Chapter 12: Christmas
"Are you sure you want to stay here Lexie? You're still welcome to come join me and my parents, they wouldn't mind," asked James the third time that morning with only a couple more hours left before the Hogwarts Express departed.
"James I'll be fine honest. Plus, now that the castle's deserted it's a perfect opportunity for me to find some more secret passageways, maybe even see where that one behind the mirror leads. You know we've been trying to find a time when nobody is around."
"No Lexie, please don't go down that tunnel by yourself," said James fairly seriously which was unusual compared to his normal demeanor.
Lexie smiled sweetly, "Okay, I won't, but I can still search the castle for some more can't I?"
"What and find something without us?" pouted Sirius.
Lexie laughed and nudged his shoulder, "Okay, I'll wait for your return."
"See, you have nothing to do, you can come home with me!" said James.
Lexie looked towards him, "James I appreciate the offer really and maybe next Christmas I'll take you up on it, but I've got a date tomorrow and I'm not backing out of it," she said smiling coyly.
"What? What do you mean you have a date? You're only eleven!" exclaimed Sirius.
Lexie laughed, "It's with Hagrid silly, he's just bringing me to do my Christmas shopping," she said remembering the letter Dumbledore had sent her with the small bag of strange coins telling her to meet Hagrid tomorrow at noon at the entrance of the Great Hall so he could escort her to Diagon Alley.
"Oh," said Sirius relaxing back into the couch appeased with her "date."
James was still looking at Lexie with a slight pout and to try and pacify him Lexie removed herself from the couch and went and sat on his lap giving him a hug, "Jamie I promise, I'll be fine here. Next Christmas maybe?"
"Okay I'll drop it if you drop my nickname."
"Okay deal," she said getting up knowing that would actually never happen, "Now who's up for some Exploding Snap before you leave?"
Lexie managed to convince Remus who was reading in the corner as well as Peter who was once again adding cards to his chocolate frog collection to play as well and they spent the last couple hours laughing and trying to avoid scorching their eyebrows. Lexie was still dreadful at games having never played them as a child, but slowly she was learning. At least she hoped she was since she was tired of losing every time.
When it came time to leave Lexie gave each boy a hug despite their protests and when she got to Sirius she whispered in his ear, "Now don't come back all brainwashed, no matter how horrid your parents are okay?"
He mumbled back with a small smile, "I won't, I promise. Have a good Christmas Lex."
"You too, that goes for all of you," she said turning to the other boys, "Have a very Happy Christmas and I will see you all in a couple weeks."
She watched them drag their trunks towards the horseless carriages that would bring them to the train and made her way back to the common room. She took one look at the empty common room and sighed, "Peace and quiet, finally," she said to herself.
Lexie made her way up to her dorm and grabbed her sketchbook intending to finish the sketches from her dream she had weeks ago. She hadn't had any more photo dreams since but decided to do as Dumbledore suggested and draw all the faces she had seen, at least the new ones.
Once she had finished a sketch of an old man with green eyes she couldn't recognize from anywhere, Lexie thought about what she could buy everyone for Christmas. She didn't know much about the wizarding world to know what to buy the boys, perhaps she could convince Hagrid to take her somewhere that was more muggle. She didn't know why she didn't think of asking Dumbledore before, it probably had something to do with how surprised she was that he was willing to give her spending money.
Her thoughts drifted to Sirius and what to get him, she was worried about him. While Lexie enjoyed the company of all the boys, she really valued the time she spent talking to Sirius late at night.
He had been unusually quiet during the weeks leading up to Christmas and had been receiving letters that she was sure were from his parents since he would read them with a scowl on his face before storming out of the Great Hall. Lexie hoped he would be okay, if only there was a way to remind him of everything he had at Hogwarts.
Inspired by that thought, Lexie flipped open her sketchbook to a crisp new page and let the charcoal flow over the page with a smile on her face, maybe there was something she could give him that would bring a smile to his face, even in the most unhappiest of circumstances.
Lexie worked on her sketch and was surprised when she looked outside after finishing it to see that the sun was now setting. She looked down at the sketch, it depicted a scene from the common room a few weeks ago when Sirius had been caught trying to cheat at Wizard Chess. James had Sirius in a headlock with Lexie on his back like a monkey after trying to tackle him. Peter and Remus were in the background. All five of them had wide smiles on their faces.
