Ice, Circles and a Ferret

Jake collapsed, shivering on the cold ground. He was absolutely freezing as Serafall's ice magic coursed through him. He imagined this is what taking a bath in liquid nitrogen felt like! It was not a pleasant experience. Zero out of ten, he would not recommend!

Serafall, meanwhile, was squatting down next to Jake, somewhat giggling at his icicle-like appearance with his completely frozen hair and school robes. "Don't just lie there shivering, Jake! You've got to ride it out. You have to absorb the ice magic I cast on you. Let it flow through you, down to your core. You need to feel the ice and be one with it and all that! At least, I think that's how it goes…" she said the last part somewhat unsure.

"Are you se-serious right now?" Jake was shivering so much that he had trouble pronouncing his words. The half-human popsicle on the ground sputtered out, "I-I don't think it's wo-working."

Serafall, right next to Jake, continued to observe him with her eyes and her magical senses. It didn't look like it was working either to her. That must mean she didn't use enough ice! Another magic circle formed on her hand, and she blasted Jake, who was on the ground, with even more freezing wind from her hands.

When the second blast hit him, Jake went from thinking he was bathing in liquid nitrogen to feeling like he was in the middle of the cocytus itself! "Oh my G-God, why did you blast me with i-ice a-again? R-really Serafall!?" He somehow spoke through even more shivering than before. Serafall, meanwhile, noted that he was able to use Big G's name without any repercussions. She felt like he was really lucky in that regard! He could curse the bastard (in Serafall's opinion) anytime he wanted.

"Oh, there we go! I can see it working now," Serafall said, and Jake, still shivering on the ground, started to feel something happening to his body. The color was slowly but surely returning to his skin, his frozen hair was starting to melt, and his shivering started to lessen as he slowly felt the cold that was literally permeating throughout his entire being just a moment ago start to fade away. Eventually, it just became a pleasant coolness that spread throughout his body.

"Wow, your bloodline really is amazing," Serafall praised. "No wonder everyone supernatural wants to murder you, if you can actually gain immunity to their magics and be able to copy them after only being hit by their spells one or two times!" Serafall couldn't help but admit she was slightly jealous of his ability to learn magic in such an easy but not painless way. Serafall had spent at least a dozen years just to be able to use competent ice magic at all… and here he was learning it within the span of 5 minutes! 'Some people have all the luck.' She thought to herself, 'and those people usually tend to be Gremorys, in my experience.'

Jake was just happy that he was no longer a popsicle! He stood up from the ground and inspected himself physically. He looked the same, but internally, he could now feel something new inside of himself. He didn't feel cold anymore, but at the same time, from the depths of his body, he knew he could unleash ice magic now. He raised his hand and pointed it off to the side as a magical icicle, straight out of Dark Souls, formed in his hand and launched towards a nearby tree! The ice spear punched a hole right through the thick bark upon impact! Jake whistled to himself in appreciation. He also felt like that icy spear he just fired took way less magic than he would have expected it to. 'Does my bloodline grant me cheaper magic casting, when using copied abilities?' He mused to himself. That giant Ice Spear didn't feel like it took any more magic than a normal bombarda.

Serafall smiled at the absolute look of glee on Jake's face. She had seen the same expression on thousands of younger devils the first time they started casting real magic, and not just basic training spells.

Just as Jake was about to launch another icicle for fun, Serafall interrupted him. "Hold on there before you go absolutely crazy and start raining ice death all over this forest. I have one more thing to give you. Hold out your hands," she said.

Jake did as she asked and held out both of his hands. She placed her palms over the back of his hands, and between the two, a magical glow appeared, along with a burning sensation on the back of Jake's hands! "Ow, what the hell?" Jake said as he ripped his hands away from hers, inspecting for any burn marks or damage. To his surprise, he saw that the back of each of his hands had what looked like a red magic circle tattooed on them. "What are these supposed to be?" he asked her.

"Those," Serafall said, "are a gift from your brother. The magic circles on the back of each of your hands are the Gremory family magic casting circle, exclusively used by members of the Gremory clan and their peerage members!"

"What's a peerage?" Jake asked.

"We'll get to that later," she said. "Anyway, as I was saying, with those now fused to your hands, you'll be able to use the Gremory magic circle whenever you want to cast magic from now on. Magic circles are the inventions of devils, and they're probably one of our greatest creations. The Gremory clan, along with my Sitri family, has some of the best magic circles. They can cut down the magic required to cast a spell by up to 90% sometimes!" She bragged proudly.

Jake himself was blown away by that revelation. That meant he could literally cast ten times more magic than before before he tired himself out! That was amazing! He absolutely loved it…

Jake felt himself slightly torn up at the fact that his brother truly did consider him a member of the family, gifting him the use of their family magic circle.

"Please tell my brother I said thank you," Jake said to Serafall sincerely. "This feels like one of the first true gifts I've ever gotten in my whole life." Serafall was saddened by that statement, knowing that he basically grew up as an orphan without knowing anything about his family.

Serafall just nodded to him before her demeanor changed back to her cheerful persona. "Okay!" she said. "And with that, I think we can head back now! I'm getting hungry anyway, and the food at this human school actually isn't that bad." Serafall grabbed Jake's hand, which once again caused him to blush, and she started leading him out of the forest and back towards Hogwarts.

