and everything.'
'They listened to it on the wireless, Ralph.'
'I know!'
'And you never said a word.'
Ralph opened his mouth, then closed it. He thought for a moment. Finally, he grinned and plopped onto Ted's bed. 'I see your point. So you say Victoire will be there?'
'Don't get any ideas. She's part Veela you know. She puts the whammy on any guy that gets within ten feet of her.'
'I just wanted to try to make it up to her somehow. You know, about that whole incident in D.A.D.A.'
James slammed his trunk. 'Ralph, mate, the less you say about that, the better.'
The next morning, breakfast in the Great Hall was thinly attended. A heavy frost had fallen in the early hours, etching silver fern shapes in the corners of the windows and giving the view beyond a hoary ghostliness. James and Ralph arrived at the same time and found Zane at the Ravenclaw table.
'You're a lucky stiff, Ralph,' Zane said grumpily, huddling around his coffee cup. 'I'm dying to see what a magical Christmas is like.'
'To tell you the truth,' James said, pouring himself a pumpkin juice, 'I doubt it'd live up to your imagination.'
'Maybe you're right. Even at the best of times, I gotta admit, it feels a little like Halloween around here.'
'Hey, Ralph,' James said, nudging the bigger boy, 'wait until you see our traditional Christmas parade of ghouls! We'll have candy cane-stuffed bats to eat and drink hot chocolate out of elf skulls!'
Ralph blinked. Zane looked sour and rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, yeah, you're a laugh riot. Not.'
'Come on,' Ralph said, finally getting the joke. 'You'll have a great Christmas with your family. At least you get to see your mum and dad.'
'Yeah, sure. An eight-hour flight back to the States with my sister, Greer, bugging me the whole way about life at that crazy magical school. She'll be disappointed that, so far, the only way I can affect things with my wand is to hit them with it.'
'We're not allowed to practice magic out of Hogwarts, anyway,' Ralph said instructively.
Zane ignored him. 'And then Christmas with the grandparents and all my cousins in Ohio. You have no idea what kind of craziness that always is.'
James couldn't help asking. 'How do you mean?'
'Imagine the traditional all-American Norman Rockwell Christmas scene, right?' Zane said, holding up his hands as if framing a picture. 'Opening presents, and carving turkey, and carols by the Christmas tree. Got it?' Ralph and James nodded, trying not to smile at Zane's grave expression.
'All right,' Zane went on. 'Now imagine hinkypunks instead of people. You'll get the idea.'
James burst out laughing. Ralph, as usual, just blinked and looked back and forth between the two other boys.
'That's fantastic!' James hooted.
Zane smiled reluctantly. 'Yeah, well, it is pretty funny, I guess. The screeches and the clawing, all those tiny shreds of wrapping paper flying all over the place, landing in the fireplace and nearly burning the place to the ground.'
'What's a hinkypunk?' Ralph asked, trying to keep up.
'Ask Hagrid next Care of Magical Creatures,' James said, still chuckling. 'It'll all make sense.'
Late that morning, Ralph and James said goodbye to Zane, then hauled their trunks out to the courtyard. Ted and Victoire were already there, sitting on their trunks on the top step, framed against the strangely silent, frost- laden grounds. Victoire's hair had been regrown as well as possible by Madam Curio in the hospital wing, but the new hair was just different enough in texture and color to be noticeable. As a result, Victoire had taken to wearing a rather amazing variety of hats. The hats, if anything, enhanced her appearance, but she complained about them at every opportunity. Today, she had donned a small ermine pillbox cap, cocked rakishly over her left eyebrow. She glared coolly at Ralph as he dragged his trunk out onto the step. A few minutes later, Hagrid drove up at the head of a carriage. Ralph's mouth dropped open when he saw that nothing, apparently, was pulling the carriage.
'You lot aren't s'posed to see these until next year, mind,' Hagrid said to James and Ralph. He yanked the brake lever, climbed down, and began heaving their trunks easily onto the back of the carriage. 'So be sure to act surprised when yeh sees 'em next spring, right?'
'Oh, Hagrid,' Victoire said haughtily, 'if zese awful things are as ugly as mummy tells me, I'm glad I can't see zem, anyway.' She held out a hand and Ted took it, helping her rather unnecessarily into the carriage.
There were a few other students crammed into the carriage, all similarly late departures for the holidays. Hagrid drove them to Hogsmeade station, where they boarded the Hogwarts Express again. The train was far emptier than it had been on their arriving journey. The four of them found a compartment near the end, then settled in for the long trip.
'So Hogsmeade is a wizard village?' Ralph asked Ted.
'Sure is. Home to The Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes Sweetshop. Best Cockroach Clusters in the world. Lots of other shops, too. You'll get to go on Hogsmeade weekends starting your third year.'
Ralph looked thoughtful, which meant his brow pinched down while his lower lip pooched up, squeezing his entire face toward his nose. 'So how do wizards keep Muggles out of a magical village? I mean, aren't there any roads or anything?'
'Tricky question, mate,' Ted said, slouching on his seat and kicking off his shoes.
Victoire wrinkled her nose. 'You will keep zose dirt-kickers away from me, Mr. Lupin.'
Ted ignored her, stretching his legs across the compartment and resting his feet on the opposite seat. 'I'm in old Stonewall's Applied Advanced Technomancy class this semester, and all I can tell you is that places like Hogsmeade aren't just hidden because Muggles can't find a road in. It's all quantum. If Petra was here, she could explain it better.'
James was curious. 'What's 'quantum' mean?'
Ted shrugged. 'It's a joke in A.A.T. When in doubt, just say 'quantum'.' He sighed resignedly, gathering his
