Chapter 147: Post-Christmas

The next morning, when we came downstairs, we realized that the house was emptier than the night before. Some of the guests had left early in the morning, and those who remained wouldn't stay much longer.

We didn't know if there had been any issues after we went to bed, but the atmosphere felt tense. Newt's children, who hadn't left yet but were already getting ready, approached us before their departure and offered half-hearted apologies. We knew they were doing it under their mother's orders, so we didn't resist.

Among all of them, the children seemed the most upset about having to leave. They had grown fond of us—a red-haired boy and a unicorn—something they rarely encountered.

It was clear that leaving today wasn't part of the plan for these holidays, but yesterday's altercations complicated things. We never imagined that our presence would bring so many problems. Nevertheless, the children promised to come and visit us once their parents had calmed down.

By midday, no one was left in the house except for Newt, Tina, Elise, and me. We had lunch together, and after the meal, we discussed our departure.

"It was a pleasure, truly a Christmas unlike what we're used to..." (Red)

"A lot..." (Lys)

"It's time for us to go as well." (Red)

"You must be joking, you can't just leave like that," Tina laughed, and we looked at her. "I know last night was complicated, but that's not enough reason for you to leave. You still have reasons to stay."

"What reasons?" Elise and I asked, confused, as we didn't seem to understand what the elderly woman was telling us.

"First of all, we invited you to spend the holidays with us, and the following days are also part of this important season. We have all the leftover food that you'll have to help us finish, food that Elise helped prepare. You have that research project you started with my husband, which won't leave him at peace and will excite him more than it should at his age..." The woman listed point after point, reasons that weren't bad and made us reconsider.

It was true that the research with Newt intrigued us, and the old man wouldn't stop. If we left, he would surely come to our camp very often to continue it. I think I understood what Tina meant: she didn't want to be away from her husband.

With all those reasons, it was difficult for us to say no. Moreover, with all those people out of the house, Elise was more at ease, and she didn't mind staying a little longer. At Tina's request, we didn't continue with the research today and relaxed in the house, leaving any obligations for tomorrow.

That's how we would spend the following days here, with a clone visiting the Evans' house, helping Andra, or keeping our camp in order.

...

"So... how was your Christmas?" I asked while sitting in a chair in the house.

"I did what you asked. Eileen is hooked, but I'm not sure if it will last. Every relationship has a passionate beginning, but not all of them keep that flame alive. I'm good at many things, but maintaining love in a relationship that was born unnaturally like this is not necessarily one of them," she replied.

"Now you have doubts?" (Red)

"I don't want to disappoint you. Like I said before, Eileen didn't like women at first, and we forced her into this. I fear that at some point, this will fail because of a reason like that. I can try to make her fall in love, but unless I create an unconscious dependence on me, I'm not sure if I can keep her that way for as long as you want without using my powers on her," she explained her fears, not that it would happen, but of not meeting my expectations.

"I trust your abilities," I had nothing more to say. I didn't like things getting complicated. "Do what you think is necessary, as long as it doesn't cause any trouble... although there might be a few things I want that I can sacrifice for now."

"What things do you desire? If you tell me, I can choose better courses of action," she asked.

"Hmmm..." I pondered for a moment and then leaned closer to her ear to whisper. "What I want is..." Although it wasn't necessary, the secrecy seemed more intriguing to me.

"Ohh..." She had an expression of understanding but also doubt. "I think I can do that, but if that was the end goal of all this, we could..."

"No, that wasn't the ultimate goal, but since we were at it, I might as well take advantage of it," (Red)

"So, do you hate the boy or the woman?" (Andra)

"Neither, well, a bit of anger towards the bitch, but part of the revenge will be about that. Let's say young Snape is a good friend, the first actually, but I have my conflicts with adult Snape," I smiled maliciously, but I noticed the confusion in my servant. "You don't need to understand it fully."

"Yes, my lord," she replied.

"Very well, now entertain me with something, I need some good news," I demanded.

"Well, besides the few profits from the business, I have nothing... although if you wish, I can explain what I did on Christmas with Eileen," she responded.

I raised an eyebrow with interest, waiting for her to continue.

"Well, we followed the usual rule of nothing in her ass and two fingers, but when we got hold of the cucumber, things got wilder..." she began to recount with all the details until we heard Eileen's arrival.

Seeing her after hearing what they had done to her that night, I couldn't help but smile and imagine the scene where she still had the cucumber inside her.

I noticed her displeased expression when she saw me. She still hated me, and her comments in my presence were sarcastic. But when Andra approached her, all her hatred towards me transformed into affection and shyness towards her lover. Nonetheless, I could sense her disdain towards me, so before leaving, I signaled Andra to continue with the plan.

...

In the following days, I spent time with the Aconites, enjoying the holidays. I kept Sev out of the house, and he seemed to be very much in agreement with that, almost grateful.

Lily made the most of my time with them, almost exploiting me. With the magical gifts, I had to come up with excuses that only drew more attention to myself. I had already attracted attention before with my apparent abundance of money and access to magical items, and now I became a great provider of treats for the girls.

