Ch. 12
When they got back to the castle, Violet went straight to McGonagall and asked for (demanded) an investigation into the behavior of Harry's broom and McGonagall agreed. No one at the game remembered seeing anything odd and Harry and company didn't tell what they had seen in case Violet got in trouble for setting a teacher on fire, so McGonagall's only remaining course of action was inspecting Harry's broom. However, even after a thorough examination, the new Nimbus was found to be in perfect working order and quickly returned to Harry. Violet wasn't satisfied, but McGonagall assured her that she would keep a close watch on Harry at every game until the matter was settled.
Christmas came upon Hogwarts. Hermione was going home for the Christmas holidays. Ron and his brothers planned to stay at Hogwarts with Harry because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to visit Charlie in Romania. During the first week after their game, Draco teased Harry about not being wanted at home and therefore had to stay at Hogwarts for the holiday. This teasing ended abruptly in their last potions class of the term.
"I do feel sorry for the people who have to stay at Hogwarts because they aren't wanted at home," Draco said in a stage whisper to Crabbe and Goyle as Harry set up his cauldron. Violet slammed down her books and glared at Malfoy.
"Did you ever think that maybe we don't go home because we don't like our family and not the other way around? I, for one, am glad Harry and I get to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. That's time not spent with an uncle who slaps us around."
Malfoy looked at her, dumbfounded, as though he forgot that Violet was Harry's sister. He then lowered his eyes and did not speak again for the entire class. The class was uncomfortably silent as Snape billowed in. He noticed the awkward silence and looked around at his students.
"Is there a problem?" he asked them.
Everyone looked at Violet which made Snape look at Violet. She returned his gaze innocently.
"No, Professor Snape."
He gave her a hard look for a moment.
"Then get your ingredients ready," he told the classroom at large as he tire his gaze from her. "The instructions are on the board."
The next week was the start of the Christmas holidays. Harry, Violet and Ron were having too much fun to think about Nicholas Flamell. They had the dorms and common room to themselves. They spent hours in front of the fireplace toasting anything they could stab with a fork and plotting ways to get Malfoy expelled, which was fun even though they knew their plans would never work. Violet liked show off by stepping into the roaring fire and sigh contently. The twins often hung out with them, adding their stories of near misses with Filch and Mrs. Norris. Percy occasionally checked on them as "part of his prefect duties," but otherwise kept to himself.
Christmas Day! Harry woke to the feel of a pillow hitting him in the head repeatedly.
"Huh? What?"
"Wake up you two," Violet said happily.
Harry sat up, snatched away the pillow that was hitting him and threw it back. Violet dodged his attack and opened their bedroom curtains. He put on his glasses and looked at his friends. Violet wore a lovely lavender cable knit sweater, jeans, and a pretty hair pin. Ron had apparently already started opening his Christmas presents because he wore a thick knitted, maroon sweater with an R in gold on the front. He was in the process of opening the box of chocolate frogs from Violet.
"Happy Christmas Harry," the pair said in unison.
"Happy Christmas. What are you wearing?"
Violet explained her hair pin was from Professor McGonagall and sweater was from Ron's mum. Ron's sweater came from his mother as well. Apparently, Mrs. Weasley liked to knit.
"Looks like you have one too," Ron said.
"I've got presents?"
Ron and Violet nodded and pointed to the small stack of packages at the end of his bed. Harry's sweater was green and came with some fudge and minced pies as well. Violet gave him a pair of Quidditch gloves ("Brilliant Violet!"). Hermione's present to him was a large box of chocolate frogs while Ron gave him a large box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. From Hagrid came a roughly cut flute that sounded like a screeching owl when played. His aunt and uncle gave him a fifty pence coin which, while worthless in the Wizarding world, fascinated Ron so much Harry let him keep it. McGonagall gave him a book called Quidditch Through the Ages and a stack of Christmas and birthday cards. They were all signed "from Uncle Remus" and McGonagall had added a note apologizing that she had not been able to locate to bundle of cards sooner. Violet explained that "Uncle Remus" had been a friend of their parents but that he had been out of touch for some time now.
"But he always sends a card every birthday and Christmas."
Sure enough, among the cards going back to Harry's second birthday, were new cards for Harry's 11th birthday and that Christmas.
Harry spent several minutes going through the cards. Most were plain cards with an amusing cartoon on the front and a signature inside. However, his birthday card from that year included a short letter congratulating Harry on starting Hogwarts and wishing him fun adventures. Harry smiled. It had certainly been an adventurous term so far.
Under everything else was another lumpy package wrapped in silver paper.
"Who's that from?" Violet asked as Ron tugged on a Christmas cracker she held. Four white mice shot out before she retrieved a cute hat and a set of blue Gobstones.
