Chapter Twenty.
Best Christmas Ever.
One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts found itself buried in several feet of pure white snow, it seemed almost immediately that the Weasley twins took the opportunity to cause havoc by bewitching several snowballs so they followed Professor Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. As my life had been surrounded by the Dursley's, Christmas was never an exciting time for me or Harry but as it edged closer, I found myself for the first time since a little kid, being exited about the thought of the twenty-fifth of December not because of the snow or the fact Harry and I are older, but because this Christmas we wouldn't be with the Dursley's.
Hogwarts gives students the opportunity to stay at the school over holidays if they don't wish to go back home. Professor McGonagall had come round a few weeks before term finished for Christmas and Harry and I signed up at once, and because Hermione was adventuring home for Christmas, the school even granted me permission to stay in the Gryffindor dorms with Hermione's consent to stay in her bed.
The entire school was practically buzzing with excitement, even the Slytherins wouldn't contain their excitement for the holidays to start, in the common room presents where exchanged whilst a large Christmas tree is placed in one of the corners decorated in – obviously – green and silver ordainments. The common room is naturally cold but even in the winter, we needed to fight against the bitter cold. The prefects would ensure the fires wouldn't die -whilst casting warmth spells to keep the heat in. However, thanks to Hermione showing me the fire-in-a jam-jar spell, my dorm was toasty warm.
Like our common room, the Great Hall had a roaring fire however the corridors had become icy and bitter winds rattled the windows in every class room but the worst of all was Snape's classes down in the dungeons where our breaths rose in a mist before our faces and everyone would practically press up against the cauldrons to keep warm. And like every potions lesson, Snape paired up most of the students, incidentally placing me with Draco, Harry with Neville, Ron with Crabbe and Hermione with Pansy.
It had become very obvious that Draco was irritated by the results of the first Quidditch match of the season and had become even more unpleasant towards Harry than usual. At first he tried to get everyone laughing by saying that a tree-frog could replace Harry as Seeker but when he realised that no one found it funny, he returned to the cowardly taunting Harry about having no proper family – which made me grow so angry he's lucky I didn't attempt to drown him in the cauldron.
"I do feel sorry for all those people who have to stay at school for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." Draco said snidely as he glared over at Harry who was measuring out powder for the potion. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. It was then I lost my temper, carefully stamping my heel onto the toes of his foot which makes him flinch downwards, I lift up my heavy potions textbook which makes sharp contact with his forehead.
"Ugh!" Draco wailed. Harry had seen my actions and laughed so hard he accidentally blew powder into Seamus cauldron opposite which causes a loud bang and red sparks to explode into the room causing everyone to jump and small yelps of surprise.
"DETENTION FINNIGAN!" Snape bellowed over the noise of everyone coughing and waving their hands to try banish the smoke from our faces. Draco didn't appear to be very pleased with me but I didn't care, he didn't apologise however as we all pack our stuff up, he did seem angry with me, I was expecting a nasty comment or some sort of insult towards me or Harry but he simply walked out within the company of his minions.
I waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione and as we wandered off to our next lesson, the conversation turned form the disaster of Draco Malfoy to the three-headed dog on the third-floor and what is it guarding. The cold nipped at any exposed skin so we all had our scarf's tied around our necks as high as we could whilst our coats where buttoned up to the top.
"Okay, so we've established that it's guarding something and we know its a grubby little package but what is inside?" Harry questioned.
Ron signs, "Whatever it is, Snape risked it's life to get past it on Halloween. For Godsake, it's a bloody three-headed dog!" he hissed the last part angrily but only then did I notice the heavy footsteps, we all turned to greet the image of Hagrid in a large overcoat.
"How do you know about Fluffy?" he asked sternly.
"That thing has a name?" Hermione said sharply as we all walked across the grounds.
Hagrid looked down at us, "Of course – he's mine – then I leant him to Dumbledore to guard the –"
"Yes?" I asked eagerly.
The Gamekeeper growls, "I should not of said that, no more questions! That's top secret!"
"But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy is guarding, Snape trying to steal it!" Harry pleads.
Hagrid stops in his tracks, we all stop with him almost as if we are challenging him. "Rubbush! Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."
Hermione steps forward, "Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a jinx when I see one, you've got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking, he tried to kill Harry."
"Exactly." Harry said.
