A/N:
Hi, new chapter! Long one.
Yes, I know it's weird to be writing a Christmas chapter in the middle of August, but it's where we were at in the timeline of the fic and it felt weird to pass over it.
Thanks for reading so far, I really hope you continue to enjoy this story.
"Hermione, I need help."
Hermione turned to look at Daphne, totally shocked.
They were sitting in the library together, studying for their winter exams, and apparently something had finally stumped Daphne. This made Hermione quite happy; normally their study sessions were relatively one-sided in the question-asking department, and that always made Hermione feel a bit guilty. If she could (and she was really hoping she could) answer Daphne's question, that would not only mean she was able to repay some of the question-asking debt that she had accrued over the past few weeks of their friendship, but it would also signify a tiny chink in Daphne's academic armor that would give Hermione a glimmer of hope for getting better grades than her in the future.
"I am unsure what I should get Harry for Christmas," Daphne explained. "I was hoping you could assist me, as I have never given a gift to anyone outside of my family before."
Hermione let out a disappointed sigh. She should've known the question wasn't related to the material they were studying.
"Well," she replied. "I guess we can start by figuring out your budget?"
"What do you mean?"
"As in, how much money would you like to spend on Harry's gift?"
"I suppose I would like to spend a large sum of money. That is how one shows their feelings on Christmas, is it not?"
Hermione cringed. For all of the robot girl's academic knowledge, she was definitely lacking in a few areas of common sense.
"Well, you've only been dating for a few months, and I'm not sure exactly how much money you have saved up, but maybe you shouldn't spend 'a large sum of money' on him quite yet…"
"Ah," Daphne replied. "We seem to have developed a misunderstanding. I have no money."
"What?"
She had almost expected Daphne to tell her she had millions of dollars invested in the stock market, and definitely wasn't expecting the girl to have nothing.
"My father gives me money as I need it, but I have never had a job and thus have nothing 'saved up', as you put it."
Hermione had also never taken a job, as studying over the summer was always her top priority, but her parents were well-off dentists and they sent her a moderate allowance every month. She almost asked Daphne if she had ever considered asking for an allowance before, but stopped short as she realized her own position of privilege didn't necessarily extend to everyone else.
"Hm," she thought, an idea slowly coming to her. "If you're interested, I think I overheard Professor Flitwick saying he was looking for a research assistant for a project of his. It wouldn't pay much, and might be rather boring work, but it would still earn you enough to buy Harry a nice watch or something."
Possible Emotion Detected: Interest
"This opportunity is very intriguing," Daphne said. "Thank you for bringing it to my attention; I will go speak with Professor Flitwick now before someone else takes the position."
Hermione smiled at the girl, feeling only a little bit guilty. She wanted the job to work out for Daphne's sake, but she just now realized it might also distract her from studying enough to allow Hermione to get better grades than her on their end-of-term exams. While that hadn't been Hermione's intention when making the suggestion, it also wouldn't be the most unwelcome turn of events...
As Daphne rose to leave, she looked down at Hermione's worksheet.
"By the way, you have made a slight calculation error in question number nine. Try it again, making sure you factor the rune bias correctly before you put the numbers into the Crowley equation."
The girl turned to leave and Hermione let out a pitiful little whimper.
As Harry flew around the pitch monitoring his team as they ran quidditch drills, he let himself get slightly distracted.
What should I get Daphne for Christmas?
He knew what she really wanted, but wasn't sure if he could manage it logistically. And even if he did sort that out, there was still the other issue as well. The bigger issue.
How can you buy a pet for someone that's horrible with animals!?
More than anything else, Daphne wanted a familiar, and he wanted nothing more than to make that dream a reality for her. Unfortunately, she had a track record for being quite unpopular with animals, the one exception being a single cat they once met at a cat cafe. Hedwig was also slowly growing to accept Daphne, but it had taken her a while to stop nipping at the girl every time she got close.
So I would need to find something incredibly friendly that's also smart and safe enough to be accepted as a familiar by Hogwarts…
The final issue was one of the financial variety. Harry had a bit of money saved up from a job he worked last summer, but dates with Daphne and snacks from Hogsmeade among other things had chipped away at the sum considerably. He was pretty sure he still had enough to afford a well-bred animal, but he hadn't exactly been keeping up to date with pet prices since going with Hagrid to buy an owl on his eleventh birthday.
