Hello again! You already know that bold is Japanese by now, (hopefully) but I have a new one! Underlined is now texting or emailing or just the content of a letter. That's all, please review!

"But it's Christmas! Are you sure you don't want to come back, at least for today? We need someone to eat all the presents from Ukitake-san." Urahara whined over the phone, Shouta rolling his eyes sarcastically.

"Then come visit us. It's not like there's that many students here anyways. And if you really want to get rid of that junk, bring it all here. The kids will finish it off in no time." The brunette replied, groaning inwardly when Urahara said he'd be right over.

"Who was that?" Hitsugaya asked, watching him as he hung up and angrily stuffed his phone in his bag.

"Urahara. He's coming over to say hi and drop off Ukitake's 'presents'. C'mon, let's head to lunch." Hitsugaya groaned as he nodded, reluctantly putting his book down and following Shouta out of the library and towards the Great Hall.

By the time they got there, Urahara was waving from the Gryffindor table, a giant sack behind him. Hitsugaya noticed the black cat smirking at them from the man's shoulder. They reluctantly sat by Urahara, Harry eyeing them suspiciously as they sat. The cat nimbly jumped onto the table in front of the 2, Shouta reaching out absently to pet her. "Hey, Yoruichi." He muttered, his elbow resting on the table and head resting in his hand with an exhausted air about him.

"So what's in the bag?" Hitsugaya asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Candy!" Urahara replied cheerily, opening the bag up to show much more candy than the bag could possibly hold. "I had to use some magic to get it all to fit, though. The stuff really comes in handy." Several kids sprung up from their seats to gather round, asking if they could have some. Shouta took out a lollipop and a packet of gum before gesturing towards the other students.

"Take it. Please." Hitsugaya muttered. The kids swarmed around a flustered Urahara, and within 15 seconds or less, the candy had completely disappeared along with the students, who were drifting back to their respective seats. Shouta popped the lollipop into his mouth casually, raising an eyebrow.

"Still don't like candy?" The captain just shrugged. "Well, anyways, Merry Christmas!" Shouta handed the boy a small package, which he took in surprise. Hitsugaya looked at Shouta curiously, who gestured for him to open it. He did, albeit almost reluctantly, eyes widening as he stared at the gift before him. Inside the picture frame, Shouta, him, Ukitake, Rangiku, Momo, Ichigo, and a few others were smiling and waving at the picture. Then there was a bit of silent shouting, angry looks, and the scene in the picture became chaos.

"Snape taught me the potion to making a picture move. It's really from everyone back home, I just developed it. That small bag is from me." Shouta grinned at the captain's stunned face as he looked back and forth between the brunette and the picture. "Well? Open mine." Shouta pointed towards the small bag next to the picture. Hitsugaya nodded mutely, at a loss for words as he opened the 2nd gift.

Hitsugaya pulled out a sterling silver chain necklace. Hanging from the chain was a single white crystal, looking closely related to ice. When the crystal moved and caught sunlight, it cast a teal light, the same color as Hitsugaya's eyes. "This is… amazing." He murmured, stunned.

"The famous child prodigy Toshiro Hitsugaya is stunned speechless!" Shouta exclaimed, laughing cheerily. "I'm going to go with the fact that you really, really like it."

"That's a serious understatement." Hitsugaya muttered, slipping it on. "How much did this cost?" He looked incredulously at the grinning brunette.

Shouta laughed again. "Don't worry about it, my family needs to get rid of the money. Besides, you're like family to me. I'm sure my sister would agree too."

"Well… here, this is yours." Hitsugaya muttered, thrusting a large package wrapped in green paper into Shouta's hands. Shouta opened it slowly, curious at what the ice captain would get for him.

"Oh god…" Shouta murmured, gently running a hand over the sleek acoustic guitar, looking good as new. He ran his fingers repeatedly over an inscribed signature at the base. "How did you fix this? It was shattered to pieces." He murmured, awestruck. He could remember clearly the day Rangiku had accidently dropped it over a building, and how it had broken into a million pieces.

"You said it was the only good memory of your father, so I figured it was really precious. And since we learned how to use that spell in class…" Hitsugaya explained, embarrassed.

"Thanks, Shiro-chan!" Shouta looked at him happily, a large childish grin plastered on his face. Hitsugaya opened his mouth to reprimand the other about the nickname, but gave up with a sigh, trying to remember the last time he had seen someone like Shouta smile like that.

"You sure you don't want to see the Quidditch match? You are a Gryffindor." Shouta Izukai (whoops, Watanabe) asked as they headed towards the hospital wing to get the potion from Madame Pomfrey. Hitsugaya shook his head.

"No, I'm not interested. Besides, on the off chance this potion really does cure your scars, I'd like to see that." Hitsugaya replied. They raised an eyebrow simultaneously at Ron and Harry, who were staring in shock at one of the occupied beds. Upon closer inspection, they could see a petrified Hermione. Shouta frowned, a cross look taking form.

"We really need to find out where that basilisk is being kept." He muttered, turning around swiftly to leave, when Hitsugaya placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"I'll look. You take that potion." Knowing there would be no arguing with the captain, Shouta nodded reluctantly, watching the other hurry down the corridor.

Hitsugaya sat in the Gryffindor common room that afternoon, skimming through some old blueprints of the school, when Ms. McGonagall came into the room, not looking very happy. He half listened as she told them about the new rules, frowning slightly when he realized it would be harder to search for the entrance to the Chamber. When the woman left, Hitsugaya pulled out his cell and began texting, his thumb moving swiftly over the little keypad.

Meet me in the dark forest tonight.

He got a reply back soon after from Shouta.

No problem, but what about the new rules? On the off chance we get caught, we'll be in big trouble. Not to mention we shouldn't be in the dark forest in the first place.

Who cares. Just get your lazy ass over there within the next 3 hours.