Magic? || Years 1-5

Christmas Presents!: Year 1

A golden glow spilled into the common room, illuminating the sleeping girls in warm light.

Amisty shifted in her sleep, blinking her eyes open. A smile tugged on her lips as she realized what day it was.

Holiday break had finally started.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she got to her feet. One glance out the window told her all she needed to know about the weather. It had snowed overnight, covering the school grounds in fluffy white.

Tugging on her robes and tying a scarf around her neck, the school got cold, she peeked under the bed to make sure her book was still there before trotting down to the common room.

Giving the Weasley twins a quick wave, she left through the portrait hole and headed towards the Great Hall. The boys would have to catch up... if they woke before noon.

-=+=-

The holidays were as peaceful as she had assumed.

Harry and Ron had let her join in on their spearing and roasting random things over the flames blazing in the common room fire place.

She even taught them a few tricks, like making sure to hold the spear towards the lower flames so the heat didn't hurt them. Not only did she join in on that, she helped scheme ridiculous plans of ways to get Malfoy expelled.

Even though she knew they would never be possible, a part of her mind hoped that one day they could go through with it.

One day. Ron had started teaching Harry how to play wizard chess. He had offered Amisty, but she politely refused, not wanting to disrupt their fun.

Instead, she spent her time scanning through the book she had picked up from the library.

Wolves are an interesting topic in the wizarding world. Harboring impressive magical power, there have even been some recorded cases of Wolf Borns. These wizards and witches are born as wolves, and turned human. They are not werewolves, nor are they animagi. It is assumed that the wolf was turned human by a naturally born wizard or witch with a very powerful spell. As they are not fully human, Wolf Borns have very similar traits to werewolves, but cannot change into wolf form by command. The reason behind shifting is yet to be discovered.

"Amisty!" Harry's voice called up from the common room, interrupting her from her reading session. "Come on, we're going to lunch!"

"I'll be down soon! Just give me a second!" She yelled back through the open dormitory door.

There was no one there to be upset with her noise level, the room was empty.

She placed the silver ribbon placeholder in between the pages she had stopped on before closing the book and tucking it under her bed. Fixing the scarlet lining of the bed so that there was no evidence of anything being hidden underneath, she smoothed out her robes and raced down the steps to find the two boys waiting for her.

"Let's go!"

-=+=-

Amisty woke to her empty dormitory thinking that there was going to be nothing by her bed, but oh how wrong she was.

A small pile of presents lay at the edge, sparkling in colorful wrapping paper and bows.

It wasn't much, but it was still heartwarming as ever. Even if it was only about six small parcels. Echo sat perched on the edge of her bed, her coal black eyes looking over the pile with pride.

Her tiny owl had somehow managed to collect all of the gifts within one night.

"Woah!" Amisty exclaimed, her green eyes sparkling like freshly cut emeralds at the sight.

A pink tinge appeared on her cheeks as she looked down at who gave her the gifts. She leaped out of the bed, sliding down onto the floor to start tearing open the gifts.

The first was wrapped in dark brown paper, Hagrid's messy scrawl addressing it to her.

She ripped it open with a satisfying tearing noise, smiling brightly when a leather cord fell out, a wood carved wolf head attached to it. She slipped it over her head before turning to the pile yet again.

The next gift was from Hermione, it was a little box of muggle gummy bears and a headband with wolf ears connected to it, which she swiftly placed on her head.

Amisty was ecstatic, she loved gummy bears, they were by far her favorite candy. She opened up the box, popping a red one into her mouth before turning to Ron's gift.

It was kind of funny, all the wolf themed presents she had received.

The redhead had given her a box of chocolate frogs, a little note attached to it saying "Merry Christmas, Amisty!"

Her gift from Harry was a simple, yet sweet, dark brown braided bracelet with little white flowers poking out from the crevasses.

She clasped it on quickly, smiling down at it before she looked at the last present in confusion. It was a little wooden jewelry box, a golden bow taped to the top.

She flicked open the box, confused as a golden ring glinted in the sunlight that was streaming through the opened windows.

Four small white gems in the shape of a paw print were embedded in the band, with "Amisty The Wolf" etched onto the inner circle.

There was no signature, and she couldn't think of who it could be from. Amisty slipped the ring onto her index finger on her left hand before tucking it away with the rest of her gifts in her trunk.

She raced down the steps to the common room, green eyes bright as she spotted George and Fred arm in arm with Percy as they led him to the Great Hall.

"Amisty! Come join us!" Harry called, motioning her over with his hand.

Amisty scampered towards him, her eyes glowing even brighter as she spotted the necklace she had made for him dangling from his neck.

"Glad to see you all got my gifts!" she grinned as she tagged along with the... one, two, three, four, five, okay five boys on the way to the Great Hall.

"Yeah! They're really awesome!" George, or was it Fred, exclaimed, smiling down at Amisty.

"Thanks!" she beamed, adjusting the wolf ears bashfully. "It was really nothing, just some stuff I had made on the streets when I was bored."

"Amisty, what's that ring?" Harry asked, his gaze drawn to the glimmering golden ring on her finger.

"I don't know actually... it was just in my room when I woke up." she shrugged, glancing at it again.

"Okay. I guess you'll figure out who gave it to you soon enough." he smiled, before grabbing her hand and the two walked into the Great Hall together.