ALOHOMORA | CEDRIC DIGGORY

25〝twenty-five〞

CHRISTMAS MORNING STARTED WITH ELLIS awaking to the feeling that she had laughed herself up. It took her a few moments to figure out how that could happen—funny dreams were still actively avoiding her. Then the memory of the day before broke into her head, and she let out an involuntary chuckle. She could almost hear his voice...

I'm...a wizard...

It was hard to decide which was more comical: what he'd said, or what he'd looked like when he realized what he'd said. Rather overlooking the rest of yesterday's events, she smiled at the overhanging canopy before sitting up and magicking the velvet drapes apart.

"Accio Presents!" said Ellis.

She placed down her wand just in time to catch the few parcels that had soared towards her from the foot of her four-poster (there seemed to be a bit more than expected). She opened the largest of all first: soft and bulky, it was from Valrey and Alfred. She was just about to get out of bed to try it on when she was forced to jump out of it with a loud shriek, feeling as though someone had pumped a truckload of ice through her from the bottom.

Having risen through her mattress, the Bloody Baron now floated above it, looking supremely indifferent.

"Oh, didn't see you there, missy," he said unapologetically.

"I thought we've talked about this: no visitations through my bed!" Ellis rubbed her backside on which she had fallen upon sourly.

"Strictly speaking," said the Baron in a ceremonious tone, "you said no visitations through the bed while you were asleep, which you weren't. It doesn't count."

Ellis rolled her eyes.

"Fine," she snapped. "No visitations through me. At all times," she added quickly, having seen the Baron open his mouth, obviously to interject a ridiculous retort of his own.

"You take all the fun out of things." The ghost folded his arms, pouting.

"Merry Christmas to you, too."

"Is it though?" said the Baron moodily.

"Oh, stop being such a grinch."

"Who gave you that?"

Standing in front of the mirror, Ellis was modeling a long emerald green cloak—its inner layer cosy, the outermost one glossy, made of fine silk and embroidered with golden talon on the upper left corner of the chest while a corresponding silver serpent hung on the right.

"My house-elf," said Ellis, admiring the exquisite workmanship of Valrey's.

"For the Harpies and Slytherin?" asked the Baron, who knew that Ellis was an avid supporter of the all-witches Welsh club.

"I suppose," replied Ellis, shrugging, but did not elaborate.

Alfred had gifted her a new set of pajamas, almost the same colour as Valrey's cloak but bedecked with large white polka dots, whose arrival couldn't be more timely. The pair the butler had given her last Christmas, which she was currently wearing, had been such a favorite of hers that it was now so faded after so many washes; the constellations printed on the fabric were hardly visible anymore. She surmised this was also a gesture to celebrate her making into Slytherin House.

What remained were a small squarish package and another resembling a wrapped sweet fit for a giant, both of which were dubious. Who else would be sending her Christmas presents?

The oversized candy turned out to be a pack of Licorice Wands hidden under mounds of cellophane tied at the ends, which was accompanied by a tiny wizarding Christmas card (the cartoon reindeers on the front were flicking snow balls at each other with their noses):