A/N: Ok, I know it took me a long time to update this. I just forget to update on here often.
"What?" Kenzie muttered as she ran back towards the living room. She saw green flames spinning in the fireplace. In a matter of moments, a tall girl stepped out of the fireplace.
"Briana!"
"Hib Kenz," said the girl. "Sobby for sewing up lide dis. Brad decided tod play a joke ond me. Hed put dat stupid cat ib my room."
Kenzie smirked. That sounded like something that Briana's younger brother would do. Their family cat, Midnight, loved Brad, but unfortunately, Briana was allergic to it.
"It's okay. Are you going to stay for awhile?" she asked hopefully.
Briana sneezed and shook her head. "That's better," she said, her voice clearing. "No, I can't stay. Mom has us cleaning today. I just came over here so I didn't murder that cat, or my brother, for that matter."
Kenzie's face fell. "Oh, alright. Don't get to mad at Brad. He's only having a bit of fun."
Briana rolled her eyes. "Fine. I don't see why you're always defending him like that."
Kenzie just shrugged her shoulders.
Briana caught a glance at the small clock on the wall. "Shoot," she muttered. "Mom's going to notice that I'm gone. I better get home. Thanks for letting me over here." As she was saying this, Briana stepped into the fireplace once more.
"No problem. Bye" Kenzie said, watching green flames yet again envelop her friend.
David sat lightly dozing in his favorite armchair. It was early afternoon and he was expecting a visitor. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, waking him from his slumber. David grabbed his cane and slowly walked from his library to the front door. When he threw it open, his 10 year old granddaughter came bounding into the house.
"You won't be needing that," he said, noticing the bag in her hand as he shut the door.
"Why?" she questioned.
"Because," he said slowly. "We're going to be exploring the attic today." David chuckled to himself as he watched Kenzie's eyes go wide. Without a word, she dropped her bag and ran up the steps, taking them two at a time.
"What should we look in first?" Kenzie asked, trying to take a look at everything in the room at once.
David eased himself into an old rocking chair in the corner. "Any box you want," he replied.
She eagerly pulled the first box over to her grandfather. "Photos," she said when she opened the box.
David smiled as he pulled some of the top ones out. "Look here," he said, pointing at two small children in the first photo. "This is your mum and Jared outside of our old house in America."
"Uncle Jared was that small?" Kenzie asked, amazed that her tall uncle could have been that tiny.
David nodded his head. Together, they went through the large box of photos. There were pictures of Kenzie's grandmother and of her two aunts, who lived in Russia, along with many more of her mother and Jared. Finally, as they were reaching the bottom of the box, Kenzie pulled out a very old looking photo. She could tell it was a wizarding picture, because some of the people in it were attempting to wave at them, but most of the magic had worn off. The edges of the picture were yellow. In the photo were two boys, about 15 or 16, and two girls whom Kenzie guessed weren't much older than her. Also, there were 4 gentlemen in the picture. Two of them had glasses, though one was much older than the other. He had graying hair. One of the other gentlemen had jet black hair. The fourth one had brown hair and didn't seem to quite fit.
There were three women in the photo. Kenzie didn't recognize any of them. There was an older lady who could have been the oldest man's wife. The other two were considerably younger, probably about her mother's age. One had short red hair and the other had long blonde hair. Kenzie turned the photo over. It seemed that someone had written names on the back of it, but many of them had faded out. She could read a few of them: Isaac, David, Nicole, Harry, and Wes.
Kenzie was very confused. David was her grandfather's name, but she didn't know anyone in the photograph. Who were those people?
"Grandpa, look at this. Who are these people?"
David took a glance at the photo. He sat very still, as though he was thinking about a faraway time. "Grandpa?" Kenzie asked again.
David shook his head and turned to his granddaughter. "That's nothing." he said as he put the photo in his pocket. "Why don't you go find another box for us to look in?" Kenzie looked into his eyes. They were clouded over. After a moment, she nodded.
When Kenzie left, David left out a small sigh and pulled back out the photograph. He didn't want to have to explain to Kenzie who those people in the photograph were. She was too young to understand, to young to know what he had done and why.
"Look at this Grandpa!" David quickly placed the photograph back into his pocket. Kenzie came running over.
"Look at these mirrors. They look exactly alike."
David smiled. "Those are special mirrors. I've had them for years. Here, I'll show you how they work. Go downstairs and say my name into the mirror."
Kenzie gave him a questioning look, but did what she was told. A few moments passed and then suddenly, her face appeared in David's mirror. "Hi," he said.
"These are so cool, Grandpa. What exactly are they?"
"Two-way mirrors" he replied. "If you say one person's name into the mirror, as long as they have the other mirror, you'll be able to talk to them."
"Wow! That's amazing!"
"Come on back upstairs now."
David heard the sound of thundering feet running up the steps. Kenzie came bounding over to him and handed back the mirror. He ran his hands over the handle a few times, and then, handed the mirrors back to Kenzie. "You keep them. I don't have a use for them anymore."
"Really? Thanks Grandpa!" Kenzie threw her arms around her grandfather.
David chuckled. "You're welcome. And now, my dear," he said, pulling out his pocket watch, "I believe that it is nearly time for you to go home."
"Do I have to go home? I had fun today."
"Yes, you have to go home. Jared is going to wonder where you're at."
Kenzie sighed and started down the steps. "I guess you're right, Grandpa, like always."
"I'm not always right."
"Name one time."
"That, I'm sorry to say, is a story for another time."
Kenzie grinned at him, and then carefully placed the mirrors in her bag. "Thank you for today, Grandpa."
"You're welcome. Now, you be good for your mother."
"I always am."
David smiled and said goodbye once more before shutting the door.
Kenzie sighed happily as she walked; the sun slowly setting behind her. She had had fun. This had been the first time since before Evan had moved away that Grandpa's house had been interesting. When Evan was around, and Grandma was still alive, she would go over to their house almost every day. She and Evan would talk to Grandpa for hours, hearing stories about dragons and learning some simple spells. Grandpa had always believed that they should learn to defend themselves at a young age. Grandma didn't like it so much, but she let the lessons continue. As for Grandma, she would read them Muggle fairy tales that were almost as interesting as Grandpa's real life stories.
Then things had changed. Grandma died and Grandpa completely stopped everything. She and Evan still went over almost everyday for awhile, but Grandpa sat there, in his favorite chair, not talking. Eventually, it became too much for them, and she and Evan started going there less and less. She felt bad about doing that, but it wasn't fair to them. After Evan moved away, she started going there more often again. Grandpa became more open but today was the first day he really seemed back to normal, like he was before Grandma died.
Kenzie grinned, thinking about her new mirrors, as she pulled out her house key and opened the door. As she entered the house and turned out the light, a tall man apparated into the room.
A/N: Please take a moment and review, please.
