Chapter 123: Christmas surprises (High sugar content. Not recommended for diabetes patients)

"I'm home!"

My family got a pleasant surprise when they saw me. Esmée came running and jumped directly out of the window.

"Big brother!"

"Woah, Woah! Slow down, girl." I was surprised but hurriedly caught her making sure she isn't hurt. Esmée laughed as she hugged me tightly and I realized how far she's come from the shy and reserved girl who wouldn't even meet my eyes.

I pinched her soft and chubby cheek. "It's only been a few days, Esmée." With the Vanishing Cabinet in the chamber of secrets, I had just been communicating with them through the Diary and told them the cabinet was a bit broken. Esmée then hugged Nyxie whose head was sticking out of my backpack.

Mom came to the window and looked at me. "Can you ever use the door?" She asked exasperatedly as I climbed into the window along with Esmée and gave mom also hugged me.

I ignored her remark and hugged Durant as well who had stood up.

"Give me food mom. Your son is hungry!" I sat down with Esmée in my lap.

"Esmée?"

"Hmm." turned her head around to look at me.

"I brought you something," I said, taking out a freshly made macrons which I bought from a popular shop on my way here.

"Mac-ons?! Thank u, brother!" I got a kiss on my cheek for this. I remember she likes these a lot.

"Mom, I brought your favorite coffee from the Arbringer Cafe," I said, producing a well-packed parcel from my pocket.

For Durant, I really don't know what he likes. So decided to bring him something else. "Dad, I brought this muggle drink for you," I said, bringing out a can of Cola. Everyone looked at the red can curiously.

... Alright, I admit. I didn't know what to bring him, so I'm just dishing out a can that was already lying around in my bag, but no one needs to know that, right?

Durant picked up the can and looked at it curiously.

"What's this?" He asked, as tried shaking it.

"NO! Don't shake, dad. It's a drink. You're supposed to open it like this." I said as I opened it.

*FIZZ* the characteristic noise came out and everyone looked at it curiously.

"Try it. You might not like it on the first try, it's really delicious once you get the hang of it."

Turns out, he actually likes it! After that Esmée and Camille also wanted to try so I took out two more.

*Cough* *Cough* Esmée coughed and didn't like it much.

"Can you remove the bubbles?" She asked.

"...." Girl, it's just sugared water without that. Mom liked it though.

***

*General PoV:

Christmas was the next day and it was going to be the Martin family's first Christmas with Chris. Chris didn't hold back on presenting gifts for his family.

Esmée woke up on Christmas morning groggily. Last night, she'd asked big bro to let her sleep with him but he'd rejected her with a smile that he used to make before making her happy so Esmée reluctantly agreed.

Now as she rubbed her eyes and looked around, she suddenly got shocked. Presents! A lot of gifts lying around in her whole room! There were a lot of big and small cute stuffed toys moving around in her room! There were also her favorite candies as well.

The best one was a cute dragon stuffed Dragon flying around the room which looked a lot like Nyxie. All of these things have a certain amount of pure magic mixed in them.

"Yaayyy!!!"

Esmée quickly got up and hugged the toy dragon. Her big brother is the best!

...

When Camille came downstairs to check her gifts, she saw that her son had also given her something. Excited, Camille first opened the gift that her son had given her.

*Sniff*

Seeing what it was, Camille's eyes naturally started watering. It was a photo album with Chris's photos in it. There photos from age six to eleven. Camille remembered that she had once mentioned to Chris that she'd always regretted not being able to witness him growing up. Along with it, there were some pensive memories. Along with it, there was also a note attached in it.

"I can't change anything about the past, but I can definitely promise to be present in present and future."

"....My s-son," she murmured lovingly. Camille went to Chris's room to hug the hell out of him.

For Durant, Chris didn't know what to give him. He had briefly wondered if he should give him the names of Voldemort's inner circle, maybe present him with a head of some known death-eaters. Father-son duo might be satisfied, but their master, Lady Camille might just give them something worse than Cruciatus in outrage.

So, for Durant, Chris had asked him what he'd like. Durant had frowned instead, saying that Chris should only be receiving the gifts. In the end, Chris had given him classy briefcase similar to his Newt-case, shrinkable with undetectable extension, though not able to store living beings.

Gabrielle got sweets and a stuffed toy from Chris. But, hers was a Phoenix. Gabrielle had a particular fascination with Phoenix.

Fleur got a book named 'How to become a Darklord: Intermediate.'

She had been having a great year so far after following Chris's advice that he'd casually given. School had been very difficult since the beginning, since controlling the allure is something that comes with age.

Initially, she had been willing to make friends with everyone, but since she was not stupid, she came to know her what her so-called 'friends' thought about her year by year. Not that the pain would lessen after each time.

So, she'd come to realize that she was better off not having any friends. She was far superior to everyone anyway. Thus, she had actually become quite lonely at school. And there are a lot of problems that come with being a loner. Not to mention that the rumors and gossips still didn't leave her alone. Her reputation was slowly getting destroyed, and her loneliness and no one willing to stand up to defend her only worsened the situation.

But, after Chris's words, she'd come to realize that she had really been suffering for nothing in the school. She'd been thinking about her disadvantages and was actually not aware of how to use her strengths. She was from a rich family, she was academically brilliant, she was magically very talented, and she had a lot of charisma.

