Flick and Swish || A Harry Potter Anthology

Third Place - An Elf for Christmas

Written by Leaf

With my head raised to the sky, I opened my mouth and spun around, catching the first specks of snow onto my tongue this unusually warmer Winter. The shutter of a camera snapped beside me and I turned to smile at Jack taking a shot of me, adjusting my woolly hat as it had fallen off slightly during my spin.

"If it keeps snowing like this we might have our first white Christmas," I held my mitten clad palm out to the snow.

"Now that would be magical," Jack said, snapping yet another shot of me, "the kids would love a snowy Christmas." I smiled to myself as I recalled the excitement of Jack's youngest son Timmy for a white Christmas and made a mental note to build a snowman with the kids when we picked them up from school and got back home.

Jack gestured me over, presenting the camera screen to me, "come see how beautiful your look, your smile, your eyes, everything is just gorgeous."

"You exaggerate," the corners of my lips stretched as far as they could to the point where it ached as I hid my heated up face under my mittens.

"I'm not, honest," he took my hands into his and leaned in to peck my cheek, "you're the most beautiful girl in the whole world." He kissed the back of my hands before letting one go and slipping our remaining clasped hands into his pockets and pulled me beside him and into our town's mall.

Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas is you chimed through the mall speakers and fairy lights twinkled everywhere. Christmas baubles and stars hung from the ceilings as people skidded past each other in a Christmas hurry, lured by the commercial bait put on display, hooking them into their stores and straight to the cashiers. Unlike them, I had my Christmas shopping already wrapped and tucked away in the very back of the top shelf of my closet, away from the kids, waiting for Christmas eve to place them under our tree. A long line snaked its way to Santa's grotto, a small red hut stationed at the middle of the mall with reindeer and elves guarding it and giant candy canes growing around.

Jack captured some shots of the festivity, even when he wasn't working as a photographer he still indulged in it as a hobby, carefully analysing the lighting and composition of where everything stood so he could obtain the perfect shots. Where his passions lay in photography, mine was Harry Potter. I'd read the books and watch the movies constantly, handcrafting broomsticks and knitting character plushies especially of my favourite character Dobby -- I have a whole shelf dedicated to him. I've even gotten Jack's sons in love with the franchise, in fact we planned to watch the movies this Christmas.

"Hey want to get some pretzels?" Jack asked, nodding to Auntie Anne's pretzel station near us.

"Absolutely, and donuts too," I replied and joined the longer than usual but not too long queue as Jingle bells began to play through the speakers instead as the sweet and yeasty aroma of Auntie Anne's baked goods wafted into my nose. I scanned around the mall as Jack tapped on his phone and my breath stopped when I locked onto my favourite comfort character of all time dressed in an adorable Christmas elf costume, befitting considering he was an actual elf. I let out a shriek when a pair of stubby hands tainted Dobby's box by taking him off the conveyor belt and stuffed him into their bag.

"You okay?" Jack asked, eyes glistening with concern.

"Y-yeah," I replied, "hey, how about I go on ahead and meet you once you get the food?"

Jack raised an eyebrow but agreed, gifting me a peck on the lips before I dashed away from him and into the store I saw Dobby in, scouring all the almost empty aisles with big fifty percent or twenty percent off signs stuck to the shelves until finally I found him all alone on the rack. I heaved out a breath and smiled, picking up the box and admiring the elf within. That was until I saw he was priced unfathomably high and my heart sank. I searched for a sales tag, in hopes that he might actually be cheaper but no luck, of all the sales going on in this store, Dobby had to be one of the few that wasn't on sale. As invaluable as Dobby was there was no reason for him to be priced this high.