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Chapter 10: Christmas     (Christmas Morning, Daphne POV)   Daphne woke on Christmas morning to the sound of something knocking on her windo

Chapter 10: Christmas

(Christmas Morning, Daphne POV)

Daphne woke on Christmas morning to the sound of something knocking on her window.

Pulling away her covers and stretching for a bit, she finally looked towards her window where she saw the unmistakable sight of Aether’s owl just outside asking to be let in.

In a hurry to let the owl in, Daphne forgot to put on any slippers and immediately regretted it after stepping on the cold wooden floor.

“Ah! Cold! Cold!” she said with a small hiss and quickly putting her slippers on.

Moments later Athena was finally let in and relieved from the small package she was carrying and was now busy drinking water that Daphne had provided for her.

Now sitting back on her bed Daphne brought the small package close to her face and shook it a bit in curiosity. Frowning at not finding any clue as to what it could be, Daphne blinked when she saw a small note attached to the bottom with her name on it.

Opening it with great care Daphne immediately recognized the neat and elegant handwriting that belonged to none other than Aether. Seriously, his handwriting was perfect and was even better than most of the books she had ever read.

It was just one of the many, many things about Aether that she found mysterious and consequently drew her to him in the first place.

Shaking those thoughts away Daphne finally read his note with a smile unknowingly growing on her face.

Dear Daph,

Merry Christmas!

Hope you enjoy your holidays with your family. Don’t forget to practice what I taught you. Anyways I’ll end it here before I write something stupid. See you when you return.

Love,

Aether Cordelia

“Idiot.” Daphne muttered quietly to herself letting out a small chuckle.

Aether had told her in their talks that he was horrible at writing any kind of message or letter as he would always end up saying something stupid in his own words. It was funny to her that out of all his gifts and abilities, Aether would have trouble with something as simple as writing someone a letter.

Folding the note neatly back together she put it to the side for now. She would later find a place for it out of sight and away from the grabby hands of her little sister.

Turning back to the boxed gift she gently unwrapped it and found a beautiful and probably very expensive, silver bracelet decorated with small sapphires.

“It’s beautiful.” She said with a smile before looking back at the box where she found another small note at the bottom.

Picking it up she read it quietly to herself with a small blush darkening her pale cheeks at the words written inside.

‘Reminded me of your eyes.’

“…”

“DAPHNE!”

Daphne’s blush immediately disappeared as she heard the door to her room slam open and the unmistakable voice of her younger sister a moment later as she barged into her room without a care in the world. As discreet as she could, she was quick to hide Aether’s note and letter to her in her pocket before her nosy sister saw it.

“Ooh~ That’s a rather pretty bracelet you got there. Who gave it to you?” asked Astoria with a cheeky smile on her face at seeing said bracelet.

“None of your business.” Daphne said as nonchalantly as she could while trying her best to ignore her sister even if she knew it was an impossible hurdle.

“Boyfriend huh?” immediately assumed Astoria not deterred at all by her sister’s evasiveness.

“Ghk, shut up Astoria.” Daphne retorted back almost choking on her words much to her embarrassment.

Unfortunately for her, Astoria smelled blood in the water and immediately pounced on her sister.

Daphne would spend her remaining holydays evading all sorts of questions from her little sister about her possible boyfriend never once managing to convince her that she didn’t have one.

=====

(Normal POV)

Waking up on Christmas morning at the feel of something soft on my lips I groggily opened my eyes coming face to face with Maya who was currently draped over me.

Smiling at finding out what the feeling was, I closed my eyes and pulled Maya down closer and kissed her back hearing her moan as I did.

Minutes later Maya finally pulled away from the kiss and after taking a deep breath gave me a beautiful smile as she caressed my cheek lovingly.

“Merry Christmas, Master~”

“Merry Christmas Maya.” I greeted in return with a smile on my face and then blinked when I heard a small pop to the side.

Looking at the source of the noise I saw Ilulu shily looking at us with a small blush on her cheeks and with her hands hidden behind her back.

“Morning Ilulu. Merry Christmas.” I greeted the elf with my smile increasing in size at seeing her blush cover her whole face.

“T-thank you Master. Merry Christmas to you as well.” Ilulu said shily before bringing her hands forward showing she had a wrapped present in her hands. “For you.”

Blinking at the present I quietly asked Maya to get off and got up from the bed then finally took it off her hands.

“Thank you Ilulu.” I thanked her softly then leaned down and pulled the blonde in for a kiss causing her to quietly squeak but nonetheless happily accepting my kiss.

