A/N: None here, so tired...
Disclaimer: Harry doesn't belong to me, blah, blah, blah. I only own Amelia and Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes. Oh, and I do use some of the same techniques Rowling uses with some fun lines I always enjoyed, so please don't sue me! I need all the money I can get for my student ambassador trip!
Parseltongue will be "~...~"
Chapter 7: Presents and Mirrors
---------------------------------------
November ran headlong into December, and before anyone at the castle knew it, it was almost time for Yules. Harry was feeling lonely (both Draco and Blaise had left), and was eating his lunch without any special interest as to what it was. The little blonde girl down the table, Pansy, seemed to have taken a liking to him this past month. She was coming over to him, and he made himself promise not to curse her... at least with a wand.
"Hey, Harry, what are you doing down here all by yourself?" she asked with a sickeningly sweet tone that carried across the almost empty hall.
Harry copied her tone and replied, "Well, Pansy, in case it's slipped past your nonexistent brain, the last person who annoyed me was stuck in the Hospital Wing for a week before they could figure out how to put him right side out again. And in case you haven't figured it out by me telling you this, you are getting on my nerves."
She pouted and said, "Really, Harry. That's not a nice thing to say!"
Harry glowered at her. "Go tell it to someone who cares!" before he got up and walked over to sit next to Fred and George.
"Lovely job, Harry," said Fred, patting him on the shoulder.
"That's the little Dark Heir we all know and fear!" said George.
Harry grinned. These were the only two in the school among the students besides Draco and Blaise that weren't utterly terrified of him.
"Why are you two sticking around school?" pointed out Harry, grabbing an apple from the center.
"Didn't want to have to deal with Percy and ickle Ronnikins all break," they replied, mock-shuddering. "Why aren't you with Tom? Surely you could have gone home?"
"Well, Tom is currently researching some sort of new twist on Cruciatus. He said it wouldn't be that pleasant if I came home just when human trials were to start," said Harry conversationally, taking a bite from the apple as the twins just grinned. Harry really thought they had been adopted by the Weasley's from a Dark couple; it was the only explanation for their love of his conversations of Tom.
"Hey Harry," started Fred.
"We were wondering-"
"-if you would like-"
"-to stay with us-"
"-in Gryffindor Tower-"
"-for break."
"Do you always have to do that?!" said Harry. "Why are you inviting me?"
"Well, Pomp Dragon and Snake Queen are gone. We figured you would want company for the holidays, and what better company could you ask for?" said George, while Harry shook his head at their nicknames for Draco and Blaise. He grinned.
"Why not? I couldn't think of a better way to petrify Gryffindors than to have the Dark Heir sleeping under their roof!"
----------------------------------------
The twins snuck into the first year boys' dorm, snickering as they stood over the room's one occupant, a sleeping Harry Potter. They lifted the buckets of ice water directly over their heads...
... and shuddered as the bottoms of their buckets gave out, soaking them instead, while Harry rolled on the floor laughing.
"Really," laughed Harry, waving his wand in a little explanation, "You two should know not to attempt to trick a trickster!"
"Fine," said Fred, performing a Drying charm on himself and George, pretending to pout.
"We were just coming to tell you about all the presents down in the common room."
Harry instantly woke up, eyes gleaming as they hadn't since coming to school.
"Let's go, then!" And they raced down the stairs to the empty room.
Harry, Fred, and George had quite a good time opening all their presents. Harry got a custom made wrist wand holder from Draco and a book on Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes from Blaise. From Tom he got a small, black wood lap harp. Fred and George had laughed at this until Harry, knowing what the harp could do, started playing a melody to which the twins did whatever Harry thought of. The Dark Woods harp would come in useful.
"Hey, what's this?" they all said at once, all three holding up packages. Fred and George looked at Harry's first and grinned.
"We told Mum about you being our friend, so she must have sent a gift. Oh look! She made you a Weasley sweater!" George said, pulling out Harry's sweater, which was black with two green stripes running horizontally across the chest.