Hungry she decided to head to the Great Hall. She considered trying to get into the kitchens but decided to wait until the boys were back so they could complete that adventure together.
Lexie was surprised to find that all of the house tables had been removed and only one table remained and already several students and staff members were sitting down.
"Good evening Ms. Hall, I thought we would sit together for the holidays given there are so few of us, please take a seat," said Dumbledore smiling at her from the head of the table.
Lexie sat next to the boy she knew as Frank Longbottom and helped herself to some roast beef and potatoes. Turning to Frank she smiled and asked, "So why didn't you go home? Not a fan of your family?"
Frank laughed, "Not exactly, my mum's kind of a hag. Dreadful woman with a nasty liking for a hat with a vulture on it, that thing gives me nightmares."
Lexie laughed, "You're joking!"
Frank grinned even wider, "I wish. So what about you? I'm surprised you didn't go home since I saw you waving your friends goodbye."
"Nah, I'd rather stay here, it's nice and quiet without them around and for once I can go a week without having my homework disappear or my hair change colors."
Frank laughed, "That's probably true, I don't know how you put up with them."
Lexie smiled sinisterly, "Oh it's all a matter of revenge. I have become quite skilled at color change charms and Gryffindor boys are really quite vain."
The two talked throughout dinner and Lexie learned that Frank was very taken with Herbology much like his Head of House Professor Sprout. They both sympathized with each other when it came to Defense and Charms as neither were very good at the subjects considering they were the only first years to light their feathers on fire the first day of class. The only reason Lexie was doing well now was because she practically lived in Flitwick's Office during the evenings begging him to help her with each spell the day before it was presented in class so she could have extra practice.
Frank on the other hand pointed out that Professor Magnus was incredibly intimidating and so asking for help was not an option and Lexie had to agree, the man simply scared her. Frank also seemed to have a grudge against Slughorn saying that he was very shallow when it came to bloodlines and relations and so it was impossible to live up to any expectations Slughorn had of him. Lexie, having no relations to go off of, enjoyed Potions because it seemed to be a more straightforward subject and didn't require a lot of knowledge about theory like Charms and Transfiguration.
For that very same reason she enjoyed History of Magic much to Frank's disgust, however she was used to this attitude from her peers as she seemed to be the only one in the castle who did enjoy the subject. After discussing their classes, Frank suggested they try and teach themselves at the library pointing out that maybe two heads were better than one and Lexie decided it might be a good idea considering all the free time they would have during the break.
The next morning Lexie woke early and groggily got ready for her day with Hagrid. She was looking forward to getting to know the half-giant better assuming that anyone with a heart big enough to raise a giant spider was a good person, even if a little misguided.
She made her way to the Great Hall noticing only two other students there, a sullen Slytherin girl in her year or perhaps the year above and the boy she recognized as being Lily's friend Severus who was also Slytherin.
Neither looked incredibly cheery and so Lexie decided to sit a little further down from them. Frank she assumed was like the Gryffindor boys and wouldn't be up for at least another hour. Lexie helped herself to some toast and jam and ate quietly.
Having had enough and not liking the glares the other girl was giving her, Lexie rose and made her way back to the Gryffindor tower. She decided to get some of her homework out of the way and worked silently for a few hours in front of the fireplace. However, getting nowhere as she just couldn't wrap her head around the theory behind spells, she called it quits and decided to get ready to meet Hagrid early.
Lexie collected the winter clothes that had been provided by Dumbledore. How that man had bought clothing of the appropriate size made Lexie wonder and picturing him shopping for her made her giggle to herself. No, there's no way it was Dumbledore who picked out all her clothing, especially her undergarments, that was just too awkward. Lexie snatched the bag of weird coins she had been sent storing them in her coat pocket.
Bundled in a warm scarf and mittens she made her way back to the entrance hall and was surprised to see Hagrid already there seeing as she was at least fifteen minutes early.
"'Lo Lexie" he greeted cheerfully.
"Hi Hagrid, how are you?" she greeted cheerfully.
"Jus' fine. So yeh have everythin'?"
"Yup."
"Alrigh' then, off we go."
"Hagrid, I have kind of a big favor to ask."
