Gifts Can't Please Everyone (8/10) / There Is No Philosopher's Stone in *The Philosopher's Stone* (9/10)

She would probably like it...

It was only a short sentence, but Harry wrote it with unusual care.

After setting down his pen, he smiled at the card in front of him and stretched as if relieved... but then his movements abruptly froze!

A faint sound of footsteps came from behind him. At first, Harry thought Crookshanks was scampering around, but when he instinctively glanced back, he saw nothing there...

Wait!

There had to be someone behind him!

The other person seemed to be trying their hardest to stay hidden. They moved each step with great care, but Harry could still hear the footsteps drawing closer.

There was also the faintest, carefully suppressed breathing... They were almost close enough to breathe on the back of his neck!

"Ha... oh!" A young girl's playful complaint came from behind him, followed by a faint breeze that gently brushed against Harry.

But Harry was on high alert. He dodged at once, leaving the person behind him to lunge at empty air.

Heh. Sneaking up on someone from behind was—

"Hermione?"

Harry quickly recognized her voice and hurriedly reached out to catch her, but her foot, lifted awkwardly as she lost her balance, caught behind his knee. His whole body pitched forward uncontrollably, and he landed squarely on top of her on the bed.

"This is... uh—"

Feeling the softness beneath him, which was nothing like a mattress, Harry panicked and tried to push himself up. But his hands, flailing about as he scrambled, somehow ended up touching somewhere they shouldn't!

Worse, he actually used that spot for leverage and gave it a little squeeze...

Though he couldn't really feel much yet~

"Mm..."

Hearing a soft moan from the bed beneath him—which was supposedly 'empty'—Harry snatched his hand back as if stung. His heart turned ice-cold.

Well, that was it. He was completely done for this time...

Once Hermione recovered, wouldn't she tear him limb from limb? (Terrified)

"Harry... could you get up first? You're squashing me..."

To his surprise, Hermione didn't 'lash out' like he'd expected. Instead, she just gently pushed at his chest with both hands.

"Oh..." Harry's face stiffened, and he sprang off the bed like a coiled spring.

Standing awkwardly beside the bed, Harry had no idea what to do.

"I just... wanted to put on this Invisibility Cloak and tease you. Why did you react so strongly...?"

Hermione sat up and slowly lifted the enchanted cloak draped around her. Her voice carried a hint of complaint, along with a trace of subdued bitterness.

"Sorry... I was just... a little too tense..." Harry stammered. His mind was a complete muddle.

The sudden shock, and the feeling he'd just experienced, had left him in complete disarray.

So when he saw Hermione's flushed figure gradually appearing beneath the Invisibility Cloak, he couldn't help thinking of those scenes from weddings in China, when the groom lifted the bride's veil...

"Um... why do you have an Invisibility Cloak?"

After a long silence, Harry finally managed to squeeze out a question, awkwardly breaking the tension between them.

But he soon realized it was a useless question.

"I don't know... an owl suddenly brought it to me. There wasn't a sender's name on it."

Hermione twisted her ten fingers together, her voice subdued. "And the cloak is actually supposed to belong to you. The note that came with the package said it was originally your father's, so I was asked to return it to its rightful owner."

The Best Gift Doesn't Make Everyone Happy (8/10)

"It belongs to me...?" Harry nodded slightly and accepted the Invisibility Cloak Hermione handed him.

It felt cool to the touch. The shimmering fabric had a strange texture, as if it were woven from water, flowing through Harry's hands.

A quick inspection was enough for Harry to tell that this Invisibility Cloak was no ordinary item. Its workmanship was flawless, and more than that, he couldn't hear any sound of magic flowing through it!

Every magical object had a Voice of Magic, and Harry could always hear it. But this Invisibility Cloak was an exception!

That meant it might be capable of making someone disappear completely, perhaps even hiding both its own magic and the wearer's.

In theory, as long as someone wore this Invisibility Cloak, they would never be discovered unless they gave themselves away or their opponent had exceptionally advanced detection skills!

It really was a rare and remarkable object. If Harry remembered correctly, Dumbledore had given him this Invisibility Cloak in the original story.

His biological father in this life had owned such a precious thing. Could it have been a family heirloom?

"Harry... I didn't prepare a proper Christmas present for you. I only wrote you a greeting card. Is that all right?" As Harry pondered the Invisibility Cloak's origins, Hermione suddenly held out a card. "I made a wish on it..."

At that moment, Hermione was torn inside.

What had just happened confirmed once again that ever since Harry had started studying at Hogwarts, he had felt no sense of security at all.

Just like now: even at home, the slightest sign of anything magical was enough to put him on edge.

Hermione didn't want to see Harry like this.

So, if she was someone important to him... then she would make the wish for him herself.

"Oh, what a coincidence!" Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise and picked up the card he'd prepared from the table. "I actually got you a greeting card too~"

Harry figured that rather than prepare Hermione a material gift, as he would for someone else, he should fulfill the wish she'd always had and put her mind at ease.

He just hadn't expected Hermione to have the same idea.

Well... if he'd guessed right, only one of their wishes could come true.

So was this their version of The Gift of the Magi...? Though, uh, the roles didn't quite fit~

"Anyway, read it... my wish." Before Hermione could speak, Harry tucked her card safely away, then politely gestured for her to read his.

"Th-this is?!"

Hermione looked down at the greeting card in her hands and froze.

