CH 14

Yule Vacation – II

December 26

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

The morning of the Malfoy's Yule Ball saw Harry Potter walking through the entrance of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry along with his two acknowledged parental units, namely Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. He wasn't too happy about being there at this point in time. His only consolation was the fact that he'd be going to a party where he could take out some of his frustration on the dark witches and wizards that were sure to piss him off with their poor attitude about who was in their social circle. He loved the fact that he would have the chance to play some mind games with those of the older generation.

He definitely had learned how to hex and jinx silently without casting movements. All he needed was to have his wand strapped to his arm to boost the power of his spells or to at least control that power. Although he was quite certain that the others would know what to look for so he supposed he'd have to really control his actions or at least his outward emotions.

"Do I have to go," Harry had asked that morning at breakfast.

Sirius had paused and then said, "No."

"But," Harry prompted knowing that there was more to that answer. There had to be a reason behind going to Hogwarts on that particular day.

"But…he'll continue to hound us about it and you are returning to school several days earlier, so we had to plan things accordingly," Remus replied. "It's also best to give him this small thing and then make a point of reinforcing to him the reasons for your refusal to attend his school. He may need to have you do it person. I do not know why he's being persistent in the matter since he hasn't persisted with any other student that refused to go to Hogwarts."

"He doesn't know why I declined," Harry asked. "I was sure that my letter to the Duty Headmistress was clear and I thought the Board of Governors had already mentioned something about it."

"Unfortunately they didn't believe me the first time around either," Sirius sighed. "Had to go with plan B and show them the differences in the school lists before they understood the gravity of this situation."

"You did wipe out the school's letterhead logo before doing that," Harry asked. "Right?"

"I tried," Sirius told him with a sheepish shrug.

Remus held his hand up to stall the boy's protest. "The parchment was magically marked. True letterhead paper cannot be forged or completely wiped clean of the logos. It prevents fraud."

"Fine then," Harry said after he'd thought about that and then shrugged. He quickly calculated that it was better for the members of the board to know where he was as they can also check up on the school's standing from an international perspective against that of Hogwarts much more quickly.

"Nothing else to say about this," Sirius asked.

Harry shook his head and then asked, "So how long do we have to be there?"

"We're leaving in an hour, we'll stay for lunch and then leave after," Remus told him. "I don't believe that the Headmaster will be escorting you around personally, he may just appoint that to whatever students that remained behind during the holidays."

"Usually there's about fifteen to twenty students that remain at school," Sirius told him. "It'll probably be a first or second year student that shows you around the school."

Harry paused and remembered that the Weasleys were going to be there, along with a few others. He doubted that there would be many Slytherins as they tended to go home for social obligations unless their parents left the country for some lengthy social affair or other.

"Should I bring my broom," Harry asked. "Do you think I can go flying on their pitch in order to take a break from the tour if I need it?"

Sirius barked out a laugh, knowing that his godson was eager to fly the broom he'd received for Christmas from the two men. They'd joined funds together to buy him the new Nimbus 2000 and a complete set of Quidditch balls with two practice snitches that were guaranteed to be called back to their owner's hands when it was time to stop a practice.

"Bring it with you in your pocket," Sirius told him.

"Make sure that you bring your winter cloak, boots and gloves," Remus reminded him. The boy nodded and quickly finished up his breakfast before running to his room to pack up emergency supplies.

Actually he'd planned something from memory. He sort of recalled who the students were that had remained behind when he was there as a first year the first time around and sort of knew that they were all from the less wealthy families. So he planned to hand them pre-packaged gift boxes or bags with the general basic necessities needed by an average student.

For this Yule Season he thought of something different for whenever they had holiday visitors, he'd wanted the guests to leave with a party favour. It was kind of a tradition for muggle kid parties, but in this case he sort planned that in the floo and apparition room that there would be two large colourful baskets of packages in various sizes on either side of the fireplace. All were wrapped in plain brown paper with a simple ribbon of white, red or green.

