Chapter Nine

The rest of term flew by – with the four of us searching in the library for this 'Master Monk Guan'. Raimundo was growing more frustrated by the day. "I know I've read that name somewhere!" he would lament every night as we approached the Great Hall for dinner.

Soon it was the start of the Christmas holidays and the four of us were playing a game of Wizard's chess before Clay and Omi left with the other students heading home for the holidays. Clay and I weren't so bad at it, Raimundo was better but Omi was clearly the best and this time – to keep it quick – rather than playing a tournament, it was Raimundo and Clay against Omi and I. I grinned as our queen just took their knight. In a few short moves the game was over and Clay and Omi left, leaving Raimundo and I alone in the Gryffindor Common Room – the only others staying were the rest of the Pedrosa boys and they were elsewhere (Fernando and Jorje wreaking havoc and Pedro 'overseeing' the departing students). "I see you haven't packed." Raimundo remarked.

"I see you haven't either." He shrugged.

"My parents decided to visit Carlos in Romania. Maria missed him a lot, so she left but the rest of us decided to stay." I nodded and we began another game.

Christmas morning came and I was woken by Raimundo's voice shouting in my head. "Come on, wake up! It's Christmas!" I pulled on my slippers and dressing gown before sprinting down the stairs.

At the bottom, I saw Raimundo sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire, near the Christmas tree which had a pile of presents under it. We exchanged 'Merry Christmas's before I noticed his attire. "What are you wearing?"

He glanced down, picking at the jumper. It was a bright emerald green – matching his eyes – with the letter 'R' knitted into it with paler green wool. "Oh, this? It's a Pedrosa jumper. Mum makes them for us every Christmas. It looks like she made you one too." He indicated a lumpy parcel under the tree with my name written on it.

I jumped forward like a small child again. No one but papa had ever bought me presents before. I opened the lumpy parcel to find a beautiful sapphire jumper with a 'K' in almost the exact same colour of my eyes. I wonder how she knew? I put it on immediately – it felt as good as it looked. There was also a card with a stick figure family of brunettes and a small black haired one beside them and 'Merry Christmas' written on the front in the uneven handwriting of a small child. The signature on the inside confirmed my suspicions that it was from Alejandro, the youngest Pedrosa. Raimundo read it over my shoulder with a bemused sort of smile on his face. "Al never does this sort of thing, he really must like you." I smiled as I looked at the small stick figure holding hands with the stick figure representation of me – he was adorable.

The next was from papa and some sort of cloak fell out of it along with a note. "'This used to belong to your mother and was passed down in her family for generations. It's your turn – use it well.'" I glanced quizzically at Raimundo.

"Go on, then." He urged. "Try it on." I did and I watched Raimundo's jaw drop open. "Woah! I know what that is – it's an invisibility cloak! They're really rare." I glanced down and saw what he meant. My body was gone!

At that moment the twins entered the common room, both wearing their Pedrosa jumpers – orange with lime green letters 'F' and 'R'. They took one look at my disembodied head and screamed. When they got over the shock, Fernando mock swooned into Ricardo's arms and joined in with mine and Raimundo's laughter. I swung the cloak off my shoulders and they stared at it in awe.

Pedro came down the stairs then, blinking back sleep from behind his glasses. "What's all that noise?"

"Pedro!" the twins exclaimed in unison. Ricardo dragged him further into the common room and Fernando pulled the jumper out from under his arm. "Oh, look – 'P' for prefect!" and despite his protests, pulled it over his head.

That was the best Christmas I had ever had, despite papa's absence. The five of us hung out all day in our jumpers and jeans – playing chess, eating Hogwarts' delicious Christmas dinner and we had an epic snowball fight – which I won as any snowballs which got within a foot of me promptly melted. "Cheater!" Raimundo would pout in mock upset at which I would stick out my tongue and run, squealing, as he chased me throughout the grounds while his brothers watched, smirking.


Raimundo and I decided to explore the castle, testing out my invisibility cloak. It was large enough to hide both of us and we soon found ourselves in a room with a large gilded mirror with writing on it. "'I show not your face but your heart's desire.'" I recited. Raimundo shot me a questioning look. "It's backwards. You know, mirror writing."

We stepped out of the cloak and I approached the mirror first. Tears sprung to my eyes and I touched my fingertips to the faces in the glass. "Mama? Grandmamma? Grandpapa?"

After a moment, Raimundo stepped up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder. The images of my family disappeared and I shot him a teary smile before stepping aside to let him look. As I wiped away my tears I noticed his expression: wide eyes and gaping jaw. "What do you see?"

He turned towards me, startled, his cheeks turning rather pink. "Oh! Uh…" But he was saved from answering by Master Fung's voice coming from behind us.

"I see your curiosity has led to your discovery of the delights of the mirror of Erised." We nodded, curious about the mirror. "Well, people have wasted away in front of it." I knew exactly what he was talking about; coming back repeatedly to see your dream was far easier than going out and accomplishing it and many would take the easy way out. "Which is why it will be moved tomorrow and I must ask you not to go looking for it." We nodded and began our journey back to the common room.

"So, what did you see in the mirror?" He wouldn't meet my eyes and the blush returned. He started up a conversation about training instead. I tried to see through his memories but he blocked me out.

"You won't find my secrets so easily Kimiko." Damn him.


I'm thinking of revealing what Raimundo sees in a later story but if I don't and you want to know, I'll tell you.

I'm not entirely sure if I should keep this as Adventure/Romance or change it to Adventure/Friendship. I don't think it really qualifies as Romance but I'm kind of trying to subtly hint at these things. You know, like the older people seeing it but them not...