“Oh hey Olivia! By the way, how’s the Clinic going? I heard that Balthazar’s been able to cure a lot of people in the last few months.”
“Yes, yes he has,” Olivia said happily as she shifted on the couch where she sat next to Ginny, “Remember that werewolf pack where you found me? I managed to get all of them priority spots on the list. All five hundred of them finished converting just two months ago. Even with how fast Balthazar goes, the list just keeps getting longer and longer. It’s worldwide news, the Ministry had to create a whole new type of visa just for international werewolves coming in to come get treated at the clinic.”
“I never thought I’d end up enjoying being a glorified door greeter, but I kinda do,” Olivia continued, “I just walk around the lobby and explain to the werewolves what the clinic does and not to be scared of it, reassure them that it’s not all a trick you know. There’s a big mural of me as a wolf-kin in the lobby behind the main desk now… Kinda embarrassing to be perfectly honest. I look like I’m in one of those old war posters with my sleeves rolled up and looking into the middle distance and everything in my wolf-kin form…”
“You are kind of famous,” Ginny joked, “Why shouldn’t they make a big mural of you there?”
“It just feels like… too much, you know?” Olivia complained, “I just sat on my butt and got treated first. Balthazar and Sirius are the ones that deserve all the credit. Mostly Balthazar. I was just someone that got lucky.”
“I’m sure you look much prettier for the mural than Sirius would,” Ginny said, “I’ve got to see it now, it sounds like it makes you look very heroic.”
“Gah! I know,” Olivia said, “You know what’s the worst part? The big heroic mural actually makes my job way easier. The werewolves trust me a lot more when they can see me in my wolf-kin form on the wall and know what I look like when I’m… one of them I suppose. And they figure that since I’m big on the wall that I must be somebody important that they should listen to. I really thought that I’d just be an Auror after graduation, not whatever I am now.”
“C’mon!” Ginny said, “Tell me that you would have liked being an Auror more than what you’re doing now? Maybe you were made to be a healer. Did you just want to hex people? Was that it?”
“Noooooo,” Olivia said, “Not… that wasn’t all of it. Plus, I get to hex plenty of people in the clinic. Werewolves are an aggressive lot, you’ve got to show some of them who’s boss if they try to get up in your face about something. Mostly people who think they can intimidate me to get a better spot in line.”
“What? They really do that? Just threaten you in front of everybody to get a better spot?”
Olivia shrugged, “The spots are valuable. Really valuable. Almost every werewolf out there in the world wants the treatment and there’s only one clinic. I don’t deal with that luckily. That’s all Sharon’s department. She’s no nonsense, any funny business and somebody gets completely booted from the list and put to the end of the line. It’s a very long line by now, it’s a pretty serious threat she’s wielding there.”
“Huh. Let’s get back to the important part though. You really just wanted to be an Auror because you thought that they would be fighting and casting spells at people all the time?”
“Shush! Don’t put words in my mouth, I never said that. Plus, what does it matter anyways? I like where I’m at right now either way.”
Ginny nodded sagely, “Of course. Of course. You get to be all nice to people, and then when they get out of line… Bam! You hex them just like you did to Preston.”
Olivia grinned, “Something like that. Being the Ravenclaw Prefect was a pretty good practice run.”
“Hey, when do you think you’ll be getting your first statue?” Ginny asked, “I wonder if they’ll put you in the Ministry building somewhere.”
“I’m not getting a statue,” Olivia said firmly, “I don’t deserve anything like that.”
“That’s what someone who deserves a statue would say…” Ginny teased, “Maybe you should write some books like Lockhart.”
Olivia got a glint in her eye and smiled slightly, “Don’t compare me to that hack. I doubt he did even half of the stuff in his books. Don’t even, or you’re going to get it.”
“You’re right,” Ginny said, “You won’t be Lockhart. You’ll be better than Lockhart! You’ll write twice the number of books! Heroic Olivia going through the villages and saving the handsome local village boys from the jaws of the monsters with all their shirts half ripped off and stuff!”
“Why you!” Olivia said, “I warned you!”
The older girl leapt forward and before Ginny could stop her had her trapped in a headlock. Olivia took her other fist and started rubbing it furiously on the top of Ginny’s head, causing her hair to stick up all over the place.
“Hey, hey! Stop it!” Ginny said even as she giggled slightly, “I’m just joking, joking.”
Olivia released her and Ginny leapt up to escape before taking a few steps away. Ginny struck a heroic pose like she imagined Olivia’s mural would look like.
“I am Olivia Roberts!” Ginny said in a deep voice, “Princess of the wolf-kin! I fight in the name of justice and honor! To protect the innocent and push back the monsters of the night!”
