Gift

On the second day of the holiday, snow was still raging at Hogwarts.

　　The thick layer of snow and the dark green color that are darkened by the low temperature make the entire Forbidden Forest like an emerald gemstone frozen in ice, hazy and cold, clear and pure.

　　Aurora and Vox sneaked to Hagrid's cabin several times, where they spent most of their Christmas holidays. Thanks to Dean Sprout's teachings, Aurora managed to magically make Hagrid's rock skin cakes soft and delicious. Vaux sighed while eating, it was not for nothing that the Hufflepuff dormitory was so close to the kitchen.

　　Toward the end of the holiday, Aurora follows Hagrid to the Forbidden Forest to see the transformation of an adult unicorn. Their golden horns, which are the same color as their coat in juvenile, will fall off because they stop growing, and then within ten minutes, they will grow a new silvery-white horn.

　　When the new horns grow, the unicorn is considered an adult.

　　The juvenile horns of unicorns are very valuable potions materials, and they can be sold for two hundred galleons on the market. Aurora looked at the unicorn that had tied the changed horn to the palm of her hand, reached out and touched its snowless hair, which had faded the softness and smoothness of the young beast, and began to have the coarse/hard and dense of the adult body.

　　But to be honest, it was really useless to hold this unicorn horn herself, should she be placed on the table as a bedroom decoration, or hung on the curtain of the bed to ward off evil? It's a waste to look at.

　　Finally, Aurora sat by the fireplace of Hagrid's cabin for an afternoon and decided to give the unicorn horn as a gift to make the most of it.

　　"Dear Professor, Merry Christmas. The unicorn Bobby that Hagrid had cared for was an adult, and he generously gave me this precious unicorn horn. However, I have to admit that such precious potions materials are a waste in my hands. Hope you won't mind if it's a regiveaway, you know, as a freshman, I didn't get permission to go to the Forbidden Forest.

　　Thank you for taking me to the campus hospital last time.

　　Well, again, Merry Christmas.

　　Your sincere student, Aurora Field. "

　　Above, the contents of a bonus letter that Snape received the next morning in the early sun after the snow. The small unicorn horns inside are so bright that they are suspiciously extracted from the finest gilt.

　　He had no idea about Christmas and gifts, and his only memory was that at a very young age, a red-haired and blue-eyed angel once gave himself a box tied with a bow as beautiful as her hair. The white and wanton lilies were hot stamped on the corner of the cardboard box, and the pure white color almost soaked Snape's entire teenage years, and even the faint scent of flowers was engraved in the depths of the dream as if by magic, lingering.

　　Since then, no one has given him a gift.

　　Until this year.

　　On the desk were two packages, one wrapped in exaggerated shiny purple star wrapping paper, from their Mr. Principal. One is as white as the snow outside the window, without any decoration, only a ribbon for binding, the same color as Aurora's long hair, which is easily reminded of the first rays of the morning sun.

　　Snape flipped the card between his fingers and placed it on the pitch-black tabletop, the white of the card almost dripping down, glowing faintly in the dimly lit office.

　　This unexpected Christmas gift came in time, Snape had just gone to Diagon Alley two days ago to see the price and quality of unicorn baby horns, and did not pick a satisfactory one. This one is perfect, both in texture and in its nature as a gift.

　　I just don't know what kind of mood this giver gave it to himself. Snape thought back to Aurora's Potions final exam results, stepping on the line the same way.

　　He snorted. This little girl seems to know her bottom line better than himself.

　　The other party said that it was a gift because of the last time she took her to the school hospital, and Snape was not convinced by this statement. But he was not so extreme as to directly return this unicorn young horn untouched, after all, seriously, such a high-grade potion material is not easy to find.

　　And the little girl made the reason very clear, just for the sake of gratitude, she didn't want to hold such a thing in the future and say that she owed her favors so she put down the water in her studies or something. Such a worry-free gift, clean and neat, you and I will.

　　The precious young horn was stored in an empty glass bottle on a shelf on the wall of the Potions Professor's office.

