AN: Okay, chapter eleven and christmas is here. Sorry to all of you who didn't guess what Reinforce was making for Harry, but here it is. Now, I know some people are going to talk about how possible something like that is, so here's my justification: 1, Colin Creevy in second year got hold of a potion to make his ordinary picture of Harry and Lockhart move. 2, the taking memories thing with the runes is inspired by pensieves. 3, the number of pages thing is just something I made up, but I don't think that's too far out there. It's more like the book has a finite number of pages but only shows so much information on the ones it currently has and everything else is in the book's 'memory' as it were.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 11 - Christmas

Since the first Quidditch match Harry had ever attended had almost ended with him being impaled by a broomstick and bludgeoned by two heavy flying balls, Harry had made a small vow to himself not to play the sport. Apart from the risk of injury and potentially death, it just wasn't his kind of thing.

He decided to not attend the other Quidditch matches that were going to happen. He wasn't interested in the sport, so why would he sit there and watch it? Instead, Harry took the opportunity to root around in the library look things up, furthering his magical knowledge.

It wasn't like the next Quidditch match was any time soon though, there were six matches a year, once a month with the first in November. That meant that the next Quidditch match would in December, before the Christmas holidays started. Harry did wonder why there were so few matches a year, especially seeing as the house teams sometimes practised three times a week plus.

Anyway, after November came and went, the cold really started to set in. About half-way through December, the lake froze solid, meaning that Harry could no longer swim in it. Well, Harry shouldn't really have been swimming in water as cold as it had been up until now, but he had anyway.

The snow and cold combined did make Harry's daily exercises more difficult, but he pressed on regardless. A few people had even commented on Harry's physical fitness, seeing as the only ones who really exercised at all were the Quidditch players, and even then they didn't do as much physical exercise because flying a broom didn't exactly need bulging muscles.

Mail became less frequent at Hogwarts, the few owls that managed to battle their way through the cold weather having to be nursed back to health by Hagrid. Harry had forbidden Loki from even trying to make his way through the bad weather, and the raven had taken to perching on the end of Harry's bed instead of staying in the Owlery.

The Weasley twins had made use of the snow, using it in various pranks and the like. They were punished for charming several snowballs to follow Quirrel around and bounce off the back of his turban. Harry, not liking Quirrel himself, and thinking the charm the Weasley's had used was interesting, got the two of them to teach him it.

That had the side effect of Fred and George Weasley believing that Harry was an aspiring prankster and taking him 'under their wing' as it were. Harry wasn't a prankster, but he didn't mind the twins doing what they did, it allowed him to find out about spells and potions that he wouldn't normally have come across.

It was during December that Draco Malfoy finally managed to corner Harry. He had been out on the grounds, returning to the castle from his spot where he practised Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, when he had found his way blocked by Malfoy and his two bookends.

Harry hadn't spoken up, merely looking from one Slytherin to the next, waiting for them to do something. He'd looked at the lumps of muscle, and they really were surprisingly muscled for eleven year olds, stood either side of the boy with pale blonde hair and pointed features.

They seemed to be waiting for Harry to do something, but he didn't move or say a word. The silence seemed to become awkward for the Slytherins, but Harry was simply amused by their awkwardness. Of course, it couldn't last forever, and Draco Malfoy eventually spoke up.

"Hello, Potter. I'm Draco Malfoy, from the House of Malfoy." The blonde boy started pompously, puffed up like one of those tropical birds with eye watering colours that draw attention to themselves. "I would like to offer you my friendship. I can help you to steer clear of the... less desirable members of our society, and you will find that being allied with the Malfoy family will open many doors for you." He then stuck his hand out for Harry to shake.

Harry looked at the hand for a moment, before he replied. "I thank you for the offer, Heir Malfoy, but I think that I will have to respectfully decline. I prefer to make my own decisions, based upon my own impressions of people. I mean no offence by this, but your attitude tends to cause friction with people, and I'd rather avoid riling anyone up. So, thank you for the offer, but no, thank you."

