ARIA BACK IN A BOOK SHOP - FLOURISH AND BLOTTS

"You know Magnus?" Aria smiled and nodded at the girl (), who seemed rather shy. "That's not too surprising, he is really kind and pretty talkative most of the time." Aria spotted a book about ancient beasts and right next to it a volume on ways to infuse magic into almost anything. "Yea, he is my brother t--" She stopped mid sentence, raised her eyebrows and exclaimed, "This is it!" Upon seeing the other girls look of confusion and concern Aria explained. " I've given up on ever finding the history book - it would probably have been lame anyways, but this one seems just perfect."

Aria smiled and walked with the girl to the counter to pay for the book. "I'm sure he'll at least give it a quick read over before tossing it out," she giggled softly. " I mean, I can't expect him to love every book or thing I get him." After putting the book in her bag she smiled politely at the girl. "Thanks for your help! I'll see you outside after you're done in here - it's getting rather stuffy for me in this shop." Aria tightened her coat and pushed the shop door open, it jingled as she made her exit. As the door shut softly, the escaped warm air from inside the shop seemed to hiss against the cold of the temperature shock outside.

ARIA outside

Aria waved to her brother, Magnus. () "Hey bro. I see you've got yourself lots of goodies all wrapped up in your bags." she raised her eyebrows and gestured towards his haul of presents and shopping finds. Magnus seemed distracted by a mental list, perhaps, Aria pondered after he excused himself to continue shopping. She thought about following him but decided against it.

She'd noticed something rather strange about her brother lately but could not quite place her finger on what it was. Shrugging it off, Aria decided it was probably just her own imagination. There happened to be a nice snow free unclaimed bench under a warming lamp on the opposite side of the street outside of a rather dilapidated looking tavern. Walking over to the bench, Aria took a seat and sat quite motionless simply watching the wintry scene unfold around her.

There were students and other people milling about the street and shops, oblivious to around them except their own shopping desires. Some of the children were playing poke games and giggling at each other. While other kids peered into shop windows dreaming of what might be under their Christmas tree. Aria noticed several of her classmates and their furry friends, one even had brought along an owl. Just as she took notice of the owl it took flight and seemed to be carrying a package. "Oh, that makes sense now," she muttered softly while watching the majestic bird take flight into the pale grey cloud covered sky.

The clouds looked ready to melt into snowfall at any moment and the temperature seemed ripe for the event. A shiver ran up her spine and down her arms causing Aria to hug herself and hold her cloak more tightly around her. A gust of wind brought the sound of bells as a few of the vendor street signs were hung with mistletoe, bells, and other festive decorations.

( tis the season? XD I honestly can't wait till the new year. Normal hours are much nicer than extended ones. u.u)

Fade's grin widened and his hair maybe seemed to brighten with his expression as he dug into the box of goodies. "Japan huh? That is so cool. Thank you!" Miyazaki was one of Fade's favorite water color artists and it was pretty cool that Magnus knew who he was too. "How many Miyazaki movies have you seen? We should do a marathon sometime. Pretty sure I own most of them." He wasn't sure when exactly, but Magnus's schedule was way more open now than it ever had been. Fade was sure they could find a time. Then he had a thought. "Oh, or! Maybe we could convince Professor Brookvale to let us watch it in class sometime."

They had nothing left to buy in the store so they followed the other girl outside of Flourish and Blotts. They were pretty glad that the other girl had invited them to join her. Toru really wasn't sure they wanted to check and see what Blade and Nimah were up to at this point.

As Toru squeezed through the busy street, they neared the bench with the girl. "I-I didn't g-get to say, m-my name i-is Toru. I-I'm a second y-year Hufflepuff." Toru shyly moved to extend their hand toward Magnus' mystery sister.

& Everybody else!

ARIA outside sitting on a bench

The Hufflepuff girl shyly introduced herself as Toru (). "Oh, you are the sweet girl I've heard about -- all good things I assure you." Aria smiled at the girl and hugged her instead of shaking the proffered hand. "Come join me it's rather chilly away from the blaze street lamp warmer thing -- whatever you call it" Aria blushed slightly for not knowing the name of the warming lamp. She walked back to the bench with her arm threaded through the other girls arm and guided her back to the bench.

After getting all comfortable under the warming lamp Aria shivered involuntarily. "It's pretty cold out today," she commented while looking up towards the pale grey sky. "I hope it snows; it almost looks like snow!" Aria smiled at her new friend Toru. "Oh! I almost forgot I am Aria Quin-Lee, a Gryffindor. Most people call me Aria or Ari, either one is fine."

