"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values." -Thomas S. Monson.

Twas the Day before Christmas and all throughout Hogwarts. People were wrapping up the first half of the Hogwarts year. And to say that a lot had happened would be a great understatement. To begin, was the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and Trotsky's threat of consequences. Followed by the attack of a Wampus Cat on Red Dust in Hogsmeade. And just when it didn't seem like it couldn't get worse, Penny Haywood was captured, but was rescued by Ethan and Jacob Bauer, Tulip Karasu, Barnaby Lee, Diego Caplain, and Erika Rath. Then came the journey to Japan. And finally... the destruction of St. Mungo's. Talk about an interesting first half to the year.  

But now... the glorious time had come again. Christmas Time. The time of year of Snow falling on the ground with frost covering the Quidditch Pitch. And making Hagrid go out and fetch a Christmas Tree for the Great Hall. With the decorations all seeming in glow. And students were heading out for the doors eager to see their families for Christmas. Which at the rate that things were going in the War, might be the last time. 

Just some Hogwarts Students were staying for the Holidays. Ethan was staying. Jacob and Lizzie would be coming up to Hogwarts to spend Christmas with Ethan. Ben would be going home. As he tended to do all years of Hogwarts. As well as the members of the Circle of Khanna would be staying as well.

That evening in the Great Hall saw many different students of different years leaving for the Holidays. And Ghosts were out in the halls singing Carols.  

Tonks walked into some. "Sorry." She said.

"No harm done." The Ghosts assured. 

Tonks walked up to where Penny was looking at all the decorations being put on the tree. "Hey, Penny." She greeted.

"Hey, Tonks." Penny greeted back with a smile.

"You seem to be in a good mood." Tonks noted.

"I am." Penny replied with a smile. "It's just that time of year again. And I'm not in a cage or dead."

"And you and Ethan..." Tonks added. 

"Yeah..." Penny said dreamily. 

"So... how was Ethan doing that night?" Tonks asked.

"Good." Penny answered.

"I bet." Tonks smirked.

Penny looked embarrassed. "What's that suppose to mean?" She asked.

Tonks shrugged. "Nothing. So... did you and Ethan-?"

"No comment." Penny quickly shut her down.

"Penny, it's fine." Tonks assured. "Come on. We're best friends, aren't we?" 

Penny nodded. "The Best. But you're not getting that answer." 

"Don't need to. Already did." Tonks replied.

"Bishop to E5." Ben was saying as he was playing Wizards Chess with Charlie. Fred, George, Barnaby, Ethan, and Rath were watching the game. 

"Bad move, Ben." Ethan warned watching the Game.

"Get him, Charlie." Fred said.

Charlie smiled. "Queen to E5." He watched as the little Queen figurine got off of her chair and destroyed Ben's Bishop.

"Suck it Copper!" George shouted.

"Told you not to make that move." Ethan told Ben. 

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Ben justified. "You want a turn, Rath?"

"No thanks." Rath answered. "Never been a big fan of chess."

"Suit yourself." Ben replied. 

"You know. I'm actually surprised to see you relaxing for once. Given with what's been going on with R." Ethan commented to Ben.

"Yeah. I don't know why, but with Christmas it's like I feel a need to relax all the time. Mum and Dad tell me not to be overworked too much on Christmas." Ben explained. "Though I am surprised to see that R's not planning anything." 

"Maybe they respect Christmas as a time of peace too?" Barnaby suggested.

Everyone looked at Barnaby. "Well even Trotsky wouldn't mess with Santa Clause." Barnaby said.

"Santa? Really?" Rath asked.

"Don't mock Santa Clause." Barnaby advised. "He's the greatest Wizard to ever live. Even though he may seem crazy considering that he lives up in the North Pole with House Elves and with Reindeer." 

"He lives with House Elves?" Ben asked.

"Well the Muggles seem to think that they're just normal Elves." Barnaby answered. "And we can't just go off and advertise House Elves to Muggles now can we?" 

