I was discharged from the hospital wing a week later with my whole body fully repaired. But the rest for about a week left me rusted and I missed the Quidditch match too. My first thought after being released from the hospital wing was to avoid seeing that James Potter. I managed to avoid seeing him. But the worser enemy was in the form of Griffindors. Every time I saw a Griffindor alone or a group, I had to bear their ugly and menacing looks or snide and cruel comments. Every time in the breakfast table, that Potter really made a welcome party for Ravenclaw that cast dirty looks or made rude jokes about Ravenclaw. According to Kingsley, it was the part of being a Quidditch team.

'Well, we get honor from our house for being the part of the team, right?'

He had a point though. Quidditch team always had a king's royal respect from its house. Being new to all this, I found it quite difficult to ignore the intimidating stares and comments. There were some stray incidents, one with Michael getting hexed by James Potter. His hand's sking was as thick as leather. All this was quite unpleasant. But I found other things to distract myself.

The classes were one of them. The classes were going fine until the last months toil in the Quidditch field. My favorite subjects were Charms and Defense against Dark Arts. I was one of the favorites of Professor Flitwick, the charms teacher. Defense Against Dark Arts was taken by Professor Maddy. I was the best in the class. I could easily conjure defensive spells and understand the dark jinxes. Transfiguration was a nightmare for me. I found it very tough to do the tough steps of transfiguration that Professor Mcgonagall made me to do. Potions was taken by Professor Slughorn, a ancient wizard. I was moderate in potions. With Kingsley's help, I could manage to make potions easily. I in turn, helped him greately in Defense against dark arts. I was quite adept in arithimancy, another subject.

December 16, 1974

Now it is time to go for transfiguration class. I often dread going to this class. This class was taken by Professor Mcgonagall. She is a very severe woman and will stand no nonsense form anybody. I often end up in the receiving end of her reprimands. Kingsley wasn't very good either. I entered the class along with kingsley. We sat on a middle row along with Michael. After a short while, Professor Mcgonagall entered.

'Today we will be transforming objects. Now listen closely to the steps I am going to teach you.'

She made some complicated movements pointing her wand at a cup, which I could not follow and finally said the incantation 'ferraverto'. The cup transformed into a nice box.

'Now I want everyone of you to do this. Michael, will you come and distribute these cups to everyone?'

There was a bag of cups on the table, which Michael distributed. The class as usual was a nightmare for me. Michael finished transforming his cup to a box quickly and he tried to help me. It took about 15 minutes to get the wand movement done correctly. I spent rest of the class trying to transform the indifferent cup into a box. Kingsley managed to do in the end, although the box was quite out of shape. While all I managed to do was to transform my cup into a piece of shapeless metal. Professfor Mcgonagall came upto my table. I braced up myself for her reprimand.

'Andrew, it would be better if you would just improve your transfiguration.'

I ended up getting extra homework to do. I have tried several times to improve my transfiguration skills. Earlier Prince helped me, but these days, the harder I try, the worser I get. Trying not to think about the bitter transfiguration classes, I went to Defense Against Dark Arts classes. The Defese Against Dark Arts classes my favourite. Taken by Professor Maddy. He was a young man.

'Someone, can you tell you what is that the creature that you are seeing?'

There was one hand up in the air.

'Yes, Miss Erika?'

'It is a Grindylow Professor.'

'Very good Miss Erika, 10 points for Griffindor.'

Erika was one of the few people who earns torrents of points for Griffindor.

The rest of the class involved using a defensive spell to counter the creature. It was quite easy. I was able to produce the spell in no time. Professor Maddy was happy and gave me 20 points. Kinsley was also able to produce the spell with a little help from me. After the end of the class, Professor Maddy came to me.

'Professor?'

'Professor Dumbledore wanted to see you after this class, Andrews. You must go and see him.'

'Oh…. Thank You Professor for the information; I'll go and see him.'