“Mmn.”

Pulling back from the kiss I gave Ilulu another small kiss on the cheek glad that she was no longer as shy to affection as she first was months ago when she would literally faint sometimes from a small kiss.

Looking down at the present in my hands I was quick to open it revealing what appeared to be a regular uniform if it wasn’t for the magic, I could feel imbedded into the fabric.

“I was able to make these with my Sewing skill. They should offer protection for all but the most powerful of spells. However, since you are still growing, I will have to modify them each year. I hope that’s okay?” Ilulu explained briefly looking nervous at the end.

‘These are insane. I can’t believe she was able to make these when her Crafting skill is not even Rank S yet.’ I thought in surprise checking the clothes with my Analyze skill before shaking my head and offering the elf another small kiss on the lips and a quick hug.

“These are amazing Ilulu. Thank you.”

Right after that I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find Maya with a small gift on her hand as well that turned out to be some scales and a shard of her jewel that were rare potion ingredients.

Thanking both girls again I offered them their own gifts, sweets and chocolate, before bidding a good day as I made my way down to the common room where Rose was already waiting for me.

“Aether! Happy Christmas~” Rose yelled at the top of her lungs and launched herself at me and pulled me in to a hug. “Thank you for your present. I love it!”

“Haha you’re welcome.” I said with a smile while returning her hug.

“Come on, open your presents. You received a ton.” Rose said excitedly puling away from the hug and dragging me towards the pile of presents by the tree.

We spent the next minutes opening up our presents from everyone before heading down to the Great Hall and having breakfast with everyone that had stayed behind. While we were eating Harry informed us in hushed whispers about the Invisibility Cloak he had received from an anonymous source making me internally wince since it would make keeping track of the little shit even harder now.

I dismissed myself after breakfast and headed into the ROR to wish Cliffo, Varina and Keros a Happy Christmas and to hang out with them for a while. Afterwards I slowly made my way towards the Shrieking Shack using the hidden passages of the castle where I found Asako waiting for me inside.

“Master.” Asako said in way of greeting as she kneeled on the ground with her head bowed.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice Asako.” I muttered coming to a stop in front of her.

“Think nothing of it Master. It is my pleasure to serve.”

“Before we get to the reason as to why I called you here, how goes the task I gave you last?” I asked curiously.

Other than assigning Asako with hunting down capture targets and stamping them, I had tasked Asako with investigating the location of Azkaban and how to reach there.

“It is going well Master. I have managed to discover where the island is located but reaching there will pose a bit of a problem due to its location.” Asako explained.

“Hmm seems I will need to give you the power of flight.” I muttered to myself and absently opened up my HUD and after thinking about it for a moment bought Asako a Template Stacking 1 & 2 of Starfire or Koriand’r from the DC verse.

“There, you should now have the ability of flight along with a slew of other abilities that I’ll let you discover for yourself.” I said finally looking back at Asako only to blink when I noticed that her skin had turned lighter, no longer being as dark as before.

‘I see, so Starfire’s Tamaranean Physiology is to blame huh?’ I though curiously also seeing her purple hair had turned a lighter shade of purple almost looking red now.

“T-this…” Asako muttered looking down at her hands in surprise for a while before snapping out of it and bowing deeply to me with her head coming to rest on the floor. “Master…I cannot possibly begin to express how thankful I am for your gift. Know that I am at your command now and forever.”

“That’s good to hear. With this ability you should have no problem now scoping out the island for any defenses it might have. Please make sure to be thorough.” I said with a smile knowing her new power would be really useful in the future when we moved on from this world.

“As you will.”

“With that out of the way, there is a target back at the castle that I need you to stamp at your earliest convenience.” I said moving the conversation along to the reason I had called Asako back.

“Of course, Master. Just say the name.” Asako said agreeing immediately.

“His name is Quirinus Quirrell, the DADA professor and most importantly the possessed host of Tom Riddle.”

=====

Nothing exciting happened again until after Christmas where Harry found the Mirror of Erised and dragged us along to show us the next evening.

I admit that I had found myself curious at what I would see reflected back in the mirror. We had made it to the mirror room under Harry’s Invisibility cloak. Well… Rose, Harry and Ron had while I got there on my own under a Disillusionment charm turning me invisible.

When we finally found the room, I undid my charm remembering that Dumbledore was either present inside the room or somebody had informed him of it. Probably the portraits.

