Several months later, it was getting cold, yet snow was refusing to fall. Mid-terms were coming up next week, and then they would go home for the Christmas holidays. It was only now that Eren realized how much he would miss the few friends he had made at his first term at Hogwarts. The boys in Eren's dormitory had stayed up on many nights talking, mostly about girls, but also about the random things that crossed their minds.
Reiner and Thomas both had had a crush on Krista since pretty much the first time they'd seen her, but Eren thought she seemed like a one-sided character, someone who put up an illusion to hide who she really was. He tried not to talk much during these conversations.
During one of their flying lessons, Levi had noticed Mikasa's flying and asked if she would be able to join his team. She refused, saying she'd rather wait until next year. Levi looked at her like she was crazy, but he nodded and didn't press.
At the platform after the long train ride home, Armin looked like he was about to start giving hugs all around, but Reiner stopped him. He held out his hand for a manly handshake and Armin changed course. Eren struggled to blink back tears – he would miss them during these few weeks, but he knew he would see them again soon. He, Armin, and Mikasa walked out the barrier into the muggle world.
Three days before Christmas, Eren and his father walked the mile to Mikasa's house so Eren and Mikasa could spend time together (Eren's father didn't want him going alone). Armin would show up a little later.
Eren reached up to knock on Mikasa's front door. Nobody answered. Eren eased the door open.
"Hello?" he called down the empty hall. He stepped onto the doormat covered in winter shoes – obviously nobody had gone out. Eren and his father crept down the hallway, wary as to what may have happened. As Eren was looking into one of the rooms to the side, he heard his father take a sharp breath. A hand clapped over his eyes.
"What is it, Dad?" he asked.
"Eren, whatever you do. Don't. Look," Eren tried to wriggle out of his father's grasp, but failed.
"What's going on?" He managed to get free.
"Holy mother of fucking fucked up shit," Eren strung several commonly used curse words together. His father looked at him, taken aback and shocked into not thinking about the bodies lying on the floor.
The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman lay on the floor, throats cut out, blood still seeping into the carpet. Mikasa's parents were dead.
"Where's Mikasa?" asked Eren.
"I – I don't know," said his father. "Stay here. This looks like a muggle crime, so I'm going to call the muggle police. Now what is their number…? Where is there a phone in here…?"
While his father was preoccupied, Eren picked up the carving knife from the floor and wiped the blood off it. Maybe if he went to the poor section of town, people would know where she was.
In the poor section of town, Eren received directions to a grungy bar from a toothless man with a swear word tattooed on his arm.
The bar was dirty, and half of the lights on the sign were out, but it looked like it would be somewhat popular with the locals later in the day. Hopeful the toothless man had been right about where they were talking Mikasa (why would they take her to a bar?), Eren charged through the door.
He directed his course to the nearest man, a man laughing as the other kicked the helpless Mikasa on the floor. Eren thrust the knife into his back, feeling it cut the spinal cord in two. The man gargled, interrupting his laughter, and collapsed to the floor, dead. The other two men and Mikasa turned to look at Eren, shaking and gripping the knife in both hands. He stabbed the second man in the throat before anyone could do anything, and then cut Mikasa's wrists and ankles. As he was about to help her up, the last man grabbed him from behind, causing him to drop the knife. The man's hands began to close around Eren's throat.
"Fight," he choked out, pleadingly, to Mikasa. "If you don't fight, you can't win. If you fight, you can win. Fight!"
Mikasa looked from Eren to the man to the knife lying on the floor and back again.
"Ffff…" it was all Eren could manage.
Mikasa picked up the knife and stabbed the man in the stomach around Eren. She twisted the knife, and the man screamed in agony and collapsed, dropping Eren.
The three dead men lay on the ground as Eren's father swung the door open to the bar. Eren and Mikasa looked up at him, expecting to be in trouble, but Mr. Jaeger pulled them into a hug and whispered "I thought you were both dead."
Eren buried his head into his father's shoulder. "Don't worry. I saved Mikasa."
"Don't do that again. Next time, wait for me or your mother, and we'll sort it out."
"But if I had waited, Mikasa would've been gone," protested Eren.
"You could have easily been gone, too." They looked at the shivering Mikasa next to them.
"Are you cold?" asked Eren.
Mikasa nodded.
Eren took off his scarf and wrapped it around Mikasa's head and neck. "Is that better?"
Mikasa nodded again.
"Mikasa, do you have any other family nearby?" asked Dr. Jaeger.
Mikasa shook her head.
"You can stay with us, then."
