CHRISTMAS AT HOGWARTS was fantastical. For once in Lily and Harry Potter's lives, they found themselves excited for Christmas time. It had come so quickly that even Lily, who had drowned herself in schoolwork, was appalled by how the time had passed. It seemed like it was just yesterday that Lily had found out about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and now she was going to be celebrating Christmas with people close enough to call family. Lily had only ever received old socks and shirts that were too small for Mike and Mitchell, the Denver children, as they were too stalky. Harry, unfortunately, faced the same thing on Christmas every year.
"It's sad to say that you were quite lucky." grumbled Harry as he competed with Ron in Wizard Chess. "I've only ever gotten Uncle Vernon's old socks."
They were seated in the Great Hall, which was decorated with dozens of Christmas trees and hanging from their many branches were colorful ornaments and tinsel. The sky, as it was nearing nighttime, resembled the twilight sky, speckled with tiny white stars. Hermione Granger walked down the aisle of the Gryffindor house table dragging a suitcase behind her. She would be returning home for the holidays to celebrate and spend time with her parents.
Hermione watched Ron as he contemplated his next move on the chess board, "Queen to E-5."
And as he commanded, the Queen chess piece glided accordingly across the board and smashed Harry's knight into bits.
Hermione blanched, "That's totally barbaric!"
"That's wizard's chess." Ron smiled pridefully. Seeing as he was going to win, he turned towards her as Harry contemplated his next move. "I see you've packed."
"I see you haven't."
"Change of plans." shrugged Ron, "My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother, Charlie. He's studying dragons there."
It required another explanation from Fred and George, but she soon figured out their were seven Weasley children. Bill and Charlie were the eldest sons who had already graduated from Hogwarts. Percy followed as the third eldest, and then the twins, with Fred being only two minutes older than George. Ron was the second youngest and their only sister, Ginevra, was the youngest as she was a year younger than Ron. Lily loved that they had such a big and happy family; despite some of them being distanced from each other.
"Good." she replied, "You can help Harry and Lily, then. They're going to go the library for information on Nicholas Flamel."
Ron huffed, "We've looked a hundred times!"
"Not in the Restricted Section." she replied knowledgeably. The other three all glanced at each other and she then said, "Happy Christmas. I'll write to you, Lily."
With one last smile and nod from Lily, Hermione turned and began walking down the aisle to exit the Great Hall. After she had gone, Lily returned her attention to the two boys as they resumed their game of chess.
"You know," Ron began as he put Harry's king into check, "I think we've had a bad influence on her."
Harry's king piece was smashed to bits by Ron's queen, whilst Ron's king remained in his original spot, safe and sound with pawns and two rook pieces around it. Ron was quite good at the game; Lily thought that if he were to bet money on his winning a game, Ron would make a small fortune off of of it.
He was that good.
But Lily did not mention it for the mere fact that Ron and the rest of the Weasley clan did not like to speak about their lack of money. Harry and Lily felt almost guilty that they had a vault full of gold while the Weasleys scraped for their own money. Instead of voicing her idea, Lily chuckled along with Harry. Ron, feeling content, challenged Harry to another game.
The Potter boy declined.
---
Only a few hours later, everyone returned to their respective common rooms after the Christmas Eve feast, contently full. Lily Potter finished delivering the last of the presents she had gotten for her friends just as the last of the students exited the Great Hall. She strolled down the corridor, folding the empty bag which she had used to carry the gifts.
Lily had gotten simple but thoughtful gifts for her friends: A Witch's Guide to Perfect Brews book for Hermione; a Chudley Cannon's quilt for Ron-- after his favorite Quidditch team; a new dozen-fold-compartment trunk for Fred and George to hold their products; a Herbology Extended book for Neville; and for Harry, a framed animate-photograph of the two of them just after winning their first Quidditch match. Aside from her friends, Lily had gotten a glass owl figurine for Professor McGonagall, a pouch of lemon drops for Headmaster Dumbledore and the last present she had delivered was for Professor Snape: a new crystalline set of potion phials and flasks. Lily was most proud of his gift; while it was indeed the most costly, the set was very beautiful. She had packed them carefully into a box and sealed it, adding the finally touches with a white lily placed on top. She found the gesture very ironic for her name which was why she had used it in the first place.
