Chapter 30: The Soul
After the quidditch game, Brandon and Gavin were swarmed as soon as they got to the Slytherin common room. All the Slytherins had gathered in order to welcome the champions who led their team to glory.
Gavin and Brandon were immediately hoisted into the air by some of the Slytherin boys while the rest of the Slytherin students cheered at the top of their lungs. Estelle and Daphne were there too, cheering along. They were ecstatic and eager to welcome the champions.
'Victory sure tastes good.' Gavin chuckled inwardly as he was hoisted in the air. He had never experienced anything remotely like this; it felt absolutely exquisite and he couldn't help but grin widely, reveling in the bliss of being hailed…
***
~20th of December, 1991.~
Weeks quickly went by and before Gavin knew it, Christmas was already around the corner. The rest of the term had gone normally with nothing really worth noting.
Gavin and Brandon had become celebrities after the quidditch match and now, practically everyone knew about the two first years who were godly at quidditch.
Classes were pretty much straightforward for the quartet, with nothing out of the ordinary happening. Though now, Brandon had more or less become Gavin's homework boy due to the latter repeatedly failing bets he made intending to get Gavin to be the one to do it, much to his dissatisfaction.
Asides from that, the quartet had continued practicing in the empty classroom, polishing their dueling and spell casting skills. Brandon, Daphne and Estelle had improved a lot compared to a month before, much to Gavin's satisfaction.
Gavin didn't plan on fighting Voldermort alone so he needed them to be adept at dueling so they could protect themselves and lend him a hand when he needed one.
As for Gavin, he had yet to start his training for the U17 International Wizard Dueling Competition. Dumbledore had said he would commence training with the current team once the new year began.
Gavin's research had seen very little progress. He simply could not find an alternative way to sense magical energy precisely and it was frustrating him.
So, for the past month, he had been focusing on fleshing out the details of the theories of The Magic Series Codex, simply because he had nothing else to work on regarding it.
Gavin had also told Aelia about the return of Voldemort after Halloween, which shocked her. Aelia had heard about the dark lord when he was active during the first wizarding war and thought that he perished when he went after the Potters.
Gavin even showed her proof that he existed by bringing her to the great hall during breakfast to sense the additional magical energy fluctuations Quirrell was emitting. Even without sensing the fluctuations, Aelia could clearly feel the presence of another soul on Quirrell…one she described as ghastly sinister.
Honestly, Aelia could easily kill Quirrell and Voldermorts remnant soul at the moment, but doing so would be extremely counterproductive if anything. Firstly, she wouldn't actually 'kill' Voldemort because he still had all his horcruxes and secondly, it would hinder the golden trio's growth, which was the last thing Gavin wanted.
Gavin wanted to make the golden trio significantly stronger than in the plot, just in case the current Voldemort was more powerful than he was prior to Gavin's reincarnation.
He planned on doing so by showing them how weak they were through experience; he mused that once he showed them and suggested to them to train more, they would actually listen and do it themselves, especially Harry and Ron. Gavin didn't want to train them himself because it was too much work, and he already had a lot on his plate.
Plus, he wasn't that much of a saint. The only reason he even bothered was because he would feel guilty if his favorite characters in the entire series died all of a sudden when he could've easily prevented that.
Additionally, Gavin had asked Aelia questions about the first wizarding war because he didn't know how his family played into the plot. He wondered if his parents joined the order and fought against Voldemort.
However, this was not the case according to Aelia. Aelia said Evan hated Dumbledore with every ounce of his soul and vehemently refused to join the order, even when one of his best friends, James Potter, persuaded him.
Apparently, Evan absolutely abhorred dark wizards in general and wanted absolutely nothing to do with Voldemort at the time, so he simply ensured his family's safety, stifled all of Voldemort's attempt to recruit the Everharts, and stayed on the Island.
This greatly surprised Gavin as he found it hard to reason why his father hated Dumbledore so much. It didn't really surprise him that Evan simply decided to stay out of the entire showdown because it was within Evan's character.
Evan had a split personality; on one hand he's the greatest joker on the planet and appeared laid back and chill every time he spent time with his family and friends and on the other hand he turns extremely serious, stoic, and ruthless about things regarding the family's safety and well being, something that Gavin mused was probably because he was the last Everhart for quite some time.
It was probably a heavy burden for him since if he died, the Everharts would go extinct, with all his ancestors' hard work and legacy getting snuffed out.
Additionally, Sophie actually wanted to secretly support Voldemort and join his army, which didn't surprise Gavin too much. Gavin had long known that his mother was subtly pro-pureblood; something that was most likely due to her upbringing.
Gavin asked Aelia why she wanted to do so and Aelia said that it was because she was constantly trying to impress her mother and prove herself to her for nearly all her life, only stopping once she had Cass.
In her eyes, if she could do what her mother couldn't then she would be better than her and make her proud.
Gavin also asked Aelia if his mother did anything to support Voldemort, but Aelia said she didn't because of her love for Evan. Sophie didn't want to jeopardize their safety and happiness just for her own selfish personal gain.
With all this information, Gavin now had a clear idea on how much his family affected the plot of the story, bringing us to the present.
Currently, it was breakfast and the quartet were all seated on the Slytherin table in the great hall, which was mostly full today, more so than usual.
