Muggle-Raised Champion

An Unforgetable Yule

Disclaimer – I solemnly swear that JKR owns everything Harry Potter. Whether or not I am up to no good with her characters is for you to decide.

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Muggle-Raised Champion a

Chapter 17 – An Unforgettable Yule

5:00am

Sunday, 25 December 1994

Harry's Quarters, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

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Harry's eyes snapped open. Something had woken him. For an instant, he was back in his cupboard, waiting for Aunt Petunia to start banging on his door, telling him to get up and start cooking the Dursley's breakfast.

And then the canopy above the soft bed registered and his body relaxed. He was at Hogwarts. But still, something had woken him. His eyes darted about, but in the dim light of early morning it was hard to see.

Slowly, carefully, he sat up. Lifting one hand above his head, he willed light.

The ball of bright white light that appeared lit up the room and he looked around, trying to identify what had woken him. And then he saw it. At the very end of his bed was a small pile of presents. How they'd gotten there, he had no idea. In fact, why they were there, he had no idea.

And then it came to him – it was Christmas Day. Christmas. With presents. Sure, he knew the concept, how could he not after watching Dudley open mounds of the things every year. But he'd never had any for himself.

Leaving the ball of light hanging in the air, he crawled down the bed to examine this wondrous event. There were five altogether, each one wrapped in magical paper with animated pictures on it. All at once, the presents blurred and he dashed a hand across his eyes to wipe away the tears that had appeared.

Then, with a grin wider than he'd ever had before, he reached forward and plucked one up, bringing it into his lap.

This one was the most badly wrapped of them all, but to Harry, it was exquisite. Almost reverently, he turned it over to find an equally badly written note scrawled across the paper: To Harry, Merry Christmas, From Hagrid.

Eagerly, Harry unwrapped it to find something wooden drop into his hand. Stuffing the paper behind him, his eyes lit up at the beautifully hand-made pan pipes. The wood was a medium brown and it took him some moments before he recognised it: pear wood. Bringing the pipes up to his mouth he blew into them and promptly frowned when nothing but a wet raspberry sound emerged. Obviously he'd done something wrong.

Well, he reasoned, if Hagrid gave it to me, then he'll know how to play it. I'll simply ask him when I thank him later.

Laying the pipes to one side, Harry reached out and plucked the next gift. This one was by far the largest and had arrows all around it pointing upwards. Figuring that they meant 'this way up', Harry took extra care not to tip it about.

Not seeing a note on the outside, Harry unwrapped the gift and promptly stared at the pot-plant. Whatever the plant was, it was small with a couple of thin tendrils shooting up from the main stalk, waving merrily away.

Tearing his eyes away from the plant, Harry found a small book: Magical Flowers and Their Uses. Opening the first page, he found a note from Neville, identifying the plant as an umbrella flower. Flipping through the book to find the right entry, Harry's eyes skimmed the page and promptly dropped the book. This thing is going to grow flowers bigger than a beach umbrella?

With a shake of his head, Harry carefully placed his new plant on his bedside table before turning to the rest of his gift.

The next one he opened was from Daphne. When he opened the simple box, he found a new rune etching kit, much more advanced than the one that he currently had.