From Out of the Past and Into Present Dreams 11

Mission Impossible

Not a night went by when Harry had a dream about a Christmas he knew he never had. In this dreams he was someone named Stratus and a guy named Endymion kept talking to him. His real Christmases before he learned about Hogwarts hardly seemed like Christmases at all. Harry didn't get any presents when he was living at the Dursley's. Harry was getting tired of his unusual dreams. In fact, he's been having unusual dreams since Sirius' death. He couldn't tell his friends. He knew Hermione would suggest he'd tell Dumbledore straight away and Ron would get depressed that Harry was dreaming about living in a castle. Ron was already depressed enough about being poor.

He was looking forward to spending the holidays with the Weasleys and he nearly choked on his cereal when Ginny announced she invited Mina for Christmas.

"You invited Mina Aino?" he inquired.

"Yeah," Ginny said, "she's going to teach me a few Chaser moves."

"But she's on the Hufflepuff team," said Hermione.

"Hey, you see anyone on the Gryffindor team that can do all those moves?" Ginny said.

"Where's she going to sleep?" Ron demanded. "With Fleur?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I won't make her sleep in the same room as Phlegm. She'd never stay with us again. Besides, you get to invite a friend, why can't I?
Ron rolled his eyes. "Don't call Fleur that…"

"Why be concerned about her when you have Lavender to keep you company?" Hermione inquired.

"What?"

Before the two could argue, Harry cleared his throat. "Hermione, you going to Slughorn's Christmas party, aren't you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "Yes, I suppose since I'll have nothing else to do. I don't know who I'll go with though."

"I need to find someone myself," Harry said and he saw Mina Aino stand up from the Hufflepuff table. "Of course! Mina!"

Harry stood up so quickly that he tripped and fell. Hermione chuckled then cleared her throat.

"You all right?" she inquired in concern.

"I have a feeling it's going to be one of those days," Harry groaned.

It wasn't just "one of those days," it was a couple of them. Harry made plenty attempts to ask Mina to Slughorn's party but to no avail. He tried during meals, after lessons and the few times he saw her in the hall but someone either pulled her away from him or she entered the girls' bathroom or someone wanted to talk to Harry. Sometimes he was so fixated to talk to her that he would walk right into an open door or trip down the ever-changing stairs. It was just like the time he was trying to find a date to the Yule Ball, only this time he sometimes got hurt in the process. . Why did it have to be so hard to talk to a girl?

"Peakes, quit asking me when the next Quidditch practice is going to be!" Harry yelled at the new beater. "I've got other things on my mind besides Qudditch!"

Looking at the Gryffindor Quidditch captain as if he'd gone insane, Peakes walked off. Ron watched him go down the hall and he and Harry entered into their last Magical Mythology class.

"You're not going to have a practice before the break? We play Hufflepuff in January."

"I'll worry about practice after I ask Mina to Slughorn's party," Harry muttered, setting down his books.

"You still haven't asked her?" Ron said in disbelief. "You better ask her soon before you end up in the hospital wing, Harry."

Harry glared at Ron. "What do you think I've been trying to do for the last week?"

"Well, just don't yell at her when you finally ask her, all right?" Ron said.

"I don't plan to," said Harry.

As always, Professor Halos gave a couple minutes to arrive before he started. He never marked anyone tardy to his class. He never really had to no one skipped his class or came late. For the past week, his lessons had stories with love themes. The muggleborns and half-bloods recognized them as the fairy tales they learned as children: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, a story a girl that had to take an oath of silence for a couple of years and other classic love stories. Serena really enjoyed the lessons as did Mina. It was like getting in the mood for Valentines Day though it was in fact months away.

Hermione, though she thought this was interesting, wondered what the lesson had to do with anything. Hermione raised her hand before they started talking about Cinderella.. "Professor, we won't be asked on our NEWT's next year about love stories. How is this going to help us with our future careers?"

"Yeah," Dean said, seconding the notion, "what's the point of this stuff, Andy?"

Other students, boys mostly, nodded in agreement. Why were they having lessons on silly love stories for yhe past week? It almost made them feel like kids.

"I was going to save this news until the lesson was over," said Halos, "but I might as well tell you the news now. The reason why we're researching love stories is to prepare you for your homework assignment."

"Homework?" Ron gasped. "You never give us homework!"

