Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.
Ria found that the snow didn't bother her. It felt cold but not uncomfortable so. She could have tried and experimented with snow powers but she was too caught up to bother.
Every since Hagrid had let slip about Nicolas Flamel, the four of them had been spending all of their spares time in the library. Ria still went to the forest regularly to work on wind. McGonagall had strictly forbidden her to try anything more this year in case she went too far and couldn't control whatever element she was working with.
"Professor Dumbledore wants you to explore as much as you can", she said with a shadow of disapproval on her strict face. "But I think it is reasonable to take it slow. You have seven years at Hogwarts and five elements to deal with. We have enough time", she concluded.
Back to the topic of Nicolas Flamel, the trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time ; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.
Harry kept saying he'd read the name somewhere and so did Ria. But neither of them could remember where try came across it. Ria had even gone through the whole of Hogwarts a History, thinking she might have read it there.
When they left the last lesson before vacation, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.
"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.
"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."
"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose -- that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."
"How did you ever manage to see Hagrid's hut, Blondy?", Ria said in a falsely shocked voice. "Didn't your parents poke your eyes out the minute you were born?"
Malfoy looked utterly confused but before he could do much Ron jumped at him. Just then Snape came down the stairs.
"WEASLEY!"
Ron let go of Blondy's robe.
"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."
"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.
"I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him--"
"I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."
"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."
So they followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.
"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree -- put it in the far corner, would you?"
The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.
"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.
"Just one," said Hermione as Ria made her way to Professor McGonagall who was sprinkling the nearest tree with silver glitter from her wand.
"May I help you Professor?", Ria asked reaching her.
McGonagall considered her and then said, "Golden glitters if you will, Miss Greystone. I am guessing you won't be needing the spell?", she added with a smile.
Ria imagined golden glitters bursting from her wand and falling over the tree. It worked.
"You would be going back to the Orphanage tomorrow?", McGonagall enquired.
Ria nodded with a smile.
"Give Aurdry my regards"
Back in the dormitory, Ria packed away her belongings. She was going to leave the trunk at school and take a satchel of clothes with her. Harry was staying at Hogwarts. Ria guessed he'd be having his best Christmas this year. Ron and his brothers were staying as well as Mr and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie. Hermione would be returning to Kings Cross with her.
"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione they night before the two girls were to leave. "And send me an owl if you find anything."
"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."
"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.
On the first morning of Christmas holiday, the two girls bade the boys goodbye and and went off in the Hogwarts express. Ria sat on the train with a parchment and a ball pen she had on her, jotting down of list of people she had to send gifts to. Hermione was bemused by Ria's excitement.
"What is the big deal? I mean we buy presents each year right?"
"Yes, I am sure you do, Hermione", Ria said patiently. "But this is the first time I have money to buy gifts for the people who matter to me. The last time I went Christmas shopping was when Sister Adaline was well enough to take us. I think I was five back then"
Hermione stared at her for a while.
"You are so....normal that I sometimes forget how hard you've had it before Hogwarts"
Ria had to laugh at this.
"No honestly." Hermione said with a surge. "It's the same with Harry as well. Like....we are all so close that I keep forgetting how vastly different our backgrounds are."
Once at Kings Cross, the two girls were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Granger. The were both very accommodative and helpful. Ria exchanged some wizarding money with muggle once from them as previously arranged with Hermione, and then the two insisted on getting her a cab to The Leaky Cauldron.
After being greeted warmly by Tom (and mentally adding another name to her list), Ria walked back into Diagon Alley.
She first visited Sugarplum's Sweet Shop, where she brought an assortment of Christmas Combos. One, she handed over to a very happy Florean and the other to Madam Malkin as early Christmas presents. She visited Ollivander as well, bringing along an eagle-feather quilt as a gift. Having taken care of all this, she made her way to the post service office.
"Christmas deliveries?", the witch asked as soon as Ria entered the shop.
Ria nodded.
She sat there for half-an-hour, addressing her gifts. A bunch of chocolate frogs for each of Dean, Neville, Parvati and Lavander, Christmas combos for Ron, Harry and Hermione, a book on rare magical creatures for Hagrid (he loved them and was often going on about wanting to pet a dragon), and two joke boxes for Fred and George that she had picked up from Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. She was a tiny bit hesitant about her last gift but decided to go ahead and send Professor McGonagall the eagle feather quilt, enclosing a note thanking her for every time she'd helped Ria.
Back in the Leaky Cauldron, Ria handed her last Christmas combo to Tom and then, having hailed another cab, made her way back to the Orphanage.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Ria's immediate thought on reaching the Orphanage, was that she'd been away too long and had taken a wrong turn. And if it weren't for the shining golden board proclaiming the address she had come for, Ria would certainly have turned around and walked away looking for the crumbling old building.
