19 Valentine's Day

A/N: Last one, I swear. I wanted to rush until the time skip inevitably comes.

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12th February, 1935:

Another month has come and gone, with me spending a bit more time with Dorea. She would sometimes come with me to the Chamber, and talk with Helena while I was busy with the Diadem on my head.

The next Hogsmead weekend was coming up, during Valentine's day that too, so I had that day already planned.

My training with Rowena improved a lot. From fighting the minor intrusions by Rowena, I had been promoted to a full frontal attack, that I have to defend against and not let her enter my mind.

It's been 6 days since I had begun this stage, and I haven't succeeded yet. Rowena was one hell of a Telepath, and thanks to the Phoenix Force, with the addition of the subtle art of Legilimency, she was even better than any other Telepath or Legilimens around.

Meanwhile, the potion was coming in nicely. I had carried out the next step last new moon night, by adding aconite. Now, I'll have to let it simmer, without stirring, for 3 months, until the next new moon.

My Sorcery skills also improved thanks to my improved Mental Power. I can now create the Mirror Dimension anywhere I want, but haven't begun with manipulating the surroundings in the Dimension.

As for portals, I've practiced making them a lot, and now, I can make a portal as soon as I want to make it, however big or small I want it to be.

On demand. Instantly. With only moving my hand a bit.

Meaning, if someone fires a spell at me, I can make it look like I'm hit, while sending the spell somewhere else.

I was still working to make my hand movements negligible. But I still have time. Other than the three skills of Mirror Dimension, Portals, and Astral Projection, I also practiced making weapons and shields out of Mystic Energy.

Most of that stuff used all three energies, Universal, Dimensional, and Personal.

I haven't gone to talk with the Basilisk, as something in my.. soul, warns me not to. It's like, I feel, that changing some things while I'm here will bring negative attention to me. I don't know why, but I'm trusting my instincts.

I also practiced using my powers as a Quetzalcoatl, and I have to say. I'm impressed. I thought Basilisk was the most magical snake, but clearly not.

While I'm in the Quetzalcoatl form, I can fly, and I can control the wind. That part was already made aware to me during my first transformation. What I found out by practicing, is that I can do the same stuff while I'm human too, only a bit on the weaker side.

At the moment, I can at most divert a small rock if it's thrown at me. I'm very much far from doing the same to spells or bigger stuff thrown at me. Or bullets. It depends on the energy within the item I want to move too.

I also began teaching my girls Occlumency, so they can at least detect when someone is going through their heads. Ana and Dorea already had a solid foundation in Occlumency, thanks to their families, but Darla was a noob.

So, I focused more on her, while giving them my own instruction manual, that I continuously add to after learning from Rowena. Of course, I don't "give" them the book. They can only read it inside the chamber, and they are not allowed to copy it.

I'm not letting even their families get their hands on my Occlumency studies.

That's it, I think.

Speaking of Dorea, there she is. She comes to the Ravenclaw table, kisses my lips, and sit down beside me for lunch. Ana and Darla were sitting side by side, while discussing the Transfiguration homework.

"How was your day?" I ask, after swallowing the morsel I was chewing.

Dorea gathers the food that she wants, and answers, "It was good. Merrythought gave us a big essay to write for homework. Bloody bint."

Softly hitting her arm, I point the frowning Dorea to the Professor's table, where Merrythought was looking at her, glaring. She simply waves at Merrythought, and begins eating.

Merrythought had gotten softer on Dorea ever since she won that bet over who I'll date first.

After talking about some casual stuff for a while, I ask, "Hey Dorea? Would you like to come to Hogsmead this weekend?"

"Sure. It'll be fun. Our first date in Hogsmead!" Dorea exclaims, a bit excited.

She had valid reasons to be. Cassiopeia had sent a letter to her, two days after Dorea sent a letter to her telling her about our relationship. Cassiopeia had sent some Goblin made necklace for her to wear, that I hadn't seen yet.

Speaking of Cassiopeia, she did manage to complete the steps for the double Animagus. Her forms were a raven, and a Shadow Raven. Seriously, perfect for her. Thankfully, her vow meant she couldn't tell about the method to anyone, or even write about it and "forget" to hide it.

We were all going to register our mundane animals when each of us leave school. So, Cassiopeia had registered her Raven form already. I was going to do so when I pass out from school, while the girls were going to do theirs one year after they leave school.

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14th February, 1935:

Finally, the day of our first date has arrived, and I'm waiting near the Great Hall for Dorea to come. It was still winter, so I was wearing my winter clothes. Shirt and trousers, covered with warm jacket, a cap on my head, covering my ears.

