Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
Darksnider05, sure. Actually, the only (planned) time when this name will be used is Easter holidays during fourth year. Three guesses why and what happens at that time. =)
Siriusly Grim, about that contract... during second or the beginning of the third year. depending on how the rest of the story will unfold.
Highvalour, Snape is a survivor. He's loyal to only himself, and works for the 'winning' side. Still, he has a little bit of a teacher in him - otherwise the quidditch match could have ended differently for Harry (and the rest of the team)
The Sinful, Akira Stridder, kihakukage, Mika the Dark princess, Dark Dragen, Reishin Amara, ChaosLord SilverLink310, darkplayer35, lordamnesia, BioHazard82, thanks, folks!
autumnannette19, seventh chapter =)
Still Not Dead Yet, Snape saved Harry during the quidditch match by overpowering Quirrell and canceling man's jinx. Though as much would be said when the stuttering professor shows his... parasite's true colors.
justbin, replied you via PM.
RE5 forever, read and see. Not this chapter, though.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

chapter 7: Christmas and the mirror

With December now in its full rights, the weather got worse, thanks to the cold winds and heavy gray clouds that powdered the earth with snow. And with the end of the semester exams approaching, professors were giving more and more homework, which was taking away any free time Harry might have had otherwise...

But once the exams started, the green-eyed wizard found out that most of them were quite easy and he had been worrying in vain. Well, potions were difficult because of professor Snape, who, it looked like, wanted nothing more than make him fail, but Harry managed to get Exceeding Expectations there. The other difficult subject was History of Magic, but he did good there too, despite everything.

Since he had no intentions to return to his relatives for the Christmas holidays, not that he would be welcome there anyway, Harry was staying in the castle. This had earned him – and the Weasley twins, who were staying too – some 'playfully' hateful glares from the chaser trio as Oliver Wood got a bright idea of having day long training sessions during the holidays because of that...

On the Christmas morning Harry slept in a bit, till almost nine in the morning, but still was the first one to wake up. Since Dursleys never spent a penny on gifts for him, the young wizard wasn't sure whether or not he should expect something this year, but, once he got down to the common room, he found a stack of gifts for him under the Christmas tree.

On the top of the said stack there was a box of chocolate frogs from Hermione – a bit surprising, since her parents were dentists – and a box of some others chocolate candies from Draconica... Accidentally, Harry got her a similar one through Oliver Wood, when the Griffindor quidditch captain went to Hogsmeade the previous week. Neville sent a book that about magical properties of plants that were common for muggles – plants like milfoil or tansy or... Oliver sent gave him a booklet with seekers' advanced moves, what else one could expect from the quidditch fanatic? Harry didn't knew what the twins sent him as their reputation of pranksters made him quite wary of opening the package...

Harry's mind drifted into the thought about whether or not his friends likes the gifts he had sent them. Some sugar-free sweets for Hermione and muggle book about curative plants for Neville – he had bought this book for himself, but decided that his friend would benefit more from it. Twins got some pranksters' sweets from Zonko's – anything else and Harry wasn't sure that the castle would still be there by the end of the holidays... He brought out of his thoughts as the chaser trio descended into the common room. Standing up, the green-eyed wizard turned to face three Griffindor girls.

"Merry Christmas!" He said. Alicia, Angelina and Katie looked at each other and nodded to themselves, before approaching him. Katie move to stand right in front of Harry and, raising onto her toes, hugged the younger boy into her chest, making him blush crimson. Absentmindedly, Harry noticed that she wore nothing underneath her pajama top.

"Merry Christmas, Harry!" She said, before Angelina took her place, and the girl not only hugged the younger wizard into her firm and rather sizable breasts, but also gave his bottom a hard squeeze. Than it was Alicia's turn, and she, giving Harry a foxy grin, felt his 'package' down there too, while, like her two co-chasers did, hugging him into her bosom, making the green-eyed wizard blush an almost impossible shade of red... The chaser trio left shocked Harry to stand in the middle of the room and went to collect their own gifts.

"Hey!" The incredible Weasley twins said from the stairs to the boys' dorms. "What about us, girls?" Alicia put out her tongue, and the girls disappeared towards their dormitories, breaking into giggles. The twins tried to say something to Harry, but he wasn't listening to them at all... Finally, seeing that they weren't getting anything out of the young Potter, Forge and Gred collected their Christmas presents and went back into the dormitories too, no doubt to prank either Ron or Percy...

When Harry finally returned to his senses after the 'gift' the girls 'gave' him, he noticed that he had missed one package that was addressed to him. It was thin and light, and inside there was some sort of a cloak and an anonymous note. The note said:

You father left it in my care, and I feel that it is time to return it to the rightful owner. Use it wisely.

