Please Review. writer's block is much easier to manage when people are encouraging my abilities.
Chapter Eight
Christmas
The morning of the first Quidditch match of the season found Hermione, Faykan, Ron and Harry down at the Gryffindor table bright and early, the first three trying to coax the fourth to eat something before the game that afternoon.
"You've got to eat something Harry." Faykan said, putting a plate of eggs in front of his friend.
"I don't want anything." Harry replied shoving the plate away.
"Just a bit of toast then," Hermione said, offering Harry a piece from her plate.
"I'm not hungry." He persisted
Ron was about to say something when a cold voice sounded right behind them, making them all jump. "Good luck today, Potter." They turned to see Professor Snape standing there smirking down at them all. "Though after a mountain troll, a little game of Quidditch should be quite simple," he sneered and walked off. Faykan watched until he was out of sight, and then turned back to the other three.
"I just remembered that when I followed Snape on Halloween, he went to the third floor, luckily I was transformed so he couldn't recognize me, but right after he arrived so did Quirrell. I think, I'm not sure, but one or the other was using the troll as a distraction to get past that three headed dog."
Hermione frowned at that, but said nothing, as Ron had launched into a rant about how Snape must have been the one trying to steal whatever the dog was guarding.
"I'm not so sure Ron," Faykan said, "Snape looked pleased to find Quirrell there and Quirrell did smell like troll..."
Ron and Faykan argued the point for the next several minutes, and Harry zoned out, trying to forget about the Quidditch game that would take place in a few hours.
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After the very exciting, and terrifying, game of Quidditch, the four Gryffindors were in Hagrid's hut, discussing the events of the game. Gryffindor had won, but in the midst of the game Harry's broom had begun bucking wildly, trying to throw him to his death. Only the combined efforts of Faykan and Hermione had managed to keep Harry on his broom, Faykan muttering a counter jinx while Hermione ran and stopped Snape by setting his robes on fire, breaking his eye contact and severing his ability to further jinx Harry's broom. Afterward Faykan had finally acquiesced with Ron that he may have had a point about Snape wanting to steal whatever the dog was guarding, however Faykan still had his suspicions of Quirrell. At the mention of the large three headed dog, Hagrid piped up,
"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said, dropping his teapot.
Faykan repaired the teapot with a wave of his hand while Hermione distracted Hagrid,
"Fluffy, that thing has a name?"
"Cours' he does, he's mine, I bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…"
"Yes?" Harry said eagerly.
"No, don't ask me anymore, that's top secret that is." Hagrid said gruffly.
"But whatever it is, Snape's trying to steal it," Ron added urgently.
"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher; he'd do nothin' of the sort."
"So why did he try to kill Harry?" cried Hermione.
The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.
"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid; I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!" she continued
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh; yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous, you forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel…"
"Aha!" said Faykan, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"
Hagrid shooed them out at that, constantly repeating 'I shouldn' told yeh that.'
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Draco was looking forward to the Christmas holiday, because for once, he wasn't going to be stuck at his father's manor, he was planning to stay at Hogwarts. He had overheard that Harry, Ron, and Faykan were going to be staying, and decided on his own that he would use the extra free time to become more familiar with the three Gryffindor. Faykan seemed to like Draco, and Harry was at least civil, but Ron still seemed to distrust the Slytherin, and Harry generally chose to just keep the two boys apart as much as possible.
Draco was sitting on the edge of the Slytherin group in the Potion's classroom, nearest the Gryffindors. He could see Harry and Faykan talking in low voices every time Snape turned his back to them, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Nott had earlier mentioned quite loudly, how much he felt 'sorry' for everyone who had to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, pointedly looking at Harry and Faykan. Harry just ignored him, choosing to pay attention to the powdered spine of lionfish he was measuring, but Faykan shot a death glare in Nott's direction, who only sneered in return.
Nott had become a real arse to the Gryffindor first years ever since the Quidditch match, comparing Harry to a wide-mouthed tree frog (because of how Harry had caught the snitch,) and everything else his little mind could think of. He'd quickly realized that not many people found this funny, as they were too impressed that Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Nott used his fallback plan of mocking Harry and Faykan about their lack of families.
After the Potions class, where Snape docked another five points from Faykan for no reason whatsoever, Draco followed the four Gryffindors up to the library, skating past Hagrid in the entrance hall as he delivered a giant Christmas tree for the Great Hall. He entered the library just to see them split up and gather books from everywhere in the library, finally setting them down at a table in a secluded corner to browse them. Moving closer, Draco could tell that none of these books had anything to do with their current subjects, which only perked his interest more.
"Hey," Faykan said to Draco as he sat down next to the shorter boy.
