Chapter 8 – Harry
Harry awoke on Christmas morning to find the usual pile of presents at the foot of his bed. It still always surprised the boy that people actually wanted to give him presents, but he never complained.
Looking to his right, Harry saw Ron's sleepy eyes open, and then widen when he remembered which day it was.
"Open your presents then!" Ron rarely thought about anything else around Christmas.
"Alright then" Harry smiled.
He had received quite a collection of presents this year; at first glance the pile hadn't looked so big, but, evidently lots of people had thought to send him gifts.
From Mrs Weasley he received a red jumper knitted jumper with a golden snitch on the front (he smiled at this; he had become very fond of Mrs Weasley and her jumpers over the years). She had also thought to send Harry a box of toffees, remembering he had liked the in the summer.
All of Harry's other presents were excellent: he was given a small disc with a dial on it (he had no idea what it was until Ron exclaimed, "wow, Harry! A populuscope! That's like a sneakoscope, only it tells when someone's near, and you can set the dial for how far away you want it to detect someone being!" And, sure enough, when Harry flicked the dial slightly, the populuscope began to vibrate softly, and when Ron came nearer, it vibrated harder.
"Who's it from, Harry?"
"Dunno" – Harry was beginning to think that this was another one of these anonymous gifts he had become accustomed to getting, but, apparently not; there was a small note. It read:
Harry, With this and the Marauders Map, you should be able to get around Hogwarts pretty easily at night. Merry Christmas, R. Lupin
Harry felt a pang of sadness; he suspected that Lupin had felt bad about the fact that Sirius couldn't have sent Harry a present this year.
From Tonks he received a sort of muggle necklace with a black strap and some sort of tooth attached to it. Along with the gift there was a message:
Harry mate, The tooth was one of Sirius' dog fangs, I thought you might want it for good luck (plus I'm told the girls like things like this nowadays). Chin up, Tonks.
After reading the bit about the particular tooth, Harry decided he would treasure the necklace. He put it on, also hoping that the bit about the girls liking it was true.
Hermione had given Harry a book called "World Cup Quidditch Manoeuvres" which had inside it diagrams and information about every single Quidditch move Harry could think of; he loved it.
Hagrid had sent Harry a huge leather bound book apparently with no title. Harry was apprehensive about opening it (the memory of the monster book fiasco from a couple of years ago had made itself clear in his head) but when he did, was pleasantly surprised. It was a book all about dragons, Harry laughed at this, because anyone who knew Hagrid would know that he had always wanted a dragon (another memory pushed its way forward in Harry's head: Norbert). As Harry turned the pages, the illustrations roared at him, and arched their backs, snarling. "Wow, Hagrid" he thought inwardly.
Among the remaining was a small parcel with what he recognized as Ginny's hand writing on it. All of a sudden he was glad he had given her the necklace he did, as he hadn't been sure at the time that she was going to give him a present. As he opened the small package a miniature snitch fluttered out; it was exactly the same as a normal snitch, but less than half the size. Inside the wrapping was written,
Something to practice with, not that you need it. Gin.
"Cool" he muttered as he fingered the golden ball.
The next present he opened was from Cho. He blushed as he remembered what he had sent her: a red rose and red knickers to match. He didn't even know why he'd done it, it was so out of character, but he had asked Ron to get something for her in Hogsmeade, and that's what he had come back with. At least Cho was at home now, so he didn't have to see her for another couple of weeks.
The penultimate present was very big, and very oddly shaped; Harry opened it to discover a mass of packages of Wizarding jokes, all with big labels on them saying 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes". At this, Harry burst out laughing. It looked as though they had sent him their whole stock. Harry knew Fred and George had become very well off through their new joke shop, and so supposed they could afford this. After having a look at all the merchandise he noticed a card. Inside was written,
Harry! Hope you're doing alright, mate, and I hope you like the present! After all, it's all down to you that we made this. You helped us spread mischief and mayhem to the world; therefore we will be forever in your debt. Keep the trouble we caused at Hogwarts alive with these supplies, Fred and George
The last package on the pile had no writing on the outside, and no visible card. It was quite big, and rather heavy when Harry picked it up. Harry unwrapped it to find a note above more wrapping, on the note it said:
Harry, do not let anyone else know you possess this, not even Ron or Hermione. Unwrap it when no one is around. Merry Christmas.
