Author's Note: A Happy Easter to all my readers that celebrate it! And RIP to Richard Griffiths, who did an excellent job portraying Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films. You were a great actor and we shall miss you.
Severus woke up early on Christmas day, which happened to fall on a Saturday that year. Since he couldn't fall back asleep again and it was too early to really get up, he picked up The Hobbit, the current book that the Book Club was reading. He read for the next two hours, until half past seven, when he could no longer contain his excitement and stay in his room. He threw on his dressing gown over his pajamas, went to the bathroom and quickly brished his teeth, and then woke up his mother. Eileen yawned and got up, smiling at her son. "Happy Christmas, Sev." She donned a dressing gown over her nightgown and then the two went into the living room to open presents.
Severus opened the two presents from his mother first, and they turned out to be a brand new potions kit and a set of new clothes. "Thanks, Mum!" he exclaimed, getting up and hugging her tightly. He then opened Lily's present, which was a box of chocolates and a crystal potions stirrer. He then unwrapped the identical package that Claire had given everyone in the Phoenix Club, which turned out to be a thin journal with emerald green covers and his name engraved on the cover. A note fell out the journal and he read it to discover that Claire had gotten the Phoenix Club members, including herself, identical journals, except for the color, and had her parents enchant them so that they were all connected.
Severus flipped through the journal and saw that Claire had written down the name of a different person in the club in her neat calligraphy at the top of each right-hand page, except for the last page, which had "Phoenix Club" written at the top. He looked at the note again, which further explained that the journals were to be used as a method of communication between the group members when they were apart. For example, if he wanted to tell Amina something, all he had to do was write it down on the page labeled as hers. The writing would then disappear and appear in her journal, which would glow silver to notify her that she had a message. Once she read it, the writing would disappear. If he had something to tell the group as a whole, he simply had to write it down in the page labeled "Phoenix Club" and it would appear in all the journals, which would glow gold.
"Wow, Claire," murmured Severus, impressed by the gift. It would certainly make it easier and faster to correspond with each other during the holidays, since, for example, if Marshall, who lived in the United States, sent a letter to Kurt, who lived in Germany, the owl would take several days to reach him.
Severus then opened his final two gifts, which were from the Phoenix Club. One contained a small box of various sweets, and the other was a quill pen and a thick blank book with moss green covers, clearly meant for him to use as a commonplace book. The accompanying note, which was written by Fiona, said jokingly, "And now you no longer have to scribble down potions notes and alterations in the margins of your textbooks, Sev, since you can just use the commonplace book we gave you."
He grinned at that and then fetched a bottle of ink. Using the new quill, he inscribed "Property of Severus Prince" inside the front cover of the book, and then flipped to the Phoenix Club page of the journal and wrote down his thanks for the presents. He then flipped over to the page corresponding to Lily and thanked her for her present to him. He then gathered up the scattered pieces of wrapping paper and threw them out, while his mother started breakfast. When he was done, it didn't surprise him to find that all his friends currently in Windmere had written in their journals also, thanking the Club for their gifts and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Similar thanks followed from Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Fiona, Nicole, and Kurt.
After breakfast, the remainder of the group had written as well. Severus wrote back and then helped his mother make an apple pie, her contribution to the yearly Christmas dinner that was held in the Windmere Inn. It seemed that all the residents of Windmere (except the goblins at the bank, who preferred to keep to themselves) always gathered together for Christmas dinner, even the ones that technically didn't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons. The dinner was a potluck, with each person or household contributing some dish, and the family that ran the inn always contributed the Christmas turkeys and geese.
At noon, Severus and Eileen walked over to the Windmere Inn. Ms. Prince set the pie on the dessert table and went to help with the rest of the setting up. Claire spotted Severus and went over to him. "Merry Christmas, Sev! What did you and your mother bring?"
"An apple pie," he responded. "And Merry Christmas to you too, Claire. What about your family?"
