I do not own Harry Potter books or Merlin or Rise of the Guardians or Frozen.

Chapter 35: Heart's Desire

Tom, you'll never believe how much fun I had today.

Really? What did you do?

I practiced in the Quidditch pitch with my classmate, Jack.

Oh.

It was awesome! I got to play Chaser like I always wanted to. My brothers never wanted to practice with me, said I was too young, but now I played with Jack and it was the best feeling in the world.

Ok.

He's a pretty good Keeper, he's fast, but I was able to get a few goals in anyway. And the weather was awful, it was snowing the whole time, but I didn't mind because I finally got to play. Isn't it great?

I guess.

Tom? Why aren't you excited for me?

Ginny, you shouldn't hang out with this boy.

But Tom, I had fun and made a friend. I thought you would be happy for me.

Friends are nice but have you forgotten about Harry already?

Of course not. Why is that a problem?

If Harry sees you with another boy, he will not look at you at all. You're not being faithful to him.

Tom, that's not… I don't think…

I'm a boy, remember? I know how boys think.

I guess you're right.

Of course, I'm right. Now, I'm bored. Tell me what else has been happening. How is Harry?

I heard that things took an unexpected turn at the Dueling Club.

Oh, really? What happened?

I wasn't there so I don't know the details but for some reason, people are whispering that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin and that he opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Why would they say that?

I know, right? He's innocent but then they were saying that this boy, Justin, is his next target and all Muggle-borns are now scared of him. I should talk to someone to find out what exactly happened.

You do that Ginny, but first, spend some time with me.

Oh, of course, Tom. I'm all yours.

Let's play a game.

Two small figures in hooded dark robes walked down empty Hogwarts corridors. Their bare feet made no noise, their linked hands dispelled the darkness of the sleeping castle, and their hearts beat as one. No patrolling teachers caught them, no students out of bed saw them, no lurking monsters smelled them, only a being like them sensed their presence.

"Jack-Friend, where are you going?" Peeves whispered, appearing in front of them.

"It's our business, Peeves. This isn't the time for mischief."

"There's always time for mischief."

"Then, do something fun for me. I think Professor Flitwick is on the second floor. Go spook him or something but don't lead him to us. This is important."

Peeves grinned broadly. "The wee Professor could use spooking."

"That's right. Have fun, Peeves."

Peeves giggled and floated to the staircase, leaving the twins to their adventure.

They arrived on the third floor and made it to the door which promised to lead them to what they desired. They unlocked it and opened the trap door in the center of the floor.

"Lumos."

They peered over the opening but couldn't see how far the hole went.

"I'll go first," Jack offered, and before his sister could protest, jumped inside.

"Jack?" Elsa called when she didn't hear from him. "What's down there?"

"It's some sort of plant," he answered and the echo of his voice bounced off the walls.

She decided to take the chance and jumped in as well.

"Ow," he complained when her foot hit his face.

"Sorry."

"So, what is this? It's moving."

The plant broke their fall which made them thankful but the way its tendrils moved around and crept up their arms and legs, made it seem sinister.

"We need to find a way out of it before it strangles us."

"That's the idea." He struggled but it just tightened around him. "Ideas would be welcome about now."

She tried to free her hands out of it but for each tendril she removed, two more wrapped around her.

"Jack, it's got me."

"Let's freeze it."

They both used their powers on the plant, which finally made it stop moving but it was still holding them hostage.

"Give it all you've got, Elsa," he encouraged. "Make it colder."

She grit her teeth, and with a small scream, released a wave of frigidness which would have killed anything alive in the vicinity. They struggled again and this time, the frozen plant shattered, releasing them from its prison.

"Nice," he complimented, shaking broken bits of the plant off his robes. "You're one cool sister to have."

She groaned at his joke and pushed him through a stone passageway which was now coated in a thick layer of ice. They lit their wands and proceeded into a chamber with a high ceiling where a heavy wooden door was slightly ajar.

"Hermione said that there were a bunch of traps and challenges down here. I'm guessing that plant was the first."

"I wonder how they got through it."

"I don't know. She said that they solved the challenges so they wouldn't be a problem anymore but since the plant was still here, do you think the others will be too?"

They walked into a large chamber which contained tall statues. As they walked among them, they realized that the statues were chess pieces and the floor was a giant chessboard.

"Strange challenge," Elsa mused while Jack kicked a jagged piece of rock and cried out in pain. "You forgot you don't have shoes on, huh?"

He tried to cover up his embarrassment by jumping from square to square.

"Did it on purpose."

They went through more chambers, one which smelled so bad, they ran through it, and one which had sinister scorch marks left behind on the floor, and they jumped over them. The last chamber had steps leading down and when they descended, they saw what they were looking for, waiting for them so enticingly available, it seemed too easy.

"Is this really it?" Elsa asked.

"Let's check it out."

In the center of the chamber, standing on two clawed feet was a beautiful large mirror. Elsa slowly approached it to fully appreciate the masterful ornate gold frame and noticed an inscription carved on top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"What language is that?" Jack asked and then suddenly stopped. His eyes went wide as he stared at the mirror.

Elsa took a look at it and at first, saw only the two of them, but then something started to come into shape in the air.

From a distance, it looked like large insects. She came closer and pulled Jack along with her.

The more she approached, the clearer the image was. She tried to discern what the flying things were. They looked somewhat humanoid. Fairies?

