..................................THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS..............................................

Jessica woke up smiling today. In the bleary haziness of morning, she wasn't completely sure why, she just knew she was happy. When all the events of the last ten days sunk in, she smiled even more.

Someone had feelings for her, Jessica Dumbledore, not a single crush, not a hopeless infatuation, not pure, simple lust, but something that could actually be considered as love.

Hermione and Ginny had practically flipped when she'd told them about the past ten days. She knew they would be gushing about it, because even though Mione was a bookworm, and Ginny was usually letting her brother's achievements overshadow hers, they were still girls and when she told them about everything that had happened, they had definitely reacted like a couple of girls and her best friends. She smiled fondly when she remembered when she'd explained everything to them yesterday.

Flashback

Jessica had told Hermione and Ginny everything that had been happening over the last while, glad to get some of it out of her system. She told them of her suspicions, blushing slightly when she explained why she thought it might be Harry. She explained about Neville, and how she hoped she wouldn't have to hurt him if it was indeed his doing. Hermione and Ginny refrained from saying anything about Harry, but they gave Jessica sympathy about the wholeNeville thing.

"Is there anyone else you think it could be?" Hermione asked curiously. "You know…it is possible they aren't even here for the holidays…if these gifts just turn up and you have never actually come into contact with this guy…he might just be getting other people to deliver them to you. Like the first year was told to."

Jessica looked at Hermione and Ginny hesitantly. She didn't have many true friends like them, and she didn't want to risk Hermione and Ginny thinking her a scarlet woman by telling them about the snogging. But if they were to be true and honest friends…she should tell them the truth.

Hermione and Ginny's reactions had been comical, and some what predictable. Hermione's mouth had dropped open and she had stared at Jessica in disbelief for a few moments…Ginny had grinned and let out a whoop. Ginny was truly throwing a party and Jessica thought it was amusing. Hermione eventually snapped out of it, and Jessica was glad she refrained from giving her a motherly lecture. Instead Hermione started giggling, yes giggling,(Jessica and Ginny had stared in disbelief)and asked Jessica to elaborate, and give her all the details.

Of course soon they were laughing and chatting away like they had each known each other forever and were as thick as thieves.

End of Flashback

Jessica sighed happily, reaching for her trunk at the end of the bed, almost knocking over Starlight in the process. The owl looked at her outraged, fluffing up her feathers and flying out the open window.

Wait, why is the window open in the middle of winter…?

Unfortunately her unspoken question was answered right away.

Parvati, Parvati Patil, was standing in front of the full length mirror fussing with her straight dark brown hair. Jessica scowled at her back…of all the things to ruin her day…

Sure, Parvati was her friend and dorm mate but she was a little high maintenance . She was a total flirt and was constantly acting like a tart to get guys attention. She spoke with probably the sweetest voice she'd ever heard and it annoyed her. Parvati was useful sometimes but now was not the time for her to just appear back at the castle.

"Oh hello Jessica, finally crawled out of bed have you?" Parvati asked. Sugar lacing every word.

Jessica glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost noon. Oh my…I barely ever sleep in that long.

"What are you doing here?" Jessica asked, it was the day before Christmas after all…a very odd time to come back to school.

Parvati smirked at her through the mirror. "I wanted to spend the holidays here, but my parents insisted I at least come to visit them. Now I'm back."

Something weird is going on here…Jessica thought a bit uneasy. Parvati never stays at school longer that she has to.

Before she could say anything else, Parvati went on talking. She always liked to talk about herself, no matter who was the audience. "Now I can stay here and spend a lovely romantic Christmas with my boyfriend." Here Jessica saw Parvati smirk even more.

She's always got a boyfriend, why should she think I'd care now? Jessica wondered.

Just then there was a hesitant knock at the door. "Parvati?" a familiar voice called out sounding a bit nervous.

"Come on in!" Parvati called, sounding excited.

"Ummm…are you sure you don't want me to wait out here?" The voice asked, plainly uncomfortable with the idea of being near the girls dorms let along going in one.

"Don't be silly Harry, it's only me and Jessica." Here Jessica's heart seemed to sink down into her stomach. Not that she had needed confirmation, she had known the minute she heard him utter her roommates name that it was Harry.

Harry Potter.

The one boy she actually had the highest hopes that her 'Secret Santa' would turn out to be was dating her ditsy roommate.

She felt a pang in her heart at this and also felt the green eyed monster of jealousy nagging at her soul. She couldn't understand why out of all the people in the castle that Harry chose Parvati but she decided not to dwell on it. Parvati was smiling smugly at her expecting her to get all mad about it but she was smarter than Parvati and would not show either of them how much this affected her. The mean, sarcastic, and vain part of her took over her mouth and speech. It's always been said than the tongue is sharper than the quill but that remains to be seen.

"Vati, Vati, Vati, if you're expecting me to be angry or jealous about this, let me kindly correct you. I am in no way whatsoever the least bit bothered by this. Harry, I wish you luck because you're gonna need it. She's more trouble than she's worth. And by the way Vati, parading Harry around in front of me shows that you have little self esteem, to know that you need Harry to make you look good. Now if you two will excuse me, I'd rather be conversing with Slytherins than staying in this room with you two, Excuse me."

And with that, Jessica grabbed the envelope that was sitting on her trunk and left the tower.

