At dawn, Harry woke up in Hagrid's hut.
Thinking back to the day he'd spent with Cho Chang yesterday, he felt in a great mood.
Since the school grounds and surrounding areas were covered in snow, Harry had already given up on his usual runs a few days ago.
He got up, returned to the dorm to wash up, and followed his usual routine.
Then, he made his way to the greenhouse behind the school to check on the herb garden.
Yesterday, as instructed by Professor Sprout, he had used his so-called warming spell to keep the plants warm.
Inside the greenhouse, everything looked to be growing normally—if anything, even a bit better.
…
There was no snowfall today.
The sky was a hazy white.
Though the sun was absent, looking up at the sky could still make one feel dazzled.
Harry, a bit bored, played with Little Cutie.
"Harry," came a voice from a distance.
Cho Chang had arrived.
She wasn't in her school robes—after all, it was the holidays.
She wore light blue jeans and a red puffer coat down to her knees, with black boots on her feet, her long hair draped over her shoulders, and a grey-and-white fuzzy hat on her head.
But she hadn't worn gloves. As she skipped toward him, she pressed her hands to her mouth, breathing warm air into them.
Harry carefully observed how different she looked from her usual black-uniformed self. She radiated a lively and youthful vibe, like a completely different person.
Damn school uniforms, Harry thought.
Then again, he remembered the ones from a certain country in the East—those were even worse.
…
Regretfully, there was no spell to instantly conjure the perfect snowman—nor a magical tool for it. But truthfully, if such a thing existed, Harry might not want to use it anyway.
After all, what's the point of building a snowman if you're not rolling up snow with frozen hands, laughing, and having impromptu snowball fights?
Soon, Harry had finished shaping the snowman's body. Cho, meanwhile, kept redoing the snowman's head because it didn't look round enough—refusing to let Harry help her at all.
…
Harry used a Levitation Charm to gently place Cho's snowball head onto the body.
Then came the decorations: two bright red jujubes from the kitchen for the eyes, which instantly brought the snowman to life. A long yellow carrot for the nose. A bent sausage gave the snowman a silly little smile.
As Cho stuck two broomsticks into the snowman's sides for arms, she nervously asked, "Are you sure Professor Hooch won't care that we're using school brooms for this?"
Harry replied calmly, "Don't worry, Professor Hooch has taken leave. She's not at school."
"Whew, that's a relief," said Cho. As a model student, she never would've done something like this if a bad influence wasn't guiding her step by step.
The two of them made some final tweaks to the snowman's shape to smooth it out.
Then, Harry and Cho stepped back to admire their creation.
"Not bad. Looks great," Harry said, clearly satisfied.
Cho, after scrutinizing it, suddenly had an idea—and turned her eyes to Harry.
She reached out and wrapped her hands around his neck.
It was so sudden.
"W-What are you doing?! That's harassment!" Harry yelped.
Turned out, Harry had jumped to conclusions.
Cho simply took the thick scarf off his neck and wrapped it around the snowman. Only then did she nod in satisfaction.
Harry looked like he might cry. He shivered as the cold wind whipped against his now-exposed neck.
That scarf had been a top-brand wizard product—Doctor Lantern's latest release, made of 100% wool, highly insulated, crafted through a dozen magical processes and free of preservatives... ahem.
Cho happily looked at the dopey snowman, now wearing Harry's scarf.
Thankfully, she hadn't forgotten the generous donor behind it. She reached up on her tiptoes, nervously fiddled with Harry's collar to fold it up around his neck, then pulled the pitifully staring boy away from the snowman.
"Stop staring. Or do you really want your scarf back—soaked with melted snow?"
Harry scooped up a handful of snow and stuffed it down the back of Cho's coat, laughing hysterically as he dashed away.
"Harry!" Cho screamed. She jumped in place, trying to shake out the snow from under her clothes, then gritted her teeth and chased after him.
…
The rest of the morning was spent in the library, where the two continued studying the Half-Blood Prince's notes. If Harry hadn't dragged her away, Cho could have read until nightfall without moving.
"Where are we going?" she asked reluctantly.
"You really plan to study straight through until term starts again?"
"Wrong. I'll keep studying after term starts too."
Harry was about to launch into a lecture about balance between work and rest—but Cho's playful smirk gave her away. She was teasing him.
"How about we explore Hogwarts thoroughly this holiday?" Harry suggested. "I've been here for months and still haven't seen everything."
"Sure," Cho agreed. She didn't mention she was already quite familiar with the layout of the school.
Hogwarts was massive. Harry had realized that when he first arrived, but it wasn't until he walked the grounds himself that he truly grasped how vast it was.
Towers, classrooms, staircases, passageways… Harry and Cho wandered through the quiet, mysterious castle. Even after an entire afternoon, they had only seen a small portion.
They encountered all kinds of oddities and magical objects with strange effects. Even though Cho already knew the school's layout, she had never explored it so thoroughly before.
By the end of it, both of them were exhausted and dragging their feet.
…
At dinner, they were so worn out they could barely keep upright. The dining hall, though sparsely populated, still looked beautiful thanks to the festive decorations and didn't feel lonely.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. The few remaining students chatted animatedly about their plans, and the atmosphere was lively.
Harry thought to himself: Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow.
Got a lot of things to buy…
.
.
.
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