“Stop it!” Olivia said, jumping up and starting to run after Ginny, “C’mon!”
“Let’s go, my loyal and trusty companion Ginny!” Ginny said through her suppressed giggles as Olivia chased her all around Sirius’ house, dodging around the bemused adults scattered about as they ran.
“Onto the next village!” Ginny shouted as Olivia was about to catch her, “I, Olivia Roberts, shall save you with the power of the noble wolf within and the power of love and friendship both!”
Olivia reached Ginny and grabbed her and got her in a headlock again and started messing up her hair more.
“I’ll show you a hero, you little drama queen!” Olivia said through her own laughter. Ginny slipped out of Olivia’s grip and continued to flee even as she puffed out her chest and tried to act heroic.
“Betrayal! Betrayal! I, princess of the wolf-kin, Olivia, shall have to go ahead alone. So many cute village boys in danger, so little time to go save them! We’ll have to split up from here, my trustworthy and loyal companion, Ginny!”
Now even the adults were watching on and laughing at their antics, Olivia’s cheeks and neck flushed a deep red from embarrassment as she chased Ginny and missed her grabs for her. Ginny was fit, and she was just barely able to stay ahead while shouting more heroic catchphrases the whole way.
“Why, I defeated the snorlack rumpleskin with a single howl! Thing was frightened off by my mere reputation!” Ginny said, doing her best to channel what she imagined Lockhart might say about his books.
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“And then…”
Ginny reached a doorway and ran through, only to run into something hard and bounce off.
“Ooooff,” She said as the air was driven out of her lungs and she fell back onto her butt on the floor. She looked up and saw Balthazar standing there peering down at her from the doorway.
“Oh, sorry Balthazar,” Ginny said. Olivia came to a stop just behind Ginny and reached a hand down by the back of Ginny’s neck and reached under her long red hair running down her back. With a flick of her arm, Olivia flipped Ginny’s hair up and over Ginny’s head so it drooped down at the front and covered her face.
Ginny blew out some air from her mouth to clear her vision and then reached up and flipped her hair back over.
“Thanks, Olivia,” Ginny said sarcastically, calming down from her giggling state and feeling a little calmer now.
“That’s what you get, impersonating such a famous hero like me, you little rascal,” Olivia said cheerfully.
Ginny looked up and saw that Balthazar was hesitating as he looked at her for some reason. After another second he leaned down slightly and reached out his hand.
“Would you like a hand up, Ginny?”
“Oh,” Ginny said as the moment of tension broke, “Sure, thanks. Sorry about bumping into you.”
Balthazar’s big red hand wrapped around Ginny’s own and lifted her to her feet. She released his hand and turned to Olivia.
“Is it time for cake yet? I’m feeling cake after all that running.”
“Me too. Mhhmmmm. But your hair’s a mess, you should really get on that,” Olivia replied with a smirk.
“Grrrrrr.”
Ginny turned back to Balthazar, “Oh, and I told Dad and Sirius to get double the cakes so that you could have as much as you wanted. I noticed that last time you seemed to really like them.”
Balthazar looked rather startled at the revelation.
“I know! I can’t believe they didn’t already know! You ate a lot of it last time, I thought they would have noticed. But I told them, so it’s all fine, you’ll get a whole cake to yourself if you want it.”
“Well, that’s… Thank you, Ginny,” Balthazar said, “That’s very thoughtful of you.”
“Oh, okay. You’re welcome I guess. You don’t have to eat it all, I’m sure piggy Olivia over here will have some extra if you put it in front of her. Now, C’mon. Let’s go, we’ve got some cake to eat!”
“When have I ever been piggy? You’re just making that up!”
Ginny and Olivia began walking over to the kitchen with Balthazar following after them a second later.
“Oink oink. Piiiiggggyyy Olivvviiiaaa!”
Ginny was having a lot of fun just goofing around and being immature with Olivia as they started bickering goodnaturedly as the cakes were taken out and started being passed out to everyone. Olivia felt like the cool older sister that Ginny had never had.
Olivia was practically adopted by Sirius by now even if no one quite called it that. The two of them had seemed to quietly accept that kind of father/daughter dynamic even if no one had commented on formalizing anything with paperwork just yet.
Everyone filtered in as the cake started getting passed out. It was Sirius, Dad, then the Anverts and Adams’. Alexa and Jack’s parents had been remarkably accepting of Balthazar after their initial shock in seeing him.
“Nearly scared the pants off of me!” Mr. Adams had said, “Ah, but all this magic stuff is all so strange to me either way. May as well go along with it when I meet somebody looking as strange as you, Balthazar. Finding out that our little Alexa had magic of all things was a bigger shock to us than that.”
