(Hey, today I've posted two chapters at the same time! You need to read chapter 20 first, in order to better understand this one. Thanks for following the story!)
Chapter 21. FINALLY CHRISTMAS
...
If you'd really like
To live a more
Shining and fragrant life,
Cancel that entreaty
>From your eyes...
...
"The Hill of Cherry Trees" by Lucio Battisti
That night, Ron ran immediately to his parents and woke them up; they rushed into Harry's bedroom to check on him and listen to his story.
Mrs. Weasley was really worried, but Harry just wanted them to leave him alone so he could think it over.
Finally, when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had made sure that Harry was fine and that everything at Hogwarts was quiet, they went to bed. Harry, however, wasn't able to fall asleep again... or more likely, he didn't want to. He was deeply terrified by the premonition and his greatest fear was that the vision would continue as soon as he fell asleep.
Harry spent the rest of the night staring at the dark ceiling with his back leaning against the wall in an intentionally uncomfortable position. He thought for a long time about the vision; surely, something terrible was going to happen at Hogwarts, even if he didn't know when.
Voldemort was surrounded by his Darkness Army and Harry didn't have the strength to react; he was completely helpless in front of his enemy.
How could he even hope to defeat the Dark Lord?
The following morning, Harry clearly heard Ron getting ready to meet the others downstairs, but he decided to stay in bed longer, alone. When he got up, he went over to the sink, washed his face with cold water, and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He was still very pale and had deep black circles under his eyes. He quickly put on his Muggle clothes and went down to have breakfast.
When he entered the kitchen, everybody turned to stare at him. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were sitting close to each other, finishing their food, while Mrs. Weasley was busy cleaning the dishes.
Harry tried to behave as normally as possible and took a seat at Ron's side.
"Good morning, Harry dear, how are you feeling today?"
"Fine, thanks," he lied, so as to not worry her, although he was still feeling really bad.
"Come on, have something to eat! I've prepared you toast with jam and some tea."
Hermione thoughtfully handed him a small dish and poured the tea into a cup; Harry looked at her thankfully as he took his first bite of the toast.
After breakfast he was feeling slightly better, but Hermione was still staring at him worriedly.
"We're going upstairs Mum!" said Ron, standing up as the others did the same. They exited the kitchen and headed to the boys' room. Hermione stayed close to Harry during the trip.
As soon as they entered the room, she turned to him anxiously.
"How are you? I mean, really? Your face is so pale."
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
"On the contrary, I am worried about you! You look like you need some sleep!"
"And I'm telling you that I'm fine! Please believe me," Harry huffed, annoyed, and laid down on his bed, thinking that going to bed was the last thing he wanted to do at that moment.
"Is it true what Ron's saying? Have you had a premonition?" Ginny asked, while sitting next to Ron and Hermione on a nearby bed. Harry didn't want to recall what he had seen and he didn't reply immediately. He put his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling.
"Yes."
"Did you see You-Know-Who attacking Hogwarts?" Ginny asked again, her voice trembling, while Ron frowned at her.
"Yes."
Harry realized that he was only giving one word answers. He turned to his friends and tried his best to explain what he was feeling.
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about that. It wasn't a pleasant experience."
"No, Harry, you're right. We didn't mean to..." Ron answered and pinched Ginny in the side.
"Ouch! But what did I say?" she asked resentfully, massaging where it hurt.
"Why don't we talk about something happier? Have you forgotten that tomorrow is Christmas? Maybe we should decorate the house! What do you think about that?"
Harry appreciated Hermione's effort to let it be like any other Christmas, but it was difficult to have fun with all the things that had been happening.
"Come on! Let's show a bit of enthusiasm!" Hermione exhorted them, since the others were still looking at her as if she was crazy; then Ginny's face lit up.
"Yes, Hermione's right! I'll ask Mum if she would organize a nice lunch for tomorrow."
"I'll go looking for last year's decorations; they're surely hidden somewhere."