Just then an explosion of snow and a white feathery body emerged from a snow pile across the street. It was Dax. Of course it was Dax, Aria thought. He strutted about the snow pile before shaking his body and stretching out his wings free to free himself of icy droplets of slightly melted snow. He quickly looked over at Aria and seemed to be grinning like a child having the best day of their life. "He lives his best life every moment," Aria commented softly with awe and happiness. "Dax is such a cute special griffin."

(and all) ((Sorry for the delay/s. I'm trying to knit my mum a gift for Christmas and it's not done!))

“Yep, got most of the stuff in Japan, as you know. Trying to gift me friends when I see ‘em,” Magnus said to Aria.

He nodded to Fade. “Yeah it were really cool. We went to Studio Ghibli. There was a catbus you could sit in and play on. We took pictures. I’ve seen most of ‘em, including a couple of weird ones. I really liked Spirited Away, ‘Owl’s moving Castle even though Sophie kinda annoys me… and that newer one but I forget its name. Whispers of the ‘art is a good movie too.” Magnus smiled. He loved the idea of a movie-marathon. “Oh yes! See if you’re mum’ll let you come stay over for a few days. I got a media room for me birthday! Also got a drawing tablet and a laptop, been playing with manga drawing. Got a course to do that next week.” He also liked the idea of movies in muggle studies. “’Ow about we do both?! Wanna come with me or still scoping out the prank stuff? I’m playing Magnus-claus and delivering me presents to everyone.”

Zoe finally left her bookshop and headed along the street where she saw Blade and Nimah. Blade looked very shocked. She headed inside the ice cream shop since she spotted Callista. “Oh good, glad to see ye, Callie. How are ye? I’m doing good! I know ye’re off to Japan again so I wanted to give ye this.” She handed Callista a box. Inside were some sweets she’d made as well as a pretty green gown. “I thought ye’d enjoy this and the colour is so lovely and conveniently it’s one of the Slytherin colours. I hope ye like it.”

Callista's eyes went wide. "Zoe! How beautiful! I love it!" She stood up and gave Zoe a hug. "I've got a present for you too."

She opened up one of her shopping bags and took out a wrapped package. "Here you go."

Inside the box was a fur-trimmed black cape with cat ears on the hood, and a couple of boxes of Pocky.

Zoe beamed. She was thrilled Callista liked the gift. "Aww ye did nee need to do that." The girl was glowing as she opened it and gasped. "OOH I love it! Oh it's gorgeous!" She particualrly loved the cat ears on the top and put it on with a little giggle. "Now I can be catty. Oh thank ye Callie!" She hugged her and smiled deeply. "Ye'll have to promise to tell me all about ye're job when ye get back. And I'll nibble on these yummy looking Pocky thinking of ye."

Callista smiled. "It's really great," she said. "Ruriko is amazing and I'm having a lot of fun. Did I see you in another magazine, or was that just someone who looked like you?"

Aria called them a girl and they gently interjected. "U-Um... I-I prefer t-to go by g-gender neutral t-terms, s-so I d-don't like b-being l-labeled as a g-girl o-or a b-boy..." Their cheeks were pink a bit from the cold and a bit from embarrassment. Some people had a hard time grasping people who were non-binary and it was sort of hard to explain to those people. "M-Make sense?"

There was a burst of snow nearby and Toru jumped and gave a small strangled scream. Toru was usually a very easy to scare type of person, and sudden movements. Aria explained that it was their pet griffin and it seemed to calm the Hufflepuff down a bit. Though Griffins were part cat, Dax wasn't setting off their phobia. "O-Oh h-hello."

sitting outside on a bench enjoying the atmosphere of the wintry day

Aria's eyes opened widely when the girl interjected that she chose to be addressed in nonbinary terms. "Oh I am so sorry, I didn't realize!" () She smiled warmly to show she was not off-put by the simple request. 'Toru presents as quite shy. I wonder if she realizes how brave she truly is?' Aria thought momentarily before deciding to tell Toru her thoughts.

"You know," she began gently, "I see that you are pretty timid and you probably feel quite scared on the inside, right?" Aria waited to see if Toru nodded, which she barely did. "Being able to stand up for yourself and correct people is a very bold act. You are very much a courageous person." She put her arm around Torus shoulders and gave her a quick side hug squeeze before releasing her.

Dax walked up to Toru and stared at her momentarily before rubbing up against her leg as he walked underneath the bench they were sitting on. "Hello Dax," Aria called to him, "stay out of mischief will you?" He cocked his ears as if he hear but gave no indication that he intended to listen.

