Chapter 9

"It was sheer, dumb luck that we weren't caught" Ron laughed as Nick and Harry retold their adventure of the night before.

"What happened when the man grabbed you? Where did he take you?" one of the twins asked.

Nick was equally as curious as the twins. The night before, Harry hadn't had the chance to fill him in on what had happened.

"I wasn't there long. One minute I'm standing on the Hogsmeade path, and the next," Harry grinned dramattically, "I'm in some torn down, old, abandoned building. I ducked down as soon as we landed-"

Ron snorted disbelievingly, giving Nick the impression that Harry might not have duck so much as fallen ass over tea kettle.

"-Which was just as well, because the creepy old guy started to throw curses at me as soon as we landed. I was a little disappointed to think that I might die at the hands of a homeless geezer after defeating a Troll, a labrinth and Voldamort last year, but then this shadow just rose up out of the floorboard. I thought it was a cheep fog machine at first-"

Herminonie grinned but the Weaslys looked collectiviely confused. Nick was fairly sure he could figure out what a Fog machine wass based on the name, but he had never actually seen one before.

"- and all of the sudden the homeless nutter is panicking and screaming about vampires. The shadows started to form into this tall, dark -"

"And handsome," one of the twins butted in cheekily.

"Er well, whatever. Handsome? Anyways this vampire guy shows up and he doesn't even cast a spell. The crazy guy just bloody sprints straight out of the building, Screeeming the whole way. Anyway, then the tall, dark guy comes over to me and tells me he's Nick's Uncle- and also a vampire." The twins look at Harry in awe. A real vampire? "'Old as Hogwarts,' he said. Then he just sort of grabbed me and suddenly, supprise, we were in Norway."

"I still can't believe you went to Norway without us" Fred whined.

"Icky Nicky, next time take us" George and Fred sang.

Nick Laughed, "It is a Vampire Cover, you'd be bitten all the time."

"They wouldn't drain us though right?" Fred asked eagerly.

"They're talking about eating you" Ron said incredulously.

Nick laughed outright, "Vampires don't eat wizards, they just … nibble at you."

"Nibble!" Ron spluttered as he grimaced, looking at Harry and the twins for some sort of support, but the others appeared to have warmed to the idea. Well, that, or they enjoyed harassing Ron very, very much. Most likely the latter.

"I thought you liked Octavius?" Nick asked Ron.

Ron shrugged, "His family, it's different."

Nick raised an eyebrow at the boy. It was doubtful that Octavius would see it that way.

"Speaking of Great Uncle Octavius, did he say how to contact him?" Fred asked his younger brother.

Ron shrugged, "Owl I guess." In search of confirmation, the group looked at Nick, who nodded. What did they think they needed to do, cast a fancy dark curse. Honestly! Wizards.

The twins left shortly after, mostly likely off to pen a letter to their estranged great uncle. Ron and Harry headed back to the gryffindor tower to play exploding snaps in their common room.

Nick took the opportunity to spend the day in the slytherin library, studying old texts. He ended up becoming so concentrated on the books in the library that he didn't leave until quarter to midnight, on Christmas Eve.

(page break)

Nick woke up only a few hours after going to bed. Something was jumping on his bed.

The thing, whatever it was, was hopping up and down on the mattress like a too-eager puppy dog, disturbing Nick from his sleep. He cracked his eyes open and turned over, to see Baggy the house elf on the end of his bed.

"Master Grant is telling me to wake Master Nick, sir." Baggy explained. His floppy ears looked a bit like bat wings each time the house elf jumped.

"Thank you for waking me up Baggy," said Nick, trying to stifle a yawn.

"You is welcome sir. Happy Christmas!" And with an obnoxiously loud pop! the elf was gone.

Nick haziy rolled out of bed and meandered his way down to the common room.

Grant Page was already sitting by the huge, white christmas tree. Four large piles of colorfully wrapped presents waited around the base of the tree.

"Hagrid the groundskeeper found this tree, and Professor Flitwick asked to have it brought up. I like it much better than the usual green trees we get."

