The Last Riddle

8. Christmas

Time flew by and soon enough it was December. Snow fell from the sky in thick amounts and covered the castles grounds in a white soft blanket. My shoulder had fully healed and my life was back to semi normal. Classes flew by and deadlines passed. Christmas break was on the horizon.

"What are you doing for Christmas then Meadows?" Blaise asked Poppy whilst waving his wand in the air making the snow around us fly in patterns. We were sat on a covered bench overlooking the lake, Blaise was sat to my right with his leg bent in front of him and his arm thrown over the back of the bench in a relaxed manner. Poppy was sat cross legged on the bench on my left drawing in her notebook.

"Ced and I will be going back to Devon for a massive family Christmas. It's always a massive affair with all our family travelling in from every corner of the globe." Poppy muses as she continues to sketch the lake in front of her. "Angie I really wish you'd reconsider staying at Hogwarts for Christmas and instead come with me. Ced would love it as would I."

I sigh and look out across the lake "I know Poppy but even though Harry and I aren't talking right now I can't imagine spending a Christmas away from him. I appreciate the offer but this year I'm going to spend it here. What are your plans Blaise?"

Blaise shrugs his shoulders and smiles at me "I'll be going wherever my mother is, I believe that's Paris but to be honest I'm really not sure. I hope it is Paris because Paris in the snow is beautiful."

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I roll over in my bed and bask in the silence of the empty dorm room. Nearly all of the Slytherins had gone home for Christmas, the majority come from wealthy families and therefore Christmas is an affair filled with balls and galas for them. I look out of the window and watch the snow fall in silence alone. I kick my duvet off and hear a small thud onto the floor. I look off the bed and see a small brown parcel on the floor, pulling my duvet back I see two more presents on my bed. I can't believe it, I've never received presents before.

I sit up in my single bed with the duvet wrapped around me and open them. The first small package is a gift from Poppy. It's a series of sketches she has done, one of Blaise smiling, one of me flying mid air gazing at the sketched snitch in front of me and the final of Harry and I smiling together. My eyes start to water and I get emotional looking at the life like sketches in front of me.

I place these to the side and go to open my second present. This is a larger lump and I tear into the paper with excitement and a large pile of green falls out. Rifling through the pile I realise there are seven jumpers and t-shirts in front of me in varying shades of green. Feeling the fabric in my fingers I can tell that these are quality goods and just have been very expensive. I immediately know that these are from Blaise, he always complains about the quality of my second hand clothes from Harry and this is way of remedying that.

The final package is a small rectangular one with the label "This was your mother's. It's about time you have it -S.S". Confused as to who had sent me this I open the package to reveal a small blue book titled "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". I flick through the book and I can see little inscriptions in the margins of the book where my mother had obviously written in it. I run my fingers over the quill marks in the book and I get goosebumps up my arm imagine that this same page my mother has once touched.
I wonder who sent me this gift, it can't have been Aunt Petunia as she hates talking about her sister.

I bathe and dress into a dress that Poppy had left me to wear to the Christmas dinner. It's a small black velvet dress which is made to wrap around my small petite frame. I pull my dark hair back and tie it at the top of neck and leave two strands down to frame my face. I grab the final two presents I'm yet to give out and head down to the Great Hall.

On my walk down I think of the presents that I gave to Blaise and Poppy and I hope they that will enjoy them. I had spent hours in the castles kitchen with the house elves trying to make Christmas cookies for Blaise shaping them into all kinds of shapes. Blaise may love material goods but he has a very required taste so I believe it would be safer to bake him something instead. As for Poppy I had gone to Cedric for help, he was old enough to travel down to Hogsmeade so I had asked him to buy some drawing supply's for Poppy. He found me a beautiful leather bound sketch book and a series of magical pencils, the pencils were spelled so that the lead never breaks and I believed they were the perfect gift for Poppy.

I enter the Great Hall with the two presents in my hand to see that instead of the usual four tables there is instead only one. Sat at the table are 3 Hufflepuff students I've never seen before sitting together, 2
Ravenclaws whispering and giggling together and finally my eyes land on the 4 weasley brothers. Ron sees me and waves me over beaming at me "Angelica! Come over and sit with us!"

I take a deep breath and walk over to Ron smiling back at him "Merry Christmas Ron" I turn to his brothers and smile at them "Merry Christmas guys." Fred and George who are twins smile at me identically and chant back cheerful merry Christmases. The oldest Percy nods his head in my direction and then carries on shining his prefect badge in front of him. Ron smiles at me "you look nice, did you receive any nice presents today?"

I smile back at the friendly red haired boy in front of me "yeah a few from friends. What about you? Is that a new jumper?" I gesture at the maroon jumper with the large yellow R on it. Rons face flushes and he nods "yeah it's a family tradition. Mum always makes us a new jumper each year. She even sent Harry one, he should be down soon. He was just playing around with his last present that Dumbledore sent him, it used to belong to his dad." My head shoots up and I stare at Ron in shock.

"Harry got a present from Dumbledore that belonged to our dad?" I ask confused.

Ron stares at me realising what he's just said "oh bloody hell, sorry Angelica I didn't even think." His face flushes again and he awkwardly tries to force out words. I brush away his apology and my mind starts running a mile a minute.

look up to see Harry entering the hall in a navy blue knitted jumper with a large H on it. He walks towards the table and as he sees me he smiles shyly at me.

He awkwardly sits down and stares at the empty plate in front of him. I reach my hand out to my twin brother and clasp my fingers around his. "Merry Christmas Harry" I say quietly.
Harry gratefully squeezes my hand in return "Merry Christmas Ang".

Ron cheers at his seat across from us and both Harry and I look at him in amusement. I chuckle and turn to my brother "so did you wake up to any presents this morning?"

"A few small ones. Rons mum knitted me a sweater which was nice of her, Ron got me some sweets and Hermione some stationary." Harry replies.

Suddenly gasps fill the air as the food on the table appears. The Christmas feast is like one I've never seen before. Considering how little students there are it seems like a waste, turkeys and hams line the table the size of a small person. Roast potatoes and stuffing, gravy and Yorkshire puddings. Pigs in blankets are displayed by the bucket load, my mouth waters at the sight and I start to pile my plate up high.

Halfway through the meal I put my attention back on my brother checking if Ron is listening, however the ginger haired boy has a turkey leg in each hand and seems to be unaware of anything else. "So you didn't get any other presents then? Just the three?" I quiz my brother feigning ignorance.

Harry looks at me sideways and continues to eat "yep just the three. Actually that's not true."

My heart starts beating fast and I'm so grateful that my brother is finally going to be honest with me.

"The Dursley's sent me a 50 pence coin" Harry chuckles "well technically that was addressed to the both of us so I suppose I only recurved 25 pence in total!"

I fake laugh along with my brother and feel my spirt drop. He's lying to me, and so naturally as well. I may be sat next to my brother in proximity but I've never felt further apart from him.