None of that mattered to Tom anymore. At least not right now. After saying goodbye to the Lovegoods, he had already returned to Hogwarts Castle.
Most students had gone home for the holidays, and even though Tom hadn't wasted any time on the way back, it was already getting late when he arrived. The corridors were empty and quiet. Even Peeves, usually the loudest troublemaker in the castle, had vanished somewhere.
Tom wasn't surprised. He simply made his way to the Great Hall and pushed open the heavy doors.
Unlike the silent corridors, the Great Hall was bustling with activity.
Hagrid was hauling a massive fir tree into place according to Dumbledore's instructions. Professor McGonagall had transformed into her cat form and was carefully winding long strands of ribbon around the branches. Newt stood nearby with his wand, magically floating golden bubbles onto the tree. In one corner, Nicolas Flamel was sorting through piles of colorful ornaments and tinsel. Professor Flitwick was setting up wizard crackers in every corner of the hall.
Ariana, taking full advantage of being a ghost, floated beside the tree and hung the ornaments Newt passed up to her. Even Fred and George were behaving for once, helping Flitwick arrange the crackers—though whether any of them had been secretly modified by the twins was anyone's guess.
Harry and the others weren't involved. Ariana was Dumbledore's sister, and the twins were Nicolas's apprentices. As for Harry's group, even though they were friends with Hagrid, the half-giant simply hadn't thought to invite them.
"You're back?"
Dumbledore set down the ornament in his hands and turned to Tom with a warm smile. "How was your holiday?"
[It was fine.] Tom shrugged. [Anything I can do to help? The sooner we finish, the sooner Santa Mark I can start his shift.]
"We've been waiting for you," Nicolas said with a smile, pointing at a large golden star resting nearby. "That goes on top of the tree."
"I could've put that up myself!" Hagrid grumbled as he set the tree down and wiped sweat from his forehead. "That's always been my job in the past."
Dumbledore wisely changed the subject before Hagrid could complain further. "Hagrid, the tree's still a little crooked. Could you adjust it again?"
"Right away, Professor!"
Hagrid immediately perked up and hurried over.
"Lovely school, isn't it?" Nicolas remarked.
[Yeah. It's pretty nice.]
Tom nodded, picked up the golden star, and scampered up the tree with quick, practiced movements. He carefully placed the star at the very top.
"Whoa, Tom, you're fast! Even faster than me!" Ariana floated over, clearly impressed by how efficiently he climbed, hung the star, and dropped back down in just a few seconds.
Even as a ghost who could simply float, she couldn't match that speed.
[Of course. I'm the champion tree-climber around here.]
Feeling proud, Tom struck a dramatic pose on the branch—one paw pointing at himself, the other holding up his sign. It would've been fine on the ground. Unfortunately, he was currently standing on a fully decorated Christmas tree.
The moment he realized his mistake, it was already too late. He glanced down instinctively, lost his balance, and toppled backward with a loud thump straight into the pile of ornaments below.
When he finally pulled himself out of the colorful mess, he was covered head to tail in tinsel, glitter, and ribbons. He looked ridiculous.
Everyone burst out laughing—especially Fred and George.
"Haha! Tom, you're so clumsy! You fell off while hanging one star!"
Tom's face darkened. He shook himself hard, sending tinsel and glitter flying everywhere.
[You two seem to have forgotten that your gifts are still in my paws. Keep laughing and you can spend Christmas hunting for them yourselves.]
The twins' laughter died instantly.
They looked at each other.
"…He's got a point."
"Yeah. If he gets mad and tells the golem not to deliver our presents…"
Both twins immediately switched to their most charming smiles.
"Heh heh, Boss, we were just joking~"
"Exactly! If you have to punish someone, punish Fred! He started laughing first!"
"? George!"
"Sorry, Fred. One of us has to take the fall. Better you than both of us losing our gifts."
The twins immediately fell back into their usual bickering.
Tom wasn't actually planning to withhold their gifts. The Santa golem had cost Dumbledore a fortune. If Tom started messing with its settings just to be petty, he'd have to refund the man. That wasn't the kind of business he did.
In the end, the Great Hall was fully decorated in high spirits. Tom brought out the snacks he'd bought and the ones Pandora had given him, sharing them with everyone.
