"But I heard him refer to our traditional holiday by that meaningless muggle name the old Headmaster preferred," Draco whined understanding he was the one in trouble here. Not the muggleborn he'd been challenging. "That's no longer to be tolerated here at Hogwarts. We celebrate the traditional holidays now."
"Who said that?" asked Lady Narcissa raising an eyebrow delicately. "I recall no such announcement as that. Neither I nor Lady Augusta have made any such announcement changing the name of any school holiday. Nor do we plan to. You students may call the holidays by whatever name or title you wish as only you know which name has meaning for you and your family. I will not make the mistake of the early muggle Christians in their march across the world to spread their religion far and wide. Nor I believe will Headmistress Longbottom."
"But Mother," Draco whined.
She cut him off. "The muggleborn and raised understand the muggle names of the holidays, Mr. Malfoy because, as I just said, those names have meaning to them. Just as our names for the calendar holidays have meaning for us. Therefore, they refer to those holidays by the names muggles gave them just as we refer to them by the name our people have given them. Either way, what a student chooses to call a day in the course of a private conversation is none of your business and not a justifiable reason for you to either insult them or level death threats at them. You will serve two weeks detention and issue a formal apology in the Great Hall tonight at the evening meal. And Mr. Malfoy, it had better be a suitable apology for your station. I clearly heard you threaten him with death over an imaginary insult."
Dismissing her son who was now glaring at the floor, she turned to Denis and asked him, "Did you have a good Christmas, Mr. Creevey?"
Denis smiled sadly as he gave a vague shake of his head. "Sort of. My family has a hard time at the holidays now. We miss Colin, you see. And since he's a ghost tied to the school now he can't join us anymore. I wish he could because then my parents would know he really is dead and maybe we could make new traditions for ourselves. I mean, I told them he is. And I told them he came back as a ghost but they don't understand why he can't come see them if he's still here."
"He was the oldest child and took care of us younger ones. All our traditions had Colin at the lead. I'm trying to fill his shoes but it's hard when all I really want is to have him still wearing them myself. Our baby sister, Carin, doesn't understand why he went away and our parents don't know how to make her understand because she's only five now. She was two when he went away to school and never came back home. Old enough to understand he was her biggest brother but too young to understand why he doesn't come home any more. He'd promised to bring her a new dolly and she keeps expecting to find it under the tree. But it's never there because Colin can't send it to her. So her letter to Santa always asks for him to come home and she always gets him at least one present. Devon and Tenya, my other siblings, don't get him presents like she does but they don't understand any better. Devon is seven now and Tenya's ten. She thinks she understands but all she's really hoping for these days is that she'll get a letter to come here next year so she can see Colin for herself."
"I see. That poor baby. I will think on this and maybe I can come up with something you can do to help them all understand. You're correct. Two years old is much to young to understand what has befallen your family. Did you get her a new dolly, Colin? If so, do you know what happened to it? Maybe we can find it and send it to her for you. Every little girl deserves a dolly of her own."
Colin nodded. "I did. I had one of the older kids with Hogsmeade privileges buy it for me from the money I made selling my pictures around the school. A lot of the kids wanted pictures of themselves or their friends so I'd take them, develop them and they'd buy them from me. I made a lot of money on them and was getting each of my siblings nice presents for the holiday. I even got a new gardening apron for my Mum. I never got to give my family any of the gifts I got them. But I don't know what happened to it after I died. And I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to send it to her. Might make the family believe I'm still alive and just refusing to come home again, you know."
Denis nodded. "That's true. My parents… Well, they were told he died but the former Headmaster didn't even have the decency to send his body home for them to bury. He sent them a note telling them Colin was dead but that was all. No explanation. No condolences. No invitation to a memorial or a funeral. No nothing. Just a short note saying Colin wouldn't be coming home any more. He didn't even return any of Colin's things or the tuition my parents paid. What a nice Christmas present that was."
"How callous," exclaimed Narcissa, shock evident in her body language. Even Draco, who was standing silently and pouting for all he was worth, was shocked at the callousness of the former Headmaster. "Have you managed to locate your brother's belongings at least?"