Ron had joined emphatically in the girls' projects, but Harry had no wish to celebrate. With the war raging, the premonition he had had, and, above all, Sirius missing, how would he be able to enjoy Christmas?
"Come on, Harry, don't make that face! Why don't we try all together to push aside our sad thoughts, at least for a couple of days?"
Hermione moved closer and grabbed Harry's hands, but he was still staring at her seriously. Harry noticed her sweet smile and couldn't disappoint her. After all, fighting the dark side also meant trying to be happy at Christmas, despite all the problems.
He stood up without opposition and followed his friends out of the room.
= = = = = =
They spent Christmas Eve decorating the house. They found festoons and garlands, colored lights, and Santa Claus hats; The entire place became less gloomy than ever before.
Harry had tried to help them, forcing himself to push aside his bad mood and worries, but he was feeling really tired and didn't talk for most of the time.
That night was particularly difficult for him to fall asleep, but once he managed, he slept soundly through the night with no visions or nightmares.
The following morning, he woke up to the sound of paper being crumpled up and when he opened his eyes, he vaguely saw Ron busy unwrapping his Christmas presents.
"Merry Christmas, Harry! Look how many presents we've got this year!"
"Merry Christmas, Ron."
Harry got up and when he put on his glasses, he was surprised to see that on his bed there also was a small mountain of presents.
He looked for Hermione's gift first and found it beneath all the others; it was a rectangular box, narrow and long, wrapped with a funny colored paper. He imagined that it was the usual book, but when he unwrapped it, he was relieved to find a small crystal chessboard.
He received a new wool jumper from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, as usual, and a large quantity of small homemade iced cakes. Hagrid sent him a wallet made of real ferret fur, and from Ron he got a box of Every Flavor Beans, along with a collection of the most famous Chocolate Frog cards in the world.
At the end, there was just one present left, a small one wrapped simply. With great surprise, Harry noticed that it was from Remus Lupin. He unwrapped the box and when he saw the present, he stared at it unbelievingly.
It was a small mirror in a simple square wooden frame, but the most curious thing was that it looked exactly like the mirror Sirius had given him the previous Christmas.
Harry felt a knot in his throat while he stared at his reflection and with trembling hands, he opened the card. "Dear Harry, this belonged to Sirius. It's a two-way mirror. I'm sure that he would have been happy to know that now it's yours. Merry Christmas, Remus."
Harry wondered if he'd ever have the opportunity to use the mirrors to communicate with someone else.
"Hey, Harry! Thank you for the Broomstick Handling Set, I've always wanted one of those."
Ron's words brought Harry back to reality. He sighed deeply, put the mirror in its box, and turned to his friend.
"You're welcome! The cards you gave me are really cool!"
After unwrapping all their presents, they quickly got ready and went down to have breakfast. Along the way, they met Hermione, who was coming upstairs.
"Merry Christmas, Harry! Thank you so much for the bangle, it's really cute." She smiled at him happily, raising her hand to show the present: it was made with colored stones and a heart-shaped golden pendant.
"Thank you for the new chessboard!"
Harry felt his cheeks flaming, but he could swear that Hermione was blushing even more than him.
"Hem, hem... I'm sorry to bother you..."
Ron was looking at them impatiently. Hermione swayed her attention from Harry and turned happily to her other friend.
"Merry Christmas to you, Ron!"
"Thank you for the Keeper Handbook you gave me."
"And thank you for the magical bookmark!"
"You're welcome. We should go now, before Fred and George eat all our breakfast too!"
They quickly reached the kitchen, where the twins, Ginny, Lupin, Tonks, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were waiting for them.
They all had breakfast together, and Harry felt that everyone was trying their best to forget their worries.
Later on, Bill, Charlie, Moody, and Mundungus Fletcher came for lunch; Mrs. Weasley prepared a delicious feast and everybody enjoyed it.
After lunch, Harry and Ron decided to go up to their room and break in Harry's new chessboard, while Ginny and Hermione quietly sat on the nearby bed, chatting.
