25 TPS Part 13: Tove's Transfer

Onyx remained standing but with closed eyes, calming himself after the portkey. Even if he's fairly used to them and side-apparating by now, he still gets rather nauseous. He could hear footsteps in front of him though and as he opened his eyes he noticed that more and more of his view was being taken up by a young blonde girl. She was walking towards him with her hair and dress flowing in the wind.

He looked at her face. He saw how her smile grew wider with every step, how the joy spread through her face all the way up to her glimmering blue eyes and then all of a sudden she was right in front of him but she didn't stop. Two of her hands reached up and landed on his cheeks, her lips came together and then their lips met.

This broke Onyx completely out of his stupor. It was Tove. She was the one who came to meet him. She had now..kissed him. That was his first kiss and before he could respond, no matter if he wanted to or not, the kiss was over. He could feel a bit of blood flooding to his cheeks as he once again met her eyes. "Oh hi Tove."

The girl got back her wide smile and hugged him, hard. "Welcome to our home Onyx. Soon I will show you your room but.." Onyx wrapped his arms around the girl and interrupted her "If you don't mind, I'd like to stay like this for a bit first." In a slightly joking manner, he added "I've barely been hugged in months you know!"

This caused a smile to come out of Tove but she stopped the hug anyway and once again showed up in front of him. "Well I'll just have to sort that out these few days then!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him inside the house.

In there he met the family. Björn, her father gave him a quick handshake while the mother, Klara, hugged him briefly. Ulf, Tove's brother, came around the corner once with a friend and gave Onyx a wave, which he returned.

Onyx had grown up with Tove and knew her family well as well, but he hadn't really been in Sweden all that much and they had recently upgraded to this near mansion of a house. First thing Tove did after showing him his room was show him around the place.

They had a place in the archipelago by Stockholm. They had apparently got their own few islands and it was necessary as one of them was being used to breed dragons after all. Tove told him she'd show him the dragons tomorrow but today was catch-up day.

And so they caught up. Onyx told her all about what it was like at Hogwarts and Slytherin house especially. He told her about the boy who lived, their teacher who died, and a few bits and bobs about his new friends, leaving out the Zabini incident. Tove returned by telling him about life at Durmstrang.

Apparently, it was a very strict school with quite a few strange traditions. There were not houses per se since they didn't accept that many students. No muggleborn were accepted for example. The school had a sort of rivalry with a smaller Swedish school around a mile from where Tove currently lived.

She had apparently considered transferring. The school was dreary and she hadn't taken to quite a few of the subjects. She had only made one friend really but the girl had 'special circumstances' which made it so that Tove hadn't had anyone to hug in months and she was now jumping at the chance, quite literally. Tove was a very physical person and her lack of physical contact was clear to see as her arms had barely left his waist this entire time.

She had gotten a tutor for French and had a few thoughts about transferring to Beauxbatons next year. They were all taught French growing up but she could use a bit more advanced if she was going to be living there. Apparently, they had a very interesting warding specialization you could choose later on which interested her, and she loved the way it looked.

They soon got onto the topic of their American friend. Turns out he hadn't been invited until tomorrow, by some kind of mishap, but would be joining them then.

The two spent a couple of hours just catching up like that and running around for a bit before being called in for dinner. After dinner, the entire family had a game night which Onyx joined. It was some kind of game of life with certain spells induced into the cards and positions on the board. Onyx apparently got five kids and came second due to him not making the most money.

As the night came to a close, he walked into his room, undressed, and just fell onto his bed. As soon as he closed his eyes he heard his door open and in came Tove. As he hadn't actually gone under the sheets and was just lying there in his boxers he acted quickly and covered himself up. "Tove? What are you doing here?"

She giggled a little to herself as she sat down on the bed beside him. "I know you don't want to talk about it but I still hope you liked my gift." This made his cheeks a bit red, he had been avoiding the conversation as he didn't know what he wanted to say. She smiled at him and gave him one more hug "If I was allowed to, I would have transferred to Hogwarts instantly but that breaks mum and dad's special plan."

She broke off the hug and looked him straight in the eyes. "I just hope you won't forget me due to all of these girls. The Moon girl, the Dunbar, Greengrass, Granger, Bones etc. etc. etc. I don't know how many there are! I just hope you'll still remember me each time we see each other no matter how far in between." Onyx leaned in and kissed her forehead, a bit taunting for her of course. "I couldn't forget you Tove. Never. You hold a too special place in my heart for me to do that."

Those words brought back a smile to her face and she skipped back over to the doorframe, only just turning back once she reached it. "Oh and just so you know, I won't be able to do anything like this with Charlton here. He's always thought I was taking you away from him." With that she skipped away and Onyx sank down into his pillow with a grin on his face.

The next day Charlton arrived and their American friend was at first mad about not being allowed to arrive at the same time as Onyx but quickly moved past it as they shared stories. Illvermorny apparently had a completely different sorting where the house statues showed if the student was wanted in that house and then the student got to choose from the ones who wanted him. Charlton had been pleased to announce that he was wanted by all four houses, of course.

Charlton hadn't had any real problems with getting friends as there were a few on the aristocratic side around him and the only real problem he had was with the rivalry with Salem's institute. The blood ran deep there apparently and the championships between the two schools were rough.

The next two days were spent just like they used to spend them. A bit of talking, some running around, some bathing, some studying and many laughs. At the end they swapped gifts for Yule and the instant before Onyx's portkey activated, Tove gave him one more kiss for him to remember. He of course didn't have time to react to it once again, just the way she wanted it.

And so he was back, once again a young girl came to meet him but now it was sweet little Em who jumped into his arms. Onyx wondered if he could have a quiet day for once, but then he remembered that the Yule ball at the Bones' house was coming up and he hadn't planned on what to wear. His mother was going to have a field day.