Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 363 Christmas, an astonishing number of gifts

“I’m sorry, Miss Lavender Brown, although I would love to go to the Christmas ball with you, I already have a dance partner.”

Xiren had said similar things several times. Gradually, everyone learned that he had a dance partner, so they stopped looking for him and instead focused their attention on Krum, the only one who did not yet have a dance partner.

However, this leisure is only temporary.

The professors assigned a mountain of homework to the fourth-grade students during the holidays, and even a warrior like Siron couldn't be exempted from it.

In the morning, he took Harry and the others to the station.

There were surprisingly few people here, only a few first-grade students, as if the entire train was there just to serve them.

"That's great, we definitely won't have to fight for a private room anymore, right?" Ron said with a smile.

The group boarded the train.

"Remember to write to me after the results come out," Xilun reminded him.

He actually wanted to attend Sirius Black's public hearing, but he couldn't. The Warriors had to attend the Christmas dance, which coincided with the hearing.

He had no choice but to stay at Hogwarts.

“Don’t worry, we’ll write to you as soon as we leave the Ministry of Magic,” Hermione said.

A few minutes later, the train emitted a plume of smoke and slowly pulled out of the station, while Siren turned back to the castle.

The Gryffindor common room was still bustling with activity, and it was impossible to tell that a few people were missing.

When Xilun entered, everyone was laughing loudly around a large canary.

The canary was abnormally large, and just a few minutes later, it began to molt. Once all its feathers were gone, it looked like Neville again.

"Canary Cookies!" Fred shouted to the excited crowd from a table. "Want to make a splash at the Christmas Ball? Come on, only seven silver biscuits per cookie!"

A meteoric rise to fame? Isn't that just making a fool of yourself?
Xilun raised an eyebrow.

Surely no one really enjoys being a caged canary in front of everyone, right?
Well, there really is.

Watching the crowds rushing to buy cookies, Xiren suddenly realized that this kind of human transformation was considered a high-level transformation spell in the magical world, and it really couldn't be considered shameful.

Of course, it wouldn't be considered an overnight sensation; at most, it could only be considered a special performance.

Alternatively, you could try to give these cookies to others while you watch the performance.

Siren silently warned himself that he must not accept anything from anyone at the Christmas ball, especially from Gryffindor.

It snowed all morning, and the house-elves in the kitchen were busy preparing hot stews and puddings in various flavors.

To be honest, Sheryl doesn't really like stews, and even house-elves find it difficult to make traditional British stews very delicious.

Fortunately, they will soon be able to enjoy their Christmas dinner, so the stew won't be so hard to accept.

During dinner, Xiren saw several people go to Fleur, wanting to invite her to the Christmas ball. However, without exception, they were all ruthlessly rejected and then awkwardly ran away.

Laughter could be heard from all around from time to time. Without a doubt, those people would be the subject of everyone's amusement for a long time to come.

……

On Christmas morning, Xilun was woken up very early.

The culprit was a gray owl, which flapped its wings and tossed a beautifully wrapped gift box onto the ground at the foot of Siron's bed, where a mountain of gifts had already piled up.

so much?
Xilun rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things.

Although he always receives quite a few gifts at Christmas, they only add up to about a dozen in total.

And these boxes before him… Xiren didn't count them precisely, but roughly estimated there were around fifty, at least three times more than last year. Well, now that he's awake…

Xilun sat up and casually picked up the package from earlier and opened it.

"Padma Petit?"

Xiren looked at the signature on the letter that came with the gift and thought about it carefully for a while.

He recognized the person; she seemed to be Parvati Petit's twin sister, except that she wasn't in Gryffindor but had been sorted into Ravenclaw.

That's strange, they shouldn't know each other very well.

With doubt in his mind, Xiren continued reading the letter, and then he understood.

Padma Petit was a gift from a supporter in the Triwizard Tournament.

Xilun put down the parchment, realizing he might have underestimated the influence of this warrior's identity.

The extra gifts in front of us were probably from people like Padma Petit.

Continue unpacking, and inside is a beautifully packaged box of chocolates, which look like they're handmade.

Xilun placed it aside without showing any intention of opening it or tasting it.

Then he moved on to the next item.

There were so many gifts that even as he was unwrapping them, a steady stream of owls kept flying in from outside.

Because there were so many, what was originally a pleasant experience became a bit tiring.

Fortunately, Fred and George came over soon after, and with their help, Celen was finally able to open all the gifts before lunch.

There are a total of 95 items, most of which are various candies, chocolates and other snacks, as well as ornaments, brooches and other decorations.

Silen picked out the snacks and had Fred and George take them to the common room to share with everyone, while the rest were put into a large box.

“There are a lot of good things in there.” George clicked his tongue. “I saw that brooch in Hogsmeade; it could sell for a lot of money.”

“It would be good for casting spells too,” Xilun said casually.

"A spell?" Fred was startled. "You mean, someone put a spell on it and then gave it to you as a gift?"

“I believe that Hogwarts students would never do such a thing,” Sirens said. “But Karkaroff is a different story; he could do even more shameless things.”

Fred and George simultaneously recalled the scores Karkaroff gave the three warriors at the end of the first project, and immediately believed Siron's words.

Indeed, that principal is really shameless; it's always good to be more cautious.

"If that's the case, why did you open all those gifts?" George asked. "It would have been easier to just leave them alone."

“Because I need to find the gifts you sent.” Siren pointed to another pile of unwrapped gifts. “Those boxes don’t have names on them!”

"And what about these..." Fred glanced at the snacks he was holding.

“No problem, eat with confidence,” Siren said. “With Dumbledore around, Karkaroff wouldn’t dare go too far.”

“That makes sense,” George nodded.

The two of them went out carrying a large pile of snacks and candies, and soon cheers came from the first-floor common lounge.

……

(End of this chapter)