In mid-December, the Heads of House went around and asked for people to decide whether they were going to spend Christmas at Hogwarts or at home. After a long group discussion in the Ravenclaw common room (of which Nebula half-listened to), the Hermits decided to stay at Hogwarts. They let Mr Dedalus know the moment they'd decided, and their caretaker wrote back with:

Dear Hermits,

I understand your decision completely. Don't worry about my feelings on this, I used to spend every Christmas at Hogwarts. I won't spoil anything, but I personally feel it's a required experience for anyone who attends your school to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays at least once.

I'm also happy to hear that you all could still do some of our normal traditions, like decorating your rooms. I hope you enjoy your stay, and I insist on a detailed retell of everything that happened once you all come home.

Love,

Your Uncle Dedalus

"Glad your Uncle's not one for spoilers." Nebula chuckled as she read the letter over the other Hermit's shoulders and heads.

On Christmas morning, everyone woke up earlier than usual, whether they liked it or not.

"DOCCY, DOCCY, DOCCY, DOCCY!!! GET UUUUUP!!! IT'S CHRISTMASSSS!!!!" Bdubs rapidly leapt up and down on Doc's bed (which he could actually sleep in peacefully now that Malfoy had left for the holidays), scaring the life out of the German.

"Geh von mir runter, du idiot!" ("Get off me, you idiot!") Doc shouted right before he fell off his bed, taking Bdubs with him. Luckily (or, unluckily, depending on how you look at it), the small Gryffindor landed on the raven-haired Slytherin's chest.

Freezing and turning pink, Doc stared at his laughing best friend.

Bdubs looked at Doc with a smile and slightly flushed cheeks. "Oops! You okay, Doc?"

'HE'SSOCLOSEHE'SSOCLOSEWHYISHESOCLOSE-'

"Yeah, y-yeah, I'm fine."

Everyone brought their presents from their dorms into Impulse's dormitory (the other Hufflepuffs who were still there were pretty chill about them sneaking in, surprisingly) and excitedly discussed who should start opening first.

After nearly a minute of talking over everyone else, the Hermits finally agreed on their newest member going first. Nebula blinked in confusion, but shrugged and picked up a small box from her rather small pile of presents. Inside were a pair of books on Magical Creatures from her parents, which she offered to share with Ren ("It's your present!" "And I do what I please with it, and I want to share!"), which Doc commented was a very Ravenclaw thing for her to do.

Grian happily went next, and he rapidly tore off the gift wrap to find a Gobstone set from Xisuma, who'd overheard him talking with the Weasley twins about the game.

"Yes! Thanks, X!"

Everyone insisted that Mumbo went next, and our favourite spoon doesn't really do well under any sort of pressure, so he opened the largest present he had first.

His chosen present was from Iskall and Grian, who'd both pooled their money together to get him two new sets of school robes (he'd already started to grow out of his current ones), a few extra rolls of parchment (this dude took an insane amount of notes. It came in handy, but he ran out of paper very quickly), a new bottle of standard Ravenclaw ink (once again, this Ravenclaw took way more notes than was thought possible), and a few boxes of various candies that Grian knew the redstoner fancied.

"Thanks, mate!" Mumbo smiled as he opened up a Chocolate Frog. Iskall and Grian gave him thumbs-up.

After nearly half an hour of going around and opening presents one by one, everyone had plenty of new trinkets, candies, and school supplies to last a while. Admittedly, each Hermit had a favourite present: Xisuma adored the Knarl plushie his uncle had gotten him (it'd occasionally meow and mewl when he touched it), Bdubs refused to take off the gold and green beanie Doc had asked Mr Dedalus to get for him, Tango kept eating Pepper Imps and breathing fire, and Grian would random pop a Voice-Changing Jellybean in his mouth and talk into random voices: from one that sounded like it'd inhaled an entire balloon's worth of helium, to one that sounded suspiciously like Dumbledore.

Grian turned to Mumbo, and said with Snape's voice, "yOu'Re a mUmBo, WiZaRd!!"

Nebula, Zed, Tango, and Impulse nearly died from laughter/choking on air.

Since there was plenty of time before dinner, the Hermits spent the majority of their Christmas day hanging out: talking, reading, napping (cough, sleep-deprived Xisuma, cough), theorizing, and doing various candy challenges.

"Doc, I dare you to eat a Pepper Imp."

"Only if you have one afterwards."

"Deal!" Bdubs shook hands with the raven-haired Slytherin, who had a feeling he'd regret taking up on this challenge.

Scar handed Doc the box, with a very nervous look on his face. Pepper Imps (which were Tango's favourite candy) looked like if Sour Patch Kids became fiery black and hot instead of sour (... possessedSourPatchDemons-). Taking one out of the container and staring at it menacingly, it wasn't hard to tell that Doc wasn't really looking forward to this.

"One, two, three!"

As Doc finished the Pepper Imp, he coughed a puff of smoke in the small Gryffindor's face. He snorted when Bdubs over-dramatically choked, which caused a small bit of flame to come from his nose. Nebula laughed hysterically as Doc's fiery symptoms increased, and he nearly set Bdubs' pajamas on fire.

"Hey!! Watch where you're firing!!" Bdubs leapt up and stumbled backwards clumsily. Doc snorted (nearly setting himself on fire this time) and apologised sarcastically.

