Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (Female Reader Insert)

Chapter 8: Christmas!

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver post had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the draughty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

Y/N was getting apprehensive. She was having the same dream- of her parents meeting, again and again. It was becoming a nightmare for her- dreaming about something like that. Every morning- she woke up sweating and coughing. Even Hermione was getting worried. So worried that one day she decided to finally confront her.

"What's going on, Y/N?" She asked, sitting down beside her on the Gryffindor table.

"What do you mean?" Y/N asked pretending to be dumb.

"Don't lie. I have seen you getting up in the morning, sickly and tired. You even dozed off in Charms yesterday!"

"It wasn't my fault! He was teaching things I already know!" She said.

"But you never doze off in Charms class! What is really going on!"

Y/N decided to keep her mouth shut after that. She couldn't tell Hermione the truth. She couldn't tell anyone the truth, for that matter. Everyone would hate her. She would lose everything.

The whole day she tried to avoid Hermione. Worse- Hermione had even told Harry and Ron about it and now they were too, running around, asking whether she was fine or not, causing her to avoid them as well.

That evening at Potions, Draco Malfoy was busy taunting Harry. He had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that Slytherin had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. Then he'd realised that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

"I do feel sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." He said, looking over to Harry.

"No, that's because they don't need a babysitter every moment." Y/N taunted him back.

Malfoy decided it was best to stay quiet after that.

Despite Malfoy's sick attempts to make him feel sorry about himself, Harry felt the complete opposite. This would probably be his best Christmas- Ron, Y/N and their brothers would be staying for the holidays with him too, because Mr and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.

"Hey Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm all right- Thanks Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose, that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."