Emaline Goode: The Raven Of Ilvermorny: A Secrets Of The Gordian Knot prequel

Chapter 15 - The New Year

December 29th

Although she regretted not going home for the holidays, Emaline had a wonderful Christmas. And with her friends. The new year was on its way. One day, although she wasn't very good at it, she went ice skating for the first time on the enormous Black Lake. But she was definitely getting better at it every day. The first time she tried ice skating was in her first year at Ilvermorny where she stayed for Christmas. On the Shrouded Lake. The first time she tried it, she fell through some thin ice and encountered a group of Naiads, who were water spirits that preside over the lake and they saved her from freezing to death.

Harry showed her his father's Invisibility Cloak and she was amazed by what she saw. He told her about a mirror that can show a person what they desire the most. Being the Thunderbird that she was, Emaline decided to go and look for it. Now. She slipped out of bed in the dead of night and grabbed her wand and snuck out of the common room. She crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, where the only light came from the domed ceiling painted with stars, and opened the enormous door. "Who's there?" the bronze eagle knocker said. Emaline said nothing. The knocker then reverted to its inanimate state. It was almost pitch black in the corridor, so Emaline took out her wand. "Lumos!" she said. A small light emerged from the tip and she began to walk, moving slowly and silently, trying very carefully not to make a sound. People in the picture frames looked like they were sleeping and snoring. "Put that light out!" one of them said as he woke up with the light in his face.
"Sorry," Emaline said. "Good night."
She began hearing footsteps. Emaline found a nearby broom cupboard and went inside. She suddenly heard meowing. It was Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris. "Anyone here, my sweet?" he said. She took out her wand and slid it underneath the door. Since it was black, she was not able to see the wand tip. "Confundus!" she said. The cat seemed confused. She was walking around Mr. Filch all wobbly. "Come on. Stupid cat."

Emaline waited until Mr. Filch was completely gone and then left the broom cupboard. The light from her wand immediately reappeared. She found the door that Harry had described. Just down the hallway. Once again, she heard coming footsteps nearby. She jumped behind a high wall. "Severus, I-I-I-" said a familiar voice. It was Professor Quirrell. He was being confronted by Snape, who grabbed him by his jacket. "You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," he said.

"What do you mean?" he stammered. 
"You know perfectly well what I mean." Snape stopped what he was doing and looked behind the wall. No one was there. She had already jumped over the wall when Snape and Quirrell were looking. "We'll have another little chat soon," Snape said as he returned his attention to Quirrell. "When you've had time to think things over and decide where your loyalties lie." 

She backed away as quietly as she could. A door stood ajar to her left. It was her only hope. She squeezed through it, holding her breath, trying not to move it, and to her relief, she managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Emaline leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away. That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before she noticed anything about the room he had hidden in. This was definitely the room that Harry described. It was an empty classroom with desks piled against the walls. In the middle of the room was a magnificent mirror. It reached the ceiling. There was an inscription carved around the top. "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." she read it aloud. It was spelled backward. She was able to decipher it as "I show not your face, but your heart's desires."

"This is it," she thought. She walked to the middle of the room and stepped right in front of it. She could feel her heart pounding. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she found herself in a dark forest. Looking up above, she saw the night sky, littered with thousands of stars. The biggest full moon that she had ever seen began to rise through the mountains but when she turned around to see it, there was nothing there. The room was empty. But when she turned back around to face the mirror, she saw the Milky Way, a vast but faint ribbon of light stretching from horizon to horizon. Before her laid a path. She thought to herself: "What would happen if I hadn't turned back? What would happen if I just kept going? Where would this trail lead me? Where would I end up?" What she saw at the end was an enormous castle on the mountain, which looked familiar to her. It was Ilvermorny. She began walking towards it. At the end of the path, she saw herself, much older and she was teaching Astronomy at Ilvermorny in a magnificent classroom which she too also found familiar: Professor Aurelio's classroom. Could this be her future?