He was broken out of his musings as a bludger nearly hit him in the face.
Remembering where he was and what he was doing, he returned his focus to the practice, promising himself to return to the matter of getting Daphne a Christmas present at a slightly later date.
"Oh, hello Daphne!" Professor Flitwick chirped, opening the door of his office to let Daphne in. "Would you like some tea, or a biscuit?"
"I am fine, Professor, but thank you for the offer."
"Ah well, just let me know if you change your mind! Now, you were telling me earlier that you were interested in assisting me with my research work?"
"That is correct."
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed joyously, pulling out a few scrolls and scraps of parchment. "I was hoping to get help from one of my brighter students – what luck that it was my very brightest! Now, your work would be quite simple, if not a bit tedious, but the subject matter is truly fascinating and I'd be happy to answer any of your questions along the way."
Daphne moved closer to get a better look at the papers on the man's desk, and he started to explain.
"The crux of my research is on the importance of intent, and how intent can be channeled to create different results from the same set of spells or rune structures. For example, it is common knowledge that a witch or wizard with sufficient magical control may cast the Reductor Curse on a stone and break it into small pebbles, or crush it into a fine mist depending on their intent. My study seeks to dig deeper into this phenomenon and quantify the limits of intent on a spell."
"As in, how different of a result can you achieve with the same incantation," Daphne clarified.
"Precisely! Now, this is a large undertaking, and much of it has already been started. My hope is that as I approach the end of my work, you can help me sort through and catalog both my own notes, and the references which have been serving as the foundation of my study."
Flitwick gestured to a massive stack of books that lay strewn across his spacious study with a sheepish smile.
"Now, I hardly expect you to get through all of this material before we leave for winter break," the half-goblin said, "but I'll be grateful for whatever you can do until then."
Daphne nodded and got to work. They went through the first few pages of a book together so Flitwick could give her an idea of what he was looking for, but as she was a quick learner, he soon left her to work on her own.
Possible Emotion Detected: Motivation
Daphne had never had a job before, and was therefore very keen on making sure she did her first one well. The charms professor was paying her five galleons per night, which she thought seemed fair, and would allow her to purchase Harry a nice watch with time to spare before Christmas.
Not wanting to let down the professor, Harry, or Hermione who had kindly recommended this job to her, she pushed all extraneous thoughts to the side and allocated 100% of her processing power to the task at hand.
Harry sighed.
He had just gotten off the phone with the muggle cat cafe and confirmed that there was absolutely no chance they would sell him the little white one that had grown on Daphne when they last visited. The woman that answered his call had been much friendlier than he was expecting, and patiently explained to him that the cats in a cafe are trained and raised to live under very specific conditions, and don't always adapt well to domesticated life.
Oh well, he thought. I kind of expected that. In any case, it's probably better that I get her a proper wizarding pet. I guess I'll try my luck in Hogsmeade.
Daphne was busy today with some sort of extracurricular project, so Harry didn't have much better to do than head down to the wizarding village anyway. There was a small pet store there, and he was hoping to at least take a little look around to see if anything caught his eye.
"Good afternoon, Sir!" a heavily accented voice called as he entered the shop. "Is there anything I can do for you today?"
Harry turned to see a friendly looking middle-aged man standing behind the counter.
"I think so," he replied. "I was wondering if you had any familiars that might be suitable for a sixth year Hogwarts student?"
The man grimaced. "I usually do not keep much stock so late into the year; there are plenty of parents and students buying from me over the summer and in September, but by now I shift my business towards pet supplies and feed."
"So there aren't any animals left?" Harry asked.
"There is one," he said hesitantly. "She has been left for several months, and no one wants to buy her."
"Can I see?"
The man shrugged and led Harry to a single cage at the back of the shop where a quivering ferret lay.
"She is healthy, but quite skittish. She was the runt of the litter, and will require a delicate hand to train."
Harry sighed, defeated. If the average animal fled from Daphne, this one would probably fall dead on sight.
But as he turned to walk away, the creature gave a pitiful little squeak, drawing his attention back around. The ferret was looking up at him with big, bulging eyes, as if pleading him to take it.
He continued to stare down at it for a while, and it stared right back up at him in turn.
Harry narrowed his eyes, and the ferret bobbed its pathetic little head up and down.
