Chapter 67: Gifts
It was a little uncomfortable to have people watching him as he undid the brown paper on the first and smallest of the lumps. It was from Professor Hodges. Credence uncovered an ebony stand for his wand; like a quill holder, but bigger and fancier. The designs going up and down the long end seemed to mimic the curves carved into his own near-black wand. His eyes bulged like he had just been handed a diamond ring with stones the width of fingers. No jewels embroidered this stand, but he had never owned anything so beautiful in his life.
"Well, don't drool on it, you'll mess up the shine," Rocky noted pitilessly; though smile looked like it was threatening to burst forth on his lips as he added, "I'm glad you like it."
Ravina's lump was rectangular and bendy; a book. When Credence took it out, the title read: Every Night a Beast, the Autobiography of an American Maladictus.
"I thought you might like knowing you weren't alone," Ravina explained, "There are other magical curses, you know. This one runs though the blood, mother to daughter."
The Obscurial really shouldn't have been surprised. People didn't talk much about other magical curses around him, but if he had one, there must be others. "What's a maladictus?"
"Someone who is cursed to turn into some sort of beast," Rocky explained, pointing at the picture on the cover, which showed a painted young woman slowly transforming into a great golden bird, and then back again. "At some point, they are never able to turn back. They are trapped in that body forever."
Sad. Credence imagined being forever trapped in the cloud of the Obscurus, and then wished he hadn't. Maybe that was how the other Obscurials had died.
The last thing was a letter, addressed in a familiar, cramped handwriting. Percy. Percy was writing to him! Credence's fingers ached to open it, but a thought made him hesitate to do it in front of the Hodges. His friend had been trying to tell him something before Credence had been escorted out of Ms. Weasley's office. He thought he might have an idea what it was. The notion gave him a chill. It wasn't the sort of thing that he imagined Percy would want everyone to know. For that matter, if it was true, it wasn't something Credence wanted to share either.
"I'm sorry," he told the Hodges, trying to turn their attention away from the unopened letter, "I didn't get you anything."
Ravina smiled sweetly, "That's not the point. The point of giving is to give, not to receive."
"And speaking of gifts, I think Credence would like us to leave him alone now so he can read his letter," Rocky added, and the boy winced at how cold it sounded when put that way. "If you need us, we will be out spreading Christmas cheer."
A/N: Hello! I'm back…again. As far as this chapter goes, the wand stand was a concept I came up with very, very early in the brainstorming of this story. I was going to have Rocky give it to him directly after he got his wand in the first book, but when it came to the point I thought it felt out of place. So, I waited until here. As far as the book, as you probably know by now I like to give little references to the canon in this AU, and this was my Nagini reference. I was debating how likely it would be that an American maladictus would be able to write a book, but I figured it was a possibility. Please review!