I wrote to Tom again the next morning. I told him all about how it was now a widespread belief that Harry was the heir of Slytherin, and everything that went down at the duelling club. He complemented my dueling ability, saying it closely matched his at my age, and that I was no doubt destined to be a great witch. I told him that my ideal career didn't lie in combat though, and that I only wanted to be a Quidditch player, and was insulted by the fact that he called this a "soft" career choice. Regarding Harry, while Tom found him being a Parselmouth interesting, he insisted that he thought Hagrid was the culprit and that I should report him. Knowing it was me that was responsible, I found he was being rather unhelpful here, so I just shut the diary while he was mid sentence, put it away, and headed out for a walk.

I needed to clear my head, and as it was snowing heavily, our scheduled Herbology class, to take place after the second years, had been cancelled, meaning it was a double free period for us first years today. I've always liked snow, it looks beautiful, and snowball fights are great fun with the right people. A walk alone outside right now would do me a hell of a lot of good. Sadly though, I never made it outside. As soon as I left the portrait hole, the now familiar blissful feeling came over me, and when I came to, I was standing over Justin Finch Flechley's frozen body, and next to him was Nearly Headless Nick, both petrified, and I once again had rooster feathers all over me. I looked at my watch. Holy Shit, 11:50am!

I ran away without a second thought and was extremely lucky, as I had only made it up one flight of stairs, when I heard Peeves yelling about the attack, and doors opening. I couldn't believe how fortunate I'd been thus far. It was a miracle I hadn't been caught in the act yet. I didn't have the faintest idea how I was even doing it, only that I knew that I was, and that just made it all the more disturbing.

There was now a state of real panic around the school. Everyone seemed more interested in Nearly Headless Nick's fate though, as if ghosts could be affected by this, then nobody was safe. There was demand for seats home on the Hogwarts Express like never seen before at this time of year. Fred and George's behaviour around Harry wasn't helping either.

They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through. . . ."

Percy was deeply disapproving of this behavior.

"It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," said George, chortling.

I didn't find it amusing either.

"Oh, don't," I wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met.

Their antics seemed to be aggravating Draco Malfoy, who looked increasingly sour each time he saw them at it.

"It's because he's bursting to say it's really him," said Ron knowingly. "You know how he hates anyone beating him at anything, and you're getting all the credit for his dirty work."

"Not for long," said Hermione in a satisfied tone. "The Polyjuice Potion's nearly ready. We'll be getting the truth out of him any day now."

Once term ended, I found myself spending all my time with Harry, Ron and Hermione, and the 4 of us plus the rest of my family had Gryffindor Tower to ourselves. This was a relief in several ways, not least of which were the facts that we could play Exploding Snap without bothering anyone, and we could practice duelling in private. I was really good at it now, I managed to beat Ron 3 times in a row, despite him being a year older than me, and I even held my own against Harry, although he did eventually get the better of me.

Percy, who disapproved of what he termed our childish behavior, didn't spend much time in the Gryffindor common room. He had already told us pompously that he was only staying over Christmas because it was his duty as a prefect to support the teachers during this troubled time.

On Christmas morning, Hermione woke me up by coming into my dormitory very early, bringing me my present from her.

"It's ready, Gin" she added after I gave her my thanks.

"The Polyjuice Potion?"

"Yeah, I want us to do it tonight, I've got to give Harry and Ron their presents and I'll tell them so once I get to them"

"Good luck mate, and Merry Christmas" was all I could say. I knew they were wasting their time, but as usual, I didn't have a choice but to feign ignorance.

"Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you too" she replied, before leaving.

I was left all alone, and there was a small pile of presents at the foot of my bed, so I picked them up and started opening them straight away. Demelza and Amy had given me theirs before they left for the train home, but I had waited until now to open them. Hermione's present was a HoneyJukes selection box, with her card saying that she'd bought a few of them to "get a taste of Hogsmeade" before being allowed to go there next year. It was nice of her to let me have one too, though I still had two years to go before I could visit the village.

Demelza had gotten me a Harpies membership, which was lovely, though I hadn't been able to follow our results much that year so far due to what was going on at school. My mind was more focused on working out how to stop attacking people, and planning my own team's strategies. I checked the Daily Prophet that had been delivered to me overnight and found that we were 7th in the table at that particular moment, which wasn't great. We were however, playing at home to the Wimbourne Wasps on Boxing Day, so I would make sure to listen to that one and write to Amy to discuss it.

