Christmas was upon hogwarts and children everywhere were getting packed up for a trip home to see their families. Harry came down that morning and draco was sitting by the tree. "What are you doing down there draco?" Harry asked. "You'll miss the train."
"Being nosy." He replies. "I have a little time. Here is one for you." He says pushing it aside. "It's light, probably a sweater."
"Wait... are you sure it's for me? He asks, stepping over to the box. "I never get any presents."
Draco stops and stares at harry. "Never?"
Harry shakes his head. He picks up the box and reads the card. "It is for me." He can't contain his excitement as he rips the box open. He pulls a long cloak from the box and looks at it.
"It's kind of ugly." Draco mumbles.
Harry shrugs. "But I bet it's warm." He flips it over his shoulders and his body disappears. "Oh my merlin!! I have disappeared?!" Harry replies.
"An invisibility cloak?!? Wow that is cool!" Draco stands up from the floor. "Can I see it?"
Harry nods and hands it to draco. "Sure." Seeing it in action he realized just how cool it was. He saw a small note in the box and when he read the note he found out the cloak had once belonged to his father. "My dad had this?" He wondered.
"Hey! Potter! I'm a haunted lantern!" Draco says holding up a lantern outside the cloak.
Harry laughs. "Yeah."
Draco replaces the lantern and gives harry his gift back. "Man I never get anything this cool."
"Sorry." Harry chuckles. "Maybe next year."
Draco chuckles. "Well nothing looked interesting so I guess I will go get my suitcase." He mumbles heading for the stairs.
He returns a few minutes later with his suitcase followed by a few other students with faith trailing in the back of the bunch. All of them were hauling big suitcases. Draco walked over to harry as the other kids left the commons area to catch the train. "I'll see ya in a few days. Try not to have too much fun without me."
"As if I could." Harry replies. "I will make sure I keep note of anything interesting that happens while you're gone."
"Come on malfoy! we'll miss the train?!" Faith says from the exit.
Draco nods. "Gotta dash." He runs after faith and the door slips shut behind them.
Harry looks around. It's kind of weirdly quiet without any people. Most have gone home for the holiday. He frowns to himself. "I'm already bored."
A few minutes later harry is flipping his new cloak over his arm and then off and then back on watching his arm disappear. He has switched over to seeing if it works on furniture when a voice clears behind him. He turns and sees pansey standing behind him. "Oh. I don't think we've had a moment to talk." He says.
Pansey kind of glances away. "You should be careful about faith."
"What?" He questions.
"She always mentioned she was a little jealous at how easy draco was able to make friends. She talked about him alot. I think she went back to him to try to make me jealous."
Harry thinks about it for a moment. "Well are you?"
Pansey turns a bit red. "No i... I'm not even sort of jealous!?! Not at all!" She blurts out. "I just... i just wanted to warn you..."
Harry nods. "Warn me."
Pansy sighs. "We fought a few weeks ago. I realized she has a darkside that is very scary. Just... be careful ok?"
Harry nods. "Thank you for your warning."
She nods toward Harry then realizes another friend of hers was coming downstairs. The new girl steps over to them.
"Hey." Pansey smiles.
The new girl looks at harry. "I'm sorry if I am interrupting."
"Not at all." Harry replies.
"Harry." The girl says. "We never had the chance before but we would just like to say. You were very brave to help Hermione that night with the troll."
"You heard about that?" Harry mumbles kind of embarrassed.
"It was brave, but stupid." She replies. "We are just glad you made it out ok."
"Well... thanks i guess." Harry says.
The two girls giggle to themselves and walk away.
Harry looks back at his cloak. "Tonight. Restricted section. You're going to help me find information about Nicholas Flammel."
With faith and draco, along with over half of Slytherin, gone for the holidays Harry decided to walk the halls. He might not have any friends outside his house but he could still enjoy the school.
First on his list was the magical moving staircase. He spent a good long while scaling the ever changing staircase. Every time he ended up somewhere different.
After about 2 hours he ended up in front of the gryffindor common room. He starts to go down the steps as the portrait swings open. It was ron.
"What are you doing up here?" Ron asks.
"Stairs." Harry remarks. "I was riding the stairs." He looks a bit embarrassed.
"They move all the time." Ron says confused. "Why are you playing on them?"
"Our common room is in the dungeons." Harry replies. "I don't get many chances to come this way."
Ron shrugs. "Ok whatever." He climbs on the stairs with Harry and it begins to move. "By the way." He says, turning to harry. "I'm not going to apologize but, Hermione told me you and malfoy saved her from the troll. As much as I hate to admit it we are grateful."
Harry nods. "Well thanks I suppose." He shrugs. "But if you really care about her you should probably not make fun of her."
