CHAPTER 12: PICTURES


Julia was sitting in front of the fire in her pajamas reading one the books Hermione had bought her for Christmas when she felt the hairs begin to rise on the back of her neck. She checked around the Common Room, and, content that it was as empty and as dark and silent as it normally was, she turned back to her book. Then -

"Hey!" Julia jumped violently as Harry suddenly appeared next to her, pulling the Invisibility Cloak off of him.

"Oh Merlin Harry, don't do that!"

"Sorry," he grinned.

They were silent for a minute. The fire crackled quietly. "So," Harry said, presently. "I see that you're...reading."

"Yes."

"And in doing so you're missing out on the great spectacle that is walking round Hogwarts under the Invisibility Cloak."

"True."

Silence, then. "Come on Julia. You have to - "

"Harry, we'll get caught!"

"You've been spending way too much time with Hermione - where's your sense of adventure?"

"I have a sense of adventure - it just doesn't involve walking round a freezing castle at the dead of night."

"Chicken."

The effect was instantaneous. "I am not a chicken," she snapped hotly.

Harry made no reply and continued to goad with his lop-sided grin. Julia was a regular Gryffindor through and through - it was easy to bait her.

"Stop smiling. I'm serious Harry! I'm not a chicken!"

"I'm not smiling...and you are such a chicken."

"I'm nooootttttt!" But her whine only made Harry smile more. "Stop it!" complained Julia. "Harry this is stupid. You are..." She puffed her cheeks out in frustration. "Fine. I'm coming. Let me just go and get a jumper first."

"See, there's the sense of adventure I like to see, Pearce."

"Shut up, Potter."


The castle really was freezing; even Julia's purple Weasley jumper couldn't keep out the frigid cold. She huddled closer to Harry under the cloak.

"I can't believe you opened that screaming book. What were you thinking?"

"You dared me!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't think you'd actually do it!"

"Julia!-"

Harry slapped a hand over Julia's mouth to stop her from replying and as she watched, her grey eyes wide, Snape and Filch came around the corner ahead of them. They couldn't see Harry and Julia of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came any closer they'd knock into them.

Julia tugged on Harry's sleeve, pulling him back away as quietly as she could. A door stood ajar to the left. It was their only hope. At his insistence, she squeezed though first, holding her breath and trying not to move the door, and Harry slipped in after her, listening closely to the footsteps of the two teachers.

"They're gone," he finally whispered, and the pair of them turned to examine the room they had stumbled into.

It looked like a disused classroom, but against the opposite wall there was a large mirror with an ornate frame.

Harry moved closer towards it, transfixed, and Julia just stood there, her heart pinching in the way it did when you knew something bad or scary was about to happen. Or maybe it was just the fact that she was in a big dark room with a foreboding looking mirror in it.

"Harry," she said, her voice shaking. "Harry, I really think we should go back to Gryffindor Tower."

But he wasn't listening. His face was pale, his hand reaching up to touch the mirror as if he expected to be able to reach through it and to whatever was on the other side.

"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"

"Harry..."

"Julia come and look!"

She did. "Harry, I really don't see anything."

"No they're there - really!"

If I cry now, Julia thought, I will kill myself.

"Harry, your parents are dead...there's no-one there," she whispered, her throat tight. The excitement glowing behind Harry's green eyes began to vanish. "But they're there Julia. I saw them."

Julia didn't know what to say. She didn't know if there was anything to say, so she reached forwards and wrapped her arms tight around him. And it wasn't creepy or embarrassing, despite the fact that Julia had never really hugged Harry before - it was just what it was.

One orphan consoling another.

"Whatever that mirror is, Harry. It's not the truth. It's not healthy, either. I'm no Hermione, but I can tell you that much."

The more she spoke, the more tightly Harry hugged her back. And the weirdest thing of all was that when Julia looking in the mirror, she didn't see any kind of vision like Harry had - she just saw the pair of them, as they were now.