As Julius was enthusiastically greeted by his sisters Habol couldn't help but feel slightly out of place.
After all that was part of what he had feared from the beginning; that even though Julius had joyfully invited him, his family would rather spend christmas eve in the intimacy of their close family, as was usual for basically every family besides maybe some of the purebloods who would rather use the chance to make further connections for their house or deepen already existing ones.
But before his worries could worsen, his thoughts were interrupted by no other than George Williams, the founder of Theia Corps himself.
"You must be the boy the young master wrote me so much about, my name is George Williams but you can of course just call me George."
"I am honored to meet you, I hope Julius only wrote good things about me", Habol replied without hesitation and while putting on a polite smile.
But while his face and voice might not let any of his true thoughts slip due to Habol's training in occlumency and etiquette, his mind went into overdrive, trying to process this situation; one of the most powerful people in the whole world had just given him permission to adress him informally, and he called his best friend "young master"!
Even though Habol was sure he hadn't let anything slip through his occlumency, George just gave him a knowing smile and patted him on the back before making his baggage float with a flick of his wand and turning towards the little girls who were still clinging to Julius.
"I am sorry to interrupt you, young mistresses, but the young master and his friend must both be tired after the long train ride and I am sure you can continue after arriving at Abraxus Manor."
Daphne reluctantly let go of Julius after sending a quick glance towards Habol, but Astoria just continued hugging him, so Julius just lifted her up and started walking towards the exit, to which Astoria only giggled and hugged him even tighter.
Seeing this, George just flicked his wand again to let Julius' bag levitate too, before following behind the two with the baggage levitating behind them.
Julius mother shook her head in exasperation before engaging in friendly conversation with Habol until they'd all arrived at the magically expanded car outside of King's Cross, which they'd taken this time to avoid the unpleasant feeling of apparation, which had apparently greatly bothered Astoria when they had brought Julius there the first time.
During the whole car ride into the countryside Daphne and Astoria pelted Julius and Habol with questions about life at Hogwarts and what they'd learned there, though Habol was spared some of them because Daphne was too shy to speak to him directly.
...
After arriving at the manor and eating lunch, which Theo had apparently given even greater care than he was already doing normally, Julius lead Habol to the guest room where Theo had already brought his luggage before inviting him to play quidditch together with his sisters; an offer Habol took without hesitation, after all he'd only sat on a broom in class and though he liked the feeling he'd never actually done much while on it.
Unbeknownst to everyone else, Julius had also tried to take a look at Theo's magic power out of curiosity and been shocked:
The first time Julius tried it, he only got a row of question marks with the occasional special character, before he decided to just try it again.
This time he had actually gotten a result:
[MP 143 ]
After letting out a stream of profanities everyone might have been looking at him strangely, with his mother seemingly ready to butcher him on the spot after he'd cursed in front of his sisters, but at least he'd come to terms with this ludicrous number.
Even Dumbledore had only had 103 MP and he was widely praised as "the most powerful wizard of the 20th century" and "the second coming of Merlin".
Considering that the higher the amount got, the more was every point of magic power worth and that a forty-points difference was enourmous even below the monstrous 100, there was no way a member of an enslaved race, a race which was widely seen as something worth less than even a muggle and a race no one even considered in really any aspect besides maybe their usefulness in doing chores, should have magic power like that.
Julius really wanted to ask Theo to allow him to study house elf magic right now, but that would have to wait a bit.
But even though Julius originally had to force himself away from Theo and to not just start studying every movement of the creature, in the end he enjoyed playing quidditch with his friend and his sisters much more.
It was even a relatively even match, with Astoria and Habol on one and Julius and Daphne on the other team.
Even though the three siblings had much more practice, the only one of the three not affected by the curse and therefore in a physical condition above average was Daphne, while on the other team there was Habol who was three years older and accordingly stronger than her, but paired up with the weakest of all of them, though Astoria had a great feeling for the flow of the game.
In the end the match ended 100:80 for Habol and Astoria's team and the four decided to take that chance to stop playing since she and Julius were already panting in exhaustion.
While they were resting they talked a bit more about this and that and when the topic came towards the Yule ball, Habol joked about being glad he wouldn't have to go to that kind of event anymore and Daphne argued with him if this kind of bigger event, or smaller ones where everyone knew everyone and was always aware what they were doing was actually the worst kind; Daphne had apparently gotten a lot less shy around Habol by now.
All the while Julius just enjoyed the moment, knowing he had a few things to do this Christmas break.
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I tomorrow is my birthday so I thought if I couldn't find the motivation in me to write a new chapter today, than I would just procrastinate it for a few more weeks, so here you are ;)
Thanks for reading!