the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 4: almost there

"Who the bloody hell are you talking to ?"

Sirius turned to his best friend and smacked him in the back of the head. Esmeralda let out a small laugh and covered her mouth. She could not believe that there was actually a person that could see her.

"Shut up. James," Sirius said rolling his eyes. He turned to Esmeralda, "Are you okay ?"

"Y-yes, I am," She said, "I'm just a little surprised, that's all."

"Why ?" he asked, "Do you usually not talk to people ?"

"No, I do-"

"Is this a prank, Sirius ?" James interrupted, "Because if it is, it's not funny."

"It's not a prank, James," Sirius said, "She's right there. Can't you see her ?"

James looked at the Mirror again.

"No, mate," he said, "I still see Evans and the baby."

Sirius looked back and forth between his best friend and Esmeralda. He was confused. He was seeing and talking to a brunette girl in the Mirror, but James was seeing something else. Esmeralda shot him another smile, she understood the boy's confusion.

"Everyone sees something different," she explained, "No one has ever been able to see me, though. It's sort of strange that you can."

"Wait, what ?" Sirius asked.

Esmeralda nodded her head.

"You're the first person that I've talked to in a long time."

A flash of fear crossed Sirius' eyes. He looked away and took the Invisibility Cloak from James' hands. He threw it on and held up a side so that his friend could get under. James hesitated because he was still looking at the Mirror, but got under it and they walked silently out of the Room of Requirement.

Esmeralda felt betrayed, but she knew she had no right to. She turned her back on the Mirror and leaned against it. She let her weight pull her down as tears began to flow down her cheeks.

Sirius could not sleep that night. He stayed awake all night looking out a window of his dorm. He could not explain what had happened in the room that he and James had found. All he knew was that he saw something that no one else could. He figured that everyone saw something different, but that didn't answer why he was able to talk to this girl.

He barely touched his breakfast the next morning. Sirius could not stop thinking about the girl. The way her hair fell down her shoulders, her puffy eyes because of all the crying that she had been doing, her gaze as she looked at him for the first time, and the feeling he got when she spoke. He felt hypnotized and compelled by the mysterious girl in the Mirror.

"Padfoot !" Remus said, causing Sirius to stop daydreaming about the Mirror. "Did you hear what I said ?"

"Don't even try, Moony," James began, "He can't stop thinking about this stupid thing that we found yesterday while mapping the seventh floor."

"Shut up, Prongs," Sirius said.

"What did you find ?" Remus asked.

"We were mapping the North corridor on the seventh floor and out of nowhere a door appeared on a wall," James began, "I had never seen that door in my life."

"What do you mean appeared ?" Peter asked.

"It wasn't there when we first started mapping," Sirius said, shifting in his seat, "But since we wanted to map everything we went in and the-"

"There was a mirror that showed the future !" James exclaimed interrupting his best friend.

Remus and Peter looked at each other with concerned looks on their faces. They had never seen or read anything about a room like that, let alone a mirror that showed the future.