Chapter 156: Christmas In 1992
“Sizzle…”
Dumbledore took a sip of hot chocolate, squinting his eyes in satisfaction, his expression relaxed and leisurely, with his beard and hair casually draped, wearing a sky-blue robe, sitting behind the desk, an old diary spread open in front of him.
The portraits of past headmasters on the wall had already fallen asleep, heads bowed, nostrils flaring, breathing evenly.
On the shelf was a phoenix after rebirth, its gorgeous feathers all burned to ashes, new ones not yet grown, its entire body a wrinkly pinkish flesh color, extremely ugly.
Fawkes was crouching in the Sorting Hat, eyelids drooping weakly, head pecking up and down, looking like it was about to fall asleep too.
Dumbledore held a quill, pondered for a moment, then slowly wrote on the paper:
「Christmas 1992 is approaching, the past year has been peaceful in the wizarding world, Hogwarts teachers and students have accompanied each other for another term, we are about to welcome a new year, and another new beginning.」
「The Great Hall’s Christmas decorations are very beautiful.」
「We still have some trouble to solve, Cornelius and the Board of Governors are going to scrutinize the school, Professor Lockhart cannot recover in a short time, my Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor is absent again, and Minerva and Melvin will have to substitute again.」
The diary gave no reply.
Dumbledore was a bit disappointed, put down the quill and flipped forward, the writing from the previous days remained unchanged, neat handwriting, thick ink, no sign of being absorbed.
「Tom, if you don’t show up, I’ll burn this diary.」
The diary finally reacted, the yellowish paper’s writing began to tremble, revealing words venting anger.
「Finally willing to drop your hypocritical mask? Dumbledore!」
「You can’t fool me, writing the diary with false sentiments to disguise yourself, because you can’t deal with Voldemort, you can’t kill me, the real me is still alive!」
「Destroying the diary won’t kill me either! Don’t think of getting any information from me!」
Dumbledore couldn’t help but smile.
In the diary was 16-year-old Tom Riddle, outside was the 111-year-old old headmaster, not sure if this counted as a reunion of teacher and student after nearly fifty years.
「Perhaps you’re right, Tom, the Horcrux avoided death in a despicable way, but there are many other ways to destroy a person, and your failure happens to prove that.」
「There’s nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!」
Dumbledore’s mouth curved up; compared to the adult Voldemort in the diadem, communicating with 16-year-old Tom was much more convenient:
「Is that so? Then destroying this diary, wouldn’t that be equivalent to killing 16-year-old you?」
「……」
Ink swirled on the diary, as if one could see through the paper that young immature face hysterically cursing.
Dumbledore took a sip of hot chocolate and continued to wait patiently.
Outside the window, a crescent moon hung atop the tower, the night was still long, the elderly always suffered from insomnia and little sleep, they had plenty of time for conversation.
……
Christmas morning.
Melvin felt like the window was a bit drafty, a cold breeze always blowing on his face, very faint, almost imperceptible, if not for the cool sensation, he wouldn’t have noticed.
At the same time, he heard a faint hissing sound right by his ear.
“……”
Melvin opened his eyes, meeting a pair of glossy black eyes, the horn on its forehead almost touching his nose tip, no wonder it felt cool.
This young snake didn’t know how long it had been awake, had crawled out of the wizard hat temporarily serving as its nest by itself, neither running around nor causing trouble, just coiled by the pillow staring at him.
It was clearly a creepy and eerie thing, but on this young snake, it didn’t seem so strange.
He washed up, changed clothes, and left the bedroom.
In the open space in the center of the office, there were piles of gifts of various sizes, some exquisite paper boxes, some casually shaped burlap sacks, quite a lot in number, greeting cards alone numbering over a hundred.
Melvin recognized only some of the signatures on the greeting cards, could recall their faces in his mind: Madam Marchbanks, tavern owners from various places, school colleagues, students who graduated last year, and some Hogsmeade shopkeepers.
The rest were comparatively unfamiliar.