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Now she didn't open the envelope right away, instead she walked around, keeping the tears that were threatening to fall in her eyes and thinking. It was while she was walking that she also discovered a few more couples. The first one she saw was Neville and Luna. They were walking down the corridor towards her holding hands, their fingers lacing. Jessica just grinned at them and gave them the thumbs up as she walked by. Next she saw her brother and Ginny. While she was walking past the library, she saw Ginny snuggled against her brother's chest while his arm was around her. She watched them for a moment and saw her brother kiss Ginny on top of the forehead. She smiled and continued on her way. Next she saw, or rather found, Ron and Hermione.

Now these two were probably the funniest thing she encountered that day because how she found them was the funniest part. She was on her way back to her dorm so she could finally open the envelope and she was her surprise was today when she heard two very familiar voices.

"Oh Ron, I love you too."

"Mione-"

Ron? Mione? She followed the sound of the voices with her eyes and her eyes fell upon another broom closet. What is it with people and broom closets? Do they just look appealing to couples who are snogging? Jessica rolled her eyes but grinned as she opened the door.

Out fell Ron and Mione, Mione landed directly on top of Ron. They both looked up at her and their faces instantly turned blood red.

"Don't be embarrassed, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later but I rather hoped it would be sooner rather than later. But the next time you want to snog in a broom closet, try and be a little bit quieter because there is no way people could've walked past this place and not heard you."

She helped them both up and grinned again. "I guess I'll see you two later." She walked back to the dorm, happy that the two distractions were gone and opened the envelope.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

Your true love gave to you,

Eleven elves making a surprise just for you.

Go to the edge of the forest around ten o'clock and a elf will be waiting for you to take you to their gold mines.

Bring someone with you if you're nervous.

Jessica stared at the note for a moment. Elves were very secretive about their gold mines and where their location was. She doubted highly that they would welcome her presence so happily but she trusted her 'Secret Santa' so she thought for a moment and decided to bring both Hermione and Ginny with her. Now all she had to do was find them.

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"You want me to do what??? Hermione gasped, looking at Jessica like she was crazy. "There is no way I'm helping you out of the castle, breaking school rules. I'm a prefect you know!"

"But Hermione, I'm going with or without you, and I've already snuck out of the castle at night once and didn't get caught because I borrowed Harry's cloak, I doubt there's anything to worry about!" Jessica reasoned.

Hermione just sat there stubbornly, her lips pressed into a thin line and arms crossed.

"Come on Hermione, it'll be fun, how many times do you get to see elves working, especially in their gold mines? You know as well as I do, that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you may never get another chance to see it, ever!"

"Mione, you know Jessica is right. Elves are very secretive abut where their mines are and they don't trust humans that often and they scarcely ever let a human see where their mines are located. If Jessica's admirer managed to make it so we could see them work, then you know as well as I that you're not gonna miss it." Ginny said, winking at Jessica.

Jessica smiled when Hermione's lips pursed, and her eyes shone with longing. It was true, very few people were fortunate enough to witness elves working in their gold mines.Ginny had made a few good points. Elves rarely trusted humans especially not with the locations of their gold mines because they would steal all of it. It was a rare thing for a human to watch them work and the note had also mentioned some sort of surprise and Mione didn't want to be left out so both Jessica and Ginny knew she was in.

"Well…" Hermione began, sighing in defeat. "Fine…just don't ever tell Ron that I'm willingly breaking rules."

"Deal." Jessica and Ginny agreed, smiling triumphantly.

At nine thirty the three girls set off. Hermione managed to borrow Harry's cloak. Apparently Harry was too wrapped up in Parvati to protest. "I don't even think he heard what I said." Hermione complained. "That tart had just sat on his lap."

Jessica and Ginny just rolled their eyes

"You seem okay about it…I know you had thought Harry might be-"

"I know, but I'm not as upset as I thought I'd be." Jessica lied. "I'm just baffled as to who is doing this stuff for me now."

"You know Neville really likes you…" Hermione started, but Jessica cut her off.

"He's with Luna now and I must say, they make a lov-er-ly couple."

Hermione and Ginny looked at her in surprise for a moment but agreed with her, both of them smiling.

Just like all the other gifts, watching the elves was absolutely amazing. When Jessica, Ginny, and Hermione arrived, they were far enough from the castle to take off the cloak, much to their relief. They were heading deeper into the forest anyways so wearing the cloak wouldn't make a difference. The elf that lead them to the mines was extremely polite to them surprisingly. When they got to the mines, they were amazed by all that they saw. There were men and women elves working in the mines and the mines themselves were loaded with regular and white gold, silver, copper, bronze, and of course, all the gems you could ever want.

They watched the elves gather the gold and make something four at least three hours and the elves sang while they worked so it was entertaining but the time seemed to fly by because in no time the elf that brought them there was walking towards them with a small, white, rectangular box. He held it out to Jessica and she took it with slightly trembling hands. She opened it and inside laid a beautiful white gold bracelet with little pink diamond hearts in it, lined with regular gold. Jessica gasped, as did Mione and Ginny. The three of them were in awe by the beautiful gift and Mione and Ginny were slightly envious of Jessica getting such a beautiful trinket.

Jessica, Ginny, and Mione thanked all the elves, Jessica the most profusely, and the elf that brought them led them back to the castle. They were all tired and ready for bed but they made it back without falling asleep on the way. Creeping back up to Gryffindor Tower wasn't that hard of a task and as soon as they reached the dorm, they had to tread carefully now that Parvati was there. Jessica slept with her bracelet on that night. She just didn't want to take it off.

To all three girls, the night was amazing and the next night would prove just as spectacular.