The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas.
When the decorations went up, Quinn noticed that they were the most stunning he had yet seen inside the school. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them. It was quite something to hear "O Come, All Ye Faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words.
Several times, Filch the caretaker had to extract Peeves from inside the armor, where he had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own invention, all of which were very rude.
Soon, the term ended, and with it ended his busy schedule managing the quidditch tournament — he was free till the school term started again. As such, he was looking forward to spending his time leading up to Christmas enjoying himself as thoroughly as possible, along with everyone else.
Ravenclaw Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly too, as its inhabitants were so much rowdier than usual.
Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a giant, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings, and only Fleur seemed to be able to find anything to complain about.
"It's too heavy, all this Hogwarts food," said the girl while sitting along with Quinn's group, her voice reaching everywhere in the Great hall, "I will not fit into my dress robes!"
"You're a Veela, Fleur. You're not going to gain weight so easily — your body won't allow it."
Eddie agreed with Quinn. "Yeah, that's why it's hard for Veelas to play positions other than seekers and goalies. They can't gain weight easily; that includes muscle mass as such they usually play beaters and chasers."
When everyone looked at Eddie, he shrugged,
"I read it in a book I picked up for light reading."
Sometimes people forgot that Eddie was a Ravenclaw — he was a certified nerd despite jock status.
Fleur's little complaint wasn't registered as well as it did in Quinn group; for example, by the Gryffindor table, Hermione snapped.
"Oooh, there's a tragedy. She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"
Ivy and other girls like Parvati Patil and Lavender Brow nodded feverously. None like the audacity of a Veela complaining about gaining weight — it was as if a fish deep under the ocean to an aquarium fish complaining about having less space to swim.
"Oye, Potter!" said Draco, behind them, "You're not telling me the rumors are true — you asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"
Harry and Ron looked at Draco, instinctively turning their attention away from the food towards, but Hemione beat them to it and waved to
somebody over Malfoy's shoulder,
"Hello, Professor Moody!"
Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.
"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly before inaudibly sighing as her hands went to her teeth
She gazed at Harry, who had joined Ron in laughing at the embarrassed Draco at the Slytherin and then at the Ravenclaw table.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"You want me to shrink your teeth."
Quinn sat across Hermione Granger, repeating her request back to her for confirmation.
"Yes, I would like you to shrink them."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Alright, let's do it."
Hemione stilled for a second; she was expecting a little more something.. .. anything.
"Just like that? No questions pertaining to why?"
Quinn shrugged his shoulders and lightly shook his head.
"Not really."
"Nothing?"
"Ms. Granger, unlike you're previous interactions with me, this request of me shrinking your teeth will have no possible negative consequences for me — null, nil, nada, zilch.. .. I have your consent, and that's all I need to get started.. .. If you're talking about the reason behind this particular request, I won't ask if you don't want to tell."
"O-Oh, okay. Thank you for that."
"Should we get started then?"
"Yes, please."
Quinn got up from his barstool and walked to the client-side, sitting on the chair beside Hermione.
"Please show me your teeth and don't lock your jaw together; keep them a little apart. Yes, excellent."
Quinn retrieved his fake wand to shrink the two front buck teeth down using a healing-grade transmutation-based spell.
"Teeth are one of the parts in a body that can easily be transmuted; enamel is an inorganic material, beneath it are Dentin and pulp, which might be organic materials, but are the type that can be easily transmuted — the very few areas of living tissue in the body which can be transmuted without immense risks involved."
Hermione Granger, of course, had a lot to speak about the topic but couldn't as her teeth were being operated on.
The witch started to talk the second Quinn was done and removed his hand from Hermione's chin. "With all the living matter inside a human body, it gets increasingly difficult to permanently change — especially with nerves running through everything."
"Precisely," nodded Quinn.
He conjured a hand mirror for Hermione to see the end result.
The girl studied her modified dentures and nodded with satisfaction with their new size.
"Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink my teeth for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they're dentists. They just don't think teeth and magic should go together."
"It's natural for them to think like that," said Quinn going back to the barstool behind his desk, "they're in the profession as orthodontists — they had to study for years to start practicing their craft. Waving a wand to fix everything with magic — something they don't understand, might not sound convincing to them.. .. For example, I have learned to play the violin and piano for years — playing them with magic doesn't sound good to me."
Sitting down, he asked Hermione. "Anything else you wanted to get done today?"
