Dumbledore sighed. He had quite the dilemma. The gift that sat on his desk waiting to be addressed was just one symptom of the very big problem he had. There was no telling which of the four Harry Potters was the real Harry Potter and therefore the subject of the prophesy that would rid the world of Voldemort for good since the whatever it was in the boy's scar had also been duplicated. It wouldn't do to alienate one of the Harrys only to discover that he was the true Harry further down the line.
The problem was, there was only one Invisibility cloak, just as there was only one set of relatives that were close enough in blood that Lily's protection would work. Thanks to the Dursleys, everyone in the neighborhood knew Harry by sight, and modifying the memories of all of them would be difficult, especially if they missed one during a mass-modification as had happened back in the 1930s when they'd missed that one muggle who was still evading them to this day and telling any number of incredulous audiences about the flying lizard that had made off with his beach umbrella as he did so.
Miss just one of the boy's neighbors and...
Sighing, he poked the brightly wrapped package. If the boys hadn't regularly met up to compare notes like they did, he might've gotten away with giving the cloak to either the Gryffindor or the Hufflepuff Harry. Not that he favored them mind you, but if he'd given it to the Ravenclaw one, odds were that the entire house would try to dissect it, and if he gave it to the Slytherin one, odds were that it'd be stolen before the week was out. The boys did regularly compare notes however, which made such a moot point.
There were a few days until Christmas though, so he still had time to find a solution to his problem, even if it meant going to Filch and demanding the man turn over some of the numerous items that he'd confiscated from James Potter over the years and neglected to return. None of those items would equal the value of one of the legendary Hallows, but in the eyes of a boy who was starved for any scrap of information on his parents thanks to that insufferable Dursley woman, anything that belonged to his father might be of equal worth.
In another part of the castle, the four Harrys sat together flipping through catalogs grateful to the upperclassman who'd told the Hufflepuff Harry about Owl Ordering, since they hadn't known how they would get their friends/friendly acquaintances presents otherwise. Occasionally, one of the Harrys would speak up, to see if what the others thought about him getting this person that present.
While doing so seemed odd, since all of them were ostensibly the same person, the truth was that since they had not been allowed to switch and Slytherin Harry's Gryffindor tie and house badge had been confiscated, the other Harry's didn't know each-other's friends as well as they themselves did. Sometimes it helped to have advice from an outside perspective belonging to someone who thought along similar lines as you did though. Knowing this, each of the Harrys thought carefully about what they'd seen of the other Harry's friends and provided advice accordingly.
Slytherin Harry and Hufflepuff Harry were great helps when it came to Hermione whom both Gryffindor Harry and Ravenclaw Harry had befriended under completely different circumstances. Hermione had been an interesting case, since both had to be careful not to get the girl the same present though both Gryffindor Harry and Ravenclaw Harry thought the same item was perfect for her. Fortunately, Hermione was one of the few overlaps when it came to friends.
Gryffindor Harry had befriended Hermione after he and Ron had gone looking for her the day the troll had gotten in. Ravenclaw Harry had befriended Hermione two weeks later after the girl had loosened up a bit and became a bit less of a know-it-all now that she had friends to help her correct that behavior. Ravenclaw Harry had of course ended up befriending her in the library when they were doing research for their homework. Prior to the Troll incident, Hermione had generally kept to herself when in the library, and had come across as being a bit snobbish when Ravenclaw Harry had encountered her when they were in the library together. It was entirely possible that Hermione hat mistaken him for Gryffindor Harry that day, since she spoke less formally around him when they had gone hunting for books despite the fact that she was more guarded around his classmates with whom he'd been studying.
Eventually, two separate presents for Hermione were picked, and Gryffindor Harry went looking tor the perfect present for Ron. Ron was a tricky matter for all sorts of reasons. As well as being exceedingly jealous at times, the boy had a rather prickly sense of pride, and wouldn't take anything he perceived to be charity, especially when people might see him doing so. The boy was obsessed with Quiddich and chess however.
While Gryffindor Harry was deciding on what to get Ron, Slytherin Harry was drawing up lists and charts as he tried to figure out who to buy a present for and how much to spend on it, and exactly who he could get away with sending a card or nothing at all to. While Draco would be receiving nothing from him, the elder Malfoys would be receiving a card that he was carefully picking out from a catalogue of Christmas Stationary. While Slytherin Harry - well, all of the Harrys really - wanted to be Great, he had no great love for playing politics. That was how the game was played however, especially in Slytherin. If he wanted to fit in though, that was what he would have to do.
While Gryffindor Harry was trying to find a present for Ron that wasn't too expensive nor too cheap and wouldn't insult the boy's pride, and Slytherin Harry was planning out his Christmas list, Hufflepuff Harry was playing around with a home furnishings catalog. The thing had an insert that could call up swatches of fabric of any color, pattern, or material that you could imagine, and Harry was having fun getting it to call up the most ludicrous things he could think of including tie-dyed silk that was done up in eye-searingly bright colors.
While Hufflepuff Harry played with the Home Furnishings catalog, toying with the idea of having a levitating armchair done in said tie-dyed silk sent to his relatives, Ravenclaw Harry sorted through the Flourish and Blotts catalog searching for presents for his dormmates.
If anyone asked later, all four of them would say that they had fun. That had been the least stressful bit of shopping that they'd ever done, especially since they hadn't had people staring at them the entire time they did so, or sniffing at them and telling them to hurry up while they added several more boxes and bags to the burden they were carrying. All in all, it was a fun and above all, productive afternoon.
At her writing desk in her home at #4 Privet Drive, Petunia Dursley scowled as she taped a single pence to the third of four identical letters that she was writing. She would've written one and had her husband copy it three times, but that would have had Vernon going even further out of his way for the boy he so despised than he already did.
Her budget for Harry's present this year was fifty pence. She'd gotten it down to less than ten, what with the cheap paper and the fact that she still had that stupid postage box that automatically sent letters to the Post Office in Diagon Alley. She would've gotten rid of the thing ages ago, but it had belonged to her parents. That, and it was the easiest means of communicating with that boy's headmaster since she refused to get one of those filthy birds.
She'd told herself not to get attached the day she'd gone out to fetch the milk and found a baby and a note. A note that had confirmed that the boy was just going to go off and die like Lily did. Since the boy had been a trouble magnet since day one, she knew that the day would be coming sooner or later. It had almost come sooner. But, as it turned out, that was a false alarm. Now, there was more of the boy to not get attached to, especially since three-fourths of them would be vanishing someday.
As soon as the penny was attached to the note, she folded it, stuffed it in the waiting envelope, stacked the envelope on top of the other two, and pulled the final sheet of note paper towards her.
"Almost done Pet?" Vernon called from the armchair where he was reading the paper.
"Yes" she replied as she finished the opening of the letter with a vicious stroke.
It just figured that that boy would become even more of a nuisance just to spite them. As it was, she had absolutely no idea what she'd be telling the neighbors if that boy dared come home for the Summer despite the fact that she had asked that he not.