Being home for the holidays was never so difficult. Professor Umbridge had been interrogating students for the last several weeks, and a lot of kids had gotten into trouble because of it. But she wasn't just looking for typical troublemakers. She was after information on the rumored spell-teaching club, and thanks to Professor Snape's veritaserum, she got it. Now that she wasn't able to be distracted by schoolwork, the informer couldn't avoid her feelings of guilt.

Cho never wanted to tell Umbridge anything at all. She was just going to play innocent and act like she didn't know anything about the goings-on of the other students, but one sip of that toadlike woman's sugary tea, and that plan jumped right off the astronomy tower. Without any force at all, Umbridge made her spill everything about Dumbledore's Army, and the gig was up. Now, she knew that the wicked woman and her Inquisitorial Squad were going to raid the Room of Requirement when school started up again, every member of Dumbledore's Army would be punished, and it would be all her fault.

So there she sat, alone in her room on Christmas. Her family was downstairs laughing, talking, and sharing holiday cheer. Cho, on the other hand, was too guilt-ridden to join in. She sat, curled up on her bed, holding the enchanted coin that all members of the Army had, thinking to herself, 'They should never have let me join. I've betrayed them all!'

A soft hoot outside her window brought Cho's attention to the small tawny owl perched on the sill. As owls typically did in the wizarding world, it carried a note tied to its leg. She got up, let it in, then untied the purplish parchment before the owl took off again. Cho quickly shut the window, shivering from the chilly air that had blown in. She sat back down to read the letter, recognizing the handwriting as Luna's.

25 December

Happy holidays, Cho! I hope you're having a lovely Christmas! Or had, depending on if you get this today or tomorrow. Dad and I opened presents this morning, but we didn't have very many, which is fine. He gave me a new charm to go with my nargle one. This one is supposed to keep away thumbils though, not nargles. Thumbils like to sit in your gloves and nibble your thumbs. And speaking of nargles, thanks so much for helping me find my shoes that the nargles stole before we went home. My feet would have been quite cold without them, with it being winter and all.

I can't wait to go back to school and get back to DA meetings! It's been so much fun making more friends there and learning spells. Harry's really good at teaching. Maybe he should be a professor at Hogwarts when we're all older. Wouldn't he be good at that? Everyone's gotten a lot better at casting spells than we were before. I heard that we're going to be learning to cast patronus charms next time. That's pretty advanced magic! I'm really looking forward to trying it, aren't you? I wonder what mine will look like?

When we get back to school, let's tell each other all about our holiday. My family is pretty small, so there won't be much in the way of familial shenanigans, but your family is bigger, so there's bound to be some funny stories! See you at school!

Your friend,

Luna

P.S. Thanks again for helping me find my shoes.

At some point while reading her friend's letter, Cho started crying. If you asked, she wouldn't be able to tell you exactly when or which sentence started the waterworks, but she knew why she was crying. Luna was so sweet and kind to everyone, including her, even though she'd given up Luna and everyone else in their group, though nobody knew about that yet. Cho's sweet, kind friend was going to get punished for wanting to properly learn spells because of her, and she would probably hate her forever because of it. "What have I done?"

"Cho, we're going to start opening presents!" Cho's mother called from downstairs, "Come on down sweetheart!"

"Coming Mum!" Cho wiped her tears away and pulled herself together before heading down. She put on her best fake smile for her relatives and laughed as well as she could at their corny jokes while her mother handed out everyone's gifts. Most of them were pretty typical. Knitted sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves and the like. Candies and sweets. The type of thing that you'd expect at Christmas. Everyone was talking and thanking each other for the presents, fiddling with their new things, thinking that they were done.

Cho's cousin bent down to look under the tree and noticed one last, tiny parcel under the branches. "Hey, there's still one more." He snatched it and flipped it this way and that, looking for a label. "It's for you, Cho."

"Really?" Cho took the present and looked it over. The bright pink-and-green paisley wrapping paper and the sparkly yellow ribbon tied around it, both clumsily done, made her think of only one person. Sure enough, when she read the label, it read in big swirly letters "From Luna." She unwrapped the tiny box carefully, unsure of what was in it. When she opened the lid, she couldn't help but smile. "Definitely from Luna."

"What did your friend send you, dear?" her mother asked curiously. Cho held up the little cork pendant with tears glittering in her eyes. "A cork necklace? How cute."

"Not a necklace, Mum," she corrected, "It's a charm, actually. It keeps away the nargles."

Author's Note: The optional prompts used for this round are: Prompt 2 (the word "force"), Prompt 12 (Christmas time), Prompt 15 (the word "holding")