SNAKE

12 | holidays

A/N: Extremely sorry for taking so long to update :(

Cora was sitting in the Great Hall with Harry and Ron. They were playing wizards chess while she read beside them. Only a few people were in the Great Hall due to most people going home for the holidays. On the end of the hall, Professor Flitwick decorated the large Christmas tree.

Hermione walked into the Great Hall towards Harry, Ron and Cora, carrying her luggage.

"Knight to E5", said Harry.

Hermione arrived to where they were sitting just when Ron smirked and said "Queen to E5". His queen moved and destroyed the knight Harry had just moved.

"That's totally barbaric!", exclaimed Hermione after the small destruction.

"That's Wizard's Chess", answered Ron. He glanced at her luggage before saying, "I see you've packed."

"I see you haven't", sassily said Hermione. Cora chuckled.

"Change of plans. My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. He's studying dragons there", said Ron.

"Good. You can help Harry then. He's going to go look in the library for information on Nicolas Flamel." As soon as Hermione said that, she widened her eyes and looked to see if Cora hear her, but she only saw Cora was still reading. Unknown to her, Cora was actually listening to their whole conversation.

"We've looked a hundred times", said Ron exasperated.

Hermione leaned in on the table and said in a whisper, "Not in the restricted section." She stood up straight and grabbed her luggage. "Happy Christmas", she said and then left.

"I think we're a bad influence on her", said Ron in a lower voice as she was walking away.

What Hermione said actually gave Cora the idea to go to the restricted section during the holidays, taking advantage of almost no one being around.

~

Christmas morning. Cora woke up in her room, not really expecting anything from this day due to all of her Christmases being horrible with her muggle relatives. After she got dressed and ready for the day, she wished Venom a happy Christmas, giving him a few mice as present.

When she went down, she found some presents in front of the fireplace of her Common Room. She approached them out of curiosity when she realized most of them were for her.

Cora grabbed the first one and saw it was from Daphne. She opened it to find a really nice black sweater. She then opened the present from Pansy to find an emerald green dress. "Of course it would be green", chuckled Cora.

She then opened the presents from the boys. Harry gave her a teddy bear and a nice top. Theo had gifted her a book on funny hexes and Blaise gifted her some sweets and a scarf. She left Draco's gift for the end. When she opened it, she was stunned. It was a beautiful black ring. When she looked closely, she realized it was a snake. Cora smiled widely and, of course, put it on.

Before leaving the common room, she made quick thank you notes for all her friends, also asking them if they liked their presents. She had given Pansy and Daphne nice bracelets, also buying one for herself so they matched, Theo a bunch of books, Blaise a sweater and for Draco a ring and his favorite sweets.