"Merry Christmas, Michael," he managed, tone strictly polite to hide the strange sensation bubbling up in his chest.
The other boy returned his sentiment warily, like he was worried Harry would suddenly start summoning snakes if he didn't.
Harry received nothing from his Aunt and Uncle, which at least met his expectations. Hermione had gifted him a box of chocolate frogs. He enjoyed chocolate, so he opened one, catching the evasive thing with a seeker's reaction and taking its head off. A kindly looking old man stared back at him from the card, almost seeming to taunt him with the bold label 'Nicolas Flamel'.
Harry glared at it.
Neville, bless his soul, had gotten him a broom maintenance kit. Harry discovered that he quite enjoyed the smell of the broom polish. There were also some tools to help keep the straw together and help maintain some of the charms. All in all, fairly thoughtful.
Tracey got him a him a box of owl treats for Hedwig. He had started to suspect that Tracey was closer to his owl than she was to him. She always cooed softly at the bird and stroked her feathers whenever the chance arose. Hopefully, with one of her own, she would stop that.
Daphne had gotten him an Occlumency book. A note from her read that he would have to return it since it was part of her father's library, but he was pleased all the same. Occlumency wasn't his forte within the mind arts, but he was hardly going to tell her how often he touched her thoughts.
He placed Occlumency, A Comprehensive Guide in his trunk. He would study it later in more depth. He had currently reached a wall with his legilimency. He wanted to push deeper and perform the probing techniques that were discussed in The Mind, The Maze, but he wasn't certain who he should, or could, practice on. He supposed there were some moral quandaries to have as well.
He smiled at his gifts. It felt good, and he couldn't have dropped his grin if he wanted to.
He glanced down at the last package from the now diminished pile. He picked it up and held it in his hands. It was light, but fairly large. He opened it up.
Something fluid and silvery gray pooled on the floor like mercury. It lay in gleaming folds and, when he picked it up, it felt like water under his fingers. He picked it up to look closer, only to blink as his hand vanished. He almost gasped and dropped it, but he could still feel his fingers and the cloth against it. He was invisible. A note fluttered out of one of the shimmering folds of magical fabric.
Upon it, written in narrow, cursive writing he had never seen before, were the words:
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.
-Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
He should really use his initials.
It belonged to his father, and that made his caresses of the cloak that much more reverential.
After just holding this small piece of his legacy in his hands for a while, he folded it neatly and placed it in the bottom of his trunk. He didn't want to share it with anyone, not even with his friends, at least not yet. It felt… intimate.
Harry decided to make his way to the Great Hall. He turned a corner on the second floor and stepped onto a floating staircase. He heard a croak and looked to his left. There, riding a staircase upwards away from Harry, was Trevor. He stared at Neville's familiar until it was out of sight.
He managed to spot the Weasley twins dragging their prefect and first year brothers into the Great Hall. Percy Weasley had his arms trapped inside of sweater and, with no arms free, was at the mercy of the twins. He had Harry's sympathies. Following them in, Harry was met with an incredible sight.
Boats of gravy floated next to mountains of potatoes and hams. There must have been hundreds of roast turkeys and oceans of cranberry sauce across a single table. It made the Dursley's best holidays party look like a joke. There were stacks of wizard crackers everywhere there wasn't food, and every few moments one would explode with enough riotous fanfare to make Seamus Finnigan jealous. The twins were setting one off every time their older brother tried to speak, sending puffs of green and red smoke into the prefect's face and leaving white mice or doves skittering away.
Slightly unsanitary, but undeniably merry.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at him all the way from the high table. Harry reached out with his mind and sent all the gratitude he could muster for his father's cloak towards the old man's twinkling eyes. The old man nodded at him, sending a much more delicate and precise reply compared to Harry's clumsy attempt, an image of a young redheaded witch gazing up at a massive Christmas tree in wonder.
Mom…
It was pretty much the best Christmas of all time.
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Harry stayed up that night running the cloak through his fingers again.
Use it well.
All of this wonderful castle was now his to explore. He could go wherever he pleased, but where? What should he see? The Great Hall again? The library? The restricted section! He'd had his eye on Breaking and Entering the Mind since he'd first seen it on one of those tantalizing shelves.
He made his way down to the stacks and found the library pitch-black and very eerie.
Let there be light.
He thought.
"Lumos."
The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. He stepped carefully over the cordon and walked to where he knew the book he wanted sat, just waiting for his perusal. Some he hadn't spotted before looked interesting. Rituals for the Desperate and Secrets of the Darkest Arts had gold and silver letters which seemed to coax him in. They both looked like they had been sitting in some dank, chamber somewhere for a long time before they were brought here. He eyed them both before moving deeper into the shelves. There it was, just past Tricks to Bewilder a Legilimens. He took it softly, ignoring the whispers which seemed to come from a blood-stained Curses to Terrify.