　　For the rest of the day, Snape frowned and finished the freshmen's essay papers, and the situation was as bad as he had imagined. The most polarized is Gryffindor, with Hufflepuff being modest and Slytherin and Ravenclaw comparing.

　　And by the time he finally put down the quill pen, it was already half-past two in the afternoon.

　　He reached out and prepared to rub his somewhat aching temples, when the cold wind of a cold sunny day suddenly broke in, knocked open the office window, and sprinkled scattered snow and thin sunlight on the white gift box in the corner of the desk.

　　Following the sunlight and cold wind, the Potions Master glanced at the small box out of the corner of his eye, thinking for a moment.

　　He straightened up again and lifted the ink-dipped quill again.

　　Thick black ink dripped onto the pale brown stationery, and was outlined into sharp words under the tip of the pen.

　　In the evening, Aurora sat in an abandoned tower at Hogwarts with Bright and Tearoll in her arms, watching the orange and bright sunset gradually sink below the white horizon, burning through half the sky, but still unable to resist the increasingly obvious gray-blue erosion in the east.

　　This is a rarity in the UK, especially in winter. So almost all the students who stayed on campus watched the sunset, packed with the best viewpoints at Hogwarts.

　　Bevely stood next to Aurora, leaning against the rough old stone wall, taking advantage of Alder's ability to cast silent spells. The sparse snowflakes come to life under her silence and the dance of her wand, from swans to dolphins.

　Aurora also joked that it was a pity that the school did not have an ice sculpture or snowman competition, otherwise Beverly would have been the first place.

　　Beverly smiled slightly, did not speak, the tip of her wand swam out of the air in a graceful arc, and snowflakes flew with it. Aurora would hang out with Beverly almost every day this holiday season, as the Slytherins had basically gone home, with the exception of this little girl who was homeless as herself.

　　Aurora knew from her that the reason she had stared at her pocket watch in Diagon Alley was because it was her father's personal possession before Cirith gave it to her. When Beverly and her master were hunted down by the Death Eaters, Emmond happened to save them. Beverly remembered what Emmond looked like, and what the pocket watch looked like.

　　This feeling is very subtle, Aurora has been hearing about "her father" from others, whether it is Dumbledore, Beverly, or Ciris, it is all stories told by others. She hadn't even seen the most famous Ravenclaw student at the time, only once from a group photo of a member of the Order of the Phoenix that Dumbledore had shown her the last time.

　　They were right, Aurora smiled a little like the former Order of the Phoenix.

　　The snow began to fall sporadically again, and Aurora stood up and patted the white crystals on her winter dress and said to Beverly, "Let's go, let's go eat." "

　　Because most of the students were gone, and Beverly, as the only Slytherin, didn't have any arrogant and bitter shelves, just a little less talking, so the children simply huddled together at a table to eat lively.

　　When the last Thai chicken curry was served, Vaux's owl Hastings flew in from outside the door with a snowflake. Peeves, who wanders to the dining room, does not like tossing students and owls all the time, and Hastings is desolate as one of his victims.

　　After the little one was frozen to a halt, amid the children's exclamations and Peeves' shrill laughter, he fell headlong into the pile of creamy popcorn, and the dark hard-shell envelope in his mouth jumped out, just in the corner of the curry chicken's curved neck, and the flag was raised high.

　　"Uh..." Vaux looked at the Peeves, who had long disappeared, and quickly cast a few warming charms and a cleaning charm on Hastings, then touched its fur and fed it something to make it return to the owl shed.

　　"To Field?" A girl in a Gryffindor red scarf tilted her head curiously, almost letting her eyes parallel to the roasted chicken curry, "Aurora, this is a letter for you." It is strange how there is only the last name of the recipient, not even a sender. "

　　Aurora finished her last bite of pudding and removed the envelope. The envelope, soaked in curry sauce and vegetable oil, was still sharp and hard, and she opened the port sealed with fire paint and pulled out the thick letter paper inside, which was halfway gone, but there was not even a punctuation mark.

