Inglorious Bastards [Theodore Nott]

Chapter Sixty-One

On Christmas day, Carina and the whole household woke at the sound of Sirius tramping past their doors towards Buckbeak's room, singing "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs" at the top of his lungs. Carina peaked out of her room and saw her father ringing a bell with the biggest smile she's ever seen from him since they came to Twelve Grimmauld Place. Sirius laughed at the sight of the teenagers walking out of their rooms, yawning and rubbing their eyes to get rid of their drowsiness.

"It's Christmas!" Sirius said.

"I know how to read a calendar!" Carina yawned.

"Get up! I'll wake Beaky!" Sirius said as he entered Buckbeaks's room.

"I don't think Buckbeak would appreciate that," Harry chuckled.

"I won't be surprised that he comes out scratched," Vivian spoke.

The two teens turned and grinned at the sight of the Moirai, it has been a while since they saw Vivian or even heard from her, and since the last time they saw her, the woman has aged a few years due to stress, her hair has grown longer, bags under her eyes were deeper, but even with the change, she still wore her white robes that made her look like a snow queen.

"Vivian!" Carina went to greet the woman with an embrace.

"Hello, Carina!" Vivian swayed them both as they hugged. "Merlin, you've grown! Come here, Harry!" Harry then embraced Vivian. "Is it just me or did you two grow taller?"

"Where have you been?" Carina asked.

"Oh, doing Order work – flying around," Vivian shrugged. "Now, why don't you all go inside and open some presents while the adults prepare breakfast."

Grinning, the two teenagers went to their rooms and found the mountains of presents settled at the foot of their bed. Everyone gathered in the boy's bedroom with their gifts and sat down to open each one of them. Carina chuckled lightly when she open Hermione's present first: it was a homework planner that said, "Do it today or later you'll pay!" every time they opened a page ("A diary?!" Ron exclaimed, "It's a homework planner – so, you won't have to do it the last minute every time!" Hermione said); Harry got her a pair of riding gloves when she rides her new motorcycle ("This'll look good with my leather jacket!" Carina said); Ron got her, and as well as Hermione, a bottle of perfume that she couldn't identify the smell; Roman got her a pair of sunglasses and as well as a Holiday's greeting card that had a photo of him and Maeve waving at them; Morgan and Cedric got her a basket of sweets; Fred, George, and Ginny got her a snow-globe that had little ice-skating people inside; Tonks sent her present, which was a pair of boots; Maisie got her a new scarf; Charity and Tom got her a new book bag; Vivian got Carina a new jacket of the Muggle's latest fashion; Mrs. Weasley, of course, was the usually hand-knitted jumper and some mince pies; and Sirius and Remus got her a book set entitled Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts that had moving color illustrations, just like Harry.

And just as Carina thought she has opened all of her presents, there was one that sat at the corner, wrapped in black and gold. It was Hermione who noticed it and handed her the gift. It had no name to who it was from, which added the mystery.

"You think it's from that same mystery person who gave you the Iliad last year?" Hermione asked.

"Mystery person?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, Carina got a gift from someone, it was one of the original writings of Homer, it didn't have a name."

Thought Hermione didn't know who it came from, Carina knew who it was that sent the book. And a part of her believed that this was also from the same person. Opening the box, Carina was surprised to find an old book about the constellations, its title was in Greek, so only she could read it, it was Guardians of the Skies. It was a thick book, hardbound, opening the book, she saw a beautiful page that had the map of the skies, illustrations of constellations, maps of stars, all moving, twinkling, and a few shooting stars that pass by. Reaching the end, Carina saw that there was a feather placed inside. The feather was familiar to her as she has seen a bird have the same color and pattern countless times before.