The main theme of December is blizzards and snow; And compared to the whole vast world, Hogwarts Castle looks like a small animal wearing a white fur hat in the snow.
Like a Niffler.
A pair of Hogwarts students were standing in the yard chatting. "Come closer," Eleanor said, pulling a locket from her thin dress pocket while looking at it closely. "I remember seeing the dial to adjust the range at the edge ..."
The boy next to her hesitated and sat slightly closer. Caldwell watched her intently fiddling with the dials on the locket.
"What's this?" He asked curiously.
"A thermostatic pendant that Mom sent me." Eleanor explained as she kept her head down and examined it. "There!"
"What ... wow." Caldwell said in awe as he felt a warmth seep in a little through his cold clothes, a little uncomfortable at first as the heat made him suddenly realize how cold his outer layer of clothing was, but soon he squinted in comfort.
It seemed like the summer had suddenly returned.
"I wondered why you weren't wearing a thick wool cloak, but it turns out you have this ... thermostat chain!" Caldwell said, as his face was flushed from the heat, that he hurried to loosen the thick scarf wrapped around his neck.
"It's a thermostatic pendant," Eleanor repeated, and then brought the pendant towards him, "it has two dials on it, one to control the range and the other to control the temperature, it's a new product of the ''Future World'' company, and Mother mailed it to me right after the release via owl as soon as possible."
"Future World?" Caldwell heard another unfamiliar term.
"Oh yeah! That's a pretty famous company recently, and they were in the News for their new cool products, Magic Lamp Show, the collaboration with the Weird Sisters group. They have outlets in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade ... They also have a list of their new upcoming products, a dozen of them, and I especially want that Emerald Crown."
Caldwell looked at her enviously, "You know a lot, unlike me who knows nothing."
"Because my mother is a witch, and she graduated from Hufflepuff - just like me, and she's the one who told me the little secret of the kitchen ..." Eleanor said with narrow eyes, she had moon blond hair and a bright round face.
"So you don't have to worry if you don't understand something, just come and ask me." She said, patting her chest.
They sat on a bench in the yard
"Look, that guy is a Slytherin, you can tell by the colour of his scarf."
"Those two girls are holding golems, props from Ancient Runes' Class, I guess they're looking for a secluded place to play."
"Ha, look at that guy, doesn't his clothes look like Little Wizard Mick? Especially the way he's scratching his head, so silly ..." Eleanor giggled.
Caldwell listened intently, then pointed to a man at a distance, "It's Professor Moody!"
The two went quiet, watching in silence as Moody dragged his one leg, walking towards them from a far distance for a while. They held their breath until he turned a corner and the "crunching" sound of snow finally disappeared.
"He's scary, isn't he?" Eleanor whispered.
"Yeah, you're right," Caldwell agreed. "You can't bloody guess how scary he was when he yelled at me that day they selected the champions, that bloody battered nose not three inches away from me when a young professor saved my arse... ..."
"Stop it." Eleanor immediately recalled the image of her being reprimanded by Professor Moody when she dyed Puffskein during class.
Under the effect of the thermostatic pendant, the bitter cold wind turned into a soothing spring breeze, with a coolness that made Caldwell feel comfortable. He felt that Eleanor had set the temperature of the pendant too high, that it felt like both of them were sitting by the fire of the fireplace, the surrounding snow with them as a center unconsciously fizzing away in a circle.
"What's that?!" Caldwell suddenly shouted, pointing at the snow on the courtyard, "There's something down there."
"I don't know." Eleanor said, pulling her wand out of her pocket and looking warily at the snow, Caldwell followed suit, but they are both still first years and haven't learned many useful spells.
"It must be some kind of living thing!" Caldwell said as they brought their legs up and placed them on the edge of their bench, watching carefully as something in the snow trailed a long trail before stopping not far from them.
Just as Caldwell began to ponder whether a gaping maw full of fangs would suddenly emerge, the snow bulged up with a small bump, "It's coming out!" Eleanor said nervously, with her one hand holding Caldwell's arm in a death grip.
"Don't… don't worry, it doesn't look that big ... I should be able to deal with it ... Huh?"
He was about to cheer Eleanor up when a pink beak poked out, revealing a furry head.