As she strolled away from the closed door to his office after placing his gift on the floor in front of it, Professor Severus Snape rounded the corner as he had come from the Great Hall himself. Upon seeing her alone in the desolate corridor, his knitted his eyebrows together and called out to her. There was clearly suspicion laced in his cold voice as he spoke
"Miss Potter, what are you doing?"
"Just delivering the last of my Christmas presents, Professor." and with a smile, "Happy Christmas."
She continued on her way and when she had rounded the next corner in pursuit of the Gryffindor common room many floors up, Professor Snape eyed the wrapped gift box. He bent down, retrieved it and upon lifting it, he could hear the soft clinking of glass and crystal. The corners of his mouth twitches upwards as he unlocked the door to his office and entered; thinking all the while about how extraordinary the Potter girl was, despite her witty cheek.
It was the first gift he had received in a very long time.
Lily returned to the Gryffindor common room a little while later, owing her lost time to the many tricky twists and turns of the Hogwarts castle. Despite the already warm colors present in the common room, owing to the red and golden theme, there were hints of Christmas all around with tinsel lining the walls and mistletoe growing spontaneously from the ceiling. A large Christmas tree, standing at about twelve feet in height, stood towards the fireplace. The students had decorated it themselves. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley sat in front of the fireplace, dressed in their pajamas as her brother watched Ron play a game of Exploding Snap -- cards that could explode at any moment. Ron spotted Lily as she entered but before his invitation could leave his lips, the top cards of his stacked house exploded, singeing his eyebrows.
"Oi, Lily!" began Harry, "Want to join? I think Ron could use some of your help with his eyebrows, though."
At his words, Ron grew wide-eyed and jumped up, running to the nearest mirror.
"Sorry," she chuckled, "I have to go do something. But I'll be back down later, alright?"
When Ron shouted out in horror upon seeing his half-shaped eyebrows, Lily slipped away and made it to her dormitory.
Lily smiled at her, plopped down onto her own bed and opened the top drawer to her nightstand, pulling out a leather bound book. She grabbed her quill and ink bottle from atop the nightstand, flipped through the pages and upon finding a blank one; began to write. As another explosion was heard below -- which caused her to wonder whether Ron or Seamus Finnigan was behind it -- the girl allowed her quill to glide smoothly across the page.
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It was official.
Harry and Lily Potter had spent their first Christmas as Hogwarts together and that alone was enough to make them ecstatic. Harry was not even at all bother by being woken up at the crack of dawn by an excited Ron, who was smiling from ear to ear with rosy cheeks.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!" he exclaimed, "We've got presents!"
Harry awoke suddenly with a yawn and scrambled for his glasses on the nightstand beside him. When his vision focused and he brushed his disheveled dark hair from his face, he only saw Ron racing right back out of the room again. Across from him, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom remained fast asleep, entirely unaffected by Ron's loud exclamation of excitement. He climbed out of bed and put on his navy robe, covering his blue and white pin-striped pajamas. Harry could not help but grin himself as he exited their dormitory and made his way down to the common room where there were surely a load of presents beneath the tree.
And indeed, there were.
Harry looked down over the interior balcony onto the rest of the common room below, where Ron and Lily sat opening present of their own. The mountains of wrapped presents around the Christmas tree did not compar to the presents in front of them, but they were happy about them all the same. Ron elbowed Lily upon seeing his best friend.
"Happy Christmas, Harry." smiled Ron.
"Happy Christmas, big brother."
"Happy Christmas!" the boy descended the stairs and looked at the pile of presents Lily had sorted for him, but he was caught off guard when he saw Ron's new sweater. "What are you wearing?"