"I suppose not." Ben admitted.

"And it's because of Santa that I was able to make my childhood fun." Barnaby added. "Even if my parents seemed to think that I was an idiot. They were right of course. But it still hurt." 

"That's actually kind of sad, Barnaby." Fred commented.

"Yeah. But all we got one year was coal." George said.

Charlie nodded. He could vouch for that. "And who's fault was that? You gave Ron his phobia of Spiders when you turned his Teddy Bear into a Spider." He asked the Twins. 

"Well, Ron broke my toy broomstick." Fred justified.

"He was 3." Charlie pointed out.

"That's no excuse." George said.

"You see what I have to deal with, guys?" Charlie asked everyone in attendance. "Siblings. Especially when they're twins."

That's when an Owl flew down and landed right next to Rath. "You have an Owl, Rath?" Ben asked.

"No. He's my Dad's." Rath answered. "Thanks, David. Get up." Her Owl flew away. 

"From your parents?" Ben asked. 

"From my Dad." Rath corrected. "Just wishing me a Happy Christmas." 

"What about, Mum?" Ben asked. 

Rath folded up the letter. "No." She answered sitting down. "She's gone." 

"Oh, sorry to hear-" Charlie started to say. 

"She's not dead. She's just gone." Rath interrupted. And she realized that she walked into a Hornet's nest with that one. "Well, might as well tell you guys." 

"Tell us what?" Ethan asked.

"My Mother walked out on me and Dad when I was 6." Rath answered. "Or rather I should say, she ran off with some wealthy French Wizard Baron and ditched us." And she just starred off cold at the fire place. 

And Rath decided to tell them what had happened. "My Childhood had two things in life that could always be guaranteed. Yelling by my Parents. And a Toy Broom. And with the yelling being at each other. We lived out in Whales. My Father worked a simple job. He worked in the Department of Mysteries with a love of Quidditch. He came home and brought his job and supported his 2 Girls." Rath started.   

"2 Girls?" Ethan asked. 

"Yeah... that's the other thing. I've got an older sister who doesn't speak to me at all, and when she did she called me a brat." Rath answered. 

"Did she?" Ben asked.

"She did." Rath replied. "Anyway. One day. I could overhear my Mum and Dad fighting all the time. Mum kept asking for all these lavish and other things. She was a Gold Digger, and taking advantage of the money my Father had earned through his work. Never really gave a thought to me and my sister."  

That was horrible to hear to Ethan. "That's horrible." 

"Not as horrible as what happened next." Rath was just getting started. When I was 5, a French Dignitary from the French Ministry of Magic visited Whales. Our family if you could even call it that at the time attended. Mother's suggestion of course. Or rather it was her demand. She was talking an awful lot to this one French Baron, who's name I'm not even going to say right now. Little did I know where that conversation would lead."  

"I think I know where this is going." Ethan said. 

"Anyway. Mum didn't come home that night. And I was wondering why. Until that night when she snatched me and my older sister. She told us that we were leaving to go to France. When I asked if I could bring any of my stuff, she told me that I would be getting new stuff, and not that junk. But it was very special junk to me." Rath continued. 

"So, you Mum left your Dad for some French Baron?" Charlie asked.

Rath nodded. "We were heading on a boat to go across the Channel at the docks. But I didn't want to leave. I would be leaving Dad, My Quidditch Toys, and our family. I knew I couldn't go to France. So I did the only thing I could do at the time."  

"So what did you do?" Ben asked.

"I slammed on my Mother's foot and jumped into the water by the docks." Rath answered. "The Police found me and took me back to my Dad. She left me and my Dad for some wealthy Self Entitled Baron. And she took my sister with her. They left because me and Dad weren't good enough for her. I mean... how could she do that?!" Rath proceeded to throw her Quidditch stick to the ground and then slumped down. 

