Dumbledore had convinced Harry not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again, and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bottom of his trunk. Harry wished he could forget what he'd seen in the mirror as easily, but he couldn't. He understood the warnings Dumbledore had given him much more clearly. It was addictive, and that made it dangerous.
He found himself pouring over his books on mind magic, committing little time to practicing other spells. He even sent a few mind probes digging through the head of Ron Weasley. The boy had earned it by thinking Harry was so evil, even if Harry hadn't known about such thoughts until he had already invaded the boy's mind.
Ernie Macmillan, who had called Harry the next Dark Lord, earned the headaches Harry's attention brought him in a much more direct manner.
Daphne was coming back the day before their next term started, and Harry debated with himself on sharing his revelations with the Mirror. Hermione would only scold him, and Neville would only be frightened by what Harry saw. And, though he cared about her, Tracey couldn't keep a secret even if you obliviated her. He elected to keep the cloak and his vision in the mirror to himself.
Harry would, at least, have the pleasure of returning the book to Daphne. He had already finished, and had discovered it mentioned a practice called augeomency. He found his casting was faster with this new knowledge on breathing and mind clearing exercises. He didn't know much about it, but resolved to discover more on the subject. He was already considering making another run to the library to find new material. He wanted something less… agonizing, than Breaking and Entering the Mind. He read Daphne as soon as he saw her, enjoying by proxy her happiness from the break.
"I finished the book you sent me, and figured you'd want it back as soon as possible." She just looked at him in shock as she accepted the book from him.
"How did you have time for that?"
"What else would I have been doing?"
[I should have known the only thing he got up to was studying.]
"How was your Christmas?" He asked, having missed her emotions. "Did you see your sister?"
"Astoria and I had a wonderful holiday. It was nice to see her again. She won't be coming for another two years, so she wanted to hear all about Hogwarts and the Boy-Who-Lived." She had a smirk on her face.
"Did you tell her you were friends with me?"
She shook her head with a smirk, "I told her you were a dangerous dark wizard."
He laughed at that.
Tracey thanked him profusely for her new owl. She had named it Silver and had already pawned some of the treats she bought for Hedwig to feed it. He handed her all of the ones he had left, and listened to her talk for almost an hour straight about Daphne's stay at her house.
"You know we had Daphne put the star on top of the tree. Since she was a guest and all, my mother insisted, and when she tried to put it on she almost fell and took the whole tree down with her. She wasn't hurt or anything like that, but she screamed a little and turned all red. She stayed embarrassed for at least four hours."
"Half an hour at the most," Daphne protested, ruining her case somewhat by turning pink.
Tracey gave her a confident smirk. "We timed it, me and Dad. My mother was so worried, but we just wondered how long it would take you to turn back."
"That's what you were doing?" Daphne looked shocked, she evidently remembered a time when that might have actually happened. She turned even darker red as Harry laughed, absorbing their feelings.
When Neville came back he was frantically looking for his toad, but it was already gone. Harry decided that he would try and keep an eye on it next time he saw it, not only to help, but to see what it did. Neville also thanked him for the cactus seeds.
"Have you tried to grow them yet?"
Neville shook his head. "I'm waiting until it gets warmer, you're supposed to plant them in the summer."
Hermione had missed the library deeply, but now she was reunited with her long-lost love and spent six hours the day before term started, inside. She was determined to take first in their class rankings for the entire year and not to finish behind him. He didn't know how she expected to do it while reading Famous Wizards of the Modern Era, but he didn't try to coax the bushy haired girl out of it.
His biggest surprise had been Lisa, who caught him in the common room at the end of the day.
"I just w-wanted to thank you for your present," she managed to stammered out, "e-e-even though I didn't get you anything." He noticed Terry Boot looking like he expected Harry to start cursing everyone in the room.
He smiled and nodded. "It was my pleasure, and don't worry about it, I'll see you in Charms tomorrow." They would continue to be partners until the end of the year, according to Professor Flitwick. He felt her relief, embarrassment and a combination of other odd emotions as he stepped past her to the boys' dormitory.
Terry Boot almost looked disappointed, and earned himself a headache for it.
Quidditch was starting again, along with everything else. Harry dearly hoped that his second game of Quidditch would be more memorable than his first. He told Hermione as much and she hit his arm.
"I can't believe you are going to play again after what happened the first time!"
What could he say? He loved flying. He thought it was an awful lot like legilimency, allowing him to feel free and confident. He loved the rush of the crowd. The air became so thick with thier emotions that there was nothing empty anywhere. During a match, to his senses, the crowd bloomed like a setting sun. He compared it to Daphne's feelings on using charms to enchant, and Neville's feeling of success in Herbology, or even Hermione's feeling when she answered a teacher's question.