She Said What?

Chapter 23: I Embrace the Christmas Spirit

A/N: December already! Wow. I am astonished. I have a feeling I might actually finish this story. This is a good thing – I am very excited.

This chapter is a little more chit-chat, but the girls go Christmas shopping, which leads to complications. We'll see how that goes.

Cheers, guys. I hope you enjoy this. Your feedback has been awesome thus far!

December 11

Morning Check:

Blimey, I haven't written about this in ages! Most likely because it's going miserably. I've been trying, I really have, but I can't wake up to save my life. It's too dark outside when I open my eyes, that can be very misleading. Alice and Livvy have made Levicorpus into my regular wake-up call – and considering how much Livvy hates that charm, that's saying something.

Eurgh...

6:30 PM
Status: Content

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la la la...'tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la...

Believe it or not (and right now, I certainly can't), the Christmas season is pretty much upon us.

December has arrived in full force, bringing with it all the signs of Christmastime: three feet of snow on the grounds, successfully adding two hundred percent more misery to our walk to Herbology; silver knights and ghosts alike wheezing carols around the corridors (hence the one I quoted above, which is stuck in my head); warm fires becoming a commodity (like the one I'm sitting next to at present); hats and scarves and gloves floating around the common room; James complaining that it's too bloody cold out.

And, of course, the most telling sign of all: the tumult of pre-break-cram-time homework.

It's gotten to a point where it's not funny anymore. Pretty much everyone in seventh year is poring over their books in the evenings, sweating to finish one essay so that they can get to another. We're getting a mock N.E.W.T. test in all our classes a couple of days before break, so it's in everybody's best interest to start studying and still keep up with the coursework. It's quite a miserable affair, though.

For me, the extra time I've had to invest in my studies has been treating me very badly – hence the lack of writing. I mean, I have my patrolling in the evenings, as well as the homework, so by the time the weekend comes around, all I can do is sleep.

I swear I'm like a zombie – and James is even worse (if that's possible) because on top of the homework/patrolling deal, he has his Quidditch team to organize. Whenever I'm sitting over my books at two in the morning, I often congratulate myself on not being an athlete.

The lack of free time has been affecting my friends as well. Alice – who has always hated working excessively – is constantly complaining. She gets through things by being peevish, by insisting her life blows, and although it may work for her, it doesn't work for the people she hangs out with. Livvy and I have pretty much banished her to Frank, because we are sick of listening to her whine. Frank is taking it bravely, but I know she's driving him mad as well.

Livvy, in the meantime, has problems of her own to deal with. She has homework to do, extra studying, Quidditch, and then Russell as well. Her secret affair with him has been blossoming quite rapidly, with Livvy disappearing for hours at a time in the evenings to be with him. She is compulsive about the homework thing, so she always finishes it on time, but she has to take away from her sleeping hours to hang out with Russell, which is starting to take its toll on her. She's always tired, always wanting to go to sleep, and she's the only one other than me and James who sleeps entire weekends away.