4 July 2025 | Solo

It is the fourth of July, a few days after Christina returned home for the summer break. She has finally settled back into her old room, having returned with more stuff than she left with. It took a while to clean it all up: her clothes had to be sorted, her books were put back where they belonged, and Christina even got a special cupboard for her potion ingredients. One of the first things she noticed when she got home was how clean her room was: it was obviously kept very well by her parents, which she was grateful for. It was even cleaner than before she left, and definitely cleaner than the messy dorm she slept in last week.

While Christina was grateful for coming back to a clean, cozy room, she did feel a sense of loneliness. Gone were her chatty roommates, who were honestly a bit annoying at times. Gone were the late-night gossips the girls used to guiltily indulge themselves in. Replaced by a crisp, yet warm looking room, filled with silence.

If she had to be honest, she did prefer her room over her room at Hogwarts. The pillows, while less fluffy, were much more personal. They held much more memories than the ones at Hogwarts, having helped her through a lot more tears over the years. Same goes for the little decorations she has collected over the years: they make her room feel like a place in which she belongs.

Perhaps the reason behind her feelings of loneliness is the fact that she really was lonely. Christina realises it is quite childlike for her to blame her room, however easy it is. She knows the problem is to be found elsewhere, even though she doesn't want to admit it.

In truth, Christina misses her friends. She has two small groups of friends: one of them, she met at school. The other one is from tennis. Before she left for Hogwarts, she had told all of her friends that she was accepted to an international boarding school. She vividly remembered that day, the weekend before she set off to Hogwarts.

Christina is sitting in her living room, surrounded by many people. Looking to her left, she saw her family. Not just her parents, but also all of her aunts, uncles and cousins were there. To her right sat her friends, as well as her little sister. They were all here to celebrate her birthday.

Everyone was chatting peacefully and getting along, until Christina stood up and demanded attention. "Attention, please, I have an announcement." Usually, Christina would stand up with a grin and a confident look on her face. However, this time was different. She didn't know how to say this, and how everyone would pick it up. Part of her family would understand: they also went to Hogwarts. Still, it would be difficult to explain to the muggle part of her family, and especially her friends. "Coming September, I'm going off to boarding school", Christina spoke with a shiver in her voice.

Christina remembered how her friends were down about the fact that she would be gone for so long, yet excited for her that she got to go to boarding school. Since her friends were muggles, Christina had told them that she wouldn't be able to stay in touch with them, but that she would meet them over the winter break. However, winter break came, and her family took her on a surprise holiday. As a result, she was unable to see her friends for almost an entire year.

Now, as Christina is sitting in her room, she misses her friends dearly. While she had her sister and her parents to hang out with, which slightly cheered her up, she was disappointed that her friends hadn't reached out. She had tried to contact them herself - sending texts, calling - but it was as if her friends had disappeared from the universe.

In a wave of sadness, Christina pushed her head into the pillow, adding some new tears to the ones it had already seen over the years. Where are my friends?

4 July 2025 | Solo

Christina wasn't sure how long she had been lying with her head buried in her pillow - it could've been minutes, or a few hours - when she heard knocking on her bedroom door. Judging from the sound of the knock, it must've been her sister. Upon hearing the noise, she rushed to look presentable, wiping away her tears. Her sister had never seen her cry before. Actually, most people hadn't ever seen her with anything other than a smile on her face. "What's up?", Christina shouted through the closed door, hoping to buy herself some more time. "Chris, mum made some tea for us!", her sister responded. The younger girl on the other side of the door sounded very excited for some reason. "Hang on, I'll be downstairs in a minute", Christina responded.

After hearing the sound of her sister's footsteps descending down the staircase, Christina finally got up to walk to the bathroom. Once in there, she splashed some water over her face and scanned herself. Her hair was braided into one single French braid, which was becoming one of her favorite hairstyles for when she wanted her hair out of the way. She was wearing some light blue athletic shorts and a white graphic t-shirt, and her socks reached a little above her ankle. All in all, she was dressed very casually, like usual when she was home with no plans to leave the house.

After deciding that she looked good enough to go down the stairs and interact with her family, she took a deep breath and started walking towards the living room. Once Christina got to the bottom of the staircase, and just before she was able to glance into the living room, she suddenly heard..

"SURPRISE!"

Upon hearing this, she rushed to take the last few steps down the staircase, and was met with all of her friends standing in front of it. Looking around the room, there were flags hanging from the ceiling, along with some balloons and some 'Welcome home' banners. On the coffee table, there was a big cake with 'Welcome home Christina' written on it, together with a tea pot, the exact number of tea cups needed for all of her friends, and other sweet snacks like little cupcakes and cookies.

Christina was speechless, and had to hold back her tears once again. "Oh my.. it's so great to see you all!", she squealed, quickly running towards her friends to give them all a big hug. "I missed you all so much", she said afterwards. It gave Christina a warm feeling, seeing all her friends like this. "Come on, let me serve you some tea", one of her friends said, as she walked towards the sofa. Soon, all of the girls sat down, and a great evening followed. At the end of the day, her face muscles hurt from laughing, and she was left feeling better than ever. This was one of the best days of my life, was the last thought she had before closing her eyes and ending the day.