"What are you all up too?" Draco inquired, looking from Hermione to Harry, who both had the noses in books, scanning them quickly.
Hermione looked at Draco, glanced at Faykan, who nodded at her, and, returning to Draco, she said, "Were looking for information on Nicholas Flamel."
"Why would you be looking for something like that?" Draco asked puzzled. Ron shot him a look and returned to the essay he was writing. Faykan quietly started explaining everything they had seen and heard concerning Fluffy, skipping over the revelations that had arisen because of the troll's attack on Hermione, except for their suspicions of Snape.
"There's no way its Snape," Draco said vehemently, "I mean, sure he's mean to non Slytherins but he wouldn't go against something Dumbledore is trying to accomplish." Ron huffed in a defiant sort of way, and Draco shot the red haired Weasley an angry look.
Just at that time, Madam Pince, the librarian, walked over and started dusting around their study table. Faykan and Hermione glanced at her, and after motioning to the rest, got up and lead Draco out of the library. Hermione explained to Draco that they didn't want to raise the suspicions of whomever it was trying to steal the stone by asking around for the information. Draco could see the sense in that, and had to admit that for Gryffindors, these four were showing a lot of Slytherin cunning in their investigation.
"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione to the three Gryffindor boys. "And send me an owl if you find anything."
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After Hermione had left however, Harry, Ron, Faykan decided that they were going to take a break from searching for Nicholas Flamel and enjoy the holidays for a while. The Gryffindor common room was almost completely deserted all the time, and the three boys had their dormitory all to themselves.
Harry even was being taught wizard chess by both Ron and Draco, much to Faykan's amusement, as they seemed to get into their own matches after arguing about tactics every time. Harry picked up the game rather easily, but was no match for either Ron or Draco, whose matches could go on for hours before either of them conceded defeat. Faykan was good, better than Harry at least, but wasn't in the same league as either Ron or Draco. He tended to just like to watch Harry struggle through his games with one of the other two occasionally throwing out suggestions.
On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and fun, but not expecting any presents at all. When he woke early in the morning, however, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.
"Merry Christmas Harry," Faykan said, sitting on the foot of his bed, with a small handful of presents in his lap. Looking over at Ron, who was still asleep, Faykan and Harry grinned to each other, crept over to his bed, and swiftly jumped onto the sleeping boy, startling him awake.
"Bloody hell! What's wrong with you guys?" Ron yelled as they dragged him out of his bed and around to his presents.
"Nothing Ron, we were worried that you died in your sleep, not being wide awake on Christmas morning like normal wizards." Faykan said, grinning widely.
"Shove off," Ron retorted, but he didn't have his heart in it. His eyes were on his sizeable pile of presents.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Harry watched his two best friends as they opened their first few presents. Faykan was just opening a small box that had been wrapped in strange silver white paper that seemed to create its own light. Opening the wooden box within that had a large rune on the top, Faykan pulled out a small gold ring, set with a large red jewel, which seemed to flicker with fire and as Harry looked at it, he felt an aura of calmness surround him. Faykan slipped the ring on his left forefinger and quickly looked away, but Harry could see tears in his eyes.
Harry finally turned to his own presents. Picking up the top parcel, Harry saw that written across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it, and heard that it sounded a bit like an owl. Harry ignored the small fifty pence piece from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, tossing to Ron who was fascinated by it.
Faykan, who was now eating a chocolate frog he got in a package from Hermione, picked up a strange lumpy parcel. "Who sent this?" he thought out loud.
Ron went slightly pink as he saw the package in Faykan's hand. Harry looked at his pile to find a similar one with his name on it. "I think I know who those are from," Ron said, "My mum. I told her you two didn't expect a lot of presents and, oh, no." he groaned loudly, "she made both of you Weasley sweaters."
Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand knitted sweater in emerald green, and a large box of homemade fudge. Looking up at Faykan, he saw that the other boy had received the same thing, except his sweater was a deep blue.
Ron opened his own sweater, while explaining "Every year she makes us a sweater, or sometime a scarf, and mines always maroon," he added glumly.
"Well, Ron, you tell her for me that I love mine." Faykan said, smiling brightly as he pulled the sweater on.
"That's really nice for her," Harry said, tasting the fudge, which was very tasty.
After opening his own box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, Harry picked up his last present, which was very light. As he unwrapped it, something fluid and silvery gray slithered to the floor and laid there in gleaming folds. Ron gasped and Faykan widened his eyes. "I know what that is," he said breathily, "That's an invisibility cloak,"
"A what?" Harry asked, picking the shining, silver cloth off the floor. It felt strange, like water woven into material.