At my 5'9 height, I looked good, if I do say so myself. Sure, I wasn't overly tall, but I didn't mind. I was still the 2nd tallest boy in our year, after the Abbot boy from Hufflepuff.

I had to barely wait for a few minutes, when I see an excited Dorea come from the Slytherin side of the castle.

"Mason!" she yells, and jumps on me to hug me.

I catch her, hugging her tight, like we're meeting after days, instead of hours.

Smirking at her, I ask, "Ready for the date, love?"

"Yes! I even wore the necklace today! See!" Dorea says, and pulls the Goblin Silver necklace out to show me.

I whistle in appreciation. While I know next to nothing about jewellery, this one looks beautiful. It was silver, and had a big blue gem circled by a flower made out of Goblin Silver. It wasn't big, but it was beautiful.

As Dorea puts it back inside, I hold my hand out to her. She giggles, and holds my arm, like the princess she is raised to be, and we move towards the Thestral Carriages, while making small talk. Petting the thestral a few times, I sit in the carriage, and wait to be pulled.

It takes 5 minutes for the carriage to reach from Hogwarts castle, to the Gates. Which means, I had five minutes to snog Dorea silly.

The day was planned pretty good. First, we get the shopping over with. Dorea had to buy some shirts, and a gown she liked. While I had to buy myself stationary. I did gift her a bracelet, which cost me G10, was very cheap as compared to the stuff Dorea already owns. Dorea didn't mind, as she loved it anyway.

Finally, after a few hours of roaming around Hogsmead, and a few more sessions of snogging, we enter the Three Broomsticks.

Getting a table, I ask the barkeep for two butterbeers, fish and chips, and some pretzels. I really like Pretzels.

"So, how did you like the day?" I ask, while eating the chips.

Dorea swallows her butterbeer, and says, "It was good! I really liked spending time with you, Mason."

Smiling at her, I hold her left had with mine. I say, "I like spending time with you too, Dorea."

Kissing once more, I cast the Muffliato spell around us and ask, "Hey, you were going to tell me about your family, today? Wanna talk now?"

She had never mentioned her family beyond her cool sister Cassiopeia, her somewhat nice Father Cygnus, and nicer than Cygnus, but lamer than Cassiopeia, cousin Arcturus. Other than that, nothing.

Frowning a bit, Dorea begins, "Well, you know my father's name is Cygnus Black, and mother's name is Violetta. My father's pretty nice, and he wants to meet you this summer. Cassiopeia has told him all about you, well, all that she's allowed to tell at least, so he already knows you're an Aves."

Biting a chip, she says, "The Head of our family is my uncle Sirius. He's.. an idiot. He's already made sure no one will cry on his funeral. But something he did was even worse than all his wasting money. He arranged a contract between my brother Pollux's daughter Walburga, and his grandson Orion."

She has a grossed out look on her face as she expands, "You see, Walburga is 10 years old this year, while Orion is 6. First of all, they're just second cousins. Secondly, they're still children."

"Ew." I say, feeling gross by just thinking on that subject. What the hell was this dude smoking.

"Right? Forget about him, he's a cunt. Next is my brother Pollux. He's alright, but not too bright, as you can tell by him getting tricked by Sirius. Cousin Arcturus, who is the current heir, has two kids. Orion and his elder sister Lucretia. She'll join Hogwarts next year. Arcturus also has siblings, Lycoris his sister, who is 30 and still unmarried, and Regulus, his brother. Regulas is a drunkard though, and really unpleasant to talk to. So is most of my family, I suppose."

" I do have another uncle, named Arcturus, and he's cool, but he's odd. He's smart through. You know Charis, from your year?" Dorea asks, pausing and looking at me.

I nod, and say, "She's in Ravenclaw, so yes. I know her."

Charis Black was odd. Despite being in the same house, she rarely spoke to us, preferring to keep to herself. She did find another kindred spirit though, named Casper Crouch, from my class, and would spend most of the days with him.

"Yeah, Arcturus is Charis's father. There's another aunt named Belvina, but she doesn't visit us much, so I don't know anything about her. That's it. There was Great aunt Elladora, but she died 4 years ago." Dorea says, and frowns, thinking if she forgot someone.

Wow that family is big. I wonder what the hell happened to narrow them down to one, who also later dies. Hint- the cause rhymes with Foldemort.

"How about you? Tell me about your childhood?" Dorea softly asks, knowing I was an orphan.

