Chapter 17

Cnorth

Beta: Winthrops Slayer

Disclaimer: All HP Characters belong to JKR.

A/N: Hope all of you enjoy this chapter, I realize that the gifts may seem a little odd to some of you, but trust me, it's very in tune with each person's personality.

It was Christmas morning, and Whitney was the first one awake, closely followed by Shaylin. The two realized that they had fallen asleep in the group common room again, and looking around, discovered the heap of presents that took up a good portion of the floor. A Christmas tree was in the corner, and a roaring fire blazed in the fireplace.

They quickly woke the others after bringing down the gifts they had gotten for their friends and placing them in front of the tree. Chelli shook her head as she looked at the huge pile of gifts, unable to believe that they had gotten so many. Sure, there were a lot of people in the room, but even so, that meant a lot of gifts for each of them. She stalked over to the stack, searching for any with her name on them. Sure enough, there were about 10-15 gifts for her. She reached to pick one up, smiling when she saw it was from Fred. He had gone home over the break, and she had realized that, even with all the events that were taking place, she still missed him. Not even paying attention to the flurry of motion around her as others ran up to get their gifts, Chelli drifted over to one of the large armchairs in the common room, sitting down and beginning to unwrap the precious gift.

She pulled the paper off slowly, gazing in wonder as she saw a soft, silky fabric revealing itself. She pushed the rest of the paper off, and was amazed to find an invisibility cloak in her lap. She had no idea how Fred could have afforded it-even with the revenues from his shop, surely he couldn't be well off enough to afford such a prize!

Meanwhile, Hollie had moved to the pile, slightly grumpy with sleepiness, but at the same time bouncing with Christmas enthusiasm. She grabbed a package from Stacy, grinning at her friend as she ripped away the wrapping paper, tore away the box top, and found a black leather lace up corset inside. Hollie, despite her small stature and peppy nature, loved all things dominatrixish, and owned a riding crop, as well as a pair of fuzzy handcuffs.

Stacy chuckled, knowing the girl would find the remains of the outfit in other boxes. All the others had collaborated with her…Ashley had gotten Hollie a pair of black leather go go boots, for instance. The only wildcard was Malfoy…she had told him about the plan, but somehow she doubted he would go along that easily. He was more the type to want to find something truly unique that would make all the rest of the gifts seem obsolete.

Luna and Kevin soon joined them in the common room, since somehow their gifts had ended up there as well, and both began opening the many gifts they had gotten from friends, colleagues, and students alike.

Ashley noticed a very small gift bag laying by the stairs, and walked over to grab it. "Hey, Holls, here's another one for you!" she yelled, barely able to make herself heard over the racket from everybody being so excited and all of them crinkling gift wrap.

The tiny blonde bounced over, and snatched the gift bag excitedly. She reached down into it, and everyone was surprised when a bright flash of light covered the whole room. When it disappeared, the area in front of the stairs was a stage, and Hollie squealed when she saw who stood upon it.

Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor (otherwise known as Queen) stood on the stage, blinking down at them owlishly, confused and extremely disoriented.

"Where are we?" Brian muttered, his guitar clutched possessively in his arms.

Freddie grinned, and said, "Let me handle this," before hopping off the stage and down to stand next to Hollie. "Is this Hogwarts?"

She nodded, unsure of how he knew that. Turning to grin at his bandmates, Mercury said, "Welcome to my school, boys. C'mon, we're obviously here for a concert!"

"But how'd we get here?" John asked, before being shushed by Freddie, who, with a gleam in his eye, had gotten back onto the stage.

The music began, and before long, they had played six numbers, including Seven Seas of Rhye, We Are the Champions, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

After Queen was gone, and Hollie had thanked Jenny for the wonderful gift, everyone went back to opening gifts.

Whitney got 5 pairs of tickets to any Broadway show she wanted from Lori, a book on Costume Design from Ashley, and a stage makeup kit from Luna.

Laura, who was finally out of the hospital wing from her near-death experience outside Hogsmeade, had been sorted into Hufflepuff, and now joined the others. She got several books, and High School Musical on DVD as her Christmas gifts.

Ashley was given many things that related to how to care for Fawkes, an invisibility cloak from all of the Gryffindor girls, an owl from Joe, and new shoes and a new messenger back from Laura and Lori.

Hollie, in addition to what she had already opened, received a bull whip, Ashley's boots, a potions kit from Draco that was supposed to heal vampire bites (but also apparently worked on hickeys), and a pair of thigh high fishnets with ribbons laced up the back and bows on top from Lori, along with a giant map of Scotland and France that allowed her to touch the map and suddenly be in whatever city she touched, holding another map so she could get back whenever she chose to.

Lori received many books about the Wizarding World, and refills on her parchment and ink, and her potions supplies. She also got a new cauldron, and a new set of knives for cooking.

Joe was thrilled when he opened his gift from Ashley and found a new laptop. He got a firebolt from his friends in Ravenclaw, an owl from Whitney, a new telescope from Lori, and a 1000 galleons from his Uncle Bob. That confused him, but then he found a note inside saying "Surprise! I'm a wizard too!"

Shaylin, rather than gifts, found a note for her that told her to look outside. When she did, she gasped as she saw the beautiful creature hovering outside the Gryffindor windows. "A winged horse! Oh my god! Those are really rare!"

Stacy grinned evilly as she reached for her gift from Hollie, and wasn't surprised when, on opening it, she found a perfect copy of the Marauders Map. Hollie had figured out how to copy it when they stole it from Harry, so now the biggest pranksters in their group also had one.

Chelli, other than the Invisibility Cloak, had received a new Spike calendar (her favorite character off of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer), seasons 1-4 of Angel, and a note saying that Lori would make anything she wanted, dessert wise, if she just came down to the kitchen.

After everyone was finished opening gifts, they went back to their individual common rooms, and Hollie was surprised to find one more gift for her, sitting on her bed. It was a long, shallow box, from Draco. She picked it up, opening it carefully, and gasped when she saw the beautiful black velvet choker with one diamond set in the middle. She immediately put it on, and rushed out of the common room to go find, and thank, the Slytherin.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the castle, a hand reached out from under a bed, throwing a shoe as far as it could send it, into a large room that was down a flight of stairs from the bed.

Hollie raced down to the dungeons, using her copy of the Marauders Map to avoid all slytherins but the one she wanted to find. She had borrowed Chelli's new invisibility cloak as well, so no one saw her when she snuck into the Slytherin common room. She spotted Draco, but as she was sneaking up on him, a shoe came hurtling out of nowhere and hit her in the head. She reached down, and was amazed to see a very familiar looking shoe.

"This is Courtney's…" she whispered, surprised. The girl wasn't with them at Hogwarts, although Hollie had never been able to find the portrait of her that should have been around somewhere. She got out the map, and looked, and sure enough, there was a stationary dot reading "Courtney W." a floor above her. Looking wistfully at Draco, she took to the stairs, and before long, was pulling her friend out from under a bed. The girl was covered in dust, was slightly emaciated like she hadn't had much to eat in a while.

Once they had her safely out of the common room, Hollie hurriedly took Courtney to the hospital wing, and was told that the girl had apparently been living off of old stale cereal. Unfortunately, that was all she knew, not even knowing whose bed she had been under, having only seen ankles.

Professor McGonagall came to see her in the hospital wing, sighing and saying, "Not another one," before continuing on with her business.