An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Thirty-Three

The next few weeks were much, much calmer. Classes were normal, there were no deadly Quidditch matches, and my biggest problem became trying to explain to my friends why I was spending time watching sports with Cedric instead of playing exploding snaps with them.

"Guys, you can come watch the game with us too," I said every time.

"No way! Muggle sports are boring!" they protested right back.

Lee came to watch one game with us, but unfortunately it was a really easy game with no real lead-change or nail biter moments, so he didn't come back.

It wasn't until lunch on Monday during the last full week of November that things started getting interesting again.

I sat down in the Great Hall and opened my laptop, trying to get an early start on my muggle work this week. At first, balancing two different school workloads was hard, but now I was in a pretty good rhythm. My online teacher usually posted a friendly message to everybody to start the week. This week's said we had a much lighter course load in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Thanksgiving! How could I forget about that?

"Hey, do we leave for Thanksgiving break at all this week?" I asked George, who was sitting next to me.

"What's Thanksgiving?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

"Ugh, dammit," I groaned, mostly to myself. "I forgot that's not a British thing."

"Wait, what is it?" asked Fred, joining the conversation.

"It's an American muggle holiday," I explained. "It's supposed to celebrate this historical event and like, the fourth Thursday in November is a day where we all eat food and spend time with family and give thanks for everything. It's a good holiday. Bruce always makes the best mashed potatoes..."

I trailed off, lost in memories of getting all the Avengers (and everyone else associated with them) gathered around the dinner table to spend time together. No fighting villains, no fighting each other. Just eating.

"Alexa? Are you okay?" asked George, snapping me out of my memories. I cleared my throat.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just feeling a little homesick."

"Well, maybe we can help!" said Fred. "We could do our own Thanksgiving, right here!"

"Yeah!" George agreed, looking excited. "Freddie and I can get the food from the kitchens. We've always known how to get stuff out of there."

"Aw, guys! That's a great idea! A bunch of friends and I usually do a Friendsgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving, so we can celebrate like that!" The wheels started spinning in my head, already breaking down all the planning and supplies we'd need. "Okay, I'll make a list of everything we need food-wise and get it to you tonight."

"Sounds good to us!"

"We'll start spreading the word tomorrow," I decided, turning back to my muggle homework. "Once I figure out where the hell we're gonna do this."

****************

Luckily for me, Monday meant double History of Magic in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to plan Friendsgiving. By the end of the period I had a food list for Fred and George, along with a rough invite list. I decided to search the castle before dinner for a location.

I quickly decided none of the classrooms were going to work; they weren't big enough, and they had too much of a school vibe. The Great Hall would be full of students having a normal dinner, so that was out. After looking around at a few more rooms and ruling them all out, I decided it might be a good idea to have it outside.