Nick was overcome with a familiar sense of weakness after he finished the ring but Flitwick had anticipated this and held him steady with a spell. Nick wasted no time at all slipping the broom shaped ring on his finger and mentally willing it to activate. Immediately a quidditch pitch appeared out of thing air but in miniature and Flitwick gasped in awe. Nick ignored this and willed the game to begin and he felt a slight weight on his mind as the two teams of faceless broom riders appeared in formation on the illusory field.-
Once he injected his own understanding of how each position could play from the game he had seen and the books he had read the "players" began to move on their own. Flitwick was amazed at how realistic the game was as there was fouls and a point counter included as the "npcs" played the game based on Nicks admittedly limited understanding of the game. Nick took the ring off and placed it inside Greed alongside all the other gifts he had prepared. "What was that?" Flitwick finally asked eager to understand the amazing thing he had just witnessed.-
"I knew that Mcgonagall loves quidditch and so rather than give her some lousy trinket that wasn't much use to her I mixed several normally separate fields of magic together to allow her to have a game at her finger tips at any given moment. The best part though was that the enchantment will slowly adapt and become more realistic as she controls it more and more." Nick explained proudly. "Marvelous! Truly just remarkable!" Flitwick exclaimed happily. "If it wasn't such a pain I might have thought about popularizing rings such as this but as you can tell making even one is my limit for now." Nick said honestly.-
"It's a pity but there's always the future." the half goblin said encouragingly. "Indeed , for now though I'm starving and it should be dinner time so lets go fuel up." Nick said with a grin and Steve seemed to agree as he climbed unto Nick's shoulder ready to go. The student and professor chatted casually on the way to the great hall unaware of the chaos happening in another part of the world. Earlier in the day in Germany a group of twelve people had appeared suddenly outside an isolated town alongside one man in particular , Grindelwald.-
"Today we will take another firm step towards our goals and the betterment of all of wizard kind!" Grindelwald spoke without any spell and yet all of his followers heard him clearly and looked eager to start the activity. "Erect the barrier so we may begin!" the dark lord said and all of his followers ran off to surround the town much like the previous one they had sacrificed. Once alone Grindelwald shed a tear while looking at the town "I will not dare ask for your forgiveness for my actions and only hope you can understand the reason for them." he said quietly but sincerely before steeling his expression.
Dinner was a grand affair like always with many different types of rich holiday foods like roast turkey and thick rich gravy. There wasn't many people in the castle at the moment as most had gone home for the holidays. This didn't apply to the Weasleys , Harry and a few other students however as they had all stayed. "I still don't get why you're stilling working so hard Nick it's the holidays , you know time to relax!" Ron said in exasperation. "Crafting helps me relax." Nick said with a shrug.-
"UUUGGH! You are bloody hopeless!" Ron complained and the entire Gryffindor table laughed. It was a cheery and good atmosphere for the entire meal and even Dumbledore seemed to be in an especially jovial mood. After returning to his office however this mood was ruined when the news of what had happened previously in the day came through. 'What do you hope to accomplish old friend?' Dumbledore thought saddened by the news of yet another town being sacrificed for some mysterious purpose. Fawkes tried to comfort Dumbledore but he was so very tired and simply wasn't open to it at the moment.-
Nick woke up at dawn as per usual and went for a quick hour long jog around the school grounds to energize his body. Breakfast started out the same as usual with the food getting served before the owls that delivered mail arriving. The great hall fell into silence however when the headline of the paper was read. {DARK LORD STRIKES AGAIN! TERROR GRIPS THE WORLD!} Having such a thing happen so close to christmas removed any positive feelings that most people had leaving today dark and dreary.
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