As they would be returning to Hogwarts soon, those last few days were the busiest. It was thanks to being a clone that I could afford it. I was physically and financially drained by the redhead, who was the most demanding of the three, but thinking about what would happen afterwards, I decided to indulge her.

We enjoyed our time together, and in the end, we accompanied them to the station, bidding farewell almost in the same way as before.

...

Time passed, and I realized that Tina was holding us back in her house. Every time we tried to leave, she gave us different excuses. The amount of last-minute cookies we ate was too much to be normal. We tried to leave many times, but she convinced us, either through persuasion or pity. In a way, we ended up giving in as we grew accustomed to civilized life.

With the weeks and months we spent here without realizing it, we became accustomed to this very human life that I had set aside. Perhaps I missed this or maybe I just went along with it. Since I used clones to complete the rest of my tasks, I didn't mind being in Newt's house, and as our research progressed, I had grown accustomed to this life, and not just me.

Elise also adapted to this. She wanted to be part of human life, no matter how. She learned about certain comforts, and although she lost part of the wild life she adored, she was willing to sacrifice it to be with me. Slowly, she learned to live like a human, even though she wasn't one.

After realizing it and no longer denying it, we confronted Tina. After insisting, she revealed the truth to us. She wanted us to stay here and leave the forest. She appreciated us and accepted our peculiarities, but she didn't think it was right for a child to live in the woods. Seeing that Elise also wanted to integrate into human life, she thought it was the best time for us to reintegrate into society.

Now that she couldn't hide it anymore, she presented this idea. Living this life seemed most appropriate to her. She believed that they could help us, their yard, already suitable for magical creatures, was perfect for Elise, and I could return to human society. Perhaps I could attend an educational institution or collaborate with Newt to become a magizoologist like him. She believed that with my experience, it wouldn't be difficult to learn the trade.

We listened to what she had to say, but both Elise and I were uncomfortable with her manipulation, and we decided to leave. It was an unpleasant farewell, she kept insisting and even pleading with tears, but this time we decided to be strong against compassion.

"We need some time alone," we said as we covered the necessary distance to activate the [fast travel] ability and disappear, not knowing what happened to the elderly couple.

We returned to our beloved forest, although with conflicted feelings, feelings that faded away as we resumed our old activities.

A lot of time passed, and it showed in how disorganized our own home was. We had to rearrange several things and reactivate the defenses. We took walks around the area to see if anything had changed and then called Marril to catch up. I had visited her before with a clone to deliver the harvest, but it was good that we reunited to have a good friends' chat again.

...

Things returned to the pre-holiday normal, and even Newt continued with his visits, completely ignoring what had happened before. Well, there were a few comments here and there about it.

Regarding that matter, after quite some time getting back into the swing of life at our camp and letting things settle down, we met with Newt and Tina at their house. It's not that there were no visits to our camp, but we thought it would be better to return to that place to make amends.

After spending quite a while away, we spent the whole afternoon chatting about various topics, and when night came, we stayed overnight at their house.

The next day, we discussed the main reason we came. It was a lengthy discussion, with apologies and negotiations that extended through breakfast and into lunch. The truth is, Elise and I had debated this extensively, taking into account both my future plans here and in the original timeline.

"We have talked about it and..."

We presented the facts, and there were strong negotiations. What Tina did, well, her reasons weren't bad, and her intentions were good, although her methods were questionable... anyway, we didn't like what she did, and we made it known.

After a long discussion, we reached an agreement. Tina's idea wasn't entirely bad in certain aspects, but it wasn't our way of doing things. Although Elise still wanted to learn a lot about human society, she didn't want to lose the intimacy we had in the forest. And as for me, although I had no issues thanks to my clones, I also didn't want to abandon that wild side we had. It was something I wouldn't do in my original time, at least not with my real body.

After several days of discussion, we came to an agreement on what to do. First and foremost, we decided that our time in human society and in the wild would be evenly divided. We wouldn't abandon either world, as we believed both had their advantages and disadvantages, and this experiment could be beneficial, at least for the duration.

For now, our life in human society would take place here, in the Scamander couple's house, who would temporarily accommodate us. The future plan was to buy one of the surrounding lands to settle down and not take advantage of the elderly couple. Although they said they had no problem, we didn't feel entirely comfortable, and we also desired our own privacy.

To finance our life here, Elise and I would start working in what we knew: hunting and gathering, and then selling it to the [Merchant]. In addition to my work as a scavenger, I would also get involved in research with Newt. Although he was semi-retired and no longer took on such big jobs as before, he would resume some of his professional life, and I would accompany him as his assistant/colleague.

Participating in the work of the famous Newt Scamander would give me some recognition, but there was a problem with that and with no longer living in the forest: the lack of an identity in this world. Although I asked for help from Andra, and she got me a fake identity, it was only valid for the Muggle world. The same couldn't be achieved in the magical world. To solve this problem, the couple lent us a hand and would take care of my records, with them being listed as my guardians. Essentially, it would be an adoption... Lily won't stop teasing me when she finds out that legally, I now belong to the Scamander family.