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The holiday of family Sprout
My name is Jane Sprout, I´m a witch and I´m currently working at the ministry of magic and at the ministry of muggles. My aunt Prof. Sprout is the head of Hufflepuff in Hogwarts. I would like to tell you about our holiday in the world of the muggles. First I want to introduce my family to you.
My husband works as a bus driver in London and he is a muggle. My daughter Patricia, called Pat, is 13 years old and she goes to the magic-school Hogwarts. How should it be different, she has come to Hufflepuff. We also have a seven-year-old son, whose name is Charles, he´s attending a muggle-school and he also is a wizard. When he is 11 years old, he will certainly go to Hogwarts. But now I want to tell you about our vacation.
When we talked this year about our holiday, Ben suggested: "This year I want to holiday like everybody else." "But every year, we holiday like all the other people." "No! I mean like other muggles, how you wizards call us. A holiday without magic and visiting strange places, which only you can see. You know, I only can see ruins, destroyed houses or anything like that. I would like to holiday according to my idea, without witchcraft."
"So, I don´t know, do you think that our children will agree with this?"
"That makes no difference to me, I would like to travel according to my idea."
"Okay, okay, than we travel like you want, this year, but then you must prepare and organize the whole holiday."
"Okay, I´ll do it," Ben said.
Several months had passed and Ben didn´t say anything about the vacation, he kept silent and meant that we should be surprised.
Well, the day of departure came nearer. The only thing I got out, was that I should bag light and summery clothing, nothing more.
On the day of departure I asked Ben how we were going to reach our destination.
"I´ve told you, just let me surprise you," Ben said.
The suitcases stood packed in the hall, the children were really excited, when Ben said: "Come on. Here we go!" We went to the car and drove to the airport: "You don´t really want to put us into this muggle airplane; we could apparate to our destination. You know that I can take all of you with me, to wherever I want. I´m uneasy about sitting down in such a thing", I told Ben unassertively. "No way. You give me plenty of rope, this will be a holiday without magic, and that´s that! We will board this plane and fly with it."
Fair enough, in for a penny, in for a pound, I thought. The kids found this experiment really exciting, because they aren´t concerned with muggles, except for their first time in school.
After my husband had adjusted everything, we boarded the plane, sat down on our seats and waited. Phew! I tell you, that I never board something like that again. I was lucky when we could finally get off. My legs still shook a while until I finally calmed down.
We got off at the airport of Athens and got in the taxi, which drove us to our hotel. "What on earth are we to do in Athens?" I asked Ben, "Well, here are real ruins, which we can visit. We can rest on the beach, swim in the ocean and we can chill out nicely."
When we arrived the hotel, we went into our rooms. My husband had booked two rooms for us. Pat said: "Do I really have to be in a room with Charles? I always have a room of my own, even in our holidays, Mom!" I looked at my husband: "I can make the room taller and than I make two rooms out of it." "Oh yes," the children shouted synchronously, "If we already have to holiday with you, everybody should have their own room." "No way, I said no witchcraft. I´ll ask if we can have another room."
After a while, Ben came back. "There is no free room in this hotel" "Oh, Dad, please let Mom make two rooms for us, please!" The two children shouted synchronously. After some to-ing and fro-ing, where Ben had less and less to object, he agreed. "Okay, you´ve won. Then make two rooms out of this one, but you have to turn them back every morning, otherwise the chambermaid is in for a great shock." "Well, it is really a bagatelle and no problem." The children and I went into the other room and with a few dangles with my wand and a few spells, I doubled the room. Then I magically made a wall with a door, and there were two rooms. Charles ran into the second room and Pat stayed in the first. The children were satisfied and I was it, too. It already was late, so we stayed in our rooms. I magically made us something to eat, which got me a condemnatory look from my husband.
This was the first day of our holiday like muggles. We went downstairs to breakfast at the next morning. Before we went, I whipped up the room of the children back again and cleaned it up at the same time. Ben came in the room and said: "That´s not the way, what would the chambermaid think, if she comes in a room where two children live and there is everything cleaned up. Nothing is lying about and there is no mess. That´s not normal." I took some pieces of clothing and threw them to the floor. "Is it better that way, darling?" I scowled at him. "Yes, it´s ok. But I think you don´t have to clean it up tomorrow. You should only make the room smaller, that´s enough. We must leave some work for the chambermaid. Come on, we go to breakfast and then we visit the acropolis.
The children thought that it was funny to get their meals from a long table, my husband was very pleased with the big assortment, but I didn´t like it that much, because they had neither pumpkin juice nor witch biscuits, but I came to terms with my fate and ate a bap with sausage.
