Have a Very Merry Christmas

Of course, she had to take a bath before bed. Though magic made the task very convenient, soaking in a warm bath was a rare pleasure in itself, especially when the bathtub was a truly magical one.

Evita sat in the tub, trying hard to blow the bubbles floating on the water. Soon, she grew bored of that too. She put on thick pajamas, drank a whole glass of warm milk, wiped her mouth, and climbed into bed with a very soft carrot plushie. She pulled the equally thick blanket over herself and was fast asleep in no time.

The firewood crackled in the fireplace, sending up tiny sparks now and then. Outside the window, fine snowflakes began to drift down, followed by heavy snow, and everything grew quiet.

Lily stood in the doorway, watching the sleeping girl, her cheeks growing rosy and her blanket tucked neatly around her. A faint smile appeared on Lily's face, and she gently closed the door.

"Sirius, Remus, and I have decided something," James said in a low voice. "When Evita goes to Hogwarts, we're going to give her two gifts."

Lily, who knew her husband very well, raised an eyebrow. "You're already planning to encourage Weiwei to break school rules? James, do you want her to become a naughty child who loses points for her house every day? Like you used to?"

"Of course not. I'm sure she'll put those two things to unparalleled use," James said confidently. "There are plenty of ways to avoid losing points, and I'd be delighted to teach her. Besides, she's been using magic all over the place before she's even eleven, and she hasn't been caught."

"I really hope Weiwei never needs any of that," Lily said. "I don't trust your teaching, dear. It's as absurd as teaching a Troll to write."

James looked hurt. Dejected as a rain-soaked large dog, he said, "I don't suppose all those secret passages I explored over seven years were completely useless, were they?"

"That's true." Lily laughed. "I wonder if those passages have been discovered after all these years, though. Filch was always eager to punish students who broke the rules."

"Speaking of secret passages, I still remember that day." James looked up at the ceiling. "Padfoot and the others and I had just come out of one when we looked up and saw you, just like this."

"Lily," he said sweetly, "the way you showed me no mercy was quite charming."

Lily rolled her eyes and said irritably, "Clearly, you've completely forgotten why I took points from you. Professor Slughorn and I happened to be passing by, and those heads popping out of nowhere nearly scared him into St. Mungo's!"

James, who remembered only the sight of Lily looking down at him, scratched his head foolishly.

Ha ha, I don't remember that at all. So why was Professor Slughorn passing by then?

"Because the exit of that passage was right on the way to Professor Slughorn's office," Lily said, exasperated and amused. "And it was the only way there."

"I see." James scratched his head again. "We hadn't finished making the Marauder's Map at the time, but Evita will definitely be able to avoid that sort of thing."

Lily thought for a moment. "...That's true."

I hope Weiwei knows where to draw the line, even with James and the others encouraging her. At least, I hope she doesn't get expelled, she thought seriously.

Evita knew nothing of Lily and James's conversation. She slept until noon the next day, then curled up in her warm blankets and opened the system, still bleary-eyed.

First came the animals' statuses. As far as she could see, everything was a promising green. They were all healthy and thriving.

At present, she had twelve types of Fantastic Beasts in all, their danger ratings leaping straight from ×× to ×××××. The range was so vast that even the Ministry of Magic would have declared this girl unfathomable and destined for great things.

Though raising a group of Fantastic Beasts that depended on her was a pleasure, it wasn't without its worries. For instance, what if they started fighting without warning? They weren't all Puffskeins that knew only how to be cute, but first-rate ferocious beasts.

For that reason, Evita had set aside a separate area for the mild-tempered animals, putting the Nifflers, Bowtruckles, Mooncalves, and Golden Snidgets together, among others. She had also furnished it with different settings.

The dangerous animals, which were highly territorial and needed plenty of space, were separated and kept in environments suited to them.

The space contained automatic feeders, automatic cleaning machines, and a whole range of other high-tech devices Adele had tinkered together to provide for the animals. There were no automatic petting or playmate machines, however, because Evita herself fulfilled those two functions.

She didn't need Galleons to run, and there was no need to worry about potentially high maintenance costs. She herself was the chosen worker all along.

Evita shuddered, drew a sharp breath, and continued looking through the system.

It had been nearly eleven years since she transmigrated, yet she had completed only one task. After moving to Godric's Hollow, she had triggered the task of saving Lily and her husband on Halloween, and received an entire vault.

How had Adele managed to be so generous? Was it because she was a system? After spending so long with Adele in human form, Evita had no idea what she did as a system, much less when the next task would be triggered...

After reviewing the system, Evita rolled around twice with her blanket before reluctantly getting out of bed. Compared with her early bedtime and early rising on the first day she stayed over, she had now evolved to the point of not coming out until the afternoon.

Lily was playing with Harry in the living room. James, whose son had drained all his energy, lay slumped to one side. Looking somewhat dead inside, he said weakly, "Good afternoon, Evita."

"Good afternoon," Evita replied, running over to sit on the rug as well.

Nearly two years old, Harry could already speak quite fluently and recognize people clearly. Now, for instance, he realized that the person before him was the older girl next door whom he liked very much.

A little excited, he walked over with shining eyes and said, "Evita, play with me."

Evita innocently agreed. Playing with him should be easy... right?

She'd had no trouble playing with the red-haired children of the Weasley family, who were around her age, when she'd met them before.

Harry clapped his hands.

"Mummy bought me this car," he said earnestly, pointing at a toy.

"Okay, a car!" Evita chimed in cheerfully.

"It can go forward by itself," Harry explained.

"That's great!" Evita raised both hands and cheered.

"You can put blocks on it too." Harry picked up two blocks and set them on the car.

"That's so cool!" Evita gave him just the enthusiastic response he needed, without noticing James's sympathetic gaze.

Two hours later.

Evita lay facedown on the rug, her soul slowly drifting out of her mouth.

Little children are terrifying!