Precious Gifts

When Adam woke up the next morning, the first thing he saw was Klon scribbling furiously at the round table.

"What time did you get up?"

Adam stretched lazily.

"Ahem, I didn't sleep last night. I spent the whole night writing."

Klon coughed awkwardly.

He had had too much fun before, and now that it was the last day, he had felt unbearably anxious lying in bed last night. After tossing and turning, he had gotten up and started on his homework.

Adam was already used to his habit of leaving homework until the very end. He glanced beneath the Christmas tree.

"Have you opened your presents yet?"

"Not yet. I was going to make opening them my reward for finishing my homework... Ahh, yawn~"

Klon yawned as he spoke.

It was not the first time Klon had pulled an all-nighter rushing through homework. Adam shook his head and stopped paying attention to him, then walked to the Christmas tree and found his own presents.

"Let's open mine first!"

"Okay."

Adam found the gift from Klon and opened it, only to discover that it was actually a pair of chopsticks!

"This is..."

"These are chopsticks made from Unicorn Horn!"

Klon grinned proudly.

"Unicorn Horn can neutralize poison. You're always eating strange things, and you even want to cook with magical creatures and magical plants. With these chopsticks, you won't have to worry about being poisoned!"

"Thank you. I love them!"

Adam truly did love them. What foodie could refuse a pair of chopsticks that could detoxify poison?

Still, they had to be quite expensive...

"What did you get me?"

The moment Klon asked, he hurriedly shook his head.

"Oh, no! Don't tell me yet! Let me open it myself after I finish my homework!"

With that, Klon buried his head in his homework again.

Adam shook his head with a laugh.

Fortunately, he knew Klon's personality well. He knew that Klon's gift would most likely be very valuable, so his own gift was just as precious. Klon had so many magical creature products; he should like it—a feather from Fawkes.

It had been a surprise he received one time when he went to play with Fawkes. At first, he had thought he had petted Fawkes too hard, but Professor Dumbledore explained that it was a gift because Fawkes liked him.

Thinking about it, the phoenix tail feathers Ollivander used for wand cores could not possibly have been obtained by grabbing phoenixes and forcibly plucking them. Phoenixes could molt on their own, and Adam had already accumulated quite a few feathers, along with plenty of phoenix tears.

He continued opening presents...

Uther had given him a Scarab Amulet. Its centerpiece was a huge green gemstone, and it looked exceedingly valuable.

Bernard had given him a box of parts. Adam rummaged through it and found the instruction manual at the bottom of the gift box. It was actually a disassembled Barrett... Another day of marveling at how criminally gifted his roommate was.

Eugene's gift surprised Adam. It looked like nothing more than a bottle of transparent liquid, but Adam could sense immense magic from it.

"What is this... a potion?"

Potions were usually not transparent, but Adam still cast a Scarpin's Revelaspell. The result showed that the liquid was not a potion.

"That is a bottle of spring water."

Eugene's voice came from behind Adam. Adam turned and saw Eugene sitting on his bed, looking as though he had just woken up.

"Spring water?"

"Yes. Felix Felicis. Have you heard of it?"

"Felix Felicis? I think I've heard of it somewhere... Ah! Isn't that the fairy tale in The Tales of Beedle the Bard? Bathing in the water of Felix Felicis brings someone permanent good luck, but Felix Felicis doesn't actually have any magic..."

Klon was distracted again.

"You should get back to writing. The professors assigned us a lot of homework this time."

After persuading Klon to go back to rushing through his homework, Adam looked curiously at Eugene.

"This really is water from Felix Felicis?"

"Actually, I'm not sure either. It's only a fairy tale—though it is a wizarding fairy tale. My parents have spent their whole lives researching these stories and anecdotes. I have barely seen them a few times. All I know of them are the things they occasionally send back and the ever-increasing money in Gringotts. I don't even know whether they still look the same as the portraits at home."

Eugene sighed. It was the first time he had spoken to them about his parents.

"But this might really be water from Felix Felicis. Even if it isn't, it should be something else valuable. Otherwise, they wouldn't have deliberately stored it in the deepest secret vault at Gringotts."

"Hm? What secret vault? Is someone short on money?"

Uther climbed out of bed, bleary-eyed.

"No, I feel like no one in our dorm is short on money..."

Adam could not help making that remark. Now that Eugene's family background had come to light, Adam's family seemed to be the poorest in the entire dorm.

But then he looked at Eugene with concern.

"A secret vault at Gringotts?"

"That's the wizards' bank..."

"I know that. I mean, isn't it inappropriate to give us something your parents treasured as a gift?"

"It's fine. I grew up with my grandmother and didn't have many friends. Before I came to Hogwarts, my grandmother took that bottle of Felix Felicis water from the secret vault and had me bring it with me. She hoped I would have good luck and find a few friends."

As he spoke, Eugene looked at Klon, who had put down his pen and was looking at him; at Adam; at Uther; and at Bernard, who was still asleep. Then he smiled faintly.

"But before I even had the chance to use Felix Felicis, it seemed I had already found the best friends in the world. So I divided that bottle of Felix Felicis into four portions and gave them to you, my friends."

Adam tightened his grip on the bottle. He did not know whether it truly was water from Felix Felicis, but even if it was, the emotional value it carried had already surpassed its own worth.

"I'll treasure it."

Seeing Adam's expression, Eugene's smile grew even brighter.

"You don't have to treasure it that much. Maybe it's just an ordinary bottle of water. Getting scammed is common in this kind of research."

Though he said that, everyone still carefully put away the Felix Felicis water Eugene had given them.

Because Adam really was so popular, it was nearly noon by the time he finished opening all his presents. The other students were merely fairly close classmates, and their gifts were mostly polite tokens. Adam checked that each sender was someone he had also given a gift to, then did not think much of it.

Everyone planned to have lunch together in the Great Hall, but as soon as they reached the common room, Ernie called out to Adam.

"The Weasley twins are waiting for you outside."

"What?"

Adam froze, and Ernie thought he had forgotten.

"The twins who won the grand prize last night."

Remember how Adam had left a message telling every student who went to the North Tower to take a number? During the feast, Adam had asked Professor Dumbledore and the four Heads of House to each draw a number from the number box. There were five prizes in total: one grand prize and four smaller ones.

Fred, the older of the twins, had been drawn by Professor Dumbledore and won the mysterious grand prize—a scale replica Hogwarts gingerbread house.

Incidentally, the number Professor Snape drew had actually belonged to Harry. At the time, Professor Snape had looked at his own hand as if he were looking at something filthy.

"What do they want with me... I'll go take a look. You guys head to the Great Hall first."

"Okay~ We'll save you a seat!"