Harry's P.O.V
December, 25th
Harry woke up very unhappily to Cobalt laying on his face, stifling his breathing through the felines blue and black fur.
"Get off me you borderline murderous cat," he said lifting the kitten who had grown much more than he had been when Septima had given him to Harry.
Thinking of Septima made Harry feel bad for not visiting her as much since school had started, but with how busy Septima's schedule was Harry rarely got to see her.
Harry's hand rubbed absently at Cobalt's fur as he looked around the very bare dorm room, the only other person who had stayed was Terry and he was still asleep. Fleur had returned home on the Hogwarts express to spend time with her family, and while she had offered Harry to come with her, he really didn't want to put a damper on her families time together.
Cobalt's green eyes stared half lidded at Harry before the cat got to his feet, stretched languidly, and ascended to Harry's shoulders laying across his neck.
Harry sighed rolling his shoulders before standing up himself and stretching," well we better go down to the great hall for breakfast, I don't know how long they'll be serving it today."
"Terry," Harry shook the other boy trying to wake him up," get up we've gotta go to breakfast and I bet you've got presents to open."
Terry let out an unintelligible whining noise that Harry couldn't decipher so he shook him a bit more furiously," I'm up! I'm up!"
He glared at Harry very annoyed having been woken up, but he sighed and began throwing on an odd assortment of pajamas and school clothes. After Terry had finished the pair trudged down to the Ravenclaw common room seeing the blue tree adorned with silver garlands.
Harry watched numbly as Terry rooted through a few presents before setting aside sixteen present each of which were varying sizes.
"You sure are popular," Harry joked looking at the small stash of presents.
"Almost half of these are for you," he said with a quizzically raised eyebrow," because, you know, people get presents on Christmas usually."
Harry had to restrain himself from arguing that he, in fact, never received Christmas presents, and even if he did it would be a hand me down of Dudley's that would be entirely to large for him. So, with no small amount of wonder, Harry took the first package in hand turning the sky blue present end over end marveling at the perfect way in which it was wrapped. On the front in an elegant cursive was the recipient name and the sender.
To: Harry
From: Fleur
I wish you would've come with me on holiday to meet papa, but I suppose it was to soon for you. Maman and Gabby wish you had come as well, hopefully you can visit next year. This should help greatly for dueling club. Happy Christmas!
Harry delicately unwrapped the present painstakingly keeping each piece of wrapping paper in pristine condition. This was his first present and he didn't want to rush things, and he wasn't disappointed when he peered inside to find a dragon hide wand holster for his right forearm.
Harry fastened the holster to his arm with Terry's help, the pair of them struggled quite a bit but after a couple minutes of wrestling they had finally managed to get it on properly and Harry's wand was now snuggly in the holster.
"Next one, and for the love of Merlin don't take so long on this one otherwise we'll never get to breakfast," Terry complained watching Harry yet again gingerly pick up a present.
"Alright, I'm hungry too," Harry said grimacing as he ripped the paper off of this present which had the feel of fabric. A slightly large knitted green sweater was revealed to Harry who wore a puzzled expression before looking at the sender.
To: Harry
From: Molly Weasley
"Looks like Mrs. Weasley sent me a sweater cause I complained about how cold it was without Fleur to Ron," Harry laughed remembering Ron's expression that made it look like he had tried swallowing a gallon of lemon juice.
"I don't think your girlfriend is gonna be to happy about you not needing her to warm up anymore," Terry laughed slapping Harry lightly in the back making Harry wince with each pat.
Thankfully Harry didn't cringe away from Terry's light taps but he couldn't stamp down the profuse blush that spread over his face," s-she's not my girlfriend!"
"Tell that to the entire jealous boy population and half of the girls," Terry said giving Harry a sympathetic look," you can't really blame people for assuming, it's not exactly like you guys are often seen apart. And it definitely doesn't help with you both snuggling as close to one another as you can as often as you do."
"That's not my fault," Harry complained covering his face out of shame," she's always like that, it's Gabby and her families fault, they've always been touchy feely with her and since she got her Veela abilities she's had to stay away from most people except her family, and now that she's away from them I get the full brunt of it."
"Alright, alright. Just hurry it up."
The next few present went by much easier, he had received a dueling book from Hermione, an assortment of chocolate frogs from Ron, a letter from Hagrid that he would read at breakfast, a bag of kneazle treats from Septima, and finally another package that felt like it held fabric inside.
This present was odd however, it held a note from the sender but not their name. It was written in an elegant and spidery script of cursive.
Use it well
Harry unwrapped the present finding a smooth liquid like fabric that pooled comfortably in his fingers, making the places it covered turn invisible. Terry whistled behind him.
"That's an invisibility cloak," he said with envy in his voice," who sent it?"