There was no signature at the bottom, but Harry knew that handwriting; he had seen it once before. He remembered instantly what it had said the last time he had read it:
Use it well.
So the mystery present was from Dumbledore. Ron was occupied with his own presents, so didn't notice Harry slip the parcel under the bed for later. He sat staring into space, however, for a minute or so, until Ron chucked a present at him, and he did the same back (though Harry's gift for Ron was somewhat bigger, so it was more of a pass rather than a throw). He had asked Hermione to buy Ron anything in Honeydukes which she thought he would like, and she had come back with a huge box of sweets which made you do all sorts of crazy things.
Harry opened the rectangular shaped parcel from Ron, and he wondered why the hell the boy had bought him a book. First of all, a book was more Hermione's area, and secondly, why would Harry want a book?
When he opened up to the first page, all became apparent. In very neat italics (Ron had obviously magicked the writing onto the page) said 'First Year' and as he turned over, he saw an assortment of photos which had been taken of the three of them throughout the first year. By some of them Ron had made small comments; for example, while Harry was looking through the photos from his second year, he noticed Ron had taken the liberty of circling drawing an arrow pointing to Lockheart and writing 'TWAT' next to it.
Harry noticed that the pictures were not only of him, Ron and Hermione, but Ron had stuck some other pictures in there too: the Chocolate Frog card displaying Dumbledore (Ron had stuck two in, one displaying the back, and one the front, so that Harry could have a picture of Dumbledore, and so that he could underline the part about Flamel as if to say "And it was on a bloody Chocolate Frog card all the time!"), the newspaper cut out which showed all nine of the Weasleys in Egypt when they won the Prize Draw, another newspaper cut out was in amongst his third year pictures: Sirius, and there was a photo of the original Order of the Phoenix for the section on his fifth year.
Harry looked up at Ron, who had finished marvelling at all his new sweets a while ago, and was now watching Harry anxiously.
"I know it isn't much, but I remember you really liked that one Hagrid gave you with all those photos of your parents, and I wrote home to Mum to ask about it, and she thought it was a really good idea." Ron said this all very quickly, as if to explain it before Harry had the chance to insult the gift.
"Ron, wow" Harry was at a loss for words. What could he say? Ron had gone through all the trouble of finding these pictures for him, and he still didn't think the present would be good enough for Harry.
"You like it?" Ron bit his lip.
"I love it, mate. Seriously, thanks." Harry stood up and clapped Ron on the back; the two obviously thought they were too macho to hug.
"It wasn't hard to find photos for second year and onwards; all I had to do was tell that Creevey kid Ginny would consider going out with him or something and he gave me loads of pictures straight away."
Harry looked up at Ron, one eyebrow raised.
"Well of course I know Ginny won't go out with him, anyway, I wouldn't let her; I don't like the look of him."
Harry nodded and smiled at Ron's protectiveness, he didn't seem to like the look of anyone who had their eye on his little sister. And he sincerely doubted that Ron 'not letting her' would discourage Ginny from seeing anyone, in fact, he was sure it would make her even more determined to do so.
All of a sudden Hermione bustled in,
"Morning, you two" she said briskly.
"Morning Hermione" the two boys chorused.
Hermione looked down and noticed that Harry was still holding the photo album, and said, with a smile on her face,
"Oh, did you like it then?"
Ron looked as if he suddenly remembered something,
"Oh yeah, Hermione helped with it a bit" He said quickly, so that Harry could thank her.
"Yeah, I love it. I can't remember half of these being taken, though. I mean, look at the ones of us in first year, we were so small, and it only seems like yesterday..." The three stood still for a second, all of them wistfully remembering the days of first year. Harry looked through the photo album once again, looking at himself in the pictures; the Harry back then hadn't known anything about all this prophecy shit, he thought to himself.
Harry snapped out of it; he suddenly recalled that daydreaming would get him nowhere.
