Hermits At Hogwarts: Book One

Chapter Eleven

In mid-December, the Heads of House went around and asked for people to decide whether they were going to spend Christmas at Hogwarts or at home. After a long group discussion in the Ravenclaw common room (of which Nebula half-listened to), the Hermits decided to stay at Hogwarts. They let Mr Dedalus know the moment they'd decided, and their caretaker wrote back with:

Dear Hermits,

I understand your decision completely. Don't worry about my feelings on this, I used to spend every Christmas at Hogwarts. I won't spoil anything, but I personally feel it's a required experience for anyone who attends your school to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays at least once.

I'm also happy to hear that you all could still do some of our normal traditions, like decorating your rooms. I hope you enjoy your stay, and I insist on a detailed retell of everything that happened once you all come home.

Love,

Your Uncle Dedalus

"Glad your Uncle's not one for spoilers." Nebula chuckled as she read the letter over the other Hermit's shoulders and heads.

On Christmas morning, everyone woke up earlier than usual, whether they liked it or not.

"DOCCY, DOCCY, DOCCY, DOCCY!!! GET UUUUUP!!! IT'S CHRISTMASSSS!!!!" Bdubs rapidly leapt up and down on Doc's bed (which he could actually sleep in peacefully now that Malfoy had left for the holidays), scaring the life out of the German.

"Geh von mir runter, du idiot!" ("Get off me, you idiot!") Doc shouted right before he fell off his bed, taking Bdubs with him. Luckily (or, unluckily, depending on how you look at it), the small Gryffindor landed on the raven-haired Slytherin's chest.

Freezing and turning pink, Doc stared at his laughing best friend.

Bdubs looked at Doc with a smile and slightly flushed cheeks. "Oops! You okay, Doc?"

'HE'SSOCLOSEHE'SSOCLOSEWHYISHESOCLOSE-'

"Yeah, y-yeah, I'm fine."

Everyone brought their presents from their dorms into Impulse's dormitory (the other Hufflepuffs who were still there were pretty chill about them sneaking in, surprisingly) and excitedly discussed who should start opening first.

After nearly a minute of talking over everyone else, the Hermits finally agreed on their newest member going first. Nebula blinked in confusion, but shrugged and picked up a small box from her rather small pile of presents. Inside were a pair of books on Magical Creatures from her parents, which she offered to share with Ren ("It's your present!" "And I do what I please with it, and I want to share!"), which Doc commented was a very Ravenclaw thing for her to do.

Grian happily went next, and he rapidly tore off the gift wrap to find a Gobstone set from Xisuma, who'd overheard him talking with the Weasley twins about the game.

"Yes! Thanks, X!"

Everyone insisted that Mumbo went next, and our favourite spoon doesn't really do well under any sort of pressure, so he opened the largest present he had first.

His chosen present was from Iskall and Grian, who'd both pooled their money together to get him two new sets of school robes (he'd already started to grow out of his current ones), a few extra rolls of parchment (this dude took an insane amount of notes. It came in handy, but he ran out of paper very quickly), a new bottle of standard Ravenclaw ink (once again, this Ravenclaw took way more notes than was thought possible), and a few boxes of various candies that Grian knew the redstoner fancied.