It was a maroon-colored knitted sweater, with a yellow 'R' on it for the initial of his first name. He smiled sheepishly, "Oh, Mum made it for me. Looks like you and Lily have got them, to." He gestured to two similarly sized presents wrapped in brown
Ron sat on the arm of a nearby sofa and began to eat from a box of popcorn-flavored jelly beans. He watched his two friends open their presents with curiosity. The expressions of pure happiness on their faces caused Ron to momentarily second-guess his family's money misfortune. Harry and Lily did indeed inherit a considerable amount of money from their parents, but they had never experienced happier moments in life. They had not known of each other until months ago, they never had a happy Christmas before and they had never received a decent present. While Ron had six siblings and money was exiguous, his family knew what it was like to have each other, to have a happy Christmas. In a way, they were richer than most.
Harry received a tray of fudge and a dark blue sweater with the initial of his first name from Mrs. Weasley, while Lily received the same except her sweater was light blue. After they both had put them on, Lily moved the to rest of her gifts: a Broom-Maintenance Kit from Hermione; a perch Ron had transfigured from a stick for her owl; a stationary from Neville. Lily opened the smallest one last; it was a small box wrapped in gold paper. She finally opened the small black box, a pristine silver ring gleamed up at her.
"Whoa." gaped Ron, "Who sent you that?"
Lily took out a small piece of parchment folded into the top of the box lid and read the note written on it.
She frowned and handed the parchment to Harry, "There's no name signed."
As he read it, Lily took the ring out of the box and appraised the authenticity and beauty of it. Despite it being just a silver, with no inscription, Lily fell in love with it and slid it onto her right ring finger.
"It's nice." remarked Harry as he handed the note back to her. She tucked it back into the box and placed it in the pocket of her pajama pants.
Ron looked at Harry, "Go on, Harry, open yours now."
Harry grabbed his medium-sized present from the floor, ripped the wrapping paper off and read a note written onto a piece of parchment. It seemed as though they had both received gifts from unknown senders.
"What is with these mysterious notes?" queried Lily, frowning down at the ring as she fiddled with it on her finger. She looked back at Harry as he pulled out a garment of some sort.
"What is it?" questioned Ron as he shoved his mouth full of jelly beans. Lily cringed.
"Some kind of cloak...." responded Harry as he unfolded it and examined it.
"Well, let's see then. Put it on." Harry drew the cloak on over his shoulder and much to their surprise, his entire body seemed to vanish into thin air apart from his head.
"Whoa!"
"My body's gone!" exclaimed Harry, who's head appeared to spin and he turn around.
"I know what that is!" Ron hopped down from his seat, gaping, "That's an invisibility cloak, that is!"
"I'm invisible?"
"They're really rare." Ron furrowed his eyebrows, "I wonder who gave it to you."
Harry handed him the note, "There was no name. It just said, 'Use it well.'"
"My note just says 'keep it safe. Use it wisely.'" Lily spoke up at last, "Do you think they were given to us by the same person?"
Harry and Eon looked up suddenly at the sound of he voice and look about the common room, straight past Lily with confused expressions.
"Lily,....where are you exactly?" asked the Potter boy.
"What're you two on about? I'm standing right next to you."
"No you're not." he insisted. She rolled her eyes and decided to prove herself true by smacking him upside the head. After he let out an "OW!", Ron approached her with widened eyes and reached out blindly towards her until he touched her upper arm.
"Lily, is that you?" he gulped.
"You really can't see me?" she began to grin, "I'm invisible, too?"
"This is awesome!" exclaimed Harry as he let Ron have a go at wearing the Cloak. Lily looked down at her ring again and furrowed her eyebrows. What had made her trigger the Invisibility enchantment? She fiddled with it again and realization struck her; when she turned it on her finger, it made her invisible. So in the opposite direction....and she was visible to the plain eye again.
"This is great!" smirked Ron. He had the same glint in his eyes as Hermione did just before she left for vacation, "Now you two can sneak into the Restricted Section of the library."
"Nicolas Flamel, here we come." Harry grinned down at the Cloak.
Lily, however, could not avert her mind from the ring and the vague note left behind with it. Who had sent it to her and how did they know her mother? While she knew not who the mysterious individual was, she was thankful that they cared enough to give the ring to her. As she stared down at the silver band, only one though her came to mind: maybe more people cared about Harry and herself after all.