"I dunno," Harry said staring blankly at it.
"Read the card," Ron said as he watched one of the mice approached Scabbers the Rat and scamper away.
"'Your father left this in my possession before he died. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.'" Harry paused in awe has his hand touched the silver wrapping paper. "This was my dad's? I've never had anything from my parents."
Violet stared at the package, her face unreadable.
"It was Dad's?"
Ron and Violet approached as Harry tore away the paper and lifted a mass of liquid-like cloth.
"What is it?" Violet asked.
"It's some kind of cloak."
"Go on," Ron exclaimed. "Put it on."
Harry draped it over himself and everything below his neck vanished. Violet and Ron jumped to their feet. Harry looked down at himself in amazement.
"My body's gone!"
"Don't be stupid, Harry," Violet said.
"That's an invisibility cloak!" Ron said. "They're really rare."
"I'm invisible?"
Harry twirled around but couldn't see any part of his body peek through the stealthy material.
"The card didn't say who it's from?" Violet asked picking up the note that came with the cloak.
"No. It just said 'Use it well.'"
"I bet I can come up with a good use," Violet said catching Harry's eye.
Before he could respond, they heard footsteps on the stairs. Harry and Violet exchanged a quick look before Harry quickly stuffed the cloak into his trunk. Somehow they silently agreed to keep the cloak a secret for now. Just as he closed the trunk, Fred and George came in.
"Merry Christmas!"
"Hey look, Harry and Violet got sweaters too."
Fred and George wore their sweaters as well, each blue with a yellow initial on it. Fred held Harry's sweater up while George inspected Violet's sleeve.
"Harry and Violet's are better than ours," Fred concluded. "Mum must make more of an effort if you're not family.
Ron sighed as he plucked at his sweater.
"She forgets I hate maroon," he said.
"She didn't put initials on yours," George observed. "She must think you don't forget your names. But we're not stupid. We know we're called Gred and Forge."
Violet laughed as Percy came into the room. He must have been halfway into his own gifts upstairs because his half unwrapped sweater was draped over his arm.
"What's all the noise down here?"
Fred grabbed the grey sweater with blue letter P.
"P for Prefect! Come on, Percy. Get your sweater on. We're all wearing ours. Even Harry and Violet got them."
"Stop that!" Percy said as the twins forced the sweater over his head.
"And you're not sitting with the other prefects today," George added. "Christmas is for family.
They frog marched him out of the room as Harry, Violet, and Ron laughed.
The day had been a grand one! After the best Christmas dinner ever, Harry, Violet and the Weasleys held a huge snowball fight. Afterwards, cold and wet, they went inside were Violet promptly dried herself by crawling into the fire in the fireplace. They had fun warming by the fire, drinking hot cocoa and watching Violet steam. They stuck a cup of cocoa on the fireplace shovel and gave it to her. She drank the boiling cocoa without pain or injury, which the others also found entertaining. Harry broke in his new wizard's chess set that he had gotten from a Christmas cracker by losing spectacularly to Ron. Violet then creamed Fred in a game of Gobstones. ("Gran was team captain back in her day, did you know that, Harry?") George kept appearing next to Violet wearing a hat that he had stuck a sprig of mistletoe on with Spell-o-tape. After the fourth time, blushing furiously, she rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek. George pretended to swoon as though it had been a passionate embrace and everyone except Ron laughed. After a final meal of sandwiches and Christmas cake, which appeared in their common room as suddenly as the cocoa had, everyone watched Percy chase Fred and George around the common room because they had stolen his prefect badge. He finally got it back around midnight, after which he ordered everyone to bed. Ron was fast asleep before he hit the pillow, but Harry and Violet had other plans…
That night, Harry and Violet met in the common room after everyone had gone to bed and sneaked out under the cloak. They went to the library but found nothing in the restricted section on Nicholas Flamell either. Disappointed they turned to the entrance. Mrs. Norris stood in the way.
"Can she see us under here?" Harry wondered in a whisper.
Violet shrugged, not daring to risk a whispered response. They carefully sneaked past the cat, who seemed to follow their progress with her eyes. Just when they thought the coast was clear, however, they turned and found Filch right in front of them. Violet grabbed Harry's arm but it was too late. Filch bumped into Harry, stepping painfully on the boy's foot. The cloak did not stop them from being solid.
"Who's there?!" Filch shrieked.
Violet grabbed Harry and they both ran down the corridor, barely keeping themselves covered with the cloak as they went. Finally, they stopped by a suit of armor to catch their breath.
"Did we lose him?" Harry asked.
"I think so."
"Where are we?"
Violet looked about. There was a door ajar just behind them. A suit of armor was next to them on their right. On the wall across from them was a tapestry of trolls in tutus for some reason. Before she could get her bearings, however, they heard someone coming closer.
