In retrospect, she should have guessed Lilia would know Spike, as they had the same armband. She did not anticipate Lilia taking one look at her 'mysterious friend' and the explanation for why she called him Spike, and begin laughing so hard that he was practically wheezing for air.

"You...you named the heir of Briar Valley Spike after the baby dragon from My Little Pony?" said Idia, his brain almost going into blue screen of death. Ortho was too busy giggling.

"He wouldn't tell me his name, so I had to come up with something!" said Hotaru defensively. "It's better than Grim's suggestion!"

"What did Grim-shi suggest?" asked Idia, almost dreading the answer.

"Tsunotaro," deadpanned Hotaru. Idia began to choke, and Lilia looked close to passing out from a renewed burst of laughing hysterically.

"Yeah...Spike is way better than Hornton," said Idia dryly. "So you invited him to movie night?"

"It would be rude to leave him out in the cold while we're watching movies, since I usually go out to chat with him for an hour or two," said Hotaru.

Lilia had mostly recovered by this point, though he still snickered every now and then.

"What a coincidence...this is the charge I mentioned before," said Lilia. "Poor boy has such trouble making friends."

"You're kidding," said Hotaru. "How can someone as harmless and adorable as Spike have trouble making friends?"

"Harmless and adorable?" said Spike, or rather Malleus. He seemed very bemused by the description.

Hotaru looked him up and down and said deadpan to his face...

"You might look terrifying at first glance, but after getting to talk to you I realized you're a total cinnamon bun who's socially awkward."

Lilia was snickering again, but he looked very happy at the description. It was clear he was happy Malleus had made a good friend.

"So, what movie are we watching?" asked Lilia.

Malleus had settled into a spot on the couch, as Idia had taken over one of the chairs with Ortho getting a chair from the kitchen. Hotaru and Lilia would sit on the couch with Malleus.

On the table was a spare laptop Idia had, since Hotaru's was a bit too old to connect to the projector she had finally gotten. That and it didn't have a DVD drive. There was a screen that they had managed to put on the wall with help from Ortho, who was able to hover at the right angle to put it up properly.

Since Hotaru was openly interested in the movies from this side of the world, Idia had picked one of his favorites to watch. She was eager to see the skeleton knight scaring the pants off people.

Malleus was both enraptured by the story...and how his new favorite human reacted to it. It was clear Hotaru enjoyed the 'movie' greatly, and she thrived being around others like herself.

Lilia on the other hand was openly observing the two. He found it positively adorable watching Malleus and Hotaru. He could see his charge's fascination from a mile away, and thought it was beyond cute.

When the movie ended, Hotaru grinned and brandished her external hard drive.

"My turn next! So which genre should we watch?" she asked.

"I vote horror," grinned Lilia.

"Nothing too gory," said Idia, as he was down for it.

"So we have two choices. Corpse Bride or Ghost in the Shell," said Hotaru.

"What are they about?"

"Corpse Bride is loosely based on an old story about a man putting a ring on what he thought was a branch, but turned out to be the bony remains of a dead bride murdered before her wedding day. She then comes to claim him as her husband."

"And the other?" asked Idia, interested.

"Ghost in the Shell is a major cult classic that really makes people question what it means to be 'human'. It's sparked multiple movies and even two different anime series based off the original manga. I'm sure Ortho would love it for multiple reasons," said Hotaru enthusiastically. Hell, the first thing she thought when she met Ortho was that series.

"Why not do both? It's not like we have classes tomorrow," said Lilia.

"I like that idea," said Idia, with Ortho nodding.

"We'll do Ghost in the Shell first then."

The second Ortho saw what the premise of the series was about, he became very interested in the series. Unsurprisingly, so was Idia, and the two later downloaded everything they could find about it. Ortho looked rather happy overall with the movie. Malleus was just fascinated by the entire thing.

Grim had scarfed down as many snacks as he could, and was currently passed out on Hotaru's lap.

When Hotaru moved to the next movie, Lilia perked up.

"Is that claymation?" said Lilia.

Idia really took notice when he asked that, and looked closer.

"I think it is. Either that or really well made puppets," said Idia.

"What is...claymation?" asked Malleus.

"Instead of simply drawing many, many scenes like in the last movie or having people act out the scenes, they use puppets and stop-motion animation," explained Hotaru cheerfully.

Either way, the movie night was a complete success.

~*~*~*~*~

Hotaru was a little sad that the holidays had come. Since she was now legally a ward of the school, she was stuck there. Worse, Crowley had gone on vacation meaning she was mostly alone with Grim in a nearly empty school.

That is, until she found out that she wasn't as alone as she thought.

"You're staying at the school too?" she said with relief.

"There's little point of us going back to the Coral sea, as it's closed off by ice right now," said Azul. "And since most of our clients have gone back home, the Lounge is on a break as well."

"Did you ever figure out what was going on with the burnt contracts?" she asked. Azul twitched at the reminder.

"From what we've been able to find out, when I unleashed your magic it sought out any outlet it could find to vent the worst of the build up...and one of the outlets happened to be my contracts. As a result, they overloaded on your magic and were forced to self-destruct," said Azul, pushing up his glasses.

"I am so sorry about that," said Hotaru sincerely.

"It's not your fault. You had no idea magic was even real until recently, or that you had a seal causing a life-threatening condition to begin with. If anything you're the victim," said Azul patiently. Besides, Hotaru had never mocked him about losing his contracts and had looked openly horrified when she found out about it later.

"If there are others who stayed behind, would you like to join us in movie night?" she asked.

"Movie night?" said Azul, confused.

