One thing Alexandra remarked from the start of the holidays was how few persons stayed at Hogwarts for the holidays. Including herself in the student numbers, there were exactly three Ravenclaws in the tower who didn't leave with the Hogwarts Express, none of them in her year. In the other Houses, four Hufflepuffs, one lone Slytherin and five Gryffindors were staying, four of the latter belonging to the Weasley family. Half of the staff was also gone and would not come back until the New Year, including all the Junior Professors, the assistants of the Senior Professors and Professor Quirell.
As a consequence, she had the Ravenclaw armchairs in the common room all for herself. Rectification: she had the Common Room for her personal use, the two other students preparing their final exams at the end of the year were constantly in the library. The dozens of hostile looks Alexandra had been subjected when she ate at the Ravenclaw table for the meals were now gone. Hogwarts was now largely peaceful. Almost.
Alexandra meetings with her Head of House continued every two days in that period, although in this period they did more than duelling to pass the time. Alexandra wanted to know more about the customs and the history of the wizarding world, Binns and self-study could only carry you so far after all, and Flitwick agreed, under the reservation they played wizarding chess to pass the time.
The game was exactly like the non-magical chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Alexandra passed a lot of time shouting at her chessmen which endlessly contested her decisions, at the great amusement of Flitwick.
"No, he will kill me with his queen. Send this pawn instead."
"Your knight is in danger! Sacrifice the tower!"
"If you ask me my opinion, three pawns is a good trade for taking his rook. Do it!"
"You will be in checkmate if you lose me! No! No! Not here!"
After half an hour of going nowhere, she had decided to stop taking their advices into account. Ignoring them seemed a more sensible choice. So far, her defeats had been as total as her defeats in Duelling, which had made her ask the question if Flitwick was also a Chess master along with his other titles. The tiny teacher had just laughed when she questioned him.
On Christmas Eve, Alexandra went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but was unsure if she would get any presents at all. Like her birthdays and the rest of the time she spent in their house, the Dursleys had taken to spend the strict minimum on her on the bank holidays. In other words nothing, and that included Christmas. All the while Dudley received between thirty and fifty presents for himself.
When she woke early the next morning, however, the first thing he saw was some packages at the foot of her bed.
The first, very small parcel, contained a note.
We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.
Stuck to the note was a fifty-pence piece.
"That's friendly," said sarcastically Alexandra, speaking to herself ."Is that the value of your love?"
More interesting were the other presents. Hermione had sent her a large box of sweets, including Chocolate Frogs and some non-magical chocolates she was fond of. Nigel had sent her the book The Defences of Duelling Volume 1, a spell book combining on defensive magic uses for beginners and their applications in wizard duels.
The last present was from Professor Flitwick, a brand-new chess set. One more proof, Alexandra realised, that her Head of House had a sadistic sense of humour, and intended to administer her quite a few more defeats until school restarted.
The rest of the day was wonderful Alexandra having never imagined being invited to such a feast. Roasted turkeys, roasted meats, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and other delicacies she had never seen before but that were now in front of her, begging to be eaten.
They were also wizards crackers, which went off like cannons detonations and fascinated to the highest degree Alexandra. Rapidly, she and the Weasley twins got into a duel to fire the greatest number of them. On the first, she obtained an admiral's hat, then several glowing balloons, more sweets and two or three tricksters kits.
At the Head Table, Headmaster Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet and was chuckling merrily at the series of jokes Professor Flitwick was reading.
Flaming Christmas puddings and dozens of desserts followed the turkey. The elder Weasley wearing a prefect insignia nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Alexandra watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Alexandra's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lop-sided.
When she finally left the table, she had fired all the crackers of Ravenclaw table and had the impression of having eaten her own weight. She had the feeling the next duelling session wouldn't be funny at all. The white mice that had appeared with the crackers had disappeared and Alexandra had the feeling they were going to end up as Mrs Norris' Christmas dinner.
The rest of the afternoon, Alexandra passed it having a furious snowball fight in the grounds, leading the Hufflepuffs against the Weasleys. Then, cold, wet and tired, she returned to the Ravenclaw common room, where she received a monumental defeat at the hands of the seventh-year student present there.
After a tea of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, Alexandra felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy Weasley chase Fred and George Weasley all over Hogwarts because they'd stolen his prefect badge.
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