Christmas, Part 1

The weight of one young witch was nothing to a half-giant like Hagrid. He smiled as he watched Aya ride on the tree trunk, telling her that in one country, people rode trees in Quidditch matches. Perhaps Aya had a talent for it too.

"No wonder she rides a broom like that," Ron muttered to Harry. "Was the broom too light for her?"

Harry's ears turned red. He had told Hagrid they were all coming to help him!

He coughed awkwardly and tried to lend a hand, but the tree Hagrid had chosen was so huge that Harry had no idea where to start. He could only follow behind and try to persuade Aya to get down and stop adding unnecessary weight.

"No need, I can manage. Thank you." Though Hagrid was breathing heavily, he was still handling the fir tree with ease. He dragged it into the Entrance Hall, giving Aya a bumpy ride up the stairs. After going up and down, she felt as though the cake she had eaten that morning was about to come back up.

"Ha, is this a circus performance?" Draco's drawling voice came from behind them. "A big brute, a beastman, a clown, and an idiot. The whole cast is here. How wonderful!"

Aya turned to Harry and Ron. "Take your pick. Which of you is the clown, and which is the idiot?"

"Why should I pick?" Ron shouted. "Go away, Malfoy!"

"Don't be like that." For once, Harry thought Aya had said something halfway decent, and promptly added, "Mr. Malfoy can get on too. I know you want to try it. Xiaohua~"

Xiaohua came charging out of some corner, grew bigger, and easily seized Draco by the back of his collar. Under his terrified gaze, she deposited him behind Aya to ride the tree with her.

"Well, Mr. Hagrid, this much weight isn't a problem, is it?" Aya swung her legs. Hagrid looked a little dazed as he stammered, "N-no problem. He doesn't even weigh as much as you."

"Oh!" Aya clapped her hands. "Looks like the circus has gained another member. Hmm... Mr. Monkey?"

"...Hawthorne!!!" Draco's scream rang through the entire Entrance Hall. "I'm telling my father!!!"

Ron and Harry, who had been angry just moments before, stared in utter astonishment. They watched Draco furiously try to get off the fir tree, but Hagrid was a giant who stood three and a half meters tall. The trunk he was dragging on his shoulder was at least two meters off the ground, and Draco didn't dare jump.

Squirming as though he had lice, his face red with anger, Draco was forced to ride the tree all the way into the Great Hall. Only after the tree was put down did he get off, under the shocked gazes of a group of Slytherin students-had Malfoy betrayed Slytherin?

Draco left in silence. What else could he do? He knew his own limits: there was no way he could beat Aya's cat.

"Mate," Harry said, patting Ron on the shoulder, "you know, I always thought Aya didn't know how to talk to people, but now I think she's brilliant at it. Draco's face could give yours a run for its money."

"Do you know how to talk to people?"

"All right, there is a bit of a difference. I hate to admit it, but it shows up more easily on Malfoy's pale face. Your face and hair just turn into one big patch of red."

"Hey!!"

Christmas decorations were being put up in the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick held ornaments in their hands and used magic to place them on the Christmas trees.

"Ah, Hagrid, you've brought in the last tree. Put it in that corner over there, will you?" McGonagall pointed to the last empty spot.

Hagrid dragged the tree over, while Aya gazed curiously at the Great Hall's freshly transformed decorations.

The walls were hung with festooned garlands of holly and mistletoe. Counting the tree Hagrid had just brought in, there were exactly twelve trees in the room. Some were hung with ice crystals and icicles, while candle flames twinkled on others.

"Won't those burn?" Aya stared at the trees decorated with candles, talking to herself.

"Of course not. There's magic." Hermione had only just arrived in the Great Hall, but she hurried over. "Harry, Ron, there's half an hour before lunch. We need to go to the library. I just remembered the holidays start in one day, so you two need to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" Aya leaned in.

"We're going to the library to look up Nicolas Flamel. Do you want to come?"

"No." Aya instantly pulled her head back.

For perhaps the first time, Harry and Ron happily followed Hermione to the library. Aya stayed in the Great Hall, following Professor McGonagall and watching the ornaments she transfigured with curiosity.

