Denial, Blood of The Fae

Raven mused to himself that perhaps, just a little, learning to make runic structures was harder then he thought.

While it wasn't hard to learn, to a degree, it did require some time and effort. Learning the runic language of choice. Practicing carving those runes perfectly. Pushing in just the correct amount of magic.

Right now he was working on a runic cluster that would work as a really strong shield. Yet that also led into a philosophical question. What is a shield?

The dictionary definition word for word is, a person or thing providing protection. Yet, when he thought of a shield, he imagined an unbreakable barrier. A barrier incapable of losing. Impossible to breach.

So now he had gone over the artethmatic formula for the few shield spells he knew in wizarding spells, and he noted that each contained similar variables, but yet they were all so different. One key word could link them though, protection.

"Protection, perhaps in Greek. Perhaps an extra flare to draw homage from the goddess Athena and her impenetrable shield. Legends did say it contained a whole world inside of it." Raven spoke out loud to himself with a hum as he drew the runic letter in a stone tablet with his finger using a carving spell.

"Yet, it needs a power source. Obviously my magic, but it needs a flow. To much and it's a waste. To little, and it breaks. Hm, perhaps the Gaelic rune of flow, combined with the Egyptian rune of control. I supposed also a blocker to stop the drainage of magic in case of errors." He mused as he added those runes.

Pleased once he got them all down, he added some magic into the stone tablet and it started glowing, then blew up in his face.

"Puh." He spat out a bit of smoke from his lips with a sigh as he waved his hand vanishing the stone tablet, well its remains, and then a second wave cleaned the room and himself up.

"Test 1, fail." He laughed happily.

•~~~~•

Raven huffed as he rolled around the floor of his room. His gaze focused on the stone held in his hand. The red quartz looking stone was a mystery to him.

He tried to analyze it, but the damn thing seemed to reject him. Like it was alive in a sense. Perhaps it was.

The stone was magically powerful, no more then a middle class being, but because it existed for so long, and perhaps due to its origin of creation, it's possibly gained a level of sentience and doesn't recognize him as its master/creator.

"How amusing and vexing." Raven laughed as he decided to try a different form of analyzing it. Of course he'd have to prepare for it, but he would use his eyes, structural analysis and the mages style spell formula he had been creating over the week.

He really needs to put in the effort of learning mental partions, or a way to actually split his mind to do certain task separately. Would speed up his research so much.

"Just you wait, I'm going to crack all your secrets soon~" Raven purred with a fanged grin at the stone. "All mine~"

•~~~~•

"Hm? Where did everyone go?" Raven asked looking around the great hall having just noticed the singular table that he was sitting at instead of the normal four and star table.

"Really mate?" The twins asked in exasperation. "It's Yuletide break." They added on with a roll of their eyes as Raven nodded in understanding before burying his head back into his book.

"Come on mate, put the book down and let's go do something fun." The twins cheered and Raven rolled his eyes, but smiled as he speed read till the end of the chapter and put his bookmark in before storing the book in his storage pouch.

"Alright." He laughed as he finally noticed their getup. Bright orange sweaters with the letters F & G on them. Of course he had a feeling they weren't very happy about wearing them. Though they seemed to like the Santa hats they had on.

"Pft." He snorted as he cackled at their looks fully and the twins grinned as they moved using their vampire speed and pushed a sweater down onto him somehow managing to perfectly put it on him. Then a Santa hat.

"I wear it better then you both." He said grinning as he stood there with a bright orange obnoxious sweater with the letter R on it. The red and white Santa hat clashing horribly, but he didn't care.

"Hohoho." He chortled as his form changed into looking like Albus. Long white beard and older aged white hair. Wrinkles and everything.

Everyone in the hall laughed at the sight.

"Come my elves, let us deliver presents to all the children!" Santa Raven chortled as he conjured a red sack over his shoulder.

"Don't forget the coal!" They added on happily.

•~~~~•

Raven hummed curiously as he stood in the Gryffindor common room. It was almost enterly empty. The only peoole in it were him, the twins, Rose, Longbottom and Granger. He had confirmed that was their last names. There was also the twins younger brother, Weasel or something like that.

He had also decided recently that Rose was his personal project to see how he could mold her into a very capable witch. He honestly found her amusing.

The girl tried so hard to act older then she was. No doubt due to the neglect and abuse she suffered. Honestly, it was kinda cute. He enjoyed making her act like the young teen she was. It made his day.