Hermione, however, was excited. "Yes, finally, homework from this class."

The rest of the class students was in Ron's corner. They couldn't believe Halos was assigning them homework before the break. Halos talked them down before things got too out of hand.

"I know, I know," Halos said, waving his hand, "I know I must be a big jerk for assigning you homework for the break but trust me, it won't be too difficult. All I want you to do is write a page essay about why love plays a part in these myths. You can use examples from the lessons if you wish as well as personal experiences."

"Oh man," Dean moaned.

"It doesn't matter how well the paper is or how many examples you use," Halos said, "you just get credit for handing it in."

"Doesn't sound very challenging," Hermione frowned.

"If we have to, can we make stuff up?" Ron questioned.

"Of course you can!" Halos laughed. "How many princes have married servant girls after finding a ring in their soup? You think that really happened or something just made up? "

Some of the guys laughed.

"I want to see what different examples and sides you come up with," the teacher went on. "Not everyone's experience with love is exactly the same. Some of these love stories may be someone's life story and some of them can be something that some hopeless romantic thought up."

"Are you going to use our papers to discern something, professor?" Hermione inquired.

Halos grinned broadly and he nodded. "Exactly. I want to use your papers as theories to my favorite myth of all: The legend of the Moon Kingdom."

Raye, Serena, Lita and Trista swallowed. They couldn't believe the words that just exited his mouth. How could he know about the Moon Kingdom?

"Did you say 'Moon Kingdom,' Andy?" Trista asked, turning to him.

"Yes, Trista," he said, "have you heard of it?"

"Er, yes, a little," she said, tucking hair behind her ear.

"What's the Legend of the Moon Kingdom?" Pavarti asked.

"Well, a thousand years ago," Halos said, "there lived a kingdom on the moon. Thousands of people lived there and I believe they knew some sort of magic or at least had some qualities to enable them to live in the vacuum of space. Not much of is known about this legend. It is very hard to find information on it…in fact…I can't remember where I learned about it." He giggled nervously to himself and Trista watched him closely, rubbing her chin.

"But it's a wonderful story. The princess of the moon falls in love with the prince of the Earth and then…"

Something weird happened. Andy stopped talking suddenly. He looked like he was staring right into space but Serena felt as if he was staring through her. She started to sink down into her seat to avoid his gaze. His eyes became unfixed and unfocused, slightly glazed over and the pupils disappeared into his deep blue eyes. He became rigid and stiff, as if he were about to have a seizure.

"…they died…" Andy's voice was mournful, nothing his usual upbeat voice. He shivered and Trista moved in front of him, blocking the view of the students. She peered into his blank blue eyes and put a hand on him.

"Andy?"

Andrew blinked a couple of times and his pupils reappeared. He groaned and put his hand to his head. "…and then the Moon's most terrible enemy attacked and sadly, the Moon Kingdom was destroyed," he finished, back to his usual tone.

"Huh?" Serena mumbled.

Trista turned to the students. "Class dismissed."

"What?" both the students and Professor Halos demanded.

"Trista, we have plenty of time," Halos said, indicating the clock.

"And it's the last day of class," she said, "I'm sure the students wouldn't mind a short class."

"We wouldn't if this was the last class of the day," Ron shrugged, "we still have to go to Herbology."

"Well, now you can use the time to pack," Trista said, "I'm going to take Professor Halos to the hospital wing."

"What for?" Halos asked.

"You had some kind of…episode," Lita said carefully, unsure what else to call it.

"Did I?" Halos inquired.

"Yeah," Serena added, "you were telling us about the Moon Kingdom and you stopped all of a sudden. You looked like you saw a ghost."

"Dear me," Halos said, embarrassed and shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I...suddenly don't feel well. You are free to leave."

Confused and worried, the students left the class.

"What was that all about?" Serena wondered aloud to her friends.

"Beats me," said Raye, "it was really weird."

Once all the students left, Andrew asked Trista to teach the rest of his lessons for him.

"I feel tired all of a sudden," he told her. "I don't want to cancel my classes at the last minute on the last day."

"I understand," Trista said with a nod. "You look like you could use some rest. I know what lesson we're on"

"Good," he rubbed his head, grinning a little.

"Andrew," Trista said before he entered his bedroom, "why were you acting so strangely when you were telling the students about the Moon Kingdom?"