Ron shrugs. "Yeah probably."
The two walk towards the great hall.
"So why didn't you go home for the holidays?" Harry asks.
Ron shrugs. "We all stayed. My brothers i mean. Why did you stay?"
Harry sighs. "Well I wasn't terribly anxious to go back to my cupboard under the stairs."
Ron pauses for a moment. "Under what?"
"My aunt and uncle put a mattress in the broom closet under the stairs. They lock me in sometimes too." Harry replies.
"That's gotta be child abuse." Ron mumbles. "Have you ever reported that?"
Harry shrugs. "Not really."
Ron shrugs and the two enter the great hall. Inside sitting around the table was all of ron's school aged brothers. "Fred, George.' Ron starts.
"Well if it isn't little rony." Fred says.
"Who you got there?" George says
"Oh yeah I forgot." Ron says motioning toward harry. "This is Harry potter. We met on the train."
"Oh right!" fred says.
"Wait aren't you in slytherin?" George asks.
"I am." Harry nods. "But that doesn't mean i'm unreasonable. I know our houses don't really get along but I wouldn't like that to come between us. We could still be friends."
The Weasley siblings all exchange a sort of confused look.
Harry looks at ron. "It is possible isn't it?"
Ron nods. "Well you did save Hermione." he shrugs. "I don't see a reason why we couldn't."
The twins chuckle. "Well any friend to Ron is a friend to us for sure." they say at the same time.
Harry looks around the mostly empty hall. "Would it be alright if i sat with you? Everyone I know seems to have gone home."
Percy shrugs. "I don't see why not."
Fred pulls out a wizard's chess and plays against George. After their game, which they decide to end in a draw, Percy plays against Ron and Ron wins. After that Ron turns to Harry, who was at this time eating and talking to Fred about the common rooms. "Hey harry, would you care to play a round?"
Harry picks up the offer and swaps seats with Percy so he could sit across from Ron. The two play a very heated round of chess which ends in Ron winning by one move which Harry had not anticipated.
"Wow I thought you had me for a second there." ron chuckles. "You're pretty good at this for somebody raised by muggles."
Harry explains that his uncle and aunt seemed to despise magic and himself. He explained that they locked him up under the stairs and made him do almost if not all of the cooking and cleaning. All the while praising and spoiling their son, Dudley, who was nothing more than a brat.
Ron and his brothers listen to the story in shock. They had no idea muggles could be so cruel.
"And the worst of it was when I found out they had been lying to me all along. They knew I could be magical but they never told me." Harry ends his story. "If Hagrid had not come when he did I never would have heard of hogwarts or magic."
"Bloody hell." ron mumbles. "Makes our little family look like saints."
"Mom might get a bit angry but she'd never do anything like that." Fred says.
"So then after the school year are you planning to return to them?" George asks.
"I wish I didn't have too." Harry admitted.
-meanwhile- at malfoy manor
Draco had just arrived home with his father from the train station. Lucius uses magic to float the suitcase inside and set it near the couch where he then has Dobby take it upstairs.
"My precious son!" Narcissa cheers as she enters the room wrapping draco in a tight hug.
"Mom I can't breathe!" draco gasps.
"Sorry dear." she sighs and lets him go.
"I've only been gone a few months." he mumbles brushing the wrinkles out of his robes.
"Feels like eternity." she says. "How are things at school?"
Draco shrugs. "Not bad honestly."
"Not fighting anymore troll are you?" she replies, kind of frowning.
"It was one time mom I swear." he huffs. "Besides we ended up receiving house points and got in a favor owed by granger. It was mostly a win win."
Lucius steps up next to them. "I'm sure it won't happen again." he mumbles. "Boy, tell you're mother about your new friends."
Draco nods. "Well um... harry potter." he starts.
"HARRY POTTER!? really?!" she says baffled. "Are you joking?"
"I wrote to you." draco replies. "Did you not get the owl?"
"Yes but we thought you were joking." his mother replies with a hand on her hip. "So you really are friends with harry?"
"Is it wise for him to be entertaining the idea of a friendship with mister potter?" lucius says.
Draco's mother shrugs. "Honestly hard to say at this point."
Draco raises his arm slightly. "I will say this. He has gotten us into some trouble but we have been able to handle it." he puts his arm back down to his side as he realizes his father seemed to not approve that he had raised it. "I also reconnected with faith not that long ago."
At this his mother smiles. "Oh good things with the Spiritwalkers have been a bit tense since you two got in a disagreement. It will be nice to start up a book club again." a teapot whistles in the other room and she runs off to go fetch it.
Lucius grumbles. "How I despise the book club."
