After getting the half dead and very mistrustful crystal viper to eat, Julius decided it, or to be exact she, needed a name.
But since he couldn't come up with one on the spot he decided to give it more time.
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This night Julius put the mandrake leaf in his mouth and prepared himself mentally in the hopes of not accidentally swallowing it.
He didn't get any sleep this night for fear of doing so.
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The next day the crystal viper still appeared distrustful but still begrudgingly took the food he offered to it.
The rest of the day Julius was mostly training silent casting with his new wand and he also played with Astoria and Daphne for a bit despite his inability to speak getting in the way more than just a few times, but he would not risk accidentally spitting out the leaf or something just to talk for a moment, even if it was with his two cute little sisters.
He did not get any sleep this night either.
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This morning Julius was starting to be limited in his ability to use his mind and body, he had after all not slept even once in two days.
This day when he visited the crystal viper to feed it, it was not only much more nimble with taking the food, but also much less mistrustful and it even poked his hand with it's snout in a friendly manner after he had watched he er eating as he had done every day till now.
This day Julius took a bit of his time for silent casting and used it for physical training instead in hopes of maybe falling asleep more easily if he completely exhausted himself.
After finishing his training, Julius played with Astoria and Daphne again, this time they surprised him with a few hand signs they apparently invented at night for them to communicate the few words they actually needed for their games, which were mostly hide and seek and one time chess with Daphne, which she apparently used to train her occlumency.
He wasn't able to communicate her to tell him how she learned it though.
After getting forced to eat with his family by his mother Julius went to bed again.
This night he slept like a stone, if it was because of his training or something else, who knows.
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The next day when Julius woke up he noticed he overslept.
If the clock was to trust it was already 2pm.
At first he worriedly checked his mouth, only calming down when he was able to feel the mandrake leaf again.
When Julius fed the crystal viper this time she even let him pat her head afterwards for a short moment before going back into her cage which had been broken open at many points so she wouldn't have to worry about being trapped again, as she refused to leave the cage to go to the nest Theo had prepared for her with the knowledge of Adorabella Greengrass about crystal vipers, she had apparently been very interested in magical creatures when she was little and had Newt Scamander as her great role model.
To test what enabled him to sleep this night Julius didn't train this day but still had the exact same daily routine as the day before, well besides the physical training of course.
This night he was still able to sleep, just not this fast and deep.
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Some days later Julius finally gave up on his experiment, concluding it on the assumption he had just been used to it at this point and the physical training coupled with his tiredness had helped him a bit.
After feeding the crystal viper this time, Julius held his arm next to her and gestured her to get on, hoping she would finally trust him enough.
And after hesitating for a small moment the small snake slithered on his hand, up his arm and settled down with it's head resting on his shoulder.
After the snake settled down Julius walked slowly to the nest Theo had built, always trying to shake as seldomly as possible.
After arriving at her new home the snake slithered down from Julius' arm again and, after tasting the air repeatedly and inspecting her new nest suspiciously, the snake finally settled down in the first comfortable place it had been in for what was probably weeks. leaving the snake alone with it's nest, Julius went to Daphne and Astoria directly this time as he had decided to only play with them today and do a bit of general studying instead of his usual daily routine.
When he arrived at the door to the room Daphne and Astoria shared on their own insistence, Julius was greeted by a pink flash when Astoria rushed to hug him, still in her favourite pink pyjama with white bunnies on it and by a loud "Jules" from Daphne.
After a small lesson from the both of them; they had thought of a few more hand signs they wanted to teach him, they played for a good part of the day, allowing Julius to relax a bit, even while still constantly minding the leaf in his mouth.
The rest of the day Julius used for etiquette lessons and also a short history lesson with focus on the Abraxus family, both by George.
This evening before going to sleep Julius noted the next full moon drawing nearer.
This night he slept soundly.
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When Julius stood up a few days later he was already quite excited, to night would be the night of the full moon, he would finally be able to spit this annoying leaf out and talk again.
Even eating and drinking had been more annoying with the leaf in his mouth; not only did he need to be careful not to swallow the leaf with the food, it's taste was also disgusting and did not go away for most of the month.
This day he used some of his overflowing energy to train and then used the rest of the day to make sure everything was prepared for tonight.