Аннотация: The penultimate day of school. Christmas morning.
Chapter 10.2 Christmas.
All the students were looking forward to the holidays and could no longer think about anything else. Maybe it was because it was terribly cold at school and everyone wanted to go to their warm, cozy homes. No, it was warm in the Gryffindor Common Room, the bedroom, and the Great Hall, because the flames roaring in the fireplaces didn't go out for a minute. But the draughty corridors were icy, and the windows in the frozen classrooms were shaking and ringing under the blows of the wind, threatening to fly out. They couldn't fix them with magic. After all, this is where the largest community of brownies lives. But no, we need everyone to freeze. Okay, the seniors are casting warming charms on themselves, but what should we do? Our family is saved by my mother's sweaters. She enchants them for warmth. What about Muggleborns and first-generation children? They're wearing Muggle clothes without enchantments. Harry is cold in his aunt's sweater and warm trousers. Harry is still in shock, Hagrid told him that the school is warm all year round. He said he would definitely buy magical warm clothes next summer. And a bandana, like I have for potions lessons. The hat is not too comfortable, it will eat into the eyes, it is hot from the boiler. And now the herbology lessons are the very thing. I was wearing a blue bandana with fire foxes, and Malfoy and Nott were wearing a green one with silver snakes.
The students had the worst time in Professor Snape's classes, which took place in the dungeon. Steam escaping from their mouths hung in the air like a white cloud, and the students, forgetting about burns and other dangers, tried to stay as close as possible to the bubbling cauldrons, almost clinging to them. Even the Slytherins in enchanted clothes were a little cold, but they, like me, tried not to get into the steam from the cauldron.
"I can't believe that someone will stay at school for the Christmas holidays because no one is waiting for them at home", Draco Malfoy said loudly in one of his potions classes. "Poor guys, I feel sorry for them..."
Malfoy was looking at Harry as he said these words. Crabbe and Goyle giggled loudly. After the memorable match in which Gryffindor won thanks to Harry, Malfoy became even more unbearable. Stung by his team's defeat, he tried to make everyone laugh with a joke he had come up with. The idea was that in the next game, instead of Harry, a tree frog would take the field, it had a wider mouth than Potter's, and therefore it would be an ideal seeker.
However, Malfoy quickly realized that his joke wasn't making anyone laugh. Harry may have caught the ball in a very peculiar way, but he caught it nonetheless. And, moreover, everyone was amazed that he managed to stay on the maddened broom. Malfoy, even more angry and burning with envy, returned to his proven tactics and continued to tease Harry, reminding him and others that he did not have a normal family. He also walked around my family a few times, but after I punched him in the face a couple of times, he calmed down. But Harry was embarrassed to hit the offender, apparently, and Malfoy did not let up. But at least Harry's mother was no longer called a mudblood, replacing this word with a bad Muggle-born. Especially after he got a detention from Snape, who heard a mudblood from him about Harry's mom.
A week ago, Professor McGonagall went through all the courses, making a list of students who would stay at school during the holidays, and I, like Harry, asked to be included in this list. My brothers were also going to stay at Hogwarts - our parents were going to Romania to visit their second son Charlie. Harry would have stayed for the summer, but it's forbidden, and he promised his aunt to help around the house in the summer. Should I invite him to join us? By the way, how did the Potters miss him, the heir after all. Although, according to rumors, they left the country during the civil war.
When we came out of the dungeon at the end of the lesson, we found that a huge fir tree had appeared in the corridor from nowhere. However, two giant feet poking out from behind the trunk and loud puffing told us that Hagrid had brought the fir here.
"Hey, Hagrid, do you need any help?" I asked, sticking my head between the branches.
"No, I'm fine, Ron... But thanks anyway," came a voice from behind the fir tree.
"Maybe you'd be so kind as to let me pass," someone drawled from behind. Of course, it could only be Malfoy.
"And you, Weasley, as I understand it, are trying to earn a little extra money? I assume you plan to stay here as a forester after graduation? After all, Hagrid's cabin is a real palace compared to your parents' house."
The bastard probably hasn't been punched in the face for a long time, we need to update our impressions. I jumped on Malfoy just as Snape appeared in the hallway.
"WEASLEY!"
I reluctantly walked away from Malfoy, who had already been punched in the nose. Goyle and Creb didn't even flinch. We're already used to figuring out our relationship with each other.
"He was provoked, Professor Snape", Hagrid explained, leaning out from behind a tree. "This Malfoy insulted his family, that's it!"
"Maybe, but in any case, fighting is forbidden by school rules, Hagrid." Snape said angrily. "Weasley, you're giving your house ten demerit points, and you can thank heaven it's not thirty. Come on ahead, there's no need to crowd here. Mr. Malfoy, come to me, I'll fix your nose."
