A Broken Slytherin : Serpent Secrets (Book 2)

The Mystery Gifts

Once news of the double attack on Nearly-Headless Nick and Justin has spread throughout the school (much thanks to Peeves), the slight nervous vibe of Hogwarts upscaled to a full panic. Mainly due to Nearly-Headless Nick's involvement, because if someone who is already dead can be attacked, what does that mean for us, students asked each other in the halls. Not surprisingly, there were a lot more last minute purchases for a Hogwarts Express ticket before the end of the term.

"At this rate, the only ones left will be us and Malfoy and his goons!" Ron told Harry and Hermione at breakfast one morning which y/n overheard from her own table. Of course, Fred, George and Ginny would be staying too, and unfortunately Percy. The Gryffindor Prefect's presence in her Christmas irked her more than Malfoy's for sure, especially after the previous Christmas. But this year, y/n would have some company in the Slytherin dungeons. Along with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, y/n's good friend Chloe would be with her Christmas morning to exchange and open presents with her.

Despite y/n not being on best terms with Harry, Hermione and Ron, she still bought them gifts. She had actually purchased them through the mail after seeing advertisements in the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly, weeks before their falling out, and it would be a waste to throw them out. She considered giving them to her Slytherin friends, but she had already bought their gifts and the other presents wouldn't suit the persons. So y/n settled on anonymously sending the Gryffindors, their gifts.

She would write her name on Fred, George, and Ginny's gifts though. They were still kind and actually talked to her. y/n was surprised when Ginny would come up to her in the halls and speak to her normally as if no one else was speaking ill of y/n at the time, especially because all of the attacks really distressed Ginny. Fred and George never really took anything seriously so they had no issue with being seen with her.

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Soon, everyone left and y/n, Chloe, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle had the whole Slytherin dorm to themselves. y/n and Chloe rearranged their dorms to have their bed's closer so they could stay up late and talk to each other more easily into the wee hours of the morning. They set up the large Christmas tree in the common room and meticulously hung the ornaments up, having to have one get on the other's shoulders to put the star on top as Chloe wanted to do it "the Muggle way" like she did at home. After just perching it on top, they lost balance and came crashing to the floor, but laughed at their silliness all the same. The girls didn't see much of the boys. Crabbe and Goyle spent most of their time either in the Great Hall or the Kitchens, stuffing their faces with whatever they could find. Draco mainly kept to himself and stayed in the common room or his dorm. y/n saw a lot more of the Gryffindor trio as there were far fewer people to separate them in the castle,

When the Winter sun rose on Christmas day, y/n was awoken by Chloe jumping onto her bed, and stroking Nimbus waiting for her friend to wake up. After y/n sat up and rubbed away the sleep in her eyes, she gave Chloe a hug and kissed Nimbus' head affectionately. "Merry Christmas Chloe!" She said with a smile on her face.

"Merry Christmas y/n! Shall we go down and open our presents before breakfast?" Chloe replied.

"Yeah, sounds good," y/n threw off the covers and slipped on her dressing gown and slippers to protect her feet from the cold dungeon floors. Once they entered the common room, they lit a fire to warm the chilly room and began to sort through their presents. Chloe eagerly gave y/n her gift wanting her to open it first. She had gotten y/n a pair of black woollen gloves because y/n's hands always seemed to be cold. After thanking Chloe, y/n proceeded to rip open her other gifts. Mirabella sent her a quill which wrote in invisible ink, and Valentina got her a new perfume which smelt of (favourite flowers) and sprayed out little petals which popped in the air like bubbles with each spray. Mrs Weasley had sent her a large package with a new Weasley jumper after seeing how much y/n had grown and a tin of shortbread biscuits. Her letter said that the twins had mentioned how much she loved shortbread in one of their letters home. Her new jumper was identical to her last, except it actually fit her properly.

She opened her Grandmother's gift to her and took out a lovely wand case which had an intricate design of golden vines winding their way around the box. She ran up and grabbed her wand, finding that it fit perfectly in the velvet casing. The twins got her an empty potion bottle labelled: "Amount of Fucks to Give". y/n laughed out loud at the twins joke and noted that she needed to commend the for their creativity (also that she appreciated the potion bottle). Ginny's gift was a framed photo of them back at the burrow, laughing and then hugging. Ginny had her braids in after y/n had done them for her, it was possibly her favourite gift she had received. Once y/n had burned all the scrap wrapping paper, she heard one of the boy's coming downstairs. She turned to see Draco, hair askew and messy holding two presents in his hands.

"Good Morning Draco, Merry Christmas!" y/n said cheerily, trying not to laugh at Draco's hairdo.

"Morning, Happy Christmas girls," he said handing them their gifts. At first y/n was surprised that Draco would have thought to get her anything, but in the last month, she has gotten to know Draco a lot better. He was a prick sometimes, yes, but he was funny and kind too when it counted. y/n took the small package and undid the bow he had tied around it and tore off the paper. In the small box was a bracelet which matched the one y/n always wore. The one with a silver chain and black diamond that her Grandmother had sent her last Christmas. "Draco! This is so nice! Thank you!" She gushed, giving Draco a hug which he eventually returned, "Oh! I got you something too!" y/n remembered, rushing over to the tree and pulling out her present for Draco. It was hard buying for the boy who had everything, but y/n thought she did a pretty good job.

Draco lazily tore off the wrapping to find a brand new pair of Quidditch goggles. He was always complaining that the school ones slid off when he was flying, so y/n bought some that would fit him perfectly. "Wow, thanks, y/n, just what I needed!" He thanked, pulling on the goggles and trying them out.

"Yeah, so now you have no excuse for not catching the Snitch!" y/n teased, flicking the goggle lenses.

"Oh whatever, I could catch the Snitch against Hufflepuff with my eyes closed!"

"As long as you catch it," y/n said, going back to the couch and signing. As she stared into the fire she felt like something was missing in this situation. Something that should be a part of this. Then she saw that neither Harry nor Ron nor Hermione had sent her a gift. Not even a letter. Perhaps this really was the end of their friendship.

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In the Gryffindor common room, things were a lot louder. Harry and Ron had been woken up by Hermione after she burst into their room. They all went down to the common room to open their gifts with the rest of the Weasleys. Ginny happily tried out her lipgloss sent to her by y/n and Fred and George for the first time ever, excitedly flicked through a book which contained recipes for potions that could be added to food to do something nasty to the consumer, also sent by y/n.

Harry flinched when they told him that the Slytherin had sent it. Ron even went as far as to warn Ginny that y/n could have poisoned the lipgloss. Ginny just laughed and proceeded to put it on anyway. "There are still three presents," said Hermione, "One for each of us," he told Harry and Ron.

"Who from?" Harry asked looking for a tag to identify the sender.

"Doesn't say," Hermione shrugged and tore off the wrapping paper, the boys following suit. Hermione loved her new sets of colourful ink, exclaiming that they would be perfect for note taking. Ron quickly put on his Chudley Canons scarf, and Harry was more than pleased to find a new set of Quidditch arm guards, seeing as his old ones broke in the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"This is awesome! I love whoever sent this," Ron jested, taking another bite of Harry's fruit cake Molly had sent.

"A bit curious though," Harry commented, looking over the box again for any sign of a name. He examined the small note which was attached to the box's ribbon.

To Harry,
Merry Christmas.

The note was short but Harry found the handwriting annoyingly familiar.

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Short chapter today guys. Hope you enjoyed all the same though. School holidays begin for me in a few days which means more time to write the story! Please vote, comment and fan!

Have a good day loves! ❤

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