Suddenly, they heard a strange noise coming from the fireplace.
BANG!
"Did you hear that?" Ginny asked worriedly.
Ron stood up abruptly and moved closer to the fireplace; it seemed OK, but at that moment, some kind of big meteor flew inside the room at great speed from the dancing flames, hitting Ron square in the head.
"What the bloody hell..."
With his arms, Ron covered the "big bullet," which was, in fact, a small package in the shape of an egg, tied with a showy red ribbon. Harry's eyes widened, while Ron tried his best to hide the package behind his back with one hand and massage his aching forehead with the other.
"I wonder who could've sent that present to you!" Hermione asked curiously; Ron blushed.
"Nobody! In fact it isn't a present... it's a..."
He seemed really embarrassed by the situation, especially since he was desperately searching for a good excuse.
"It's something I ordered some time ago from the Daily Prophet. Now, I think I'm going downstairs to open the pres... erm... the package."
Ron rushed to the door and exited so quickly that nobody had time to question him again.
= = = = = =
The remainder of the holidays passed by quietly. Harry didn't have any other premonitions or nightmares. This allowed him to enjoy a deserved rest.
In addition, they didn't hear any other news about Voldemort or his Darkness Army and they all tried not to mention the subject again.
Harry had noticed Ron's odd behavior; he often stayed alone in his room, apparently writing on long rolls of parchment that he then hurriedly hid as soon as someone entered the room. A few times, Harry caught Ron sitting alone, staring dreamily into space.
The day before their return to Hogwarts, Mrs. Weasley had asked them to pack their trunks on time. Harry was in his room busy gathering all of his things, which were spread out all over, when he noticed that Ron was reading something with deep interest, while kneeling on the floor by his trunk.
Harry moved closer and leaned over Ron's head to find out what was the object of such an interest. To his great surprise, he saw that Ron was holding the famous egg-shaped package in one hand, while in the other, there was a small card, written in pink ink. Harry cocked his head to one side, trying to read the signature; when he realized who the sender was, his eyes widened in surprise.
At that moment, Ron realized that Harry was standing by his side and hid the package and card inside the trunk, turning to his friend abruptly.
"Did you read anything?" Ron asked, really worried.
"Well, yes... but how come Luna Lovegood sent you a Christmas present?"
Ron closed his trunk resignedly and stood up, sighing deeply.
"Listen, Harry. Maybe you'll think that I'm an idiot, but the reason why I never told you anything before, is because... I was ashamed, that's all!"
"Ashamed? Why?"
Harry couldn't understand why Ron had hidden such a thing from him.
"Because, if you'd known that Luna and I are going out, then you'd've made fun of me for sure!"
"What? You and Luna... are going out?" Harry was shocked by this revelation.
"You see? That's why I didn't want to tell you anything. I knew that you couldn't understand," Ron said, desolated.
"Well, it's just that I wasn't expecting it, that's all! I didn't know that you and her had anything in common. In short, Luna is really... really..."
Harry wasn't able to find a good adjective to describe Luna without making Ron mad. Luckily, his friend finished the sentence for him.
"Yes, I know. She's a girl out of the ordinary, but knowing her better, she isn't that bad. She's funny and she adores my jokes."
Ron's face lit up with a large smile and Harry thought that he was really happy for him.
Both friends sat on the bed and talked more about it.
"When did you start going out?" Harry asked, but Ron looked a bit reluctant to answer.
"Well, honestly, we've never gone out yet. She was always coming to watch my Quidditch practices, and one evening she stopped me and we came back to the castle together. We've talked a lot and discovered we have many things in common. And also, our homes are close by, you know? The Burrow is just a few miles from where she lives."
"Then she sent that Christmas present to you, right?"
"Yes, isn't she sweet?"
Harry rolled his eyes, thinking Ron certainly was moonstruck by Luna. Harry smiled to himself, Luna... moonstruck... Hermione'd get it.
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