Christmas
Yukimura Seiichi
The majority of the castle's residents departed for winter break several days before Christmas. Students hurried towards the horseless carriages that carried students to Hogsmeade Station with their trunks in tow and good-byes shouted over their shoulders.
Akiteru said good-bye to Yukimura and Sanada during breakfast then rushed off to join a group of boys and girls comprised of students from all four houses. Yukimura watched curiously as the Slytherin boy slid seamlessly into the group.
With few exceptions, Slytherins talked primarily to other Slytherins. Fuji and Oshitari were notable as they both belonged to separate, large groups of friends with students from every house led by Tezuka and Atobe respectfully. But the fact still remained that most people in their house were disliked by everyone else overall, making it difficult to talk to students in other houses, let alone befriend them.
They finished breakfast quickly to say good-bye to Marui and Jackal, who would not be staying for break. They passed by Yagyuu and Niou, who were not talking but walking alongside one another towards the carriages.
Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi could hear the Hogwarts Express' wailing whistle from the castle courtyard where they were practicing their Levitation Charm by putting together a snowman. Sanada didn't dare cast the charm after what happened in class—the last thing he needed was to send a snowball flying fifty feet into the air and have it come crashing down onto their heads—though he did help find tiny stones for the snowman's face and buttons.
Very few students had stayed at Hogwarts for the break. The Slytherin common room was all but empty and there was no longer any underhanded, passive-aggressive competition for the well sought after seats in front of the fire, though Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi had no time to spend in the common room.
The trio spent the days before Christmas in the library, leaving only to sleep and attend meals, which were far more depressing without Marui and Jackal coming over to arbitrarily pester them, or Fuji there to talk about plants, or Niou to ask about Transfiguration.
Eventually they became sick of the library and decided to explore the castle and grounds together. They walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest but did not dare go inside. The next day, they discovered that some plant in Greenhouse Four made horrible hissing noises from right after lunch to five thirty in the afternoon. Sanada and Yanagi would not let Yukimura go into the greenhouse and investigate what was making the noise, saying he would end up dead.
"Not if I'm careful," Yukimura said.
Sanada and Yanagi made Yukimura promise not to inspect the mysterious hissing plant.
On Christmas morning, Yukimura jumped out of bed out of his bed and onto Sanada's, kneeling next to the sleeping boy. "Genichirou, wake up. It's Christmas!"
Startled, Sanada sat up right. He drew his wand from under his pillow, saw Yukimura smiling, and then lowered it with a heavy sigh. He said, "Don't scare me like that."
"It's Christmas!" Yukimura repeated happily.
He moved to Yanagi's bed next, ready to jump on his friend to wake him up, when he saw that Yanagi was already sitting upright and was perfectly awake.
"You already woke me up," Yanagi said, smiling.
There was a large pile of neatly wrapped gifts at the bottom of each of their beds. At the foot of Yukimura's bed were boxes with large, bouncing silver bows and shiny, golden wrapping paper, and more obscure shapes in blue wrapping with moving snowflakes that piled in mounds at the creases, and a parcel wrapped in the third page of last week's Daily Prophet, which was no doubt from Akiteru. Sanada's presents were very similarly wrapped while Yanagi's were wrapped in stationary paper, which was fascinated Yukimura.
The three sat on the floor of their room with their presents, making quick work of the intricate wrapping and carefully tied bows.
Yukimura received two gifts from Sanada: a small copper container with broom polish and a thick encyclopedia called Magical Plants of the World Volume I, which had moving illustration that showed the plants in their various life stages. Yanagi gave him a strange muggle contraption to write with called a fountain pen, which had a small ink well inside of it.
Sanada opened his gift from Yanagi and stared at it. It was a black fabric thing that Yukimura recognized vaguely but did not know the name of.
"What is this?" Sanada asked.
"A baseball hat," Yanagi said. "You wear it on your head. I thought it would suit you. You don't have to wear it if you don't like it."
Sanada put the dark hat on his head with the flap hanging out over his eyes. He looked at Yanagi. "Is this right?"
Yanagi nodded.
"It does suit you," Yukimura said honestly. "Does it do anything special?"
"It keeps the sun from your eyes," Yanagi said, amused.
They finished opening their presents.
Yukimura's parents sent him several books on Quidditch he had asked for and a large amount of sweets; Emiko made him cookies, which tasted like she used salt instead of sugar; his house elf, Pisky, had knitted him a soft cream-colored hat. Sanada's parents sent Yukimura a new navy blue sweater with a heating charm. Akiteru gave him a book called The Dark Arts Outsmarted with a note warning him not to try these spells in front of the professors or other students until at least fourth year, or they'll think he's up to something.
