Filch had told Harry to clean part of the third floor that night, and had spent most of the time he was supposed to be telling Harry what to clean complaining about children. Harry couldn't help but be slightly amused, to be honest. What had Filch expected, working at a school?

Harry had worked his way down the hall and had nearly finished, when looked up and saw the door to the forbidden part of the third floor. He stared at it curiously for a moment, and took his rag and cleaned the doorknob thoughtfully.

Why was it forbidden? What could possibly take up an entire corridor? Why would it be in the school in the first place, if it was so dangerous that Dumbledore felt the need to forbid everyone from going near it? Harry had heard some of the upper years talking about certain classes having to be relocated because of the new rule. He wondered what could be so important that the teachers would be willing to move around, just to accommodate it. Harry wiped down the wood panelling on the door, and he could feel his curiosity beginning to eat at him.

What if he took a peek? Just a little one. This was a school, it couldn't be anything too dangerous, right? Filch would never know. No one would. Harry put his hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath.

It was locked. Harry closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember the locking charm Hermione had taught Dudley. Alohomora? Harry nodded. That was it. He remembered Dudley whispering it giddily at him as Harry tried to do his Transfiguration homework.

He glanced around. No one was in sight. "Alohomora," he whispered, and the door clicked. Harry placed his hand on the knob and took a deep breath.

He opened the door a crack and peered around it. He stared for a few moments. Then he closed the door very, very carefully, locked it securely, and made his way back to the Slytherin common room. He was done for the night anyway.

Harry entered the common room very quietly. He saw Draco and Pansy sitting in chairs near the fire, and walked over to them.

"Draco," Harry whispered. Draco was reading a book, but he set it down when Harry sat down next to him.

Draco looked at him for a moment, and responded just as quietly. "Yes, Harry?"

"It may just be because I'm new to this whole magic thing, but is there really such a thing as a three headed dog?"

Pansy heard him, and frowned. "Of course there is! My uncle breeds them, they're called Cerberus. They're guard dogs, very useful, haven't you heard of them, Harry?"

"I've heard of them in myths," Harry said, "But I didn't know they actually existed. Is there any reason why one would be at Hogwarts?"

"What?" Draco and Pansy asked in unison, sitting up and looking at him with equal parts surprise and intrigue.

"Is there?" Draco asked in shock. "You'd think we'd see one running around, wouldn't you?"

Pansy had been watching Harry's face as Draco spoke, though, and she figured it out faster than he could say it. "That's why the third floor is forbidden, isn't it?"

Draco gaped. Harry nodded. "I saw it, just now," he said. "It was a bit of a shock."

"Well I can imagine," Pansy said sympathetically. "I got to see a few when I visited my uncle in Cyprus a few years ago, but he made sure to sing to them first, just in case. What were you doing, going in there anyway? It is still in there, right? It hasn't broken out or anything?"

She and Draco both looked suddenly very worried, and Harry rushed to reassure them.

"No, no, it's still there, I was just curious, so I took a look. And…it's a Cerberus, alright."

"Wow," Pansy said, frowning down at the book in her lap. "Wonder what it's guarding."

Harry frowned too, and tried to relax as Draco and Pansy read quietly. The dog was guarding something, then. Pansy didn't appear to be thinking about it anymore, but Harry wanted to know now. Curiosity had made him open the door, and even though it was probably none of his business, curiosity would nag at him until he found out what the dog was guarding. That was just how Harry's mind worked.

Christmas was coming soon, Harry realized one day. The castle was beginning to look festive and decorated, and snow had long since blanketed the grounds. Draco had begun dropping hints about how he wanted this for Christmas, and what did Harry want? Hermione had asked him what his favourite colour was the other day, and Harry got quite a shock when Dudley marched right up to him before lunch, dropped all pretences, and simply asked Harry what he wanted for Christmas.

Apparently he was getting presents this year.

It was a nice feeling, even better since Hermione had told him about owl-ordering, so he could buy everyone else something as well. He'd decided that taking a little bit out of his tuition fund couldn't hurt in the long run, and had even decided to buy Filch something too, just because.

Despite all this, knowing that he was probably getting gifts did not prepare him in the slightest for Christmas morning, when he woke up to find his feet nearly buried by all the presents at the foot of his bed.

Harry stared at his presents in surprise until Blaise, who had also just woken up, glanced over at his dazed state and threw a pillow at his head.

