For VIDUSHI_UsernameSuck

I hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas!

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"Come on, show me your hand," Ginny ordered as she put her hand out.

"It's fine," answered Harry. He put a hand over his wounded hand to hide the marks the enchanted quill had left engraved in his skin.

"No, it's obviously stopping you from playing quidditch like usual," she replied. She pushed back one of her ginger locks behind her ear. Her red and gold quidditch robes matching Harry's were flying around her body like leaves around a tree. "You're supposed to teach me how to beat those damn Slytherins, but we can't do that if you can't even catch the snitch yourself!"

Harry shifted uneasily, still refusing to show his friend what Umbridge had done. It would not help him in any way to tell Ginny what was actually going on during his many detentions. Umbridge was quickly getting more and more power as the Ministry grew in fear of Voldemort's revival and Dumbledore's influence.

How ironic that the words "I must not tell lies" were carved into his hand and yet he was lying to his friends.

"I'm fine, alright?" he said a little harder than he had intended. Ginny took a step back. An insulted expression had replaced the honest concern on her face.

"Fine! Do as you wish!" she snapped back.

Angelina blew the whistle, indicating a break. Harry sighed of relief as Ginny left him, still looking angry, to talk with Katie and Alicia. Ron, Fred and George flew down to his side with ease. Ron sent him a concerned look.

"You alright there?" he asked. Harry nodded. The Weasley twins laughed.

"She's fierce, maybe a bit too much, but she'll be a great seeker," commented George. Fred nodded in agreement and lead the group to the side of the pitch. Harry almost sighed when he saw that Hermione had gotten down from the stands. She was now on the pitch and looked as worried as Ginny had been, if not more. He'd already told her about the way Umbridge punished him, but Harry hated seeing her so worried about him all of the time. He'd survived fighting Voldemort twice, a little pain wasn't going to kill him. Drama would probably one day, though.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as soon as he was close enough to hear her. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Harry answered for the fourth time in the same hour, "I'm fine."

He made sure to hide his hand from her view, even if the wound was mostly hidden by his quidditch gloves.

"Why is everyone so worried about you, Harry?" Fred asked curiously. "Did Snape curse you behind our backs?"

"Will you suddenly sprout wings and breathe fire?" George continued with the same interest.

"No, I'm just tired from my detention last night," lied Harry. He ignored Hermione's eyes, which widened in offense.

"Just tired?" she scoffed. "Harry, show them what that horrible wrench is doing to you!"

Harry wished he could've refused, but he knew Hermione too well. She would never let it go. And Ron refused to get in a conflict with Hermione. He probably thought that the entire planet needed to know, too.

Harry simply let out a silent sigh and removed his glove from his right hand. The scars spelling out the cursed sentence were even redder than they had been last night.

"Is that..." let out George. Fred swore for a good five seconds. Ron looked like he was going to be sick. Hermione looked like she was ready to punch someone. Harry just moved his fingers and put back his glove.

"Someone has to do something about her," Fred darkly announced.

"Something definitive," added George with a frown.

Harry had rarely seen the twins so serious.

"The first and second years are terrified..." said Fred. His grip tightened around his broom. "They're so scared of her and Filch. This isn't normal. No one is supposed to be scared of Filch, he's an idiot!"

"No one should be scared in Hogwarts," whispered George.

Harry nodded in agreement. What had once been the place of his dreams was slowly turning in a nightmare.

"And she decided to ban any Christmas parties," said Ron. "Too dangerous, she said."

"She WHAT?" screamed the twins at the same time. Harry frowned. Umbridge was getting out of hand. The Ministry was going mad with power. Someone had to do something. Why not us? thought Harry.

"She's such a Grinch," muttered Hermione.

"A what?" asked Ron with a confused expression.

His brothers looked as confused. Hermione was surprised that they had never heard of the expression. Usually, it was her that learned new magical sayings, and not the opposite.

"A Grinch. You know, the green monster that hates Christmas and tries to ruin everyone's holidays?" she tried to explain.

"From the movie 'How the Grinch stole Christmas'," added Harry. He had never the chance to enjoy his Christmas' before he got to Hogwarts, but he still remembered the old movie playing on the television every winter.

"A monster stole Christmas?" asked Ron. He tilted his head on the side. "How do you even do that?"

"With a lot of motivation, I guess," answered Harry, who had never quite understood the movie.

Before Hermione could correct him on his knowledge of classic Christmas movies, Angelina blew her whistle once more. Break was over. Harry said goodbye to Hermione and joined his friends in the air. Ginny went to his head, even she looked mad. Harry reminded himself to apologise and tell her the truth. Perhaps Hermione was right. Perhaps it did feel better to confide in others than keeping everything to himself.

