Christmas

Christmas soon arrived. Although the Weasley family hadn't gone home, Percy still rarely appeared in the common room—he was afraid the poor student with the wooden club would kidnap him again.

Aya woke early on Christmas morning. The curtains around the neighboring bed were still closed, and Hermione's breathing could be faintly heard from within.

Aya climbed onto the windowsill and opened the window a crack, breathing in a lungful of crisp air. Snow lay on the sill, and the sky had yet to fully brighten. Outside, everything was blanketed in white; even the dark trees of the Forbidden Forest were completely covered.

"Phew-" Aya breathed out a cloud of white vapor, blowing away a few snowflakes that had just fallen. She watched them spin downward until they disappeared, then happily closed the window. It was freezing!

Duoduo had already convinced Aya that Christmas was a special holiday for bartering-gifts for gifts—so she had prepared quite a few presents this year. She planned to see who had given her gifts and give one to each of them.

Of course, she had already prepared presents for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If she didn't receive any from them, she would unilaterally end their friendships!

A small pile of presents, big and small, had accumulated at the foot of her bed. Aya counted the names one by one and found more than thirty gifts, some from older students as well as her friends.

In particular, there were gifts from older Gryffindor students and some kind Hufflepuff girls. Aya happily counted them; quite a few were fun and tasty snacks. Even Hagrid had sent some fudge, so Aya casually wrapped up the cooked spider legs left in her bag after she had packed Ron's gift and had Duoduo deliver them.

Hagrid raised chickens and ate them, so surely he raised spiders to eat too?

Otherwise, why would he raise so many?

Thinking of the hundred-odd spider corpses in her bag, preserved from before the snow had begun, Aya grew certain again. He raised so many to eat them. After all, Hagrid was so big.

She rummaged through her bag. For Harry, she had a comb; for Hermione, a complete set of signed photos she had swiped from Lockhart's office; and for Mrs. Weasley, giant pumpkin seeds she had picked up from a sparkle in Hagrid's vegetable garden—she couldn't find anywhere to plant them anyway, and she didn't have the patience to grow them. Then there were two big bags of miscellaneous junk materials for the Weasley Brothers, pretty feathers and shells for Ginny, and Power and Desire for Percy...

She and the library really were sworn enemies, weren't they?

She hadn't managed to get anything like homework answers from the sparkles in the library. All she had found were books whose covers alone made her sleepy: The Book of Spells, Curses and Counter-Curses, Flesh-Eating Trees of the World, An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, and so on...

Aya had piled them all under her bed in the dormitory.

If Ron hadn't complained about Percy's obsession with authority, Aya wouldn't even have remembered that dusty new book.

She thoroughly organized her bag and asked Duoduo to send the gifts for people who weren't at school. Everyone else would get a personal visit from Santa Claus Aya!

There was no need to make a special trip for Hermione. After all, if Aya's moral standards returned to what they had been when she first came to this world, Hermione wouldn't receive any presents this Christmas.

She casually placed her present on top of Hermione's pile and nodded with satisfaction. Then she pulled the big scarf Duoduo had given her this year and the distinctive red-and-white sweater from Mrs. Weasley out of her pile of presents. Once she had put them both on, she opened the door and went to find Ginny's dormitory.

Ginny was the only one in her dormitory, and she hadn't gotten up yet. Aya crept inside, placed the large bag of feathers and shells on the very top of her pile of presents, then hurried away and headed for the boys' dormitories.

With Xiaohua there, Aya wasn't worried about finding the boys' rooms. After climbing the spiral staircase, her first stop was Percy's dormitory.

Even Percy wasn't up yet at this hour, before the sky had brightened. Aya pulled back his bed curtains. The dark blanket rose around a human shape, but since she was at the foot of the bed, she couldn't see where the great Prefect's face was.

She tossed the brick-like book straight onto his blanket. A moment later, she heard a pained groan and left in satisfaction. She really was such a considerate younger schoolmate, coming so early to wake Percy, who loved studying. The morning set the course for the day, just as spring set the course for the year!

Her second stop was Fred and George's dormitory. As soon as Aya entered, she saw that it was much messier than Percy's. She remembered that the Weasley Brothers' dark-skinned friend Lee also lived there. Three boys cut from the same cloth, tsk, tsk—not like her dormitory, which was always filled with all sorts of lovely scents.

