Frodo sat in the library, his mind focused on drawing a pinecone flower. There wasn't much else he wanted to do, except be closer to the aisle and a distance away from the window. Snow was starting to stick outside, a good sign that winter was on its way. As he drew his picture, a stack of books landed in front of him, jolting him out of his concentration and back to reality.

"Frodo," Hermione said. "I thought you were studying."

"Hermione. Um…" Frodo recovered fast. "I was taking a break." He admitted, as Hermione sat down. "You and Aria. You're so busy lately."

"What's wrong with that?" Hermione asked, almost appalled. "I'm doing fine. Why is that so important to you? You're just as smart as me." She added, "I nearly thought you'd be taking more classes, too."

Frodo looked up at her. "I'm trying to keep a reasonable schedule. That's all."

"Well, good luck with your drawing," Hermione said, grabbing her books and moving to another seat, across the way. Frodo shook his head. Hopefully, Hermione and Aria knew what they were doing… no! Juice splattered on his drawing. He had everything just right… only to look up and see Neville Longbottom towering over him.

"Oh, I'm sorry Frodo," Neville said, attempting to clean up the mess with his wand.

Frodo groaned. Well, the paper was neat, but then again his breeches weren't. How was he to get the juice off his breeches? And he didn't think about clothes that much, but this was ridiculous. Oh wait. He had hand magic. What was he doing? With a wave of his hand, his breeches were dry. No juice stains.

"Wow," Neville said, impressed. "How did you do that?"

"Simple trick." Frodo shrugged. "I'm getting the hang of it."

"I'm terribly sorry about your drawing, Frodo," Neville told him. "It's a bit damp."

"Hm. You're right." Frodo waved his hand over the paper, the table, the books and the floor. They were clean and shiny. "It's useful. Nicely handled."

"Mr. Baggins." It was Madam Pince. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I'm sorry. Was I not supposed to do that?" Frodo asked. "I cleaned it up." He waved his hand over the smooth surface and pencil. "See? All clean."

"I'll give you a warning," Pince said. "Seeing as you're a frequent visitor."

"Thank you, Madam Pince. I'll do my best to be more careful," Frodo said.

"I'm sure you will," Pince said, wandering off.

"Um… I'll see you later, Frodo," Neville said, taking off.

"Yes. See you later," Frodo said, his focused returning to his flower drawing. It was pretty much done. A nice gift for a delightful girl. But who would he give it to? Hm… he knew just the person. Standing up, Frodo approached Hermione. He handed it to her on the spot. "Here you go. It's for you."

"For me?" Hermione was astonished. "You put a lot of work into this drawing. I'm impressed. Thank you, Frodo."

"You're welcome," Frodo said. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," Hermione said, as Frodo darted out of the library. Frodo sighed in relief. Good. It was good. He did something right, next to all this trouble. Now what could he do? Oh, where was Fred and George? And Merry and Pippin? Maybe, if he were lucky, he could try helping them with a prank…

And he did, nearly being caught by Filch. But it was certainly fun hanging around those weasels, pun intended. Yes, it was a great late November day at Hogwarts.

o-o-o

Frodo awoke a little after sunrise. He just had a pleasant dream about snow, cold and a golden dog. Okay, maybe the dream was a little chilly, but at least the month of December hadn't been. He managed to finish his homework before the term ended and the holidays began. What made Hogsmeade exciting was seeing Harry had managed to enter the village… well, Harry still had to return to the castle unseen. Hermione was beside herself, but Ron wasn't, thinking the Marauder's Map Harry received from Fred and George was the greatest gift he'd ever seen, that the twins didn't give to him.

But that wasn't what was important. Now that it was the holidays, the evening before had only had a few students, plus the staff, in the Great Hall, sitting at one long table. It was a marvelous feast, which in turn partially explained the dream he had this morning.

"Frodo," Aria called. Frodo moved to a sitting position. Wait. Aria was in his room? How? "Girls are allowed to come into boys' dormitories, Frodo."

"So I can see. But boys aren't allowed in girls' dormitories?" Frodo asked her.

"It would be inappropriate. Didn't we learn about this last year?" Aria said.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her further.

"It's Christmas morning. Don't you want to come down for presents?" Aria asked him.

"That's right. Um… let's go," Frodo said, getting out of bed and putting on a fluffy red robe. It didn't take him long to climb down the stairs, into the common room… only to come face to face with Professor Flitwick, who had one of his presents on hand. "Professor, what are you…"

"This present arrived a month ago. It's from Everhart Boffin," Flitwick said. "There's a card on the package. We checked it and rechecked it for jinxes, but we found none. We had to be cautious, what with everything going on."

"Everhart Boffin hasn't been to Azkaban," Frodo started but Aria finished for him,

"Has he?"

"No. He hasn't. He's been given loads of warnings about trespassing," Flitwick said. "Anyway, the present's for you, Frodo. Enjoy." He wandered out of the common room. Frodo couldn't believe this. He was getting a present from Everhart Boffin. It wasn't dangerous, was it?

"Go on, Frodo. Open it," Aria said.

"Where's everyone else?" Frodo asked, as if wondering if anyone else was coming down.

"It's just us." Aria answered. "The rest of the Ravenclaws went home for Christmas. I decided to stay here, see if you needed the company and…" She murmured aloud, enough for Frodo to hear. "I just thought you might need a friend, given what's going on."

"Thank you," Frodo said, diving into the grey wrapped present. Pulling the grey wrappings off the present, he opened the box, revealing twin gold scales. He was confused until he read the card, "Dear Frodo, I'm passing this gift to you in an effort that I don't deliver it myself. My actions are my own, but there is someone at the castle that is out to get you. And it isn't me. Just what I'm hunting. Let's hope we don't run into another conundrum. Everhart Boffin."

"Well, that's a cryptic message," Aria said. "There's no instruction on how the gold scales work. What they're about?"

"P.S. Use the gold scales wisely. Put one in the boys' dormitory and the second in the girls' dormitory. I want a good lookout for anything dangerous." Frodo returned his gaze to Aria. "I guess we know what they're about." He passed one of the gold scales to Aria. "For you."

"Thank you. I'll put it up straightaway, but… how can we trust these? What's Everhart looking for?" Aria asked.

"I don't know," Frodo said, unsure himself about the gift.

"You'll find out," Flitwick said, near the common room door. "Just be careful. I'm not sure if we can trust Everhart's actions, but… let's see what happens."

"Yes professor," Frodo said, moving the box aside.

"Lunch will be ready in half an hour. You'd best hurry," Flitwick said, departing from the common room.

Frodo wasted no time. As soon as he could, he set the gold scale on top of his dresser. The scale stuck to the dresser, unable to move. He sat down on his bed, watching the gold scales as they spun around violently. Whatever the gold scales were tracking, from the way they spun around it was as though something evil was already afoot. Unsure what else to do, Frodo left his dormitory, where he met up with Aria.

"Merry Christmas Frodo," Aria said, on their way out of the common room.

"Happy Christmas," Frodo said, helping Aria with the door.

"Oh thank you, Frodo," she said, heading out.

"You're welcome," he added. It was a peaceful moment, and yet, what was the school do now that Everhart Boffin was on the loose? The school wouldn't just let Everhart Boffin go. Did they? It was hard to say, but it seemed like Dumbledore knew what he was doing, or so Frodo hoped was true.