Good Morning,My Diary.I woke up early today.It is the first day of my Christmas vacations at Hogwarts.As I look out of the stained glass windows in my dorm,I see the Hogwarts grounds look ever so beautiful covered with white snow.I wipe the window panes clear and watch the snow fall from the sky in beautiful white little pellets.Tomorrow is the day before Christmas.So,the next thing I do now is some before-Christmas cleaning.I make my bed,arrange the things on my four-poster bed neatly,then use the spell 'Scourgify' to clean my dorm and under my four-poster bed and the inside and outside of Hedwig Two's or Queenie's cage and water bowl.Once my dorm is neat and clean,I fill Hedwig Two's or Queenie's water bowl with water using the spell "Aguamenti",then freshen myself up and head to the library to update the printed version of my diary with whatever I have written until now.I then visit the Hogwarts administrative staff at the "Academics" section at Hogwarts,for each of my classes,and ask for my gradebook for each subject.I look at my answers on my midterm examinations for each subject,and feel a bit disappointed with some of the silly mistakes I made.In my Transfiguration midterm exam paper,I seem to have answered a multiple choice question wrong,and that is the only question I answered wrongly in the paper.My Transfiguration gradebook says that I have always answered all questions correctly and always recieved full marks on all my assignments as well as on all essay assignments in the Transfiguration classes until now,except that one question on my Transfiguration midterm exam paper.This disappoints me a lot,and I cannot make out why my answer to that multiple choice question went wrong.Therefore,I owl Professor Mitchell,requesting her to explain why my answer was wrong and what I may be missing.But,I realise she may take some time to answer my query,so I also owl the Transfiguration Professor Assistant Dane Lautner,who is indicated to be contacted for Transfiguration queries,on the rules for Transfiguration class written over my Transfiguration gradebook,with the same query.I also follow Dane Lautner on magical social media.I stalk his magical social media profile and it looks really interesting to me.I find him very cute from the magical photograph in his profile picture,his backstory includes his results on two muggle personality tests,one of which I have already taken when I was in the muggle world,and the other of which,the Enneagram personality test,I want to know more about.He has a lot of house points until now to his name according to his magical social media profile and thus appears to be very senior to me at Hogwarts.His profile describes him as a lawyer and his backstory says that he has good manipulation skills.Ahh,a manipulative person in Slytherin,that makes a lot of sense to me.His magical social media profile intrigues me nevertheless,therefore,I decide to see him in person and head to the Great Hall.I head straight towards the Slytherin house table to find him and sure enough,there he is,surrounded by a swarm of girls of different houses,who want to get to know him better or have different queries of him.I wave at him with a smile and tell him that I liked his penchant for muggle personality tests and tell him my own results of one of the muggle personality tests,his results of which,he has on his profile.He smiles and waves back at me and follows me back on my magical social media and tells me more about his results on the muggle personality test.I try to make some light conversation and we talk about where we live outside Hogwarts castle.He appears to be from Brazil,and now lives in Japan,outside the Hogwarts Castle.I tell him where I live outside the Hogwarts castle.I find him cuter with everything he says.Though I do not want to make him feel like I only talked to him to get my Transfiguration query cleared,I decide to ask him about that nevertheless,as he may not notice my owl among the flurry of owls from students and admirers he must recieve daily,as is evident from the swarm of girls around him.I explain that I am a little disappointed at getting my answer wrong as that is the first answer I got wrong until now,in the Transfiguration subject.He answers my query and beautifully explains with an example why my answer was wrong,clearing my doubt on the question completely.He then whispers to me to not tell anyone else what he just explained to me,as that contains an answer to a question often asked in assignments and exams at Hogwarts,and if I tell others,it may lead to cheating in future.I thank him for his time and nod saying that I understand,promising not to tell what he just explained to me to anyone else.I then enquire from him about the other muggle personality test on his profile,the muggle Enneagram personality test,and he tells me how to take it and where to find it.I thank him very much,take the test immediately and tell him my results.He smiles back at me and then gets busy with the swarm of girls around him and I head to the Gryffindor house table with something like butterflies in my stomach.However,it is more important to me that my Transfiguration query got cleared.I then post the following on my magical social media wall,as this question arises in my mind while wondering about Parseltongues while I was near the Slytherin table around so many Slytherins:-

"Met a cute Slytherin guy,who helped me do a muggle Enneagram personality test.

Anyway forget about him,I was wondering,just like Slytherins,especially descendants of Salazar Slytherin are parseltongues,is it possible that Ravenclaws,especially descendants of Rowena or some other Ravenclaw witch may have the ability to understand birds,such as a Raventongue or Birdtongue or something?Is it possible to be a Rodenttongue for Hufflepuffs or may be a Carnivorous-tongue or Lion-tongue for Gryffindors?I mean maybe it is possible to have the ability to understand other animals too?I don't know about it for sure,but if you know anything about or related to the matter or can provide any insight,please let me know".

