Chapter 38: The one where I almost got a puppy.

Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

Bella ragazza- beautiful girl

Chapter 37

"Enter."

I peeked my head in, "Whatever Bobby and Parvati say was a lie. I never touched their under garments and I am absolutely horrified that they would insinuate that I would partake in such depraved acts. I cried myself to sleep last night just thinking of it…I'm afraid I might need counselling Zia Minnie."

I said it all very dramatically and with speed, dropping myself into the chair in front of Minnie's desk. She gave me a stern look over her glasses and I adjusted myself into a more decent sitting position.

"Thank you for the tip, Bane, I will be sure to owl Miss Patil and Miss Brown once we are done to find just what you were babbling on about. I actually haven't called you here for punishment. Well-"she said with a devious smile, "not my version of punishment."

I looked at her curiously; she looked like she was trying not to thoroughly enjoy something. There was a knock on the door and then it opened.

Mona came bustling in, bursting at the seams with a huge smile on her face and a package in her hand. She smiled wider when she saw me and planted a kiss on my cheek and took a seat next to me. I looked between the two suspiciously.

"Why do I feel ambushed?"

"Oh Ky, it seems Severus' paranoia is rubbing off on you. Why can't two people who care deeply about you call you over for a spot of tea at the end of term?" Mona said this all with a manic smile on her face.

"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean nobodies watching me. What's in the box?"

They looked at each other and they smiled. Mona practically pushed it in my arms with enthusiasm and I looked at her eyes, gleaming with crazy.

I suddenly caught on and tore the packaging open with gusto…and slumped when I saw what was inside. I picked up the material with the tips of my fingers, as if afraid to get too much of my body contaminated by it.

"It's…a dress."

Mona's face fell a bit at my lack of reaction and Minnie cut in, "Of course it is. What did you think it was?"

"A puppy."

"You thought we'd keep a puppy in a box with no breathing holes?"

"You thought we'd endanger a puppy by giving it to you?"

I glared at Minnie and then looked at Mona, "Well I thought maybe there was some magic way of getting the air into the box. Anyway, what's the dress for?"

They looked at each other in exasperation and then Minnie spoke, "It's for you to wear to play in the snow. What else would the dress be for Bane?"

"Ohhh the Ball. Oh, you guys bought it for me for that."

Mona looked at me in excitement again, "Well we weren't sure what you were wearing for the event, so Minnie and I decided to-"

"Mona decided-"

Mona glared at Minnie, "Minnie and I decided to get you a dress. We know we probably should have asked first, but we thought it should be a surprise."

"What she means by that is we had no time to usher you kicking and screaming into boutiques and we decided that it's more efficient for us to choose an appropriate dress for you. And by we, I mean me." She smiled icily; I knew she was thinking of the welcoming feast skirt scandal.

I closed the box and beamed at Mona and Minnie. It really was kind of them, they had busy schedules and to sacrifice their time to shop for me.

I hugged Mona and kissed her on both cheeks and then fell into Minnie's lap kissing her on her cheek. I sat there for a little while, enjoying how uncomfortable my sitting on her made her. I got off her and went back to my place as Mona laughed at Minnie adjusting her robes, muttering at me. Minnie walked to the drawer that held the biscuits and tea, and cocoa for me. She always did this manually,

"Why don't you just summon them?"

She turned and stared at me as she started with the tea, "Bane, magic is not an excuse for laziness. We should not abuse it when we are perfectly capable of performing certain tasks on our own. It keeps us active and there is a personality one adds when manually carrying out a procedure."

"Plus, she finds making tea therapeutic." Mona added and I giggled.

"I wouldn't need stress therapy if it wasn't for you students…. Potter. The most stressful few minutes of my life that was watching him tackle that dragon. I doused poor Fil with water the way I was squeezing that wand of mine."

Mona nodded thoughtfully, "I must admit I was worried. Even though he did steal the spotlight from Cedric, and I do feel Cedric should have been awarded more points seeing as he used a more complicated spell rather than a simple summoning spell-"

"Oh, not this again Mona. For the thousandth time, Harry did not put his name in the goblet. And even though I do admit Mr Diggory's transfiguration skills are admirable, Harry displayed such ingenuity in the face of danger."

