Christmas was approaching and, as much as Harry was enjoying his time at Hogwarts, Harry was getting homesick and he couldn't wait to see Sirius and Remus again. He could tell his two best friends were feeling the same about their families, even if they didn't discuss it.
"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy loudly one Potions lesson, "for all those who have no proper family to go home to." He was looking over at Harry when he said it, but Harry ignored him, partly because he did have a family to go home to, only he wasn't related to his family. Partly because he had quickly learned that rising to all Malfoy's taunts wasn't worth it, especially in Potions where Snape was much more likely to punish him, although Snape did seem to turn on Malfoy without warning more and more often. The seemingly close relationship Snape and Malfoy had appeared to share at the beginning of the year had slowly deteriorated. Some of the students said it was because Snape and Malfoy's father had had an argument.
However Harry did find it hard to ignore all Malfoy all the time, especially after the Quidditch match, when, disgusted that Slytherin had lost, Malfoy had become much more vindictive and they often exchanged insults and shot jinxes and hexes at each other, although neither of them could do much damage.
Malfoy was in a bad mood. Everyone in the stinking school was so impressed with Potter just because he managed to stay on his bucking broomstick and Malfoy found himself in the unusual and uncomfortable position of being jealous of another boy. He longed to liked and admired like Potter was, even Snape seemed to like him, although his father had told him that Snape had gone soft and was actually listening to Dumbledore, so maybe that wasn't so much of a loss, but he missed the preferential treatment Snape used to give him. Malfoy spotted Golden Boy Potter, Blood Traitor Weasley and Mudblood Granger up ahead and smirked. Now was his chance. Weasley was offering to help the gamekeeper and Malfoy almost laughed; sometimes the idiots just made it too easy, "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts? That hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your-" but Malfoy never finished his sentence as Weasley launched himself at him, knocking him off his feet.
"WEASLEY! MALFOY!" It was Snape.
"Weasley attacked me sir," Malfoy said instantly in his most sycophantic voice,
"I saw, Malfoy," replied Snape silkily, "I also so you provoke him and attack him back. Detentions, both of you," and with that Snape swept away looking, as usual, remarkably like an overgrown bat.
"Well, that wasn't too bad, for Snape," Ron said later, "and he gave Malfoy a detention as well, did you see Malfoy's face?"
"We saw it Ron," replied Harry, flipping through yet another book, "but we're trying to find out who Nicholas Flamel is, so, and I never thought I'd say this, but can you please concentrate?" But they didn't manage to find anything and soon it was time to go the Hogwarts Express to go home for the Christmas holidays. Harry had already asked Sirius and Remus and Ron had asked his parents but none of them knew who Nicolas Flamel was.
The journey back to Kings Cross was fairly uneventful. Eventually they emerged on the Platform, trunks in tow, searching for any familiar faces among the crowds. Harry spotted Sirius as Snuffles and ran over to hug him, then turned at waved at Ron and Hermione shouting "See you after the holidays!"
"See you," they yelled back and waved.
"Y'know," Ron mused in a low voice, "there's something not quite right about that boy, apart from the fact he defeated You-Know-Who when he was a baby of course, I mean, he's going home with a big black dog. Did you see the dog? It almost looked like a human when it hugged Harry, it hugged Harry Hermione, that's not normal for a dog. And there are all the secrets he keeps from us. Who exactly does he live with anyway?"
"I know," said Hermione, in her most reasonable voice, "but there are people who would want to kill him, not all the Death Eaters got captured. Harry said that Professor Dumbledore told him he couldn't tell anyone the truth."
"Suppose you're right," Ron sighed, "it's just, he's my best mate."
"I know how you feel. I wonder about him too, but he is our best friend, so we've got respect that there are things he can't tell us, Ron," Ron nodded,
"I know, anyway, gotta go, mum's here. See you,"
Remus was playing wizard chess with Harry. Remus always won but Harry never gave up, promising that one day he would beat Remus, which Remus didn't doubt. On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting many presents. It wasn't that he didn't think Remus and Sirius would give him any, but they had to be careful with money. Remus didn't have much and Sirius couldn't access his Gringotts account too often or the Aurors would catch on to the tricks he used (like accessing it under a different name) and capture him. Harry's own small pile of treasure left to him by his parents was, as per Remus' advice, being kept and saved for when Harry really needed it, something both Harry and Sirius had grumbled about. But Harry didn't really care about presents; he had his broomstick after all and he didn't really want much else. Besides, Harry could still remember his life at the Dursleys and that made Harry glad to have good food and to be with people who loved him.
Harry woke on Christmas day with an unusually large pile of presents at the foot of his bed and eagerly dug into them. On the top was a roughly wrapped parcel with To Harry, from Hagrid scrawled across it. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute that Hagrid had obviously whittled himself and sounded a bit like an owl when Harry blew it. Harry felt momentarily guilty for not getting Hagrid anything, but what did you get a giant gamekeeper with a monster fixation anyway? Harry made a mental note to thank Hagrid when he went back to Hogwarts.