Uncle Dedalus wasn't kidding when he said Christmas dinner at Hogwarts felt like a required experience. The Hermits thought the Halloween feast was big: they had no idea what else could possibly be in store.

At least a hundred roast turkeys, mountains of roasted, boiled, and mashed potatoes, multiple plates full of vegetables, large silver bowls comparable to silver boats were filled to the brim with gravy and cranberry sauce, pitchers of hot cocoa every yard or so, and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet amongst the other Christmas foods.

Apparently, wizard crackers were something that were a Christmas classic in the wizarding world. Instead of the boring Muggle crackers that produced stale biscuits and easily broken toys and hats, these crackers go off with a bang (literally) the moment you open them. In a puff of different coloured smoke, a randomized hat would appear, from a normal wizard hat to Muggle World War II admiral's caps to ones that advertised various Quidditch teams.

Since it was Christmas, the rules for separating the Houses were loosened up, so all the Hermits sat at the mostly-empty Slytherin table.

"Can someone hand me some turkey? I can't reach it."

"Heh, shorty."

"ShUt iT-"

"Whoa!!" Xisuma almost fell backwards off his seat when Grian had opened an explosive cracker next to him without warning. Grian and Scar, who were on either side of the Dadmin, panickingly caught him before he hit the stone floor of the Great Hall.

Once X was confirmed to be alright, Grian laughed and said, "Sorry!"

"It's alright, mate." X chuckled good-naturedly as Scar went back to his conversation with Bdubs.

"Is-Is Dumbledore- What is Professor Dumbledore wearing?" Iskall giggled uncontrollably. Mumbo and Grian looked up at the headmaster to see him wearing what seemed to be a flowered bonnet.

During desert, Percy Weasley and Xisuma both nearly broke their teeth from finding a silver Sickle in their food the hard way. Mumbo and Scar wouldn't leave X alone until they were sure he was okay (he yelped pretty loudly when he bit into the wizard money by accident), and Grian was half-laughing and half asking if X and Percy were okay.

After dinner, Grian and the Weasley Twins snuck away from the rest of the group.

"Alright, Gred- I mean, Fred- Have you done any research to see if my idea is possible?"

Fred nodded and grinned at Grian, who'd put on his normal red sweater instead of his school uniform. "Yep, it's a complicated series of charms, though."

"That means it'll probably be harder to get rid of." George snickered with an evil grin. "We'll probably set it up at night: it'll be pretty obvious if we try to enchant suits of armour between classes."

"Grian, we'll also need some Muggle songs, we don't know any."

"Uncle Dedalus listened to some weird stuff, so I have plenty of nightmares- I mean songs, to choose from. Wait, can we have it be randomized? Like, it'll sing one lyric and randomly start another one? Or even let it take requests, just in case someone walks by and just mentions something resembling a song title?"

"Yes! Dear Merlin, this is a golden one. Gri, we're adopting you as our new triplet."

"Yay! Can I dye my hair red to confuse the teachers?"

"Even better: we can dye your hair red at the end of the year and try to take you home with us! Mum and Dad might not even notice!"

"Freddie, mate, you're a genius."

"I know." Fred dramatically flipped his short hair, making the two Gs snort (Grian and George. The two Gs. No?).

"So... Wanna steal Percy's badge?"

"Yes!"

Nebula and Doc watched lazily as Percy chased the Weasley Twins and Grian, who'd apparently stolen his prefect badge, both very full from their meal. Since the other Hermits were playing games (like candy challenges, Wizard Chess, ect) and chatting, Nebula asked Doc the age-old question:

"Describe your crush."

Doc turned slightly pink and his voice cracked as he spoke. "Why would you ask that if you already know?!"

"I want to know them from your perspective. So, rant on."

Boy, did Nebula not know what she'd just signed up for. Doc started with the basic stuff: hair, personality, House, ect. Then, he started going into insanely deep detail of why he knew his crush was in Gryffindor, about what small habits he did when he felt a certain way, and how he was both annoying and adorable at the same time and it didn't make sense.

"Mon ami... I'm pretty sure this isn't just a crush anymore."

Doc raised an eyebrow. "What do you-"

"You know him way too well for this to be a crush. You said you've known him for several years, right?"

"Two, three years? Since I was, like, nine."

Nebula nodded and looked like she was processing the information. "And when did you realize you had a crush on him?"

"Midway through Season Fi- I mean, a few months after getting to know him."

'Oh, yep, he's got it bad.'

Nebula facepalmed, but instead of using her hand, she used Doc's shoulder to smack her face. "Merlin's beard. What have I signed up for?"

Is this just a Bdoc book...? Nah. Next chapter I'll focus more on the other Hermits.

Fun little question: what are y'all Houses? (comment "here" on the part with your House)

Gryffindor!

Hufflepuff!

Ravenclaw!

Slytherin!

I'm a Ravenclaw myself (blue and bronze, boiiiis!!). Also, please add this book to your library or reading list! That way, you can get notified when I update (which isn't often, unfortunately). Maybe a little vote would help too (sorry to those who're using guest accounts and can't do those things). On that note, have an amazin' day/evening/night!

- CaptainMarra('s spacebar actually works now lol)