Gifts and Surprises

Harry and Lyra woke up to the pleasantly warm breeze of the December air of the island. December was always a warm month, with maybe a spot or two of rain, but typically bright and sunny days with very few clouds. Neither of them had gotten to join in on the winter festivals in any year prior, so the desire to spring out of bed and run for presents wasn't in their mindset at all. Both of them just lazily rolled off the giant pile of leaves and clothing they had been using for a bed, and carefully stepped over the other Hidden who were still sleeping in the big pile.

When they climbed down the tree, there were some of the other villagers already moving around, starting their days with a touch of the seeing staff and running off to gather food, play, or teach younger ones something. When they had first come to the island, everything was focused on gathering food and protecting each other. Now they set up tasks and accomplished them daily, instead of just surviving.

Brandt had told them to bring the whole tribe for presents, and they needed to wait for The Giver and the Usurper, so they just collected some food and had a leisurely breakfast while they waited for everyone to wake up and for their teacher to arrive.

The adults, on the other hand, had been awake since dawn preparing for the day ahead. Newt and Tina, having raised one child already, were under the impression that the children would be running into the camp as soon as the light hit the island, looking for presents. Before they left for the island, they had sent off the presents bound for their son, his wife, and their grandson; however, due to their completely random, worldwide excursions seeking dangerous magical creatures, there was no way to determine when the family would be back at home to open them.

A short time after sunrise, there was a small beeping sound that came from the beach area and Nestor informed the visitors that they were about to receive a postal delivery on the portkey platform. A couple of minutes later, there was a magical flash of light and a very large crate appeared on the stone platform for non-living deliveries. As soon as it arrived, the platform began beeping again, so they quickly levitated the crate off the platform for another delivery.

This time, a smaller crate arrived, and it too was moved away. The first large crate was divided into two smaller ones, though they were both still bigger than the second arrival. One was labeled 'Harry Potter' and the other 'Lyra Black.' The smaller crate had various packages inside it addressed to each of the adults on the island.

When the sun had completely risen and the children hadn't shown up yet, the adults just went to get their breakfasts and wait. A little after 10 a.m. Dougal perked up and his eyes glowed for a moment before heading outside. The rest of the adults took this as a sign and headed out of the cabin just in time to see a horde of demiguises being led by Harry and Lyra coming out of the trees, onto the beach. Some of them began to play in the sand, but the attention of the adults was drawn to the two that came after.

First came The Giver, he was as tall as Brandt, though it appeared like he was slightly hunched over. He was covered in black fur that stopped only after his shoulders and below his knees. His legs were much thicker than a human and his feet were probably around a size eighteen. Small wisps of darkness seemed to float off his body when he stood in the sun. His face looked a lot like a dwarf, but with no facial hair and a nose the size of an eggplant. On top of his head, he had a bit of grey hair that did not match the hair on his body. He carried a staff, similar to that of the children, but he had many different horns on the top of his, a string with many feathers, and a few bones that clattered as he walked. He gave a scrutinizing gaze towards the adults as he followed the Hidden onto the beach.

The attention of the group was quickly taken by what followed, and Thao started to hyperventilate as the Usurper slithered his way onto the beach. The dark green of its body shone brightly in the sunlight, with patches of brown and gold that merged in places to look orange. It kept his gaze focused on the group of adults, even as it continued moving parallel to them, with its bright red crest almost vibrating at times. It took quite some time for the magical serpent to fully clear the treeline and then coil up slightly to conserve space on the beach.

Harry and Lyra approached the adults, and Harry spoke, "I would like to introduce all of you to our teacher, The Giver." Lyra made a series of signs to the Duwende, and he slowly approached all of them. Harry gestured to each of them, "Thao, Than, Kailee, Nestor, Nenita, Brandt, Tina, and Newt."

The Giver took his time to look each one of them in the eyes as they were mentioned. He didn't attempt to shake hands or make any sort of contact, nor did he make any sort of noise or speak in any way.

When he got to Newt, the man took the initiative and stepped forward, causing the Giver to grip his staff slightly. Newt adjusted his chin so that it looked like the bottom of his jaw was widening slightly and opened his mouth to make a noise that sounded like a grumble combined with crushing rocks in his teeth.

The Giver looked a bit shocked for a moment but then responded with a slightly different kind of grumble. They took turns making noises at each other for a few minutes before Harry just came out and asked.

"What's going on?" Newt and The Giver both turned to the boy.

Newt responded, "You had mentioned that Professor Snape had said The Giver was a Duwende, so I brushed up on my Dwarven to see if there was any crossover. Turns out there is, though it is very small. It's like an American speaking with a Cockney, though I probably sound like a Cockney to him.

