Through Thick and Thin

Part four, The Mirror

                                                               Lilly's P.O.V

I sat in my bed restlessly, " No sleep for me tonight'  I whispered to myself glumly. I sighed, stood up and walked out the door. In the common room I took a seat right in front of the somehow still blazing fire. I pulled my book called 'Jane Eyre' reading is my life, Books were always there even when people were not. I don't know how long I sat there enticed by the well paced, generally well written story, before Lottie came sneaking down the stairs. Will following closely behind from the boys dormitory.

"Did Insomnia just become the new epidemic?" I chuckled, they nodded.Lottie piped up with

"Shall we do some exploring?" I could feel my eyes widen at the thought of getting into trouble. Lottie smirked and my eyes narrowed.

"What? are you afraid of having a little fun, Lilly?" She taunted. I am a prideful person so this didn't sit well with me, I grinned crossed to the portrait hole and pushed it open, gestured in an 'after you' sort of way. Lottie raised her eyebrows and I said sweetly

"Are we going or are we just going to stand here all night?" Lottie grinned and headed out. Will followed. I took a deep breath and climbed out behind them. We strolled down random corridors, getting more lost then any of us would care to admit, we were having a good time until I heard a voice coming from a little ways away. I put out my arms to stop the other two, Will mouthed "Filch" I nodded, We took off running as fast as we could without making too much noise, I heard his pounding footsteps not far behind us. "He's following us." I whispered, I noticed a door coming up on the left I veered left and dove through the doorway, Lottie and Will fell in not long after. I closed the door and turned to looked around. The walls were bare, the only piece of furniture was a large ornate mirror. I moved closer to examine it. It was in a rectangular sort of shape except for the top, where it pointed, It had spire coming up and out of the sides, It also had a carving 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.' Will, who had also been looking at the mirror, Looked dumbsturck and intoned

"What is this suppose to mean?!" I sighed and replied

"If you read it backwards, Will, it says 'I show not your face but your hearts desire'." Lottie gasped and rushed over knocking Will and I out of the way. She stood directly in front of the mirror then smiled I stood up rubbing my right elbow where I had landed on it. "What was that all about?" I inquired annoyance in my tone.

"I've read about this, it's the Mirror of Erised or the mirror of Desire, it not only shows you but it shows what your heart most well... desires." She explained I walked over to her she moved aside for me to see. I placed myself directly in front of the mirror, then gasped because what I saw was impossible. It was my mother, smiling at me, I had really thought about how much I looked like her but I did. What with our sapphire blue eyes, red hair, I had her nose too. I moved out of the way so that Will could look, he smiled from ear to ear. I wrung my hands, a nervous habit of mine, afraid that filch was going to appear at any moment and afraid of what powers this strange object possessed . Lottie sat down a few feet back and I plopped down beside her, Will joined us eventually. Lottie was the first to speak

"What did you see?"  I hesitated so Will answered first

"I saw my parents admiring me instead of Elliot. Because God knows that Elliot even just throwing away a dirty napkin is a huge accomplishment  and Amelia and I get forgotten. With my mother it's all 'Amelia Who? William who?' It's sickening."  I frown and add

"I saw my mother." At the confused expressions on their faces I explained "She died when I was about 6, I don't really remember all to well. My dad tried to take care of us but.....one drink lead to another and another, and well soon he became...abusive. It helped that he had been training me to fight since I was 4, I could defend myself and my younger siblings, Marc and I took the brunt of it though. I guess he realized that he had a problem around the time I was ten, because it gradually stopped and he got really focused on my training." Lottie looked strait ahead then looked at me and asked

"how does he know how to fight?"

"His father taught him, and his father's father taught him, it's been through generations. My dad is the hand to hand expert for the MI6." I replied

"Did you train while he had his...problem."

"Yeah, mostly during the week, during the day, and I practiced sparring by with Marc... I almost always won." They laughed then Lottie stated

"I saw my family, all together, sitting down to dinner. My parents are always gone, teaching their 'Pupils'. It's as if their students are more important than their Children. Rodger tries but it's always this camp or work or he got invited to A friends house. I not really good at making friends so I never had any." I put a hand on her shoulder, she looked up at me, I smiled and said 

"We're your friends, Lottie."