AN- This took too long and is too short, and there's likely many flaws in it, but at least it came faster than the last chapter…
H/H FOREVER!
Bye!
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The rest of the day was spent "jazzing", as Hermione called it. Just lying around the common room talking, playing wizard chess (Harry was fascinated by the fact that the pieces could move and talk on their own), eating more sweets than was really healthy, and - at Hermione's insistence - scouring their schoolbooks for any mention of Nicolas Flamel.
The following days were spent in much the same manner. Ron just wanting to relax and forget about school and books, while Hermione insisted that they needed to use the free time while they had it to work on school assignments and to look for any mention of Flamel in the books in the library. As a result Harry was often forced to play peacekeeper, forcing the two to learn to compromise.
Sometimes though, Ron and Hermione's bickering was too much and Harry would go off by himself, letting the two yell until they tired of the argument.
While his two friends argued Harry would explore the castle, or spend time in the library, which was even quieter with so many students gone. He sometimes met students from other houses in the library; most often they were from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
The Ravenclaws usually just wanted to be left alone with their books, but were more than happy to help the boy-who-lived with anything he wanted to know when he asked them intelligent questions.
The Hufflepuffs that Harry met there were much - warmer people, and would often offer their help without being asked, or in the case of some first years, they would ask for Harry's help, which he never hesitated to give.
Harry was dismayed to find that nearly every Slytherin he saw, with one or two first years being the exceptions, would only glare at him, or just ignored him as if he were beneath them. Harry began to wonder just why it was that an entire house seemed to be so hostile. After all, the qualities that Slytherins were supposed to have were ambition and cleverness, not arrogance and aggression. He didn't worry about it much though as he wasn't in Slytherin.
Although Harry enjoyed talking to students from the other houses, he preferred spending time with Ron and Hermione, as they were the only ones who never stared at his scar as if it was more important than Harry himself was.
¿ <'}}}><
Going to bed on Christmas Eve, Harry was looking forward to the feast and all of the food that Hagrid had said the house elves were preparing, but the last thing he was expecting was to get any presents. As such it was a great surprise when he woke early in the morning and the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.
" Merry Christmas, Harry." Ron mumbled sleepily from his bed still rubbing sleep out of his eyes as Harry stared at his presents in confusion.
" I- I've got some presents." Harry stated.
Ron snorted.
" Well what did you expect?" he asked, " Turnips?"
Harry paused, wondering if he should tell Ron about the one year, when Grunnings had made a big business deal just before Christmas and….
< Naw, Ron would probably just get angry…>
" So - do we open them right now?" Harry asked, not really knowing what was usual procedure on Christmas morning as the Dursleys had almost always forced him to stay in his cupboard for most of Christmas.
Ron thought for a moment.
" Well, we can open most of them here, but we should probably open the ones we gave each other and the ones from Hermione in the common room with her." He decided.
Harry smiled widely and the two started opening their gifts.
Not knowing where else to start, Harry picked up the top parcel, which happened to be from Hagrid. Ripping open the thick brown paper he found a simple wooden flute that looked like Hagrid had carved it himself. Harry blew lightly across the hole and a pure note filled the room.
Harry would have liked to try actually playing a song, but there were other presents to be opened.
The next present was closer to what Harry would have expected if someone told him he was going to get a present. It was a letter from the Dursleys that read: We received your message and enclose your Christmas Present. Signed Mr. and Mrs. Dursley.
Inside the envelope was the only present Harry had ever received from the Dursleys - well, other than that turnip…
" Weird!" Ron exclaimed as he examined the fifty-pence piece. " This is money?"
" You can keep it if you'd like." Harry muttered, once again feeling something akin to hate towards the Dursleys, but he mostly felt only contempt for them now. In fact he almost pitied them and how they would never experience the excitement of diversity… almost.
Harry frowned at the remaining presents now. Not that he wasn't glad to get them, but who else would be sending him presents?
" So those were from Hagrid and the Dursleys." Harry said (he no longer mentioned the fact that they were related to him). " And those two are from me to you and Hermione…" he continued placing two other parcels aside. " Then who sent me these?"
Ron eyed the other two packages.
" I, uh - I think I know who that one is from." He said, and his face turned a bit pink. " You see, I told Mum that you didn't expect to get any presents and - oh no!"
Ron turned to face Harry, looking slightly horrified.
" She's made you a - a Weasley sweater™!" he whispered, as if it were a death sentence.
Harry frowned at Ron as he picked up the gift.
" What could be so bad about a sweater?" Harry asked.