Each package potentially contained one of the following: a seasonal coloured set of mittens or set of gloves or a long scarf, a set of ball pens with in very bright seasonal colours with a new small five by seven black papered book that would allow for the new white ink to be used, a small three book box set which included 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens and the full 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' story and history of its origins plus one random magical Yule book either about the Yuletide magical tradition or another book that may contain a small Yule time magical story. The packages could also contain anything else like various Christmas or Yuletide knickknacks for adults and for kids. In fact the kid ones were in the colourful basket on the right side and the adult 'gift bags' or packages were in the colourful basket on the left side of the floo.

The Scalvini twins had loved the idea and the gifts they received after their evening party had ended. Tsaran received the boxed set of books with the slightly in-depth history of the magical Yuletide tradition and Magda received a do-it-yourself kit of beads to make her own set of bracelets and necklaces all in traditional muggle Christmas colours. Both appreciated the thought that went into ensuring that all the gifts by the floo were different enough or somehow magically ensured that no one from the same family received the same thing.

So before going to Hogwarts Harry had planned to bring something similar to those students that stayed behind at school and for the teachers too. He'd had his house-elves make warm, long woolen scarves, floppy woolen wizard hats with ear flaps and gloves in an off-white colour so that way there would be no complaints about receiving some prominent House colour. As students they could change the colour by using a colour charm and the wool was made to receive those colours only a few times before it remained in the last colour it had been changed to. He made sure that notes about the colour change limit were included with them.

He purchased a small ball pen set that contained extra cartridges of blue and black ink for each student. A set of those three Christmas books were added to the purple gift pouches packaged in a plain brown box which contained the gifts for the students including a Latin to English dictionary. The packages for the Professors did not receive student books.

The student also included a good, mid-value blank, leather bound parchment journal book with a 3G (galleon) book voucher for the Flourish & Blotts' bookshop in Diagon Alley and their sister store in Hogsmeade that prided itself on never selling any book for more than 2G. It was a used book shop called 'Ye Olde Scroll' that held the main stores older inventory. This store had a quaint small side patio type entrance and the storefront was just one block down from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. (…i…)

He knew all the teacher's specialities so he'd charmed the bags to find the appropriate Professor's office because in their pouches he'd included a magazine related to each of their specialty or else he'd provided them with a muggle paper puzzle book that he'd converted to thin, flat hard cover versions using his mother's charm spell. He was sure that the Arithmancy and Runes Professors might enjoy the logic and math puzzles presented.

Each bag to everyone would contain a personal note from him explaining that the items were part of a Yuletide tradition where he had wanted to impart each person with a gift whenever they left his residence and that these items were leftovers from his assembly of gifts. (…ii…) He privately hoped that no one would believe that he was giving them the gifts as some form of charity. He thought that it would be fine as long as they believed that the items were only leftover party favours rather than purposely made.

Harry had prepared about forty of those purple things packed in plain brown wrapped boxes since he didn't know who had remained at the school and who would be called back in order to play guide to his truant self. He suspected that it would be a particular pair of Gryffindors and no one else. He doubted that any other House would be presented to him during his supposed 'tour' of the school.

Harry - James - Potter

"Ah, young Harry it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Headmaster Dumbledore laid out his grandfatherly persona quite thickly that even the two young Gryffindors in the room had looked at him funny.

Harry frowned at the old man and asked, "Do I know you? I don't think we've ever been properly introduced. Why are you acting so familiar with me?"

"Harry," Remus chastised softly. "Manners," he said and received a small nod of acknowledgement.

There was a semi-long pause when the old man held out a tin of sweets and said, "Lemon drop." It was quickly put away when the Boy-Who-Lived made a face of distaste at the items and shook his head vigorously. "I was a favourite mentor of your father's," the old man said. "I had visited your parents when you were just a baby too. You may address me as Headmaster."

"Very well," Harry said. "You may address me as Mister Potter or Heir Potter until I take up my duties and responsibilities as Lord Potter."

"As you like," Albus replied blandly as though it wasn't what he'd expected. He really should have, but then again the boy shouldn't have known anything about his position or finances in their world either. He looked to the two men in the room and wondered just how much the boy had been told.

'I expressly told them not to contact the boy or mention anything about magic to him. Sirius should have remained behind bars for much longer, Amelia surprised me and many others when she investigated the issue,' he thought. 'I'm going to have to find out just what they've told him.'

