Home for Christmas
It was time for Halloween and the castle was pervaded with a festive mood. Though wizards do not celebrate it in the way some of the muggles do, the Halloween dinner is apparently a veritable treat. Magnus was kept busy all this time with all the new learning material he picked up. He still made time to hang out with his friends, but he didn't have much time to explore the secrets of the castle like he had meant to. 'Well, we can't win everything. There's always time for it in the future,' he consoled himself.
Magnus made his way to potions along with his housemates. Magnus noticed that Prof. Snape started asking him more and more difficult questions ever since he started learning under Madam Pomfrey. Some of them he could answer, while others were way too advanced for him to know. Fortunately, Prof. Snape didn't take too many points from him for wrong answers. At least he earned more points than he lost. Today turned out to be the same. Prof. Snape asked him more questions but in the end it's the Hufflepuffs that somehow lost more points. Still the students soldiered on as the hope of a sumptuous Halloween dinner kept them cheery.
[Impact Points+5]
The evening saw Mr. Filch and his cat chasing the Weasley twins across the corridor as they chucked mini-pumpkin shaped bombs behind them. Whoever got hit by them had a sticky orange liquid stuck to them. Only the arrival of Prof. McGonagall stopped them. The great hall was decorated with floating pumpkin heads and flying bats which added to the atmosphere. The dinner was everything that was promised. The whole student body fell asleep satisfied from the delicious food that night.
The next day threw a ripple in Magnus's life. During the breakfast in the morning, an owl unexpectedly landed in front of him with a letter. To say he was surprised was an understatement. He had no family to send him a letter and Mrs. Weasley sent some cake just the other day along with her sons. He offered the expectantly looking owl some bacon before sending it away. He wishes he could check it for hexes, but he didn't know how to. He turned the letter over to look at the sender's name to realize that it was from Newt. He pocketed the letter as he knew it was safe and didn't want anyone snooping around. Some students here have the habit of looking over and reading other's letters. He gave an annoyed glance at Roger who looked away sheepishly.
He returned to his room in the tower and read the letter in the safe confines of his bed.
"Dear Magnus,
I hope you are doing well. I am done testing your blood samples. I'd like to come over to your house during the Christmas vacation to further discuss the details. Do make yourself available. Don't worry, it's nothing too serious.
Newt"
Magnus folded the letter and placed it safely in his trunk. He would have to change his plans for Christmas. Initially, he decided to stay in Hogwarts for the holidays. He would be alone at his home anyway, might as well spend that time here. But now that is no longer possible. 'Oh well, it doesn't matter. This way I can get some supplies in Diagon Alley,' he decided. [Identify] opened a whole new world for him as he could just look at ingredients and know their properties. This made experimenting very exciting. Levelling up potions also gave him an intuitive feel to mixing low level potions.
It was the weekend so he didn't have any classes, but Madam Pomfrey's test was today. The books she assigned "Healing through the Ages" and "Anatomy of Life" while larger than he thought, were very mind-opening. He decided to get some muggle medical books too when he can. As wizards and ordinary humans have many similarities according to his understanding, there should be plenty of material to further his knowledge. Just reading the material and occasionally listening to Madam Pomfrey pushed his healing to Lv2 and opened up many avenues for him.
Magnus went to the medical wing with his writing supplies tucked away in his handy sling bag. Madam Pomfrey was already waiting for him in her office. The first was a written test for an hour. It included many questions from the books he read followed by an essay. Next was the oral part where Madam Pomfrey asked him all manner of questions. There wasn't any practical as he already proved himself on that part. She graded the paper right in front of him while he sat there nervously. He felt like he did really well.
"Well Mr. Webb, you did far better than what I expected. Until now we only had classes randomly, which will be changing. We'll have classes one evening a week, Tuesday or Thursday. You'll also be helping out during the weekends and whenever I deem necessary. Sometimes I might also arrange some errands to you which I hope you'll complete responsibly. That would be all," Madam Pomfrey informed him sternly.
[Impact Points+10]
"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey. Your faith is not misplaced," Magnus assured her. Thus, a new task was added to his routine. Most students didn't know that he was having extra classes in the medical wing. Those that did know from their time as a patient either kept it to themselves or spoke about it yet no one cared. Whatever it maybe, he was perfectly fine with it. He didn't have the time to think about such trivial things. In this manner days passed and soon he was boarding the Hogwarts express to go home for the Christmas vacation. The Weasley twins wanted to spend their vacation in the castle but their mother would have none of it. So, they too followed along with the rest of the Gryffindor gang. They spent most of their time playing games like Exploding snap or Gobble stones. Even the rest of the Ravenclaws joined their games.
They reached Kings Cross station late in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were already there waiting for them along with Ron and Ginny. They boarded the Ministry cars that Mr. Weasley brought, a courtesy of him being a Ministry employee. There were too many people and luggage for them to safely take along via apparition. They didn't want any accident with the children. The floo network was out too as there weren't any floo points nearby. One would expect that they would arrange something like that close to the Kings Cross station what with the floating student population and all, but the ministry apparently thought it made no sense to place a floo point in a place only used few times a year. 'Like everything else they did made sense,' Magnus scoffed.
After over an hour, the Weasley family and Magnus made it home. Well, Magnus still had another leg of journey left but an offer of dinner from Mrs. Weasley made him stay. Charlie and Percy went to their rooms upstairs while the twins were pestered by Ron and Ginny to tell them all about school. Thus, began a fanciful tale about how they wrestled a troll and battled a giant squid to find the thief who stole the Halloween puddings. Ginny at least looked suspicious by the end of the story, but Ron was completely immersed in the story. Magnus could only laugh at their antics.
Magnus got up from his place on the sofa and went to sit beside Mr. Weasley who was reading the newspaper. "So, Magnus how was school?" Mr. Weasley asked as he noticed his approach.
"It was great Mr. Weasley. It's a nice place to be," Magnus said smiling.
"Ah, it brings back old memories. You know I was the only one to obtain N.E.W.T level in Muggle studies during my time? Such a wonderful experience," Mr. Weasley reminisced.
"It sure must be," Magnus politely replied. He knew Mr. Weasley's love for all things muggle and if encouraged he could go on and on for hours talking about cars and floating ducks. So, he decided to change the topic and talk about what he really wanted to talk.
"Mr. Weasley, I was wondering how one would go about getting their floo point set up," Magnus enquired.
"Oh, you would need to put forth an application to the Floo Network Authority in the Department of Magical Transportation. Why Magnus, are you trying to get one for your house?" Mr. Weasley guessed.
"Yes, Mr. Weasley, that would make travelling much more comfortable," Magnus admitted. The fact that he could directly go to Diagon Alley on his own if he had his own floo place need not be said.
"Well, of course. Floo makes things much easy, until you learn apparition. How about this? I know Mark from the Floo Network and I'll ask him tomorrow. Leave it to me," Mr. Weasley offered enthusiastically.
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley," Magnus beamed at him. 'I'll get you a nice Christmas present.'