Draco shrugs. "You think I enjoy it any better? Mom is always on about how the heroes can't die and what not. Absolutely makes me want to vomit." he grumbles. "But it's good to see her happy I guess."
"Indeed." Lucius nods in agreement.
Draco looks at his dad. "Speaking of Harry, dad." he mumbles. "I mean to ask you something."
"What is it draco?" he asks, turning toward the kitchen. His mind had already left the conversation.
"Would it be possible for Harry to live here?" draco asks.
His father turns slightly eyebrow cocked. "What the devil are you talking about?"
"Harry lives with muggles." draco starts.
"His family." lucius replies. "Even if they are wretched."
"They treat him like scum... worse than scum!" draco says. "They lock him up under stairs and make him perform chores like a common house elf. It's cruel."
Lucius frowns. "Not really my problem."
"They hate magic. They didn't even tell him his parents died." draco says getting quiet. "He never heard about magic till arriving at school."
"Does his state of affairs really bother you that much?" his father asks.
Draco stays silent for a moment then he looks away. "I just worry what they might do to him if he went back there. They can't stand magic, what if they forbid his return to school, or lock him up in the cabinet and don't feed him until he starves to death."
Lucius thinks for a moment, still curious. "If it bothers you son I will see what I can come up with."
Draco nods. "Thanks I guess."
-meanwhile- at hogwarts
Harry is having a right lovely time with the weasleys. He joined them for supper and had a good laugh at Fred and George telling an old story they had probably heard a hundred times. As it got to be late they all went off to bed until only ron was left.
Ron stood up from the table and smirked. "Happy Christmas." he says as he walks away.
"Happy christmas to as well ron." Harry replies.
"Potter. Making new friends I see." Snape says, having snuck up behind harry.
Harry turns to snape. "You startled me professor."
"Never mind that harry." he glances around. "I realize you are quite alone, for the next week or so, and while it may be inappropriate to assign you work while you are technically on vacation." he hands Harry a notebook. "Your studies could use some work. I have taken the liberty of writing down key notes with my enchanted quill. These are some good study tips. Please try to read them if you have a moment." He says this all in his regular monotone voice and briskly strolls away after speaking.
Harry looks after him confused and then at the notebook. "Did he just give me homework?" He opens the book and skims the text. It was well written, easy to read notes for potions and charms classes for first years. He looks at it curiously. "So it isn't homework it's just study material." he flips back to the front page and finds a note.
"You and your friends need to get up your grades. I will not tolerate sloppy work from my slytherin students."
Harry kinds of laughs. "That sounds like something Snape would say. It might be a bit disappointing that Hermione always seems to know the answer to everything while nobody else ever bothered to raise their hands." he takes his stuff back to the common room and goes to bed. He waits laying in his bed in his night clothes. The Prefect was gone home for the holidays so nobody came in to make sure the lights were out. There were only three slytherin boys left at school but none were first years so he was alone.
Harry pulled his cloak on and snuck out of the room. He found his way to the library. it was dark but at least he had brought a lantern. He snuck into the restricted section with his light and followed the clues off of the card faith had given him. He managed to find a book there that must have been what faith had been talking about.
"Myths and stories?" Harry questions. "This looks more like a fairy tail than a factual book." he skims the pages and finds nothing. He checks the index and finds the name he had been searching for. Nicholas flammel.
Harry is reading the small section in the book about the sorcerer's stone and the magical properties it is said to hold when he hears filch's cat meow nearby. He looks around at first startled thinking he might have been caught but realizes he is still alone. He turns to grab the lantern to put out the light but accidentally knocks it onto the floor.
"Who's there!?" Filch calls.
Harry abandons the light and throws on his cloak. He runs out of the room sneaking past filch who had gone to check the restricted section after he noticed the gate was open.
Harry runs down the hall and almost runs straight into Snape and Quirrell who appeared to be arguing. Filch appeared after only a moment and summoned the two professors on a wild goose chase.
Harry knew he must get back to the common room but he also knew he needed to hide for a little while until they stopped looking for him. He ducked through a nearby door.
Inside he thought it wise to leave his cloak on as he stepped into the room. He walked up to what appeared to be a mirror. Harry uncovered himself for a better view of the mirror. As soon has the cloak was dropped Harry saw his reflection and standing next to him in it was his mother and father. He had only ever seen them in pictures but he knew immediately who they were just from a glance.
He looked around and was saddened to realize they weren't real. He sighs and watches the reflection. "If only they were alive. Then I wouldn't have to live with my aunt and uncle." he wants to show draco the mirror but draco is gone for the holidays. Instead Harry spends days returning to the mirror watching the reflection of his parents.