***

Before Harry even realized it, it was Christmas. Since Arthur Weasley had been injured and was still in the hospital, the Weasleys and Harry had decided to remain at Hogwarts for the festivities. The last few days should've been happy, filled with excitement and fun, but they had been strangely bitter. The very moment someone was close to having fun, Filch or Umbridge showed up with new restrictions. She had even banned snowball fights after a group of Hufflepuffs had started throwing snowballs at Ravenclaws passing by. The two houses had been having fun until Umbridge threw a spell at them that sealed their lips together. Rumor was that the participants had to spend the whole day at the infirmary in order to unseal their mouths.

To say that the Christmas Eve Feast had been not been as fun as the other years was an understatement. Everyone had a gloomy look on their faces, even the seventh years that usually didn't give a crap about anything. Fred and George had not even showed up. Harry had tried to cheer himself up by thinking of the Quidditch match that would take place the next day where Ginny would finally be able to show the skills she'd learnt in the last few weeks from training with Harry. But Umbridge made sure to make a last minute announcement cancelling the quidditch match because of "upcoming weather conditions".

So when Harry woke up on Christmas morning, he didn't feel particularly excited. In fact, he felt very irritated to be woken up by Ron definitely earlier than he would have wished to.

"What is it?" muttered Harry tiredly as he pushed away his covers from his face. Why was it so bright already?

"Harry, wake up, quick!" said Ron. Harry managed to put on his glasses. Ron was still in pajamas, but he looked preoccupied. Usually, he waited for Harry to open their gifts, so why had he woken him up?

"What?" asked Harry once again with a hint of anger. Ron ignored his moodiness.

"The gifts, Harry- they're gone!" his best friend exclaimed in one breath.

"What?" Harry repeated as he frowned.

"There's no gifts under the tree! They've been stolen!" quickly answered Ron. "And there's a note- look, just hurry, I'll show you!"

Harry sleepily followed Ron to the common room. Usually, by this time, only the early birds and the first years were awake. However, this time, it looked like every Gryffindor of the tower was awake. A few were dressed, the others in their pajama. They all stared in confusion at the many Christmas trees usually standing over dozens of gifts from friends, family and lovers. Yet, there was nothing under those trees.

Every student was around one of the older students, Katie Bell. In her hands was a letter that she was reading out loud.

"Dear students of Hogwarts," she started with a clear voice, "your gifts have been hidden around the castle. You have the entire morning to find them. Have fun."

"Who did this?" asked a first year.

"I don't know," Katie answered with a frown. "it isn't signed."

"I say we go!" Dean roared with enthusiasm. Most students nodded in agreements. Other seemed mad to have lost their gifts.

Harry looked at Ron. Recognizing the excitement in his eyes, Harry smiled to his friend. Ron gave him back an even bigger smile. If this was true, it'd be one hell of an adventure.

In less than two minutes, Harry and Ron were dressed and ready to investigate this new mystery. They thought they'd been fast, but some other students had been even quicker to start the chase. Some had gone out in the pajamas, others had taken the time to throw on a cape of a wizard robe, but one thing was sure: everyone was racing.

Harry and Ron passed by Seamus and Dean, who were wondering if it was worth it to start by the quidditch pitch, or instead start with the dungeons. The two boys searched an instant for Hermione, but since she was nowhere in their sight, they set on their new adventure.

A few students were already finding some of their presents. The portraits around Hogwarts helped the lost students and participated with as much excitement as the teenagers. Harry and Ron tried to find a gift that held their names around the moving staircases, but there weren't any.

Harry followed Ron towards the middle of the castle. Strangely, he felt happy. This treasure hunt was fun. He'd never participated in such an event before, and he was liking it so far, even if the task proved harder than it seemed.

They were close by the Great Hall when they met with two familiar figures. The Weasley twins were wearing sweaters with the first letter of their names, F and G, knit in a different color. Fred's was bright pink with a blue F and George's was bright blue with a purple G. They were flashy, classy, and they loved the attention. In that moment, Harry noted that they loved the havoc around them even more.

"Fred! George! Have you found anything yet?" Ron asked curiously. The twins shook their heads.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked. "Or any of our gifts?"

"No," replied Fred. "I thought she was with you guys. Oh, maybe she's with Ginny!"

"How are we even going to find them," wondered Ron with a little whine. Harry was unsure if he was talking about Hermione and Ginny or the gifts. Though, knowing Ron, it was probably the latter.

"The gifts are truly hidden everywhere," Fred commented thoughtfully.

"And they're enchanted!" exclaimed George with happy giggle. "Only the right owner can open them. We got Malfoy and Zabini at the infirmary 'cause they tried to steal from first years!"

"This is amazing," replied Harry. He couldn't stop his huge smile. Malfoy, getting what he deserved? And a crazy gift hunt across the castle on Christmas Day? This was too much fun.

"I know, right?" answered George with a wink. "Well, sorry, but we got to run. The Grinch's catching up to us!"

Harry instinctively searched for bright pink in the corridor, but he didn't see the horrible witch, to his delight. When he looked back at the twins, they were already leaving. Running away, almost.

"Good luck!" Fred added before the duo disappeared in the crowd.

