The Stone

Chapter Twenty

Bella's previous Christmas dinner's had never been like this. A hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic crackers were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones that her parents usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hates. Bella 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. Upon 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. Bella and Harry watched Hagrid get redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to their amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lop-sided.

"I ship it," Bella whispered and Harry laughed. 

When they finally left the table, they were laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of non-explodable, luminous balloons, a grow-your-own-warts kit and her own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Bella had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs Norris' Christmas dinner.

Bella, Harry, and the Weasley's spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Then, cold, wet and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Ron. He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't tried to help him so much.

After a tea of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor Tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.

This had been Bella's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of her mind all day. Not until she climbed into bed was she free to think about it: Harry's Invisibility Cloak and whoever had sent it. 

But why was it bothering her? Sighing, she closed the curtains on her four-poster and closed her eyes hoping sleep would come soon. 

*

"You could have woken me up," said Ron, crossly.

Harry had just told Bella and Ron about the strange mirror in one of the empty classrooms when he snuck out last night using the Cloak and how he had seen his mother and father. 

"And me," grumbled Bella.

"You can come tonight, the both of you," Harry smiled. "I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror"

"I'd like to see your mum and dad," said Ron eagerly and Bella nodded, agreeing with him.

"And I want to see all your family, all the Weasley's, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone"

Bella sighed, "I would show you mine...but...they're nothing special..."

Harry looked at her, "Still having problems?"

Of course, he knew how they were ignoring her. Bella nodded and sighed but Ron was too busy rambling to notice.

"You can see them any old time," said Ron. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people. Shame about not finding Flamel though..."

Harry snuck out to the Restricted Section to see if he could find anything about Flamel...but no luck.

"Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?" Bella asked noticing Harry hadn't touched his breakfast. He looked like he was both deep in thought and too excited to eat. 

"Are you all right?" asked Ron. "You look odd"

"He always looks odd," Bella joked. "He just looks odder"