On the last day before break, Hari, Ron and Draco said goodbye to Hermione, who was the only one of their group not staying home that break. She made them all promise to keep researching Nicolas Flamel, much to Ron's annoyance and insistence that "It's a break for a reason, Hermione." Not many other students were staying that Winter Solstice, but the whole Weasley family were staying.

Decidedly bored from searching the library once again, the three boys made their way down to Hagrid's hut after lunch, wrapped up in their scarves and gloves, breath coming out in front of their faces in puffs. It almost hurt his knuckles when Hari knocked on the door to Hagrid's hut, he was so frozen. Hagrid answered the door with a grin.

"Ah, hello you three! Hermione not stayin', is she?" Hagrid asked, letting them inside the warm hut and out of the freezing cold. They peeled off their gloves and scarves and rubbed their hands next to the roaring fire while Hagrid fixed them all some hot chocolate. "Glad to be off school then?" Hagrid asked over his shoulder.

"So far, yes. We're going to play a marathon of chess this evening," Draco replied, sitting down in his usual seat and accepting the mug Hagrid handed him gratefully. He nudged Fang away with his foot as the dog attempted to get at his drink.

"Thanks." Hari took his own seat and mug. "Are you looking forward to Yule, Hagrid?" Hari asked, blowing on his drink.

"Aye, I suppose. Not much'll be all that different than usual. But I like the festive spirit, yeh know?"

"My parents are visiting my brother Charlie in Romania this year. I wish I could've gone, but Mum and Dad wouldn't let us," Ron added, "We always have crazy Yules."

Hagrid chortled. "I can imagine. How's that Charlie doin' by the way? I always liked him," Hagrid asked.

Ron went into an explanation about the sorts of things Charlie was doing on the dragon reserve where he worked, talking about the dragons he could remember off the top of his head and some of the stories he'd written to Ron about. Hari and Draco listened just as aptly as Hagrid, asking questions and reacting to the various stories. Hari remembered Charlie fondly, thinking back to first bonding about his little dragon stuffed animal when he was little and asking him questions about dragons. He could easily imagine daring Charlie with those massive dragons.

"Blimey, Ron. That sounds like one heck of a job," Hagrid said once Ron had finished a story about Charlie falling off the back of a Welsh Green. His voice was weirdly far away, a fond and strangely jealous look on his face. "I always wanted a dragon. Ever since I was young."

Hari and Ron exchanged looks, eyebrows raised. Draco furrowed his eyebrows, though half his attention was on trying to get Fang to get his head out of his lap and slobbering on his robes.

Hagrid looked at the clock on the wall and startled out of his daydreaming. "Merlin's beard! You three'd better get back to the castle before Minerva has my neck," he exclaimed, jumping up from his seat so fast he pushed the table and knocked Ron out of his seat. He plucked him up off the floor by the collar, apologising profusely but opening the door.

"Come on. We might have time to go to the library before dinner if we hurry," Hari muttered to Draco and Ron as they began wrapping their scarves around themselves and pulling on gloves.

"The library? Surely yeh don' have to start homework so soon in the break!" Hagrid said with surprise.

"Oh, we don't. We wanted to research Nicolas Flamel," Hari said brightly, stepping outside onto the front porch to avoid Hagrid's shock.

The three of them began jogging back through the snow as Hagrid yelled after them, "I thought I told yeh he wasn't none of your business!" They giggled, waving over their shoulders and continuing up the path to the entrance hall.

¤¤¤

On Yule morning, Hari woke up far too early, too excited to go back to sleep. He could feel a small weight at his feet and once he pulled his glasses on, he saw a small mound of wrapped parcels. He grinned, looking forward to opening his gifts with the other two.

He bided his time by skimming through The Greatest Magical Discoveries of the Century once again in hopes of finding something. He unfortunately had no luck still by the time Draco and Ron woke up as well.

"Morning! Happy Yule!" Hari replied brightly to the other two waking up. Ron had an imprint of his blankets pressed into his face while Draco's hair was sticking up in all directions, reminding Hari of himself on a good hair day.

