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teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid |
getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, |
finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's |
amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided. |
When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of |
things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous |
balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own new wizard chess set. |
The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were |
going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner. |
Harry and the Weasleys 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 meal 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. |
It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been |
nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed |
was he free to think about it: the invisibility cloak and whoever had |
sent it. |
Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother him, |
fell asleep almost as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his |
four-poster. Harry leaned over the side of his own bed and pulled the |
cloak out from under it. |
His father's... this had been his father's. He let the material flow |
over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air. Use it well, the note |
had said. |
He had to try it, now. He slipped out of bed and wrapped the cloak |
around himself. Looking down at his legs, he saw only moonlight and |
shadows. It was a very funny feeling. |
Use it well. |
Suddenly, Harry felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to him |
in this cloak. Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the |
dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch |
would never know. |
Ron grunted in his sleep. Should Harry wake him? Something held him back |
-- his father's cloak -- he felt that this time -- the first time -- he |
wanted to use it alone. |
He crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, |
and climbed through the portrait hole. |
"Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady. Harry said nothing. He walked |
quickly down the corridor. |
Where should he go? He stopped, his heart racing, and thought. And then |
it came to him. The Restricted Section in the library. He'd be able to |
read as long as he liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. |
He set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around him as he |
walked. |
The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry lit a lamp to see his |
way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along |
in midair, and even though Harry could feel his arm supporting it, the |
sight gave him the creeps. |
The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Step ping |
carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the |
library, he held up his lamp to read the titles. |
They didn't tell him much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled |
words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. |
One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. The |
hairs on the back of Harry's neck prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, |
maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, |
as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be. |
He had to start somewhere. Setting the lamp down carefully on the floor, |
he looked along the bottom shelf for an interestinglooking book. A large |
black and silver volume caught his eye. He pulled it out with |
difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, |
let it fall open. |
A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence -- the book was |
screaming! Harry snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one |
high, unbroken, earsplitting note. He stumbled backward and knocked over |
his lamp, which went out at once. Panicking, he heard footsteps coming |
down the corridor outside -- stuffing the shrieking book back on the |
shelf, he ran for it. He passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild |
eyes looked straight through him, and Harry slipped under Filch's |
outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor, the book's shrieks |
still ringing in his ears. |
He came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. He had been |
so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't paid attention to where |
he was going. Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognize where he |
was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, he knew, but he |
must be five floors above there. |
"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was |
wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted |
Section." |
Harry felt the blood drain out of his face. Wherever he was, Filch must |
know a shortcut, because his soft, greasy voice was getting nearer, and |
to his horror, it was Snape who replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, |
they can't be far, we'll catch them." |
Harry stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner |
ahead. They couldn't see him, of course, but it was a narrow corridor |
and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into him -- the cloak |
didn't stop him from being solid. |
He backed away as quietly as he could. A door stood ajar to his left. It |
was his only hope. He squeezed through it, holding his breath, trying |
not to move it, and to his relief he managed to get inside the room |
without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Harry |
leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps |
dying away. That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before |
he noticed anything about the room he had hidden in. |
It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs |
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