"Let's find our gifts before them," Ron said with determination. Harry nodded, but he had a feeling that the twins knew very well where their gifts were.

They found Ginny in the East Wing after spending quite some time investigating the Great Hall, without any luck. Still, Harry and Ron were having the time of their lives. Even if they weren't theirs, finding gifts hidden ingeniously in every nook and cranny of Hogwarts was quite amusing.

"Ron!" exclaimed Ginny. She stopped by them for a second. She was out of breath. There was a redness on her cheeks and nose. She had a tuque on, boots as well, but was still in her pajamas. "I saw your name on the red gift on the window frame just over there. Hello, Harry!"

Just like a whirl of wind, she was gone. Ron too quickly left Harry's side, being way too excited to finally find one of his gifts. Harry walked to his friend carefully to not run into the students frantically searching for their gifts. It was madness, but a good sort of madness. One that draws you in and only lets you go once you've had fun.

"Hey, Harry," said a soft voice from behind him. Harry turned to see a tall brown-haired girl. Her name was Vanessa, if he remembered her correctly from their Charms class.

Vanessa smiled at him before she looked down at the gift in the hands. The gift was wrapped in a dark blue wrapping where pale grey dogs were printed.

"I think it's yours," said the girl. "I found it in the Astronomy tower. It's got your name on it."

"Yeah," answered Harry as he took the gift in his hands. He'd noticed the familiar writing of his Godfather on the little card stuck on the gift. "Thanks."

"No problem." She smiled at him one last time before she joined her friend who was screaming something about gifts in the middle of the lake.

Harry smiled to himself as he examined the box. The little dogs printed on the paper left no doubt in his mind: it was from Sirius. He decided that he'd open this gift last, when he'd be alone.

His heart warmed and his mood lighter, Harry ran to Ron, who was still trying to get his gift from the window.

"Stupid Leviosa," he muttered. He attempted the charm again. To his surprise and joy, it worked and the gift gracefully hovered down to Ron. Harry recognised the familiarly-wrapped package that contained Mrs. Weasley's hand-knit sweaters. Ron found them particularly ugly, but Harry liked his very much. He scarcely received such heart-warming presents before Hogwarts.

"Now we only have to find yours,"

"Stop running!" screamed an irritating voice Ron and Harry knew too well.

Trying to find her way through the crowd, Dolores Umbridge looked like a flamingo that was forced to walk on porcupines. Harry had never seen her so frustrated. She seemed personally insulted that no one was listening to her. In fact, everyone was actively running away from her. Filch was following close behind, but even he couldn't stop the treasure hunt.

"Run faster!" screamed a familiar voice from above.

Fred and George flew over Umbridge's head on two brooms, laughing their heads off. She screamed of rage and threw a spell, but the twins gracefully avoided the curse.

"Let's listen to them," said Harry to Ron as he saw Umbridge turn in their direction.

"Agreed."

Like partners in crimes, the two teenage boys ran away with a smile on their lips and gifts in their hands.

They bumped into Hermione an hour later. She had already found all of her gifts, much to Ron's dismay, who hoped to finally win a competition of some sort. Her eyes were sparkling with interest. A big smile was drawn on her lips.

"I can't believe this is happening," Hermione said with a dreamy voice. "I've never heard of anything like this happening before! It's crazy!"

"It is," Harry approved with a smile.

"But how do we know if we've found all of our gifts?" Ron wondered with a frown, looking at the few packages he'd found all over the castle.

"They probably enchanted them to reappear in the dorm rooms," Hermione proposed.

"Let's go check," Harry said. His friends nodded in agreement.

Soon, they were back at the Gryffindor common room. A few students had already come back from their hunt. Some were tired, others excited, but all had a smile on their faces. Much to Harry's surprise, Hermione had been right: the gifts that hadn't been yet found after the hours they'd spent searching had reappeared under the Christmas trees.

Harry found Mrs. Weasley's gift and Hagrid's, which contained sweets and a hand-knit shirt similar to those of the Weasleys. Ron opened the last gift he hadn't found, from Charlie. It was a miniature dragon made of some sort of stone. Hermione, as Harry had expected, had already found all of her gifts.

As they opened the last of their gifts, Fred and George rushed in the room with loud exclamations. There was dirt in their hair and smoke coming from their clothes. Yet, they were laughing.

"Umbridge didn't catch you?" Ron asked.

"She'd have to try a little harder for that to happen," answered George with a smirk. "Besides, she had no proof that we created this madness."

"Created what?" Fred wondered innocently. "I see only students enjoying their Christmas morning like any Hogwarts student should."

"You are right, brother."

Harry smiled. The twins were so terribly unpredictable. They were fearless. By creating this crazy gift hunt, they had just become legends. No one would forget the day Christmas was stolen by two smart grinches.

"Merry Christmas," Fred and George said in unison. They laughed, and so did Harry. For the first time in a long time, he felt truly happy.

The END