"You two had better get dressed." Hermione looked pointedly at Ron's paisley pyjamas.
"Not until you go downstairs, Hermione. You're not getting lucky this morning; I already gave you a gift." Ron joked to the girl.
Hermione looked at Ron, and said, very swiftly,
"Ron Weasley, I wouldn't want to see you naked if you were the last boy on Earth" And, with that, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, opened the door, and left. Ron looked very put out, but lightened up when he saw the miniature snitch Ginny had sent Harry,
"Wow, that's cool. Who sent you that?"
"Ginny"
"Really?" Ron looked surprised, "I didn't think she sent stuff as cool as that.
"Well what did she get you?"
"Loads of stuff from Honeydukes."
"Well that's cool."
"Yeah, I suppose so." Ron looked thoughtful. Harry decided to change the subject.
"You know what would be really good to have with my mini snitch?"
"No..."
"My mini Viktor Krum, what ever happened to that?" Harry asked his companion, smiling. He knew what had happened to it, Ron had ripped its limbs off when it had appeared that Hermione and the star quidditch player might be interested in each other.
Ron looked as if he hadn't heard the last comment, and busied himself with getting dressed, leaving Harry laughing heartily.
When the two were both ready, they stood up and opened the dormitory door to go down to the common room.
When Ginny woke up on Christmas morning the first thing she did was to go to the window and look at the grounds. She was expecting the usual green folds of land, but this morning they were white. Ginny never knew what to think about snow; she loved the winter, because she hated the heat, and she loved the look of the snow, but not the actual substance itself. She looked at the beautiful snow for a few minutes, marvelling at the fact that the snow had come on Christmas day. This was the only time she liked the colour white in excess; Ginny was more partial to dark colours, but not at the moment.
Spinning round, Ginny noticed a larger pile than usual at the bottom of her bed, and smiled. She knelt down and picked up the first one.
"Mum" she whispered fondly as she opened the wrapping. Inside there was a box of mince pies wrapped in a red knitted blanket. Ginny had requested that her mother send her no more of those cretinous woolly jumpers, seeing as she never wore them. She opened her mother's card, and opened it out so that it would rest on her chest of drawers.
The presents she had received from her brothers were suitably satisfactory; Ginny loved having so many siblings at Christmas the most, she loved buying them presents just as much as she loved to receive them.
The next present she opened made her heart soar: a beautiful silver chain with an equally beautiful oriental symbol on it. Attached to the gift was a card, inside was written:
Ginny, The symbol means 'hope' in Chinese – I hope you like it. Happy Christmas Harry
Ginny fastened the necklace around her slim pale neck and fingered the pendant.
"Hope" she whispered as she looked at it, and frowned. She didn't think any more of it, though, and proceeded to open the rest of her presents. They were very nice this year, and Ginny also received many a card from boys to whom she had rarely ever spoken.
Smiling, she dressed quickly, after a quick look in the mirror she opened her dormitory door and made her way down to the common room.
As Harry followed Ron downstairs the common room slowly came into view. He saw Hermione leaning against a wall, gazing out of the window.
"What you looking at?" Hermione started, and frowned.
"The snow, Harry."
"There's snow?" It suddenly occurred to Harry that neither he nor Ron had opened the curtains earlier that morning, and so of course couldn't have known.
"Hell yes" a voice from the opposite side of the room startled Harry and he looked up to see Ginny descending from the girls' dormitories.
"Oh, morning, Ginny, happy Christmas, and thanks for the present." Harry smiled at her.
"That's quite alright – same back to you." Harry looked down to see that she was wearing the necklace, and smiled, but did not say anything.
"What time is it, Hermione?" Ron suddenly broke in; Harry presumed he was counting the minutes until lunch time.
"Quarter to eleven, Ron. Honestly, are you ever going to get a watch?" Hermione looked fondly up at the boy, and then shook her head despairingly. Ron scowled; Harry, however, looking closely at Hermione, could see she was smiling.
"What? An hour and a quarter 'til lunch? What the hell are we going to do for that long?" Ron looked nonplussed for a second, and then saw a chess set in the corner. "Harry, you up for a game?" Ron smiled.