"Sure Lexie, wha's tha'?"
"Well, as much as I'd love to spend the day wandering through Diagon Alley since I barely remember it when Dumbledore took me, the thing is, I have no idea what to buy the boys there since I still don't know much about things that are magic. So um, would it be too much trouble to go into London, well muggle London? I know it pretty well and I'm sure I can find some shops that have things I could buy. I know it's not what Dumbledore planned and I know it's not what he told you so you never agreed to it, but it's just last night I got to thinking about it and-"
Hagrid interrupted Lexie with a wave of his hand fearing the girl might run out of breath, "Oh tha's no problem, don' worry yeh little head about anythin'. Dumbledore arranged a portkey for us to Diagon Alley so we'll jus' go exchange some of yeh money and pass righ' on through to muggle London."
"Really? Oh thank you Hagrid!"
The two made their way across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin where he picked up a chipped teacup that was waiting on his doorstep, "Alrigh' then, so this here should be the portkey and all yeh hav' to do is put a finger on it in abou' three minutes and it should take us righ' to the back of the Leaky Cauldron."
Lexie reached out and took hold of the smooth handle and said nonchalantly, "You know Hagrid, every time I think I've seen all there is to magic, someone pulls out a teacup and tells me it will get me to London."
Hagrid let loose a chuckle "Yeh, I'd imagine it is strange at times, just wait 'til you learn to apparate."
He pulled out a pocket watch from his vest pocket, "Alrigh' then, should be in a few seconds now, got a good grip? Lookin' good, and should be very soon now."
Suddenly Lexie felt a jerk right behind her navel and felt like her who body was plummeting through space. As soon as it had begun, she felt her feet connect with something hard and the sudden change caused her to dizzily fall backwards onto the hard stone.
Hagrid, who seemed completely unaffected, quickly grabbed hold of Lexie's shoulders and pulled her to her feet, "Up yeh go Lexie, don' worry, tha' happens to mos' people."
Lexie brushed off the back of her coat, her tailbone in quite a bit of pain, and looked around noticing they were in a small walled courtyard with cobbled bricks and a rubbish bin perched upright. Hagrid made his way over to the brick wall and tapped it with an umbrella that Lexie hadn't noticed him carrying.
She recalled Dumbledore doing something similar when he had first taken her shopping way back in August but a stick, which she now knew to be his wand. She watched as the bricks peeled away revealing cobbled streets and shops of unfathomable purposes.
Lexie remembered being too shocked during her last visit to really look around and this time she found herself squinting into dusty windows and oogling street vendors as Hagrid led her to a large white building that towered over the neighboring shops.
Hagrid placed one of his large hands on her shoulder and pushed her through a large set of bronze doors with an inscription on them Lexie didn't have time to read. She was then led through a set of silver doors before they entered a spacious lobby with white marble counters. Lexie stared in awe at the strange creatures that looked only slightly human, Hagrid gently nudged her and muttered, "Try not to stare, goblins don' like it too much."
Feeling uncomfortable and remembering stories about the goblin rebellions in History of Magic, Lexie quickly moved her gaze to her feet. She certainly didn't want to upset the creatures, which appeared to always be scowling. Hagrid led her over to one of the counters where a particularly unhappy goblin regarded the pair, "'Lo, we're here to make a currency exchange."
"Muggle to wizard or wizard to muggle" asked the goblin in a fairly bored voice.
"Wizard to muggle, do you have the money Dumbledore gave yeh Lexie?"
Lexie fished the pouch out of her coat and handed it to Hagrid. Hagrid kindly took it from her and dumped some of the coins into his hand. Lexie was amazed at just how many coins appeared out of the bag, it seemed to hold much more than what she had first thought. He sorted out a stack of the large gold coins along with some of the silver ones and a handful of the small bronze ones and handed them over to the goblin. In return several crisp notes were passed to him.
Hagrid handed Lexie the bag again and she noticed that while it was lighter, it still contained a fair amount of coins. He also handed her the notes she recognized from the portrait of Queen Elizabeth and was shocked that she now held about eighty pounds in her hands. She had never held so much money in her life.
Lexie stared down with her mouth slightly parted in awe as Hagrid gently led her back into the Alley as she stumbled still staring at the money. Hagrid noticed her expression and looked sheepish, "Urm, is tha' and okay amoun'? I always get a little nervous aroun' goblins and didn' think to ask yeh how much yeh wanted, we can go back in if yeh need more."