"Happy Yule," Ron replied, smiling and sitting up. He perked up once he saw the pile of presents at the bottom of his bed.

Draco's pile was a bit smaller, much to Hari's distaste, though he definitely still had presents. "Happy Yule," he muttered, getting on his knees to open up his presents.

They opened their presents mostly in silence, occasionally showing off the gifts they got. Hari had a pretty successful haul once again. Minerva got him a box of owl pellets for Hedwig and Howl's Moving Castle; Hagrid got him a sort of flute instrument that he had obviously carved himself and sounded like an owl hooting; Hermione got him a big box of Chocolate Frogs; Draco got him a book called Wanda the Wandering Witch; Neville got him a new polish for cleaning his wand; and he got a slightly faded and worn out copy of Hogwarts: A History from Remus which turned out to have been James', covered in his scribblings and doodles.

Hari opened the present from Ron which turned out to be a box of Every Flavour Beans. He was just about to open another parcel when Draco gasped. "Ron. Your mum got me a jumper?" he breathed, holding up a navy blue jumper. Stitched on the front was a big letter D in silver.

"Oh, yeah. She makes one every year," Ron replied casually. He pointed at Hari's own pile. "She made one for you, too, Hari." Hari glanced down at the parcel and lifted it up.

Mrs. Weasley had indeed made Hari a jumper, though his was a bottle green with a yellow H on the front. Hari was just pulling his own on over his head when the door to their dormitory burst open to reveal Fred and George, clad in their own Weasley's jumpers. They beamed as they saw Hari and Draco wearing theirs, George dropping onto the foot of Seamus' bed while Fred took Neville's.

"I see Mum made jumpers for you two as well," Fred commented, pointing back and forth between Hari and Draco. Draco flushed, smoothing down his jumper. He glanced at Ron, still in his pyjamas. "Oi, why haven't you got your jumper on yet?"

"I don't like maroon," Ron mumbled, holding onto the wooly jumper with slight contempt. Percy joined the mix soon after, getting teased by Fred and George as usual. Ron pulled his jumper on with a frown, opening his last presents.

"You got me my own copy of Scary Stories to Read in the Dark! Thanks, Hari!" Draco exclaimed as he opened his present from Hari, wrapped up in shiny green paper with gold stars. "Now I don't have to steal yours anymore!"

Hari snorted. Fred, George and Percy left the three of them alone again. He turned to his last present. When he peeled the wrapping paper off, he found a thin, almost weightless robe of sorts made out of a shiny sort of material. He held up the fabric in the air.

Ron blinked where he was in the middle of sorting out his presents. "Woah! If that's what I think it is, it's really rare!" he exclaimed, gesturing for Hari to put it on.

"You don't think it's real, do you?" Draco asked Ron sceptically.

Hari ignored their bickering and wrapped the thin fabric around himself. At once, both boys gasped in surprise, jaws slackening. "That's an invisibility cloak, Hari!" Ron blurted, gaping at Hari's torso.

Hari's eyes widened and he looked down at himself. He was indeed invisible from the neck down, just a floating head to anyone else. "I'm invisible?" he said, mostly to himself.

"Who in Merlin's beard got you that, Hari? That must've cost a fortune!" Draco exclaimed, eyeing the empties where Hari's body should have been seen.

Hari picked up the note. It was written in thin, neat handwriting:

Hari,

Your father left me this in his possession before he died. I thought it would be fitting to return it to you.

Use it well.

"'Use it well.' What's that supposed to mean?" Hari wondered as he read it out to the other two. "And why haven't they signed their name?"

Hari shrugged, looking down at his body again. It was such a strange sensation to feel his own body standing on the floor but to see nothing below him. "I don't know… Someone that had my dad's invisibility cloak, but didn't want me to know who they are…" He looked out the window at the snow falling down heavily, blanketing the ground in thick white.

"Shall we get to breakfast then? We can worry about the cloak later," Draco said, pushing aside the last of his things and getting up from his bed.

Ron jumped off his own bed. "I'm starving. I want to see the feast they have for Yule here," he said, pulling on a pair of jeans and his robe over his jumper.