Ethan looked at Rath. "So that's why she's so untrusting and of few words." He thought.

"I learned two things that day. 1. I hate people that feel entitled. 2. Never trust anyone. 3. You want something, you gotta do it yourself." Rath replied. 

"Rath... that's 3 things." Ethan pointed out.

"Oh yeah." Rath realized.  

Everyone looked at Rath. "Well, now you know." Rath said. "Doesn't matter now. I suppose. For now. I just want to have fun and enjoy Christmas." 

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that." Barnaby informed. "Because I decided to try my hand in baking some desserts for all the members of the Circle of Khanna." He held out a dish in his hands. "Please say hello to the world famous Barnaby Lee Cookies." He introduced.

"You made these?" Ethan asked impressed.

"Well, don't just let your mouth water. Try one." Barnaby insisted.

Ethan put one in his mouth. But when his tongue bit the cookie dough, he spat it out. It tasted bitter and hallow. "I think you need to add sugar in these cookies, Barnaby." He suggested.

"Oh... You know. I wondered why that tasted so bitter." Barnaby replied.

"I'm good." Ben said.

"Right behind ya." Rath scooted away.

"Hey, anybody seen Tulip?" Charlie asked.

"Oh, she's spending her holidays outside." Ben answered.

"Again?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah. You know Tulip. She tends to act like a bit of a Grinch around this time of year." Ben answered.

And everyone seemed to be enjoying the Christmas Eve. Which brings us to how this tale of Christmas goes horribly wrong. But could probably be later fixed. For one person's Christmas Season there was one who wasn't feeling into the spirit. Her name was Tulip Karasu. 

Tulip was looking at all the Christmas festivities go up. "Well, isn't that all grand, Dennis?" Tulip asked. "Celebrating one day of the year, when any other day can celebrated just as easily." 

Dennis croaked at her. "What, Dennis? I'm just saying. Leave to Hogwarts to make a big deal of something that's just not worth the effort." Tulip protested.

"Someone's acting like a scrooge." A voice interrupted.

Tulip turned to see Jae standing next to her. "Jae, what are you doing here? Where's Chiara-" Tulip stopped herself. "It's the Full Moon tonight."

"Yeah. I offered to go with Chiara. But she insisted she go alone to the Forbidden Forest for this one." Jae explained. "Not a good first date huh?" He asked with a bit of a joke.

"Ha! Ha!" Tulip sarcastically said. 

"See. There it is right there. Your Scrooge side showing. Again." Jae said.

"Well, I just don't see what the big deal about Christmas is." Tulip replied. "It's all just overblown and worshiping a fat guy in a red suit." 

That's when Jae put a smug smile on his face. "Oh, I get it." 

"What?" Tulip asked.

"You're on Santa's Naughty List." Jae answered.

"I'm what?" Tulip asked.

"Well, I mean, you don't celebrate the Holidays, you cause some rule breaking during the year. And... you are cynical and disappointed." Jae listed.

"No, I'm not. And even if the Naughty List does exist. Shouldn't you be on that list too?" Tulip asked.

"Yeah. But I'm not worried." Jae replied. "You see, I got this whole philosophy that when you do a bunch of wrongs all throughout the years. You do one good thing during the Christmas Season and your slate is wiped clean." 

Tulip was about to ask more when she heard a voice. 

"Hey, guys!" Barnaby yelled. 

It made Tulip and Dennis jump. Or rather Dennis jumped higher than Tulip did. 

"You're part frog now, Tulip?" Barnaby asked.

"No." Tulip answered. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd bring you all back to the castle. No one should be alone on Christmas." Barnaby explained.

"Well you two can go. I'm just fine out here with Dennis." Tulip insisted.

"What?" Jae and Barnaby asked. "You want to be alone, tonight?"

"Why not? I've been on my own before." Tulip replied. 

"But it's Christmas you know-" Barnaby started to say. 

Tulip was about to say something else, but she closed her mouth. 

