England sadly lost the final 2-1 on Sunday night. I'm gutted for every English football fan, who have seen their men's team suffer yet another agonizing near miss. I'm beginning to think they're actually cursed, but no, unfortunately, we cannot magically interfere to help them. Writing this for you is the limit of what's possible and even then, I'm probably only getting away with it because Hermione is minister.

Despite the very heavy load of homework that the third and fourth years had been given for the holidays, we were in no mood to work when term ended, and spent the week leading up to Christmas enjoying ourselves as fully as possible along with everyone else. Gryffindor Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly too, as its inhabitants were being so much rowdier than usual. Fred and George had had a great success with their Canary Creams, and for the first couple of days of the holidays, people kept bursting into feather all over the place. Before long, however, all the Gryffindors had learned to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the centre, and George confided to Harry and I that he and Fred were now working on developing something else. I still took a few to try and use on people myself though.

Mum wrote back to me a few days before Christmas.

Dear Ginny,

Yes, I did know about the Triwizard Tournament, and it is very concerning that Harry was entered, but I was of course delighted to hear that Harry survived the first task! Charlie told me everything! Don't tell Harry this, but I'm going to put a dragon on his Christmas jumper this year! I dread to think what he's got in store for the rest of the tournament though! I told you my parenting methods were effective, you should watch and listen to me more often! Why can't Dumbledore find a way to get him out? I know there's meant to be a "binding magical contract" attached to participation, but still, there should be some room for leeway! Harry didn't enter himself after all!

Good to hear your falling out with Amy wasn't permanent, and yes, they absolutely should not be gambling, I was disgusted to learn that had happened! They are far too young to be doing so, and you are far too young to be pursuing court action! I will speak to your father, and if necessary, we will pursue the case ourselves! I'm sorry, but the answer is no to housing Amy, we are stretched enough for money as it is! I think it would make more sense for her to stay with Demelza, as she's an only child, isn't she?

It's great that your relationship with Harry is so happy and wholesome, and yes, although my musical taste might be different to yours, it's wonderful that you will be able to live out a dream scenario like that! What you say about Ron and Hermione is indeed interesting, I look forward to seeing how that develops!

Have a wonderful Yule Ball and a very merry Christmas,

Mum.

I chewed my lip as I read this, thinking. I of course, wouldn't tell Harry about his present, that would stay as a surprise. I agreed, there really should have been a way out for Harry, Dumbledore should not be allowing him to do this. Unless the contract stated that you'd die if you refused to participate. That's the only reason I could think of for him not finding Harry a way out. There's no way my parents would be able to afford legal action, that was a pretty empty statement for Mum to make. Typical of her though, to try and find any way possible to stop us doing things we're more than capable of because we're underage. I had to admit, however, that Demelza would make for a more sensible option for Amy to stay with should the need arise, as the Robins had more money than us and enough space in the house for a 4th person. Mum was right about that.

For the second year in a row, I was woken on Christmas morning in a rather unpleasant fashion, but this time, it wasn't by Hermione. This time, someone jumped right on top of me!

"What the bloody fuck!" I shouted. I sat up very quickly and stared around me. I saw that all my roommates had been woken up by my outburst. Then I saw what had caused it.

"Dobby?!" I said incredulously

"What's a house elf doing in here?" Mary Davison said, looking at her alarm clock "it's 6:30, you lot are only supposed to come in here during class time! Now you've woken us all up! Shame on you!"

"Dobby apologises misses, he only intended to come here to give Ginny Weasley a present"

I looked at the foot of my bed, and saw that there were several presents already there, as there were next to everyone else's beds.

"Er, thanks Dobby, but did you really need to wake us all up after leaving those here?" I asked

"Dobby did not leave those here Miss, he has come to give you a present from himself!"

We all stared at him in shock. Surely we hadn't heard that correctly!

"You're here to give me a present-from you, as in, you actually bought something for me?" I said

"Bloody hell" Amy said

"I have never heard of something like this happening before" said Demelza

"Dobby has miss, would you like to see it?"

I bit my lip, hesitant. This was unprecedented. What would a house elf actually think a good present would be? Dobby barely knew me too, why would he even want to give me one?

"Umm, sure?" I said hesitantly, taking the package from him.

It was a jumper. It looked nice and comfortable, it was cream coloured with lots of brown dots all over it, and it had 2 brown lines along the chest and shoulders. I could tell it would go well with my favourite outfit, which was my plain green Harpies logoed t shirt, brownish orange trousers and brownish orange strapped flat shoes, which you actually perfectly re-created in that 5th film. I usually wore my replica Gwenog Jones robes when I was playing Quidditch outside of Hogwarts.

Dobby is making them himself, miss!" the elf said happily. "He is buying the wool out of his wages, miss!"

"Well, this is great, thanks Dobby. My mum usually makes me a jumper every year, but there's no harm in a second"

"Dobby must go now misses, he must deliver his present to Harry Potter!".

He scampered off out of the room.

"He's lovely isn't he?" said Demelza

"Well, apart from waking us up like that, yeah, great elf" I said

"Perhaps Hermione has a point, he's the one that Harry set free after all" Magda said

We all got to opening the rest of our presents, the highlights of which included Hermione's present to me, which was a quill that could write in any colour that you were thinking of, after being dipped in ink, Amy was given a match used signed beaters bat from the recent Wasps vs Harpies game, which was a surprise given her threat.

"Perhaps Ludo's thinking I'll call off the legal action after a present like this!" she said "well, no, as amazing as it is, principle still matters more! Let's enjoy the day and the Yule Ball tonight, but after that, we're getting in touch with the Ministry!"

Demelza got a bag that emitted loud roars if anyone other than her touched it, and Magda got a selection of luxury Swedish chocolates, which she refused to share with any of us.

"Sorry, these are for Luna and I only!" she said, forcing them into her bedside cabinet when we approached.