Chapter Text
Christmas was approaching, and the weather was doing its best to remind them. Luckily the 6th year prefects had made warming charms and were handing them out to the rest of the Gryffindors. The twins had gotten in trouble for throwing snowballs at Quirrell.
Everyone was waiting for holidays to start, the halls were icy and bitter wind rattled the windows, not even the warming charms could protect you from the freezing potion classrooms. The Gryffindors likely had it best: their common room's fire was maintained constantly, everyone had added fuel at some point; any of their secret rooms that had fireplaces were similarly treated and the Cellar was insulated enough that fires weren't entirely necessary but warming charms made it cozy and warm. In the secret passageways they would stand too close together, and there's an unspoken rule that you couldn't go outside until somewhat checked that you were wrapped up properly.
Harry was looking forward to his first Christmas without the Dursleys; he had signed the list Professor McGonagall had made the week before at once. The Weasley's were also staying, because their parents and sister were visiting their brother Charlie in Romania.
They left potions to a giant fir tree blocking the hallway, Hagrid's large feet just barely sticking out of the bottom.
“Need some help Hagrid,” Ron asked through the branches. Hagrid declined nicely, but Malfoy chose to insult both Ron's kindness and family. Harry will defend that Ron was in the right for leaping at Malfoy, but Snape would never, and he took points from Gryffindor.
“I hate them both,” Harry growled, “Malfoy and Snape.”
“Now, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas,” Hagrid said. “Tell yeh what, come see the Great Hall with me, it looks a treat.” The boys and Hermione followed the man to the hall, and it truly looked spectacular. There were no less than twelve Christmas trees and hundreds of glittering candles.
“How many days till break?” Hagrid asked.
“Just one,” Hermione answered. “Which is why we need to get to the library.” Harry did his best not to perk up too much when she said that, Ron actively slumped over.
“The library? This close tah break?”
“We want to get good grades on our exams.”
The boys let Hermione drag them out of the hall and towards the library.
“Why are we going to the library again?” Ron asked.
“Percy wanted to show us something, remember?” Hermione chided.
“Oh, right.”
They turned into the library, careful to stay quiet as not to anger Madam Pince.
“I wonder what he wanted to show us,” Hermione whispered as soon as they were out of the librarian's sight, “I couldn't find anything about Nicholas Flamel in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; maybe Percy found something though.” Ron and Harry snickered a bit as she walked past the secret door they were supposed to enter in her excitement. She gave them a weak glare as she pushed in the book-switch – Study Tips for the Modern Witch or Wizard: 1895 Edition– and the bookcase disappeared for long enough for them to file through. They took a few seconds to look around the room as the bookcase faded back into existence; there were a few different types of tables and chairs, all strewn with study materials. They had heard about this room but had never been, this place had been claimed by 5th and 7th years as a place for them to study for their O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S.
They spotted Percy with an old book in a far corner and made a bee line for him, doing their best not to bother the other people studying. Percy had saved them spots at a low table with bean bags for chairs. (Harry had learned from Ron that the Weasley parents would never believe that Percy would look so relaxed in a school environment. Sometimes Harry didn't either, sometimes, due to interacting with Percy's mask.) He smiled as they sunk into the pillow chairs, “Hope you didn't have too much trouble getting here.”
“No trouble except Hermione walking past the shelf-” “Hey!” Hermione cut Ron off, and Harry muffled his laugh.
“Be nice Ron,” Percy half scolded him.
“Fine.”
“So what did you want to show us?” Harry asked. Percy opened the book and turned it to show them the page. There, at the top, Nicholas Flamel.
“I believe I found what Fluffy is hiding. The Philosopher's Stone.” The 1st years leaned in to get a better look.
“But,” Hermione started, “that says Nicholas Flamel is over six hundred years old. How is that possible?”
“The Stone can not only make any metal pure gold, but it also produces the Elixir of Life. It has made Flamel and his wife immortal,” Percy explained. Something in Harry screamed that this was supposed to be a secret, something that was intended to be whispered not explained like one would explain a particularly hard homework problem.