Instead he pointed to the two students in the background and said, "Mr. Potter I'd like to introduce you to your fellow future classmates, Miss Hermione Granger and Mister Ronald Weasley. They volunteered to guide you around the school before lunch begins."

'Volunteered, yah right,' Harry thought with his eyebrows rising up. 'Future classmates maybe, but don't expect anything this scholastic year you old goat and nothing about Gryffindor House either.'

"Just call me Hermione," the girl replied. "Come on let's leave the adults to talk." She tried to loop her arm around his, but he just side-stepped out of the way and trotted back down the stairs to the entrance of the office ahead of them.

"Yes let's go see this place," Harry called out excitedly as he stuffed his hands in his pockets to walk about the halls of the school in a casual manner. He needed to put on a dumb expression of eagerness, but there was still something in him that loved the old building, just not enough to attend while the course requirements were much too low to compete internationally.

He was doing this for all those that had been ignored, like Neville who could have participated in an international Herbology study. It was a competition that usually included every school until Hogwarts no longer met the minimum level required to participate despite having brilliant students.

"I don't know that I'm going to like him," Ron muttered to the girl as they walked down the stairs to join Harry.

"You just have to hold out for a bit," Hermione said. "If we can convince him to come to Hogwarts for January we'll be paid more."

Ron looked at the girl's calculating eyes and he knew that there was something in them that he just didn't like, but shrugged it off. She'd had a hard time of it since starting school because she was always lording over everyone in her year that she was smarter than them. Sure she learned book things more quickly, but it wasn't like she had any real friends because no one liked to be told that they were stupid or ignorant.

"Are you guys coming or do I have to start wandering about on my own," Harry called back up the stairs.

"Let's just go show Miracle Wonder down there around for a bit," Ron said. "If he's a too much of a prat we can ditch him and go hide in the library or something." He bribed the girl who nodded vigorously at his plans. She was eager to get back to the library since she hadn't been permitted to take any books home with her for the Yule Holidays which she insisted it be called Christmas ignoring the fact that others in their House might follow different holiday traditions or none at all.

"Maybe he'll get lost and then we won't have to put with him for too long," Hermione agreed with a skip in her step. She was still angry that the Headmaster had interrupted her personal family Christmas in order to get her to play host to a boy she was supposed to have gotten to know long before now.

Meanwhile back in the Headmaster's office the old man was having a devil of a time trying to convince the two men that Harry Potter should return to Hogwarts for the 'Greater Good' and to allow the children that would technically become his peers to get to know him.

It was truly unfortunate for the old man that the two men came with files of figures and folders full of statistics as well as the student shopping list that Harry had received from Durmstrang. Sirius pointed out that the Board of Governors has already been presented with those same items. He'd even given a full set to Minerva McGonagall to distribute to the Heads of Houses for review when they'd walked through the corridors of the school on their way up to the old man's office. He hadn't mentioned that to Albus in case she took it into her head to share that information with her Fellows before the next staff meeting.

Dumbledore had nearly choked on his lemon drop, but he gamely looked at the student list first since it had been referenced as one of the boy's main reasons for not coming to Hogwarts.

Harry - James - Potter

Harry smirked when he noticed the two first year Gryffindors whispering behind his back. He didn't know where they thought he'd gone to school, but he knew how to listen to anyone who whispered behind his back with a very simple listening charm. He had paused a few times while staring at paintings and portraits on purpose for seemingly long periods of time in order to overhear what they were saying about him. It was also a good plan to give them some kind of good reason enough to escape his presence.

He eventually decided against going flying as the weather was kind of stormy outside. He didn't want to lose his new broom in it either. Now he just had to ditch the two money-grubbing idiots that he'd been saddled with. At least it wasn't his money that was paying for their spying this time around since he'd already blocked all of Dumbledore's attempts at monetary control by being magically emancipated.

He paused again to stare at another portrait when he suddenly was inspired to ask, "So why did you two volunteer to show me around the school? Why didn't either of you go home for the holidays?"

"Parents went to visit my brother Charlie in Romania this year," Ron told him grumpily.