"You'll beat me easily, but why not?" Harry picked up the chess set and walked towards the fire to their favourite chairs.
As Harry and Ron began to set up their game, Ginny and Hermione sat in the chairs next to them, and began to chat about their presents. When they had been through everything girly which they had received (during this Ron had snorted several times, and Harry had smiled a lot) they got onto the subject of the cards Ginny had been sent.
"So, who were they from?" Hermione looked interested, she was smiling a lot.
"Just... boys." Ginny threw a sideways look at Ron, who had pretended not to hear her. Obviously eager to get the attention off of herself, Ginny turned back to Hermione: "So, did you get any cards then, Hermione?"
Hermione looked at her feet, blushing, and said,
"A few."
Ron looked up at her sharply,
"Who from?"
"Oh yes, like it's any of your business." Hermione looked up at him, eyebrows raised.
Ron looked angrily at Harry, as if asking for back-up; Harry, however, just smiled at Ron. Ron's ears turned pink, and Harry looked up to catch Ginny's eye, who was silently laughing to herself.
Twelve o'clock arrived quickly, and the four Gryffindors made their way down to the great hall. As they walked through the doors they found that this year the teachers had reverted back to the only-having-one-table- method as there were so few students staying.
As Harry walked in, he felt all eyes turn towards him. 'Bloody hell' he thought 'Why do they still always do that? You'd think they would have got used to me being here by now... wouldn't you?' As he thought this, Harry grimaced to himself, and carried on walking. At the table were professors McGonagall, Trelawney, Snape, Flitwick and Dumbledore – very few. Hagrid was also sitting at the table, along with two Ravenclaw 5th years, a couple of Hufflepuff second years, and a Slytherin 6th year.
"Ah, I was wondering when our Gryffindors would grace us with their presence." Dumbledore looked up at the four teenagers, and smiled, beckoning for them to sit down at the table. Harry sat down, looking around the table; there were very few staying for Christmas this year.
The festivities were most enjoyable. From his cracker Harry got a small purple rubber frog which exploded every now and them, emitting a huge bang, and a cloud of green smoke. He had conversations with Hagrid and Dumbledore, both being very cheerful. Harry had not really spoken to Dumbledore since the incident a couple of months ago where he had been told he could not leave the castle grounds, but, in his good cheer, he managed to forget about his anger, and have fun with the rest. Seeing Dumbledore also reminded him about this strange present he had waiting for him underneath his bed, and he became eager for a moment alone in order to find out what it was.
During the meal Harry caught Snape's eye by accident; it was hard for Harry to look at the Potions teacher in the same way as he used to. How could a person as malicious as Snape be risking his life every day, fighting the good fight? Now when Harry looked at Snape he tried to imagine what the man must be going through; worshipping Voldemort every day, apologizing for doing the right thing. Harry had not heard much news on Voldemort; he assumed that Snape was still working his way in to the Dark Lord's most inner circle, and so could not report much information just yet.
Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron spent the rest of the afternoon having snowball fights in front of the castle. It had been a good Christmas; Harry had managed to half forget about his hectic life, and enjoy the day. However, when he wasn't kept busy for a moment, he would remember Christmas last year, at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius had been happy then, he had been a Godfather to Harry, and, most important of all, he had been alive.
That evening, when Ron had eventually dozed off, Harry lay thinking about the parcel underneath his bed. What did he now possess which not even Ron or Hermione could know about? In the end, he decided it was too much; he had to see what it was. With that, he silently got out of bed, retrieved the brown package, and crept downstairs to the common room. Slowly he unwrapped it, and his eyes widened.
Okay, took me ages, I know, but it's long. SO sorry about this whole chapter 7 being posted over chapter 1 thing, and I have put it right again, but it's taking a while – once again, SO sorry, no idea how it happened. Thank you so much to all the reviewers; I know you get tired of me saying this, but keep at it! Mithrandir – teenage boys, easy to work out? Je pense que tu es CRAZY. Merlin and dreamsofthedead – thank you so much for the reviews, once again, I apologize for the confusion. Once it's right again, go back and read the real first chapter, thanks!
