HP: Spirit Talker

To my surprise, the tanuki didn't wring their hands over the price, so discussing the terms was relatively quick and easy, but that was in the evening after I had rested. I spent the rest of the day doing household chores, continuing to install and set up the charms, and taking a walk around London with Kiriko, where we shopped for gifts and various goodies.

To be honest, Christmas, especially Catholic Christmas, doesn't "hook" me at all — I don't consider it a holiday, but New Year's Eve is another matter. But that's not the point. Early in the morning of December twenty-fifth, I entered Hogwarts.

At breakfast, all the students who stayed for the holidays made an unprecedented noise, literally everyone had a topic for discussion. And yes, the first, second and third years almost all left Hogwarts, as only fourth year students were allowed to attend the ball.

It's just too many people to make it work as planned. There will be a program (I found out from Madame Maxime Fleur), and there will be guests and dances, in short, there will be little room if Hogwarts becomes a full party.

Since there was no need for me to get ready, I decided to get down to business. First, I visited the greenhouses, where I spent a few hours carefully digging out the seedlings that had been planted earlier in the year and had grown quite impressively. After sealing the last tree, he went to his apartment, where he cleaned himself up, took a new "crop" of crystals from the orb, and started a new cycle.

Then he wanted to call the elf to send a package to Sirius by school owl, containing a set of healing potions with a prescription, meat and fruit pies, and a bottle of weak wine as a Christmas present. But then he remembered that the elf could report to the headmaster, so he went himself.

At the appointed time, he met Fleur at the carriage. The girl herself and some of the students who had come to the ball were dressed in black floor-length gowns with hoods over their heads. Only mischievous smiles flashed from the deep shadows of their hoods.

The Frenchwomen dropped their hoods right at the door, the entrance to the Great Hall, where the other students were gathered and McGonagall, who was always displeased with everything, stood. Hogwarts, of course, had been decorated for the holiday, with a bunch of themed magical "stuff" like non-cold ice, snow, giant snowflakes, and the like. But the French women, with their hoods and robes off, lit up the gloomy hallway with the brilliance of a cloudless full moon on pure snow.

Each beauty wore an outfit in the style of a snowy winter night, starting with hairstyles styled with hoarfrost and snow and ice glitter, and various "cold" tones of dyed hair, with platinum tiaras, earrings, necklaces, and lockets. Next, dresses. No pinks, yellows, or other colors/shades, just blues, embellished with the finest lace and winter-style embroidery with frosty patterns. Behind the moderately plush dresses, one could see dainty shoes in the same style.

Add to this the illusion of cold mist around the girls, the scattering of illusory snowflakes from sudden or quick movements, frosty patterns and glitter on their skin, and there at the entrance was a group of beautiful yuki-onna. The girls had even changed their eye color to cold ice tones, who needed that?

As a participant in the tournament, Fleur had to stand out, so her tiara sparkled with diamonds, as did her snow-white dress with a high openwork collar. A frosty pattern rose from her bare chest, down her delicate neck to her pale cheeks. She had tinted her lips and eyes with light blue shades. A chic look.

I was not told anything, of course, until Madame Maxime personally, with my permission of course, changed my hairstyle (my hair was frozen as if by an oncoming icy stream, but in the process of tinting my gray hair was revealed; I realized from Fleur's look that I could not avoid questions, but in the meantime they decided not to spoil the mood and made my hair blue with silver), and the woman also put a little illusion on the black tailcoat, adding "frost" to my face. Everyone liked the result.

McGonagall, looking at our group, stood as if she'd swallowed a crowbar and pursed her lips. And I could understand her, because the British girls looked like commoners at a high ball compared to the French girls. Despite the jewelry and pretty good dresses/hairstyles, there was not a bit of "magic" in the pictures of the girls and boys.

Not magic, but just the fairy tale element, the sense of celebration. It was like going to a different dance. Or maybe it was, but I didn't care. I even regretted a little that I had chosen an ordinary tuxedo, if there will be such a ball next year, I will dress in something fairy-tale themed, and I don't care about everything, but the holiday is immediately felt.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the fierce sportswomen, half-bloods and Muggleborns. They were well dressed, and even if they didn't have bags of expensive jewelry, many of these girls used the charms of beauty, glamour, correcting or hiding flaws, emphasizing the advantages. Girls like to be beautiful, and that's right!

Potter and his partner, Millicenta Bulstrode, made me laugh. I don't remember her in the movie, I think the name was just mentioned, but here the girl is beautiful. The deep black of her thick braid is accentuated by a strange, fierce-looking white metal necklace that glistens dangerously with sharp prongs. Clear blue eyes in a thoroughbred oval face. Moderately full pink lips, without the colorless gray or pale blue tint so beloved and respected by the British.

She was tall, statuesque, with wide hips and already impressive breasts, no less than an orange in circumference (I judged by eye), and all this was accentuated by the characteristic bronze sea tan, or rather, it is a generic feature of Bulstrode. To generalize, the girl does not fit in the slightest with the local notions of pale, wobbly, anorexic beauties.

