Christmas at Hogwarts

As December of 2013 rolled around, the weather started to feel much colder than it already was. The clouds turned from the usual dull-grey to a wintry-white as snow began to cover the entirety of the castle grounds halfway through the month, just in time for the holidays. As soon as December 1st struck, Hagrid had already began lumbering in a pile of fresh oak trees to use for Christmas decorations in the Great Hall. By the afternoon of that same day, all twelve of them were standing around the tables, with the largest of the bunch being front-and-centre behind the teachers’ chairs. However, there weren’t any decorations displayed on them yet due to the staff being awfully busy at the time.

Once the students had gone to their homes for the holidays, things were beginning to calm down a lot at Hogwarts. Some students stayed behind for Christmas — Matthew being one of them. His family had left the UK that Christmas and were spending it in New York away from their familiar environment. Matthew, however, wanted to stay in the school with his friends.

On Christmas Eve, Matthew entered the Great Hall one last time before the big day. He saw Professor Flitwick levitating golden ornaments and hanging them on the trees’ branches, with some other students assisting him by hanging shiny tinsel across the walls. The mystical night sky that usually hovered above them was filled with candles and a calm snow storm. He also saw his friends gathered around on the Ravenclaw table, surrounded by all kinds of treats: chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, mince pies, treacle tarts, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, and Matthew’s favourite beverage, butterbeer.

“Matthew!” Called out a familiar lioness from the group, smiling wide — it was none other than his Quidditch captain, Jan.

The wolf quickly made his way to the table and once arriving there was greeted by his friends: Kara, Tanro, Lanya, Caim, Noah, Lee with his girlfriend Carmen, and Jan, of course.

“I saved a spot for you right next to me,” said the lioness, patting the empty spot beside her.

Shortly after, Matthew took a seat with his friends and was offered all the delicious snacks they had to offer. Lee knowing the wolf very well, he knew he’d go for the butterbeer straight away.

“See? I told you he’d go right for that!” His statement was followed by laughter from the group.

As the evening progressed, the bunch of them had a wonderful time; they pulled some magical crackers that had a delightful surprise inside, played Wizard’s Chess and shared plenty of tasty treats. After a while, Matthew noticed Jan had left her seat. He took a look around and she was nowhere to be seen at first glance. However, he managed to catch a glimpse of her long tail following behind her as she walked out of the Hall’s entrance.

While the bunch continued to chat, Matthew stood up from his seat. Curious, the wolf headed to Entrance Hall to check up on her. Why did she suddenly wander off?

The chattering of his friends suppressed as he pushed open the large, golden doors and stepped outside. In front of him was the lioness herself, standing alone under the arch of the courtyard’s doors with her back facing him. Quietly, he walked towards her and stood by her side, looking up at the night sky with her.

“It’s a beautiful night, huh?”

“Yeah, I’d certainly say so,” Matthew agreed, a moment of silence being shared between them soon after.

“What are you still doing here, anyway?” He asked.

“My brother and I always stay at Hogwarts during the holidays,” the lioness explained. “My parents go to South Africa every year and we stay here.”

The wolf only nodded and hummed at her in response.

“What about you?”

“Well,” he began. “My family have gone to New York this year for Christmas. I asked if I could stay here and my mum approved. Wanted to experience the festive season here for once.”

“Ahh, I see...well, it was a pleasant surprise to see you’re staying here for the holidays.”

“It was?”

“Yeah!” Jan roared happily. “I enjoy spending time with you.”

Matthew eyes moved from the snowy sky and focused now on Jan, his cheeks reddening slightly underneath his grey fur.

Since he joined the Quidditch team, he’s gotten to know her overtime. He always wondered why he liked her so much, but was constantly reminded of the answer just from being around her — was it her looks? Her personality? The way she talked to him? For Matthew, it was all of the above.

“Hey, Math,” the lioness started. “There’s something I gotta get off my chest.”

“Then take it off,” he quickly responded, making a gesture as if something was physically there on her. This sent her into a bit of a giggle fit.

“Funny, wolf...but seriously, I gotta tell you something...”

“Okay...” Matthew turned his whole body towards her to show she had his full attention. “I’m all ears.”

Jan took a deep breath with her eyes closed and let it all out shortly after as a way to prepare herself. From all the times that he’s interacted with her during his time at Hogwarts, he had never seen her so nervous.

