Chapter 8

Christmas was coming soon. One day Åsa woke up to see several feet of snow that blanketed over Hogwarts' grounds. The lake was froze solid and Åsa laughed when she heard that the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they would follow Quirrell around, bouncing off his turban. Many owls had to be nursed back to health because they battled against the stormy night to deliver mail.

Many people were excited about the holidays to start. The Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had warming fires while the corridors and classrooms were freezing cold. The coldest classroom was Professor Snape's because of it being in the dungeons. Most people could see their breath and tried to keep as close to their cauldron as possible, but it didn't work.

"I do feel so sorry," Draco stated in one of the potions classes, "for all the people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

Later that day Fritzie and Åsa got the Weasley twins to do the same thing they did to Quirrell with Draco, but only they didn't get in trouble, the Danish twins did.

The twins weren't going to be going back to Denmark for Christmas this year because most of the money was spent on their other family members like Steff and Kickan. Last year the two couldn't go home for Christmas because they didn't have enough money for them either. So the Gunnarssen family made a pack that if the twins were to go to a private school that they wouldn't go to Christmas that first year.

But they had other people who were staying at Hogwarts too. Harry was staying here because he wasn't wanted at Privet Drive and he didn't want to go to Privet Drive for a horrible holiday. The Weasley family was going to stay for Christmas too because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.

As they walked up the stairs from the dungeons, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor. The two enormous feet that were seen told them that Hagrid was behind the tree.

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, popping his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Draco's drawling voice said from behind. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hopping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose – that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's use to."

Before Ron could attack Draco, Åsa was punching Draco in the jaw like she wanted to do back in October.

"GUNNARSSEN!"

Professor Snape was walking up the stairs as Åsa punched the Slytherin and saw everything.

"She was provoked, Professor Snape," Hagrid defended Åsa, "Malfoy was insultin' Ron's family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," Snape pointed out, "Five pointes from Gryffindor, Gunnarssen, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed through the tree making needles scatter and smirking at the punished Gryffindors.

"I'll get him," Ron grinded his teeth, "on of these days, I'll get him—"

"I hate Draco Malfoy!" Åsa nearly screamed out. "He nearly gets us kicked out of school and then he doesn't get in trouble for insulting Ron's family!"

Åsa, who rarely gets angry, snapped her quills in half to vent her angry. Ron and Harry step back from the angered girl, but agreeing with her.

"I hate them both," Harry spoke up, "Malfoy and Snape."

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," Hagrid smiled. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the four, Åsa reluctantly, followed Hagrid towards the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree – put it in the far corner, would you?"

There were festoons of holly and mistletoes hung all around the walls and no less than twelve Christmas trees stood around the room, some with tiny icicles or with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays? Hagrid asked.

"Just one," Hermione replied. "And that reminds me – Harry, Ron, Åsa, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," Ron said, ripping his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who was having golden bubbles come out of his wand and was trailing over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" Hagrid questioned, following the four out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry said, brightly.

"We're trying to find out who Nicolas Flamel is since you told us about him." Åsa stated, ahead of all the others.

"You what?" Hagrid looked stunned. "Listen here – I've told yeh – drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardian'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere – just give us a hint – I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," Hagrid replied.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," Ron said, and the four left Hagrid looking disgruntled to go to the library.

They searched books after books for Flamel's name and found nothing of the sort. Åsa was trying to find out what was under the trap in curiosity while the others thought that Snape was trying to steal it. They looked in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century and Notable Magical Names of Our Time but he wasn't in either of them. He wasn't in Important Modern Magical Discoveries and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry.

Hermione was searching by subject and ideas while Ron and Åsa were just grabbing random books from shelves which sometimes didn't work. Åsa noticed that Harry went over to the Restricted Section and Madam Pince was talking to him. She heard that Pince made Harry get out because he said that he wasn't looking for anything, like they promised. Åsa closed her book and told Hermione and Ron that she was going to stay with Harry.

The two talked about Christmas and other things about the holidays. Like how Åsa got him a present for the holiday, which made Harry guilty since he didn't get one for her. She just shrugged it off because she never really cared about the presents but she cared more about the time she had during the holiday.

Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione came out and shook their heads in disappointment. The four went to lunch.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" Hermione asked the three. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," Hermione said.

When the holidays started Åsa quickly went to Fritzie, who was alone for being a Slytherin, and forced her to become a Gryffindor for the holiday. She made Fritzie bring all of her clothing to the Gryffindor Tower and let her sleep on her bed while, with permission, slept on Hermione's bed. It was kind of like back a home but they weren't sleeping in bunk beds.

The two would stay up like at home and read their books, but now it was books from the library that they found interesting. Plus, the Weasleys and Harry didn't care about Fritzie being a Slytherin and in the common room since Åsa was their friend and the twins, Ron, and Harry met her before school even started. Percy was reluctant for a little bit when she told them on the first day of holidays, but then he got relaxed and stopped caring that much.

Åsa and Fritzie started to watched Ron teach Harry how to play wizard chess while they played regular, boring as Ron would say, chess. It was the same as muggle chess but the pieces were alive and you had the say the commands instead of moving them yourself. Just like most of Ron's stuff, his chess set was his grandfather's.

Åsa laughed at Seamus' chessmen, who didn't trust Harry. They kept shouting advice to him, which confused everyone who was around them. "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him; we can afford to lose him." That was what the chessmen said were 'advice.' It was also funny that the chessmen, Ron or Harry's, tried to flirt with the regular chessmen that Fritzie and Åsa were playing with. It seemed that they were girls and the alive ones were boys.

On Christmas, Fritzie's and Åsa's piles of presents were mixed together, looking like a mountain. Each of them had a present that was from their family members, and their living grandparents. They also got some from Hermione, Ron, and Harry. But what was weird was that they got a lumpy present from Mrs. Weasley, who they've only saw at the train station.

