Ripped Away

Year One: Chirstmas, Gifts and the Mirror of Erised

Christmas at Hogwarts was certainly a sight to see. While at Night Raven College, Christmas was not celebrated by the staff (at least publicly), this was not the case at Hogwarts. Decorations hung in every corridor except the forbidden one on the third floor. Peeves floated around singing rather hilarious versions of Christmas carols, and even took requests (at least from Heracles). The Slytherin common room was decorated with silver tinsel and mistletoe, and a great fir tree Hagrid had hauled in from the Forbidden Forest resided in the great hall. Fairy lights made of actual fairies sat on the tree. Heracles was tempted to question them about the differences between them and the dark fae she new in Twisted Wonderland, but she knew they wouldn't know what she was talking about.

Heracles and Neville had taken to spending their days in the deserted Slytherin common room. Snape didn't bother trying to keep Heracles's Gryffindor friend out of the common room. The girl would just sneak him back in anyways, and it wasn't like the boy was hurting anyone. It was too cold to go anywhere else, like out to the greenhouse. And playing in the snow only reminded Heracles of the time she visited Epel's hometown of Harveston, so the pair spent most of their time inside. It was eerie for Neville to see the castle so empty, but Heracles welcomed the silence.

The two friends eventually just holed up in Heracles's dorm room for most of the break. Neville had been hesitant to stay in the same room as a girl, mostly because of the propriety that had been hammered into his head by his grandmother, but Heracles assured him she didn't care. There were a dozen different beds in the room, anyway, so it really didn't matter that he was a boy and she was a girl. The house elves brought them food, and the room had a private bathroom. The only reason the two left was if they wanted to go see Hagrid.

The pair occupied the rest of their time by reading, tending to Neville's indoor plants and playing board games. Exploding snap was Neville's favorite, but Heracles was terrifyingly good at wizard's chess. Playing normal chess with Leona all those times had really paid off, because Heracles never lost a game. Snape, once again, did not care what Heracles was doing, even though it was technically against the rules for a boy and girl to share a room on school property. Mostly because he knew it was futile to fight her.

Neville and Heracles appear in the great hall until Christmas eve, because they both wanted to enjoy the feast and be a little bit festive. They both took a seat at the Ravenclaw table, which was the only fully empty table in the great hall. No one stopped them. The staff all sat at the high table, sipping wine and firewhiskey and laughing. The only people that looked sober were McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore, who Heracles made eye contact with exactly once on accident and spammed 'Never Gonna Give You Up' as loudly as possible. Dumbledore looked so confused as she broke eye contact and diverted attention to the newly arrived food. Traditional Christmas foods lined the tables, and Heracles dug in as soon as possible and downed an entire goblet of butterbeer in one go. Neville stared at her with wide eyes, and once Heracles sat her goblet down, she looked at Neville and narrowed her eyes.

"Don't look at me like that. You've seen me eat with less manners.", she said before stuffing more food into her mouth, and Neville recalled the time Heracles nearly stabbed Dean Thomas with a fork for some candy corn, and realized she was right.

The feast was uneventful. Christmas day was when things actually got interesting. Heracles woke up the morning of December 25th and simply laid in bed, staring at the ceiling.

Christmas may not have been celebrated at Night Raven College, but they still did things for the holidays. She had spent her only Christmas in Twisted Wonderland trying to keep Jamil from basically usurping control of Scarabia from Kalim, but outside of that and Jamil's Overblot, she had liked how she spent the holidays. She went to a holiday party in Scarabia, had a meal with her Octavinelle friends in the Monstro Lounge, and even had a small feast at Ramshackle with Grimm and the dorm ghosts. Everyone had given her gifts, too. It hadn't been conventional, but it had been her favorite Christmas ever, and she had hoped it would be the start of several traditions. Instead, it had been both the beginning and the end of her list of 'happy Christmas's'.