In the following days, Donna had a bit of a dilemma. Christmas hols were coming up, and she needed to decide whether to stay at the castle or not.

On the one hand, she'd quite like to see Jack again. On the other, all the others in their little group of friends were going home (or on holiday, as the case may be) except for Harry. She didn't really want to leave the boy who was rapidly becoming one of her best friends – not counting the Doctor, but the Doctor wasn't here and Harry was.

Eventually she decided to stay. Sure, Christmas was a time for family, and she did consider Jack her big brother since he helped her out, but Harry needed her more. Maybe next year she could convince Jack to invite him, that way she'd have the best of both worlds.

Harry looked happy at the prospect when she told him. "This is going to be the best Christmas ever!"

For a while it had looked as though Ron would be staying too, something about his parents and little sister going to visit his brother Charlie in Romania. That was family-minded of them. They had four sons living away from home for ten months out of twelve and they pick the weeks that they could come home to go abroad? In the end though, they decided to go after the new year, and so the Weasley brothers likewise went home.

Donna managed to convince Harry to spend some time at the start of the holiday to work through their assignments. Once done, they had the rest of the holiday to look forward to, without the work looming over their heads. They didn't even have to spend time in the library looking for Nicholas Flamel, since Jack had told them who he was. Of course she'd immediately shared the information with her friends.

They spent hours outside, pelting each other with snowballs or making the biggest snowman they could. They even looked up charms to help them in their task. Wingardium Leviosa was helpful enough to stack their snowballs on top of each other, but it didn't do much to help gather the snow together or tamp it down for example.

Donna didn't care that her mental age was supposed to be in the geriatric range, you were never too old to play in the snow. And such good snow it was too, it had been years since she'd seen snow like this. Decades!

After they were done, a fourth-year with an old-timey looking camera offered to take their picture. The following day, he gave them two pictures each. One was of the two of them in front of the monstrosity they'd created. They were waving at the viewer, or giving a thumbs-up. Sometimes they laughed while looking up at their creation, or they high-fived each other.

It was fascinating, really, this wizarding photography. It didn't show one particular moment, the way she was used to, but rather it captured the general atmosphere at the time the picture was taken. The Harry and Donna in the picture didn't act out exactly what they'd really been doing, but all the gestures and laughing and waving were very much in the spirit of the moment.

The second picture had been taken a bit earlier. She'd never even noticed it being taken. The two of them were lobbing snowballs at each other, sometimes by hand, other times taking out their wands and using magic. In this picture, they didn't look up and wave at the viewer, or give any indication that they even knew there was a viewer. Maybe the picture-people only did that if the real people knew the picture was being taken.

Donna smiled happily at the boy. "Thanks, love. We'll treasure these."

When they weren't outside in the snow (or in the common room, warming up from being outside), they went exploring the castle, as well as visiting Fluffy, who was by now so used to them that he didn't even growl at them anymore, except to demand petting and food. Donna had taken to going to the kitchens beforehand and begging some choice morsels from the house-elves, so that she'd have something to give him, since her requests to Hagrid to let him out once in a while didn't seem to get anywhere.

In the evenings they tried a few wizarding games. They were abysmal at them, but they had loads of fun regardless, frequently lying helpless with laughter.

Christmas morning Donna bounced into Harry's room, arms loaded with the gifts she'd found at the foot of her bed. She knew boys couldn't get into the girls' rooms, but the other way was no problem. Talk about double standards, but she wasn't complaining right now.

All of their dormmates had gone home for the holidays, and she didn't want to open her presents alone. She happily dumped her load on the bed next to Harry's, and turned to the still sleeping boy.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead! It's Christmas!"

Harry rolled from his side to his back before prying open his eyes and blinking owlishly up at her. "Donna?" he asked in a sleepy voice, "what are you doing in my room?"

She laughed and handed him his glasses. "Opening presents, of course. Where's the fun in opening them all by my lonesome? Much more fun to share!"

Harry sat up and put his glasses on. "Presents? I..." just then, he noticed the pile at the foot of his bed. "I got presents! Donna, look, actual presents!"

Donna laughed, even as her heart broke a little for her friend. He was genuinely surprised, she was sure he had not been expecting anything. "Well go on then, what are you waiting for? Have at 'em!"

They quickly demolished their respective piles, with Donna just a bit less careful with the wrapping paper. There were gifts from her closest friends, of course, but her dormmates had also given a small token, and Jack and Archie had sent their gifts as well. Donna wondered for a moment if Jack would get to open her present today, or if the Rift would act up. She'd got him a selection of wizarding sweets, since she knew how much of a sweet tooth he had, and she was sure he'd enjoy discovering all the sweets he hadn't known existed.

She was done unwrapping by the time Harry slowly reached the end, as he was savouring each one. Or, well, every one except the coin he received from the Dursleys. Donna rolled her eyes when he showed her the 50p. "Nice. Why go through all the bother of sending something like that?"

Finally he came to the last package, which was wrapped in plain brown paper.

"It doesn't say who this is from," Harry said.

"Secret admirer?" Donna joked while poking at it. Felt like some type of clothing, or something fabric-y anyway.

Harry shrugged and opened the package. Something grey and sort of shiny came slithering out. Harry picked it up and held it aloft.

"Looks like some sort of cloak, just not a terribly warm one," Donna said. "Try it on, see how it looks on you."

Harry complied, and Donna felt her jaw drop. "That is wicked!"

"What? What is it?"

"Look in the mirror!"

Harry dashed over, and his expression mirrored hers. "I'm invisible!" He drew the cloak over his head and completely disappeared. Donna approached the place he'd been standing and waved her arm in front of her.

"Well, you're still solid, at least," she reported when her arm connected with some part of his body. "Brilliant though, I don't think the Doctor ever had access to actual invisibility. I mean, he had his perception filters, but they don't work too well if you draw attention to yourself. And a bio-damper only blocks certain types of technology, but they don't make you physically invisible."

While Harry took off the cloak, Donna noticed a bit of parchment on the floor. She picked it up and read the inscription on it. She snorted when she gave it to Harry.

"This belonged to your father, use it well? Really? Way to be mysterious. Unsigned and everything. Hey, you should keep that letter in your bedside table, you might get a clue about your mysterious benefactor if you get anything with the same handwriting."

Once Harry had done so, they went down to the Christmas Feast together. And a feast it was! The tables groaned under more food than the handful of staying students could ever hope to eat. She hoped the leftovers wouldn't have to be thrown out. Then again, they had magic. Surely whatever was left could be preserved without it going bad within a day or two. If that was the case, they'd be eating turkey for a good long while.

The rest of the day was spent equally enjoyably, and before she knew it, Christmas Day was over.