"No idea. Just says 'use it well' whatever that means."
"Well you better be smart about using it, and don't go losing Ravenclaw any house points, apparently we got really close to winning against Slytherin last year and you've been on a roll. Now let's go down to breakfast I'm hungry."
Harry nodded folding the cloak carefully into a neat square that he placed in his school trunk under his bed, cobalt who had stayed on Harry's shoulders miraculously stood on Harry's shoulders and turned to lay on his other side.
Walking through the halls with no one other than Terry felt odd, the usual bustle, laughter, and yelling that echoed through the halls was earily absent. Harry had to consciously keep himself from drawing his wand ready for an ambush that was almost definitely not coming.
"You alright Harry, you look like you're trying to hold in the nonsense that comes after drinking a babbling beverage."
"I'm fine, just odd no one being around like usual," Harry said awkwardly grinning at Terry.
"I know what you mean," the other boy shivered," without all the people around it's like we're walking around in Dracula's castle, and he's waiting around any corner."
"Is Dracula real?" Harry asked flabbergasted.
"I don't think so, but I know vampires are real so I guess it's possible," Terry said obviously hoping it wasn't remotely possible.
"You scared of vampires," Harry asked now grinning in a more genuine manor, the emptiness of Hogwarts falling away.
"Are you not? Almost normal people running around, sucking the blood of unsuspecting muggles and wizards alike, and we still honestly have no real idea about their history. And I don't know about you but that being basically all we know about them makes me very nervous about ever running into one," Terry furiously whispered looking in the darkened corners of hallways they passed.
Harry had to suppress a guffaw of laughter that would almost definitely scare Terry," I'm sure we can make it to breakfast without getting some bloody hickeys from a vampire."
"Oh shut up Harry," Terry groused as they were both illuminated by the brightly burning braziers of the great hall. The usual roar of voices that emanated from the great hall was greatly subdued compared to usual days, and a great many people were scattered around the hall not everyone sitting exclusively at their house table for once.
Harry could see Ron playing wizards chess with his older brother Percy, who seemed to be very frustrated he was losing. Terry had obviously seen where Harry was looking and the look on his face became more strained and disgusted.
"I don't know why you're friends with him," Terry said not at all hiding his distaste for Ron," he's a bit of a git, he keeps going on about the chudley cannons, hating potions, and the way he eats just disgusts me."
"He's not that bad," Harry said with a quelling look at Terry," he's a good friend and Gryffindors are always a bit quirky, so there's no harm. Besides I have something I need to tell you guys, I just wish Hermione had stayed so I could tell her too but that'll have to wait."
"Fine, but if he starts talking with his mouth full of food I'm going back to our table."
The pair of them walked over to Ron and Percy, who were bickering over the game they were still playing," really Ron why did you teach your chess pieces to do that, it's childish."
And sure enough Harry could see that Ron's knight had taken Percy's own knight, but instead of returning to its idle state immediately the knight had turned his horses backside toward Percy and the knight began smacking the horses bottom.
Harry had to school his features with great difficulty because he had let a small laugh out, and both Terry and Percy had turned outraged eyes on him in unison. With both of them glaring at Harry it was very difficult to not burst into a fit of laughter.
"Hey mate," Ron laughed as the knight returned to normal," wanna play chess after me and Percy get finished?"
"No thanks," Harry said calming down now that he wasn't being glared at," I'm not to good at it. Terry isn't to bad though, so have a go at him."
Terry glowered at Harry yet again for forcing him to spend one on one time with Ron, but his look slowly went alway as he saw Ron's proficiency with the game. Terry absently sat down to watch the chess match unfold with rapt attention, meanwhile Harry sat on the other side of Ron to begin eating while those two were occupied.
The usual breakfast was replaced with a myriad of holiday dishes; Christmas ham, holiday decorated cakes, bowls of pudding, and a few of the usual breakfast dishes sprinkled in here or there.
Once Harry had gotten his fill he turned his attention back to Terry and Ron, who were now both glaring at the board they had begun playing one another on. They had gotten several moves into the game before Harry had turned his attention back, and they had both claimed a few of each other's pieces. Harry hadn't told either of them but he had no earthly idea how to play regular chess let alone wizards chess, so the odd placements of each piece only confused Harry, who had no idea who was winning.
The two of them were taking long pauses followed by a hesitant chess piece being moved, and an expletive when one of them was unhappy with the move the other had made.
Harry watched in bored silence for a few minutes before Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, dragged the three of them away from the board and out to the castles front yard. They were all joined by their older brother Percy, the quidditch announcer Lee Jordan, and a few other Gryffindor students for a very intense snowball fight.
