Chapter 38:
Harry watched as Ron's eyes lit up with glee. "I can help you, Harry!" he practically shouted. "This can be our adventure."
Harry fought his eye roll and instead smiled. "Great, why don't you go look up animal books for me? That would really help," Harry lied, relieved when the redhead ran off with an air of triumph.
After that day, Ron became easier to distract; all Harry had to do was mention their so-called adventure and the redhead would run off and look up books on animals.
Morning - December 25th 1991 Hogwarts
Eventually Christmas morning came and Harry woke up to find he had a larger pile of presents than he had been expecting. He had sent Hedwig off earlier in the week to deliver Neville, Hannah, and Susan's presents and he had decided to send everyone in his study group a box of candy from Honeydukes. For Neville, he had ordered a book on rare and exotic plants and gotten him the clipping from one of the more obscure ones; for Hannah, Harry had got some silver hair pins with butterflies on it; and for, Susan, he bought gold hairpins with flowers.
Looking at his pile, Harry was surprised to see the familiar sight of a Weasley present. Picking it up, Harry felt a compulsion charm attempt to take hold before it was nullified by his rings. With a snarl, Harry barely kept himself from destroying the package. After taking a few moments to collect his feelings and strengthen his Occlumency shields, Harry finally opened the package. Inside, there was an obviously handmade green jumper and a box of homemade fudge. Flicking his wand, Harry ran through his repertoire of detection spells and saw that the fudge set them all off. With a scowl, he nullified them before banishing the box. There was also a note resting innocently on the jumper. Picking it up, Harry just about contained his snort.
~
Harry,
Ron mentioned that you were spending Christmas at Hogwarts, so I thought I would send you something to help keep your spirits up.