Chapter 450: Easter Gifts
Sean needed to begin addressing his old senior's curse. It was an undertaking fraught with obstacles; facing a curse laid by Tom Riddle was no small matter, and no wizard could guarantee it could be undone. But more urgently, he needed rest.
From the moment he had entered the Headmaster's office, to the destruction of the Horcrux, and his eventual return to Hogwarts, a full day had passed. After securely stowing away the cursed Resurrection Stone, Sean fell into a deep sleep.
When he awoke, a portion of the students had already departed Hogwarts. The Easter holiday had begun, lasting two weeks. Many students would head home, and the Hogwarts Express was running to ferry them between King's Cross and Hogsmeade.
The train made this journey about six times a year. Of course, a small group of students remained behind, eager to spend their break exploring Hogsmeade. The Great Hall was currently filled with the jubilant chatter of students making plans for their trip to the village.
Sean sat quietly, unwrapping his own Easter eggs. One had been sent by Mrs. Weasley. Beside him, Harry and Ron's eggs were roughly the size of dragon eggs, stuffed to the brim with homemade toffee. Sean's egg, however, was larger than the table itself. He widened his eyes the moment he saw it and glanced toward Snowy. The snowy-white owl was slumped over, exhausted.
There were other, more curious eggs as well. One from the farm contained vibrant candy wrappers, a steaming pumpkin pasty, and a perfectly sealed glass of milk. Grandpa Marcus was always worried about the ingredients at Hogwarts, holding fast to the old-fashioned belief that food mass-farmed at Hogwarts was inferior to what was raised on his farm. He constantly boasted that his farm produced the best milk in Scotland—surprisingly, the Thames Daily agreed. The farm had won several competitions; Professor McGonagall often retorted without looking up from her book that the old wizard had simply cheated by using magic.
Beyond the farm's offerings, Sean received eggs from the outskirts of London, from Hogsmeade Village... but by far the most came from within Hogwarts Castle itself.
Just as Sean began dismantling his gifts, a flood of owls poured into the Hall. Letters, naturally, were more plentiful during the holidays. Soon, the noise of the students' discussions grew overwhelming, splitting the hall into two distinct camps: those heading to Hogsmeade were ecstatic, waving the Daily Prophet and shouting the news, while those staying behind looked on with miserable envy.
"Sean, have you seen this? Merlin's beard! Magic Hand Mirrors—a revolutionary invention—" Ron droned on, reading from the Daily Prophet before hurriedly thrusting the paper toward Sean.
"Instant communication, covering the globe, linking your life..." Harry read the marketing slogans, finding them oddly familiar.
Sean took the paper. A large portion of the Daily Prophet was dominated by a headline:
[The Latest Masterpiece from the Future's Greatest Wizard: A Miraculous Creation Changing the Way the Wizarding World Communicates!]
[First Expansion of Diagon Alley's Most Mysterious Shop: Now Available in Five Countries and Hogsmeade Village!]
[The Ultimate Easter Gift: Does Your Child Not Yet Own a Pair of Magic Hand Mirrors?]
The sheer volume of advertisements made one wonder if this was still the Daily Prophet.
"My dad says the Ministry wants to buy a massive shipment, but that mysterious alchemist is only willing to sell them thirty, claiming limited production capacity and that only three hundred were made in the first batch—" Ron held his letter, marvelling at the news.
"I have a feeling..." Harry studied the photograph in the paper, finding it looking more and more like the mirror in his own hand.
"I've only ever heard of two-way mirrors, but those things are terrifyingly expensive," Ron whispered.
"How expensive?" Harry asked curiously.
"Hundreds of Galleons!" Ron gestured with his hands.
"That is expensive," Harry and Sean agreed.
"I bet this is a new kind of two-way mirror, it must cost at least..." Ron frowned in concentration. "Seven..." Harry waited, and even Sean looked at him. "Seven hundred... no, at least three hundred Galleons!" Ron declared with absolute conviction.
"Three hundred!" Harry was startled. His dream broom, the Nimbus 2001, only cost a few hundred Galleons.
"Probably more! The craftsmanship and materials for two-way mirrors have been lost for ages," Ron said with practiced solemnity.
Harry fell silent. He sat down and pulled a mirror from his bag. He compared the mirror with the advertisement photograph in the paper, falling into deep thought.
"Harry?" Ron leaned in curiously. "You bought one?!" Ron exclaimed.
"If I'm not mistaken, you have one too," Harry said.
Ron was bewildered, struggling to understand if Harry was even speaking English.
"Have you unwrapped your Easter gifts yet?" Harry asked.
"Not yet, you mean..." Ron sensed something, and in a flurry of movement, began tearing open his presents. After a moment, he pulled out a mirror, looking utterly incredulous.
The surface rippled, revealing several distinct figures: Sean, quietly reading; a miniature Professor McGonagall; a friendly, kind-hearted badger; a pudgy Neville; Ron, stuffing two chicken legs into his mouth; and a smaller-than-life Harry.
"When on earth am I going to be stuffing two chicken legs that big into my mouth?" Ron's face flushed a deep red.
"At the Great Hall, don't you remember?" Harry tried to help him recall.
"Oh, Harry, I really don't want to remember that," Ron said, mortified.
The Great Hall was a cacophony of noise, but Sean had already slipped away. Professor Terra had just called for him; Sean knew it was about the Magic Hand Mirrors.
His figure receded down the corridor, but a few minutes later, he stopped and activated his own Magic Hand Mirror. Hermione's face, her ears dusted with a faint pink, appeared on the surface. "Sean!" she said—likely calling about the incident with the mini-McGonagall.
"Sean, Happy Easter," the second face to appear was Justin's.
"Ah, Sean, heavens, it's unbelievable, it really is you! You invented the Magic Hand Mirrors! And seven of them! The Ministry heard they couldn't even procure any... oh, of course they couldn't, because they're with us." The third and fourth faces to pop up were a shouting Ron and an excited Harry.
Each claimed a small portion of the mirror's surface. Suddenly, a large, round face loomed, shrinking everyone else's faces.
"Sean, Hermione, Justin, Harry, Ron..." Neville stammered, clearly feeling out of place.
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