Chapter 14 – Christmas

The weeks after the quidditch match went by quickly for Hadriana Potter, and soon it was the beginning of winter. Snow was now falling to the ground, covering everything with its beautiful white flakes. You could see Hagrid carrying a large tree through the grounds of Hogwarts and into the great hall while others prepared to go home for the holidays.

Hermione slowly made her way into the great hall where she could see Mr Flinch decorating the tree discerningly, while Hadriana and Ron were playing a game of wizarding chess at the Gryffindor table.

"Knight to E-5," Ron said.

Hadriana looked at the chess set slightly at a loss of what to do because she could have used her time for something else than this. "Queen to E-5," Hadriana said while Ron took notice of Hermione who was approaching them.

"That's totally barbaric," Hermione told them, as Ron's king sliced through Hadriana's queen in half.

"That's wizards' chess. I see you've packed." Ron said and gestured to Hermione's trunk while she looked at him expectantly. "See you haven't!"

"Change of plans. My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. He's studying dragons there." Ron told them.

Hadriana's eyes widened at hearing about dragons because she loved them.

"DRAGONS!" Molly Weasley gasped in horror and held her youngest son to her chest like it could protect him from the eventual future. While little Charlie was happy and cheered about hearing the word.

"Good, you can help Hadriana. She's going to continue looking in the library for Nicholas Flamel." Hermione told them, as a matter of fact.

Ron groaned in protest, "We've looked there a hundred times!"

"Not in the restricted section. Happy Christmas." She told them with an air of superiority and walked off leaving the two of them staring at her in disbelief.

"We really were a bad influence on her," Hadriana smirked and turned towards Ron.

"Damn, you know that we wouldn't have made it as far as we did if she hadn't encouraged our rule-breaking sometimes!" Ron said and kissed Hermione's forehead with a smirk stretched across his mouth.

"I knew it! Hermione was the one…" Sirius said wryly and couldn't help but be proud.

"Of course. Siri, there are a lot of things we wouldn't have thought of if it hadn't been for Hermione." Hadriana said to everyone else's surprise, but the teachers looked at Hermione in horror about what was coming their way.

The new younger generation of their parents looked at them with fond smiles as they argued back and forth, they hadn't seen Sirius that relaxed since they had known him. Younger Sirius was staring with envy something that he knew had to stop, after all, why did he have to be so damn jealous of himself? However, how could he not when a family is everything he has ever wanted.

"I think we've had a bad influence on her," Ron told Hadriana blinking, and Hadriana smiled because she thought that Hermione had always had some mischief in her.

"You say it like it's a bad thing!" Young Sirius said dramatically, just to have something to say. Many of the people who heard him gave him dull looks

"It's a bad thing Padfoot…" Remus sighed, "She's their only form of self-control." He said while the others shrugged.

In the next couple of hours until the next morning, were quite calm and easygoing. The next morning started with Ron. He was running through the empty girl's dormitories in search of Hadriana, startling Hedwig who was sitting on top of a pile of books. "Hadriana, Wake up!" Ron calmly yelled as he ran back out of the room and down the stairs.

Hadriana just shook her head, 'how can he have so much energy, this early?' she thought, as she yawned. Tiredly, waking up and calmly walked behind him – at least trying to wake herself up.

"Happy Christmas, Hadriana!" Ron said and gave her a smile, which she couldn't help but return.

"Happy Christmas, Ron." She said back before her eyes squinted looking at his appearance. "What are you wearing."

"My mum made them. Looks like you've got one too." He said and gestured to the presents that were underneath the tree to Hadriana's hidden glee.

"I-I've got presents!" Hadriana asked a little bit in shock and walked down the stairs for real to see it for herself. After all, she had been up the whole night and hadn't slept a wink because this night and her birthday was the only night Sirius would manage to tell her stories about the past with her parents without feeling like the dead afterwards.

"You never got any presents?" Lily asked her sadly, knowing it to be true after everything they had seen of her sister.

Many of the people around her were shocked, but at the same time, they should have seen it coming a mile away.

Hadriana quietly gave a smile at the small pile of presents that were hers, and she was a little bit grateful that she had remembered to get her dormmates something, after all, she has had no one to give anything to before.

Seeing the pile at the feet of the tree, she put the present from the Weasly twins away knowing what it was, it wouldn't be a prank if everyone would know of it before it was put in place.