"...How much?" Harry asked eventually.
The man's eyebrows raised in surprise. "I would not mind letting it go for a discounted price of ten galleons, as I would be glad to see it get a home."
"I'll take it."
Harry could've sworn the ferret gave a little chirp of delight at that, and he sighed again. It had looked so lonely in its cage, and he just couldn't have left it there.
I don't think this is the one for Daphne, he thought as he walked out of the store with a ferret in his hands. And now my budget just got a little lower…
On the bright side, he had two younger sisters starting at Hogwarts next year, and he had a feeling Jasmine would just adore the little thing.
Filius Flitwick whistled merrily as he walked back into his office.
Daphne had been helping him for two nights now, and he was intrigued to find out how far she had progressed with the notes. He trusted the girl to work on her own without supervision, and hadn't gotten around to doing a check-in yet, but his hopes were high. The pile of books to reference was quite large, but with any luck she'd be able to get through at least half of them in the next couple weeks before Christmas. That would let him finish the preparatory work over the break, and get a start on his final thesis before the next term began.
"Good evening, Daphne!" the man said as he stepped into his office. "How goes the work?"
Daphne turned to face him and lifted up a book.
"I have just finished."
"Excellent!" he replied, looking at the large tome in her hands. "And how many others have you gone through so far?"
"All of them."
Filius raised his eyebrows. Had Daphne misunderstood the assignment?
He walked over to her notebook, and with her permission, took a cursory glance at the work she had done.
"Now, this is perfect!" he exclaimed, incredibly impressed. "Precisely the notes I needed. You did this for every single book in the collection?"
"Yes."
"How long did it take?"
The charms professor was rather astounded. Even if the girl pulled an all-nighter with a few Pepperup Potions, to finish this kind of work in a little over twenty-four hours was remarkable.
"Three hours each night," she replied simply. "Those were the hours you requested, were they not?"
Filius' jaw dropped.
Daphne just stared back at him.
"Brilliant!" he squeaked after a moment, finally recovering from his shock. "There are all types of genius in this world, and it's one of the great joys of teaching to be able to witness them! Your notes will be of exceptional help to me as I conduct the practical side of the research!"
Flitwick hurried over to his desk and rummaged in the drawer for a while, eventually procuring a small coin purse and handing it to Daphne.
"What is this for?" she asked.
She had only worked two nights, and was therefore expecting ten galleons. Based on the weight of the purse, she could tell the man had given her much more than ten.
"For your work, of course!" Professor Flitwick laughed heartily. "You've done even more work than I was expecting by the end of term, so I threw a bit extra in addition to the rest of the week's wage."
"I only worked for two nights," Daphne said. "It would be wrong of me to accept so much money."
"Nonsense – good work is to be rewarded with good pay! That's the way it should be, anyway. You didn't think I would give you a measly ten galleons for all that you've done?"
Daphne blinked. That was precisely what she had been thinking.
He laughed again. "Now, it's all the better for you that you've finished early. I'm sure you still have some last minute revisions to do before the exam period starts?"
She nodded even though she didn't have any revisions to do; Daphne probably could've aced all of these exams by the time she was two. Nevertheless, she thanked the man one last time, he thanked her again in return, and she left his office.
As she walked down the corridor back towards the Slytherin common room, she looked down at the little purse in her hand.
Printing Thought Sequence: My budget has been obtained, and it is larger than anticipated. Now I just have to find a suitable watch…
Harry was grateful to have Daphne as a girlfriend.
There were countless reasons why, but at the moment, the foremost on his mind was her excellent ability to assist him with his studies. Over the past few months of dating, Harry's grades had improved tremendously, both due to her insistence that he study and her effective teaching methods.
All this to say, dating Daphne had allowed him to feel comfortable enough to forgo any last-minute revisions for his winter exams in favor of taking a brief day trip to Diagon Alley to find her a Christmas present.
Or in this case, a Christmas pet.
I suppose I could go to Eeylops Owl Emporium, Harry thought. I'm sure the friendliest owl would open up to Daphne eventually, and I have enough experience with owls to help her train it…
He was still considering his options when he saw a small group of people standing at the corner with donation baskets. He immediately froze in a panic; he usually avoided the main streets for this exact reason.