Harry had stepped around Malfoy then and headed up to the castle. Harry had thought that he'd handled that rather well, all things considered. The next time he saw Draco Malfoy, it proved that, as far as Draco was concerned, he really hadn't. Draco believed that Harry had snubbed him, and swore that Harry would regret spurning his offer of friendship like that.

Harry hadn't much cared, it didn't really change much after all. Harry still avoided Malfoy, Weasley and Mclaggen as a matter of course, the latter being easier as he wasn't even in the same year or house. Mclaggen had made several attempts to 'join' the first years' study group, but each attempt had failed.

He had said that he, a second year, would be more than capable of helping them all out with everything. Harry had thought that he just wanted to make himself look important and set a small flock of his transfigured birds on the boy. Harry had gotten detention for that, but he believed it was worth it. The next time that Mclaggen had tried the same thing, it hadn't been birds Harry had set on him, it had been dragons.

Weasley wasn't too difficult to avoid in lesson, Harry tended to take the end of a table as his seat, and Sally-Anne tended to sit next to him. Given that, even with pretty much all of the first years all studying together, there was still minimal mingling of houses during class, this wasn't overly difficult.

Avoiding Draco Malfoy was more irritating though, he always seemed to be in the way of wherever Harry was going next. It was well known now that Harry tended to go out on the grounds for his free afternoons and evenings, many even thought this was where he practised magic, and Malfoy always seemed to be between him and the Entrance Hall.

Fred and George Weasley came through for him here, showing him three exists from the castle and into the grounds other than the main doors. They did look at him oddly for some reason whenever they were around him, but since they didn't ask any questions, he just let it be, whatever 'it' was.

Harry did look up warming charms for the winter, and he most definitely wasn't the only one. While the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires that students could warm up with, the hallways were freezing cold and icy winds rattled the classroom windows. Snape's classes in the dungeons were almost unbearable, the students huddling close the fires underneath their cauldrons to keep warm.

Seeing that the warming charm was beyond the magic control of a first year, Harry had taken to keeping half a dozen jars of those blue flames in his school bag, taking them out and placing them around himself whenever he was in the library or somewhere that he could sit down. Hermione, the only other first year who had seemed to have learned that particular spell, also started to keep a few jars of fire nearby.

Seeing as Hermione's parents were muggles, Harry had suggested she take a few jars of bluebell flames home with her so her parents could see what she was doing in school. Hermione's eyes had lit up at that and she had began to search out spells she could cast at school but still let her parents see the results.

She ended up with various animation charms, enchanted objects and potions that she could take with her. When she found that her animation charms only lasted a day or so, because she wasn't skilled enough nor had she the magic control to make them last longer, she asked Harry to cast the spells, overpowering them with his vast supply of mana to compensate and make them semi-permanent.

One potions lesson, Draco Malfoy did loudly mention that he was 'So sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts because they're not wanted at home'. That made Harry wonder how Malfoy knew about him not wanting to go home, because he'd told no one at all about the Dursleys.

Nevertheless, Malfoy was right, Harry would be staying at the castle over winter break. He and Reinforce had toyed with the idea of taking a holiday somewhere together. There was an administrated world within one personal teleport's range of Earth, which would allow them to then travel to anywhere in the known universe on a public flight, but they'd decided against that.

Harry had also considered getting Reinforce to take the pair of them to Japan for the winter. Reinforce had this odd look on her face whenever she mentioned the people from there, Hayate Yagami in particular. It was like she both longed to see them, but also wanted to keep her distance for some reason.

It seemed that not many people were staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays. The Weasleys were staying, the twins told Harry that their mother and father were taking a trip to Romania to visit another one of their brothers, Charlie, who worked with dragons on a reserve. Harry had caught a look at the list Mcgonagall had been taking names down on, and saw that very few others were staying in the castle either.

One thing that had surprised Harry was seeing Ronald Weasley in the library recently. He overheard the redhead mention Nicholas Flamel to Seamus Finnegan, who was also with him, and that made Harry curious. Harry knew who Nicholas Flamel was, having heard that name in the muggle world he had realised that Flamel wasn't exactly recent, and he'd looked into famous witches and wizards from history.