Harry turned to The Giver and signed to him, [Same Speak]?

The Giver signed back, [Sounds like][Broken Child].

Lyra giggled, "He says you sound like an injured child."

The others chuckled nervously.

"That sounds about right," Newt responded with a smile, then extended his left hand to The Giver to shake, as his right was holding his staff.

The Giver stared at the man's hand for a moment before reaching out and clasping it. There was a moment where they just stood there, and then The Giver's hand glowed for a moment before he released.

Harry looked to his teacher, who signed back, [Not Sick].

Newt was looking at Harry now, who told him, "He checked you for illnesses, he says you are fine."

"Well, that's good to know," Tina smiled.

The Giver turned back to the Usurper, who was laying on its back in the warm sand, and hissed,
§Come, and greet the guests, they do not need to be harmed, for now.§

The adults stiffened at the parseltongue, even though the non-British among them didn't have a cultural aversion to the language. Even without it, it was still unnerving for a strange creature to speak in a hissing tone and a fifty-five-foot snake to lift its head out of the sand and approach them.

They all froze in place as the magical serpent approached them, looking each in the eyes, so close that they could feel its breath on their faces. It took an extra long time to examine and smell Brandt, even going so far as to hover all the way around his backside before continuing to Tina and Newt. It took only moments to inspect the two of them. When the Usurper was complete in its inspections, it returned to lay in the warm sand away from them. The Giver also turned away and approached the treeline to sit in the shade. All of the adults let out a huge breath they had been holding.

"Hey Lyra," Brandt started, "any idea why the snake seemed interested in me?"

Lyra shrugged, though it was clear from her body language she was hiding something, "Do you have any food on you?" Brandt shook his head. "Maybe you smell like a snack?" he laughed very nervously at that.

Nenita broke the tension, "So, I'm guessing the crates are filled with presents?" The children looked towards the crates that each had their names on them. Brandt started to walk back towards the cabin.

Tina informed them, "The crates will open if you each tap them with your wands."

The children pulled their wands from their pouches and tapped on the sides of the boxes. They needed to jump back as the top of the crate vanished and the sides fell away, kicking up sand as they hit the ground. Inside each, there were quite a few festively wrapped gifts.

Harry and Lyra had some quick flashbacks to their childhoods. Harry remembered the piles of presents Dudley would receive for many different holidays. He wasn't even sure that some of them were real, just that his aunt and uncle like to give the chubby boy gifts. Lyra didn't remember much, just that Draco would occasionally get presents and she would not. As they stared at the piles of gifts, Brandt came back out onto the beach with a large trunk.

He informed them, "I have all the presents that you got for your family here."

Harry and Lyra completely abandoned their piles of gifts and went to dig through the box that Brandt had brought.

Harry dug out the gift for Charlie, while Lyra dug out the one for Chief and Teacher, then she passed the gift to Whispers to give to his father. They proceeded to give each one to their family members. Brandt and Tina both had cameras ready.

Charlie inspected the small, wrapped box in front of him, but didn't know what to do with it. All of the other Hidden had gathered around as well to look at what was happening. Harry reached down to a corner of it and pulled off a bit of paper, then threw it in the air as it vanished. As an experiment, Charlie reached down and repeated the process, watching the little bit of colored paper vanish into the air. Giving a huge smile, he proceeded to rip off all the paper and throw it in the air like a child on his first birthday, when it was all gone, he almost ripped the gift inside before Harry stopped him. Slowly, Harry showed him the stickers inside and how they could be taken off one surface and put back on another. As soon as Charlie understood what was happening, he started running around to the other hidden and putting stickers on all their faces only for them to take them off and reapply them to someone else's faces. After only a minute, Brandt and Tina were reloading their film for more pictures.

Everything with the stickers took nearly twenty minutes to settle down before Lyra gave her present to Teacher. She understood about the wrapping paper this time and needed some more time to be explained about the painter's easel inside. When she understood, she just embraced Lyra and sat down, clearly more mature than Charlie and his antics. Whispers came next with the hat for his father, Charlie remembered the mug that The Giver owned and explained the hat to his brother.

From there, gifts were given to Cynthia, Digger, and Weaver specifically, they received hair curlers, trowels for digging, and hair clips, respectively. Then Harry and Lyra just unloaded all of the many children's toys and games for the other Hidden and just allowed them to do a free-for-all shredding all the packages and playing with the toys. After a moment, Harry and Lyra joined in on the fun with their family.

Other than Brandt and Tina, the locals had started opening their own gifts. Most of them were tasteful things from their own families and friends that the Filipino Ministry had forwarded to them here, though after finishing with a gift from an old school friend, Nenita picked up a small box and stared at it.

"Nestor?" she said inquisitively. "Your grandmother sent me something."

