Chapter 11: Christmas
Shortly after the last Potions class of the first term ended, Harry returned to his dorm to deposit all of his supplies. Ron and Hermione were on his mind as he did what little he had to do of the homework Snape had given them. Once again, reading ahead had paid off for Harry.
All around him, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Blaise, and Draco packed their things. They were leaving tomorrow morning on Christmas Eve. Harry turned in early with his dorm mates that night. Scheming Gryffindors and mysterious plots occupied his dreams. When he woke up, he could remember none of it.
He spent the day of Christmas Eve relaxing and walking around the castle after bidding Draco and Blaise goodbye. He explored some places he'd never been before and occasionally ran into other students who'd chosen to remain at Hogwarts for Christmas. The Slytherins sometimes nodded to him or made a comment about his performance in the Quidditch game nearly a month before. Everyone else ignored him.
When it came time for Harry's first real Christmas dinner, he was wholly satisfied from his day without thinking of magic. He'd even dismissed Ron and Hermione from his mind.
Harry entered the Great Hall to find that the four house tables were gone, and the platform that had once held the staff table was empty. Instead, the floor of the Hall was occupied by one table running the length of the room. It was connected at the far end to another table which ran nearly the width of the Hall. Together, the two tables formed a large T.
Above them floated a thousand glowing candles. Behind them, on the staff platform, stood the biggest Christmas tree Harry had ever seen, decked out in all manner of ornaments and tinsel. Upon the tables, the forks, spoons, knives, plates, goblets, and platters were all made of solid, sterling silver, some were made of gold as well.
Most of the teachers were seated at the horizontally-oriented table at the top of the T. The students that remained in Hogwarts were currently filling up the vertically oriented table. Most of them took seats as far away from the staff as possible. Harry did the opposite. He had no desire to mingle with the students. He took as seat as close as possible to the staff table.
"Happy Christmas, Harry," said Dumbledore to him.
"Thank you, sir. Happy Christmas to you, too."
"A fine Quidditch game, Harry," Dumbledore said. "I never got the chance to congratulate you."
Harry gave his thanks again as the rest of the students filled the table. In the end, when everyone was seated, the entire table wasn't even full. Harry felt quite comfortable with where he was. The remaining Slytherins sat near him.
Once they were all seated, Dumbledore stood.
"A very merry Christmas to all of you students who chose to remain at Hogwarts for your holiday," said Dumbledore. "As you can see, we have joined two tables together in order to facilitate peaceful, cooperative, loving unity, which, after all, is the main theme of the Christmas holiday. Now, I have but one thing left to say: tuck in."
The food appeared in an instant. Harry had never seen such a delicious assortment of food, much less partook in a Christmas dinner of any kind. A hundred fat, juicy, plump hams and turkeys occupied the gold and silver platters. There were piles of roast potatoes; boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce; tureens of buttered peas, and platters of chipolatas. There was also much, much more.
At regular intervals upon the table were also piles of wizard crackers. They were nothing like the feeble, Muggle party crackers made of paper that simply released a flurry of confetti and occasionally a little plastic toy. When wizard crackers sounded off, they produced an explosion like a cannon, and all manner of things popped out of them.
Harry pulled a wizard cracker at the same time as Dumbledore. He got, of all things, a starry wizard's cap and a live rabbit which promptly hopped away. Dumbledore's wizard cracker produced a flowered bonnet which he traded for his hat.
Harry tried to hear as Professor Flitwick whispered a joke to Hagrid who laughed heartily.
Wonderful Christmas puddings followed the turkey, and Harry nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle he was shocked to find embedded in his. He pocketed the coin and ate away.
Harry watched as several staff members, including McGonagall and Hagrid, continued to call for more and more wine. He also watched as the Weasley twins, Fred and George, down near the end of the table, stood up and began to belt out Christmas carols of all sorts.
Dumbledore hummed along with them and occasionally conducted them with his wand which produced tiny little bolts of red and green lightning as he waved it.
Harry saw Ron and Hermione arguing near the end of the feast. It looked as though Hermione was quite keen on something, but Ron did not share her enthusiasm. Harry wished he would've sat closer to them so he could have heard what they were saying.
