HP: Thunderstorm, Moon, and The Seer

December 25th, 1991, Hogwarts, The Great Hall, 16:00 PM.

The Great Hall was oddly this desert on a certain afternoon. Despite all those Christmas descorations in the air, sihouettes of students of all years walking back fort, suicases, and such in their, as they were ready to be back home to celebrate this time of year with their loved ones.

Leaving only Ron and Harry, both were having a leisure time play wizard chess amid the hurry all around them.

After the match, the quartet brought up Harry's incident to Hagrid, hoping the big fella could shed some light on why such two Hogwarts professors would be bothered to do that kind of jinxes toward such a young, timid boy.

The half-giants were totally denying that when it came to Snape, it seemed like he really respected and trusted the potion master; as for Quirrell, he was obviously hasitating.

And when Harry brought up why he would be targeted, the quartet was amazed to find out so many things.

First off, Hargrid was not good at keeping things secretive.

Second, it turned out that the big dog they encountered was Fluffy, quite a name for its size. It was no doubt one of 'Hagrid's friends' and it seemed like it was guarding something—something truly valuable was kept here at Hogwarts, involving the Headmaster and... Nicolas Flamel.

As second was mentioned,

*Clank Clank*

The sound of the luggage dragging came close, drawing both boys attention toward the one coming.

"I see you've packed." Ron commented as looking up and down at the girl. It was certain that she'd be coming home shortly, just like Draco, who had left in the morning.

"See you haven't." Hermione replied Ron teserely as she gave Harry a nod.

"Change of plans My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie; he's studying dragon there." Ron then snapped back to Harry. "What you, Harry? I thought that..."

"Oh, Dad s-said that the company gravely needed him during this time, and it was another thing involving cleaning after a big black dog... so he'll stay there till midnight. He said he'd come visit me here in the morning." Harry smiled sheepishly as he rubbed two letters dearly; one was Ethan just sent this morning, and the other was none other than his dearest friend Luna, saying how she'd been doing and wishing him a merry Christmas.

While Ron and Hermione were left in a daze at what Harry just said. They were really curious about the boy's adoption, but both decided to leave it... for now.

"Alright then, you can help Harry then, looking in the library for information on Nicolas Flamel," Hermione turned to Ron.

The ginger grunted. "Ugh, it's not like we haven't looked for a hundred times."

Hermione slighly lean forward; her voice got smaller. "Not restriction area, happy Christmas."

With that said, the bushy-haired girl left the two boys looking at each other with uncertainty

Seeing that her silhouette was far off, Ron remarked. "I think we had a bad influence on her."

Harry nodded bemusedly.

...Then it was time for dinner.

Harry's first Christmas dinner at Hogwarts is a memorable affair involving mountains of delicious food, Dumbledore wearing a bonnet, magical Christmas crackers, and the rare vision of tipsy Hagrid kissing the cheek of a blushing McGonagall.

Afterwards, the two boys returned to the dorm for a slight rest...

"Wake up, Harry!" As soon as Ron shouted out from the common room, Harry ran out with all his might, clad only in his blue pijama and nightcap. The boy summoned his glasses as he marched toward the fireplace.

The entire place was brightly lit, bathing in warm, cosy ambiance with the crackling sound of the fireplace. 

Ron's face was brimming with smiles. He stood beside the decorated Christmas tree, a bag of some kind of snack in his hand. "Merry Christmas, Harry."

"Merry Christmas, Ron, and a Happy New Year." Harry shared a hearty smile with the ginger. "Oh, what are you wearing?" Harry noticed Ron's particular piece of clothing—a fine red jumper with the big golden word R threaded in the middle—as he joined him at the fireplace.

"My mum made it." Ron said sheepishly. "Oh, she also got one for you too!"

'A gift from Mrs. Weasley!?' Harry was surprised to receive a gift from someone whom he never met.

