Presents

Harry´s life had never been better. He had a bed at night, didn´t have to steal food, learnt how to do magic and even had friends. Granted doing magic was a lot more complicated then he had imagined and the same could be said about having friends, but in the end, it couldn´t get much better. That was until the Christmas break began. Hermione had left Hogwarts over the Christmas break because she apperantly missed her parents enough to let the mystery of Nicolas Flamel be for the break, and Neville had some important Christmas tradition to attend to, but Ron and his brothers would stay because their parents decided to finally visit their son Charlie in Romania.

So, it came that Harry was woken up early on Christmas morning by Ron, which was in itself a paradox. But what confused him even more was what he found next. He had gotten presents. "What did you expect? A lump of coal?" asked Ron when he noticed Harrys face.

Harry did not respond.

"Is everything alright?"

Harry did not move a muscle.

When Ron walked over to shake him to see if he was ok, Harry jumped out of bed, pushed Ron aside and ran to the bathroom. With a quick "I think we are sick" he shut the door and locked it behind him.

He was still slightly in shock after he had cleaned his face.

Could you please stop having a panic attack?
Do you even realize what this means?
Of course I do, so?
That means we are loved.
What? Are you stupid now?
But uncle and aunt always bought Dudley stuff.
So…
Which is how they showed him that they loved him.
What. No, they bribed him, so he would behave when Marge came to visit.
Do you remember when we helped that red haired girl.
Ginny?
Yes yes, whatever she was called, the one you write your stupid letters to in which you reveal way too much information.
But you agreed that doing so was the right course of action.
I did, but only because we were intoxicated at the time we wrote the first letter and you refused to rewrite it later. Being open in one letter and not the second would have been suspicious and getting better connection to the Weasley family might be worth the work, but you were not supposed to enjoy revealing our stuff to her and you were not supposed to basically tell her our plans.
Ohh please, you like her too and you know that. You could have easily prevented me form telling her about the "plan" as you like to call it.
What is that even supposed to mean I like her? I don´t even understand the concept of liking someone. And I´m way ahead of you, if the plan fails she is an important part of the backup plan.
Sure whatever. I don´t really get that liking thing either, but I know I like her, and so do you.
Arghh, could you please just look at the bribes, so we will see, who thinks us important enough to bribe and, so we see what those people think our price is? We already spend way too much time in here, and while your "we are sick" excuse was pretty good quick thinking, that does not really count since you really pucked and were dump enough to say we instead of I.

Harry blushed slightly before stopping to stare at his reflection in the mirror and walking into the dorm.
"Do you feel better" Ron asked when Harry came out of the bathroom. He had been in there for almost three quarters of an hour and Ron was starving already. He had considered asking professor McGonagall or his brothers for help, but to get to the professor and back would have taken like fifteen minutes or so and asking F&G for help was never a good idea. While Percy would have been an option to ask Ron never felt comfortable asking him, because like with Hermione it always turned into a lecture, but unlike with Hermione´s lectures that at least sometimes were helpful Percy´s lectures always ended up being stuff he kind of already knew.

While he would have liked to see Harry´s presents he was way to hungry to wait any longer, so once Harry had assured him that he was alright he left to get breakfast.
Consequently he was very surprise when Harry got down to dinner about half an hour later, wearing a Weasley Christmas sweater, a red scarf and playing with some kind of muggle coin.

"Since when," "is little Harry" "a Weasley" said the twins in a surprised back and forth.
"Yeah, what is up with that Harry" Ron asked the approaching Harry.
"Dunno, got this with a letter that said, 'for the help at Flourish and Blotts and saving Ron´s life', I don´t even know what your mum means with the last part, it´s not like I defeated the troll alone."
Ron had started turning an ugly shade of red when he heard the part about having been saved, but Harry had placated him quite effectively. It was always amazing to Fred and George how predictable their little brother truly was.
"And who," "is that" "scarf from?" "Does someone have a" "Girlfriend" the last word had been said in unison and they were really looking forward to his reaction, but to their surprise he first turned slightly pale and then stopped moving all together for about three seconds.