"You said to come to you directly if someone was wondering at night," Filch was saying. "Someone was just in the library."
"They can't be far," Snape replied.
They were coming closer. Violet jerked her head towards the open door behind them and Harry nodded. Moving carefully so they didn't move the door, they crept into the room. They stayed near the entrance and barely even breathed until they heard Snape and Filch's footsteps fade from view.
"That was close," Harry whispered. "Think we can risk taking this off? I'm boiling under here."
Violet nodded and pulled the cloak off of them.
"Sorry," she told him. "It's the fire in my blood. Makes me run hot no matter what."
"Why is that?"
"No clue. Dumbledore reckons it has to do with when our parents died, but no one…"
She stopped speaking abruptly. Harry had been checking to see if the hallway was clear, but he now turned to look at her. She was standing in the middle of the room, which was apparently a disused classroom. However, in the middle of the room, in front of where Violet stood, was a large, elegant mirror.
"Violet? What's wrong?"
She looked close to tears as she looked into the mirror. Harry approached her.
"Are you al-"
He gasped as he too saw in the mirror. They looked at it in silence for a long moment. Violet nearly fainted; Harry felt her sway alarmingly next to him.
In the mirror was a crowd of people. A red hair woman was smiling down at him. Next o her was a man with glasses whose hair stuck up in the back just like Harry's. Behind them was a multitude of other people. One man had Harry's knobby knees. A woman was his height. A man had Violet's broad shoulders. A woman behind the red haired woman that looked very similar to Violet, but with brown hair.
They looked behind them, but could see no one in the room but themselves. They turned back and still saw the crowd.
"Mum? Dad?" Violet asked in a near whisper. Harry realized she was crying, blue flames trailing down her cheeks, fading only when the tears landed on her magically fireproofed clothes. After a moment she commented, "You look just like Dad."
"You look just like Grandma Evans," Harry said, pointing at the older woman. He had seen her photo in his aunt's room. "Minus the hair, I mean."
"Maybe it shows what life would have been," Violet said. "Like an alternate reality."
She touched the mirror's surface. The reflection did not change.
"Ron has to see this."
They brought Ron, but he did not see his family or anyone else's family. Instead he saw himself as Quidditch Captain and Head Boy. The next night, Harry prepared to go back, but…
"Don't go, Harry," Ron said. "There's something odd about that mirror."
"I want to see my family again. Come on Violet."
Violet took a deep steadying breath.
"No."
He looked at his sister in surprise.
"Why not?"
She wore a pained expression as she looked at her brother.
"Because it won't bring them back. Seeing them smiling like that…" Her voice cracked. "It… it doesn't erase the memory…"
She couldn't say more, but she didn't need to. Harry knew she would likely always be haunted by the look on their mother's face when she was killed.
But Harry was not haunted by such memories. It was his lack of memories than made him long so deeply to see his parents and family again. If he couldn't see their faces now, when would he ever? He had no photos. No memories. Just the mirror.
And so he took his father's cloak and returned to the seventh floor. He slipped into the room, it's door still ajar, and went straight to the mirror as he pulled off the cloak. There were his parents, right where he'd left them. He had all night to look as much as he wanted.
"I'm back," he told their reflections as he sat in front of the mirror. "I'm sorry Violet isn't with me this time. But we've got all night."
"Back again, Harry?"
Harry spun around and his heart plummeted. Dumbledore sat on one of the desks in the back of the classroom. He had been caught out of bed and out of bounds, by the headmaster no less! He'd be expelled for sure!
But Dumbledore only slid off the desk and joined Harry on the floor in front of the mirror.
"I see that you, like so many before, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised. I trust by now you understand what it does."
Harry swallowed hard. Was he not in trouble then?
"It shows what we want," he said. "Whatever we want."
"Yes and no. It shows our deepest desire. When you and Violet stand before it, you see your family surrounding you, having them stripped away from you by Lord Voldemort. Your friend, Mr. Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, stands alone and the best of them all."
"So Violet was kind of right when she said it showed us the lives we could have had if they hadn't died."
"Seems like a sound conclusion, but one that only applies to the pair of you. But remember this. This mirror gives us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it. Even gone mad not knowing if what they see is real or even possible. That is why tomorrow I am having the mirror moved to another location. And I must ask that you do not seek it out again." He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
"Sir?" Harry asked. "What do you see?"
"I?" Dumbledore gazed into the mirror for a moment. "I see myself holding a pair of woolen socks."
"Socks?"
"Another Christmas has come and gone and I did not receive a single pair. People insist of giving me books."
It wasn't until he was climbing into bed that Harry realized Dumbledore may not have given him an honest answer. But then, it had been a very personal question.
