Star-Crossed

Chapter Twenty: Cloaks and Mirrors

Christmas night came as quickly as Christmas morning had gone. Harry had dragged me out of bed and wrapped us both in the cloak we'd been given this morning to trek to the Library on Hermione's orders.

I was tasked with holding the lantern through the fluttering fabric of the cloak as Harry and I slunk through the silent halls, unseen by all but each other.

When we got to the library, I grasped the handle and slowly tugged it open, wincing when the hinges whined loudly through the blanket of quiet that had befallen the castle in the dead of night.

The two of us pursed our lips, trying our best to make as little noise as possible as we walked between the lines of books across the library. Soon enough, we made it to the locked gate of the Restricted section. Harry held up the cloak as I set down the lantern and slipped my wand from the pocket in my plaid pyjama pants.

"Alohomora..." Came the whispered spell from my lips and the lock on the gate clicked open.

My brother let loose a sigh of relief as I grinned proudly, putting my wand back and picking the lantern back up off of the ground as the two of us moved onward.

"Famous Fire eaters," Harry began to list as we combed through the aisle of books, "Fifteenth-century fiends...Flamel...Nicholas Flamel."

"Where are you?" I hissed, drawing my bottom lip between my teeth as I slid the lantern up to scope out more books above us.

"Wait, Natie." Harry called beside me, "I need the light over here."

I turned and shined the light onto the book my brother had just slipped off of the shelf, allowing the cloak to rest on our heads for the time being, until I held it up with my free hand.

He opened the book, beginning to read as I peered over his shoulder, searching for anything to do with the name Nicholas Flamel. Our search didn't last long when out of nowhere, a face rose from the pages and screamed madly, scaring the daylights out of me and making me drop the lantern from my hands, shattering it on the ground. Harry slammed the book shut and shoved it back onto the shelf quickly, chest heaving with fear.

"Who's there!" Filch's voice cut through the silence after a moment, making both of us jump. We whipped around and Harry quickly pulled the cloak firmly over the two of us, veiling us from sight again.

"I know you're in there..." Filch hissed, fumbling with the gate for a moment, "You can't hide..."

He entered the restricted section, peering around every inch of it except for where Harry and I were sneaking past him as quietly as we could.

"Who is it?" He boomed, glowering when he realised he couldn't find whoever was breaking curfew, "Show yourself!"

But Harry and I were already sprinting from the room, breathing heavily with the fright that ordeal gave us. It was just our luck, however, when we exited the library, that we came face to face with Mrs Norris, who meowed, and despite not being able to see us, still managed to trail us for quite some time.

We scampered around a corner, further away from the library and came to an abrupt stop when we discovered Snape and Quirrell in the hallway as well.

We watched with wide eyes as Snape shoved the stuttering professor into the wall on the right side of the corridor.

"Severus...I-I thought-" Quirrell was stammering.

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." Snape hissed, his wand pointed to Quirrell's throat.