　　She was stunned, and simply pulled the entire letter paper out of the envelope, and a large monotonous light brown spread on the shaken parchment stationery, like a barren land that had decayed after being burned by fire, desolate and cold to the point that there was no trace of life.

　　The only phrase stands in the center of the letter, and the color is thick and sharp, so solemn that it is reminiscent of some inscriptions.

　　"Merry Christmas."

　　There is no customary greeting at the beginning of a typical letter, no closing phrase for pleasantries at the end, or even a word of identity.

　　Whole letter, that's the only word.

　　Aurora understood who the sender was almost instantaneously, and then she quietly stuffed the paper back into her bag.

　　"Aurora, who wrote to you?" Vox asked curiously.

　　The little girl shrugged, forked the honey-colored chicken in front of her with a fork that was still dripping with sweet juice, and replied without changing her face: "Merlin." "

　　The dining table suddenly became eerily quiet.

　　While eating chicken and drinking pumpkin juice, Aurora couldn't help but sigh as she recalled the concise phrase on the letter:

　　The person who could write such a gloomy Merry Christmas would probably have no one other than their equally gloomy Potions professor. He just has the ability to write any sentence with the taste of an epigraph, there is no doubt about it.

　　But professor, is it so difficult for you to write two abbreviations that indicate your name at the end? Not afraid that your recipient won't recognize who sent the letter?

　　Aurora swallowed the food in her mouth, and a small voice in her head inexplicably answered:

　　You'll always recognize it.

　　Well, it is. How can someone with such a style of writing letters admit mistakes?

　　But the problem is, she shouldn't know the other person's writing style, should she?

　　So do you know it?

　　Aurora was a little confused all of a sudden.

　　...

　　After Christmas, the school resumed its normal school schedule. With the adaptation of the first half of the semester, the second half of the semester course is relatively less difficult to cope with.

　　Time was spent in Easter eggs and the scent of flowers emanating from the slowly rejuvenating earth, and Slytherin won the House Cup during the school year. The flags over the entire dining room turned into velvet green and silver serpents at Dumbledore's wave, and the green overhanging ribbons swayed like freshly drawn willow branches outside.

　　Aurora shrunk herself lower, concentrating on the crab shell in front of her, not looking at the green flag overhead.

　　It's not that she has any prejudice against Slytherin, it's just that she has a big shadow over snakes, especially when the roof is full of snakes, she only feels her scalp tingling and her neck crawling with goosebumps. This is definitely the biggest shadow that the Peterson triplets have left on her. Childhood trauma is always difficult to heal.

　　Hogwarts summer is coming, and everyone is greeting each other to keep in touch during the summer vacation, or go out .

While packing her dormitory bags, Caroline asked Aurora what she planned for the summer. Aurora thought about it for a while, but she was interested in going to Diagon Alley to see if she could find a less complicated part-time job, after all, if she wanted to finish her studies at Hogwarts, she couldn't do it without looking for a job.

　　I just don't know if there is a concept of "child labor offence" in the wizarding world?

　　Time flies, and in the blink of an eye summer vacation arrives. At the end of the day, with the exception of Professor Snape's Potions class and Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class, which was fairly disciplined, the other teachers could not suppress the group of students who had already released their minds as free as the white dove outside the window.

　　The last class was Professor Sprout's Herbology, and the generous and kind dean understood the children's feelings, even if the class was noisy, no points were deducted, as long as the student did not get out of control to run out of the classroom or put his hand into the mouth of the mandrake that had not yet had time to change the pot.

　　Although it is summer, this green continent floating in the Atlantic Ocean is still not very hot, and the highest temperature is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (a little more than 20 degrees Celsius).

　　Aurora came to class wearing the suit she had just come to Hogwarts, a light gray long-sleeved T-shirt and pine green cargo overalls with short sleeves. The tea roll acted as a rope for the little girl, wrapping Aurora's long pale blonde hair loosely behind her back, leaving two turquoise leaves to move from time to time.