"It's called a Unicorn tree. When a Unicorn puts some of its magic, intentionally or not, into the soil where a pine sapling is growing, the pine becomes a Unicorn Tree. The sap has intense healing properties..." He droned on. The two seventh years who were staying at school over Christmas wandered into the common room and collapsed into the chairs surrounded by their presents. Nick looked to the free seat and took his place there.

The seventh years looked as though they wanted to go into an in depth discussion of their own on Unicorn tree sap- but Nick hastily picked up his first present and began unwrapping it, hardly wishing to join the conversation. The other Ravenclaws seemed to clue in and gladly proceeded to unwrap their own presents.

Mostly Nick's aunts, uncles and cousins had sent him parselscript books and food from whichever country they were currently in. Nick happily munched away on the Malva Pudding as he carefully packed away the rest of the goodies. The books were packed away as soon as they were opened, lest the other three Ravenclaws notice them and ask to take a look.

A few members of Alex's Coven sent presents as well, which wasn't entirely out of the norm. Most people in Alex's coven were at least one hundred years old if not older, so annual traditions like Christmas tended to only be observed every five or so years.

Younger members tended to send things more frequently. Octavius sent a knit toque every year without fail. Normally, it was in the family crest colours of silver and green, but this year it was specially knit with the Ravenclaw blue and bronze.

Alex had sent a selection of books in English. Nick put them to the side for half a second to read Alex's card. When he looked back up, Grant and the seventh years were flipping through the books.

"Oi! You could ask, you know" Nick snapped indignantly.

The two seventh years looked sincerely apologetic, but Grant merely waved Nick off.

"At least put them back when you're done," Nick grumbled..

One of the seventh years motioned to the book he was holding, and asked, "Nick who gave this to you?"

"My uncle," Nick answered a little uneasily. The seventh year was holding the book at arm's length like it might grow teeth and eat him, which wasn't exactly Ravenclaw-ish.

The other seventh year and Grant took turns trying to read the title, which they had no idea was upside down. Once they figured out their mistake, they turned the book around, and their expressions grew more puzzled. "This book is about breaking dark magic curses," Grant said with a bewildered expression. There was nothing wrong with breaking a dark curse, after all.

The two seventh years noted the confusion. The one holding the book tossed the volume back to Nick and launched into an explanation.

"This book has been on the banned list for years. The author explains both how to do the curse, and then how to break it. There are some really dark curses in there. You might want to hand it over to professor Snape for the semester, just in case."

"Snape?" Nick wondered aloud. Wouldn't their head of house make more sense?

The seventh years smirked, "Professor Flitwick would hand the book over to the ministry in a heartbeat. Snape will give it back to you before summer, trust us. He might snap and snarl about nosy Ravenclaws reading things they ought to let die with time, but he will give the book back."

"Snape it is," Nick nodded. He briefly debated just keeping the book hidden in his trunk, but it wasn't as if Nick had the time or inclination to read yet more English books. There were enough other hidden secrets that could get him sent to prison without adding another.

Nick went back to opening presents. He was a bit surprised when he started noticing presents from people outside of his family and his Coven. Marcus, Eddie and Hugo had all sent Nick books in the classic Ravenclaw style. Nick felt a little bad for not sending anything in return.

Before unwrapping anything else, he made a quick dash up to his room. In haste, he opened his potions chest and wrapped up a potion bottle for each person from Hogwarts who had sent him a present, as well as one potion for Baggy the house elf.

"Baggy!" Nick called.

In an instant, the house elf popped into Nick's room, looking like an excited puppy.

"Master Nick is calling Baggy, sir?"

Nick gently handed the elf a rack of wrapped potions, saying "Could you please take them to my friends? Their names are on the tags."

The house elf grinned even wider. "Baggy is being like one of Saint Nicholas's elves! I is doing this right now." The house elf vanished with a sound more like jingling bells than the usual popped balloon.

The dorm room was a lot less cheerful with the house elf gone, so Nick headed back downstairs to his own pile of presents that had yet to be unwrapped.

