Their classes also continued to progress. In Potions, Professor Sharp had moved them beyond basic remedies to more complex brews. Rowan had brewed a perfect Sleeping Draught, a serviceable Forgetfulness Potion, and was currently working on a Wiggenweld Potion that Sharp had deemed "acceptable, though the color suggests slight overcooking during the final phase."
In Transfiguration, they'd progressed from matches to needles, then from stones to buttons, and were now attempting to transform beetles into buttons. Living to inanimate transfiguration.
"Living things have a natural resistance to transfiguration," Professor Weasley explained. "Their magic fights against the change. You must overcome that resistance with superior will and precision. Fail, and you'll create something neither beetle nor button. A half-transformed monstrosity that will need to be destroyed."
Rowan's first attempt resulted in a button with legs that scuttled around his desk until Professor Weasley vanished it. His second attempt produced an inanimate button, but one that occasionally twitched as though remembering it had once been alive. His third attempt, after careful analysis of what went wrong, resulted in a perfect button. Completely transformed, no trace of the beetle remaining.
"Five points to Ravenclaw." Professor Weasley examined the button, turned it over, and set it down without further comment. She moved on to the next student.
In Charms, Ronen had introduced them to the Mending Charm, the Unlocking Charm, and the Severing Charm. Rowan pretended to learn the Unlocking Charm for the first time and focused his real effort on the Severing Charm, whose applications in dueling interested him more than Ronen's curriculum suggested.
On the last day before Christmas break, Rowan sat with Iris, Edmund, and Celeste at lunch, discussing their holiday plans.
"I'm going home to Manchester," Iris said. "My parents want to see me. I think they're hoping I've become... normal again. Or at least less frightening."
"Give them time," Edmund advised. "My mother says Muggle parents often need a few years to adjust. By the time she started Hogwarts, my grandmother had gone from terrified to merely concerned."
"I'm staying at Hogwarts," Rowan said when they looked at him. "I have no family to visit, and the castle will be quieter without most students here. It'll be a good time to study."
"You're going to spend Christmas studying?" Celeste asked, incredulous. "That's depressing even for you."
"I'll take breaks. Perhaps explore parts of the castle I haven't seen yet. The Forbidden Forest, maybe."
"The Forbidden Forest is forbidden," Iris pointed out.
"Hence the name, yes. But I'm curious about what's in there. Magical creatures, presumably. Plants that don't grow anywhere else. Knowledge that isn't in any books."
"And things that will eat you," Edmund added. "Werewolves, Trolls, who knows what else."
"I'll be careful."
They finished lunch and parted ways. Edmund to pack for his trip home, Celeste to help her housemates with a prank they'd planned for the last day of term, Iris to the library to finish a last essay.
Rowan returned to Ravenclaw Tower alone, already planning how to spend his Christmas break productively.
That evening, as most of the school prepared to leave the next morning, Rowan sat in the increasingly empty common room with his Occlumency book open, reviewing the more advanced techniques he'd not yet attempted.
Iris found him there an hour before curfew.
"I wanted to say goodbye properly. And to thank you."
"For what?"
"For teaching me Occlumency. For trusting me enough to practice Legilimency together. For..." She paused. "For being my friend. Real friend, not just someone who tolerates me because we share a house."
"You make it easy to be your friend," Rowan said honestly. "You're intelligent, hardworking, and you actually care about learning rather than just getting good grades. Those qualities are rarer than you'd think."
She smiled, then pulled something from her bag. A small wrapped package.
"I got you something for Christmas. Don't open it until the day of."
"I didn't get you anything," Rowan admitted, feeling guilty.
"You've given me plenty already. Knowledge, confidence, friendship. Those are better than any physical gift." She stood. "I'll see you after the break. Try not to get eaten by whatever's in the Forbidden Forest."
"I'll do my best."
After she left, Rowan sat alone in the common room, the wrapped gift in his hands.
He wasn't used to receiving presents. The orphanage hadn't celebrated Christmas beyond a slightly better meal, and he'd never had friends who might give him gifts.
He set it carefully in his trunk, making a mental note to get something for Iris during the break.
Then he returned to his studies, already planning the experiments and explorations he'd undertake in the quiet castle.
Christmas at Hogwarts would be a working holiday.
And that suited him perfectly.