Nine Alternatives
Harry awoke on Christmas morning to find the usual pile of presents at the foot of his bed. It still always surprised the boy that people actually wanted to give him presents, but he never complained.
Looking to his right, Harry saw Ron's sleepy eyes open, and then widen when he remembered which day it was.
"Open your presents then!" Ron rarely thought about anything else around Christmas.
"Alright then" Harry smiled.
He had received quite a collection of presents this year; at first glance the pile hadn't looked so big, but, evidently lots of people had thought to send him gifts.
From Mrs Weasley he received a red jumper knitted jumper with a golden snitch on the front (he smiled at this; he had become very fond of Mrs Weasley and her jumpers over the years). She had also thought to send Harry a box of toffees, remembering he had liked the in the summer.
All of Harry's other presents were excellent: he was given a small disc with a dial on it (he had no idea what it was until Ron exclaimed, "wow, Harry! A populuscope! That's like a sneakoscope, only it tells when someone's near, and you can set the dial for how far away you want it to detect someone being!" And, sure enough, when Harry flicked the dial slightly, the populuscope began to vibrate softly, and when Ron came nearer, it vibrated harder.
"Who's it from, Harry?"
"Dunno" – Harry was beginning to think that this was another one of these anonymous gifts he had become accustomed to getting, but, apparently not; there was a small note. It read:
Harry, With this and the Marauders Map, you should be able to get around Hogwarts pretty easily at night. Merry Christmas, R. Lupin
Harry felt a pang of sadness; he suspected that Lupin had felt bad about the fact that Sirius couldn't have sent Harry a present this year.
From Tonks he received a sort of muggle necklace with a black strap and some sort of tooth attached to it. Along with the gift there was a message:
Harry mate, The tooth was one of Sirius' dog fangs, I thought you might want it for good luck (plus I'm told the girls like things like this nowadays). Chin up, Tonks.
After reading the bit about the particular tooth, Harry decided he would treasure the necklace. He put it on, also hoping that the bit about the girls liking it was true.
Hermione had given Harry a book called "World Cup Quidditch Manoeuvres" which had inside it diagrams and information about every single Quidditch move Harry could think of; he loved it.
Hagrid had sent Harry a huge leather bound book apparently with no title. Harry was apprehensive about opening it (the memory of the monster book fiasco from a couple of years ago had made itself clear in his head) but when he did, was pleasantly surprised. It was a book all about dragons, Harry laughed at this, because anyone who knew Hagrid would know that he had always wanted a dragon (another memory pushed its way forward in Harry's head: Norbert). As Harry turned the pages, the illustrations roared at him, and arched their backs, snarling. "Wow, Hagrid" he thought inwardly.
Among the remaining was a small parcel with what he recognized as Ginny's hand writing on it. All of a sudden he was glad he had given her the necklace he did, as he hadn't been sure at the time that she was going to give him a present. As he opened the small package a miniature snitch fluttered out; it was exactly the same as a normal snitch, but less than half the size. Inside the wrapping was written,
Something to practice with, not that you need it. Gin.
"Cool" he muttered as he fingered the golden ball.
The next present he opened was from Cho. He blushed as he remembered what he had sent her: a red rose and red knickers to match. He didn't even know why he'd done it, it was so out of character, but he had asked Ron to get something for her in Hogsmeade, and that's what he had come back with. At least Cho was at home now, so he didn't have to see her for another couple of weeks.
The penultimate present was very big, and very oddly shaped; Harry opened it to discover a mass of packages of Wizarding jokes, all with big labels on them saying 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes". At this, Harry burst out laughing. It looked as though they had sent him their whole stock. Harry knew Fred and George had become very well off through their new joke shop, and so supposed they could afford this. After having a look at all the merchandise he noticed a card. Inside was written,
Harry! Hope you're doing alright, mate, and I hope you like the present! After all, it's all down to you that we made this. You helped us spread mischief and mayhem to the world; therefore we will be forever in your debt. Keep the trouble we caused at Hogwarts alive with these supplies, Fred and George
The last package on the pile had no writing on the outside, and no visible card. It was quite big, and rather heavy when Harry picked it up. Harry unwrapped it to find a note above more wrapping, on the note it said:
Harry, do not let anyone else know you possess this, not even Ron or Hermione. Unwrap it when no one is around. Merry Christmas.
