Merry Christmas!
If any of you like my other story, Not Surprised, I am planning on posting a second chapter sometime in January after the holiday spirit as worn off. This was unplanned in the writing stages of the story, but I got a lot of requests for continuation and a few complaints about an abrupt ending, so there will be more to come.
This story is heavily OC-based (no Mary Sues, I promise), and very, very long. I liked the OC, and might bring them back for other stories if they go over well. The only two non-OCs are Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout (and a brief mention of Hagrid). T
The story takes place between the time the Golden Trio and the Next Generation attended Hogwarts.
Enjoy :)
"We can't do that." Professor Fire argued. "Not if you want us to do the Christmas decorations this week as well."
Professor McGonagall tapped her quill against the parchment she had been working on, deep in thought. Her small band of professors were seeming less and less efficient every school year.
"Is that really going to take up that much time?" She asked politely.
"Yes. With all the new-"
"Not the assessment papers, Fire, the decorations."
"Well, yes. Hogwarts is a big school." Professor Hopewell added.
"Perhaps we need a more efficient way to decorate." Professor Johnson contributed.
"Do you have any suggestions, Johnson?" McGonagall questioned.
"Maybe a mass charm or-"
"There's a reason you teach potions and not charms, Johnson, and I suggest you remember that before suggesting any mass charmwork on my part." Professor Fire cut in.
"Is that possible Professor Fire?" McGonagall asked. Fire shook her head.
"Maybe we do different decorations this year." Pomona finally cut in. She was the only other teacher still here that had taught under Dumbledore, and McGonagall found her advice the most useful.
Except now. Because that was useless advice.
"Professor Sprout," McGonagall started, using Pomona's official name to not show favoritism, "That would just take more time away from the professors."
"Maybe we could have the students do it," Professor Starn commented from where he was leaning against the wall.
"And how do we do that?" McGonagall questioned.
"We present it as a challenge." Professor Starn continued. "Whichever house does the best decorating wins a lot of points. And maybe a trophy."
Professor McGonagall sat back in her chair. That could be a good idea.
"And are you willing to set up this challenge?" McGonagall asked.
"I would be honored to."
On December first, the growing population of Hogwarts gathered together in the Great Hall for dinner and what was supposed to be a very interesting announcement.
"Students." Professor Starn called from the podium. His voice, although soft, immediately caught the attention of the entire hall.
"Today is what many would consider the start of the Christmas season. However, we find ourselves with a lack of available professors to decorate. Therefore, we present a challenge to the students of Hogwarts. Each house has the opportunity to win up to 300 points and a new medal to hang in front of their dormitory entrance. The way the points are tallied is that each decoration has to have your house's assigned color on it. Red for Gryffindor, silver for Ravenclaw, green for Slytherin, and gold for Hufflepuff. The house that covers the most grounds, has the most creative decorations, and shows the most holiday spirit will win the 300 hundred points. Second and third place will win 300 and 200 points respectively. Good luck."
"You know what's red?" Allie asked. She was sitting on the floor in front of the chair her brother was slumped in.
"What?" Asked Callie, who was leading the first annual Griffindor decorating committee.
"Nutcrackers." Allie replied.
"Seriously?" Callie asked.
"Musical nutcrackers." Carson added from the back of the room.
"Musical nutcrackers?" Callie questioned.
"That play nutcracker music whenever someone walks by." Benny commented.
"That's stupid." Henry, Allie's brother, contributed. Callie sighed.
"Well, let's put it to a vote."
Kyana, the fifth year Slytherin prefect, was lost in her thoughts when something started playing the march from Nutcracker.
Kyana nearly dropped her phone in surprise. She looked up and was shocked to find a small army of red nutcrackers against the wall.
Griffindor had made their move.
"There has got to be something in here about snow." Hylla declared, banging her head on the textbook.
"Why snow though? Why can't we do something like ice? It's easier to make." Kina asked.
"We're Ravenclaws. And we haven't won anything in forever. We need to be impressive." Hylla explained, waving her hands around like a bird.
"Snow it is." Kina replied, holding her hands up in surrender.
Ice it was.
But not just regular icicles, no that wouldn't be cool enough.
It had been Evelyn, a muggle-born third year, who had suggested to turn the great hall into an ice rink. Thomas, a fourth year, had found not a spell but a potion that would turn the floor into a silver ice-like material and Peter, a seventh year, had figured out how to turn shoes into modified ice skates.
So, a week into the competition, the Hogwarts Magical Ice Rink opened.
"Now where are we supposed to put the tree?" Dylan asked. He had part of the tree in his hands, but his attention was on the ice rink.