"What are these two packages, though?" asked Fred again. Harry took one glance and laughed.
"Well, I wrote about you guys being my friends, too, so Tom must have sent you something."
Fred and George looked awestruck at the mere idea of the one and only Voldemort sending them holiday gifts, and then as one mind opened their presents. Fred had gotten a book called "The Prankster's Guide to Getting Your Enemies" and George had gotten "You're Caught: Tips and Excuses for Getting Out of Any Mess".
Harry chuckled, "Gods, Tom just had to get you those books, didn't he? Now you two are going to be holy terrors!" He just started to get up when Fred pulled one present from under the tree.
"Harry! You missed one!" He tossed it to Harry and called after him, "Make sure to get down to the Great Hall quick! Breakfast's almost over!"
"Alright!" yelled Harry and dumped his presents on his temporary bed. He picked up his wrapped present. It was very light considering its size. Harry picked up the attached card and read:
Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry holiday to you.
"Odd, no signature," pondered Harry. He scanned the package for any kind of spell, but the only one that showed up, a tracking charm, was disarmed easily enough, and Harry opened the package.
"Gods," muttered Harry, "An Invisibility Cloak!"
And so it was. It was an entirely smooth fabric of a mesmerising silver, and in his fingertips felt as though made of some sort of solid water. He didn't want to leave it, but he had to go to breakfast. Wrapping all his stuff up in it and making an invisible bundle, he went back down to his own dungeon dormitory. He locked the items in his trunk with a heavy Locking charm ("Alohamora, my foot!") and went up to the Great Hall just in time to watch Lupin and Severus go into an all out fist fight, Snuffles attempting to bite his master's opponent all the while. It certainly was an interesting morning.
----------------------------------------------
The night was quiet after the holiday feast, and everyone in the tower was sleeping off the magnificent food that had been provided. Except for one Harry Potter.
'So this was my father's,' thought Harry, letting the cloak run through his hands and watching them disappear. He had to test it out; he had read too much about these things not to. And so, sweeping it over himself and checking the mirror in the corner of the dormitory, he set off for destinations only known to him and Amelia.
"~Shouldn't you be with Sev right now, Amelia?~" he whispered as he rounded a corner, quite comforted by her warm weight around his neck.
"~He fell asleep reading, so I figured I would report the information you wanted,~" she said.
"~What is it, then?~" asked Harry, stopping for a moment behind a statue of some unknown witch.
"~He had a conversation with Tom while I hid under his robe sleeve. They talked about a lot of things I didn't know, but he did say the name Nicholas Flamel.~"
"~Flamel?!~" started Harry, but he was cut off by anymore conversation from a noise moving through the halls; It was Snuffles, and he seemed to be looking right in their direction.
Harry stood stock still and only one thing was racing through his mind; 'Does the cloak work on animals?!'
Luckily, the dog didn't press the issue any further. It just did one of its odd little grins and trotted off. Harry wiped the cold sweat from his brow and turned into the room right next to the statue to calm himself, which appeared to be an unused classroom if the amount of dirt was any clue. All the materials were up against the walls, leaving most of the floor completely open exempting the few bits of debris here and there. But what caught Harry's attention was sitting in the far corner of the room, placed as though it was haphazardly put there for temporary safekeeping.
"Wow," Harry uttered as he stepped up closer, dropping his cloak and looking around the frame and the strange phrase around the edge: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." That didn't make sense, but, Harry thought, if you could switch it around...
"I show not your face but your heart's desire. The Mirror of Erised. It's the fabled Mirror of Erised," he said, stepping closer. He was just about to step in front of it, to find out his deepest, darkest desire, but the creak of a door stopped him. He whipped his wand out of its new holder and spun around, facing a very stunned Lupin and dog.
"Taking a midnight stroll, Harry?" the greying professor asked, sitting down on a desk, his dog at his feet.
