A few days went by, but Adrian still couldn't find the right moment to spy on Quirrell. The potions professor seemed more careful lately, he hadn't made any big moves in nearly a week.
Adrian figured he'd deal with Christmas first. He needed to get gifts for Harry and the others, and thankfully he still had plenty of gold left after buying all those potion supplies.
He spent his free time split between the library and hanging out with the Weasley twins. Now that Fred and George had some decent money, they were dying to start their business ideas. They planned to use the holiday break to learn how to make magical items.
Adrian joined them as their unofficial advisor. His magical item crafting skill had been stuck at beginner level since September, but working with the twins finally pushed it up to level one.
With his new crafting abilities, Adrian decided to make Ron's Christmas gift himself, a custom wizard chess set. It would save money and be way more personal than anything from a store.
For Hermione, he put together his best study notes. Pages and pages of magical tricks and techniques he'd figured out. The girl loved learning, so she'd definitely appreciate them.
Harry's gift was trickier. The guy didn't seem to want much of anything. After thinking it over, Adrian settled on making a small Christmas music box. When you opened it, four tiny figures would pop out and dance around while singing a Christmas song.
The little figures looked like Harry, Ron, Hermione, and himself.
For the twins, Adrian prepared some Fat-Tongue Toffees, candy he'd developed earlier based on memories from his past life. He couldn't wait to see their faces when they tried them.
He was actually curious about what gifts he might get tomorrow.
The night passed quickly. Christmas morning came with snow falling outside the castle windows. Adrian woke up to find Harry and Ron already tearing into their presents.
As soon as Adrian opened his first gift, he heard Ron shout next to him.
"Whoah! This chess set is amazing! Adrian, how'd you make this?"
Ron was already testing out the chess set Adrian had crafted. During the making process, Adrian had given all the pieces fancy, detailed designs. The pawns were different types of robed wizards, the knights became unicorns and thestrals, and the rooks turned into fire-breathing dragons. The red king looked exactly like Dumbledore with his long white beard, though Ron couldn't figure out who the black king was supposed to be.
The rules stayed the same, but now each game felt like watching a real wizard battle. Adrian's magic made it even better with light effects and tiny spell animations.
Ron was thrilled, but he had to ask who was fighting against Dumbledore.
"You-Know-Who?" Ron guessed, then shivered.
"No, it's Grindelwald," Adrian said.
"Who's that?" Harry asked, looking over after hearing Ron mention You-Know-Who.
"Remember? Professor Dumbledore's biggest achievement, besides finding the twelve uses of dragon's blood, was beating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945," Adrian reminded them.
Harry nodded as he remembered seeing that on his Dumbledore Chocolate Frog card.
Next, Harry opened Adrian's gift to him. The musical Christmas box with the dancing figures singing holiday songs almost convinced him it was the best Christmas present he'd ever gotten.
Until he pulled something out of his last package, a silvery-gray fabric that moved like liquid metal.
"What is this?" Harry asked, running his fingers over the weird material.
"That's an invisibility cloak," Adrian said, walking over to get a better look at this legendary item. "Can I touch it?"
"Sure," Harry said, handing it over.
The moment Adrian's fingers touched it, information popped up in his system:
[Magical Item: Invisibility Cloak (Deathly Hallow)]
[Magic Level: Very Strong]
[Description: Legend says this Deathly Hallow was made using Death's own cloak. It has amazing magical properties, making the wearer completely invisible and avoiding most magical detection.]
"Isn't this just a permanent, stronger version of a Disillusionment Charm? The description seems kind of over the top," Adrian muttered.
Based on what he knew from his past life memories, the Three Deathly Hallows were pretty overhyped. Even under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry would still get spotted by Dumbledore and Snape, detected by Moody's magical eye, and couldn't even hide from a Dementor. If these were really Death's sacred artifacts, they seemed pretty disappointing.
The Resurrection Stone just let you talk to dead people, hardly lived up to its name.
Only the Elder Wand showed real power, giving combat boosts to wizards at Dumbledore and Voldemort's level. But even then, losing a fight meant the winner got the wand.
Adrian kept these thoughts to himself while testing the cloak.
To Harry and Ron, Adrian just disappeared. Harry reached toward where his friend had been standing and felt nothing but empty air with some weird resistance.
Under the cloak, Adrian felt cut off from the outside world. The thin fabric seemed to separate him completely from everything else. Looking out, everything seemed slightly blurry and unreal.
Adrian walked around and talked out loud to see if Harry and the others could hear him. His tests showed that while the cloak hid him well, it wasn't the perfect invisibility he'd expected.
He wondered why his system rated it so highly. Maybe this was as good as magic got in this world?
"Definitely useful," Adrian said after testing it out. He took off the cloak and gave it back to Harry without feeling jealous.
After all, he could do something similar by learning the Disillusionment Charm from the Restricted Section. It would just use more magical energy and couldn't last as long.
Harry and Ron took turns excitedly playing with the Invisibility Cloak while Adrian looked at his own Christmas presents.
Adrian's pile included a bag of mixed candies, two weird round objects, a leather notebook, ten gold Galleons, and a crescent moon pendant with his name carved elegantly on its surface.