Much to Harry's relief, the remainder of the first half of term at Hogwarts proved to be rather uneventful. Classes were just the right level of challenging to be engaging without being a struggle...save Potions, which continued to push him in terms of ability and ideas as he planned various ways to use each new potion whether brewed properly or deliberately misbrewed. Though as much as he was enjoying doing so, he was starting to run out of pockets to hold them all in, and he wasn't looking forward to having to pick which to bring with him on any given day when he didn't know what would happen.

There hadn't been another attempt on his life, or another attempt at getting past Fluffy as far as he knew. Despite reassurances that Hogwarts was 'perfectly safe', he found the only 'official' place he felt truly safe was in Potions, oddly enough. Not only did he know that Professor Snape would be absolutely ruthless in defense of his students, he'd noticed that the Avare now seemed oddly relaxed when looking towards him, only to get intensely agitated any time someone entered the lab while he was there until they were recognized. He would think 'if he didn't know better' that the Avare had somehow decided that he was part of what was 'his' to protect, but Kevin had confirmed that the Avare's behavior exactly mimicked that of a nesting mother dragon around their hatchlings.

Despite that, he felt safer hiding in the various little used secret passages, especially when doing so led to him bumping into Draco. Much to Harry's surprise, Draco seemed to welcome these meetings, and he began talking more and more about things in his own home life...and Harry felt comfortable responding in kind, since Draco already knew most of it to an extent. It was an odd sort of friendship given they never acted friendly in public, but it was oddly heartwarming to Harry to have a true confidant that understood what it meant to have gone through what he had without having done so themself. Draco was able to sympathize while offering a different perspective, and that made it much easier for Harry to deal with going over it all.

But now it was Christmas Day. Hermione and Neville had gone home for the holidays - as had Draco - so it was just Harry and Ron staying at Hogwarts of the close friend group. Ron still had issues considering Draco as part of the 'close friend group', but Harry didn't mind. It wasn't like they interacted much at all, after all.

Waking up, Harry was rather startled at the pile of presents at the foot of his bed. He'd been looking forward to enjoying the holiday and the Feast that would come in the Great Hall, but genuinely hadn't expected gifts. He'd never gotten them, after all.

"Get used to this, Harry," Kevin hissed to him in a pleased whisper. "You now have friends who care about you, and adults who will look out for you. Even beyond me, you aren't alone anymore."

As the warmth from that statement filled Harry's heart, he reached for the first gift on the pile...though he personally doubted anything wrapped would be a greater gift than the knowledge that all these people considered him worth getting presents for, that sense of no longer being alone. ...the hand carved flute from Hagrid came close, though. So sturdy, yet so delicate...he made a mental note to learn to play at some point. Even the fifty pence piece from the Dursleys couldn't detract from that.

"COR!" Ron suddenly yelped out, having found an envelope without an attached gift and opened it to see who had sent it.

"What is it?" Harry asked in confusion.

"It's...it's Hermione's gift..." Ron stated in awe. "It's...it's a...gift sir-tiff-a-cut?"

"Gift certificate?" Harry asked. "It's a Muggle thing. If you don't know what a person wants or can't get it for them yourself, you give them a gift certificate to the place where they can get it so that they can pick it out themselves but it's already paid for. Where's it to?"

"Ollivander's!" Ron exclaimed in awe. "It's...it's a gift certificate for one matched wand! But I can't..."

Harry found himself suppressing a smirk at the warring emotions on Ron's face. Gratitude, eagerness, guilt, pride... "Let me guess," he asked curiously. "You really want to accept this gift, but you're worried it feels too much like charity which you can't accept?"

Ron looked down guiltily. "Yeah...something like that..." He opened the envelope more, only to find a letter in there with the certificate. Curious, he perused it...and his eyes widened as his expression became much more relaxed. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you talked about how thorough Hermione can be."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously.

"Fred and George apparently brought that up when she talked about getting me a new wand for Christmas...so she had her parents contact mine to arrange things. In addition to a Christmas present, this is also an official act of gratitude from the Grangers to the Weasleys for me saving her from the troll..." He looked down with a rueful flush. "...there's also a comment about how this way if I have to do it again I don't risk killing myself in the process..."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at that as he reached for his next present. "So that covers that, then?" he asked curiously.

"Y-yeah," Ron agreed as he got control of himself. "And...and they'll be meeting to be there when I get my wand this afternoon? But how will I get to Diagon Alley?"

"With how thorough Hermione is, she probably told Professor McGonagall about this plan before leaving for the holidays so it's already arranged," Harry offered with a smirk as he opened his gift...which unfolded into what looked almost like a set of robes, but thinner and seeming to be almost made of pockets. "...what's this?"

"No idea," Ron allowed as he looked at it. "Check for a note?"

Curious, Harry did...and couldn't help but smirk at what he saw. "It's from Draco," he said with a grin. "I mentioned how I've been carrying the potions around as a backup for situations I don't know spells for...this is an under-robe that will connect itself to my school robes - or anything else I'm wearing - and will automatically send whatever's in a given pocket to my hand long as I know which pocket I put it in." He happily slipped it on...and grinned as it seemed to vanish into his clothes save for the pockets being available.

"That's some impressive magic!" Ron observed in awe. He then shrugged a little defensively. "Then again, I suppose he can afford it..."

Harry shrugged off Ron's disquiet. As useful as the gift was, Harry found the handmade sweater and homemade fudge from Mrs. Weasley far more heartwarming. It was the last present, however, that caught all of their attention as the silvery fabric puddled out of the package once opened.

"No way..." Ron gasped in awe. "If that's what I think it is...they're really rare and extremely valuable..."

"What is it?" Harry asked, holding it up. It appeared to be a hooded cloak made of silvery light, so thin and delicate it looked...and yet somehow he knew when he touched it that it would take more force than he could bring to bear to damage it. Without really thinking about it, he pulled the cloak on...and stared as he vanished.

"It's an invisibility cloak!" Ron gasped out in awe.

"Not just any invisibility cloak," Kevin murmured in awe. "If it's what I think...the note is in Dumbledore's handwriting?"

Curious, Harry picked up the note and read it.

Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry Christmas to you.

"It is..." Kevin continued, his tone pleased and awed. "If this has lasted more than a generation, there's only one cloak it can be. This is Death's Cloak, one of the Deathly Hollows, artifacts made by the Avatar of Death himself! Under its magic, even Death itself cannot find you unless you desire to be found! If you can learn to attune your magic to it, not even your voice will give you away while under its protection."

"Wow..." Harry marveled in awe and pleasure. Sure, an artifact like that was amazing...but he now had something that belonged to his father. That was much more important to him. "My Father's cloak..."

Kevin was silent for a time...then chuckled. "That's the right way to look at this, I suppose," he allowed indulgently.