Christmas

Since none of the three had thought to ask, they had completely missed the walking library right beside them.

Lin Yue sat in the Library reading every day, and she could also see the trio setting aside some time each day to look for clues about Nicolas Flamel.

But... how could they possibly find the six-hundred-and-fifty-eight-year-old gentleman in books whose subject matter was modern?

At his age, he could hardly be considered a modern figure.

Lin Yue calmly looked away and lowered her head to continue reading.

As time passed, December arrived, and Christmas slowly drew near.

The heads of the various houses began taking a tally of which students would stay at school for the holidays.

After breakfast, Lin Yue looked at the form Professor Flitwick held out to her. The words she had seen in her mind before surfaced again.

According to those words, she had no home in this world. Without feeling either sadness or joy, she marked that she would stay at school on the form. Then she politely nodded to Professor Flitwick, stood up, and left the Great Hall.

As soon as she stepped outside, she happened to run into Hermione, who had come to breakfast with Harry and Ron.

Hermione's eyes lit up when she saw Lin Yue. After gesturing for the other two to go in and eat without her, she walked over to Lin Yue with a spring in her step.

"Lin Yue, Christmas is almost here. Are you going home, or staying at school?"

Lin Yue stopped and looked at Hermione expressionlessly. "I'm staying at school."

"Oh," Hermione said with a nod. "I'm going home for Christmas, so I won't see you again until after the holidays."

When she finished, Hermione looked at Lin Yue expectantly, hoping to catch even the slightest hint of reluctance in her eyes.

But she was bound to be disappointed. Lin Yue's eyes remained as still as a deep, undisturbed well. She simply nodded calmly.

"Okay. See you after the Christmas holidays."

Hermione sighed helplessly. "All right... I should have known you'd be like this. What was I expecting?"

She quickly composed herself, then smiled and patted Lin Yue on the arm.

"Anyway, I won't keep you. You'd better get to class."

"Okay." Lin Yue nodded, turned, and walked briskly toward the classroom.

After class, Lin Yue returned to her Dormitory. As second-years, Qiuzhang and Marietta had different class schedules from hers, so they were still in lessons.

Thinking about the form she had filled out that day—whether she would stay at school or go home for Christmas—and about Hermione telling her she was going home, Lin Yue's mind brought up what it knew about Christmas. Christmas... was when you gave presents to friends, teachers, and other people around you.

Although she knew what the word friend meant, Lin Yue had no actual feelings about friendship.

She felt the same about everyone around her: nothing. Still, her mind quietly kept sending her messages.

It told her that she needed to prepare a gift for Hermione, that she couldn't leave out the professors, and that there were also Harry and Ron, Qiuzhang and Marietta, and Penelope...

At the mere thought of it, her mind automatically drew up a list.

But she soon thought of another problem: gifts cost money, and she didn't seem to have any.

Since the start of term, nothing she had used had required money.

The HP world consciousness had clearly known in advance just how badly the child it had scooped up had been put through the wringer.

It hadn't expected her to earn money to support herself while studying.

So, besides providing her with free room and board at Hogwarts, the HP world consciousness had also put in her trunk an ink bottle that was always full, a quill that would never break, a huge stack of Parchment that replenished itself whenever she took a sheet, and one always-full bottle each of shampoo, body wash, and conditioner.

Lin Yue had never used the conditioner. And besides those items, spare clothes, her wand, and other necessities, there had also been a small cloth pouch in the trunk.

Thinking of the pouch and the other things in the trunk, Lin Yue immediately concluded that it could probably solve her problem too.

She bent down, pulled the trunk out from under her bed, opened it with a blank gaze, and took out the pouch.

When she opened it, she found ten Gold Galleons inside. Calmly, Lin Yue reached in and took them out.

The moment she had completely removed the ten Gold Galleons from the pouch, another ten appeared inside it.