When he answered it was not what they would have expected however.
"Well, I don´t know if I would call Ginny my Girlfriend just yet" he said with an amused expression as he watched Fred and George pale and Ron sputter.
He grinned before continuing, "we have been writing letters for a while, since I helped her in Flourish and Blotts and apparently she decided to send me a gift. It´s kind of awkward since I haven't send her a gift, yet. Honestly my family isn´t that much into the whole present thing, so the only gift I send out was a book for Hermione."

The twins looked at each other before deciding to get back at Harry for the shock he had just given them.
"So," "little Harry" "is courting two women" "at the same time, now" "is he?"
But Harry one up them once again by saying "Well, I guess if you want to put it like that…" with a face so innocent that they had almost bought it.
Then Fred started laughing and everyone else joint in, including about three quarters of the dinner table, that had been listening in on their conversation the whole time.

After the laughter had died down Fred and George took Harry to the side and told him he could just send a gift to "the Burrow" and label it as a Christmas present, because their family would need some time to get back to England and no one would know whether the present was there before, or after Christmas, well except for about everyone currently in Hogwarts that is.

When Harry joint Ron at the dinner table, Ron finally asked the question that really interested him. "What is that coin?"
"Oh, it´s just some muggle money."
"But it is valuable, isn´t it?"
"I guess you could say that" Harry said with a surprisingly bitter laugh. "But you can´t exactly buy much for it."
"Huh, I don´t get it."
"Don´t worry, I don´t really get it myself."
Ron was confused, why did so many people insist on speaking in riddles? Were they trying to mock him? But then his confusion lifted as he saw that the dessert had just been served.

That night Harry went to bed early, saying that the ill feeling of the morning had returned.
He had to physically hold himself back from applauding himself when, Ron started snoring about half an hour later, because he had no reason to stay awake with only his brothers as company. He got up, dressed himself and pulled one of his presents out of his trunk.

Half an hour later he reached the library. He went over to the door to the restricted section and took a look at it. It was locked of course, but he hadn´t spent all that time with Hermione for nothing. He wasn´t quite able to quick cast the Alohomora yet, but after about six minutes the unlocking charm did what it was supposed to do.

Told you this would work.
Yes yes, but you know as well as I do, that it won´t be enough to get into that room.

He reached the room, he had been in only once. The spellbook room.

What now, huh. What is your genius plan to get into this stupid room? Because so far, your plans never got past getting here, and without this wonderful cloak we would have already been discovered twice.
Yes, we really should be happy for that. I don´t get, why who ever gave it to us made the bribe so inefficient by saying that it already belonged to you, because it was your fathers cloak, but maybe he just wants to think that he is an honest person or something stupid like that.
If it was really to bribe us, why did he not say who he was?
I´m still working on that, ok. Could you please go back to the task at hand pleas, or would you prefer for me to do so?
And what am I supposed to do, exactly?
I don´t know, look around the room, inspect the door, why do I always have to do all the thinking?
Because it is your stupid plan, and because I still basically know nothing about how magic works?

Harry walked around the room once, but the only unusual thing about the room was that it looked oddly out of place amidst all the shelfs. Also having a room inside the centre of another room made it look like a weirdly thick pillar.

When Harry approached the door, he noticed that it had a key hole, but beyond that it was a simple door like most others in Hogwarts.

Can we go now? We need some kind of key, and we have no idea were that is supposed to be or how to get it.
Could you please stop being so annoying? It was your idea to get into this room again.
It was something I thought twice, that does not really make it my idea. Sure, it felt weird in there, and I would have liked to be in there for a while longer, but ever since the twins told us that they never managed to sneak in there I have long lost interest in it.
At least try to behave like the house you were sorted into for once, will you.

That had not been the smartest thing to say however as Harry promptly drew his wand and pointed it at the door, but before he could even attempt a spell the entire library became alive and started shouting. It was like every book had grown a face and started screaming and indeed some of them really had done so.

Harry put his wand away before staring to sprint out of the library, but he could hear Filch following him. He wasn´t sure how Filch managed to track him, but the how was not what was the most important thing right now.