Oh joy; let's talk about my two favourite people right now.

"Well, whether he entered willingly or not, he's in the running. Fil was so sure it would be a Ravenclaw as champion, did you see his face when Cedric's name was called out. Speaking of Cedric and Ravenclaw, he's going with Cho Chang."

Yay, more of my favourite people. Minnie handed me my cup of cocoa and sat back down. She looked thoughtful for a second, "Fifth year. She's a fair hand at transfiguration, pretty lass."

"Beautiful, she and Cedric would be THE item. Let's see Harry try to upstage him then."

"Actually, I heard that Harry is going with Parvati Patil. She may not be…. educationally inclined, but she is par with Chang looks wise."

Were these two really fighting over which of their champions has a better date.

"Speaking of which… Ky," Mona looked at me, "Who's the lucky young man that will be gracing your side."

They both looked at me carefully, so this was real question. Well-played you two.

I drained the rest of my cup and stood, "It's a surprise. One clue, it's not who you think it is."

I kissed them both and walked away with my package, ignoring the memory that the dregs of little marshmallows left in my cup was dragging forward.

I tried walking but my legs wouldn't move. I tried talking but no sound came out. Just bubbles…bubbles? I looked to my left and right… water. I was swimming. Swimming in dark and murky water. I heard somebody, a familiar voice calling out my name, so I followed the voice, deeper and deeper. I suddenly touched down on the seabed and looked for the person. I looked to my left and right, stones. Stones everywhere. I swam between them and finally saw who I was looking for, his grey eyes captivating mine, his brown hair floating glamorously around him. I swam forward and was about to reach him when somebody caught my foot, pale thin fingers from beneath. I looked behind to see red glowing eyes. It must be a gryndilow. They pulled me deeper and deeper, the sand of the seabed engulfing me from all directions, sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness….

I sprung up and drank in each breath, tasting the air like it was a delicacy. I heard Mi stir next to me; we had spoken so late into the night that we were too warm and tired to leave my bed and just slept here.

"Ky? What's the matter?"

"Nothing Mi, go back to sleep. Just had a weird dream."

"Talk about it?"

"Nope."

I heard a light pecking at the window near my bed and I pulled back the hangings and walked over. It wasn't night-time like I thought it was, the first weak rays of the sun shining in. Must be around five in the morning. I opened the window and let Fawkes in.

"Hey Fawksey, why didn't you just apparate straight in. Didn't want to disturb anybody did you? Well don't ever worry about that, I love it when you scare Parvati and Bobby."

I thought back to the first and last time Fawkes apparated into our dorm and Bobby ran out in her towel screaming that there was a fire in our dorm. I took the letter from him and allowed him to nestle in my hair.

Kyrianna

Happy Christmas bella ragazza. I was going to greet you with a red suit and black boots and carry your presents in a sack and floo to your dorm, but Severus destroyed my outfit and threatened to chop off my beard if I used it for such evil. Unfortunately, you won't get to meet Father Christmas, but I hope you don't mind settling for little old me. I would be tremendously spoiled if you grace me with your presence this Yuletide morning for a spot of breakfast in my office.

Heart bursting with love

Your Nonno

I stuffed the parchment into my pocket and turned to the bed as Fawkes flew off. I pulled the hangings apart and jumped in.

"Wake up Mi! It's Christmas! Mi!"

"Mi isn't here right now, please leave your name and number and she will get back to you."

I pulled the pillow from under her head and hit her in the face with it, "My name is pillow and I'm going to hit your face!"

"Fine fine I'm up." She sat up and tied back her hair and adjusted herself to her previous neat state.

I of course couldn't have that and pulled her into a bear hug. "Merry Christmas Mi."

"Happy Christmas Ky. If you let go, I'll give you your present!"

I let go quickly and watched as she grabbed my pillow from me. I had spent the last week hunting down my gift but couldn't find it anywhere. She stuffed her hand into the pillow and pulled out something. She muttered engorgio and suddenly a big parcel lay on the bed.

"I was sleeping on it this whole time!"

She laughed and replied, "I thought you would appreciate the irony."

