Alfred was currently engaged in trying to brainstorm a way to not go to Evander's for Christmas tomorrow. It wasn't that he didn't want to be with anyone for the holidays, or anything dour like that - he just figured that he probably wasn't Evander and Laura's first choice of company on Christmas. They'd felt obliged to invite him, he figured, but would prefer he found a reason not to intrude on their holiday. Trouble was, he wasn't very good at coming up with excuses. He could feign illness, he supposed, but not very convincingly; someone was bound to see him out and about and word might get back to Evander and his wife. He might use the Fudge's holiday celebrations at the Sandition, which he'd been invited to, as an excuse to stay home, or even the Christmas dinner the Pinces were having that Paul had extended the invitation for, but all of that would involve starting a conversation with Evander where the main point of it was 'I'd rather spend time with people who aren't even my family on Christmas than you,' which was... just not ideal.

He'd resigned himself to going, but trying to stay as briefly as possible. Picturing how the actual day might go down lead him to the realization that he had entirely forgotten to buy a Christmas gift for anyone except Paul (and that had been more of a whim, really). He was trying not to add any extra awkwardness to the meeting tomorrow, which meant he was on the hook for some sort of gift. Something bland and unexciting like Evander.

Getting a gift for Evander hadn't actually been difficult, but Laura was problematic. He didn't really know her, and Alfred had never really had to give gifts to women that he didn't know well before. He was quite at a loss as he wandered through Hogsmeade, the package from the bookshop under one arm, until he saw a familiar face.

"Miss Zelda!" he greeted with a smile. "Happy Christmas. Er, Christmas Eve," he glanced down at the book a bit sheepishly, as though he was embarrassed to have been caught doing such last-minute shopping. The sheepishness was only momentary, however, as he realized that Miss Fisk might, in fact, be in a position to help him out with his present dilemma. "You have a lot of siblings, didn't you say? What does one get a sister-in-law for Christmas?"

@"Zelda Fisk"