Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 56 Gift
Since Hermione left, Harry and Ron have been having a blast. With everyone else home, they practically have control of the entire Gryffindor boys' dormitory and common room, and they have no time to think about Nicolas Flamel.

Harry woke up early on Christmas morning.

"Tieara, Merry Christmas!" Harry excitedly woke Tyella as soon as he got up.

"Merry Christmas, Harry." Tierra glanced at the time; it was only six o'clock!
At this moment, only he and Harry were in the dormitory. Ron's bed was a mess, indicating that he had obviously been awake for a while.

Since the start of the holidays, Harry and Ron have changed their habit of sleeping in and now wish they could stay up all day.

"Harry! Tyella! Come quick!" Ron shouted excitedly in the common room.

Gifts of all sizes were piled up under the Christmas tree in the common room.

When Tierra and Harry arrived, Ron was pulling a magenta sweater with a large "R" written on the front out of a cardboard box with a complicated expression.

"Oh right, Harry, you got a present too." Ron said, pointing enviously to a pile of presents on the other side of the Christmas tree. Harry's presents were much bigger than his own.

Harry picked up the topmost paper package. It was wrapped in thick brown paper, on which were written in a flamboyant style: "Hagrid to Harry."

Inside was a roughly made flute, which Hagrid had clearly made himself.

Harry tried blowing it.

The sound produced by the flute is somewhat like the call of an owl.

There was a note in the second, very small paper package.

“We received your letter and enclosed a Christmas present for you. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Penny.” A fifty-pence coin was taped to the note.

“They were fairly friendly,” Harry said.

Ron, however, was captivated by the coin.

“How strange!” he said. “This shape! Is this what Muggles’ money is like?”

“You can keep it,” Harry said, then burst into laughter at Ron’s ecstatic expression. “Hagrid gave it to me, and all of these from my aunt and uncle…wait?”

Harry picked out a flat, rectangular box wrapped in light green paper from his pile of gifts and handed it to Tyella.

“Tierra, here’s a gift for you.” Harry noticed the gift because it was very strange; it was simply wrapped in a piece of green paper, without a bow or a greeting card, only a piece of paper pasted on it that read:

To Tierra Witch: Merry Christmas

No signature.

"And a gift for me?" Tierra was a little surprised. He had been waiting for Harry to take off the Invisibility Cloak, but he didn't expect someone to give him a gift.

Tierra took the gift from Harry.

But with a "snap," the green package slipped from Tiera's hand.

Tiera shivered.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Oh, no, no, it's nothing." Tiera suddenly came to her senses and carefully picked up the pale green package from the ground.

He felt it the moment Tyella took the package from Harry.

I felt that "mosquito wing brushing against the soul" feeling described in Merlin's Notebook.

“My hand slipped,” Tierra said, then quietly placed the gift on the coffee table next to the fireplace.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Ron asked curiously.

"Chinese people aren't used to opening gifts in public," Tierra casually offered as an excuse.

“Let me open it for you!” Ron said, reaching for Tierra’s gift.

"No!" Tierra beat Ron to it, snatching the small package and tucking it behind her back.

“This is…this is a Chinese custom,” Tierra said. “This is how Chinese Muggles celebrate Christmas. You must respect us.”

“Oh, okay.” Ron shrugged helplessly.

Harry was a little confused, but seeing Tyrell's determined look, he had no choice but to give up.

Harry continued to tear open the paper package and saw a thick, bright green hand-knitted sweater and a large box of homemade fudge.

“She knits us a sweater every year,” Ron said, opening his own paper package. “Mine is always dark magenta.”

“She’s so kind,” Harry said, tasting a piece of fudge and finding it very sweet. The next gift… or rather, three gifts, also candies, was a large box of horseshoe-shaped chocolates from Hermione to Harry, Ron, and Tyella.

There was only one paper package left. Harry picked it up and felt it; it was very light.

Harry gently unwrapped the paper package.

Something liquid, silvery-gray, slid down onto the floor, pooling together and shimmering. Ron gasped.

“I’ve heard of this stuff,” he said in a low voice, tossing aside the box of chocolates Hermione had given them. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s very rare and very valuable.”

"What is it?"

Harry picked up the shimmering silver fabric from the floor.

It feels strange to the touch, as if it were woven from water.

"It's an invisibility cloak!" Tierra exclaimed excitedly, looking at the long-sleeved suit. "Quick, put it on and try it on!"

Harry draped the Invisibility Cloak over his shoulders, and Ron let out a shout.

Harry looked down at his feet; strangely, they had vanished.
He rushed to the mirror in a few strides. Sure enough, only his head was visible in the mirror; his body was completely obscured.

He pulled the invisibility cloak up to his head, and his reflection in the mirror disappeared completely.

“There’s another note!” Ron suddenly exclaimed. “A note fell out of it!”

Harry ripped off his robes and grabbed the letter. It was written in a thin, spiraling handwriting he'd never seen before, with the following lines:
"Your father left this to me before he died. Now it should be returned to you. Use it well. Merry Christmas."

There was no signature.

Harry stared blankly at the note, while Ron marveled at the Invisibility Cloak.

Harry, Ron, and the Weasley twins, who also stayed at school, spent the day playing with Harry's Invisibility Cloak.

Of course, Tierra also tried it on herself.

But Tierra seemed a little distracted.

Whenever Harry asked Tierra what was wrong, Tierra would always revert to her usual faint smile.

The Christmas party that night was very lavish.

However, Tierra was unusually late.

After all the little wizards had gone to the Christmas party, Tierra quietly took out the light green package.

He gently squeezed it. The outer layer of the wrapping was just a layer of wavy green paper. Inside, it wasn't a box, but something soft and elastic.

"It's a book," Tiera immediately judged.

Because he touched the spine and hard cover of the book.

Tierra was not going to open the gift.

Because whatever is inside, it is definitely an extremely powerful and bizarre black magic item.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to detect the "trace of magic" the moment Tiera came into contact with the gift.

Tierra threw the book directly into the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, letting the raging flames devour the gift.

After throwing the gift into the fireplace, Tierra decided to go to the banquet.

However, as he turned around, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that only the green wrapping of the gift had been burned, revealing a black-covered notebook inside.

The notebook cover has a line of words written on it:
"Tom Marvolo Riddle"

I'm so sorry everyone, the update is late today.

First, after laying the groundwork for over 100,000 words, I'm going to start breaking the plot ahead of schedule, so I'll be making some changes to the development and outline of the subsequent plot (Part 2 → Part 4).

Secondly, I have a presentation to give this weekend, and I've been busy making the PPT and processing data these past few days.

So there might only be one update for the next few days, I'm very sorry, my little darlings.

I'll definitely make up for it by posting three updates a day once I'm done with this busy period.
Thank you so much, KC, for the 100 coins!

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(End of this chapter)