I

In the Wizarding World, there was an entire collection of stuffed magical beasts. These stuffed beasts were similar to the stuffed animals popular with muggle children such as teddy bears, except that they featured magical creatures instead of muggle creatures.

James and Lily were both avid collectors and both included collecting stuffed magical beasts amongst their collecting hobbies.

It was the last evening before both were to leave Hogwarts for Christmas in 2021 and James and Lily were in Lily's room to swap magical stuffed creatures. Both of them knew that they were both getting close to completing their collections and they decided to trade stuffed animals to see if they could help other complete their sets by trading their duplicates with each other.

Both James and Lily opened their trunks and retrieved their stuffed animal collections, dumping them on Lily's bed. James dumped his onto the left side of Lily's bed and Lily herself used the right side of her bed.

Lily made the first offer.

"James ?" asked Lily, "Do you have all four fwooper colors?"

Looking down at his collection, James replied, "I am missing orange, but I have two pinks."

"I am missing pink but have two oranges, " responded Lily.

With the natural move having presented itself, James picked up his extra pink fwooper and Lily picked up her extra orange fwooper and they made the trade

"Fwoopers are such beautiful birds, " cooed James , "Such vibrant and vivid color. They're my favorite magical creatures because of their natural beauty."

"There's a certain purity about fwoopers that melts that heart," swooned Lily.

"Lily?" inquired James , "Do you have a spare crup?"

"I certainly do, " grinned Lily, "I see that you have a spare kneazle. Kneazle is one I don't have."

"It's a deal, " said James glowingly.

Lily grabbed her backup crup and James grabbed his backup kneazle and they made the swap.

Both James 's and Lily's eyes lit up and their faces glowed after this swap was complete.

"Dogs are my favorite muggle animal and crups and just like Jack Russell Terriers except for the forked tail, " said James radiantly.

"Cats are my favorite muggle animals, " said Lily glowingly, "And Kneazles are the closest magical animal to the cat even though it is less like the cat than the crup is like the dog."

"We both just threw each other an eighty yard touchdown pass with that trade!" exclaimed James.

"Yeah, " agreed Lily, "it's wonderful how this trading thing is helping both of us out.

The trades made on this evening wouldn't be limited to cuter animals and pets though.

Lily looked through her collection now and declared, "I'm lacking the basilisk. It'll be soooo much fun when I have the basilisk in my collection, and I can play petrifier."

"As for me," put forth James , "I still need the acromantula. it'll be fun to scare people by mimicking the pincers. I happen to possess a second basilisk that I can barter to you for an acromantula."

"Excellent, " beamed Lily, "We shall make the exchange then!"

James snatched his second basilisk and threw it to Lily while Lily snagged her expendable acromantula and tossed it to James.

With an evil grin, Lily lifted her newly acquired stuffed basilisk and waved it in front of James 's eyes.

Playing along, James suddenly pretended to be petrified and stood as still as a statue.

James pretended to be petrified for a few minutes and a few nanoseconds and when he got up again, he said, "Basilisks are probably the scariest creatures in existence apart from dementors and lethifolds. Remember, the real thing only petrifies you if you look at if through the shield of someone or something else. Direct eye to eye contact with a real basilisk will kill faster than Avada Kedavra."

James now put his stuffed acromantula in Lily's face and started mimicking pincer noises.

After a quarter minute of this, Lily started to shudder and backed away a bit.

"Is ickle little Lily scared of the Itsy Bitsy Spider?' teased James .

"Actual acromantulas are huge and eat people, " said Lily matter of factly, "I'd be terrified if I actually met one."

But then there were also those creatures that weren't really dangerous but demanded respect.

"One stuffed animal I'm still searching for is the inky black hippogriff, " piped up James .

"And I'm still on the trail for the stormy gray hippogriff, though I have two inky blacks." said Lily briskly.

"I have two stormy grays, " declared James .

At this, Lily bowed to James. James surveyed Lily for a few seconds and bowed back.

James picked up a stormy gray hippogriff from his collection and Lily picked up and inky black hippogriff from hers.

James and Lily got close enough to each other to complete this exchange by hand, then patted each other on the nose.

"I've got a complete set now!" yelped James when he realized it, "I was the first to complete the set. YOU LIKE THAT! YOU LIKE THAT!"

"Congratulations James !" said Lily sincerely, happy for her brother.

After calming down a bit, James asked Lily seriously, "Which stuffed animals are you missing?"

Looking over her collection carefully, Lily realized she was closer to completing her collection than she thought. In fact, "Just one," declared Lily, "I only need the golden snidget to complete my collection. "

"I have a second golden snidget, " said James matter of factly, "I tell you what. I will give you my spare golden snidget so that you can a complete collection too. You don't have to give me anything for it."

Smiling broadly, James plucked his extra stuffed golden snidget off her bed and gently set it down on Lily's bed.

"Enjoy having a collection, too, Lily, " beamed James .

"Thanks," smiled Lily.