Looking at the pouch in front of her, Lin Yue recalled what Qiuzhang had told her about the price of the Honeydukes chocolate gift box she had once coveted.

A chocolate gift box seemed like a suitable present to her.

After thinking it over, Lin Yue repeated the motion of taking Gold Galleons from the pouch more than a dozen times.

Each time she had completely removed the coins, another ten Gold Galleons immediately appeared inside.

Once she had taken enough, Lin Yue quickly tied the pouch shut again and put it back in the trunk.

With the money counted out, Lin Yue hurried out of the Ravenclaw Common Room and went to the Owlery.

She picked an owl that looked fairly strong, set the Gold Galleons down beside her, and took out a quill and a sheet of Parchment. After writing an order, she gave the letter and the coins to the owl.

The owl had Lin Yue put the letter and Gold Galleons into the little pouch on its leg, then spread its wings and flew out of Hogwarts Castle, heading for Honeydukes Sweetshop.

Lin Yue watched the owl fly into the distance, then lowered her expressionless gaze to her clenched right hand.

Inside were ten Gold Galleons she hadn't sent off—exactly enough for a chocolate gift box. For some reason, an idea had just popped into her mind.

It seemed to be telling her that she shouldn't buy Hermione the same chocolate gift box as everyone else.

So she had instinctively kept those ten Gold Galleons, but... if she wasn't giving Hermione a chocolate gift box, what should she give her?

Lin Yue wasn't confused. She began quickly considering what she could give instead.

A moment later, she finally unearthed a distant memory from her mind.

In that memory, she seemed to have been teaching herself to knit, and back then she had seemed very... very what? Lin Yue's thoughts stalled.

She shook her head, pushing the thought away and keeping only the memory of knitting. Then she wrote another letter and gave it, along with one Gold Galleon, to an owl.

This time, Lin Yue was ordering knitting needles and yarn. Once that was done, she hurried back to her Dormitory.

Before sitting down at her desk to read without distraction, Lin Yue calculated how long it would take her to knit Hermione a pair of gloves.

In the end, she concluded that she only needed three hours.

When a holiday is right in front of you, the time left before it arrives seems to pass incredibly quickly.

It seemed that in the blink of an eye, the Christmas holidays had begun.

Hermione wheeled her large trunk into the Great Hall. Harry and Ron were sitting at the Gryffindor dining table, playing Wizard's Chess.

"Oh... that's a bit barbaric." Hermione frowned as the queen smashed another chess piece to bits with a stool.

"That's how Wizard's Chess works, Hermione. You're only saying that because you can't beat me, aren't you?"

Ron looked rather pleased with himself. This was one of the few things he could beat Hermione at.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, give it a rest, Ron. I'm not that petty."

Ron shrugged as he watched Harry make a move.

After Harry had moved, he looked up at Hermione. "You're leaving now?"

"Yeah." Hermione nodded. "Remember to do your homework over the Christmas holidays. If you don't, I definitely won't let you copy it when we get back."

"She'll give it to us in the end..." Ron muttered to Harry. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"And another thing: if you have time over the Christmas holidays, go back to the Library and look for more information about Nicolas Flamel."

"But we've almost searched everything already..." Ron sighed. They had looked through every book in the Hogwarts Library whose title seemed related to a famous person.

They couldn't exactly be expected to go through every single book, could they?

"Mm-hmm." Hermione nodded slyly. "But we haven't checked the Restricted Section, have we?"

"There'll be fewer people at school over the Christmas holidays. You can find a chance to go in."

"She's a bad influence on us," Ron said, shaking his head at Harry.

Hermione, half exasperated and half amused, reached out and slapped Ron. "You don't have to put it that way. I'm a Gryffindor too!"

After speaking, she tossed her hair and headed for the Ravenclaw table, where Lin Yue was knitting a pair of gloves at astonishing speed.

When Hermione reached Lin Yue and saw that, for once, she wasn't studying but knitting gloves, her eyes widened in surprise. At the same time, a thought rose in her mind: Who... who could have made Lin Yue put her studies aside to knit them gloves?!

