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A little note, I have some problems with FF and for some reason, it won't let me strikethrough some words, so I had to copy them from Word, I hope they appear that way and FF don't mess it up but the way I imagined that moment is that they should be all covered with ink in the letter, making them impossible to read. I'm sorry if it is a little weird or idk hard to understand.
Year One - Chapter 13
Spending the Christmas holidays at the castle didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought, I had the room to myself, the common room was almost always alone (since the only Gryffindors that had stayed were me, Harry and the Weasleys). It was also relaxing to walk around the castle and have it completely silent.
The first days I spent in the library looking for information about this Nicholas Flamel, but I had no luck, so I decided to send a letter to Aunt Cissy and ask her if she knew anything, I just hope she doesn't mention it to my father because I'm sure this has to do with what's in the hallway on the third floor.
Dear Uncle Lucius and Aunt Cissy,
I hope you are having a good time, even though you have things to do, I guess it must be boring adult things. I would have loved to spend Christmas with you again, but being at Hogwarts is not so bad, in fact, it is fun to have the castle almost to myself, all my roommates went home as did much of my house. I just hope Draco isn't bored.
Have you heard of someone named Nicholas Flamel? I heard a conversation from my classmates about him, I know that I have read the name somewhere and now I am curious, but I have not found any books about him and I was hoping that you could recommend some books and see if it is in the library.
I hope to see you all over the Easter holidays.
Eileen Snape.
Things kept getting better, the day before Christmas my father asked me to get ready and took me to Hogsmeade to buy Draco's present. I had to fake excitement of being for the 'first time' in the village, although the excitement was not so fake since when I had come with the twins, it was not covered in snow and now it looked really beautiful.
When I spent Christmas at the Malfoy Manor, I had never had to think about what to give Draco, my father always came with our gifts, so now I had no idea what to buy. What can you give to someone who has everything and can easily buy it if they don't have it?
Our first stop was Honeydukes, I wanted to get out of here as fast as I could in case someone recognize me, despite having the hat covering much of my face, so I quickly grabbed 3 packs of liquorice wands, 3 packs of chocolate cauldrons, and 3 packs of sugar feathers.
—Do you plan to have Draco eat in one day all the sugar that he should eat in a year?
—It's not all for Draco, dad, I also decided to give Fred and George something.
I turned to see him and noticed that he was rolling his eyes, I smiled and took an acid pop in my hand and glacial snow flakes in the other, deciding which one to buy for myself.
—Why do you want to give that... pair, a gift?
—Because they are my friends, of course.
—What about Miss Granger? Isn't she your friend too?
I put the pop and the snow flakes back on the shelf, I suddenly didn't feel like eating any sweets anymore, so I walked up to the counter to pay only for the sweets I had planned to give away. Instead of feeling sad at the mention of her, I felt upset with my father. True, I had never told him what had happened exactly, but he must have noticed that we were no longer talking, that I no longer sat with her in his class or in the Great Hall. And surely he remembers the day I was crying in his classroom? Right? Or does he never really pay attention to my life?
I left Honeydukes with my father behind me; I was thinking of going back to the castle, but in the distance, I saw the Gladrags Wizardwear store and knew that they sold strange and unusual socks there.
When we were little, Draco and I used to wear socks of all colours and see who could find the most horrible ones in the stores we went to, but then he said that we were already 'too old for that nonsense' so we stopped doing it.
—Let's go there. —I told my father, without looking at him, my voice sounded a little bit bitter and without waiting for an answer, I just started walking towards the store.
The store wasn't too big, but there were shelves of clothes on the walls that reached up to the ceiling and there were more clothes in the corridors. It wasn't difficult to find the socks section, as it stood out without looking for it; all the clothes here were neutral colours but in one corner were several coloured socks, there were even ones a yellow so bright that I felt like they would blind me if I kept looking at them.
I was looking for a couple of minutes until I found the perfect pair: red socks with drawings of lions in yellow, I knew Draco would hate them so I took them, I also grabbed one pair some for myself, they were dark green with silver-coloured snakes, when I showed them to my father he even smiled a little at how clumsy they were.
—Are you planning to buy something else, Eileen?
—No, I think that's all.
—Well, I need to buy some things and then we will return to the castle.
We left the store and went to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop; while my father was looking at the quills, I was looking at the rainbow ink; I knew Hermione liked to decorate her notes but... Should I get her something? No.
Or should I?
No, definitely not.
I grabbed the rainbow-coloured ink and put it next with the quills that my father was going to buy, I would decide later whether to give it to Hermione (although I doubted it a lot), to Fay Dunbar, with whom I had a more or less decent friendship, or whether to simply keep it to myself.
My father arched an eyebrow when he saw me put the rainbow ink on the counter.
—I hope I do not see your next Potions essay written with... This.
—No, but it would be fun to combine it with your inks and have you review works in a bright pink colour.
—You will be grounded until you turn 40 if you do that.
I chuckled at that, took his hand as we left the store, and didn't let go of it the whole way back to the castle; I had quickly forgotten that I was mad at him, and didn't even remember what he had told me in Honeydukes.
When we got back to the castle, I decided to go with him to his office, I didn't feel like being in the common room, so I sat in the chair in front of his desk, grabbed some parchment and started writing.
Dear Fred.
No, no, why 'dear'? Ugh, if I leave it like that, then he will think something strange. With my pinkie, I took some ink and covered the word 'dear'.
D̶e̶a̶r̶ Fred
Now what? What am I supposed to write? Will it be strange to send their gifts in separate packages?
D̶e̶a̶r̶ Fred and George.
I have never given Christmas presents before, so I wasn't sure what to get to you,
No, no, it sounds weird. Ugh! I don't even know why I'm writing a letter when I could just give it to them tomorrow.
D̶e̶a̶r̶ Fred and George.
I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶C̶h̶r̶i̶s̶t̶m̶a̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶s̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ I wasn't sure what to give you, my father took me to Hogsmeade, and I remembered that you had mentioned that your candy rations were running out.
Merry Christmas,
Eileen Snape.
I'm an idiot, why didn't I just grab another piece of parchment instead of putting ink all over it? If my father finds out that I wasted so much ink, he will kill me, and I can't wait for the ink to dry so I can put the scroll away. First, I made sure that he was still in his study making some potion for the infirmary and then I did a hot air charm so I could dry the ink fast.
I quickly folded it and put it inside the envelope, I took another piece of parchment and began to write.
Draco,
I hope you are having fun on your vacation, I haven't done much, but it's been good so far. I know you will love your Christmas gift; I chose it myself.
PS: I also bought a similar pair for myself, guess what colours.
Eileen Snape.