Amy gave me the 1992 Which Broomstick annual, Harry a necklace and some perfume, which I didn't usually wear up until that point, but they looked nice so I decided to give them a try, and Ron, well he just took the piss. He gave me Flying with the Cannons, but what he didn't realise is that all this would do is give me more ammo to fire at him about how shit the Cannons were.

Then of course, was Mum's present, which was the usual jumper she made for us every year. Mine was forest green of course, and had the letter G written in gold in the middle. I put it on, and found it was extremely warm and comfortable, even more so than I was expecting. It clearly had a Heating Charm on it, so that I wouldn't feel the cold at all if I went outside. She also sent a bunch of home made mince pies, and let me tell you, those are the best mince pies in the world, and I will not hear anything otherwise! If there's one thing everyone has to love about my mother, it's her cooking and her Christmas presents, which she gets spot on each and every time!

I went downstairs, and found everyone gathered there talking happily.

"Merry Christmas!" I called out to everyone, and everyone repeated it back to me. I saw Harry sitting by the fire and went up to him.

"Thanks for the necklace and perfume, I don't tend to wear them usually but you chose them really well!" I said.

The necklace was exactly the right shape and size for my neck and was made of diamonds, while the perfume smelt of a forest in the rain, the perfect smell for my favourite colour!

"Thank you for the BAIQL Annual" he replied, "it was very interesting, to go alongside Flying with the Cannons"

I laughed

"Ron got me that too, but he doesn't realise the joke has backfired on him"

"Aren't you a Harpies fan?"

"Yeah, exactly, so he thinks he's getting me a funny, ironic present, but all it's done is give me more opportunities to belittle him about how bad his favourite team are!"

"True, they are pretty bad, I've still not chosen a favourite team myself yet"

I noticed he had a tin open next to him.

"What's that" I asked.

"Oh it's some of Hagrid's treacle fudge, it's actually pretty nice soft, so that's why I've got it by the fire here"

"Fair enough, mind if I try some?"

"No problem"

I cut off a piece and tried it. It was delicious, though nothing like Mum's mince pies of course, which I then proceeded to offer to Harry myself, to which he agreed that there was no better food out there!

I noticed Ron looking a bit grumpy on the other side of the room, so I went and sat down next to him.

"What's got you so upset on Christmas Day, bro?" I said

"This" he tugged at the Maroon jumper he was wearing. "Just like corned beef sandwiches, she always forgets I hate Maroon!"

"Oh for goodness sake, cheer up! You should be grateful she's making us anything at all!"

Ron looked at me for a moment, but didn't smile.

"Look, have a mince pie, that'll make you feel better" I said

He took one, and of course that did the trick.

"Nice one Gin, you can never go wrong with these, it's the best thing Mum makes, enough to make anyone's day!"

"Exactly, and no one deserves to be upset on Christmas Day!"

"Thank you! Tell you what, make sure you come with us to Christmas Dinner later, it's a real spectacle at Hogwarts!"

"So I've heard, I'm excited! Are you going to do the Polyjuice thing today?"

Ron dropped his voice and leaned closer to me, so that the twins and Percy couldn't hear.

"Yeah, and I'm a little nervous, but we have to do it, Malfoy will surely confess"

"Tell me if Avery and co are there, I'm not sure if they stayed for the holidays, but they seemed to know a lot about it, they kept making snide hints but never elaborated. So if they're there question them too if you can"

"Thanks, we'll bear that in mind"

No one, not even someone dreading taking Polyjuice Potion later, could fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led us in a few of his favourite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pinhead," kept asking us all what we were sniggering at.

I pulled a few Wizarding Christmas Crackers with Harry, Ron and Hermione, and I won a bottle of Butterbeer from one of them, which was and still is the best drink I'd tried in my life by far, despite the alcohol I've drunk during my time as an adult. I also got a new set of pyjamas, which automatically shrunk or grew when you put them on, depending on the person. Mine shrank when I used them that night.

We didn't even care that Draco Malfoy was making loud, snide remarks about his new jumper from the Slytherin table. With a bit of luck, Malfoy would be getting his comeuppance in a few hours' time. Harry and Ron had barely finished their third helpings of Christmas pudding when Hermione ushered them out of the hall to finalize their plans for the evening.

I wished them good luck one last time, then headed back up to Gryffindor Tower to enjoy a relaxing evening, knowing that despite everything that was going on, nothing could stop the magic of Christmas.