" If it wasn't for Fred and George!" Ron blurted out, " Then, nothing, but those two always insist that every Weasley at the school wear them for the entire day." He shuddered. " You don't want to know what they do if they catch you without it on."
Harry smiled as he opened the present from Mrs. Weasley, wondering what prank the twins had pulled on Ron to make him dislike the sweaters so much.
Inside the wrapping Harry found a thick, hand-knitted, emerald green sweater and a box of homemade fudge.
" Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, " and mine's always maroon."
" That's really very nice of her," Harry said, trying a piece of the fudge " but why'd she make me one? I mean, I really appreciate it and all, but - well I'm not even related to you, and I've only met your mother briefly."
Ron smirked.
" If you knew my mum you'd understand. She may have only met you once, but all of the wizarding world knows - well, she knows what happened to your parents, and when she heard that you weren't expecting any presents from 'the Dursleys' - " Ron paused and his smile brightened. " Well you can expect to be treated like family now, so don't let her find out if you get in any serious trouble."
Harry turned to his last present and picked it up. It was very light. He unwrapped it and something fluid and silvery grey went slithering to the floor, where it lay in gleaming folds. Ron gasped.
" I've heard of those." He whispered, setting down a book about magical creatures he'd gotten from Hagrid. " If that's what I think it is - they're really valuable, and really rare!"
Harry frowned and picked it up.
" Well what do you think it is?" he asked as he unfolded the material.
It was an odd material. It felt like holding a piece of warm water that had been woven into cloth.
" It's an invisibility cloak!" gasped Ron, " I'm sure it is. Try it on!"
Harry tossed it over his shoulders, and Ron gave a shout.
" I was right! Look down!"
Harry did, and saw nothing. His feet were gone, though he could still feel them. He ran over to the mirror. All he saw was his head floating, and staring back at him. He flipped the hood of the cloak up and he disappeared from the mirror altogether; however, with the cloak over his head he could now see his feet if he looked down, but he still saw nothing when he looked in the mirror.
" Something fell out." Ron reported, looking in Harry's general direction with a confused look.
Harry took the cloak off and picked up the letter. It was written in a narrow loopy handwriting that he'd never seen before.
Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A very merry Christmas to you.
There was no signature on the letter, and Harry stood still for a moment staring at it, wondering who had sent it.
< My dad must have really trusted whomever sent this.> he thought.
" Wow." Ron said, interrupting Harry's thoughts. " We should go show this to Hermione!"
" Yeah, we should." Harry answered without hesitation. " And then we can give each other our presents as well."
Ron grinned.
" Why don't you try out your cloak?" he asked Harry with a wink. " Give Hermione a Christmas scare!"
Harry just smiled and slipped on the cloak, disappearing once more, along with his presents for Ron and Hermione.
Ron chuckled and grabbed two rather messily wrapped packages and headed to the common room. Harry followed silently behind him.
¿ <'}}}><
Hermione came down to the common room from the girls' dorm a moment after Ron had sat down, claiming the large armchair in front of the fire and smiling smugly at her.
Harry rolled his eyes at his friend, but smiled. He quickly sat down in the other armchair and waited.
" Where's Harry?" Hermione asked as she walked over to the fireplace.
" I'm not really sure," Ron replied truthfully, " but I'm sure he won't be long."
Hermione smiled.
" Well, he'll have to get his own seat when he gets here then." She said with a smirk as she sat down in the armchair.
" I've already got one, thanks." Harry said and wrapped his arms around her as she sat down on his lap.
Hermione shrieked and tried to jump back up, but Harry had pinned her to himself.
As soon as she shrieked Ron had started laughing, and by the time Hermione's breathing was back to normal he had collapsed onto the floor and had to drag himself back into his armchair.
" Harry?" Hermione asked in a shaky voice, " Don't ever do that again."
She turned to look at him as he loosened his hold on her. At least she tried to look at him, and her face actually was quite close to his, but the invisibility cloak did it's job perfectly and to both her and Ron it looked as though she was sitting on the air above the chair rather than on the chair itself.
" What…? Harry?" she asked, her smile turning to a confused frown. " Why can't I see you?"
< Books.> Harry thought. < She smells like cinnamon and books.>
" Hello? Harry, I know you're there now!" Hermione called poking his chest (only knowing where to poke because she was sitting on him).
" Sorry." Harry said hastily as he pulled back the hood of the cloak.
Ron nearly fell out of his chair again at the look of absolute surprise on Hermione's face when she saw Harry's disembodied head.
