Chapter 26 Christmas Presents
Christmas morning in the Weasley home was a study in chaos. Though the Weasleys were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, there were plenty of presents to go around - including a Weasley jumper for everyone there. Seeing Severus and Sirius in matching blue jumpers, each with a red 'S' on their chest was just about the funniest thing Harry had ever imagined. Ron and Remus also matched with their bright Maroon 'R's.
Sirius had also taken great pains to find gifts for all of the Weasley children - and though Harry suspected Bill and Charlie, who weren't that much younger than Sirius, were embarrassed to be lumped into the 'child' description, they were delighted with the long slender swords they had been given. Remembering the conversation about pureblood families and swords, Harry glanced at Arthur Weasley. The man looked somewhat sad to see the swords in his sons' hands, but he nodded his thanks to Sirius. They were at war and though Arthur didn't want to admit it, as members of the Order of the Phoenix, his sons would be on the front lines. Sirius clapped Arthur on the shoulder in sympathy, but nothing more was said.
To Harry's surprise Severus had brought gifts for everyone as well. They came mostly in the forms of expensive books that he knew the Weasley family could not possibly afford, though for Fred and George he had purchased potion ingredients that they had gone apes over. While they had been lousy potions students due to their pranks, they were actually excellent potion makers. Their prank products required a degree of skill that Severus obvious recognized.
He had also purchased a book on the History of the Wizarding World for the Grangers - something they were obviously delighted over after the nature of the conversations they had been having the last couple of nights. To Harry's amazement, Severus also had a gift for both Remus and Sirius. It was an old book bound up in leather. Harry was rather stunned that he was giving his godfather anything, but as Severus handed it across to Sirius, he saw his godfather handing a similar book over to Severus.
Seeing the look of disbelief on Harry's face, Sirius just smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "They're family lineage books," he explained. "They are something we should have exchanged before the two of you were ever bonded. It's a very old tradition. I'll show it to you later if you'd like."
Harry just nodded, guessing that this was yet another custom he knew nothing about.
Harry was delighted with the new broom he'd gotten from Sirius and Remus, both with the broom itself as well as the fact that both men's names were on the card, as if they were already together. His firebolt had been damaged the day he'd taken the Eye of Odin from Voldemort's hand, and though it was still useable, it wasn't as maneuverable as it once was.
He was sitting on the floor along with Ron, Hermione and Ginny admiring the broom when Severus tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He was a bit surprised when Severus handed him a very small, neatly wrapped box a few moments later. He had expected a book like Ron and Hermione had gotten from the Potions Master. He opened the box curiously. Inside was a potion vial. Taking it out, he read the label out loud. "Oculus Reparium Infinitas."
There were several startled gasps at the name, and Harry frowned as he glanced around. Even Sirius looked both surprised and impressed. "Isn't that the spell you use to repair my glasses, Hermione?" Harry asked.
But Hermione shook her head. "No, that's Oculus Reparo. What you've got in your hand is like a thousand times better than Lazic Surgery or the Eye Sight Repairing charm."
That caught the attention of the two Grangers, but the others didn't catch the reference. "What's Lazic Surgery?" Ron wanted to know.
"It's a Muggle procedure that corrects bad eye sight," Hermione explained. "They use lasers to reshape your eye, but it doesn't always work and it has about a two week recovery period. Furthermore, your eyes sight will proceeded to deteriorate again over the years." She glanced at her parents. "And the charm only fixes your eyes for the day - kind of like the equivalent of contact lenses."
"What does this do?" Harry wanted to know.
"That fixes your eyes, permanently, dear, for the rest of your life," Molly informed him. She glanced at Severus. "I'd venture to guess there aren't more than ten Masters in the whole world who can make that potion."
Harry glanced up at Severus in amazement. He just smirked at him, and motioned to the bottle in his hand. "Well, go on, drink it."