Her dormmates gave her sweets, while Hermione gave her a book. It was so typical of her to press her love of books on others. Then there was a large package, which she opened at last. "Your father left this in my possession before he died. It's time, it was returned to you. Use it well!" she read out loud, shearing a confused look from Ron, before opening the package and revealing a piece of silvery grey fabric.

The Marauder looked at the screen in shock, and James' eyes gulped with widened eyes and looked towards his mother in dread. "Oh, no." Fleamont Potter whispered though everyone heard him. Their secret was about to be blown wide open.

Lily and Euphemia eyed them suspiciously, dreading what they were about to find out before they turned their eyes back onto the movie.

Hadriana unfolded the fabric, still a little bit confused.

"What is it?" Questioned Ron.

"It's some kind of cloak," Hadriana said with a shrug.

"Well, then let's see. Put it on." Ron told her.

Hadriana looked at him weirdly, though, shrugged and threw it over her shoulders, her body, everything besides her head disappeared.

Sirius looked at his wife proudly because she had used the cloak well and made the cloak her own. "You used it, pretty well." He smirked loudly.

"I know, right!" Hadriana laughed and kissed Sirius's cheek.

In another part of the hall, it was suspiciously quiet as they watched the future daughter of a prankster and the prankster himself laughing with one another. McGonagall was quietly fuming, "That's how you do it!" and stood up from her seat. "That's how you manage to get away with everything!" McGonagall yelled, startling everyone that wouldn't have believed it her.

The students looked at them in awe, though, some of them were pissed that they had managed to get away with everything they had done.

"Minnie, you can't take it away," James said, slightly smug.

"And why is that Mr Potter?" McGonagall asked, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Because it's a family heirloom," Fleamont told them all, with a sigh knowing that in privacy he would get an earful from his wife for giving James the cloak. Euphemia glared at him, but she wouldn't give him a piece of her mind until the first movie was over, and they were alone in their own quarters.

Lily did something else, she held James by the ear and whispered angrily so no one could hear, "When we get time for ourselves, we will have a talk about what you've done!"

"Ow, yes dear," James said with a winch, knowing that he would get it later.

"Woah." Mumbled Ron in awe.

"My body is gone," Hadriana said in awe and spun around.

"I know what it is. It's an Invisibility cloak." Ron told her and stared at her in fascination.

"I'm invisible!" Hadriana said, still not completely believing it.

"They're rare. Wondering who gave it to you?" questioned Ron.

"There's no name. It just said, use it well." Hadriana shrugged at Ron, however, she had her suspicion. 'What do you want, Dumbledore?' *Did my father really have an invisibility cloak? * She quickly asked through their link.

*Yeah, we used it to prank the school. * Sirius laughed crookedly.

*Why would Dumbledore give it to me? * Hadriana asked worriedly.

*Don't know, dear. Be careful. * Sirius told her sad because he knew he should have been there to help her, but he was stuck here. However, he was wondering how he could escape.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at this, though, everyone ignored him. Hadriana wondered if the headmaster would ever change and see that what he was doing was wrong.

Hadriana bit her lip worriedly over what she was doing, after this morning she had managed to use the day for herself without Ron. Something she loved because she could use the day as she wanted it. Practising spellcasting and reading a couple of months ahead.

Now, she was walking through the library with a lantern in hand underneath her new cloak. Using the lantern in hand to scan the many different shelves in the restricted section, because she had to do something to find out what it was that hid underneath the school.

It was weird walking through the library after dark, she stopped at a specific bookshelf, reading over various titles.

"Famous Fire-eaters, 15th-century friends. Flamel. Nicholas Flamel. Where are you?" Hadriana mumbled to herself, and carefully took of her cloak to get a better look at the different tomes. A random book drew her from her stupor, she opened its pages only for the book to start screaming.

Immediately she fumbled with the cloak after she quickly slid the book back into the shelf. Sliding her cloak back around over her, relieved that she had managed it before the mad caretaker caught her.

"Who's there?" Flitch's voice filled the air, making her drop her lantern and smash it into different pieces.

Hadriana managed not to say anything and quickly made herself back out of the library only to stop once more as she heard the man's voice again. "I know you're in here. You can't hide." The blasted cat, Mrs Norris followed along.

"Who is it, show yourself." Demanded Flitch, walking past her.

Hadriana hid between a couple of bookcases, when she couldn't hear him anymore, she quietly left the library, and then made her way back to her common room, where she came across Snape pinning Professor Quirrell.

