"—Croak!"
Harry suddenly opened his eyes, springing up from his warm bed, gasping for breath, and quickly looking left and right.
"Phew..." He let out a long sigh of relief, thankful it was just a nightmare about a frog.
The white mist he exhaled quickly dissipated. He pulled the covers tighter around himself, and after a long while, he still bravely wriggled out.
The weather was getting colder and colder. Recently, the dampness in the underground common room had become particularly heavy. The common room itself was a bit better due to the fireplace, but the dormitory wasn't as good; it was much colder and damper.
He was afraid he'd become damp and clammy all over.
He had to get moving!
After getting dressed and going outside the Castle on the first floor, he realized that the entire world had changed its attire. The ground was covered in thick white snow, and snowflakes were still falling from the sky.
The sky was still very dim; it wouldn't brighten until past eight in the morning. The whole world was silent.
In the distance, below the hillside, Hagrid's hut was already lit with a faint yellow glow, and thick smoke could be seen vaguely rising from its chimney.
Harry suddenly felt that this was the art of heaven and earth, and in his heart, he even felt a reluctance to break its tranquility.
Just kidding—
He immediately jumped into a snowdrift and started rolling around.
After playing like this for a good while, he began his morning exercises. It wasn't until dawn that he saw a figure appear at the other end of the pristine white snowfield.
Howl, holding a golden staff with an octopus head and wearing a black wool coat, was strolling towards the Castle. The snow was piled high, but whenever he was about to step, the snowdrifts would consciously make way for him to place his feet.
He had originally thought about wearing a scarf, but then he realized that his neck warmer was better than any scarf.
Seeing Harry, he greeted him first. Then he said, "Mr. Granger has invited us to his home for Christmas."
This was a letter Howl had received last night. It seemed Hermione had written to Howl using Hogwarts' barn owls while corresponding with him.
Inviting him to bring Harry to their home for Christmas.
"Can we?" Harry was very surprised.
"Why not?" Howl nodded. "Anyway, there's nothing much to do. Of course, if you want to spend Christmas at Hogwarts, that's fine too.
But I must say, if you leave the accumulated cleaning work from these past few months until the June holidays, it might be terrifying."
He was referring to the work at Moonlight Fortress. Although he spent most of his time at Hogwarts now, it didn't mean Moonlight Fortress would be as usual.
After all, he was a lazy dog—no, a lazy cat!
"No, I've been looking forward to it for a long time," Harry said with a smile. He was very excited about it.
After returning to the common room, Draco was just barely getting out of bed. He looked at Harry, who was picking out what to wear today, and said, "Oh, damn. I overslept again today."
"Isn't that to be expected? After all, the bed is so warm," Harry said with a chuckle, without turning his head.
After the weather cooled down, Draco had been saying he would wake up early for a long time.
It was only talk.
He scratched his head irritably: "No, damn it. Harry, you have to wake me up."
"If it's by kicking, I can," Harry said.
He thought Draco wouldn't reply, but to his surprise, after a while, Draco nodded: "That works too."
?
"Otherwise, I can't get up," Draco said helplessly.
Harry could only respond with silence.
"By the way, where are you going for Christmas?"
"Christmas?" Harry said, "I'm going home!"
...On the fifth floor of the Castle, Howl strolled leisurely. There was nothing much happening in the Castle these days. Besides answering questions for many Little Wizards every day, he could mostly be considered idle.
After he had repaired most of the books, Madam Pince also realized something.
This Mr. Jones was not here to do the work of a librarian at all. This made her both happy and disappointed. Happy because she had initially thought she might be fired, but now it seemed she wouldn't be.
Disappointed because the children's destructive behavior towards books might not be effectively curbed.
However, at least a portion of the mischievous students flocked to that reading room.
This made Pince look upon Mr. Jones with increasing favor, and she was already thinking about what Christmas gift to give him.
"Mr. Cat, good morning," Sindel greeted him. "Is it snowing outside?"
"Yes, winter has arrived," Howl nodded, looking at the lively girl still dressed in a green skirt, a touch of emotion in his heart.
"Can you feel hot and cold?" he asked.
"I don't know." She still shook her head, just as she had to Howl's previous questions.
"Can you take me to see winter?" she suddenly said. "A real winter, not like what I see in other paintings."
Howl paused for a moment, then nodded: "Okay."
With that, he took down the picture frame, brought it into the office, and opened the window.
From the fifth floor, the entire Hogwarts looked even more beautiful than from underground. However, Howl did not stop there. He held the picture frame in both hands and slowly floated into the air.
The winter wind at high altitude was fierce, carrying snowflakes, as if it wanted to sweep people into the blizzard.
His body subtly expanded a barrier to resist the wind, then he strolled to the highest spire of the Castle.
He even waved to Dumbledore, who had just woken up, through the window.
Watching Howl's figure gradually disappear upwards, Dumbledore's aged eyes also turned to the distant owl.
Before long, a letter from Austria landed in his hand.
Since their discussion after Halloween, for the first time in many years, he had replied to Grindelwald...At the highest point of Hogwarts, Howl's figure slowly stopped. He looked at the frozen Black Lake, the pristine white world, the cottages with smoke rising from their chimneys.
In the distance, dense black dots appeared—those were the owls, delivering today's mail to the teachers and children of Hogwarts. Afterwards, they would rest well in the owlery for a while before setting off again.
If any were severely frozen, Hagrid would carefully tend to them before they resumed their work.
Hagrid walked out of his house. He picked up a truly enormous axe and tucked his pink umbrella deep into his coat at his waist, heading towards the Forbidden Forest.
"What is that person going to do?" Sindel asked curiously.
"Hagrid," Howl looked over and smiled, "He's probably going into the forest to pick a good fir tree to prepare for Christmas."
"This is winter," he said. "The colder the world gets, the more warmth people can feel."
"So this is winter," Sindel also exclaimed, but it sounded a bit dry, leaving one feeling it lacked flavor.
He lowered his head slightly, looking at the picture frame in his arms: "Is there any difference from what you've seen in other paintings?"
Sindel still wore her lively smile: "Of course there is."
"What's the difference?" Howl asked curiously.
The girl thought for a long while, and finally could only shake her head with a smile: "I don't know either, maybe it's because I can't feel it."
"Alright then," Howl could only stop pursuing the topic, and finally left with Sindel, helpless.
Not long after, Christmas arrived as scheduled. Hogsmeade became lively, and the red express train once again let out its whistle, sending one jubilant Little Wizard after another back home...
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