It's fine, he told himself. Just don't look at them and keep walking. It'll be okay, you still have time to help people when you're older, for now just focus on getting your girlfriend a pet, don't make eye contact-
"Excuse me sir. Would you like to donate to St Philippe's Christmas fund? It's an organization that helps to ensure every child has a warm meal and a small present this holiday season."
Unable to avoid the siren's call, Harry turned his head, making eye contact with the young woman who called out to him.
She looked up at him and smiled.
He stared back at her, and his eye twitched.
Her smile got a little awkward at the edges, but he could see the hope in her face.
He sighed, giving up.
"Here," he said, handing over all of the coins he was carrying. "Take this."
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, thank you so much sir! We'll be able to help a lot of kids with this. Would you like a tax rec…"
Harry was already walking (practically running) away, so the woman let her words trail off into confused silence.
He took a quick peek into Diagon Alley's pet stores after that, but as he had been expecting, he no longer had enough to his name to afford anything for Daphne. Giving today's mission up for lost, Harry headed over to take the floo back to Hogwarts, planning to reassess his options when he returned. He was still committed to the idea of getting her a familiar eventually, but he figured he might have to wait until next year, right after he got paid from his summer job. He had earned a decent amount last year, but ultimately, money never stayed with Harry for very long.
I think Daphne's going to have to manage our family's finances when we grow up, he thought dejectedly as he walked.
Harry had been suspiciously absent as of late, and Hermione was busy studying, so Daphne wasn't sure how to spend her afternoon. Ultimately, she decided to head back over to Professor Flitwick's office to see if he needed any more help with his project. Regardless of what the man said about good work and good pay, she thought he had been overly generous the other day and wouldn't mind offering further aid.
But if she were being honest with herself, it was mostly because Harry and Hermione were busy and she was bored.
"Oh, hello Daphne!" Flitwick chirped when he opened the door and saw the girl standing there. "Did you need something?"
"No. I am here to see if you require any more assistance with your project."
He raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Exams start in just a couple days, surely you have some studying to be doing?"
"I have finished studying," she replied simply.
The man shrugged. "Very well then. You can come in if you'd like, but I'm afraid there isn't much you can help me with."
"Then your project has been completed?" Daphne asked curiously, following him into his office.
"Unfortunately not. You see, I thought I had finally developed a flawless methodology to quantify the importance of intent, but there are still inexplicable discrepancies in my final results. It is quite troublesome, but I believe the problem is more complex than what a sixth year student can understand – even an exceptionally bright one like yourself. No offense, of course."
Possible Emotion Detected: Offended
Daphne took great pride in her intellect, and she wouldn't stand for having it insulted. Even by a man several times her age with decades of experience in his field.
"Show me the thesis," she said.
"Well, if you're curious, I suppose there's no harm…"
He took out the papers and Daphne scanned through his work. Despite what the man had assumed, Daphne could understand all of the paper's contents. It didn't, however, make it any less impressive.
Printing Thought Sequence: Incredible! His proofs are so simple, and yet so elegant. I could have theoretically generated this myself, but I daresay I would not have had the requisite creativity to come up with it in the first place.
"Is there any part you'd like me to explain?" Flitwick suggested helpfully as she read.
"No," she replied. "I understand it perfectly. Though I will admit, I too am unsure why your final tests are not working."
Flitwick laughed. "I would've been more troubled if you did find the solution in a mere five minutes. But take your time looking through it if you find it interesting – it's not going anywhere, and heaven knows I need a break from it."
The professor continued work in and out of his office while Daphne pored over his papers. It had been a long time since she had been challenged like this, but unlike some of her late mother's work, this felt surmountable. She could tell there was some flaw in Flitwick's designs, and she just had to figure out what it was to complete his proofs.
A few hours later, she solved it.
"Unbelievable!" Filius gasped, looking at the fix Daphne had made. "With this, the numbers work! But how did you know to change this formula?"
Possible Emotion Detected: Satisfaction
"There was an experimental paper written a few weeks ago that contested several common beliefs about magidynamic turbulence," she explained. "The results of the experiment are still hotly contested, but in our case here, they seem to have worked."
Flitwick spluttered. "Now, this goes beyond the realm of what's impressive for a student – I daresay you could get hired by a magical research facility tomorrow! In fact, I'd be happy to write you a letter of recommendation in an instant!"
