a/n: Ah, the gift-giving chapter.  I'm not sure quite why I enjoyed the Grand Warlock's Christmas Dinner Party…perhaps because it can be equated to so many parties I am sure all of you can remember attending, perhaps because it contains two clues about Siandra's identity (although this is ruled untrue by the fifth book) and perhaps because of Roxanne, who is quite interesting (although she doesn't seem like it right now) and I have a very clever way for her to fit into the actual Harry Potter series, thought it too will probably be discounted by the next book.

*looks at chapter header* Finally!  A chapter that doesn't start with "the"!

C H R I S T M A S   P A C K A G E S

\/ A note on this weird thing that happens to that letter — don't even try asking me what's up with it.  I do not know.

I

t was Christmas morning.  Siandra woke up bright and early to a note digging into her neck.  She picked it up, massaging her neck and saw that it was sealed with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry crest.  She slit the seal and read:

Dear Millisandra Lorington,

          A very merry Christmas to you from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.  The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross Station the third of January at precisely ten o'clock.  Classes will begin the next day following the regular schedule.  We ask that you please do not bring presents or Christmas candy to class.  It is very distracting to the learning environment. 

Thank You,

Anita Race

Department of Magical Transport

Christmas! Siandra had almost forgotten. She raced down the hallway and into the sitting room.  Both her parents were already there, chatting in puffy chairs by the warm fireplace.

            "Good morning Siandra!" said her mother, "Look at the tree!"

            It was a magnificent tree.  It towered right up to the ceiling and on the top was a fluttering miniature angel holding a glowing star bedecked with moonstones.  The other ornaments on the tree included clear balls the same size, thickness, and complexion of soap bubbles, miniature hooting owls, silvery moons waxing and waning rapidly, glowing presents, ribbons and banners of runes, and fluttering, glowing faeries. 

            "Wow," breathed Siandra, "It's beautiful!  You'd better not invite any muggles over to Christmas dinner!"

            "You've got some cards, dear, better open those first." Her father pointed to a pile of cards and envelopes on the table. 

            It turned out that she had gotten greetings from Betty, Gina, Molly, Lily, Claire, Leanne, Sirius, James, and Remus.  Then she came upon an envelope with the initials R. P. I. in the seal. It read:

Dear Siandra,

     I hope that you have a merry Christmas.  Ana wrote to me and told me how much she adored the chained book, thank you for delivering it for me.  Do you like your symbol book?  I picked it out because it was my first ancient book, and it got me interested.  I am particularly fond of the twin necklaces and Rimsalt's Water Amulet.  Is Kinny off of that silly Jivan Kasim job yet?  You may be interested to know that Raul's so-called Philosopher's Stone was only chalk and he got called off for it without any press release. Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and the rest of the Loringtons, I have enclosed a package for you and your parents. 

Sincerely,

Prof. Radelle Peri Irving

Siandra immediately felt guilty about not getting the professor a present.  But, after all, she had just met her. Then there was the usual pile of Christmas cards with cute little bluebirds basking in the snow from most of her relatives.  However, on the bottom, there was something different.  It bore no return address and was addressed only to "Miss Siandra Lorington" at "the muggle house". At the back there was a blue seal with only a crescent moon embedded into it.  She slit it, carefully took out the letter inside, smoothed it on the table, and read the following:

Dear Siandra,

            I think that you will enjoy this present that I 'made' for you, with help from Hagrid.  Since it's technically still not allowed to leave the school, you'll have to come and get it.  I've arranged for it to be picked up on Monday, four o'clock because I don't have any lessons that time, tell me if you do.  It'll be waiting with Hagrid at his hut by the edge of the grounds.  Merry Christmas!

Hagrid and X

            "What have you got then?" asked Mrs. Lorington.

            Siandra stuffed the letter from Hagrid and X back in the envelope and pressed the seal down.

            "Just letters from friends and relatives, and the professor," Siandra explained.  She didn't feel like telling her parents about Hagrid and X. 

            "These are from us," said her dad, pointing to some presents.

