Contra Veritas (Colored Grey) -
Challenge One: A fic
challenge on Secret Santas! A twist through 12 gifts to be given to their giftees, one each day before
Christmas; a game Dumbledore thought up to promote Inter-House Unity in D/Hr's
7th year.
The Secret Santas are under magical contract not to reveal themselves to the
other party, or suffer a short-term embarrassing consequence. Draco and
Hermione may or may not be each other's Secret Santa. Draco and Hermione may or
may not be already together. The staff may or may not participate in the Secret
Santa.
Someone should sing "Deck the Halls..."
Someone should say "Bah Humbug!"
A Hogwarts Ghost should mention 'Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol' either in
a quote or in reference.
Someone should break the magical contract and suffer the magical consequence.
There must be an unveiling of the Secret Santas at the Yule Ball.
"Oh shoot!" Hermione cursed half-heartedly, amongst the other 7th years as they were leaving the Great Hall just after dinner.
Every student had received a small enchanted piece of parchment, which listed the name of the student you had at the top, and twelve numbers going down the page, all of which had nothing written next to them.
"Who've you got?" Harry asked quietly. Ron leaned in too, wanting to hear who Hermione got in this whole Secret Santas business.
"I don't want to tell you! You boys will probably blab on to Paravati or something," She decided to walk slightly faster, the boys trailing in her wake, all heading for Gryffindor Tower.
"Oh c'mon Hermione! We're your best friends! Show us you list!" Ron shouted from the other end of the corridor.
"No Ron! Even if I did show you, you'll only see a piece of paper with numbers on them! No name! Didn't you hear Dumbledore?" She asked, yelling all the while.
"Password?" The Fat Lady asked courteously, looking down at Hermione with searching eyes.
"Christmas Cheer," Hermione answered, then quickly disappeared through the portrait hole, shutting the painting in Harry and Ron's faces.
"What's she on about? How come we can only see a blank list? Harry is your one blank too?" Ron asked quizzically towards Harry, as they themselves stepped through the portrait hole.
Harry shook his head disapprovingly, "I'll tell you later Ron,"
~*~
"What are these little numbers for?" Goyle asked Crabbe idiotically, pointing down to the piece of parchment. They were sitting on one of the leather couches surrounding the fire rate in The Dungeons.
Crabbe grunted his response.
"You're all idiots, now aren't you?" Pansy lay down opposite the two goofy boys on a very bulky armchair. Her legs were over one of the armrests, she then began to study her well manicured nails in the dim glow.
"Draco," She addressed as he walked into the room. She seemed to sense him, knowing everything there was to know about this certain teenager, "Explain to your friends there, what the 'ittle wittle' numbers are for," She ordered, and gave him a quick flutter of her lashes.
Draco sighed, and sat between his two cronies and began to explain,
"Alright, now for the last time! Listen!" he didn't bother waiting for an answer and continued, "Dumbledore told us, we have to give a present to the person who is on our list, starting tomorrow. Understand that so far?"
Crabbe and Goyle nodded enthusiastically, but as soon as Draco bopped his head down at his own list, the two idiotic boys looked at each other in bewilderment.
Pansy, who had been watching Draco closely, saw this exchange of looks and she herself rolled her eyes in disapproval.
"Well, we all have twelve days to distribute twelve presents to this 'somebody'. We shouldn't tell anyone else, in case they are our giftees. Get it…?" Draco continued his elucidation to the two boys, studying his own piece of parchment, all the while feeling Pansy's eyes on him which he didn't mind at all.
~*~
"… And Dumbledore thinks this is a good idea to promote Inter - House Unity, " Harry told Ron.
They were in the Boy's dormitory, each lying on their own beds, looking up at the charmed ceiling, which was an early Christmas gift from Dumbledore and the other teachers.
"But I still don't get it, how come our sheets are blank?" Ron asked. Harry heaved a sigh of slight frustration. He turned to look at Ron,
"Well because it hasn't started yet. Each day, the list will fill itself telling the Secret Santa's what their giftees want, anything at all… And don't worry, it will always be in our price range," he reassured his friend.
"Oh right, that's good then, can we show others who we got? I mean, I'm not really telling you guys am I? I don't want to be the first one to suffer that embarrassing consequence Dumbledore was telling us about," Ron asked, his eyes growing wide.
"Ron, just don't tell anyone, not even Hermione and me. If you show us your parchment, we can't see anything anyway, Hermione told us that,"
"It's been charmed that way, so only the owner of the parchment can see it. We're going to find out who has us at the Yule Ball… So no point Ron," Harry concluded, he ruffled around under his blanket and closed the curtains.
"Hmmm alright, night Harry," Ron declared.
"Yea, night,"
~*~
Ch2 : The First Day of Christmas
Hermione woke up quite early. She wanted to know what she ought to buy for her giftee.
Better be something good and worth it, she thought dimly to herself.
Hermione reached over to her bedside table, switch on the small lamp and opened the drawer.
She searched around until she had found the parchment, which was folded neatly into four. Hermione leaned back, unfolded the parchment, and read;
"1. Purple Eye shadow and a matching pair of boots… Right, trust her to want something like this! Urgh… how am I suppose to get these? And how on earth will I give it to her? Oh hang on…the tree…of course!" Hermione thought out loud, feeling quite relieved.
She placed the list back in the drawer then began to gather her things for a quick shower before breakfast.
~*~
As the many students began to turn up in the Great Hall, ready for breakfast they were greeted with quite a surprise. This year, Christmas trees were not located at each corner of the room.
The long house tables were shifted slightly out of their ordinary places to make room for the four different coloured Christmas trees. They were lined on one side of the hall. The tall trees, touching the ceiling were decorated with individual house colours.
The Slytherin students were greeted with a White Christmas tree, it's lights formed the house name, decorations filled the spaces.
Gryffindor students were enlightened to have found a beautiful Red Christmas tree, the same has been done to theirs, while Ravenclaw had Pale Blue, and Hufflepuff - Yellow.
Fake snow fluttered down from the enthralled ceiling, fading away before they reached the ground. The Hogwarts students were in awe, while a few odd remarks could be heard coming from the uncouth Slytherins.