"I did go home and will be going back this afternoon," Hermione said. "I just came to lend a helping hand."

"Had nothing better to do either," Ron told him with a wide-mouthed yawn that Hermione frowned at. "Figured it's best for you to get to know people that'll be in your House when you get transferred to our school come this January."

"I'm not going to be transferring schools," Harry told them in an incredulous tone of voice. He paused for a length of time in order to allow them to absorb what he'd told them and then continued. "…and why in hell would I want to be placed in Gryffindor?"

"Weren't your parents in Gryffindor," Hermione asked in a pointed tone. "And watch your language!"

Harry rolled his eyes at the girl for chastising him. Then he shrugged and asked with a snort, "What's their choice of placement got to do with me?"

They couldn't think of a reason to argue for placement in Gryffindor and figured that the hat would just sort him there anyway. They were already aware of the Headmaster's plan.

"Why wouldn't you transfer to this school," Hermione asked as soon as she realized that he just told them that he wasn't going to come to their school. "It's got everything you need to complete a proper magical education."

"Does it really," Harry asked in a tone that made them both think that there was something wrong with him. He just walked down another corridor and asked a leading question, "So how do are you finding your first year of Runes then? Quite the challenging class isn't it? I like it. I'm just glad that it's a paired class with Introductory Rituals and a bit Magical History too. What are your favourite classes?"

"Runes are third year classes," Ron said and had received a questioning look from Hermione. "What? Percy's told us about it and I think the twins are taking it this year. They believe it'll help with their pranks or something."

"What are you talking about," Hermione turned and asked Harry. "We don't have Rituals at Hogwarts nor Runes in first year."

"You don't," Harry gave them a confused look. "But I thought all schools had them for first year? I was sure that I read that they had them in the Academie de Beauxbatons in France and the Salem Institute in the Unites States too." He grinned when he heard Hermione's gasp and Ron's choking stutter. He ignored their questions about where he was going to school by telling them that he'd taken an oath to protect his current school. "I'm also partial to the Classical Literature class in their original languages, for first years it's done Latin. It's actually pretty interesting to interpret our assigned texts and have to translate them properly. What about you two?"

"We don't have that kind of class," Hermione scowled. It was like he was shoving the fact that he was learning more at his other school. 'Why don't we have Classical Literature or some kind of Latin Class to increase our understanding of what we are being taught here? I'm going to speak to Dumbledore about this. It's not fair.'

Harry then kept walking around and staring at things until his two escorts had become fed up with his pointed remarks questioning the workings of their chosen school. He questioned them on classes that were obviously not available to them. He compared the subpar type of instructions or classwork that they were getting since they weren't even expected to gather their own ingredients for potions like his fellow first year classmates.

They'd been walking down the second floor corridor at a point that was familiar to the Boy-Who-Lived, but that's when they let him continue on his way while they trailed far enough behind that they eventually walked away in another direction and headed towards the library that they'd yet to lead him to.

Harry had smirked again at being left behind. This time he turned quickly into the girl's loo. It was one that he was quite familiar with and knew that it was not occupied at all save for the toilette ghost known as Moaning Myrtle.

"You can't be in here," she came out shrieking. "You're a boy."

"Oh, hello," Harry said acting a bit dumb.

"You can't fool me. I was watching you in the Halls. You came in here on purpose," Myrtle said. "Why are you here?"

"Sorry, but I needed to get away from those two," Harry replied sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "They were giving me a headache."

"Oh," Myrtle stated. She looked around and then said, "I died here, you know."

"At the school," Harry asked. "Or in this loo?"

"In this very room," she replied with a convincingly haunting ghostly tone and then a giggle.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he answered honestly.

Myrtle shrugged and said, "It's no matter. I was confined here after the Ministry made me quit haunting Olive Hornby. I blamed her for my death since I wouldn't have been in here to die that day when she'd made fun of me."

Harry nodded and observed, "Children are often cruel when they're jealous or feel that they are inadequate in some way."

"You've got that right," Myrtle said crossed her arms and then she yawned. "I'm going to sleep in my U-bend now." She dove into the far toilette stall and splashed the water out of the bowl to try and flood the room.

