KACE'S POV:

I sat in the Great Hall, nibbling on the food that was lain out in front of us. I looked up into a pair of warm, brown eyes.

"Hey, Fred." I said, smiling as he sat down across from me. George was there, too, sitting opposite Penny.

For the most part, I hadn't really seen much of Fred or George up until now. I had thought I might explode if I didn't get another chance to talk to him for remaining half of a year until summer.

"Its been a while." Fred commented, smiling back.

"Yeah, and why is that?" I asked, suspicious that maybe he had been avoiding me. It would make sense. He probably knew I liked him and thought I was just some stupid kid. I stared down at my plate and poked at something with a fork while I waited for his response.

"I don't really know, I was beginning to think you were avoiding me."

I looked up at that. So maybe he wasn't trying to stay away from me.

"Nope." I answered, taking a gulp of pumpkin juice from my cup.

"Well, we should fix that. If we are going to be friends, we have to spend time with each other and talk, right?"

I was beginning to like this train of thought. "Right. So we will make time to talk and stuff?"

Fred nodded. George and Penny agreed, also. But they were probably only doing so to get closer to the other.

I smiled a little.

FRED'S POV:

I boarded the train for yet another year at Hogwarts. But this time, I was expecting to see Kace rather than just hoping to. Over the past year, we had become very good friends. She even aided me in playing practical jokes on some of the professors.

I couldn't wait to see her reaction to me this year; I had changed a lot over the summer. I was taller this year and my face had lost some of its roundness. My hair was styled differently. It was still bright red, but now it was shorter, the front of it just reaching the tops of my eyes when I brushed it down. But for some reason or another, the front always stuck up. I hoped she liked the change.

"Hey, stranger." The voice was familiar but different than the way I remembered. It had grown some since I had last heard it. I looked up to see Kace standing awkwardly in the compartment doorway.

"Kace." I said, smiling and standing up.

"Wow, look at you. You're all… different." she said, shaking her head in amazement.

Her hair was much longer this year, reaching nearly all the way down her back. Her eyes were darker, but they were still incredibly dark. Her face was a little less round than last year but her cheeks were still a little more circular than most adults.

"So are you." I said, holding my arms out.

She stepped forward and hugged me tightly.

George stood up then. George and Kace had grown closer, as well. George was now like her big brother instead of the twin tagalong.

"Okay, okay. You cant give him a hug and not give me one." he joked, smiling crookedly.

She gave him and hug and squeezed his body (just as tall as mine) tight. I looked away, hoping she couldn't see the jealousy there.

"Sorry I'm late guys, it was really crowded out there and - holy…" Penny didn't finish her sentence. "You guys sure did get tall."

We were always taller than the girls, but now they only came up to a little below our shoulders.

Penny had changed, too. She was a little taller than last year, but not much. Her hair had started curling and her blush was always present. Both girls had developed curves but I tried not to notice and be a morally right person.

George timidly hugged Penny and blushed a little then we all sat back down, telling stories of our summer.

KACE'S POV:

There was a change in Fred. Not a bad change. He seemed more confident and honestly a little more attractive. His smile was more mischievous (if that was possible) and his voice was deeper.

I wanted very badly to grab his hand and hold it in mine. But I knew he wouldn't react very well to that. He didn't want me the way I wanted him.

LATER THAT YEAR

The school was being locked down. Sirius Black was on the loose and had been in Hogwarts.

I stuck with Fred, George, and Penny. We didn't follow as all the students stayed in the Great Hall. We stayed in the library, feeling the need to prove that we didn't need the school's protection and we could stand up for ourselves in the face of danger.

Nobody came through the library. Not even Filtch dared leave the Great Hall.

We all had blankets laid out on the floor between two bookcases. The blankets were laid in a square formation. George and Penny had rolled around so much they were about to kiss in their sleep.

"You awake?" I heard Fred whisper in the darkness.

"Yeah." I whispered back, staring up at the ceiling.

Fred's leaned over my face, blocking my view of the rafters with his infuriatingly handsome face. I started to sit up and then rolled over onto my stomach, supporting my head with my hands.

"Cant sleep?" Fred asked, looking worried.

I shook my head.

"Me neither. Want to go see if there's anything interesting to do in here?"

Failing to see any problem with this, I nodded and hopped up. We walked around silently for a while, our eyes already adjusted to the dimness. We walked farther and farther into the library, still not seeing anything interesting.

"Wait," Fred said, grabbing my wrist when I turned around. "What's that?"

I looked to where he was pointing and at first saw nothing. But as I got closer, I saw that there was a definable lining in the shape of a door against one wall. We walked through the door way and into a large room, bare but for the object covered in a dusty sheet. There was a large window from which moonlight poured.

"What is this place?" Fred asked quietly, his voice echoing through the empty room.

"What is that?" I asked, inching closer to the shrouded object. I was in touching distance now. I lifted a hand to grab the sheet and pull it down and as my hand got closer, the object began to glow beneath the sheet. I gasped, but pulled the sheet down anyway.

Fred spun around and walked to me. It was a mirror. Around the frame was an inscription. "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi"

"What does it mean?" Fred asked, staring at the mirror's edge same as I was.

"I don't know. I wish we knew what language it was in, then we might be able to find a book on it in the library…" A sudden thought struck me. I pulled out the ink pen I always carried with me and rolled my sleeve up. I wrote down the words backwards and took out every space.

It turned out like this: "".

Fred couldn't get at the right angle to properly read my scribbles so I read aloud, "I show not your face, but your heart's desire."

It was then that I looked up into the mirror. It showed both Fred and myself. At first, I thought maybe it wasn't working. But then I noticed something else. We were holding hands. And then, Fred pulled me into a hug, wrapping his arms as far around me as they could go. He leaned his face down and kissed me full on the mouth.

I blushed and looked up in alarm, wondering if he had seen that. He, too, was staring at the mirror. 'Well, if it shows your heart's desire then maybe it is showing him something different.' I thought.

Finally, he looked down at me. "Did you just see-?" he pointed to the mirror.

"Did I just see what?" I asked, hoping he would say anything other than what I had actually saw.

He hesitated. "Nothing. Never mind." He shook his head.

I nodded and shivered. "Lets get out of here."

FRED'S POV:

I wondered if she had seen my heart's desire. Me and her, holding each other and kissing. I hoped not. That would be embarrassing. There was no way she felt the same way. But I had to find out.

Just before she made her way back out the door, I grabbed her wrist. "Kace?"

She turned back. "Yes?"

I looked down at her hand, not being able to meet her eyes. "What did you see? In the mirror?"

She laughed breathily. "Well, that's not really any of your business, now is it?" She sounded defensive.

I pulled her over to the center of the room and sat down on the wood floor.

"Its not like I'm going to tell anybody. If you tell me, it doesn't leave this room. We don't even have to talk about it." I looked up then.

She was looking down at the floor. "Okay. I saw… This is going to sound ridiculous. I saw you… and me. But we were… together. We were kissing and hugging and stuff." She didn't look back up.

"Oh." was all I could seem to get out of my mouth.

Her whole face was red. She stood up quickly and said, "I knew it. Now you think I'm just some creepy little kid and now things are going to be awkward between us… I shouldn't have told you!" she cried, running from the room.

"Kace, wait!" I yelled after her.

I looked back to the image in the mirror. It was the same as before.

"Same here." I whispered into the darkness.