Sanada opened a small black book with gold leaf on the page edges and skimmed through it. The spine read Countering Black Magic. Yukimura assumed it was from his brother.
Yanagi had received a large stack of books that included Yukimura's gift, The Complete Magical Herbalist.
"We should move to the common room in front of the fire so we can all read," Yukimura said. "I want to read the book Akiteru gave me. I think it has some interesting spells in it."
Sanada and Yanagi seemed to think that was a brilliant idea. They each took the one or two books they were most eager to read, their warmest blankets, and several different types of treats, and went into the common room where they sunk into the large plush chairs in front of the warm fire with their legs tucked safely underneath them. They passed back and forth Emiko's cookies, the peppermint bark Mrs. Yanagi made, and the Glacial Snow Flakes from Yukimura's parents, but remained relatively silent as they read.
Before they knew it, hours had past, and it was time for dinner in the Great Hall. They tucked their belongings back into their dorm room then hurried through the dungeons and up the stairs to the feast.
Warm, dry snow fell from the enchanted ceiling and melted upon landing, and the student tables were scarcely filled. Slytherin had the least students with few others besides Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi.
The faculty table was nearly empty as well. There was Professor Reyna, who was dressed in black despite it being a holiday, Professor Watanabe, who looked like he had a bit too much fire whiskey, Professor Kurobe, and two children that Yukimura did not recognize.
There was a young boy, about nine years old, who was sitting next to Professor Kurobe at the faculty table at the front of the Great Hall. The boy had wavy dark brown hair that came down to his chin and bore the same light brown eyes as the professor. He was waving his hands as he told some grand story while Professor Kurobe listened intently and nodded with a gentle expression. Yukimura figured the boy was Professor Kurobe's son.
Further down the table, a young girl was standing on a chair to reach the potatoes on the opposite side of the table. She looked to be about seven years old. She had more red in her hair than the young boy and Professor Kurobe, but she had Professor Kurobe's long face and fair skin. She was just short of reaching the bowl of potatoes in front of Professor Reyna. With a blank expression, Professor Reyna slid the bowl closer to the girl's hands. The young girl grasped the bowl and returned to her seat on Professor Kurobe's other side. She must have been Professor Kurobe's daughter.
As expected, the feast was fantastic. There were fat roasted turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of peas, silver boats of gravy and cranberry sauce, and much more that made Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi eat well past their limits.
At the same time the desserts appeared—bowls of Christmas pudding, cakes three layers tall, fudge as thick as a book, and delicious chocolate pies—there was a loud blast like a canon. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi looked at the professors' table and saw a cloud of light blue smoke. Professor Kurobe was smiling at his children.
"What was that?" Yanagi asked, horrified.
"Wizard Crackers," Yukimura said. "They have hats and gifts inside. They sound like a canon."
Yanagi calmed down slightly, though still looked startled. "Muggles have those too."
"Really?" Sanada asked.
"Muggle crackers may be slightly different, though," Yanagi said as Professor Kurobe's daughter put on a large musketeer hat with a feather plume and his son held up a live kitten, asking to keep it. "Ours come with paper hats and certainly don't have live animals. They're also much quieter."
"How strange," Yukimura said. Muggle life fascinated him. He had already asked Yanagi all about muggle Christmas, and in turn told Yanagi everything he need to know about wizard Christmas to help Yanagi keep up appearances and to satisfy his friend's boundless curiosity.
Professor Kurobe's daughter gave her hat to Professor Reyna, who wore it with a comically straight face. The professor had to blow air out of the corner of her mouth to keep the feather out of her face.
Yukimura was nearly done with his third bowl of pudding when Professor Kurobe's children approached them.
The boy was holding the white kitten in his arms while his sister carried armfuls of colorful tubes with twisted ends—Wizard Crackers.
"Our dad told us to pass these out to everyone!" the young girl said with a bright smile. She was missing several teeth. Yukimura suddenly missed his little sister terribly and made note to write her a letter before break ended wishing her a happy Christmas and new year.
"Thank you. Happy Christmas," Yukimura said. The two children echoed him then went further down the Slytherin table where a lone fourth year was sitting.
Yukimura looked up at the staff table where Professor Kurobe nodded, smiled, and lifted his cup in a wordless toast.
They opened their crackers together with three echoing canon blasts loud enough to make their ears ring. Yukimura's cracker spit up red and green bits of confetti, while live song birds flew out of Sanada's, and Yanagi's produced a long phoenix feather quill.
Yukimura dusted off the top hat that came with his and put it on Sanada's head, smiling. "Perfect fit, don't you think?"
Sanada blushed and took off the hat. "I like the hat Yanagi gave me more."
After the feast had ended, Yukimura decided to take a walk around the castle. Sanada and Yanagi chose not to join him.