When the breakfast finally was over, we took off.
Athens is a very nice city, big and old. Oh well, then we arrived at the acropolis. Ruins, real ruins; most ruins are ruins to muggles´ eyes, but in reality they are bewitched houses or castles. These ones were real ruins. Even to the eyes of witches and wizards. "Oh, Mom, look there. This time, I can tell some really exciting things in school," Pat said. Charles asked us if they were allowed to look about at this place on their own. Ben said: "Yes, but we meet here again in one hour, and both of you stay together. Pat, you will take care of your brother." "Yeah, right," Pat shouted and before we can say knife, they disappeared behind the corner.
Ben and me walked along the acropolis, as someone abrupt shouted my name: "Jane, Jane Sprout, is it really you!" Surprised, we turned and saw a small woman who was coming to us. I looked at her questioningly. "Don´t you know me anymore? It´s me, Lara Holbrock. We worked for a while together in the ministry." "Oh, Lara, that´s a surprise. What are doing here?" "I work for the ministry and we´ve found a little group of Demiguises here accidentally. Now we´re anxious to bring them to a reservation and to save them for other persons. You know that these animals are very agile and they can turn invisible if there´s danger. This is the reason why we didn´t know that some of them were in Athens. It was a fortunate coincidence that we found them. It was very hard to hide the trapping from the muggles, but we just managed it. We have a house behind there, where we accommodated them momentarily. Are you feeling like watching them now?"
"Sure! What a pity that the children aren´t here right now, they were interested, too," I said to Lara and gave Ben a questioning look: "Or shall we not?"
"Fair enough, you would tell me during the next ten years if we don´t go there now!" Ben said.
Together with Lara we went to the house. "Wait a moment," Ben said, "You have some animals inside this dump?" Lara and I gave Ben a shocked look. "Oh, I forgot that Ben is a muggle and he can only see the damaged houses." I said to Lara.
"Jane, I will wait for you outside. I probably can´t see any animals."
"Ok," I kissed Ben and went into the house behind Lara.
In the house were two rooms and inside the doors of the rooms were windows. Lara explained to me: "You can only see the Demis through the windows. If we go into the rooms, you can´t see them because then they´re invisible. To the Demis the room appeares as a rocky countryside. This is the reason why they don´t notice that they are in a room. We get them out of here on Thursday. I think it will be very funny when we catch them." "Is it possible to watch when you catch them?" I asked. "I think that can be arranged. Just come over here on Thursday.
I say Goodbye to Lara and went back to Ben.
He looked at me and asked: "And what was to see in this dump?"
"They found Demiguises, magical animals similar to monkeys. Their fur is very precious and therefore they have to be saved. The animals will get out of here on Thursday and the children and I will be watching them," I answered.
Very well then, but you will go inside without me, "it´s no use to me" as I can´t see anything. Sometimes I wish I was a wizard, or you weren´t a witch, everything would be easier then."
"Yes, my dear, but that´s how it is now, and I fell in love with a muggle."
"That´s right, and I fell in love with a witch."
We went back to meet our kids again. They were already waiting at our arranged meeting point. When I told them about the Demis they wanted to go back immediately, but I told them: "You will see them again on Thursday."
We spent the next days like muggles do. Lying in the sun, swimming in the sea or shopping in the city.
The days were just like Ben had wished them to be.
The kids and I met Lara in front of the house on Thursday. There also were some other witches and wizards around.
We all went into the house, the kids and me stayed in the anteroom.Two of the wizards went into the first room and shot small green sparks with their wands to the ceiling. Two other wizards went into the room and they shot light Stupor spells at the animals. They could see them through the green sparks from time to time. The Demis jumped around as if they were crazy, but after some time them all were hit by a curse and laid on the floor. We could observe the same procedure inside the second room.
A lot of crates were conjured up and the Demis were cased. The kids even were allowed to stroke the Demis. "They´ve got a soft fur," Pat stated. Charles said: "Mom, can we take one of them home with us?" "That´s not possible, Demis are wild animals and no pets. They will be brought to a territory where they are saving from muggles as well as from evil witches and wizards, they will have a good time there." We watched the Demis being loaded onto trucks and returned to our hotel after that.
The next day was our last one on holiday and we had to travel back. I had an argument with Ben about how to do it. We agreed that he flies back with the kids. I preferred to apparate, it was safer for me.
In the end, I have to admit that a holiday like muggles do can´t be done without magic for witches. I´m very glad that I am a witch and that I can cope with certain things by using magic.
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