Lexie looked up with big eyes and blinked trying to come out of her daydream, "N-No this is fine Hagrid. This is plenty."
"Grea' let's get some gifts for those friends of yers" he said still pushing the stumbling girl along
Lexie pocketed the notes making sure they were secure before they both headed back into the stone courtyard and through a dingy pub.
"Hello Hagrid!" said a balding man with a toothy smile from behind the bar, "Who's your friend?"
"'Lo Tom, this here is Lexie, she's a student at Hogwarts."
"Nice to meet you Lexie and welcome to the Leaky Cauldron! You look familiar, in fact I think I've seen you before with Dumbledore."
Lexie blinked a couple times trying to overcome her sudden shyness at being recognized, "Uh yeah."
Tom grinned at the bashful girl, "Well he is a great man that Dumbledore. I'm glad to be reacquainted with you Lexie. Come again soon!"
Lexie just nodded as Hagrid wished Tom a good day and they headed out into an unusually cloudless day for the city.
"Alrigh' then, jus' lead the way and I'll follow."
Lexie looked around recognizing a few familiar roads and noticed that they weren't too far from Hyde Park, an area she was familiar with as she had often wandered through the many surrounding parks when she needed to get away from the orphanage.
Lexie knew London fairly well as she was often allowed to go with Mrs. Tobias during errands as well as short trips to museums with the other children. Despite living outside London during the time she was under Celine's watch and spending only a few weeks back in London before she left for Hogwarts, she still remembered London well from her childhood and was fairly certain she could navigate it without a map, for the most part at least.
Lexie decided to head towards Covent Garden knowing it would be bustling this close to Christmas time and was sure she could find something for the boys in the shops or the booths that were sure to be set up. Hagrid received many odd stares but Lexie was ignorant to them as she was excitedly pointing out the attractions and buildings that she did know to Hagrid who confessed to never having spent much time in muggle London.
Lexie noticed a small used bookstore tucked away and immediately thought of Remus who was always reading, yet she had never seen him with a muggle book and thought she might be able to find him a suitable gift there.
Hagrid noticed her eyeing the store and smiled down at her, "Yeh go ahead and have a look aroun'. I'll jus' wait out 'ere for yeh, I don' think I'd be able to fit through the door le' alone the res' of the shop if yeh know what I mean" he said chuckling.
"Thanks Hagrid," she replied trying to look up at him but finding it impossible without straining her neck understanding why he decided to wait outside. Lexie entered the dusty shop, her presence made aware by the small tinkling of bells on the door.
An old man behind the counter greeted her kindly before Lexie set off towards the dusty shelves. After several minutes of browsing the shelves, she noticed a slightly worn boxed set of J.R.R Tolkein's Lord of the Rings stuck between two battered Dickens books. She remembered battling her way through the trilogy when she was just seven and despite not understanding all of it, she had taking a liking to the series and secretly wished she lived in Middle Earth so she could have adventures like Frodo and Sam.
Lexie gently picked up the box noticing that the sides had beautiful photos encased in gold branches that matched the wording on the spines of the black books inside. Excited with her find, she considered looking for another copy to buy for Remus and keeping this one for herself.
Lexie immediately scolded herself for being so selfish since the money wasn't for her in the first place and figured Remus would lend them to her if she asked. Not to mention, Remus was certainly more deserving of such a fine set since hers would no doubt be ruined the minute she brought it back to the orphanage for the summer. She brought the books to the front of the store and placed them on the counter to be rung up.
"Ah, good choice, one of my favorites," the elderly shopkeeper said smiling, "A deluxe edition as well, you my dear have a good eye for good books."
Lexie smiled at the old man, "They're for a friend, I don't think he's read them yet and the box art is lovely. If I wasn't so determined to buy him the perfect gift I would keep it for myself, but seeing as it's the holidays I see no reason to be selfish and deny him such an extraordinary set."
"Indeed," the man said with a twinkle in his eye that reminded her of Dumbledore, "Well given the holidays, all books are half price so your total comes to ten pounds exactly."
