Druids Celebrate Midwinter-
James Lupin

I stood on the ground of Hogwarts in the courtyard and pulled the timetwister back. I was given the strict permission to only stay on the old grounds of our wizarding school. I set the time, 400BC and watched as everything melted around me. The forbidden forest shrinks into shrubs and the castle melts and a forest marches in. I stand in a clearing surrounded by huts.

The people look at me like they have been expecting me. Snow is lightly falling down on the village and a priest comes to me. He is bedecked in robes not unlike my own. Head to toe in furs and shorter than I, he walks over to me and speaks in a language I do not understand.

"Anglo-Saxon" I say to myself. I cast a spell onto my ears to make his sounds into understandable language.

His words come clear into my unclouded mind. "This is my village, hougesmeadean. I have been expecting you for a few days and have worried if you were going to come here or not. We are preparing for Yule and I didn't want to start any of our simple traditions without you here."

"Oh, well, thank you." I respond to him and we walk into his hut.

He guides me through all the ceremonial and decorative elements of his home to get his bell. It is made of bronze and he carries it lightly. The sun is beginning to set and the hut is being illuminated by a fire in the center. Its warmth contrasts sharply with the cool crisp snow falling outside. We leave the hut and the door is closed behind me by the priest. Before we walk into the forest, he begins to ring the bell and sing.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask him, as he looks deep into the forest at the edge of the clearing. It is slowly turning to a dull white, crisp and clean over the green pines of the forest. He keeps ringing the bell and singing, when he is finished he turns and looks me in the eye.

"It is to ward off the evil spirits in the forest. We do not know what lies ahead of us and by ringing the bell it wards the bad spirits and summons to good ones to our aide. We need to have the safest journey we can, many things live in the forest containing many unimagined powers."

With that we set foot into the forest. We tread confidently and yet quietly onward. He searches the shrubs and trees. He was looking for something special in these trees, something mystical, spiritual. We finally found it. What he was looking for.

He turns to me and tells me to turn away. Some rites are too sacred for even a wizard to see. I turn and watch as the trees light up and glitter with the lights. He tells me that I can turn around and he is kneeling in front of a wreath of pine. He picks it up and shows it to the fading sun. He bends forward and rings his bell.

"The night is falling." he tells me, "we must hurry back to the village now. The spirits grow powerful at night."

We walk quickly through the forest, wreath and bell in the hand of the priest. We finally reach the village and he takes me to his hut. He hangs the wreath on the door.

"Why do you do that?" I ask, looking positively confused

"It brings the power of the living green forest into the house at the time of weakened power. It makes sure that everything that is good will remain so. It also drives out the evil spirits."

I look down at my time twister and realise that I must be leaving to get back to Hogwarts. "Thank you very much, but I must go. It has been an amazing learning experience for me. Thank you again."

I walk back into the clearing and turn the time twister back to 2003 and watch as the forbidden forest grows and the castle germinates like a gigantic flower. and I stand in front of the holiday bedecked castle, covered in wreaths and red, and hearing the evening bells from the towers.

"It all makes just a little more sense" I say to myself as I walk into the great hall. "It all makes a little more sense".