They spent the majority of the day with the rest of the Weasley clan. They had a snowball fight in the front lawn, throwing enchanted snowballs and hiding behind bushes and piles of snow. Fred and George enchanted a few to hit Quirrell in the back of the head, giggling from where they were hidden nearby. They shrieked and sprinted away from piles of ice and made snowmen and snow angels together.

Finally, when they were just starting towards the castle to get ready for dinner, all dripping and shivering with snow down their clothes and hair, Remus arrived up the path. Hari split off from the group in favour of jogging down the hill towards him, slipping and sliding on the ice and snow. "Uncle Remus!" he sang, hugging Remus fiercely around the middle and getting him properly wet from his clothes.

"You've certainly had a busy day, I see," Remus commented, ruffling Hari's dripping wet hair as they pulled apart. He looked down at his robes, now covered in muck and slightly damp from the hug. "Have a good Yule then?" he asked as they made their way up to the castle side by side.

Hari grinned, jumping into a long story about their snowball fights and all the other gifts he got that year. "Oh, and thanks for the book, by the way. It looks really cool with all his little comments and stuff," he said in the entrance hall, wiping his feet on a mat near the front door and wringing his wet robes out there so Filch had less work for them.

Remus shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "I found it in a box while I was doing a clean out. I thought you might like it and it could come in handy," Remus replied. He reached out to brush a leaf off Hari's shoulder from crouching in the bushes, snagged on a loose thread. "Thank you for my card and the box of chocolates. They're my favourite kind."

"I know. I remember you had loads in your cabinet back at your flat," Hari replied. "Are you staying for the feast tonight or just coming to pop in and leave?"

"Minerva invited me to tea with her in a few minutes. I might stay for the feast as well, if you'd like."

Hari straightened up, beaming and nodding. "Of course! The Solstice feast is always the best! You've *got* to stay for it."

Remus chuckled, ruffling Hari's hair again and moving in the direction of Minerva's office. "I'll see you at the feast later, then," he said, rolling his eyes fondly. "And go and get on some dry clothes!"

"What took you so long?" Draco asked once Hari got back to the dormitory a few minutes later. Ron and Draco were sitting on Draco's bed, properly dried off and playing a game of Wizard's Chess. Ron was clearly winning, most of Draco's white pieces gathered in a pile beside the board.

"He was speaking to that guy, remember? He ran to go say hello," Ron rolled his eyes at Draco and took one of his pawns. "Who was he anyway, Hari?"

Hari peeled off his robes and hung them up to dry, changing into dry socks and draping his jumper over the radiator in the middle of the room. "That was Remus. He was one of my dad's best friends in school," Hari replied, leaning against the bed post on Draco's bed and watching the other two continue their game of chess.

"How was he?" Draco asked, currently furrowing his brows over his next move.

"He seemed fine. He was coming for tea with Minnie and I talked him into coming for the feast as well."

Ron groaned as one of Draco's pawns took his remaining knights, swearing under his breath. He looked up at Hari over his shoulder. "What if Remus sent you your dad's cloak? it'd make sense for him to have it, wouldn't it?" Ron suggested. He moved his queen over a square.

"Maybe," Hari said thoughtfully, "But why wouldn't he leave his name? He gives me my dad's stuff all the time. He even gave me his old copy of Hogwarts: A History for my present."

Ron made a face and shrugged one of his shoulders. "That's a good point, I suppose."

"Maybe he wanted to be mysterious about it, seeing as an invisibility cloak is a bit cooler than an old book," Draco remarked, moving a pawn. Ron immediately sent his own pawn to capture that pawn, grinning satisfactorily at Draco.

"But why would he give me both his invisibility cloak and his book?"

"Beats me." Draco lost the game shortly after when Ron cornered his king and called Checkmate. He nearly flipped the board in irritation, collecting his players and dropping them into a small bag in the bottom of his trunk. "I doubt it was him, really. I don't know who it was, but it hardly matters, does it? You're still going to use it, aren't you?"

"Well, obviously. Why wouldn't I?"

