"Only two days until Christmas break", Levy said happily. "The Master is letting all the Fairy Tail kids stay here. There'll be others around, too, but it'll be our whole family back together. I'm so excited."

"Aren't you going home to see your father?" Gray asked Lucy.

"He's busy," she said, and didn't say anything more. Levy and Gray exchanged quick looks, and decided to drop the subject.

Flare Corona was talking loudly with her group of friends, looking over in the direction of the three Fairy Tailers. They laughed. They were too far away for Levy, Lucy, or Gray to hear what they were saying, but it was surely something insulting. Some Ravenclaws could be competitive or rude, but Flare was flat-out malicious.

Out of the corner of her eye, Levy noticed a ladder descend from the ceiling. No, not from the ceiling, but from a point in space about ten feet below it. All eyes quickly turned to it.

A man in dark robes came down the ladder. He looked around, then shouted "up, up!" The ladder retracted.

"Tempisempris!" shouted Headmistress McGonagall with a wave of her wand, and the ladder stopped. Master Makarov reached up and grabbed the ladder at its base. Levy was one of the few people in the room who had seen Makarov's power before. He could extend a limb or grow his entire body, even beyond the size of a giant. Just now, he had reached halfway down the length of the Great Hall and nearly to its ceiling. Using pure force, he wrenched the ladder downward, three Death Eaters coming with it.

The Death Eaters had their wands out, and started casting explosive volleys. The other professors responded immediately, then students as well. Hundreds of wands firing destructive spells, most of them missing their targets. The Death Eaters weren't killed in midair, but they were in freefall, and had no time to decelerate. Two landed hard on the stone floor, and one crashed into a platter of chicken on the Gryffindor table.

Makarov quickly removed the lone survivor from the hall, while muttering about the setback in repairs.

/

Christmas was fun for Levy and the others. She got caught up on their lives since they'd made the move to Hogwarts. The biggest change for all of them was the more rigorous academic style. Levy had thrived on it, but some of the others had not fared so well. Happy's experience as a Hogwarts student was written off as a failed experiment; he was allowed to stay on with Natsu as part of Makarov's original agreement.

Cana was thrilled to have a proper Divination instructor. She had no confidence in Professor Trelawney's abilities, but enjoyed the coursework. Lisanna and Elfman, meanwhile, had become enthralled with Professor Hagrid. Hagrid was, as Elfman pointed out, a man – a big, strong, gentle man and knowledgeable wizard, and thus a good role model for Elfman. As future animagi, the brother and sister were eager to learn everything they could about animals, and Hagrid was an enthusiastic teacher, even after hours.

Lucy tried her best to enjoy herself with the guild, but Levy could tell that she still felt like an outsider. Natsu went out of his way to bring her into the group activities, and Happy was always there to provide her with helpful dieting advice.