When the feast was over, Dumbledore wished them a happy Christmas and bade them all good night. Harry, truthfully, was too tired to really even consider exercising the effort to get close to Ron and Hermione on the way out to see if he could discern anything. He made his way back to the common room with his few fellow Slytherins and promptly descended the stairs to his dormitory. It was nice to be alone in it for a change.
Harry fell asleep quickly.
When he awoke, he was so shocked to find a small pile of presents at the foot of his bed that he nearly called out to Draco or Blaise to ensure they were meant for him. Of course, no one else was in the dormitory, so Harry reasoned that they must, indeed, be his presents.
Never in his entire life had Harry received a proper Christmas gift. Every year, the Dursleys always provided him with something. Once, it'd been an old pair of Uncle Vernon's socks; another time, it'd been a piece of coal.
These presents were the real thing. They were wrapped in a variety of colors. Harry seized the first one and read the card attached. It was from Blaise. Harry opened the wrapping paper to find a box filled with an assortment of sweets that Harry had never seen before. Blaise's card said that they were sweets of the wizarding world, and, since Harry hadn't seen much of it yet, Blaise figured he'd enjoy these. Harry popped a chocolate sweet into his mouth as he grabbed his next present.
He was surprised to see that it was from the Dursleys, though it seemed only to be a card.
It was, but it had a fifty pence piece inside.
The card read: We received your message and have enclosed your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.
Harry wondered what message they were referring to. He supposed someone at Hogwarts, perhaps Dumbledore, had sent them a letter ordering them to give Harry a Christmas present. After all, despite the fact that Dumbledore seemed to be clinically insane, he always had a sort of timeless look in his eyes, as though he knew more than he let on. Harry wondered if he sent the Dursleys the order. Though, Harry could not imagine Uncle Vernon being intimidated by what would have undoubtedly been a polite request from the headmaster. Maybe it'd been McGonagall or even Snape. Those two were much more imposing, Harry thought. He dismissed the ideas, pocketed the fifty pence piece, figuring it might be useful in the Muggle world again sometime, and picked up his third present.
He was surprised to see this one was actually directly from Snape.
Attached to the parcel was a card. Harry opened it and read.
Potter,
It seems you will be required to serve as the Slytherin Seeker for the time being. I've taken this opportunity to provide you with a practical tool. Inside this parcel, you will find a broomstick cleaning kit. Use accordingly. I will not have any member of my house team riding an unkempt broom.
Professor Snape
Harry opened the parcel and found the broomstick cleaning kit. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he'd received a gift from the potions master, although he was sure Snape saw it as more of a necessity. That was probably why he hadn't even said "Merry Christmas" on the card. He hadn't even used the word "gift." A practical tool, indeed.
Harry set the kit aside and moved to his last gift. This one was definitely some sort of article of clothing because the parcel was soft and malleable. Harry tore it open, and a long length of silvery fabric slid onto the covers of his bed. Harry held it up. A tiny piece of parchment fell from its folds.
Harry picked it up and read the note upon it. It was written in narrow, loopy handwriting that Harry 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.
Confused, Harry stretched the silvery fabric out and found that it was actually a garment. In fact, it was a cloak.
Harry stepped out of bed and draped his father's silvery cloak about himself.
When he looked down to see how it fit him, he was surprised to see that he had no body at all.
Shocked, Harry opened the cloak and reappeared. He wrapped it around himself again and his body vanished.
Another useful gift, Harry thought. The cloak was obviously bewitched to make a person invisible. Harry pulled it over his head and found that the material was sheer; he could see through it. He walked over to the mirror in the dorm room and looked into it. He saw nothing.
Harry dropped the cloak, letting it fall to the ground. His reflection appeared before his eyes.
That morning, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast with the invisibility cloak in his trouser pocket. The material it was made of was so fine and lightweight that it could be folded until it was incredibly small. It seemed no bigger than a wallet to Harry.
Breakfast wasn't exactly a feast for Harry. The tables had all been returned to normal and the food was the normal breakfast menu. Harry didn't eat much. He'd gorged himself pretty well last night, and his stomach wasn't really eager to have more food packed into it.
Across the Great Hall, Harry watched Hermione lecture Ron as he fussed with a large, hand-knit, maroon sweater. There was a large letter R sewn in to it. Harry thought it looked a bit foolish, but also quite warm.
Ron, from the look on his face, did not want to listen to whatever Hermione had to say. Harry's eyes narrowed. They were talking about Fluffy and the trap door again. It wasn't difficult to guess.