"Sleep well then," Harry muttered. He immediately focussed his attention on 'THE' sink. The one from his future, the one from his past future and he noted that the mark was still there. The small image of an inlayed, etched snake and he hissed at it.

(…Logamuti ex OPEN ut HARRISON Logaclusu Obfirmin…) The hissed words changed the old password from 'Open' to 'Harrison'. He just made sure that if anyone had gotten a hold of Tom Riddle's diary the spirit within would not be able to access the Chamber of Secrets and that the spirit wouldn't be able to figure out the new password either. In fact there was the chance that if the Horcrux diary was given to a student then the spiritual possession may be discovered that much sooner, if the spirit couldn't do as it had originally planned. (…iii…)

"I hope this works," Harry mumbled before leaving the loo. He made sure that no one had observed him, since his proximity and facial obscuring charms were in place as soon as Myrtle had returned to her preferred U-bend. His red Durmstrang robe-cloak combo would also confused people or more likely portraits into thinking that he was one of the random Gryffindors still in the school.

He walked down the corridor to a narrow set of stairs that he was very familiar with. He knew where the mirror had been stored during the holidays in his past timeline, but he had to make sure that his wandering only led him there by chance this time around. The portraits were observing his movements and he wasn't dressed in the traditional Hogwarts robes either. So he couldn't take the direct route or else it would be too suspicious.

It had taken him about three months of studying the Philosopher Stone from his memories in a pensieve when he'd taken the time. It was after meeting up with Remus and in between his other projects that he came up with an audacious idea. He needed to recreate it, but before he did that he had to study images of it. He needed to recall the size and weight of it. He needed the fake to be a near perfect copy so that any minor modifications could be done on site if he ever managed to get his hands on the real thing.

He wasn't sure, but he'd suspected that the Headmaster in his original timeline had been using the stone selfishly and had told his old friend 'Flamel' that it had been destroyed when it actually hadn't been. Sure the old Headmaster had told him that his 'old friend' had agreed to the destruction of it. After everything that had happened to him personally he truly wondered if the stone had been gone for good or gone for just enough time to ensure that the ancient alchemist and his wife passed away.

Harry met a few ghosts and a couple of the other students in the school. A few were from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. There'd only been one or two Slytherins, but they'd avoided him when they saw his scar and red cloak, thinking he'd already been sorted into Gryffindor. So much for the power of Slytherin observation plus it seemed like they didn't want to cause a commotion at the school. They were more eager to go write to their friends and family about him having shown up at the school, proof positive that he was still alive.

Eventually he found the same old room that contained the Mirror of Erised. He was curious about what he'd see this time around, but then again he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He did a quiet, wandless sensory charm to let him know if the room was being visually monitored or if there was something else tracking who entered and left the room.

"Finally," he mumbled softly when the charm came back with the fact that only the door had something on it that notified a Professor or the Headmaster that someone was in the room with the dangerous artifact. But as long as he kept the duration there brief, he should technically have no one coming to fetch or disturb him. There were no other charms or listening devices and there were no portraits or sculptures in the room either.

"Let's see just what you'll show me." He paused to wonder, after he stepped into the room, 'Do I have any desires other than what I've already put in motion?

Harry walked up to the mirror and watched as some of his future memories were exposed and then the mirror re-focussed on his immediate, living self. He noticed how the mirror showed him as an adult with another person in the picture and this time it was some faceless male that had wrapped his arms around his shoulders to comfort him. Both he and the unknown person were wearing identical rings on their left hand fingers.

He smiled softly at that long ago dream that had been destroyed by some magical marital contract. His life would have been a nightmare. Now it looked like he was permitted some form of hope that it would turn out all right. He watched as the image changed and included pictures of his mother and father and suddenly Sirius and Remus were with them. His parents were smiling, the Remus in the mirror waved at him and Sirius cheered, clapping his hands.

He then closed his eyes to keep that image in mind before his thoughts turned to the Philosopher's Stone. He then opened his eyes and saw the image he remembered from the final chamber of the obstacle course or magical gauntlet that he and his then two best friends had participated in. It was nearly the same. He saw himself as he was dressed now and with a cheeky wink the stone was placed in his pants pocket.