"We'll move it to the entrance." Jack decided. "Mary, do you still have the golden magicipaint?" Magicipaint was a newer invention that gave an object, like a tree, a certain glint without requiring to actually paint it. Since trees were naturally green, and Jack didn't want Slytherin to take any credit, Hufflepuff had hunted down some golden magicipaint.
Mary nodded vigorously in response.
"And the decorations?" Handmade by first and second years, and all shimmering gold, they were sure to make an impression.
"Yep." Katie replied.
"Elves?" Kyana asked, crossing her arms.
"Yes. But not house elves. Christmas elves -
Something more like minions." Nia answered. She was leaning next to her blueprints, in front of the common room congregation.
"Minions are yellow." Sean added from the back of the room.
"What?" Nia asked.
"Nevermind." Sean replied.
"So elves that do stuff for us." Kyana summarized.
"Yep. And other students. You know, to rub it in their faces."
If there was one thing Allie was good at, it was sneaking into the library after curfew.
It was usually to find quidditch strategies or more advanced ways to make her bunk more private, but once in a while she made a point to sneak down and do what Callie called "useful research."
The nutcrackers were cute, but they didn't compare to an ice rink or a giant tree decorated in pure gold. They needed something bigger.
"We need Rudolph." Allie declared. Because his nose was red, right?
"Books on enchanting objects to act like animals." The voice came out of nowhere.
"What?" Allie asked.
That's when three elves appeared with a pile of books between them.
"Rudolph." Jack pointed out. "A Gryffindor Rudolph."
"Don't worry. I'm sure the tablecloths will make a good impression." Katie stated.
The potion was working.
"Thomas you're a genius." Hylla stated, pulling her robe out of the potion.
"Took you long enough to realize that." Thomas joked.
Kyana watched cryptically as the entire house of Ravenclaws entered breakfast, still in the great hall despite the ice, with their robes snowing.
Or at least that's what it looked like. Each robe had a trail of something silver floated from its end. It was quite the effect.
That plus the enchanted golden tablecloths, plus Kyana's scheme, meant that the Gryffindors were falling behind. How odd.
The tablecloths had enchanted bells sewn all over, which were playing soft Christmas music. It was actually very cool, but it no doubt put Hufflepuff up a lot in the rankings, more than the enchanted bells in the corridors did.
"Mail time." Nia muttered, bringing Kyana out of her scheming.
The owls for Hufflepuff jingled like bells, Ravenclaw's snowed, and Gryffindor's owls all had Rudolph noses.
Slytherin's mail came in an army of small elves. Kyana couldn't help but smirk as the great hall focused on the tiny army of marching elves.
Nia and Sean high fived.
"These. Are. So. Cool." Dylan stared, watching the tiny dragon twirl around his fingers.
"These aren't really Christmasy though." Katie said.
"They're dragons, Katie," Jack defended. "How can you not like them?"
"Maybe we should see if Hagrid would let us cover his hut with these." Mary suggested.
"We'll be the first house to decorate a teacher's office." Dylan added.
Except that Kyana was already decorating Professor's Sprout's office with Christmas herbs.
The Slytherin head of house, Professor Starn, was judging the competition and therefore wasn't letting any students decorate his office or the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall was also being impartial, according to some of the complaints Callie had been voicing with her band of Griffindors. So Kyana had decided that since most plants were green, and that was Slytherin's color, they should do Professor Sprout's office.
She had been resistant at first, no doubt hoping that her house, Hufflepuff, would decorate her office, but Kyana was very convincing and Sean, her third-in-command, was Professor Sprout's best student in terms of grades.
So Slytherin had the rights to Professor Sprout's office.
"Thank you Professor Johnson." Hylla stated.
"Thank you for doing this for me." Professor Johnson replied.
Hylla handed out the instructions to each participating Ravenclaw, excited to take on such a big project. Ever since Hufflepuff and Slytherin had decorated offices two days ago, and rumors sprung about what the Griffindor's were doing, Hylla had been planning this. And she was excited to see it realized.
Allie already hated potions.
She loved casting spells, and the classes that didn't involve wand waving bored her to death. Plus Professor Johnson, while not a strict teacher during class, graded strict.
So now, looking around at what was no doubt Hylla's and Thomas's handiwork, she wanted to be anyplace but this beautiful, well crafted, breathtaking winter wonderland.
If only Callie would listen to her plan.
"No, Ms. Constel, I will not let Griffindor decorate my office. How many times must I tell you that?"
Kyana was definitely not eavesdropping, by the way. She was gathering information.