"Professor McGonagall, I'd like a little bird," Aya said boldly from behind her.

"..." Although McGonagall felt a strange pain in her chest every time she saw Aya's expressionless face, she was a very kind professor. With a flick of her hand, a bow that was meant to go on a treetop turned into a little pink bird. "There. Run along and play."

"Thank you, Professor." Friendly Aya was polite today too.

Aya sat at the Gryffindor table, cupping the little pink bird in her hands. It moved, fluttering its wings and tilting its head to look at her with its black, beadlike eyes. It even felt warm in her palm. She played with it for a long time, and Xiaohua jumped onto the table to paw at the bird too.

At lunch, Aya heard Hermione and the two boys discussing it again.

"I looked through Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, Notable Magical Names of Our Time, Major Discoveries in Modern Magic, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. I even nearly went into the Restricted Section, but I didn't find anything." Harry speared the chicken on his plate, trying to prove to Hermione that he really had made an effort.

"But we haven't found anything," Ron said, gnawing on a chicken leg. He didn't want to think about such taxing things anymore.

"Do you two even want to find out about him?" Hermione was a little angry. "While I'm away, you must keep looking, all right? If you find anything, send me an owl, and don't let the information get out."

"You could ask your parents whether they know who Nicolas Flamel is," Ron said with a pout. "It's perfectly safe to ask them."

"Yes, perfectly safe, because they're both dentists." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I can ask around for you too," Aya said, slurping up a huge mouthful of pasta. "I could even ask Headmaster Dumbledore!"

"You're just bragging." Ron still hadn't learned his lesson and taunted her again.

"Want to bet?" Aya asked excitedly. With the holidays approaching, the result of her last bet still hadn't been revealed, but she had already played with Harry's flying broom several times. She was now very alert to the prospect of a bet.

"...No." Ron's face was expressionless.

"Come on, bet!" Aya continued.

"I don't have anything to bet!" Ron said, embarrassed and annoyed.

"Perhaps you could bet those smelly socks of yours," Harry suggested from beside him.

"Do they stink as much as a Troll?" Aya asked. Hadn't Duoduo said the house-elves collected the students' dirty clothes to wash them?

"I don't have anything like that!!" Ron's face turned as red as his hair again.

Hogwarts Castle grew much quieter after the holidays began. Many students had gone home, and only a minority remained at school.

Aya wandered all over the castle nearly every day, looking for those sparkling points of light and rummaging inside them for cobwebs or Galleons. She forgot all about her homework, and Nicolas Flamel was even less her concern. She went out early and came back late every day, running into the Weasley brothers emerging from various corners on several occasions. Before Christmas, she had successfully saved up a sum that made her feel secure again. She set aside a hundred Galleons, intending to repay Snape.

Ever since the Troll incident, Snape had taken to spitting venom at her: "Surely Miss Beastman's brain is closer to a human's as well?" and "If you want to make a more perfect potion, the first step should be to use a hair-removal potion on your ears and tail," and "It seems the great Miss Hawthorne prefers playing house to Potions."

Fortunately, Aya didn't understand sarcasm, and she answered each remark politely: "I don't know about anyone else, but I think mine is"; "That's Xiaohua's fur"; and "How did you know, Professor?"

The last answer even had a touch of delight to it. Hearing it made Snape look as though he had swallowed a pound of slugs, and made Hermione die a little inside. The reason she didn't die completely was that Snape hadn't taken any points.

Harry and Ron, however, applauded Aya after every class, admiring her courage. She really was a Gryffindor!

Hermione, meanwhile, could only admire Aya's recklessness-scratch that—her fearless spirit.

Having reached the chilly Potions office, Aya strolled inside as soon as Snape opened the door, as though she were coming home. "Professor, I'm returning your money!" She pulled the prepared money bag out of her backpack.

Hearing her confident tone, Snape might have thought she had come to collect a debt.

After accepting the money bag she handed him, Snape watched with a dark expression as the feline made a circuit of his office. She had at least three unknown materials in her hands—the light was too dim for him to see clearly-before she finally sauntered away.

Damn it!

Shouldn't the things she got from his office belong to him?