Melvin casually opened a greeting card:
「Dear Professor Melvin Levent: We write this letter to you with immense gratitude to express our deep thanks for your guidance and support. Under your teaching, our child Marcus Flint became a warrior, stepping forward against the basilisk…」
Once again offering the sincerest Christmas blessings, Little Ursula Flint.」
“Little Ursula Flint, Amos Diggory, Augusta Longbottom…”
Melvin opened a few more greeting cards, looking at these familiar surnames, belatedly realizing they were all parents of students.
The greeting cards were mostly thanking his teaching, for giving their children the chance to be reported in the newspapers, the accompanying gifts varied: rare herbs from Old Mrs. Longbottom, a hand-stitched wallet and raisin cake from Mrs. Weasley, other things like potions…
The most numerous were books, they seemed to think professors should like reading.
Among them, Mrs. Flint’s gift was the most direct: a gold brick, about 3 pounds.
No idea how much the owl suffered to deliver it.
Yurm burrowed in and out of the package pile, half its snake body squeezed into crevices, only the tail left dangling outside, swaying slightly, it seemed to enjoy this dark crawling in narrow spaces, hissing excitedly from its mouth.
As packages were opened one by one, the young snake hid deeper and deeper.
Setting aside those gifts of favors, the gifts from last year’s graduates seemed more sincere: some souvenirs from graduation trips, some items related to their first jobs, self-brewed potions, ancient magical items after curse removal, teeth or claws shed by bred animals.
Gifts from school colleagues were similar to last year’s, each in their own style.
Dumbledore gave a set of wizard adventure storybooks, the illustrated kind, about a 17th-century wizard’s secluded life in a remote village, five chapters in total, the wizard using five obscure magics to handle corresponding troubles, finally living happily with the villagers.
Melvin was prepared for this, he gave the headmaster a copy of Andersen’s Fairy Tales, the dark cult version.
Professor Snape gave a mute potion antidote last year, this year no more potions, but a parchment recording a small hex.
「Lock Tongue and Throat Sealing Curse: Makes the victim’s tongue stick to the upper palate, unable to speak…」
Melvin found it amusing.
Normally, this spell’s use is to prevent enemies from casting in duels, but considering it’s from Professor Snape, it felt full of malice no matter how you think.
Luckily what he gave wasn’t bad either: premium Occamy egg shampoo, obtained from Lockhart, very suitable for Snape.
……
The Great Hall and corridors were festooned with decorations.
This castle decorated by teachers and students themselves appeared grand and majestic, compared to Hogsmeade streets’ decorations, with added fun: over a dozen Christmas trees covered in silver frost, thick garlands of mistletoe and holly hung on the walls, the dome floating with magical snowflakes, warm and dry.
Hagrid braved the snow into the foyer, shook snow off his shoulders, boots leaving wet footprints on the ground, all the way to the Great Hall, couldn’t help looking up when passing the fir Christmas tree he dragged in.
It was completely different from the start, candlelight flickering, ornaments sparkling like exquisite artwork.
Not just him, even Mrs. Norris who followed the footprints lifted her head wide-eyed, gaze following those shiny things, temporarily sparing the big guy who dirtied the foyer.
“Heh heh…”
Hagrid sat at a spot toward the back of the high table, took out the Daily Prophet from his moleskin coat pocket, unfolded the newspaper about the size of his palm, and read carefully.
Main content still the series of reports on the school’s Chamber of Secrets.
「Shocking! Legendary wizard without heirs, four founders’ descendants investigate…」
「Slytherin’s unknown secrets, besides the Chamber of Secrets and basilisk, also…」
「Inside story of Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor’s quarrel, reasons for love-hate…」
Not sure if due to Christmas special, these report titles felt oddly strange, but irresistibly drew people in, even Hagrid who didn’t like reading papers got more and more engrossed.
Since the Chamber of Secrets incident was reported yesterday, he’d been following related reports, read the paper at night, hid in the wooden house hugging Fang and cried till midnight, then got up overnight to go to the Three Broomsticks and Hog’s Head Inn to listen to discussions, hearing patrons analyze over and over, even baseless speculations.
Every time he heard them mention the old case from fifty years ago, and his cleared suspicion, he felt immensely pleased inside.
Couldn’t hold back and broke his no-alcohol vow, downed a bottle of Flame Whiskey.