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In the late hours of the next night, Harry Potter stood by the entrance door to the common room, awaiting his sister. It must have been around midnight and the common room was dark, the fire had long since burned out. Draped on his arm was his oddly-patterned Invisibility Cloak which called out to him, just yearning to be used. As Harry heard footsteps descending the stairs, draped the cloak over his head and edged quietly to the archway where Lily emerged, wearing a tank top and leggings. She paused at the base of the stairs and narrowed her eyes in the darkness, looking for Harry. And just as she moved forward...
"AAAHHHH!" Harry shouted. Lily shrieked and swung in the first direction she could. She narrowly missed Harry as he ducked and threw off his cloak.
"Blimey, Lily!" Harry huffed.
"Don't do that!" Lily hissed quietly. Now he knew not to sneak up on his sister.
"Sorry! Sorry." he held his hands up in surrender. After she glared at him, he changed the subject, "I can't believe we're actually doing this."
"Hermione thinks we'll find information about Nicholas Flamel in the restricted section." Lily shrugged, "Besides, I think it's kind of exciting,...you know...sneaking out and about the castle."
"Yeah, well, I think we've been too much of a bad influence on Hermione." he chuckled. Lily agreed.
Harry draped his Cloak over himself again and instantly, he disappeared from sight. Lily turned her ring over three whole turns until she, too, was rendered invisible. After stumbling into each other a few times on the way to the door, Harry managed to get it open and she followed him out. They made their way down many corridors, making many twists and turns until they reached the ground level of the castle. The light from an oil lantern lit their way, held by Harry as his wrist and hand were the only parts of his body that were visible.
They soon reached the library and much to their luck, met no teachers or even Peeves the Poltergeist along the way. With a quick unlocking charm, they opened one of the doors to the library and entered. The Restricted Section was closed off by a rope but to their surprise, their were no other magical enchantments to keep people out. This section of the library was limited to only seventh year students, as they were of age, unless students of younger years were given official permission from a Hogwarts professor.
That was why they had to sneak into it.
The twins made themselves visible again and began to stroll down opposite aisles, skimming over the covers of the many books stack on shelves many feet high. The books varied in size and age; some had worn leather covers whereas others had brand new cardboard-buckram covers. After looking through an entire aisle and moving onto the next, Lily was growing frustrated.
"See anything?"
She rolled her eyes, "If I did, you would know."
"Famous Fire Eaters,...Fifteenth Century Fiends,...." muttered Harry as he brushed the tips of his fingers over the spines of the books, "Flamel...Nicholas Flamel...where are you?"
Out of blatantly stupid curiosity, Harry pulled a thick book from its shelf and opened it. As if made out of the pages, a man's face appeared and instantly, its hollowed mouth let out a chilling scream.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
"Harry!" berated Lily, but her voice was mute compared to the ghastly book. Struggling underneath it's weight, Harry quickly shut the book and shoved it back onto the shelf, but the damage was done. Quick and heavy footsteps slapped against the floor in the corridor just outside of the library and Caretaker Argus Flich's screechy voice shouted out,
"Who's there?!"
Lily let slip a series of profanities as Harry whipped around and grabbed his Invisibility Cloak. The oil lamp which he had rested right atop it crashed to the floor. The light burned out and the glass door shattered. As he drew it over him, the doors to the library creaked open and Filch spoke again, this time in a menacingly low voice.
"I know you're in there." he was advancing on them now and the twins had no other choice than to remain as still as possible. His ugly face appeared from around the corner. "You can't hide."
As the man's gaze fell upon the broken oil lamp, he edged towards it and grabbed it. Harry and Lily, both deciding that he was a substantial distance away, broke out into a run in the opposite direction. He stood upright and whipped his head around in their direction, "Who is it? Show yourself!" but they were long gone.
After veering around every corner and weaving through the aisles, they reached the entrance doors to the library and slipped out. They had only begun to catch their breaths while walking at a slower pace when they spotted Professors Snape and Quirrell conversing heatedly just outside the main corridor, which looked out onto the main courtyard. They grew close enough to overhear their conversation just as Snape, in his anger, shoved Quirrell into a stone column, gripping his robes in balled fists.
