The envelope was very clean, and Harry reached across the table to hand the letter to Hagrid.
Unexpectedly, Hagrid immediately tore it open after receiving it.
Then, for some reason, he kept looking at Harry.
"Harry, look at this." Hagrid finally couldn't hold back his little secret.
Harry was a little confused, and saw Hagrid hand him a faded, grayish photo.
In the photo was a man who looked very similar to him: tall, thin, wearing glasses, with messy hair, and a stubborn tuft of hair sticking up at the back of his head.
Harry froze; he also had a tuft of hair like that, when he hadn't smoothed it down.
Not only that, but in the photo, the man was embracing a woman with dark hair and grayish eyes, whose color was indistinguishable.
But Harry immediately knew that the woman's eyes must be green.
Just like his.
"This is…"
"This is a photo of your mom and dad," Hagrid said happily.
Harry stood still, just holding up the photo.
Compared to him, the two people in the photo seemed much more lively; every glance and smile deeply imprinted itself in his mind.
"Can I… can I have this?" Harry looked up at Hagrid.
"Of course! I was planning to give it to you anyway," Hagrid said with a smile.
He ruffled Harry's head; at that moment, he saw that little bit of fluff again.
These past few days, he had only seen Harry's mature side, which was good, and James and Lily would surely be happy to see it too.
But Hagrid felt that he was only eleven years old and should still have some childlike qualities; maturing too early was not good.
And Harry's behavior just now made Hagrid spontaneously happy.
"Thank you, Hagrid." Harry carefully placed the photo inside his jacket lining: "Thanks."
"Don't say thank you, we don't need to say thank you," Hagrid patted him.
"Alright, you should go back and rest.
Otherwise, it won't be good if Filch catches you later."
"Okay." Harry nodded, then suddenly turned back at the last moment: "Oh, by the way, Hagrid, don't feed Norbert anything!!"
Hagrid's gentle face stiffened, and he could only nod: "Alright, I know."
After Harry left, Hagrid finally pulled out a book from above the cabinet.
What would be a huge tome in an ordinary person's eyes was like a small pamphlet in his hands.
Flipping through the pages, one could clearly see that every page inside was filled with photos of James and Lily.
Hagrid shook the envelope and took out two more photos from it.
He turned to a blank page at the back of the book and carefully pasted the photos onto it.
This was a gift Hagrid had meticulously prepared for Harry.
He had sent owls to James and Lily's old classmates, intending to collect an entire book of their photos and give it to Harry once it was compiled.
Initially, he had wanted to finish this by Christmas, but unfortunately, he was falling behind.
And he had just given one of the photos to Harry prematurely.
Well, it was his fault for not being able to resist the urge to share, but after all, Harry was standing right in front of him…
On the way back, Harry kept flipping through the photo.
This was the first time he had seen them.
The figures of the two people kept echoing in his mind, making it impossible for him to fall asleep, even as he tossed and turned.
The next day, at noon.
"Hermione, help me with something!" Harry looked at her seriously.
"What happened?" Hermione was puzzled; Harry rarely spoke seriously about needing help.
"I want to go see the Gryffindor common room," Harry said.
Hermione didn't react immediately.
She nodded blankly: "You can, but… what do you want to do?"
"I don't want to do anything, I just want to see," Harry said.
"I thought about it for a long time last night.
Ever since I came to Hogwarts, I seem to have been instinctively avoiding this matter.
But now… I want to see, I want to see where they lived, where their footsteps left traces."
"Okay." Hermione nodded with a very serious expression on her small face.
"But how will you get there? Gryffindor… you know." She couldn't help but worry.
The conflict between Gryffindor and Slytherin was very serious.
If Harry went to their common room, he would likely face some exclusion.
Among the four houses, the only common room that anyone could freely enter and exit was Ravenclaw's, as long as you could correctly answer the guardian's question!
Of course, Hufflepuff people also didn't mind others visiting their common room, as long as you weren't universally disliked.
"I can go at night, when they're all asleep," Harry said.
"Then Filch will catch you."
"Don't worry, have you forgotten my Christmas gift?" Harry was full of confidence and didn't think Filch could stop him.
Speaking of the Christmas gift, Hermione also breathed a sigh of relief.
It was an Invisibility Cloak, with no specific signature, only a note:
Your father left this with me before he died.
It is now time for it to return to you.
Use it well.
A very Merry Christmas to you.
Harry thought Dumbledore had sent it to him.
He wasn't very interested in the Invisibility Cloak, as there weren't many practical applications for it.
After Christmas, he had put it at the bottom of his trunk and hadn't used it since.
But today, it seemed it could finally see the light of day.
"Okay, then you can come at midnight.
There will be far fewer people in the common room then, and the password is 'Stonemason'."
That night, after Draco and the others had gone to sleep, Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak and walked out of the Slytherin common room.
The Castle was very quiet at night; even faint sounds could travel far.
Harry tried his best to make every step without making too much noise.
Arriving in front of the Fat Lady's portrait on the eighth floor, he didn't remove the cloak, but instead, while invisible, he simply uttered the password.
"Stonemason."
The Fat Lady looked a little puzzled but still swayed forward, revealing a circular opening in the wall.
Harry stepped onto the passage, feeling somewhat like he was traversing a cave, and inside was the warm and bright Gryffindor common room, whose color scheme was completely different from Slytherin's just by looking at it.
It was a comfortable circular room, filled with soft armchairs and tables, with long banners hanging on the walls, depicting the Gryffindor lion.
The entire common room had many gold and red colored items, including the fabric seat cushions of the chairs and the throw pillows on them.
Hermione was the only person in the common room; she was writing Professor McGonagall's essay.
As the end of term approached, all the Professors' assignments were much more numerous than before, and Professor McGonagall required them to write an essay a full seven inches long.
And clearly, Hermione's essay had already exceeded that length by a lot, but she was still writing furiously, completely immersed in it, so much so that she hadn't even noticed the common room door opening earlier.
Harry slowly walked around behind her, first glancing at Hermione's essay.
It was about how to transfigure inanimate objects into living beings.
Hermione quoted many articles and books, but… it didn't quite align with Harry's thoughts; under Howl's guidance, he had become a thorough pragmatist.
"I think…"
"Ah!!" Hermione jumped up, her soft scream directly interrupting his words.
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