Hagrid leant forwards and with a stern face, he spoke in a deep and terrifying voice, "Now listen to me, all four of yeh – your meddlin' in things that ourt not to be meddled in." he gives us a firm look, "It's dangerous and what Fluffy is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel!"
That sparked all of our interests, Harry looked at me whilst Ron and Hermione shared familiar looks.
"Nicolas Flamel?" Harry said.
Hagrid's face fell violently, "I should not of said that." he mumbled to himself over and over again, but Hagrid had given us the next step to figuring out what was inside the brown package that Fluffy was guarding. The Gamekeeper walked off mumble words of annoyance to himself.
"Now we've got to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is." I smirked to Hermione who shared my sinister smile.
Ever since Hagrid let it slip, un the weeks leading up to the holidays, Hermione and I spent more time that was deemed healthy in the library trying to find any information on who Nicolas Flamel is so we could figure out what Snape was attempting to steal but the trouble was, never hearing of Nicolas Flamel before, it was almost impossible to know what he had done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was also missing from Important Modern Magical Discoveries and A Study of Recent Development in Wizardry. And it didn't help that the library was incredibly huge housing tens of thousands of books, thousands of shelves and hundreds of narrow rows. It would take us years to skim through all of the books.
And on the day before the holidays, I throw the twentieth book I've looked at onto the pile of useless books and groaned in defeat. "Given up?" a voice said from behind me, I turn to see Hermione holding a large trunk wearing normal clothes but still wearing her Gryffindor scarf.
I nod, "There is nothing here about Nicolas Flamel." I tell her, gathering the books and beginning to place them away, Hermione helps as we hold the books by the shelves in which I collected them from, letting go the book floats up into the slot on the shelve.
"How long have you got before the train leaves?" I ask as we adventure through the cold corridors towards the Great Hall where Ron and Harry had retreated to after an hour of helping me shift through books. The room had several people in it but it was easy to notice where my brother and his best friend is, considering they were surrounded by George and Fred who were chanting.
As Hermione and I got closer, we noticed a chessboard on the center of the table between Ron and Harry. Ron read out instructions to the board and without touching it, the queen came to life on the board, picked up her small chair before smashing the opposing chess-piece into pieces. I thought it was really cool and asked Ron to teach me over the holidays.
"That's barbaric!" Hermione objected.
"That's wizards chess." Ron smirks up at her before looking at her trunk, "See you've packed."
Hermione nods, "See you haven't."
I looked at Harry who raised an eyebrow at me, Ron's life at home sounded amazing, he was one of several children and always spoke very fondly of his parents and siblings so I was shocked to hear that he wouldn't be spending Christmas with them.
"Change of plans, my parents have decided their going to Romania to visit my brother Charlie, he's studying Dragons out there." Ron informs Hermione, my jaw practically hits the floor, his brother works with dragons!
"He works with dragons?!" I question, sounding a little too excited but Hermione doesn't give Ron the opportunity to reply to me.
"Well then, you can help Grace and Harry, searching for books on Flamel." Hermione tells Ron like a teacher.
The boys faces drop, "We've looked a hundred time." Ron objected.
Hermione leans in, "Not in the restricted section." she practically winks. All of our mouths dropped open, "Merry Christmas." she then says before hugging me and then departing. Taking a seat beside Ron I look at the boys who looked at each other in surprise.
"I think we've had a bad influence on her." Ron tells us, Harry and I laugh at Ron's statement, no doubt all remembering back to a time when Hermione wouldn't dare put a toe out of line. I nod in agreement before starting an entirely different conversation about dragons and Charlie with Ron whilst Harry practised wizards chess.
A few hours later, McGonagall approached us informing me that everyone in the Slytherin and Gryffindor common rooms had departed for home and I could then move into the Gryffindor dorms. Harry and Ron had been told to give me a hand with my trunk, not that I needed help but I think Professor McGonagall is trying to get Gryffindor and Slytherins to trust each other a bit more. As we approached the lower levels of Hogwarts, I could almost feel the boys getting more and more nervous and they began to whine about having to enter the Slytherin common room, not that Harry and Ron needed to worry because no one in Slytherin – aside from me – stays during the holidays, too much pure-blood family pride or something stupid so as I enter the common room, the fire is still roaring but you could hear a pin drop and the songs of creatures in the Black Lake.