Harry didn't have to be told twice. He carefully worked the stopper free and then raised the bottle to his lips, drinking the contents down quickly. It tasted remarkably like very strong vinegar and he made a grimace of disgust as it slid down his throat, his eyes stinging from the strong fumes. Blinking quickly to clear his eyes from the tears the fumes caused he was immediately aware of the fact that the entire room had gone blurry. Very blurry.
He frowned in confusion, thinking perhaps something had gone wrong. "But everything's blurry!" he protested.
"Gryffindors," Severus just sighed and leaned forward, gently plucking the glasses off Harry's face. Instantly the room sprang into focus with a clarity Harry had never experienced before. He'd had the same glasses since he was ten years old, and they had never corrected his eyesight the way they should have. To see everything now with perfect visions was like gaining an entirely new sense. His amazement must have been visible to everyone in the room.
"You okay, Harry?" Sirius asked in concern.
"Is this how all of you see all the time?" he asked in disbelief. He could see flecks of silver in Ron's blue eyes, and strands of soft red in Hermione's brown hair. And Sirius had several pale freckles on his nose, and Remus a faint scar just below his bottom lip. And Severus - his eyes really were the most extraordinary shade of black. "Thank you," he told the man, moved beyond words by the gift he'd been given. Until this moment he hadn't realized just how bad his eyesight had truly been.
Severus just nodded to him, his eyes gleaming brightly. "You're welcome," he said softly.
There were other gifts passed around - including several dresses from the Grangers to Hermione and Ginny, which Ginny had squealed over. While the girls were trying on their clothes, Harry got up and retrieved two packages that he'd hidden under the large tree when he'd first arrived. He handed one of them to Sirius and watched in silence at the man opened it.
The look of shock on Sirius's face when he pulled out the snow globe said more than all the words in the world. For a moment Sirius looked as if he were about to cry, one hand moving to cover his mouth as if holding back a sob. When he finally was capable again of reacting he reached out and pulled Harry into his arms, the snow globe clutched tightly in one hand.
"Where did you find this?" he asked, and the tears were very obvious in his voice.
"In my vault," Harry told him. "When I saw what was written on the bottom, I thought you might like to have it back."
"Are you sure you want to give this to me, Harry?" he asked hesitantly.
"What is it?" Remus asked curiously. They had caught the attention of most of the people in the room, though the others were trying politely not to eaves-drop on the obviously emotional experience for the man.
Sirius handed the snow globe to Remus, who took it carefully in his hands. It wasn't a particularly fancy snow globe - rather oddly made for a Wizarding item. It showed a house which looked like it was made out of candy. And standing in front of the house were the shapes of two boys though they were little more than stick figures. The entire thing was encased in a crystal ball of glass that was mounted on a uneven wooden stand. But unlike Muggle snow globes, this one was not filled with water - rather there was a charm on it which set the shredded bits of paper snow swirling continuously around the scene whether you were shaking the ball or not. Despite the magic spell on it, the entire thing looked as if it had been made by amateur hands. As Remus turned the globe over and saw what was written on the bottom, he caught his breath in surprise. "Siri and Jamie, age 7," he read. He looked at Sirius questioningly. "You made this?"
Sirius nodded. "James and I met for the first time at a summer camp when we were seven years old. That was our art project. I had no idea he'd kept it all these years." He turned to Harry. "Are you sure you want to give this to me? You don't own many things belonging to your father."
But Harry just smiled at him and shook his head. "I have his two best friends. What more could I want?" Both men hugged him again, obviously moved. When they released him at last, Harry glanced down at the last package in his hand. It was small, and book shaped. "I have a gift for you too Remus, but. . ." He glanced over at Severus who had been watching their exchange in silence. While Severus might not have liked James Potter, he knew any reminder of that fact would not have been welcome or appropriate at the moment. "It's sort of part of Severus' gift."
All three men looked perplexed by that statement, none of them understanding what Harry could possibly imagine a gift to be that Severus and Remus might share. He just shrugged. "You'll see," he said as he handed the wrapped package across to Severus.