Grant and the two seventh years were all skimming through books they had gotten as gifts, while the other half of their presents remained unwrapped. A slight jingling of bells was all that announced the sudden appearance of a small creature on Grant's gift pile, but no one but Nick noticed.

Once Nick started opening presents again the three other Ravenclaws all put their books down and went about opening presents.

Nick opened a small box of homemade joke and prank supplies from the twins.

Luna had sent a piece of driftwood that had been carved into an intricate snake. Two small, polished rocks were set into the wood as the eyes. Nick turned the carving over a few times. It reminded him of his time spent on Vancouver Island, Canada, just last year.

After a moment of inspection he set it aside, and proceeded to pick up a present wrapped in Ravenclaw colours. It seemed that both Grant and the two seventh years had identically-wrapped presents. Nick turned the package over, but there was no name on it, save for his own.

"Professor Flitwick sends a book to all the Ravenclaws. Same one for everyone," said one of the seventh years. "Some years it's great for the first years, some years it's more suited for the seventh years."

"But it is always a great read," another seventh year chimed in.

Grant and the other seventh year pulled out their identical packages, and the four opened them at the same time, eager to see what the professor's pick had been this year. The cover read, Twelve Uses of Dragon's Blood, by Albus Dumbledore. The three other Ravenclaws looked absolutely elated.

"How did Professor Flitwick even get his hands on this? I heard that Headmaster Dumbledore wrote the book, but it was never actually published," claimed one of the Seventh years.

Grant smirked, "I can imagine all Flitwick had to do was ask. They do know each other, after all."

The seventh years looked less than impressed with Grant's remark, but ignored it in favor of starting their new book.

Nick turned back to his own presents. Mao had sent him a nice variety of potion ingredients from China. Alex, on the other hand, had sent over potion ingredients from Norway, as well as a small ring with a note saying it was a portkey to the Canadian estate on Salt Spring Island, where Alex would be for the remainder of the semester. The password was "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", Nick hadn't the faintest idea why Alex picked something so peculiar but at least it was obscure enough he wouldn't risk saying it in everyday speech.

Faer sent a bottle of everlasting ink made from Nightmare barriers from Norway. The ink, while black in appearance by day, shone a deep blue during the dark of night. Faer also sent a quill made from one of his own feathers. Nick was fairly certain that the combination of the quill and ink was worth more than the price of a small house in Hogsmeade. But knowing Faer, the ice phoenix had probably seen it as a semi-decent present that meant not having to venture into the market around Christmas time. Lazy git.

A couple of Slytherins had sent along books and candies, probably in an effort to keep in Nick's good books so he would continue to tutor them in the practical part of potions.

A Hufflepuff boy by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchley had sent Nick a Thank-you-for-unpetrifying-me-also-Happy-Christmas present. It was a small box of Egyptian Papyrus. The box indicated that it was muggle-made, but it looked better quality than any magical Papyrus Nick had ever bought.

"Got friends in every house, eh? Bit rare that is, what with house rivalries and all. Though I suppose you're only third year. By the time you're a fifth year, you probably won't even talk to them anymore," one of the Seventh years promised.

Nick nodded in agreement. He didn't actually know the Finch-Fletchley kid from Hufflepuff, and the Slytherins only sent him presents because he tutored them. Not to mention the fact that Nick was desperately hoping Alex could reconsider his position on schooling long before Nick reached fifth year.

Granted, Nick had learned quite a few Latin spells and was loads better at speaking, reading and writing English but formal schooling wasn't nearly as exciting. Nor did it offer as many practical lessons as traveling with a Coven around the world.

"Finished?" Grant asked. Nick looked up from his gifts and nodded. "Let's head to breakfast then. Thanks a ton for the bottle of Felix Felicis by the way! It must have cost a fortune. Where did you get it?"