"Presents, Harry! Wake up!" And with that he grabbed one of his own packages and tore into it.

Harry picked up one of his presents and opened it. It was from Draco, a new pair of shoes. He looked over at Draco in the next bed, who had just unwrapped something small and expensive looking.

"Shoes?" he asked, holding them up for Draco to see. Draco grinned.

"Do you like them? I bought you some other stuff too, don't worry. It's not all shoes."

Harry thanked him bemusedly and reached for another present.

It was from Dudley, he'd bought Harry a book on magical pranks. In his letter he told Harry that he'd written his parents that Harry was being really helpful and that he and Harry had become friends. Harry could expect a present from them. He also warned Harry not to use anything in the book on him, because Hermione had promised that she'd teach Dudley all of it too.

Harry looked for the present from the Dursleys. It actually didn't look like an old pair of socks. Harry opened the note on top first, and read,

Dudley told me that you're helping him in school. Your aunt wanted to get rid of some of the rubbish in the attic, so we're sending it to you. Happy Christmas.

From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

Underneath the note was a short stack of pictures, some of which looked badly crumpled. Harry smoothed them out and noted that they were all of the same red-headed girl, at different ages, and that the girl had bright green eyes, just like him.

He looked them over for a moment, slightly confused, and it suddenly hit him. These were pictures of his mother.

Harry had never seen a picture of his mother. The Dursleys didn't keep them out in the open where Harry could find them. Apparently they'd changed their minds. Harry flipped through the pictures. Most of them were from before she would have gotten her Hogwarts letter. There was one though, of a fifteen year old Lily, grinning mischievously at the camera and holding a teacup, and another of her at seventeen, posing with two people who looked like they might have been her parents. Harry's grandparents.

Harry remained absorbed in his pictures until Blaise and Draco looked over and realized he was neglecting his presents. They'd each gone through more than half of theirs already, and their piles were much bigger than Harry's.

"What're those, Harry?" Blaise asked, jumping off his bed to look. "Why don't they move?"

"They're muggle pictures, of course," Draco said, looking over Harry's shoulder. "Who of?"

"My mother," Harry said softly. Draco and Blaise looked at each other over Harry's head, then back at his pictures.

"She's pretty," Blaise said respectfully.

Harry nodded and set them carefully on his bedside table. Draco looked like he wanted to ask something, but kept quiet and instead shoved another present at Harry.

"This one's from me too," Draco said. "Go on, open it!"

It was a Kenmore Kestrels poster. Harry smiled and shook his head. He'd only claimed to like them to make Draco indignant.

"Thanks, Draco, it's great," he said, and at Blaise and Draco's urging, he went back to opening presents. The dorm was empty aside from the three of them. Blaise and Draco were taking advantage of it by exclaiming loudly over all of their presents and tossing things back and forth over his head.

Harry unwrapped a book from Hermione, and wondered if she would appreciate the diary he had bought her. It had a complicated lock on it, and he'd added a note: So that you don't have to resort to petty theft.

Blaise had bought him several Quidditch books, and Pansy gave him a huge pile of candy with a note that informed him that he was too skinny. Anthony had gotten him a book of archaic spells and potions that used various fruits as a base. Harry decided he should never have told Anthony about his excuse for smelling like Mrs. Skower's Magical Mess Remover.

This left one more present, a very light one that he opened to reveal a fluid, silvery gray material. Harry held it up and examined it.

"Wonder who sent me this, " he said curiously. Draco glanced over and gaped when he saw what Harry was holding.

"Who sent you that?" he asked, bounding off of his bed and over to Harry's, squishing Harry's new shoes as he sat. He reached out carefully and took a piece of it between his fingers.

"I don't know," Harry responded, now looking for a note. "What is it?"

"It's an Invisibility Cloak!" Draco said in awe. Blaise's head snapped up from his presents, and his jaw dropped.

"Wicked!" he said, and came over to Harry's bed to admire his new gift. "Who gave it to you?"

Harry held up the note that he'd just found in the folds of the cloak.

"It was my father's," he read. "It doesn't say who sent it, but they say it was my father's…"

Harry looked at the cloak with new eyes.

"Well go on, try it on!" Draco said in excitement. Harry stood and wrapped the cloak around himself.

"You're gone!" Blaise said suddenly, and Harry looked down. It was true. He had completely disappeared.

"Wow," Draco said, looking at the spot where Harry had been last. "Harry, could I borrow it sometime?"

Harry frowned. He wasn't sure he wanted to share this just yet. It had been his fathers, after all, and he didn't really have anything from him. Not even a picture, like the ones the Dursley's had sent of his mother.

"Maybe," Harry said evasively. He took the cloak off and folded it neatly into his trunk, and tried to turn his mind back to his other presents.

Later, they went down to the common room, where Pansy was waiting to compare presents with them.

"Thanks for the new perfume, Harry," Pansy said. "I suppose I can forgive you now for abandoning me." Pansy was still slightly miffed that Harry had joined the Quidditch team. When she had first found out, she had told him very sadly to come with her, and it wasn't until they got to the base of the Astronomy Tower that Harry realized what she was planning. Draco and Blaise had laughed hysterically when he came running back to the common room and explained in a panic what she'd tried, and even though she'd insisted ever since that it had been a joke, the result of it all was that Harry never went anywhere alone with Pansy again, especially after Quidditch matches or practices, even though he only really got to fly during the practices.

"You're welcome, Pansy," Harry said. "Thanks for the candy."

"Hey," Blaise suggested. "Maybe Pansy's given up on throwing you to your death and she's decided to poison you instead."

Harry's head shot up in alarm to look at Pansy, who was now glaring at Blaise.

"Quiet, Blaise, you'll ruin it!" she hissed, glancing innocently at Harry. Draco, Blaise and Pansy all cracked up, and Harry mock-glared at them.

"When you lot are finished plotting my death, I'll be at breakfast," he said, ignoring Blaise's amused offer to taste test all of Harry's candy for him as he left the common room.

They all joined him a few seconds later, and compared presents some more as they walked up to the Great Hall.

Later that night, after an enormous Christmas feast and the Slytherin Christmas party, Harry lay in bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. He closed his curtains, lit his wand, and pulled out the pictures of his mother. He stared down at them for a short while before crawling over to his trunk and pulling out the Invisibility Cloak. Pictures of his mother and something his father had owned, had actually touched himself, had probably used often. These were better Christmas presents than anything he could imagine. He looked at the note that had come with the cloak again. Use it well, it said, just before it wished him a Merry Christmas and left the gift giver anonymous.

Use it well. Harry could do that. He put out his wand and wrapped the cloak around him. He glanced over his shoulder at Blaise and Draco, sleeping soundly in their beds, and wondered if he should bring one of them with him before dismissing the idea. He wanted the first time he used his father's cloak to be special. He didn't want to share. He slipped silently out of Slytherin and wondered where to go. He decided eventually to just explore the castle and see what he could find.

He climbed a few staircases and wandered down a few corridors, just generally getting lost, before he came upon a door that was ajar. He stopped when he heard voices coming from inside. Harry would never deny being nosy. He identified the voice that was speaking now as Professor Quirrel, the stutter was a dead giveaway.

"D-don't know wh-what you're talking about, Severus…"

"Just answer the question, Quirrell."

Harry's eyes widened. It was Snape. Quirrell was mumbling something.

"I know what you're planning, Quirrell, and if you think Dumbledore will let you endanger his students and steal from him, you will find that disappointment and Dementors are harsh mistresses."

"That's r-ridiculous, Severus, I have n-no intention of endangering any of the ch-chidren or st-stealing the stone."

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Snape said menacingly. Harry shivered. He'd heard enough. He made his way as quickly and quietly as possible back to the Slytherin dorms and collapsed on his bed, mind racing.

Snape thought Quirrell was trying to steal something? Harry remembered the Cerberus and put two and two together. The dog was guarding a stone that must belong to Dumbledore. Quirrell wanted to steal it, and Snape wanted to stop him. Snape had mentioned Quirrell's endangering children. Harry rubbed his forehead absently, and remembered the horrible headaches he got whenever he was in DADA. Could that have something to do with it? He was the only one that he knew of that got headaches like that. He would have to talk to Hermione and maybe Draco about this. He stared at the ceiling for a while, wondering what could be so important about a stone that Quirrell would try to steal it and Snape would try so fiercely to protect it. Maybe it was a diamond, or a ruby or something? Maybe it was magical, and that was why it was so important. Maybe it did something special. As he finally drifted off to sleep, he resolved to ask Hermione if she'd read about any magical stones that Dumbledore might have.