When I woke up it was to the pleasant sight of festively wrapped gifts at the bottom of my bed.
I grinned, remembering it was Christmas, and crawled to the end of my bed. I crossed my legs and grabbed one from the small pile.
The gift was wrapped in a bright green paper with red stars decorating all over it. I ripped away the paper and opened the box to reveal a flashy red cloak with Gryffindor animatedly dancing about the fabric. I picked up the card sitting in the box and read it:
To: Miss Danielle Abby
I hope you have a very merry Christmas, my dear.
–Albus Dumbledore
I set the card aside with a small smile, along with the cloak, absently deciding I would wear it for the day. Ever since the incident with the newspaper Dumbledore has apologized several times and I've pretty much forgiven him. I still think he's a dick though.
The next present I grabbed had silver wrapping paper with a green ribbon wrapped around it. I carefully untied the ribbon and ripped open the paper. Inside was a brand new journal and quill, both black. I read the card and saw it was from professor Slughorn, wishing me a Merry Christmas.
Another gift was given to me by Minerva. When I talked with her she would sometimes start getting really into the topic of Quidditch. When I told her I've never been on a broom, much less played the game, she looked horrified. It came as no surprise to me when I received a Quidditch rule book and how to play the game.
The last gift was from Hagrid, and seeing the messily wrapped package made me smile. He gave me some kind of, well it was a rock. His card he explained them as "rock cakes". I soon threw them out when I almost broke my teeth trying to bite into one, but it's the thought that counts.
I donned on some simple black slacks and my red tshirt. The red cloak from Dumbledore was thrown over my shoulders as I left the common room, throwing my hair into a messy bun as I went.
Breakfast was being held in the Great Hall, and I decided I would join everyone this morning before going off to continue practicing my animagus transformation. I was definitely making some progress and I was really excited.
It was a relatively silent meal, the only words exchanged were the usual "Merry Christmas" and "Thank you". I saw Dumbledore looking at me with his twinkling eyes as he commented on how he loved my cloak. My response was a smile of thanks and a knowing wink. Riddle was pretty quiet though. I saw him giving me side-long glances but he said nothing as he quietly ate his breakfast.
As I left the Great Hall I turned to make it up to the sixth floor when someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned around and saw Riddle standing behind me, looking everywhere but at me. "Thank you, for the gifts".
I barely heard him but I was surprised he said thank you. I never imagined Riddle to be much of the thanking type, and by his current attempts to avoid looking me in the eye I would say I was correct. "You're welcome" and with that I strode away.
When I turned a corner I made it to the nearest entrance to a secret passage and quickly entered. I made my way up to the sixth floor until I left the passages and scurried over to the blank wall. I set my hand on the wall again and at first nothing happened, until the wall rippled and my hand slowly sunk in. I walked foreword into the familiar multi-colored room.
"Look who it is!" said a booming voice, "It's been awhile Lady Danielle!"
I smiled up at Godric's portrait, "Indeed it has" I agreed. I settled down into one of the rooms couches and wished each founder a Merry Christmas, the greeting was happily reciprocated.
We talked about nonessential things for a couple hours before Godric brought up the topic of how I dueled with Grindelwald. I groaned, not really wanting to talk about it but knowing he would probably pester me until I talked.
I told them everything from what I was doing out in the first place all the way up to when I was brought back to the castle. I didn't leave any detail out, not even when I had killed that man. Even with Salazar's pep talk the other day I still felt understandably horrible about it, but the rest of the founders were quick to reassure me that the man most likely deserved it for what he was going to do to the little girl, and any past actions.
Checking the time I saw it was close to lunch time. I wouldn't go to the Hall until dinner and I decided I spent enough time with the founders and I left the room and began heading towards the RoR.
Once there I settled into the Room with ease. Animagus books lined the shelves of the room and I took the one I had been using down from a shelf. I sat cross legged in the middle of the floor and closed my eyes, focussing on my magic.
I focused on an image of my hands and pushed my magic into how I wanted them to change into paws. After much practice I felt my hands slowly but surely start to grow fur and my bones painfully shift into wolf paws. When I opened my eyes I smiled down at what were once my hands but we're now instead paws, fairly large paws too. They were covered with sleek black fur and I was pleased to see the fur had slightly continued up my arm and covered my wrists. I only started with my hands because I didn't want to try a full body transformation and accidentally get stuck in the animagus form, or end up only partially transformed.
I scrambled onto my knees and decided to try another transformation. Closing my eyes again I focused on an image of my back near my tailbone and focused my magic on trying to grow a tail. My tailbone started feeling really hot, on the verge of burning, when I felt as if the bones of my spine were being stretched. The pain became to unbearable and I stopped the flow of my magic.