"Well Professor, I, uh-" stammered Harry. Lupin just chuckled.
"Come here, Harry. Don't worry, we won't report you. We'd be hypocrites if we did that, wouldn't we Snuffles?"
Harry just stared down at the dog, then back at Lupin, eyebrow arched like Draco, "May I ask why you always take that dog with you everywhere?"
"He's my best and only true friend." The dog's chest seemed to swell with pride at this.
Harry sat down on the desk next to Lupin, looking concerned, "One more question. I've been wanting to ask you for a while, but I've never found the right time."
"Go ahead."
"Why are you always getting in fights with Uncle Sev? I mean, why is there such animosity between you two?"
Remus looked down at the dog with its bright blue eyes, seeming to be thinking of his answer carefully. Finally, he responded.
"It's a long story, Harry. Perhaps a bit too long to tell now. No objections."-for he had seen Harry about to voice his opinion-"Perhaps you'd like to come for tea tomorrow in my office? I'll tell you the story then if you come."
"Thank you, Professor, I will," replied Harry, smiling warmly at Lupin for the first time. He went over to the Invisibility Cloak, pausing only slightly before slipping it on and looking back. Remus waved a hand.
"We won't tell anyone about the cloak, Harry. Your father had us swear never to tell anyone about it, and we continue to honour his wishes."
"You knew my father?"
"Tomorrow, Harry. Good night."
As Harry slipped into his bed later that night, sleep would have to wage a battle between Nicholas Flamel, the Mirror of Erised, Professor Lupin, and all the information he'd find out tomorrow. The war raged on for hours before sleep finally prevailed, making the trip to tomorrow that much faster.
--------------------------------------
A/N: Sorry this came out so late! School's been terrible in the way of dumping last-minute projects on before Thanksgiving Break, and I haven't had moment's peace to do anything else. *sighs* Can I just skip the rest of junior year? I wanna graduate already! Oh, the story..
This story won't be coming out everyday during the next four days; I can almost guarantee my parents will be keeping me busy while I suffer from writing withdrawals *grumble grumble*. So, how do you think the meeting with Remus will turn out? Do you like the presents? We'll learn more about them later, I personally guarantee it. Anything else interesting I haven't remembered?
Revire responses:
Elssha- The talk is coming next chapter. I hadn't planned on it for quite a bit of time, but it just
fit, so.. yeah!
JerseyGirl03- Here's your update!
Rogue Enchantress- Favourite's list? Aaawww, you shouldn't have. *blush*
Fiery Phoenix- Yes, I've always liked dark Harry. After all the stuff that's happened to him,
wouldn't you be dark?
ReflectionsOfReality- That explains it. Two in the morning? What time zone, wait, better yet,
what country do you live in? I always check when I get from from school
at two, so is it night where you are when it's morning here? Pardon me
if I sound a bit off. It's been a hectic week and I'm writing this late, and
I'm wondering while I'm writing whether it's morning where you are, or if
I'm just being an idiot. I think I'll opt for the former.
RaistlinofMetallica- Did I get your name right? (It's so late..) Reading during class? Wish I
could. Our school's paranoid and blocks all sites like these. How sad.
hermionegreen- Yes, I like the "rare but commanding presence" too. I had to remind people
that, yes, he is the Dark Heir, which means the Deatheaters do have to
respect him. Bwahahahahahaha!
afds- Here's your update! Would you like fries with that? (Did I really just say that? So late...)
Shorty- You poor little Ravenclaw, being corrupted by the Slytherin, aye? Don't worry, soon
the madness will come and then all will be good.
Mark Evans- Thanks for bookmarking me. Just don't lose me, okay? I know I have, like, forty
stories bookmarked, and it's easy to lose track of them. That and I haven't had
the time to read or review any of them for a month. *bangs head on bookshelf*
Aravis Traitre- Love the evil smiley. :)
Nicoletta- So many people have questions... hehehehe. Thanks.