"Is that the girl you are dating?" Nick asked as they passed a group of Gryffindors. Grant's face lit up and he said a hasty goodbye to Nick, just before rushing to meet up with his new girlfriend. Nick had no intention of telling anyone he could brew - and had brewed - Felix Felicis on his own. It was supposed to be registered with the Ministry anytime someone brewed a batch, strictly speaking. Personally, Nick paid more attention to Coven laws then Magic laws set by the Ministry. Alex only ever asked that a tenth be sent to him with every batch, and Nick was happy to comply. Particularly since the potion was sent with anyone in dangerous territory as a method of defense. Very handy, old Felix was.

Nick spent Christmas morning herded around by the Weasleys. He got a chance to meet the infamous Percy Weasley, who wasn't nearly as bad as the twins had let on. Nick actually had a pleasant conversation about Christmas tradition between countries and species, while the twins, Ron and Harry created two massive snow forts.

Nick and Percy had intended to avoid joining the snow fight, but a few Hufflepuffs somehow managed to drag Percy over to the twins' side while Grant and the two seventh years Ravenclaws dragged Nick over to Ron and Harry's side.

Near mayhem broke out when a small group of Slytherins stumbled upon the fight and nearly got caught in the crossfire of a dozen or so enchanted snowballs. Luckily, Nick recognized two of them from his potions tutoring and dragged them over to his side.

"Oh no, I am not fighting with a bunch of sneaky Slytherins!" Ron squawked in outrage.

Harry seemed torn between agreeing with his friend and accepting the added help, regardless of house rivalry.

Thankfully, Grant stepped in just in time. "Lookit, little lion cub, a little sneakiness is exactly what he need to cream those soft-hearted Hufflepuffs. You two," Grant motioned to two of the fifth year slytherins, "See if you can organize an attack from the back while our heroic Gryffindors go attack head on. I'll see about setting up some fancy spellwork to collapse their outer wall. Nick, you try to collapse the tower that Fred and George are standing on" he instructed.

Nick moved to one of the lower towers of their snow castle to get a better aim at who he presumed to be George. Fred, however, was nowhere to be seen, which greatly concerned Nick.

Sure enough, halfway through the grand attack organised by Grant, the support underneath Ron and Harry's snow castle gave way beneath them, seemingly out of the blue.

Nick panicked when a cascade of snow buried him. He began to shiver uncontrollably as the snow settled around him. The need to escape looped through his thoughts, but the weight of the snow prevented Nick from moving his hand to cast a Latin levitation spell and every time he opened his mouth, more snow fell in. He gulped in the half-melted frost as his teeth started to chatter, and soon the rest of him was shaking uncontrollably. He was too cold to cast a spell in Parseltongue, much less Latin. Nick desperately tried digging at the snow, but more of it simply fell down on top of him.

He moved his left arm enough that within moments, enough snow had been moved that he could see a piece of the sky above him. It was still to small to get out though and the snow above was crushing down on him, freezing his bones and brain. Despriatly, Nick tried to focus on his core. He thought of the feelings of scales covering his skin; he felt his body tempature plummet further. His newly turned reptillain blood unaccustumed to the freezing cold.

Nick didn't bother to check if he had done this part of the transformation correctly, he just barrelled on. Next, he focused on his arms, pressing them into his body murging and shrinking him self as his very structure began to change. It might have been an agganizing process if Nick wasn't already too froozen to feel his own tongue.

When he opened his eyes, the world was diffferent: Larger and in less colour than Nick recalled it being when he was human. He didn't dwell on it though. As fast as he could manage, which was pretty sluggish at this point, the half frozzen snake slither up into the cold air.

A very panicked looking Fred and George were madly digging through the snow, calling his name, unaware of what had taken place.

Nick looked around a bit through his reptile's eyes. Unfortunately, several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were still around. He couldn't even transform back.

"Potter!" Nick hissed, as loud as he could. A mop of black hair appeared from behind a bank of snow.

Ron looked startled for a minute, but as soon as he saw that Harry was calm, he relaxed, too. But he was also dubious as he stared at the snake.

"What's it saying?" he muttered, "Can it find the Ravenclaw guy?".

"He doesn't even know my name?" Nick asked Harry in pure disbelief.

"Nick?" Harry asked in surprise. Nick nodded, "How did you turn into a snake? Also... you called Hermione 'Bushy.'"