"Severus...I-I thought..." stuttered Quirrell.
"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." snarled Snape, his dark eyes giving the man a penetrating stare.
"W-what do you m-mean?"
"You know perfectly well what I mean--" and then he paused, sensing something unusual. Lily slowly backed away but Snape did not turn in her direction. Instead, he reached out beside him and Harry's breath hitched in his throats as his fingers were merely inches from his face. As quickly as he had been distracted, Snape veered on Quirrell again. "We'll have another chat soon...when you've had time to decide where your loyalties truly lie."
Before Professor Quirrell could stutter a reply, Argus Filch appeared again, this time out of breath as he clutched the broken lmao in one hand and his cat, Mrs. Norris, under his other arm. "Oh, Professors. I found this, in the Restricted Section. It's still hot."
"That means there's a student out of bed." scowled Snape. All three men darted off in different directions with the intentions of finding the students out of bed, and ironically enough, as they rushed on, they grew farther and farther from the culprits.
"That was close." sighed Harry, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"What now?" Not only had they failed in finding any information in the restricted section regarding Nicholas Flamel, but they had almost gotten caught in the process. And the night was not over yet.
Shortly after Lily spoke, a large wooden door a few yards away from them creaked open as if inviting them in. This time, Lily let her curiosity get the best of her and slipped inside of the room with a reluctant Harry on her heels. It was a nicely sized room -- probably once a classroom-- with wooden shutters closed over large windows. Wooden desks were stacked atop each other and pushed to the back of the room so that the only thing that was present in the spacious cold room was a peculiar mirror. The large reflective glass was framed with gold and an anagrammatic phrase was engraved in it.
The twins approached it and gazed curiously into it; how odd it was that a mirror was placed so conspicuously in the center of the room. Before they had the urge to look away, seeing as there were no magical qualities about it, two silhouettes appeared behind them, slowly approaching. Harry whipped around nervously, afraid that they had been caught, but no one was there.
They were in the mirror.
The two silhouettes paused behind Harry and Lily's reflections and their features became quite clear. The first was a man,m who stood behind Harry and it was as if he could have been Harry himself, only twice as old. He had the same dark shaggy hair as Harry, with light brown eyes and round glasses that bespectacled his face. He was James Potter.
The other figure was a woman and as she stood behind Lily's reflection, she smiled warmly sadly. Lily thought she was beautiful; they shared the same red-auburn hair and bright green eyes -- Harry had her green eyes. She was Lily Evans-Potter. She placed her hands on their shoulders and James Potter wore a prideful, but sad, smile on his face.
"Mum?" Lily's voice fell from her lips in barely a whisper. The woman nodded.
"Dad?" Harry's voice cracked and James Potter nodded, offering them another smile.
Harry reached to feel his shoulder, longing to feel their mother's touch, but was disappointed as he only felt the material of his knitted sweater. A frowned splayed across his lips as he stared at his hand in the mirror, which appeared to be on top of hers....if only. Lily remained still as she gazed into the mirror longingly, she did not dare look behind her or reach to touch her mother or father for fear of proving this all as imaginary. She had never seen what her parents looked like before, she had never gotten to see where she came from and now that she had, she didn't want it. She didn't want to be reminded that her parents were long dead, for their faces would haunt her....they would remind her of what could have been. Tragedy is the only difference between what is and what could have been....it was a great tragedy that left Harry and Lily Potter parentless, a tragedy that caused them to be separated for ten years.
And while Lily gazed into her mother's eyes, she knew that the beautiful woman was only a mirage. Her eyes, however kind, did not show the depths of the lively soul Lily-Evans Potter once possessed. But despite this, she would always remember this scene; she would always remember the family they could have been, the family they should have been.
"We've got to show Ron." Harry voice arose in volume, as if Lily was surfacing water.
"W-What?"
"We've got to show Ron!" It was clear to Lily that her brother interpreted the mirror differently than she...or maybe he knew exactly what it did but his blind hope refused to accept it.
"Oh...yeah, sure."