Malfoy approached Professor Snape, and Crabbe and Goyle forcefully pushed past Hagrid and his fir, almost breaking several branches and strewing the floor with needles. And they left, grinning stupidly. Draco waited for his nose to straighten out and then followed them. By the way, when I fight with the little Malfoy, his friends usually pretend that they are not there. They don't like him. Although they're also from poor families who were just unlucky enough to be the Malfoys' squires. Although Slytherins love Draco because he helps children left without the support of families trapped in Azkaban or killed by Aurors in the civil war with the Dark Lord.
"I'll get him," I remarked, rubbing my fist, looking at Malfoy's retreating back and gnashing my teeth. "I'll challenge you to a duel with the use of fists this week and I'll get you, you idiot. He's looking for a fight on purpose, asshole. Noth doesn't want to fight him, but Crab and Goyle will take him down very quickly without magic."
"I hate them both," Harry confessed. "Both Malfoy and Snape. And what did my mom see in him? Aunt Petunia wrote that they had been friends since childhood, that's why he hates my father."
"Come on, guys, cheer up, Christmas is coming soon." Hagrid encouraged us. "I'll tell you what - come with me to the Great Hall, it's so beautiful there now, you'll rock!"
Harry, Hermione, and I followed Hagrid, who was dragging a fir tree, into the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were hanging Christmas decorations there. The hall looked awesome.
"Great, Hagrid, isn't that the last tree?" Professor McGonagall said when she saw the fir tree. "Please put it in the far corner, okay?"
The great hall looked amazing. There were at least a dozen towering fir trees in it: some glittered with unfused icicles, others shone with hundreds of candles attached to the branches. Traditional Christmas wreaths of white mistletoe and holly branches hung on the walls. That's how we started celebrating Muggle holidays four hundred years ago, for the purpose of mimicry with Muggles, and we celebrate. Muggleborns don't know much about magical holidays at all, and we usually celebrate them at home with our doors closed.
"How long do you have left before the holidays?" Hagrid asked.
"Just one day," said Hermione. "Yes, I remembered something. Harry, Ron, we have half an hour before lunch, we need to go to the library."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," I said, barely taking my eyes off Professor Flitwick, who was hanging emerald green balloons on a fir tree.
The professor was holding a magic wand, from which emerald balls appeared. Obeying Flitwick, they floated up and settled on the branches of the tree Hagrid had just brought. Can he change the color? And the size? I want to be able to do that too. Professor Flitwick waved his wand again, and a scattering of fiery red balls floated out of it, shimmering with flames. I'll have to go up and ask him how he does it. He's usually willing to share non-combat spells.
"To the library?" Hagrid asked, coming out of the hall with us. "Before the holidays? You're really smart..."
"No, it has nothing to do with classes", Harry said with a smile. "Ever since you mentioned Nicholas Flamel's name, we've been trying to find out who he is."
At the same time, we read everything in a row. I usually take books about combat magic or herbology. Although sometimes, for the sake of interest, I also look through transfiguration potions.
"what?" Hagrid was shocked. "Uh... listen up, I told you to stay out of this, right!" You don't care what Fluffy guards there, or anything!"
"We just want to find out who Nicholas Flamel is, that's all", Hermione explained.
Damn, Hermione and I stood right under the mistletoe wreath. I remembered an old belief and pulled the girl to me. Then he kissed her.
"Ron, what are you doing?" Hermione stared at me in shock.
"There is a belief that it is not worth going out together without a kiss from under the mistletoe, there will be no luck all year."
"That's some kind of nonsense." Hermione muttered to herself.
"Hagrid, why don't you tell us yourself so we don't waste time?" Harry added. "We've already looked through hundreds of books, but we haven't found anything. Can you at least give us a hint of where to read about him? By the way, I've heard that name before, even before you said it..."
"I'm not telling you anything," said Hagrid gloomily.
"So we'll have to find out for ourselves." I concluded, and we parted with a visibly annoyed Hagrid and hurried to the library.
Ever since the day Hagrid mentioned Flamel's name, we've actually looked through a bunch of books in search of him. How else could we find out what Snape was trying to steal? The problem was that we had no idea where to start, and we didn't know what Flamel had become famous for to get into the book. He was not mentioned in the "Great Magicians of the twentieth Century", nor in the "Outstanding Names of Our Era", as well as in the "Important magical Discoveries of recent Times" and "New Directions of magical Sciences". Another problem was the sheer size of the library - thousands of shelves stretched into hundreds of rows, and there were tens of thousands of volumes on them.
Hermione pulled out a list of books from her pocket that she planned to look through, and I walked along the rows, stopping from time to time, randomly pulling out a book on topics of interest to me and starting to leaf through it. Harry wandered off towards the Special Section.