"There is it." The gift was the same as Ron, a red jumper with the big golden word H threaded in the middle, and it also came with a special note.

As Harry read it, the boy was surprised to know that Mrs. Weasley was one of his late parents best friends. In the note, she wished Harry the best as well as hoping that he could come by soon, of course with his new guardian.

Then Harry eagerly tried the jumper on. "Send my regard to you, mother."

"Sure do." Ron nodded as he put another snack into his chipmunk-like mouth. "Hey, it seems like you still have more presents, Harry." Ron pointed to the back.

'Hm!? Dad said he'd come by in the morning with all my presents. So who sent it?' Harry's thoughts swirl with questions as he unpacks the gift. 

It was conspicuous cloak. He already saw enough things at the local magical market during his time travelling with Ethan to know for sure that this was definitely an artefact. 

As soon as the boy put it on his body vanish, or rather, turned invisible

"Wow, that invisibility cloak! really rare..." Ron exclaimed.

Harry was astonished to receive an Invisibility Cloak with an anonymous note informing Harry that it had belonged to his father and the admonition to "Use it well."

The boy was curious about the sender and their ulterior motive, but soon he left the question at the back of his mind.

After the short gift opening, Ron immediately went back to sleep, and Harry decided to use his father's Invisibility Cloak to explore the castle.

Under the cloak, he sneaked past the Fat Lady and then decided to go research Nicolas Flamel in the library's Restricted Section.

"Lumos," Harry whispered as a small ball of light emerged from his palm, hovering in front of him. 

The library at this time was scarefully dark, and the Restricted Section gave Harry a creepy feeling even under the light of Lumos.

Harry hoped to spend as much of the night as is needed to research Flamel.

However, the first Restricted Section book he tried let out a loud scream when he opened it. 'Ospsie' Harry immediately put it back yet, following the loud scream, was hurrry footstep that was oodly familiar to him.

It was Filch, the ever-diligent caretaker of Hogwarts, who immediately came to investigate, and Harry narrowly dodged him and ran. Filch reports to Snape that someone was in the Restricted Section.

Much to Harry's misfortune, Professor was right around the corner. Thankfully, the Cloak did its job, allowing Harry to slip into an unused classroom to avoid being caught out of bed by Filch and Snape.

Inside the classroom, Harry was breaking out in a cold sweat. 'That was so close.' The boy took a short time to Cogitate so as to quell his racing heart.

As he began taking where he was, Harry noticed a tall, ornate mirror.

Curiously, Harry moved toward the mirror. "Mirror of Erised? That name...' as the boy turned his head sideward just like Luna did whenever she read something, saying that it helped her see things in a new way.

Harry could not help but smile as he thought about it.

'Hm...Erised...Eris..De...' Harry's eye widened as he seemed to unravel some particular thing about this mirror.

'Another artefact?' When Harry looked in it, he saw his parents smiling brightly from behind; next to him were his dad Ethan and even Uncle Sam and Uncle Remus, smiling proudly at the Harry in the mirror.

Even his other friends were also in the mirror, cheering for him from the side; even Jasper and the grumpy Remus were there.

The Harry in the Mirror was surely much more mature and well defined, dressed in formal attire, a red carvet, a navy blue suit, and a formal black wizard cloak as the outerwear.

The Harry in the Mirror was also hand in with Luna. She was as usual, curious gray eyes, dirty blonde hair yet fluttering slightly in the air, her gentle smile that he could get lost forever in.

Harry remained transfixed by what he saw until the blush found its way to his face; that boy snapped out of it. 'Desire—Erised. Now that make sense.'

Suddenly, a noise startles him back into awareness; there had been a gaze lingering on him since when!?

As the boy turned around in fright, what caught his sight was the figure of an amiable old man with white hair and a handsome beard. A pair of bright, gentle eyes yet seemed to fill with profound wisdom hidden behind his half-moon glasses.

The old man wore a red classical wizard robe and hat.

He was Albus Dumbledore.