Harry grinned. He touched the stone in his right pocket feeling all of the facets and imperfections of it and mapped it them out the fake stone in his other pocket. He then lifted the fake one from his pants pocket and touched it to the mirror. He gathered his adult magic silently and replaced the Headmaster's original spell on the fake stone to get it to enter the mirror once more including the conditions for its removal.

'They had to want it, but not use it,' the Headmaster had told him long ago.

The fake red stone touched the surface of the mirror. The mirror rippled and absorbed the stone slowly until it eventually disappeared. He watched as his image lifted the stone from his pocket, the image nodded to him as though to say that it would look after the fake or else the nod was to acknowledge that the fake was a fake. The image did have a more Slytherin looking smirk rather than his usual honest, somewhat innocent smile. However the mirror was now clearly just reflecting Harry's existing grin right back at him.

Harry had managed to catch up to and follow the two first year Gryffindors that had been assigned to show him around the school. He knew that they didn't know that he'd snuck upon them as they both were startled when he said, "Well I guess the next time I visit we'll be able to go see the library. I am curious about the kind of potions references that you have available here."

"You like potions," Ron asked incredulously in a horrified tone. He did it to make it seem like they'd been together this whole time, but a couple of the more sneaky teachers and the two parental figures that had arrived with Harry knew differently. The Headmaster hadn't been paying attention though which was something of a relief to the boy.

"Of course I do," Harry replied with a soft snort and pointed, questioning look. "I did pass the potions N.E.W.T. after all. To imply that I didn't would be to accuse the WEA of falsifying their records and they would never do something like that since it would call into question their very integrity as an authoritative testing body for our government." He sat down in the seat between Remus and Sirius that they'd kept open for him, knowing that he might have wanted to get away from the other two children. "It would also call into question the validity of all the examinations that they're responsible for. I for one am very glad that they are not politically corruptible."

"Well said," one of the red-headed twins sitting across from him said. "I'm Fred Weasley the handsome one."

"Oi," the other twin replied and shoved his twin. "If you're handsome then what am I?"

"An idiot," Fred replied and jerked his thumb in his brother's direction telling their visitor, "That's George by the way."

Harry grinned at the two of them. He'd missed their sneaky, mischievous ways. The Scalvini twins were not comparable to the mischief that these two could get up to and he was glad because in that manner he appreciated the four as they were. These red-haired twins had never changed in relation to him and had been a pair of the few people that had been truly outraged on his be-half when the conditions of the marital contract had been revealed. They couldn't believe that members of their family had done such a heinous thing for money and prestige by association.

"Am not an idiot," George replied. "The slug was supposed to be fresh."

"It was supposed to be salted," Fred retorted. They glared at each other, humphed at the same time, crossed their arms, lifting their noses and turning to look in opposite directions.

"Salted is still considered fresh when dealing with certain potions," Harry told them as he spooned up a bowl of chicken soup from the floating taurine. He used a hidden dropper up his sleeve to dose his soup with a potion neutralizing liquid and did the same with the pumpkin juiced he poured for himself. He had developed a habit of putting his index finger one tip over the rim of whatever cup or glass with which two drops of a strong neutralizer would slip into his drink. For his food he dosed the utensil which he used to stir his food before taking the first mouthful.

Professor Severus Snape had observed that little trick before, but the boy had done it so quickly and almost absentmindedly that he wondered whether his eyes had been tricked or not. He noticed that Black and Lupin had done the same which made him wonder if the boy was just emulating the men or if the boy was actually neutralizing something in his drink.

'An entirely plausible supposition,' he thought. 'That little brat must have spent too much time with those two if he thought that copying their poor etiquette at the table was acceptable.' He listened in on the conversation as much as the rest of the Professors and students were doing just because the child was the vaunted Boy-Who-Lived.

"However if the recipe called for garden fresh, that meant it had to be alive before rendering it useful for a potion or whatever you're working on. Some older recipes that have been re-written by a more modern people especially those who do not have the potions know-how to correctly interpret or translate the processes in them may alter the information and that means that the ingredient information in your recipe may have been compromised." He shrugged. "You could be stuck with a messed up recipe that requires you to experiment before you find the right ingredient which might turn out to be salted sea worms instead of fresh garden slugs."