I then post my Course Average until midterm exam for all subjects on my magical social media profile for everyone to see,and then wave to Rose at the Ravenclaw table,who is busy eating.The Great Hall seems quite empty today as most students have already finished their breakfast early and left for Hogsmeade station to board the Hogwarts express back to their homes.Some students are still seen traipsing down the Great Hall with their packed luggage trunks and forming a queue in the entrance hall in front of the Great Hall.More students keep joining the queue until Professor Anne,the Care of Magical Creatures Professor and Hogwarts gamekeeper and groundskeeper,escorts the queue to the Hogsmeade station,where the students will board the Hogwarts express back to their homes for their Christmas vacations.I look for Lacey but cannot find her,assuming she must be already in the train,the Hogwarts Express.

After having breakfast with the usual items I have for breakfast,Rose and I play a few rounds of Hogwartle in the Hogwartle corridor and then hold our first meeting for our next mischievous quest at Hogwarts,the quest to find the Mirror of Erised,in the Hogwarts library,under cover of our students' group "Our Own Cosy Little Library Corner".I am sworn in to secrecy by the members of the group,and hence,for further details of the quest,please refer to the book "Mysteries of Hogwarts" by Rose Peterson in the Hogwarts library.Our meeting goes on until late afternoon,following which we head down to the Great Hall for lunch.Lunch on the house tables contains tripe,beef casserole,sprouts,lamb chops,steak and kidney pie,sphagetti bolognese with sphagetti sauce,toasted bread,gravy,jacket potatoes,boiled potatoes,Kreacher's French onion soup and cheeses of different varieties,followed by rice pudding and treacle tart for dessert.After lunch,I head to the Gryffindor common room and relax on a squashy armchair in front of the fireplace,practising charms and resting.When it's almost time for dinner,a Gryffindor girl enters the common room shouting,"There is a niffler in the Ravenclaw dormitories.A Ravenclaw third year girl's gold keeps going missing.She offers five Galleons for anyone who finds and catches the niffler for her.".I owl Rose via Hedwig Two or Queenie asking her if she knows anything about the niffler to which she replies via Hedwig Two or Queenie saying,"The Ravenclaw third year girl whose gold keeps going missing lives in my dorm.I have not heard about or seen a single niffler in my dorm until now.Anyway,I hit my foot on the edge of my bed while climbing my four poster bed,and my foot is injured.I cannot come down to dinner tonight.I am taking rest.".I am immediately worried about Rose.I write back via Hedwig Two or Queenie asking her if she would like to go to the hospital wing and if I need to escort her there.She replies via Hedwig Two or Queenie saying that she wants to just rest for today and will go to the hospital wing tomorrow with me.I am still worried and wonder if I should go visit her in her dorm,but then decide not to disturb her and allow her to take rest.Then,I go down to the Great Hall for dinner.Dinner includes most of the dishes we had for dinner yesterday,and after finishing my dinner,I look at the Ravenclaw house table.Rose is not there at the Ravenclaw house table,and I ask a Ravenclaw girl who usually sits beside Rose at the Ravenclaw house table,about her.The girl replies that Rose has injured her right foot and is taking rest,and that Rose has asked the girl to take food for Rose's dinner from the Ravenclaw house table in the Great Hall.I nod and thank the girl and watch her dole some food for Rose onto an empty plate and take it up towards the Ravenclaw tower.I head back to my dorm and lie down on my four poster bed to sleep.However,I keep tossing and turning on my bed as I keep thinking about Rose and her injured foot and the mysterious incident of the niffler and cannot sleep.After some time,suddenly,I hear a heavy crash on my window sill and then a few light taps on my stained glass window in my dorm,and Hedwig Two or Queenie seems agitated.I look at the window and find Rose's owl at the window sill,tapping the glass with her beak.I realise that the crash I heard was just Rose's owl landing on my window sill with a heavy crash.It is very cold outside,and I can see that Rose's owl is frozen,as her feathers stand all over her body.I open the stained glass window and let the poor owl in.She drops a message she was carrying in her talons on my four poster bed and perches on my bed beside Hedwig Two or Queenie's cage.I open the message and find that it is from Rose(obviously) and it reads,"I know you cannot sleep because you are curious about the niffler and worried about me.There has never been a niffler spotted in any of the Ravenclaw dormitories until now.I highly doubt that there is a niffler loose in the Ravenclaw dorms.The Ravenclaw third year girl's money has been going missing bit by bit every morning