A Rhapsody in Anticipation of the Holidays
December at Hogwarts was like being tossed into a cauldron of honey. In preparation for Christmas, the thick, sweet scent climbed the spiral staircases and filled every crack between the stones.
Hailey loved curling up on the pumpkin-velvet sofa in the Hufflepuff Common Room, her fingertips brushing the gear bracelet at her cuff. Ever since Dumbledore had mentioned "gear-shaped icicles" the week before, the Vibranium ornament had not sounded another alarm, and even the smell of garlic on Professor Quirrell seemed to have faded a little. The relaxed feeling of the approaching Christmas holidays was like melting butter, gradually soaking into nerves that had been taut for months.
"Look, look! They've wrapped gold bells around the holly vines in the corridors!" Eileen, like a toffee wrapped in a fluffy scarf, rushed to the stained-glass window. The turmeric-yellow hair clip in her hair struck the glass, sending frost crystals fluttering down. "And the stars on top of the Christmas trees in the Great Hall recite 'A Christmas Carol'! I overheard Professor Flitwick casting a spell on one last night to correct its off-key singing!"
Hailey followed her pointing finger and saw the scene outside the window, just as Eileen had described it. On the snow, several House-elves were using their wands to direct gingerbread men into a line. The little frosted treats wore miniature pumpkin hats and were wobbling along with gift boxes toward the castle doors. One accidentally fell into a snowdrift, squashing its icing smile into a crooked O. Hailey remembered the gingerbread mold she had bought in Diagon Alley three years ago and suddenly felt that Christmas at Hogwarts was more like a real fairy tale than the shopping centers in the Muggle world.
"The Prefect said there's going to be a snowball fight this afternoon!" Eileen suddenly turned around, her nautilus earrings knocking the snowflakes off her scarf. "On the lawn next to the Quidditch Pitch, and the winners can go to the kitchen for hot chocolate!"
Hailey instinctively tucked herself deeper into the sofa, her wool socks sparking with static against the carpet. "But it looks cold out there... Look, the snow's already up past the Whomping Willow's ankles!" As soon as she finished speaking, Eileen pulled a small brass bottle from her scarf. "Warming spell" was engraved crookedly on its side—it was an exclusive recipe made by mixing cardamom powder from her family's Potions shop with Dragon Blood.
"I got it ready for you ages ago!" Eileen unscrewed the cap and poured a little into Hailey's gloves. As soon as the turmeric-yellow powder touched her skin, a warm mist rose from it. "My mum says it's a 'hand warmer from the world of Potions.' Sprinkle it into a snowball and it'll burst into cinnamon-scented steam when it hits someone! Last time I hit my brother with one, he chased me for the recipe all winter!"
The Quidditch Pitch that afternoon looked like a giant frosted biscuit, and Hufflepuff students rolled through the snow, shrieking. Hailey had barely taken her first step when she felt something sticky catch at the sole of her boot. She looked down and discovered the "anti-slip spice" Eileen had secretly sprinkled there, its dark brown powder tracing a crooked magic circle on the snow.
"Take this!" Eileen's snowball flew at her, trailing the scent of caramel. Hailey hurriedly dodged to the side, only to hear the Prefect laughing and scolding behind her. "Leicester! That snowball of yours flies just like Professor Flitwick's broomstick!" A thought struck her, and she quickly traced a parabolic formula on her palm with the tip of her wand. The next snowball she threw traced a perfect arc through the air and landed squarely on the Prefect's pumpkin hat. The turmeric-yellow steam that burst out singed the pom-pom on the brim into curls.
"Merlin's beard! Did you secretly use Arithmancy?" Eileen laughed so hard she could barely catch her breath. She grabbed a handful of snow mixed with cardamom powder and stuffed it down Hailey's neck. "Have a taste of my 'numbing-hot snowball'!" Icy snow mixed with the tingling numbness of Sichuan pepper slid down Hailey's collar. She screamed and chased after Eileen, but as she turned, she saw Professor Quirrell's purple cloak flash past the distant edge of the Forbidden Forest. There seemed to be an additional suspicious scar beneath his turban.
Her smile froze on her face, and her gear bracelet gave an extremely faint click at her cuff. But before she could think about it, Eileen had pulled her into the group building snowmen. "Stop spacing out! Let's build a snowman that can bake gingerbread! I've got cinnamon sticks in my bag we can use for its arms!"