He grabbed his Cloak from the floor and as he began to place it over himself, he watched her return her gaze to the mirror. "Aren't you coming?"
"I'll wait here."
When Harry left for Gryffindor tower on his own and the minutes seemed to pass like water drips through an unclenched hand, she found herself becoming attached to the dream displayed so realistically in the mirror. She found a hatred for magic, somehow, as it was causing all of this misery she had never felt before. Magic took the lives of her parents away on that Halloween night in 1981 and this magic now mocked her with a mirage of a different life, a happier life.
"Lily?" a soft voice, a feminine voice, spoke up amid the silence, "Lily Potter?"
It was Minerva McGonagall. Sudden feelings of fear and dread rushed through Lily as she realized she had been caught in the castle past curfew. "Professor McGonagall....I--....I won't lie, Professor. I was wandering about, but then I came across this...."
She gestured to the mirror and then turned back towards Professor McGonagall, but instead of seeing an expression of anger or disappointment on her face, she saw pity and melancholy.
"When you gaze into this mirror," she approached her, "What do you see?"
"My parents...."
"That would make sense." nodded McGonagall with the same frown.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand..."
"This is the Mirror of Erised. It is an ancient, ornate mirror, and as you can see, it's inscribed with a peculiar phrase." she explained. "This mirror shows the most desperate desire of a person's heart; a vision that has been known to drive men mad."
"I see. 'Erised'..." Lily paused, gazing at the lettering, "It's 'Desire' spelled backwards. This is an anagram."
"Yes, if the letters were to be rearranged, it would say 'I show not your face, but your heart's desire.'" McGonagall continued, "The happiest man or woman could look into this mirror and see a reflection of themselves exactly as they were."
"I suppose that would not be myself, then."
"Or your brother." she said as a matter-of-fact, "But that is not a bad thing, Lily. It shows you are human."
"Thank you, Professor." her emotional burdens were only slightly lifted.
"You'd best be getting back to the common room, now." said the woman, "It'll be morning soon enough."
With a silent nod, Lily walked towards the door and slipped out of the room. Professor McGonagall watched after her and frowned, thinking only of how sad it was that such a sweet young girl could suffer a such a fate as losing her parents. Oh yes, she remembered the Potters even before Lily Evans and James Potter first met.
And seeing their children now was like being thrown back twenty years.
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Two days time later, Lily Potter found herself standing beside Harry as he gazed into the Mirror of Erised. She had not told her brother of her run-in with McGonagall or of the things she had told her about the enchanted mirror. However, she did try to persuade Harry not to return again out of fear that he would become drunk on the idea of a happy life with their parents.
"Back again, Harry, Lily?" the aged voice of Albus Dumbledore questioned them as he approached from behind them.
Lily knew that they were definitely going to be in trouble this time. They turned around and watched as the tall man gazed down at them through half-moon spectacles.
"I see that you two, like so many before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised. I trust by now you realize what it does." he looked specifically at Lily, who nodded, while Harry remained dumbfounded. "Let me give you a clue. The happiest man on earth would look into the mirror and see only himself, exactly as he is."
"So, then it shows us what we want?" guessed Harry, "Whatever we want?"
"Yes...and no." he nodded, "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts. Now you two, who have never known your family, see them standing beside you." They frowned at the man. "But remember this, Harry, Lily. This mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away in front of it, even gone mad. That is why tomorrow it will be moved to a new home, and I must ask you not to go looking for it again."
Lily nodded obligingly but Harry, who was not yet ready to accept the fact that the mirage was just that, a mirage, glanced longingly back at it.
"And when you recall what you see in this mirror and wish for it terribly, remember only this,..." he continued, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
And those wise words were the first of many that Albus Dumbledore gave to the young Potters.
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The lengthy winter break soon ended and the students returned to Hogwarts by means of the Hogwarts Express. The winter frost and hanging icicles had begun to melt, leaving puddles in their wake. Lily Potter deliberately stomped through them wearing a pair of green rain boots she stole from a particularly snobbish Slytherin girl, Pansy Parkinson. By the time someone realized a Gryffindor was wearing boots of the Slytherin colors, she would already have returned them, muddy and all. She zipped up her coat as she waited for Hermione on the platform. She moved every so often as friends ran to meet and greet each other, squealing as though they had not seen each other for months. Lily cupped her hands over her mouth and blew on them to warm them up as the minutes passed. At last, she spotted Hermione's bushy brown hair as she passed through a group of Ravenclaw girls.
