Deep Meditation

Christmas arrived in the blink of an eye.

Most of the young witches and wizards had already packed their luggage, ready to take the Hogwarts Express home for the holidays.

Harry ultimately chose to stay at school.

There was little point in returning to the Dursley family. Every Christmas, a great many relatives came to visit, mostly from Uncle Vernon's side.

Most of those relatives disliked Harry, and Harry wasn't particularly fond of them either. In fact, apart from his cousin Dudley, Harry had no real affection for anyone in the Dursley family. Perhaps he felt a little for Aunt Petunia, but only a little.

Under the circumstances, Harry felt he would be better off staying at school to study magic and increase his magical power than going home for Christmas. He could also keep Ron company, since Ron was just as "homeless" as he was.

Besides his poor relationship with the Dursley family, there was another reason Harry didn't want to go home: he couldn't use magic in front of ordinary people. Not only that, underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic anywhere outside school, Diagon Alley, or Hogsmeade.

This rule took effect once young witches and wizards entered school and their names were formally confirmed in the Book of Admittance.

That was why no one had interfered when Harry and Hermione practiced magic at home before school started-something that rarely happened, since young witches and wizards usually couldn't manage to perform magic by teaching themselves before attending school.

But they wouldn't be allowed to do that anymore. Many young witches and wizards from Muggle or half-blood families were unhappy about this.

Not that it did them any good. The school's and the Ministry of Magic's rules weren't something young witches and wizards could defy.

Ron was naturally delighted that Harry was staying at school. Although no fewer than three of his brothers were also staying at Hogwarts, not a single one of them would play with him.

Over the last two days before the holidays, Harry taught Hermione, Ron, and Neville the meditation method.

Ron struggled to learn it.

Constructing a clear symbol in one's mind wasn't easy in itself, and keeping it a solid color while changing that color was even harder. It required an extremely high level of concentration.

Ron wasn't stupid, but his mind was always full of things, which made it difficult for him to focus.

By comparison, Hermione learned to meditate very quickly. Almost as soon as Harry handed her the artificially aged slip of paper and she finished reading it, she understood how to do it. She succeeded after just two or three attempts.

Harry couldn't help feeling a little envious. He had barely managed it after seven or eight attempts. Hermione's powers of concentration really were impressive. That was also one of the reasons she could so easily memorize all those textbooks and supplementary study guides.

What astonished Harry and the other two, however, was that Neville also managed to meditate with ease-even faster than Hermione. He entered a meditative state on only his second attempt.

The only problem was that Neville, who already seemed a little vacant at times, looked even more vacant when he meditated. He sat there with his eyes staring straight ahead, so much so that Harry and the others almost thought something had gone wrong.

After two days of practice, Hermione, Ron, and Neville could all clearly feel the benefits of meditation.

Although they didn't have Harry's Magic Perception, which let him see magical power directly and clearly, they were beginning to sense their own. While meditating, they could almost distinctly feel their magical power growing.

"This is wonderful! I was worried I'd get bored at home without being able to use magic. This will make things much better," Hermione said happily, giving Harry a big hug.

Harry didn't feel much about Hermione's hug. Although he was beginning to take an interest in girls, such as Padma or Parvati, he didn't feel that way about Hermione. Hermione was one of the boys!

With Christmas approaching, the professors also seemed to have decided to ease up a little on their lessons.

Apart from Snape, who had already earned the title "enemy of the students," and Professor Binns, who, being a ghost, was bound to be unsympathetic, the other professors only taught a few little tricks in class, making the atmosphere much more relaxed. Even Professor McGonagall, who was usually so stern, was no exception.

The homework, however, hadn't decreased at all. There was even a little more of it.

Still, considering the length of the entire Christmas holiday, it wasn't actually that much.

Most of the students planning to go home and have a wild time spent those two days working on their homework through the night, hoping to avoid the dreadful prospect of having to study at home.

For Harry, Ron, and the others who planned to stay at school, however, things were much more relaxed. Finishing all that homework in two or three days would be very difficult, but with twelve or thirteen days, it was bound to be easy-as long as they weren't writing with their feet.

So the two of them only finished the most difficult portions of their homework, the ones that required help from Hermione and Padma, then threw themselves into playing.

Harry could now count himself an old hand at Wizard's Chess, Gobstones, Exploding Snap, and all the assorted little novelties from Zonko's Joke Shop.

Two days before Christmas, Hermione and the others left school on an early train.

After a day of playing to their hearts' content, Harry and Ron dragged their exhausted bodies back to the dormitory.

Collapsing onto his bed, Harry began with a little meditation, as he habitually did. Besides helping increase his magical power, it also helped him sleep.

But when he constructed the symbol in his mind and alternated its colors as usual, entering a meditative state, he didn't slip into that familiar, wonderful state of complete relaxation, where he felt weightless and couldn't even sense his body.

This time, he entered a strange place.

It was a pure white room that Harry found somewhat familiar, because it looked very much like his little room on Privet Drive. Yet it wasn't quite the same as his old room.