"Kee!"
Niffler Valen lifted her head and surveyed the surroundings through a layer of snow, then she paused briefly on Eleanor and Caldwell, before looking in the direction of the courtyard exit, after which her body once again burrowed deeper into the snow.
"What's that ... it doesn't look that scary." Caldwell said, as he couldn't help but flush, perhaps because Eleanor leaned too close to him, and that pendant made him feel a bit too hot.
"A Niffler." Eleanor said, "I heard from the Prefect that one of the professors in the school raises Niffler... Oh, crap."
"What's wrong?"
"We missed an opportunity! The Prefect said that this Niffler has lots of treasures, and no one knows what goodies she has hidden in her pockets; and if anyone meets her and has some trinkets in their pocket, they can exchange them with her treasures if she finds them interesting!"
"What could a Niffler possibly have, a pretty stone?" Caldwell asked, and that was all he could think of.
"More than that, I heard that twins gave this Niffler a box of Exploding Snap cards, and got a feather pen that could draw in the air, with drawn characters that would move ... and another student gave her a glowing grass and got a bottle of blue bubble blowing liquid in exchange. "
"Bubble blowing liquid?"
"You can hold a person inside that Bubble!"
Caldwell imagined a scene where Eleanor is inside a blue bubble, and he found himself looking forward to it. But that Niffler had already left, and he could only watch with bated breath as the Niffler left a trail in the snow.
...
Niffler Valen has been enjoying a rare holiday. She and that Great Devil have made a deal that for every hundred words she learns, she can stroll outside unsupervised.
Coming out of the courtyard and moving some distance away, she poked her head out again. She smelled a dozen familiar scents, then she selected one of them and moved there quickly. When she raised her head occasionally, she could overhear some plausible conversation -
"I'm only telling you, who made you my sister ... Professor Trelawney predicted that something bad will happen!"
"Well," a disinterested voice said, "who's going to die this time?"
"Padma Patil!" The one who spoke before sounded less pleased, "You should learn to respect the professor."
"Sorry, Ravenclaw only respects those who are truly knowledgeable."
Niffler Valen poked her head out of the snow and hesitantly made her way back when she saw twin sisters facing each other like they were about to cross swords.
"Look there, it's Niffler! Don't leave! I want to exchange something with you!" One of the witches ran towards her excitedly, which startled Valen, as she rushed into the snow and bolted away in a flash.
This time she became much more cautious. When hearing the sound of talking, she would deliberately slow down her pace. Soon, she picked up a familiar voice, no, three of them.
"The people of Uagadou are living in the igloo, don't they?"
"Fred, you are insulting my African friends, they have their own quarters ... The environment is indeed not great, but it is certainly much better than Durmstrang, the poor ghost ship that wobbles in the gale ... " said a voice that spoke quickly without sounding very upset.
"You really made friends with them?" Fred asked, somewhat surprised.
"Look at my braids, man, we're all going to get Eagle Hair Braid tonight!" Lee Jordan shouted like a protester demanding some perks.
"Oh, Lee, the Ravenclaw House students won't be happy to hear that ..." George said with a laugh.
Niffler quickly scurried away like a black shadow and found her target before entering the main castle building.
"That's an absolutely terrible idea." Ron said.
"I don't think so." Hermione said calmly.
"Don't you think it's outrageous? We crouched outside the Ilvermorny's campsite for two hours just to talk to those Pukwudgies... I almost died of fright when they pointed their arrows at me."
Harry remained silent, today he wanted to sleep after breakfast as it happens to be the weekend, but Hermione had dragged them to interview the Pukwudgies, asking them how their lives were in Ilvermorny, saying that they wanted to do a comparative study between them and Hogwarts house elves
As a result, those Pukwudgies unceremoniously drove them away, as for how he felt ... he is now completely wooden from head to toe, just wanted to hurry back to take a hot bath, with no desire to talk
At this time, a black shadow sprang out in front of him, and he subconsciously drew his wand, but stopped the moment he looked at the black shadow, "Valen!?" He shouted in surprise.
Niffler climbed up his shoulders and looked at Ron and Hermione arguing from a high position.
"Kiki (Go on!)!"
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