~/ *** \~

The moment Harry read the note, a small spell beacon went off in the headmaster's office, telling Albus Dumbledore that the invisibility cloak was now in the possession of the Potter scion. Only the oath to Harry's father, James, had this happening – otherwise Albus would have kept it as his own, despite his inability to break the secret of the cloak... Not that he needed it much as he could turn himself invisible with just his wand. But why waste his own magic when he had such a wonderful artifact?

'I wonder, what you will do with it, Harry.' The Hogwarts headmaster thought, while making plans about what to tell the young Potter about certain magical mirror, when the compulsion charm on the cloak would bring Harry in front of it.

~/ *** \~

Harry studied the cloak that was gifted to him. It was very thin and felt like it was made from the air itself, and it felt to be millennia old, while still being in the perfect condition. Deciding to see, what else the cloak could do, the young Griffindor put it on... As he looked at his reflection in the mirror in the corner of the common room, Harry had to force himself to remain quiet: everything that he knew was covered by the cloak seemed to have disappeared!

"Whoa!" The green-haired wizard exclaimed. 'This is an invisibility cloak!' He had already found some information about those during his studies, but what he already knew about this particular one was contradiction to what he had read in the books. For one, invisibility cloaks were made of demiguise' fur and definitely not of some thin and airy, more so than silk, material. Another thing was the fact that even the best invisibility cloaks lasted for less than half of a century at best, while this one looked like it was made before the King Arthur was born...

Deciding that the cloak would be the most useful – if he ever needed it – if no one knew about it. So Harry folded it and, picking up his Christmas gifts, went to the dormitory to put it into his trunk...

By the time he went to the Great hall for his evening meal, there appeared a nagging voice in Harry's head that was telling him to try his cloak on again, this time by sneaking around the castle after the curfew. And as the voice was only getting stronger with time, Harry came to a conclusion that it was a product of some magical spell, compulsion, most likely.

Not knowing how to detect compulsions through any magical means, the young Griffindor decided to just try to remove magics from himself and his things. At very least, from the things the charm could have been placed on within last twenty four hours – quite a lot of work, actually, though, it was most likely that the compulsion was placed on the cloak...

As soon as he returned to the dorms, the young wizard took the cloak out of his trunk and, hoping that he won't remove anything other than the compulsion – if it was there in the first place – he pointed his wand at it.

"Finite incantem!" Surprisingly, the simplest magic canceler – and the only one he knew – worked, and a bluish wisp of magic rose from the cloak. Putting the cloak around his shoulders, the green-eyed Griffindor was relieved to find out that it still made him invisible... Just to be sure that the compulsion was completely removed, he cast finite incantem on himself and all of his things that the charm could have been placed on... An hour later Harry was even more relieved that the voice at the back of his head, the one that urged him to do some night exploring of the castle, disappeared. Now free from the charm, the young Griffindor started thinking about who could place it. And the only man who came to his mind was the headmaster: after all the man already had brought the Philosopher's stone into the school full of children for reasons known only to him...

~/ *** \~

Albus Dumbledore spent that night sitting disillusioned in the corner of one of the unused classrooms, waiting for Harry to come there and 'accidentally' find the mirror of Erised. Unfortunately, the boy never came. But this was just the first night, and the ancient headmaster assumed that the boy just wandered to other parts of the castle – the compulsion to bring him there wasn't exactly powerful, for otherwise it was too easy to notice even by a first-year student, but it should have eventually brought the boy there...

'Oh well, maybe he will come tomorrow.' Dumbledore thought as he drank a potion to recover his energy after the sleepless night: as the headmaster he should always appear to be lively and ready to work, to set the example to the Hogwarts students...

But Harry didn't come in front of the mirror during the next night too, and this was starting to make the headmaster worry that his compulsion failed. He needed the boy to find the mirror: after all how will he save the stone if he didn't know anything about the object it would be placed into? Why even Harry Potter? Dumbledore, unfortunately for himself, wasn't sure that the scion of house Potter was the prophesied one. But Neville Longbottom so far seemed to be a less likely candidate for that role...

After the young Potter didn't show up on the third night after he was given the cloak, the headmaster finally decided to check on the boy, discreetly of course. The old man was quite surprised when he found only minute signs that the boy even was under the charm in the first place. The boy must have had detected the compulsion on the cloak and dispelled it somehow. This was a little worrisome, but a more subtle compulsion should be able to do the job just fine, Dumbledore thought as he discreetly cast another charm at Harry during the lunch. This one would take a couple of days to affect the boy, so he could finally sleep tonight...

~/ *** \~

On December thirtieth, while doing his homework for Potions sometime before the dinner, Harry found himself in a need of going to the library to check information on some ingredients in the 'bigger' books. So, taking his trunk with him, the young Griffindor headed to the library... Unfortunately, having had interrupted his studies for the dinner, the green-haired wizard was unable to finish his essay before madam Pince closed the library. Closed it till the second January...