" Someone sent me an invisibility cloak." Harry explained with a small smile. " The note said it used to be my dad's. Stand up for sec so I can get this off?"
Hermione obliged and Harry pulled the cloak off and put it away in a pocket of his robe. Hermione immediately sat back down in the armchair, this time forcing Harry over so she could squish down into the space beside him.
" What're you doing?" Ron asked Hermione with an odd look now that he'd calmed down. " There are plenty of other chairs."
Having come from such a large family, and having spent most of his life forced to share close quarters with them, Ron couldn't understand why anyone would want to share a chair when there were many other's to pick from if you went to the trouble of moving them. On the other hand, Hermione was an only child and certainly didn't mind, and Harry had spent most of his life in forced isolation, both at the Dursleys' and at school. Even if Harry didn't realize it, he practically craved physical contact other than being punched or kicked.
" Yes." Hermione answered as if she was talking to a very small child, " but they're on the other side of the common room, and the whole point of Christmas is to be together with your friends."
She smiled at Harry as she said 'your friends.'
" Think fast, Ron!" Harry said, tossing a long, thin tube to Ron in hopes of ending any argument before it started.
Unfortunately, either Harry's aim was off, as he was pressed quite close to Hermione, or Ron just wasn't thinking very fast, and the end of the tube hit him in the middle of the forehead. Ron winced and glared at Harry for a moment, then at Hermione who was trying unsuccessfully to stifle a fit of giggles, before chuckling and tossing Harry a small cube, wrapped in paper that switched from being red to being green and back again.
" You first, Harry." Said Ron, indicating that Harry should open Ron's gift.
Harry pulled off the paper to reveal a plain brown box with the words 'Quality Quidditch Supplies' stamped on its lid.
Harry lifted the lid and something white shot up to hover an inch over the box. It was a snitch, but it was white and its wings seemed to be black rather than clear.
" It's a practice snitch." Ron explained. " I got mum to send it when you first made the team."
Harry grinned at Ron and pushed the ball back down into its box and replaced the lid.
" Thanks, Ron. It's brilliant. I don't know what to say."
Ron smiled.
" Just promise me you'll put in a good word for me when I try out for the team next year." He answered. " Here, Hermione, you next."
Ron tossed Hermione a package that looked suspiciously like a book.
Hermione opened it up and found-
" 'Twenty-One Charms and Spells for Accurate Note-Taking', by Mark Downing! Thanks so much, Ron!" Hermione exclaimed with obvious delight.
Harry smiled as he saw her hands twitch. He could tell she couldn't wait to start reading the book. His smile faded though as Hermione shifted against him. His stomach had started feeling… well he couldn't quite describe how it felt - while he was looking at Hermione.
< I've gotta go see Madame Pomfrey about this.> Harry thought to himself. < My stomach's been acting up now and again ever since I came to Hogwarts. Maybe I'm allergic to some of the magic around here. I know Madam Hooch found out that Neville's allergic to some of the magic used on the school brooms.>
After finally tearing her eyes from the book, Hermione handed packages to Ron and Harry. Ron's was shaped suspiciously like an extra large sized package of Every Flavour Beans, while Harry's was obviously a book.
" Go on and open them then." She told the two excitedly.
Harry waited for Ron to open his first. As Harry had thought it was a large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
" There's a temporary bottomless charm on the box so they should last quite a while." Hermione informed the grinning Ron. " Now you go, Harry."
Harry quickly pulled the wrappings off of his present to reveal the title, stamped in gold print.
111 Entertaining Charms and Spells, by Wanga Juju
" Wow." Was all Harry could say.
Hermione smiled happily.
" I know you're interested in how Ron's chess pieces were made to move and act partly on their own, and I know you like charms class, so I knew it was the perfect book to get you." Hermione explained. " I checked and the book explains all about the types of charms used to animate things, and how to perform the charms. It will be interesting to find out about, but I don't think you'd be able to do the charms for a few years yet. I couldn't even understand half of what I read in that part."
Hermione sounded rather vexed that she was unable to understand something that was written in a book.
" Thanks, Hermione." Said Harry, smiling. " I can't wait to read it."
Hermione smiled and gave him a hug.
" You're welcome." She said.
Harry turned to Ron.
" Now it's your turn." He told him.
Ron smiled and started tearing paper away to expose a cardboard tube. He looked in one end of the tube then reached in and pulled out what was obviously a rolled up poster. Ron unrolled it to reveal a Chudley Cannons poster.
