Days passed, and the moment Evan was waiting for still hadn't arrived. Quirrell seemed to have become even more cautious, with no significant moves made for several days.
Evan decided to focus on the upcoming Christmas instead, preparing a gift for each of his friends—Harry, Ron, and Hermione—grateful that he still had a fair amount of Galleons left after purchasing materials.
He spent half of his remaining time in the library and the other half with the Weasley twins. With their relatively ample funds, they eagerly embarked on their own venture, taking advantage of the holiday to delve into the creation of magical items.
As a special consultant, Evan had joined their endeavor. His skill in magical item creation, stagnant since the beginning of the term, finally advanced to level one.
As a result of his upgraded skills, Evan decided to gift Ron a set of special wizarding flags he had crafted as a Christmas present, saving some Galleons in the process.
For Hermione, he prepared his own annotated reading notes, filled with a myriad of spell-casting tips he believed the young witch would appreciate.
As for Harry's gift, Evan struggled to think of something specific to his tastes, so he settled on a small, charming Christmas gift box. Upon opening, four tiny figures would leap out, circling around and singing a Christmas carol in unison—depicting Harry, Ron, Hermione, and himself.
To the Weasley twins, Evan gifted a few Ton-Tongue Toffees, an homage to their future creations, anticipating their "surprised" reactions.
Evan, too, was eager to see what gifts the next day would bring...
As Christmas morning dawned, Evan awoke to find Harry and Ron already tearing into their presents. Evan joined them, and as he unwrapped his first gift, Ron exclaimed with excitement.
"Blimey, this wizarding flag is so cool... Evan, how did you manage this?"
Ron was marveling at the wizarding flag Evan had given him.
Evan had adorned these flags with beautiful and ornate designs during the making process. Soldiers were now various wizards in robes, knights had been replaced with unicorns and Thestrals, and higher-tier pieces like fire dragons. The king of the red side was an old man with a white beard—Dumbledore, which Ron recognized. But Ron couldn't identify the black king.
Although the rules remained unchanged, the chessboard now resembled a wizarding war, with battle scenes enhanced by Evan's magical light effects.
Ron was overjoyed but still asked who Dumbledore's opponent was.
"Voldemort?" Ron guessed, shuddering at the thought.
"No, it's Grindelwald," Evan clarified.
"Who's that?" Harry asked, joining in, triggered by Ron's mention of Voldemort.
"Don't you remember? One of Professor Dumbledore's greatest achievements, besides discovering the twelve uses for dragon's blood, was defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945," Evan reminded them.
Harry then recalled receiving a Dumbledore chocolate frog card that indeed mentioned this.
Soon after, Harry unwrapped the gift from Evan, finding the singing figures enchanting. He was convinced it was the best Christmas gift he could have received until he pulled out a strange, silver-gray fabric that looked like flowing liquid from the last package.
"What's this?" Harry asked, touching it curiously.
"It's an Invisibility Cloak," Evan remarked, intrigued as he approached to examine the legendary Deathly Hallow.
"May I touch it?"
"Of course," Harry handed over the cloak, and Evan reached out for it.
Simultaneously, Evan noticed new information about the Invisibility Cloak appeared in his system's magical item slot.
[Magical Item: Invisibility Cloak (Deathly Hallow)
Magic: Extremely Powerful
Description: A legendary Deathly Hallow believed to be made from the cloak of Death itself, possessing unimaginable magical power, capable of concealing the wearer from detection.]
"Just an enhanced version of the Disillusionment Charm, huh? They really exaggerate its capabilities..." Evan muttered under his breath.
From what he had seen in the original story, the Deathly Hallows seemed rather overrated to Evan.
Under the cloak's protection, Harry was not only detected by Dumbledore and Snape but also seen through by Moody's magical eye and unable to evade the Dementors' detection. If the Deathly Hallows were only this effective, they were disappointingly mediocre.
The Resurrection Stone's sole purpose was to summon the souls of the dead for communication, hardly living up to its name.
The only Hallow with some credibility was the Elder Wand, which could enhance the battle prowess for wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort. However, the wand's allegiance could change upon the defeat of its master, making it a treacherous possession.
While critiquing internally, Evan tried on the cloak.
To Harry and Ron, Evan simply vanished in front of them. Harry reached out to where Evan was and felt a thin, water-like film.
Inside the cloak, Evan experienced the peculiar sensation of being completely isolated from the outside world. From his perspective, the outside seemed hazy and surreal.
Evan walked a few steps and made noises on purpose, asking Harry and Ron if they could hear him. The conclusion was that the cloak indeed provided some level of concealment, but it fell short of complete invisibility as he had imagined.
How could this item be rated as extremely powerful by the system? Was this the limit of this world?
"A practical item..." After experimenting for a while, Evan took off the cloak and returned it to Harry, feeling no desire to keep it.
To achieve a similar effect, he could learn the Disillusionment Charm in the restricted section of the library. It would be more mana-consuming and not as long-lasting, but it was an option.
Harry and Ron excitedly took their turns trying on the cloak, while Evan turned to his own pile of Christmas gifts.
He received a bag of candy, two round, irregular objects, a notebook, ten Galleons, and a crescent-shaped pendant engraved with his name...
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