"My dad always says to be careful of magical objects from sources you don't know," Ron said, putting away his own set of chess. "They could be cursed or enchanted to harm you or others. He deals with all kinds of stuff like that in his Ministry department."

Draco scoffed. Ron's ears went pink and he scowled, opening his mouth to retort something before Draco interrupted him. "I'm not scoffing at your father, Ron. He's clearly more decent than my own," Draco snapped, making Ron retreat immediately, "I'm just saying, that cloak would have killed or strangled or something,/i> before now if it was cursed. Hari would have been harmed immediately if it was cursed, Ron."

"But—"

Draco held up his hand. "Trust me, Ron. Hari's cloak isn't cursed or enchanted besides making him invisible." He turned to Hari, who was watching this exchange from his bed. "Believe me, Hari. That cloak is harmless, okay?"

The trio made their way down to dinner still discussing the cloak and what they could get away with doing while wearing the cloak. As usual, the Great Hall was decked out fantastically for the occasion, huge evergreen trees that touched the ceiling covered in non-melting frost while someone had several toy angels floating around the air, weaving in and out between the usual flickering candles. Remus was sitting at the staff in a spare seat next to Hagrid, speaking with him and Minerva. When they started towards the Gryffindor table to sit with the others, Hagrid and Remus both waved from their seats.

Dinner was an amusing affair. Having grown accustomed to rather quiet Yules with Minerva and Hagrid and Remus for the most part, it was a nice contrast sitting with the Weasley clan and Draco. The food was excellent, filling Hari until his stomach was sore and he was barely able to stuff the last of his pudding in his mouth. Everyone was laughing, pulling crackers together and reading out their jokes and swapping hats and prizes among themselves. George and Fred were singing Yuletide carols off key together, arms around each other's shoulders and swaying slightly.

Before heading up to bed, Hari wandered over to the staff table to speak to Minerva for the first time that day. He felt a bit guilty about it, admittedly, having spent most of his day with his friends instead. The teachers were currently getting tipsy over mulled wine and spiked hot chocolate, all greeting Hari warmly when he came over as soon as the rest of the hall emptied.

"Happy Solstice, Hari! Didja have a good one?" Pomona asked, spilling her wine out of her goblet slightly. She exchanged a laugh with Filius who was nursing a hot chocolate with a very pink face.

He grinned and nodded politely. "Yes, thanks." He turned to Minerva, his smile turning apologetic. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. We ended up staying out much later with the snowballs and I didn't manage to come speak to you until now…"

Minerva's face softened, as it only seemed to do with Hari. She pushed his curls out of his eyes and said, "It's alright, Hari. I'm glad you had a good day with your friends." She glanced at something behind him. "Speaking of which, you'd best hurry and not keep yours waiting."

Hari turned over his shoulder to find Draco standing sheepishly at the bottom of the steps by the Gryffindor table. He waved his hand awkwardly in greeting. Hari turned back to the teachers. "Good night, everyone! See you later!" He thought he caught an odd look when he caught Dumbledore's eye but brushed it off and started down the steps toward Draco. Before going he added over his shoulder, "Don't have too much at The Three Broomsticks!"

He grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him quickly out of the hall before Minerva or the other teachers could react to what he had said. They jogged all the way up to Gryffindor tower together, thankful they didn't run into anyone on the way.

¤¤¤

"Guys! Wake up! I have to show you something!" Hari burst back into the dormitory a few hours later, tearing the invisibility cloak off himself and going to shake both Draco and Ron's beds.

Draco's head appeared around the curtains just as Ron's groan sounded from the other side of his own. Hari was still shaking both their beds insistently.

"What could possibly warrant waking us up at this hour, Potter?" Draco complained, clambering out of bed and into a pair of fluffy slippers and pulling on his dressing gown.

"This better be good," Ron grumbled, yawning.

Hari told them both all about using his new invisibility cloak to go down to the library and how he heard Filch coming, so he ran and found the most amazing mirror in an unused classroom. When he got to the part where he saw his family in the strange mirror, both boys gasped, Draco slapping his hands over his mouth.