" Thanks, Harry." He said. " But I've already got this one."
Harry smirked.
" I know. I asked Fred and George." Harry said. " I got copies of all of the posters the twins said you had in your room and got the owner of the store to combine them. You kept complaining that there wasn't enough room in the dorm to put up all of your posters so I got this one that will switch between all of the posters that were combined to make it. I figure it's the next best thing to having all of your posters from your room at home."
Ron and Hermione looked back at the poster and sure enough there was a different scene on the poster.
Ron laughed in delight.
" Wow! It's great! Thanks, Harry!" he exclaimed. " I didn't know you could do that with these."
" I'm glad you like it." Harry said. " Here, Hermione. This one's yours."
Hermione took the offered package from Harry and turned it over curiously. The parcel was wrapped in the same brown paper that Harry's gift from Hagrid had been. It wasn't very big, about the same size and shape of a small novel, but it was obviously not a book.
Hermione didn't waste any more time trying to figure out what Harry might have got for her and she ripped off the paper and opened the plain box, removing the gift inside. Unfortunately this didn't relieve her curiosity.
" Uh… Thanks, Harry, but - what is it?" she asked, holding up some sort of leather gauntlet.
Harry grinned at the looks on Ron and Hermione's faces. He hadn't actually expected them to know what it was. After all they were still first years and weren't used to having to carry their wands with them at all times.
" It's for your wand." Harry told them.
They looked at Harry, then back at the gauntlet that Hermione was trying to fit on her forearm, but the confusion never left their faces.
Harry smiled and rolled up the left sleeve of his green Weasley Sweater™ to reveal an identical gauntlet except that his was properly secured and his wand was sticking out of it.
" It's a lot like the one I have for my knife." Harry said.
" You have one for your knife?" Hermione asked in surprise.
" Sure, right here." He answered and rolled up the right sleeve.
Harry's knife was held in a similar gauntlet, except that the leather that covered the top of his arm had a piece of fine steel mail over it.
" Do you always have that on?" Ron asked. " I've never noticed it before."
Harry shrugged.
" Well I take it off to shower and when I sleep, but that's it."
" Huh, I did wonder what happened to your knife. Professor Dumbledore is letting you keep it then?" Hermione asked, still trying to fix the wand-sheath on her arm and Harry nodded.
" Now that I think of it I've never seen you carrying your wand to class either." Said Ron, " I guess that's why."
Hermione let out a sigh of frustration then thrust her arm at Harry.
" Show me how to put this on." She told him.
Harry smiled and obliged, showing her also how to put her wand in so that it wouldn't fall out when she swung her arms while walking.
" I figured that you would like this since you're always practising our spells and you usually have your wand with you." Harry said to her as he tugged a strap into place. " There you go, all set."
Hermione flexed her wrist, turning it this way and that and smiling.
" Thanks, Harry." She said. " I didn't like having to carry my wand everywhere I go, but don't yours get annoying or anything? I mean, you have them on all day."
" Not really." Harry smiled. " The inside of the leather gets pretty soft after you wear it for a day or so."
Ron laughed.
" It's just like you two to worry about having your wands with you. Personally I don't see why you'd take it with you if you're not going to use it." He said. " Like in potions class."
Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry just smiled. He wouldn't have expected any other response from his red-haired friend.
¿ <'}}}><
The rest of Christmas day was spent having fun. Harry had the time of his life learning from his friends what the holiday was supposed to be like.
The twins, who had slept late, had come down from the boys' dorm and immediately demanded that Ron get his sweater and put it on (they had already put theirs on).
When Ron came back down wearing his sweater the twins were grinning as they excitedly told Harry that he was now an official Weasley.
Christmas dinner was eaten in the Great Hall with all of the professors and students sitting at one enlarged table. Never in his life had Harry ever had such a Christmas dinner… of course thanks to the Dursleys he'd never had a Christmas dinner of any kind, but Harry didn't spend much time thinking about that, as there were plenty of other things to think about. The food itself looked so good that he almost didn't want to eat it - almost. All through the feast there were loud explosions as people opened the wizard crackers.
Harry had seen the usual muggle kind before, and there was no comparison. The muggle variety made popping noises and had paper hats and plastic toys, whereas the ones at this feast sounded more like cannons going off and inside were things like rear admiral's hats and live mice and many other things.
When Harry finally left the table, after narrowly losing to Ron in another eating contest, he was staggering under a load of things from the crackers, including a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit and a wizard's chess set. He had lost the mice from the cracker he and George opened and he had a feeling that Mrs. Norris would be having a nice Christmas feast herself.