That got his attention and he looked over at the small box. It had no wrapping on it and no card, just a To/From label hanging off the side.

"Well I know she liked you from when I introduced you, but she hasn't ever given one of my girlfriends a gift before."

She narrowed her eyes a bit, "How many girlfriends have you brought home to your family?"

"You are the fourth," he rolled his eyes a bit at her inquisition. "The first three, she didn't speak with at all after they were introduced." She smiled a bit at that.

They were distracted for a moment by a large amount of squeaking as one of the presents that had been unwrapped by the demiguises turned out to be toys that made noise and many of the young ones, and a few of the older ones started to wrestle with each other for control of each toy.

Nestor turned back to her, "So, what's in the box?"

Nenita opened the lid slightly and peeked inside. Then she opened it all the way to reveal an amulet on a string made of some kind of thread that changed between gold and blue depending on how you looked at it. The amulet itself was an inch thick, flat ring, made of jade, slightly smaller than her palm. At the top of the ring was a single black opal, in a teardrop shape, the size of a thumbnail. Around the ring, there were runes carved into the surface in three sections, and filled with some kind of silver metal. Towards the bottom of the ring, there were two small holes that were spots for additional adornments but were empty for now. The group of adults stared at it with interest.

"This is kind of strange," Nenita commented.

"She often sees things that are important but has no idea why until later," Nestor commented. "It's part of being a seer," he tilted his head as he looked at it from another angle.

Kailee chimed in, "So she might not even know why she picked this out?"

"I don't recognize any of the runes on this," Brandt added. "What about you Mr. Scamander?"

Newt stared at the necklace, "I have no idea either. It looks like there are two more places for additional gemstones though. Maybe she can tell you what will need to be placed there?"

"I'll look up what black opals do back at home," Nenita stared at it. "I think regular opals are used for communication pendants, but I have no idea what black opals are used for."

"We can ask her about it at dinner next week," Nestor told her. "In the meantime, you probably should wear it. Assuming it's more than a simple pendant, we don't know when you might need it."

Nenita nodded, and put it around her neck, then looked around at everyone's waiting faces. "I guess if you were waiting for something magical, it's not going to happen yet," she said, sounding a bit disappointed herself.

Lyra came over at that point and asked, "Do you have the trunk we got for The Giver?"

Brandt looked over at the stack of Lyra's presents and summoned one about the size of a shoebox to him. He placed it on the sand and tapped it with his wand, so that it burst out of its packaging and returned to full size. She started to drag it over the sand before remembering that she was a witch and casting the levitation spell on it. She wasn't strong enough yet to fully lift it with magic, but the spell made it light enough to skim the surface of the sand with ease to where The Giver was sitting in the shade.

He looked down at the shiny new trunk and smiled. His was good for holding a few things, and even though Harry had treated it, inside and out, with the same potion he had made for their staves, it still looked shabby. His amazement grew even more as Lyra showed him the multiple compartments that were accessible by tapping a specific latch before opening. Brandt took a few pictures each time he was shocked by the features of the trunk, including the expansion charms, the extra drawers, and the various places to separate all the things he would eventually put inside.

When she was done presenting it to him, he reached down and placed a hand on her head, and grumbled something, while his palm glowed. Then he pulled out two packages, wrapped in banana leaves, from inside his fur and passed them to Lyra. He gestured for her to take them over to Harry as well.

As the adults had finished their packages, they moved their chairs closer to the frolicking group of demiguises and Harry and Lyra's gift pile. Many of the younger demiguises were continuing to play with the assortment of children's toys, with the older ones looking expectantly at Harry and Lyra, to open their presents. Scaring the adults half to death, the Usurper silently moved behind all of them and joined the human adults in watching the opening of the presents.

Harry and Lyra opened the banana leaf-wrapped gifts from their teacher first. They had each received a knife, with a leather sheath to strap to a leg. The blade of each knife was nearly eight inches long and looked like it had black ripples of water on the metal. The handles were made of some kind of bone or antler, with Harry's being white, and Lyra's black. They both examined them carefully, recognizing their origin.

Tina asked them, "Where did your teacher get Damascus steel knives on an island?"

Harry said, "They were taken from the poachers before the Usurper ate their bodies," as if nothing was disturbing about that. "He has a few more, but kept them to himself until now."

"You won't be able to carry them at school," Newt said delicately.

Brandt cleared his throat, "Actually, Mr. Scamander, they can. The Hogwarts charter allows for the carrying of swords, spears, daggers, axes, shields, and any weapon you can see on the suits of armor around the school in the event of an attack from outside the castle. All of those weapons can be removed by the residents of the castle for its defense. The only condition is that the student or professor in possession of the weapon needs to be trained properly in its use or be in training. There are harsh penalties for those without training who end up injuring themselves or others."