Hadriana and Sirius looked at one another softly, as they watched what was happening.

"I've never understood, the two of your friendship with Professor Snape/Uncle Severus." Draco and Hermione told them at the same time without meaning to, as they watched what was happening in their past.

"You'll just have to wait!" Hadriana told them.

"Severus, I thought…" Quirrell started, but Snape cut him off.

"You don't want me as your enemy Quirrell," Snape warned him.

"Wh-what do y-you mean." Stuttered Quirrell.

"You know perfectly well what I mean." Snape sneered, before turning around. He was facing Hadriana then, however, she couldn't see her.

Hadriana swallowed nervously and softly walked a couple of steps backwards. Snape tried to grab whoever was hiding in front of him, only to miss, and quickly turned back to Quirrell.

"Oh, Professors, I found this in the restricted section. It's still hot. That means there's a student out of bed." Flitch told them, as he came into their sights. At that, they rushed off, as they heard a door open and close in one of the hallways.

Hadriana sighed, taking off her cloak in relief that she had managed to get away. Until she found herself looking to a mirror that was standing in the middle of the room she walked into. Walking towards it and looking at herself in the mirror – eyes widening at what she could see in it. There was a figure standing beside her, holding her tenderly though his face was blurred, and there were a lot of other unknown people standing beside of them.

"I thought you saw your parents?" Ron asked with wonder, and the same asked the others in their circle of friends.

"You know me, everyone expected me to see them in that mirror," Hadriana told them being smart like that.

"I suggest we continue to watch," Sirius said strictly, giving Hadriana a sad smile.

Hadriana looked behind hr confused that there was no one to find, and then back again, seeing them still standing beside her in the mirror.

"What kind of mirror is this?" Hadriana whispered to herself, creasing the mirror at seeing the people that were clearly close to her. With tears in her eyes, she felt more alone than ever as she watched them in the mirror.

Lily and James both had tears in their eyes at seeing their daughter looking so lonely and heartbroken. Many others had tears in their eyes, really finding the scene to truly be heartbreaking.

Hadriana walked quietly back towards her dormitory wondering and thinking, that even if it was just a pipe dream, she would have a family in the future. It clearly showed it, and it would be a reality. Nevertheless, she decided to go back to the room the next day – and she did. The following night, Hadriana was seen sitting on the floor in front of the mirror staring up at the sight that met her.

"Back again, Hadriana!" A voice said, causing Hadriana to turn around quickly in surprise.

"I see that you, like so many others before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

The great hall became quiet at hearing the headmaster's voice say this, to them the Mirror of Erised was a legend.

"I trust by now you realize what it does. Let me give you a clue. The happiest man on earth would look into that mirror and see himself exactly as is." Dumbledore told her warning her about the effects of the mirror.

"So, it gives us what we want the most? Anything?" Inquired Hadriana of the headmaster.

"Yes… and No. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest desperate desires of our hearts. Now you, Hadriana, who have never known your family, you see them standing behind you."

This made her confused, how could the headmaster have known what she looked at – she had never just only seen her parents standing behind her – after all, how could she desire something if she didn't know them or even have seen a picture of them?

"Yeah, how did you know that headmaster?" many of the halls' students asked the headmaster curiously, though, some people still looked at Hadriana with heart-shattering looks.

No one answered them, but if you listen closely to where the headmaster gritted his teeth you could hear him furiously muttering under his breath, "Everything is going to become ruined…"

"Remember this Hadriana, this mirror gives us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted their lives away before it, even gone mad. That is why tomorrow it will be moved to a new home. And I must ask you to not go looking for it again. It does not do well to dwell on dreams Hadriana and forget to live." Headmaster Dumbledore told her and gave her a conspiring smile before walking away.

Hadriana just looked curiously after the retreating headmaster knowing that there was something fishy that was starting up, but what he said was the truth even if it was honest to God good to have dreams in life. It's just that you had to live life, and work towards them that was the best course of action.

Giving the mirror one last look, she started to walk away wowing that in the future she would have a family no matter what!

Everyone was sighing to themselves when Dumbledore raised himself up and said, "Why don't we all take a small break, and gather ourselves before we continue?"

The hall nodded because they felt a little bit hungry and wanted to stretch their feet.

With that said, they went quietly to each of their people and talked and ate a good meal. Before the next part of the movie started.