Slightly uncomfortable with spending more money than she ever had in the past, Lexie unfolded one of the crisp 10 pound notes and handed it over to him. The elderly man carefully wrapped up the books in brown paper and placed them in a bag, which he handed to her over the counter.
"Thank you sir and have a very Happy Christmas," she said passing an older woman and leaving the shop.
The woman turned to her husband, "George what Christmas sale are you talking about, we're not having a Christmas sale. And did I just see you pawn off an expensive boxed set of Lord of the Rings for only ten pounds?"
The elderly man smiled as he watched Lexie walk away with the very large man he had seen waiting outside the shop, "Sometimes my dear with the right customer it's the perfect time to have a sale." Ignoring his wife's incredulous look he walked towards the back of the shop whistling.
Lexie and Hagrid spent a good portion of the afternoon wandering through various shops while they treated themselves to some cart food and watched street performers, which seemed to fascinate the half-giant.
"Yeh have to give the muggles credit," he said watching a "magician" perform tricks for the crowd, "they do okay withou' magic."
After watching several impressive card tricks, Lexie purchased a trick deck of cards for James, which came a booklet explaining some of the tricks she had seen. Lexie figured James might have fun with them at least from a novelty point of view and figured he would have fun inventing his own tricks, he could be pretty clever when he wanted to be.
For Sirius, she had the sketch she planned on giving him and found a beautifully handcrafted frame to put it in.
She decided on a large bag of gummies and mixed sweets for Peter who she knew had quite the sweet tooth and thought he might enjoy a change from his usual chocolate frog.
Lexie decided to buy a pair of socks for Dumbledore as a way of thanks and found the perfect pair of midnight blue woolen socks with yellow stars knitted into the heels.
Lexie was able to sneak away from Hagrid while he was distracted by a juggler on a unicycle and purchased hand-baked dog treats for his puppy Fang and for Hagrid a large chunk of fudge. Lexie was determined to wean him off his rock cakes afraid he might break a tooth one day.
Tired from a day of walking with arms full of bags and having put a decent sized dent in her spending money, Hagrid told Lexie that they thankfully didn't need to head back to Diagon Alley as Dumbledore had also set up a portkey to bring them back to Hogwarts.
Searching his pockets for several minutes and after removing several odd items, Hagrid pulled out an old sock and told Lexie they still had about half an hour before it would be activated.
They decided to spend the time sitting and resting watching muggles walk by no doubt heading home for the day. Hagrid directed Lexie to a deserted street where she carefully arranged her bags so she could touch the sock and she experienced the same jerking sensation before she found herself sprawled on her back right in front of the large double doors of the castle. Once again Hagrid helped her to her feet and together they collected her bags.
"Thank you so much Hagrid, it means so much that you took the day off to let me do my shopping."
"Wasn' a problem Lexie," he said before giving her a crushing hug that made her feel like her whole body would cave in on itself and making his way back across the grounds towards the forest. Lexie tiredly headed up to the Gryffindor tower deciding on a short nap before heading to dinner.
Dinner that night was a happier affair than breakfast had been as Lexie seated herself next to Frank again and listened as he told her stories about growing up as a wizard while she explained muggle things like the London underground and telephones to him.
She regretted not buying him a present despite befriending him only the night before as he had been very friendly and welcoming towards her. Lexie realized no question was too ridiculous as he was kind enough to answer any of them, including one she had thought of earlier while carefully storing her purchases in her trunk.
"Frank, how do I make sure my friends get their gifts on Christmas?"
"Easy, you just owl them their presents."
"Um, what if I don't have an owl?"
"No problem, the school has loads. I can show you the Owlery whenever you want. In fact, when I go to mail my presents I can take you with me. I'm sure Dumbledore won't mind you borrowing as many as you need, it's not like there's loads of students here using them."
"Thanks Frank," she said smiling, "I'd like that. My experience with owls hasn't been great so far."
The days leading to Christmas Lexie found herself getting more and more excited for her first real Christmas. She admired the Hogwarts decorations, as she had never really seen true Christmas decorations up aside from those in shop windows and was awed by the giant trees and real, hooting golden owls, and real pixies lighting up the Great Hall. She was also looking forward to exchanging gifts as she had never actually received a wrapped present before and decided giving gifts was equally as exciting.