"Sorry Professor, but I have no interest in magical research."
His eyebrows shot up and he only barely resisted the urge to try to change the girl's mind. With her talent, she could be a true heavyweight in the field one day.
"Then you've already decided on your career path?" he asked, truly curious what other advanced area of technical study she had set her sights on.
"Yes," she replied. "I am going to run a summer camp."
The man nearly fainted.
On the last day before exams started, Harry took one final trip to Diagon Alley. Hagrid had given him a helpful recommendation for where he could find an inexpensive animal for Daphne, and he had managed to scrounge up ten galleons as a budget. It wasn't much, but Hagrid led him to believe that it would be enough.
He kept his head down as he walked through the streets, not wanting a repeat of the last time he came to the shopping area. Sometimes he wondered if Voldemort had cursed him as a baby, ensuring that worthy causes always popped up to rob him of his money before he could spend it on luxuries. It would be a pretty lame move for the most dreaded Dark Lord in history to make before dying, but Harry still had suspicions.
A few seconds later, his suspicions deepened as he heard a 'splat' noise come from about a meter to his left.
"..."
Very slowly, he turned his head in the direction of the noise he had just heard. A child, probably less than ten years old, was staring at the ground where his ice cream cone lay. What was once a noble treat of three scoops was now a dirty mess on the pavement, and the boy's bottom lip started to tremble.
Before the kid could burst out into tears, Harry jumped in.
"Wait! Don't cry."
The kid looked up at Harry, his surprise temporarily overriding his need to start bawling.
Harry smiled at the child and pulled a galleon out of his pocket.
"Why don't we go back to the ice cream shop, and get you five scoops of ice cream instead?"
Half an hour later, Harry tentatively stepped into the shady underground pet store in Knockturn Alley that Hagrid had told him about.
"Um, excuse me?" he called into the darkness. "Is anyone here? I'm looking to make a purchase."
A second after he said the word 'purchase,' a massive figure slid into view from the shadows. A woman that appeared double his height and triple his width emerged, her body so covered in tattoos Harry wasn't sure where the clothes ended and her skin began.
"How much do you got?" she asked gruffly.
Harry winced. "A little over four galleons?"
On Harry's way to the ice cream shop, he somehow picked up a trail of hopeful kids who all wanted treats of their own. He had no clue where they came from or how they knew what he was doing, but he couldn't say no to them and it had only ran him about two galleons overall.
Only then he saw an old woman at the fruit stand who forgot her purse, and a group of tourists who didn't realize they had to pay to use the Knight Bus. So here he was now, with a touch over four galleons to his person, hoping against hope that he'd still be able to afford something for Daphne.
The woman scoffed. "Four galleons, eh? What do you think this is, a charity?"
"Definitely not," Harry said, shaking his head. "Trust me, I know a charity when I see one."
She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. "I only have one creature I could part with for that amount. But you'd have to agree to a few things first."
Harry felt a surge of hope in his chest. "Really? Great! What do I need to agree to?"
"I'm not liable if it maims, dismembers, or kills you. If anyone asks, you didn't get it from me. And finally, if you take it I never want to see it again."
"No problem," he smiled. "That seems fair."
His subconscious registered the whole thing as at least a little sketchy, but desperation was blinding Harry's better judgment.
The woman raised an eyebrow at him, but eventually turned around and disappeared back into the shadows. A minute later she returned, dragging a cage into view. Harry squinted and saw something gray, furry, and snarling inside.
"Is that a dog?" he asked hesitantly.
She narrowed her eyes at Harry, looking at him like he was an idiot.
As his eyes continued to adjust to the gloom of the store, he started to make out more features of the animal. Its size was just barely within the upper limit of what could reasonably be called a dog, and it had a hunched back and blood-red eyes that would put even the menacing figure of Sirius' canine form to shame.
"Yeah, on second thought, don't answer that," he decided.
The woman gestured to the cage, which was still locked. "So, are you still interested?"
Maybe it's friendlier than it looks? Harry thought optimistically. I'd hate to become someone that judges a book by its cover.
The excuse sounded desperate even to him, but his total net worth at the moment was a palmful of coins, and this was his last opportunity to get Daphne a present before exams started and he lost his chance.
"I'm interested," he started. "But can you let it out of the cage first? I'd like to, um, see it, I guess."
