With all the excitement of the Yule Ball finally over, the students and teachers could finally take a breather and appreciate the fact that it was Christmas. Sadie once again like a hyper-active child had woken both Max and Thea up quite early, so they could meet down in the common room with the boys to exchange and open gifts.

Thea had always been one of those kinds of people who loved to give gifts and didn't particularly like receiving them but even she had to admit that all the gifts she received were pretty amazing.

Her parents had sent their gifts together, but the actual gifts couldn't be more different. Amos had sent Thea a large collection of what looked like every candy at Honeydukes while her mother had sent her a new book wrapped in a hand-knitted scarf. Thea was extremely thankful for this because her scarf had been lost only a few weeks before.

The others had all got her lovely gifts, from jewelry, candy, chocolate, books, and stationery, she had received it all and Thea was very grateful.

But her favorite present had to have come from Cedric. According to him, he had really struggled this year to try and find a good present for her, but Cho had given him the idea and he simply had to go with it. It was a simple necklace chain with a broomstick pendant on the end, identical to her own broom. From the minute she saw it, Thea fell in love. It was so beautiful but yet so simple and fit perfectly around her neck. Thea had thanked Cedric profusely and had made a mental note to thank Cho later for the amazing idea.

Heading down to breakfast, Thea held James' present in her arms in the hope she would find him. She had put together a little bag of all her favorite candies from the region for him to take back home with him when he did eventually leave. Thea had plenty of fun picking out the best candy and interviewing others about what they thought were their favorites.

James was also heading to breakfast, holding Thea's present in his arms. Ever since he had met her, she had brought so much joy into his life and after thoroughly enjoying his time at the Yule Ball with her, he knew he had to get an equally enjoyable present. He scanned the faces passing him in the hall searching for Thea's and she finally found it clearly looking for someone as well.

"Thea!" Thea heard her name being called and her head snapped up and found James' face looking at her.

"James!" Thea replied trying to push through the crowd to get to him nearly falling over but James caught her.

"Hi." Thea almost shouted over the noise from the Great Hall. "Wow. My life flashed before my eyes just then."

James chuckled. "Listen do you want to go somewhere else?" James said. "Preferably less crowded?"

"Of course," Thea replied grinning. "We could go to sit down by the Black Lake, although that might be a bit cold, this time of the year. Or we could just find somewhere in the castle that's nice and quiet?"

"Well, if you don't mind Thea, I would really like to go sit by the Black Lake, it's so beautiful."

"I completely agree," Thea replied. "Let's go!"

The two of them headed down to the lake slightly shivering and still clutching their gifts for each other.

"Well, Merry Christmas, Thea," James said once they had found the least icy spot and had sat down and handed her his gift.

"Thank you so much, James. Merry Christmas to you too." Thea replied grinning.

They both looked at each other and chuckled before tearing open their gifts.

James opened his and gasped at the amount of candy that surrounded him.

"Yikes, Thea, this must have cost you a fortune."

"Not really but James you really didn't need to get me such an expensive gift," Thea said holding up the brightly polished golden snitch.

"It's a practice snitch you see, doesn't exactly have the same properties as an ordinary snitch. Do you like it?"

"Like it? I love it!" Thea replied. "It's a really thoughtful gift, thank you so much." Thea reached over a gave him a big hug. James was a little taken aback but returned the hug anyway.

"It's amazing how quickly this year has gone."

"I know right," Thea replied. "We will be back on summer holidays before you know it."

"Yeah." James sighed slightly. "It will be so weird once the tournament is over and all."

"Yeah, we might actually get some normality around here."

"It will be nice to go home even though I really love it here."

"Yeah, Hogwarts really is a beautiful place."

"I mean just look around." Thea gestured around her. "We are in the middle of winter and it looks this beautiful. We are extremely lucky to be alive and free right now."

"Well, how free are we when exams are already looming?"

"Touche."