Chapter 37 - 37- Christmas

Neville's pov

Neville couldn't say he was excited, after all being with his grandmother Christmas was kind of a nightmare.

It all started when he got down from the train.

You would think that is a grandmother who hasn't seen her her grandchild she would hug him and be interested in him.

But no, as a pure blooded lady she had standards, you couldn't expect her to care! You should expect her to be rigid and cool.

So instead, she made sure as soon as they reached home by flu she started yelling at him for not doing as good as she expected of him in school. Something that was ridiculous as he was one of the top 10 in theory in his year as he was Hermione's best friend, it's for practical he really didn't know why he had such a hard time to succeed. But he would figure it out, After all he had the smartest which of their generation as his best friend.

Marcus's pov

Marcus was really happy to come home, he could finally talk with his parents about his year, and all the adventures he had.

The flying lesson debacle, The Midnight duel, The three headed dog, The Halloween troll and The Quidditch incident.

His father was proud of him, feeling as if he and his friends were the next generation of the marauders, while his mother was less excited about the dangers he had to face in school, he really couldn't understand why though, after all, isn't he the hero of the Wizarding world?

Then his mother asked the question he have been waiting for arrived. "What about Harry? Do you know where he's celebrating Christmas?"

"No mom, I would never be friends with a slimy snake, especially one who is so hated that he has no friends even in Slytherin, even Hermione and Neville stoped being friends with him when they saw his real face."

"Ok," dad said "lets stop talking about depressing subjects. I have something to give you, I know it's not Christmas yet, but I have a traditional gift to give you, something every father gave his oldest son in the Potter family for centuries in his first Christmas in school." He pulled a wrapped box and gave it to Marcus. "The Potter family's invisibility cloak, a cloak that make you become invisible to any one and that no one can find you or it unless he is of the Potter blood."

As anyone would be, the invisibility cloak really exited Marcus.

"That's awesome, is this the cloak you used with your friends to sneak and prank people? This is the best gift ever!"

After that the Potter family continued having a great Christmas.

Harry's pov

It was Christmas Day and Harry didn't get a single gift. While he didn't expect much from anyone, he thought at least Hermione and Neville would bring him something, after all, he got them gifts- he sent Hermione a 2 galleon's ticket for Flourish and Blotts which can get her about 13 books and Neville got a ticket for a new wand at Ollivanders, which costs 7 galleons but apparently they weren't friends anymore, no biggie. So instead of being depressed, Harry did what he always did, he fully focused on his task- learning everything he can. Something which wasn't that hard, as there were no students in the library.

Right now he took a break from studying curses, something that became super boring as instead of intent it worked on wand movements and actively saying a nonsense word and was studying rituals of Yule, as after thinking much about that he realized that he might miss an important date for a ritual that can bring him a lot of benefits but after searching the ROR and library he couldn't find a single mention about rituals which meant someone removed the books in the library as there was no way otherwise that no books were made about rituals. But if there was one thing Harry wasn't is a quitter, so he took a book from one of the history shelfs and started looking for references about rituals and holidays

Three hours later

Harry was disappointed yet exited, on one hand he found lots of references about rituals and holidays but not one reference had both of them. On the other he found something very interesting about a certain magical artifact. 'In 673 BC, the sorceress Diana Marcelo created a multipurpose devise and became one of the most renowned magical artifact's creators known to the magical kind and the creator of the first mind defense magical art, something which would be refined later to the magical art known as occlumency. And while there are plenty of dangerous magical artifacts, non is more deadly yet useful then her creation the mirror of Erised, as an artifact used to better her mind defenses was also used to trap the mind and soul of the creator's enemies, as the enemies didn't have mind defenses, the mirror enthralled her enemies by showing them the thing they want most and planting the obsession to keep looking. In fact, the mirror can also be used to hide things inside that only specific person could bring out as the mirror can confirm your thoughts to make sure you are truly him."

This made Harry realize Dumbledore's plan, by making sure only Marcus can bring out the philosopher's stone and bullshiting the hell when asked how it was possible he makes sure Marcus is always sure in himself, his friends believe in him and that Marcus trust Dumbledore even more. All of the above were fine by Harry, as long as he gets to study the philosopher's stone - an alchemical masterpiece, which meant getting the stone before Dumbledore can destroy it and make sure if it's the real one, as even though the books said it's real Harry found it hard to believe, why would a wizard who created a masterpiece like that and lived for centuries need help with guarding his most famous creation, (not best as he lived for centuries!! he must have done something in that time.) to creat a safe guard when he could just have his wife create a fidelius charm around a place and make him the secret keeper thus having a foolproof defense for his possession. No it is ether a fake stone or Dumbledore managed to steal the stone/kill his mentor, and Harry wasn't willing to take chances about whether it's real or not, which meant either coming up with a plan to steal it before Quirrell managed to get past the dog or waiting there and stealing the stone after Voldemort leaves, yet before Dumbledore comes, and after reading about the mirror, he was leaning more for the second option...