Chapter Thirteen- Of Heart's Desire

Scarlett walked towards the Slytherin table, taking her usual seat at the nearly empty bench and reached for the plate of pancakes. She had barely sat down before she was dragged from her seat by two overenthusiastic Weasleys.

"Come along Scarlett its Christmas; sit with us lions for the day, all your other friends are home for the holidays."

Scarlett groaned as they pulled her across the hall, and into an empty seat at the Gryffindor table. "Guys, really don't think this is a great idea- um well hello everyone," she was met with a surprising range of expressions from the others at the table.

Lee Jordan the Quidditch commentator, one of the twin's friends grinned, Percy Weasley smiled slightly at her before burying his nose in the thick textbook he was reading, Ron was beaming and seemed unable to stay still, someone had obviously given him sweets for Christmas, and Harry seemed indifferent to her presence.

This was a nice change, she thought, this was the first time she had seen her twin without him glaring at her, since, well since just after the Sorting Ceremony. These glares she usually received where (of course) returned, generally with a snide comment, after all what else are siblings for? But no evil look, it had to be Christmas, oh wait…

Scarlett however smirked at the sight of him; he was wearing a knitted emerald jumper identical to hers except of course his was marked with a large H.

Scarlett spent most of Christmas Day with this small group of Gryffindors, however after an awkward breakfast, several snowball fights, hundreds of games of wizard chess, most of which Scarlett lost and an amazing Christmas feast with crackers that burst open to reveal objects too large to have been in them in the first place, and mountains of food, Scarlett said good night to the noisy Gryffindors and returned to the almost empty common room.

She went to fetch a book from her empty dorm when she spotted the blank piece of parchment on her bed, with the anonymous note beside it, and Shadow settled firmly on top of them.

Scarlett carefully pulled it from under the sleeping ball of fluff, unfolding it and examining the parchment more closely, it was huge, well-worn and square, and there was not a single word written on it. In fact the only bit of ink on the entire thing were two tiny tear shaped blotches in one corner, and other than that, a large expanse of slightly yellowed paper.

Beyond confused as to why her father had owned a blank sheet of parchment, and how she could 'use it well', she decided there must be some sort of hidden use to it, most likely a magical one.

She began looking through the books she kept stacked in the cupboard by her bed, hoping to find something slightly useful, but after flicking through even the dreaded charms book, that didn't seem likely.

She hurried towards the library, hoping to look through a few relevant books before curfew in an hour, without Fred and George there was no way she wouldn't be caught out after it.

Somehow, even after three months at Hogwarts she took a wrong turn and ended up in a short hall with a single open door. She ambled up to it and upon seeing a great golden framed mirror through it, she was reminded of Snow White, a muggle fairy tale she was told when she was younger.

Curious she stepped inside, and standing in front of the mirror, she stared into it. At first she saw nothing, but then her reflection shimmered and there were suddenly people right behind her. Scarlett jumped, and turned around, expecting to see someone, but there was nothing. She looked back to the magical mirror, and beside her reflection she saw Draco, Fred and George. Perhaps the mirror shows you your friends, she wondered, before she examined the other reflections.

The next person, to her surprise was a grinning Harry, which almost destroyed her previous theory. Behind the five of them stood two adults, a man and a woman, the man was tall with kind brown eyes covered by glasses and scruffy black hair, and the woman had deep red hair, bright green eyes and a slight smile on her face.

Scarlett had never seen a photo of her parents but she knew this must be them, apart from the man's eyes he looked exactly like an older version of her twin, and the woman had the same red hair and green eyes Scarlett saw every time she passed a mirror.

Scarlett stared at the mirror, wishing with all her heart that she could step through the glass, and be surrounded by happy friends and family like the smiling impostor that was her refection, how is it possible to envy your mirror image. She tore her gaze away and examined the golden frame. There were words written along the top Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

The words didn't make any sense and did not sound like a spell. Scarlett stood there frozen for many minutes before turning and walking away, I show not your face but your heart's desire, read the mirror. But her parents were dead; there was no point in dreaming of the impossible, no matter how much she wished she could stay before the mirror forever.

She walked back to the common room in silence, the mirror stuck in her mind. Sleep barely found her that night.

After the night with the mirror she spent most of the holiday in the empty library, flicking through massive tomes that looked like they hadn't been touched in decades; Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes, An Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms and even several volumes of something called the Encyclopaedia of Wizardry and Spells, writing down anything that seemed remotely helpful to her situation with the blank parchment.

Leaving the library with a long list of spells and tips for discovering the use of a magical object (something several books covered, however most just warned to stay away from), she wandered to an empty classroom, and spread the parchment on an ink stained desk.

"Aparecium," Scarlett recited, waving her wand over it and praying it didn't burst into flame from a failed charm, it wouldn't have been the first time after all. For once the room remained fire free, but the parchment also remained unchanged.

Many days, and hundreds of spells later, Scarlett discovered that it couldn't burn, or be transfigured, it repelled water, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not even remove the ink blot on the corner. The only thing she had discovered was that she could splash most of a bottle of ink over it and it would be absorbed, not even leaving a trace. Okay then, perhaps the parchment is some kind of magical cleaning product, because what present could be more perfect for an eleven year old at Christmas.

Scarlett was thoroughly annoyed with the giver of the gift, was it difficult to have given a hint. She was beginning to feel as if she wand simply waving a stick around and had no magic at all.

She poked at the parchment and said "Just show me what you do, already!"

Amazingly, this of all things seemed to have an effect, thin lines spiralled from the centre of it forming the words, State your name, stranger.

Scarlett stared; Accio sanity, she had finally lost her mind, after all there was no way the parchment was actually doing something simply because she ordered it to.

She cleared her throat, "My name is Scarlett, show me what you're hiding."

All in due time, Scarlett. Are you friend or foe? She almost laughed at the strange question, as if someone would honestly answer 'foe'.

"That depends on who you are, and as I have no idea, I can't answer." She replied carefully.

This one is slightly smart, this was written in a different handwriting, and caused Scarlett to smirk at the old parchment. We, my friend, are Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.