Andrew's grin disappeared and he shook his head. "I'd rather not discuss it, Trista. Please takeover the lessons for me."

Andrew stepped into his room and shut the door. Trista stood looking at his door for a moment and then shook her head. It did not matter at this point why Professor Halos acted strange when he was speaking about the Moon Kingdom. Trista had to focuse on finding the brother of Prince Endymion. She picked up Halos' book and made a few notes to prepare for the next lesson. It was still odd though. How did Professor Halos know about the Moon Kingdom anyway?

During Herbology, Mina heard the news of Professor Halos' "episode."

"Man, that's weird," Mina said as she poked at her snapping plant softly.

"I wonder if he's working for the Negaverse or something," said Raye.

"No way," Serena muttered, "we defeated the Negaverse for good."

"Well, maybe he's a new enemy," Raye stated. "No one knows about the Moon Kingdom except us and our enemies."

"I don't think Professor Halos is a bad guy," Serena said, "he's just too…cool."

"Yeah, and none of our previous enemies were cool," added Mina with a laugh.

"What do you think, Darien?" Raye asked.

"I've spoken to Professor Halos on occasion," he replied, "he doesn't seem like a threat to me. "

"What if he's looking for Stratus too?" Lita inquired.

"Then we'd better find him first," Darien said, "even if he isn't our enemy, it would be best if we find Stratus before anyone else."

"I wonder who he is," said Mina as she looked around the greenhouse. "He can be anybody."

"What's she looking at?" Harry muttered as he continued potting his plant, but he was getting dirt everywhere.

"Harry, be careful!" Hermione hissed.

Harry ignored her and continued staring at Mina. Mina was getting pretty popular fast. Harry suspected she was looking for one of her friends to hook up with after the class was over. Time was running out. It was the last class of the day. He had to ask her or he'd be dateless to Slughorn's party. He went on with his work, still looking at her and determined to ask her to the party. His mind wandered off to later that night, when they would be together at the party. He was going to spend the whole evening with her. He was too far in his fantasy that he did not even notice that the snapping plant was gnawing on his hand.

"Harry you're bleeding," said Hermione.

The bell rang, the students started piling out of class, eager for the Christmas holidays. When Mina exited the greenhouse, Harry realized that it was now or never. This was his last chance to ask her out.

"Harry, you need to get to the--," Hermione began.

"Not now!" he shouted, shoving things into his bag. He slung it over his shoulder and ran out of the greenhouse, slipping on some dirt.

"Mr. Potter, be careful!" Professor Sprout scolded.

As Harry ran, a few people were trying to say things to him, but he ignored them. Nothing was going to stop him from talking to Mina. She had just entered the oak doors and shook the snow out of her hair. He nearly tripped up the steps trying to get to her. "Mi-Mina! Mina!"

Hearing her name Mina, turned around. "Oh, hi Harry."

Though he was out of breath, he sputtered out his sentence. "Slugpartywithme?"

Mina looked confused and scratched her head. "You want to look for slugs?"

Harry turned slightly red and he took a breath. He cleared his throat. "Mina, Professor Slughorn is having a Christmas Party tonight. Would you like to go with me?"

Mina's face lit up. "Oh, yes, of course I would!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's a cool teacher," Mina said, "makes me wish I take potions. I wonder if it's too late to switch Transfiguration with Potions. Professor McGonagall sure likes to pile on the homework."

'Yeah, she does," Harry said.

"What time is the party?" Mina asked.

"Around eight."

"Let's meet in the Entrance Hall then."

"Okay," he said.

"Hey, what took you so long to ask me?" Mina questioned of nowhere.

"What?" Harry gasped in surprise. "Oh I've tried, believe me, I've tried asking you."

"Ah…I see," said Mina, "I've noticed how hard you've been trying to get me. Well, you got me!"

Harry laughed. "Yeah, guess I did."

"See you at eight, Harry."

"Yeah, see you. Thanks."

"No, thank you," Mina said with a wink, causing Harry to blush a little. Mina paused and pointed at his hand. "Hey, what happened to your hand?"

Harry looked at his hand, bewildered. "I have no idea…"

Dressed in black, Harry entered the entrance hall and looked for Mina. He saw a couple of girls that were scowling at him. Then a pretty blond girl in a red dress walked up to him.

"Hi Harry."

