𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 1, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 10: 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓜𝓲𝓻𝓻𝓸𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓔𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓭

~  chapter ten: the mirror of erised ~

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons, whereas Harry managed to find a way to be as close as possible to Y/N and his cauldron.

"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

He was looking over at Harry and Y/N as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry and Y/N, who were measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next and that the Gryffindors would need to run around beneath Y/N with a mattress if she fell from her broom again. Then he'd realized that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed at the way how Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick and how Y/N had called her broomstick over to her with just a simple, sharp whistle. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting them about having no proper family.

It was true that Harry and Y/N weren't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Y/N and Harry had signed up at once. Y/N didn't feel sorry for herself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas she'd ever had.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Knight to E5," Harry said as Flitwick used his wand to put another ornament on the Christmas tree as the ghosts wished each other Merry Christmas.

"Queen to E5," Ron said with a smug expression.

I watched as Ron's queen went over to Harry's knight and whacked the knight with her chair. Ron grinned.

"That's totally barbaric!" Hermione exclaimed in shock.

"That's wizard's chess," Ron said nonchalantly, looking at Hermione. "I see you've packed."

"See you haven't," Hermione replied.

"Change of plans, my parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. He's studying dragons there."

"Good," Hermione said, satisfied. "You can help Harry and Y/N, then. They're going to go and look in the library for information on Nicholas Flamel."

"We've looked a hundred times," I protested.

Hermione leaned over the table closer to us. "Not in the Restricted Section," she said, and then she leaned back. "Happy Christmas."