Still Nick's free time was drastically cut short due to the fact that the last day of December came around and the next day was the start of the next semester of classes. The students that left all returned by this point and settled in. Nick got smothered in a hug by Daphne and Tracy when they returned as they were so happy with the gifts they received. "Honestly it wasn't that big a deal as you make it out to be." he said while shaking off the two girls who had noticed his solid body under his robes with astonished expressions.-
The firm muscles hidden under his loose clothes meant that hugging him was like hugging a a rubber ball , not as soft as one would assume. "Putting aside my own christmas present you gave her a ring to protect her mind so she can actually live normally. Of course it's a big deal!" Tracy said not accepting Nick's words at all. Daphne nodded and smiled happily while rubbing the loop fondly. Nick simply shrugged and decided to leave it alone but Hermione actually found an issue with her gift. "Where did you get the book from? I have been all over the normal parts of the library and I have never seen a book with the same title." She questioned with narrowed eyes.-
Nick laughed the question off however "Where is the fun in telling you something like that? No need to worry it's not from the restricted section." he said with a grin. "Hmph!" she snorted angrily at his teasing but dropped the topic anyways. 'Likely planning to try and search the library again for the original. Good luck figuring it out since it's in a lost language entirely alongside the rest of the books in the "ancient" section.' he thought with a chuckle.-
School continued as per normal after that and Nick found it odd how the cold and snow were almost immediately replaced with rain and mud within a two weeks of the start of the new year. Yet another town was reported to have been sacrificed by Grindelwald during this time. Nick was rather desensitized to this kind of news at this point though he did note that it was always exactly one town per month being sacrificed so far. This made him assume whatever ritual was involved might be obligatory in nature though this was just a guess in his mind.-
Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor team were having a hard time however during this time as Oliver Wood had been intensifying the training in preparation for the up coming quidditch match against Hufflepuff. If they won they would officially surpass the Slytherin house in house points for the first time in seven years. Though to be fair thanks to the study group Nick started they weren't that far behind to begin with. Nick didn't participate in the study group but it helped the other Gryffindor's greatly.-
The problem most Gryffindor's had was not that they were stupid but rather that they had a hard time getting interested in the material enough to want to study. Thanks to Nick turning studying into a trivia style coopetition many were motivated to do so finally turning most of the whole first year portion of Gryffindor into decent students. This didn't change the fact that the house was still the most lazy academically though just that the gap wasn't so wide anymore. "I can't believe bloody Snape of all people is going to be reffing the game!" Ron complained about the news they just got.-
"I can't just drop out of the game though since we don't have anyone else to cover the seeker position." Harry said bitterly. "He can't do anything to you anyways since all as will be on him for the calls." Nick said casually. Harry's face brightened up when he heard this as it was true that any foul play by Snape would be noticed immediately since he'll be the referee. "I still think you guys are wrong about him." Daphne said trying to defend her head of house. Nick had never actually said whether or not Snape was as the other Gryffindor's thought but they assumed he agreed with them.-
He wisely stayed out of the argument over that topic as spilling Snape's personal background to defend him both served no purpose as no one would care and also it was not his place to do so. Rather than get dragged into it Nick instead teased Steve on his shoulder with a shiny golden galleon. See he came up with a game between the two of them where Nick would move the coin through the air at random and if Steve managed to catch it he could keep it , he hadn't yet though.
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