The Great Hall looked absolutely stunning. Six massive Christmas trees stood along each wall, their branches tipped with hundreds of floating candles that lit everything up in a warm, golden glow.
Professor Flitwick raised his hand, and a stream of golden bubbles floated from the tip of his wand.
"Is the Bubble Charm being used as Christmas ornaments on the trees?" Hector asked curiously, watching Flitwick.
Holly and mistletoe decorations covered the walls too. Holly wreaths were pretty much a must-have for Christmas.
"Whoever's brave enough to wear a holly wreath around their neck gets my respect," Anthony said.
Holly had sharp thorns—if someone actually did it, Charlie would have to nod and admit it was impressive.
"What kind of compliment is that?" Hermione asked, still not getting what went on in these boys' heads.
She turned and caught Ron looking like he was seriously considering it.
A heavy sigh escaped her.
After a round of laughter and teasing, the group split up and headed to their house tables to wait for lunch.
A handful of owls flew in through the Great Hall doors. A white snowy owl landed right in front of Charlie.
This one was a bit shorter and rounder than Harry's Hedwig, but still beautiful. The moment it touched down, it gave itself a vigorous shake, scattering snow all over the table.
Charlie took the small box from its talons and eagerly tore open the brown paper wrapping. Inside were two little bottles.
Gold powder and silver powder.
Only a few ounces—he couldn't afford much more.
About ten minutes later, another owl arrived, this time carrying a box of paints.
"You planning to paint?" Hector asked, eyeing the paints.
"So the gold and silver powder you bought earlier is for painting too? Don't tell me you're going that fancy."
Charlie just smiled without answering. Truth was, yeah—he was going that fancy.
He had spent an entire month mastering the Undetectable Extension Charm—a spell most students would never need—just for this exact moment.
Once everything had arrived, Charlie pulled open his robes. Inside the lining of his coat was a semicircular cloth pouch.
"Extra-dimensional pocket—" he thought.
This was his first creation. The inside space was roughly the size of a regular suitcase.
Not huge, but practical as hell.
A pocket you kept right against your body didn't need to be enormous anyway.
He slipped all the dyes and gold and silver powders inside, and lunch service began.
"Tomorrow we're out of here," Anthony sighed. "Let's just break up for the year. I'm not saying a single word to you guys until next year."
"Idiot," Hector laughed, shaking his head.
"Too bad Professor McGonagall wouldn't let Charlie come with us."
A week earlier, Professor McGonagall had started tallying up the students staying over the holidays. Anthony had immediately invited Charlie to spend Christmas at his house.
But the school, for whatever reason, had turned the request down.
Either go home or stay at Hogwarts.
It felt a little cold, but it was the responsible call.
Anthony had nothing more to say about it.
Of course, Charlie was secretly a little relieved.
He'd wanted to turn down the invitation but hadn't known how to say it without sounding rude.
Anthony's mom had even sent a personal letter inviting him.
The reason he didn't want to go had nothing to do with pride. He simply had way too much work to do over the break.
This Christmas he had to finish the very first magic painting vending stall for his chocolate factory and get it open for business.
He also needed to make serious progress on figuring out the winter snow sand.
And there was one more thing—the single most important thing he'd faced all year.
An absolutely unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
That opportunity fell on December 21.
Just because of that, there was no way Charlie could spend Christmas at Anthony's house.
Thankfully, Professor McGonagall had politely declined the invitation on his behalf.
After lunch, the group headed back to the common room. Charlie picked up Lely and got ready to leave.
"I might be back pretty late," he told them.
"What's up? I heard painters lose all track of time when they get going."
"Yeah, that's exactly it," Charlie nodded. "If I miss dinner in the Great Hall, don't wait for me."
"Got it," Anthony said. "Go on then. We're staying put. With break starting tomorrow, you're probably the only person in the whole school still looking for extra work."
"Don't say that," Hector told Anthony.
"There are people even more serious than Charlie—like Hermione. She's definitely in the library right now."
Anthony laughed. He couldn't argue with that.
Hermione was definitely in the library.
Charlie said goodbye and left the common room. The castle felt noticeably more alive—corridors and staircases were full of little witches and wizards running around, laughing and playing.
Room of Requirement – Alchemy Studio.
A wooden frame about ten inches long and seven or eight inches wide sat on the workbench. The frame already held a stretched white canvas—something Charlie had asked Hagrid to prepare for him.
He pulled open his coat, reached into the extra-dimensional pocket, and took out Lely.
"Mr. Wonka, where are we?"
"This is my secret base."
Lely's eyes lit up with excitement. "So this is where we're going to… where we're going to…"
She had a pretty good idea what Charlie was planning and had already agreed to it.
She just didn't know exactly how it was going to work.
"This is where I'm setting up your new home," Charlie finished for her.
Is that phrasing a little shameless? he thought.
After all, he was basically asking her to work for free.
But Lely didn't seem to mind at all. She bounced with anticipation. "New home~ New home~"
Seeing her so excited, Charlie pulled out his sketch paper.
"Alright, so what kind of style do you want? Any specific decorations?"
"I get to decide?" Lely looked at him in surprise.
"Of course. It's your home—you get to choose."
I'll do my best to paint it well, Charlie added silently.
Aside from the simple packaging illustrations he'd done before, it had been a long time since he'd seriously painted. He hoped he hadn't gotten rusty.
He was using sketch paper because he needed room to make mistakes—the magic painting pigments were insanely expensive. Even after Harry's big order, Charlie still couldn't afford much.
Lely thought for a moment. "If it were up to me, I'd have a little shop on an old-fashioned street. No front door—just a big window where I talk to customers. The windowsill would be my counter."
As she spoke, Charlie's fingers flew across the sketch paper, drawing exactly what she described.
"The walls would be covered in ivy, and under the windowsill I'd have lots of hydrangeas, roses, and tulips."
"Outside?" Charlie asked.
"Yes, outside—on both sides, so everyone who walks by can see them."
"Aren't you worried about theft?"
"Huh?" Lely blinked, then pouted. "Mr. Wonka, don't be so literal."
"Fair enough." Charlie smiled.
"So inside the windowsill… let's think about the container for customer interactions…"
"What would look good sitting on a counter?"
The moment the question crossed his mind, three ideas popped into Charlie's head: a lucky cat, a statue of the God of Wealth, and a big toad.
Then he looked at Lely's eager face.
Yeah… none of those would fit the charming, old-European shop she was picturing.
Just then Lely's eyes brightened. "Mr. Wonka, what about a music box?"
"The music box would have a little spinning dancer on top, and underneath it a pull-out drawer where I could keep money and other goods."
"Perfect idea." Charlie nodded in approval.
"I'll set the music box up as the middleman. I'll also prepare a small handbag for you to store the actual merchandise in."
"When a customer wants to buy something, you transfer the item from the bag into the music box. Then they can complete the transaction right there."
"They leave the money in the music box, and you move the money into your handbag."
Lely nodded eagerly. "I understand."