"This is my Animagus form. Although strictly speaking I'm not supposed to have an animagus form. But nevermind that. Blast a little deeper into the snowbank, would you?" Nick instructed. Ron looked between the snake and Harry in confusion, but Harry ignored him and dutifully sent two more blasting hexes into the snow, careful to avoid hitting the snake. Nick slithered out. Thinking only of his human form now, Nick managed to flawlessly and gracefully turn back into a human, and retrieved his wand all in one motion.

"Bloody hell, that was brilliant," exclaimed Ron. "You're like Mcgonagall!"

Nick's eyebrow twitched and he tried to hide a smirk.

"Come on, the twins are still searching for you" Harry motioned to the frantic Fred and George, who were still digging in the snow and desperately calling his name.

"Don't tell anyone" Nick told Ron severely, before dashing off to scare the living daylight out of the twins.

(page break here)

After the snowball fight, the the whole group headed to their respective dorms to shower and change.

Christmas dinner in the Great Hall was, in a word, spectacular.

The Snowball fight hadn't destroyed old house rivalries, but it had taken a few stones out of the otherwise impenetrable wall between the houses. Quidditch games featuring players from all four houses on either team became a usual afternoon activity. Most evenings were spent in the Slytherin library with the twins, Ron, and Harry, who only made a passing attempt at studying.

Late evenings, when curfew was supposed to be in effect, Nick found himself in basically any common room but his own. Cho often dragged Nick to the Hufflepuff common room for a huge game of exploding snaps with the third year Hufflepuffs. If Nick felt like a slightly more relaxed evening, he ducked away down to the dungeons. Any passing slytherin seemed happy enough to let Nick into the Slytherin common room. Grant pointed out that this sort of thing was pretty much unheard off. Even people dating Slytherins could only see the common rooms if they had an escort. On more than one occasion, though, Nick found himself to be the last person sitting by the fire.

(Page Break)

A few nights before the beginning of the next term, Nick had let the Twins drag him up to the Gryffindor common room. There, Lee Jordan had managed to set up a huge party, as far as dorm standards went. Grant was dancing with his girlfriend on the small stage set up for just that purpose. He was likely very good at classical dancing, but Nick had to wince at the Ravenclaws' attempts at modern dance. Still, Grant and his girlfriend looked happy enough.

The twins dragged Nick over to an enormous table laden with bottles and variously-sized potion vials, where two students were taking shots of what was either alcohol or a mystery potion. First person to accidentally drink one of the potions was out, and the next person stepped up to the table to face off.

Unfortunately for poor Nick, he was pushed up to the table to face off against one very inebriated Lee Jordan. Being an exceptional potions student, Nick managed several rounds, before he became so drunk that he honestly didn't remember why he was knocking back overflowing vials in the first place.

In a moment of drunken confusion, he ended up accidentally downing a hair raising potion. Someone pulled him from the table over to the dance floor. Nick looked back just in time to see a very intoxicated Slytherin first year being pushed up to take his spot at the potion/alcohol table. This party was getting out of hand.

Nick wasn't given the time to figure out why it bothered him that a little first year was being pressured to drink so much. Just then, someone was pulling him up onto the packed dancing stage.

There was a body grinding behind him. Vaguely, Nick was aware of people as they rudely grabbed and pinched him all while the music blared over a constant chatter of drunken students. Sober, Nick might have been far too uncomfortable to dance like a drunken, lewd sailor, but with more alcohol than blood in his system, he was happy to do pretty much whatever someone asked him to do.

By the time the party started to wind down, it was far too late to be stumbling through the corridors, so anyone not in Gryffindor found somewhere comfortable to curl up in the common room and… well, sleep off their impending hangovers.

An inebriated Ron tried to force the semi-conscious first year slytherin out the portrait hole, but his younger sister was giving him hell for even suggesting such a thing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Nick recognized that the youngest Weasley hadn't been drinking, as was evident from her clearly controlled actions. She moved the first year Slytherin back over to one of the arm chairs and tucked him in like a doting mother.

