The Mirror
They looked through the library to try and find any information on Nicolas Flamel, but none of them found anything. Did that mean that they gave up? Nope. Dawn was a Hufflepuff to her core, and gleaned through the information that they were looking at easily. Still, not even she could find anything.
Snow began to fall on the ground. Students huddled together to get from one place to another as quickly as possible, trying to share around warmth or stay within a warming charm. It was a good thing that the classrooms were warm, or else they would have died from freezing long ago.
It was so cold that the lake had frozen over, and Fred and George got in trouble for bewitching snowballs to hit Quirrell's turban. Owls and even Riley had to be nursed back to health if they managed to make it through all of the snow and cold.
Unfortunately, there was no fire down in the dungeons. Nico and his classmates stood as close to their cauldrons as possible, even when there were warming charms on their clothes.
Nico had decided not to go to camp for Christmas. He would rather stay in a giant castle than go back there, where the war weighed heavily on everyone's mind. Figuring out a way to help with the war effort was his main priority, but he figured that he could send the camp a bunch of potions to help with the healing. He had somehow gotten Snape to help him, when he told him of his plan. His half brother didn't trust him not to botch the entire lot. Nico had to agree with that.
Ron and his brothers were staying at Hogwarts because their parents were going to go visit Charlie, and Harry was staying behind because he too, would rather stay in a castle than go back home. Dawn was staying because her mother had told her to, as she was moving to another country. Nico didn't really know the details.
The two of them stayed in the Hufflepuff dormitories, drinking hot chocolate and playing music through the record player that had been there for years. Dawn gravitated towards a band called ABBA. Nico didn't mind.
They invited Harry and Ron into the Hufflepuff common room when they were all bored, which the two boys accepted. Sometimes Percy would join them, dragging Fred and George with him so that they wouldn't do anything absolutely stupid.
Christmas morning dawned bright and cold. Nico woke up in a warm dormitory to a pile of presents at the foot of his bed.
"Nico! Are you up yet?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, I'm up." Dawn entered, a pile of gifts in a basket.
"I thought that we could open them together," she explained. Nico just nodded.
Dawn sat down on Justin's bed and began to tear at the paper on one of the gifts she'd received. Nico grabbed the gift on top of his pile and opened it too. Inside was a tin of fudge and a knitted sweater that was black and white. Nico tried it on, and found that it fit him well. A note that came with the gift said that it was from Mrs Weasley. Nico had to smile at that.
The next few gifts were from his friends. Dawn had gotten him a sketch book and some pencils, while Hermione had gotten him Chocolate Frogs and a nice set of quills. Ron had gotten him pretty much the same thing minus the quills. Nico snorted at the abundance of candy he had received. Harry had gotten him a muggle book and some Bertie Bots, which Nico appreciated. He'd learn a spell that would let him read the book. There was a gift from Will, too. A bunch of candy and a deck of Mythomagic cards.
The last one was one that he wasn't expecting.
It was a book about Alchemy throughout the years from Hades, translated to Italian. There was a note with it, too.
Nico,
You might find this useful with the challenge you have decided to take upon yourself.
Nico flipped through the book, half wondering why exactly his father had given him the thing, half in awe of all of these things listed in the book.
He set it aside for the time being.
Dawn quickly took her stuff back to the girl's dormitory and came back out in a fluffy hoodie.
"Let's go see the boys," she said. Nico nodded.
They went up to the Gryffindor common room, where they gave the fat lady the password and entered.
Harry was wearing a knitted sweater that was green with a golden snitch on it. Ron was wearing a maroon one with the first letter of his name on it. Fred, George and Percy had a similar situation to Ron. Nico couldn't help but smile at that.
"Merry Christmas, guys!" Dawn called out. The others replied with the same two words.
"Anyone up for a snowball fight outside?" Fred asked.
"Only if you two don't bewitch the snowballs like you have done with Quirrell and his turban," Percy told them, giving the twins a look that could rival their mother's.
"Yes, sir!" The twins chorused, saluting Percy before they walked to the portrait hole. Nico, Dawn, Harry and Ron followed them.
The four friends walked behind the twins a bit.
"Harry's got an invisibility cloak!" Ron gushed in a whisper.
"Really?" Dawn asked. She looked at Harry.
"I jut got it today. It used to belong to my dad, and whoever had it before decided to return it to me," Harry explained.
"Those are so hard to get! So many Pureblood families would pay hundreds to have one," Dawn said.
"Imagine where you could go with that thing, too!" Ron exclaimed.
"Better not use it to get in trouble," Nico said. "It might turn you invisible, but it won't turn you into a ghost or something."
"I'll be careful when I use it," Harry promised.