Harry blinked. "Mina?"

Mina looked absolutely gorgeous. Her vibrant floorlength red dress was made out of velvet and in place of the bow she wore all the time, she wore a poinsettia tucked behind her left ear. The dress had long sleeves with a scooped neck. Harry wanted to compliment her on how well she looked but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Mina smiled and tucked her arm through his which made him about to faint. He gulped hard. She was touching him!

"You look handsome, Harry."

"Th-thank you," he said, "so do you. I mean, you look pretty. Really pretty."

"Thanks," she said, "shall we?"

"Yeah."

Arm in arm, they walked out of the entrance hall, with the jealous girls scowling after them. Mina looked over her shoulder out them, pulled down the skin below her eye and stuck out her tongue.

"Mnaaa!"

Shocked at Mina's "weirdness," the girls stopped scowling and let Mina walk away with Harry. When they got to the party, the office was covered in hangings of crimson, gold and emerald and fairies were flying around. Mina smiled and pointed at the fairies and other things of interest. A house elf came by Mina and she looked at the tray of sweets it was holding, trying to make up her mind what she wanted. At that moment, Slughorn came up to them.

"Harry, m'boy! Come in, com in, so many people I'd like you to meet!" Slughron took his arm and Harry took Mina's hand as she was about to take a chocolate éclair

"Uh, I'll get one of those later!" she called out to the house elf. As Harry and Mina walked farther into the office, the boy students stopped what they were doing and gawked at Mina. One almost dropped food on his date.

"Whatch what you're doing, idiot!"

Professor Slughorn led Harry and his date to Eldred Worple, author of a vampire book.

"Is your friend a vampire?" Mina asked, nodding to Sanguini.

"Yes, he is."

Mina stepped a bit closer to Harry. "Interesting. How do you prevent him from you know, feeding off you?"

Worple laughed. "By having him feed of others, of course."

Mina gulped and Worple laughed. "I'm only joking. I just make sure I keep garlic on me."

Worple pulled out a necklace out of garlic and Mina pinched her nose. "Good idea."

Sanguini the vampire began walk to a group of laughing girls and Worple grabed a pasty and stuffed it in the vampire's hand. "Of course, him feeding now is not a good time." Worple turned to Harry.

"People are craving to know more about dear boy, craviing!"

Tell me about it, Mina thought to herself, smiling at Harry

"I'd love to write a biography about you, Harry. The gold you could make, you have no idea--,"

"I'm definently not interested," Harry told him. "And I've just seen a friend of mine, sorry."

"Er, bye," said Mina as Harry pulled her away. "You don't want to have a biography of you?"

"There's some about me already," he said, "people know more about me as it is. People know more about me than I know about myself."

"Like what?" Mina asked with interest.

"Nothing," said Harry, "Hermione!"

"Harry! There you are, thank goodness!" Hermione said. "Hi, um…Mina is it?"

"Yeah," Mina smiled. "Hi."

"What's happened to you?" Harry asked Hermone.

"Oh, I've just escaped—I mean, I've just left Cormac--under the mistletoe." She added and Mina covered a giggle with her hand.

"You went with him?" Mina questioned.

"Yeah well, thought he'd annoy Ron most," Hermione said dispassionately. "I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole—"

"You considered Smith?" Harry demanded and Mina didn't even bother to cover her laughter this time.

"Smith's such a dork! He can't even pay attention to the game and he's the commentator! Hermione, you have no taste in guys!"

Harry laughed but Hermione didn't. Harry couldn't have said it better himself.

"Even so, I'm starting to wish I'd chosen him," said Hermione, "McLaggen makes Grawp look like a gentleman. Let's go this way, we'll be able to see him coming, he's so tall…"

"Who's Grawp?" Mina questioned as they walked away, grabbing goblets of mead on their way.

"Some tall guy that can't speak a word of English," said Harry.

"Oh."

They got to the other side, where Professor Trelawny was.

"Hi Professor." Mina said. "What are you planning on doing for the holiday?"

"I see myself staying in my room where it is safe."

"Uh, that's nice," Mina said, "are we going to continue the dream journals after the break?"

"Surely. I haven't finished them last year. Our dreams tell us many things."

As Mina continued talking to Professor Trelawny, Harry and Hermione discussed Qudditch, McLaggen and Ron.