At one point Harry had seen Terry and Percy fighting alongside one another, lobbing snowballs at Fred and George who had jinxed a pile of snowballs to pelt the back of poor Professor Quirrells head. The snowball fight was brought to a rather abrupt end when someone had thrown a stray ball at a passing Professor Snape, who had been hit directly in the face.
So returning sopping wet and dead tired to their common room Harry collapsed on his bed, beside the already fast asleep Cobalt who had at some point returned to Harry's bed. As Harry began to fall asleep he wrapped an extremely smooth and warm material around himself that his groggy mind had identified as the invisibility cloak, and then he fell asleep.
12:45 p.m.
Harry really should've seen this coming. He had fallen asleep far earlier than he normally did at around six o'clock, and now he was paying for it completely awake in his bed at such an ungodly hour. The worse part was that Cobalt was staring unblinkingly into Harry's eyes, the cat didn't move even an inch as of telling Harry not to go to sleep.
"You're creeping me out," Harry whispered at the cat, who just languidly stood stretching slightly and hopped off o the bed looking back at Harry," fine I get it, take me wherever youre meaning to take me."
As he pulled on his school boots standing out of his bed, a stray thought hit Harry,' I can take the invisibility cloak!'
Harry feeling silly for almost leaving without it dawned the cloak pulling the hood up and over his head, his entire body disappearing under the folds of the material.
Cobalt meowed softly up at Harry walking toward and out of the first years boy dormitory, on more than one occasion Harry had to jog to keep up with the cat as it trotted along the halls not paying attention to their surroundings. Cobalt had finally stopped, sitting at Harry's invisible feet in front of an unused classroom on the fourth floor.
Harry looked down to the cat in confusion," what? Do you want me to go in?"
In response the small cat purred loudly following Harry closely as he opened the door as quietly as he dared in the silence of the corridor. Harry gazed around the room seeing a few desks pushed to the corner of the unused room, but in the middle of the otherwise empty room was an odd full length and pristinely polished mirror.
Harry cautiously approached the mirror, pulling his cloaks hood down, and neatly folded the material into a square that rested in the crook of his arm. He gazed at his slightly healthier form, now fuller with the months of constant meals that he had enjoyed while in Hogwarts. But what truly caught him off guard was the appearance of a beautiful red haired woman with green eyes, a man who strikingly resembled Harry, and Fleur with her arms draped around Harry's shoulders as her cheek rested against Harry's own.
Harry turned in a circle frantically looking for the three other people in the room, and trying to suppress a smile at the thought Fleur had come back to Hogwarts early. But no one was there, in fact now that he thought about it Harry hadn't felt the accompanying warmth or smell of burnt wood that came with the closeness Fleur gave Harry.
So turning slowly to the mirror Harry gazed back at the scene in front of him now seeing that he had missed the tiny form of Gabrielle standing behind both reflections of Harry and Fleur. The little girl had a mischievous grin on her face as she beamed up at both Harry and Fleur. The two adults standing on either side of Harry and Fleur both smiled at all of the children with warm content looks.
Jolting with realization Harry pressed his hands against the mirror looking in wonder at the adults.
"Mom?" The woman nodded and while he didn't want to he looked at the man in astonishment and a bit of anger," dad?" The man looking a bit sadder than the woman nodded as well.
Harry wiped burgeoning tears out of his eyes as he stepped back and up at the inscription he had nearly missed 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'.
"I show not your face but your hearts desire," Harry said deciphering the text in no time at all," so this is what I want? Deep down?"
Harry was breathing fast his heart following along just as quickly, he refused to believe what this magical mirror was telling him. He couldn't.
"I hate you," Harry whispered to himself looking at the near identical to himself reflection of his father who stood staring sadly at Harry," I hate you, so much. You're the reason Aunt Petunia has been doing this to me for years! Because of her damn obsession with you! And because of this damn face you gave me!"
Harry was frantically scratching at his face trying to get rid of any resemblance he had with his father, tears falling down his face in rivulets mixing with the bloody streaks he was creating with his fingernails. Harry tore at his face frantically not wanting to believe what this mirror was telling him, but he stopped at the look his mother, Gabrielle, and worst of all Fleur were giving him as he clawed at his own face. Fleur's reflection was gazing at Harry's blood streaked face, her hands covering her mouth as she cried in anguish.
"I'm sorry," Harry whispered wiping at his face avoiding Fleur's eyes," I'm sorry. I thought I was better now, but I guess I've just been ignoring my problems. I'm still just as broken as I ever was," Harry whispered curling up in front of the mirror and sobbing into the now blood smeared stone of the classroom floor. The reflections of the other four staring down at his crumpled form in somber sadness.
Unknown to Harry a silent observer stared at his prone form in just as much sadness as the unseen occupants of Harry's reflection.
