On Christmas Morning, Harry opened not one but two presents from Benedict Nigel Brown. However, he did not know that apart from Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, the Demiguise hair cloak was also a gift from Ben.

Ben gave Harry the cloak out of the goodness of his heart and definitely not because he felt guilty about stealing a family heirloom from a kid. Not at all ashamed of taking away the one thing that belonged to Harry's father. Okay, maybe a little, but he knew that he needed that cloak more than anyone else in this world and considering that the cloak had now fused into his being, he was right to think that way.

On the other hand, Ben's Christmas Morning was not so Merry. He struggled to explain where he got the money for the presents he got for Thea and Nigel. Luckily Thea did not know the exact price of the Hats from Twilfitt and Tattings and Ben convinced her that they were second-hand and he had patched them up with some nifty cleaning spells that he then had to display to his unconvinced mother.

At the same time, Ben was disappointed to know that he had still failed to convince Nigel of buying him a broomstick. So much for 'I believe in you' and 'our little bird has finally left its nest'. Ben felt that even after traversing worlds, some things had remained the same. The only change was that this time, his father was more of a mother hen while Thea was a lot more laid back in comparison.

Even in his past life, he had failed to convince his parents to buy him a bicycle until he was in high school and by that time, he was already riding motorcycles with his friends. To be fair to Ben's ex-parents, he was a wild card as a kid. By the time he graduated middle school, he had almost died a hundred times.

He had checked all the boxes on the accidental deaths list, multiple times. Almost drowned- twice, Death by Electrocution- three times, Falling into a burning pyre and tumbling out with a charred arm and no hair or eyebrows, Falling off a cliff but getting caught by a stranger just before splatting on the ground, Falling off a cliff into a roaring river- twice, Running into oncoming traffic and getting away with a sprained leg-once, second time running into oncoming traffic and getting away with a dislocated bone, Bitten by a snake, Bitten by a radioactive scorpion and spawning a venomous tail- once- in a nightmare that led to incoherent screaming and crying in the middle of the night, and many more.

After going through all of this, it was no wonder his parents didn't trust him with a bicycle. His numerous confrontations with death almost made his parents paranoid, but even they wouldn't have guessed that after surviving all of this, death would come to take him personally.

Anyways, somehow the Christmas sweaters were even uglier in the wizarding world and Ben was not having a great time as apart from his mother, even his aunt had sent him one. Well, at least they were warm and comfy, plus the frog mittens were fun. Magically enchanted frog mittens came with frog tongues that could be used to grab things from a distance while making funny frog noises.

Ben had a good time going through the stack of wizard crackers with Aquila, which she enjoyed as some were filled with mice instead of candy or toys. Wizarding humour is weird like that. The poor bird had been busy hauling presents for the last few days. Ben got her some owl treats and a new owl perch that he placed near his window. She certainly likes her new crib.

---

The first week of January, Ben was back in Hogwarts. The castle was full of jovial talk as students were excited to be back in the school after the break. People shared their holiday stories with their friends, and some showed off their Christmas presents. Ben had nothing worth showing off, life can be unfair sometimes.

One evening, Ben was heading out of the Library after finishing up his History of Magic assignment when he encountered a wild first-year.

"Did you hear? Michael's gone mental with his new Gobstones set," said Terry Boot.

"Ugh, who hasn't, he's been at it for a week now, I think his brain must be drowning in Gobsquirt by now," said Ben who was getting annoyed at Michael's obsession by now.

"They're saying he's already beaten all the first-years and is now playing against the second-years," informed Kevin Entwistle.

"We came to get you, thought you'd want to see it," said Boot.

'Not now kid, I've got things to do,' that's what Ben wanted to say, but instead-

"Of course, I want to see it, it's not like I've got anything better to do," he said with a larger-than-life smile as he followed the two towards the courtyard.

Gobstones did not enjoy the same level of popularity as Quidditch did, it was not even as popular as Wizarding chess among many recreational activities available in Hogwarts.

Gobstones were essentially the Wizarding version of Marbles. Ben was the group's first to try his hand at Gobstones as it reminded him of his childhood. He grew up playing Marbles and could not help but try the wizarding version.

Ben had since grown out of it, as his nostalgia didn't last very long. His friends, however, were now part of the Gobstones club; Michael even wanted to be on the Hogwarts team. Yes, Hogwarts had a Gobstones team and even competed in the national and international championships.

Despite being very popular among the younger students, Gobstones didn't have the 'cool' reputation Quidditch had and was often regarded as "the thinking wizard's Quidditch".

People usually tend to lose interest in the game as they grow up and very few people stick with it once they grow up. It may or may not have something to do with the nasty liquid that the stones tend to squirt over the loser.

As they got closer to the Courtyard where a group of kids had completely surrounded a gobstones circle, Ben could not help but question his decision to follow Boot and what's his name, he could never remember.

'Try to relax Ben, you're 11 for godsakes.'

'It's okay for you to play stupid games and have stupid fun.'

'-every once in a while.'

--Dreamscape--

Yes, it's all true.

I am a lazy piece of Ape-ass and have been spending all my time munching on Banana Wafers and reading wish fulfilment fantasies on Webnovel.

Regular updates starting today, read extra chapters on Patr@on/DreamyApe.