61 Christmas Day

On Christmas day, I wake up to something I'm not used to. Presents! Of course, I'm not the only one. Most of the other Slytherins went home to their families, but Tracy decided to stay. Something about getting a feel for the castle when people think they can relax.

Anyways, presents! I have three- no, four. There's a small one on the floor between two others. Picking it up, I raise an eyebrow at how it's from the Dursleys. Hopefully it's not a mousetrap or something. I pause. Note to self, find out when Ron's birthday is, and put his present in a mousetrap.

Opening the small bag, I find inside a fifty-pence piece. "Weird coin. Is that supposed to be muggle money?"

Nodding, I flip it at her and she catches it with a surprised expression. "Yep. You can keep it if you want. It's not worth much, but you can show it off to… someone, and brag about how you managed to get your hands on muggle money."

While she examines that, I turn my attention back to the other, much more mysterious gifts. Of course, the first one I grab is the one I recognize. Even if she used different wrapping paper, Clarity can never resist using some of the scrap to put together the image of a crown. Sometimes she tries to hide it, and it turns into a game of 'where's the crown'.

But this time, probably since there's a lot of new things going on, it's simply placed on the top. And a lot more ornate. Instead of taped together wrapping paper scraps, there's a -candy?- crown resting on top.

After carefully placing that to the side, I unwrap the gift. Inside I find a book on fire-based spells! And there's a bookmarked page that, when I flip to it, I find a spell SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO MAKE THINGS EXPLODE!!

Squealing in delight, I'm prepared to immediately study it. Just imagining what kind of explosions I'll be able to make with a proper spell is enough to distract me from everything else! But to my shock and despair, Tracy pulls it from my hands! "My boom-boom magic!"

She gives me a deadpan stare, completely unaffected by my pleading eyes and grabby hands. "No. At least open your other presents before you focus on a single one of them. How do you think those people would feel if they knew you were ignoring their presents?"

I look at the book longingly as she sets it on my chest. "But my booms… If I knew a proper spell for them, I might be able to blow up the whole Forbidden Forest!" My eyes gleam. "Or maybe… I could put more personality on what I can already do."

'~'

In the Hufflepuff tower, after unwrapping the book about turning yourself into an animagus, Clarity shivers. Concerned, her best Hufflepuff friend, Susan Bones, asks if something's wrong.

"I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel as though I've made a terrible mistake."

'~'

Seeing that Tracy isn't budging on me advancing my explosions, I sigh and turn to the other gifts. The first one is a large box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans: Intense Edition, from Hermione. Looking at it suspiciously, I can't help but wonder how 'intense' it means. But I'll just put those aside for later.

The next is from Harry, and it's a drawing of the two of us sitting on a hill under an apple tree! I haven't been able to sneak peeks at his art pad since we came here, so the quality of it is surprising. He's really improved!

The next is from Draco, but it's a simple piece of paper. Kind of underwhelming given how famous his family is, but what can you do. Reading it though, I'm pleasantly surprised by what's written. Apparently, I can have an owl deliver something of mine to a professional enchanter and have them put self-repair and self-cleaning on them! Given the state of my ribbon, this is definitely a great present!

With two presents left, I decide to pick the one Tracy has been glancing at this whole time. Turns out that it's a cloth choker. It's black and has a dark green fringe. It matches my ribbon! Maybe I can get both of them enchanted at the same time? I immediately put it around my neck and give Tracy a hug.

"Thank you so much, I love it!" Smiling in satisfaction, she gives me a self-satisfied nod in return. I hope she likes the baseball bat I carved for her. I used part of the troll's club to make it! I don't know why, but I just feel like it would fit well with her.

And the final gift. It's wrapped in a simple brown bag with a bit of twine, very different from all the other ones. And placed on top of it is a simple note.

[One to match your brother's.]

Cryptic, but ok. Opening it reveals a shining, silvery cloth. It has a bit of a strange feeling when I pick it up, similar to water, I guess. Holding it up, I hear a gasp from Tracy.

"That's an invisibility cloak! They're incredibly hard to get a hold of."

Hearing her explanation, I wrap it around myself and look down, finding that my body has disappeared! "Cool! I can have a lot of fun with this."

Chuckling at my exuberance, she goes back to opening her own presents. And I was right! The bat really does look natural resting on her shoulder! I stylized it so that it looks like two snakes coiling around each other, and asked Professor Snape for advice on turning at least parts of it green to show her House Pride.

To my surprise, he was actually pretty helpful with it. Given his attitude with Harry, I was worried that he wouldn't help. But I guess he doesn't dislike Harry specifically, just his House.

We spend the rest of the time until Christmas dinner hanging out together. I explain to her about where the baseball bat comes from (and that the players aren't supposed to hurt each other intentionally), and study the Confringo spell. We also decide to try the Intense Beans.

I understand what makes them intense. Instead of just tasting whatever the flavor is, we also experience it. I got 'steam' and steam came out of my ears! Tracy ate a bubble flavor and a huge bubble came out of her mouth! I'm going to need to show these to everyone else and thank Hermione later.