"Hey why is he here!?" Weasel complained as he pointed at Raven, who only laughed as he leaned against the wall.

"Because Ron, he's our bestfriend and we said he could be. McGonagall doesn't have an issue with him being here, so why does it matter?" The twins retorted.

"The hag favors him though!" Ron, which Raven finally realized his name, after all, what kind of parent would call their kid Weasel?

"One, rude. Two, so what if she does? I favor the twins over everyone here." Raven retored as he waved his wand and organized the mass of presents in the room.

"Meow!" Izzy was in agreement with him as he brushed up against his cheek from his shoulder.

"Hmph." Ron replied, oh so smartly, but stayed silent afterwards.

"Now, since you complained, you go last Ron." The twins grinned as they opened their presents first, a bit of an unofficial rule, last time the twins had to wait, they somehow set the Christmas tree on fire.

The twins received some handmade sweaters from their mother and a pie to split. From their elder brothers they received a book and some galleons saying to buy whatever they want. From Percy they got a voucher for a book worth 5 galleons from the book store in Diagon Alley. From their dad they received hand carved wooden statues of themselves grinning, alongside 5 galleons for each of them. They totally didn't tear up. From Raven himself, they got a nice large assortment of materials they only seemed to know what to do with.

"Your up Hermione." The twins seemed to be taking charge, and he was fine with that. The granger girl seemed to get some galleons from her parents, muggles, and a gift voucher worth 20 galleons to spend at the book store via mail order. Then a written note she shoved into her pocket.

"Your up Neville!" The twins cheered and Raven watched the boy curiously. There was something odd about the boy compared to everyone else. He could feel it, the mystery of it slipping just off his mind.

The boy got an admittedly rare plant from his grandmother. Then some random nicknacs from family members and his friends.

"You're up Rose. Let's see what the famed girl who lived got." The twins teased as Rose flushed in embarrassment and a bit of anger. Clearly the girl didn't like the title, not that he could blame her.

The girl got a random assortment of things. A Weasley sweater surprisingly. However as she pulled out a cloak, Raven could only stare at it as his eyes unconsciously stared at abstract horror at the truth of just what the cloak was, his mind wholeheartedly understanding what the cloak was, but at the same time, he only understood one thing about it.

Death

He took a silent deep breath and just put on his glasses, he didn't want to glance at that thing right now. The massive headache was not helping either, and he hadn't brought any of his sucker candy with him, he had somehow ran out. He's not sure how.

"Raven, it's your turn." The twins said pulling him out his thoughts, he silent thanked them for removing him from his thoughts as he opened his first present, from Lori.

"Oh thank the almighty, I needed this." He said in joy as he reached in and pulled out a sucker. After that, he happily put it in his mouth and signed in content as he pulled out the other stuff. Including a photo that made him go wide eye. None of the others saw the photo as he gently placed it back inside. It was mostly a few books he didn't have and wanted.

The next was from the headmaster, he recognized the loopy writing from anywhere, and inside was a book on heritage rituals. Alongside it was a book on creating natural lightning storms. He grinned as he realized what the headmaster was trying to tell him. Plus more candy.

The next was from McGonagall, it was a very thick book on advance transfiguration spells. Alongside a note promising to help him with them. Then more candy.

Then from the twins he got a glowing potion that he rolled his eyes at, but grinned at them as he safely stored it in his pouch. That was all, but he understood what it was.

Then from surpassingly, Rose, he got a bunch of sucker candy and a roughly handmade bird Raven with blue eyes. It was painted black. He rather liked it.

"Thanks you Rose." Raven said as he put it away and opened the last present. It was from the same mysterious person last year who gave him his earring. The same energy was on it.

Inside was, unsurprisingly a bag of sucker candy. A large chunk of gems of various kinds. A vial of metal shavings. A vial with golden-silver blood. A book on ancient runic languages. Plus another bag of suckers.

"Is that your sugar mommy or daddy?" The twins snarked out amused.

"No, but I'd damn well be their sugar child if they offered." Raven snarked back grinning as he stored everything away.

With a wave of his wand he shrunk all his gifts and stored them in his pouch. He'd figure out what to do with everything later, he's just happy to enjoy his suckers for now and enjoy his time with the twins.

Yet again this year, he found he didn't hate the winter times. He hoped it stayed like this.