"Gloomy, Spike, Ortho and Lilia come over on Saturday to watch movies in Ramshackle. Last week was sci-fi night, and we were debating on what to watch this week when Ortho reminded Gloomy about winter holidays," said Hotaru.

Azul looked intrigued at the idea.

"What exactly is needed for a...movie night?"

It took very little to convince Azul into the idea, mostly because it sounded like it could be a profitable short-term venture. With the right tweaking, they could possibly rope Vil from Pomefiore into it as well, to showcase his Film Studies club productions from a proper viewing angle. The sale from snacks alone would make it well worth the investment.

It would have to wait until the holidays were over, of course.

To her delight, Hotaru discovered that Spike and Lilia were staying over as well.

"Hello Crow," said Lilia cheerfully. "I should have guessed you'd be staying here."

"Not like I can go anywhere else, and the headmage disappeared for his own vacation," said Hotaru.

"Insolent human! How dare you talk to Lilia-sama so casually!"

Without a second thought, Hotaru whipped out a spray bottle and used it on Sebek, who sputtered. Lilia was grinning even wider now at the scene.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Indoor voice!" she scolded.

Sebek looked ready to start yelling even louder, before she held up the spray bottle in a menacing manner. He settled for glaring instead.

"I take it you have to do this often?"

"Every time I have a class with him," she said exasperated. "It's gotten to the point that I think Professor Trien and Professor Crewel have started to carry their own spray bottles to shut him up."

Lilia snorted with laughter.

Sebek looked put out.

"So what brought you here?" asked Lilia.

"Trying to arrange for our movie night to be in Azul's dorm until everyone comes back. And find alternative sleeping arrangements, because it's too damn quiet in Ramshackle with everyone gone. It's simply too cold and there's no central heating," said Hotaru.

Despite getting the windows fixed, there was still a draft. She was at her wits end trying to find out where it was flowing from, and it was taking ages to do it on the weekends. So far she had dealt with the worst of it by stuffing the old bed spreads under most of the doors she knew lead outside, and insuring all the windows outside were closed. However she knew that there was more than a few leaks in the roof, which she would require a broom to try and find.

She wasn't that confident with her ability to fly to try it out.

"What's the theme this week?" asked Lilia.

"I was thinking monster movies, honestly. I'd love to see Spike's reaction to the Godzilla franchise," said Hotaru cheerfully.

Lilia started snickering as he was familiar with it. This was going to be hysterical.

"I think Kalim is still here. Why not ask if he's interested in joining us?"

Hotaru perked up at that.

She entered Scarabia and the first thought she had was... "hot".

Then she frowned. Why were there so many students still here?

"Hey, do you know if Kalim is still here?" she asked one of the students.

The response she got really made her eyebrows go up. Something was definitely off.

Which was why when she saw Kalim, she knew something was wrong. Kalim was a bubbly idiot, one who meant well but didn't think things through.

This Kalim was cold, calculating...and now that she thought about it, felt more like Jamil in a mood than Kalim.

With that in mind, Hotaru did her best to pretend she hadn't already figured out something was up.

The second she sensed the flow of magic, she moved.

Jamil did not see the punch to the face coming.

"Jamil!" said Kalim in shock, almost as if snapping out of it.

"You really think I'd be stupid enough to let someone who's kept Kalim safe from assassins to cast a spell that manipulates people?" she deadpanned.

Jamil was too busy nursing the unexpected black eye.

Kalim looked between Hotaru and Jamil.

"Kalim, are you aware of the growing resentment from the rest of your dorm over being forced to stay here during their holidays?" she asked.

"I...what? I told Jamil I wanted to let everyone go home," said Kalim.

"And I'm guessing he used his training to keep you safe against you," she said flatly. "Because you were acting entirely OOC when I came here to invite you to movie night in Azul's dorm."

Kalim blinked.

"OOC?"

"Out of character," she clarified.

"You..." growled Jamil, before she glared at him. Something in her aura made him shut up quickly.

Kalim looked again between them. Hotaru had a sneaking suspicion what was going on.

"Does this have anything to do with the fact you've been holding back considerably?" she asked Jamil.

Jamil's look of shock was evidence enough.

"I knew it," she sighed. "It was pretty obvious you were hiding your real talents, but I couldn't figure out why. Even Azul and Riddle-senpai picked up on it, but they never said anything about it."

Jamil's conflicted face said everything he didn't dare say himself. Hotaru looked downright exasperated with them both.

Though even he was confused as to why she dragged them both to Ramshackle.

"Alright...there are no microphones here and it's pretty much dead since everyone left for the holidays. You can say whatever you want and neither of us will repeat it," she said flatly.

"Say what?" asked Kalim. While normally she found his confused look adorable, it was clear Jamil had a lot he wanted to get off his chest.

Jamil looked conflicted, before realizing this was likely the best chance he had to get everything out.

Hotaru almost wished she had some popcorn hearing Jamil finally vent what was clearly years of frustration. Kalim was beyond shocked, as he had no idea that his parents and Jamil's had pressured him to never outshine Kalim.

Jamil looked happy finally getting if off his chest.

"Feel better?"

"Much," he said, a lot calmer.

"Honestly, your parents were doing Kalim a major disservice. If he doesn't learn to deal with failure now, he'll be at a severe handicap once he becomes head of his family. Better he learns to improve himself now, rather than have everything handed to him on a golden platter."

"I know that, but try convincing my parents of it," said Jamil exasperated.

"Time to ease up on the coddling. He's almost an adult, and they can't expect you to wipe his ass forever," said Hotaru.

On a related note, Jamil and Kalim did come for movie night. It was a great success all around, and Malleus was enamored with the Godzilla franchise.