Miranda Black and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Sirius Black's Daughter SEQUEL!)

Chapter 15 - Christmas Trees

Although there were only 9 students at the school right now, the teachers had still put in all of the effort they did last year. Thick streamers of holly and mistletoe were hung up in the corridors, mysterious lights shone from inside every suit of armour in the castle, and the Great Hall was filled with 12 large Christmas trees, each one glittering with golden stars. A powerful and delicious smell of cooking had invaded the corridors, and by Christmas Eve, it was so strong, that even peoples' pets seemed to be found often with their noses in the air, walking around in the corridors.

Us six remaining Gryffindor's celebrated Christmas Eve by having a chess tournament. Ron won, earning himself the nickname 'Chess King'. We then each had a couple of chocolates from Honeydukes, which Hermione had stashed in her bag. After that we decided to go to bed. Before we left, we made a plan for tomorrow morning - we'd all go downstairs at quarter to eight in the morning, and open our presents together.

I went to sleep after a quarter of an hour of simply lying there, thinking about what I might get tomorrow. I didn't really know of course, Christmas presents were always a nice surprise. But it was fun to guess. I eventually fell into a peaceful sleep, dreaming of Christmas dinners and the delicious smell which wafted around in the corridors... My alarm went off at 7.40am, leaving me five minutes before I was to go downstairs. Excitedly, I hopped out of bed and woke Ginny up. 

"Merry Christmas!" I yelled, as she got up and stretched, her mouth wide open in a large yawn. 

"Merry Christmas to you too," she said happily, yet sleepily. I glanced at the stairs, and Ginny got the idea. We rushed down together to see Daniel, Ron, and Harry waiting for us girls - Hermione hadn't come down yet. Ginny and I walked over to them and sat down, before Hermione came running down, a look of glee on her face.

She plonked herself down, and we all eagerly turned to our pile of presents. Ron ripped his open first, to find another one of his mother's hand knitted jumpers. He was very disappointed, especially because it was maroon again!

"I bet you guys will have one too," Ron told Harry, Ginny, and I. And so we did. Mine was lime green, with a black letter M put in the middle. Grinning, I pulled it over my head, and over my pajama top. Ron groaned, making me chuckle and roll my eyes.

All 6 of us glanced at each other, before heading to our next presents. I looked in the parcel that the jumper had come in, to see that Mrs Weasley had also gifted me some home made fudge, and Christmas cake. I could just imagine Mrs Weasley bustling around in her kitchen, making all of this food for everyone. Smiling at the thought, I opened the next one, which was from Ginny. It was a thoughtful gift, a book full of spells. They were spells to change your appearance - make straight hair curly, make things grow at an abnormally fast rate, change your eye colour, and so on. The note that came with it said - To Miranda, this is so you can curl your own hair. She'd then drawn a smiling face, with brown curly hair. I laughed at her and said thank you, and she returned the favour due to the fact that she'd just opened mine. 

I turned back to my pile of presents, and picked up a small one. It wasn't wrapped, it just sat in a little silver box. I slowly pulled off the lid, to reveal a golden necklace. The charm was a small heart. As I stared at it, I wondered who it was from, and luckily a small card fell out of it. I eagerly opened it. There was a letter addressed to me, written in lovely cursive handwriting. Intrigued, I quickly read through it,

Dear Miranda,

I hope you like this...I'm not revealing my name, I fear that if you knew my name, things would become a bit strange. Wow, I am really not good at writing letters. Well I would just like to say that this is from two people - no, it's from the person writing this letter, but I'm sure the person I'm talking about would want you to have this. I'm sorry, I'm going to stop now because I am probably confusing you, I know. Merry Christmas!