"'Mione!"
Hermione looked in Lily's general direction and upon spotting her auburn-haired best friend, a smile spread across her face and she carried her bags behind her as she made her way over to Lily. Lily took one of her trunks for her and they hugged.
"How was your Christmas?" queried the Potter girl.
"It was good." she nodded, "I'm just glad I get to eat candy again."
Hermione's parents were Muggles and both specialized as dentists. In fact, it was how they first met and both were very passionate about their line of work -- so much so that Hermione almost never had sweets of any sorts under their watch.
"Did you find any information on Nicolas Flamel?"
"Nope. But our vacation was quite eventful." Lily explained everything that happened from the moment Hermione left for the holidays; their mysterious Christmas gifts to their close call with Filch and even the Mirror of Erised. Hermione desired to question Lily a little more about the mystical looking glass as it had sparked her imagination, but when Lily began to respond with short answers, she stopped as she could tell it was a touchy topic for her. So instead,...
"I only left for two weeks and I missed so much!"
Lily chuckled in agreement as they were greeted by the warmth within the castle. The decorations had been taken down the day after New Years, replaced by the usual suits of armor and other adornments that decorated the halls and corridors of Hogwarts. Hermione smiled fondly at the familiarity surrounding her. As they reached the Hall of Stairs where they joined a group of Gryffindors on a moving staircase up to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione looked at Lily again.
"Where's Ron and Harry?"
"The library, if you can actually believe it."
So after Hermione settled down in their room again and finished unpacking, the two girls made their way down to the library. Harry and Ron were tucked away in a corner of the library to finish the remainder of their holiday homework before classes were to begin the following day. They greeted Hermione unenthusiastically as they were swamped in work, which Hermione berated them for, leaving them in worse moods than before. Lily joined them at the table while Hermione whisked off through the aisles like a kid in a candy store. Ever since Harry and Lily had run into Dumbledore while gazing into the Mirror of Erised, Harry became considerably more reserved and quiet. Lily figured he was thinking about the mirage of their parents and how real they seemed, he was longing for it to be real. While she knew this was what it was, she didn't dare bring it up in front of Ron, who saw his reflection holding the Quidditch house Cup as crowds cheered him on...he wouldn't have the slightest clue about how they felt...Lily was thrown from her thoughts when Hermione slammed a large leather-bound book on the table in front of them.
"I had you looking in the wrong section!" she scolded herself, "How could I be so stupid?" upon seeing their confusion, "I checked this out a few weeks ago for a bit of light reading."
"This is light?" Ron eyed the book resentfully, as if the mere sight of its size was an insult to him. Hermione gave him a sour look before she opened it and turned to a certain page. After a moment of skimming through it, her finger stopped on a specific place.
"Of course! Here it is!" she exclaimed, "'Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!'"
"The what?"
"Honestly, don't you two read?" she huffed exasperatedly, "'The Sorcerer's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It will turn any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.' "
"Immortal?" repeated Ron.
"It means you'll never die."
"I know what it means!"
"Shh!" Harry hushed him and glanced back at the front desk where the librarian, Madam Pince, sat brooding to herself.
Hermione continued to read, ignoring Ron's incessant mumbling, "'The only stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who last year celebrated his six-hundred-sixty-fifth birthday!'"
Realization struck Lily as Hermione's words registered with her. The three-headed dog must have been been guarding something important and what could have been more important or more valuable than a stone that could
"That's what Fluffy's guarding on the third floor!" she exclaimed quietly, "That's what's under the trapdoor: the Sorcerer's Stone!"
Their quest to discover who the dark wizard that intended to acquire the stone was would henceforth begin from that very day after their discovery in the Hogwarts library. And it was this quest, a noble one for such children indeed, that would guarantee a long-lived friendship between the four best-friends.