Unfortunately, in order to get into this section, it was necessary to have a permit signed by one of the teachers. No one will give him such permission. And he probably wouldn't have been able to come up with anything very convincing. They're going to kick him out, damn it.
In addition, the books stored in this section were not intended for first-year students at all. These books are dedicated to the higher branches of Dark Magic that were not studied in school. So access to them was open only to teachers and even undergraduates who chose protection from the Dark Forces as their specialization.
Harry apologetically talked to Madame Pince and left the library. We decided a long time ago that we would not contact her with the question of where to find information about Flamel. We were sure she knew the answer. But we didn't want to take any chances - Snape might be nearby, and he shouldn't have known what we were interested in. Or the librarian could share her observations of the students with the teachers.
We had been trying to find something for two weeks now, but there was no free time, except for the occasional free minute between classes, so it was hardly surprising that we didn't find anything. All we needed was a few hours in the library, and always in the absence of Madame Pince, so that she would not look closely at what we were doing.
As I thought, Pince noticed Harry at the restricted section and kicked him out of the library. Okay, he's not here either. He put the volume back in its place. Hermione quickly flipped through the collected books.
Five minutes later, we left the library, immediately shaking our heads at the sight of Harry. And they all went to lunch together.
"You're going to keep looking for me when I go on vacation, aren't you?" Hermione asked hopefully. "And if you find something, send me an owl right away."
"By the way, you might as well ask your parents if they know who this Flamel is," I said. "They're the parents, so there's no risk..." I would also ask if I had my own owl. Should I take a school card?
"Absolutely nothing," Hermione agreed. "Especially considering that my parents are dentists..."
***
When the holidays finally started, Harry and I were having too much fun to think about Flamel. There were only two of us left in the bedroom, and there were far fewer people in the common room than there had been during school. That's why we pulled chairs as close to the fireplace as possible and sat there for hours, stringing slices of bread, tortillas and marshmallows brought from the Great Hall onto a long metal fork, toasting them over an open fire and eating with gusto.
Of course, we didn't stop talking for a second, even with our mouths full, because we had a lot to talk about. The main topic, of course, was Malfoy. We came up with dozens of plans to frame Malfoy and get him expelled from school. And it didn't matter that these plans were clearly unfeasible, it was still nice to talk about it.
We also played magic chess, which I started teaching Harry back in the fall. It was practically the same chess that Muggles played. The only difference was that the figures were alive, and the player felt like a commander directing his troops at the enemy. My chess set was new and had well-tuned small golems. And with full terrain control on the board. Aunt Muriel gave them to me after I learned how to play my grandfather's set properly. I've never had any problems getting the figures to do what I want.
Harry was playing with the action figures that Seamus Finnigan had lent him, and they obeyed him very badly, completely distrusting the temporary owner. In addition, Harry was not a very good player, and the figures constantly gave him advice, confusing him:
"Don't send me there, don't you see the enemy horse? Better send that one over there, his loss won't make any difference."
Unfortunately, my friend listened to the advice of the figures and everyone around him. Unsurprisingly, he blew a huge bill. Besides, even though I explained to him how to control the pieces, it's quite difficult to do this with someone else's chess. They get attached to a particular host and don't want to listen to others.
On Christmas Eve, I went to bed looking forward to a festive breakfast and fun. In the morning, I was woken up by Harry, who noticed the boxes and bundles by his bed.
"Good morning," I said sleepily as Harry got out of bed and threw a robe over his pajamas.
"Same to you," Harry replied automatically, staring at what lay by his bed. "Look at that - these are gifts!"
"I thought they were pumpkins." I joked, hanging off my bed. She had more presents than Harry. Considering how many relatives I have in the magical world, this is not surprising. I quickly looked through my pile, keeping an eye on my friend.
This is another burgundy sweater from Mom and sweets. It's from Aunt Muriel, she knows I like chocolate. It's from Hermione. Sugar-free, of course. It's from Grandma Lucrezia. I lovingly stroked the fabric of the brand-new warm trousers. It's from the brothers. I doubtfully put the gift away from Fred and George. Last winter, I went blue for half a day. Bill sent me a silver-plated dagger and a book with a manual for it. Charlie has a dragon figurine. And Ginny's just a postcard. Well, Dad sent me an enchanted cassette player with a couple of cassettes with songs by strange sisters.
I wrote to him that I liked Harry's player and I would like to have one for myself. And Dad, after he enchanted Harry's player, began to enchant players for sale to Muggleborn magicians. A large smoked pork ham.
Harry quickly unpacked the top package. The gift was wrapped in thick brown wrapping paper. There was a rough-hewn flute inside - most likely, Hagrid had carved it out of wood himself. He likes to carve wood and then sell his crafts in Hogsmeade. Harry brought it to his lips and extracted from it a sound similar to the hooting of an owl.