"Oh no, here he comes!" Hermione said and she ducked away.

"Seen Hermione?" McLaggen questioned.

"No, sorry," said Harry and he turned to join Mina's conversation. McLaggen looked at Mina and forgot all about his quest to find Hermione

"Oh, hello," he said to Mina. "You want to go and.."

"Hey!" Harry yelled, grabbing Mina and pulling her to him so quickly she almost got whiplash. "Back off, McLaggen. Mina's with me."

Mina chuckled, slightly taken back at Harry's action. "Yeah, sorry dude. I'm with Harry and I don't think Hermione's with you anymore.."

McLaggen walked off in a hurry, worried that Harry might hex him. He didn't try to look for Hermione anymore and so it was safe for Hermione to hang out with her friends. After getting slapped in the face and having drinks poured over his head, McLaggen left the party. The party was getting better. Harry was talking about what he wanted to do as a career, Mina backed him up even though she didn't know exactly who Aurors were. Then, Harry saw someone that was trying to crash the party: Draco Malfoy.

"What's he doing here?" Mina wondered aloud as Filch dragged Draco to Professor Slughorn.

"Did you issue him with an invitation?" Filch asked Slughron.

"All right, I wasn't invited." Malfoy said as he got away from Filch "I was trying to gatecrash, happy?"

"No, I'm not" Filch hissed. "You're in trouble, you are! Didn't the headmaster say that nighttime prowling's out, unless you've got permission, didn't he, eh?"

"That's all right, Argus, that's all right," Slughron said as he waved his hand. "It's Christmas, and it's not a crime to want to come to a party. Just this once, we'll forget any punishment; you may stay, Draco."

Filch growled as he walked away. Draco thanked the professor and Slughron waved away his thanks.

Mina nudged Harry. "What's he doing out anyway? He looks like he's sick."

"Yeah...what's he doing out?" Harry said thoughtfully. What was Draco Malfoy doing? Why did he look so pale? Harry knew he was up to something and he was determined to find out what.

"I'd like a word with you, Draco," said Snape suddenly.

"Oh no, Severus," Slughorn as he hiccupped. "it's Christmas, don't be too hard."

"I'm his Head of House," Snape hissed, "I will decide when I'm being too hard or otherwise."

Snape marched off with Draco and Harry felt a desire to go after them. However, he still desired to be with Mina. He went through all this trouble to ask her out. He wanted to be with her as long as possible. However, this might be his only chance to find out what Malfoy was up to. He may find out what that "something" was that Draco was trying to fix when he overheard him talking in Borgin Brukes. He wanted to know if he was behind Katie's attack. Harry was sure that Draco was working for the Dark Lord now. He had to hurry and make ups his mind. Professor Snape may have taken Draco anywhere and he had to find them if he wanted to know what Draco was up to. Mind made up, Harry turned to Mina.

"I uh—got to go to the bathroom," he lied. He wished he could tell her what he really planned to do, but as much as he liked her, he didn't know her and therefore didn't know if he could trust her.

"Sure Harry," Mina said, "Hermione and I have some girl talk to do anyway."

"Girl talk?" Hermione asked, confused.

Harry nodded and stepped out of Slughorn's office. Mina grabbed a drink, shoved it in Hermione's hand, took a drink for herself and she grabbed Hermione's free hand. Mina led her to an empty corner away from the crowd.

"So, you thought you could make Ron jealous with McLaggen?" Mina asked with a grin. "How's that supposed to work when Ron's not even here?"

"Yeah, well," Hermione said awkwardly, "I thought the news of it would be enough."

"He's got to see you make out with McLaggen if you want some real drama."

"I'm not really willing to go that far," Hermione mumbled.

"Well after we scared him off," said Mina, "I don't think you have to worry about it anymore. You have to pick a guy that's way above Ron to make him jealous. If he thinks you like dorks like McLaggen, he might not want to date you anyway. Or do you want to go out with Ron?"

"I um…not sure," said Hermione.

"If you like Ron, you've got to tell him…or at least flirt all around him!"

"I can't flirt," said Hermione.

"Then you can just forget about Ron Weasley then," said Mina after taking a swig of her egg nog. "Because playing games just isn't going to work. I've played them all. Trust me, I know all there is to know about love!"

Hermione looked doubtful, but she thanked Mina just the same.

