When Tver woke up the next morning, he was startled to find a mountain of gifts piled before him.
Beautifully wrapped packages of all shapes and sizes filled the entire living room, with several even stacked in the hallway by the door.
Cynthia stood nearby, wand in hand, inspecting each parcel one by one to ensure none contained dark magic or any malicious enchantments.
"Owls have been bringing gifts since last night," she explained. "There are still about ten resting in the yard right now—they look completely worn out."
Tver glanced out the window. The owls were neatly perched on a rack, with some dried fruit placed in front of them as food. The passersby on the street, however, paid no attention to them, as if they didn't exist at all.
This house hadn't originally been heavily enchanted, so it seemed Cynthia had set up a few temporary spells—likely Confundus Charms—to keep things unnoticed.
"You've done a lot," he said appreciatively.
He picked up a gift at random and unwrapped it. Inside was a small doll modeled after himself. A letter tucked inside revealed it was from one of his senior students.
"Most of these are gifts from your students," Cynthia said, pointing to the largest pile. "But there's one gift I wasn't sure whether I should give you."
She held up the smallest box among them. Despite its size, the wrapping was done with remarkable care.
"There's a binding spell on it. Once opened, whatever's inside will attach itself to the recipient. But I didn't sense any malice or harmful intent."
Tver took the box with curiosity. A small note was attached to the outer wrapping: A Gift from George & Fred.
Judging from the Weasley twins' reputation, he immediately guessed it was probably a harmless prank.
He chuckled softly and opened the box without hesitation. The twins loved mischief, but they always knew their limits—they wouldn't create something dangerous. And even if it was, it wouldn't be able to harm him anyway.
Inside, however, was something that did surprise him—a small badge.
The badge was engraved with the twins' faces, one on each side, staring at each other with open mouths as if they were about to speak.
Before Tver could wonder what it did, the badge activated on its own—
"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…"
The two engraved faces began taking turns singing the Christmas carol loudly and cheerfully. The singing, well, was surprisingly full of emotion.
The badge wiggled slightly, as if trying to escape his grasp.
Sensing no trace of dark magic, Tver simply let go, allowing it to fasten itself neatly onto his chest.
After trying twice to remove it without success—and hearing the song loop endlessly without pause—he didn't get angry. Instead, he found it amusing.
"If those two ever put the same energy they spend on pranks into studying magic," he said with a light smile, "I'm certain they'd become two of the greatest wizards in the world."
Cynthia looked at Tver's smiling face and, of course, understood exactly what he meant.
"But interest is their greatest teacher. If they'd focused on something else, they might never have developed such talent."
After saying that, she handed another box to Tver.
"This one's labeled with the name Albus Dumbledore. Is it a gift from the Headmaster?"
The box wasn't large—about the size of a few books—and indeed, the tag bore Dumbledore's name.
"It must be. I didn't expect him to send me a gift, but fortunately, I'd already prepared plenty of sweets for him."
Inside was a book—his own copy of The Four Elements of Magic, the same one he had previously lent to Dumbledore.
What's this supposed to mean? Sending my book back as a Christmas gift?
He opened it, puzzled, but soon realized it wasn't so simple.
Dumbledore had filled the margins with notes, outlining his own understanding of the four elements. At the end of the book, a single line stood out—
"These are my humble reflections. I hope they may be of some help to you. —Albus Dumbledore."
It was a weighty gift. Those annotations reflected years of Dumbledore's accumulated knowledge, and even a brief glance gave Tver new insights.
Seems the Headmaster really is thoughtful~
"Can't you make that damned badge stop?"
Grindelwald had appeared in the doorway without a sound, leaning on a cane and looking for all the world like an ordinary old Muggle. "I could hear it from outside the house!"
The place was warded with a Muffliato Charm. If he could really hear it, that would be something. And even if he did, it wasn't the song he heard—it was probably a name...
Suppressing a sigh, Tver focused his magic, silencing the badge's carol but leaving it pinned to his chest.
"Would you like to take a look at this book?" he teased, holding it out toward his teacher. "The content's quite interesting."
Grindelwald shot a glare at his most accomplished student, snatched the book, and said curtly, "I'm going to rest. Don't disturb me unless it's important."
With that, he marched up the stairs without looking back, his stride firm and surprisingly steady.
Meanwhile, Cynthia had finished inspecting all the gifts. She had even gone a step further, neatly sorting them by sender.
The largest pile, unsurprisingly, came from Hogwarts students; next were friends from Durmstrang, and the rest were from colleagues and relatives.
"How do you know who's who?"
Tver asked absently as he opened one of the boxes from the family-and-friends pile. There were so many that just unwrapping them would take all morning.
"I cross-checked the Hogwarts staff list," Cynthia said proudly. "Aside from them, I recognized a few Durmstrang students. The rest could only be Hogwarts students."
In some ways, Cynthia really was the one who understood him best.
"Oh?"
Tver looked down in mild surprise at the scarf in his hands.
He'd unwrapped several gifts so far—mostly books, with a few duplicates among them—but this one was different.
It was a unique gradient scarf, fading from deep crimson to light red. That kind of design was rare in 1991 Britain, and even in the wizarding world, crafting such a scarf wouldn't have been easy.
"Is this your gift?" he asked, already knowing the answer from the look of anticipation on her face.
"Yes! I figured you'd already gotten more than enough books, so I wanted to prepare something different," Cynthia said brightly. "And I really like the badge you gave me."
She pointed to the dark gold badge already pinned to her chest, marked by two interlocking ellipses that resembled the yin-yang symbol.
It was an emblem crafted by Dervish and designed by Tver himself, inspired by the concept of a two-way mirror, allowing communication between paired badges.
However, production was still tricky. If he ever wanted all his followers to have one, the brothers would need to refine their skills further.
Tver casually draped the scarf around his neck, the warm color making him look even more composed and elegant.
"A very fine gift."