The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 60: Team-mas

Oliver smiled as he watched the rest of the team approach the corner that he claimed for them.  It was the last night of the term and the majority of people would be heading back to their respective homes the next day on the Express for the holidays.  He had floated the idea of everyone exchanging gifts that night so they could enjoy them together and the team happily agreed.  It was more fun to see each other unwrap and enjoy their gifts in person and Oliver was glad he suggested it.

As per usual, the twins had gone to the kitchens and came back up with some snacks for them to enjoy while they exchanged gifts.  Eventually everyone gathered and a lot of happy chatter filled the air as people gave their gifts to their recipients and soon everyone had a pile in front of them.

"Should we just all tear into them at the same time or let one person open all of theirs?" Oliver asked.

"Or we could let everyone open the gift from the same person," Angelina suggested.

"That's too complicated," Alicia said.  "It's the end of term, I don't want to think.  Let's just let one person open all of theirs."

"That works, but actually, everyone go ahead and open my gift to them."  Oliver rubbed his neck.  "It's the same to everyone so let's get the most boring gift out of the way."

Everyone did as requested, opening the slim plain box.  At first everyone shared identical looks of confusion at the slim leather bracelet sitting in each box.  Each had different colors for their new owners but otherwise were the same.

"Oh boy, friendship bracelets!" the twins cried out.

"Is this a new team thing?" Katie asked with a giggle.

Oliver chuckled.  "Sort of," he said while lifting his hand to show that he was wearing one.  "These are wand holsters.  You place your wand inside," he demonstrated by using his other hand to slip the wand into the holster.  The wand sank into the bracelet but did not show past the edge of the leather.  When it was snug, the tip of the handle barely showed.  "Then you can flick your wrist and it pops into your hand."  He demonstrated and the wand spun out into his hand.  "You can also set a word to activate it or use your other hand to take it out."

He smiled with relief at everyone's delight.  "I wanted us to be able to bring our wands with us when we fly.  Now if something hits the holster hard enough, it can still break so be careful and I doubt you want to wear it all the time.  But I feel like this is a useful thing to have in case.  My cousin is an Auror and they use things like this with fieldwork sometimes."

"You got Auror gear?" Alicia asked with wide eyes.

"Not quite.  These aren't the same standard as Auror gear but it's actually fairly common with lots of professions like those that work with magical creatures or curse breakers.  You typically don't need it for day-to-day stuff but it's handy."

The next few minutes involved everyone tying on their bracelet holsters and experimenting with securing their wands and summoning them out.  George almost poked himself in the eye while doing so, much to everyone's amusement.

"Thanks Captain!" Harry said.  He thought he might be embarrassed since Oliver did this to help him, he was sure, given what happened during their first game.  However, it was an incredibly useful gift and with the enchantments and how nice it felt, they could not have been cheap.

They high-fived with their bracelet hands.

"Glad everyone likes them," Oliver said.  "I was a bit worried that you all might not or be unhappy everyone got the same.  I did try to get different ones for everyone though."

"These are super cool," Angelina said as she summoned her wand to hand.  "I don't care at all that we all have one.  Makes it even cooler that we do."