for quite some days now.Just for you to keep as a secret,I would like you to know that I have ten Galleons,twenty Sickles and twenty two Knuts in my trunk and I do not keep my trunk locked at all times.This morning,I left my trunk unlocked and with it's lid open on purpose before going down to have breakfast at the Great Hall,and returned only in the late afternoon after lunch.The money in my trunk was still  intact,if there was a niffler,my money would have gone or atleast been taken somewhere else from my trunk.Therefore,I think there is something fishy going on with the Ravenclaw third year girl's money,which has nothing to do with any nifflers.Therefore,I pretended to injure my right foot while climbing my four poster bed this evening,to be able to stay in my dorm at all times and watch out for mischief or for mysterious incidents.However,nothing happened until now.Also,the Ravenclaw third year girl's gold only goes missing at night,after which she finds it missing next morning,which is another sign that the gold is not being taken by a niffler.If it was a niffler,the money would have gone missing in the morning too.I need you to come to my Ravenclaw dorm under the pretense of wanting to see me because of my injured right foot,and help me solve the mystery.I know you will surely have some brilliant ideas up your sleeve,to solve the mystery of the Ravenclaw third year girl's missing gold.".I am intrigued and curious about the incident of the missing gold after reading the whole letter,and relieved to know that Rose is not actually injured.I write back to Rose,asking,"But what about the curfew?",and send her owl back to her with my reply,this time asking the owl to take the message through a different route through the inside of the Hogwarts castle,to prevent the poor owl from getting frozen again.I take the owl with me to the door of the Gryffindor common room and let her out so that she can take my message to Rose through a route inside the Hogwarts castle.The owl gratefully obeys.After some time,I hear the tapping of Rose's owl's beak once again,on the door of the Gryffindor common room.I say the current Gryffindor common room password,"Addictive candies" to the portrait of the Fat Lady,and in response to the password,she swings open the door she protects,revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room to Rose's owl outside,and I let the owl in.The owl brings a message from Rose which reads,"Just use your Marauder's Map to avoid any patrolling Hogwarts Professors or Hogwarts staff,and you will not be caught breaking curfew.We are after all the creators of the second version of the Marauder's Map,after the original version made by the four original marauders.We are in fact,the four new marauders,of our generation.You always wanted to use the Marauder's Map for mischief,here is your chance.Grab it.You know where the Ravenclaw common room is.The knocker on the common room door will ask you a riddle,but I am sure you can answer it.I cannot go to the Ravenclaw common room door to let you in,as I have to pretend that my right foot is injured.My dormitory is the fourth dorm on the right.".I almost laugh at Rose's message,and while I am excited at getting to use my Marauder's map for mischief for the first time,I am also nervous and a tad bit scared about the mysterious incident of the missing gold.I send Rose's owl back to her,with a single message from me reading "Alright",through the Gryffindor common room door after opening it for the owl.I go back to my dorm and locate two books from among the books that adorn my dorm bookshelf,'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them' by Newt Scamander,reprinted and edited by Faith Dawson,and 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them' by Newt Scamander,reprinted and edited by Alex Anderson.I read all that I find about nifflers in these two books,and then fish for my Marauder's Map among the pages of my diary.I find my Marauder's Map and tap it with my wand,saying the password we fixed for it(it is not the original password from the original version of the Marauder's Map,but I cannot tell you what it is,unless you decide to read 'Mysteries of Hogwarts',in that book you may get an idea of the password,but you still won't have the map) and with my wand and the map and my diary(which I always take with me no matter where I go),head out to the corridor.I spot no Hogwarts professors or Hogwarts staff on the map in any of the Hogwarts castle corridors or staircases,they are all in their offices,in their bedrooms.I spot three Slytherin students breaking curfew near the dungeons,but they are apparently heading back towards the Slytherin common room.I realise that the Hogwarts rules have really been relaxed a lot.Still wary of the new magic now in place in the Hogwarts castle,I head to the Ravenclaw tower and reach the Ravenclaw common room.I knock on the Ravenclaw common room door using the eagle shaped knocker,and it asks me a riddle,as follows:-

