As Christmas approached, the whole of Hogwarts was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. The students all had joyful expressions, and the auditorium was beautiful and spectacular. The walls were covered with hanging ribbons made of holly and mistletoe, and there were twelve towering Christmas trees around the room. Some of the trees had small sparkling icicles, while others had hundreds of candles flickering on them. It added a festive atmosphere to the school.
Unlike many of their classmates who went home for Christmas, Harry and Ron both signed the list of students who would be staying on campus for the holidays. The former signed normally, while the latter signed because the Weasleys were going to Romania to visit Charlie.
"Hey, Harry, have you noticed that Hermione has been acting a little strange ever since she found out who Nicole Lemour is that day?" Ron whispered from the dining table.
"Yes." Harry nodded. "I actually saw her spacing out in class today."
"I saw it too," Ron added. "He disappeared the moment class ended."
"Something must have happened." Harry tapped the bowl in front of him with his knife and fork, making a crisp sound.
"We should think of something," Ron said.
Harry nodded affirmatively.
As for Malfoy, he also felt that something was wrong recently.
He could feel that Pansy was avoiding him.
Once or twice could be explained by an illusion, but if it happened too many times, it definitely couldn't be a simple coincidence.
Other than Malfoy's time in the library, Pansy would always sit with him at the dining table and in class. Malfoy would occasionally guide her homework after class. He also taught her two self-defense spells. However, Malfoy found that Pansy almost never came to him these days. She would even run away immediately after seeing him.
Like now.
"Pansy." Malfoy greeted Pansy.
Pansy, who was sitting in the lounge chair, immediately stood up like a frightened rabbit. She was still packing some things and hiding them behind her. She stumbled out of the lounge, not daring to look at him.
"Is this karma?" Malfoy could only smile helplessly.
In the library, Hermione was flipping through a large book. After finding out who Nicole Lemour was, she was no longer obsessed with the forbidden section. A lot of information could be found in the normal section. After all, now that she knew the target, it was much easier.
"No, I have to focus," Hermione said to herself. Originally, it was impossible for her to be distracted when she was studying. However, ever since that day, she realized that she would always recall memories related to him.
The unhappy parting on the train, the apology and acceptance in the library, the trip to Hogsmeade's candy house, the fear he felt when facing the monster, and perhaps the final cold glance. Hermione tried her best to get him out of her mind, but she couldn't. She would be absent-minded in class, absent-minded when she was doing her homework, and even now when she was reading in the library, she would still be absent-minded. When she thought of the happy memories of the past, she would unconsciously laugh, but soon, a touch of bitterness would appear under her joyful smile.
"Hermione, you have to forget about him for now." Hermione patted her face and said to herself again.
When Christmas finally arrived, the students stayed at school and went home. Malfoy also embarked on his journey home.
Half a day was neither short nor long. Malfoy took a nap on the train before they reached their destination.
After getting off the train, Malfoy saw Narcissa waiting for him in front of the platform.
"Oh my god, baby, how did you lose so much weight?" Narcissa said exaggeratedly as she pinched Malfoy's face. "Is the food in school not good? I'm going to tell your father and ask him to make a suggestion at the board meeting. "
"It's just an illusion, Mother." Malfoy changed the subject. "Father didn't come?"
"He said he had something important to do and couldn't come. What is more important than our baby, right?" Narcissa criticized Lucius again.
"Well, Mother, I don't think we need to stand here anymore, right? The weather is not very good. "
"Yes, let's hurry home. You must be freezing. The fireplace at home must be warmer than the one at school," Narcissa said again.
Malfoy couldn't help but facepalm.
Through the air network, the two quickly returned home. It had to be said that, apart from the unbearable dizziness, this mode of transportation was indeed satisfactory because it was indeed fast.
After enjoying a sumptuous dinner, Malfoy returned to his room.
Narcissa sighed that her son had grown up and no longer whispered to his mother, although he didn't say much in the past.
In the room, Malfoy was not idle. He was worrying about Christmas presents.
"Although I don't have much contact with them at school, I'll still give them some snacks." This was a snack gift for Crabbe and Gore.
"The troublesome young lady. I don't know how I provoked her again." Malfoy recalled Pansy's previous performance and didn't know what to give him. He went to Hogsmeade and bought a huge feather pen. He saw that Pansy's feather pen had all fallen off. He also gave him a bottle of rainbow ink.
Finally, there was Hermione. Malfoy did not know how to deal with her. "Sigh, I'll just help her." Malfoy sighed, wrote a few words on a sticky note, and tied it to the owl's foot.
After dealing with these matters, Malfoy felt a little sleepy and went to bed. There was still a very important matter waiting for him to do the next day.
It was a quiet night.
When he woke up, Malfoy rubbed his sleepy eyes and went to the Christmas tree in the living room. There was a pile of colorful boxes under it. Apart from the gifts from his friends at school, there were also gifts from other relatives that he was not familiar with.
"How is it? Does it feel bad to be abandoned by me?" This was a letter from Pansy. Malfoy seemed to have seen Pansy's mischievous smile through the letter. "But I'll still give you a Christmas surprise. This is a pair of gloves that this young lady mercifully knitted for you. How is it? Are you grateful now?"
After reading the letter, Malfoy saw a pair of gloves quietly placed in a beautifully packaged box. It was not very beautiful, and the stitches were exposed in some places. The color was not very good either, but it warmed Malfoy's heart.
"So you just wanted to give me a surprise. You're probably a little embarrassed." Malfoy thought of Pansy's previous behavior and could not help but laugh. The letter said that she was very generous, but he was actually very embarrassed.
In any case, this gift made him feel happy.
Then there were the gifts for the two fat children. Hmm, banana-flavored slug lollipops and orange-flavored chicken lollipops. Malfoy felt that he should go back and teach them what it meant to be petrified.
Finally, there was a small piece of paper with a beautiful handwriting on it: "Thank you."
"That's good," Malfoy thought.