I was proven correct when I saw the old man standing by the corner under his own Disillusionment charm as he observed us without shame. I fought the urge to shove my hand down the throat of the fucking voyeur as this only added to the growing number of reasons, I was starting to despise the old man.

He was too controlling and that was just something I would not tolerate, especially as the old man had me in his sights due to my friendship with Harry and Rose.

I kept my face blank as Harry began excitedly showing Ron and Rose what he saw on the mirror.

Since the troll incident, I had noticed the portraits had begun to pay me a suspiciously amount of attention where they mostly ignored me before. There was only one person in the whole castle who could command the portraits to do such a thing and he was currently standing in the same room with us. Luckily, I had never trusted the portraits to begin with so I had been really careful during my outings always under my own Invisibility Cloak or a Disillusionment charm.

“You mean you can’t see them, Rose? But our parents are standing right there.” said Harry almost desperately as he pointed to the mirror.

“I’m sorry Harry but the only thing I see when I stand in front of it is my own reflection.” said Rose looking sad at not being able to see her parents as well.

“I show not your face but your heart’s desire.” I recited the description for everyone to hear getting their attention. “That’s what the writing says.”

“What? Oh! I see it now! It’s backwards.” said Rose after looking at the writing closely.

“So, it shows us what we want most?” asked Harry still not taking his eyes off the mirror.

“Most likely. Mind if I take a look for myself?” I asked getting Harry to move to the side.

Stepping forward I mentally lowered my defenses and took a look at the mirror. I waited for a few moments before closing my eyes and letting out a bitter smile.

I saw nothing.

‘I guess death was the best thing that ever happened to me, as morbid as that sounds.’ I thought before shaking my head.

“Nothing.” I finally responded knowing the others were looking at me curiously at my answer. “I saw nothing but my own reflection.”

“You too?” asked Rose. “What does that mean? Is there something wrong with us?” she looked at me in worry.

“No, there is nothing wrong with us at all Rose. In my point of view, it’s actually a good thing that we only saw our reflection.” I said with a reassuring smile.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Ron.

“Simple.” I shrugged. “Since this mirror shows our deepest desires. That means that me and Rose are content with our current lot in life.”

“Huh? I guess that makes sense. Though it’s a little weird that I can’t see my family like Harry as that is something I think I would want.” said Rose with a hand on her chin thinking about my response deeply.

I kept silent knowing the real reason Rose didn’t see them was due to the defenses we now shared.

“Nevertheless, I think we should leave this mirror alone from now on. Any artifact that can look at your heart or soul could be dangerous.” I said moving the conversation along.

“I agree.” said Ron agreeing with me immediately.

We left after that with Harry reluctantly following along throwing back glances at the mirror until it was out of sight and ignoring the stare I felt at my back.

=====

(1st Week of January)

Before we knew it Christmas Break was over and today all students would be returning to school for the start of the new term.

We found ourselves having breakfast in the Great Hall when the students began arriving with the noise in the hall immediately increasing as friends greeted each other and began discussing their holiday or just talked excitedly in general.

“Aether, thank you for your gift. I loved it.” Hermione said as she pulled me in for a quick hug.

“No worries, Hermione. Glad you liked it.” I dismissed with a wave of my hand having sent her a book detailing all the branches of magic one could study later in the future figuring she would appreciate it.

I suddenly blinked when I felt a small hand slide into my pocket sneakily and silently looked for the culprit seeing Daphne sitting behind me pointedly avoiding looking my direction and let out a small smirk. Especially as I saw the bracelet, I had given her attached to her wrist.

Before I could tease the girl Dumbledore quieted down the hall since he had an announcement to make.

“Welcome back students, welcome back. Unfortunately, I have some sad news to share with you this morning. Due to Professor Quirrel’s abrupt leave from the grounds sometime last evening, DADA will have to unfortunately be cancelled for the rest of term.”

“WHAT!?” Half of the school suddenly exploded in chatter only to be silenced by Dumbledore again a few moments later as he continued.

“If you find yourselves having trouble in the subject, I will be personally holding a study session for all grades once a week. Thank you, that is all.”

As expected, as soon as Dumbledore sat down again chatter immediately began with everyone speculating what had happened to the DADA Professor with each theory being more ridiculous than the last.

“What do you think happened to him Aether?” Rose asked me curiously over all the chatter around us.

“Don’t know.” I said with a careless shrug of my shoulders. “Not like we really learnt anything in his class anyway.”

‘Good riddance.’ I thought privately letting a small smirk grace my face when no one was looking.