NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Chapter 10 - Surprise
"Tommy, get up, or else your girlfriend would find you asleep."
Usually, Thomas would argue with his father about this, but since today was his birthday, he didn't care at all, mostly because he would spend his day with his family and only friend. While he did talk with a few boys and even some girls in his class, thanks to what he was, Thomas couldn't exactly befriend them, since he feared that once they found out what he was they would hate him or even fear him.
Carefully getting off his bed, not to bother Mars who was unbothered by the noise, Thomas then made his way to the bathroom to wash his face and teeth. Afterward, the rest of the morning went in a blink of an eye and before everyone knew, the Graysons alongside the Shidous were eating cake, waiting for the birthday boy to unwrap his presents. Unsurprisingly, the one who was the most excited about this was Irina, who couldn't stay still, pestering Thomas to unwrap the gifts already.
Thanks to her insistence, Thomas had to do this unless he wanted to be annoyed for the rest of the day, and just to calm Irina down, he picked her gift first, making the girl tremble in excitement, her eyes sparkling as watching her friend. Without further ado, Thomas opened it and what he saw inside made him freeze before he look at Irina. Before the girl could even react, she found herself in Thomas's arms being hugged by her friend. It took her a few seconds to realize and when she did, her face become bright red.
"Thank you so much, Irina. It means a lot ."
Looking down at the ring, Thomas smiled before putting it on his fourth finger, then he picked up the framed picture placing it on the table. The picture was just a happy memory between the two kids and their first trip to the beach making the adults smile in response when they saw Thomas treasuring his gifts like that, especially since he wasn't sad about not getting something that all of them knew the boy wanted.
While the ring was nothing overly magical, the stainless steel ring with the Jerusalem cross on it was a product of the Vatican, which would grant the wearer some protection against weak spells as well as some mild protection against mind control. Despite the rather limited number of those rings, Irina managed to get one for her friend thanks to her teacher. At first, Griselda wasn't all too keen on letting a stranger like Thomas be friends with Irina, especially since he would undoubtedly become a member of the Britain magical community thus putting Irina in danger, but after a few days of looking into this boy's past, she concluded that maybe just maybe this would be a great opportunity for her pupil.
"How much did it cost? Be truthful Irina."
"Don't worry, Tom. It's all worth it, especially since you took me out on a play date for my birthday."
Shaking his head at her, Thomas then picked the next gift, the one from his parents and grandparents. Surprisingly enough, Thomas wouldn't have thought that his parents would get him a bicycle, something that he wanted to have for a long time, but couldn't bring himself to ask for.
Lastly, Thomas picked the gift from Touji and Myra, even though he already knew what that gift was. As soon as he unwrapped the gift, Thomas found a rather extravagant-looking passport that had the symbol of the church on it.
"I hope you like it, Thomas. Myra and I had to pull a few strings, but we managed to get one for you, at least until one of the teachers from Hogwarts came to explain to you how that school would work."
"Thank you so much Uncle Touji, Aunty Myra! "
"I promised you that I would get one for you. While this won't let you go in some less tourist-friendly places, it would be more than enough for shopping in the Diagon Alley and visiting some places that aren't exactly restricted to visitors."
As soon as he heard Touji's words Thomas went up and hugged both him and his wife before he and Irina went out to play in the backyard. Once the kids were outside, Jonathan decided to thank Touji for what he had done for his family.
"Thank you Touji, I know that you said you and Myra would help us with this, but it's…"
"Don't worry Jon. Considering how things are progressing between our kids, Touji and I see little Thomas as family, especially since he spent most of his summer with us, helping Irina with her training."
[Now, now, Myra you don't have to praise our son like that. My little bumblebee is coming over to you folks because of your daughter, we all know that.]
The adults once gain laughed when they read what Kate had just written, and thought that was the truth. Thomas and Irina become inseparable when they are together, almost to a scary degree. There was once an incident when Thomas had to leave early because of Kate, who had to go to the hospital for a checkup, and since his grandparents were away on a horse-buying trip, no one was home to pick Thomas up. Because her time with Thomas was cut short, Irina made a scene crying and kicking everything and everyone until Kate and Myra reluctantly let Thomas spend the night thus calming down the angry girl.
"That might be the truth, Kate. My little Irina is quite attached to Thomas, but sadly, for both of them, their time together would be cut short once both of them become eleven years old. Thomas would go to his magical school while Irina would move to the Vatican. I can't even imagine how she would react when she finds out about that. May God help us deal with her tantrum."
"Now dear, I'm pretty sure that Sister Griselda would deal with our daughter's tantrum once she hears about it. Besides, we can just hope that she would learn something from what would happen that day."
"Let's not think about that right now, after all, we still have two years until then. By the way, Touji, would you or Myra accompany us tomorrow?"
"I'm sorry but I won't be able to come. While I'm preaching mostly on Sunday, I still can leave whenever I want."
"Don't worry about that dear, I take Irina with me to accompany Thomas and his family to their first proper introduction into the magical world."