Thankfully, Harry still had enough sense about him to make sure the creature wasn't a bloodthirsty menace before he gifted it to his girlfriend.
"Suit yourself," the woman replied. "But remember what I told you."
She made sure she was safely behind a desk before taking out her wand and slowly opening the beast's cage.
For a few tense seconds, neither Harry nor the creature moved a muscle. Feeling brave, he took a single step forward.
And at that moment, the beast leaped towards him.
The beast knew not from whence it came.
It simply knew that it could not be contained.
It would never bow down to the pitiful humans that needed wands and cages to suppress its power. It was the Alpha, and it would rather die than submit to those lesser than it.
It had bided its time for the past few months, but now was the opportunity to strike. It would kill the fragile pup before it and flee, striking out once more to find a pack it could call its own.
So as the pup moved its foot a single step towards it, the beast lunged.
A wizard cannot cast spells indefinitely.
Rather, every magical creature has an intrinsic 'pool' of magic that they can draw upon to power their spells. Once that pool has been emptied, it must be replenished naturally with time or supplemented with life force instead, although the latter can cause incredibly dire side effects if drawn on extensively.
As such, while there are many ways to quantify the 'power' of a magical creature, the size of their individual magic pool is one of the simplest methods of comparison.
Humans in particular have a large degree of variance. Muggles have little to no magic in their pool, while a particularly powerful witch or wizard may have close to twice the capacity of the wizarding world's average.
James Potter, often cited as one of the most magically-dominant wizards alive today, has a magical pool almost four times the capacity of the societal average.
Harry Potter, as it were, has slightly more than double that of his father's.
And as the beast lunged at him, his passive magic flared subconsciously, ready to be used in a moment's notice if necessary.
The beast took one look at Harry's magical aura and realized it had seriously messed up.
Its legs scrambled around in mid-air, trying to change its trajectory, and it tumbled gracelessly in a heap at Harry's feet. From its spot on the ground, it slowly turned its head up to look at the monster, hoping that its life would be spared.
Harry relaxed and smiled. For a second there, he thought the dog was trying to attack him.
"You just wanted to play, didn't you little guy?" he said, getting down on the floor to pet the dog.
The beast rolled over onto its back, trying to prove to the monster that it was harmless and not even worth eating.
Harry laughed and rubbed its belly. "You're a bit frightening, I'll admit, but you're just a puppy on the inside. A friendly one too!"
Harry continued playing with the dog as he turned to look at the woman behind the desk, and noted that her expression was now one of shock rather than fear. He wasn't sure what her deal was, or why she tried scaring him about the dog earlier, but he wasn't asking questions.
At four galleons, this precious little furball was a steal.
"I'll take him!" he said happily.
Back at Hogwarts, Daphne was spending yet another day alone. Harry was obviously busy doing something, and she wasn't about to tell him not to, but that left her alone and quite clueless once again.
Possible Emotion Detected: Boredom
Printing Thought Sequence: And to think we have only been dating a few months… What did I do before I met Harry?
Before Daphne could search through her memory unit to figure out what she did with her life before getting a boyfriend, an excited voice called out to her.
"Oh good, Daphne! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
She turned her head and saw Professor Flitwick hurrying over in her direction, a wide smile on his face and several papers in his hands.
Possible Emotion Detected: Disappointment
Printing Thought Sequence: Ah, it is just Filius. I am slightly tired of his project to be honest. I would much prefer to have Harry back now.
"I have terrific news!" the man said once he got closer. "Our project has just received an award from a third-party institution for breakthroughs in magical theory!"
If Daphne could have yawned, she probably would have.
"That is wonderful, Professor," she said. "Congratulations. Your project deserved it."
"My project?" he repeated, scandalized. "No, this was our project! I credited you as my co-researcher in the paper, and half of the monetary award was given to you!"
Daphne tilted her head to the side. "A monetary award? I did not do anything to deserve that."
"Nonsense, I couldn't have done it without you! And in any case, the credit has already been given."
He handed her an envelope, and she opened it carefully. As the man said, the contents within cited her as an equal collaborator on the project, and her specified half of the monetary award was made out directly to her name.
When her optical receptors processed the amount printed on the paper, she almost blinked in surprise.
