Chapter 58: Christmas Gifts and Christmas Dinner
Lynn was excited. He took out the envelope under the three grenades with his still trembling hands and opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Mr. Green.
"I heard about what happened to you on Halloween. I think Hogwarts is not very safe, and a wand does not seem to be enough for you to defend yourself, so I sent you some self-defense tools from the Muggle world. I hope you can use them reasonably to protect your safety."
After reading Mr. Green's signature at the bottom of the letter, Lynn's mouth twitched wildly.
Self-defense tools...
You call Mk2 grenades self-defense tools?!
Lynn still has some understanding of modern Muggle weapons. For example, the three pineapple-shaped Mk2 grenades in front of him are filled with nitrocellulose compounds and a certain amount of TNT explosive. The kill radius after detonation is five to ten yards, and if the shrapnel ejection distance is accounted for, the kill radius can even reach fifty yards!
Unlike wizards' spells, even if cast silently and wandlessly, the light they emit during flight will still attract the enemy's attention and vigilance.
However, the Mk2 grenade does not make any noise during the throwing process, and the faint sound made when pulling the safety pin can also be masked by a spell.
Therefore, if you encounter an insurmountable enemy, using the Mk2 grenade to buy yourself time to escape is a great choice.
"Thank you so much, professor!"
Lynn put away the three grenades. For him as an alchemist, the grenades' power alone is not enough. He plans to increase it through the enhanced alchemy arrays of array alchemy.
It seems he has been quite busy these days!
Lynn rubbed his eyebrows. He also planned to relax more during the Christmas holidays.
...
On the other side, in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory.
Irina was opening her Christmas presents. Since her parents were Muggles, they couldn't use owls to send gifts to Hogwarts, so she had to go home during the summer to get her Christmas presents from them.
At this time, she was the only one in the dormitory, as her three roommates, including Hermione, had gone home for Christmas.
"These two unreliable guys didn't stay with me for Christmas. They said they had been to another world and left me alone at Hogwarts... Woo, no sweet and cuddly Hermione to keep me company. I'm so sad..."
Irina's face was full of resentment.
The three presents on top were also from the three professors, and the things inside were exactly the same as what Lynn received last year.
"Professor Snape isn't so bad, but it's better if he drinks this cheering potion himself. People just need to smile more!"
After picking up the cheering potion sent by Professor Snape, Irina chuckled.
Irina opened another cylindrical present, which contained a tin of cookies. The sender was the Weasley twins.
"It was sent by Fred and George... There shouldn't be any problems."
Irina looked suspiciously at the cookies in her hand, but in this timeline, they hadn't invented Canary Creams yet?!
After thinking it over, Irina finally closed her eyes and swallowed one of the cookies.
Bang!
The next second, a ball of white smoke slowly rose, and Irina transformed into an adorable little canary.
The canary seemed very angry and cried out, filling the whole dormitory with chirping sounds.
Bang!
After a minute, the Canary Cream's effects wore off, and Irina returned to her original form.
"Fred and George!"
Irina clenched her fists with gritted teeth, determined to give the two a good beating.
During the time when she became a canary, she understood why the Canary Creams appeared so early. Thinking of the alchemy topic Senior Rowle had discussed with the Weasley twins when she met them outside the castle, Irina could guess they had learned alchemy in advance.
That Senior Rowle... couldn't he be a time traveler like herself?! Otherwise, why could he change the progress of the twins' alchemy learning?! Moreover, he also appeared during the troll incident. Irina thought about it but still couldn't be sure of the other party's identity.
After all, if there was such a senior in the original books, wouldn't he have taken action after seeing Harry and Ron defeat the troll?! You know, everything Irina did had already greatly changed the troll incident, and it was natural that what happened later would be different.
At this time, Irina looked at the remaining three gifts, which came from Harry, Ron and Hermione respectively. Harry gave her a toy broomstick model, Ron gave her a set of wizards' chess, and Hermione gave her a big bag of Chocolate Frogs.
Irina carefully kept the Christmas gifts given to her by her friends, and took out a Chocolate Frog from the big bag and popped it into her mouth.
In the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, Harry was also trying on his heirloom invisibility cloak.
This was a liquid-like, silvery-grey cloak. It felt as though woven from pure water and had a very strange texture.
Unlike the decorative invisibility cloak in Lynn's possession, Harry's ancestral cloak was the legendary Invisibility Cloak, one of the three Deathly Hallows, said to be able to evade death itself.
Of course, the cloak's ability to evade death may be a bit exaggerated, and its known advantage is its permanent invisibility power, unlike the market cloaks that expire.
The Christmas feast could be said to be the most sumptuous banquet at Hogwarts all year.
On the long tables of the four Houses, you could see a hundred fat, roasted turkeys, piles of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, dishes of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet.
These crackers were very magical; Harry and Fred pulled one together, and it went off with a blast like a cannon, engulfing them in blue smoke while raining down a rear admiral's hat and several live white mice.
This kind of cracker was like a blind box, which made Irina feel very interesting. It made her not eat much at the feast itself, but instead open nearly a hundred of the crackers.
At the staff table, Professor Dumbledore had traded his pointed wizard hat for a flowery bonnet and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just told.
Irina and the others watched as Hagrid grew redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek. To Harry, Ron and Irina's amazement, Professor McGonagall giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.
Hagrid is awesome!
Irina cheered inwardly.
When Harry, Ron and Irina left the table, they were laden down with things exploded from the colorful crackers, including all kinds of sweets from Honeydukes and small toys like wizard chess sets.
Ron was annoyed that his gift haul wasn't very good, since many of the exploded objects were things like wizard chess sets he already had.
(End of chapter)