I tore the gift wrap and popped the box open to find…a book. I looked at her with my eyebrows furrowed, she laughed, "Pick it up!"

I did as she asked and hoped that it wasn't my own copy of Hogwarts a History. Instead, I was confronted with my name in huge fancy gold print on the black leather cover.

'Ky Thornton's Potions Diary.'

I flipped through it, and it was empty and reached the back. There was a picture of me smiling down into my cauldron; I didn't even know when she had taken the picture. Written below the picture was,

'She outjigs Jigger, surpasses Starky and reigns victorious over Veridian. Ky Thornton, a potioneer above all others, a genius mind paired with a radiant heart. She is a masterpiece.'-Hermione Granger

'Ky puts the otion in potion with her waves of wonder and sea of skills. She is so good she should teach at Hogwarts. Really, she should. It would be an improvement. A big improvement.'- Ronald Weasley

'There are a few things more fascinating than the look on her face when she is hovering above her cauldron. Mesmerizing.'- Harry Potter

'I don't hate teaching her.'-Severus Snape

"It writes out dictation. I know you don't document the changes you make because you're too lazy to write it out but with this book you can just say it out loud as you work, and it writes it out. I think it uses charms paired with runes, it's quite inter-"

She stopped as I wrapped my arms around her. For once I had no snarky comment; this one present encompassed so many things. Mi thought this through so thoroughly and it was so me, I absolutely loved it. I picked up the packages from under the bed and handed it to her. There were three.

"Ky that's too much."

"I hate having to choose so I got whatever I thought you would like. And believe me; it is far inferior to your gift."

She rolled her eyes at that but grabbed the first package. I knew she would because it was shaped like a book. She carefully undid the wrapping whilst I faked yawned; finally, she took out the book.

"Ky…"

"Don't worry I actually read through this one and we won't be getting any unexpected surprises. And don't worry I didn't buy it, I asked Nonno for it and he said it was his pleasure to pass it down to a great mind. There's quite a few of his earlier spells there."

"The original works of Falco Aesalon! Ky, he is the first known Animagus. Oh Ky, this is amazing, I love it. It's in Greek!"

To any other person this would be a disappointment. But I knew Mi, and the smile I expected was planted on her face. "I always wanted to learn Greek; this would be the perfect excuse."

"Yeah, me too. I was thinking we can learn it together."

She smiled radiantly at me, "That would be great Ky."

She grabbed the next book shaped gift and undid the wrapping with less decorum due to her excitement. She looked down and flipped the first few pages and lunged herself at me.

"It's just a few pictures!"

"Just a few pictures! How did you get these pictures of my parents! And they're moving pictures! I don't have magical pictures of them. And here are all the pictures you took at the World cup! Oh, this is amazing Ky."

"Well, I wrote to your parents and asked them for a few pictures and then asked Zio Fil to help me make them magical. We couldn't do much except tamper with a few movements because it wasn't taken out with a magical camera. I wouldn't be too excited; about half of your baby pictures, I make you dig your nose."

"That's probably what I was originally doing anyway!"

We laughed and then she grabbed the last box. She undid the ribbon and the box fell open, and she took out the bottle. It was a clear, unlabelled bottle with a white substance inside.

"This looks like Sleekeazy-"

"It is. I managed to increase its lasting powers and decrease the dosage. I suspect they don't do this because it's financially a terrible business decision. So, it shouldn't be such a hard job to apply whenever you want to, not that I agree with your need to tame that mane of yours. I like it."

"You like my big ugly hair."

"Your hair isn't ugly. It's very Gryffindor. Loud, proud, untamed. Just like a lion. Don't worry I consulted with people that know better and tried it out myself, it's perfectly safe. I guess I have the first potion to enter in my diary."

I smiled up at her and hugged the book to my chest. Speaking of people that I consulted with reminded me of Nonno's letter. I jumped off the bed and ran out, shouting where I was off to behind me.

A/N: It's going to be an eventful Christmas. Reviews as always are much appreciated. What do you think of Ky and Hermione's friendship? I didn't want it to be as if she was replacing Ron or Harry, but that it was a different kind of friendship.

Kalina