"But Professor McGonagall."
"Unless you can come to me with a fully fledged plan, you will not decorate my office. Now would you please stop making me repeat myself so much?"
Jack really hoped Kyana could feel his glare.
As a person who was usually nice and friendly, he had little experience in glaring, or being mad in general.
But decorating another house's head's office? That was just mean.
"Are you sure this isn't going to get us in trouble?" Allie asked Callie, who was sealing the howlers.
"Of course not. I have Professor Fire's permission."
"Still."
"If you don't want to win, then don't participate."
"I do, it's just.."
"It's just what? Too scared?"
"No, it just feels rather rude. I mean, howlers? Really?"
"Really."
"Really?" Hylla asked, covering her ears. "Howlers?"
"They're not even on time." Evelyn complained.
With a wave of Professor's McGonagall's wand, the awful choir shut up.
And did the professor look mad.
"Yes, Ms. Williamson?" Professor McGonagall asked.
Through lots of hard work, Kyana had successfully managed a fully fledged plan for the headmistress' office. Now she just needed approval.
"Professor, I was hoping that me and my friends would be allowed to decorate your office."
"And what exactly do you wish to do to my office?"
"This." And confidently Kyana handed a folder of blueprints to Professor McGonagall.
"I will look this over." Was her curt response.
Slytherin had taken their head of house too. And Allie was mad.
It was very simple decorations - Professor Fire liked simple. Two small trees were in the front two corners of the room. Small bushels of that leafy Christmas plant were planted in various areas of the room. The desks all had green tablecloths, and Professor Fire wrote on the chalk board with green chalk. But it was still a steal
Allia spent the entire time glaring at one of the trees.
Jack carefully watched as Dylan climbed the ladder.
There was a good chance he was going to fall, but Jack had his wand out and a levitation spell on his lips.
If only Professor Hopewell's room didn't have such a big ceiling.
"Do you guys need help?" Someone asked from the doorway.
"Yes please." Dylan muttered from the top of the ladder.
Jack turned around to see Allie, the Griffindor quidditch Captain, standing in the doorway.
"Why aren't you using magic?" Allie asked.
"I, uh, can't get the spell up that far." It was a big ceiling, in Jack's defense, and Professor Hopewell probably had a few enchantments placed so that wild spells didn't destroy the walls.
"Let me try."
Jack help Dylan from the ladder and handed the decorations to Allie.
She carefully laid the decorations out around her, in a pattern that would look good on the walls. Then she stood up and, without saying a word, gracefully flicked her wand. The decorations slowly but surely rose up and found their positions on the wall.
"Wow." Dylan commented.
"That's impressive." Jack agreed. Allie blushed.
"There are some spell repellant charms up there, but they're not that strong."
"Well, thanks."
"Not a problem."
Kyana was not clumsy. She did not do stupid things like tripping up a flight of stairs and injury her wrist.
So, if any asks, she injured her wrist while practice dueling with Sean.
Still, she had specific instructions for no spell casting for the rest of the month. Which meant that she was leaning against the wall bored while the rest of her house decorated the muggle studies room.
Professor McGonagall hadn't answered yet about decorated her office, but the new muggle studies teacher - Professor Smith - had been more than happy to let his favorite students in.
You see, since Slytherin had the biggest amount of non-muggle borns - plus a bad legacy when dealing with muggles and a driving desire not to let that hang over them the rest of their lives - they had the biggest amount of students in muggle studies.
Anyways, Nia was leading the decorations, and Kyana was forced to do nothing but watch.
She was so bored.
If Allie had to choose a favorite thing about ice rink, it was making the quidditch team do laps around it when it was too cold to run outside.
But watching the teachers have to skate to breakfast everyday was a close second.
Bedsides, Callie finally let her plan something for today, and Allie was excited to see it carried out.
Professor Starn skated in, a completely serious look on his face. How he did that, Allie didn't know. Professor Johnson followed, doing a couple of impressive tricks and getting oohs and aahs out of younger students.
The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw owls flew in with the Slytherin elves. Allie sat up straighter in her seat.
It was time.
The start of the march from Nutcracker played, and the entire great hall silenced. Then a formation of giant nutcrackers marched in, with Gryffindor's owls sitting proudly and smugly on their arms.
Allie looked up at the head table. All of the professors looked impressed.
"It's freezing cold, Jack. Why are we doing this?" Kaitlyn complained, as she jogged next to Jack.
"We still need to stay in shape." Jack replied. "Just because Knapp's got the quidditch field booked until January doesn't mean we still can't stay fit. Besides, it's just one lap."