Flamel, it turned out, was an alchemist. Now, Harry didn't really understand some things about magic, Alchemy being another one. The subject seemed to be a mix between Transfiguration and Potions. It included the changing of an objects physical material and shape, like Transfiguration, but also mixed things together to get results, but used metals and solids to create alloys and the like, unlike Potions which used primarily liquid materials with solids added to it.

What made Nicholas Flamel so famous was that he had created an object that was known as the Philosopher's Stone. Now, no one really knew how the stone was made, nor everything that it did, apart from two things. It was confirmed that the stone extended someone's lifespan, purportedly forever but that couldn't exactly be confirmed, as Nicholas and his wife were over six hundred years old.

Another confirmed thing about the Philosopher's Stone was that it could turn any metal into pure gold. Harry supposed that, for those who coveted wealth, such a thing was desirable. It was interesting that, according to Reinforce, silver was a lot more rare than gold was in the universe.

Harry was thinking about taking a holiday that coming summer, to another planet rather than just somewhere on Earth. Reinforce could help him translate languages, so he had that covered. He could get his money at Gringotts converted into silver bars, he'd asked the goblins that by sending a letter with Loki, so getting a hold on silver wasn't an issue.

What was an issue was the fact that he was eleven, and that would raise a number of questions if he was wandering around by himself. Reinforce couldn't wander about, she was a well-known person to the TSAB, so she couldn't exactly walk about in the open. Harry had wondered whether there was a way to disguise someone with magic using enchantments in the Wizarding World, and was looking into that. Another issue was actually converting silver bars into a currency usable on administrated worlds, as Harry thought it likely that you would need some form of identification to sell it.

Reinforce had thought otherwise. There were a lot of administrated worlds out there, and keeping track of records from every single one of them would be nigh impossible, if not truly impossible. She thought that, as long as the one selling the silver wasn't on a list of criminals and was of an appropriate age, there should be no problems.

Of course, this brought up the fact that Harry was eleven again, definitely not an appropriate age, and Reinforce was the will of the book of darkness, someone with a well documented appearance. Loki, if they made him a familiar, was an option, depending on how old his human form looked.

Anyway, aside from possible ways to spend his summer, Harry thought about why Weasley and Finnegan were looking for information on Nicholas Flamel. Neither of them were especially studious, Weasley especially, and nothing about Nicholas Flamel had been mentioned in any of Harry's classes.

That meant they were doing this for their own reasons, whatever those reasons might be. Judging by the fact they were looking through books such as 'Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century', 'Notable Magical Names of Our Time' and 'Modern Magical Discoveries', it could be deduced that they didn't know anything about him other than the name.

~Oh no, don't tell me...~ Harry mentally muttered as a reason occurred to him.

~Don't tell me what? What have you just realised?~ Reinforce asked curiously.

~Those two are looking for things on Flamel. Flamel has one particular object attached to his name. Hagrid was in Diagon Alley on July thirty-first. Gringotts was almost robbed on July thirty-first, but the vault had been 'emptied earlier the same day'. The cerberus on the third floor is guarding something. Can you figure it out from that?~ Harry asked her.

Reinforce mused over it for a moment. ~It is likely that whatever was almost stolen from Gringotts now resides in Hogwarts. You obviously think this object is whatever Flamel made.~ She told him.

Harry mentally nodded at her. ~Exactly. I'm guessing one of those two overheard the name Flamel from somewhere, maybe the teachers or something, and now they're trying to work out what it could be.~ Harry shook his head.

~So what are you going to do?~ Reinforce asked Harry.

~Nothing.~ Harry replied. ~Whether the stone is really at Hogwarts, on the third floor or not, or whether it's all a trap, whether there is a fake stone there or something else, it is none of my business. Although, it does explain a few things. That confusion that Quirrel caused with the troll on Halloween may have been meant as a distraction so he could make an attempt on the stone, if it really is here.~

xxxxx

Once the holidays had started, the castle seemed to become rather deserted. It wasn't actually all that busy, seeing as there was only a fraction of the maximum number of people that Hogwarts could house there on a regular basis, but it was most definitely emptier than normal.

