In the morning of Christmas day, Cedric comes to her room to wake her up. He opens the door loudly, and exclaims, "Good morning! Come on, up!"
Bellatrix groans softly and mumbles incoherently, forcing her eyelids to stay closed. When Cedric sees she is not waking up, he pulls off her blankets. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty. It is time to wake up." he shouts again, even more louder than before. Bellatrix turns her face to him, her eyes opening about an inch and asks what time it is. When Cedric answers it is 8 am, Bellatrix groans aloud this time and puts her head under her pillow. "Go away! It is too early to wake up."
Cedric chuckles and takes the pillow from her hands. "But it is the Christmas morning, and we are going to exchange presents now, before the breakfast." he says and shakes her awake. Bellatrix opens her eyes fully this time, and when her vision fills with the sunlight she groans again and immediately closes them again.
"Fine, fine. I am up." she mutters and stretches. Her stretching resembles so much a cat that Cedric cannot help but grin at the sight. "You can go away now. I am coming down in a few minutes." she says, still lying on the bed and not making any move to get up.
"Fine, but if you are not down in ten minutes, I am going to drag you down by your hair."
Bellatrix smiles sleepily and nods.
.
Eight minutes later, fully clothed and clean, Bellatrix makes her way downstairs. Cedric and his parents are sitting near the colorfully decorated christmas tree, and under the tree there is a pile of presents.
When Cedric sees her coming down, he smiles widely and yells, "Finally!"
Bellatrix smiles at him at first, then turns to face his parents. "Good morning, Mr. Diggory, Mrs. Diggory."
Cedric, looking very much like a five year old, almost bounces up and down where he sits. He takes a present from the pile and places it to her hands. "Open mine first."
Bellatrix looks down at the present in her hands and chuckles. It is wrapped in yellow and black paper. "I wonder what it is this year. A book, perhaps?" she looks up and smirks at him. Cedric smiles back at her sheepishly.
She slowly and carefully unwraps the gift.
"Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath" she reads. "That is a.. nice name, I suppose."
"Oh, I remember reading that when I was a teen." Mrs Diggory remarks, "It was a lovely read."
Bellatrix nods and without saying anything in return, she reaches to take her gift for Cedric. She holds out it for him—wrapped in red and gold. He laughs, seeing the colours and she winks at him.
When he unwraps it, it reveals a book too. Cedric stares at the book in his hands for a few seconds, then looks at her, grinning. "A book? Didn't know you were the type to—" he stops abruptly when he sees the title of the book.
"It is the first edition, from the Black library. Apparently one of my ancestors was very interested in transfiguration." she says, staring intently at Cedric's face to see his reaction to her gift. The book is something Cedric had been wanted to read for months, and it is hard to find the book, even the Hogwarts library does not have it.
"First edition?!" Cedric manages to say after a few long seconds. "I.. I can't have this— this must have cost a fortune."
"A fortune? Were you even listening to me, I told you it was from the Black library. The only thing it cost me was a few knuts for the owl post, and the glares I will probably recieive from mother this summer because of bothering her. Now do shup up and take the book without a complaint." She catches Mrs. Diggory's eyes and she winks at Bellatrix.
Cedric smiles hesitantly and nods and she grins at him.
Cedric's parents gives her a scarf and gloves, and in return she hands out them a thank you for having me gift—thank you for having me in your home when my deranged mass murderer uncle is out there probably planning how to murder the young saviour of our world while chopping little kitten's heads off and maybe killing some rats gift—a bouqet of daffodils and lavenders and hyacinths that has a charm that prevents them from withering. She manages to win Mary Diggory's heart just by those flowers, it seems.
.
When they finish, Mrs. Diggory goes to make a breakfast, and about a minute later Mr. Diggory also joins her. Right after they leave, a brown, little owl flies inside and drops a package in her lap. She stares at it bewildered, trying to find out what it was, everyone who would send her a christmas gift had already sent her one.
The package is wrapped clumsily in old newspapers, and looks like it had been done in a hurry. She only spends a few seconds to unwrap it and when she does, it reveals three black notebooks, and a piece of paper—a note for her.
dear bellatrix,
your father sent me these before he died, to hand them over to you once you were older. i still have no idea why he chose me to do it. perhaps because he thought your mother or grandmother would not.
i am sorry it took me this long to do, i hope you will like them.
-s.o.b.
She frozes when she reads the signature, because she knows who it is from and she knows she should not accept gifts from an escaped convict but these are from her father and her father wanted her to have these—they were his once, and—and she would be damned before she gives them to someone else before she examines them thorougly, properly.
She manages to choke out "They were my fathers." to Cedric. "I.." she cannot finish before she flees the room with the notebooks in her hand.
.
Once in the privacy of the guest room, she sits on the bed and places the notebooks side by side in front of her, she takes one of them and opens the first page. It is handwritten and she almost starts to cry at the sight of her fathers writing. It is soft and every letter is formed with care—it looks like her father spent hours writing just one page—the letters are curvy and long. She traces a sentence with her fingers, slowly.
There is a date on the first page, and it reads 18th November 1976. Once finished observing it at full length, she closes the notebook—a journal, they are his journals that he wrote in Hogwarts and after, his diaries, his thoughts, his sentences, his, his—and takes the other one. The date on the first page is 29th August 1971—two days before her father started Hogwarts. She lies down on the bed and starts to read it.