Spending time with Frank turned out to be a nice break from the Gryffindor boys as he was more laid back and even though he wasn't a prankster like James or Sirius, he was still able to make her laugh. They often met up in the library trying to work their way through their tedious homework assignments and she discovered that despite what he said, Frank was more than decent at Defense than he let on.
Lexie was still a bit awful at it as she became easily intimidated by the curses they were learning. So while Frank helped her with Defense, she helped him with Potions while Charms remained hopeless for both of them. Frustrated with the subject they ended up just making up information while laughing about what Flitwick would say when getting their assignments.
They even showed each other their own common rooms and could be found playing Exploding Snap or trying to master Wizard's chess. However, seeing as they were both horrible at chess, they always ended up quitting after a few hours.
Lexie also spent her time outside alone by the lake bundled up sketching or reading and was thoroughly enjoying being away from the orphanage. She always valued her alone time seeing as she never got enough of it at the orphanage and she forgot just how much she enjoyed silence. Occasionally she thought about the boys. She hoped that they were having fun at home, she hadn't heard from any of them and most of all hoped Sirius' parents weren't being too hard on him.
Lexie had finished the details on her sketch for Sirius and was very proud of the final results. She had added so many details that it had a photo-like quality and Lexie was proud of her ability to capture the moment so clearly. She had carefully framed it and wrapped it up along with her other gifts.
Christmas Eve Frank made good on his promise and the two were headed to the Owlery loaded with carefully wrapped gifts to send out so they could arrive by Christmas morning.
"So here we are, Hogwarts' very own parliament of owls!" said Frank as they stepped onto the straw bedding.
Lexie took a step forward and felt something crunch beneath her foot, looking down she noticed she had just crushed the ribcage of some sort of rodent, "Ugh, lovely."
Frank laughed at her disgusted expression as she tried to wipe the owl droppings off her shoes only to realize that wherever she wiped them there were just more droppings or skeletons.
"This can't be sanitary," she grumbled kicking aside more rodent carcasses.
Frank had made his way over to a group of owls and was now coaxing them forward while he carefully tied his gifts to their legs.
"Okay, so that's pretty much all you have to do," he told Lexie as his group of owls took flight, "Just be gentle with them and there's nothing to it."
Lexie approached where he was standing with a look or trepidation, she had never been a fan of birds. Something about their powerful beaks and curved talons freaked her out, of course even pigeons managed to make her squirm.
"Here owl, owl," she said uncertainly trying not to let her fear show.
An owl hoped forward and stuck its leg out waiting patiently. Lexie tried to hide her nervous hands and loosely tied the parcel to its leg.
"You're going to need to tie it better than that, it does need to make its way all the way across the country," corrected Frank watching her with a kind smile and trying not to laugh at how scared she looked.
Lexie grumbled and in her haste to retie the package she managed to tie the birds legs together. Her mistake caused the bird to flap its wings in irritation and Lexie found herself being smacked in the head as it flailed about trying to free itself. The owl's panic seemed to spur panic in the other owls around it and soon several owls were also stretching out their wings and hooting angrily.
Lexie immediately panicked and went into survival mode as she dropped her gifts and huddled in a small ball whimpering "Fuck, fuck, fuck, please don't kill me, shit I hate fucking owls!"
Frank was now in the corner trying to contain his laughter, however, noticing Lexie shaking in fear on the dropping covered floor seemed to bring him back to reality and he set about trying to calm the owls down. Frank bravely grabbed the owl that had caused the ruckus and untied its legs, retying the package correctly and letting it swoop out the window.
He then approached the petrified girl on the floor, "Lexie, are you okay?" he asked her gently shaking her.
Lexie whimpered some more before saying in a small voice, "I really don't like birds Frank."
Frank couldn't help it and laughed at her huddled figure, her robes covered in droppings with straw hanging from her dark hair, "That's a bit of an understatement Lexie. Here, I'll tie the rest of your gifts and you just work on mopping up your Gryffindor courage from the floor and we can get out of here."
Lexie just pouted and for the first time since the "incident" when she noticed the state of her clothes. "Ugh, gross. Owl shit."
Once Frank had finished with Lexie's gifts he gently led her outside of the Owlery, "Here, let me just clean you up a bit. You kind of smell."