*  *  *

By the end of the morning she had gotten quite a lot of gifts.  She had hoped that maybe one of the owls sitting out on the deck belonged to her now, but they were all just resting from delivering gifts.  Oh well, maybe for her birthday.  Some of her favorite presents included a chocolate-covered chess set (eat the pieces you take!) from Lily, a knitting set from Molly, a lunar clock from the boys (James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus) and a Quidditch Commentator's Manual from Claire. 

            For a Christmas Treat, her parents decided to take her to a Christmas Dinner Party.  It was for wizarding families only so they could wear their normal clothes, normal for them, at least.    It was also near the ocean, so they piled on the family's BlueBottle.  It's a type of broomstick that is created especially for families (it was very long, easy to steer and affixed with a compass), so they had now trouble all fitting on it.  Her father draped his jumbo invisibility cloak over the family and they sped off. Her parents simply turned themselves invisible and sat on the covered broomstick.  Siandra had to be completely covered in the cloak, and it was a very old cloak, so it was not made so it was see-through.  All it did was basically the normal job of a fur coat, but made invisible the body parts and the objects it covered.  You could not see through it at all. 

            The flight passed without incident except for one time.  Siandra thought that she'd stick her head out to see what was happening in the coastline. She carelessly stuck her head out of the cloak.  A loud scream from the ground ensued, along with both her parents pushing her head forcefully back under. 

            "What were you thinking?" asked her mother, "A muggle saw a head floating in midair!  You're lucky no one took a picture.  Now your father has no memory balls left!  Keep you head under."

            Memory balls were a quick way to destroy a muggle's memory of a dangerously magical incident.  They looked pretty much like ordinary small beach balls, but they contained a strong memory charm.  The person they were bequeathed to (i. e. thrown at), as it said on the box, would lose total memory of the last minute five seconds after the ball touched them. 

            Siandra sulked for a while.  Why couldn't her parents just turn her invisible so she could see the outside?  After all, they were flying over the most picturesque parts of the country because the wizarding community chose the most deserted and serene places to operate.  The answer came to her almost immediately after she thought of the question: self-invisibility was very advanced magic, and turning other people invisible was even more risky.  Many a witch or wizard sent someone else who-knows-not-where while just trying to work invisibility.  Although some people purposely did this to enemies. 

            The building that housed the Grand Warlock's Dinner was stately and very elegant.  The beaming, short, auburn-haired witch at the door told them that the Grand Warlock's Dinner had been around since the Middle Ages.  In the Middle Ages, it only included male wizards, but now it includes everyone.  The estate was built especially for that purpose, designed by some regal wizard Siandra had never heard of, and originally housed the guests for the night.  The Loringtons left before she could tell them more, because they were already blocking up the doorway and had about ten people behind them. 

            They hurried on.  Siandra followed her parents inside.  It was very beautiful.  There were at least ten crystal chandeliers on the ceiling.  There was so much gold that the whole ballroom sparkled and gave off light.  There was a grand staircase in the left corner, it was carpeted with some blue velvety thing and it swept up to the next floor where some people stood on the over looking balcony with glasses of champagne clinking.  There appeared to be rooms up there.  Perhaps it was still used for overnight guests. On the right side, there were four long French windows with curtains drawn back.  A long buffet table covered in a glowing white cloth spanned the left side of the room.  Siandra was not pleased to see the absence of chocolate frogs.  She still needed the Albus Dumbledore card badly.

            She looked over her shoulder at her parents and stopped gawking at the room.  They were talking to a plump, chatty lady with short blond hair.  Siandra joined them.  She soon learned that the lady had five children.  Their names were Macy, Rina, Lori, Lara, and Shawna.  Four of them liked the tarts she baked for them, but Macy did not.  Lara was sick with a cold and Shawna was horrible at aiming her wand.  Lori complained about her broom quite often.  Yesterday Rina turned her pair of sneakers into a pair of mice.  The lady was very proud of this, because it was very advanced, but not so proud when the neighbors complained weeks later about a mouse epidemic.  She bought them a tri-colored cat from the store.  Its name was Sarlene.  It turned out the neighbors did not like yellow cats so they had to return it and get a blue cat.  Its name was Saltine.  They liked this cat because…

            Siandra turned away from them.  She could not see anyone that she knew besides her parents and she did not want to go back to them.  She swore if she stayed with that lady any longer she was going to fall asleep on the spot.  Not knowing anywhere else to go, she got a white crackle plate from the pile and stationed herself near the cheese.  There were many kinds of cheese there: Cheddar, Brie, Gouda, blue cheese, Swiss cheese, smoked cheddar, and a number of others that she didn't even know what they were called.  There was also an assortment of different crackers.  She decided to sample them all.