They opened their family's presents which were mostly books and two large bags, red and violet like usual, to hold their books in and it was from their grandparents. Hermione gave them both another book, which was both about mythical creatures, Ron got them some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and Harry got them some Chocolate Frogs, which they ate on the spot. Mrs. Weasley, who gave them a letter, got them some homemade.

"I know we have never met before but you two have been in Ron's letters, along with some of George and Fred's letters. They told me about your rare eyes colors so I made you these with your eye color. Love, Mrs. Molly Weasley." Fritzie read aloud. The two opened up the package and two sweaters, knitting perfectly and the colors of deep blood red along with light violet, were sitting in front of them.

They held them up and both of them had a letter on them. Åsa's had an Å with it because of Ron's explanation of her name, but the letter was in the color light violet. Fritzie's had an F on it and it was deep red. The two of them slipped the sweaters over their pajama shirts and slipped their slippers on, which were surprisingly in the giant bags.

The two ran down the stairs to meet up with Fred, George, Ron, and Harry who were all wearing sweaters too, but Åsa noticed that Harry's and theirs were made with more effort than the Weasleys.

"See!" Fred stated. "Just like I said in their dorm, she obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."

"She also put letters on yours because you two are twins. She probably thinks that you two are also identical."George pointed out.

"What's all this noise?" Percy Weasley came down the stairs, holding a lumpy sweater in his hands. Fred quickly grabbed it from him.

"P is prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry, Åsa, and Fritzie got one."

"I – don't – want –" Percy said thickly as the twins forced his head through the head hole and his arms through the sleeves.

"And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."

Åsa and Fritzie both thought that the Christmas dinner was delicious, but it wasn't homemade like their original Christmas dinner was. There was 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.

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore didn't have his wizard hat on but a flowered bonnet instead.

Flaming Christmas puddings came after the turkey. Everyone laughed at Percy when he nearly broke his teeth when he found a silver Sickle in his slice. But it made everyone a little bit more careful of what they ate. After the supper all of the people here, mostly who were at the Gryffindor table, went outside and had a snowball fight. The two who won weren't actually a part of the family, but they had fun hitting the twins as pay back for the money they got way in July.

They had their supper, which was turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, and when they got back to the Gryffindor Tower, everyone watched as Percy chased Fred and George because they stole his prefect badge.

"You could have woken me up," Ron stated, crossly. Åsa just walked in on their private conversation, which made the two boys look over at her.

"No, no." Åsa waved her hands. "Continue. Just ignore me, unless it's something important."

Harry nodded and went on, "You can come tonight, I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror." And as he expected, Åsa got interested when she heard mirror.

"What mirror?" Åsa questioned, looking up from her piece of cold turkey that fell out of her sandwich. Harry explained that he snuck out to find more about Nicolas Flamel and found a mirror that showed his mother and father.

"I'd like to see your mum and dad," Ron said.

"Me too!" Åsa exclaimed.

"And I want to see al of your families, all the Weasleys and Gunnarssen, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and all you siblings, Åsa." Harry replied.

"You can see them any old time," Ron said. "Just come round my house this summer."

"Yeah, it's kind hard to see all my family members because their in France or the Norwegian and Swedish Border or in Denmark. Never know where they are." Åsa chuckled. "But what if the mirror only shows dead people. Sad that you didn't find anything on Flamel though."

"Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?"

Harry didn't reply to Ron's question, so the other two just looked at each other and ate the rest of their food.

"Are you all right?" Ron asked after he finished his bacon. "You look odd."

Harry lead Ron and Åsa around the dark passageways for nearly an hour and Ron kept complaining about how cold it was because he forgot to wear his sweater, unlike Harry and Åsa.

"I'm freezing," Ron whined. "Let's forget it and go back."

"No!" Harry hissed. "I know it's here somewhere."

When Ron started to moan about his feet being dead cold, and after passing a witch ghost, Harry spoke up.

"It's here – just here – yes!"

They pushed the door open, which was near a suit of armor like most doors. Harry dropped the Cloak from around his shoulders and ran to the mirror. Åsa noted that the mirror had Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi which Åsa figured out what it meant. It said 'I show not your face but your heart's desire.'

Harry stood in front of the mirror and Åsa and Ron looked for his parents, but they could only see him. Åsa figured that Harry's desire was his parents.

"See?" Harry whispered.

"I can't see anything." Åsa went along.

"Look! Look at them all . . . there are loads of them . . ."

"I can only see you." Ron stated.

"Look in it properly, go on, and stand where I am." Ron did as Harry told him to do and Ron stared at the mirror in front of him.

"Look at me!" Ron exclaimed.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?"

"No – I'm alone – but I'm different – I look older – and I'm Head Boy!" Ron said, excitedly. "I am – I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to – and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup – I'm Quidditch captain, too! Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family is dead – Åsa stand in front of it. . ."

Ron moved out of the way and Åsa stood in front of the mirror. In front of her was a strange woman that looked familiar and she was holding two babies, who looked like twins. There another woman but the woman's face was out of the picture. Like the mirror was blocking that piece of information from her.

"What do you see Åsa?" Åsa looked back at her friends, the image disappearing.

"Oh, I saw a little baby that could be my new sibling." Åsa kind of lied. She did see a baby, but there was two and two women standing there too.

"Let me have another look—" Harry said, pushing Åsa out of the way.

"Hey! Don't push me!" Åsa growled, but the two stopped when they heard a noise outside. The three threw the Cloak back onto them and Mrs. Norris was around the corner.

"This isn't safe – she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."

Åsa grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him out of the room with Ron leading them.