School seemed to fly by, and almost in the blink of an eye, it was time to leave. As the first-year students lined up, following Hagrid out, the few who chose to stay at school stood by the window, watching them with envy.
But in reality, Wade also envied these students—they could freely stay at school for two weeks, practically having the library and Potions classroom to themselves, and being able to ask professors questions at any time, almost like one-on-one tutoring.
Wade sighed. If Fiona hadn't been anticipating his return home for a month, Wade would have truly wanted to stay at school.
Of course, being home felt wonderful too.
After being away for half a year, his parents' accumulated longing and love burst forth the moment they saw him.
Fiona hugged him at least ten times a day and kissed his forehead with boundless affection at random intervals. Ferdinand was a bit more reserved, but he also frequently ruffled his hair and patted his shoulder.
In his months at school, Wade had grown three centimeters taller. Because he spent all day climbing stairs, he would also exercise for ten to thirty minutes after sitting for a long time. After a period, his body became stronger, and he could even see noticeable abdominal muscles.
But all these positive changes, in Fiona's eyes, translated to just two words: "You're thin."
His mother stroked Wade's face, saying tenderly, "Were you not eating enough at school? Just wait, I'm going to prepare a huge feast for you today!"
She enthusiastically went off to busy herself.
Wade looked in the mirror. The eleven-year-old boy's face still had a lingering hint of baby fat, making him look a bit rounded and rosy-cheeked, with a healthy glow.
Ferdinand sat beside Wade, asking very seriously, "Wade, your letters always brought good news and hid any worries. Now, tell me the truth—did anyone at school make things difficult for you?"
Wade responded just as seriously, "No—that's true. Ravenclaw itself is a non-competitive House; most students there only care about ability, not so much about bloodline, and I'm first in my year in several subjects.
Our Head of House, Professor Flitwick, likes me very much, and so does Professor Morrie. He specially sets aside two hours every week to teach me alchemy and even invited me to his private party before the holidays."
"That's good, it sounds like you've met some good teachers," Ferdinand smiled. "Are you happy at school?"
"Of course," Wade smiled. "Very happy."
Before Christmas, Wade sent out all his gifts. Waking up the next morning, he went downstairs and saw the Christmas tree laden with gift boxes.
Fiona walked towards him, hugged his head, and kissed his forehead warmly, saying happily, "Thank you, darling. I love the gift you sent me."
Wade had given her a bottle of beauty potion he had brewed himself, a finished product approved by Professor Snape.
Ferdinand also nodded. "A brilliant magical razor. But does that parchment you put in the gift box have any special use?"
"It's an alchemical creation I completed independently—the Book of Friends," Wade said with a touch of pride.
He took out a self-bound notebook from his pocket. The cover had "Book of Friends" written on it in both English and Chinese. When opened, the first page had "Family" handwritten at the top of the ruled lines. On the right, in smaller script, was "Name," followed by a line.
Wade took out quills, gave one to each of his parents, and wrote his own name on the right.
"These three Books of Friends are linked. Like this, I write my name, then I write what I want to say here—"
He wrote a line in the blank space below the line: "Merry Christmas."
Fiona gasped softly, as on the parchment in her hands, a line of text also appeared:
[Wade: Merry Christmas.]
"Oh, I see."
Fiona quickly wrote her name in the top right corner, then wrote below: [Merry Christmas, darling.]
The same words appeared on both the father's and son's parchments.
Ferdinand understood. "It's like a forum?"
Home computers had been around for many years, costing only a few hundred pounds, so the Gray family naturally had one, and they were familiar with computers.
"Yes, it's like an internet forum," Wade spread his hands. "Because the medium is just paper, it seems a bit more magical.
It can't transmit video or sound, so it's not as good as the internet, but it's not affected by magical interference, so even when I'm at school, you can contact me anytime."
More accurately, the Book of Friends was the magical equivalent of a messaging app. However, at that time, similar apps like MSN Messenger, WhatsApp, QQ, and WeChat had not yet been developed, making Wade's "Book of Friends" seem incredibly advanced.