"She's just upset because she's on the naughty list." Jae explained.

"That's not it, Jae." Tulip protested. "Christmas just doesn't work out for me." 

"You mean..." Barnaby felt his heart break. "Santa never got you what you wanted for Christmas? That's messed up!" He said.

"Well, what does it matter? Frankly, I'm not even sure he exists." Tulip replied. 

"Oh he's real. I know because I've met him." Barnaby pointed out.

"Barnaby!" Tulip suddenly snapped. "Santa does not exist! And even if he did exist, how would he be able to just go down any chimney and deliver presents to all over the world?!" 

"Um... well." Barnaby stuttered. 

"Well. It's because there is only one conclusion! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SANTA CLAUS!" Tulip exclaimed.

And on that note. Barnaby started to cry and run away. "Barnaby wait-" Tulip regretted immediately what she said as she started to go after him.

"Oh that's real smooth, Tulip." Jae commented just shaking his head. "I know you have your issues with the Holidays, but did you really have to make Barnaby cry like that?" 

Dennis croaked at Tulip like he agreed with what Jae said. 

"No." Tulip admitted. 

"Well, regardless." Jae handed out something to Tulip. "Here. Even you deserve a present on Christmas, Tulip Karascrooge." 

"A present?" Tulip asked. She was going to thank Jae but he had started to walk away. Tulip unwrapped it and it was revealed to be an ever bashing boomerang. 

"Yeah. I modified it for your own prank wars you can have with Tonks. Had to grease a few palms at Knockturn Alley to get it." Jae explained. "Go ahead. Give it whirl!" 

Tulip tossed it into the air. It made a whizzing sound and soared into the air. And Tulip even seemed to be enjoying it. Until, there was a bonking sound. And something fell down to the ground. 

"What the-" Tulip could see a large red comet falling down to the earth. 

Jae turned around to see it. "Huh. That wasn't my products." He said. "Maybe I should check it out."

Tulip ran over to see what had fallen. And along the path that was by Hagrid's Hut, she saw a bunch of stuff. "Candy Canes?" She asked. 

"Tulip!" Jae called. "Is it an R, attack?" He asked.

"I don't think so." Tulip answered. She then looked at some stuffed toy. And some... "coal?" She looked at the crash site.  

"Oh my god." Jae realized.

"Is that-?" Tulip looked at the sight of 9 Reindeer, a crashed sleigh, and some guy in a Red Suit and strong white beard who was passed out on the ground.  

"Well, you're so on his Naughty List now, Tulip." Jae commented. 

"Okay." Tulip realized trying to find some sort of explanation to all of this. "Maybe this is all just a trick or something. For all we know this could just be a disguise." She tried to remove the guy's face off thinking it was a mask. But it didn't budge. "Oh my God. It is Santa Clause." She said. 

"Looks like you owe Barnaby an apology." Jae smirked. "Oh, look. Here he comes now." 

Tulip's eyes opened wide eyed. "Oh no! If Barnaby sees this, he'll be scared for life. Jae!"  

"You're on your own with that, Tulip." Jae started to walk away.

Tulip got out her wand. "Locomotor!" She made Jae's legs wobbly. "Oh, no. You want to do that whole silver lining thing. Hide the body, while I distract Barnaby." 

"You want me to hide, Santa's body?" Jae asked.

"Just do it!" Tulip grit her teeth at Jae.

"Whatever." Jae tried to grab up Santa but he was really heavy. "Yeah... this might take longer than I thought." 

Tulip smacked her head. She would just have to distract Barnaby. "Barnaby! What are you doing down here?" She asked nervously. 

"Drowning out my sorrow with some milk." Barnaby answered with his face red. 

"Um, Barnaby. Listen, I wanted to say that I was sorry I made you cry like that. I just didn't want you to be disappointed like I was." Tulip apologized.

"Because you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas?" Barnaby asked getting up. Tulip had to stand in his way to block his view. "Are you hiding something, Tulip?" 