Frank pointed his wand at her muttering Scourgify spells and allowing pink bubbles to scrub away any remnants from the Owlery. He also siphoned off the hay from her hair and by the time he was done Lexie's clothing was as good as new. For once he was thankful for all the times he had spent watching his mother clean the house.
He noticed that the girl was still a bit shaky though from her owl encounter, "Here, let's stop by the Hospital Wing so Madam Pomfrey can give you a Calming Drought, you still look a bit hysterical."
"No way! I can't go there! This is humiliating, what kind of Gryffindor is afraid of owls? I'd never hear the end of it!"
"I'm sure she won't judge you Lexie," he said but when she adamantly shook her head no he decided to just bring her back to his common room where he taught her how to play Gobstones, a game in which marbles that spit green-yellow liquid at the two and ended up requiring the use of more cleaning spells after Lexie lost miserably.
However, when she left the Hufflepuff common room she was at least in better spirits than she had been a few hours prior and Frank was glad the distraction had worked. After promising to not tell anyone about her owl catastrophe they wished each other a Happy Christmas and Lexie went back to her own dorm falling asleep almost immediately.
Lexie woke the next morning a bit later than usual as the sun was already streaming through the dormitory windows. She unfurled her limbs and stretched still lying down but jumped slightly when she felt something fall off her bed with a thump. She sat up and looked towards the noise only to discover a small pile of presents at the foot of her bed.
Any remaining drowsiness was swept away as Lexie reached for the pile and leaned over to grab the fallen package from the floor. She had actually received presents for Christmas! Part of her had expected James to be joking, but the parcels she had in her hands proved he had been completely serious.
She recognized his untidy scrawl, Remus' carefully printed words, Sirius' elegant penmanship, and Peter's scratchy writing and decided since James had initiated the whole gift exchange, she would open his first. She was surprised to see his note attached to the smallest box out of the four, especially since he had boasted about getting such a fantastic gift. The note attached to the package read:
Hey Lexie!
Having fun at Hogwarts? Or are you regretting staying behind? You can still come to my house for the rest of the holiday if you're bored yet, which I'm sure you are without my brilliance! At this Lexie scoffed, James could be so pompous at times.
I wasn't sure what to get you so my mum helped me pick this out saying any girl would like it. I didn't want to tell her that you aren't the typical girl, although given who your friends are I think that fact is pretty obvious since all the other Gryffindor girls hate us, particularly Evans. I don't know who shoved a broom up her arse, but I wish she'd get Pomfrey to remove it. Anyways, I hope you like your gift.
Happy Christmas, come spend the rest with me!
James
Lexie curiously tore at the package and opened the box to reveal a beautiful, round locket with carefully engraved flowers in the metal. Lexie didn't own any sort of jewelry, or anything fancy, and this was now the most beautiful thing she owned. Lexie plucked another note from the box.
I know it's kind of girly, but hopefully you like it. I also know how much you like magical things so it's been enchanted to sing an old wizard lullaby since you've mentioned having problems getting to sleep some nights. Mum casted the charm for me.
Lexie was surprised at how thoughtful James gift had been, he didn't seem like the type to put a lot of thought into things and clearly he had struggled with picking out her gift. Lexie carefully opened the locket and was met with such a beautiful melody she couldn't figure out what instruments made the kind of sound being emitted. Lexie listened to the lullaby four times before carefully closing the locket and slipping it around her neck. She would have to thank James, but first she would have to mock him for being such a softy.
Pushing aside the empty box, she reached for Remus' gift that was very carefully wrapped in plain brown paper and without even opening it knew it was a book. She carefully unfurled his note.
Lexie,
I've noticed you've recently gained an interest in this topic and so instead of sneaking books out of the library and risking Madam Pince's wrath, I thought I would help you out.
Hope you're having a nice Christmas.
Best,
Remus
Lexie bit her lip, had Remus really noticed her recent infatuation with Divination and her dreams? She carefully ripped the paper and her concern was confirmed as she held a copy of A Seer's Guide to Your Dreams, Thoughts, and Subconscious. She had never heard of the book as it wasn't one of the ones she had managed to find in the Hogwarts Library, but she was excited to start reading it since it might be able to uncover the reason behind her dreams.