“Math, when I’m around you...I feel good. There’s something about you that just makes me smile. You’re sweet, funny, clever — I knew that I’d made the right choice in adding you to the team last year, and I’m so glad it was you that applied for Seeker.”

During her speech, Matthew’s red cheeks were becoming a lot more brighter under his fur. His heart even skipped a beat.

“So, what I’m trying to say is...I like you. A lot.” Jan admitted to the wolf.

Matthew stood as still as a statue. He couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth — all those feelings he had towards her were mutual to her all along, and he was relieved.

“W-wow...” he said out loud.

“I know — I’m really sorry, but I had to—“

“Jan...I like you, too.”

The long tail behind her flicked at his response, her own cheeks flushing pink as she stared into his eyes.

“You do?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “SO much...Ever since last year after when I joined — whenever I’ve been in a room with you — I always feel all...fuzzy. I’ve asked myself overtime what it was that I liked about you, but there wasn’t anything specific — it was everything. There isn’t a thing I don’t like about you.”

Meanwhile, his heart started to beat at a faster pace as he watched the lips of the lioness curve into a wide smile.

“You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that,” said Jan.

For a brief moment, there was some silence. For the two of them, it felt like five minutes had passed since either of them spoke, until Matthew finally broke the ice.

“So...where do we go from here?”

In an instant, as if she planned it in her head in that short moment shared between them, she brought up her hand and dug it into the inside of her robe.

“Well, since it’s Christmas...” she began to speak with that wide smile still on her face. “I have an idea.”

“And what would that be?” he wondered.

Jan brought out her wand, pointed it upwards and said, “Orchideous.”

Matthew looked up to see a pink light forming above them, and magically appeared a mistletoe soon after that hung just under the Great Hall’s entrance.

At this point, he knew what was happening; his heart began to beat even faster as she took a slight step forward in front of him, the wolf doing the same and meeting her halfway.

“Merry Christmas, Math,” she whispered, just inches away from his muzzle.

“M-Merry Christmas...”

As the space between them shrunk more and more, Matthew’s heart pounded faster and faster. His face turned red completely at that point as her scent crept into his nose.

Nervously, he pecked the lioness’ cheek and backed up to look at her, his entire face warming up. Her eyes shot open and looked directly at his own, which only made him feel even more embarrassed than he already was.

“Hey, you missed...” said Jan.

“Huh? What you m—“

Before he could finish his sentence, his response was cut off by the feline as she leaned in and kissed his lips.

Their lips connected for a brief second to test the waters, until finally locking together once she knew he was comfortable. The pounding beats of his heart continued to speed up, until reaching its peak and calming down all of a sudden. He questioned whether or not she was liking it, until Jan slowly wrapped her arms around his torso. Finally, all those nerves had washed away in the span of a few seconds. In response to her actions, he proceeded to wrap his own around her, too. The moment shared between them wasn’t like anything they’d ever experienced in their lives. There was nothing that could happen that would ruin their time together—

*Creak*

Their kissing was interrupted by the sound of the Great Hall’s door behind them opening up, and standing outside them was none other than Lee.

“Oh sorry, did I interrupt something?” He asked.

“Uh — no!” Jan responded, quickly backing away from Matthew so they were separated again.

“C’mon, Jan...we all knew there was something going on between you two. You were so protective of him during matches, it was obvious.”

All she did was scratch the back of her head with a slight chuckle escaping her mouth.

“Anyway, you guys coming back in? We’re gonna play some more games!”

Now that their nerves were eased, the wolf and lioness looked at each other for a second and smiled before facing back to the hyena.

“Let’s do it,” Jan answered.

Shortly after, the three of them made their way back into the Great Hall and joined their friends once again for the rest of the Christmas Eve night.

At that time of year, it was a perfectly normal occurrence to be surprised during the holiday. For Matthew, getting a kiss under the mistletoe from his crush was certainly a wonderful surprise for him.

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So guys, this is the Christmas story I had planned! Apologies for the delay — I’ve been very distracted with a lot of mental issues lately, so I put everything aside so I could readjust myself. Hopefully I won’t have to do that again, and stories should start coming much sooner. I really hope y’all like this one! I tried to make this one really cute and cozy <3

As always, the art was done by the amazing Jailbird!

January the lioness belongs to my wonderful friend, December!