Chapter 187: Hermione's Christmas Present

Because of the newspaper, although Ivan, Harry and Hermione were still hospitalized, they were very busy every day.

Especially Ivan, he stayed up almost every day until the middle of the night.

In such an environment, Christmas dawn came quietly, the weather was cold, and there were only three people in the infirmary, Ivan, Harry and Hermione.

On Christmas morning, Ivan woke up when Harry threw a pillow at him. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Harry, Merry Christmas, Hermione!" Ivan climbed sleepily, squinting through the semi-darkness to the foot of his bed, where a large pile of packages had appeared.

Harry and Hermione were already tearing the paper off their own presents, and Ivan noticed that the three of them received more presents this year than in previous years.

"Strange, why are there so many presents?" Ivan muttered.

"Most of these gifts are sent by readers of 'The Magic of Hogwarts', and many of them are simple Christmas cards," Hermione explained.

Since the series of reports about Peter Pettigrew, Ivan, Harry and Hermione had become famous. Although the focus was on Sirius Black, people were amazed at the fact that three young wizards, aged twelve and thirteen, could capture an evil dark wizard.

Many of their peers began to adore them and write them letters on a regular basis.

In addition to the young wizards in the UK, Ivan noticed that many of these Christmas cards were sent from overseas. For example, the pink greeting card in his hand was from a 10-year-old girl named Gabrielle Delacour from France.

Gabrielle wished Ivan a Merry Christmas on the greeting card, and then expressed her admiration for his capture of Peter Pettigrew in short words, and hoped he might reply.

Looking at the pretty angel pattern on the greeting card, Ivan smiled, and when he was ready to look at other Christmas cards, he heard Harry's annoyed voice.

"Look at it. The Dursleys gave me an old, worn-out sock. It's worse than last year's toothpick and last year's fifty cent coin, they must have thought I wasn't a human being!" Harry threw the sock under the bed and opened a short message attached to the package.

It was written to ask him to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacations.

"Thank God, I finally got rid of them this summer. Sirius said I can live with him, I don't know if he has a house?!" Harry rejoiced, pulled a scarlet sweater over his body and continued, "This is a scarlet sweater Mrs. Weasley sent. You two seem to have it too."

"I see, my piece is maroon, but there's no lettering on it." Hermione picked up a box, looked at it hesitantly for a while and gently set it aside. "This is Hagrid's mince pie. It smells very special. There's a mixture of cabbage and pork liver. I think it's best not to try it easily."

Ivan also started opening his presents, besides the Christmas card, Mrs. Weasley's gift and Hagrid, his parents ordered a gold cauldron for him.

He had seen this before in a store in Diagon Alley, and its price was outrageous.

To Ivan, this golden cauldron is a collector's item of art. No wizard would waste it to use it to whip up potions.

Ivan sighed and carefully closed the golden cauldron.

His parents were unfamiliar with the magical world and looked at wizards from a Muggle perspective, and considered the most expensive to be the best.

Since Ivan went to Hogwarts, they bought him too many things that he didn't use. The most typical was the Nimbus 2001 sent last Christmas. Before Harry borrowed it, he put it under Ivan's bed and never took it out.

When Ivan returned home during the summer vacations, he explained the matter and they realized that wizards didn't always fly in the air with a broom like in the stories.

And it seemed to them that their son was very afraid of heights. Even with magic, he could not be cured.

In addition to his parents' gifts, Harry gave him a set of Quidditch toys, inside a huge crystal ball in which was a miniature Quidditch pitch. Every time it was touched with a wand, the model automatically flew up to play.

Ron gave him a book, Ginny a magnificent quill, Colin a wizard's chess set, Luna a very valuable photo said to be proof of the existence of the Wrinkly Horned Snorkacks, Fred and George's gifts were prank toys they developed. The other young wizards gave him all sorts of sweets and food, most of which were obtained at Hogsmeade.

To Ivan's surprise, Cho Chang also gave him a gift. It was a dark blue scarf, and the workmanship was very fine. It should be the product of Madam Malkin's store.

"Ivan, thank you for sending me the watch." Hermione looked at the scarf in Ivan's hand, and the beautiful smile on her face gradually solidified. He hesitated and said, "That scarf is..."

Hermione narrowed her eyes, and Ivan knew this meant she was thinking.

"It's a gift from Cho Chang to me." Ivan explained.

"Well, I didn't know... I thought it was my gift..." said Hermione, and when she finished her words, her voice was extremely low.

Ivan looked strangely at Hermione, who was blushing, not knowing what he was talking about. Following her eyes, he saw the last package under his bed.

This should be Hermione's gift, which was bulging inside.

Under Hermione's gaze, Ivan tore the package open. And it was actually a scarf.

On the red-yellow scarf, the Gryffindor lion was knitted, but it looked a bit distorted. The workmanship was much worse than the scarf sent by Cho Chang. It was very likely that Hermione herself sewed it on.

Ivan realized why Hermione had that expression.

Her Christmas present was exactly the same as Cho Chang's, a scarf.

Ivan remembered Hermione telling him in Hogsmeade a few days earlier that she was ready to send her Christmas present after a long time that she got it, and that she thought he would be pleased.

No one would have thought that her gift would be a scarf.

This scarf should have been made by Hermione herself, she didn't know how long she had been sewing it, but it definitely wasn't easy to make.

Before today, she had no idea. No one knew that Hermione was secretly making a scarf. She should have secretly sewn it at night after everyone went to sleep in the bedroom.

Touching the slightly rough scarf, Ivan's mind was filled with excitement.

In terms of values, this scarf was not very expensive; on the level of fineness, it was much worse than Cho Chang's, but every stitch of it was filled with the girl's feelings.

Ivan raised his head and looked at Hermione, who was blushing.

He knew that she must be very nervous now, since the gift that had been carefully prepared for so long had also been sent to her by someone else. If it were herself, she would be very frustrated.

"I didn't know, Ivan!" Hermione said with a blush. "I didn't expect Cho Chang to send you a scarf. If I knew sooner..."

"Thank you, Hermione!" Ivan interrupted her and whispered, "I really like this scarf, it's the best Christmas present I've ever received."