"Aw...come on...it's not that bad... you'll be back in a few days time,
cheer up!" Zoya said, as she threw her robes into a small luggage.
"Exactly. Besides, I'll be meeting you up at the Annex tomorrow for shopping,
remember?" Landy reminded, smiling.
"Oh yeah..."
"Come on...let's go down for Breakfast, Lawrence told me that Breakfast starts at nine today." Amelia said cheerfully, while giving Jance a heavy pat on her back.
Dully, she made her way down with the girls for Breakfast.
The Hall was decorated with Chinese New Year ornaments overnight. There were
baskets and baskets of Mandarin oranges everywhere and couplets were pasted
at the entrance of the hall and the side of the teacher's table. Plum blossoms
as big as compasses were placed at every house's tables and everyone was enjoying
their last meal in Yap Ee Chian.
"Why so glum?" Lawrence said, as Janice settled herself in the hall,
careful not to step on any petals that littered the floor.
"Oh...nothing...just having PMS." Janice replied grumpily. ( A/N:
I know this part sounds gross to you guys out there, but it's part of the story.)
"What's PMS? " Lawrence enquired.
At this point, Boon Kee nudged Lawrence by the elbow and whispered something
into his ear, which prompted him to quickly make a face of apology.
"Sorry if I offended you just now or something." Lawrence said to
Janice. With that, they continued to eat their breakfast.
When Breakfast was over, Professor Lim stood up from the Teacher's desk. According
to Janice, he looked as though he just won a million warps.
"I have a few things to announce. Firstly, I would like to wish everyone
a happy Chinese New Year. The Mandarin oranges you see here are all yours. You
can choose to take some home, BUT I do not want an orange fight in here."
he said, his eyes focusing on the fifth Year Mohammed boys intently, who look
as though they'd been told to drink a ten bottles of Skele-Gro.
"Secondly, I would like to announce that Quidditch Season would be held
after you've came back from Chinese New Year. The first match shall be CuiHua
Versus Ivanov. The match will be held on the twenty-fourth of February, 10 a.m.
sharp, at the Quidditch pitch. Good luck to the two quidditch teams." With
that, he sat down and began to have a light chat with Professor Orbanaz over
a cup of Chinese Tea.
"CuiHua versus Ivanov! How exciting can that be! I mean, from what I've
heard, we've won the Quidditch Cup for ten years in a row! " Lawrence said,
his eyes gleaming at the thought of Quidditch.
"Really? I mean, I've just heard that the Ivanov team just had a makeover.
From what I've heard, all of the players are riding the latest version of Racing
brooms, I think it's the FireShooter Two Thousand and Two. Our team members
are only riding on Cleansweep Seven or Nimbus Two Thousand and Two." Amelia
said worriedly.
"They're only riding a Fireshooter? What a joke! It's not as though
that was a Firebolt. I 'd do anything to get a Firebolt." Lawrence
replied dreamily.
"Yeah...but still, Quidditch Lovers Guide highly recommended the Fireshooter
as the second best broomstick next to the Firebolt." Amelia replied airily.
"Arhem...excuse me, but when you guys have finish dreaming... meet us in
the common room. We'll be playing Exploding Uno." Zoya said coolly, rising
from her seat.
Sheepishly, both of them quickly finished up their breakfast and quickly followed
the gang to the Common room.
The usual tranquility of the common room was gone, as everyone was excited about Chinese New Year. Some were talking about what they were going to do during Chinese New Year while some simply set off some Filbuster's Fireworks, showering the whole common room with gold and red sparkles. The gang played Exploding Uno, which was much more fun then Exploding Snap, as the deck of cards would explode when one puts a wrong card onto the pile, or when the one of the players forget to yell 'UNO'. The best thing was that the cards could actually whine at the players to put them onto the pile.
"Oh shut up, Red 2, you know that I can't put you in the deck, we're supposed to put blue cards onto the deck or I'll get blown up." Lawrence hissed at his only card, which was whining like a four-year kid who wanted ice cream.
