Staying for Christmas

It was now the end of the first week of December and Professor McGonagall made her rounds to the common room to hand out forms for those who want to stay for the Christmas holidays. Me and Hermione both received one and sat on the couch by the fire as we read it.

"Are you going to go back home?" I asked, lifting my head from the sheet of paper. I saw Hermione staring at the form with a pensive look.

"I don't know. I've never been away from my parents this long before," she said, her eyes still on the form.

"What about you Tom, are you staying or leaving?"

"I'm going to be staying, every spare moment can be used to increase my magical knowledge, plus what would I do there apart from seeing my family and sitting around doing nothing all day," I answered. I used the whole 'knowledge gathering' as an excuse since I didn't have a valid way of explaining my plan to visit the mirror of erised to her.

I saw her lift her gaze from the form and looked at me as she appeared to be considering something. "I guess you're right, plus I would be seeing them for 9 weeks after the school year is over so there's really no rush, I guess I'll be keeping you company then," she said with a smile.

It was a pleasant change from the original story, but a welcome one, I am intrigued as to what she would see in the mirror since it was never explored in the books or films. Harry saw his parents, and Ron being the shallow person that he is saw himself with the quidditch cup. Not that I can blame him or judge him, after all, to each their own.

It was tempting to find out what I would see in the mirror and what it would show me, but it would have to wait for a while, at least one or two weeks more. Having come to a decision, we both filled in the forms and handed them back to the Professor before heading to the great hall for breakfast. It was a pleasant one, as usual, eggs, toast, even coffee and the sort which was very suitable and very much to my liking.

We had potions and charms, followed by herbology in the afternoon before dinner in the great hall again. As always, the sumptuous meals placed before us never ceased to amaze me. There was roasted chicken, fries, pork, beef, lamb which I hated, salads, and all types of sauces. It was endless. The atmosphere was very pleasant and tranquil except for the fucking pig Ron who soured everyone's mood with his lack of manners.

One of his biggest flaws I have to say. "As part of a respected family, you would think that he would learn to eat with a semblance of manners at the very least," said Hermione as she observed Ron with a frown on her face.

Her words triggered a memory that I seemed to have forgotten about, Ron was tricked and pranked by his twin brothers on the daily back at his house while growing up and that seemed to have traumatized the poor fellow which would explain his eating habits. Thinking up to here, I couldn't help but feel pity for the boy, after all, school is the only safe place he has from his brothers to a certain degree of course. The same enchanted ceiling hung over our heads which made me feel like I was eating in the middle of an open field under the night sky. It was lovely and mesmerising to look at no matter how many times I see it.

Shaking my head, I look over to see Hermione finishing her meal and therefore indicated for us to leave. We headed for our classroom where he studied the theoretical side of spells that we would later use. It wasn't all about doing practical practice since it would lead to disaster if done so. Like I mentioned before, it was a sort of science, you would need to do all the collection of data and analyse it before being able to produce the intended effect.

If you skip all the processes, then the results from the experiment will be unfinished and will therefore lead to adverse consequences or side effects. It took time, some more than others but it was a necessary process to ensure our safety. This once again brought up the conveniences of Drak's devouring ability. Hermione was still trying to get a hang of the portego spells while I was already quite proficient at it.

This was all due to me having copied the memories of my target, which allowed me to read his experiences, which practically meant I already had the knowledge needed to use the spell, from the movements to the thoughts. It was a weird thing, it was like it was muscle memory, like I didn't need to think about it.

Drak said that it would only allow me to exhibit the spells proficiency to the level of the targets. Which meant if I wanted to advance after that point, it would be solely up to me. It was very interesting and useful nonetheless since the person I chose already had a good foundation in it to begin with.

We finished our learning and walked back to the common room where we sat on our couch and talked about any random topic, which relaxed our minds from all the studying we did on the daily.

With that, another week went by.