Disco Elysium
The Christmas Feast had been a grandiose and familial affair, with the four House tables replaced by a single buffet of roast turkey, baked potatoes, and luscious chipolatas. It was surrounded on all sides by rows of tall Christmas trees, decorated lavishly and elegantly. Around a fifth of the student body was in attendance, alongside maybe a half of the teachers. It seemed like everyone was having lots of fun, sharing conversation, recalling the events of the year with something like early nostalgia, laughing at simple jokes, or simply basking in the open and affectionate atmosphere of the event and enjoying the presence of the other people around them.
Almost uncharacteristically, some of the Professors even consumed minor amounts of alcohol at the table, growing more jovial by the second. It all reached a feverish peak when Professor Flitwick challenged Professor Hagrid to a drinking contest, in earnest, which prompted more than a couple of worried looks in the former man's direction. Professor Flitwick's cheeks had noticeably reddened by his fifth cup, and he behaved in a distracted manner, as though someone had stuffed a warm pillow into his head. On the other hand, Hagrid kept going to his tenth cup as though chugging water from a jug, rather than boosted wine. By his seventh cup, Professor Flitwick had surrendered and allowed his head to rest sideways on the table, though Hagrid kept drinking for the both of them; ever-charitable, the giant decided to call the event 'a draw.'
At the conclusion of the companionable feast, Professor Pettigrew cast some kind of complex Charm or spell, and made the dishes and cutlery dance around the table while singing a jolly, high-pitched Christmas tune in the voices of children, to which everyone happily clapped along. Not the woman to ever be one-upped, Professor McGonagall pushed up her glasses with two fingers, and without even moving her wand, conjured an entire band of skeletal dancers, singers, and performers from the null ether. It prompted yet another contest, to see who might create better entertainment.
Naturally, the Assistant Professor ceded the contest to the Deputy Headmistress, when she opened up the sky to reveal a dazzling arrangement of constellations shaped like people, dancing with each other, overlaid with dancing and bobbing supernovae reflecting an ephemeral sound like soft, chiming instruments: the music of the spheres.
"Perhaps next year," Pettigrew had said to that.
"Perhaps," McGonagall agreed with faint, atypical smugness.
Harry, though, sat back and sulked at Professor Pettigrew's loss in the contest. He knew with a bone-deep certainty those weren't even real constellations, but simple glamour and illusions of stars. According to him, Professor McGonagall had cheated, even though he didn't word such a statement openly.
And then, Headmaster Dumbledore - having left the Great Hall to use the bathroom some ten minutes ago - suddenly Apparated in the middle of the table, wearing stylish Aviator Muggle sunglasses, a Hawaiian aloha shirt haphazardly placed over his robes, and bearing an entire crate of exotic fizzy drinks. As everyone observed with surprise and bafflement, he expertly cracked a single can of Hansen's Natural Soda open with his thumb, releasing a hiss of gas. He raised it up high like a victory torch, so everyone could see, and then clenched the can in his fist while aiming it down, contents shooting into his open mouth like a waterfall of sugary juices; then, he crushed the can with his fist, threw it down on the floor, picked another one out of the crate, and yelled, "PARTY!" Not a full minute later, the disco lights were up and there was a conga line happening.
As Harry looked around for a free spot to begin grooving, Sirius approached him from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. Harry turned.
"Harry, I'd like to give you the Christmas present I prepared for you!" Sirius yelled. "Before... the Christmas Feast becomes too crazy!"
Harry nodded in understanding and assent, showing a thumbs-up. Although he was barely able to hear Sirius' words over the nightclub remix of Lipps Inc's Funkytown playing in the Great Hall at near-deafening volumes from everywhere at once, he caught about enough words to fill the blanks out.
An earnest - though pained, by the cacophony surrounding them - smile on his face, Sirius smoothly reached into his coat and handed over a small gift wrapped in red paper. It was smaller than even a particularly thin book. Next to them, Professor Flitwick began tapping his foot to the beat, even though he was unconscious.
"Can I open it?" Harry asked.
"Maybe not here! Later! I only wanted to tell you-" Sirius was interrupted when a Slytherin girl accidentally bumped into him, apologizing then moving to dance elsewhere. "I only wanted to tell you, I know that I'm not the best guardian-"
All of a sudden, Flitwick rebooted from his drunken stupor, and, upon noticing his surroundings, breathed in sharply with his pupils widening like he was on a sudden, inexplicable sugar high. "A GLORIOUS DISCO PARTY?! OH. MY. MERLIN! I NEED TO RELIVE MY GLORY DAYS!" He started climbing the table with dangerously unstable steps.
"I'm not the godfather you might've wished for!" Sirius continued. "I fell apart after James and Lily died, and I never completely picked myself up, but my work as a teacher has been a good way to look to the future and away from that dark past. I know that I'm often absorbed in my work-"
With almost no warning, next to them, Flitwick gloriously leaped into the teeming masses of dancing students and teachers. "BANZAAAI!" He was caught, fortunately.
Sirius sighed. "I haven't been there as often as I would have liked to provide some help for you. I'm very sorry for all of this, Harry. I promise that I'll find time for you, and I promise to do better from now on! Merry Christmas!"
"I promise that I'll do better as well!" Harry decided, on a spur of the moment. "I haven't been spending as much time with you, either! Merry Christmas!"
"I LOVE DISCO PARTIES! CAN YOU DANCE LIKE A HIPPOGRIFF!? MA MA MA, MA MA MA, MA MA MA! FLYIN' OFF FROM A CLIFF!"
"THAT'S ROCK, NOT DISCO, PROFESSOR!" someone shouted.
"MA MA MA, MA MA MA, MA MA MA! YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!"
---
There are several days before January properly begins, and the Hogwarts Express isn't returning until then. As such, you've got several days and nights to explore the castle with almost no other students around, and almost no oversight from pesky and nosy teachers. You could get away with almost anything!
[ ] Experiment with Cloak of Invisibility - Harry can use this period to figure out what his mysterious Christmas gift does: namely, among other things, it turns you invisible (and makes you immortal, but he doesn't know that yet, so shhh.) If unpicked, Harry will assume it's a random cloth and figure its functions out at some later date.
[ ] Observe the Firmament - The protean resplendency of the sky is eternal, though we don't always see it, huddled in our castles of stone and magic. Harry will spend this peaceful time watching the sky.
[ ] Practice the Dark Arts - Let's be serious, you could hardly ask for a better time to do something illegal and secretive. Maybe get to brewing some of those interesting potions that Geist mentioned?
[ ] Build Network of Runes - Carve a network of personal runes over the castle halls. It's the only time where you can do this without reasonably getting caught by anyone. Although these runes won't do anything by themselves, you might be able to access them in the future, for spying or doing other things.
[ ] Explore the Castle - Its secret chambers, the places no one goes to because of Mr. Filch, the underground layers that you haven't been to yet! There's so many places in Hogwarts that you've heard of but haven't even entered.
[ ] Write-in