When they got outside, it was to see Fred and George had run down to the lawn. The four of them followed, and started to build a fortress. Dawn and Ron teamed up, Nico found himself with George, and Harry was with Fred. Dawn was the first to throw a snowball, her aim true as it hit Harry in the leg as he tried to run over to Fred.
The fight grew intense, with Dawn easily hitting her targets. Ron seemed to be hellbent on getting his older brothers, while Nico and Harry threw their snowballs at whoever was an easy target.
They went back inside for lunch. Nico and Dawn joined the Weasleys at the Gryffindor table, talking and eating.
The rest of their day was basically just them hanging out in the Hufflepuff common room. Dawn put on some Muggle Christmas songs, some of which Nico could recognise. There were a few that he'd never heard before, but he didn't mind it.
Ron pulled out a chess set and played a few rounds with Harry, who eventually gave up.
"Come on! You just need to play some more and you'll get better," Ron encouraged.
"No! My brain feels like it might explode," Harry said, retreating to the couch. Nico took his place.
"Do you know how chess works?" Ron asked, an eager and hopeful look on his face. Nico shrugged.
"My sister and I would sometimes play to pass time on rainy days," he explained. Ron nodded.
They set up the board and began their first round.
Ron was a good opponent, but Nico had played chess too many times to count when him and his sister either needed to be quiet or they were bored, so he was rather good. He was able to analyse Ron's moves, making counters that seemed rather stupid until he won the round.
Dawn, from what Nico knew, was reading something. Harry was talking to the twins, who were cracking jokes and just generally messing about. He could see Percy looking through the books on the shelves and looking at the plants that were hanging up around the place.
Eventually, they had to eat something for dinner and go to bed. Nico fell asleep quickly, happy from the day he'd had.
_______________________________________
If Nico didn't know any better, he'd say that Harry either had a death wish or wanted to be thrown out of Hogwarts.
He did, however, know better, and knew Harry well enough to know that he was a reckless Gryffindor.
Was he surprised when Harry told him and Ron about a mirror that could apparently show them his family? Yes. Because Nico could have probably gone down to the underworld and met with his parents who were likely to be in Elysium.
Did he go anyway because he was curious?
Short answer: yes.
He met Harry and Ron outside the Gryffindor common room, where they were hidden under Harry's invisibility cloak. Harry led them through the hallways, getting slightly confused at points, but he got them to the room nonetheless.
The mirror was tall, that was one thing, and it stood in the middle of the disused classroom. Nico looked at the engraving on the thing, and saw that while it was in English, with English letters, it was incomprehensible.
"Look, in there! My family!" Harry exclaimed.
"I can't see anything, just us," Ron said. Indeed, the only thing in the mirror was the three of them.
"Maybe we have to be in front of it one at a time. Here, let's see." Harry pulled Nico to the side, leaving Ron in front of the mirror. "Can you see them now?"
"No, but it's me!" Ron's eyes went wide with wonder. He grinned. "I look older, and I'm... I don't believe it. I'm a Prefect, and Head Boy, and I'm the Quidditch captain and I'm holding the Qudditch cup!" Ron looked to them. A sideways glance at Harry showed him looking confused. "Do you think this shows the future?"
"It can't. My parents are dead, remember?"
"Oh, yeah." Ron went back to staring at the mirror. Nico thought through all of the possibilities. Only one came to him. He had to see if it was true or not.
"Can I see?" He asked.
"Yeah, sure, go on, mate, tell us what you see." Nico just nodded as he stepped in front of the mirror.
His eyes went wide when he saw it.
He was there, that much was true, but his mother and Bianca were there, too. And a girl with golden eyes, brown skin and caramel coloured hair. She was holding Bianca's hand. Percy Jackson was there, too, and Dawn, and a boy that looked like Apollo but not as boastful as the god was. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were there, as well as Hades and even Persephone.
"What do you see?" Ron asked.
"I- my mom, my sister, and a few friends of mine, as well as my dad and his wife," Nico told them. He turned his gaze to the engraving, focusing on deciphering it.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked. Nico didn't say anything.
"I think I know what this is," he said.
"You do?"
"Yeah. It shows us things we want, right?" Nico asked, looking at the boys. They nodded. "I've figured out why. The engraving, it's English words written backwards with spaces in different places to make it seem like some random letters strung together to confuse people."
"Okay?"
"It says: 'I show not your face, but your hearts desire'. Harry and I, our desire is to have a family, con in più il mio desiderio di essere accettato da persone che conosco. Ron's desire is to be like his brothers or better."
"That... makes sense. So... this is only to show a person the thing they desire the most?"
"Yeah. There must have been so many people who have wasted away trying to figure out how to get these things."
The three of them left after that, throwing one last glance at the mirror before they slipped out of the room under the safety of the invisibility cloak.
Maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to have that life that he saw in the mirror. Maybe not with his mother and Bianca, but with his friends. After all, not all families had to be related by blood.