A Forbidden Love

Chapter 7: The Best Christmas Eve Ever

After I finish my breakfast, we all get to work to make the house presentable for our guests. I help Mom cook, while my room, and the rest of the house, gets cleaned. Growing up in a rich family, I've never done an ounce of cleaning in my life. That is left to the house elves.

We have three house elves. Dobby comes from Father's side of the family, Kingsner from Mother's side, and Kramer, Bellatrix's elf that we're holding while she's locked up. Despite coming from Dad's family, Dobby is the nicest of the three and the only one I trust. Therefore, he's upstairs cleaning my room while the other two clean the rest of the house.

Soon, dinner is made, the house is cleaned, and we're waiting for our guest to arrive. It's only 3:30, so I go and collect games and movies. Most wizards don't have a TV, so I figure it will be a cool treat for my friends.

I decide on Exploding Snap and Snitch Snatcher! for the games. For movies I choose A Christmas Story, I love that movie, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, and Christmas Vacation. I'll let them make the final decisions when it's time.

After everything is picked, around four o'clock, I get a letter from Blaise saying he wants to do a gift exchange and the others agreed. He said we each need one gift for the exchange. Mom and I go out to Diagon Alley to find something. Because we have over an hour, I take my time. Finally, after about ten shops, I find the gift I want to give: self-shuffling playing cards. Every wizard loves playing cards to pass the time. They'll be the perfect gift.

Even after a long trip to Diagon Alley, we're back, with the gift wrapped, before five, with a half-hour to wait. I go up to my room to finish waiting. I start doing some Christmas break Potions homework that Snape assigned. I love the guy, he's my favorite teacher, but sometimes he can be a real jerk. No other teacher gave homework over the break.

I'm deep in my homework when Dobby walks into my room.

"Sir," he says. I don't register him completely.

"Sir," he says, louder this time.

I snap out of my assignment. "Yes Dobby?"

"The first of your guests have arrived. Dobby thought you would like to meet them at the door."

"Of course. Thanks Dobby." I pat him on the head before running out of the room, to the front door.

Dad says not to thank a house elf, as they are a lower species than ourselves, but I took a liking to Dobby. The others I don't worry about, but Dobby, I thank whenever I can. I can see he's grateful for it to. It makes me feel good to make someone or something smile.

When I arrive at the front door, Blaise is already on the porch.

"Hey man," he says.

"Hey," I say back. "Come on in. Feel free to take a seat and make yourself at home. The gift can go right under the tree."

Soon after Blaise sits down, Crabbe and Goyle arrive. I tell them the same as I told Blaise. Once they're settled, I head to the kitchen and bring out a tray of hot chocolate. Mom suggested making egg nog, but I've never been a fan. We stuck with hot chocolate.

"I figured we would do dinner first, then some games, the gift exchange, and finally a movie," I say after giving everyone a hot chocolate.

"A movie?" They all ask at the same time.

"They're like a picture books with no page turns and much more interesting plots," I respond. "You'll see. I think you'll like it."

"So, dinner now?" asks Goyle. He's always obsessed with food.

I laugh a little. "Yep. We have a Christmas Eve feast."

We run to the kitchen to see everything laid out nicely. The table is set, the food is placed around the counter like a buffet, and the Christmas lights in the kitchen are on. It's a beautiful scene.

We serve ourselves with chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, shrimp, and cod. It barely makes it back to the table before we dig in. We barely say a word as we enjoy the food.

When we're all satisfied with how much we've eaten, we head back to the living room for a game. I go get the ones I set aside from my room and bring them back down.

"I have Exploding Snap and Snitch Snatcher! I also have Wizard Chess and Gobstones, but those are only two player games."

"How about Snitch Snatcher!" Crabbe says.

"Yeah!" The other two agree.

"Snitch Snatcher! it is then."

We play a few rounds of the board game. I win the first two due to my experience, but the others eventually get the hang of it. Everyone wins at least once; Blaise gets two wins. By the last round, we are having so much fun.

I am especially having fun. I feel free to be myself for the first time since I've been home. I don't have to worry about acting gay or weak because my friends knew I was bi and my parents stayed in their room most of the night. I finally feel relaxed. I feel like I belonged where I was.

After we put away the game, we bring out our gifts. Mom put mine in a box so it didn't look like playing cards. I thought it was a perfect idea when she suggested it.

We pass along to a story about a little wizard who ran around all the time. Blaise found the story in a book he had on gift exchanges. Every line had a direction in it. Some examples of lines are "James the wizard ran forward and right," or "He ran left, left, left." We passed every time a direction was named, in that direction.

By the end of the story, everyone has a different gift. Crabbe gets my cards, Goyle gets an Exploding Snap deck from Crabbe, and Blaise gets a book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from Goyle. My gift is from Blaise. It is a book on Quidditch called Quidditch Through the Ages. I always look at that book when we're in a wizard shop. Being on a professional Quidditch team is my dream.

We are all tired at this point. We did a lot this evening. I bring back my suggestion to end the night with a movie. Intrigued to see what it is, they all agree. I let them pick after reading the summary of each that I picked earlier. It came as no surprise to me that they picked National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

After the movie, everyone's parents come and pick them up. They all thank me for a great night and I thank them in return. I've never had a night this fun in my entire life. I can't wait to do it again.

I go to bed as soon as they leave, feeling happy. I have the best friends ever. I couldn't have spent Christmas Eve with any better company.