Printing Thought Sequence: How interesting. It seems as though my budget for Harry has just increased exponentially…
Harry set off to find Daphne the moment he got out of his last exam, excited to show her what he got her for Christmas. It was a bit early, but they would be heading home to spend the holidays with their families tomorrow, so they had planned to exchange their gifts a few days early.
"Are you ready?" he asked, once he had found her and brought her down to the little shelter Hagrid had let him use to house the dog for the past week.
"How can I know if I am ready if I do not yet know what I am supposed to be ready for?"
Harry scratched his head. "Fair point. Well, I'll call it out now anyway."
"Call it?" she asked, puzzled.
Harry gave a little whistle and a huge, vaguely canine creature tore out of the shelter like a bat out of hell. It snarled and gnashed its teeth as it ran towards Daphne, leaping at her from several meters away.
Daphne assessed it as it flew through the air towards her.
Threat Detected: 'It'
Danger Evaluation: 81.0
The beast had accepted the monster that had purchased it. It would even reluctantly tolerate the large friend that brought it food every day.
But it would never bow down to the thin, frail-looking thing in front of it.
And so it attacked.
While the size of a creature's magic pool is a simple way of determining their 'power', it is not the only one. One's ability to control their magic and bend it to their intent, for example, is at least an equally important metric.
Lily Potter is widely known as one of the witches with the most impeccable control over magic in the wizarding world, having an uncanny ability to maintain near-perfect focus while casting spells.
Daphne Greengrass is a robot with complete control over her own processing system, and as such, has even better focus than Lily.
And as the beast lunged at her, her passive magic flared subconsciously, ready to be used in a moment's notice if necessary.
The beast took one look at Daphne's magical aura, and for the second time in two weeks, realized it had seriously messed up.
If the monster's magic was like a blazing flame, this thing's magic was like an immense glacier, completely restrained but equally as dangerous. It tried to change its course by shifting its body mid-air and landed awkwardly a foot in front of the thing, its back on the ground and paws in the air.
Daphne stared down at it, rather shocked.
"I do not understand," she said, not wanting to get her hopes up. "What is it?"
"It's a dog," Harry smiled. "Your dog."
She ignored the fact that it was definitely not a dog, and continued to stare down at it. It was motionless at her feet, and its red eyes looked up at her helplessly.
Threat Detected: My Dog(?)
Danger Evaluation: 0
Daphne blinked away the updated threat assessment screen, confused but relieved that the earlier evaluation was incorrect.
"Can I pet it?" she asked.
"Go ahead! Despite his appearance, he's actually super friendly. I think he'll be the perfect animal for you."
Cautiously, Daphne knelt down to run her hands along its fur. She half-expected it to run away, but it miraculously stayed perfectly still as she petted it.
Whirrrrr
After a moment, Harry got down with her and patted it on its other side, both enjoying the surprisingly soft coat. Its tail started to wag at this extra display of attention, and it rolled around a bit to get comfortable. Daphne put her hand on top of its head to scritch its ears, and it licked her palm.
Whirrrrr
Possible Emotion Detected: Happiness
Possible Emotion Detected: Love
"I do not know what to say, Harry. My speech synthesizer cannot articulate everything that I am feeling right now. This is everything I have ever wanted."
"I'm just glad you like him," he replied, glad his idea was a success. "I'm not too sure what breed he is, but a dog's a dog, right?'
Daphne looked down at her new friend thoughtfully. It wasn't technically a dog, and it wasn't even necessarily a he. But she wasn't technically a human, and her choice of gender had been somewhat arbitrary as well.
Printing Thought Sequence: Like Harry said, it is the perfect animal for me!
The beast started to relax as the monster and the thing petted its fur. Through their benevolence, they had decided not to destroy it. And the beast knew they easily could have, as each was packing more magic than any five other creatures it had ever seen combined.
And somehow, as it was sandwiched between two of the most dangerous creatures it had ever laid eyes upon, the beast felt safe. It didn't feel the need to run away or defend itself, and it wondered if it had finally found its pack. It wasn't the leader as it had been expecting, but it found itself surprisingly amenable to being the baby of the family instead.
As it growled happily, it decided its new role in life would be to protect its pack; the monster and the thing. They really didn't need protection, but the beast would nevertheless ensure that nothing malicious ever got to them without going through it first.
