Chapter 42. Hermione's Christmas.
The snow outside wasn't falling heavily.
Hermione curled up in bed, staring blankly at the snowflakes outside the window for a while, when her mother's voice called from outside the bedroom.
"Get up quickly, you have to eat breakfast on time, otherwise it will be bad for your stomach later."
"Okay."
She slowly changed out of her pajamas in bed, put on wool socks, let her slightly messy, fluffy long hair fall loose, and slipped on her slippers to go to the bathroom to wash up.
When she arrived in the living room, Mr. Granger had already finished breakfast and was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper.
"Go eat breakfast, then you can open your presents."
Hermione suddenly perked up, and she skipped along in her slippers to her family's little Christmas tree.
Sure enough, there was a small pile of presents there.
Mrs. Granger's voice came from the kitchen.
"Hermione! Eat first!"
Hermione responded loudly, dissatisfied.
"Mommy, I'm not opening the presents, I just want to look!"
She said, counting the gift boxes of varying sizes under the tree on her fingers.
"Daddy's, Mommy's, Grandpa and Grandma's, Aunt Percy's, Uncle Coulson's, Uncle Mike's, Cousin Senior's, Nancy's, Helen's.
After counting, she became unhappy.
She stomped her foot and stormed off to the dining room for breakfast.
Mr. Granger put down his newspaper, looking at his daughter's inexplicable tantrum with a puzzled expression: "What's wrong? You have more presents this year than last year."
The little girl angrily sliced the fried egg on her plate into four pieces with her knife.
"Nothing, I just didn't see one of that liar's presents! I even prepared one especially for him, planning to give it to him when he got back..."
Her voice trailed off, and the Grangers couldn't hear her.
After breakfast, Hermione opened her presents listlessly.
The gifts from the adults were always the same, and her friends at school offered no surprises either.
"I'm off!"
After putting away her unwrapped gifts, Hermione changed her shoes at the door and called out loudly.
"Wear your gloves, scarf, and hat, so you don't lose them while running around outside!"
"Okay, okay!"
The cold air outside made Hermione shrink her neck. She tightened her scarf, hopped around a couple of times, and then, braving the light snow, ran towards the neighbor's yard.
At the gate, she skillfully pulled a small bunch of keys from her pocket, deftly selected one, and opened the gate.
She first ran to the garden to look at Lynn's most treasured flowers.
Unfortunately, due to the season, Hermione couldn't save them; they all withered in the autumn, leaving only a few dead branches.
Now, where the flowers used to be, there are several small mounds of earth—the flower graves. She thought that even if the flowers died, she wanted to give Lynn an explanation when he returned, so she dug a few holes and buried the withered branches in the ground.
After making sure the "graves" hadn't been dug up by those mischievous stray dogs, Hermione opened the door and entered Lynn's house.
It was still as spotless as when Lynn left.
Just as she had promised, Hermione would come here to clean every week.
At home, her mother always complained that she didn't share the housework, but when cleaning Lynn's house, she was very diligent.
Skillfully picking up the mop, Hermione began her weekly cleaning work, starting with the innermost room on the second floor.
By the time she finished most of her work, it was almost noon.
Looking at the clean and tidy room, she let out a long sigh, then rubbed her slightly flushed cheeks, put her scarf, hat, and gloves back on, locked the door to the Lynn family's living room, and went out into the yard.
As she locked the gate, she saw the snow piled up in the yard and thought to herself that she would have to come back in a couple of days to clear it, otherwise the Lynn family's lawn would be ruined once it melted.
On the way back, the girl's mood, like the unpredictable London weather, kept changing, and suddenly she became angry again.
She was angry at herself.
She had been busy all day, and yet someone hadn't even delivered the promised gift.
Hermione, Hermione, you're such an idiot!
She returned home sulking, and Mrs. Granger was already making lunch.
"Where did you run off to all morning?"
"Nowhere."
Hermione replied listlessly, growing angrier with each passing day, and then ran upstairs to her room.
She lay on the bed, burying her face in the blankets, feeling increasingly wronged, and the more wronged she felt, the more she wanted to cry.
Just as she pouted, her eyes reddening, about to secretly sob, a knocking sound came from outside her bedroom window.
Hermione forced back her tears and turned to look out the window.
An owl was watching her through the glass.
Seeing that the little girl had noticed it, it pecked at the windowpane with its beak.
Hermione was initially surprised, but then she became excited.
Because she saw a small but cleverly wrapped gift box under the owl's talons.
She immediately swooped down to the window and opened it for the owl to fly in.
The owl from Hogwarts gracefully shook the snowflakes off its wings outside the window before flying into Hermione's room and tossing the gift box into the little girl's hands.
Hermione eagerly opened the gift box.
Just as she expected, the gift was from Lynn.
Inside was a pendant with a tiny crystal ball attached. Inside the crystal ball was a castle, and just like the weather outside, magical snowflakes were drifting down.
"Hogwarts?" Hermione brought the crystal ball close to her eyes, finally managing to make out the sign on the castle.
At the bottom of the gift box was a note left by Lynn, which read: "
This is your future castle."
Seeing this, Hermione's face suddenly flushed slightly. She felt that Lynn was subtly praising her as a princess.
"Glib!
" she cursed inwardly, then couldn't resist glancing at the pendant in her hand, happily putting it around her neck.
An owl, having traveled a long way, circled above Hermione's head for a while, watching the little girl's alternating silly giggles and angry expressions.
Feeling that she wasn't going to give him any reward for his efforts, it huffed and puffed and flew away from her room.
Hermione,meanwhile, was rolling around on the bed clutching the pendant, completely oblivious to when the owl had left.
After a while, she realized she was getting a little too excited and couldn't help but mentally berate herself again:
Hermione, Hermione, you're such an idiot!
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(End of Chapter)