Ch. 37 Holiday Warmth

After agreeing to teach Victoria the way I handle magic, my first step was fixing her beaten and battered body. Malnourished, beaten, incorrectly fixed, heavily strained and badly maintained. Needed to fix that. So before Christmas came i decided to talk to the girl.

"Alright. I know that you want to jump right into how I do things, but i need to talk to you about your body first. I probably know its current condition better than you do. I don't know how or when the injuries happened and they are for you to know, but I know how bad it is at this moment. So I want to fix everything. Without the strong body you will have a lower cap for your magic. In the end it's your decision." I say calmly to my new friend.

"If I agree to it, what is the treatment course?" She asks to understand before agreeing or rejecting.

"I'm going to start on the fractures, incorrectly healed bones and sprains in your body. This will take a day as I will selectively remove the bad bones, followed by skelegrow. I'll also fix the areas of concern. You would be unconscious for a whole day in order to not feel the pain. Following that I believe a month of nourishment potions will fix your issues in the area suitably. I will also make you do physical exercise to gain the necessary muscle mass for a girl your age." I explained to the girl.

"So I sleep for a day, drink some potions and exercise? Sounds easy enough. Let's do this." She declared.

"Easy but tedious." I replied with a small smile. "So let's get started. We'll do it in the guest room. I'll inform aunt Amelia, Susan and Tilly you'll be out for the day and that you'll begin treatment." I informed the girl.

"Alright. I'll trust you to do this just because I know how pervertedly brilliant you are. If you mess up I'm getting revenge though." She declared as she laid properly.

"I promise you'll feel better than ever after You wake up." I said with a reassuring smile.

With a wave of my hand she feel into a deep sleep. I quickly got to work by specifically vanishing the damaged bones in her body, and unlike that idiot Lockhart I'm almost a master in the field. With that quickly done, I use my wand to finely control the potion down her throat to avoid her choking on it. I then quickly move to heal the various surface injuries, sprains, scar tissue and any other injuries I could find on the girl. I did my best to make sure not one scar from the abuse remained. She didn't need the reminder.

With all of the immediate treatment done, I let out a breath of relief and let myself relax. It took a good amount of focus and energy to fix everything in a single day, but I think it'll be quite worth it. The only problem left was the malnourishment she had suffered, but after a month that'll be fixed and with exercise she would experience a good growth spurt.

A day later, an excited Victoria came downstairs for breakfast and actually rushed me. I was startled because I didn't expect it, leaving me unsure about how to react because I wasn't feeling any negative emotions from her and I was sitting at the table, so if I tried to react quickly I would either tumble to the floor or flip the entire table, so I was stuck in indecision. But surprisingly she hugged me.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I haven't felt this great in I don't know how long, thank you so much Aedan." Said was saying quickly.

"No problem Victoria." I say with a wry smile at the situation. I catch Susan giving me a wide grin and aunty looking at the scenario with a smile.

"Now come on. Take the potion Tilly has for you and grab some food, you're going to want to eat something after drinking it." I say in my best doctor voice.

I didn't lie, potions never taste good. They can smell or feel good due to their effects, but don't taste good. So after chugging it like a champ, she had a weird look on her face and immediately sat down to eat.

A few minutes later I spoke up.

"Now that you're done eating I'll explain a bit how things are gonna go. Until after Christmas, which is tomorrow you will be recovering from the heavy burden your body was under as you were healed. This will be a time to let your body and mind unwind. So no intense studying or exercise will be done. This is my order as your attending healer." I say seriously.

"But you promised to teach me how you do magic." Replied Victoria with reluctance in her voice.

"I did and I will." I reply. "But you need to understand this well Victoria. You are human. And humans have limits, wizards and witches are not exempt from this. We can push the issue back or mitigate it for a time, but all humans will snap after a certain point. Your body and mind at this moment are very close to that limit. You need some time away from stressful thoughts and let your body recover by using less magic for a few days and doing something fun. For that I invited James to go out with us and tour the muggle entertainment venues today. Something I'm sure you've never done. It will do you good and let you bond a bit more with a member of the group. Christian will not be joining us since his parents took him to Greece in their hunt of older creatures living there." I explained to the girl patiently.

"Alright I get." She sighed not hiding her disappointment.

"Don't you worry, I'll properly drill you in my ways after Christmas and we have another 3 and 1/2 years to learn from each other. Not even mentioning after since we are friends. There's no rush for this." I say with a smile.