"It's creepy in here." Ron remarks walking around the common room nervously as if a gang of Slytherins was going to jump out and attack them. Harry wanders over to the window that looks within the Black Lake, I hadn't spent much time looking out into the waters but Harry appeared to be memorized.
"You can sit down." I tell Ron has he nervously hop from foot-to-foot not knowing what to do.
Ron looked at me as if I was crazy, "No way, I might catch something." he almost hisses.
Scoffing, I grab a pillow from the black sofa beside me and threw it strongly at the red-head, he yelped as the soft pillow made direct contact with his face before chanting loudly, "Ron's got Slytherin cooties!" whilst dancing about like an idiot. Ron flushed deep red whilst Harry laughed.
"Stop being so whiny, not every Slytherin is like Draco Malfoy, okay?" I say, a little sharper than intended but it made me angry when Ron assumed that because some Slytherin students were far from pleasant, that everyone in that house is like that, I meant come on, Mae's brother is a Hufflepuff! – and lets be honest, some Gryffindor's have more pride than they know what to do with but not all of them are cocky and full of themselves.
We made quick work of collecting my trunk as well as Milo who purred happily at the sight of Harry and rubbed fondly up against his legs as he carried the end of my trunk and I carried the front, Ron still looks slightly disgusted that he had just been forced to go into the place where Slytherins sleep but after the firm hit with the pillow he seemed to get the hint.
The Gryffindor common room is located in many of the towers Hogwarts is made up of, it was so different from my common room, it was vast but incredibly cosy, curtains hung from the wall as well as moving photos with large rugs and large arm chairs as well as sofas with a huge open fire where above on the stone wall was a carving of the Gryffindor crest. There was several large windows as well as a table and chairs on the right just by the entrance from the small corridor into the common room.
Like my house common room, it was decorated with beautiful Christmas decorations and over the fireplace were three maroon felt stockings labelled with: R, H and G in golden thread. Harry helped me carry my trunk up the stairs to the balcony that over looks the common room, the door to the boys dorm was of the left whilst the door to the girls dormitory was to the right and considering that it was only me, Harry and Ron staying, Harry was allowed to actually enter the girls dormitory to show me where Hermione usually stays.
For the rest of the evening, Ron teaches me how to play wizards chess on the floor in front of the fire whilst Harry reads in the arm chair in the armchair beside us with Milo curled up in his lap. On Christmas Eve, I left the boys playing yet another game of wizards chess and went to meet with Professor McGonagall who had secretly been helping me guy presents for my friends, being a first year and not in her house, she wasn't able to grant me permission to go into Hogsmeade but agreed that if I provided a list and the money she would be more than happy to gather the items for me. I gave Hermione her presents before she left for home on the last day of term but gave her strict instructions not to open them until Christmas.
It was hard to sleep in the Gryffindor dorm's but it wasn't because I felt like I was almost cheating on my house but because as I laid in the soft sheets, my body tingled with excitement but as the clock struck twelve and Christmas day dawned, my eyelids eventually fell shut and I was wrapped in darkness.
"GRACE! WAKE UP!" the screams of Ron and Harry mixed with the loud bangs on the wooden door of the girls dormitory shock me from my sleep forcing me to sit up right in my bed. Without even changing from my nightdress, I grabbed my dressing gown and slipped on my slippers before racing for the common room. I'm shocked to see that beneath the Christmas tree is a large selection of gifts put into three piles, admittedly one pile was bigger than the other two but the boys seemed excited nonetheless.
"Your pile is on the left." Harry said diving for the pile on the right.
I stare at them in shock, "I've got presents?"
Without even looking at me the boys nodded, we unwrapped our presents happily. I was surprised to find that Ron had gotten me a present, after our conversation about his brother who works with Dragons, Ron had given me a necklace with the tooth of a Swedish Short-Snout. Hermionehad bought me a book on advanced Transfiguration as she knows how much I enjoy the lessons, Mae had bought me a box of chocolates whilst Pansy had got me a very expensive looking snake broach. I picked up a thick brown parcel that had To Grace, from Hagrid scribbled across the top, inside was a beautifully carved flute.
Picking up the smallest item of all, I read the note that simply read, enclosed Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Sellotaped to the note was a fifty-pence pieces.