"An invisibility clock," Faykan persisted, while Ron had a look of awe on his face, "I'm sure it is, go ahead try it on."
Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell, while Faykan beamed at him. Looking down at his feet, Harry gasped when he found that they were gone. He dashed to the mirror and, sure enough, his floating head's reflection stared back at him. He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection disappeared entirely.
"There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it Harry!"
Harry pulled off the cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:
'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.'
Whoever had sent the cloak to Harry, hadn't signed the note. Harry felt strange, who had sent him the cloak? Had it really belonged to his father?
But before Harry could voice any of his questions aloud, Fred and George Weasley flung the door open and bounded into their dorm. Harry stuffed the cloak out of sight, not feeling like sharing it with anyone else just yet.
"Merry Christmas!" Fred proclaimed happily.
"Hey Fred, look, Faykan and Harry have Weasley sweaters too!"
Both Fred and George were also wearing bright blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F and the other with a G.
Theirs are better than ours, though," said Fred, picking at Faykan sweater. "Mum must make more of an effort if you're not family."
The twins then went about examining the three boys presents, after egging Ron into pulling his maroon sweater on. They all gathered around Faykan's ring, which seemed to have the heartwarming effect on everyone around him.
"Wow, that's really cool, Fay." George said after a few moments of silence. "Who sent it to you?"
"An old family friend," Faykan said, tears starting to fill his eyes again, but he blinked them away quickly.
Percy had come in at that moment, and the twins pounced on him, pulling his own sweater over his head forcefully and frog marched him from the dorm, berating him about sitting with the family at dinner, leaving the three first years alone again.
Harry had never in all his life had such a wonderful Christmas dinner as he had that year at Hogwarts. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Faykan and it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.
Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally stooping to kiss Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.
When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.
After a furious snowball fight that included Harry, Faykan, Draco and the Weasleys, they all returned to the warmth of the castle, the Gryffindors still laughing at how soaked the one Slytherin had become, as they had all teamed up on him at one point. It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it; the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it. Ron, full of turkey and cake had drifted off immediately after he had drawn the curtains of his four-poster. Pulling the cloak out, Harry suddenly felt wide awake, as excitement poured through his body. He could go anywhere without Filch or anyone else ever knowing.
He was startled out of his thoughts when Faykan spoke from his bed, "Wonderful feeling, isn't it. To be able to go anywhere you want, when you want. No restrictions." Turning to face him, Harry saw he was sitting on the side of his bed, fully dressed, staring at Harry.
"You want to go out tonight Harry, don't you?" he said, grinning.
"Yeah, I do, kind of." Harry replied.
"Let's do it then, C'mon." He said standing and moving to the dormitory door. Harry took one last look at Ron, who just grunted in his sleep, and decided he wanted to use the cloak alone for his first trip. Standing, he followed Faykan out to the common room, and through the portrait hole, pulling the cloak on at the same time Faykan transformed into the large black fox.
The Fat Lady was fast asleep, and therefore didn't notice them leaving down the corridor. As Harry followed Faykan the fox, he wondered where his friend was leading him too, they weren't going anywhere that he recognized, but it was hard to tell because Faykan kept leading him through secret passages that Harry never knew about. Harry took the time during his journey to study Faykan's animagus form, he really was a superb fox after all, jet black with long grey streaks like his tattoos running down his back, ending at the tip of his tail. Each leg was grey also and his eyes were the same strong blue color that his human form had.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted when a piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence, ringing up and down the corridor. Harry and Faykan just froze, knowing that they wouldn't be seen if they remained motionless. Soon Harry heard rushing footsteps approaching, and he watched as Draco Malfoy sped right into him from around a corner.
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Draco was terrified, not only was he almost caught by Filch when he was looking at books in the restricted section, but now he was lost and had run into a solid something that knocked him to the floor. He almost screamed, but just them a familiar fox jumped onto his chest and he heard a voice from the corridor ahead.
"Ouch, Draco what are you doing out this late?" the voice sounded like Harry, but it was coming out of thin air.
"Ok, that it, I'm losing my mind." Draco said to the fox, starting to hyperventilate. Then suddenly, Harry Potter's head appeared out of thin air. Draco's eye bulged and his mouth dropped to the floor. Harry looked up, past Draco as he heard footsteps coming from where Draco has ran from, and Draco saw Harry removed a cloak from around him, pull Draco to his feet, and throw it around their shoulders. The fox then dove to the other side of the corridor, and Harry dragged Draco right behind it.
No sooner had they moved but Snape and Filch came around the corner, talking in hushed whispers,
"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the Restricted Section." Filch said to Snape.