They had spared its life and taken it in as one of their own, and it would repay their mercy by smiting any and all enemies in their path.
"Do you have a name in mind for him?" Harry asked. "I don't think he has one yet."
Daphne thought for a moment. "He looks like a 'Cuddles', does he not?"
He looked down at the sweet dog, and thought that he did in fact look like a Cuddles.
"Cuddles! Do you want to go home with Daphne?"
The beast, known to the world now as Cuddles, gave a short affirmative bark in reply.
It understood that it now had a name, even if it didn't understand the meaning of the name itself. A worthy title, bestowed upon it by the leaders of its small but mighty pack. A title that would strike fear into the hearts of its enemies.
Cuddles.
"My projections could never have predicted this, Harry," Daphne said after they spent a little while longer with the dog. "I have always wanted a familiar to call my own, and Cuddles is better than any simulated daydream I could have generated."
Harry's cheeks reddened at the genuine joy he could feel radiating off his girlfriend. Given everything that he had gone through to get the dog, he thought things really couldn't have ended up much better than they did.
"However," Daphne continued, "my own gift to you now seems entirely underwhelming by comparison."
"I can guarantee you that I won't be disappointed no matter what you got me," Harry promised.
His first real present from Daphne would be momentous regardless of what it was. Harry loved Daphne, and he wasn't a materialist to begin with; he would be over the moon just to get a nice card from her.
As if reading his thoughts, she handed him an envelope. He wondered for a moment if his guess had been correct, but he pulled out a thick stack of papers instead.
"I don't understand," he said, sifting through the documents but not making sense of them. "What is it?"
"A yacht."
Harry paused and looked up at her. "What?"
"I got you a yacht."
"..."
"..."
He turned his attention back to the papers, and realized he was looking at the deed and documentation for a large watercraft.
Harry blinked at the papers in disbelief. "You bought me a yacht for Christmas?"
"It is a small yacht," she said, as if that explained everything.
He recovered his senses and shook his head. "No, Daphne, I can't accept this. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the thought immensely, but…"
Possible Emotion Detected: Sadness
"You do not like the yacht?"
"It's not that," he protested. "I just feel like I'm missing something here. Why did you buy me a yacht for Christmas?"
"I recently took on a short-term job to afford a gift for you. I was advised to use my earnings to purchase your present, but I came into more money than I was originally anticipating. I had to quickly make an addition."
"Ah."
Harry wasn't sure what kind of short-term job paid enough to afford a small yacht, but he'd get the rest of that story later. In the meantime, they had a bigger problem on their hands.
"I can return the yacht I suppose," she said. "But then all I would have for you is this watch."
She took a little box out of her pocket and presented him with a handsome watch that still probably cost ten times what he paid for Cuddles. Harry took the proffered box gently and looked at his girlfriend.
"That's a better gift than I ever could've hoped for," he said honestly. "I needed a new watch, and this is far nicer than anything I've owned before."
"But the yacht is more expensive?"
Harry shrugged. "The spirit of Christmas isn't about the price of the gift you give, it's about the thought behind it."
He might have been coping a bit because his gift to her was only four galleons, but he still meant what he said.
She quirked her head sideways. "That is strange. I did extensive research over the past month, and concluded that material acquisition was the primary focus of Christmas."
"Er, yeah… You're probably on to something, to be honest. But that's not how I feel about it. Is that how you feel about it?"
"No," she admitted. "But I still wanted to show you how much I love you by spending large amounts of money on you."
"You show me how much you love me in a million tiny ways every day," he said with a small laugh. "You don't need to buy me a yacht for that."
"Even a small one?"
"Even a small one."
They sat down on the cold ground next to Cuddles, their shoulders touching as they petted the dog.
"So will you accept the watch, and permit your girlfriend to show you how much she loves you in a million tiny ways through kisses?" she asked, blinking up at him.
He turned his head down, ignoring her in favor of looking down at the watch.
"It is a very nice watch," he said fondly.
She stared at him incredulously, and the cold air got a little colder.
"And what about the girlfriend?" she asked flatly.
He gave up his game, laughed, and kissed her.
"She's even better."
A/N:
Hi, thanks for reading this chapter! I'm always trying new things, so please be patient with me if you find some chapters boring or less fun than usual. Having said that, please let me know if you have any constructive criticism, as I'm always trying to improve as a writer :)