"You saw your family in this mirror?" Draco asked with interest.

"Yeah. All of them. There were so many and I even saw some that looked kinda like me."

Ron looked tired but curious as well, ginger hair sticking up in the back. "I wonder why that'd be in a random classroom," he commented, eyebrows furrowed. "A mirror that shows your family. Weird."

"Well, are you guys coming to see it or not?" Hari picked up the invisibility cloak from where he dropped it onto the ground in his haste.

Draco and Ron shared looks for a moment before turning back to Hari. Draco said, "Hari, it's quite late, you know… Maybe we should try finding this mirror tomorrow." Ron jerked his head towards Draco, clearly in agreement. He yawned once again.

Hari huffed, folding his arms. "Please? I don't get to see my family ever, remember?" He put a pleading tone in his voice, pouting rather dramatically. Hari noted somewhere at the back of his mind that he had probably been spending too much time with Draco and he was rubbing off his dramatic tendencies onto Hari.

Draco sighed, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "I suppose if we're quick…" Hari brightened once again, peering at Ron. Seemingly relenting from both his friends' willingness to go back to see the mirror, Ron dropped his shoulders and mumbled his agreement.

The three boys shuffled their ways through the darkened hallways of Hogwarts together, hidden from view beneath the cloak. It was far more difficult and slower with three of them and Hari was struggling not to show his impatience as he attempted to get them both to hurry up on their way to see the mirror.

When they got t o the classroom with the mirror once again, Hari ghrew the cloak off the three of them and hurried over to stand in front of the mirror. He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw his family once again, smiling between the smiling faces of his mum and dad. Draco and Ron wandered over hesitantly, both sharing slightly sceptical looks.

"Here, stand next to me," Hari instructed, moving reluctantly away from the mirror and standing them in front of it. Ron's face lit up in a smile wider than Hari had ever seen it and moved Draco out of the way, stepping closer to the mirror with a look of wonder on his face. "Can you see my family?" Hari asked.

Ron shook his head. "I'm Head Boy!" he breathed in amazement, eyes wide, "And I'm Quidditch captain as well! Wicked!" He stared at himself in the mirror, turning this way and that and looking incredibly pleased and impressed. "Do you think this shows the future?" he asked idly.

Hari frowned. "How can it? It shows me my family and they're dead…" He toed the floor uncomfortably. When he looked up again, he caught Draco looking at him with a frown, eyes soft.

Draco pushed Ron aside. "Let me see," he snapped, standing where Ron had stood a second ago. Ron begrudgingly moved to stand next to Hari, scowling. At once, Draco's cheeks flushed a violent shade of scarlet and his eyes widened. His eyes darted over to where Hari and Ron stood before looking back at the mirror again.

"What do you see?" Hari asked, tilting his head to the side and cocking an eyebrow.

Draco coughed loudly, looking down at the floor. "Er, nothing. I just—I see myself, obviously," he replied unconvincingly, face going redder. "I see… piles of galleons and jewels and an endless supply of cakes." He averted his eyes from the other two, growing pinker and pinker by the second. He looked as though he was about to burst.

It was almost amusing to see Draco like this, so awkward and out of sorts, usually impeccably put together no matter what.

Draco cleared his throat again and stepped away from the mirror. He crouched down to lift the invisibility cloak. "We should–we should get back. It's nearly morning." He rolled his shoulders back and was back to his usual pristine self once again. Ron shrugged and went to join him under the cloak with little hesitation. Hari, on the other hand, held back. He glanced longingly over at the mirror. "Come on, Hari. I don't suggest it's a good idea to keep looking at this particular mirror."

Hari sighed, peeling his eyes away from the mirror and begrudgingly joining Draco and Ron under the cloak. They made their way back to Gryffindor tower with no incidents, only hearing Peeves' voice a few flights down as they made their way up to bed, still hidden under the invisibility cloak.

As Hari fell asleep that night, rather fitfully, he couldn't stop thinking about the amazing new invisibility cloak he had acquired and the captivating, strange mirror that showed him the family he could never have.