"If you are a true Ravenclaw,

Riddle me the following without a flaw,

Only then will I let you get in,

Otherwise you cannot squeeze in anything,no matter how thin,

They move about at night when the honest people unwind,

To look for things that they need,but cannot afford,or manage to otherwise find,

Tiptoe through the darkness and usually retire when the sky is light blue,

They are less afraid of the perils of the night,and more scared of you.".

I realise that the riddle has a slight dark feel to it,and is talking about someone dishonest.At first I think about Hedwig Two,or Queenie,going out to hunt at night,but then I realise that she wouldn't be scared of me,nor would she tiptoe because she would fly,though the riddle otherwise would have fit her perfectly,and I also feel a little offended,as the riddle somehow hints that nocturnal creatures like owls are dishonest,as honest people unwind at night.Then,I think about the other nocturnal creatures,but I don't know about any creature that would be scared of me.I ponder a while and then realise that the answer is a thief.A thief goes out to steal at night,when honest people unwind,and look for things to steal,which are usually such things that the thief needs but cannot afford or find,a thief steals at night and retires in the morning and is more scared of getting caught(hence is scared of me) than of the perils of the night.Then I realise that the same description fits into the mystery of the missing gold,in place of the niffler,therefore,instead of a niffler,the gold could have been taken by a human thief.I am excited at this discovery and exclaim,"That's it.It's a thief"."Of course,it is.",the knocker replies,"You are a true Ravenclaw.You can come in.".The knocker then quiets down and becomes still again as the Ravenclaw common room door swings open to let me in.I enter and the door closes behind me,and I head towards the right to locate the fourth dorm on the right.I am elated that the Ravenclaw common room door knocker does not know what I know,that the answer to the riddle may also be the answer to the mystery of the missing gold.I admire the magnificence and beauty of the Ravenclaw common room,then enter the fourth dorm on the right and find Rose on her four poster bed sitting upright with her right foot clutched in both hands.I admire the magnificence and beauty of the Ravenclaw dormitory,then sit on Rose's bed and ask her how she is and if she is in too much pain and ask her in whispers if she is really not injured.She replies in whispers that she really is not injured and says out loud,"I am not in too much pain,but just stay with me for now.You can take me to the hospital wing tomorrow.".I nod,then whisper to her the riddle that the Ravenclaw common room door knocker asked me and tell her the answer and also tell her that I deduced that instead of a niffler,the gold may have been taken by a thief.Rose exclaims "Brilliant",and whispers back to me excitedly,"I knew you could do it,I knew you would be smart enough to answer any riddle at the common room door,and I knew you would be able to deduce atleast something about this mystery,though I did not know that the Ravenclaw common room door knocker would end up unknowingly helping us solve this mystery by asking you exactly the riddle you needed,to deduce the answer to the mystery.".I thank Rose and then as the Ravenclaw dorm members turn out the lights and start going to bed,Rose lets out a false groan of pain,turns on her side and pretends to fall asleep.I say,"Poor Rose",and let out a big yawn,and then I too lie down beside Rose and pretend to fall asleep after posting the riddle asked to me by the Ravenclaw common room door knocker on my magical social media,knowing that the knocker never asks the same riddle twice.Slowly,everyone in the dorm is either snoring or in deep sleep except me and Rose.Rose asks me to look at the third bed from the window on the row opposite to Rose's bed,then points me that that is the bed of the Ravenclaw third year girl whose gold keeps going missing.The Ravenclaw third year girl has already settled onto her bed,and is now asleep.We both decide to wait and watch,whispering ever so quietly in the dark.After a long time,when we are both almost about to really fall asleep,we see the girl on the bed across one bed from Rose's bed,getting up slowly.Rose nudges me and I nudge her back,and we watch from under the half closed lids of our eyes,still pretending to be asleep.I wait and watch to see if the girl is going to get herself water to drink,but she makes straight for the Ravenclaw third year girl's bed that Rose pointed out to me and takes her wand out.She points at the lock on the trunk and softly says,"Alohomora"(al-LOH-ha-MOR-ah),but the lock does not respond.Her not being able to open the lock confirms for me that she must be a first year student.Rose nudges me again and I nudge her back.Then the girl takes a key out of her pocket and turns it in the lock.The lock opens with a click.Then,the girl lifts the lid of the trunk just enough to place her hand inside the trunk and rummage about.Just then,Rose lets out a loud shriek,pretending to be in pain.This wakes everybody in the Ravenclaw dorm up,and they immediately sit up and light their wands and some of them turn on the lights.Rose sits up and explains that I accidentally kicked her right foot,exactly where it was injured,causing her pain and waking her up.I know that Rose is only pretending so I nod and agree and apologize.By then,everyone has noticed the Ravenclaw first year girl with her hand under the lid of the Ravenclaw third year girl's trunk rummaging inside it.The poor Ravenclaw first year girl is now retreating shamefacedly away from the trunk,embarassed at having been caught red handed.It appears that she is the Ravenclaw third year girl's sister,from the way the Ravenclaw third year girl addresses her.I ask Rose in whispers and she confirms that they are sisters."But you could have just asked me for money",the Ravenclaw third year girl who is the elder sister says."I was scared",the Ravenclaw first year girl who is the younger sister says,"I thought you will not give me any.I have always felt that my parents love you more.They gave you money to buy sweets and candies at Hogwarts,but they did not give me any.I wanted to buy sweets and candies from Camomille Nott,but I did not have any money.I could not dare to ask my parents either because they do not love me as much as they love you.".The elder sister replies,"Our parents love us both equally.In fact you are more loved,because you are loved by our parents as well as me.Our parents are both muggle-born magical people,who have attended Hogwarts.However,they are old and graduated from Hogwarts quite many years ago.Therefore,though they knew that students at Hogwarts are only allowed to visit Hogsmeade from their third year onwards,which is why they gave me money to buy sweets and candies from Honeydukes at Hogsmeade,they know nothing about Camomille Nott and the students' group 'Honeydukes shop and markets',which explains why they did not give you any money.They did not want to tempt you into mischief as they know that getting caught trying to buy wizarding 'stuff' and sweets and candies from Hogsmeade before third year can cause you to get detention or expulsion from Hogwarts.However,had they known that you could buy sweets and candies from Camomille Nott without breaking the Hogwarts rules,they would have given you a lot of money to buy candies and sweets too.I suggest you try to explain the situation to them by writing a letter to them explaining about Camomille Nott and her students' group and how they sell candies to first years at Hogwarts from the Honeydukes shop in Hogsmeade and how buying candies and sweets from Camomille will not land you in trouble and will not count as breaking the rules if you only buy candies and sweets from her.".The Ravenclaw first year girl says that she understands and hugs her elder sister,apologizing to her.The elder sister then gives her some of her own money for the time being to buy candies and sweets with.Rose also offers some candies to the younger sister,saying,"Here,here are some yoghurt covered raisins for you.These are for free.And here are some Ravenclaw house candies and a Ravenclaw sweet lollipop 'Power of the faculty'.These are from me for free.".Then Rose hands over more of these candies and sweets to everyone in her dorm,including me.The mystery ends with a very happy relief and lots of candies and delighted and excited smiles of students in the Ravenclaw dormitories at Hogwarts.I sleep peacefully after the incident is over and wake up next morning next to Rose who is still sleeping,and quietly make my way back to my own dorm on tiptoe.

