An Alternative Christmas Tale - part 2
Once the holidays had started, Theo and Harry had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get good armchairs by the fire. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork - bread, crumpets, marshmallows - and plotting ways of getting Potter expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.
Theo also started teaching Draco wizard chess. This was exactly like Muggle chess, except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Theo's set was very old and battered. Like everything he owned, it had once belonged to someone at the Ministry of Magic - in this case, a wizard at the Department of Magical Games and Sports who had donated it to the Ministry's orphanage when Theo was five. However, the old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Theo knew them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.
Draco played with chessmen Adrian Pucey had lent him and they didn't trust him at all. He wasn't a very good player yet and they kept shouting different bits of advice at him, which was confusing: 'Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him.'
On Christmas eve, Draco went to bed looking forward to next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all. When he woke early next morning, however, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.
Theo was still asleep, and Draco was just about to wake him when a note on the top present caught his attention. It is time this was returned to you. It gives light only to its holder. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you. Draco's heart leapt. Could this be... But Theo stirred in the next bed, and Draco hurriedly hid the package under his bed.
'Happy Christmas,' said Theo sleepily as Draco scrambled out of bed and pulled on his dressing-gown.
'You too,' said Draco. 'Will you look at this? I've got some presents!'
'What did you expect, turnips?' said Theo, turning to his own pile, which was slightly bigger than Draco's.
Draco picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Draco, from Theo and Blaise. Inside was a wizard chess set. A second, very small parcel contained a note. We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. Mrs. Regina Hamphings, Barney Orphanage. Sellotaped to the note was a fifty-pence piece.
'That's friendly,' said Draco.
Theo was fascinated by the fifty pence.
'Weird!' he said. 'What a shape! This is money?'
'You can keep it,' said Draco, laughing at how pleased Theo was. His friends and the muggle orphanage he had grown up in - 'So who sent this one?'
'I think I know who that one's from,' said Theo. 'Chelsea at our orphanage. I told her you didn't expect any presents and - oh, I knew it, she's made you a jumper.'
Draco had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted, grey sweater.
'That's really nice of her,' said Draco.
Draco had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic crackes were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the orphanage usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Vincent and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear-admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up on the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.
Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Marcus Flint nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Draco watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally, to Draco's horror, kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek. Draco loathed drunk people, something he had learned from one too many encounters with the alcoholic husband of Mrs. Hamphings.
Draco and the other orphans spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight in the grounds. Then, cold, wet and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Slytherin common room, where Draco broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Theo. He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Marcus hadn't tried to help him so much.
After a tea of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed expect sit and watch Marcus chase Crabbe and Goyle all through the Slytherin dungeons because they had stolen his Quidditch Captain badge. It had been Draco's best Christmas day ever.
To Be Continued.
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