joelle | d.m

26 | happy holiday

December, 1994.

"Merry Christmas!"

"Shut up!" Joey and Imani shouted in unison from under their blankets toward Devonte.

He shut the door behind him, two gift bags in hand and a box hugged under his arm. "You both are very mean in the mornings," he said disapprovingly. "It's Christmas, lovely ladies. I brought gifts. Now give me some of that Christmas spirit."

"Good morning, Von," Nayun beamed, rising from her bed with her sleeping mask on her forehead.

"Devonte, my feet hurt from last night and I had a restless night's sleep and I'm cranky, so please stop breathing and stop talking," Imani drawled, tucking herself tightly under her blanket.

"Whatever," he muttered, and went to Joey's bed to place a red-wrapped box upon the foot of her bed. "Here's your gift, Jo-Jo. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, mate," Joey grumbled as she sat up, and he went to give her head a little pat while she did so.

"Now, I have more gifts for you guys at my manor, but you won't be receiving them until we see each other on holiday," he explained as he put Nayun and Imani's gifts on each of their beds.

"Von, I only got you one thing." Joey frowned and rubbed her cheeks to wake herself up.

"Okay, so?" He shrugged and threw her a grin, dressed in his pajama pants and a white T-shirt. "Christmas isn't about gifts. I just got you guys multiple things because I couldn't decide which was the best option."

"Oh, okay." Joey reached for the medium-sized box and unwrapped it while Devonte tried probing Imani to get up.

In the box Joey opened were two sweatshirts from designer companies. One in brown and one in white.

"Thank you, Von," she beamed as she examined the sweatshirts in awe. "I don't have sweaters in these colours. Thank you so much."

"Of course." He smiled at her after dragging the blankets off of Imani. "You can stop stealing my white hoodie now."

The four of them exchanged gifts and Christmas joy and spent a good thirty minutes just talking and reminiscing about the ball.

Joey bought Devonte a bottle of cologne, bought Imani a gold necklace that came with matching earrings, and bought Nayun a silk pajama set.

From them, Joey received designer sweatshirts from Devonte, two leather-bound books from Nayun, and a new throw blanket with J.H embroidered in the corner from Imani.

"I had so much fun at the ball," Nayun mentioned as she relaxed against the pillows propped up behind her. "We've never had a ball. That was a fun experience."

"Yeah, but with all the professors watching and just being there... it's kind of dull," Devonte admitted, and collected the garbage from exchanging gifts.

"Well, what did you expect?" Imani lovingly studied her gifts from her friends as they lay in front of her on the bed. "The Yule Ball is a Triwizard tradition."

Joey didn't fancy reminiscing about the ball, so she just began to get ready to go home. Luckily the four of them packed beforehand, so it gave them extra time to sleep and less time rushing. They even took their time eating breakfast.

Quite a bit of students were going home for the rest of the holiday due to the fact that they simply wanted to be home. One would think that an event like the tournament and more students from different schools would encourage students to stay at Hogwarts, but that wasn't exactly the case.

"When should I come over?" Devonte asked as they all finished up the last of their breakfast. "I have Gram and Pop coming over for Christmas, along with the rest of Dad's side of the family. Then I've got Mum's side coming over, so I can't for the next few days."