Harry remained at breakfast as longer than he might have since he wasn't so hungry. He got up at the same time as Ron and Hermione and trailed behind them a ways as they exited the Great Hall.
Upon reaching the Entrance Hall, they turned to take one of the ornate stairways that led into the upper floors of the castle. Harry paused at the side of the staircase, partially hidden in shadow. He glanced around to make sure nobody else was lurking about, and then pulled out the invisibility cloak. He thought this the perfect time to test its usefulness.
Harry threw it over his shoulders and head. Satisfied that it was covering every inch of him, he moved quickly to follow Ron and Hermione.
He caught up with them near the Grand Staircase. He approached them so that he was close enough to hear their words, and tailed at that distance. Luckily, they didn't have to be quiet since they thought no one else was around. Harry made sure to keep his footsteps silent. He wasn't sure if the cloak also concealed noise or not. Now was not the appropriate time to test it, of course.
"I don't care if it's Christmas, Ronald," Hermione snapped. "This is important!"
Harry followed them up the first of the shifting staircases as they spoke.
"C'mon, Hermione. We've already spent enough time looking for Flamel. I'm getting sick of the library."
"Since we've found nothing, we've not spent nearly enough time. We're going to the library today."
Ron groaned. "When?"
"Right after I finish the Potions homework that Professor Snape assigned us. You'd do well to finish yours too."
"Bloody hell! It's Christmas Day, Hermione!"
"So?"
Ron grumbled something unintelligible and then fell silent.
They didn't look as though they were going to speak much anymore. Harry followed them all the way to the seventh floor and they remained wordless.
All the while, he considered the name Flamel. Harry remembered the full name was Nicholas Flamel. It seemed so familiar to him. He couldn't remember why. He'd definitely heard it before.
He turned back as Ron and Hermione entered the seventh floor corridor. It was his intention to get to the library before they did. He was going to remain under the cloak, though. He couldn't really think of a good excuse for his being there since they had no pending reports in any classes. He intended to look for this Flamel himself while he watched Ron and Hermione to see if they found anything.
He didn't know what Nicholas Flamel had to do with whatever Fluffy was guarding, but it was apparently essential. Ron and Hermione wanted to steal the thing. He wanted to know why and he wanted to stop it.
He spent the rest of the day skulking around the library, searching for books that Ron and Hermione had missed that might provide a lead on Nicholas Flamel.
They arrived shortly after Harry had began his search. All the while, he kept an ear open to listen to them talk. If they found anything, he was sure he'd hear.
Harry repeated this ritual almost every day for the rest of the holiday. Ron was not so keen on researching Flamel. He hadn't been from the start. Harry was beginning to agree with him. In all the books he'd looked through, he'd found nothing. Neither had Ron and Hermione.
On a Friday, near the end of the day, he heard Hermione slam a book down.
Harry quickly ran out from behind the shelves, covered by his father's invisibility cloak, in order to get a look at what they were doing. He saw Madam Pince, the librarian, walk by and glare at Hermione for producing such a loud noise and abusing a book.
"We've been looking for ages!" Hermione snapped when Madam Pince was out of earshot.
"I know," said Ron. "Let's stop."
"No!" said Hermione venomously. "Listen… the only place we haven't looked is the restricted section."
"I suppose. But how do you think we're going to get in there?"
"We have to have permission from a teacher. I think I might be able to convince Flitwick or McGonagall…. I'll try it tomorrow."
Ron groaned in protest. "Tomorrow? Hermione, we've been at it for weeks!"
"I know," Hermione snapped. "This is important. We need to figure out what it is Fluffy is guarding and get it before Snape does."
Ron sighed and concurred, but Harry did not hear what he said.
Snape.
Hermione was worried about Snape trying to steal what Fluffy was guarding. Harry checked to make sure the cloak was still covering him. He thought they must've said Snape for his benefit.
Harry had no idea how they'd come up with that harebrained idea. What would Snape want with a package from Gringotts? Harry couldn't think of any motive Snape might have. He immediately came up with a theory. It was obvious that Ron was an unwilling participant, and this was Hermione's scheme. She was just using Snape to justify whatever she was doing for Ron's sake.
Harry needed to find out what Fluffy was guarding before she did, and he had to stop her.
He was going to go the restricted section, under the cloak, tonight.