The four Weasley brothers in the castle accounted for half of all of the Gryffindors there. There wasn't a single Hufflepuff in the castle, nor was there a Slytherin either. In Ravenclaw, Harry was the only first year there, but there were three fourth years and two seventh years as well.

Harry had taken the fact he was alone in the common room to set up jars of bluebell flames everywhere. Aside from being warm, he kind of liked the flickering blue-coloured flames and thought them rather pretty. He did look for ways to change what colour the flames were, and he managed to get red flames, green flames and, weirdly, black flames as well in jars.

Seeing as there were so few people around, Reinforce was also more free in making appearances. Harry had learnt to cast a proximity alarm, a spell that was really stretching a first years magic control, that would give him a mental call if anyone approached them, and then Reinforce did join him in the common room or elsewhere sometimes in her own form, rather than being inside his body all the time.

Harry and Reinforce did have good fun during the evenings, when the other Ravenclaws had gone to bed, toasting things over the common room fire. The house elves in the kitchens had given them so many marshmallows that Harry thought he and Reinforce would explode if they ate all of them. They'd also gotten sausages, bacon, crumpets and bread as well, so they could have a proper midnight snack.

Harry had even gotten to know his other house mates that were staying with that method. One lunch time, instead of heading down to the Great Hall, Harry and the other Ravenclaws had sat together in the common room having a kind of barbecue together. They didn't become friends, but they were yet more friendly acquaintances of Harry's, which was good.

One of the older Ravenclaws, Sam Fletcher, had also gotten Harry to play a few wizarding games. Harry found that he really didn't like gobstones, it just wasn't for him, but wizard chess wasn't too bad. The wizard version of chess, Harry found, was exactly like the muggle version except for one thing, the pieces were alive.

Having living chess pieces was a bit odd at first, because rather than picking them up and moving them that way, you had to order them about, like soldiers. The pieces also gave advice, and sometimes refused to do what they were told to do which could be incredibly frustrating. Harry had almost won one game, but one picky little bishop didn't want to be taken so Harry could claim victory, the little bugger.

On Christmas eve, Harry had been outside and he finally had a breakthrough! Harry managed a three node flight spell, much to his joy. It turned out that, once he was in the air, flying was incredibly easy for Harry. He swooped, dived, looped, banked and zipped about the space with wild abandon. In accordance with her promise, Reinforce then began teaching Harry her own flight spell, the one that took the form of black wings on her back.

Harry and Reinforce went to sleep together that night, Harry happy that he'd achieved flight and Reinforce proud of her most recent master like she'd rarely been before. It was a joy for her to be able to actually be around her master in physical form, especially since the corruption of the Tome, and she was really beginning to love her time with Harry.

Before she went to sleep for the night, Reinforce let her lips touch Harry's forehead and snuggled close with her master. Things were looking good for her for a change, no dealing with corrupted programs that try and kill her master, no fighting wars that she had no interest in, nothing like that at all.

xxxxx

The next morning, Christmas day, Harry and Reinforce awoke to find a small pile of presents at the bottom of Harry's bed. Reinforce saw that her pile was more substantial than one would expect considering that only Harry knew of her existence. She did give him a smile, knowing that all of the presents would be from him, making her feel fully included in the Christmas festivities.

Harry opened the first parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled the instrument himself, a personal thing that made Harry smile. He blew it, hearing what kind of noise it made. It sounded rather like an owl, and Harry made a note to learn how to play the instrument and thank Hagrid when he next saw him.

Reinforce opened the next present. Obviously it was from Harry, she already knew that, but she didn't know what it would be. Opening the wrapping, a rather beautiful dress was revealed. It flowed smoothly across her hands, and was very soft and light. She smiled at Harry and gave him a hug, thanking him for her present.