The Weasleys, minus Percy, along with Harry, Hermione, and several other students had a furious free-for-all snowball fight that covered a large part of the grounds outside the castle. Some of the more merry professors even joined in, including Dumbledore himself, who proved to be much more energetic and agile then would be expected from someone even half as old as the students supposed he was (none of them were really sure just how old the man was and no one dared ask). Ron, Harry and Hermione all teamed up, protecting each other and pelting as many people as possible with snow.
Others saw that the trio was quite dangerous as a team and soon others joined together to form other teams. It quickly became a three-way fight between the two teams that had formed and the trio, as both teams had been formed to get back at them for being the first to team up.
Soon the trio was being pelted from two directions at once. Ron just stood in front of Harry and Hermione laughing as he tried to throw and dodge at the same time. Hermione was also laughing, but used Ron as a shield and flicked her wand at the snow in front of him. Harry wasn't sure, but he thought she'd used a controlled 'Wingardium Leviosa!' because all at once a huge pile of snow was forced up, making a nice sort of shield. Harry quickly used his own 'Wingardium Leviosa!' to pack the snow down when he saw that it was so soft that it was about to collapse.
Seeing the trio's 'fort', one of the twins (one was on each team) started shouting at the others on his team to do the same. Eventually there were three such walls of snow, although the trio's was the shortest in both length and height.
At first none of the teams seemed to be able to hit any of the others, and they all had fun popping up to throw a ball then ducking down again to avoid projectiles from their opposition.
" Cover me!" Harry suddenly told Ron and Hermione as he got an idea.
Harry then jumped up and threw his snowball, but let it fall just a little way in front of their wall. Once again he used the levitation charm, this time rolling the ball through the snow towards one of the other sides. All the while Ron and Hermione tried to throw balls at anyone who popped up, but they were running out of the snowballs they had already made.
Just as Ron threw the last of the ready made snowballs and scrambled to make some more, Harry flicked his wand upwards. His snowball, which was now as big around as Professor Flitwick was tall, followed the motion and flew up and over the wall that Fred's team was behind (or maybe it was George). The whole group was clustered together and looked up as one. Whichever of the twins was on that team tried to leap to the side, but was too slow.
Harry ended the charm and the ball fell. Fortunately it hadn't been tightly packed and it didn't hurt any of them, but they all began running around trying to get the snow out of their clothes (after climbing out of the pile of snow that was their fort.
Ron and Hermione tried to congratulate Harry on a brilliant idea, but they were too busy laughing to get any words out. Unfortunately they were also too busy to do more than look up when Harry yelled ' Look out!', and jumped to the side.
The third team had seen what Harry had done with his snowball and three of them had done the same, making three smaller snowballs, about the size of big pumpkins. Harry only just fast enough to avoid the one meant for him, but both Ron and Hermione were completely buried.
After that both the trio and Fred's team (it turned out Fred had been on the team Harry had buried) charged the last wall.
Late in the afternoon, when everyone but the twins had finally gotten tired of the snowball fight, the trio retired to their common room and Harry tried out his new chess set in a game against Ron. He didn't do too badly, but it was obvious that he still wasn't too much of a challenge for Ron to beat.
Hermione spent much of the afternoon completely absorbed in the book she'd received from Ron and it seemed nothing would tear her away from it until she finished the whole thing. In the end too much turkey made her so sleepy that she gave up reading when she was only about halfway through, and she went to bed wishing Ron and Harry a merry Christmas and a good night.
Ron and Harry soon followed, though Harry wasn't nearly as sluggish as either of his friends.
Ron was asleep as soon as he lay down, still fully clothed, but despite how tired Harry was, he found himself unable to sleep. Something was nagging him, telling him that there was something he'd forgotten about during the day's excitement.
After half an hour of trying, and failing, to go to sleep Harry finally remembered what it was that was bugging him.
< The invisibility cloak!>
He quickly got out of bed and pulled it out from the robe he'd stuffed it in that morning.
He looked at it for a while, imagining his father sneaking around the hall of Hogwarts in it, playing tricks on the Slytherins.
He got up intending to try it out by sneaking to the library to look around. Glancing at Ron he decided not to wake him. Harry wanted to try it by himself, just for this first time. As he was about to leave the boys' dorm he thought of the other gifts he'd received that day. He went back and got the flute from Hagrid, wanting to try it out as well as the cloak.
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AN- Review? Please?
H/H FOREVER!
Bye!