Chapter 170: Christmas Day and Gifts (2/2)
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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?”
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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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Quinn West - MC - Feeling good, Looking good.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Yule -> Vault -> Second Task.
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