I panted for a couple seconds before shedding my cloak and lifting up my shirt to get a better look at my lower back. What I saw made my eyebrows rise slightly. I reached back and touched the bone that was once my tailbone but was now elongated about five inches covered in black fur that continued up my spine. I took a deep breath and focused on making both my paws and the short tail go away. The pain returned but it wasn't as horrible as when the tail first appeared. When I looked back I saw both the tail and the fur had disappeared, along with the return of my hands.
Stretching until I heard the satisfying sound of my bones popping, I rid myself of any lingering pain and returned to my cross legged position. I decided I would focus on the tail at another time and for now just stick with my arms.
This continued on for several hours until Hatty popped in, saying it was almost time for dinner before popping out. I looked down at my arms and found that by now the fur had reached up to my elbows and my forearms now looked more like a dogs then a humans. Technically a wolf not a dog, but whatever.
I slowly changed my arms back to normal before leaving the RoR and making my way down to the Great Hall. Dinner was just as quiet as breakfast, only this time we had quite the feast of mashed potatoes, a roast, and my favorite part was the chocolate cake.
That night as I laid in bed I couldn't help but feel that this was probably the best Christmas I've ever had.
It was December 31st and I was utterly lost.
I was standing in the kitchens with the houselves bustling about around me. I had asked them for some cake ingredients and they happily gave me some. My only problem was, was I didn't know how to bake. At all.
"Hatty?" said houself was quick to join my side.
"Yes, mistress Abby?"
"Do you know how to bake a cake? At least the steps?"
She nodded her head, flapping her bat-like ears about. "Yes, Hatty be's knowing how to bake."
"Do you think you could help me?"
She looked up at me with wide eyes and gave a small squeal of excitement. That should have been my warning to run away.
Hatty was like a drill sergeant when it came to baking. She was telling me to do this that and the other, and I did my best to keep up but it was hard! At one point she even wicked me with a wooden spoon because I accidentally got an egg shell in the mix.
Thankfully when the cake was done all I had left to do was put some frosting on it, and it was a much simpler task to just put some chocolate frosting all over the cake then the process of baking it.
I stood back to admire my work, but I felt like something was missing. I rubbed my chin and snapped my fingers when I knew what it was. I asked Hatty for some kind of plastic bag and some green frosting.
She happily gave me what I asked for, and I filled the bag with the frosting before twisting it closed and cutting a small hole in a corner of the bag. I angled the bag onto the top of the cake and slowly but surely wrote out Happy Birthday Tom. It was rather messy but I didn't care.
I picked up the round chocolate cake and left the kitchens, along with a gift I hadn't given him in Christmas. For Christmas I had given him the cloak, and for his birthday today I was going to give him the parselbook I found in Borgin & Burkes.
Quickly making my way through the dungeons I finally made it to the common room entrance and happily slipped through when the wall opened up without hesitation.
I surveyed the empty common room and frowned when I realized Riddle wasn't there. I huffed a little and set the gift and the cake onto the table in front of the fire. Disappointed I wasn't going to see Riddle's reaction to my surprise I put a charm over the cake to keep it warm and left the common room. The wall closing behind me with a dull thunk.
Up in his dormitory one Tom Marvolo Riddle was laying in his bed, sneering up at the canopy of his bed. He remembered very well what today was and he wasn't thrilled about it.
Most kids would be excited or happy over waking up on their birthday but not Tom. To him this was just another insignificant day of the year. Why should it be when it was never celebrated when he was a child? If anything he loathed this day. This was when his mother had died giving birth to him and left him to grow up in that pathetic orphanage.
His musings were cut short by the dull thunk of the common room entrance closing. He sat up from his bed and grabbed his wand from his side dresser.
He got up from his bed and cautiously made his way to the common room. Angry someone had ruined his morning he was ready to cure the insufferable intruder, no matter who it was.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs he examined every inch of the common room but found nothing there. He lowered his wand a fraction and was about to go back up to his room when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes.
Turning he pointed his wand but instead found nothing dangerous at all, but what looked to be…he blinked, a cake?
Walking forward he looked around once more before setting his wand down in the table next to the cake and noticed the gift on the side. He carefully picked it up and casted some detection spells over the package to make sure it wasn't cursed in anyway, before he cautiously opened the paper and found it to be a book.
He would have thought the book to be insignificant but he realized that it wasn't written in English, but in parseltongue. He grinned at the thought of owning such a rare book that only he could read, but then he saw a small card stuck under the cover. He carefully pulled it from the book and flipped it over to read the inscription Happy Birthday Riddle. I would have kept the book for myself, but I'm not that into dark magic. I still have to read that dark magic history book I got back during the summer. –D. Abby.
He set the card down with a smirk It seems I'm no longer the only one who can read such books anymore he thought.
He set the book down and looked at the cake sitting in front of him. Casting a few detection charms to make sure it was safe to eat, unsurprised to find out the cake was alright.
Using his wand he conjured a plate and a fork. He cut a piece of cake and set it onto the plate before taking a small bite.
He took another bite of the moist cake and sank back into the couch Maybe today won't be too bad.