Harry then saw a very small present and wondered what it might be. Opening it, he found a note from the Dursleys with a fifty pence piece sellotaped to it. We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, the note said. Harry thought that was rather friendly of them and wondered if it was the result of the letter he'd sent them with Loki.

He'd teleported over to the park near Privet Drive and sent the message, rather than having Loki battle his way through the bad weather. The message itself said that Harry would be spending all of his holidays at Hogwarts and that he was only planning on spending the first week of summer with them before heading off for his own holiday.

The reason he was even spending a week was two fold. First, he was obviously being watched by someone, the tracking charms that Reinforce had detected and he had dispelled had proved that. He would have to at least appear to go back to his Aunt and Uncle's place.

The second reason was what they'd found out about wards during their frequent stints in the library. The force field that Reinforce had felt over Privet Drive was, now that they had local terminology, most definitely a ward of some kind. Seeing as their really wasn't a leyline or much ambient magic around Privet Drive, Harry's magic would have to charge the ward directly. A week of him being around should be enough for the ward to last a year, so a week he would stay, and no longer.

Reinforce's next present, again from Harry, was confectionery. Reinforce had a bit of a sweet tooth and she was rather fond of chocolate, the chocolate frogs the wizards had being an exception. Neither Harry or Reinforce liked trying to eat something that was jumping around in their mouths.

Harry and Reinforce each opened more and more presents. Harry received books and other things from the Hogwarts students he was on friendly terms with, as well as a Jumper and box of home-made fudge from the Weasley matriarch. Apparently, when he asked the twins later, because he was a friend of the Weasleys, Molly always made them a jumper every Christmas. Harry thought it a rather nice gesture and would make sure to send her a note of thanks with a school owl later on. Reinforce's presents covered a rather wide variety of different things from Harry, from clothing and confectionery to books and all sorts of other things. Eventually, Reinforce had opened all of her presents and Harry had two left.

One of those presents was from Reinforce, and he'd said that he would save the best for last, so he opened the other one before it. He found that the present was very lightweight, probably clothing or something like that. When he opened it, something fluid and silvery grey slithered out of it and onto the floor.

Reinforce whistled at the sight of it. "Wow." She said. "Now that has some serious magic built into it. Nothing malicious it seems, but... old? Yes, it feels very old, ancient even. There's no tracking or monitoring charms on it, and it is extremely complex. I can barely tell what it is, but I think I might be able to guess. Harry, try it on."

Harry did so, not feeling any different when he was wearing it. Reinforce's eyes were wide, making Harry look down. He was incredibly surprised to see that his body was apparently no longer there. He reached out an arm, sticking it out from under the cloak, and saw his arm in mid-air.

"Whoa, now that is cool." Harry said with awe. "Hey, Rein, can your collect and use skill replicate this?" He asked, looking at the Unison Device with curiosity. Surprisingly, Reinforce shook her head.

"No, Harry, I don't think I can. Now that I'm starting to become used to Wizarding magic and how it functions, I can start to use my collect and use skill to replicate their spells, even make my own versions, but this, this is something else. I'd say that, if this invisibility was a skill and not an object, it would be a Rare Skill by itself, if not down right unique." Reinforce told him.

"Really? Who the heck would just gift me something like that?" Harry's eyes flickered around until they landed on a note that had apparently fallen out of the cloak when he'd picked it up off the floor. He read it, his eyes narrowing at one part in particular, before he took the cloak off and placed it down, frowning at it.

He handed the note to Reinforce who read it.

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.

"Why didn't he sign it?" Harry asked. "I've seen notes from him and recognise the handwriting, so why didn't Dumbledore sign it? And why does he say that he's had it since before James Potter died? We both know he's alive... Does Dumbledore know he's alive or does he also believe them dead?"

Reinforce shook her head, she had no answer for him either. "Whether you want to ever use that cloak or not, I suggest you at least keep a hold of it. The magic in that cloak is just so complex that it could only be a family item, passed down through the generations. I would say that thing is, at the very least, two thousand years old. It's not the same age as me, but then again, what is?"