"I have to say, this is the best Christmas gift I've received this year, Wade," Ferdinand's eyes sparkled. "But even better is that you've truly learned something valuable at Hogwarts—I'm proud of you, son."
Fiona quickly became engrossed in "online chatting," much like most people experiencing communication software for the first time. Even though Wade and Ferdinand were less than two meters away, she communicated entirely through the Book of Friends.
Soon, text began to appear on other pages of Wade's Book of Friends.
The second page was linked to the SSC members.
[Michael: Hello?]
[Padma: Merlin, I really see what you wrote.]
[Hermione: Can you all see what I write too? Oh my goodness, it really appeared! How did you do it? I haven't seen a similar spell in any book!]
[Padma: Don't talk about books, Hermione, today is Christmas, we should be happy.]
[Michael: Wade, I thought you were just starting to learn alchemy! You should have told me earlier that you made something this amazing!]
[Theo: I read the instructions and just figured out how to use it—this is truly incredible! It's the best magical item I've ever seen!]
[Ryan: ...Too stunned to say anything. Just writing a random sentence to prove I saw it.]
[Neville: I accidentally fell off the sofa, and my grandmother thought I received some Dark Arts object and almost confiscated it.]
[Wade: Merry Christmas, everyone.]
His single message seemed to ignite the page, with everyone's messages appearing one after another. They quickly discovered that the space each line of text could occupy was limited, and each message would disappear after about one or two seconds. At any given time, a maximum of fifteen lines of text could be displayed on the page. "Online chat" was forcibly speed-limited, preventing situations like "999+ unread messages" from appearing within a few minutes.
Within a few minutes, they quickly learned to send emoji-like pictures without being taught and seemed unable to stop.
Wade flipped further back. The third page was for the house-elves; the house-elves he was closer to had each received a copy. They cautiously tried writing on the parchment, then wrote many words of gratitude to Wade.
Following that were Professor Morrie, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape.
Except for Snape, who gave a "barely usable" evaluation, and Professor Morrie, who reconfirmed his invitation for two days later, everyone else highly praised his ingenious idea and offered to tutor him during the holidays.
A while later, the Book of Friends gradually became quiet again, and Wade guessed they were probably busy setting up other chat groups.
Among the Christmas gifts he gave, there were not only the Book of Friends connected to himself but also blank parchments linked to two, three, four, and five people, one of each.
The professors also received an extra stack of ten-person versions, combined into a thick booklet, truly deserving of the name "Book."
In Wade's imagination, in the future, every Hogwarts student would have a Book of Friends.
They would exchange parchments with friends or family, creating chat groups of various sizes.
Perhaps it wouldn't be long before Hogwarts added a new school rule—no opening your Book of Friends during class, or it would be confiscated! Or perhaps students would compete over the thickness and prestige of their Books of Friends, with some buying blank parchments to insert, pretending they had joined many chat groups.
However, Professor Morrie told him not to sell the Book of Friends for now.
With a promising "path to wealth" seemingly cut off, Wade sighed, a bit dejected. He put away the Book of Friends and began to unwrap his own gifts for the year.
Most of the gift boxes under the Christmas tree were from Ferdinand's employees. Wade had spent time at his father's toy factory since he was little. He was smart, sensible, and cute, and many long-time employees were very fond of him.
Even after half a year apart, they still sent gifts. They sent various popular toys among ordinary people, exquisite pens and notebooks, children's books, and so on.
A few were gifts from Wade's Muggle classmates from primary school; these were simpler, mostly candies, greeting cards, and small toys.
These were things he received every year, and Wade had, of course, sent gifts of similar value in advance.
Then came the gifts from the wizarding world.
Unlike Wade, who used the same gift for everyone, the gifts he received were various books.
Professor Morrie gave him a handwritten alchemy notebook, which Wade carefully put away, planning to read it after dinner.
Professor Flitwick gave him a "Spell Compendium"—a book that required a professor's note to borrow from the Hogwarts library. Wade also planned to find time to read it during the holidays.
