Christmas time in Hogwarts meant some peace and quiet. Nearly every student left the castle to be reunited with their families. Percy was kind of glad that he could stay in the castle. It meant that he could on his free will study without anyone disturbing him.
But, on Christmas day, like anyone, Percy stopped his studying and woke up to see various presents of various sizes.
Peacefully picking them one by one, he marveled the gifts he got. Upon reaching his present from his mother, he opened the parcel to find the same sweater his mother knitted every year for him and his brothers, getting the same present for five years and more, he was getting tired of it.
When he reached for his other gift wrap, noise came from outside. Pushing his glasses up, he walked over to find the noise coming from the first year's boys room.
Throwing his sweater over his arm, he opened the door and looked irritated
"What is all this noise?" He said, disapproving.
Immediately, Fred seized his sweater.
"P for Prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one."
"I – don't – want —" Percy said, his voice muffled as the twins forced the sweater over his head, his glasses falling.
"And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," George said. "Christmas is a time for family."
Trying to get out of the situation, Percy retorted as he picked up his glasses. He wanted his peace and quiet very much and didn't like the noise at all.
They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by
his sweater.
Out in the Great Hall, a hundred
fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of
chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy
and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet
along the table were there.
Of course, it wasn't his first time staying over at Christmas, but the castle's wonders did make his eyes glossy in amazement.
As he sat around with his brothers and Harry, who pulled out a wizard
cracker with Fred, and it didn't just bang. It went off with a blast like
a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the
inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice.
Coughing and getting rid of the dust with his wand, Percy simply watched as the white mice scattered around, unable to do anything. The chaos ensued, and Percy watched. It wasn't his ideal Christmas, but even he had to admit, it wasn't bad, and if he could try, he was sure he would have fun.
The food was simply brilliant – maybe not as great as his mother's, he liked his mother's cooking – he took another slice of turkey. And as soon as he put it in his mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his teeth. There was a silver sickle.
"What the—" Percy said, in a slip of a tongue.
"Percy!" Fred gasped. "Were you about to curse?" He asked, surprised at his slip up.
Percy turned pink. "N-No, I wasn't. Look!" He said, showing the silver sickle.
"That came in your turkey?" George asked. "Wow."
And the conversation turned.
Up on the high table, Hagrid was turning red and red with each goblet of wine. Percy watched in embarrassment as Hagrid finally, drunk from the wine, swooped down and kissed Professor McGonagall on the cheek. Light headed from the wine herself, Professor McGonagall giggled and blushed.
Percy looked away, pulling the collar of his sweater front. The first person that came through his mind as he saw Hagrid kiss Professor McGonagall on the cheek was Eliza. If she actually kissed him the other day, what would've happened?
He shook his face, trying to make it less red. What was wrong with him? Percy was ambitious, not a lover. Though, he couldn't get her out of his mind as quickly as he thought he could.
Once Percy thought he was now free to go and resume his leisure, George and Ron dragged him out.
"Snowball fight!" George yelled, dunping fresh snow on Percy's face.
"George! What is wrong with you!?" Percy yelled as he rubbed the snow off his face, shouting furiously at his twin brothers who repeatedly bewitched their snowballs to hit Percy, Ron and Harry perfectly on their head, foring the three of them to take cover.
"Stop this, I say! Stop it rig—" And in came another ball. "That's it!" He yelled and started throwing snowballs back as revenge. What frustrated him even more was that he wasn't very successful at hitting Fred and George.
They were a mess by the time they returned to the common room. Wet and cold and sweaty at the same time, they sat in the chairs of cushion, rubbing their hands for warmth.
Harry opened his new chess set and played against Ron. Seeing as he was losing, Percy tried helping him but failing as well.
The entire afternoon went in a haze. They played Exploding Snap, Chess, Gobstones, and a few other card games before the afternoon turned into the evening.
Going into the Great Hall once again for dinner, they enjoyed yet another meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake. The day had been so exhausting that after the meal, they went straight up to the common room.
"Where's my badge?" Percy asked as he searched for it in his pockets.
"I don't know, I haven't seen it." Ron said, shrugging.
"Don't know too, Percy," Fred said, sniggering with George.
"Where's my badge!?" Percy asked once again loudly, throwing glares at Fred and George suspecting them both.
"Oh, you mean this?" Fred asked, showing his Prefect badge.
"Give it here!" Percy said, striding forward and attempting to grab it, but Fred ran away.
"Come back here, Fred!" Percy shouted as he chased Fred through the common room.
Shouting and running behind his brother, who now tossed it to George, he chased them, trying to get his badge back.
Finally, out of exhaustion, when Fred accidentally dropped the badge, Percy quickly got his bage, pinning it to himself and stalking upstairs simply in cold fury.
It was only then that Percy opened the rest of his presents. One by one, he read through the cards and made a mental note to write thank you letters back. He opened a package with a letter folded in half and stuck on the wrapping.
Careful no to rip it, he removed the letter and read its contents.
𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚,
𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔? 𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒖𝒏. 𝑰 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒕.
𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒂𝒅. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕, 𝒊𝒇 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅.
Percy rolled his eyes at this.
𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 – 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆. 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝑰 𝒂𝒎. (𝑯𝒊𝒏𝒕 : 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆'𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓)
𝑺𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏,
𝑬𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒂.
Shaking his head with a small smile, he opened Eliza's present. When he saw the cover of the book, he let out a soft breath, readjusting his glasses better.
Prefects who gained power.
She really did know him well.