Nick looked around the room for his own chair to sleep in, but someone pulled him towards the dorms. Nick wasn't that aware of what was going on, but for some reason it felt good and he wanted it to continue.

He was vaguely aware that he was on a bed, although his vision was far beyond fuzzy by this point and his head was pounding, with curtain pulled around himself. Someone else was on top of him, grinding their hips together. Lips were everywhere and neither he nor the other person was wearing a shirt. Odd. He didn't remember removing his shirt. They both had pants on though, and this seemed to bother Nick. He wanted to feel the other person more, but he was also dog-tired and it was hard to stay awake long enough to voice his objections to the clothing separation.

( page break here)

When Nick woke up next, he found himself curled in bed, moderately tangled with another set of of semi-naked limbs that appeared to belong to Gryffindor's quidditch captain - Oliver Wood.

Discoloured patches - hickeys, Nick realized - covered both his and Oliver's chests. Nick tried to process what had happened the night before, even though the blood rushing through his head made him want to pass out as he slowly untangled himself from the passed out Quidditch captain.

Nick's only knowledge of Oliver Wood was his name, his status as the Gryffindor quidditch captain, and the fact that he was in sixth year, thereby three full years older than Nick. Nick was fairly certain that nothing more than a bit of snogging had happened since both boys still had their pants on, thank heaven, but it still felt a little weird to know he'd made out with someone three years his senior.

Oliver was more filled out, his muscles were more toned. At least he was pretty damn attractive. Whereas Nick had a slightly angular baby-face. Oliver had a well-toned jawline going for him with a small amount of hair growing in all the right places. Their age difference was very apparent in Nick's opinion, as he studied the older boy within such a close proximity.

"Oh hell no…" someone murmured from just beside the bed, "There is fraternising with the enemy, and there is fraternising with the enemy." Nick jumped about a foot from where he sat and almost entirely collided back into Oliver, smashing his head against the quidditch captain's shoulder.

"Fuck off Grant," Oliver muttered into his pillow, too tired - or too hungover - to give a damn about the situation.

Nick looked up at a very mad, and clearly not nearly as hungover Grant Page. The fifth year looked like he might at any moment light the very bed Nick lay on, on fire. With Nick still in it. The boy was livid.

"Why the hell, Oliver, were you trying to fuck a third year?" he hissed, house tensions growing by the second. "That's pathetic even for you" he sneered at the semi-conscious Gryffindor.

Grant's last comment, however, seemed to snap Oliver out of his hungover haze. Oliver flipped over and looked up at an equally startled Nick who was still half-lying on his chest and struggling to sit up through the mess of sheets.

"Nick?" he gaped, running a panicked hand through his hair before asking, "What …. er… we didn't Do anything last night... did we?" His tone of voice hinted without being said aloud, Please tell me nothing happened.

Nick looked down at their still clothed lower halves and glanced sheepishly at Oliver, answering truthfully, "Don't think so." Oliver breathed out with relief.

The whole situation would have been ten times less awkward behind curtains and silencing charms, but a growling Grant still hung over the pair like an angry storm cloud, waiting to thunder.

"Considering how loud you two were, you would've thought…"

Nick cursed in seven different ways to hell and back. How had both of them forgotten silencing charms? Granted, Nick remembered being far too drunk to figure out how to get his own pants off, but still. Ravenclaws shouldn't be that stupid. The very thought of other people hearing whatever drunken debauchery they'd been up to had Nick turning the same colour as the crimson bed curtains.

"Nick's practically a kid, you sick bastard," Grant spat back at the sixth-year Gryffindor. "I always knew your type were sick, but this is crossing a line. Beyond crossing a line." Grant's glare turned to the very confused and panicked Oliver.

Nick slowly caught up to Grant's accusation. He held up a hand to interrupt Grant's onslaught of insults. "Wh- Do Europeans even hate gays? Bloody hell, is there anyone you do like?" Nick looked up at Grant with seemingly-honest curiosity, but Grant only looked angrier.