"Ok, ok. You can stop with the convincing." She said with a small chuckle.

"You're going to love the muggle games! They're so fun! And those movies are so cool to watch!" Finally spoke out an excited Susan who couldn't hold it in anymore. "You have to take me with you, please big brother!" She beg with her eyes turned at me.

I gotta say she knows how to get me to go along with her.

"Only if aunty agrees." I answer deflecting the cuteness to the big boss.

"Alright fine. Tilly will chaperone while hidden to protect you all. I know you can take care of yourself very well Aedan, but this is for the safety of others as well." Relented Amelia, but was laying down her own deal.

"That's perfectly fine aunty." I answer with a smile.

I had to get Tilly to buy some proper muggle clothing for Victoria quickly because as a born and raised pureblood, those were not things she owned.

I wore a simple pair of jeans, grey winter boot, white long-sleeve shirt, with a nice shearling jacket. But when Victoria came down I did have to do a double take. Tilly got her nicely fitted jeans, with a pair of knee high boots, warm looking white shirt and long black winter jacket to match her hair. It really gave of the feeling of 'I'm better than you'. It was impressive.

"Well now, Tilly really knows her stuff. That look actually makes me feel like you could be nobility. Don't know why we still have to wear those robes all the freaking time, so impractical and it's hard to take someone in bright purple robes, fumbling around in them seriously." I said, trying to make her smile for two reasons.

"Haha, thanks. Now you can see my greatness!" She proclaimed in fake haughtiness. And I know it's fake, because although she has pride in her lineage, she doesn't like rubbing in the faces of others. She wants her results to prove she's better.

"Yes noble lady. Now will you let this lowly peasant accompany you?" I asked in a over-exaggerated manner.

"You may escort me and lady Bones." She said continuing the skit as my cute little sister runs down the stairs in her fluffy white jacket and boots, looking very much like a bunny.

"Let's go big brother, I can't wait!" She exclaimed very energetically.

"Yes yes, don't worry we are going." I say with a laugh.

"See you later aunty, we'll be back a bit after supper because of the movie." I tell her.

"I know. Have fun and be careful. I know you're used to the muggle world, but Victoria is not. If she get into trouble out there, you get into trouble in here. Understood young man?" She said with a glare, but I know it's cause she cares.

"Yes Madam Bones." I reply with a salute.

We left and met up with James at one the malls not too far from the Leaky Cauldron. It made it easy for everyone to get there.

It was fun introducing muggle arcade games to Victoria, mostly because she tried to keep her 'above-it-all' aura going, but after we got her to play she quickly became very competitive in many of the games like air hockey and overreacted quite cutely to some of the video games when she lost. She also demonstrated that witch or not, every woman has the instinct to shop for clothes, shoes and makeup. So i let her do as she pleased with Susan as I chatted with James. I talked to him about my plan to use data I obtained through my dissection of many brooms, data on the firebolt which should be ready a year earlier with my funding (that was until I gave the creator some new ideas on the matter), and my studying of a chasers needs and roles during the game, to create a specialized broom for the position. The firebolt will be the ride of choice for Beaters and Seekers, but this broom I was designing will be the best of the best for Chasers.

Me and James chatted while the girls shopped, that was until it was time to go to the movie. Since we had Susan with us, the future Christmas classic Home Alone was chosen, an it brought laughter and tears to the girls eyes, while it brought nostalgia for me.

After that we said goodbye and Merry Christmas to James, headed home with happy hearts.

Christmas Day was a very relaxed affair. We woke up lazily, ate good food and enjoyed some time together as a family, making sure Victoria felt included. As for presents; James sent me some works of fiction and an orphaned wizard who goes to magic school (no idea how he found that very prophetic book), Christian sent some books on Mediterranean plants he'd found in Greece, Amelia got a very nice set of robes for more formal occasions and even Victoria had bought a nice shirt she had found on our trip yesterday.

Returning the favors to everyone; James got my new guide on how to enchant, Christian actually got one of Sol's feathers, Amelia got my desk-work quill, Susan a brand new pair of gardening gloves with her initials on them, and I got Victoria a vanishing box that I made from some of the wood I hadn't used for my prototypes, making it link to mine, James', Christian's and Amelia's.

Everyone was happy with what they had received and I think Victoria almost cried of happiness at being able to experience such a warm and caring break. Where people care for each other, are thoughtful of one another and simply want those present to be happy.

I really love my family.