Everyone stared at him, so he added, "My first homework assignment from Lord Black when he told me I would be tutoring the children was to read the charter, start to finish, every page, every section."

"So are you going to teach us to use them?" Lyra asked.

"Not me, I'll need to have someone else do it. And until I do, they stay in your trunks," he said seriously.

Lyra opened her gift from Seamus which was a set of everlasting candles. There was a note attached that said they were made in his family's enchanting business. It explained that each candle was resistant to heat and that if left alone would burn for two full years. He had written a short note that he hoped they would last Lyra at least until the end of the spring term.

Harry picked up another gift from his pile, which was from Tracey. It was a large stack of different parchments that all had letters and numbers on the corner and one more large scroll which was divided up into grids that had letters and numbers that ran along two of the sides of the sheet. The note attached said that they were mapping paper for the continued exploration of the castle.

Newt peered over, "That is some top-quality mapping paper, hand me one of the smaller ones." Harry handed a random piece that had D7 written on the top corner. Newt pulled out a pen and doodled a spiral on it.

"Now, look at the big paper," he instructed Harry. When they looked there was a smaller square in the grid that had the same spiral as what he had just drawn. "You can take a bunch of small maps and combine them into a large one with this set of paper. Tina and I have assembled quite a large number of maps on our travels with these."

Harry tucked it away as Lyra reached for one of hers, from Hannah which was a polished wooden box of assorted teas. The rest of the presents that were just for her were a muggle hair braiding book from Lavender, and a gift certificate from Parvati to get her ears pierced in Diagon Alley.

Harry had quite a few more individual gifts - from Professor Lockhart, he received a professional calligraphy set. Blaise had given him a stand to rest his wand on that looked like a coiled snake. The snake itself was almost the same color as the Usurper, but it was a pretty close approximation after only seeing the shed on his staff and vest. Daphne had given him a book of ice spells, and Hannah had given him a stuffed unicorn. That was probably his favorite gift so far.

The next present Harry picked out, the paper on it was so bright it hurt his eyes to look at it. It was neon orange and green in zigzag lines and there was a note on the top of it that read: 'Please save this gift to the end.'

Tina glanced at the note and said, "That's Albus's handwriting. He's probably trying to be mysterious, like always."

Harry put it to the side as Brandt said, "Dumbledore's gift can come second to last. Lord Black will have that honor for his gifts."

Ignoring the competition between the two old wizards, who weren't even there, of who could be the most mysterious; Harry picked up a present from Hagrid that was almost definitely a book.

The note on the cover of the leather-bound book said, 'I started putting this together last year when I thought you were coming. I finished contacting some old friends this fall so I could give it to you for Christmas.'

Harry opened the leather-bound book to the first page to find a single picture of two people, a man in glasses with messy black hair and a woman with bright red hair and green eyes. They were both dressed for a wedding, with a card below it that confirmed this, saying:

We would be honored to have you attend the wedding of

James Potter I

and

Lilian Evans

On August 12, 1978

Harry stared at the photo as Lyra peered over his shoulder. They looked so young, as old as Tonks, maybe younger. In his mind, he had pictured his parents as being as old as his aunt and uncle; with a few wrinkles around the eyes or losing a bit of hair. But they didn't. They weren't even as old as Brandt, who he had been assuming was around twenty-five or twenty-six.

After staring at the photo in silence for what seemed like forever, he turned to the next page. There was a multitude of other photos on this one from various ages of his parents. Many of the ones of his mother weren't magical and didn't move, while all of the ones of his father were. Quite a few of the pictures were at Hogwarts, the ones he found of his father, at the same age he was, now showed a skinny kid with no muscle on him at all. There were quite a few pictures of him with some other boys, but most of them seemed to be torn to keep someone out of it.

Harry slowly browsed through the photos, knowing that he would come back to do it again, and eventually found pictures of him as a baby. He stared at his unblemished forehead and rubbed at his scar. There were photos of him playing with a stuffed hippogriff and another of him with a great big black dog licking his face. Another one showed his father trying to balance him on top of a miniature broomstick, hovering a foot off the ground. Another funny picture was of a large group of people at a costume party with quite a few people in strange costumes he didn't recognize. One of the people in that group was disguised as some kind of brown yeti with a diagonal belt across his chest, and another was in a black suit of armor. His mother and father were both dressed in white and kissing each other. The last member of their group was wearing a black vest over a white shirt and holding a strange gun, he also had a large scar across his face.

