With the shopping done, I focused my efforts on making what was left of summer into something enjoyable for Bridget.
I took her for a walk around Muggle World, showed her everything I had explored in London, all while being careful not to run into each other in the Wizarding World.
After Malfoy approached her father, the poor girl was confined to the house with orders that she could only leave if she was accompanied by Crabbe's heirs.
Just imagining the possibility of him getting his hands on her made me want to smash the face of the bag of lard into pieces.
One of her favorite things to do was explore typical restaurants from different countries. I managed to get her to appreciate my favorite restaurant, but she had a predilection for French cuisine.
During our outings she also enjoyed exploring Muggle fashion.
Every time we go out we come home with a few bags of dresses, pants, blouses and, to her shame, lingerie.
As it was still summer it was difficult to find clothes for winter, but some stores specializing in coats and shoes still had something that would suit us in stock.
The day to return to Hogwarts was approaching and our friendship was growing stronger.
I didn't know what this year would be like, but I hoped there wouldn't be any more Dark Lord friendships. Two years straight of him trying to return to life in the castle had been ridiculously annoying.
I continue to visit the Boxing Gym to ensure I have control of my body and even compete in a few spars with some of the other members.
It was difficult to slow down my reflexes, but I did my best not to stand out too much.
But Wilhem still tried to convince me to become a professional boxer, which I vehemently refused.
On August 30th we dedicated ourselves completely to preparing for the year to come.
Bridget and I sat down in the office and started reading our textbooks for the year.
I had read and re-read the same potions book we were going to use this year over the summer, so I basically had one less book to read.
The astronomy of the magical world was simply ridiculous, but somehow they still managed to achieve positive results by placing the planet as the center of the system. After much thought that this was directly related to a series of calculations that even on paper share the planet as the center of the system, they predict the rotation of other celestial bodies in an 'erratic' way. The whole system would be much easier if they put the sun at the center, but then everyone would have to relearn astronomy, something they don't have the patience to do.
Transfiguration was still my favorite subject and I was seriously considering buying more advanced books to study as soon as possible. The current ones only deal with transfiguration and untransfiguration. I wanted to see the calculations for Vanishiment and Conjuring.
"How can you read for so many hours?" – Bridget said, waking me up from my thoughts.
In other worlds I basically didn't need to sleep due to my soul energy, but I did because the body still couldn't control my mind. Here my soul energy is slowly growing, not even double that of a normal person yet.
"It was probably the Dans." – I said.
I had decided to give the last two to her and work on a new Body Refining Dan formula.
"So many things happened that I completely forgot about them." – commented Brígida.
"I still have the first two if you want." – I offered.
Her eyes sparkled for a moment.
"But they must be expensive to make, I can't accept it." – she decided after regaining some of her pureblood pride.
"You'll probably want to hit me after you use them, they're not pleasant at all." – I said, closing the book and getting up.
She looked at me curiously at my words.
"I'm going to prepare the bathtub on the third floor for you to ingest them, get ready to take two or three baths." – I said, directing a half smile at her.
She closed the book and followed me.
All I did was fill the bathtub with water and make sure it had enough soap.
Bridget waited in front of the door while I picked up the Dans.
"This one is the one that will clean your marrow, improve the quality of your blood and accelerate the maturation of your core." – I said, handing over the Marrow Cleansing Dan.
She nodded, treating Dan as if she would turn to dust if the movements were too sudden.
"This will make your bones as resistant as metal, when I say this I'm not referring to normal metals but to super resistant magical metals. It will make your bones four or five times stronger." – I said, handing over Bone Forging Dan.
Her eyes shone with my explanation, but her attitude, trying not to let Dan fall, remained the same.
"None of them are pleasant, you will feel cold and hot like never before, your body will want to give up, but you need to stay awake through the whole process." - warned.
She became serious at this moment and nodded.
I left her to take care of everything herself and returned to the office.
It would take Bridget a few hours to fully absorb them both.
She will probably be exhausted, I should have given her one today and another tomorrow.
Oh, sometimes I forget that other people aren't as hard-headed as I am.
I continued doing my things and when night approached I looked for food in case she still had strength.
It was getting late and she should have finished absorbing both Dans, so I decided to check on her.
I knocked on the door, but there was no response.
I knocked three more times, but the result was the same.
A little worried, I opened the door to take a look at her situation.
Inside the bathtub the black girl who has been living in my house for the last week was sleeping, too exhausted to even clean herself after Bone Forging Dan.
Her entire body was submerged, only her head was out of the water. It was pure luck that she didn't end up drowning.
Thinking about it only made me feel guiltier.
I drained the bathtub and she was completely exposed to my eyes. Resisting the temptation was easier not knowing how perfect her body was.
I used Scourgify on her arms, legs and back, took the towel and wrapped Bridget in it.
I put my friend to sleep and went back to clean the bathtub. She hadn't quite reached my water level like ink, but she sure straightened some bones in the process.
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