            Before she got to the unknown cheeses, she saw someone that she did know.  She had long, straight, blond hair and dark green eyes.  She was wearing a dark green velvet robe to match her eyes and it did, perfectly. The robe was covered in a golden medieval-looking diamond criss-cross pattern that matched her hair perfectly also.  It was her friend Roxanne from the village where she used to live! 

            "Roxanne!"

            Roxanne looked around in puzzlement for a moment, then saw Siandra.

            "Oh, Siandra! Hello!" she said, "I haven't seen you in a while."

            "Thank goodness!" said Siandra, she sounded relieved, "Someone I know here besides my parents!" 

            "Good for me too," she gestured to a couple in deep purple robes with showy golden star buckles, "My parents are talking about some silly trade.  There's not much to do here, is there?"

            "No, I don't think so.  Plus, I'm getting really thirsty.  Have you seen any water anywhere?  All I saw was that thick punch over there, ick!   The cheese is really good, though, did you try it?"

            "No, I'm not really into cheese — "

            "You're not into cheese?!"

            "No, but there's a fountain over there for water."

            "Are you sure it's clean?  Generally pigeons are the only ones that actually drink out of fountains."

            "Look, then."

            Roxanne pointed to the fountain.  Siandra thought it was very pretty at first glance.  It was made out of whitish marble and it featured a woman in Roman style robes holding a large scepter spear thing with a very odd hat on.  There were long curls coming down from under the hat and Siandra thought she was pretty, that was, excluding the hat.  A small serpent curled around her spearish item was spitting out clear water and so was an owl perched on her shoulder.  Her cupped hand held ice cubes.

            "That's handy, isn't it!" said Roxanne looking at it.

            Both Siandra and Roxanne grabbed sparkling glasses from the table.  Siandra's had a golden owl with spread wings on it.  So did Roxanne.  They both took some water out of the spitting owl and Siandra scooped some ice out of the statue's hand. 

            She heard some people talking to their drinks.  They were saying things like 'fruit punch', 'sherry', 'strawberry juice', and 'butterbeer'.  Siandra decided to try this.  One of the things she heard was 'gillywater'.  It sounded interesting so she decided to try it. 

            "Gillywater," she told her water.  It immediately turned silvery. 

            Roxanne tried this too.

            "Lemonade," she said to hers.  It did nothing.

            "Lem-on-ade," she said, carefully pronouncing every syllable. It refused to remain anything except water.

            "LEMONADE!" she shouted.  Quite a few people jumped.  Roxanne gave them a friendly nod and a smile and turned back to giving the cup the evil eye. 

            "Prod it with your wand, then," encouraged Siandra.  Roxanne took out her wand from a fold in her robe and prodded the glass with it.

            "Go on, then, turn to lemonade," she said while still poking it.  Not a good idea.  The glass exploded into the air and disappeared, but that was only the glass.  The same does not go for the liquid inside. Most of it landed on her head.  Not only that, but it had chosen this time to finally abide by her wishes and turn to lemonade.

            "ARGH!" she yelled.    

            Roxanne was given a wide berth after that.

            The rest of the night passed slowly, but not as slowly as it had been going before she found Roxanne; at least she had someone to talk to (and the fountain too).  She quite liked the fountain, before the night ended, she had turned her water into raspberry lemonade, Mint Fizzer, seltzer, strawberry apple juice, spritzer, lime slushie, and raspberry Italian soda.  After they left the building, Siandra said good-bye to Roxanne and regretfully pulled the invisibility cloak over herself.  Now that it was night, she was rather glad because it kept her warm.  Only three more wonderful days of winter vacation.  Ah well.