“No wonder Snape's trying to steal it, anyone would want it,” Ron gasped.
“What do we do?” Hermione asked. “Dumbledore put it in the school to keep it safe, but if a teacher is trying to steal it…” she trailed off and Percy gripped her hand lightly in an attempt to calm her down.
“Don't worry, I have a plan. The twins are looking for a way to remove the cerberus from the corridor, after that we'll go get the Stone and return it to the Flamels.”
“How would we get it to the Flamels?” Harry asked.
“We'll write to them.”
The kids looked at Percy like he was insane. He snickered at them in return, “Despite their reputation, the Flamels are actually very social. They host rather big holiday parties, and this year they sent an invite to all of the human Gringotts workers. A small group, but our older brother, Bill, is part of it.”
Hermione had stars in her eyes, “Bill was the phoenix that figured out the sub-houses existed.”
“In a way, yes,” Percy chuckled. “He'll have a chance to tell the Flamels about what is happening. And, if we get the couples permission, we will go ahead with our plan so they know that it's coming back to them.”
Once the holidays started, Ron and Harry were having too much fun to think much about Flamel. They had their dorm to themselves and the common room was a lot more empty, so they could sit directly by the fire. They spent most of their meals happily eating whatever they could get on a toasting stick. Ron was even teaching Harry wizard chess. He was playing with a set Seamus had loaned him, who didn't trust him at all, that was highlighted when compared to the old chess set Ron was playing with who had known him all his life. Harry had been told it wouldn't matter anyway by Fred, because only Bill had ever beat Ron.
Harry woke up Christmas morning, pleasantly surprised about the small pile of presents at his bedside. He hastily slid out of bed and threw on his bathrobe to fight the cold.
“Merry Christmas Harry,” Ron slurred as he rubbed the tiredness from his eyes.
“You too,” Harry said distractedly, “Will you look at this? I've got presents.”
“Were you expecting turnips?”
Hagrid had carved Harry a wooden flute and the Dursleys had sent a fifty-pence piece and a note. Harry couldn't help but laugh at how intriguing Ron found the money.
“Who are these from?” Harry wondered out loud. Ron picked up a lumpy package and turned a bit pink, “This one is, um, from my mother. I think she made you a Weasley sweater.” Harry took it and tore it open and found a thick, hand-knitted, emerald green sweater and a large box of homemade fudge.
“She makes us one every year, and mines always maroon,” Ron complained
“That's nice of her,” Harry said, almost melting at the delicious fudge. He had gotten a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione as well. He had two more packages left, one was a scarf with warming charms from Percy, Ron had one as well and both were decorated with small dragons of varying species. The other was a silvery, gray robe.
“If that's what I think it is– those are really rare, and valuable,” Ron gasped from where he was unwrapping his gift from Hermione.
“What is it?” asked Harry.
“An Invisibility Cloak. Try it on.”
The awe on Ron's face only increased when Harry slipped the cloak over his shoulders.
“It is. Look down.” Harry looked down and dashed over to the mirror when he could no longer see his feet. Sure enough, his body was completely invisible, his head suspended midair.
“There's a note!” Ron pointed out. Harry pulled off the cloak and grabbed the letter that had fallen to the ground.
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.
There was no signature.
“What's the matter?” Ron asked.
“Nothing.”
Before Ron could question him further the dormitory door was flung open, the Weasley Twins making their presence well-known.
“Merry Christmas!” “Hey look, Harry’s got a Weasley sweater too!” Fred and George were wearing blue sweaters with a yellow F and G, but they were wearing each other’s intended sweater.
“Harry’s is better than ours though,” Fred said, holding Harry’s up. He grabbed Harry’s arm, pulling the bathrobe off and replacing it with the sweater before Harry could start shivering. “Probably because it's your first one.” “Why aren't you wearing yours Ron?” George asked, “They're lovely and warm.”
“I hate maroon,” Ron groaned, but he still pulled it over his head, “I told mom that, but I think she forgot.”
“You haven't got a letter on yours,” George noticed. “I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid, we know we're Greg and Forge.”
“What's all this noise?”