"It's a long lap." Kaitlyn complained.
Jack looked over his shoulder to make sure the rest of the team was still jogging and none of them looked like they were going to fall over.
"Besides, I need to clear my head."
"Then jog on your own. What's bugging you anyways?"
"Rumor has it that Slytherin has Professor McGonagall's office."
"I don't think that's true."
"We're running out of places to claim."
"Does it matter that much?"
"Yes! Slytherin and Gryffindor have won pretty much everything for the past couple of decades."
"Maybe that's because the rest of us have more important things to do. Besides, under Callie Gryffindor's not going to win anything."
"Oh come on! It's a good design!" Hylla stated.
"Yes it is." Professor McGonagall admitted. She looked very Christmas-y in her emerald robes, despite her office not being decorated yet. "And I will consider it."
"I have a plan." Allie whispered as she (illegally) sat down at the Hufflepuff table. "McGonagall's said no to pretty much everyone, right? So what if a couple of houses teamed up for her office? It might not get us any points in the competition, but it will keep the others from doing that too."
"That could be interesting."
"I'll talk to Henrison-"
"Wait why do I have to talk to Williamson? Henrison is a seeker, we might have more in common."
"Fine. I'll see if I can talk to Williamson. Meet me in the library tonight after dinner."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Anything to keep Ravenclaw from getting it." Williamson answered.
"Oh. Great." That had been way easier than Allie had expected.
"Are you sure Taveras isn't going to try to take credit?" Sean asked.
"And if she does? It's not like Gryffindor has a fighting chance anymore. Ravenclaw is our biggest threat, and if teaming up with them keeps them from getting the Headmistress's office, then so be it." Kyana explained.
Despite Kyana's creative strategies for grabbing offices and classroooms, Ravenclaw had dominated corridors, halls, and the entire exterior of the castle with their ice decorations and silver sparkles. So keeping them from taking another territory was beneficial.
Ice hockey was both amazing and incredibly stupid, Allie decided.
It gave the team something different to warm up with, but it also meant Allie was walking Portia, the youngest member of the team, to the hospital wing after Benny "accidentally" hit her in the eye with his stick.
Portia, was of course, sobbing uncontrollably. She would have to have a talk with Benny later.
Even with the sobbing second year, Allie decided she was going to miss the ice rink when it disappeared.
"I'm impressed." Professor McGonagall said, looking over the plans. "And I would love it for the four of you to decorate my office like this."
And she was quite glad some of the students had teamed up, though it had definitely longer than she would have thought. Both Hylla and Kyana were highly perceptive when it came to Professors encouraging their students down a certain path, plus Allie and Jack teamed up a lot on their own
"How about this Saturday?" She suggested. The students nodded.
They exchanged polite goodbyes, and the four students left to go back to classes.
Right before she reached the door, Kyana paused.
"Yes, Ms. Williamson?"
"Just to be absolutely clear, professor," Kyana started. "This was what you were trying to get us to do, right? Work together."
"What do you mean? I just wanted a little more color in my office."
It was the last day before winter break, and the results were in.
The entire Great Hall was on edge, waiting for the winning house to be announced.
Professor Starn stood up and stiffly skated towards the podium, not even needing to wait for the students to be quiet before speaking.
"Now, before we announce the results, I'd just like to remind you that your all winners, blah blah blah, and you were all great amusement for us teachers. In fourth place, receiving a generous pat on the back, is Gryffindor." A small pattering of claps echoed through the Great Hall. "In third place, winning a hundred points, is Hufflepuff." The claps were louder. "And the glorious runner up is Slytherin - winning a prize of two hundred points." The claps were thunderous. "And, of course, the winner of the three hundred points is... drumroll please." A very confused drumroll sounded. There was only one house it could be, so why all the theatrics? "Professor Johnson! Congratulations!"
Professor Johnson stood up at the head table, skated to the front, and did a seriously cool jump. Starn handed him the medal, he held it up, and with some prompting, the Great Hall roared in applause.
(The points ended up in a makeshift Professor Johnson hourglass for quite a while. It was March before Ravenclaw actually received the points).
"Shake. Off. Already." Evelyn stated, smacking her school robes against her wall in an attempt to get the potion off the end of her robes.
Thomas was a skilled potion maker, so she shouldn't be surprised that the potion still hadn't worn out yet. But she didn't want to go back to Hogwarts with snowing robes either.
"Evelyn, what are you doing? Those robes are expensive." Her mom scolded.
"The. Potion. Is. Still. On. Here." Evelyn replied.
It would be April before the Ravenclaw robes stopped sparkling.