Once back in my dorm,I freshen myself up,and head to the Great Hall for breakfast after a quick look through the stained glass windows of my dorm at the Hogwarts grounds.It is snowing today again,and the Hogwarts grounds are white,covered with snow,this morning.As I enter the Great Hall to have breakfast,I am surprised and astounded,spellbounded by the sight I see.Christmas has arrived early at Hogwarts as the Great Hall is being beautifully decorated for Christmas.The enchanted ceiling shows a sky covered with clouds,and snow falling from the sky towards the ceiling but not settling on the ceiling,as the ceiling is not transparent but magically enchanted to resemble the outside sky.There are magically enchanted lanterns in beautiful shapes with beautiful designs on them,floating in mid air,instead of the usual magically enchanted white candles that float in mid air in the Great Hall.There are a few magically enchanted colorful candles floating among the sea of lanterns.None of these is lit though,as it is morning.There are giant Christmas trees lined in neat rows along the walls of the Great Hall,which are being decorated with colorful streamers and ribbons,baubles,tiny golden stars that are magically enchanted to twinkle continuously and fairy lights.The Great Hall itself is being decorated in colorful ribbons and streamers,baubles,golden stars,wreaths of ivy,holly and mistletoe,and fairy lights everywhere including the house tables and the house banners.Students,Professors and staff alike are helping in the decorations in various ways.The other rooms,corridors and staircases in the Hogwarts castle are being decorated in the same manner by students and staff,and the dorms are being decorated in the same way by the house elves.I see Professor Cassandra Hope Virneburg help in the decorations by magically enchanting some baubles and using charms to make the baubles float through the air to the desired place and to fix and stick them in the desired places on the branches of the Christmas trees.I see our History of Magic Professor,Professor Everby running around with wreaths of ivy,mistletoe and holly and using her wand to magically weave strings of fairy lights and colorful ribbons with tiny golden bells on them,through these wreaths.Our Potions Professor,Professor Draekon is busy pouring some sparkling golden and sparkling silver potions on some Christmas candies and sweets.I do not know what these potions are,but I see that the Christmas candies and sweets begin to sparkle and glow on being doused with these potions.I notice our Herbology Professor,Professor Aspen,taking trips to somewhere from the Great Hall and coming back everytime with a new giant Christmas tree in his arms.Everytime he returns to the Great Hall with a Christmas tree,he places it with utmost care in a position to make sure that all the Christmas trees in the Great Hall are at equal distances from each other.I watch our Flying Professor,Professor Madame Eira Fox carrying a giant Christmas tree and some colorful streamers and ribbons,heading towards the Hogwarts grounds from the Great Hall.I get to see our Transfiguration Professor,Professor Mitchell in action,performing some spellbinding transformations.She transforms some desks into golden reindeer with brown spots on them and brown antlers.These reindeer are not alive,but keep blinking their deep black fathomless eyes.A large squashy armchair is transformed into a sleigh by Professor Mitchell and placed behind by the reindeer in such a way that it appears that the reindeer are pulling the sleigh.Professor Mitchell then transforms some cotton into snow,and then casts a charm on the resulting snow to ensure that it never melts,and places it under the reindeer and the sleigh making it appear that it has snowed and the sleigh is being pulled through the snow.I am astounded and intrigued by the results of Professor Mitchell's expertise.I watch our Care of Magical Creatures Professor,Professor Anne,bringing in live fairies and setting them atop the Christmas trees.The fairies have beautiful colorful wings and seem to enjoy the attention very much as students stop and gather near the Christmas trees to admire the fairies seated atop them.Professor Anne complains that it took her forever to rid the Christmas trees of bowtruckles,and Professor Mitchell sympathizes with her saying that she saw her running around all morning carrying boxes full of woodlice.Our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor,Professor Jericho Penrose,helps by doing some Christmas cleaning chores,such as ridding the Hogwarts castle of doxies hiding behind the curtains over the windows of the castle.He goes around the castle carrying a spray bottle full of Doxycide and as he enters the Great Hall to check for any curtains and doxies,he gets complimented by Professor Mitchell for getting rid of an imp that had begun to stay in Peeves's corridor."That was one pesky imp,Jericho,you did a great job this morning ridding the castle of the little devil",Professor Mitchell says."Peeves gave me a hard time as he did not want the imp to go",Professor Penrose says,smiling,"but I managed to make Peeves move away for a while and cast the Knockback Jinx and cage the imp.The imp is now safely out of the Hogwarts castle.I left it in a marshy area in the Forbidden Forest".Professor Mitchell nods in appreciation,as I watch the Muggle Studies Professor,Professor Soleil,leaving some muggle contraptions and magically enchanted muggle motor toys such as magically enchanted muggle toy trains and toy cars,under the Christmas trees as presents,some in beautiful gift boxes and some large ones without.She also hangs stockings here and there on behalf of the residents of the Hogwarts castle.I see our Astronomy Professor,Professor Robert Plumb,magically enchanting some tiny decorative golden stars to continuously twinkle and placing them at different locations in the Great Hall,sometimes arranged in the shape of known constellations.The Ancient Runes Professor,Professor Wessex leaves handwritten copies of Christmas hymns and carols on the staff tables and the four house tables.As the number of students in Hogwarts has increased,the four house tables are now kept in place even during Christmas vacations.The house tables are full of all the delicacies that are served as  breakfast food at Hogwarts.The utensils such as tureens,bowls,plates,cutlery,cups,mugs and glasses are decorated beautifully,bound with colorful ribbons tied to them.There are fairy lights and wizard crackers all over the house tables.Some prefects and head students are helping put up colorful streamers and ribbons in the Great Hall,and also instructing students who are trying to help them,in the same.I join a group of students helping a prefect,and help to hang colorful streamers and ribbons as instructed.I also post a description of the decorations being put up in the Great Hall on my magical social media profile.Just then,Headmistress Oshiro enters and is impressed by the working together of all students,Professors and the staff."This is the best part of Christmas",she exclaims,"all of us working together.Students,my knowledgeable Professors and excellent staff of Hogwarts,please do not neglect to have your meals.Do not go without breakfast any of you,just because you are decorating.".Saying so,Headmistress Oshiro flicks her wand filling the Great Hall with soft playing music and then performs some charms to make every decoration in the Great Hall glow and sparkle,like they are doused in glitter.She then asks everyone to join her for breakfast and the Professors seat themselves in their usual places in response to her command,and ask the students to partake of breakfast.All the students sit at their respective house tables as told,and everyone begins to eat breakfast in the Great Hall.Breakfast today includes everything we have had for breakfast at Hogwarts until today,and in addition,some glowing and sparkling Christmas candies and sweets.After finishing breakfast,I help some more with the decorations and then look for Rose.I find her putting up streamers with a Ravenclaw prefect girl,and after putting up a few more streamers,Rose nudges me and indicates towards the Hogwarts library using her fingers to point the direction.I understand that she means our meetings in the library for our quest to find the Mirror of Erised.Rose and I then leave the Great Hall together and head for the library.In the library,we find Bea and Everline waiting for us.We hold our meetings for the quest to find the Mirror of Erised until late afternoon,after which we have lunch at the Great Hall.Lunch includes all the dishes we ever had for our meals at Hogwarts until now,and after stuffing ourselves full with food,we head to the library again.We spend our evening behind the quest(we often sneak out to different places and do things which are part of our quest,but you will have to read 'Mysteries of Hogwarts' by Rose Peterson,to know about those adventures of ours) and then head down to the Great Hall for Christmas eve dinner.Soft music plays and hymns in ancient languages are sung,and Christmas carols and hymns play in the background as we eat our Christmas Eve dinner.It includes whatever we have had for our meals at Christmas until now.After dinner,we wish each other Merry Christmas and retire to our dorms.I carry some treats from the dinner upstairs to my dorm for Hedwig Two or Queenie.At my dorm,I hang some stockings at the edge of my bed,wish Hedwig a Merry Christmas and fall asleep.

