MAC Meeting: Are There Wizard Holidays?

Caleb didn't know what he was going to do for the Muggle Appreciation Club, no ideas came to his mind. So, he was just going to have to wing it. It was no surprise to anyone that knew him that he had fallen hard for a certain boy and a certain girl and that had preoccupied his mind. But now he had to come up with something to talk about at the meeting.

"Hello everyone," he said with a smile as he paced the front of the room. "Welcome to another year of MAC, I'd like to welcome new members and take note that we have a new co-leader." He nodded towards his cousin. "You can introduce yourself if you'd like."

"Today, we're going to talk about..." What were they going to talk about? "Holidays!" The thought just coming to his mind. "I'm not entirely sure if wizards and muggles have different holidays. Or we could just talk about differnet holidays we celebrate." He shrugged, the topic wasn't the best but he hoped he could get something out of topic.

In all her excitement about sharing club leadership with Caleb Fiona had forgotten all about checking with him in regard to what they would be talking about in this meeting. She glanced at her cousin and then at the rest of the room. Oh help. What was she gonna do if she was expected to supplement his explanation on what they were discussing or doing to day? She was really going to have to dig deep in her creativity to pull off the idea that she knew all along.

She smiled and waved as Caleb introduced her but kept silent until he got to the crucial point of announcing the topic. Then came the topic. What? Was he kidding? How was she supposed to act as though she knew what she was going to say? Oh boy. She would need to dig deeper than deep to pull this one off. In an effort to get her creative juices going, Fiona stood on a chair. "Hey everyone. That's right. I'm Fiona, Caleb's cousin and the best assistant leader he could ever have." How long could she draw out this introduction? "I've had a strong interest in muggles for a long time. Now we have another aspect of interest. Holidays. If you're a sixth or seventh year you have the Valentine dance and that's one sort of holiday which muggles also celebrate. Then there's Christmas and Halloween. Two more in common. However I think there are a few holidays which muggles celebrate which are completely dependent on where they live. Like France and England and ... um a lot of different countries have different celebrations." And could she think of a single one? No. If she'd known the topic beforehand she could have grilled her cousin Patrick on some muggle holiday celebrations. "So anyone have a favourite holiday? Muggle ones are preferable but if you mention one wizards celebrate I'm sure someone in the room might have an idea if muggles celebrate it too." With her long winded speech over she finally jumped off the chair with a thud and sat down.

After listening to others talk about holidays, Caleb let out a sigh of relief. His idea wasn't too terrible but it would have to be better next year. This idea wasn't the best so it wouldn't be hard to come up with something better. With a smile on his face, he stood up once more. "One of my favorite holidays is Christmas because you're surrounded by family and it's really fun."

He looked around the room, his smile wasn't as bright now. "A holiday that everyone probably know about, and likes, is Valentine's Day. I like the chocolate and making cards for friends." This year would be the first year that he had a crush on someone which made Valentine's Day a little different from the past Valentine's Day. "What about you, Fiona, got any favorites?"

Fiona didn't have to hesitate in her reply. "Christmas," she called out. "For the same reasons you gave and then some. Gifts. Lots of gifts and it's especially fun if you give gag gifts to your younger sister just to see her reaction." Considering what often happened to the gifts she was given Fiona had to admit there was something nicer about giving funny and weird gifts to Mabel than receiving gifts herself.

"Valentines day isn't so much fun in my opinion. It leaves so many people out. What if you don't have a secret admirer and what's the point of giving cards to people who are just friends and stuff." The Valentine's dance was something different of course and Fiona was looking forward to when she was old enough to attend that. However they really had lots of other holidays to discuss. "Halloween," she blurted out. "That's lots of fun with all the sweets and stuff to be handed around. Caleb I bet you really love that holiday." She grinned at her sweet toothed cousin before turning to the club members at large. "Of course muggles are slightly different in their celebration of the holiday. It's a bit weirder 'cause of things lie what they imagine witches and other Halloween type things look like. Have you ever seen a muggle dress up in a 'witch' costume?"

Noah walked into the Muggle Appreciation Club not knowing what to expect. He already knew he wouldn't know anyone in the club, which worried him. The boy was never very good at talking to people he didn't know. He was quite shy. That's sort of why he joined the club. His older brother, Sawyer, told him he should branch out and get more involved in things. He said that Noah should join some sort of club. After learning what all the clubs were, he decided he would probably like MAC the best. The boy came from a family of mostly muggles, and didn't even know about magic until his older sister was accepted into Beauxbatons. He had always appreciated his family, so he figured this was the best fit for him.

Noah listened as Caleb and Fiona talked back and forth about different holidays. It seemed like a strange topic to him, but what did he know? He was new to the club after all. The young boy had always enjoyed holidays. It was a time he could spend with his whole family. Finally, he decided to speak up and rose his hand. He probably didn't have to raise his hand, but it was too late now. "I like Christmas too. It's a good time to spend with family. I also really like my birthday." Noah realized how bad that sounded as soon as he said it, and hurried to fix his stupid mistake. "I promise it's not because I'm conceited or anything. Really, I'm not. It's just that I come from a really big family and my birthday is the one day every year where the attention is on me for once." He hoped he cleared things up enough.

"I think Halloween sounds like my type of holiday," Caleb agreed. Costumes and candy sounded amazing, but it was only for one night. "Halloween gives you a chance to be something you're not, kind of like acting I suppose." Maybe he should act like he didn't get butterflies every time he was around the people he liked.

Caleb listened as the other boy spoke, everyone seemed to love Christmas. "Birthdays are fun too," Caleb agreed. "I can see where you're coming from with the attention thing. My parents won't stop fussing over the fact that I'm turning sixteen, it's only a year older." What was so special about the age sixteen? Caleb had no clue. "You haven't told us your name," Caleb grinned.

Noah had always enjoyed Halloween. What he didn't enjoy was the cavities that always seemed to follow. Even when his dentist scorned him about it, he could tell the man was happy to be making money from his candy driven tooth aches. Dressing up was always fun too. Halloween is the one day where you can go out in public dressed however you want and no one would judge you.

When Caleb brought up the fact that he hadn't mentioned his name, Noah could feel his his face grow hot. "Oh... I'm sorry. My name is Noah." The poor boy sunk down in his chair a little. He hoped his face wasn't as red as it felt.