By nightfall, cardamom powder still clung to Hailey's scarf where she had failed to brush it off. With their arms around each other's shoulders, she and Eileen sauntered into the kitchen. Copper pots bubbled over magical flames, House-elves were burying gold coins in Christmas puddings, and a frying pan suddenly flipped itself over, scattering brown sugar all over the floor.
"Try this!" Hailey pulled out the "magic timer" her father had sent her. It was a little silver box made from pocket-watch parts, with gears and star paths engraved on its surface. "My dad says if you set it to 'dessert mode,' it can control the heat automatically..." Before she could finish, Eileen had poured gingerbread dough into an engraved copper mold. The timer suddenly let out a piercing buzz, and the magic circle on the silver box lit up red.
"Oh no!!" Before Hailey had finished speaking, the baked gingerbread men suddenly clapped their icing hands and leaped out of the pan. Their sesame-seed eyes whirled as they raised their cinnamon-stick arms and climbed into Eileen's hair. "Ah! Murder!" Eileen screamed and ran all over the kitchen. Finally cornered, she had a sudden idea and grabbed a jar of Sichuan pepper beside her, scattering it at them. The gingerbread men instantly froze in place, their icing faces still posed as if lunging at someone, becoming a funny, pepper-flavored decoration.
"To thank the Prefect for sparing our lives," Eileen said, rubbing her ankle where it had been painfully trodden on and putting the cooled gingerbread men into an engraved tin, "let's make another pot of 'upgraded ginger milk tea'! I brought some 'refreshing spice' my mum just got in. Apparently, just a little will leave a wizard who's stayed up all night writing a paper full of energy!"
Hailey used her wand to chop the ginger slices into granules. Golden threads of magic wove a fine mesh above the copper pot, breaking the ginger-flavored molecules apart with perfect evenness. Eileen, meanwhile, mysteriously tipped a spoonful of dark brown powder into the pot, muttering as she did so, "One spoonful to refresh, two to keep sleep away, three... Oops, that's too much!"
After drinking the milk tea, the Prefect was still wiping tables in the common room at three in the morning, singing "A Christmas Carol" off-key as he worked. It took a House-elf's lavender sleeping charm to coax him to sleep. Only later did the girls discover that Eileen had mistakenly added the Potions shop's "owl stimulant" instead of the refreshing spice. The stuff was normally used for owls delivering letters.
Later, as they were packing, Eileen's nautilus suitcase suddenly burst open with a bang. Cardamom and star anise hidden in its lining rolled across the floor and mixed with Hailey's Muggle brown sugar cubes, looking just like an avalanche of spices and cane sugar.
"Quick, use your wand to sort them!" Hailey crouched on the floor, scrambling to put things in order. "Metal things on the left, plant spices on the right..."
"I know, I know!" Eileen impatiently waved her wand, but mistakenly used the "silver-plating charm" her father had taught her instead of a sorting charm. All the brown sugar cubes instantly took on a glittering metallic sheen, glowing with the blue light of fake Vibranium in the candlelight, just like a pile of enchanted ingots.
"Well, that's done it," Hailey said, picking up a piece of "Vibranium brown sugar," not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "When I get home, I can tell my dad we've invented 'edible magic metal.' Maybe it'll fetch a good price!"
Eileen raised her chin proudly, the fake Vibranium frosting on her butterfly hair clip sparkling. "Of course! Just look who we are—the Hufflepuff magic spice and gear duo!"
Outside the window, a flock of owls swept past carrying Christmas letters. An envelope bearing some family's crest seemed to be tied to the leg of a silver-spotted owl. Hailey touched the Star Hub necklace at her throat. Amid the resonance of gears and core, enveloping her wand, there seemed to be mingled the bubbling of her mother's ginger tea and the clatter of equipment in her father's laboratory. Perhaps the shadow of Prophecy still lingered in the distance, but this Christmas, at least, she could take a bag of brown sugar plated with fake Vibranium and a head full of cross-dimensional inventions home, and drink a cup of real hot cocoa that neither gave off steam nor went off-key. And putting the troubles of the magical world away in Vibranium frosting for a while with family and friends was a happier thing. For now, Hailey only wanted to see her family sooner, together with Eileen.