Frowning in confusion, Severus took the gift from him and carefully unwrapped it, everyone else in the room now watching the proceedings in curious silence. As predicted, Severus unwrapped a small thin book. There was no writing on the outside of it, so he opened it up to the first page, his eyes narrowing as he recognized the handwriting inside. "This is your handwriting," he stated. "You wrote a book?"
"No," Harry said quietly and waited.
Severus gasped suddenly, his entire body stiffening as he read the first few lines written there. His hands were shaking as he looked up and pinned Harry with his stare. "Harry, what is this?" he whispered in the silence that had fallen over the room.
Harry settled back onto the floor of the Weasley's living room. "It's the first volume of the Book of Light by Salazar Slytherin."
There were several shocked gasps of disbelief followed by some quiet murmurs to the two Grangers who didn't understand the significance of the name. Every eye in the room turned to Harry for an explanation. "I found them in the Chamber of Secrets a few months ago," he explained.
"You went back down into the Chamber?" Ginny asked, her voice trembling.
Harry frowned. He'd forgotten that Ginny had also been in the chamber, though he knew she didn't remember much of it. Her face was pale and her father gently put his arms around her, holding her tightly against him.
"I had a dream," Harry explained. "About a series of books, the Books of Dark, that Slytherin had written. Tom Riddle removed them from the Chamber long ago, but he left the Books of Light behind. He had no use for them. He believed that Light meant weak. But just because he had no use for them didn't mean that we didn't. I went back down to the Chamber to see if they were still there, intending to give them to the Headmaster if they were. But when I found them, I realized they were written in Parseltongue. Voldemort and I were the only ones who could read them. So I started translating them. This is the only one I've managed to finish. But as soon as I figured out what was in this volume I knew it would do more good in your hands, Severus, than anyone else's."
"What's in it?" Severus asked, his hands clenched tightly around the priceless volume.
"Slytherin's experiments and notes, mostly on potions."
"Harry," Severus said, his voice filled with more emotion than he'd ever heard before. "Do you have any idea how valuable this is?"
"Yeah, actually I do," Harry agreed, and he glanced over at Remus, wondering how the man was going to take the rest of his news. "That's why I said this was sort of a gift for you as well Remus."
"I don't understand," the werewolf said uncertainly. What possible use could a book of potions written by Slytherin have to do with him?
Harry took a deep breath. "Salazar Slytherin believed that lycanthropy was not a disease."
"What?" both Sirius and Remus asked in unison, the tension clear on their faces.
"According to Slytherin lycanthropy was the result of a failed Animagus transformation," Harry explained. "An Animagus has the power to transform into an animal - a non-magical animal, like a cat or dog or deer. According to Slytherin's notes there was a wizard a long time ago who made an attempt to transform himself into a magical creature - a Hell Hound to be exact."
"You can't transform into a magical creature," Hermione protested. "It won't work. Wizards and magical creatures have a different type of connection between their minds and their magical cores. Such a transformation would disconnect your mind from your magical core and you would no longer be able to control the magic - which would automatically stop the transformation."
Harry nodded. "According to Slytherin, when an Animagus transforms into a non-magical animal the connection between his mind and his magical core remains intact. But when a human tries to transform into a magical-creature the connection breaks. The man who attempted the magical transformation reasoned that all he would need to do would be to come up with a potion that would bridge the gap between his mind and the Hell Hound's magical core so that not only could he control his magic but he would also retain his human mind. But something went wrong - he got the potion wrong and it only partially worked. He retained his magic so that the transformation worked, but he lost the connection to his mind and mutated into a mindless, wolf-like beast. He never transformed back, and before he was killed he managed to bite several different people. His saliva was infected with the potion he had taken.