So, what if the jealous people target her? If she had enough people to defend her, if she just showed off a few kind acts, if she just spread good rumours, if she just organized a few 'accidents' for the people antagonizing her instead of trying to confront them head on and ruining her own image, if she just helped the weak and or desperate people and gave them a smile.... along with a dozen more things that Chris had written and explained in detail in the book — school is actually a piece of cake, isn't it?

But...no matter how grateful Fleur might feel towards Chris who had casually helped her so much, she can't help but be terrified of someone who actually knows all this at the age of twelve.

No one can tell from his sweet and innocent appearance that this guy, who always spoils his little sister and always keeps his parents happy is actually such a roguish, deceitful, unscrupulous, and wicked person.

Though it always gives her immense relief and satisfaction on knowing that he's not an enemy but an ally. Fleur can't help but anticipate what would happen if Chris came to Beauxbatons. Those b*tches would really be nothing but mobs for someone like Chris.

...

For Appoline, Chris had discovered that she also liked cooking. So Chris had given her a book of the latest muggle recipes. Chris had discovered that unlike Andromeda, Appoline was quite cut off from the muggle world so she didn't know many dishes.

For Sebastian the geek, Chris had many common interests with him. He'd gifted a copy of a book from a the room of requirements which was a good read.

***

When Chris went to check his gifts the next morning, there were lot of them. His friends circle had increased a lot, and many gifts were from people he didn't even know well. Many are either due to him being a rich young master or due to him being the President of the Home Club.

While he was opening the gifts, he noticed that he hadn't gotten any from his family, or the Delacours. Chris rolled his eyes. He already knew what was going on, but for their sake, let's just pretend to be surprise.

It was worth mentioning that during his two month stay at the summer holidays, Chris had pranked the hell out of everyone, be it Delacours or Martins. Of course, it was all in good humor, and everyone had to agree that it was the best summer they had ever had. But still, they all wanted some payback.

So, this time, when Chris was still in Hogwarts and everyone else was gathered for a dinner one night, Fleur, who had come home for a day had proposed why not they prank Chris this time?

So, this was what was going on right now. But the biggest tattle-tale Gabrielle, who always tells Chris embarrassing secrets of Fleur, had also told him about this matter on the online chatting diary, so he was prepared.

For the whole day, he saw his mom and Esmée looking at him expectantly, as if expecting him to behave differently or ask them about gifts, but Chris behaved no different than his original self making them feel bad instead.

That afternoon, the Delacours arrived as well. Chris hadn't met them over these months.

"Chris!" Gabrielle was of course, the most enthusiastic. She hung to Chris like a koala.

"Alright, alright, I missed you too Gabby. I see you're as enthusiastic as ever." Chris muttered as he said greeted the other Delacours over shoulder.

"Merry Christmas! Sebastian, Appoline, Fleur."

Appoline came closer and gave a hug him over Gabrielle.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Chris dear. You've grown up a lot!"

"Merry Christmas!" Sebastian was also the same. He also came and hugged Chris, reminding him of how he was always over enthusiastic even in the Canon.

Then Fleur came closer and gave him a kiss on both cheeks. "I can't thank you enough for helping me out with school, Chris. Merci beaucoup!" (Thanks a lot)

Chris felt that something was different, decided to ignore it.

"It's wasn't much trouble for me. And it reminded me a lot about my friend Dora, so I am glad to glad to be of help." Replied Chris smiling.

By now, Esmée felt that Gabrielle had had enough of her big brother and pulled on her leg roughly to make her get off.

"It's Enough." she declared, looking a bit annoyed. Everyone laughed at her adorableness, making her pout.

Afterwards, everyone went to hang out in the living room. Fleur, Camille and Appoline talked about what gifts they'd given each other reminding him that he hadn't gotten any. They were trying to prank Chris at least once. They still hadn't forgotten the times when Chris had pranked them, especially when he had completely destroyed them in the water fight. That had made them SO wet!

Though it didn't seem to have any effect on Chris, as he behaved like it was completely normal that he didn't get any gifts. He even complemented on what they had given each other.

In the end, Camille didn't feel any good and directly told him, "Honey, you're going to get your presents tonight at dinner. So, look forward to it!" No one called her out on ruining the prank. It was destined to fail spectacularly anyways since they were trying to prank the master.

This was Mood Killer Reaction technique of Master prankstar Chris. If you're getting pranked, react in a way that would kill the mood, take the fun out of the prank, and instead make the prankstats feel sorry and guilty for even trying to do this prank.

When Camille told him about the presents, Chris looked surprised, "Oh, I get gifts too?!" The shook his head, "I'm satisfied enough just being able to live with my family. I don't need anything else mom. Just please let me stay with you guys.... that's enough for me." He said sincerely.

*crack* I*Shatter* *shatter*

This broke the heart of all the women trying to prank Chris. When they had received such great gifts from Chris today, they were already regretting the pranking plan. But they thought that they might as well just go on with it. Afterall, they still wanted to see Chris's surprised face. And it's not like their own gifts were bad. They had also put in a lot of thought when getting a present for Chris.

But when they finally see Chris's surprised face?...Why is this bringing tears into their eyes instead of any satisfaction?

*Sniff*

*Sob*

All the women stood up to give Chris a big hug.

"Woah..." muttered Chris from heaven.

And Gabrielle, who already knew that Chris already knew all about the prank since she'd told him personally, looked dumbfounded.

'And people say I'm the drama queen.' She murmured sourly. Though her eyes looking at Chris were that of a student learning from master.

****

A.N.: I recommend a high dose of insulin after this. And pay your fees before leaving. That'll be 1 POWERSTONE. You can leave more if you feel like it.

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