Harry shook his head, before he went back to his gifts. There was just one present left, the one that Reinforce had made for him. "Well, I did say that I would save the best for last, so let's see what my gift from you is." He said to her, sitting down and carefully taking the wrapping paper off of the present.

At first glance, it appeared to be a book. It was a hardback book with an emblem of wings embossed on the front, like Reinforce's flight spell. The cover was black with silver designs around the edge. He opened it half-way and found the pages blanks. He flicked to the front and found, on the inside cover, some kind of runic array.

Harry traced over the runes, trying to understand what they did. He gathered that it had something to do with thoughts or memories, copying and transferring them. While the specifics eluded him, he guessed that it somehow copied memories into the pages of the book. Looking at Reinforce, he asked if that was so.

"Pretty much." She replied. "The book itself is charmed to never run out of pages, so it could become an infinite encyclopedia eventually, if enough memories are added. You know that potion I needed, the one that made photos move? The entire thing is soaked in it, imbibing the qualities into itself. As for the runic array, try something. Think of a spell you already know, a wizarding spell. Focus completely on it, then put your wand to your temple and try to pull the thought out of your head."

Harry, trusting Reinforce implicitly, did so. It took a few attempts, but Harry soon had a silver thread hanging from the tip of his wand. At Reinforce's urging, he placed the 'memory' in the runic circle on the inside cover. The 'memory' disappeared and things began to appear on the first page of the book.

He whistled as he saw the title of the spell at the top of the page as the rest of it was filled with the wand movements, incantation, description and absolutely everything that Harry knew about that spell in particular. He looked at Reinforce with wide eyes as he realised the potential in the book she'd gifted him.

"See if you can get some of the professors to contribute to the book. I think that Flitwick, and possibly Mcgonagall as well, like you enough to give you the memories. I don't know whether the headmaster would agree, but it doesn't hurt to try. After them, I will add every Belkan and Mid-Childan spell I know to the book. Think of this as your very own Tome of the Night Sky." Reinforce smiled at him. "You might not be able to cast spells from the book like someone normally could, but this is the best I could come up with."

Harry gave her quite a long hug there. "I love it, it's the best gift I've received, from my most favourite person in existence. The Tome of the Night Sky is already taken, so I think we'll have to come up with another name for it, but it is still the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Thank you, Reinforce, thank you."

Reinforce hugged Harry and thought to herself 'No. Thank you, Harry, thank you'.

As it turned out, Flitwick was more than happy to contribute to the book. The small professor was incredibly impressed with what Harry's friend had made for him, especially with such simple things. The only part-way complicated thing about the book was the runes, and even then it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for a young person to come up with it.

Mcgonagall also contributed memories to Harry's tome. Surprisingly, Dumbledore did as well, a cheery smile on his face as he transferred a load of memories all at once. There was quite a twinkle in Dumbledore's eye as he did so, making Harry check up on what the new spells were later, only to find some rather amazing things in there.

There was something called the Patronus charm, a guardian spirit spell that repelled certain dark creatures, as well as a number of rather impressive looking spells that used fire as their main component. Also within the pages, were spells used for getting fluff off of sticky lemon drops and things like that.

What Harry hadn't expected when he'd asked Flitwick and the other professors to contribute to his book, was for some of the other teachers to get interested and add some memories as well. Babbling and Vector both added things to the book, and Hagrid even contributed his vast knowledge of magical creatures.

Thankfully, a standard thing when charming a book to have unlimited pages, was to add a spell that acted like an index and contents page, so as not to make things too complicated. Still, it as an absolutely amazing thing, especially because it had been soaked in that potion that made the images and diagrams move.

Christmas for Harry passed happily, and he spent all of his time with Reinforce. The only times that Reinforce wasn't outside of Harry and in her own body was when he was retrieving memories from the professors and when everyone in the castle was gathered together for Christmas dinner. The rest of the time, including breakfast and supper, Harry spent with Reinforce and away from everyone else.