Hagrid glanced around the Great Hall, didn’t see Harry and the others, took the chance of covering his mouth to cough, lowered his head to sniff his clothes, found no obvious smell, the alcohol scent blown away by the wind and snow, then relaxed a bit.
Flipped the newspaper to the last page, surprisingly a report by that gold medal reporter Rita Skeeter who had disappeared for a while.
「Regarding the old case from fifty years ago, the reporter interviewed Department of Magical Law Enforcement Director Rufus Scrimgeour, who stated that the penalty against Ruber Hagrid was without issue, the Ministry of Magic did not attribute the murder to him due to insufficient evidence, but the student illegally kept dangerous magical creatures, severely violating school rules and law, expulsion was appropriate.」
Hagrid remembered that Auror, came during last year’s unicorn investigation, with a cold face, indeed very annoying.
「…The reporter also interviewed Madam Amelia Bones, who holds a different opinion, for underage students, without casualties, expulsion was already the harshest penalty, breaking the wand was an overreach by the tribunal.」
「…After discussion by several examiners, Ruber Hagrid may, after submitting a written application to the Ministry of Magic, go to Diagon Alley to obtain a new wand.」
Hagrid felt his nose sour again, eyes heating up, but he didn’t cry, instead muttered lowly: “A bunch of idiots, fools, morons, my wand wasn’t even destroyed.”
Choking it out, suddenly noticed unusual gazes.
Hagrid turned his head, found Melvin standing nearby, staring at him amusedly, thinking of how many times he’d cried in front of Melvin, felt a bit embarrassed, hurriedly held up the newspaper and said:
“Did you see this news? That gold medal reporter appeared again, no more inflammatory words, even interviewed several Ministry of Magic officials, clarifying that breaking my wand was wrong, I’m starting to like her a bit!”
Melvin’s mouth curved more obviously: “Is that so?”
“Thought she was that heartless kind of reporter, didn’t expect her to have some integrity, honestly, I’m planning to write her a thank-you letter.”
Hagrid sniffed, masking his embarrassing teary expression, muddled through the matter, voice much lighter: “Right, did you get the gift I sent?”
“Got it, the vixen gloves are very warm, I like them a lot.”
“Heh heh, Fang and I also like the beef jerky you gave.” He scratched his head, “What do you think if I send this reporter a pair of gloves as thanks?”
“Ms. Skeeter probably wouldn’t like this.”
“How do you know?”
“Guessing…”
Melvin chatted with him a few words, felt the Great Hall fireplace too hot, somewhat stuffy, prepared to go to the courtyard for some air.
Hagrid planned to read the paper two more times, waited till Melvin was far, suddenly lifted his head, felt something off, but couldn’t pinpoint.
Melvin seemed very familiar with that reporter.
Why?
……
This year’s courtyard was much livelier than last.
A group of boys playing snowball fight in the courtyard, chasing and going wild, shrieking and laughing, snowballs packed bigger and harder, but no one backed down, clothes wet with snow outside, sweat soaking inside, played till heated heads cooled, then panted back indoors.
Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick were watching from the corridor, eyes squinted, faces full of kindly smiles.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Melvin.”
One more professor standing side by side.
Melvin followed their gaze, saw good student Percy, he didn’t join the snowball fight, just watched from the side. Wearing a sweater hand-knitted by his own mother, prefect badge pinned on his chest.
What’s so interesting about this?
Melvin looked a few more times, found nothing wrong, somewhat curious: “What are you looking at?”
Dumbledore smiled: “Seeing when he’ll notice his prefect badge has been transfigured.”
Melvin looked closely, couldn’t help but chuckle, the letters on the badge had been changed, originally Prefect, somehow changed to Pinhead.
No need to think, it was his brothers, the twins George and Fred.
Melvin couldn’t help glancing at the two colleagues, student pranks aside, you as headmaster and professor crowding here to watch the fun, what is that?
He shook his head, also watched from the side.
Not just one discovered the pinhead badge, more and more students passed Percy, seeing his puffed chest and head held high, faces struggling not to laugh.
Percy first thought they admired him, after all he was a warrior who defeated the basilisk, but too many odd gazes, he started feeling something wrong.
Looked down at today’s outfit, noticed the badge on his chest, face immediately flushed red.
“George! Fred!”