"That griffin!" Aria puffed out in a half laugh sarcastic tone. "He'll be the death of me one day with his antics. He really is quite unique with a mind of his own." Aria loved him dearly and watched him as he began stalking someone who was eating a bag of cinnamon spiced caramelized popcorn, probably hoping they'd drop some. "I'm sure he'll be back." She said with a smile.

"i'm glad to hear that," Zoe said. "It was me. And was at a fashion show too. I wanted to fund Christmas." She smiled.

Blade seemed to come out of his stupor finally. "I-I'm glad you like Nimah."

Aria called them brave and Toru tried not laughing out loud at that. "I-I'm not v-very brave, b-but I think p-people s-should be respected a-and t-treated fairly." They mumbled softly as Aria pulled them into a warm side-hug.

"Y-You have a p-pet g-griffin?" Toru seemed incredibly interested at that since they were normally a XXXX classification in Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them. "I-I didn't t-think you c-could." They knew Magnus had impressive pets, maybe it was a Lee family trait to have a magical menagerie. Was Dax allowed at Hogwarts? That seemed like it would be troublesome concerning other pets.

Callista grinned. "See, I told you you could make a career out of that if you wanted. We're not limited to working for the Ministry, St Mungo's or one of the businesses here or in Hogsmeade. I don't like the way they make us think that just because we're magical, we have to have special magical careers. We can use magic to do anything we want to do, Zoe. Mostly I've been working in the shop, but Ruriko looks at my designs, and I have helped her with construction and fabrication as well."

She ate some more of her ice cream, then shrugged. "Fiammetta makes her living writing code for computers. She's working on expanding the Internet into our world. You'd like her." It occurred to Callista that maybe part of the reason she had been able to get to know Zoe despite her temper was her experience with her fiery, mercurial, painfully awkward, but fearless sister.

Gresham walked out of Whizz Hard Books with a small bag. As he walked back out into the cold, he pulled his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and stuck one in his mouth. He lit up, blowing a huge cloud of smoke into the frigid air. Because it was so cold, the steam from his breath mixed with the smoke from the cigarette and created an even bigger plume than it normally did. Now to find the recipient of the little present he had bought.

As he strolled through the frozen streets, he wondered what everyone else was up to. He had only bought a present for one; he couldn't afford to get everybody something special. He'd stop by the sweet shop later and pick up a box of chocolates to split between them. Right now, however, he needed to find his best friend.

There they were. Gresham blew away another lungful of smoke and approached the bench where they were sitting with a girl he didn't know. "Toru!" he called, approaching them with a wide grin and sitting down on the other side of them. Unceremoniously, he plopped the bag into Toru's lap. "Happy Christmas," he said in his thick Irish brogue. Inside the small bag was a new sketchbook and a set of drawing pencils, complete with a magical eraser that ensured that no unwanted pencil marks were left behind. It wasn't much, but he knew how Toru liked to draw, and he hoped they would like it.

"Yeah I know but I do nee see me as a model," Zoe said honestly. "I like the idea of writing. Journalism is more me. I'm shy and timid. Hiding agrees with me." She laughed. "Where ye going here?"

"I don't know really," said Callista. "I heard people were going to be out today so I slipped out to say hello to people. My mother and little brother and sister went to Madam Malkin's. Fiammetta's at home writing code and watching all the animals. A fossa, a serval, a kitten, and a Galah." She laughed. "Mamma says sometimes she feels like she's running a zoo. Where'd you want to go?"

Zoe laughed. "Well me mum says we have a zoo too. I like it that ye all like animals. Ye siblings are starting next term right? Oh I'm also just wandering around delivering presents. And if I find a shop with something that intrigues me, I pop in. Blade's outside with Nimah. He looks like has nee idea what to say. I thought of rescuing him."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Callista said, chuckling. "Niamh just gave him the parrot. She likes him. She'll eventually realise that she needs to take the lead with him though."

"He just looks so lost," Zoe said. "I saw the parrot, it's really sweet of her. Ye think he's shy and that's why Nimah needs to take the lead? "

Fade nodded enthusiastically, biting back a comment about Princess Mononoke because it involved wolves and he knew his friend was sensitive about them in general. “That would be really cool, I’m sure mom will let me.” His eyes lit up at the mention of a drawing tablet. “Those are epic! Is it hard drawing on a screen?” His father had a tablet that he used for engineering work but it was such an expensive thing Fade hadn’t ever been allowed to play with it. “Yeah I’ll tag along. Don’t really need anything here, just like to look you know. Keep up to date.” Tucking the box under his arm Fade followed Magnus back out onto the street.

((WOW I’m late, but we all knew I would be c:))