There was no signature at the bottom, but Harry knew that handwriting; he had seen it once before. He remembered instantly what it had said the last time he had read it:
Use it well.
So the mystery present was from Dumbledore. Ron was occupied with his own presents, so didn't notice Harry slip the parcel under the bed for later. He sat staring into space, however, for a minute or so, until Ron chucked a present at him, and he did the same back (though Harry's gift for Ron was somewhat bigger, so it was more of a pass rather than a throw). He had asked Hermione to buy Ron anything in Honeydukes which she thought he would like, and she had come back with a huge box of sweets which made you do all sorts of crazy things.
Harry opened the rectangular shaped parcel from Ron, and he wondered why the hell the boy had bought him a book. First of all, a book was more Hermione's area, and secondly, why would Harry want a book?
When he opened up to the first page, all became apparent. In very neat italics (Ron had obviously magicked the writing onto the page) said 'First Year' and as he turned over, he saw an assortment of photos which had been taken of the three of them throughout the first year. By some of them Ron had made small comments; for example, while Harry was looking through the photos from his second year, he noticed Ron had taken the liberty of circling drawing an arrow pointing to Lockheart and writing 'TWAT' next to it.
Harry noticed that the pictures were not only of him, Ron and Hermione, but Ron had stuck some other pictures in there too: the Chocolate Frog card displaying Dumbledore (Ron had stuck two in, one displaying the back, and one the front, so that Harry could have a picture of Dumbledore, and so that he could underline the part about Flamel as if to say "And it was on a bloody Chocolate Frog card all the time!"), the newspaper cut out which showed all nine of the Weasleys in Egypt when they won the Prize Draw, another newspaper cut out was in amongst his third year pictures: Sirius, and there was a photo of the original Order of the Phoenix for the section on his fifth year.
Harry looked up at Ron, who had finished marvelling at all his new sweets a while ago, and was now watching Harry anxiously.
"I know it isn't much, but I remember you really liked that one Hagrid gave you with all those photos of your parents, and I wrote home to Mum to ask about it, and she thought it was a really good idea." Ron said this all very quickly, as if to explain it before Harry had the chance to insult the gift.
"Ron, wow" Harry was at a loss for words. What could he say? Ron had gone through all the trouble of finding these pictures for him, and he still didn't think the present would be good enough for Harry.
"You like it?" Ron bit his lip.
"I love it, mate. Seriously, thanks." Harry stood up and clapped Ron on the back; the two obviously thought they were too macho to hug.
"It wasn't hard to find photos for second year and onwards; all I had to do was tell that Creevey kid Ginny would consider going out with him or something and he gave me loads of pictures straight away."
Harry looked up at Ron, one eyebrow raised.
"Well of course I know Ginny won't go out with him, anyway, I wouldn't let her; I don't like the look of him."
Harry nodded and smiled at Ron's protectiveness, he didn't seem to like the look of anyone who had their eye on his little sister. And he sincerely doubted that Ron 'not letting her' would discourage Ginny from seeing anyone, in fact, he was sure it would make her even more determined to do so.
All of a sudden Hermione bustled in,
"Morning, you two" she said briskly.
"Morning Hermione" the two boys chorused.
Hermione looked down and noticed that Harry was still holding the photo album, and said, with a smile on her face,
"Oh, did you like it then?"
Ron looked as if he suddenly remembered something,
"Oh yeah, Hermione helped with it a bit" He said quickly, so that Harry could thank her.
"Yeah, I love it. I can't remember half of these being taken, though. I mean, look at the ones of us in first year, we were so small, and it only seems like yesterday..." The three stood still for a second, all of them wistfully remembering the days of first year. Harry looked through the photo album once again, looking at himself in the pictures; the Harry back then hadn't known anything about all this prophecy shit, he thought to himself.
Harry snapped out of it; he suddenly recalled that daydreaming would get him nowhere.