I went with Kingsley. Hoping to avoid any Griffindors who were still after my blood, I climbed the stairs in the third floor for the Headmaster's office. We were passing the third floor, when all of a sudden a streak of blue shot across us. It nearly got me. We turned around and found that ugly swollen head Potter and his hairy friend Sirius, with their wands raised, in a class room. Both I and Kingsley took up our wands instantly. James was the first one to speak.

'Going to headmaster's office, eh? We'll see how you can, now that we are here.'

He seemed to have been dying to do something ever since that match.

'Well, I'm actually surprised to see that you face someone face to face. Got braver somehow?'

Kingsley's taunt touched a nerve in Sirius.

'You dare?…..'

'Go on you filthy dog. I've been waiting for this ever since you hexed Michael.'

Sirius looked furious. But prescicely at that movement, Professor Dumbledore came around the corner. Horrified, I hid my wand. Everyone did the same. Professor Dumbledore seemed unperturbed by the scene.

'Not fighting boys I believe?'

I did not know what to say. I was afraid. But I was pleased to notice that James and Sirius were trembling. But Professor Dumbledore continued in his usual serene tone.

'James, I must say that the spell you performed on Michael was wonderful. Before you repeat it, I would like to have Andrew in my office for a while.'

Feeling relieved, I went along with Professor Dumbledore to his office. I had been to his office for a few times before. The office had many delicate spindy legged instruments and portraits of previous headmasters. Another thing you would notice in Dumbledore's office is the presence of a golden bird. It was unlike any other bird having bright golden feathers and a long tail feather. If my eyes were not deceiving me, the bird looked smaller than it did than it was during my last visit here.

'That is a phoenix, Andrews and he was reborn only recently.'

I saw Professor Dumbledore surveying me completely from his half moon spectacles. Not thinking about what phoenixes were, I focused instead on listening in what he was going to say.

'You might me wondering where you are going to stay for Christmas?'

Professor Dumbledore sat on his table. Well, obviously I was going to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas. I did not have a home for staying unlike others.

'Wasn't I going to stay at Hogwarts, Professor?'

'There is a home run by one of my friends, called Camp Samuels in Kent. It is run by Gideon, an undercover wizard amongst muggles. He would like to have you.'

I do not know why an orphanage is necessary at this time, when I could easily spent my Christmas holidays blissfully at Hogwarts. But if Dumbledore thinks it is better, then it certainly has some reason. Professor Dumbledore will arrange for me to leave in four days time and I was to spent the time there until January 6th. Gideon of Camp Samuels will take care of me. Kingsley was not happy when he heard that I was not going to stay in Hogwarts, but elsewhere.

'I thought that we could spent some time here together.'

Well actually I was touched by this. I did not expect that Kingsley would do this much for me.

'Your parents will be expecting you.'

'Well, actually there is nothing much to look forward to though. Quite boring.'

'Well, now we have Hogsmeade weekend before the starting of Christmas holidays. Let's go somewhere, shall we?'

'Alright! I'd love to!'

Well, we spent that saturday evening in the village of Hogsmeade. This was one of the villages, completely devoid of muggle population. According to some rumors, Voldemort blackmailed Dumbledore for something in Hogwarts. Naturally, Dumbledore, the only person whom Voldemort feared, refused. In return, Voldemort launched an attack on the entire town of Hogmeade, butchering muggles and wizards alike. People say that Voldemort was afraid to attack Hogwarts and destroyed Hogsmeade in return. The exact reason for the attack was never known accurately. The attack wiped the village of Hogsmeade of muggle population. Being one of the last muggles of Hogsmeade, it brought some unpleasant memories back to me. But neverthless, this village is back to normal, and this year Hogwarts has even allowed the students for a visit to Hogsmeade village. There is no more place better to have a look around than the bells hanging in Christmas trees or the sleigh rides in the cold winter snow. One would enjoy the food served at the Three Broomsticks, particularly its butterbeer. After having excess butterbeer, we went back to Hogwarts.

Continued in the next chapter — Camp Samuels