Harry Potter: The Ring Maker

Chapter 541: Uncomfortable peace

Besides that however Nick found it almost uncomfortable how there was nothing threatening in the background of this year. Sure Grindelwald will probably end up completing his grand ritual by the end of the year but Nick had known about that for years now and had been preparing for it based on what he knew. He had even discarded his mortality almost entirely since he knew about the return of the gods and how Zeus was most likely going to clash with him heavily. There was no magical abomination or noseless freak in the background planning on causing trouble.-

It was just mundane problems like a socially stunted royal vampire and the Triwizard tournament. Speaking of the tournament Harry had already figured out the hint Nick gave him with the egg and was now trying to figure out the hint from the egg as well. Unlike in the canon however the hint in the egg wasn't so straight forward in pointing to the tasks challenges. No this time it was pretty damn cryptic with the exception of almost flat out revealing that Nick had something to do with the task.-

This had caused a headache in the form of the champions "secretly" spying on Nick to try and gleam anything about the task itself. 'Fine I guess I can throw them a bone just to get them off my back.' Nick thought a few days after the stalking started. The way he did this was by simply acting all secretive when he grabbed a book on treasure hunting in the library. He then set it back on the shelf upside down after appearing to read it for a few moments. Over the next two weeks he repeated this process as he copied the books in the library and worked on the last remaining chamber.-

The trick worked too as by the first of December all three champions had stopped shadowing him and were now scrambling to figure out the rest of the eggs hint. Harry had the frankly unfair advantage in the fact that he had Hermione helping him with it and that girl was nothing if not dedicated to scouring out information in the library and logicing her way through any troubles she has. Unfortunately for her quite a bit of the hint was purposefully misleading in order to throw off the champions.-

The night of December first however they all had other problems to deal with as Dumbledore announced the Yule ball to be held on the night of christmas starting at eight and ending at midnight. The professors had already told their students of the event so it hadn't caught anyone off guard when the old goat announced it. That said Ron was positively miserable as not only did he not have someone to ask to the ball at the moment but his dress robe was horribly outdated. They were this puffy frilly maroon set of robes that made Nick have a headache to look at.-

"You know I can have a tuxedo made up from you at Madam Malkins for the ball if you'd like or you can borrow one of my own suits after I get it retailored to fit you since our sizes aren't much different." Nick offered feeling bad for him. The twins had shelled out from their cash stash for their own set of ball apparel and thus Ron alone had to wear old hand me down robes. "Really!?" The red head perked up at the offer and Nick nodded. It honestly wasn't even that hard as after giving Madam Malkins his measurements the woman said she'd have it done within a week.-

On the fifth however Mina decided to show up in the library again to find Nick. "About a quarter done from the looks of it. Father might actually be jealous by the time you are done." she said offhandedly. "I assume you are here in regards to the Yule ball?" Nick asked calmly without looking up from the book he was copying. "One of these days you're going to tell me why I can't sneak up on you." She said with a pout after failing to get a reaction from him.-

"I have a very good sense of perception." Nick said with a smirk knowing that answer would only irritate her more. "So do you have a date yet for it?" she asked ignoring his vague answer. "I do not but I was planning on fixing that soon enough. She's a wonderful little blonde with a bubbly personality and is fun to be around." Nick said setting Mina up for a misunderstanding. "She sounds like quite the catch." Mina said with a pleased look as she took it hook , line and sinker. "Yes , Luna truly is a wonderful girl." Nick said with a wide grin as Mina stiffened.