 When I first saw this girl, I thought she was a senior and had a harem of boyfriends, and how surprised I was to learn more and more details. Millicenta, it turns out, is also terribly complex, that everyone in her family is an axelerate with the stats of fighters and Amazons, and even cute on the face.

It's like in Japan, it happens, a girl "shut up" just for the fact that among classmates, flat-bottomed stands out stubborn two, and if she was lucky and she has a three or four — so hide in general — otherwise than "cow" will not be called. The same may be true of height, because there are few places in Japan where there are tall people.

So, here comes such a statuesque Amazon, gorgeous, beautiful, and next to her beau, right up to her ear height. Many people giggled, the girls whispered loudly, the boys grinned, but Potter was good!

The boy stared stubbornly ahead, and Millicenta clung to his elbow as if she had found an indestructible wall behind which to hide all her fears and worries. I even spit on a future migraine and turned up my empathy to listen to the couple. Both were afraid, both worried a lot, but hope outweighed everything and quelled the fears. Too bad they don't have any romantic feelings, too bad, just a first trust, shy, timid. Well, at least that's the main thing, there's something to work with.

I will not describe the oohs and aahs about and without from the locals, because many students opened in a new light. Undoubtedly, the French won everyone over, and Madame Maxime, dressed as an ice queen with crown and scepter, reinforced the image by keeping a watchful eye on the "snow maidens". Hermione didn't come as much of a shock to the people here, as the girl had been learning a lot of new things for some time, including about cosmetic charms and hair potions, by communicating with Slytherins.

Hermione looked very nice in her new dress after listening to the advice of her new friends and discussing the outfit with her beau, so that her earrings and necklace (given to her by one of the Slytherins for the evening) perfectly matched the family crest and the colors of her beau.

The guy, by the way, despite his fame and image, or 'image', had invited Hermione the first day the news of the ball was announced, so Victor Krum had come with the Durmstrang girl. Granger, on the other hand, attended the ball with Vincent Crabbe. So much for the clumsy miser!

Apart from that, I remember the composition of the couples in the movie badly, and in the book even worse, so I just threw my thoughts on that topic far away. The main thing is that I had time to dance not only with this graceful Yuki-onna, or should I say Sylphid? Fleur with her grace, flexibility and lightness resembled a spirit of the air. I wanted to touch her skin, but I couldn't, and my gloves protected me from the wind.

We didn't spend the whole evening together: I had time to dance with the two Patil sisters, Luna, Astoria, who came with a Ravenclaw boy, and withstood the direct pressure of Tracey, who suggested that we break through the defenses of the fortress called 'Daphne' and explore its hidden secrets together. This redhead reminds me a bit of Ternier, except I get the impression that this girl doesn't hide her desires and fantasies.

That's why she's so different from the Frenchwoman, because Daphne is a regular partner for her, as I understand it. I'll have to talk to Henry about his vassals, because I don't mind keeping such a hot little thing in the family permanently: Daphne can't be changed, and she'll still be a bisexual with a preference for girls. The Malfoys, on the other hand, were not at the ball.

Well, dancing, eating, drinking (alcohol was strictly controlled), but that was it. The promised program ended with three songs by the Witches, and then the Enchanted Instruments played. It was like going to a club to celebrate the New Year — the same "aftertaste". In the morning, even without breakfast, groups of students went home.

Not all of them, of course, but quite a few. I gave Hermione a separate lecture on Logic, so she went home through the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, where she took a taxi. All the Weasleys, and with them Potter, went through the fireplace to the Burrow, and Luna and Neville and I went to my house — I apparated us together.

I really liked the reaction of the teenagers to my house, and even the gates were impressive. Good, heavy, oak, with two cherry blossoms, one on each gate. I had already installed guards in the courtyard — stone statues of wolves on pedestals where the spirits of the guards could take up residence.

They may not be the best golems, and there may only be a few of them, but they're serious. And Neville, judging by his dazed look at me, understood, if not completely. Luna. It's Luna. The girl turned her head, watching the ghosts patrolling my land and the small ghosts that had begun to gather.

Next, the guy was shocked by Momo, who "menacingly" reprimanded "his stupid master" about the need to warn the "faithful servant" about guests. This was especially funny for Luna and me, and "awesome" for the guy, because there were two fairies in pink dresses circling over the head of the house-elf, showering Momo with flower petals and magically glowing pollen.

Well, the guy seemed to let go a little, he took a breath, we went into the living room.... and there on the softest white carpet was Nanao, in short shorts and a tank top, her ears and ponytail poking out.

Bakeneko was reading a magazine and eating cookies, completely ignoring her surroundings. Her ashy tail with dark spots swayed from side to side, completely capturing the boy's attention. To be honest, I thought a teenager would be more attracted to an adult girl's bared figure, not her tails. Strange...