Christmas gift

When Tewell woke up the next day, he was startled by the mountainous pile of gifts in front of him.

Gifts of all sizes and shapes, exquisitely wrapped, filled the entire living room, with some even spilling over into the corridor by the door.

Cynthia was holding her wand, systematically inspecting each package to ensure they didn't contain any dark magic or malicious magical items.

"Owls have been flying in with gifts since last night, and there are still about ten of them resting in the yard, looking exhausted," she said.

Tewell glanced out the window and saw the owls lined up neatly on a shelf, with some nuts in front of them as food.

But the people on the street seemed indifferent, as if they didn't exist.

This house originally didn't have much magic applied to it, but it seemed that Cynthia had deliberately made some arrangements and temporarily used spells like Concealment Charms.

"Thank you for your hard work," he said.

He casually opened one of the gifts and found it to be a doll in his likeness, accompanied by a letter from an older student.

"The majority of these are gifts from your students," Cynthia pointed to the pile that was most abundant. "But there's one gift in there that I'm not sure about giving you."

She picked up a small, carefully wrapped gift from the pile.

"There's a fixed spell inside this one. When opened, the contents will stick to you. But I haven't sensed any malice or anything suspicious about it."

Curious, Tewell took it and found a note attached to the outside of the box that read: "From George & Fred." Knowing the twins' penchant for mischief, he realized this was likely a well-intentioned prank.

He chuckled and opened the gift without hesitation. Inside was a small badge with the twins' faces engraved on it, each looking at the other with mouths open as if they were about to say something.

Before Tewell could contemplate the purpose of this badge, it immediately sprang to life:

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..."

The two figures on the badge sang this Christmas carol joyfully and loudly, their voices filled with emotion.

The badge struggled faintly, trying to detach itself from his hand.

Sensing no ill intent, Tewell simply let it go and allowed it to affix itself to his chest. Despite trying a couple of times, he couldn't remove it, and the singing continued unabated.

He didn't feel angry; instead, he found it amusing. "If these two put their prankster talents into their magical studies, I guarantee they'll be among the world's top wizards," he remarked.

Cynthia looked at Tewell's smiling face, wondering what he meant by his words.

"But interest is their greatest teacher. Perhaps if they focused on other things, they might not be able to fully utilize their talents," she added.

With that, she handed Tewell another box. "This one is labeled with Albus Dumbledore's name. Is it a gift from the headmaster?"

The box wasn't large, about the size of a few books, and indeed, the label bore Dumbledore's name.

"It seems so. I didn't expect him to send me a gift, but luckily, I prepared plenty of candy for him in advance."

Inside was indeed a book, the same one he had left for Dumbledore: "The Four Elements of Magic." But it wasn't as simple as it seemed.

Dumbledore had left numerous annotations, detailing his understanding of the four elements. At the end of the book, he left a line:

"This is my humble understanding, hoping it will be of assistance—Albus Dumbledore."

This gift is quite substantial; the contents marked inside are Dumbledore's accumulations over the years. Tewell could gain many insights with just a brief perusal.

It seems this headmaster is indeed considerate.

"Can't you make that blasted badge stop?" Grindelwald appeared out of nowhere, leaning on a cane at the doorway, looking like an utterly ordinary Muggle elder. "I can hear it even outside the house!"

Tewell, inwardly scoffing at the idea that Grindelwald could hear with the house spelled against eavesdropping, complied by halting the badge's song with a wave of magic but didn't remove it.

"Do you want to see this book?" he teased, showing the book in his hand to his teacher. "The contents are quite interesting."

Grindelwald shot his proudest student a glare and snatched the book away. "I'm going to rest now. Don't disturb me unless it's urgent!"

With that, he marched upstairs without a backward glance, his movements remarkably agile.

Meanwhile, Cynthia had finished inspecting all the gifts and thoughtfully divided them into several categories based on the identity of the gift givers.

The majority, of course, were from Hogwarts students, followed by some friends of Dumbledore's, and the rest were from colleagues and relatives.

"How do you know who they all are?"

Tewell absentmindedly opened a gift from the pile belonging to friends and relatives. There were so many; it would take him all morning just to unwrap them.

"I cross-referenced the Hogwarts staff list," Cynthia said proudly. "Besides them, there are the students I know from Durmstrang. The rest are Hogwarts students, aren't they?"

In a way, Cynthia could be said to know him best.

"Oh?"

Tewell looked at the scarf in his hand in surprise.

After unwrapping several gifts, most of which were various types of books, some even duplicates, this was the first unique gift from someone other than a student.

It was a peculiar gradient scarf, transitioning from dark red to light red. Such scarves weren't common in 1991 Britain, even in the wizarding world.

"Is this your gift?" Seeing Cynthia's expectant expression, Tewell immediately guessed the answer.

"Yes, I figured you've received enough books already, so I deliberately prepared something different," Cynthia said with a beaming smile. "And I really like the badge you gave me."

She pointed to the dark gold badge already pinned to her chest, featuring two merging ovals, somewhat resembling a yin-yang symbol.

This badge was made by the Davies brothers, based on Tewell's design, borrowing the concept of the two-way mirror, allowing for remote communication between two badges.

However, production was currently challenging, and it would take the Davies brothers some time to refine their skills before every one of his followers could have one.

Tewell casually draped the scarf around himself, instantly appearing more refined.

"A very nice gift indeed."