"Harry!!" A moment later, overwhelming joy swept over her.

Hermione was too excited to say a word. She threw herself into Harry's arms without a second thought!

She had never dreamed that the wish Harry had written on his card would be the exact opposite of her own!

'I'm willing to stay at Hogwarts.'

'I'm willing to quit Hogwarts.'

They were only two simple sentences, but they were... the best gifts either of them received that Christmas.

That night, Hermione couldn't sleep for a long time. She kept tossing and turning, thinking back over everything that had happened.

From the playful mischief of putting on the Invisibility Cloak to the blush-inducing embarrassment, and finally the warmth of exchanging wishes...

To be honest, when she gave Harry her card, she had truly prepared herself for the worst.

She knew Harry had no affection for Hogwarts and had only agreed to attend because of her. As his family—especially as his older sister—Hermione felt it was her duty to consider his feelings.

But in the end, Harry had warmed her heart with a surprise.

He'd seen right through her, and taken her card away before she could stop him, making her wish impossible...

And for her sake, he was willing to stay at a place he didn't like!

Whenever she thought of the words on that card, Hermione would sometimes lie in bed and giggle foolishly to herself.

But for Harry, making that choice didn't feel like a sacrifice at all.

The things that had happened before had helped him understand Hermione's hopes. As her family, he felt he had to protect those hopes at all times!

Besides, Harry had been attacked by a Bludger on the Quidditch pitch, which meant Quirrell... or rather, Voldemort, had officially set his sights on him!

With the enemy holding the initiative, Harry couldn't stay in the ordinary world any longer. That would only bring trouble to Mr. and Mrs. Granger.

So he had to return to Hogwarts, and he had to stop Voldemort, just as in the original story!

When there was no way to avoid a fight, only fighting back could bring a chance of victory!

The three-week Christmas holiday ended before long. Harry had spent a busy and fulfilling winter break, with hardly any time to relax.

Apart from spending time with his family, he'd devoted most of his time to studying—the things ordinary children were supposed to know.

He didn't want learning magic to turn him into what most people would call an 'illiterate'.

Hermione agreed with him on that.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten the most important gifts, and everyone who received one on the day they returned to school was delighted.

Professor Flitwick even put on his new bow tie that very day and strutted around the school, showing it off.

Several of his other friends at school had received gifts from Harry too. Neville got a notebook. Harry thought it was exactly what he needed.

The Remembralls made in the Wizarding World could only tell their users that they had forgotten something. They couldn't show them what they'd forgotten, so it was more reliable to write important things down several times and pin the notes beside the bed, on the desk, or even to a sleeve.

Ron got a brand-new set of Wizard's Chess. He especially loved the game, but only had an old set, so he could hardly bear to put the gift down. He took it out to play every day.

In fact, during a short break in their most recent Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, he couldn't contain his excitement and secretly played a round against his desk mate, Seamus Finnigan... Luckily, none of the pieces got blown up~

And luckily, the good-natured Professor Quirrell didn't scold them. He even gave Ron a few halting pointers.

As for Peeves, he got a brand-new hat... But as a mischievous poltergeist from Britain, he didn't really understand what the color green meant. (Laughs)

"Hmph. Boring Muggle junk."

In the dim underground classroom, the Bat Professor looked at the brand-new Cauldron in front of him with apparent disdain.

'Don't always brew Potions in Cauldrons made of heavy metals. It's easy to get chronic poisoning~'

But when he saw the note inside the Cauldron, his sour expression softened into a rare, smug little smile.

"Mr. Granger, I'm grateful for your Christmas present, but I've still decided to take a point from Ravenclaw as punishment!" The next day in Transfiguration Class, Professor McGonagall was grumbling at Harry.

"Hey, what exactly did you give Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked helplessly in a low voice.

"A Cat Corner Massager. The same one I made for Crookshanks and Mrs. Norris~" Harry nonchalantly picked at his ear. "Just look at how radiant our professor is. You can tell she spent plenty of time rubbing against it last night, and now she's taking her embarrassment out on me by deducting points. It's completely unfair~"

Hermione: ...

Please, Professor McGonagall is an Animagus. She isn't actually a cat, okay?!

If I were Professor McGonagall, I'd secretly enjoy it and still take a hundred points from Ravenclaw~

(P.S. The Christmas holidays for British students are actually the winter break. They last about three weeks, from around December 20 to early January. Also, the English below is plastic English~)

Hermione: I'm willing to quit Hogwarts.

Harry: I'm willing to stay at Hogwarts.

The Sorcerer's Stone Isn't a Sorcerer's Stone (9/10)

After the Christmas holidays ended, the busy school routine began again. That was especially true in Ravenclaw, where students seemed to be studying in the common room almost all the time.

Oddly enough, Hermione had recently become an exception.

The top student, who had always made getting the best grades her goal, had been going to the library almost every day lately. But she spent her time buried in a pile of books that were of no use for exams, often reading for hours at a stretch.

Her behavior had even annoyed Madam Pince, the librarian. She'd ordered Hermione to leave before closing time several times already.

Madam Pince had also remarked privately that if Filch weren't on such good terms with Harry, she would've already chased Hermione out with a feather duster for staying until closing time every day and refusing to leave~

"So... what exactly are you researching so diligently?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Heh, I'm obviously looking into something important." Hermione gave him a knowing smile and opened the huge old book in her hands in front of him. "Nicolas Flamel. Have you heard of that name?"