"Look here, first of all, everyone was drunk out of their minds last night, shit happens. Hate to break it to you. Second, Oliver was possible more drunk than I was, I mean, look at him. Third, I was definitely already gay, so it's not like he suddenly 'turned me gay' last night with some sloppy drunk make out session." Oliver cringed, but Nick couldn't care less "Fourth, when and with whom I choose to have sex is absolutely and unconditionally, none of your fucking business."

"Nick, you're still just thirteen-" Grant was interrupted by Nick's hungover lecture, and decided to give it up and listen.

"And Fifth and finally, for someone so disgusted by pureblood prejudices, you are often the quickest to hate anything or anyone different from you."

Grant stood with owl eyes boring down at Nick. Taking a moment to arrange his thoughts, he finally spoke. "I … that was the most I have heard you speak... ever. If you took every word you have spoken to me or in my presence this whole year and combined it, I'm still fairly sure it'd be fewer words than you just spoke."

Nick scowled back at Grant. Meanwhile, Oliver still looked slightly panicked and confused, but the anger in Grant had dissipated to some degree and the whole room seemed calmer for it.

"You even swore …" Grant looked more than a little impressed. Perhaps this kid was all right. "Alright, I won't mention it again to you or to anyone else, but I don't want you to be parading it around either. That shit weirds me out." Grant nodded to himself like this was a fair deal.

The panic left the room, too. Nick would have liked to curse the two of them for thinking that was fair. Grant was a bloody wanker, he was doing no favors by pretending he was going to protect their 'secret'. Nick would have said as much if Oliver liked a limp noodle, but clearly Oliver did consider it a secret. It was only right to honor that.

Nick watched Grant strut from the room, and left the otherwise empty dorm to Oliver and Nick.

Nick wanted to talk to Oliver about the night before. Obviously, Oliver considered Nick much too young, which he was, in all fairness, but there was a chance Oliver knew other gay students. It would have been nice to be able to at least meet a few of them, maybe mess around a little, or at the very least talk. Nick wasn't really sure how to start that kind of conversation though, particularly since Oliver was so clearly uncomfortable with other people knowing his sexual preference.

"So…. you ah, hissed a lot last night." Oliver mentioned quietly.

Nick looked back at Oliver in surprise. "In the common room?" he interrogated, horrified at what that might mean. This was not where he wanted the conversation going. Being a parselmouth who was also gay and biologically related to the feared and revered Salazar Slytherin, as well as the batshit crazy Lord Voldemort, was probably a mixed crime punishable by death in Wizarding Britain. That was, if Nick was judging everyone's reactions correctly.

Thankfully, Oliver shook his head, "Just when we... were, uh," Oliver cleared his throat awkwardly, "well, ya know".

"Snogging?" Nick supplied with a smirk. Oliver turned a few shades brighter. "I would prefer if that um, didn't get around." Nick found his shirt on the ground and slowly made to get dressed.

Oliver opened and closed his mouth, half-formed words spilling out. Finally he paused long enough to form a coherent sentence, "You are actually a gay parseltongue."

"Gay parselmouth. Parseltongue is the language, speakers are called parselmouths. But anyways, yeah, I am."

Oliver sat in unadulterated shock while he watched as Nick finished getting dressed.

"Between you and me, I am also related to the crazy mass murderer Lord Voldemort. Pity, he is technically head of the family, otherwise he would have been blasted from the tree ages ago." Nick watched in amusement as Oliver seemed to grow impossibly more shocked, and the colour in his face went from stunning scarlet to pasty white. Nick flinched away when he saw fear and, dare he spot it, anger mix together in Oliver's eyes. "Look, I'm just trying to improve my English. That's the only reason I'm here. I have no problems being a gay parselmouth or a potions tutor or an over-partying third year. I only hide these things because everyone in magical Britain seems to be looking for a reason to lynch each other."

Oliver looked ready to defend his community - but something made him pause and sit back. "Is that how your friend unpetrified the others?" he murmured curiously. "Is that why Dumbledore switched defence teachers halfway through the year?" Oliver looked more at the wall above Nick's head than at Nick. "He's never done that before."