Good Morning,My Diary,Merry Christmas.Christmas has finally arrived.I look in my stockings and find it filled with Christmas candies and sweets and wizard crackers.The Hogwarts grounds are still white with snow.As I pull the wizard crackers,they are set alight and burst making loud booming sounds of explosion in the dorm,engulfing me in blue smoke.Then they yield two wizard's chess sets and some Christmas hats for me.I immediately grab these delights that pop out from inside them,excited.I wear the Christmas hats,place one wizard's chess set in my trunk,and carry the other wizard's chess set to the Great Hall for Rose,as I know she has always wanted one,as she loves playing wizard chess.As I reach the Great Hall,I find a very happy looking Rose at the Ravenclaw house table.I wish her Merry Christmas,and tell her that she can keep my wizard's chess set which popped out from my wizard crackers,as I have already kept one for myself.She delightedly accepts and thanks me.She then shows me the non-explodable,luminous balloons that she found in her wizard crackers,and that she has been carrying around since she recieved them,and asks me to pick a color.I choose purple and she hands over the purple balloon and says that I can keep it.I am delighted,and after hugging her Merry Christmas one final time,I head to theGryffindor house table for Christmas breakfast.There are on all the house tables all the dishes ever cooked at Hogwarts for breakfast,eggnog,a large Christmas cake on each table,rice pudding,and sparkling and glowing Christmas candies and sweets.The soft music from last night is still on and the decorations are still in place.I enjoy my Christmas breakfast immensely,and when I finish,the Christmas morning owl post comes in and I recieve an owl.The owl brings me a parcel and a letter from my family.The parcel contains only an envelope with money in Galleons,Sickles and Knuts.The letter asks me how I am,wishes me Merry Christmas,and says that my family appreciates my decision of staying at Hogwarts during the Christmas vacations and sends me money as a Christmas gift to buy more wizarding world "stuff" and Christmas sweets and candies.If you do not know,whenever muggle parents or muggle families of muggle-born witches and wizards send money to their children at Hogwarts,the owl post service gets the money changed from muggle money to wizarding world money through the Gringotts bank exchange service,before delivering it to the witches and wizards.This may delay the delivery of the money a bit,but usually the owl post service still manages to bring it on time.I immediately summon parchment,quill and inkpot from my dorm thanking my family for the Christmas gift and wishing them Merry Christmas.Everyone is in the Great Hall today for Christmas breakfast and the chatter in the Great Hall is really loud even with the few remaining students as even the Hogwarts Professors engage in joyful banter.After a long and merry breakfast,Rose and I head to the Gryffindor common room together for a rest and chat and to practise some charms.I wish Merry Christmas to the Fat Lady in her portrait,and tell her the password.She retreats and swings open the entrance to the Gryffindor common room and I bring Rose in.We pick two large squashy armchairs and sit by the fireplace,chatting and resting after which we practise some charms.Then we head down for Christmas lunch in the Great Hall,and lunch includes everything we have had at Hogwarts until now.After lunch,Rose and I spend the evening behind the last and final part of our quest to find the Mirror of Erised.Late in the evening,our quest is complete and we have found it.I tell Rose to record our adventures while trying to find the Mirror of Erised and she says that she will.You can find our entire quest and our adventures during our quest to find the Mirror of Erised in the book "Mysteries of Hogwarts" in the Hogwarts library,written by none other than my friend,Rose.