"You two had better get dressed." Hermione looked pointedly at Ron's paisley pyjamas.
"Not until you go downstairs, Hermione. You're not getting lucky this morning; I already gave you a gift." Ron joked to the girl.
Hermione looked at Ron, and said, very swiftly,
"Ron Weasley, I wouldn't want to see you naked if you were the last boy on Earth" And, with that, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, opened the door, and left. Ron looked very put out, but lightened up when he saw the miniature snitch Ginny had sent Harry,
"Wow, that's cool. Who sent you that?"
"Ginny"
"Really?" Ron looked surprised, "I didn't think she sent stuff as cool as that.
"Well what did she get you?"
"Loads of stuff from Honeydukes."
"Well that's cool."
"Yeah, I suppose so." Ron looked thoughtful. Harry decided to change the subject.
"You know what would be really good to have with my mini snitch?"
"No..."
"My mini Viktor Krum, what ever happened to that?" Harry asked his companion, smiling. He knew what had happened to it, Ron had ripped its limbs off when it had appeared that Hermione and the star quidditch player might be interested in each other.
Ron looked as if he hadn't heard the last comment, and busied himself with getting dressed, leaving Harry laughing heartily.
When the two were both ready, they stood up and opened the dormitory door to go down to the common room.
When Ginny woke up on Christmas morning the first thing she did was to go to the window and look at the grounds. She was expecting the usual green folds of land, but this morning they were white. Ginny never knew what to think about snow; she loved the winter, because she hated the heat, and she loved the look of the snow, but not the actual substance itself. She looked at the beautiful snow for a few minutes, marvelling at the fact that the snow had come on Christmas day. This was the only time she liked the colour white in excess; Ginny was more partial to dark colours, but not at the moment.
Spinning round, Ginny noticed a larger pile than usual at the bottom of her bed, and smiled. She knelt down and picked up the first one.
"Mum" she whispered fondly as she opened the wrapping. Inside there was a box of mince pies wrapped in a red knitted blanket. Ginny had requested that her mother send her no more of those cretinous woolly jumpers, seeing as she never wore them. She opened her mother's card, and opened it out so that it would rest on her chest of drawers.
The presents she had received from her brothers were suitably satisfactory; Ginny loved having so many siblings at Christmas the most, she loved buying them presents just as much as she loved to receive them.
The next present she opened made her heart soar: a beautiful silver chain with an equally beautiful oriental symbol on it. Attached to the gift was a card, inside was written:
Ginny, The symbol means 'hope' in Chinese – I hope you like it. Happy Christmas Harry
Ginny fastened the necklace around her slim pale neck and fingered the pendant.
"Hope" she whispered as she looked at it, and frowned. She didn't think any more of it, though, and proceeded to open the rest of her presents. They were very nice this year, and Ginny also received many a card from boys to whom she had rarely ever spoken.
Smiling, she dressed quickly, after a quick look in the mirror she opened her dormitory door and made her way down to the common room.
As Harry followed Ron downstairs the common room slowly came into view. He saw Hermione leaning against a wall, gazing out of the window.
"What you looking at?" Hermione started, and frowned.
"The snow, Harry."
"There's snow?" It suddenly occurred to Harry that neither he nor Ron had opened the curtains earlier that morning, and so of course couldn't have known.
"Hell yes" a voice from the opposite side of the room startled Harry and he looked up to see Ginny descending from the girls' dormitories.
"Oh, morning, Ginny, happy Christmas, and thanks for the present." Harry smiled at her.
"That's quite alright – same back to you." Harry looked down to see that she was wearing the necklace, and smiled, but did not say anything.
"What time is it, Hermione?" Ron suddenly broke in; Harry presumed he was counting the minutes until lunch time.
"Quarter to eleven, Ron. Honestly, are you ever going to get a watch?" Hermione looked fondly up at the boy, and then shook her head despairingly. Ron scowled; Harry, however, looking closely at Hermione, could see she was smiling.
"What? An hour and a quarter 'til lunch? What the hell are we going to do for that long?" Ron looked nonplussed for a second, and then saw a chess set in the corner. "Harry, you up for a game?" Ron smiled.
