Jade dismounted from her broom onto the thick moss of the grounds. There was a biting chill in the air, one which chapped her cheeks and blew her Grizzleheart robes in a swirl around her. Her trunk landed beside her, and she managed to levitate one end of it. It glowed slightly white, and dragged along the ground as she slipped into the Grizzleheart common room.

No one was there, so she must have come at class time. She stowed the trunk in the dormitory she shared with Alana, her best friend and fellow Grizzleheart. She flopped onto her bed, still made from last week, and began to brush her long hair, which had been tangled by the wind during her ride. Jade was going to surprise her friends by entering the Great Hall and sitting with them at lunch.

After just a few minutes, the silence got to her, and she started unpacking her trunk and singing at the top of her lungs. She went through every song she knew from a franchise of Muggle movies with princesses and mice in them, and then was too tired to think of anything else, so she finished organizing her socks in the bureau drawer by color.

Jade had spent the last weekend of the month at home in the Berkshires, with her parents. They had been frantic when they had learned about her adventures, and insisted that she come home for a visit. She had spent the long weekend practicing spells, basking in the autumn sunlight, and climbing into the top branches of a tree to read. She had fallen a dozen times, but was able to heal her cuts with a new charm.

The lunch bell chimed, and Jade hopped off of her bed and pulled up her socks. She had decided to wear a skirt today, but this was a long one, past her knees. She had a much shorter school skirt, but she had never had the courage to even try it on. She walked out of the room and up the long stairs to the Great Hall.

Inside, everyone was babbling and selecting food from a long table against the wall. After looking to make sure no one was watching her, Jade scooped up a bowl of soup and some crackers, nothing special. She searched for Alana and West, and spotted them at a table in the back.

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"

The two looked up at her familiar voice, and broke into grins when they saw Jade, their best friend, back from her trip. "Jade!" they both exclaimed, leaping from their seats in their rush to hug her.

"Hi guys," she said, laughing. "I missed you two."

"We missed you," said West, chewing a carrot. "Oh, by the way, Magical Melody Choir tryouts are in two days, during free period. You have to try out with me!"

Alana laughed. "And I have a Quidditch game on Friday."

"You got on the team? Congratulations!" Alana had been considering trying out for the Grizzleheart Quidditch Team for a while now, but apparently she had auditioned and gotten on.

"Yeah! I found out last month, and I was going to tell you, but then we found out about West, and you were passed out...It didn't seem like the best time. I'm the Seeker."

"Oh my Merlin, that's so cool! Too bad I'm too clumsy to play a sport." Jade was right, she was a klutz. She tripped over everything- carpet edges, stairs, her feet, other people's feet...

"Now if we just join Choir, we'll all have an activity!" West bounced up and down in her chair. Her carrot stick flew out of her hand and hit a passerby in the face.

"Fine, fine, I'll audition," Jade grumbled, eating a cracker. "But I'm going to be terrible. Everyone's going to laugh, and I won't get invited on."

"You can't be that bad," Alana said encouragingly. "Now, what song are you going to audition with?"

Jade flushed. "I'm singing this really old song, it's called The Triumphs of Oriana. It's something called a madrigal, and it was written in, like 1600."

Alana faked a yawn. "Inspirational."

"No, it's really pretty. I thought of it in the woods a couple of days ago. With the right spells, it's an enchantment and it makes flowers bloom. Sounds boring, I know, but don't knock it until you hear it."

"I'm singing an old Elven composition about an epic journey. It's called 'There and Back Again', and everyone knows it." West folded her napkin.

"I don't," Alana said, stealing one of Jade's crackers. "I've never even heard of it. Can't one of you sing a song that people have heard of?"

Jade laughed and took back her cracker. "What, do you want me to sing the Bear Fight Song in the Grizzleheart mascot costume or something?"

"Now that would be epic," Alana said in an approving tone, flicking her scarf over her shoulder.

"And should I just dance around and make funny noises like you do when you're happy?" West teased.

Still bickering affectionately, the three girls cleared their dishes and walked down the stairs to their free period.