Bellatrixje, Andy and I got the assignment to write a little story for English. We had to include a few sentence in it and read it out loud after it was finished. This is what we came up with! It's quite obvious we got inspired by our trip to London last year, the Harry Potter novels and films.
Mind the Gap
“You know, sometimes, on still quiet evening like this I almost get a creepy feeling that they will walk in through that gap in our basement,” said Lily to her aunt Bellatrix. They were sitting in their cosy kitchen. Both women looked at each other. Unpleasant memories filled their minds. Lily shivered when she relived that scary memory. She was about to say something else but then they heard a noise in the hallway. They realized it was just their newest visitor and relaxed a bit.
A few seconds later, a man walked through the door. He had greasy, black hair which was hanging all across his face and covered the biggest part of it. They just revealed a pair of black eyes and a weird nose. The visitor’s name was Alan Snape. Alan stayed at their house for a while because his wife found out about his affair with a young and attractive redhead.
Alan moved towards the kitchen table and sat down. He glanced at Bellatrix and grinned a bit when she got up and left the room. It was more than obvious she didn’t want to be in the same room as Alan.
Alan followed her with his eyes. He acted like he didn’t understand why the woman didn’t like him at all. Lily felt sorry for him and tried to explain it to him: “My aunt’s tragedy happened just three years ago,” said the child. She then decided to tell the sad story of her poor aunt. For that, they had to go to the basement. Lily showed Alan the gap.
“It’s been three years but is seems like it only happened yesterday,” she said before she went on with the story. “My aunt and I were here, practising Voodoo. That is our religion, you see. We were just summoning an evil spirit when it all went wrong. Apparently we didn’t close the magical circle well. The spirit – Andy The Warrior Prince, who died in the first World War – escaped and made this huge gap in our basement.” Lily pointed at the gap. Some smoke floated over the edge and filled the air with an unpleasant smell of rotten eggs.
“At first we thought nothing serious would happen. It was just an innocent smelly gap, you know. But then, in the deepening twilight, three figures were walking across the lawn towards this gap. They all carried guns under their arms. Apparently they had come to take revenge on Andy The Warrior Prince because he betrayed them during the war. We were extremely scared when those heavily armed men approached us. They believed we had helped Andy to escape from hell so they wanted to kill us too.” Lily stopped for a moment and looked at Alan. Again, he grinned like it was a funny story.
“I know,” he whispered. He smiled for the first time since he arrived.
“Y-you know?” Lily was frightened. How could he possibly know? Unless …
“I was there …” he whispered again. His lips barely moved but the words were clear. Lily suddenly understood why he had seemed familiar when she first saw him in the house. It hadn’t been their first meeting. He was one of those armed men … One of those men who had tried to kill her and her aunt.
“We didn’t help him on purpose!” Lily said. She now remembered all details of the hectic night.
“I know now,” Alan said, if that was his real name of course. “I just missed your sweet little aunt Bella.”
Lily didn’t really understand. “What do y- you mean?” she asked.
“Don’t you get it? I’m not here for that Andy person. I’m here for you. You’re the one I came for in the first place. You’re ‘poor aunt’ has been my partner for all these years. … In more than one way.” He laughed out loud when a hand was placed on his shoulder. “Bella,” he said softly and turned around to kiss her.
“I don’t understand.” Lily said helpless.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Bellatrix said. “You never were a smart child, were you?” Alan gave a snort of contempt.
“Did you never wonder why your parents left you with me?” Bellatrix asked. “Did you really believe it was because they didn’t have enough time to raise you?”
A single tear drop found its way down Lily’s chin.
“No, my dear. They knew. They knew you were destined to die for the greater good. They knew you were the Child of Doom. All the omens were there.” Bellatrix almost showed sympathy for the young woman.
“I’m sorry, dear, but you’ll have to die, I’m afraid. You are the bringer of death and sorrow. The world will never be a peaceful place with you in it,” Alan said seriously. Bellatrix nodded. “It’s time,” she announced.