The next gift was in a gift box with a bow and was a piece of thick paper. Harry shook out two pairs of warm knitted socks from the box. Some are burgundy, and the second is golden yellow.
"Nice to meet you," Harry commented. "she knitted me socks anyway."
"who"?
"My Aunt Petunia. She asked me to write if it was cold at school, saying she would knit me socks."
"Cool, she's just like our mom."
"They're just right for winter boots, they're a little too big for me. I wonder who else could have sent me a gift besides the Dursleys and Hagrid?"
"I think I know who it's from." I blushed slightly, pointing at the bulky package-It's from my mom. I wrote to her that there would be no one to give you a gift..."
I got a lot of red paint, after all, it's a homemade sweater and all that.
"Oh-Oh-Oh," I moaned. "I wish I'd thought of that before. She knitted you a Weasley branded sweater..."
Harry tore open the package, revealing inside a thick, hand-knitted emerald green sweater and a large box of homemade sweets.
"She knits sweaters for all of us every year for Christmas." I muttered unhappily, unwrapping a gift from my mother. "And I always get the maroon one."
And I look like a tomato with my hair in it. Although aurors generally wear scarlet robes.
"Your mom is just great," Harry remarked, tasting the sweets, which were, of course, very tasty. Mom is generally good at baking.
The next gift was also sweet, a large box of chocolate frogs sent by Hermione.
Then Harry discovered my chocolate. And he took a bite. Well, yes, milk chocolate with nuts in the Sweet Kingdom is delicious. Even people from other villages come there to buy sweets.
I rummaged through my pile of gifts, and found a box of delicious nuts from Harry.
There was one more bundle left. Harry picked him up from the floor. He slowly unwrapped it. Something airy, silver-gray fell out of the bundle and, with a rustle, gently landed on the floor, glistening with folds. I opened my mouth wide in amazement.
Wow. This is...
"I've heard of it," I said in a strangled voice, dropping the box of mints Hermione had sent on the floor without even noticing it. "If this is what I think it is, it is a very rare thing, and very valuable."
"And what is it?"
Harry picked up a shiny silver cloth from the floor. It felt very strange to the touch, as if it was partially made up of water.
"It's an invisibility cloak," I whispered in awe. "I have no doubt that this is her, try it yourself. Put it on."
Harry draped the cloak over his shoulders.
"It's her!" I yelled. "Look down!"
Harry followed my advice and did not see his own feet. He darted like lightning to the mirror. His face was still there, of course, but it was floating in the air because his body was completely missing. Harry pulled his robes over his head, and his reflection disappeared completely.
"Look, there's a note!" I called out to him. "A note fell out of it!"
Harry took off his robes and picked up a piece of paper from the floor. The writing on it was done in a very small handwriting with curlicues, something I had never seen before.
Harry was studying a strange note written by someone unknown, and I was still admiring the robes.
"Yes, I'd give a lot for one," I confessed. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Harry shook his head.
Before he could say anything, the bedroom door burst open and Fred and George burst in. Harry quickly hid his robes under the covers.
"Merry Christmas!" Fred shouted from the doorway.
"Hey, look!" George exclaimed, turning to his brother. "Harry also got a Weasley branded sweater!"
Fred and George were wearing brand-new blue sweaters, one with a large yellow letter "F" embroidered on it, the other with a letter "J" of the same color and size.
"By the way, Harry's sweater looks better than ours." Fred admitted, turning the gift Harry had received from our mom over in his hands. "He's not a family member, so she knitted him much harder."
"Why aren't you wearing your sweater, Ron?" George protested "Come on, they're not only beautiful, they're also very warm."
"I hate burgundy," I moaned, pulling on my sweater. "I'm like a tomato in it."
"Come on, cherry. Look, George, he's got a sword and a shield, like some kind of knight."
"And there are no letters on it," George chuckled, looking at me. "I guess she thinks you won't forget your name. And we're not stupid either-we know very well that our names are Dread and Forge."
The twins burst out laughing, pleased with the joke.
"What's all that noise?"
Another red head poked through the door, Percy's, and he didn't look too happy. Apparently, he had already managed to open his gifts, at least partially, because he was holding a rough-knit sweater in his hands, which Fred immediately snatched from him.
"Yeah. The letter "P" is here, that is, the prefect. Come on, Percy, put it on - we've all already put ours on, and so has Harry."
"I... don't... I want to," I heard Percy's hoarse voice, as the twins had already pulled a sweater over his head, knocking off his glasses.
"And remember, you won't be sitting with the elders at breakfast today, but with us." Instructive, George added. "Christmas is a family holiday."
The twins pulled a sweater over him, so that his arms did not get into the sleeves, but were pressed against his body. And, grabbing my older brother by the scruff of the neck, we pushed him out of our bedroom.