Without ceremony, Aya pulled open the curtains of the bed nearest the door and tossed a bag of materials onto the redhead's bed, his head still buried beneath the blanket. Then she went to another bed with its curtains closed and repeated the process. Watching the people in both beds stir and rustle, Aya left in satisfaction. It served those two right for fighting her for a spot by the fireplace every winter. She, the mighty chosen one, could only hold her place by being shameless!

Her third stop was Harry and Ron's room. Why had she given Harry a comb? Because at some point, Aya had noticed Harry's messy black hair, and Xiaohua had taken to pawing at his head. Especially when they gathered to do homework, Harry's hair would stick out like a ball of yarn after he scratched it. Aya hoped a comb would make it behave a little.

She pushed open the door once again, and sure enough, both boys were fast asleep. Aya took out Harry's comb, pulled back his bed curtains, and stuck it in his hair. As for Ron's spider-leg assortment—a gift box containing legs cooked four or five different ways-Aya put it on his bedside table. She had worked hard to hunt them, so he couldn't be allowed to eat them in bed.

Ugh, why was Ron still keeping this yellow-name rat? Shoo, shoo!

She pushed Scabbers away from the bedside table and casually tossed him into a drawer, shutting it behind him. After comparing the number of presents her friends had received, Aya returned to the common room feeling rather pleased. She had only been here a little over a year, and she had almost as many presents as they did. Wasn't that worth celebrating?

As expected of her, being this popular~

Aya skipped over to the fireplace, took out a cut spider leg, and set it over the fire to roast. She planned to have it as a pre-meal dessert.

"Merlin... Aya, I've never seen you get up particularly early. Why are you so energetic on a holiday?" George came down from the boys' dormitory tower, yawning and wearing the new sweater Mrs. Weasley had made him.

"Hehe-look!" Aya stood up and tugged at the hem of her sweater. "You can't leave me out anymore~"

"Oh, very nice," Fred said, scratching his head. "Mum only uses such bright yarn to knit clothes for girls-" He yawned right after George as he spoke. "That bag nearly smothered me. Thanks for your weighty gift."

"You're welcome~" Aya sat back down, staring at the spider leg in the fireplace. Before long, the others came downstairs yawning too.

"Morning..." Ginny stretched, her sweater beneath her coat newly knitted as well. She came over to the fireplace. "You're eating something that substantial this early?"

"A necessary measure against the cold!" Aya said seriously. She was so active every day that she burned a lot of energy!

"None of us can match Aya's appetite-" Hermione sat down on the sofa, clutching a book, her eyes half closed. "You don't usually get many chances to sit down and eat with Aya, so you probably haven't noticed much."

"That's amazing. Is it nearly done?" Ginny caught the familiar aroma in the air. She had traded for spider legs before, and the smell made her feel a little hungry.

"Duoduo already cooked it. I'm just warming it up~" Aya happily turned the spider leg over.

"Your bag is so convenient-" Aya accepted the envious compliment as usual. Harry and Ron came down too.

"Where's Percy?" Ginny looked behind them. "Isn't he having breakfast?"

Harry glanced at Aya, who was staring fixedly at the roasting spider leg, and gave an awkward laugh. "He said his stomach hurt and asked us to bring him something back."

"Aya, where's Scabbers?" Ron shouted as soon as he came down. "You were the only one who came into our dormitory, and Scabbers is gone!"

Aya looked over at the sound, first glancing at Harry's hair-still a mess-before turning away in disappointment. "A rat isn't worthy of eating my prey. I locked him up in Azkaban."

"Huh?"

"Maybe he's in a drawer," Harry told Ron. Aya definitely wouldn't have gone looking for something to lock up the rat she disliked, so the most likely place was probably the bedside table where she had left the present. "Why don't you go back and look?"

"Oh, right." Ron bounded back to the dormitory and returned shortly afterward, holding a fat rat. "Aya! Don't shut Scabbers in a drawer again. He chewed open all my snacks!"

"Then you ought to teach him a lesson, little Ronnie-" Fred said lazily.

"You're the only one who'd indulge a rat like that. When Percy had him, he kept him in a cage." George gave Scabbers a disdainful look. "Come on, let's eat."

"Let's go!" Aya raised the warmed spider leg in agreement.

Very few students had chosen to stay at school for Christmas. The group went from the Seventh Floor all the way down to the ground floor without meeting anyone else. Apart from the portraits on the walls moving along with the children, the castle was so empty it might have echoed.