The Orphanage was unrecognisable. Mrs. Haans had had some serious repairing done (not entirely in a muggle way, Ria suspected) in the months that Ria had been gone. The building was no longer crumbling and sad looking. It was in perfect state and recently whitewashed. The old wooden door had been replaced by a new one with a shining brass handle.
Ria knocked a few times and then Mrs. Haans was there welcoming her warmly inside. She was in an apron and was evidently in the middle of baking something because the air was full of a sweet tickling warm smell.
The inside couldn't be any more different either. There were two new tables in the hall, seven chairs surrounding each. The walls had been whitewashed as well. A fire roared in the fireplace and beside it stood a large christmas tree decorated in the brightest shades.
The kids were all delighted to have Ria back for Christmas. They dragged her up the stairs into their room which was as unrecognisable as the rest of the place. Six camp beds sat in the corner with brightly coloured sheets and the two pictures of Sister Adaline and the kids sat on a new chest of drawers. There were also two wardrobes at one corner. This room however, Ria noticed, hadn't been whitewashed. The pictures and poems and songs were all still there but they looked much more vivid and brighter. On asking, Gus confessed at having spent the last few months redoing every painting along with the other kids. He couldn't stop gushing over the painting accessories Mrs. Hanns had bought them.
Six of the children had moved to the Boys room once they left. There were camp beds here as well, a few cupboards and newly whitewashed walls (Mrs. Hans specifically told the children to personalize this room as well but they had been too busy redoing the old one).
A lot had changed in the orphanage since Ria left and now she sat with Andy discussing them, while munching on the cupcakes Mrs. Haans took out of the new oven in the kitchen. The children still went to the library regularly to work and study. Now that he didn't have to give them two meals a day, he gave the kids a dollar for two days of work. Mrs. Haans made them feel Sister Adaline was back and everybody was happy. Ria could see the happiness in all the faces.
"Thank you.", she said to Mrs. Haans after dinner that night. "For everything you did for them. They look really happy."
"Oh trust me dear, that happiness is mostly because you are back. These are good kids. They don't care much for the comfort. Of course they are grateful. Did you know they made it a routine to thank me before dinner every night? But they don't thank me for providing. They thank me for caring. It's incredible", Mrs. Haans shook her head and smiled.
The kids went on to spend the best Christmas of their lives. They had a good laugh at Ria's scarves. She had bought one for all the kids at Madam Malkin's. Each had the image of a different magical being or object knitted onto it. She explained them away by saying her parents' community were all fanatical about magic.
"It's kind of an ongoing thing there", Ria said offhandedly. Technically, she wasn't even lying.
Ria had bought a beautiful gold and silver witch's hat for Mrs. Haans. Ria was glad she loved it.
The other kids exchanged gifts as well. Apparently they had been saving up the money from work. Mostly they exchanged chocolates and handmade cards. For Ria however they had a surprise.
It was a hardbound drawing book with thick paper and on each of these pages were paintings. Gus and almost everyone else had come together to make a scrapbook full of memories for Ria; a painting of them all with Sister Adaline, just the kids, Ria teaching Mel and Ben while Andy can be seen in the background pouring over a book, Mr. Muller, Ria putting Ben to sleep, Gus drawing on the wall, the kids sitting in a circle singing, Mrs. Haans, quotes from some of the books she loved, tricks she used to make the lessons interesting for the young members or to help them remember, lyrics of songs she loved, there were pages where all the kids had written her messages and signed, and finally, two oil paintings which were definitely Gus' best work.
The first one was a recreation of the painting on the wall; Ria the way she'd looked in the kitchen when she unconsciously used magic against the boys and lastly a piece of wild imagination.
It showed Ria in a flowing light pink dress. The material looked like water and flowed like wind. She was standing in a woods beside vines bearing rainbow coloured flowers, an aura of light around. Her face glowed with a soft smile, hair framing it and an intricately designed ornate tiara sat on her head.
"To our warrior and our princess", Andy said.
Ria received a bunch of Muggle chocolates from Hermione and a beautiful royal blue cloak from Mrs. Haans. But no gift could ever compare to the one the children had given her.
One night Ria sat talking with Mrs. Haans about the wizarding world, after the kids had gone to bed, when a thought occurred to her.
"Mrs. Haans, do you know who Nicolas Flamel is? I am certain I heard his name somewhere but can't remember who he is"
"Flamel is a renowned alchemist, my dear."
"What does alchemy deal with?"
"It deals with the making of the Philosopher's Stone; a stone with extraordinary powers. It can turn any metal into gold and it produces the Exiler of Life, which makes the drinker immortal"
Ria didn't need to hear more.
When it was time for her to leave Ben started crying.
"I wish you could sing me to sleep every night", he said through his tears.