He wasn't quite at the end yet, but he realized that he should wait to look at the rest later. So he took a deep breath and closed up the album. Brandt was whispering to Kailee and the brothers, while Newt was watching them with a caring look on his face. Tina's eyes were watering a bit as she watched. Nenita was watching the two of them with her head on Nestor's shoulder. The Usurper on the other hand had buried himself up to its eyes in the sand.

Harry looked up at everyone, with a smile on his face, and said, "I'll look at the rest later."

Lyra passed him another gift that said on the top, 'To: Whispers, From: Luna.'

They called over Whispers who had just relinquished a large rubber hammer that made different noises every time you hit something with it. He ripped off the paper, causing it to vanish in the air as he did it. Inside was a warm-looking winter hat that was fluffy on the inside and leather on the outside. It had long flaps on the sides that would cover most of the Hidden's head.

He put it on for a moment, but then took off and said, "Wooorm." Then handed it back to Lyra.

"It will be cold again at Hogwarts," she told him and put it with the rest of their gifts.

The next one was from Molly Weasley of all people. Harry and Lyra exchanged strange looks and opened the package. Inside was a large orange sweater with an H embroidered in the center. A single chocolate frog from the package also fell out with a tag that said - 'For Lyra.'

There was a card as well that read: 'I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I always give every one of my children one of these sweaters for Christmas and thought you would like one as well. I do hope that you will visit this summer. Ron, Ginny, and the Twins talk about you a lot and would love to see you then.'

Harry looked at the sweater and frowned, "I still don't like her," he told Lyra.

"She sent me a chocolate frog!" Lyra said with excitement.

Harry looked at the gift and then a mischievous smile grew on his face. "I've got an idea," he held out his hand for the frog package, and Lyra passed it to him.

He turned to the Usurper, half-buried in the sand, and almost spoke in parseltongue before catching himself. Instead, he just waved to get its attention, then pointed to the box and made a hand signal that looked like an explosion and then a snake grabbing something.

The adults started to gather around, Brandt took out his camera, and the Usurper hissed at Harry,

§Something is going to jump out that you want me to eat?§

Harry nodded, then pulled the string. The top opened up to reveal the tiny frog. Harry didn't know how much intelligence the construct of the chocolate frog had, but it did seem to always try to get away from whoever was closest to it. This time, it seemed to shake in terror at the monster snake that was staring at it and didn't move a muscle. After a few seconds, Harry just slapped the bottom of the package to launch the frog in the air and with lightning-fast speed, the Usurper snagged it out of the air and swallowed it whole.

It made a few indecipherable movements with its head and tongue before hissing,
§I did not like that, I will go find something else to eat.§

Then it turned and slithered into the ocean to find a fish or something else.

Luckily Newt deciphered the actions of the snake, so Harry didn't have to say anything, "I don't think it likes chocolate… also… It can swim?"

"Yeah, it does live on an island," Harry said. "I'm not sure how else its mother could have gotten here."

"There's another here?" Nestor asked in shock.

"No, The Giver told us she died long ago," Lyra told them.

"This is a really strange island," Nenita commented. Then after a bit of silence, "More presents?"

Lyra stashed the card she had gotten from the Chocolate Frog, it was of some wizard named Agrippa. Then, she and Harry turned back to the stack of gifts that had been getting smaller. A box from Cedric had two copies of Quidditch Through the Ages for each of them. Colin had also given them a photo album filled with pictures he had taken but had not given them yet. Hermione gave them a full set of the current Redwall books. Greg gave them both a single leather bracer for their left forearms that had a very small inscribed mark of the House Goyle coat of arms. Severus had given them a spellbook which the introduction said contained 'Cantrip effects.' They weren't sure what that meant but would look at it later.

There were only a few more left and were surprised and happy to see that the next one was from Tristan. His gift wasn't wrapped and was just in a bag from the store. It contained two small potion kits in a case with a built-in cauldron for small brews.

There was also a note inside: 'Merry Christmas Harry and Lyra! Each of these kits will be great for your travels. Nothing will spill when the lids are closed and they have preservation charms on all the vials in the kit. I already heard back from Charlie and he told me that he will be visiting his family halfway through August, but will be able to let you visit the reserve in the first two weeks of the month. Toss me an owl when you figure out your summer plans.'

"We're going to see dragons!" Harry yelled out excitedly, and Lyra's eyes widened in excitement as well. Brandt asked for the note so he could keep their plans all in one place.

The only package left in the pile now was from Dumbledore, but as Harry reached for it, Brandt stopped him.

"One more present before Dumbledore's gift. This one is from me." He passed them both two boxes about the size of the boxes they received their wands in.

"We have one for you too!" Lyra exclaimed, and whispered to Whispers, which had him run off towards the trees. He pulled a small box out of branches and ran back to them, passing it to Brandt.

