The Sun, Moon & Stars

18. Christmas, 1991

December had come just as quickly as November had. The grounds were covered in a thick layer of slow, icicles hung from the archways in the courtyard and everyday it seemed to appear prettier. Hagrid had brought in a large Christmas tree to the Great Hall; and Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick decorated it, using their wands to levitate ornaments of all sizes and colours onto the grand evergreen tree. Wreaths decorated every door, a fire was always crackling, and candy canes and hot cocoa became a staple in the house common rooms. Christmastime at Hogwarts was truly a sight to behold.

Their classes were going well, as always, with the exception of Potions; as expected. In Transfiguration they worked on transforming a quill into a box. With each and every class, they began tranforming objects of slightly large stature. They started in September with needles and buttons, progressed to mints and knuts; and now they were working with quills. It became more and more evident to the four of them that it would be a very long time indeed before they even began to work with live animals. In Charms, Ophelia was the top of the class, followed closely by Hermione. They had learned all sorts of charms. Like Wingardium Leviosa, Lumos, and Alohamora; though the four of them were already experienced with that one from their incident at the start of term. In Potions, they were all doing okay. Hermione and Ophelia were by no means good at it, but they weren't awful either. The same couldn't be said for Harry or Ron however. In Flying, Ophelia and Hermione had given up the prospect of being good at this a long time ago. Thankfully, Madam Hooch didn't force them to fly if they didn't want to; but they still had the practical exam which caused a bit of stress for everybody except Harry; who succeeded with flying colours.

Despite all that, everybody could hardly wait for the Holiday's to start. The Weasley Twins had bewitched snowballs to chase after Professor Quirrell down the hallways, and put a spell on the suits of armour to sing Jingle Bells; so, to say the least, everybody was a bit on edge and just excited for the break. Even Harry, who could hardly wait to spend Christmas at Hogwarts; despite Draco's comments.

'I do feel so sorry for those staying at Hogwarts for Christmas.' Draco had sneered one Potion's class. 'You know, those who aren't wanted at home.' He snickered, as his eyes flickered towards Harry, and then they had returned back to his steaming cauldron.

Hagrid found a way to cheer them up, as always. He invited them for tea in his hut the day before Christmas Break started; and they ate, or nibbled more like, on some of his rock cakes. But despite his kind gesture, they couldn't stay long. They needed to go to the library and do some more research one last time before the three week break. They weren't successful, however. There were thousands of narrow shelves, with hundreds and hundreds of books and it would take ages to go through every one to find what they were looking for.

'You'll write if you find it?' Hermione had asked as they, miserably, left the library that evening. 'Ophelia and I leave tomorrow, so you'll need to keep us up to date.'

'Yeah, yeah, of course.' Ron brushed it off. 'If we find anything, we'll write.' Something about his tone of voice told Ophelia however, that the last thing they'd be doing would be spending Christmas in the library. She smirked. Hermione didn't seem to notice his sarcasm, luckily.

The Hogwarts Express left at 11 o'clock the next morning. Ophelia had been up early, stealthily laying presents about the common room for her friends. Three chocolate frogs for Ron, a Super-Size box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans for Harry; and one chocolate frog for the rest of her friends; Fred, George, Pavarti, Lavender and she even left two for Dean and Seamus, whom she wasn't as close with, but after leaving one for almost everybody else; it felt right. And Harry and Ron waved as the train pulled out of Hogsmeade Station and they were on their way.