---
"I'm going to teach him a lesson one day, I swear!"
After Snape deducted points, Ron was furious. He jabbed a finger toward Malfoy's retreating back, clearly wanting to launch himself at him.
"Teach who?"
Hagrid appeared behind them, hauling a fir tree over his shoulder for Christmas.
"Malfoy—and Snape! I hate them both!" Harry grumbled through clenched teeth.
"Huh? Where're Darren and Hermione?"
Hagrid looked behind them, puzzled.
If Darren had been there, Snape might not have taken points.
"They went straight to the library after class," Harry explained.
"Library? Those two are really hardworking!"
"No, no," Harry said quickly, "they're looking for Nicolas Flal. We haven't found anything after checking nearly a hundred books… Hagrid, could you maybe—uh—give us a little hint?"
Hagrid practically leapt back.
"Stop that! I'm not tellin' yeh anything! And yeh stay out of this!"
"Well then we'll find it ourselves!" Ron said stubbornly, dragging Harry toward the library.
They'd already been reading stacks of books:
Modern Magical History,
Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century,
Famous Wizards of Our Ti,
Studies in Contemporary Magical Developnt…
All useless.
It was like Nicolas Flal didn't exist.
Which made no sense. How could soone connected to Dumbledore be a nobody?
Of course, they hadn't truly read everything—Hogwarts' library was huge. Countless volus. And if Flal's na was in the Restricted Section, they wouldn't be able to access it anyway.
Darren sat quietly beside Hermione, flipping through books just as obediently as she demanded.
Of course, he already knew who Nicolas Flal was.
But he wasn't going to tell them.
What if this was part of Dumbledore's script?
Besides, he hadn't even collected a Chocolate Frog card of Flal yet—too suspicious to know the na early.
After a long while, Hermione finally sighed.
"It looks like we'll have to continue after the holiday. When school starts again, we can check more books. If you find anything in the anti, owl right away!"
"No problem!" Ron nodded, then added, "We could also ask our parents. Though… is that safe?"
"Of course it's safe—they're Muggles," Hermione snapped. "Nothing gets to Hogwarts from them."
Then she hugged Darren, her voice soft and a bit sad.
"I'm heading ho. Don't let anyone bully you here."
"How could that happen? Darren has us!" Harry said proudly, thumping his chest.
Ron quickly agreed.
Hermione rolled her eyes at the both of them.
"Well… if you don't mind, I'll go. See you after the holiday."
She released Darren and walked away, clearly still annoyed.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron muttered. "Why is she angry? And why'd she hug Darren but not us? Did we do sothing?"
Harry shrugged, his mind already on the holiday.
"Yeah, yeah, don't think too much. Co on, Darren—wizard chess?"
---
Before Christmas, Darren spent his days playing with Harry and Ron until late.
When he finally fell asleep, he dread he'd turned into a giant tortoise, lumbering across the earth, suffocating with every step.
He woke up exhausted.
He wiped sweat from his forehead—then froze.
His bed was buried in gifts.
Completely buried.
So had even fallen to the floor.
No wonder he felt crushed.
"Who sent all this…?"
Darren sat up, staring.
He had received over a hundred gifts.
Most were candies. Nearly all from girls.
He began doubting his entire personality—did he look like soone who ate sweets nonstop?
The rest were more… serious.
Peggy [ potter house-elf] had sent him 10% of a Light Wheel Company Firebolt-branch investnt, apparently bought with three thousand Galleons, courtesy of the old Potter family vault.
Professor Flitwick gave him a copy of Charm-Casting Tips.
Professor McGonagall sent Things You Don't Know About Quidditch.
And Harry had bought him a pet cat.
A small milky-white kitten who imdiately curled into Darren's arms and went to sleep.
Darren nad her Lezi — aning lazy — because she clearly was.
There were four gifts left.
The first was from Snape: an invisibility cloak.
When Darren tried it, it worked—his body vanished—
but a simple Revealnt Charm exposed the outline.
Definitely not the Potter family cloak.
"Harry Potter received one. You may need one too. Do not use it for mischief."
…Great.
Snape had clearly inspected Harry's presents one by one.
Darren set the cloak aside and opened another package.
Inside was a thick hand-knitted sweater, warm and soft.
A bright green one—perfect Slytherin colors.
He pulled it on, finding a large stitched D on the front.
Clearly made just for him.
A pouch of homade milk toffee was tucked inside as well. Darren tasted one—and instantly fell in love.
He imdiately wanted to write to Mrs. Weasley and beg for more.
There was a note:
"Child, Ron told about you. Poor dear. Co play at the Burrow after the holiday.
Love, Molly."
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