This Winter. Alice Oseman

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      “When was the last time you saw Harry Potter?”

      “Just saying.”

      “Kids?” Mum wanders into the room. She’s got her Christmas dress on – a purple thing that’s actually quite nice – and her hair curled. She always makes us dress up nice for Christmas, as if we’re supposed to do something other than stuff our faces and slob on the sofa for twelve hours. She raises her eyebrows at us. “You going to get dressed soon?”

      Charlie says nothing, so I say, “Yep, in a minute.”

      “Don’t be too long. Everyone’s arriving in half an hour.”

      “Yeah, we’re just gonna finish this level.”

      Mum leaves. I glance at Charlie, but he hasn’t looked away from the screen. I don’t think they’ve had an argument yet but I can feel one brewing. And I’m not going to lie, Mum is kind of pissing me off a little bit. She’s been really snappy with Charlie since he got home from the hospital, which isn’t helping anyone. And half the time she pretends that he’s not even ill, as if that’ll cure him. If she just talked about it casually, maybe Charlie wouldn’t feel so awkward about being the ‘ill child’.

      “You sure you want to have Christmas dinner with us?” I ask. “I’ll skip it with you if you want, I bet we can persuade Dad—”

      “I’m fine,” he says. I guess maybe we shouldn’t talk about it.

      I shoot some magic at a passing Gringotts goblin. “I think I’d be enjoying this more if I could be someone cool like Mrs Weasley. Or Dobby.”

      “Well, I’m not swapping you, Hagrid.”

      “Do we get to battle some Dementors soon?”

      “We’re only on the first book.”

      “Wow.”

      Charlie laughs at me. “So impatient.”

      I end up wearing the only skirt that I own, which is grey, with a collared shirt and jumper. I have this problem where I literally do not ever wear any outfits that do not involve jeans. It’s not like I ever go anywhere I need to dress up for since I am pretty much the most unsociable person ever to grace the earth. But I do manage to brush my hair, which is probably the first time I’ve done that this entire holiday. Ten points to me.