A Startling Gift

Xiwen slept until the sun was high in the sky before waking up.

Upon waking, a wave of hunger washed over his empty stomach, so Xiwen quietly slipped into the restaurant to find something to eat.

When he arrived at the restaurant, Xiwen was surprised to find that Sandrine had already gotten up before him and had arranged for the House-Elf to prepare a sumptuous lunch.

"Let's have some food first. After you finish eating, remember to show me your Animagus Transformation," Sandrine said happily. "Speaking of which, a thirteen-year-old Animagus, haven't you already broken the record for the youngest Animagus Transformation in the Wizarding World?"

"It seems... that really is the case." Xiwen suddenly realized that he had just turned thirteen last month, and for Animagus of that age was indeed quite extraordinary in the Wizarding World.

Of course, on his birthday last month, Xiwen was so engrossed in practicing Animagus that he completely forgot about it, and he didn't even notice Sandrine's birthday card until the next day...

Hearing a Xiwen look at Sandrine, and seeing that she didn't seem to care that he had forgotten to reply to her birthday card, he felt relieved and began to enjoy his sumptuous lunch.

After dinner, Sandrine couldn't wait to drag Xiwen to the courtyard, where the snow had been cleared, so he could demonstrate the Animagus Transformation.

Xiwen also wanted to test his Transformation further to see if there were any problems, so it was perfectly acceptable.

Standing in the center of the courtyard, Xiwen silently began to imagine his Transformation form according to the procedure. Immediately, his body changed drastically, turning into a small blue-purple snake with wings and a bird's beak.

Sandrine circled the little snake, marveling at it.

"This snake's scales are quite beautiful, befitting my son's status!" She nodded with satisfaction, then asked curiously, "So, can your wings be used for flight?"

Hearing Sandrine's question through his bird-like vision and hearing, Xiwen couldn't help but marvel at how the witches from Slytherin truly weren't afraid of snakes like other people.

To answer Sandrine's question, Xiwen flapped his wings and activated the power of the Maledictus Blood Curse within his bloodline, successfully taking flight from the ground. He then circled around her in the air, vividly demonstrating his ability to fly to Sandrine.

Sandrine was very pleased with this, so after Xiwen returned to human form, she gave him a large Christmas present.

"Merry Christmas, son!" she said happily.

Xiwen smiled as he unwrapped the gift, finding inside a brand-new suit!

After showing Sandrine the Animagus Transformation, Xiwen went to the Christmas tree outside his room to look at the gifts his friends had given him.

However, as soon as he stepped outside the door, Xiwen's lips twitched involuntarily.

It turned out that the gifts under the Christmas tree had piled up into a small mountain, Xiwen doubted he could finish opening them even if he stayed up until midnight...

As for the reason for the large number of gifts, it's probably because Xiwen is now quite a prominent figure at Hogwarts. He is not only the top student in the entire year, but also Pure-blood of Sacred Twenty-Eight. Therefore, even many classmates who are not very familiar with him will choose to give him some gifts to try and get closer to him.

Xiwen couldn't say anything in this situation, so he could only give each of them a bag of candy he had bought in bulk as a return gift in a very perfunctory manner.

Similar to last Christmas, the Christmas gifts he received were remarkably consistent: mostly various kinds of books, as if they assumed that reading was Xiwen's only hobby...

Xiwen looked helplessly at the huge pile of flat, rectangular packaging bags, and could only skip over most of them, which he wasn't particularly interested in, and casually opened a few flat, rectangular packages from friends he was on good terms with.

Abraxas and Mobley's packages were still the newly released hardcover books on the market, not very useful, their only advantage being their high price. Gomez's gift, while not as valuable as theirs, was, like last year, more practical.

Miranda's gift was also in a flat, rectangular package, containing the next improved version of the Book of Spells, which immediately brightened Xiwen's dull mood.

Elshiona, who had taken a leave of absence from school to return home for treatment to alleviate the Blood Curse, gave Xiwen a thick letter as a gift. In the letter, she detailed her experiences and feelings about the Blood Curse -alleviating treatments she had undergone at home.

From her letter, Xiwen fully understood that the Blood Curse could not be alleviated by simple treatment.

