Carefree days before the Holiday

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke up to find itself covered in several feets of snow. The Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they had followed Quirrel around, bouncing off the back of his turban.

Seeing their antics, Neville really wanted to drag them to a corner and pour out his heart !

Do you all not care about your life!

That was a legitimate Dark lord you are pranking!

I have a system to afford messing around, but do you!

The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver post had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly again.

Nothing one could wait for the holidays to start.

While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the draughty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms.

Worst of all were Professor Snape's potion class in the dungeons , where there breaths rose in a mistake before them and they had to keep as close as they could to their hot cauldrons.

" I do feel so sorry for all people who have to stay at Hogwarts because they are not wanted at home," said Malfoy at one Potion class while Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.

He was looking over at Harry as he spoke.

Malfoy had been more unpleasant than usual after the Quidditch Match.

Disgusted by the loss, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how adorable wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as a seeker next year.

Then he realised that no one found it funny, because they were all impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick.

So Malfoy, angry and jealous, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

It was true that Harry won't be going to Privet Drive for Christmas.

Professor McGonagall had come round the week, before making a list of students who would be staying for the Holidays, and Harry had signed up at once.

He hadn't felt sorry for himself as Ron and his brothers were staying too, because Mr and Mrs Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.

Neville and Hermione who would be going to visit their families promised that they will be back before the term started.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large Fir tree blocking the corridor ahead.

Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing told them that Hagrid was behind it .

After helping Hagrid with the tree they followed him and his tree to the Great Hall where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the decorations.

The Great Hall looked spectacular.

Festons of Holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls and no fewer than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days Yeh got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione. And that reminded her to visit the library in the half an hour they had before lunch.

They left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was going to steal?

Neville had his hands bound together as the system had released another mission - he had to read books about important wizards and witches as long their quest for Nicolas Flamel remained.

The rewards were so enticing that he chose to keep mum about Nicolas Flamel.

He even borrowed the heavy book which contained the information so that Hermione wouldn't take it to light read and finish their reading marathon.

It would take him the holidays and at least 2 weeks after the term began to finish his quest.

He believed in Ron's ability to slack off and that Harry would also be influenced by the flame haired slacker.

Hermione as long as she didn't end up drawing a Choclate frog would also not find it.

The trouble was, it was hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself on a book.

He wasn't in "Great Wizards of the Twentieth century", or "Notable Magical Names of Our Time"; he was missing, too, from "Important Modern Magical Discoveries", and "A study of Recent Developments in Wizardry."

And then, ofcourse, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books, thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles that she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random.

Harry wandered off to the Restricted Section while Neville borrowed the book and proceeded to stow it away in his system inventory when no one was paying attention.

Unfortunately for Harry, you needed a special note from one of the teachers to look into the Restricted Section and he knew that he he would never get one.

These were the books containing powerful dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts and could only be read by older students studying "Advanced Defence Against the dark arts".

"What are you looking for, boy?"

"Nothing"

Madam Pince brandished a feather duster at him.

They had already agreed not to ask Madam Pince as they were sure that she could tell them but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if they had found anything, but wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for a fortnight, after all, but as they could find only odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they had found nothing.

What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, the three joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.

Hermione turned to Harry and Ron, and asked, "You while keep looking while I am away, won't you?"

"And send me a owl if you do find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know how Flamel is," said Ron.

"It would be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they are both dentists.