This year, Harry hadn't asked Aya to help Hagrid again. Given how she had discovered her talent for riding trees on the spot last Christmas, they had even gone to see Hagrid secretly behind her back on Christmas Eve this term. Aya, however, had been busy saving money and hadn't noticed.

Everyone sat together at breakfast, chatting as they ate and arranging to have a snowball fight in the courtyard afterward. Two Hufflepuff students who had stayed at school overheard them from the next table and raised their hands to join. Ron had to take Scabbers back to the common room, and since he was the youngest boy in the Weasley family, he was made to bring Percy his breakfast too, forcing him to make another round trip.

By the time he came back downstairs to the courtyard, the battle was already at its fiercest.

Since Xiaohua was exceptionally good at this sport, everyone had unanimously agreed to ban her. So Aya pumped her short little legs as fast as she could, dodging the attacks everyone aimed at her while pushing a huge snowball. When Ron arrived in the courtyard, he happened to see Aya lift a snowball half her height and hurl it viciously into the crowd opposite her.

Fred pulled Ginny aside just in time, while Harry risked being crushed to drag Hermione out of the way. In the end, the snowball hit George and one unlucky Hufflepuff.

"Hahahaha-my strength as Great King Aya hasn't diminished!" Aya planted her hands on her hips, her voice arrogant, though snowflakes from the hits she had taken still clung to her hair.

"Merlin! Aya, don't use such a terrifying tone with that expression-" Ron, still shaken, went over to the snowball and pulled up-pulled up the unlucky Hufflepuff.

"I once thought little Ronnie and I were true brothers. Seems I placed my trust in the wrong person." George lay peacefully on his back in the snow, his lower body completely pinned.

"He wasn't the only one you misplaced your trust in-" Harry came over, grabbed him by the collar of his coat, and tugged him out. "Fred abandoned his own brother too."

"Then who do you think Mum would save if George and Ginny fell in the water?" Fred came over grinning and leaned against the snowball, patting it. "Aya really is strong. This snowball's solid!"

"Thanks for the compliment. I'm full of strength." Aya loosened her red scarf a little. "Want to try it too? The feeling of sleeping in the snow? I'll tuck you in~"

"Thank you, but I don't want to wake up only to go sleep in the Hospital Wing." George finally sat up and kicked Fred, who was adding to the weight on him by leaning against the snowball.

"You could go warm up with Xiaohua too." Hermione pointed behind her. The unlucky Hufflepuff was already hugging Xiaohua with a blissful expression, nearly sinking into her fur.

"...I don't consider myself a cat slave," George said, refusing. "You think a little cold like this can defeat me? Seems you've all underestimated the Weasleys!"

"What do the Weasleys have?" Aya asked curiously.

"Wisdom, strength, looks—we have them all!" Fred raised an arm and struck a pose to show off his biceps, speaking with exaggerated flair.

"Hmm... isn't that me?" Aya lifted her chin confidently. "And I have 'money' on top of all that!"

Fred lowered his arm and sighed deeply. "It's time to go to St. Mungo's and turn into a beastman."

"Count me in," George added.

With Aya's super snowballs joining the fierce snowball fight, they had to stop every so often to pull people out like radishes. Since everyone except Aya had been pulled out at least once, they all went to the Hospital Wing for a dose of Pepperup Potion before lunch.

Aya wouldn't turn down anything edible or flavorful. Even though the potion tasted awful, she asked for a bottle and took several leisurely sips to finish it-although every sip made her little face scrunch up.

Fred and George said she looked a bit like the pleats on a steamed bun.

Aya remembered only the steamed bun. She knew what they were-one of the recovery items in her old game had been shaped like one. After lunch, she ran to the kitchen to ask Duoduo to make snake-meat buns and spider-meat buns, and brought Duoduo her Christmas present: a pretty bow.

Aya had gotten the idea after seeing Lavender's pretty hair accessories. Lavender and Parvati had then explained to her how to order products from Wizarding World magazines, and she had finally chosen a big red-and-green Christmas bow.

Lavender had only said it was very suitable for Christmas, while Parvati had tactfully suggested that she might want a more everyday style.

But Aya didn't think she would give Duoduo a gift out of the blue at any other time, so she stuck firmly with the Christmas-special bow.