Percy was leaning on the door frame, sweater over his arm. Fred seized it, “P for prefect! Get it on Percy, we're all wearing ours, Harry got one too.” Percy took it back and pulled over his head, sighing fondly.
“Now come on, as much as this is a day for relaxation, you're not staying in your room all day.”
“Wait a minute,” George's eyes had locked onto the Invisibility Cloak, “is that what I think that is?” Harry looked at it once more.
“Yeah, it was my dad's.”
Christmas dinner was the best Harry had ever had. Not only was the food amazing, but the party favors were fantastic. Wizard crackers went off like cannons, engulfing everyone in blue smoke and releasing live mice that the castle cats would have fun hunting. The teachers were getting drunk and acting humorous. At some point Hagrid kissed Professor McGonagall on the cheek.
The dragons all took off for bed around the same time, Fred and George bounding up the stairs to finally start finding uses for their new pranking supplies from Lee. Ron entered the dorm just before Harry and Percy took the chance to gently grip Harry's arm.
“Don't get sloppy just because you have an Invisibility Cloak.”
Harry took that as the permission it was as Percy continued up the stairs to his room.
He snuck into his room, careful not to wake Ron who'd gone to sleep immediately. Now was a great time to see what path it would take to get the cerberus to one of the old animal rooms; the twins had found a suitable one and were just trying to find a way to calm the beast down. Use it well, the note had said. Harry suddenly felt much more awake, the entire castle was his to explore.
He crept out of the Gryffindor dorm and through the portrait hole, ignoring the startled woman in the painting. He wandered through a passageway that let him out next to the library, careful to look out for Filch because he knew Filch used this one from time to time. He was going to pass the room but – there was something about the empty library that called to him. One look wouldn't hurt.
There was only one part of the library that the Gryffindors didn't actually try to look in, the restricted section. Harry had been told that an alarm would go off if he touched anything without permission, but just looking shouldn't do anything. He slipped through the shelves, the old texts and lantern he was holding creating a creepy scene. Harry had to remind himself that the lantern wasn't floating and he was in fact carrying it. His foot got caught on his cloak and he fumbled a bit, catching himself on the shelf, thump. A book fell to the ground and started to shriek. Harry stumbled back, his lantern falling and going out. There were footsteps coming towards him – fast – it was Filch. Harry had to slip out of the library past him, and he ran blindly through the corridors. He didn't know where he was when he slowed, but it didn't matter because Snape and Filch were in earshot. Harry ducked into an old classroom.
Running from Filch and Snape is starting to be repetitive.
Harry calmed himself and looked around the room, it wasn't a classroom that the Gryffindors had claimed, the lack of bean bag chairs told him that much, but something was off. It looked abandoned, but the dust seemed placed – faked. There was also a fancy looking mirror that looked far too clean for it to have sat here for any more than a week. He crept over to the mirror, looking at the frame, there was something carved into it but it wasn't readable. His gaze shifted downward to the mirror itself before jolting back. There were two people behind him, but- he looked over his shoulder, no one was there. The woman right behind him was waving when he looked back, she had dark red hair and eyes that he had seen thousands of times. There was also a tall, thin man wearing glasses that had black untidy black hair not unlike Harry's.
“Mum?” he whispered. “Dad?”
He was looking at his parents.
He was touching the mirror now, his hand outstretched, the cool glass reminding him that his parents weren't actually there, that he still didn't have a family. Movement in the mirror caught his eye. Four red heads were standing further back in the room, the Weasley boys, waving at him even though he knew they were in the tower.
…….
Bill had been rather excited when he heard that he and his human coworkers had been invited to the annual Flamel Christmas Party, technically his goblin coworkers had been invited as well, but they weren't the type to celebrate a human tradition. His assignment from Percy hardly distracted him from the event, he wasn't even able to talk to Mr.Flamel until it got less busy.
When he was able to find Mr.Flamel he was talking with one of his supervisors, who waved him over.
“Mr.Flamel, this is William Weasley. He's our youngest member, a bright lad, he is.”
“Nice to meet you Mr.Weasley,” Flamel said kindly.