She had already started reviewing every spell she had learned. Lin Yue was so "sheltered from the world," all she ever did was study. Who could be so awful to her...

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself and patted her chest. She muttered under her breath, "Hermione Granger, calm down, calm down. Maybe she's just knitting gloves for her mother."

Once she had reassured herself, Hermione tapped the table in front of Lin Yue. "Lin Yue."

"Hmm?" Lin Yue looked up at Hermione expressionlessly.

"I'm going home," Hermione said softly. Her tone was so gentle that if Harry and Ron had heard it, they probably would have been shocked right out of their seats.

Lin Yue nodded without the slightest change in expression. "Okay. See you after the Christmas holidays."

Seeing Lin Yue's complete lack of reaction, and then looking at the gloves in her hands, Hermione felt even worse.

Lin Yue didn't even stop knitting while she spoke to Hermione. Hermione's heart sank further.

Drawing a deep breath like an angry lioness, Hermione tried hard to keep her voice calm.

"Lin Yue, are those gloves you're knitting a Christmas present? Who are they for?"

Completely unaware of what a surprise was, and with no idea that she should keep one for someone, Lin Yue answered readily.

"They're a Christmas present. They're for you."

At the words "for you," Hermione immediately let out the breath she had drawn in. The angry lioness had clearly received the perfect reassurance.

"For me... Then I'll thank you in advance." Hermione thanked Lin Yue softly.

"You're welcome." Lin Yue shook her head, her hands still busy knitting.

Hermione tightened her grip on the handle of her trunk. For some reason, her throat felt a little dry.

She cleared her throat and gently ran a hand over Lin Yue's head. "I'm off. I need to catch the train."

"Okay. Have a safe trip."

Lin Yue nodded. Hermione withdrew her gaze, satisfied, and walked toward the Great Hall doors with a bright smile, pulling her trunk along.

Halfway there, she suddenly remembered something and hurried back to Harry and Ron, pulling her trunk behind her.

"What is it?" Harry turned to look at her in surprise when he caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye. Why hadn't Hermione left yet?

"While I'm away for the Christmas holidays, when you two hang out, try to bring Lin Yue along. Don't let her study all the time."

Harry thought carefully about Lin Yue's daily routine: she was either in the Library or studying in her Dormitory.

He figured he could probably find her in the Library, so he nodded solemnly.

"Okay, no problem." This was the first time Hermione had ever asked them for a favor. They would make sure to do a good job.

Ron also nodded seriously beside him, indicating that he would work with Harry to see it done.

Hermione relaxed completely and nodded with a smile. Then she turned and left the Great Hall to catch the Hogwarts Express.

After finishing the gloves in the Great Hall, Lin Yue took them back to her Dormitory and continued studying.

She had knitted the gloves in the Great Hall simply because the light there was better. That was all.

By the time she returned to her Dormitory, Qiuzhang and Marietta had already boarded the Hogwarts Express home.

Lin Yue gave herself a bruise on her left arm to punish herself for spending study time knitting gloves. Then she began reading.

While she was reading, heavy snow began falling outside.

Almost all the students who had stayed at school ran out to play in the snow. After all, for children, playing in the snow was one of winter's greatest joys.

Thinking of Hermione's request before she left, Harry and Ron decided that with such a heavy snowfall, they shouldn't go out to play without Lin Yue. So they went together to the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room, hoping to invite her to play in the snow.

When the Bronze knocker saw someone coming, it spoke first and posed its question.

At the knocker's question, Harry and Ron looked at each other. They had heard that to enter the Ravenclaw Common Room, you had to answer a question correctly: if you got it right, anyone could enter; if you got it wrong, no one could.

But now that they had actually heard the question, they found it rather difficult.

Which came first, the phoenix or the fire?

Harry and Ron both lowered their heads and fell into thought.