Michael gave him "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"; Hermione gave him "The Alchemist"; Padma's gift was Gilderoy Lockhart's "Wandering with Werewolves"; Theo's was "The World's Oldest Magical Plants"; Ryan's was "The Beauty of the Starry Sky"; Neville's was "Transfiguration Mysteries."
It seemed his image as someone who loved to read was deeply ingrained in everyone's minds; they all, by unspoken agreement, chose to give him books.
It looked like he had a busy holiday ahead
At Hogwarts.
When Dumbledore woke up that morning, even the shoes by his bed were buried under gifts.
He had been a professor at Hogwarts for almost a century, teaching countless students. Approximately eighty percent of the wizards in the British Isles were his former students.
He was also the President of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, widely recognized as the greatest wizard of his time and the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen.
Although Dumbledore himself didn't care much for these titles and praises, most people clearly did, and wizards from all over the world wanted to curry favor with him.
So every Christmas, Dumbledore would receive many, many gifts—so many they could almost bury the Headmaster's Tower.
Fortunately, his Undetectable Extension Charm was quite effective.
Thus, Dumbledore usually spent the entire week after Christmas unwrapping gifts.
This was an activity he thoroughly enjoyed.
Of course, Dumbledore wasn't interested in the inherent value of the gifts themselves, but rather because he could see people's growth and desires in them, and occasionally find little surprises—perhaps a nasty curse, or a harmless prank.
Most people who didn't know him well would send him books out of reverence for the wizard—Muggle books, wizarding books, many of which Dumbledore had already read, but he happily accepted them anyway.
Those familiar with him knew the old man was a hopeless sweet tooth, so their gifts were often sweets like cakes, chocolates, Cockroach Clusters, or Fizzing Whizbees. Some would conceal deadly potions, and discerning them was a rather amusing game for Dumbledore.
And then there were some people... even though they never communicated otherwise, they would still send gifts on this special day. Even if it was just a piece of paper, a leaf, or a pair of rather unattractive, sheep-smelling wool socks, Dumbledore would cherish them immensely.
Just as Dumbledore was opening a gift box that was half his height, an owl suddenly flew through the window and dropped a small package onto Dumbledore's lap.
Could it be that someone had just woken up and remembered him, then sent a belated gift?
Dumbledore thought this, putting down the large gift box and instead opening the small package.
Inside was only a piece of parchment and a long, slender note:
[Dear Albus: This is the work of my student—Wade Gray! I share my joy with you with immense pride!Wishing you well,
Morrie]
Even the "all-knowing" Dumbledore was bewildered by this cryptic letter. He unfolded the parchment, examined both sides, and confirmed that it contained nothing but Morrie's own name.
Dumbledore was about to use a spell to examine it when someone else came to visit him.
Dumbledore walked to the entrance hall. Filius Flitwick stood at the door, holding a similar piece of parchment, and said cheerfully, "Oh, Professor Dumbledore, this is my copy. I must say, I knew he would achieve great things, but I never expected it so soon! He's only been learning magic for three and a half months?"
"—Wade Gray?" Dumbledore asked tentatively.
"Yes, who else could it be?" Professor Flitwick said, humming a tune, and left with light steps.
Dumbledore looked down. The parchment Flitwick gave him also contained nothing but Flitwick's name.
Then came Pomona Sprout.
"I thought about it, and who else but you would I give this to?" the witch said with a gentle smile. "Awaiting your contact at any time."
Next was Minerva McGonagall. She saw Dumbledore already holding a small stack and handed one over, looking a bit displeased. "Oh, I thought I was the first, but I didn't realize Pomona was so quick!"
In fact, she had opened her other gifts first, and by the time she found this one, it was already a bit late.
Finally, Snape arrived. He simply handed over a whole booklet.
"Hmph," the Potions professor said with a cold gaze. "I kept my own copy; I don't need the others—useless contact will only waste my time."
Dumbledore: ...
So everyone had one, and only he didn't know what it was?