POV of Parvati Patil
On the morning of December 24th, I woke up around 9 AM, stirred by the sound of my father quietly cursing. As he did every year, he was setting up the Christmas tree, which simply refused to stand straight. Our family tradition was to avoid using magic at Christmas; my parents believed it made the holiday more special.
After graduating from Hogwarts, they had lived in Germany for a few years, where they had frequent contact with Muggles and adopted the custom of exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day.
Although I was still very tired from my late-night excursion, I got up, fully aware that I wouldn't be able to sleep any longer.
When I arrived in the living room, fully dressed, I saw that Padma was already awake and patiently helping my father secure the large tree in its designated stand. I wouldn't have had the patience for that, so I breathed a sigh of relief from my spot on the dark blue sofa when my father finally seemed satisfied. I knew exactly what that meant: it was finally time for breakfast.
My mother greeted us cheerfully in the kitchen, where we sat down at the wooden table that was already set. Only Wanda, our house-elf, was still bustling around the large kitchen like a headless chicken, serving us croissants and tea. Afterwards, she disappeared from the kitchen, but not before apologizing profusely for not having finished the meal faster. It always gave me a guilty conscience to see the elf so submissive. She was incredibly sweet and hardworking, and there was absolutely no reason for her to apologize.
After breakfast, we all returned to the living room, where my father played Muggle Christmas music as we began to decorate the Christmas tree. This actually put me in a bit of a festive mood, so I wasn't too bothered by the music, which I didn't particularly enjoy. In decorating, Padma and I had once again outdone ourselves; the tree looked even more splendid than last year with all the straw stars, wooden figures, and the homemade golden paper star on top.
Until early evening, we were sent to our rooms so that our parents could wrap the gifts undisturbed and distribute them under the tree. I had always hated waiting, but at least we didn't have to wait until the next morning.
"Padma, Parvati! You can come down!" our father called up the stairs from the living room below.
The living room now looked wonderfully Christmassy in the dark! Only the Muggle string lights on the Christmas tree and the Advent wreath on the dining table provided sparse illumination.
When I saw the two glasses, each still containing a small sip of Firewhiskey, I was reminded of the past. A few years ago, my father had tried to make us believe that he had shared a drink with Santa Claus, showing us the two used glasses as proof. Of course, we didn't believe him then, even though we still believed in Santa Claus at the time. After all, it was unlikely that Santa would have time to toast with our father, and besides, too much alcohol would ensure that not all children would receive their gifts on time.
Since then, it had become one of our family's many Christmas traditions for my father to still place two glasses on the coffee table.
Before we started unwrapping the gifts, we sat down to eat cookies and gingerbread that Wanda had baked especially for Christmas. I particularly liked her cinnamon stars and nut corners, and we also enjoyed marzipan tea.
After Padma and I patiently waited for our parents to finish their plates and not take any more, it was time for the next tradition.
This involved Padma and me taking turns selecting a gift from under the tree, checking who it was for, and then handing it to that person. They would then have to guess as accurately as possible what it could be.
Padma was the first to grab a gift for me. The small package was wrapped in scarlet gift paper and felt very light. I must confess, I had absolutely no idea what it could be, so I simply unwrapped it. When I opened the lid of the small box, a beautiful dark purple quill was revealed. I was thrilled with this gift, so I hugged my parents before fetching one of the gifts myself.
Overall, we received many books, clothes, and sweets as gifts. I thought I had found all the packages when Padma finally pulled out one more from behind the tree. It was the size of a thick A4 book, as Hermione would have described it, but it wasn't as excessively heavy as I discovered when it was handed to me. Once again, I had no idea what it could be. I was really bad at this guessing game, so I guessed it would be a book anyway.
I was quite surprised when a broom care kit appeared. I hadn't expected that at all, especially since my parents had been against getting a broom in the first place. When they saw how I beamed, my father explained that as I already had such a good broom, I should take good care of it. They had truly succeeded in surprising me!
After the gift-giving, we played various board games until Wanda announced that dinner was ready. We had salmon in puff pastry with potato and broccoli gratin. As always, our house-elf's cooking tasted wonderful.
It had been a lovely evening, I thought quietly to myself as I went to bed.
The next morning was rather chaotic at our house. Padma and I had to set the large dining table in the living room and clear the floor of gifts, as family always came to visit on Christmas Day. Of course, I was looking forward to seeing my grandparents and my godmother again, but I also knew that my cousins would likely spoil my mood once more.
When greeting the guests, I had to restrain myself to remain polite, given how stupidly my cousins were grinning at me. They had never liked Padma and I, probably because we had nothing in common; they were two years older than us and seemed to have nothing in their heads. Secretly, I was glad not to have been sorted into Hufflepuff for this reason alone, as I wouldn't be able to avoid them during the school year as I had done so far.
At the dining table, I was meticulously careful to sit as far away from the two as possible and chatted with my grandparents, who had contributed to me getting a broom. I thanked them and my godmother Liz for it, after which they asked me about my first Quidditch game, which I enthusiastically reported on. I assumed my cousins had overheard the conversation, as they were practically killing me with their looks. They themselves didn't own brooms, which was also due to the fact that they had shown no talent for flying.
We had just finished unwrapping the gifts when my cousins came over to Padma and me, looking angry.
"Have you been sucking up to Grandma and Grandpa again to get a broom, or what?" Bailey snorted contemptuously. The stocky blonde was actually as stupid as she looked...
"I don't need to suck up to anyone," I snapped back. "They simply support and encourage talents."
"And why have we never gotten anything?!" Marisa now exclaimed indignantly.
"Think about what I just said. You might or might not be able to put two and two together," I advised her, annoyed, before I noticed my sister's warning look.
I knew what Padma tried to tell me and let it be. I had no desire to continue this conversation anyway. It would only escalate again like last year when they noticed the change in my eye color, and Padma could only with difficulty talk me out of it by claiming that it was an optical illusion due to the lighting conditions. The adults had been satisfied with that simple explanation, but not Bailey and Marisa, who had kept an eye on me for the rest of the day.
Secretly, I was glad when the guests left in the evening. At least I had been able to talk a little with my grandparents and with Liz, my godmother. I didn't care about small talk with the rest of the relatives, whom I hardly knew anyway, so I had been lucky to have avoided that.
With mixed feelings about the next day, I went to bed. Should I be happy to see my friends again or not, because they had been so strange to me before the holidays? The question occupied me for hours before I finally fell asleep.