As they were heading back to the school, hand in hand, there was a question burning in the forefront of Jake's mind that he just had to let out. "Um, Sera," Jake asked, "I've been meaning to talk about it, and this hasn't exactly been a standard date—" Jake started before suddenly being interrupted by Serafall.

Serafall let out a sigh. "Jake," she said calmly, "I'm over 600 years old." Jake sputtered at that number.

"O-oh wow..." was all he could say. He had never really thought about the lifespans of supernatural beings before, and now he was realizing that they may be unaging…

"...and you're 16," she continued. "You're a nice kid, but that's what you are at the moment, a kid." She stated a blatant fact.

Jake suddenly felt a bit dejected. The first girl he ever really liked in his life turned out to be older than the entire country he grew up in. "I guess nothing between us is ever going to hap—" Jake was cut off.

"BUT!" Serafall said excitedly. "When you turn 18, that will be a completely different story, you know!" She winked at him as she said that.

"Wait, really!?" Jake exclaimed. She would go out with him for real once he turned 18!?

Serafall just giggled. "Of course. As devils, and you being a half-devil, we are literally going to live forever unless someone kills us. Because of that, most devils will always end up finding partners in their lives who are younger than them. That's just how it is for us…" she said with a smile to Jake. "In the meantime, don't go wasting away your youth waiting for me or anything!" she said to him. "Feel free to date other girls, and once you're ready, come back to me, and we'll give it a shot for real!"

"Wait, really!?" Jake exclaimed for the second time. She was actually telling him to go out with other girls! Jake wondered to himself if that statement was a trap. But Serafall just continued speaking to prove it wasn't!

"Of course... you're young, and you should get to experience that, you know. Plus, no other girl you date will ever have this!" Serafall said as she gestured all over her body, emphasizing her curves and amazing... assets. She giggled a bit as Jake turned his head to the side embarrassed. 'Ah, the innocence of youth…'

—--------------------------

The sun was going down, and Jake noticed that he and Serafall had been in the woods a lot longer than he thought. The future couple eventually made it out of the forest and headed back up to the castle just in time for dinner. However, along the way, they were intercepted by an annoying ponce and his tag-along lackeys…

"Well, well, well, what do we have here!?" Draco Malfoy, with his two overweight bodyguards and his female groupie, stood in Jake and Sera's path. Jake wondered if this guy ever went anywhere without his posse because he hadn't seen it yet. He wondered if they followed him into the bathroom too…

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Jake said with a sigh. Sera, meanwhile, just rolled her eyes at this blond human teen's bravado. He had some of the lowest magical power she'd ever seen. He was almost what would be referred to as a squib in their culture, which Serafall figured came from all the magic in his ancestry being diluted, constantly fighting off the effects of inbreeding over countless generations.

"What I want," Malfoy continued angrily, "is to settle the score!" His two overweight bodyguards behind him nodded along, cracking their knuckles in a way they thought looked intimidating.

"That's right!" Draco's pug-faced (maybe girlfriend, Jake wondered) tag-along spoke out. "And you," the girl said, pointing at Serafall, "...you get outta here, you Gryffindor strumpet! This is between the Yankee and my darling Draco!" Pug-face declared as she latched herself onto Malfoy's arm. The boy himself, instead of looking smug about a girl on his arm, just looked uncomfortable. He didn't want his trophy girl fighting his bottles for him!

Serafall knew she should be mad at being called such a word, but honestly, she had to hold herself back from giggling at the ridiculousness of the situation. Usually, a date would include dinner and a show, but it looked like she was getting the show before dinner right now.

Jake, basically being an American, didn't know what a "strumpet" even was, but he figured it was an insult directed at Serafall from the tone. He didn't like anyone insulting his (future) girl in front of him… Also, he was afraid Serafall would freeze all these dumb kids solid if they didn't back off. She wouldn't, actually, (not that he knew that) because she was too busy laughing inside.

"You need to keep your dog-faced girlfriend on a leash, Malfoy, before she says something she'll regret!" Jake said. The dog-faced girl, Pansy, snarled at that comment. She hated when people talked about her pug nose!

Malfoy sneered back at Jake. "I like my dog-faced girlfriend just fine where she is, thank you very much!" The moment Malfoy let those words fly, though, he immediately knew he had messed up. He heard sniffling from the girl latched onto his arm and when he glanced at her he saw that she had immediately started crying…

"You... you think I have a dog face too, Draco!?" She asked while sniffling. "Waaah, I hate you!" Pansy yelled and ran away toward the school, still crying.

Draco was now furious at himself, but also mostly at Jake! "That's three times you've crossed me now, you damn yank!" he yelled at Jake.

"Three?" Jake questioned no one in particular...

"First, you cost me 40 house points, then you made me lose 1000 galleons when you didn't die in your challenge! And now you've cost me my girl! I, Draco Malfoy of the Noble and Pure House of Malfoy, hereby demand an honorable wizard's duel between us! Tonight, in the Great Hall after dinner!" With that, he and his two brutish lackeys spun around and took off back toward the school. Jake presumed Malfoy wanted to go and grovel to his girl for forgiveness…

"..."

"What the fuck just happened!?" Jake asked in confusion.

Serafall burst out laughing!

-End Chapter-

Read chapters ahead of time at p.a.t.r.e.o.n --> FiveStarTomato

A special thank you to my Hero Team Patron(s): William G.

Also the first two chapters of my new story –I'm Supergirl in a Weird Crossover– are currently up on my p.a.t.r.e.o.n and will be posted here soon-ish(maybe in like a week) as well!