"Now obviously his transformation was triggered by the Animagus metamorphosis spell. But the potion was unstable and it automatically triggered a weakened version of the metamorphosis spell the first night the moon was full. The victims of the wizard's bite transformed into mindless beasts until the sun rose the following day. The first werewolves were born. But the thing is, Slytherin didn't think that there was anything wrong with the wizard's logic - he just reasoned that the man had screwed up the potion. That is what he wrote in that notebook - his own experiments with the potion. There were two things wrong with it - first he'd used several lunar-based plants which caused the potion to react to the full moon in a way that it shouldn't have, and second, the wizard himself did not possess a strong enough magical core to complete the transformation properly. According to his notes, Slytherin fixed the potion and gave it to a number of different werewolves. If they were strong enough, it cured them." With that Harry turned to Remus, his eyes shining.
"I know you're strong enough Remus. The test to determine their magical strength was the Patronus Charm. Only the werewolves who were strong enough to cast the Patronus Charm were cured. You taught the charm to me. I know Severus can make the potion, and I know you'll be strong enough to be cured."
Remus was openly trembling now, a look of disbelief on his face. By this point, Sirius had wrapped his arms around the man's shoulders and was holding him tightly.
"Cured," Remus whispered. "No more transformations? No more full moons?"
Harry shook his head. "No more full moons," he agreed. "But you don't understand, Remus. You won't be a werewolf, you'll be a magical Animagus. The cure gives you the ability to transform into the wolf whenever you wish, full moon or not, night or day. And you are never in danger of loosing your human mind. You'll have to learn the Animagus spells, but I know Sirius can teach them to you. And Severus will have to learn how to make the potion, but I can't imagine anyone more capable. I know it will work. It has to."
Both men were now looking at Severus almost desperately, hope burning in both their eyes as Severus began skimming through the book. While Harry knew there was no love lost between the Marauders and Severus, he had no doubt that the man would do everything in his power to make the cure Slytherin wrote about. "I can see similarities to the wolvesbane potion," he stated. "The same basic principles, and there's a charm component." He glanced up at the two men. "I'm going to have to do some experiments to make certain it is safe. And the potion itself takes several months to brew. But I'll do everything I can."
At his words, Remus let out a barely stifled sob. Rising swiftly to his feet he rushed from the room, Sirius close on his tail. Alarmed Harry turned to the others for an explanation.
"Leave them alone for few moments, Harry," Bill urged. "For most of his life Remus has been controlled by a very painful and terrifying curse. I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now to know there may be an end in sight at last."
Harry nodded in understanding, hoping the man was all right.
"Harry, you said there were other volumes," Severus said. "How many, and have you read them all?"
"Ten in all," Harry explained. "I've looked through them - they're filled with all sorts of things. Spells, potions, charms, medicine, sometimes just ideas and philosophy. But unfortunately Parseltongue is not easy to translate. It looks like English to me. I can't tell you how many times while I was working on that volume when I found myself simply writing it back down in Parseltongue when I thought I was writing English." He laughed somewhat self-deprecatingly. "It's a pity really that such an ability was wasted on me instead of on you or Hermione. I only understand a fraction of the things in the book."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Harry," Hermione told him quickly. "I think you understand more than you realize. You obviously understood what Slytherin was saying about the lycanthropy potion."
"And I know from personal experience that translating an ancient manuscript is no easy task," Severus added, freely giving a compliment to the surprise of his other students. "It's a priceless gift, Harry. Thank you."
Harry just grinned at him, his face flushed with pleasure. "You're welcome."
"Well, this calls for a celebration," Molly decided, rising to her feet. "What say we get breakfast on the table so we can all eat. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get Christmas dinner on the table tonight, and Albus, Minerva and Hagrid will be here in a couple of hours."
While the rest of them scrambled to help Molly, Harry went in search of Remus and Sirius. He found them outside on the front porch wrapped in each other's arms. Remus had his face buried against Sirius' neck, and Sirius was gently stroking his back. Neither man was saying anything. Reluctant to disturb so intimate a moment, Harry turned to go back into the house, but Remus must have heard him.
"Harry," he called.
Harry turned back, staring at the two of them hesitantly. Both men were looking at him now with so much emotion in their eyes he wanted to cry. Instead he moved toward them and they both infolded him in their arms.
"Thank you, Harry," Remus said simply, and the tone of his voice said everything that ever needed to be said on the subject.