"No, that's it for today.. .. So I heard you're going with Fleur Delacour."
"That I'm,' replied Quinn taking out a billing pad, "ah, do you want a receipt?"
"How much are you charging?"
"Just spare me some silver-sickles; this wasn't hard, you could've gone to Madam Pomfrey, and she would've done it for you free of charge."
"Then you don't have to give me a bill."
Hermione pulled her bookbag up from the floor and started to look for her coin purse.
As she did that, Quinn continued with conversation, "It seems we both will be going as champions date."
"Hmm? Ah yes!" said Hermione pulling out a pouch with a jingle of coins inside. "Any idea who is going with Krum and Cedric?"
"Cho Chang is going with Cedric; they're dating. I'm not sure about Krum; there is no news about him."
"Is that so.. .. so, you rejected Ivy."
Hermione slid the silver-sickles across the table.
Quinn glanced up from the table, looking at the girl before he pulled the coins towards him.
"I did. Are you angry about that?"
"Not really. I expected Ivy to get rejected. But I thought it would be Daphne Greengrass."
"Yeah.. . that's the official party line."
"You're going to dance with Ivy, though."
"Only if it doesn't make things awkward with her date. I don't want to ruin her evening. I also want to dance with you so, save me a dance. Speaking of that, who's she going with?"
"No one yet."
"No one?" said Quinn raising his brow.
"You rejected her," said Hermione and shrugged, "she couldn't recover."
"Hahaha, you're joking, right?. .. Right?"
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- (Scene Break) -
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Christmas day had finally arrived. Quinn woke up to white covering the entire castle and grounds. It was a beautiful sight — a sight to behold.
"A white Christmas," smiled Quinn, looking out of his window.
He started his day with his usual morning workout; Eddie had paused his morning workouts to work with his teammates who had a different routine; as such, his mornings were spent exercising in silence.
After a breaking sweat in the wintery, snowy cold, Quinn returned to the common room. The second he opened the door, he was greeted by an unusual scene — the usual thin crowd of early birds who had bathed and come down to the common room was replaced by the entire Ravenclaw crowd dressed in their sleepwear, ripping through gift wraps off their Christmas presents and exchanging gifts with each other.
"Everyone woke up early today."
He weaved his way through the crowd of jolly festivity up the stairs to his dorm room.
"Merry Christmas, lads; how're you jolly doing today."
His two roommates talking with each other looked up and greeted him with broad grins,
""Merry Christmas!" "
Eddie picked up a wrapped-up cube box and threw it towards Quinn, who had to catch it with both hands because of its size.
"What's this?" smiled Quinn.
He tapped his fingers against the box, and all strips of tapes came off. The light and casual use of wandless magic had already become commonplace in Quinn's dorm room. He had started to show very light wandless capabilities following his meeting with Dumbledore after the rescue of Harry Potter from Novellus Accionites abductors — Quinn wanted to make sure that the people close to him knew that he could use rudimentary levels of magic without a wand, bringing them to the same level as Dumbledore.
Quinn opened Eddie's gift box, and inside it was a sturdy wooden mug tankard.
"Whenever we go to Hogsmeade, you always have Madam Rosemary fill a conjured mug. So here you go, use that next time."
"Thank you, Eddie, this is great!"
Next was Marcus, who, unlike Eddie, didn't throw his gift at Quinn and properly handed him a smaller box.
"It isn't much, but I hope you'll like it."
Quinn unwrapped the gift wrap, and immediately shiny metal peeked out. He looked at Marcus, who urged him to continue. Quinn complied and fully unwrapped the paper.
".. . Is that?" said Quinn.
In his hands rested a stainless steel cuboidal case with beautiful engraving inlaid into it. On the broader faces of the case was engraved a monogram of 'QW' — the same monogram that Quinn printed on his personal contact cards.
"Rub your finger along the side face of the case," said Marcus.
Quinn gently swiped his finger across the side face, and like a camera's shutter opening up, the broad face opened, revealing a deck of cards inside. The back design was minimalistic, with only a black background and a thin golden border.
It was a card deck holder.
"You can swap the deck inside to one of your choice."
Quinn hummed as he started to play with the case and the deck inside. Pulling the cards out, putting them back inside, switching things up — soon the case and the deck had become part of one whole inside his hands.
"Oh yeah, this just screams class." He was satisfied with both his gifts.