Alexa and Jack had returned from where they had been exploring Sirius’ house again.
“Oh hi Balthazar,” Alexa said, “Sorry, could you pass me one of the plates?”
Balthazar blinked, but then pointed a finger and two plates lifted out of the stack and floated over to hover just in front of Alexa and Jack.
“Thanks, Balthazar!” Alexa chirped as she and Jack grabbed the offered hovering plates. The two of them got in line for cake, seeming to both already having already forgotten what had just happened.
They all had cake. It was very good. Balthazar ate the whole portion they had reserved for him. It seems that he really did like it.
Actually, he had really liked the big dinner they’d had an hour ago too. Maybe he just really liked food, and it was only the sweets last time that had turned him off a bit? Should she have gotten him food instead? Maybe he wouldn’t like her gift for him…
Time passed, and it was getting late and it was almost time for all of them to start heading home.
“Dad, do you have the thing?” Ginny asked, “Where’d you put it?”
“I’ll get it real quick. Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone’s leaving just yet,” Dad assured her. He went into the house and after a few minutes returned with a little box wrapped in colorful paper with a red bow holding it closed at the top. Dad handed it to her and she carefully accepted it, making sure not to rip the paper.
She turned around and saw that Mr. Anverts was staring at her.
“Oh? Ginny, what’s that?” He asked, “A gift?”
“Yes,” She said before turning to Balthazar who was awkwardly standing in the corner of the room even as he partially joined the conversation with a comment or two every once in a while.
“It’s for Balthazar,” She said, “I thought that since he wouldn’t be spending Christmas with any of us, I’d get him something. Well with my Dad’s help, but I picked it out.”
Ginny held up the box and Balthazar gingerly accepted it. He stared at it for a while without doing anything.
“You pull open the bow and take off the paper,” Ginny supplied as she realized the problem, “The gift is inside the box.”
“Oh, yes. Of course,” Balthazar said absently as he used one hand to unravel the bow in one motion before peeling back the wrapping paper. He opened the lid of the inner box and pulled out the object inside.
“It’s a magical snow globe,” Ginny said after Balthazar inspected the thing in his hand for over fifteen seconds without saying anything, “You shake it and it looks like snow is falling for a while. There’s a little man in there that goes around the fake town and helps people who are in trouble. There’s a cat stuck in the tree, somebody’s mail was in the street instead of at their door, helping an old lady cross the road… There’s a bunch of them in there, he only does a couple of the options each time. Dad helped me change it so the helpful man looks like you! I thought it would be perfect because of how much you’ve helped Olivia and me.”
Balthazar stared at the snow globe and watched the tiny Balthazar inside pick up a itty bitty newspaper and throw it to the door of the nearest house.
“Thank you,” He said softly, “I will treasure it.”
— — —
Balthazar sat in his room, staring at the snow globe still. He didn’t have to sleep, but he chose to now that he was back in a full realm with a real day night cycle. So here he sat on his bed with the fragile little snowglobe between his hands, watching the little figurines inside move.
He must have watched the pre-programmed little loops a thousand times by now. Its enchantment was simple, fragile. The movements of the figurines in the enchanted object were simplistic and rigid. Yet he couldn’t look away. Was this how Ginny, how all of them saw him? Like this man in the snow globe?
Balthazar looked around his room to all of his war trophies and enchanted objects and weapons that were priceless, one of a kind on this world. Balthazar stood up from the bed and took a few steps forward. There in the center of his mantle was an open place. Amidst all the world shaking weapons, amidst enchantments that would have made master enchanters weep with joy just for having seen them, amidst all the trophies of hard fought victories in his battles for Teregatt…
There in the middle of all, Balthazar carefully placed the snowglobe in the central place of honor. The first true heartfelt gift he’d ever received since… ever since the death of his love.
He watched the snow globe on the mantle as the snow inside began to settle back to the bottom and the figurines inside all returned to their starting positions for the enchanted animation sequence.
How could he do it? Did he even want to anymore? Waste all of his work? Stop himself from taking one little girl's life after the mountains of bodies he'd created in the past? He hated this sudden indecisiveness in himself. It was unlike him. But the internal struggle could only continue with no answer still. Oh, why couldn’t it have been Eric? It would have been so much easier to decide with him. The last in a long line of petty tyrants...
Balthazar settled into his bed and closed his eyes to drift off to sleep. The images in the snow globe plagued his dreams.
Was that man in the globe the real Balthazar?
Or merely a figment of imagination to be discarded when it became inconvenient?
Who was the man that Balthazar wanted to be?