Lexie reached for Peter's gift, which she noticed was the worst wrapped out of the bunch. She tore it open and laughed out loud knowing she should have expected for him to get her a large box of chocolate frogs. Still laughing she reached for his card and had to squint to decipher his almost illegible handwriting.
Hi Lexie,
Since my aunt doesn't believe in spending money on Christmas I had to find gifts around the house and this is all I could come up with. Maybe next year I can get better gifts.
Happy Christmas,
Peter
P.S. If you get Hengist of Woodcroft can I switch you for it since I'm missing that one?
Lexie laughed again, however given Peter's situation with his aunt, she appreciated his gift just as much as the others.
Finally she reached for Sirius' gift, which was wrapped in silver paper and tied with a satin green ribbon. The gift exuded elegance and she wondered briefly if he had wrapped it himself. She unrolled his letter noticing it was much longer than the others.
Lex,
Sorry I haven't written all break, my parents have forbidden me from using their owl and seeing as I don't have one of my own, I've had to get a little creative. To even convince them let me go Christmas shopping I had to persuade them all my friends were in Slytherin, hence the awful green and silver wrapping (sorry about that, I prefer red and gold myself). Then I had to wait up all night for the owls from everyone else to arrive just so I could use them to send my own gifts off, talk about a hassle.
Speaking of owls, what in Merlin's name did you do to the one that delivered my gift? When I tried to remove the gift from his leg he went completely nuts, I thought he was going to take my head off. Did you try to find the most spastic school owl as a joke? Because I risked life and limb just to retrieve my gift. When I finally did manage to untie it, he flew straight out the window faster than you can say 'Quidditch.' So much for using your owl to deliver your gift right? I had to use James' owl for both your gift and his gift so hopefully yours arrived in time.
About my gift (so I opened it a little early, hex me). I love it. I can't believe you drew this, if I hadn't seen your sketches that night in the common room I would swear you hired someone to do it. I've hidden it in my underwear drawer so my mum doesn't see it since she would toss it out, but it means a lot that you would go through the trouble of making something for me. You must be really bored at Hogwarts if you're spending what looks like hours sketching. How is staying at Hogwarts by the way?
I'm not sure the reason why you wanted to stay behind instead of going home, but if your home is anything at all like mine I don't fault you for that decision. James is fortunate to have two very understanding parents from what it sounds like and so it's hard for him to understand anything but that, not that I blame him for that. You can always talk to me Lex though, if you ever want to at least. I'm willing to listen to any gripes you may have about your own home and I can exchange some of mine.
You never seem to talk about home and I wish you would, I'm willing to listen since I am your friend Lex (well James, Remus and Peter are too but I'm cooler than they are). Hey, at least your family can't be any worse than being uptight Slytherin purebloods who believe Muggle borns should be locked away! Now I know why I'm in Gryffindor, you wouldn't believe the hogwash my mum spews out, I'm pretty close to ripping my ears off just so I don't have to listen to it anymore.
Well, I don't want to spoil your Christmas with rotten tales about my home life, but I hope you're having fun at the castle. Remember, no exploring without me! I hope you like your gift as well, I'm sure you will, I unlike James (who gives someone a dark detector when his very own parents are dark wizards, seriously!) am and excellent gift-giver.
I wish I were there and Happy Christmas,
Sirius
At that moment Lexie wished Sirius were at Hogwarts as well, he didn't seem to be having a very good holiday at all. She took hold of the green ribbon and untied it and carefully slid the wrappings aside, Lexie gasped.
Sirius had given her not only a brand new set of charcoals (very expensive ones too), but also a lovely set of pencils and a thick sketchbook. She picked up the sketchbook and breathed in the smell of new paper. Lexie gently fingered the pencils and the charcoals, they seemed too nice to open let alone use for actually drawing.
Once Lexie was done admiring them with her eyes, she gently cracked open the charcoals and ran her fingers over them, they felt silky underneath her fingertips and when she removed her hands she could see the dark black powder on them.
Sirius must have purchased her gift at a Muggle shop somewhere since by now she was pretty certain wizards don't use pencils since they still write with quills. That meant he must have escaped his parents somehow since she doubted they would let him even step foot in a Muggle shop, let alone purchase anything from one.
Lexie placed Sirius' gift next to the other two and fingered the locket around her neck, this had without a doubt been the best Christmas of her life.