After wrapping up our quest,we both feel elated and excited and hug each other and congratulate each other.Then we go back to our dorms to freshen up,and then wear our Christmas sweaters,Christmas hats and Christmas gloves and our house scarves and head down to the Great Hall for the legendary Christmas feast at Hogwarts.As soon as we enter the Great Hall,Headmistress Oshiro greets us and welcomes us to the Christmas feast and wishes us Merry Christmas.We bow and greet her and wish her Merry Christmas.The decorations look even more beautiful than before,and Headmistress Oshiro individually greets everyone as they enter the Great Hall and personally welcomes them to the feast.Everyone including Rose is looking beautiful in their Christmas clothes.Professor Draekon is exceptionally looking handsome in his dark green Christmas sweater,red Christmas hat and the black velvet blazer coat that he is wearing over his Christmas sweater,complete with his Christmas woollen gloves and his trousers and woollen socks and his black leather boots.The soft music is still playing in the background and the Christmas carols and hymns are being sung from time to time.When everyone in the Hogwarts castle has arrived at the Great Hall,Headmistress Oshiro sits down at the High Table,and immediately,a Christmas cake appears in front of her on the table.We all sing 'Merry Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells' as she cuts through the Christmas cake with her golden knife tied with colorful Christmas ribbons,and then she magically enchants the golden knife making it cut the Christmas cake into several equal pieces.Hundreds of golden plates magically appear on each circular table and we are awestruck and dumbfounded as we watch the cake disappearing piece by piece from the High Table in front of the Headmistress and appears magically one portion each with one piece of cake on each golden plate on every circular table.When the cake has distributed itself equally among the circular tables,also leaving several pieces at the High Table for the Hogwarts Professors and the Headmistress,Headmistress Oshiro claps her hand and then tells us to join our hands in prayer.We fold our hands and join in prayer with closed eyes along with Headmistress Oshiro.After some time,as we finish praying,Headmistress Oshiro opens her eyes and claps,then announces the beginning of the Christmas feast by tapping her mug with a spoon,and saying,"You may begin.Merry Christmas.".Christmas dinner at Hogwarts is traditionally served on a joined table for twelve instead of the regular house tables which are removed,as very few students remain at Hogwarts during the Christmas vacations,and is an occassion for great feasting and merry-making and socializing for the Hogwarts students,staff and Professors alike.However,nowadays,the number of students at Hogwarts has increased,therefore a table for twelve is not enough.Hence,the four house tables are removed as done traditionally,but instead of a table for twelve,the Great Hall is converted into a grand dining hall fit for a large feast,with several round or circular tables and chairs all around the Great Hall.The food is served by the house elves,and magically appears on the plates and the leftovers and used cutlery magically disappear from the plates,just like during regular meals,however the utensils,cutlery,plates,bowls,tureens,mugs and cups are beautifully decorated,tied with colorful ribbons and streamers,and are glowing and sparkling.Rose and I sit at a circular table,on two chairs across from each other,and the Christmas feast is served.We start with the Christmas cake cut by Headmistress Oshiro and find it delicious.Then we partake of the rest of the delicious Christmas feast at Hogwarts.The Christmas feast consists of a hundred fat,roast turkeys,mountains of roast and boiled potatoes,platters of fat chipolatas,tureens of buttered peas,silver boats of thick,rich gravy and cranberry sauce. For dessert,flaming Christmas puddings are served,with silver Sickles hidden within the pudding.Also on the circular tables,scattered everywhere are Wizard Crackers.This is the biggest Christmas feast I have had in my life and I find each and every food served at the feast delicious.Christmas songs play merrily in the background as we feast,and the Great Hall is full of loud cannon-sound like explosions,because of people pulling the wizard crackers.Rose and I both enjoy the feast very much,and then after the lip-smacking delicious feast,we dance to the merry tune of the Christmas songs for a while,then play a few rounds of Hogwartle in the Hogwartle corridor.We pull some wizard crackers and after some loud explosions and after coughing fits and coughing puffs of blue smoke,we find some more Christmas hats and a gobstones kit.There are two gobstones kits we found after pulling quite a few wizard crackers,so Rose takes one and I take one.Rose and I then take some treats from the still ongoing feast at the circular tables in the Great Hall for our respective pet owls.Then,we admire our Christmas gifts and presents and try to learn to play gobstones for a while in the Great Hall after which we mentally thank the house elves for such a delicious feast and then retreat to our dorms,feed our owls with the treats we brought for them from the Christmas feast in their cages,and give them some water in their water bowls using the charm "Aguamenti",and then lie down,exhausted and tired,to sleep.