(November 23-26, 2003)
Disclaimer: Harry doesn't belong to me, blah, blah, blah. I only own Amelia and Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes. Oh, and I do use some of the same techniques Rowling uses with some fun lines I always enjoyed, so please don't sue me! I need all the money I can get for my student ambassador trip!
Parseltongue will be "~...~"
Chapter 7: Presents and Mirrors
---------------------------------------
November ran headlong into December, and before anyone at the castle knew it, it was almost time for Yules. Harry was feeling lonely (both Draco and Blaise had left), and was eating his lunch without any special interest as to what it was. The little blonde girl down the table, Pansy, seemed to have taken a liking to him this past month. She was coming over to him, and he made himself promise not to curse her... at least with a wand.
"Hey, Harry, what are you doing down here all by yourself?" she asked with a sickeningly sweet tone that carried across the almost empty hall.
Harry copied her tone and replied, "Well, Pansy, in case it's slipped past your nonexistent brain, the last person who annoyed me was stuck in the Hospital Wing for a week before they could figure out how to put him right side out again. And in case you haven't figured it out by me telling you this, you are getting on my nerves."
She pouted and said, "Really, Harry. That's not a nice thing to say!"
Harry glowered at her. "Go tell it to someone who cares!" before he got up and walked over to sit next to Fred and George.
"Lovely job, Harry," said Fred, patting him on the shoulder.
"That's the little Dark Heir we all know and fear!" said George.
Harry grinned. These were the only two in the school among the students besides Draco and Blaise that weren't utterly terrified of him.
"Why are you two sticking around school?" pointed out Harry, grabbing an apple from the center.
"Didn't want to have to deal with Percy and ickle Ronnikins all break," they replied, mock-shuddering. "Why aren't you with Tom? Surely you could have gone home?"
"Well, Tom is currently researching some sort of new twist on Cruciatus. He said it wouldn't be that pleasant if I came home just when human trials were to start," said Harry conversationally, taking a bite from the apple as the twins just grinned. Harry really thought they had been adopted by the Weasley's from a Dark couple; it was the only explanation for their love of his conversations of Tom.
"Hey Harry," started Fred.
"We were wondering-"
"-if you would like-"
"-to stay with us-"
"-in Gryffindor Tower-"
"-for break."
"Do you always have to do that?!" said Harry. "Why are you inviting me?"
"Well, Pomp Dragon and Snake Queen are gone. We figured you would want company for the holidays, and what better company could you ask for?" said George, while Harry shook his head at their nicknames for Draco and Blaise. He grinned.
"Why not? I couldn't think of a better way to petrify Gryffindors than to have the Dark Heir sleeping under their roof!"
----------------------------------------
The twins snuck into the first year boys' dorm, snickering as they stood over the room's one occupant, a sleeping Harry Potter. They lifted the buckets of ice water directly over their heads...
... and shuddered as the bottoms of their buckets gave out, soaking them instead, while Harry rolled on the floor laughing.
"Really," laughed Harry, waving his wand in a little explanation, "You two should know not to attempt to trick a trickster!"
"Fine," said Fred, performing a Drying charm on himself and George, pretending to pout.
"We were just coming to tell you about all the presents down in the common room."
Harry instantly woke up, eyes gleaming as they hadn't since coming to school.
"Let's go, then!" And they raced down the stairs to the empty room.
Harry, Fred, and George had quite a good time opening all their presents. Harry got a custom made wrist wand holder from Draco and a book on Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes from Blaise. From Tom he got a small, black wood lap harp. Fred and George had laughed at this until Harry, knowing what the harp could do, started playing a melody to which the twins did whatever Harry thought of. The Dark Woods harp would come in useful.
"Hey, what's this?" they all said at once, all three holding up packages. Fred and George looked at Harry's first and grinned.
"We told Mum about you being our friend, so she must have sent a gift. Oh look! She made you a Weasley sweater!" George said, pulling out Harry's sweater, which was black with two green stripes running horizontally across the chest.