Smiling at her to reassure her, I say, "My childhood was not nearly as interesting as yours. I was a lonely child. Played cricket with the group, sure, but I was also the first to be discarded during conversations. Sister Agnes is the chief Caretaker, and she was the one I was always the closest to."

Smiling at my old memories, I say, "She taught me how to read, when I said I wanted to read stories to the babies." I chuckle a bit, and continue, "She was also the one that patched me up whenever I got hurt. She used to tell me stories of my mother, and both of them are the reason why I'm trying to become a healer."

Pausing, I look around, to make sure the spell was still working, and that no one will listen. Going closer to Dorea, I say, "Thanks to her, I learned to read higher level stuff pretty early. So, Hogwarts can thank her for me being a genius."

Dorea chuckles, and eats the fish. Pausing a bit, I say, "I was six, when I first talked to a snake, and he told me about magic. I realized that telling Sister Agnes about Sly, the snake would lead him to being killed, and me punished, so I kept him to myself. Sly would then bring his friends over to come talk with me, and I learned most of the stuff about Diagon Alley from them. Then, at 11 years of age, Dumbledore came to pick me up, I pretended to be surprised by magic, and here we are."

Dorea was looking wide eyed, as I eat the stuff in front of me, and she simply chuckles getting out of her shock. She says, "Only you can pretend in front of mind r*pist Dumbledore and get away with it."

I wink at her at that. Looking at the door, I say, "Here comes the love birds." Waving my hand at Ana and Darla, I call them towards our table.

"Hey Mason." Darla says, sitting beside me, while Ana sits beside Dorea.

"Hello, Darla. How's your day been?" I ask, smirking at her flushed cheeks.

Slapping my shoulder, she says, "Idiot. It's been good. I've had fun. What about you? Got lucky?"

Chuckling at the blush in Dorea's face at hearing that, and winking at her, I say, "I'm lucky enough to land a girl like Dorea. A bit more might just fall into my lap later."

Ana snorts into her butterbeer, when Dorea throws a chip at my head, which I catch in my mouth.

The rest of the day, we spend together, by walking around, and simply sightseeing. Well, there was just one mountain to sight see, and we weren't allowed to go closer. So it was just us, snogging our dates while sitting under the tree. Heh.

When the time comes to go back to school, Ana and Darla go towards the Room of Requirements, which they'd just discovered last year, while I take Dorea to the Chamber.

Removing the warmer clothes, I conjure a mattress for us to use in the Potion lab itself. I'm not doing anything in front of Salazar's portrait, let alone snog my girlfriend.

Kissing her deeply, I take off her jacket, while she works on my shirt. At the end of 15 minutes, we are both laying on the mattress, with only our underwear on, deciding mutually, not to go further. I was okay with waiting, as we were still young.

I did feel Helena come for a while, but she left after a minute of watching us. I'll have to make it up to her.

"We'll have to make it up to Helena somehow." Dorea mumbles, from her place in my chest.

"Hm?" I ask, caressing her beautiful hair.

She kisses my chest, and comes up. She says, "Helena. I saw her come in, and leave. We'll have to make it up to her when you make her the body."

Huh. I did not realize Dorea had seen her.

Shaking my head, I say, "Definitely. There's still two years for that though."

"I can't wait!" Dorea whispers, excitedly.

Neither can I, Dorea, neither can I. Two more years, and then we'll have Helena with us, joining our fun instead of awkwardly moving out.

And so, we go to sleep right there. I did feel Helena come in again, as she conjures a cover for us. So, I get out of my body, and give her a kiss that conveys my entire emotional state to her.

Looking into her eyes, I say, "I'm not replacing you, Helena. Even Dorea is waiting for the day that you join us in our fun."

Smiling brightly, Helena kisses me back, and says, "I know that, love. I simply went back to give you two the private time that you needed. Once I get my body, I will have to get my own private Mason time, alright?"

Chuckling at her, I nod, and say, "Alright. Now, wanna join us?"

Helena shrugs, and comes to lay down on my right, leaving Dorea to the left, already asleep.

Ah, life is good. It'll only be better when Helena has a body. With that thought, I go to sleep for a few hours, waking up only in time for dinner, and my Mental training with Rowena.

Life really is good.

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A/N: Next chapter, time skip. Y'all already know he's going to ace his NEWTs this year, so I'll just mention it once.

And this is the last chapter of the day. I'm sleeping now. Baldur fans, sorry, I'll try to post double chapters tomorrow.

Tata!