The twins blinked at the green-eyed boy who had a quirky grin on the corner of his mouth and laughing eyes. They both blinked at him rapidly, looked at each other in shock for not having thought about the origins of their found recipe. Then they turned to him and asked at the same time, "Will you look at our recipe?"

"Please!" They had clasped their hands together in front of him to beg for his assistance with such pitiful expressions that some of the students laughed while others just snorted at the twins antics.

"Owl it to me," Harry laughed at their actions which the two immediately knew meant that he was laughing with them instead of at them. "I'll send Hedwig to you to collect it, otherwise your letter may get lost in the vast amount bloody Boy-Who-Lived fan mail." His nose wrinkled at that, before he added, "She's a hybrid Snowy Owl and will be wearing a Potter Family crest band around her right leg. She'll allow you to post something to me."

"Right then," George started eating the food on his plate. His twin followed his lead. "She'll be by when?"

"I'll send her off to you tonight," Harry replied as he finished his soup by dipping a bread roll to sop up the dregs. "You might see her tomorrow some time. She likes bacon and dry toast crusts. Be sure to include the reference where you found the potion and tell me what you'd like it to do." He was then herded out of the school soon after that.

Later that day before the evening meal everyone that had remained at Hogwarts had received a brown box that contained purple gift bag from Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. The boxes had been placed at the table on the children's dinner plates, so it was obvious that he'd petitioned the house-elves' assistance in their delivery.

The items within the bag were useful and appreciated by nearly everyone.

Those that were genuinely wary of such gifts had waited for the others to open them only to discover that the items were thoughtful and had actually come from one of their own wizarding celebrities. Still as the internal note stated, the items in the bag had been assembled from leftover party favours. The students and Professors knew not to expect anything the following year which to some of the more sceptical minds made them think that these had been charity items to begin with.

However since they were practical it would have been foolish to not use something that been given to them freely. Unfortunately for Miss Granger, she'd caught the train at the Hogsmeade Station long before the evening meal and was not happy to learn that there was no such box or gift waiting for her when she'd returned to the school after her holidays were over.

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

TBC...

(…i...) Used an online random name generator looking for a shop or business name for a sister bookshop or an offshoot shop of Flourish & Blotts from Diagon Alley. I looked it up and noticed that there is no book store in Hogmeade and I figured that they should at least have a used book shop or antique bookshop there.

'Ye Olde Scroll' – made up by me (2015-05-25). I don't recall seeing it in any fanfiction stories before, but that's not say it doesn't exist somewhere since I've read so many of those stories. However if it does seem similar to anyone out there, please know that it was not consciously done and in no way meant to plagiarize or steal the idea.

So here's where the idea for the name came from, located under 'Place Names' and 'shop & business' category: fantasyname generators dot com/ shop-names dot php# dot VWNYVKNzaK4 (remove the spaces and change the word dot).

Options that came from the generator were:

A Gracious Journey

The Laughing Pencil

The Sneaky Quill

(my favourite for a pub) The Merry Mammoth

The Calculating Compass

The Last Canvas or The Lost Canvas (sounds good for an art store)

(another lol one) Pulp Kitchen (this one had nothing to do with books, but you get how fun it is looking up names on a generator).

(…ii…) Actually did that last year at my parents' home. We had a bowl on the main living room table filled with brown paper packages with red bows. Each gift was a Christmas ornament or Christmas themed item like tea balls with a chain and charm or wine bottle tops in holiday figures. Our guests and visitors loved it because it was something new and they'd thought that the packages were empty at first until they'd been offered one as they left. It was fun!

(…iii…) Logamuta ex OPEN ut HARRISSON Logaclusu - made up from the following web link and words: www dot ablemedia dot com/ctcweb/ showcase/ wordsonline dot html (change the word dot and remove spaces).

Logus= Word

Mutare=Change

ex=from

OPEN

ut=to

HARRISSON

Logus=Word

Clusura=Lock (clasp or close)

Obfirmo=Lock (secure)