He opened it up to find a very tightly woven band of demiguise hair in a couple of different styles around the loop. It would probably be an exact fit for around his wrist. There were also little individual veins of different feathers at different points to give it a touch of color.

Lyra told him, "We saw how much you liked the hair we used to buy my coat, so we thought you'd like one for yourself."

Brandt stared at it. He recognized some of the braiding patterns as the kind that Lyra's friend Parvati used in her hair and had taught to Whispers along with some others he didn't recognize. It was woven much tighter than the rope that had been given to the clothing shop they made a deal with, and depending on what kinds of bird feathers were part of it, this bracelet would probably be worth between 200-500 galleons. He slipped it onto his wrist and admired it.

"Thank you, both of you," he told them. "I still don't think that you understand the value of this hair, but from my perspective, this is a very generous gift. I will treasure it."

They all smiled some more before Harry and Lyra picked up their gifts from Brandt. Opening the box they saw… something. Harry's was made of some of the Usurper's shed that he had given Brandt for the vest, and Lyra's was made of some other kind of leather. They looked like some kind of a mess of thin straps. They looked at each other in confusion.

Brandt explained, "These are wand holsters. You can put them on your right forearm and it will secure your wands there. If you look in the box there is a small piece of wood as well. Find a place for it on your wand that won't disturb your grip and it will be permanently installed there. It will allow your wand to be summoned the same way you summon a broom from the ground. In the beginning, you'll need to say 'Wand!' like an incantation, and it will jump to your hand. However, like all spells, over time you will be able to just will the wand to your hand from the holster. You can also just take it with your hand instead."

That was cool, and it would save them a lot of time to not have to constantly use a sticking charm on their arms.

Finally, it was time for Dumbledore's gift. The note on the top of it had changed and now read, 'Thank you for waiting until the end for my gift. You won't be disappointed.'

When they finished reading that, it changed again,

'This is not exactly a gift, it was something that belonged to your father, Harry. I have been studying it since his passing, and now I think it should be returned to you.'

The note changed one more time.

'This is not what it seems. Do not get upset at your first judgment of the gift.'

The last message faded away, then the card simply vanished.

Lyra stared at the package, and said, "Well, that was a bit ominous…"

Harry pulled away the paper to reveal a long silver cloak. They had seen an invisibility cloak before and Harry was immediately angry that Dumbledore would give him a gift that probably had a history in blood.

Lyra put a hand on his shoulder, "It said don't get upset, that it's not what it seems. Try it on."

The adults and Lyra all watched as Harry put the cloak around his shoulders, and as soon as he put up the hood, he vanished.

"Where'd you go?" Lyra asked, squinting around as best she could in the daylight.

"I'm right here!" Harry said from the same spot.

"I can't see you!" Lyra said as she poked his invisible form.

"What?" Harry said with shock.

Than had been looking through a book he had received for a present and looked up to ask, "Why is it a big deal? It's an invisibility cloak, the whole point is you can't see him."

"I can see invisible people," Lyra blurted out. "I can see the Hidden, and I saw a guy in the Leaky Cauldron under an invisibility cloak."

They hadn't told anyone who wasn't a few of the aurors about that yet. Luckily no one could see Harry's shocked expression at Lyra's reveal.

"Well that explains how you always catch Whispers when he's jumping around," Tina commented.

Harry threw back the hood, and the cloak faded back into visibility. "So what is this thing then?"

Kailee asked, "Wait, it can't be from a demiguise, those only last thirty years at the most. It might be possible that one that belonged to Harry's father to still be working today, but it would make no sense for Albus Dumbledore to need to study a demiguise cloak, not for twelve years or even one week."

"She's right," Newt said seriously. "Keep a close eye on that cloak. Don't use it for anything nefarious either."

"What does nefarious mean?" Harry asked.

The adults laughed, and then Nenita told them, "It means don't use it to explore the girls' bathroom."

"Why would I do that?" Harry asked, garnering a few more chuckles from the adults.

"Back on topic!" Brandt called out. "Now for the last gift, from Lord Black himself. He couldn't be here himself, but might wish to visit in the future."

He reached into his pouch, down deep, almost to his shoulder, pulled out a very long package, and passed it to Lyra. Then he repeated the same thing and pulled out an identical package for Harry. All of the adults seemed to know exactly what was in them and watched with curiosity.

Harry and Lyra ripped off the paper to reveal two broomsticks. Each one was solid black with a band of silver around the bristles near the seat. The all-black bristles were perfectly groomed into an even mound on the back. The tip of the handle was a bit jagged in design to be held easily. Scribbled on the side, in silver cursive was written, CLEANSWEEP 7.