"You'll beat me easily, but why not?" Harry picked up the chess set and walked towards the fire to their favourite chairs.
As Harry and Ron began to set up their game, Ginny and Hermione sat in the chairs next to them, and began to chat about their presents. When they had been through everything girly which they had received (during this Ron had snorted several times, and Harry had smiled a lot) they got onto the subject of the cards Ginny had been sent.
"So, who were they from?" Hermione looked interested, she was smiling a lot.
"Just... boys." Ginny threw a sideways look at Ron, who had pretended not to hear her. Obviously eager to get the attention off of herself, Ginny turned back to Hermione: "So, did you get any cards then, Hermione?"
Hermione looked at her feet, blushing, and said,
"A few."
Ron looked up at her sharply,
"Who from?"
"Oh yes, like it's any of your business." Hermione looked up at him, eyebrows raised.
Ron looked angrily at Harry, as if asking for back-up; Harry, however, just smiled at Ron. Ron's ears turned pink, and Harry looked up to catch Ginny's eye, who was silently laughing to herself.
Twelve o'clock arrived quickly, and the four Gryffindors made their way down to the great hall. As they walked through the doors they found that this year the teachers had reverted back to the only-having-one-table- method as there were so few students staying.
As Harry walked in, he felt all eyes turn towards him. 'Bloody hell' he thought 'Why do they still always do that? You'd think they would have got used to me being here by now... wouldn't you?' As he thought this, Harry grimaced to himself, and carried on walking. At the table were professors McGonagall, Trelawney, Snape, Flitwick and Dumbledore – very few. Hagrid was also sitting at the table, along with two Ravenclaw 5th years, a couple of Hufflepuff second years, and a Slytherin 6th year.
"Ah, I was wondering when our Gryffindors would grace us with their presence." Dumbledore looked up at the four teenagers, and smiled, beckoning for them to sit down at the table. Harry sat down, looking around the table; there were very few staying for Christmas this year.
The festivities were most enjoyable. From his cracker Harry got a small purple rubber frog which exploded every now and them, emitting a huge bang, and a cloud of green smoke. He had conversations with Hagrid and Dumbledore, both being very cheerful. Harry had not really spoken to Dumbledore since the incident a couple of months ago where he had been told he could not leave the castle grounds, but, in his good cheer, he managed to forget about his anger, and have fun with the rest. Seeing Dumbledore also reminded him about this strange present he had waiting for him underneath his bed, and he became eager for a moment alone in order to find out what it was.
During the meal Harry caught Snape's eye by accident; it was hard for Harry to look at the Potions teacher in the same way as he used to. How could a person as malicious as Snape be risking his life every day, fighting the good fight? Now when Harry looked at Snape he tried to imagine what the man must be going through; worshipping Voldemort every day, apologizing for doing the right thing. Harry had not heard much news on Voldemort; he assumed that Snape was still working his way in to the Dark Lord's most inner circle, and so could not report much information just yet.
Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron spent the rest of the afternoon having snowball fights in front of the castle. It had been a good Christmas; Harry had managed to half forget about his hectic life, and enjoy the day. However, when he wasn't kept busy for a moment, he would remember Christmas last year, at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius had been happy then, he had been a Godfather to Harry, and, most important of all, he had been alive.
That evening, when Ron had eventually dozed off, Harry lay thinking about the parcel underneath his bed. What did he now possess which not even Ron or Hermione could know about? In the end, he decided it was too much; he had to see what it was. With that, he silently got out of bed, retrieved the brown package, and crept downstairs to the common room. Slowly he unwrapped it, and his eyes widened.
Okay, took me ages, I know, but it's long. SO sorry about this whole chapter 7 being posted over chapter 1 thing, and I have put it right again, but it's taking a while – once again, SO sorry, no idea how it happened. Thank you so much to all the reviewers; I know you get tired of me saying this, but keep at it! Mithrandir – teenage boys, easy to work out? Je pense que tu es CRAZY. Merlin and dreamsofthedead – thank you so much for the reviews, once again, I apologize for the confusion. Once it's right again, go back and read the real first chapter, thanks!
Nine Alternatives