He was getting frustrated. He had been working on this since before the school year started and had not expected to still be working on it by Christmas. He had long since begun doubting how clever of a plan it really had been to bring a powerful dark artefact into a school full of children. Even worse, it had damaged the wards and it would take up to three years for them to get back to their full power. He was quite angry with himself for not at least bringing the damn thing in after the first day at school, because the wards had detected something very dark entering the school at that day. Had he known that the ward may have been able to detect it he would not have bothered to bring in this stupid thing but instead allowed the wards to erase the problem altogether. But it was too late to mourn past failures. It was the day of Christmas and he really wanted to be at the feast the next day, but working without rest had never gotten him anywhere. He left the room and trusted that the wards would be more than enough to deny anyone entrance who would not at least be a learnt curse breaker. So, he made his way down to the kitchen to get a cuppa, before he would return back to his work.

He heard to alarm that someone had broken into the restricted section, but was confident that professor Snape and Filch would be well able to handle the problem by themselves.
After he finished another two cups of hot chocolate, before returning to his work.

When he saw that the door was open he berated himself for a moment before scolding himself for worrying so much, the ward did not rely on the door.
He pulled out his wand and got back to work.

Harry had been very thankful for the slightly opened door that had saved him from professor Snape and Filch, but when his cloak had started acting weird while he was passing through the door he had become worried for a moment. His cloak that was usually way too big for him, started behaving like a paper bag that got all the air sucked out of it. It was skin tight when he finally managed to fully enter the room without touching the door. When he saw the mirror, his previous panic was almost instantly forgotten. He looked into it and was transfixed by what he saw.

There he was, both of them, standing amidst their friends and classmates. No one seemed to care. They were all just happy that he was there with them.

It took him almost five minutes, but then.

Something is wrong.
I know.
Do you know what it is?
Yes, but it doesn´t matter.
Good, I was worried for a moment.
Don´t worry, we´ll enjoy this as long as possible.
Do you believe this is possible?
I would love to say that I do, but you know as well as I that this is just a nice dream. What I find more fascinating is that it seems to affect you at all.
What? No, I could go away from here anytime I wanted.
Really? Because I´m not sure I could.
Hah, that is while your feelings make you weak.
Prove it. For all your talk about not understanding feelings you have a surprisingly poor opinion of them.

But Harry stayed.

Fine, you try it.

But Harry stayed.

This is a problem.
Oh, really, how did you arrive at that conclusion, sherlock.
Then again, it is so nice to imagine this could become true.
Your right, sorry for being so mean.

It took another five minutes and a creaking door to free him from his stupor.
With all their will power they looked at the door. And there not more than 3 feet away was Albus Dumbledore, staring at him, drawing his wand and pointing at him. He ducked and got out of the was as Dumbledore shot a yellow stream of spells at the mirror. He was not sure. If Dumbledore had noticed him or not, for he was staring with tears in his eyes at the mirror while constantly casting spells without saying a single word. He had to endure a constant back and forth of:
We could watch the mirror from the side. No, we can´t.
Just a few moments.No, we won´t.

Before Dumbledore finally stop with whatever he was doing and opened the door to leave.

When he was finally out of the room, he almost ran, but recognized just in time that Dumbledore could hear him if he did so. And it was a good thing too, because just as he was about to leave, he saw the headmaster pull out a strange green key that reminded him of why had even left his bed tonight.
He grabbed his coin and held it tight. He had been right, it was worth quite a bit. The feelings attached to it could probably sustain him for a week straight if needed and if nothing else, it would always remind him of what he was.
A Monster.

AN

In case anyone wonders what the: "Do you remember when we helped that red haired girl." part was supposed to be about, he wanted to point out that they kind of bribed Ginny so they would be able to get some connections, but then got side tracked by the whole letter business.

As an after thought, the teasing in this chapter does not mean that this will be a Ginny/Harry fic. It's just teasing. I won't say that they won't end up togther, because quite frankly I don't know yet.

Just got an review on this story. I don't really know how I can sent an answer to that person so I decided to make an exception for my first offical review and try to answer the question asked here. The question was if the spellbooks they use work like the "D&D spellbook" or like the "FFXI Scholar's grimoire", to this I must sadly answer that I have no idea since I have only very little experience with D&D and have only ever played FFX. I hope the chapter called "letters" answered how the spellbooks work, but if not please tell me and I will either exlain them in an AN or will try to fit in another explanation for them into a chapter. (I already have an idea on where to fit the explanation in if it is needed, just in case. Would be around chapter 18 or so, can't quite say yet.)

Thanks again to Fast Frank for my first offical review :)