The Blood Curse is a deeply rooted curse that resides in the bloodline of wizards. The Blood Curse passed down by the Greengrass family is known as the "Death's Curse" because of its powerful attachment and hereditary nature. It erodes the magic in the bloodline of wizards from a young age as their magical power grows naturally.

To alleviate these symptoms originating from the bloodline, wizards who have inherited the Blood Curse often need to learn a Bloodline Magic to enhance the magical power within their bloodline and thus strengthen their ability to resist the Blood Curse's erosion.

At the same time, the person carrying the Blood Curse will be restricted from using any kind of magic during the treatment process.

Because in daily life, a wizard's own magic power is usually used to defend against Blood Curse. Therefore, if there is a situation where magic power is depleted or weakened, the magic power may lose its ability to defend against Blood Curse, leading to a large-scale outbreak of Blood Curse.

Xiwen read Elshiona's letter, he slowly frowned, thinking of the Maledictus Blood Curse he had successfully tamed.

As Dumbledore had said before, the process by Xiwen tamed the Maledictus Blood Curse was not universally applicable, given the sheer number of coincidences he encountered, which were indeed extremely rare.

However, he also said that this rare method of taming with Blood Curse can at least be used as a reference, and perhaps one day it will be possible to promote it.

Xiwen sensed the power of the Blood Curse hidden within his bloodline and concluded that it was not merely a simple curse, but rather a unique magical power. After expelling the corrosive nature of the Blood Curse, the wearer could activate it at any time when wishing to utilize its power.

Moreover, Xiwen felt that this power was potentially more efficient than magic.

For example, the Animagus and Maledictus fusion Human Transformation that Xiwen just performed.

When he first started Transformation, he wanted to use magic alone to Human Transformation. However, when he used magic alone, he could only transform into an ordinary little animal. This Transformation animal had no magic in its body and could not even flap its wings to fly.

When Xiwen used the power of the Blood Curse, he could perfectly control the changes around him.

This manipulation isn't just about being adept at Human Transformation. Xiwen had a strong feeling that if he could learn to better control the power of the Blood Curse, he could even perform operations like partial body Transformation —that is, keeping the main human form unchanged and only transforming a part of the body into an animal form.

This kind of localized Transformation greatly enhances Xiwen's maneuverability, both in daily life and in combat. For example, he could conjure a pair of wings to fly whenever he wanted, which was even more convenient than using alchemical products that allowed him to fly; or he could create scales on his skin to block attacks in emergencies; or he could conjure snake venom glands to silently ambush his enemies...

If the Maledictus Blood Curse can be tamed, can the Greengrass family's Blood Curse also be tamed and utilized? And could the powerful Blood Curse, known as "the Death's Curse," possess even greater power?

Xiwen pondered for a while, but ultimately knew too little about Elshiona's family, so he couldn't come up with any clues.

However, he still wrote back to Elshiona, selectively telling her some things about taming the Blood Curse, and urging her to cooperate well with the treatment to alleviate the symptoms, assuring her that there would definitely be a solution to the Blood Curse in the future.

After finishing the letter, Xiwen summoned Jabi the owl, who had worked hard all day.

Jabi pecked Xiwen angrily, as if blaming him for giving him too much work and insisting on payment for his work!

So Xiwen had no choice but to feed him a few pieces of dried meat as a bribe, which finally satisfied him enough to send the letter out.

Then, Xiwen began to struggle through his pile of gifts, quickly unwrapping them.

He's increasingly feeling that being popular isn't necessarily a good thing...

While unwrapping the gifts, a small package caught Xiwen's attention.

The package was less like Christmas gift wrapping and more like a tattered rag bag picked up from somewhere. It was extremely flimsy, and didn't even have the sender's name written on it. Only two words and two single letters were written in black ink on the worn bag, "Merry Christmas, SS".

The two words were written in very messy handwriting and looked somewhat familiar, but Xiwen couldn't quite place whose handwriting it was.

So he didn't bother thinking about it anymore and used a clever Severing Charm to cut the tattered bag open, intending to see what was inside and whether it was worthy of such "unique" packaging.

Xiwen reached out and pulled an oval-shaped metal object covered in runes from the packaging.

However, when he saw the object, his pupils couldn't help but shrink, and an extremely strong sense of horror suddenly surged into his heart!