　　In fact, Vox and Aurora said the idea of going home together, after all, if it is only because of tuition fees, then you can choose to work in their home auto repair shop. However, Aurora decisively shot the offer after learning about the exchange rate between Muggle currency and wizard currency.

　　So before the holidays began, Aurora went to the Slytherin common room, of course just standing outside the door waiting, she didn't have the courage to walk in alone, and the Slytherins didn't seem willing to let the students of this outer courtyard into their common room.

　　Aurora never quite understood if this was a Slytherin tradition, and obviously Hufflepuff was underground, but their lounge was very bright, and the main color of cheese and fresh flowers that Sprout Dean used from time to time made the whole room look very welcoming. Outside the window you can see swaying dandelions and various flowers.

　　But the Slytherin common room was always dark – probably underwater, of course. In fact, not just the common room, but also their young headmaster's office and Potions classroom, revealed an oppressive darkness.

　　Aurora stood outside and waited for a while, and Sur flew out like a flower butterfly. She is wearing a short silver-blue skirt today, her light brown hair is casually tied into a braid and hangs down on her left chest, and there are many small silver stars dotted on her hair, and the whole person looks very beautiful. As she walked through the Slytherin common room, she lit up almost the entire dark underwater world, and those blue eyes seemed to be able to speak.

　　It seemed that the Gryffindors were right, and while Slytherin was unconvincing in many ways—especially to them—the fact that Sur Garcia was the recognized grade flower was surprisingly unanimous. Aurora had seen the Slytherin prefect more than once, affectionately calling Sur the brightest jewel on the head of their silver serpent.

　　"What's the matter with me?" Sur said, looking at Aurora's appearance and frowning, "Why are you still wearing the outfit you started school?" "

　　"How do you know what I'm wearing for school?" Aurora has always been right on the point.

　　"Hehe, didn't I tell you that my father used to be a Hufflepuff student? So I always thought I was going to go into Hufflepuff. The Sorting Hat said they all startled me when they entered Slytherin. Sur smiled brightly, her beautiful eye lines slightly curved, charming and cute, "So later when the new semester starts, I will pay special attention to the Hufflepuff freshmen." What's more..."

　　She paused and continued: "You shouted 'there is a ghost' in front of the whole school during the introduction time of our dean, I think it is difficult not to remember you." "

　　Aurora twitched the corners of her mouth, never realizing that this matter had such a big impact, "I hope your dean doesn't remember such a trivial thing." And what about your mother? Is she a Slytherin? "

　　"No, my mother is a veela." Sur said, "Then again, what the hell are you looking for me?" "

　　"Oh, yes. Didn't you say you were a Hogwarts intelligence gathering station? I wanted to inquire about something. Aurora said, and Sur raised her eyebrows confidently, and her pretty face moved more and more because of this movement.

　　She nodded abruptly, with a commonplace look: "Say, which handsome guy I fancy, I promise to get all the details of his life in half a day." "

　　It seems that the Sorting Hat made sense to sort her into Slytherin. This strong interpersonal and information-gathering ability is very useful for Slytherin, who believes in "judge the situation and protect yourself".

　　"Not so." Aurora smiled helplessly, "I'm here to ask you, is there a shop in Diagon Alley that offers summer vacation jobs?" Also, which stores are willing to accept eleven-twelve-year-olds? "

　　"Coincidentally, someone asked me the same question before you came." Sur blinked and said.

　　"Who?"

　　"Miss Beverly Greenberg."

　　Ten minutes later, Aurora got a list of information about summer jobs and boarded the train leaving Hogwarts. Before leaving, Sur specifically advised her that if there was really no shop she was willing to go to, she would rather go back to the Muggle world to bear the inhuman exchange rate than go to the overturning alley.

"The bastard hooligans at most think about ripping off your clothes, and the guys in the overturned alley want to rip off not only your clothes, but also your skin." Sur said harshly and figuratively, "Don't go to that place unless you can't think about it." Of course, if it were me, I wouldn't go there even if I couldn't think about it. "

"Thank you, Senpai, I see."

"See you after the summer vacation."

"See you after the summer vacation."