With his homework almost done, Harry, though, thought that it was unreasonable to postpone finishing it for a couple of days. But without an access to the books he needed – madam Pince didn't allow him to take them out – he just couldn't do that... Or could he? A thought of using the invisibility cloak to sneak into the library and finish the essay occurred to the Potter scion. Deciding that it wasn't a very bad idea, he did just that...

As he was absorbed by his work, Harry didn't notice that he had spent several hours in the library, and it was now well past curfew. The green-eyed Griffindor was about to leave, and had already hid himself under the cloak, when professor Snape, who was patrolling this part of the castle tonight, entered the library. Moving as silently as he could to remain undetected by the potions master, Harry walked out of the room.

His luck was still on a vacation, it seemed, as the way back to the Griffindor tower was patrolled by Filch and his cat, and the young wizard wasn't sure that he could walk past them undetected. As neither of the two seemed to be in any hurry to relocate to some other part of the castle... So Harry had to kill some time somewhere, before trying to return to the dormitories again, hoping that at that time the path would be clear. Without really thinking, he started wandering through the night castle, his legs carrying him through the dark corridors seemingly on their own...

Soon, Harry found himself in an unused classroom – the dark shapes of desks and chairs piled against the walls indicated what the room was used for in the past. But there was one other thing in the room, the thing that didn't really fit there: a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet and an inscription carved around the top: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" The carving didn't seem to be made in any known human language, but after looking closely, Harry noticed that it actually was English, just with misplaced spaces and actual words written backwards.

"I show not ...your face, but your he- ...heart's desire." The young Griffindor read the carved text in a low whisper... For some reason he felt really curious about his 'heart's desire'. So he stepped in front of it. What he in the reflection almost made him yelp in shock.

The 'mirrored' him looked to be older, about eighteen, and had a young woman in his arms. She was in the shadow, so the young wizard couldn't say who she was, but he could swear that she had blond hair... Behind the pair, stood two adults: a pretty red-haired woman with bright green eyes – just like his – and a tall, thin man that, was it not for his hazel eyes, could be mistaken for an even older Harry... Then the two adults waved to him, while the mysterious girl snuggled into his reflection's chest.

"Mom... Dad..." Harry whispered, understanding, who the adults were. Well, he was never shown any pictures or photos of them, but from what Hagrid and the Hogwarts professors said about them, he had little problem with recognizing them...

When Harry looked back into the mirror, there were more people there. A couple that looked to be around their sixties stood behind his parents – his grandparents on the Potter side, most likely, as the man looked to be like his father without glasses and with slightly graying hair. Next to them there was another couple that looked to be roughly of the same age – they mush have been his mother's parents: rather tall man with dark-brown, though, too, graying hair, and a pretty woman with reddish hair... Older Neville, Hermione, the chaser trio, professors McGonnagal and Flitwick, Hagrid were there too... There were more people in the reflection, but like the girl in 'mirrored' Harry's arms, their bodies were hidden by shadows...

"Family and friends..." The young wizard whispered. "That's what my heart desires most." Suddenly, there was a sound of someone sitting down onto a desk. Whirling around, Harry saw the headmaster sitting there in the corner of the classroom. At least, the old man didn't look to be angry at him.

"So, you have discovered the wonders of the Mirror of Erised." The ancient man said as he slipped onto the floor and started approaching the young Griffindor.

"S-Sir... I haven't noticed you." Harry said, still a bit afraid that the old man will punish him for being out of the tower after the curfew.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you." Dumbledore said with a smile. "And you got it correctly, the mirror shows us nothing more and nothing less than our hearts' deepest and most desperate desire. You, having never know your family, see them in the mirror, and while they are no longer with us, they are still within your heart. As for a family of your own, this is a dream that you can make come true." The headmaster said. "However, this mirror gives neither knowledge nor truth, and I would thank you if you will not look for it again. After all, many men had wasted their lives in front of it, and I wouldn't want my student to be one of them." Harry nodded. "Good. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?" The old wizard said while thinking: 'I'm relieved that his desire is family and friends.The world wouldn't survive were he anything like Tom Riddle was.'

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Only when Harry was back in his bed, he thought that it was strange that he had wandered so far away from the dormitories, when he found the mirror. Thinking that it could be an effect of another compulsion, most likely the one that was placed on him, and not his things, the green-eyed wizard cast a magic canceler at himself. There was a wisp of magic raising from his body...

"That old... !" Harry swore as he understood that the whole mirror thing was orchestrated by the headmaster... It would be a long time before he would be able to fully trust the old man again...

That's all, folks!
The eighth chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.