"That's nice." I say sarcastically screwing up the note, Harry held up the exact same item. Ron seemed so surprised by the shape of the money therefore we just threw them at him so he could examine them closer.
"Who sent these?" Harry asked picking up two parcels from beneath the tree, one labelled H and the other G. Ron's pale skin has turned pink with embarrassment.
"My mum, I told her that you two didn't expect any presents." Ron explained in a low voice before tugging on the jumper that he wore, it was maroon colour with small white spots with a large R in the center of his chest sewn in gold thread, "It's a Weasley jumper for you both."
True to his word, as Harry and I ripped open our presents we were greeted by a thick hand-knitted sweater in a beautiful lilac purple with a large G on the front and a large box of home-made fudge. Without hesitation, I remove my dressing gown and put on the sweater which made Ron smile.
Harry had gotten me a "best sister" bracelet whilst I has gotten him a holder for his wand – knowing that he had a tendency to break his glasses, I would help protect his wand – after this, there was only one parcel left on my pile, it was a box no bigger than the palm of my hand and as I picked it up I realised that it was light with a note attached that read:
This belonged to your mother before she died.
I hope you admire it as much as she did.
There was no name or any hint of a signature however I ripped the perfectly packaged item open to reveal a carved box and inside was the most beautiful locket I had ever seen – admittedly I hadn't seen many items of jewellery but this one was incredibly – the chain was silver and the locket itself was decorated with green vines with a large stag silhouette in the center. Turning the locket over in my hand, the inscription in the back reads: Yours Forever. Slipping my nail in the gap around the locket, I pry it open to reveal two pictures, moving pictures. The one of the left is of dad twirling my mum about in the snow in front of a water fountain and the photo in the middle is of mum holding Harry whilst dad held me as Harry and I fused about being apart whilst mum and dad laughed at us before sharing a quick kiss.
"What you got?" Harry asked as he unwrapped his present. I handed it too him and watched his soften, he smiles warmly before handing it back and continuing to study his present. "What is that?" I ask him putting on the locket.
Harry shrugged, "A cloak."
"Put it on then." Ron suggested. Harry nodded and stood up, the cloak was shiny and silvery but the patterns on the front appeared to be almost like water colours, before my brother has a chance I touch the cloak, it was strange to the touch almost like water was woven into the silk material. And as Harry threw the cloak over his shoulder, Ron and I watched in complete amazement as the body of my brother completely disappeared.
Turning to Ron who shared the same expression as me, we stood up dropping the sweets we had been eating to the floor as Harry raised a questionable eyebrow at us. "What?" he asked.
"That's an Invisibility Cloak." said Ron almost like it wasn't surprisingly at all. It was Harry's turn to share my expression as he looked down to see what I assume to be the floor. And then his expression turned to the same as Ron's – pure excitement.
"My bodies gone!" he exclaimed twirling round.
"Who sent it?" I asked picking up the note which read:
Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
Like my locket, there was no signature or name. A complete mystery, however we couldn't revel in the mystery for long, it was almost twelve o'clock and we knew that Christmas dinner was going to be served soon. We put our presents upstairs and change into normal clothing – still wearing our Weasley jumpers – and raced down to the Great Hall to find that Professor McGonagall who wore a beautiful red pin and Professor Dumbledore, who had swapped his regular pointed hat for a flowered bonnet, where sat on one of the student tables. We joined them and shared Christmas stories, I expected them to vacate to the High Table when the food was scheduled to appear but they didn't. They remained sat with us as we discussed family, Christmas and McGonagall even helped with some of the Transfiguration we didn't understand.
And as we stuffed our faces with the endless food available, I looked over at my brother who smiled at me warmly before raising his glass filled with steaming hot chocolate.
"To the best Christmas ever." he said happily.
I picked up my glass and clicked it to his, "Merry Christmas, Harry."
Harry's eyes glistened, "Merry Christmas, Gracie."
And as I watched everyone else raise their glasses to join in our toast, I knew that this was the best Christmas we had ever had and they were going to get a lot better from now on.
A/N: So sorry again for the time it took me to update, I had some personal issues going on so I'm sorry. Anyway, what do you guys think of this chapter? It isn't very exciting but I thought it would be important to write a chapter about Harry and Grace's first real christmas together. Please comment, follow and favourite if you enjoy this story!