~Chapter 6~Holidays – 21 to 31 December 1991~

~Harry~

Harry woke up to find the sun streaming through his bedroom windows and he allowed himself to lay in for a bit. School holidays were the one thing he missed when he started working and he vowed to make full use of it while he could as he even ordered breakfast in bed. He was surprised to see that the elves looked all too happy to have him back and he was treated to a breakfast that almost had anything he could think of.

He made sure to divide what he wanted to eat from the rest before ordering the elf to make sure that all of the elves had a good breakfast.

When the elf looked almost upset, Harry explained that he needed his elves to be in top shape if they were to serve him, and they could only do that if they were taking care of themselves.

After that, it was like a frenzy started and Harry was almost too afraid to know how the elves had been treated in the past because they went all out with every request he made.

Mina looked at him with hopeful eyes whenever he asked an elf to take him somewhere and he finally decided to make it her main job, while she also had to help the other elves when she didn't have anything to do.

A week later, on the 28th December, he invited Severus over and the man earnestly looked around to try and spot his guardian until Harry finally got him to sit down before requesting an oath of secrecy. Severus made the oath with the condition that he could share the secret if it had something to do with Harry's health and Harry barely kept himself from snorting as he tried to cover up his embarrassment. "Here's something that might describe things a little better.."

He shoved his godfather the documentation from Gringotts, and when he finished reading he looked AT Harry in shock, "You're 25 years old? But that would mean that you came to the past for some reason…" Harry nodded before he proceeded to tell Severus about what happened in the other timeline.

To say that his godfather was shocked was an understatement but Harry couldn't bring himself to tell Severus that he'd died, though he could tell the man had figured it out that he hadn't survived.

Luckily the man seemed content to leave him to do his own thing with only the promise of being there to check on him now and again.

By the time Yule came around, Harry found that he was quite bored and he eagerly accepted Draco's invitation for a visit. He knew that Lucius wouldn't dare harm him as Voldemort hadn't made his presence known yet.

When Draco showed him around, Harry was happy that they hadn't invited him to the party that the Malfoy's held annually, even as Draco apologized non-stop until Harry reassured him that it was safer that way.

On the 29th of December, Harry knew that Dumbledore would be visiting Grindelwald and so he took the chance to sneak into Hogwarts through its tunnels late that evening. He then threw his invisibility cloak over him (the one in Dumbledore's possession had disappeared the moment Harry arrived in the past).

After that, it was easy to get below the trap door, as Hagrid had probably taken Fluffy out of the chamber for a bit, and after Hermione's help in the past, it was easy to get past the Devil's Snare. After that, he easily found the correct key and opened the door.

The game of chess was taken care of as he snuck through it under his cloak, and so was the troll, but Harry almost found him second-guessing himself when it came to the potions riddle. Finally, he was sure that he'd gotten it right and it was easy to then step through the fire to reach the Mirror of Erised.

It still held true that he didn't want the stone for his own selfish desires because he really wanted the stone to help Voldemort and so the mirror seemed to accept the exchange of the real stone for the fake.

After that Harry quickly made his way out of the chamber after making sure that it seemed like nothing had been disturbed, and as he lay in bed that night, he wondered what Voldemort's reaction would be to his birthday present.

He'd decided to deliver the first present via owl, as he knew that Voldemort wasn't sane enough to accept anything else at the moment.

Harry carefully placed the stone in his drawer and decided that he would wrap it and attach a letter the next day. Then he quickly took a shower and got into bed.

~~~…Voldemort…~~~

Voldemort watched carefully through Quirrel's eyes as an owl landed in front of him. He was in his study busy doing research when he first heard the light taps on the windows, so he opened it, not really expecting any mail as it was the 31st December.

The owl obediently sat still through the detection charms and spells he cast until, finally, he reached for the box tied to the owl's leg. He was sure that the gift must be for Quirrel, as everyone believed Voldemort to be dead, but that idea flew right out the window as he glanced at the letter addressed to "Voldemort".

The owl flew away again and at first, he'd been wary to open the box. None of the Death Eaters would dare call him by his name and so it could only mean that the package came from someone outside of the Dark side. He glanced at the letter and decided to open it first.

Voldemort

Usually one would add the word 'dear' to the name of the person you are writing to, but I highly doubt that you would read the rest of my letter if it started out like that.

For now, I would guess that you didn't open the box yet, as you are much too cautious to trust simple spells and I am sure that after reading this letter, you will use a much darker version of the detection charm before finally opening it.

In the box, you will find something that will help you to regain your body…though I would caution you to create a plausible backstory to explain why Quirrel cannot teach at Hogwarts anymore. Dumbledore might already be suspicious but he would have to keep quiet about it if a reasonable explanation is given, and who knows, people might start believing that he is crazy if he does go on a rant.

One can only hope…

As for who I am…well…that isn't very important at the moment.

Regards

Ghost

Voldemort was a little peeved when he did exactly as the mysterious sender said, he checked the box with the darkest detection spell he knew, but some part of him already knew that he wouldn't detect anything.

He carefully lifted the lid and raised a brow in confusion as he saw a shrunken packet of stunned and preserved rabbits. He lifted the packet and was about the toss it away angrily, thinking it was all a joke when he saw a small note.

Sorry, I couldn't resist packing something for Nagini as well, she is beautiful.

Voldemort glanced to the side at his sleeping companion. Whoever the sender was, they certainly seemed to know him quite a bit.

He turned back to the box and lifted the note, only to find another note and his discomfort grew as he read it.

Happy Birthday (I hope this reaches you on the 31st of December)

He quickly removed the note and finally something red caught his eye. Voldemort froze as he tried to make sense of what was in front of him. It couldn't really be the Philosopher's Stone…could it?

Voldemort eagerly took the stone from the velvet of the box, and he watched, mesmerized, as reflections from the fire danced on the surface of the stone. He hurried through the ritual to test the stone, half of him still thinking that it was still a joke, one that would get his hopes up before it all came crashing down again.

But neither the stone nor the liquid turned out to be fake as Voldemort gazed at himself in the mirror hours later. His power wasn't quite back to where it should be, but he felt a lot stronger now that he had a body again.

Since then he found himself wondering about the sender, but for an entire year, he received nothing more, so he soon put it out of his mind as he got to work to bring his Death Eaters in line once more.