"So, someone has a red card, I know what to do now." Zoya said mischievously,
her eyes sparkling with mischief. With that, she slammed a blue 'Reverse'
card onto the pile, meaning that it was Lawrence's turn again. Groaning, he
took out two more cards from the deck and groaned even louder. Reluctantly,
he put a Red card onto the pile, causing the pile to explode and showering the
whole common room with Uno cards.
"Nice explosion," Boon Kee said, after he had collected all the cards
and reshuffled them again. "How about another round?" He said innocently,
holding up the cards.
At this moment, all the older students were already out of the common room to
catch the train at the station. At the same time, the CuiHua prefect was also
telling them to assemble at the common room in ten minutes time. Quickly shoving
away the cards, they quickly went back to their dormitories to do a bit of last
minute checking.
After checking, they quickly assembled in the common room. Professor Ting was already waiting for them. After taking their attendance, they were taken to the train station, where they had alighted when they came to Yap Ee Chian for the first time. Janice felt strangely at home when she saw the huge navy blue train at the platform. They quickly got onto the train, as it was already ten minutes to eleven, and soon, the gang managed to find a compartment for themselves.
"Ah... I can't wait to get home." Lawrence said dreamily.
At this point, there was a whistle outside the platform, there was a huge jerk,
and the train began to move.
For the rest of the journey, the gang simply stayed in their compartment and
played Exploding Uno. This went on until Yang Yi and Ivan came in, interrupting
their game.
"So...someone's playing Exploding Uno, huh? What a childish game.
" Yang Yi drawled.
"Oh, it's you," Lawrence said tonelessly, as though both of them were
something that was stuck at the sole of his shoe. "You're saying that this
game is childish? I know of someone who's even more childish, you know. They
promised us to have a mini duel, but they never showed up, showing that they
are still too young to understand the meaning of promises... hmmm... do you
happen to know them? I think their names are Ivan and Yang Yi." He continued
innocently.
"We overslept, okay?" Yang Yi snapped.
"Overslept? Nah... I think its because you guys are too afraid
to turn up, because it's the six of us against the two of you." Zoya said
coolly.
"Why don't you just shut up, Zoya Slovanika? I know that your parents
are top Aurors in the Russian Ministry of Magic, so stay away from this."
Yang Yi said sarcastically.
"You should be the one staying away from this." Landy pointed out.
"Keep your mouth shut, you Mudblood." Ivan snapped.
Janice could sense a fight coming up, so she quickly grabbed for her wand in
her robes. Just as she yelled "FURNUCULUS!" there was a mini
explosion in the compartment, filling the whole compartment with smoke and yelps.
When the smoke was cleared, Janice had a clear view of what happened. She was
not the only one who had her wand out. All the rest of the gang had their wands
out too, and there were others also at the outside their compartment hexing
the two - the infamous fifth years from Mohammed.
"You guys okay? I heard those gits calling one of you Mudblood, so we decided
to come and see." One of them piped up.
"Interesting... very interesting." another said, examining the hex marks on the two of them, who were knocked unconscious. "Who used the Boils curse?"
"I did." Janice said.
"Hmm... I used the Teeth-Lengthening curse. See the effect? Looks as though
his beaver-like teeth has grown boils on them... eww... and did you use the
Full Body Bind, Sufian?" he said.
"Yeah, what's wrong with him, Wei Hong? You used the Tickling curse?!"
Sufian said incredulously.
"Look at him! His body's vibrating away, but he can't move! Get Sahfahri
to come here! He'll love this. We can use it on Gary! He's been bragging that
he's known all the hexes in the world! He'll be shocked to the roof when we
perform this hex at him!" Wei Hong said excitedly.
With that, Sufian immediately rushed out of their compartment and went to their
compartment. Seconds later, Sufian brought back a tall burly boy with short
curly hair.
"That's the new hex you've just invented? " Shafahri said, pointing
to Yang Yi.
"Exactly. Nice job, huh? " Wei Hong said proudly.