I wake up next morning and rub my eyes.There are still a few days left for my Christmas vacations to finish,after the great Hogwarts Christmas feast,which I enjoyed very much.Hedwig Two or Queenie has been eating the Christmas treats and its leftovers I brought for her from the Christmas feast in the Great Hall at Hogwarts for several days now,and she seems to never finish eating them.I wonder when she will get rid of the leftovers and let me clean her cage.I spend my days practising charms,learning how to play and playing gobstones and wizarding chess,practising all the spells I learnt in each class,visiting the greenhouse(I haven't been neglecting my plants in the greenhouse for even a single day until now.I have always managed time once every day until now to visit the greenhouse and take care of my plants.If I haven't mentioned it in my diary,it is only because I either just forgot or considered to be part of my daily routine and hence mundane and boring to be described.) and taking care of my plants with Rose who also takes care of her own plants in the greenhouse while visiting there with me,hanging around and walking around the corridors in the Hogwarts castle and the staircases,exploring the various corners of the Hogwarts castle,and watching the portraits and talking to them.I also,meanwhile,buy some candies from Camomille Nott and share them with Rose during the holidays,and Rose buys a lot of chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes and shares them with me,while we spend our time eating these treats and reading the wrappers of our chocolate frogs and the information on the cards inside them and watching the magical photographs on the cards inside the wrappers of the chocolate frogs.I also from time to time clean my dorm and my four poster bed and trunk and bookshelf and Hedwig Two's or Queenie's cage and water bowl using the spell "Scourgify",and fill Hedwig Two's or Queenie's water bowl using "Aguamenti" daily.I also from time to time practise the other simple spells I learnt in Hogwarts outside my classes during my first half of term in first year at Hogwarts.I also do a very important thing during my holidays,which is I rewrite the introductory essay for the essay assignment for my first introductory lesson in Astronomy in first year,which I never submitted earlier as I had lost it.This rewritten essay is definitely not the same as the first one,and is also much shorter as I did not put as much effort this time due to exhaustion,but I write it in accordance to whatever stuff I remember thinking during and writing about in the first essay.I then submit my essay to my Astronomy Professor,Professor Robert Plumb,who owls me next morning,sending me my grades on the essay,having read my essay and graded it for the essay assignment I wrote it for her.The owl from him brings me a message saying that I recieved a 100 marks or full marks on the essay for the essay assignment,and got awarded 10 house points for it.The feedback note on my essay for me from my Professor for the essay assignment,included in the message,reads,"Good job!".That means I now have 715 house points earned by me for Gryffindor until now,to my name.I also update the printed version of my diary in the library every morning with whatever I have written until that morning.With so many things to do daily,the Christmas Holidays finish very soon and time passes by quickly until the Hogwarts Express arrives one evening at the Hogsmeade station,bringing back all the students who had gone home for their Christmas vacations,including Lacey.They all come back to the castle,walking across the,now in the winter,frozen Great Lake,accompanied by the Care of Magical Creatures Professor,Professor Anne.They all come traipsing into the Great Hall with their luggages and packed trunks,and make their way straight to the dorms.Lacey waves excitedly and happily at Rose and me as she enters,and makes for the Slytherin dorm with her luggage and trunk and her tawny owl perched on her shoulders.Rose and I wave excitedly back at Lacey,as we are sitting at our usual house tables in the Great Hall,having dinner,the last dinner for the Christmas Holidays in our first year at Hogwarts.Though I am a bit sad at the holidays ending,I was for sure waiting for my classes to begin again as I was missing the classes and my magical studies and I was waiting for Lacey to come back too,as Rose and I both missed her a lot though we both enjoyed and had a lot of fun with each other,even in Lacey's absence.I watch the students who have just returned to Hogwarts from their Christmas holidays at their homes,filing into the Great Hall,and filling up the empty seats at the house tables in the Great Hall which have been quite empty for some time,after leaving their luggage and trunks back in their dorms,with mixed feelings.I realize that I will have to start the daily slightly exhausting routine of Hogwarts classes and studies again,as I look at these students,but I am excited to see them back and the house tables filled by them again.I finish dinner with tripe,mashed potatoes,gravy,toasted bread and rice pudding,and treacle tart,and drink water and go back to my dorm to sleep after waving to Lacey and Rose in the Great Hall.