"What are these two packages, though?" asked Fred again. Harry took one glance and laughed.
"Well, I wrote about you guys being my friends, too, so Tom must have sent you something."
Fred and George looked awestruck at the mere idea of the one and only Voldemort sending them holiday gifts, and then as one mind opened their presents. Fred had gotten a book called "The Prankster's Guide to Getting Your Enemies" and George had gotten "You're Caught: Tips and Excuses for Getting Out of Any Mess".
Harry chuckled, "Gods, Tom just had to get you those books, didn't he? Now you two are going to be holy terrors!" He just started to get up when Fred pulled one present from under the tree.
"Harry! You missed one!" He tossed it to Harry and called after him, "Make sure to get down to the Great Hall quick! Breakfast's almost over!"
"Alright!" yelled Harry and dumped his presents on his temporary bed. He picked up his wrapped present. It was very light considering its size. Harry picked up the attached card and read:
Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry holiday to you.
"Odd, no signature," pondered Harry. He scanned the package for any kind of spell, but the only one that showed up, a tracking charm, was disarmed easily enough, and Harry opened the package.
"Gods," muttered Harry, "An Invisibility Cloak!"
And so it was. It was an entirely smooth fabric of a mesmerising silver, and in his fingertips felt as though made of some sort of solid water. He didn't want to leave it, but he had to go to breakfast. Wrapping all his stuff up in it and making an invisible bundle, he went back down to his own dungeon dormitory. He locked the items in his trunk with a heavy Locking charm ("Alohamora, my foot!") and went up to the Great Hall just in time to watch Lupin and Severus go into an all out fist fight, Snuffles attempting to bite his master's opponent all the while. It certainly was an interesting morning.
----------------------------------------------
The night was quiet after the holiday feast, and everyone in the tower was sleeping off the magnificent food that had been provided. Except for one Harry Potter.
'So this was my father's,' thought Harry, letting the cloak run through his hands and watching them disappear. He had to test it out; he had read too much about these things not to. And so, sweeping it over himself and checking the mirror in the corner of the dormitory, he set off for destinations only known to him and Amelia.
"~Shouldn't you be with Sev right now, Amelia?~" he whispered as he rounded a corner, quite comforted by her warm weight around his neck.
"~He fell asleep reading, so I figured I would report the information you wanted,~" she said.
"~What is it, then?~" asked Harry, stopping for a moment behind a statue of some unknown witch.
"~He had a conversation with Tom while I hid under his robe sleeve. They talked about a lot of things I didn't know, but he did say the name Nicholas Flamel.~"
"~Flamel?!~" started Harry, but he was cut off by anymore conversation from a noise moving through the halls; It was Snuffles, and he seemed to be looking right in their direction.
Harry stood stock still and only one thing was racing through his mind; 'Does the cloak work on animals?!'
Luckily, the dog didn't press the issue any further. It just did one of its odd little grins and trotted off. Harry wiped the cold sweat from his brow and turned into the room right next to the statue to calm himself, which appeared to be an unused classroom if the amount of dirt was any clue. All the materials were up against the walls, leaving most of the floor completely open exempting the few bits of debris here and there. But what caught Harry's attention was sitting in the far corner of the room, placed as though it was haphazardly put there for temporary safekeeping.
"Wow," Harry uttered as he stepped up closer, dropping his cloak and looking around the frame and the strange phrase around the edge: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." That didn't make sense, but, Harry thought, if you could switch it around...
"I show not your face but your heart's desire. The Mirror of Erised. It's the fabled Mirror of Erised," he said, stepping closer. He was just about to step in front of it, to find out his deepest, darkest desire, but the creak of a door stopped him. He whipped his wand out of its new holder and spun around, facing a very stunned Lupin and dog.
"Taking a midnight stroll, Harry?" the greying professor asked, sitting down on a desk, his dog at his feet.
