One morning in mid-December, I woke to find the grounds covered in several feet of snow. The lake had frozen solid, and the Weasley twins were soon given detention for bewitching several snowballs so they'd follow Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. 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 off again.

I seemed to be the only person in the castle who wasn't excited for the holidays. True, it would be good to be able to avoid the draughty corridors and icy classrooms, but being at home was not going to be fun... at all.

"I do feel so sorry," Draco said, during Potions class one day, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

I immediately shut him up with a look of death, using it to silently remind him that I wasn't wanted at home either — at least, not by Father — and that the only reason I was allowed home for the holidays was to 'keep up appearances'.

Out of the Gryffindors, very few were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. Those that were doing so included Harry, whose home life I was becoming increasingly worried about, and the Weasleys, whose parents were going to Romania to see Charlie, the second eldest Weasley kid. Hermione and I would both be going home, along with most of the rest of the school, it seemed.

When we left the dungeons at the end of Potions, we found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet and a loud puffing sound told us that Hagrid was behind it.

"Hi Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm alrigh' thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Draco's cold voice from behind us. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose — that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what you're used to."

Ron dived at Draco just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

I flinched badly at the yell, and Ron let go of the front of Draco's robes.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," Hagrid said, sticking his face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," Snape said silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle smirked as they pushed roughly past the tree, scattering pine needles everywhere.

"I'll get him," Ron said, grinding his teeth at Draco's back. "One of these days, I'll get him—"

"I hate them both," Harry said. "Malfoy and Snape."

"I'll talk to Draco about it later," I said, sighing quietly. "I don't know why he keeps being such a git — he's not like this at home..."

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," Hagrid said. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

The four of us followed Hagrid and his tree to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons 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 you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Today's our last day," Hermione said. "And that reminds me — Dora, Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before Charms, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," Ron said, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand, and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" Hagrid said, following us out of the Great Hall. "Jus' before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry said brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel, we've been trying to find out who he is."

"Yeh what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh, drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," Hermione said.

"Unless you want to tell us and save us the trouble?" I added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already, and we can't find him anywhere. You could at least give us a hint; I know I've heard his name somewhere before..."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," Hagrid said flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves then," Ron said, and we left Hagrid looking disgruntled as we hurried off to the library.

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she'd decided to search, while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry and I wandered over to the Restricted Section.

I'd been thinking about all the places I could've heard the name before, and had come to the conclusion that it could definitely have been in a book about Dark magic, of which there were quite a few in our manor — hidden away from anyone other than family, of course. And that meant that, if the book containing Flamel's name was in the Hogwarts library at all, the Restricted Section would be where to find it.

Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the professors to look in any of the restricted books, and I knew we wouldn't get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark magic never taught at Hogwarts, and were only read by the older students studying N.E.W.T. level Defence Against the Dark Arts. Not to mention that, as all the professors likely knew about Flamel, and what Fluffy was guarding, they wouldn't want us to be reading about him anyway.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing," Harry said, before I could give a plausible excuse.

Madam Pince, the librarian, brandished a feather duster at us. I gave the slightest flinch.

"You'd better get out then. Go on — out!"

Not wanting to argue, the two of us left the library. We'd all agreed already that we'd better not ask Madam Pince where we could find Flamel. We were sure she'd be able to tell us, but we couldn't risk Snape hearing what we were up to.

Harry and I waited outside in the corridor to see if Ron and Hermione had found anything, but I wasn't very hopeful. We'd been looking for a fortnight already, after all, and so far we'd found noting — though, to be fair, we'd only had odd moments between classes, meals, and homework to look, so it wasn't at all surprising our search had come up empty. What we really needed was a nice long search, without Madam Pince breathing down our necks.

Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined us, shaking their heads. We headed off to Charms class.

"You will keep looking while Dora and I are away, won't you?" Hermione said, as we walked. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," Ron said. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," Hermione said.

Ron looked a little confused.

"What's a dentist?"

"They tend to people's teeth, make sure they're healthy and all that," Hermione explained. She then turned to me, and said, "Dora, you have a library at home, don't you? Do you think you could check a few books while you're there?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, of course. But I won't be able to let you know if I find anything until I get back — I don't expect my parents would be too happy if they found out I was writing to any of you." I gave a quiet sigh. "And that means you three can't send me anything either, I'm afraid. Any news will have to wait till after the holidays."

They all nodded.

"Got it."

***
A/N: tysm for 13k reads! 😊🖤

Word count: 1385