Everyone, particularly the children, stared at the gorgeous brooms. These were significantly better than any of the brooms in the cupboard at school they used for their flying class.

Brandt narrated to them about the broom, "These are a high-end beginner's broom. There are better racing, quidditch, and stunt brooms on the market now, but you should learn to ride on something a bit slower and with more safety features first. They will be much faster than anything you've ridden at school, and you should take it slow at first. However, this is the best broom you should be riding until you have mastered the basics."

He stared at the children until he could see they understood, then reached into his pouch and pulled out what looked like a much better broom than they had.

"Who wants to take these for a test run?"

Thao raised his hand and said, "I do!" As everyone laughed, he turned and pointed back towards his cabin and with two pulls of his wand, two brooms flew out. He grabbed one and ducked for the other to be caught by his brother. Kailee ended up doing the same. As the adults all mounted their brooms, Harry noticed that none of them had given the 'Up!' command before getting on. Lyra had placed hers on the ground and called out the command to summon it into her hand, and everyone waited for Harry to do the same.

He just felt the polished wood in his hand before channeling his magic the same way he did in Potions class with the firm command in his mind of 'Up!' Immediately he felt the broom lighten so he could mount it.

"How'd you do that?" Lyra asked, floating next to him.

"I saw them do it, so I knew it was possible," he told his sister. "Then I just channeled my magic as we do for Potions, and commanded it in my head," he said as he pointed to his forehead.

Lyra jumped off her broom and let it fall to the ground, then picked it back up and repeated the same process as Harry, shrieking with achievement when she accomplished the same task.

Tina smiled at her from where she was sitting in the sand, "Amazing job there, both of you. I'd give you points for that, but we're too far from Hogwarts for it to work."

Both children smiled back and pushed off the ground to where the other four were hovering above them.

As they got closer, Brandt said to them, "Let's do some warmups over the water, and then we can do a lap of the island. From what I've seen on the map, it should take us less than an hour, even with breaks."

Harry and Lyra stared at the brooms they were sitting on. It normally took them hours to get even halfway across the island or up to the top of the mountain. These brooms would save them so much time and energy. They needed to find a way to let the Hidden use them too. Lyra looked back towards the beach to see their family still playing with the toys on the beach and vowed to bring Whispers for a ride later.

Brandt took off towards the open water with the three other adults trailing behind him. Harry and Lyra proceeded after, but were shocked at the acceleration and speed of these brooms compared to the ones at school and found themselves slowing down a bit to get a grip on the power they now commanded. They played with the changes in velocity, the sideways tilting, the turns, and the changes in altitude. All six of them were spread out over a large area above the water.

Brandt looked over and saw Harry stop and hover in mid-air, looking down into the water, then he looked up and waved at Brandt to come closer, then to all the others as well. When they had gathered around, Harry pointed down into the water where they could see a medium-sized shark swimming after a school of fish.

"Oh cool, a shark," Kailee said.

"Not just a shark," Harry said with a smile, then pointed further off.

Moving closer, and building speed, was the dark form of the Usurper, propelling itself toward the shark. The size comparison between the two was incredible, with the shark being just barely bigger than its head. After a few more seconds, the fish that the shark was pursuing scattered right before the mighty serpent bit into the shark, with a huge plume of blood erupting in the water to show the sign of its conquest.

Harry and Lyra cheered for the Usurper, while the others looked on in fear and awe. Harry and Lyra followed up above as it continued its hunting, catching a few more fish, but when it turned back towards the shore, they stopped and continued to play with the functionality of their new brooms.

After another twenty minutes, Kailee fired off a small cannon blast with her wand to get everyone's attention and pointed north, then took off. The group followed and only five minutes later, they arrived at the garbage beach. A walk that would normally take at least an hour, and Harry and Lyra were astounded by the difference.

When they took off again, they flew out over the water and could see a lot of other garbage that seemed to be too heavy to have washed up on the beach, and had built an artificial reef about half a mile off the shore. They couldn't identify the garbage, but they did point out the sunken boat that belonged to the poachers they had encountered. There was a large amount of sea life that had made it their home and they all hovered above the surface of the water to look at all the brilliantly colored sea life.

From there, it was another five minutes until they were over the Valley of the Lampong. They were able to see the herds of the larger animals from above, just going about their business. There wasn't much for them to do here, though Harry knew he'd need to come back here with Brandt to retrieve some of the buffalo manure to preserve and bring back to Hogwarts.

They continued to fly until the vegetation started to disappear near the base of the smaller volcano, and came in for a landing.

"We can only stay here for a little bit," Than advised Brandt. "In less than an hour, you'll start to feel an impending sense of doom. I have no other way to explain it, we all get different sensations. I feel like I'm suffocating and the walls are closing in."

