Diverse - HARRY POTTER

Joshua - 2

Year 2

Saturday - 14th December – 2:00pm

I'm walking back to the common room the longest way possible. My walk with Jess ended too quick for my liking, I could've spent the rest of my day on that walk, but she had made other plans which I respect.

The walk down towards the kitchen is long but I am observing every painting on the wall, time is passing very slow.

"Ed? What are you doing." My attention was brought to the voice who spoke.

"Oh, hi Win. Just looking at the painting. Wanna do something? I'll do whatever." I probably sound desperate but to be honest I am.

"Oh. I would Ed but I have Quidditch practice. I'm sorry." My eyes flickered over the broom propped in his left hand.

"Yeah, yeah, course. obviously. Enjoy." I smiled and he smiled back while he walked past me. Quidditch. Of course.

The barrelled door was all of a sudden right in front of me. I don't even remember walking here. I began to tap the barrels, two from the bottom, middle of the second row. A sloping, earthy passage inside the barrel travels upwards a little way until a cosy, round, low-ceilinged room is revealed, reminiscent of a badger's set.

I take a seat on one of the armchairs by the window and just stare out toward the meadow. I pull out the scrolled piece of parchment that I keep in the inside pocket of robes and flatten it out on the desk in front of me. I angle the desk so it's facing toward the window.

I look down at the half-finished drawing of the meadow and begin to swirl my quill on the parchment. When I draw I get lost in it. Everyone and everything fades into the blackness, the only thing I can see is my canvas. Only when I was tapped on the shoulder did I notice someone was calling my name.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't hear you." I swirled around in my chair to face the person.

"It's ok." A girl I recognise giggled. Alannah I think her name is. "This is the book you were looking for in the library. Remember, I said I would give it to you when I was finished. Well, I'm finished." She smiled down at me.

In her hand she held the old leathered book close to her, "how to make your paintings come to life; for beginners."

"Oh, thank you so much." She held the book out to me and I took it from her.

"No problem. Your picture is really good." Her eyes were staring past me and at my parchment. I could feel the redness on my face from embarrassment.

"Oh, thank you." I said trying to cover the picture with my arm while still facing her. "My dad taught me."

"That's cool, my mother taught me." She took the seat beside mine. "But just letting you know, if you want the trees to look my realistic, you need to create shadows underneath. You know to make it look 3D." her arm stretched past me and her hand gripped my pen. "Can I?" she asked.

I nodded praying she won't ruin my picture. She stood up and leaned over me and began shading underneath one of the many trees. "See?"

I glanced down at the picture and it looked so much better. "Yeah, thanks. That looks great!" She sat back down in the same seat beside me.

The way she looked reminded me of Jess at first glance, except she was fairer in colour. Her hair was bit of a darker blonde. She didn't have blue eyes but a light green with golden specks and she was much taller than Jess. When she smiled she had one protruding tooth beside her two front ones on the left side.

A skinny ginger cat stalked up and jumped onto her lap staring me down as if sizing me up. "This is fudge." She smiled down at the cat while she scratched between his ears. I reached into my robe and pulled out my fat rat.

"This is cheese." I held him up in my palm. Fudge shot up, growling. Fudge scampered up the sleeve of my robe, hiding. "Well that didn't go well." I laughed nervously.

"No, I don't think they will be friends any time soon." She had calmed fudge down and I could feel cheese quivering on my chest.

"Alannah, I've been waiting for you. You said you were just giving someone a book." A mixed-race girl approached the two arm chairs. She was probably around my height with dark black hair matched well with dark grey eyes. Cute round glasses are perched low on her nose.

"Lucy, this is someone." Alannah giggled.

"Joshua, this is Lucy Lee. She's my best friend."

"Josh, you can call me Josh. No one except my mother calls me Joshua." Alannah smiled while Lucy scanned me.

"Hello Josh." She smiled. "Well, am I welcome to join then."

"Of course. Josh doesn't mind." Alannah pulled over another arm chair placing it in front of us, forming a sort-of semi-circle shape. We started discussing our plans for Christmas and I told them of my normal traditions and what we do.

"Your friends with Edward Cane?" Alannah asked.

"Yeah, he's one of my best friends." I replied and Lucy giggled. "What?"

"Nothing." Alannah cowered back into her chair.

"Alannah has been crushing on him since sorting last year. She will never talk to him, though." Lucy continued that giggle.

"Lucy, no I don't." Alannah snapped up.

"You do!"

"Josh, don't tell him."

"I won't." she didn't look convinced, though. "I promise."

"I'm never letting you out of my sight. I swear by it." Alannah had her finger pointed at me. "I'll come to your house for Christmas if I have to."

"My father will be thrilled to hear." We all laughed, "but fudge isn't invited."

Alannah gave a fake gasp and whispered loudly in her cat's ear. "Don't mind the mean boy fudge, he doesn't mean it."

"Sometimes I think she actually believes the cat talks back or understands us." Lucy said.

"Oh Lucy, look at Josh's drawing. He could join us on the weekends, couldn't he?" Alannah once again stretched past me and grabbed my parchment.

"You drew this?" Lucy asked me and drew her glasses closer to her eyes. I nodded in response. "It's bloody good. Al and I go somewhere different every weekend to draw if we're free. You wanna join? You wouldn't believe how many cool things there are."

"Love to."