The end of December in the Scottish Highlands was a vast expanse of white.
William sat up from the bed in the Room of Requirement, gazing at the snowy scene outside the window—fitting for the season, he synchronized the weather outside the Room of Requirement with that of the outside world, heavy snowflakes rustling down and obscuring most of the view.
The crackling flames in the fireplace danced and provided a comforting sound.
"Nnn..."
Kabuda, nestled on the small bed on the bedside table, poked its pink mouth out of the covers, clearly wanting to remain in bed a while longer.
So William reached out and pinched its nostrils.
"?"
"Chirp chirp!"
The indignant Niffler flung off the covers and waved its arms accusingly at William.
"No work, no school, and you still don't want to get out of bed during the day?" William emerged from the covers, grabbing Kabuda in his hand, "Where did you go fooling around again last night?"
"Nnn..."
"Luna and Ginny sent you Christmas gifts?"
"Nnn."
"Hand them over."
"Nnnn!"
"What do you mean by bullying? I'm just helping you keep them safe until you go to college and need to pay tuition..."
"?"
In the end, William let the Niffler off the hook. It had worked hard to receive a gift, and since it wasn't stolen, confiscating it would be unreasonable.
Stuffing Kabuda back into its bed, William stood up. The soft carpet on the floor was "borrowed" from the Malfoy Family, as were some of the furniture, and even the little elf...
"Good morning, sir."
Dobby stood at the bedroom door, holding a tray. Recently, besides going to class, William rarely left the Room of Requirement, even having meals brought from the kitchen by Dobby—the reason being...
Hibernation seemed tempting in the cold weather, but more so was… the downside of indoor chicken raising had surfaced.
In December, the corridors of Hogwarts reeked of chicken droppings.
Due to the Basilisk, no one, except for the uninformed little wizard, opposed "Dumbledore's" decision. But to ensure the rooster's crow could weaken the Basilisk, they had to be free-range—thousands of chickens roamed freely around Hogwarts.
And since the only custodian in the entire castle who cared about cleanliness was napping in the infirmary...
Though occasionally upper-year little wizards or professors would maintain, being straightforward birds, chickens paid no heed when it came to leaving droppings, and their waste quickly filled most of the corridors, with many little wizards opting for the Bubble-Head Charm to avoid suffering—
But the younger little wizards could only manage to hold their noses.
"Oh, good morning, Merry Christmas." Yawning, William pulled his wandering thoughts back, waving his hand to summon a blue gift box from the pile under the Christmas tree, which landed in Dobby's hand. Kabuda had just reminded him that today was Christmas.
This Christmas tree was brought by Cedric before the holiday. "Christmas, needs some ambiance here." Then he boarded the train home.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir—" Dobby gasped, a little incoherent, eagerly unwrapping it to reveal a light gray soft hat. As it was merely a work-for-hire relationship, William didn't need to worry about the consequences of gifting clothes to an Elf.
"It matches your new outfit well." William nodded, noticing that Dobby would buy new clothes whenever he received wages. When giving a gift, either don't give it or make sure to give something that touches the other person's heart—
For example, the shampoo he sent Snape, deliberately avoiding giving one to Potter's family.
"Yes, sir, thank you so much—" Dobby squeaked, placing the hat on its head, looking at its reflection in the mirror beside it, almost shedding tears of joy, "Oh, sir, I've brought the gifts from your dormitory here—"
It pointed to the significant increase of gifts under the Christmas tree compared to yesterday.
"Alright, you go ahead…" William nodded, pulling out a chair to sit by the table, arranging the tray in front of him.
"Oh, sir, I was wondering if I could give Harry Potter a Christmas gift—"
Dobby whispered, since William had once asked it to stay away from Harry—as this fellow not only injured the boy's arm but almost drowned him in the Black Lake, and led him to receive a warning letter from the Ministry of Magic during the summer...
Well, let's just say, Harry is somewhat a hot-blooded teenager and Dobby is clearly not good at keeping things to itself...
"Fine, but don't sign your name." William thought for a moment, nodding.
"Of course!" Dobby eagerly nodded, "You enjoy your meal, sir. I won't disturb you, I'm off." With that, the little elf vanished.
William slowly finished the custom-made fried dough sticks and soy milk from the kitchen and then sat down next to the Christmas tree.
"Chirp?" Kabuda, barely awake, climbed onto his lap as well.
"Let me see..."
William opened one gift after another from the pile:
Chomping Cabbage seeds from Professor Sprout, syrup toffee from Hagrid, which was so hard that Kabuda, who tried a sneaky bite, yelped in pain. Cedric's gift was a book titled "Me and Quidditch," clearly still not giving up. Luna sent a stack of The Quibbler, and William suspected these were just the ones she had read and discarded. Ginny also gave a book—"Magical Me"… Can I just remove Lockhart's big face from the cover? He suspected Ginny just wanted to get rid of it. Dumbledore sent a pair of knitted socks, one gold-red, one yellow-purple... William couldn't help questioning the old man's taste. Dobby's gift matched Dumbledore's, although its socks were identical, the aesthetic... well, let's not mention it.
"And yours?"
William threw the little package at the bottom to Kabuda. The surprised Niffler quickly tore open the round packaging to reveal a shiny Golden Galleon.
"Chirp!"
This gift clearly hit home for it. After casting a wary glance at William, it quickly stuffed the Golden Galleon into its belly.
"Alright, the signature is... Harry Potter, are you that close?" William said while opening the last package, also signed Harry Potter, inside was a pen that looked very expensive.
"Hmm... now to think of a return gift..."
William stood up, scratching his head. Some who gave gifts he hadn't expected, and some who didn't plan for a return gift.
Like Snape, even though he accepted William's shampoo.
"Alright, there's still some other things today..."
William stretched and stood up, remembering his plan for the evening—the werewolf issue needed solving.
...
Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, Harry, just woken by Hermione, also began opening his gifts.
"Hagrid's candy... ugh, so hard." Harry winced, rubbing his mouth in discomfort.
"Mrs. Weasley sent you clothes—and a cake," Hermione said, noticing the largest package Harry had just opened. Her tone was a bit melancholic as both of them glanced at the empty bed nearby—Ron was still in the infirmary, missing Christmas.
"Hey, what's this?" Harry found a red package from the gift pile. "No signature..." He briefly examined it.
"Why not open it and see?"
"I'll do just that..."
Harry unwrapped the package to find an old black notebook inside.
"Tom M. Riddle?" The boy opened the first page, reading out the somewhat smudged name.