What to do on the first day of April
when it’s raining outside, and there’s no indication that it will
let up any time soon. It’s tempting just to lie in bed and listen
to the rain on the window panes; but I know that I’ve been
neglecting house cleaning for far too long, and I better get up and
make a stab at it. No house elves come in here, and it won’t get
done just by itself.
Of course, I first have to fortify
myself with some hot tea and cinnamon scones. Then, once I’ve
mustered the courage, where to start? I have just ninety minutes
before I have to be at class, so I better hurry.
Probably the most neglected spot of
all, under the bed. The dirty shoes I keep under my bed didn’t
help matters either. There must have been three months of dried mud
under there. That’s what I get from tromping around outside in the
wet and especially in the dark when I can’t see the puddles so
well. I’ve noticed that the others generally don’t have very
muddy shoes, but then, they don’t have special reasons to be out
and around as I often do. So, I have to clean the shoes as well as
under the bed.
By now, I’m sure those rare books
that I sneaked from the restricted section over term and hidden under
the bed have accumulated a lot of dust. I can see that they are
being kept company by piles of dusty-bunnies. And, I’m absolutely
not going to use my broom; that would be an inexcusable
misuse. I’ll have to fetch a house-cleaning broom from the
cupboard. And, as far as the books, I can return them easily to the
restricted section without being seen.
Once I’ve returned the books, I can
put away my cloak and try to figure out what to do with that sweater
that’s been hanging on the bedpost for the last two weeks, the
hand-made one with the big “H” embroidered on the chest. By now,
the pumpkin juice probably has had a chance to be adsorbed and
harden. The House laundry takes care of my usual clothes but not
something special like a wool sweater. I don’t have a bottle of
Woolite, but I’m sure I can come up with something similar. I
didn’t go to Potions Class for nothing.
That took a lot of scrubbing, but the
sweater looks clean now. There must be an easier way of doing that;
there’s bound to be a method of doing it in just a flash…and not
remove the sweater at the same time. Maybe I’ll learn that next
year.
My desk is an absolute mess, too.
Those little blue booklets we are required to write in are a pain.
If I make too many mistakes on a page or change what I want to write,
then I have to rip the page out, leaving ragged bits on the inseam
and shreds around my desk. By the end of term, the desk and floor
look as though Scabbers was over on my side of the room and shredded
all the papers he could find.
And, the ink’s worse. It ends up all
over my desk. Why we have to write with quills I’ll never now.
They make a bloody mess, and my writing looks like owl-scratchings.
I already figured out in first-year how to concoct something to take
all that ink off the desk. Of course, my first attempt wasn’t so
good: the potion took the finish off, too. Fortunately, I also
already had learned how to reverse that.
I really don’t mind cleaning Hedwig’s
cage. Hedwig is very special; and, besides, the cage is small.
Plus, Hedwig spends a lot of time either out-of-doors or up in the
tower. I’m just glad I don’t have to clean the tower. From the
looks of it, no one has, at least not for a few hundred years.
Actually, there’s not much to clean
with those few special things that I carry with me all the time.
There’s one that I keep slipping in and out of my pocket, so it
never has a chance to become dirty. Of course once in first-year, I
had to clean off a troll bogey. That was rather disgusting.
I’ve never let on, but I actually
prefer to do my own house cleaning in my little area. It’s not
really very much to do. More importantly, that way, no one will have
a chance to discover where I hide certain things that could turn out
to be rather embarrassing, especially a few photographs that I
sneaked from the boys’ bath. I took those photos of Draco after I
figured out why he always seemed so up-tight and angry around me. It
turns out that he actually does not hate me. Instead, one night when
I was sneaking back unseen from the restricted area, I discovered
Draco in a dark corner of the hallway, whispering to Goyle. Knowing
that they could not see me, I slipped quietly close-by to hear what
he was saying; and that’s when I found out that Draco has a crush
on me. So apparently, the only way that he could express his
attraction to me without others ridiculing him was to express it
defensively as anger and disdain. Once I understood, I was
intrigued. And, that’s when I sneaked into the bath unseen and
took the photos of Draco for me to keep. And, that’s why I keep
them hidden. And, that’s why I do my own house cleaning.
© 04/01/2013
About the Author
I
have had a life-long fascination with people and their life stories.
I also realize that, although my own life has not brought me
particular fame or fortune, I too have had some noteworthy
experiences and, at times, unusual ones. Since I joined this
Story Time group, I have derived pleasure and satisfaction
participating in the group. I do put some thought and effort
into my stories, and I hope that you find them interesting.
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