Precious Gift

Waking up the next morning, Adam's first sight was Klon scribbling away at the round table.

"What time did you get up?"

Adam stretched.

"Ahem, I didn't sleep last night, I was writing all night."

Klon coughed a little sheepishly.

He'd had too much fun before, and now it was the last day. He'd been tossing and turning in bed all night, panicking, before finally getting up and starting on his homework.

Adam was used to his habit of leaving homework to the last minute. He glanced at the base of the Christmas tree.

"Did you open your presents?"

"Not yet, I'm planning to make opening presents a reward for finishing my homework... Ah-choo~"

Klon yawned as he spoke.

It wasn't the first time he'd pulled an all-nighter to finish his homework. Adam shook his head and ignored him, walking over to the Christmas tree to find his own gifts.

"Open mine first!"

"Okay."

Adam found the gift from Klon and opened it, discovering a pair of chopsticks inside!

"This is..."

"Those are chopsticks made from Unicorn Horn!"

Klon said proudly.

"Unicorn Horn can neutralize poisons. You're always eating weird things and planning to cook with magical creatures and plants, so with these chopsticks, you won't have to worry about getting poisoned!"

"Thank you, I love them!"

Adam really did like them. What foodie could refuse a pair of chopsticks that could neutralize poison?

But the price of this thing must be very high...

"What's my gift to you?"

Klon asked, then quickly shook his head.

"Oh, never mind! Don't tell me yet! I'll open it myself after I finish my homework!"

With that, Klon buried himself in his homework again.

Adam shook his head and chuckled.

Luckily, he understood Klon's personality well. He knew that the gift he received would likely be very valuable, so his gift was equally precious. Klon had so many magical creature products; he should like his gift—a Fawkes feather.

It was a surprise he'd gotten when he went to play with Fawkes once. At first, he thought he'd petted it too hard, but Professor Dumbledore explained that it was a gift from Fawkes because it liked him.

Come to think of it, Mr. Ollivander couldn't possibly be grabbing phoenix tail feathers to make wands. Phoenixes had the ability to shed feathers on their own. Now he'd collected quite a few, and even quite a bit of phoenix tears.

Continuing to open gifts...

Uther's gift was a Scarab Amulet, the main body of which was a huge green gemstone that looked quite valuable.

Bernard sent a box of parts. Adam rummaged through it and found the instructions at the bottom of the box. It was a disassembled Bullet... another day of marveling at his criminally inclined and potentially incarcerable roommate.

Eugene's gift surprised Adam a little. It looked like just a bottle of clear liquid, but Adam felt a huge amount of magic from it.

"What is this... a potion?"

Potions weren't usually clear, but Adam cast a Scarpin's Revelaspell anyway, and the results showed that the liquid wasn't a potion.

"That's a spring."

Eugene's voice came from behind Adam. Adam turned around and saw Eugene sitting on the bed, looking like he'd just woken up.

"Spring?"

"Yeah, Felix Felicis, have you heard of it?"

"Felix Felicis? I think I've heard of it somewhere... Ah! Isn't that the fairy tale from The Tales of Beedle the Bard? Bathing in the waters of Felix Felicis can bring people permanent good luck, but in reality, Felix Felicis doesn't have any magic..."

Klon was once again drawn in.

"You should hurry up and write, the professors really assigned a lot of homework this time."

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

"Is this really water from Felix Felicis?"

"Actually, I don't know either. It's just a fairy tale—although it's a wizard's fairy tale. My parents have been studying these stories and anecdotes all their lives. I've hardly seen them a few times. All I know about them is the things they send back from time to time and the increasing amount of money in Gringotts. I don't even know if they and the portraits at home still look the same."

Eugene sighed. This was the first time he'd told them about his parents.

"But this might really be water from Felix Felicis. Even if it isn't, it should be something good, otherwise they wouldn't have stored these waters in the deepest vault in Gringotts."

"Huh? What vault? Is someone short on money?"

Uther got out of bed groggily.

"No, I don't think any of us in this dorm are short on money..."

Adam couldn't help but mutter to himself that, with Eugene's family background revealed, his own family seemed to be the poorest in the entire dorm.

But then he looked at Eugene with concern:

"A vault in Gringotts?"

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

"I know that, I'm just saying, is it really okay for your parents' treasured possessions to be given to us as gifts like this?"

"It's fine. I grew up with my grandmother and didn't have many friends. Before coming to Hogwarts, my grandmother took that bottle of Felix Felicis from the vault for me to bring, hoping I would have good luck and find some friends."

As he said this, 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, and smiled slightly:

"But before I even used the Felix Felicis, I seem to have already found the best friends in the world, so I divided that bottle of Felix Felicis into four parts and gave it to you, my friends."

Adam gripped the vial tightly. He didn't know if it was really Felix Felicis, but even if it was, the emotional value on it already exceeded its intrinsic worth.

"I will treasure it."

Seeing Adam's expression, Eugene smiled even more brightly:

"You don't have to be so precious about it. Maybe it's just a bottle of ordinary water. It's common to be scammed in this kind of research."

Although he said that, everyone still carefully preserved the Felix Felicis that Eugene had given them.

Because Adam was indeed very popular, it was almost noon after unwrapping all the gifts. The other students just had good classmate relationships, and the gifts they sent were mostly ceremonial. Adam checked that everyone was someone he had also given a gift to, so he didn't pay too much attention.

Everyone planned to go to the Great Hall for lunch together, but as soon as they reached the common room, Adam was stopped by Ernie:

"Those Weasley twins are waiting for you outside."

"What?"

Adam was stunned. Ernie thought he didn't remember:

"You know, the twins who won the big prize last night."

Remember how Adam had asked every student who went to the North Tower to take a number? At the banquet, Adam had asked Professor Dumbledore and the four Heads of House to draw a number from the box, resulting in five prizes, one large and four small.

The older of the twins, Fred, had been drawn by Professor Dumbledore and won the grand prize – a Hogwarts gingerbread house in equal proportions.

By the way, the number Professor Snape drew was exactly Harry's. At the time, Professor Snape looked at the number in his hand as if he were looking at something dirty.

"What do they want from me... I'll go see. You guys go to the Great Hall first."

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