“It's an honor, sir,” Bill did his best to be as likable as possible, for the tough questions he needed to ask. His supervisor spent the next minutes singing Bill's praises as said man tried not to turn as red as his hair. Eventually his supervisor was called over by someone else, leaving the other two men to have a conversation so awkward that Bill was actively trying not to die of embarrassment.
“So what is it you want to ask?” Bill did his best not to look startled, but Flamel seemed amused, “I've been around for centuries, it's hard to hide things from me.”
“My brothers are currently at Hogwarts,” Bill cleared his throat, “they said they found something of yours.”
Something in Flamel's eyes shifted, the privacy wards Bill hadn't noticed tightened; what had they been talking about before I walked up? The legilimens in front of him bore into his mind, looking for what he already knew – he'd been around for centuries, he knew what Bill was talking about. He looked his age in the worst way, he looked young, but there was something inexplicably ancient about him. He could kill me and no one would be able to do anything.
“He What?”
The man's voice was cold and Bill feared that he was referring to one of his brothers. But, hearing his fears, the party's host took a deep breath and clarified, “I did not tell Dumbledore to keep it so close to the children, just hold on to it until the Gringotts thief had come and gone, it seems the goblins didn't catch the possible fake.” The wards loosened their grip slowly.
“Go ahead and inform your brothers to go ahead with their plan, I have something to check on.”
Bill tried not to make his gasps for breath too obvious as Flamel walked away, he needed a drink.
…….
The next morning, headed down to breakfast in a secret hallway, Harry told the Weasley boys about the mirror.
“You saw your parents?” Ron asked, Harry nodded mutely. “How is that even possible?”
“Was there anything else off about the mirror?” Percy asked.
“There were letters carved into it but they made no sense,” Harry said, handing a slip of paper to the prefect.
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
Percy squinted at the page and stopped walking, the rest of the dragons pausing with him, “I show no… I show not your face, but your heart's desire.”
“Oh, that makes some sense. How did you get that?” Harry questioned him.
“It was written backwards.”
The twins started cackling. Thank goodness Harry didn't tell them he also saw them, that would be embarrassing.
They sat down at the breakfast table and started to dig in when Harry said, “I think I'll go back tonight, I want to see my parents again.” Percy looked a bit upset about it and the twins didn't hear him, but Ron looked at him and said, “I think I know what I'd see.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, myself as Head Boy, holding the Quidditch Cup.”
The twins did hear that and started laughing and Ron started turning red.
Harry had snuck back to the mirror, even though Percy wasn't happy about it. He sat down in front of it, looking up at his parents. At some point Mirror!Ron had sat down on the other side of the glass, leaning up against James Potter's leg.
“Back again, Harry?”
Harry's insides froze, sitting on a desk behind him was Albus Dumbledore.
“I - I didn’t see you sir.”
“Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you.”
Harry was relieved to see that the Headmaster was smiling.
“So you, like many before you have found the Mirror of Erised”
“I didn’t know it was called that sir.”
“But I suspect you have realized what it does?”
Dumbledoor’s eyes were sparkling when they made eye contact.
“Well.. it showed me my parents,” Harry said, thinking back to what he told the Weaslys, shortly before Ron told him that he would see being the Head Boy and Quiditch Captain.
Dumbledore hummed, “And it showed your friend Ron as Head Boy.”
Harry gasped and Dumbledore chuckled, his eyes closing as he did so. Ron never actually looked in the mirror. The old man seemed to pull a question out of Harry’s shock, “I don’t need a cloak to become invisible.”
Harry cleared his throat, “So it just shows us, whatever we want?”
“Yes and no, it shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen.”
“The Mirror will be moved to its new home tomorrow, Harry, please do not look for it again. Now why don’t you put your lovely cloak back on and head to bed.”
Harry jumped up, “Sir- Professor Dumbledoor? May I ask you something?”
“You’ve just done so," Dumbledoor smiled, “you may ask me another thing however.”
“What do you see when you look in the mirror?”
“Me? I see myself holding a pair of woolen socks, you can never have enough of those.”
Liar,
Harry thought as the man turned away.