"You just think about what I said," Mina said, pointing at Hermione and walking off to talk to other people. The vampire came close to Mina and she freaked out, making her do a karate move on him. Everyone in the room turned around to stare at her.

"Sanguini, I told you to stay put!" Worple exclaimed, rushing to his friend. "Last time I take you to a party with kids present."

Mina giggled and rubbed her head. "Oh, sorry. He startled me."

"What an interesting thing you've done there," said Professor Slughron. "What was it?"

"It's called a roundhouse kick, Professor," Mina explained.

"And doing it even with a dress on," said a girl, "pretty impressive."

"Thank you," said Mina, "I practice wearing a mini skirt."

"Can we see that?" questioned the girl's date.

Harry returned to the party with his heart racing.. he couldn't believe what he had just overheard. Malfoy was definitely up to something. Snape knew he was up to something—and he was offering Malfoy help? What was he going to do? Harry pulled off the invisibility cloak, stuck it into his pocket and he waited by the door for a minute before going back in. He took a breath, ran his hand through his hair and stepped inside the office. He put on his best fake smile as he went back to his date.

"Hi," he said, "having fun?"

"Yeah," Mina said, "I kicked the vampire. Everyone thought it was so cool."

"Sorry I missed it," Harry said.

"Hey, are you all right?" Mina asked him. "You…seem a little…upset."

"Nah, I'm fine," he lied.

"Are you?" Hermione said skeptically.

"Yeah," said Harry.

They continued to party for about an hour and somehow, Harry and Mina got stuck under the mistletoe together. Harry wasn't sure what to do. He remembered the last time he was kissed under the mistletoe. It was just last year with Cho Chang. She had been crying on him. Harry felt the same uneasy feeling. He wasn't sure whether to kiss Mina or not. There were people everywhere. He was still thinking about Snape and Malfoy's conversation. Harry didn't have to worry about it anymore. Mina pulled on Harry's arm and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. He blushed a little bit.

"You know, I'm having tons of fun but I should get to the dormitory now," she said, "I still have to pack."

"Oh, yeah, me too," Harry said. "Hermione?"

"Yeah," Hermione said with a shrug. "Might as well."

They said goodbye to Professor Slughorn, who insisted that the night was still young. They didn't listen to Professor Slughorn and left the party. Hermione continued on up to the Gryffindor tower so Harry could say goodnight to Mina. Harry walked Mina to the Hufflepuff corridor. Mina stopped and turned around.

"I guess this is as far as a non-Hufflepuff student can go."

"It's all right," said Harry. "

"Well, thanks so much for inviting me."

"You're welcome."

"Hey, aren't you staying with the Weasley's for Christmas?" she asked.

"That's right," Harry answered, "I heard that Ginny invited you."

Mina grinned. "Yup. I'm going to show her some of those Chaser moves."

"You wouldn't happen to know any Seeker moves, would you?" Harry asked playfully.

Mina shook her head. "Nah, I've never been good at finding small things."

They shared a laugh and then there was an awkward silence.

"Well, goodnight Harry," said Mina.

"Goodnight Mina."

Just like under the mistletoe, Mina kissed Harry's cheek. Her lips were so soft. Her scent so fragrant, her eyes so blue. Something in him wanted to grab onto her and hold her tight to him, never to let her go.

"See you," she said with a wave.

"Yeah, see you," Harry said breathlessly and he trekked up to Gryffindor tower. Halfway there, he caught up with Hermione.

"Are you really okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said, "you're just not going to believe what I heard what Malfoy and Snape said…"

Harry told Hermione what he had overheard and she was also shocked. She didn't want to believe that Draco Malfoy could be a Death Eater, but something definitely was up.

"We have to be careful," she said, "and keep our eyes open. Anything can happen."

"I know. I just wish I knew what Malfoy was planning."

Mina threw clothes into her trunk and laid out the clothes she expected to wear the next morning. Though it was late, she wasn't all that tired. She would have loved to dance the night away with Harry Potter, but she had to get some rest. Early the next morning there was going to be a scout meeting. They had to discuss some plans before separating for the holidays.

"If only we didn't have a scout meeting," Mina said as she climbed into bed. "I could still be with Harry."

She sighed. It didn't really matter. She was going to spend the next week and a half with Harry. It was going to be a very Merry Christmas.

TBC