"So… can we start up Santa Mark I now?" Ariana asked. As a ghost she couldn't eat, and watching everyone enjoy the treats was making her restless. She was also genuinely excited. "I really want to see him delivering gifts. I wonder if the kids will be happy when they get them."
"Of course," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Though not everyone will get to experience the surprise awake. Some might already be asleep by the time he arrives."
At the mention of the golem, Fred and George suddenly looked a little shifty. Tom's sharp eyes caught it immediately. A bad feeling rose in his chest.
[You two didn't do anything to Santa Mark I while I was gone, did you?]
"No way! Right, George?"
"Yeah, Fred's right. We would never do something that crazy. Nicolas paid us a lot of money, remember?"
Even Hagrid could tell they were hiding something. Tom stared them down.
[So what exactly did you do?]
"Alright, fine. We made a few small adjustments to Santa Mark I," George admitted under the pressure. "You gave us way too much gold. We felt bad just taking it without doing anything in return. So we added the wish-collection device we've been working on."
"Don't worry! We tested it. It has zero side effects, I swear!"
[A wish-collection device? Why would you add that?]
Tom knew exactly what they were talking about. The twins had come up with the idea after seeing his emotion converter during their lessons with Nicolas. The device was supposed to scan nearby students' wishes so the twins could develop targeted prank products. It worked… sort of. It could detect wishes but couldn't record them. Basically a camera that could film but not play anything back. It also couldn't read the wishes of people who were magically shielded, like Snape.
Tom was genuinely curious what they thought adding it to the golem would accomplish.
"Well, Santa shouldn't just be a delivery robot, right?" Fred said. "He's supposed to bring kids the gifts they actually want most! That's the whole point of Santa! So we—"
They explained everything without holding back. They knew that if something went wrong with the modified golem, the students might not get their gifts at all. Even they didn't want that to happen (Slytherins excluded).
Tom thought it over. The device itself was harmless, but he was worried about how it might interact with his own creation. Still, Fred had a point. If Santa was just mindlessly delivering whatever was on the list, he was missing something important. And worst case, Tom could always fix it.
[Fine. Let the golem finish delivering to Hogwarts first. If anything goes wrong, we can still fix it in time.]
"Got it, Boss!"
The twins looked relieved—and deeply grateful that Tom was willing to back them even when it risked annoying their biggest client, Dumbledore.
(If Dumbledore had heard that thought, he would've had a very interesting expression on his face. The golem belonged to him. Without his approval, the twins wouldn't have been able to modify it in the first place.)
"Since that's decided, let's wake him up," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "We can start with the students still at Hogwarts. There are still plenty of gifts to deliver outside the castle later."
They all headed to Tom's shop. The Santa golem stood there, looking almost indistinguishable from a real person. Tom placed a paw on its chest and pushed magic into it.
The golem's eyes slowly opened.
"Oh, hello there, children. Merry Christmas!"
It smiled warmly at everyone.
"I don't have your gifts yet, though. Please wait a moment while I go prepare them."
With a cheerful laugh, the golem sat down in the sleigh Tom had prepared, grabbed the reins, and rode off into thin air.
Tom tracked its movement. Clear destination: the Owlery, where all the gifts were stored.
[Looks like it's working perfectly so far. No issues. It's already collected the current batch of gifts and is heading to the dorms to start deliveries.]
"No problems is good," George said, patting his chest in relief.
"Next time, think things through before modifying something important," Dumbledore said, giving the twins a mild but pointed look. Both boys nodded sincerely.
Dumbledore seemed satisfied. Some lessons were best learned the hard way.
Just to be safe, they kept watching.
Thanks to its teleportation ability, Santa moved fast. It didn't take long for it to successfully deliver all the Gryffindor gifts.
There were a few small hiccups—some students were still awake and got extremely excited when they saw Santa in person. A couple almost shouted loud enough to wake the entire tower. Dumbledore had to quickly cast a silencing charm.
The golem simply smiled, gently patted their heads, offered a few encouraging words, left their gifts, and moved on.
Tom was a little surprised at how naturally it interacted with the excited kids.
Everything seemed fine… until Santa reached Ravenclaw Tower.
That was when the unexpected happened.