"I want to take a bath," Sanada said. He still had bits of confetti from Yukimura's Wizard Cracker in his hair.
"And I want to look over the book you gave me a bit more," Yanagi said. "Magical plants are quite different from muggle plants…"
"Seiichi can go on for days about plants," Sanada said.
"I wouldn't mind listening."
Yanagi looked at Yukimura, who smiled and said, "I won't be long."
There was little of the visible castle that he had yet to explore. He did not know how many more rooms remained hidden from him. Until just recently, he had not known where the kitchens were located. There was still much to find and he was determined to find it all.
He walked through the long corridor to the Astronomy Tower and passed the Grey Lady, who nodded but did not stop to talk. She was the least sociable of the ghosts, rarely talking to students even within her own house, and there was little about her in the history books. There was more about every other ghost than the Grey Lady.
At the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, in a circular room with a ascending spiral staircase, he found small, worn out gems that looked as old as the castle embedded into the stones in the walls—one was a moon and one was a sun. He ran his fingers along the sun, the stone rough beneath his fingers.
"You have been lurking where you should not."
A woman's voice.
Yukimura turned.
The Grey Lady had followed him. Like all ghosts, she was pale, nearly white, and wore clothes from her time period some hundred years ago. She looked frighteningly familiar though Yukimura did not know to whom. He was sure he had seen her face before…
"I'm not lurking," Yukimura said.
"I do not know what you wish to do with what you find at the end of your path, but I advise you to stop searching. If you do not, you may come to regret it in the future."
"Are you threatening me?" Yukimura asked calmly.
"No. In this form I hold no power in the mortal world. I can only offer guidance." The Grey Lady swept into the Astronomy Tower. As she approached, the temperature dropped. Yukimura felt his skin bump. "What is lost should remain lost, and what is dead should remain dead. You have been warned."
"Warned of what?"
"That is for you to discover, though I hope you do not in the end." The Grey Lady turned to float back the way she came. "Tell your father I send my regards."
Yukimura stepped after her, only once, before he regained his composure. He would not go chasing a ghost for answers about his history.
"You knew my father?" he asked quickly. "He never mentioned you."
The ghost paused. She looked over her shoulder, her once-dark hair spilling over her shoulder. He was sure of it now—he had seen her somewhere—but he still did not know where.
"Your father was sorted into my house," the Grey Lady said. "He was one of the brightest wizards of his generation, though a poor spell caster. You are not cursed, nor is your family, if that is your question. I told your father the same. He did not seem to believe me, no matter how many times I assured him."
Yukimura paused. He nodded.
The ghost turned and left.
Yukimura lingered in the Astronomy Tower for several moments, rethinking the Grey Lady's advice, then left to return to the common room.
Why should Ravenclaw's library be lost, and what did that have to do with the dead remaining dead? Was the Grey Lady even talking about the library at all? And if she knew about the library, why wasn't she pointing students from her own house towards it?
There were too many possibilities, too many questions, and unlike exploring the castle, he felt as though he did not have six years to figure out the answers.
He reached the common room before he knew it. He sat next to Sanada in front of the fire, tucking his legs against his chest and frowning in deep thought, but did not say anything to his friends about the matter.
Sanada and Yanagi looked up from their books to look at him.
"You're thinking about something strange," Sanada said, obviously concerned. His hair was still damp from his bath. "I can tell."
There was no use hiding this from them. He asked, "Do you think there could be something bad in Ravenclaw's lost library? Something dark, something that should remain hidden?"
Sanada frowned deeply; he was clearly as confused as Yukimura was about the whole thing.
"I thought there would be books in it," Sanada said.
"I essentially thought the same," Yanagi said. "What else would the map lead to?"
Yukimura hummed in thought. He could not think of an answer.
"Why are you asking?" Yanagi asked.
"The Grey Lady—Ravenclaw's ghost—stopped me when I near the Astronomy Tower and told me to stop lurking."
"Were you lurking?" Sanada asked with a judgmental look that meant he clearly thought Yukimura was lurking.
Yukimura didn't answer Sanada's question. He said, "She told me 'what is lost should remain lost, and what is dead should remain dead.'" Yukimura looked between his friends. "What could that mean?"
"Lost knowledge?" Yanagi suggested.
"I thought the same thing," Yukimura said, "but why would the ghost of Ravenclaw, a house that values knowledge, tell me to let the knowledge fade out? And what did she mean about mentioning the dead?"
"Does it even matter what a ghost told you?" Sanada asked. "We'll find the library or whatever this scroll is leading us to eventually."
Yukimura knew that Sanada was right; thinking about what the scroll led to would not change what they found. They have time to dwell on the Grey Lady's cryptic warning. He had the second riddle to solve and he was eager to learn the spells in the books Akiteru had given him and Sanada.