The right path

Thirteen

The Christmas holidays had finally arrived, and with it, the solitude and peace that came with the departure of most students. Harry had stayed in the castle, as well as Tom, there was was no other place to go for them, after all.

It was the first day of the holidays, and Tom had already left for the library.

Harry was now wrapping the Christmas presents he had for his friends, cross-legged in his bed. Yet, he had not bought anything big, as he didn't know when he would have access to his Gringotts vault again. Instead, he opted for manufactured gifts and some candy.

For Minerva he got a chocolate bar and a quidditch wristwatch he transfigured from a rock. It had the Gryffindor colors and the quidditch balls crossed the dial randomly, although if you passed your thumb against the crystal, a quaffle would appear for you to catch it and score on the rings in the background. The snitch was seen every fifty five minutes, symbolizing the appearance of the snitch in the first match they had played against each other. That was a day he would never let Ner forget.

The tricky part about the gift was the spellwork he had to put into it, for the balls to appear and fly randomly. It had taken him some time to look up the spells and figure everything out. He also included two chocolate frogs for her younger brothers Malcolm and Robert. Malcolm was starting Hogwarts next year and Robert the year after that, so Harry didn't know them personally yet. Finally, he wrapped it up and sent it with his snowy Hedwig.

For the Prewett twins he also got chocolate bars, only theirs were milk chocolate, opposing to Mcgonagall's dark chocolate bar. And, as they were part of the dueling club, he decided on giving them a wand holster, since they didn't have one. Harry himself didn't have a holster before this year started, carrying his wand in his pockets, but decided to buy one on his trip to Diagon Alley as per James' suggestion. And he had to admit it did make a difference.

So, taking as a model his own wand holster, he developed theirs, even adding the dirt repellent spell he had found in the library some weeks ago. It had taken some time to investigate the spellwork his own holster had, since he wanted theirs to be somewhat professional.

It was not his finest work, he had to admit, but considering the time he invested on doing it, he was quite proud of the result. He also wrapped their gifts and added another chocolate frog for their little brother Bilius, and sent the lot using a school's owl.

As for Hagrid, he prepared him a big parcel full of pumpkin pastries. He knew how much the half giant enjoyed those, although he didn't invest more time in preparing a personalized gift, since Hagrid and him were not as close yet. In fact, Harry doubted he would receive a present from the boy, who was reluctant to accept Harry had no hidden interests in their friendship. Paranoid much, although Harry couldn't blame him.

Anyways, the last thing he had to send were the Honeydukes' Christmas candy boxes he had bought for Thaddeus, Orion and Marcus, his dorm mates. They had become sort of friends, as they always talked before going to sleep. It was nothing too big, their bond was similar to what he had with Dean, Seamus and Neville in his future.

Only one lonely parcel remained in Harry's trunk, awaiting for the time it was delivered.

Once everything was sent, Harry decided to pass by the library. He couldn't get out of his head that nobody should be alone during the holidays, and that included Tom Riddle. The boy had not asked for company, but Harry would give him some anyways. He was still the kind Gryffindor kid everybody knew in his past time.

And so, days passed, with Harry keeping Tom company in the library, sometimes talking about random academic topics. Nothing that allowed them to know each other, unfortunately.