The Story of Ruby Evans - The Beginning (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction) (Rewriting)

Chapter 12 - Jingle Bells, Harry Smells

When I finally got back to Hogwarts, I was relieved. It was late Christmas eve when I arrived in the common room so everyone had already gone to bed. Me and Polaris had our dormitory to ourselves so I just went straight to sleep.

When i woke up, it was still dark. I reached over and checked the clock next to my bed. It was 6.00. Late enough to get up and get presents! There was no way I was going back to sleep. I sat up and looked around our empty dormitory. Polaris was curled up at the end of my bed on top of a small pile of presents. I pushed Polaris off the presents and she settled down on my pillow instead. I scooped up my presents and went to find Harry and Ron.

I dumped my presents on an empty bed. Harry was still asleep but Ron was starting to wake up.

"Happy Christmas," said Ron sleepily as he spotted me.

"Happy Christmas," I replied. Harry didn't show any signs of waking up any time soon so I crept forward. I put my head next to his ear and shouted "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" at the top of my voice. He fell out of bed and I rolled on the floor laughing.

When Harry realised what was going on, he said, "Morning, Ruby. Merry Christmas. When did you get back?"

"Last night but you two were already asleep."

"Happy Christmas, Harry," said Ron, who had just stopped laughing.

"You, too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"

"What did you expect, turnips?" said Ron, turning to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Harry's. I went to mine. The first one I picked up was wrapped in green and silver paper. The tag told me it was from the Malfoys, so I put it aside for later. I picked up a small one in red and gold paper. A note attached said it was from Uncle Remus. It was a little necklace with a black paw-print on it. I put it on straight away.

Harry had gotten a handmade flute from Hagrid. He blew it and I laughed and told him he sounded like an owl. Next I opened a white and green wrapped parcel. It contained a few big bars of Honeyduke's best chocolate from Andromeda and her family. I also got a big bag of Mars bars from Hermione and a box of chocolate frogs from Harry. Ron found the Mars bars very interesting so I gave him one.

Harry had been given a 50 pence piece from the Dursleys.

"That's friendly," he said.

Ron was fascinated by the fifty pence.

"Weird!" he said, 'What a shape! This is money?"

"You can keep it," said Harry, laughing at how pleased Ron was. I laughed with him. "Hagrid and my aunt and uncle — so who sent these?"

"I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, turning a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mom. I told her you didn't expect any presents and — oh, no," he groaned, "she's made you a Weasley sweater."

Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge.

"Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."

"That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge.

I got a big-ish bar of Cadbury's chocolate from the Evans and a green dress from the Malfoys. It was quite pretty actually. My last present was a lumpy one, like the one Harry had. I opened it and out fell a bright red jumper and a little note. It read:

To Ruby.

Merry Christmas. Fred, George and Ron have been telling us all about you. The twins hardly write about anything else, so here's a jumper for you too. Please try not to let the twins get themselves into too much trouble.