The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Kendra

It was a magical, white, Christmas day, and Kendra Nott was nestled comfortably by a warm fire, gazing wistfully out the window of the Ravenclaw common room. Outside the window, new snow dropped calmly from the cloudy sky onto the freezing ground below. Curled up beside her on the large, fluffy couch, Kendra's Bengal cat Fidget purred blissfully as she ran her fingers through the soft, orange and white marbled fur.

Kendra had spent most of the morning outside, enjoying the shiny new ice skates she had received as a Christmas gift this year from her mother and new stepfather. It was an expensive gift, most likely intended as a peace offering after having left her at Hogwarts while they spent their Christmas vacationing together in Barcelona.

Things had been quite different since Kendra's real father had passed away two years ago. He had been the source of her magical heritage, and now that her mother had remarried a Muggle like herself, the topic of Kendra's magical education had recently become one of great contention in her household. For that reason alone, Kendra was glad they had left her at Hogwarts. She loved magic and treasured every opportunity to learn more about it.

The death of Kendra's father had actually done very little to change her abrasive personality. Kendra was stubborn, overbearing and rarely passed up an opportunity to get into mischief; much to the dismay of Professor Flitwick, who headed Ravenclaw house and was always bailing her out of trouble. Professor Flitwick was very fond of Kendra, though she could not for the life of her understand why.

With her fiery red hair and caustic attitude, Kendra had successfully intimidated most of the other students, including some that were older than her—and for good reason. Despite being in only her fifth year at Hogwarts, Kendra Nott was a gifted and powerful witch, and many of the students respected her for that. Still, there very few that had any desire to hang out with her.

None of this bothered Kendra in the least, however. She had her friends, her magic, and her stupid cat, Fidget; and that was all she would ever need. That, and frequent visits to the herbology classroom where she loved to play in the dirt.

Just then, the door to the common room burst open and Kendra's best friend Bathilda stormed inside in quite a huff, which was definitely out of character for the usually shy and quiet fourth-year.

"Those dim-witted boys are at it again!" yelled Bathilda.

Shuffling awkwardly through the door a few steps behind Bathilda was Kendra's other best friend, Jean. Jean removed her snow-covered coat to reveal a smashing pastel, purple, blouse daringly offset by long, flowing green and orange hair. Kendra recognized the beautiful Victorian-style blouse, with ruffled sleeves and a laced collar. It had been a Christmas gift from her mother which Jean had unwrapped just this morning. Only then it had been white. That, combined with the stream of tears pouring down her purple face, suggested that Jean's bold, new color theme had not been entirely of her choosing.

"What happened, Jean?" Kendra asked.

"I was in the greenhouse transferring lily bulbs into pots for Professor Sprout," Jean recounted through her whimpering. "Then one of the pots just...just..."

"Just what, Jean?" Kendra pressed, but Jean was finding it difficult to speak.

"It exploded, that's what it did!" exclaimed Bathilda angrily. "And it covered her with this stupid, colored powder.

Jean managed to stammer out a few more words before she started bawling. "Then I s-saw some b-boys running away from the g-greenhouse. They were laughing!"

Kendra was also furious now. "Who were they?"

"It was those Weasley twins again and their stupid pranks, I'm sure of it!" Bathilda seethed. "Just look at her beautiful, new blouse! And pastels of all things!"

Fred and George Weasley were both well known to Kendra, and she considered them to be friends. This despite the fact that the two sixth-years had been tormenting students with their ridiculous jokes and pranks since the beginning of the school year, which was something Kendra actually found rather amusing—until now.

Kendra also knew that the two of them, together with a younger brother and sister, had disappeared just before Christmas under mysterious circumstances. There had been rumors that their father, who worked for the Ministry of Magic, had suffered a serious injury in an accident, and that all the Weasley's had been sent home to be with him.

However, even with Fred and George out of the picture, Kendra still knew of at least a couple of boys who would be more than happy to carry on the mayhem in their stead. And these boys were not her friends.

"C'mon girls," Kendra exclaimed as she jumped up from the couch and walked over to the common room door. "Let's go hand out some joyful Christmas revenge."

The three of them headed out of the castle and into the cold, winter air. Kendra was certain her day was about to get a whole lot better.