Harry put one hand over Draco's mouth, and used the other to guide him backward, away from Filch and Snape, and toward an opened door that the fox was creeping toward in the shadows. After the Potions Master and the caretaker passed the classroom they were hiding in, Harry released Draco and closed the door. Pulling off the cloak from them both, Draco gaped at Harry, not able to form any words for several seconds.
"Draco, calm down," Harry said slowly, motioning Draco to sit down in an unused desk, and sitting next to him. The fox jumped onto Draco's lap and rubbed itself against his chest, comforting him. Moments later, Draco finally found his voice, "Harry, how… you were moving around the corridor invisible?"
Holding up his Invisibility cloak, Harry began his long explanation about receiving it as a gift that very morning. Harry then asked him what he was doing running down the corridors like the Bloody Baron was after him. Draco explained that ever since Hermione had left, he had been checking the library out day after day for information on Nicholas Flamel as he knew that Harry and defiantly Ron weren't going to do it. He continued to explain that he was looking through the Restricted Section tonight and had accidentally opened a book that had screamed, and not wanting to be caught be Filch, he had bolted out of the library immediately and after rushing down many different corridors, had run into Harry.
At this time the fox leapt from Draco to the stone floor and started walking to the other side of the classroom. Draco and Harry followed it with their eyes, settling on a large mirror they hadn't noticed earlier because of their distress at escaping Snape and Filch.
It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.' Draco watched as the fox moved directly in front of the mirror, and he almost yelled out in surprise when the fox morphed into Faykan. Turning his back on the mirror, he regarded Draco's look of utter shock, "Hello Draco…" He said with a wide grin.
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Harry walked over to the mirror Faykan changed in front of while he explained his animagus abilities to Draco, who looked like he was going to faint after all the revelations of this night. Stepping in front of the mirror, Harry gasped out loud, drawing the attention of the two other boys. A woman was standing right behind his reflection in the mirror and was smiling at him and waving. She was a very pretty woman, with dark red hair and her eyes, her eyes were just like Harry's. They were bright green, exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did. Harry edged so close to the mirror that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.
"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"
Faykan and Draco moved over to Harry, Faykan putting a hand on his shoulder. Harry looked at him, but his eyes were also on the mirror,
"Fay, can you see them too?" he asked.
"No Harry, they are for your eyes only in this mirror," he answered slightly sorrowful. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "This mirror, it shows the viewer only their heart's deepest desire. Nothing of substance, and only a deep yearning forms when someone looks in this mirror, Harry, I presume you see your family don't you," Harry nodded, still watching them surrounding his reflection. Faykan turned him so that Harry was looking right into Faykan's bright blue eyes, "This mirror will destroy anyone who watches too long, Harry. I want you to promise me, that you will never come to look for it again once you and Draco leave."
"But what about…" Harry began.
"Promise me." Faykan cut him off. Draco just stood back, not wanting to look in the mirror or disturb the two Gryffindors.
"I promise." Harry said softly, taking one last look at the faces of his parents, and he turned to Draco, "We should probably get back to our common rooms," he said and they both left, Harry draping his invisibility cloak over them both as they opened the door.
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As the two boys left, Faykan turned to look at the mirror once more. After a few moments he spoke to the empty room, "You can reveal yourself, Professor Dumbledore, I know you are there." And from the shadows, the Headmaster of Hogwarts appeared, looking slightly disturbed that the boy had known of his presence.
"I apologize for not announcing myself, Mr. Undol, but it seemed to be most prudent at the time." Dumbledore began but stopped as he saw the boy was still looking in the mirror.
"So," he continued after watching Undol, slipping off the desk to stand next to the younger boy, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."
"The delights," Faykan said, huffing slightly, "You mean the trap, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi: I show not your face but your heart's desire." Dumbledore stood silently, watching as the boy painfully tore his gaze from the mirror.
"I certainly hope you plan on moving this mirror before school resumes, most likely to the third floor if I'm not mistaking, Professor." Undol said, shooting a glance at Albus, who only twinkled his eyes in response.
"Ah, so you were able to piece together this part of the puzzle were you?" Dumbledore said, but Faykan was already moving towards the door.
"One more moment if you please Faykan," the Headmaster said, calling the boy back. Faykan turned and stood, waiting for Dumbledore to ask his question, "I figured that Harry could only have seen his family in the mirror, but I was wondering, if I might be so bold as to ask what you see in the mirror?" he asked finally.
Faykan smiled, "White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise." And he turned, transformed into his animagus form, and left, bound for Gryffindor tower, leaving the most powerful wizard of the age with a piece of his own puzzle that the Headmaster couldn't wait to solve.