Lily begged: “Please, don’t hurt me!”, but it was too late. Before she had any time to resist, Alan had already grabbed her arms.
“Mind the gap,” he whispered in her ear before pushing her in it …
Many years ago my friend Debbie, my sister Leen and I spend some time writing these 'lessons' for skiers. We had a terrible lot of fun while writing them and now I found them back. I just translated the first lesson: "How to put on that stupid outfit". :) I wonder if it's just funny for me because I was one of the people that wrote it or if anyone else thinks it's a good laugh too?
Lesson 1: How do I put on this stupid outfit?!?
The evening before you go skiing, you will have to put your underwear in the fridge.
The rest of your outfit will have to be placed in the freezer right after you have finished the first step of this lesson.
You have to get your entire outfit out of the fridge and freezer the next morning right after you wake up.
You then have to put everything in the microwave so it can defreeze.
Spread all the things out over a flat surface and use a roll to get all the wrinkles out.
Use a metal detector to make sure there are no lost coins anywhere. We are in the middle of a financial crisis so we will not waste any money! Every penny counts.
Put on your underwear next. (We are quite sure you know how to pull this off. If not, please contact us and we will be happy to make an extra lesson to explain everything in detail.)
Next you put on your T-shirt. (Again we assume you already know how to do this, but feel free to ask for further advice on the best way to get your shirt on.)
Take your pair of tights.
Take the right end in your right hand and the left end in your left hand. Now start stretching your arm muscles. This way you can test the flexibility of the tights.
Put on the tights and make sure there's no air between your tights and legs/feet.
Put on all the clothes that are supposed to be underneath your skiing jacket. This can vary from day to day, all depending on the weather conditions or the company you are skiing with. (You do not want to look all blown up when you go skiing with your newest crush, right?)
Hang your ski trousers on your lamp to enlighten it.
Make sure they do not become too hot by using a digital thermometer. If you do not own one of these devices, go to a nearby store and request for one that automatically calls the fire department when it becomes too warm. We all know lamps can become very hot and that this can have terrible consequences.
Take your trousers.
Invite some of your best friends and play a game with your trousers.
Put on your trousers.
Take your jacket and put your mobile phone in it.
Open your window.
Take a sleeve in each hand.
Jump out of the window and use the jacket as a parachute.
When you land and are still able to walk, go back to the rest of your clothing. If you are not able to stand on your feet, try to get the mobile phone out of the jacket and call the European emergency number (112).
Take your socks.
Put your socks over your hands to see whether there are holes in them or not.
In case there are no holes: make holes and take a new pair of socks. Otherwise, just go to the next step.
Put on your socks. (Just like in steps 7 and 8 we assume you know how to do this. We do realize this can be tricky though. If you do not succeed in getting them on your feet, we suggest you call someone to assist you.)
Take your hat.
Take a bottle of perfume.
Empty the bottle of perfume on your hat. (This can take a while so do not become impatient.)
Throw your hat in the sink and soak it with cold water to make the smell slightly more bearable.
Put on your hat.
Take your scarf.
Bind the scarf around the neck of a random person.
Test the strongness of your scarf by pulling hard on the scarf.
Do not let go of the scarf until it either rips or the random person stops breathing. In the first case you have to go buy a new scarf and repeat the last 3 steps. In the last case: go to the next step.
Take your choice of skiing glasses.
Spray every fluid you can find in your room on it.
Put the glasses on.
Wait until the fluids slowly evaporate and you can see again. If this process takes longer than 5 hours, it is advisable to go and hang over a heater with your head.
Take your gloves.
Boil your gloves to see if they are water and heat resistant.
Put on your gloves.
Throw glitters over you entire outfit (while you are wearing it of course). This way you sparkle beautifully in the sunlight and you reflect well during your skiing adventures.