"Mom and Dad made spring rolls, and Chris and I made thumbprint cookies. Those are cookies that have an indentation in the center that's made with your thumb and filled with jam or jelly. I used strawberry jam and Chris used grape jelly."
"How is your brother?" asked Severus.
"Other than the fact that he still wishes he was attending Nightwind School instead of primary school, he's fine." Claire rolled her eyes and continued, "Did I ever tell you that he wished we were twins right after I got my acceptance letter? He said that we might as well be, since our names start with the same letter. Then he asked if an exception could be made for him, but Dad told him that just because we were descended from the founders of the school didn't mean that the rule stating that students had to be at least eleven in order to attend could be bent just for him. And Dad's not the Headmaster, so he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it anyway."
Severus nodded, recalling reading that the Nightwinds had written in their will that there always had to be at least one of their descendants as a staff member of the school, but they didn't really want them to become the Head or Deputy Head. The last thing they had wanted was an entire line of Nightwinds or of their blood in charge of the school, knowing that inevitably there would be descendants who would be good at teaching but horrible at running a school. He opened his mouth to reply, but saw Marshall, Yun, his older sister, and their parents walk in just then. Mr. and Mrs. Huang were each carrying a covered soup tureen, Mei-Hua was carrying a platter of fish, and Yun and Marshall carried between them a basket that contained pieces of what looked to be some kind of Chinese pastry or cake. "Hey, Yun and Marshall just arrived."
The two set down their basket at the dessert table and having spotted Claire and Severus, made a beeline for them. "Merry Christmas, guys!" said Yun. "Ma brought a wonton soup and Ba brought a hot and sour soup. Mei-Hua has steamed fish, and Marshall and I have niangao. That's a kind of Chinese cake made from glutinous rice and traditionally eaten at New Year's, though you can eat at any time if you want. What about you guys?"
"Mum and I brought an apple pie, and Claire says that her family brought spring rolls and thumbprint cookies."
"Ooh, your mom's spring rolls are great, Claire!" exclaimed Marshall. "Even Mrs. Huang says that they're better than hers."
Claire smiled and then gestured over to the cloakroom located to one side of the common dining area. "You might want to hang up your coats, guys."
The three boys went to do so, and when they returned, Katya and Makena had arrived. Katya's parents had brought a plum pudding, while both sets of grandparents had brought four baskets of rolls.
At one o'clock, Mr. and Mrs. Prewett, a couple in their fifties, started carving the turkeys and geese and people started lining up for food. Severus filled a plate with some turkey, a piece of fish, a spring roll, a serving of mixed vegetables, some mashed potatoes and gravy, a small serving of green bean casserole, and a roll. He also got a small bowl of wonton soup and a bottle of butterbeer from the drinks table. He then went to one of the three private dining rooms, which had been set up as the eating area for those between the ages of seven and twelve. (Of the other two private rooms, one was for those thirteen and over, and the other was for those under seven, with some of the parents also there to keep an eye on things.) He found a seat between Marshall and Claire's brother Chris, grabbed a napkin and some utensils from the bins by the door, and started on the meal.
Severus got seconds, and for dessert, had a slice of his mother's apple pie, two thumbprint cookie with strawberry jam, some plum pudding, and a small piece of niangao. Dinner ended with wizard crackers, and Severus got a flowered hat, a chess set, some sweets, and a bag of prank items in the crackers he pulled. Since he didn't particularly care for prank items, not being the pranking sort, he traded them to Chris for a pack of Exploding Snap cards and Chocolate Frog, and gave the flowered hat to Claire, who in turn gave him a cardboard and tinsel crown.
After the meal, there were games and a snowball fight, and for a late tea everyone picked over the leftovers or made sandwiches out of the leftover turkeys and geese. When that ended, Mr. and Mrs. Prewett started cleaning up with the aid of their two house-elves plus three more lent by the school, and the other adults sorted out their dishes to take home. Severus put on his coat, bid his friends good-bye, and carrying the empty pie tin, followed his mother home to their flat.