Malice Aplenty

"Percy, with your level of Wizard's Chess, don't give bad advice and mislead others. It will only make Harry lose even worse." Fred and George, who had just entered the Gryffindor Common Room, walked up to the three people who were playing wizard chess and saw Percy giving Harry advice, so they couldn't help but mock him.

"My Wizard's Chess are far superior to yours," Percy retorted. "Besides, I was just giving Harry some advice."

"We never give advice to people without proper guidance."

Harry, standing nearby, agreed with the Twins ' point of view. He also believed that he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't kept giving him bad advice.

"A Christmas present? Who sent it?"

Ron looked at the package in Fred's hand and asked curiously.

"Albert said in the letter that this was a Christmas present he had received."

As George spoke of this, a sly smile played on his lips. Pointing to the package, he said, "I heard it was a Christmas present from Snape."

"You're joking."

Harry froze, and Ron, who was setting up the Wizard's Chess next to him, also stood frozen in place. Both of them stared at the package in Fred's hands with disbelief.

Do we look like we're joking?

Fred placed the package on the table and asked everyone, "Who wants to open the package?"

"That's not a good idea!" Percy frowned.

"Albert agreed, otherwise he wouldn't have sent the package. The letter also said that in addition to this, he also received an unsigned Christmas gift, which will be sent to the school in a while."

George pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket and waved it in front of the three men to show that he wasn't lying.

Actually, Fred and George were also interested in opening the package, but they didn't want to do it themselves, since who knew if Snape had cast some kind of Dark Curse.

"Why would Snape send Anderson this Christmas present?" Harry found it incredible. Snape actually sending gifts to others? Was it going to rain candy from the sky? "Are you sure you won't be Dark Curse after opening the package?" Ron had no doubt that Snape had put Dark Curse on the package; his reputation was anything but good.

"Probably not!" Percy shook his head. "Snape is a professor, after all. He wouldn't do something like that. If he really did, he wouldn't have written his name on the package."

However, the more Percy spoke, the less confident he became, making his words hard to believe.

"Why don't you open the package?"

Fred smiled and handed the package to Percy, telling him to open it.

"All right!"

Percy raised an eyebrow but ultimately didn't refuse the task. He placed the package far away, then took out his wand and shattered the package's outer shell into Reductor Curse. Nothing happened; there were no Dark Curse or traps. Inside the package were several glass bottles that seemed to contain something strange.

"This is... the ingredients for Potions?" Percy put away his wand and said in surprise, "It seems we misunderstood Professor Snape earlier."

"Why would Snape send Albert something like this?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow.

At this moment, Harry and Ron also crowded around to see what was in the package. Percy even reached out and picked up a piece of parchment from the package, examining it closely. It contained a Potions recipe.

"Huh! Huh!"

Those who initially thought Snape meant no harm now understood what his malice was, just look at what's inside those glass jars.

A whole jar of cockroaches, and they were still alive. Another jar contained what looked like brains, and some other disgusting stuff that looked like feces. Another jar contained a huge, dead eye.

"That's disgusting."

George took two steps back in disgust. He now understood Snape's sinister intentions; this was simply disgusting.

Harry suddenly felt unwell, as if the turkey and Christmas pudding he had eaten for lunch were churning in his stomach, and he felt a little Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.

"It's all your fault for ruining the package."

Fred looked at Percy speechlessly, while the latter was also a little embarrassed, never expecting that Snape would send something so utterly disgusting.

"You guys put this away first. I'm going to write to Albert and tell him what's inside the package." Fred prepared to slip away.

Finally, Percy somehow managed to get a small box and repackaged the items.

In the following time, everyone was denouncing Snape. Suddenly, Harry had an idea and asked Fred to ask Albert for the thing, as he wanted to forward this Christmas present to Malfoy.

The idea received immediate support as soon as it was mentioned.

After reading Fred's letter, Albert agreed to give the gift to Harry to handle.

So that very evening, Draco Malfoy received a belated Christmas gift.

Lucius and Snape were old friends, so it was normal for Lucius to send a Christmas present to his old friend's son.

At this moment, in the Malfoy Manor, Draco Malfoy frowned at the belated and suspicious Christmas gift in front of him. Just now, he had used the Honesty Detector to check the package and found nothing wrong with it, but receiving such a gift at this time was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

"Dobby, open the box."

Narcissa gave orders to her House-elf; naturally, she wouldn't let her son open such a suspicious package.

After House-elf the package, a large number of cockroaches crawled out of the package, and a series of screams rang out in the manor, causing chaos and destruction.

After a long time of calming down, Malfoy looked at the contents of the package and almost flew into a rage. He had begun to wonder who was trying to play a trick on him.

Yes, there was nothing dangerous in the gift, but it was full of malice.

Malfoy soon realized his guess might be wrong, because there was a parchment in the package with handwriting he recognized—it was Professor Snape's handwriting.

Could it really be a Christmas gift from the dean?

How is that possible!

Malfoy was utterly shocked.

Narcissa also frowned, looked at the parchment her son handed her, and suggested, "Perhaps you should write a letter to Severus."

Soon after, Snape received a letter from Malfoy, and he frowned as well. According to the description on the envelope, the package was undoubtedly the Christmas present he had sent to disgust Albert.

Did Albert resend the Christmas present? But why did he send it to Malfoy?

It looks very strange no matter how you look at it.

Snape wrote in his reply, "That was indeed a Christmas present I sent out, but it was not for you, and I have no idea why it ended up in your possession."

Snape never imagined that Albert wasn't disgusted by his gift at all. Instead, it was the Malfoy who were disgusted after Harry's actions. The sight of cockroaches crawling out of the package really terrified them.