Snape cursed under his breath as he graded homework, his mind occupied with whether any of it might be top-grade goods like the fresh unicorn horn from last time. He had brewed quite a few special potions with that horn, which was the only reason he hadn't taken points in class from that one who never had anything good to say!

On Christmas Eve, Aya returned to the common room early. Ron had said that Fred and George had brought back some ingredients from the kitchen, and everyone could use the fireplace in the common room for a barbecue.

A barbecue!

As soon as Aya heard the news, she hurried back.

"Oh, come over here, Aya!" Fred was already sitting by the fireplace, with a basket of vegetables on one side and a plate of meat on the other.

"We've only just started, and here's our Lady Xiaohua too!" George waved as well, holding a freshly prepared skewer.

Aya plopped herself right down in the middle without hesitation. Several skewers were already resting on the fireplace grate, and she stared unblinkingly at a chicken wing sizzling with oil.

"It's not ready yet." George pulled Aya back. "Don't get so close. Watch your cat tail!"

"Though if you want to find out what your own tail tastes like, we won't stop you," Fred said with a grin, reaching for a chicken leg to put on a skewer.

Aya flicked him with her tail in displeasure, her eyes still fixed longingly on the chicken wing. "I'm hungry."

"When Ron and Harry get back, we'll have them help put the food on skewers. With this many ingredients, I promise you'll get your fill!" George thumped his chest. "Those two seem to have gone off for a snowball fight."

"If we hadn't needed to sneak food out of the kitchen, we'd have joined in too," Fred said regretfully. "Our last experiment was a huge success. Little Ronnie would never escape our magic snowballs!"

"You want to wash Ron's face too?" Aya felt the warmth of the fireplace on her body and grew a little lazy.

"Wash his face?"

"Why would we help him wash it?"

The two redheads were baffled, but their attention was soon diverted because Percy came downstairs.

Aya thought Percy might have some recessive gene. Otherwise, why was he so different from the other three Weasleys at school?

"I'm warning you, don't go too far. I don't want everyone coming back to school to find the Gryffindor Common Room smelling of barbecue!" Percy scolded the twins without a smile on his face.

"Percy, you should go and study. This is none of your business," Fred said, a little annoyed.

"It's just us here and an outsider who doesn't understand what's being said. You can't order anyone around!" George added sarcastically.

Aya looked at Fred, then at George. "All right, perhaps I don't understand what's being said. Percy, would you like a, um, a shiitake mushroom?" Aya couldn't bear to part with the almost-cooked chicken wing she had been watching.

"..." Percy was speechless at the first-year who really didn't understand what was being said. He was in his fifth year and had to sit the O.W.L.s Examination, so he had no time to argue with his two annoying, mischievous younger brothers. "Don't lose Gryffindor any points. I think I should spare no effort in reminding you." With that, he turned and left.

"How many points have you lost Gryffindor?" Aya asked curiously. Thanks to her excellent movement skills, she hadn't lost her house any points yet.

"Hard to say," Fred said with a shrug. "But we definitely haven't lost the most."

"Unfortunately, everyone assumes we're a package deal, so..." George spread his hands, and the potato on the skewer he was holding fell to the floor. "Our combined total should be more than most people's."

"Wonderful. You're in first place." Aya was impressed.

"Thanks for the compliment," Fred said with a chuckle. He put a few more chicken wings in the fireplace. "This one's ready. Try it."

Aya took the chicken wing and stared at it.

"Aren't you eating it?" George asked, puzzled. "Haven't you been staring at it this whole time?"

"Hot." Aya stood up and spun around with the chicken wing.

"Miss Windmill, do you want it to cool down completely?"

"Perhaps you want a chicken-wing ice lolly?"

"No, it's still hot." Aya tested it with her fingertip and continued spinning.

By the time the chicken wing had cooled to a temperature the twins thought had robbed it of its flavor, Aya finally began happily gnawing on it.

"Merlin, cat ears, a cat tail, and a cat tongue..." Fred said regretfully. "You've lost your chance to ever taste piping-hot food."

"I'm more curious about something..." George leaned closer, his eyes wide as though examining something. "Does your tongue have barbs?"