The Reunion Dinner

(written by Queenofswords8)

All too soon, it was Chinese New Year Eve. That morning, as Mrs Chan took the day off to do their last minute shopping for their reunion dinner later, Janice decided to tag along with her mother to do the last-minute shopping.

"Are you sure that you want to come? I won't be doing much shopping, you know. I'll be mainly doing the marketing for tonight's dinner at the wet market, you know. Are you really sure?" Mrs Chan replied, when Janice announced that she's going with her mother to do the marketing.

"Yep, besides, Lily's gone to school, remember? Her school is celebrating Chinese New Year this morning. She will only be back in the afternooon, remember? " Janice said hopefully, as she finished her Soon Kway.

"Well, I guess so. Follow me then." Mrs Chan said, as she cleared the dining table.

It was only when she arrived at the wet market did she realise that she had missed out quite a number of things in the muggle world. She had only been out of touch of the muggle world for almost two months, but to her it felt like two years. The wet market seemed to be unusually noisy as everyone was rushing about to do his or her marketing. The wet market seemed to sell almost everything I could think of today, Janice thought, as she examined some Cherries ($1.50 per 100g) and some mangoes ($1.00 each).

Not only was the market noisy, the market is also especially wet and slippery. As she tagged behind her mother, who was bargaining with the fish monger for the price of a fresh snapper (Five dollars for this fish? Three dollars!), Janice couldn't help but notice that everyone seemed to be bargaining away, from the aunties in their late forties to the twenty-something ladies.

After Mrs Chan had finished with her marketing, both of them went to have their breakfast. Janice, who was complaining most of the time of the vegetables she had to carry, was relieved to be able to settle down and have her breakfast. After breakfast (Prawn mee soup), they quickly went home, as they would have to wait for Lily to come home and take the foodstuffs they had bought to Janice's grandmother's house, as all of Janice's relatives would be having their reunion dinner at her grandmother's house.

Back at home, Janice would also had to help her mother sort out the type of vegetables, fish and meat they would be taking to Janice's Grandmother's house. To Janice, this was a rather unpleasant job, as she would have to deal with slimy pieces of chicken and slippery pieces of fishes, which also included cleaning the innards of the poultry. Needless to say, she was very grateful when she had finally finished sorting out everything. After washing her hands with almost half a bottle of liquid soap, she decided to take a nap, as she was rather tired out. (A/N: Janice sounds very pig in this fic...eh? sleeping like a pig...just like me *sighs*...^^)

All too soon, it was time for the Chans to go to Mr Chan's mother's house. Janice was anticipating this, as she couldn't wait to meet up with her cousins, who would be flying back from Japan just to eat the reunion dinner, and she could also catch up with her grandmother, whom she had not been in touch with for some time. Also, she absolutely adored her Grandmother's house, for the house was built on a huge piece of land and it was a rather large Japanese-like bungalow overlooking an enormous Japanese garden. (A/N: If you think that houses like what I've just described don't exist in Singapore, then you are wrong, 'cos the house I've described just now is my uncle's house cum office, which is located in Pasir Ris)

"Janice-san! How nice to see you!" Her cousin, Sakamato Akiko, shrieked when she saw Janice.

"Nice to see you too! How's Osaka?" Janice queried excitedly.

"Osaka's still pretty much the same, but we still prefer Singapore!" Akiko's younger sister, Sakamoto Chiyo chirped in.

"We were so happy for you, Janice-san, when we heard you've became a Slayer! Also, we're also very honoured to have a witch in the family, just like Harry Potter!" Akiko's elder sister, Sakamato Tsukushi, added. ( A/N: Tsukushi is actually the Japanese name for Shancai! I found that out in a Hana Yori Dango aka Japanese version of Meteor Garden website.)

Upon hearing that, Janice couldn't help but blush and mumbled a ' thanks'. She was very much aware that Lily was glaring at her because of the attention she's been getting. In Janice's opinion, Lily looked as though she has just been told to eat ten bottles of Skele-gro in five minutes. Giggling slightly, she went to the kitchen to help out with the cooking.

"Pey Shan! My, you have grown taller! Come, let Ah-Ma* take a good look of you..."
*(Ah-Ma means Grandmother in Hokkien, which is a form of Chinese Dialect)

Janice's grandmother exclaimed when she saw Janice entered the kitchen. Her grandmother preferred to call Janice as her Chinese name as she felt that Western names were too common and that Chinese names had a deeper meaning than Western names. Janice couldn't help but blush at the comment, for she was rather embarassed.

Dinner that night was scrumptious. Besides the traditional steamboat*, which was a must in Janice's family, there were also dishes like curry, steamed fish and chicken, vegetables and also, sushi. It turned out that Mrs Sakamoto, Janice's aunt, had made them to inject something fresh into this meal. Throughout the whole meal, Janice was bombarded by questions from her uncles about what wizarding life was like.
*(a steamboat is a boiling pot where food pieces such as scallops and abalones are added into).

"Do you guys really carry wands, like in the Harry Potter books? " Uncle Edward, one of Janice's seven uncles enquired during the meal.

"Well, yeah...it works exactly the same way too." Janice replied as she dipped a prawn into the bubbling steamboat.

"Interesting, I presume you guys have a wonderful headmaster like Professor Dumbledore then? " Uncle James said as he dug around the steamboat for his slice of abalone.

"Well, yeah, you could do that. He's pretty much a nice person... I guess he's pretty busy, because I've heard he's sort of the advisor for the Minister of Magic here... and he has to travel to the Ministry of Magic in London... From what I've heard, there's havoc, 'cos Voldemort's back and he's gathering supporters again..." Janice said, while she dipped her piece of crabstick into the steamboat.

"Hmm..the Dark Lord's back eh? Never mind. I'm very sure that Dumbledore-san can defeat him. After all, he's defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald before!" Tsukushi said confidently. (A/N: That's what I hope so too… Dumbledore defeating Voldie)

After dinner, everyone just simply lazed around. Janice's uncles were simply gathering at the dining table talking about the family business and about some new landscaping projects they had received. (Janice's uncles owned a landscaping company, just like my uncles... hehehe) Janice, however, was trying to learn some basic Japanese from Tsukushi and Akiko while Lily was watching television with her grandmother and Aiko, who was trying to pronounce some of the Chinese words on the screen.

At ten, they were busy again, as they had to prepare to usher in the God of Wealth. They had to prepare everything, including the offerings to be made to their ancestors. There was much activity going around, as they had to place the offerings in the right direction by using the compass. Paper money and the old portrait of the God of Wealth had to burned so that they could paste the new portrait. Constantly, they would have to dial 1711 to check the time to ensure that they would not miss the arrival of the God of Wealth. At 10.47 exactly, which was said to be the time the God of Wealth's presence could be felt, Janice's uncles quickly burned some joss sticks and burned even more paper money. Prayers were then quickly said and within minutes, the ceremony was over.

(Adapted from "A Singapore Version of Hogwarts", Chapter 10 : Weird Things, by Queenofswords8)

Special thanks to Queenofswords8 for writing this Chinese New Year Special and to you for reading it.

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