Gavin was reading a book on Ancient Runes that he obtained from the Everhart library, Daphne was doing homework, Brandon was eating his breakfast, and Estelle was reading a book on soul magic that she borrowed from the library.
"The soul is a really interesting thing." Estelle suddenly said, putting down her book and furrowing her eyebrows.
"Hmm? How so?" Daphne responded, dropping her quill and facing Estelle. Brandon also stopped eating and turned to face her.
Estelle looked at Gavin, who was still reading his book, frowned slightly and replied somewhat disappointedly, " Well, for starters it's completely intangible but apparently connects both magic and bloodline together. It sounds weird and contradictory right? It's not even physical yet it connects things so important."
"Yeah, it does sound a bit weird." Daphne replied, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Connects magic and bloodline?" Branon asked, seemingly interested.
"Yes, the book states that the three are all interconnected though it doesn't go into too much detail on how, which is to be expected since it's just an introductory book. It just says that the soul affects everything about a wizard and is the nexus of humans and the supernatural."
Gavin suddenly flinched, put his book down abruptly and looked at Estelle with slightly wide eyes, startling the others.
"Say that again '' he said hastily, his mind starting to revolve rapidly.
"T-The s-soul a-affects everything about a wizard and is the nexus of humans and the supernatural." Estelle stuttered, her head feeling jumbled and fuzzy at the sight of Gavin's face and sudden focus on her.
'Fuck, I'm an Idiot! How could I not have seen that, of course!'
Gavin thought, elated at this discovery. He was extremely excited because he had just found a way to overcome the roadblock of obtaining the Eyes of Truth. He finally had a direction to go and couldn't wait to experiment on it.
He mused that the way to obtain those supernatural eyes was through the soul. His griffin powers originated via a soul connection so if he could get that, what was stopping him from obtaining Aelia's eye abilities?
Though, Gavin speculated that there was probably some requirement to obtain a physical trait through the soul connection. Nonetheless, Gavin was sure it was possible and was ready to do anything to obtain those eyes.
"You alright mate?" Brandon asked, somewhat worried upon seeing Gavin freezing after hearing what Estelle said.
Gavin immediately snapped out of his thoughts and coughed lightly.
"Yeah, was just thinking about something, don't worry about it." He replied, smiling brightly.
Estelle's gaze was glued to his face the entire time, secretly hoping he would look at her again.
"Right I see. Thanks for the information Estelle, it certainly is interesting." Brandon then said, turning to face Estelle.
Estelle snapped out of her reverie and replied, " Yeah, it's nothing."
"By the way, do you guys have anything planned for Christmas?" Daphne suddenly asked, looking at everyone
Brandon was the first to reply, "Yeah, me and my mum are going to America to visit my father and other family members. I'm quite excited for it, I've never been outside Britain, d'you know what I mean?"
Gavin smiled, "Yeah I know what you mean, it's probably going to be fun." he said.
"Yep. What about you guys? Got anything interesting happening?" Brandon then asked, looking at the others curiously.
"Well, I'm probably just going to go back home, nothing too interesting. Though I'm excited about seeing my sister again, I miss her." Daphne chuckled and replied, a soft smile visible on her beautiful face.
Brandon, Gavin and Estelle hummed in affirmation.
"And you Estelle?" Brandon then turned to the emerald eyed girl and asked,
"Well, I'm probably just going to stay at Hogwarts. No way I'm going back to that hell hole of a home." She scoffed and said, subconsciously glancing at Gavin to see if he was paying attention to her. She also inwardly hoped that Gavin would be staying at Hogwarts as well, so they could spend Christmas together.
"Right, I'm sorry about that by the way. Must suck." Brandon said sympathetically.
Estelle just smiled, "It's fine. I don't care anyways."
She then turned to face Gavin and asked eagerly, "What about you Gav? You got any plans?"
"Yeah I think I'll also stay at Ho–" Gavin was replying when an owl suddenly swooped over his head and dropped a letter right in front of him. Gavin raised his eyebrows as soon as he saw it because it had the Everhart family crest on it.
"Sorry, one moment please." He said to his friends as he opened it curiously, intending to read what lay within it.
The letter read:
My Dearest Son,
How are you Gav? Are you taking care of yourself? I hope you're not getting into any funny business. I heard from your brother that you beat him in quidditch, congratulations for that. You should've seen your father, he was laughing loudly and kept saying 'That's my boy!'. It was rather comical, you know.
By the way, I discussed your request with your father, and he agreed to it, thankfully. So, we'll be spending our Christmas in France so you and your brother can meet your grandparents. Frankly, I'm quite elated at this because I've been meaning to show you guys to my father and mother, especially mother because she kept asking. So, thank you for the opportunity, your father would probably not have agreed if I were the one to ask him. He and my parents don't quite get along, you see.
Enjoy the rest of your term. I'll see you back home. I love you.
Love,
Sophie Marie Everhart.
Gavin smiled warmly as he read the letter. It seems like there would be a change of plans. Thus, he raised his head to look at his friends and said brightly,
"Lads, change of plans. It seems I'll be going to France this Christmas…"
~.~.~
A/N: Fleur Delacour looks posted in Character looks.
Plan to pair her with our boy Cassius.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone