AN: Hey everyone, here's another chapter.

I've been trying to look at this from a reader's point of view, rather than my own as an author, and I'd like to point out something real quick that may be starting to bother you guys.

I know that Harry isn't very avatar like yet, but he will be eventually. There is a clue to how he will unlock the avatar spirit that has been cut off in Chapter 2, and if you've paid attention to that particular chapter, you'll know what is required. I'm pointing this out because as a reader of this story, I might get slightly frustrated that Harry seems to be just a wizard, and not the avatar. Trust me, there will be some really cool avatar stuff, but I'm not close to there yet. When he gets access to his avatar spirit once again though, it will come back in a really big way.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, and I hope you'll enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 09, Happy Christmas

Winter had finally come to Hogwarts. Harry woke up one rather cold morning, and quickly used his wand to pile wood on the fire. He looked out the window, and quickly found out why his room was so cold. The grounds of the castle were covered in a beautiful blanket of white.

Harry was on his way back to the castle one morning after helping Hagrid, when he was quickly hit in the back of the head by a rather large and cold snowball.

"Morning Harrykins," said Fred and George together.

"You know what they say about payback guys," said Harry.

He pulled his wand from his cloak pocket and used a levitation charm to cover the twins in a large pile of snow.

"You should have warn your winter cloaks," said Harry laughing.

"He got us good," said Fred.

"He did indeed bro," said George.

The three rather snowy boys headed back up to the castle for the breakfast feast they could already taste.

Once at the Gryffindor table, Harry noticed Ron wasn't eating as enthusiastically as he usually did.

"What's with your brother?" asked Harry to the twin on his right.

"Oh, little ronnikins? Well, turns out him and his room mates got caught out of bed last night."

"They lost Gryffindor a ton of points. I don't think we've ever lost that many points have we George?"

"No my dear brother I don't think we have. Maybe that's something we can aspire to in the future."

Harry laughed at their banter.

"That's not all of it though," said Ron finally looking up from the food on his plate. "There was a big three headed dog, and it was standing on a trap door. You saw that too didn't you Dean Seamus?"

"He's right," said Seamus in is Irish brogue.

"Honestly Ron, I was lost when I saw the big bastard had three heads. I've always been afraid of dogs, but three heads did me in, which is why I ran and kinda got us all caught," said Dean sadly.

"Look little firsties, you need to plan your rule breaking. You know why Fred and I don't get caught nearly as often? We plan everything out to the ninth degree, and then we have backup plan on backup plan just in case," said George from Harry's left.

"Yeah well I don't think we'll be going out any time soon. seventy five points just for being out of bed is crazy," said Ron.

"Wimp," said the twins together.

Harry was soon off to his final transfiguration class for the term. There wasn't a test, but they did finish off a two-part lesson on the theory of switching spells. With homework in hand, Harry went off to the library as usual to get a start on his homework. While at the library, he ran in to Hermione Granger.

"Hi Harry," she said when she caught sight of him entering the library. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me on Halloween. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to thank you, but I'm not good at talking with others."

"You're more than welcome Ms. Granger," said Harry. "You know, I heard that Lisa Terpin in your dorm is having trouble with levitation still, maybe she could use your help?"

"That's an idea," said Hermione. "I'll talk to her."

Saying good by to Hermione, Harry found his usual spot, and began his homework.

Harry's week was pretty normal after that. He got his final lessons for the term, along with their accompanying homework projects. He found out that Neville was going home for the holidays, but the Weasley twins were staying at Hogwarts, as their parents were visiting their second oldest son Charley, who worked with dragons in Romania.

Harry woke up to a pile of gifts at the foot of his bed Christmas morning. He was rather surprised that he had them, but was happy that he had gotten his friends presents in return.

He unwrapped a box of sweets from the Weasley twins, a wand holster from Neville, and a book from Remus.

The book had a blank black cover, but according to Remus's Christmas card was a book on a magic called Occlumancy, which was a kind of mental magic that could protect and organize your mind. Harry was very interested in learning this type of magic, and wondered if that's what Malfoy was might have been hinting at when he accused the headmaster of doing something to him during the broom flying class incident.

Harry thought he was done and was just about to take the wrapping paper over to use in his fire place, when a small wrapped package fell out of the pile of paper. Opening the package revealed a soft and silver garment of some kind. On top of it was a note written in beautiful slanting writing.

Dear Harry,

This invisibility cloak belonged to your father. It was left in my care, and I thought that you might find it useful.

Happy Christmas,

Albus Dumbledore

PS: Remus Lupin will be fire calling you at 8 this morning. Don't be alarmed when his head appears in your most excellent fireplace.

Harry checked the time, and found that he still had some time before remus called. He slipped on his clothes and shoes and ran down to the great hall for a bight of breakfast. He had just gotten back to his quarters, when there was a slight pop, as Remus's head appeared in his fire.

"Happy Christmas Remus," said Harry excitedly.

"Same to you Harry," said Remus.

"Thanks for the mind magic book, I think it'll be a fantastic new thing to learn to read," said Harry.

"Professor Dumbledore has indicated that you are doing almost to well in your classes, so I thought you might find some independent study a little more challenging. I got myself a copy, so maybe we can trade notes?"

"That would be brill,!" said Harry.

Remus laughed happily at Harry's enthusiasm. He was often sad at this time of year, as he missed his old school friends, and the antics they often got up to on Christmas.

"You should see what the headmaster gave me," said Harry running quickly in to his bedroom, and coming out with the folded invisibility cloak in hand. "He said this was Dad's, and that I might find it useful."

Tears came to Remus's eyes.

"I thought that was lost with your parents house. So much was."

"I'm sorry Remus, don't cry," said Harry, wishing his surrogate uncle wasn't currently surrounded by flames, as it looked like he could use a hug.

"Don't worry dear boy, I'm just remembering the good old times your dad and us had under that cloak. We were real pranksters back when we went to Hogwarts. We never did anything malicious, but we sure had a lot of people unhappy with us, especially the professors. They were some good times. I wouldn't want you to break the rules often, but every now and then won't hurt. You're eleven years old, and boys your age should be having fun when and where ever possible."

Remus stayed for another few minutes, and told Harry stories of some of the pranks that they did. Sadly though, Remus did have to go. They wished each other Happy Christmas again, and then Remus's head disappeared from the fire with another small pop.

Harry's Christmas day was fun after that. Him and the twins had another snowball rematch, they had a delicious Christmas dinner in the great hall, and Harry made a start on his Occlumancy book before dropping off to sleep.

AN2: A very short chapter. I'm honestly really impatient to get this first year over. The faster we get to the part where Harry unlocks his avatar abilities, the better. Lol. I'm just as impatient as some of you guys are to get to that point.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.