"Now it's my time to give you both your gifts.. . Unlike you guys, I haven't made unique gifts for you."
Quinn took out his fake wand and summoned the gifts to him. His study table drawer opened, and two objects flew towards him, which he caught before presenting them to his best friends.
Marcus was the first one to recognize the gift. "Aren't these your expandable pocket?"
"Yup, I made one each for both of you. No need to stuff your pant pockets to the point they bulge. Keep all of your odd stuff inside them, plus you'll not feel their weight as I've charmed them to be weightless — so you can go nuts with the stuff you want to put inside as long as you know how to pull them out — I would suggest summoning charm for easy retrieval if the pockets get overcrowded."
"They don't have limits?" asked Eddie.
"Of course, they do. Infinite space inside a pocket isn't possible. There'll always be a limit to space expansion. This also has a limit; explore it at your own discretion."
"Nice, I'll fit my broom in there."
Quinn wasn't done yet. He had another gift for them— a somewhat serious gift. Two small packages flew through the hair towards him, and with heavy hands, he handed them to Eddie and Marcus.
"Is this.. . a lighter?" asked Marcus.
He held a silver Zippo lighter with a complicated yet subtle design etched into the silver surface — those designs weren't for show, but for magical purposes, as everything etched on the cover was a rune.
Eddie flicked the Zippo lighter and spun the wheel to light it up.
"Oh yeah, this is cool."
He closed it with a click before flicking it open again.
"Uh-huh, this is very cool."
Quinn smiled at their positive reaction. "I'm glad you liked it, but I didn't give this to you because it's cool.. .. the lighter has another use."
"Oh, what is it?" asked Marcus.
Quinn took Marcus's lighter and flicked it open; he pointed at a non-descript witch below the lighter wheel.
"Now, I hope you never get to use this," he started, "but if you guys ever get attacked or get trapped in a situation that you need some extra.. . push of sorts — flip this switch, close the lid and throw it towards the target."
Marcus gulped before asking nervously, "What does it do?"
"It would be better if you don't know — you won't use it if you know."
"Does it explode?" asked Eddie.
"No, nothing like that. It won't explode. But make sure you're at least twenty feet away from the place you're throwing it."
".. . Seriously, what does it do?"
- (Scene Break) -
Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus met up with Luna in the common room, and they went down to breakfast together. Quinn gave the same gifts to Luna while getting a painting in return. They spent most of the morning in Ravenclaw Tower, where everyone enjoyed their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, including at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings and enormous piles of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers.
They went out onto the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Luna chose to watch the three-way snowball fight rather than join in, and at five o'clock, said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball.
"What, you need three hours?" said Quinn, looking at her incredulously and paying for his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by Quinn, hit him hard on the side of the head.
"Oof!"
"Haha, got you~."
There was no Christmas tea today, as the ball included a feast, so at seven o'clock, when it had become hard to aim correctly, the trio abandoned their snowball fight and trooped back to the common room.
Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus changed into their formal wear-up in
their dormitory, Eddie and Marcus looking very self-conscious. On the other hand, Quinn looked like he was in his element, feeling out his suit and threading a pocket watch chain through his vest with a smile on his face.
"Are you boys ready?" asked Quinn looking at his best friends.
Quinn himself wore a light grey three-piece suit with a faint blue shirt and a royal blue tie around his neck. Eddie's suit was of a deep and dark royal blue color with checks over a black shirt and bowtie; unlike Quinn, Eddie had a folded handkerchief sticking out from his breast pocket.
Marcus seemed happy with his clothes. He had gotten lucky with the color scheme required to match Luna with a bright yellow robe and pants over a black shirt and white bowtie. He had pulled his hair slick back and set them Rudder fish's gel, giving him a clean put-together look.
"You chaps clean up well," smiled Quinn, "come on, before we go down, let's take a photo."
He set out a prototype camera under development half as small as any current model in the magical world — with full intentions to reduce the size to the non-magical world's DSLR cameras.
The three boys lined up with Marcus in the middle and the suit boys standing at his sides, facing the camera fixed upon a tripod stand.
"Three.. . two.. . one.. . smile with glee."
With the MLE flash built into the camera prototype shining light on them, a memory was captured forever — an image that all boys would cherish for years to come.
"Now, let's go meet the ladies."
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Feeling good, Looking good.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Yule -> Vault -> Second Task.