"Yes, Shaman Mao used Parselmagic, magic done in Parseltongue, to unpetrify the others. Dumbledore fired Lockhart after he found some... unsavory characteristics…"

"What, like his complete incompetence?" Oliver suggested with a smirk.

Nick smiled half-heartedly, "No, much worse I'm afraid. Mao stayed to deal with the monster though. It's complicated, but it is being dealt with." Nick tried to look reassuring, but Oliver refused to even meet Nick's eyes. His efforts were in vain.

"You won't tell, will you? About any of last night?" Nick tried to meet Oliver's eyes, but the other boy's were unusually focused on his shirt buttons all of the sudden.

"I wont make an unconditional vow or anything, but obviously I don't want people finding out either. So, yeah, 'course I won't say anything."

Nick winced at Oliver's words. It might have hurt a little less if Oliver had been referring to the age gap between the two, but he was clearly referring to the sexual orientation part. Maybe the whole thing about being a parselmouth too, if he was being really honest with himself.

"Thanks... I guess," Nick muttered as he made his way out of the dorm and down to the common room.

Nick hadn't actually looked at a clock when Grant woke him up, but it was obviously still very early, seeing as everyone was still passed out in the common room. Nick spotted the slytherin first year from the night before. Not trusting a room full of older and sometimes cruel Gryffindors, Nick gently woke the kid and pulled him down to the Great hall with him.

The hall was empty, save for a few professors who all looked equally worse for wear, just as Nick and the first year were.

It occurred to Nick how odd it was that a party as out of control as the one last night hadn't been discovered but clearly, the professors had had an equally out of hand party of their own.

The first year remained smugly oblivious to the professors' hungover states when the two left the hall again. The young kid even bragged at length about how stealthy the two of them must be to not be discovered. Nick didn't bother correcting the kid when they finally went their own ways.

Nick went down to the Parseltongue library for some comforting surroundings and curled up on one of the newly repaired chairs to sleep. At some point Baggy appeared to give Nick some sort of hangover potion, which proved extremely helpful, but the rest of the day Nick spent keeping to himself.

Oliver didn't really ignore Nick, since they'd almost never crossed paths before the party. Oliver simply made absolutely certain that they continue to almost never see each other, much less interact. Personally, Nick found the look of fear in Oliver's eyes far more offensive than the backpedaling he did anytime he spotted Nick.

No one seemed to notice, or if they did, they never mentioned it.

Then Grant made a sudden switch to hanging out with Hufflepuffs, which he had previously never done. He rarely was in the Ravenclaw common room, and was absolutely never left in a room alone with Nick. To be fair to Grant, Nick spent just as much effort avoiding Grant as he did him. Deep down, although Nick would never admit it to himself, he hated Grant these days.

Nick's inside burned with indignant rage anytime he saw the older Ravenclaw. He convinced himself that it was nerves or bad food, or simply a reaction to Grant's own uneasiness, but if Nick were honest with himself, he would find that Grant had taken up residence beside Voldemort on his list of Europeans he truly despised.

The twins and Lee, Ron and Harry were all happy enough to distract Nick though. The twins and Lee stayed up late into the night with Nick plotting pranks for certain people, as well as the for whole school.

For some unknown reason the twins seemed happy enough when Nick suggested both Oliver and Grant as potential victims. Lee seemed particularly happy to prank Oliver, and Nick thought better of asking, although he did wonder if perhaps the two had had some sort of relationship that ended abruptly. Lee did seem to talk about Oliver more passionately than he did about any of the Slytherins he suggested.

Harry and Ron were happy enough to spend the afternoons of the remaining days before term wandering outside and practicing Nick's English spelling and reading.

Once, Faer joined them for a walk out in the snow. That was a welcome activity. Ron was lamenting his unfinished History essay when Faer offered to help make it more exciting. By this, he meant build giant ice sculptures, which the ice phoenix then brought to life to reenact famous scenes in the goblin wars.

All things considered, the Winter holidays ended well enough.