Christmas Holidays

The Castle was fully focused on the preparations for Christmas and the Holidays. Hagrid like every year prepared large Christmas trees for the Great Hall. The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and not less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. Like every year a spectacular sight.

In one day the Holidays would start and most of the Castles population would leave with the Hogwarts express. Matthew would this year remain in the Castle because he needed to study the Mirror of Erised before he stole the Stone so he was sure he could exchange the Philosopher Stone with his fake one before when he attempts his heist. Unfortunately, he was unable to locate the Mirror inside the large ancient Castle, all he could do was to use Harry to locate the Castle.

For that, he prepared a few nice Christmas Gifts for the Golden Trio. Since he hadn't much to do with Ron a few sweets were enough. For Hermione, he got a nice set of useful books that weren't available in the Library, but the most important gift was for Harry. It couldn't be something too expensive or it would be strange. He decided to get Harry a nice pair of glasses that he enchanted himself with. For one he let the glasses grow with Harry and adjust to his sight level, next he put cleaning and self-repair charms on it, and a charm to prevent rain from blocking his sight. But most importantly he put hidden inside the Frame of the Glasses a tracking Rune formation with Chaos Runes on it since Glasses was something that Harry always needed since he did use Chaos Runes an older Rune Language and more powerful than any other in the Wizarding World he should be always able to track Harry without Dumbledore noticing it. The only thing he was unsure of was if he was still able to track him under the Invisibility Cloak which even Death wasn't able to, he didn't believe Chaos Runes were more powerful or older than Death itself or how much of the Story of the Three Brothers was true, but to locate the Mirror it should be enough since Harry would take the Cloak of before the Mirror.

Like in Canon the Golden Trio was still looking for information on Nicholas Flamel inside the Hogwarts Library. In the Holidays Harry would try to search the Restricted Section for it, which would lead him to the Mirror of Erised. Once Matthew got the location of the Mirror he would help them out and score a few friendship points with them.

Before the students left for Christmas Holidays he even overheard a discussion between them that made him laugh. "And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them." Since they didn't want to alarm their Main Suspect Snape.

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.

'Considering they are well-read people, they named you with a name from one of Shakespeare's own works The Winter's Tale, they could very well know who Nicholas Flamel is since he is well known in the literature of the non-magical world as the immortal Alchemist.' Mused Matthew while giggling as he entered the Library unseen by the Golden Trio.

~ Scene Break ~

He woke up a bit sleepy early on Christmas morning. On the night of the 24th December Matthew returned late from Flitwicks Office who allowed him to use his Floo Connection to attend once again Slughorns Yule feast this year. He once again met many prominent members of his Slug Club, the most interesting one was the Potion Master who invented the Wolfsbane potion Damocles Belby one of Slughorns students that he personally tutored and was according to him an "outstanding" Wizard.

Marcus Belby a Ravenclaw Student that was one year younger than Matthew was his Nephew. During the feast, they had a lengthy discussion about Potions and especially the Wolfsbane Potion and methods to improve it. During that Discussion, Matthew gained a lot of new insights into Potioneering and new ideas. Maybe he should attempt to cure Lycanthropy himself in the future, it would earn him at least an Order of Merlin second class since that was what Damocles gained for the Wolfsbane Potion that eased the Symptoms of Lyncatrophy. An Order of Merlin from Second Class upwards would gain him a seat on the Wizardgamot and Political Power besides fame, which would be useful to enforce his interests in the Wizarding World without becoming a Dark Lord. And every Order of Merlin would earn him an additional vote and even could turn his family into a proper Noble Family from what he gathered. A Wizarding Family could gain the Noble and the Ancient title, Noble was through contribution and Ancient was through Age of the Family. Wizarding Laws and Nobility were a very complex and vast topic.

Slughorn himself was very interested in Harry since he knew that he started in Hogwarts this year and spent a lot of time asking Matthew questions about him. Considering that he and Harry became good friends also raised Slughorns Opinion of Matthew further. It was clearly visible in his eyes that Slughorn wished to return to Hogwarts to teach just to add Harry to his collection. He even suggested Matthew should bring him next year.

Matthew was the only Ravenclaw that remained for the Holidays, everyone else returned home after opening his Gifts he joined the Teachers and a few Hufflepuffs, Harry who looked very happy, and the Weasleys in the Great Hall for the Christmas feast. A magnificent feast. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along with the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones he remembered from home. Harry who wore his new Glasses to Matthews happiness pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. They watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided. They left the Table with a lot of new things. The White Mice disappeared and would most likely end up as Mrs. Norris meal.

For the rest of the Afternoon, Matthew joined Harry who thanked him for his gift and the Weasleys to a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Afterward, he returned happily and exhausted to the Ravenclaw Tower. But he didn't go to sleep but kept his eyes on Harry with the Mental Map and the tracking Charm. After a while, once everyone should have gone to sleep he saw that Harry vanished from his Map and felt with his tracking charm on his new glasses that Harry left the Gryffindor Tower.

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