"Well Professor, I, uh-" stammered Harry. Lupin just chuckled.
"Come here, Harry. Don't worry, we won't report you. We'd be hypocrites if we did that, wouldn't we Snuffles?"
Harry just stared down at the dog, then back at Lupin, eyebrow arched like Draco, "May I ask why you always take that dog with you everywhere?"
"He's my best and only true friend." The dog's chest seemed to swell with pride at this.
Harry sat down on the desk next to Lupin, looking concerned, "One more question. I've been wanting to ask you for a while, but I've never found the right time."
"Go ahead."
"Why are you always getting in fights with Uncle Sev? I mean, why is there such animosity between you two?"
Remus looked down at the dog with its bright blue eyes, seeming to be thinking of his answer carefully. Finally, he responded.
"It's a long story, Harry. Perhaps a bit too long to tell now. No objections."-for he had seen Harry about to voice his opinion-"Perhaps you'd like to come for tea tomorrow in my office? I'll tell you the story then if you come."
"Thank you, Professor, I will," replied Harry, smiling warmly at Lupin for the first time. He went over to the Invisibility Cloak, pausing only slightly before slipping it on and looking back. Remus waved a hand.
"We won't tell anyone about the cloak, Harry. Your father had us swear never to tell anyone about it, and we continue to honour his wishes."
"You knew my father?"
"Tomorrow, Harry. Good night."
As Harry slipped into his bed later that night, sleep would have to wage a battle between Nicholas Flamel, the Mirror of Erised, Professor Lupin, and all the information he'd find out tomorrow. The war raged on for hours before sleep finally prevailed, making the trip to tomorrow that much faster.
--------------------------------------
A/N: Sorry this came out so late! School's been terrible in the way of dumping last-minute projects on before Thanksgiving Break, and I haven't had moment's peace to do anything else. *sighs* Can I just skip the rest of junior year? I wanna graduate already! Oh, the story..
This story won't be coming out everyday during the next four days; I can almost guarantee my parents will be keeping me busy while I suffer from writing withdrawals *grumble grumble*. So, how do you think the meeting with Remus will turn out? Do you like the presents? We'll learn more about them later, I personally guarantee it. Anything else interesting I haven't remembered?
Revire responses:
Elssha- The talk is coming next chapter. I hadn't planned on it for quite a bit of time, but it just
fit, so.. yeah!
JerseyGirl03- Here's your update!
Rogue Enchantress- Favourite's list? Aaawww, you shouldn't have. *blush*
Fiery Phoenix- Yes, I've always liked dark Harry. After all the stuff that's happened to him,
wouldn't you be dark?
ReflectionsOfReality- That explains it. Two in the morning? What time zone, wait, better yet,
what country do you live in? I always check when I get from from school
at two, so is it night where you are when it's morning here? Pardon me
if I sound a bit off. It's been a hectic week and I'm writing this late, and
I'm wondering while I'm writing whether it's morning where you are, or if
I'm just being an idiot. I think I'll opt for the former.
RaistlinofMetallica- Did I get your name right? (It's so late..) Reading during class? Wish I
could. Our school's paranoid and blocks all sites like these. How sad.
hermionegreen- Yes, I like the "rare but commanding presence" too. I had to remind people
that, yes, he is the Dark Heir, which means the Deatheaters do have to
respect him. Bwahahahahahaha!
afds- Here's your update! Would you like fries with that? (Did I really just say that? So late...)
Shorty- You poor little Ravenclaw, being corrupted by the Slytherin, aye? Don't worry, soon
the madness will come and then all will be good.
Mark Evans- Thanks for bookmarking me. Just don't lose me, okay? I know I have, like, forty
stories bookmarked, and it's easy to lose track of them. That and I haven't had
the time to read or review any of them for a month. *bangs head on bookshelf*
Aravis Traitre- Love the evil smiley. :)
Nicoletta- So many people have questions... hehehehe. Thanks.
(November 23-26, 2003)