NOVEL NEXT 39. It’s Christmas!
The closer Christmas Day approached; the sadder Danil became. He knew it was pretty useless to mope around, because this was the second holiday that he would spend without his family, but he couldn't help himself. So, in order to keep himself away from depressing thoughts, he began to wrap the gifts he got for all the people that provided him with support.
A dozen boxes were wrapped in bright paper. Red and gold, green and silver, blue and bronze, yellow and black; the colors of the four Houses of Hogwarts. It wasn't very original, but his choice was limited by the walls of the castle. Fortunately, he didn't have many people he wanted to give gifts to, so there was enough variety in colors for everyone. Mostly.
His gifts will be sent through the house elves in an hour, so after wrapping the last box, Dan attached a note to it and nodded in satisfaction.
His room wasn't quiet, recently he got his hands on some rather old music discs and a record player. The house elves brought him a broken one from some room of lost things and it was not that difficult to fix it with magic.
With the recordings, however, things were a little more complicated. Danil was a guy who was born in the twenty-first century, he lived and breathed modern music. The sudden switch to Wagner and other old composers wasn't easy for him.
Luna returned home for Christmas, but this time Danil had to stay in the castle. Letting him leave the walls of Hogwarts for Halloween was dangerous enough, but at least on the day of the dead he had the excuse of: "It's just a very realistic costume." At Christmas, he could only pretend to be the Grinch – back in black version.
Mantis was sitting on his shoulder as usual, looking at all the boxes with interest. The little guy couldn't understand why his friend was doing all this, but he hoped that some kind of surprise had been prepared for him too.
"Hungry?" Dan asked Mantis, taking out some woodlice, which he kept in his pocket on Hagrid's advice.
While the young bowtruckle was happily eating his treat, Dan looked around his room. There were more books inside, sheets of parchment full of ink filled his desk, and a magic backpack with an Undetectable Extension Charm lay innocently at the foot of his bed.
If earlier all these things were for him something alien, inexplicable even, now he was more confident in his knowledge. Well, rather, he knew enough not to seem completely brainless in everyday conversation.
Take the very innocent backpack with an Undetectable Extension Charm for example, it wasn't a thing that someone would talk about owning openly. Mostly because they were extremely illegal to produce and own.
Danil never found a moment to ask how exactly they thought of foisting something so illegal on him, leaving their questions for a while after the holidays. Professors deserve their rest like no other.
'And I deserve a rest.' He thought as he sat down on a high chair, which was comfortable to sit in with his height. On the table next to him was a bottle of Xeno's mead, which the monster boy planned to empty before dawn.
After the end of the holidays, the professors will announce the results of the midterms tests. The tests, which Danil passed together with the rest of the students of Hogwarts.
He knew that his further education would depend on his results. If he was able to grasp the concepts of the first two years, then he will be able to start learning more about Ancient Runes, Divination and Arithmancy.
Although he wasn't sure about the last subject. Danil's relationship with mathematics has always been not the best.
Opening the bottle, Dan stared at the frozen snowy landscape that spread out beyond his window. The moon was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the night sky. Seeing how winter took this piece of Scottish land in its arms, Dan couldn't help but think about his family back in his world.
They didn't celebrate Christmas – few people in Russia did – and the New Year passed for Dan somehow unnoticed, because everyone at Hogwarts was too busy going home for the winter holidays. And the absence of his little blonde friend made him feel even more lonely than usual.
New Year in the Khromov family was an important day, even more important than birthdays or other holidays. Kurt firmly believed in the saying "as you celebrate the new year, so you spend it," so the holiday was always a big deal.
Decorations hung on every corner, a Christmas tree stood in the middle of the apartment, and festive music continued to play through the night. Things were a little quieter than the holidays at Hogwarts, but if the Khromovs' had magic, they would have arranged celebrations a hundred times larger than those that took place within the walls of the school.
Closing his eyes to push away the wave of sadness, he sighed heavily and began to speak.
"... Maybe it's not the New Year for you, or for me right now, but I don't really care." Raising the bottle to the bright moon in the sky, Danil smiled. "I wish you happiness, Kurt, Katya."
The monster boy took a sip and closed his eyes, placing the drink on the arm of his chair. Now, sitting with a bottle of alcohol and listening to Wagner, Danil felt like a real "badass" villain from the old James Bond movies. Grinning at his silly thought, he settled back and let his mind rest.
Only his moment of rest made him miss one very important event that happened on the horizon.
Somewhere in the sky, two stars shone especially brightly, confusing Astrologers around the world. They couldn't believe that two completely different celestial bodies would make completely identical energy emissions at the same time. The chances that this could happen were phenomenally small, but still, it happened.
What they didn't know then was that just three months ago, a completely different star produced exactly the same energy emission. It won't be noticed for a long time.
The morning after Christmas couldn't have come earlier. Millions of excited children jumped up with the first rays of the sun to see what gifts that the day brought them.
And the residents of Hogwarts were no exception. Well, maybe not as excited as small children, but few people weren't happy with the gifts in the morning. However, this didn't mean that they weren't confused by the appearance of an "extra" gift in their pile.
Danil thought for a long time about what to present to each of his professors. A good gift in his opinion should be something useful, but something that the recipient of the gift wouldn't buy themselves.
With plenty of time, materials – especially with all the crap he found in the catacombs – and one crafting table, he had no problem making gifts. All he had to do was figure out what he wanted to create.
A compass, that points to the location the user consider to be their home for Flitwick. A solid glass block, inside of which was a transfigured figure of a lion's head for Minerva – Luna helped him with this when she was still in the castle with this one. Dan was still not capable of accurate transfigurations.
Snape received several glass bottles, and in order not to give them to him empty, they were filled with materials from the catacombs.
A golden apple for Madam Pomfrey as an object for research; the rune block trap from the catacombs for Batsheda Bubbling and a little square wolf figurine that Dan carved from a block of wood for Remus. Pomona Sprout received an enchanted magical replica of a lily flower that could be brought into any state of its life cycle by pressing buttons on the pot it was planted in.
Hagrid became the owner of a brand-new crossbow, which was surprisingly even stronger than what he had before. After creating this one, Dan became convinced that the crafting table somehow understood his intentions when creating items.
Albus, oddly enough, was the simplest person for whom Dan picked up gifts. Seeing how crazy the old man tried to appear, he gave him a pair of acid pink socks and mittens made from a skein of the same wool.
When it came to his friends, Dan could relax a bit because he only had three people, he could call his friend and he knew them much better than his professors. Fred and George were also not the most difficult people to choose a gift for. The twins received two pairs of the most stylish red leather pants Hogwarts had ever seen.
And Luna couldn't be happier when she opened her gift and found a plush Crumple-Horned Snorkack inside.
While Dan was using the crafting table, he was only thinking about the recipes of items from the game that he already knew. He didn't think it was right to test his theories without Luna.
'It will be safer if someone is around during my experiments. You never know what could go wrong,' he told himself. Completely ignoring that it would be more productive to call the Weasley twins or even one of the professors for safety measures.
Because deep down, Dan knew that he just wanted the girl to be there for him if his theories turned out to be correct.
And so, he waited for the Holidays to end.