"Um, yes. To your first question. No to your second one." Tulip answered. Her head sweating now.

"So why are sweating like a Porlock?" Barnaby asked.

"Um it's... very humid outside." Tulip lied.

"It's only 1 Degrees Celsius." Barnaby thought.

"Global Warming." Tulip suggested.

"Yeah, that is becoming a problem." Barnaby agreed. "So what's Jae doing over there?"

"He's lifting things up and putting them down." Tulip answered. 

"Come on, you really need to put off a few pounds there!" Jae yelled out.

Barnaby looked at Tulip who gave a nervous smile and a thumbs up. 

"Say, Barnaby. What do you say that we head back to the Castle before you see something that can potentially scar you for life?" She suggested.  

"You want to celebrate the holidays now?" Barnaby asked confused.

"Yeah..." Tulip lied. 

Barnaby starred with an odd expression. "Okay, we should probably-" That was when he saw Santa's Reindeer. "OH MY GOD! SANTA'S REINDEER!" He exclaimed.

"Barnaby, no!" Tulip yelled. 

"Ha! There's only one reason that Reindeer would be anywhere in the world. Santa's Here!" Barnaby cheered. "Do you know where Santa is?" He asked the Reindeer.

The Reindeer turned to where the unconscious Santa. But Tulip stood in the way. "Oh, those Reindeer don't know what they're talking about." She said.  

"Yeah we do!" One of the Reindeer interrupted.

Tulip, Barnaby, and Jae all looked bewildered. "Did that Reindeer just talk?" Barnaby asked.

"You better believe we did." The Lead Reindeer with the Red Nose answered.

"What the-?" Tulip asked. "You all talk in full sentences?"

"Surprising I know. We don't always talk, but when we do. It's when someone has messed up big time." The Reindeer answered. "Like you! Christmas Killer!" He accused Tulip.

"Christmas Killer?" Barnaby asked confused. He looked at the Unconscious body of Santa being dragged by Jae. 

"Hey, Barnaby!" Jae greeted.

"Hi, Jae!" Barnaby greeted back. Then he looked. "Why is Santa taking a dirt nap? You know he can do that in Hagrid's Hut." He asked.

"Um, Barnaby. Don't freak out but... Tulip made Santa's sleigh crash." Jae answered.

"YOU WHAT?" Barnaby screamed.

"Barnaby it was an accident. Jae gave me an ever bashing boomerang, I threw it into the sky, and I guess it sort of crashed into Santa's Sleigh making them crash as well." Tulip quickly explained.

But Barnaby crossed his arms with an angry expression. "So. It's not enough that you were mad at Santa for not getting you what you wanted for Christmas. But now you had to ruin it for everyone else!" He accused.

"No. I didn't mean to!" Tulip tried to say. "We just got to wake Santa up, and explain to him that this was an accident." 

"Eh, not going to happen." Jae shot down. "Santa's pretty messed up. He likely won't get up until sunrise." 

"Sunrise?" Tulip and Barnaby asked.

"He's old and he got thrown from a sleigh by an ever bashing boomerang." Jae explained. "And that's at minimum." 

"Okay. Nobody panic. Santa can just perform those kinds of last minute miracles, right?" Barnaby asked the Reindeer. 

"Nope. Delivering to the rest of the world isn't exactly something that can just be accomplished in one morning, you know." The Lead Reindeer said. "Oh, sorry. Where are my manners. I'm Rudolph and this is my crew. That head one is Dasher." He introduced.

"Sup." Dasher greeted.

"Trotty over there is Prancer." Rudolph introduced.

Prancer pranced around like a Unicorn.

"That's Dancer." 

"Who wants to boogie?" Dancer asked as he had sunglasses on.  

"That's little baby Vixen." 

"Christmas Killer." Vixen snorted.

"Hyperactive over there is Comet." Comet seemed to twitch like he had just drank Red Bull. 

