Magic? || Years 5-7

Presents and Letters: Year 5

Christmas morning, Amisty woke up to find a pile of presents at the foot of her bed.

"Morning," Ginny smiled, already halfway through her own pile of gifts.

"Morning, Gin," Amisty yawned, crawling out from under her blanket. "Any luck with gifts so far?"

"Someone," Ginny threw a very severe look over at where Hermione was digging around her wrapping paper, "gave me a homework planner instead of a real present."

"They're not that bad," Hermione countered, laughing.

"You didn't get Amisty one!"

"I give Amisty the same thing every year, that's why," Hermione explained, waving her wand at her trash and spelling it into a bag. "It's a tradition."

Ginny rolled her eyes, throwing the two of them her own gifts. Amisty caught it, grinning.

Hermione, just as she had promised, had given her another fairytale for her present wrapped in dark blue paper and an iridescent white ribbon. This time it was Peter Pan. The silhouette of a young boy was standing on an open window ledge, the white curtains billowing out behind him. A massive full moon hung in the sky with two sparkling stars beside it. The London skyline peeked out from the bottom of the window, a tiny glowing body of a faerie fluttering around him leaving a trail of glittering dust.

"Peter Pan?" Amisty asked.

"It's about a boy who doesn't grow up," Hermione explained. "Thought you'd find it pretty fitting."

"That's insulting."

Hermione laughed, "It's really a good story, Am, I'm just teasing. Lots of fun characters and very dream-like."

"I'm trusting you here," Amisty grinned, turning to the rest. Hermione had also given her a very nice, very soft yellow scarf. Amisty almost rolled her eyes but restrained, knowing Hermione and her obsession with needing to be warm in the winter.

Ginny, in true Gryffindor style in bright scarlet and shimmering gold, gave her a leather bound journal with the Lupus constellation burnt into the worn leather.

"Thank you, Ginny!" Amisty beamed, flipping through the blank pages. "This is really cool!"

"No problem," Ginny replied, staring down in wonder at her gift. "Sorry to ask, Am, but what is this?"

Amisty giggled, "Oh, sorry, I forgot to write an explanation. Here," She leaned over, taking the box out of Ginny's hands. "Draco taught me about it. You open the box and press this button -- " She pressed the tiny black button resting in the black velvet. "And then -- "

She set the box back down, and a tiny glass broomstick rose up and zoomed around in circles, picking up the different festive colors and lights around the rooms.

"Bloody hell..." Ginny whispered under her breath. "Malfoy may be a prat but he has some decent spells under his belt. No offense, Am."

Amisty grinned, returning to the rest of her gifts. Hagrid had given her a box of caramel chocolates and a book about wolves in the Wizarding world. Mrs. Weasley gave her another yellow sweater and a boxful of fudge. Sirius and Lupin got her a set of Healing books that were quickly added to the stack she was using for research, and Tonks had given her a quote board that changed every day depending on the user's mood. That morning it read:

Live for the moments you can't put in words.

Hazel and Hunter both sent a painting of what looked like a galaxy above a forest. It was absolutely stunning with the combination of colors and the way the silver paint reflected the starlight so well and came with two separate notes.