It's Christmas Time Again: A Time-Traveling TMS Holiday Extravaganza

Christmas Holiday, 2012 (Part Two)

Diagon Alley was crowded as usual just before Christmas. They'd put up a big tree in place of the fountain in the square down the road from Gringott's and it sparkled and shimmered with what looked like actual stars hanging from the boughs all over.

"I've always loved Christmas," Dierks said, standing at the foot of it and looking up at the evergreen branches as they sighed slightly under the December breeze. Snow flicked across our faces, bit our noses, and speckled our coats and scarves. Dierks's coat was an old varsity style jacket with leather sleeves and a blue wool torso, his Gryffindor scarf vintage - the colors muted compared to the style the scarves were now. It was extremely long, too, wrapping around his neck several times, rather than just once. He had his hands shoved into the pockets.

I was more in awe of the fact we were out here in Diagon Alley without Gran. She'd agreed to let Dierks and I go shopping in Diagon Alley for two hours - then we had to meet her in the Leaky Cauldron. It was the first time she'd ever dreamed of leaving me alone in a public place like that and I was buzzing with excitement. I felt as free as I'd felt at the first Hogsmeade trip in October (also spent with Dierks), Gran had no idea I'd done that... I had never told her about the permission slip and if McGonagall suspected my forgery, the headmistress had never said anything of it.

"Christmas is the last day I'll ever spend with my friends," Dierks said.

"What?" I looked over at him.

He glanced at me and looked almost surprised, like he hadn't meant to speak out loud. "Nothing." He clapped his palms together, "Gods it's freezing out here! You'd think they'd set some sort of warming charm on the place!"

"Yeah, I'm freezing," I complained, mimicking the attempt to warm up. "Let's get this done so we can go back home. You've really never seen Home Alone? That's wild."

"Never," Dierks replied.

"I guess muggle tellys still aren't for everyone. Gram doesn't have one but Harry does. We watch all sorts of films and shows. There's even a wizarding channel."

"Now that's cool," Dierks said as we turned from the tree, and he started following me along the road. "So what are we on the hunt for, exactly?" he asked.

"I have to get something for Victorie. She's coming to Christmas this year, I just found out. Last year they went to Fleur's mum's in France, but this year they're staying with Bill's family in Ottery St. Catchpole. So all the Weasleys are coming this year to Harry's."

Dierks smiled, "It'll be nice to see them all. Arthur and Molly, too?"

"Yeah I think Grammolly and Grampa Weasley are coming."

I was a little slow when I was a kid and didn't find it weird he knew my Grammolly and Grampa's names. Like I barely knew their names.

We started at shopping and I considered getting Victorie some bon bons or macarons from Sugarplum's but changed my mind. Likewise, I decided against a perfume that smelled pink and sweet at the same time. We looked through Flourish and Blott's and I almost got her a journal that sparkled and a color changing quill but put them back at the last minute. Then we went into a small shop that had a great assortment of things - crafted, vintage, antique, all in little booths that snaked along through a deep hall we wandered through.

I kept checking my watch. If we were even a second late to meeting Gran at the Leaky Cauldron when she said to, she would never let me leave her sight again. She would put me on a leash made of unbreakable threads and follow me around until the day one of the two of us died - and it would be me who would go first because I'd die of boredom when she didn't let me do anything.

"We have time," Dierks reassured me.

I was stopped at a booth with jewelry boxes and snowglobes that wound up and played pretty music - Dierks had wound one up that played a pretty tune and I watched the small gold bars inside move over a small dotted wheel mechanism, plinking out a tune that sounded vaguely familiar to me.