Chapter 170: Christmas Day and Gifts (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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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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”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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