"I'll be back, little man", Ria promised and then went off to Kings Cross to board the Hogwarts express.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back at the Griffindor common room, Ria didn't waste any time telling the boys what she'd found out. Hermione rushed up to the dormitory and fetched a very fat book. She looked up something and be gain to read out.
"The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.
There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)."
"That's what is through the trapdoor and that's what the dogs guarding. The Sorcerers Stone." Ria finished.
"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."
"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"
Glad that they had finally figured out who Nicolas Flamel was, the children went on to talk about their Christmas. And it quickly turned out that Ron and Harry had been having quite a few adventures with the girls away.
"Someone sent me an invisibility cloak on christmas morning.", Harry started to say in a whisper.
"An invisibility cloak?!", Ria exclaimed.
Harry lead the two girls up to the boys' dormitory and handed them the cloak. It was shining, silvery and strange to the touch, like water woven into material.
"Go ahead and put it on", Harry said.
Hermione took the cloak and wrapped it around her shoulder. Ria gasped. The lower part of her body was gone. Perfectly invisible.
"Who sent that?", Ria asked in a hushed voice.
"Don't know. There was a note but it didn't have any signature on it."
Harry brought out the note and handed it to Ria.
It was written in narrow, loopy writing that Ria did not recognise.
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.
"Strange.", Ria muttered.
"So on christmas night, I went off under the cloak", Harry continued.
"Went to the restricted section to look for Flamel. Picked up a random book and it started to scream."
"Excuse me, what?!"
"Yeah. You should have heard it. I guess the whole castle pretty much heard it. Then Filch came running of course."
Hermione gasped.
"Don't worry, I got away. And then I found the Mirror of Erised."
"The what?", Hermione enquired.
"A magnificent old mirror in the middle of a room. I could see my whole family in it. Next night I took Ron with me."
"You went again?!", Hermione exclaimed interrupting. "What if Filch had caught you?"
"He can't see me. Anyways so Ron couldn't see my parents at all. But when he stood in front of the mirror, he saw himself as head boy, Quidditch captain, holding the Quidditch cup and the house cup."
At this Ria started laughing.
"What's so funny?", Ron snapped looking broody.
"You can't be all that together! They do not make someone head boy as well as Quidditch captain. There's literally a rule against it", Ria finished.
"How do you know that?", Ron asked looking a tiny bit startled.
"McGonagall", Ria said with a surge and then turned to Harry.
"The third night I went again", Harry continued. "and Dumbledore was there waiting for me."
At this Ria and Hermione both gasped.
"He didn't do anything", Harry said quickly. "He explained how the mirror works. He said, the happiest man on earth will be able to use the Mirror of Erised as a normal mirror. It shows us our deepest and most desperate desires. And then he told me that the mirror would be moved and I shouldn't go looking for it. So I didn't. That's pretty much it."
They chatted away for the rest of the evening. Ria showed them the scrapbook the kids had gifted her for Christmas. Ron and Harry were both wearing sweaters Mrs. Weasley had sent them. Ria though that was really nice of her.
"You know what Dumbledore said when I asked him what he sees in the Mirror of Erised?"
"What?", Hermione asked.
"Said he sees himself holding new socks and that no one ever gifts him any", Ron replied and started chuckling.
"Talking about gifts", came a voice from behind, "someone has got a bit of explaining to do."
Fred and George were standing there, two identical wooden boxes in their hand. Ria started laughing.
"You are a sneaky little missus, you are!", said Fred.
"But you are good", said George smirking, "We didn't see that one coming"
Ria was still laughing.
"What are you three on about?", Ron asked irritated.
"Wouldn't you like to know?", said George smirking.
"Go ahead and open it", Fred added handing his box to Ron.
Ron opened the box and something jumped out of it shrieking at the top of it's voice. Ron cursed and dropped the and moved back several paces. The screening had stopped and a miniature Santa was bobbing on a spring.
"Just kidding!", it said, "A very Merry Christmas to you!". Then it bowed and the box closed itself.
Ria was trying her best to stop laughing but not with much success.
"What on earth was that?!", Hermione gasped, hands on her heart.
"That, my dear Hermione, was Christmas gift from your friend here", Fred said indicating Ria.
"For both of us." added George.
"And you can imagine the impact if two of these lovely boxes are opened at once"
"Lee fell off his bed"
Ria finally managed to stop laughing.
"Well, it's you both that told me I'd better watch out", she said smirking. "So can't complain."
Fred and George exchanged a smirk and then left.
"Guess I really should watch out now", Ria said to the rest.
"I can't believe you did that. What if they had minded?", Hermione said stuck between horror and amusement.
"You kidding me?", Ron said sitting back down. "They love a good joke, those two."
"And they are pretty plainly impressed", Harry added.
"I knew they wouldn't mind", Ria said to Hermione. "I wouldn't send something like that to anybody else. Although, come to think of it, might be a good idea to send Snape punching boxes."