Next was Ron's package. There was a box of homemade fudge and a note from Ron, which said, Don't worry, the fudge isn't made by me. My mum made it and she's good at fudge. You're lucky though, she was going to make you a Weasley jumper, but I told her you already have a family (of sorts) and she can't go absorbing you into ours. See you next term,
Ron
Harry's next present also contained sweets – it was a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione and a letter that looked about the length of one of her essays, which Harry decided to read later.
From Remus, Harry received a second hand wizard's chess set. Harry knew the pieces would eventually become loyal to him, rather than shouting insults and confusing bits of advice at him like the set he usually played with did. From Sirius, he received a set of 'Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks' and a note saying, Make mischief Harry! Also a little tip for my little Prongslet, the Kitchen is directly under the Great Hall, down the same staircase that leads to the Hufflepuff Common Room. To get in you need to tickle the pears in the portrait of the bowl of fruit. Happy Feasting.
Sirius
Harry grinned. Sirius had so far refused to tell him any of the secret passageways, insisting that he needed to find them for himself. Harry had found a few, which he had, of course, immediately written to Sirius about, but he doubted he'd ever be as good at finding them as the Marauders were and he was immensely glad of the help.
Remus was in charge of cooking Christmas dinner and was having far too much fun ordering Sirius and Harry about in the kitchen as they then had to rush to obey his every command. They also had to defend the kitchen from Kreacher, who appeared every now and again attempting to slip strange things into the food and muttered rebelliously every time he was caught.
Christmas in the Weasley household was just the same as it always was. The same food, the same complete chaos, the same Weasley jumpers, just a little larger the year before. Fred and George never really pulled the same prank twice but even the completely different pranks had the comforting feel of familiarity about them and Ron grinned, he may grumble, but he loved the Weasley Christmas deep down.
Christmas in the Granger household was as neat, tidy and organised as it always was. The same healthy, sugar free food as there always was and Hermione wished that, as she always did, just for once her parents could forget they were dentists. Her dad handed her a present, the new book she had been wanting and Hermione grinned. She really did love her family, health food and all.
Harry, Remus and Sirius spent the afternoon having a furious snowball fight, which only ended when Remus and Sirius started to charm huge mountains of snow to fly at each other. Then cold, wet and exhausted they returned to the warm fire and Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Remus.
Soon it was term time again and Harry met up with Ron and Hermione on the Hogwarts Express, Ron and Hermione, as usual, asking only vague, general questions about Harry's holidays that Harry answered happily but they noticed that Harry soon turned the conversation to other things.
They had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book but they were still skimming through books whenever they could. Harry had even less time than the other two because of Quidditch practice and Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain didn't stop him.
Dear Canis and Moony,
Another Quidditch match coming up! If we win against Hufflepuff Gryffindor will overtake Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years. The only slight downside is that Snape is refereeing but that just means we'll have to play even better to win. Go Gryffindor!
Harry
Dear Harry,
It's good to see that you're just as obsessed with Quidditch as James was. Good luck (not that you need it) and poke Snivellus in the eye for us.
Moony says not to poke Snape in the eye. He always was the annoyingly sensible one, but he's probably right – you don't want to give Snape any excuse to take points or give penalties.
It'd still be fun though.
Canis and Moony
Harry was just chuckling at the letter when Neville toppled into the common room. His legs had been stuck together with the Leg-Locker Curse. Everybody fell about laughing and Harry desperately tried to remember the counter-curse. He was sure Remus had told him about the Leg-Locker Curse, but Hermione got there before him and Neville's legs sprang apart. "What happened?" asked Hermione,
"Malfoy." Neville replied shakily.
"Report him!" Hermione urged but Neville shook his head and moaned,
"I don't want anymore trouble," he mumbled and Harry was startled to see that he looked like he was about to cry. Anger surged through him.
"You're worth twelve of Malfoy," Harry said fiercely, giving him his last Chocolate Frog, "the Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, and where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin." Neville smiled weakly as he unwrapped the Frog.
"Thanks, Harry … I think I'll go to bed now … D'you want the card?" Harry clutched the card Neville had just handed him,
"I'm gonna get Malfoy back," he said, "no one treats my friends like that and gets away with it." Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement and Harry looked at the card Neville had just given him, "Dumbledore again. He was the first-" Harry gasped, "I've found him," he hissed and showed the card to Ron and Hermione, "see 'Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous etc and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!" Hermione gasped and ran upstairs to the girl's dormitory.
"Where's she gone?" said Ron, annoyed.
"Probably gone to get a book," replied Harry and sure enough Hermione soon returned clutching a huge, faded book and a look of pure excitement, that Harry and Ron normally associated with homework, on her face.
"I knew it," she said, "I took this out ages ago." She flicked through it frantically whilst Ron and Harry exchanged glances, wondering whether they were allowed to speak. "Nicolas Flamel," she eventually whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!" They barely had time to look puzzled before Hermione huffed and said, in her old, superior voice, "Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Look – read that, there." Ron and Harry looked and, whilst they had difficulty making out the old text, they eventually deciphered it and looked up in astonishment.
"A stone that makes gold and stops you ever dying," said Harry, "anyone would want it."
"Exactly," said Hermione grimly.