The Christmas holidays were just around the corner, and Professor McGonagall had already begun counting the students who would be staying at school that year.
Harry and Ron had both stayed at school the previous year, though in a sense, neither had had much choice. Harry had stayed because the wizarding world was more interesting, and he had not particularly wanted to return to Privet Drive. After all, apart from his older cousin Dudley, few people in the Dursley family liked him. Especially Uncle Vernon's female relatives.
Of course, Harry did not particularly like them either, so he had no desire to go back.
At this time the previous year, Ron's parents had both been away from home, and there would have been nobody to look after him if he went back, so he had stayed at Hogwarts with several of his brothers.
This year, however, things were indeed a little different.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley felt proud of Ron's outstanding performance in the "Basilisk" incident. On top of that, the Ministry of Magic had finally approved Mr. Weasley's overtime pay for his earlier stretch of consecutive overtime, and the family owl, Errol, was simply too old and far too slow at delivering letters.
So Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were planning to give Ron an owl for Christmas.
Of course, given that the Weasley family had five children at Hogwarts, this owl would actually be shared by the four siblings other than Percy, who had his own owl.
Even so, Ron was delighted. Perhaps because there were so many children in his family and he had never received much attention growing up, Ron was always easily satisfied.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had promised to let Ron choose one himself, so naturally, he had to go home. Harry, too, had things