"That little lovely lady is Cupid." Cupid stuck her tongue out at Tulip.

"That's Donner." Donner bonked his head on a poll.

"And that old geezer is Blitzen." Blitzen coughed and sneezed.

"Nice Reindeer." Tulip replied. "Now what do you mean by what you were saying earlier?"

"Santa has a difficult time with the time crunch in one night alone. Do you really think that he can just do it in a couple of times with the kids waking up around that time?" Rudolph explained. 

"No." Tulip admitted.

"And now that Santa won't be able to make his quota. Then that means Christmas is dead." Rudolph continued.  

Barnaby looked out in stunned horror. "But it can't be dead! It's Christmas!" 

"Not anymore. Thanks to Christmas Killer over here." Rudolph replied.

"Nice work, Tulip." Jae groaned.

"Whoops." Tulip said. "So the world misses one Christmas, it's not the end of the world." 

"Actually it is." Rudolph pointed out. "See, Christmas is the one time of year where people can celebrate a time of peace and harmony. No Christmas means no joy. No joy means gloom. And gloom means darkness. You kind of see where this is leading?" He asked.

"So, because Tulip hit Santa with an ever bashing boomerang. Christmas is ruined and the world will be consumed by darkness?" Barnaby asked.

"Yep." Rudolph answered.

"Okay. I get it! I screwed up!" Tulip admitted. "So, how do we get Christmas to you know, not get doomed?" She asked. 

"Well, there's only one way." Blitzen answered. "Someone has to deliver the presents to all the kids of the world. And that someone, is you." He pointed to Tulip.

"We'd do it ourselves. But we're just the Reindeer." Dasher said.

"Well why me? Why not Barnaby or Jae?" Tulip asked.

"It's part of the Holiday code. When Santa is hurt or injured by a Witch or Wizard. Then that person responsible must see to it that they take over or be forever labeled the Christmas Killer." Rudolph answered. 

"It says that?" Tulip asked. "And there's a Holiday Code?"

"Yeah." Rudolph answered. "Barnaby. There's a book in the sleigh, can you get it?" He requested.

Barnaby ran over to get the book. "This one here?" He asked. 

Rudolph looked at it. "Not that one. That's the list of children in the world. The other one next to it." 

Barnaby picked up the other one. "Page 394." Rudolph instructed.

Barnaby turned to Page 394. And saw that Rudolph was right about the Christmas Killer. "Here it is." He showed it to Tulip.

Tulip sighed. "I can't just go out and deliver presents in one night." She protested.

"Santa can do it." Barnaby pointed out. 

"Barnaby. I'm not Santa. And I'm not going to just go out on a sleigh and..." Tulip could see that Barnaby was using sad eyes. "Oh, alright. I'll do it." She decided. 

"Yay!" Barnaby yelled.

"But you're coming with me." Tulip added.

"I am?" Barnaby asked.

"Yep. You enjoy Christmas. Now we need to save it." Tulip answered. "Besides I don't want to have to do all this stuff all on my own."  

"Yay!" Barnaby exclaimed again. 

"Can I come too?" Jae requested.

"Why you?" Tulip asked.

"Because I want to use this as my Clean Slate." Jae answered. "And what better way to do it then to save Christmas?"

"Maybe we should call Ethan too?" Barnaby asked.

"No. Ethan's already done way too much. And gone through way too much stress already. We're taking this one." Tulip answered. 

"Makes sense." Jae said. 

Dennis croaked at Tulip. "Yeah, I know. Dennis. But if I don't do this, then Barnaby is going to get all sad again. And one sad Barnaby equals misery for everyone." Tulip explained. 

Dennis croaked nestling close to Tulip. 

"You're taking Dennis with us?" Jae asked.

"He's a good luck charm. Now hook up the Reindeer and get the presents." Tulip ordered. "We've got a holiday to save. Whether we want to or not."