"I feel like there's a giant monster right behind me," his brother said.

"There are malevolent poltergeists everywhere for me," Kailee told her feeling of doom.

The children just shrugged, as Brandt started casting all kinds of diagnostic charms toward the mountain. When that didn't turn up anything, he pulled a case out of his bag and started gathering samples of the dirt, even casting a spell that pulled a cylinder of earth out of the ground that was at least thirty feet long, then cut it into pieces and placed them in different containers. Finally, he headed back to where the vegetation began again and gathered a few more samples from there. Then he returned to the group and waited.

Kailee gave up first, she stared and looked around nervously before jumping on her broom and flying out over the water. Next was Than, who seemed to have trouble breathing and went to join Kailee. Brandt started to fidget nervously and look at everyone remaining with increased wariness. Thao approached Brandt slowly and snapped his fingers in the man's face. The two of them hopped on their brooms and flew out to the other two. Harry and Lyra joined them soon after.

"Does it not affect you?" Brandt asked. "I kept getting the feeling that each of you was going to attack me."

Harry shook his head, "No, but we won't tell you why it doesn't." Lyra scooted closer to Harry on her broom and whispered to him something, then he addressed the group, "What we can tell you is that all of your fears have some basis in truth."

This made them even more terrified of whatever might be causing the sense of doom they all felt. They continued their flight, taking a wide circle around the corner of the island and observing all the small reefs in the water below them. It seemed even the animal life had cleared out in a near-perfect circle below the waterline around the lifeless volcano.

As they passed the West Coast of the island, the territory just south of the dead volcano began to look a bit blurry. Kailee pointed to it and said, "That over there, we assume to be where The Giver lives. We can't get close to it at all without just forgetting where we are and ending up outside the zone. It extends around two hundred meters above the ground and a little bit into the dead zone of the volcano."

Brandt looked to the children who just gave him a small nod but gave no other information on their sighting. They continued the flight for another ten minutes before they could see the beach from where they originated. All the demiguises had left the area except for Dougal, who was lounging in the sun with his new favorite person, Nenita. Both of them had new hats, courtesy of Dougal, and the same gold-rimmed sunglasses. Newt, Tina, and Nestor were nowhere to be seen.

The group landed and dismounted, Nenita called out to them, "The others took all your presents inside. There should be some food waiting for you if you're hungry."

The group of flyers entered the main cabin to find a platter of sandwiches, fresh bananas, and juices waiting for them.

Nestor greeted them, "How was the big flight?"

"We flew around the whole island!" Lyra gleefully responded.

Kailee added, "We saw the Usurper eat a shark."

Nestor's eyes widened and Tina poked her head in from the next room, "What?"

"Yeah, it was incredible," Brandt told her. "Harry noticed it, we just saw a shark going after a school of fish, but then he pointed out the giant snake approaching it with speed, and then it put on a huge burst of speed and just destroyed it like it was nothing."

Newt had joined them as well, "Please tell me you got pictures." He frowned when Brandt shook his head.

"It's not like the Usurper would show up properly anyways," Nestor commented. "You'd probably just see a shark explode in a puff of blood and there would still be a giant snake a ways away."

"That thing is crazy," Thao said, his mouth full of sandwich.

The rest of the day was spent organizing all the gifts the children had received and then they disappeared to the Hidden village, leaving the adults to do adult things. The children didn't show up again for dinner, so they just ate and discussed all the weird things on the island. Apparently, Nestor shared Brandt's sensation of others wanting to kill him when he hung around the dead volcano for too long. Brandt brought up Harry's comment about all of their sensations being accurate but none of them could make heads or tails of that statement or what it could mean.

Just as Brandt was falling asleep for the night, a bright light blossomed in front of his bed and there was a Patronus in the shape of a vicious piranha floating above his bed.

It opened its mouth to reveal its sharp and jagged teeth and yelled, "Brandt, wake up NOW! You should be receiving a newspaper in the next minute or so."

He was out of bed in the next two seconds with his shoes on. Without bothering to be quiet, he rushed out of the cabin, with Nestor poking his head out of his room to groggily ask what was going on.

There must be some kind of emergency, Arcturus rarely used his Patronus to send messages, primarily because he liked to spread the myth that he was too much of a dark wizard to cast one. Though the truth was that anyone could perform the charm, as had been proven in the past when other Dark Lords or common sadists had managed to find the proper emotion and memory to perform it.

He could hear the beeping of an incoming delivery as he approached the platform, and then there was a pulse of magic that delivered a small newspaper with a note tied to it. Discarding the note for the moment, he looked at the headline, above the fold:

LUCIUS MALFOY
RELEASED FROM AZKABAN

Author's Note: Bam! Now the fun begins.