She looked around and above her - there were no fairies in the room but yet there were maybe ten of them zooming around in the mirror. She remembered that the mirror showed your deepest desires. She desired a way to find her father and the mirror showed her a group of fairies. This made no sense. She walked right up to it to have a better look at them.

She'd seen a drawing of a fairy in a book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but those didn't look like the ones in the mirror. These had a blue-tinged skin and white hair tied in ponytails and braids. Their clothes were made of soft sheer material which swished about them like curtains blown by the wind.

"Why am I seeing you?" she asked the strange fairies but they just hovered in the air silently. "Jack, are you seeing this? What could this mean?"

Her brother was still staring at the mirror with wide eyes. He raised his hand and touched his hair, watching the movement of his reflection. Their eyes met in the mirror and she noticed moisture in his. She turned around to look at him directly. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him cry and it hit her that it was possible that he saw something else in the reflection.

"What do you see?"

He didn't answer but just stood there, silently, looking longingly at the reflection.

Elsa was getting impatient. "I see something that looks like blue fairies. Do you see them too?"

He blinked a few times. "No. It's just us."

"Just us? There has to be more. What do you see?"

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked away. "This mirror is evil. I don't like it. Let's go."

Elsa wasn't ready to leave. She needed to know more.

"Tell me how to find him," she pleaded with the fairies but they remained silent and hovered around her.

Jack pulled on her arm. "We should leave."

"I'm not done!" she said desperately. She needed answers, guidance, some clue. This wasn't enough.

"We are done here. There's nothing this mirror can do for us."

"No! Tell me." She grabbed the mirror's frame and pleaded with the fairies inside. "There must be something you can tell me or show me at least."

One of the fairies waved at her and she nearly sobbed because his lips were moving and yet no sound came out. His almond-shaped eyes were the color of the bluest sky and smiled at her in greeting. He had the answers to the questions she sought. If only he could speak, she would learn it all. The answers were just beyond the glass.

He touched the glass with his tiny blue hand and Elsa brought her hand to it. She hoped that when their hands met, maybe she would hear the fairy speak, or it would come out of the mirror or some kind of special magic would dazzle her and answer all her questions, but all she felt was the cool smooth surface of the glass.

Jack tried to pull her away but she held on tight to the frame. He squeezed himself under her arm and blocked her view. She craned her neck to look around him.

"You said it yourself," he said in a grim tone, "this mirror is dangerous. It killed someone. You're falling for its spell, Elsa. Listen to me! Let's go."

Maybe deep in the dark alleys of her mind, she knew that he was right, but right now her questions were burning a hole in her and were much more important than his words. She needed to know. She had searched so many books, she had asked each teacher at this school, and it was all for nothing, she had no clues, no hints or tips to aid her. This mirror was the closest to an answer she had gotten. She couldn't leave yet. These fairies were a sign of something and she had to stay to figure out what it was.

Jack was in her way so she let go of the mirror to shove him aside. He used that moment to grab her by the shoulders and wrench her away. She realized that he was about to succeed so she used all her strength to hold her ground. The fairies in the mirror watched with detached interest and waited for her to come back. The same one she saw earlier motioned with his hand to come closer like he had a message for her, and she had to hear it!

Out of nowhere, her legs bent beneath her, she lost her balance and fell hard on the ground. Jack collapsed on top of her and held her down.

"Stop looking at it!"

She couldn't see the mirror from this position and struggled under his hold. He tripped her! How could he? She lashed out at him and tried to push him away.

"Think, Elsa!" he said while struggling to keep her prisoner. "You love thinking. Think!"

She instinctively thrashed harder, feeling like a trapped animal fighting to get away from its captor, and used the only weapon she had, her nails. They wrestled on the ground and he still held her down, unfazed by her attack.

"Let me go!"

She was getting tired of the struggle and could feel the will to fight leave her. A streak of red caught her eye, distracting her from the scuffle. She blinked, trying to understand where the color came from.

"Are you finally thinking?" he asked, breathing heavily but still holding her down. "Do you understand now?"

Elsa winced. He was holding her really hard and it hurt her arms. He must have noticed because he loosened his grip.

"I'll let you go but do not look at the mirror again, promise?"

The streak of red caught her eye again. There was blood smudged on his cheek and neck and stuck under her nails. She realized that she scratched him hard enough to hurt him. She couldn't understand why they were fighting. They had never brawled like this before. What had just happened?

Jack finally released her arms and she put her hand on his neck and released some ice on the scratched skin. It healed quickly. She wondered if she should say that she was sorry for hurting him. Was she sorry? She was just fighting back because he held her down, because he attacked her.

Then, she remembered the mirror and turned her head to look at it. Jack moved to cover the view again.

"Nuh-uh. You're not looking at that. It has a very bad effect on you."

Her mind was muddled. "Why did you do that?"

She just couldn't understand his behavior. He had never been aggressive, especially not to her.

"I'm sorry. I hope you're not hurt. I had to. Just… Don't look at the mirror anymore," he said softly.

The mirror. The mirror which gave her a very frustratingly unhelpful answer.

Jack got up and held out a hand to her. She took it grudgingly. She still wasn't happy with how roughly he handled her. Now, he pulled her away from the mirror so she couldn't see it.

"I'm not stupid," she protested. "I get it. You don't want me to look. Really, I think you overreacted. Nothing bad was happening. I was just looking."

"Just looking?" he said in a skeptical tone. "Elsa, does this look like just looking?"

He showed her his forearms which were riddled with bloody scratches. She paled. She didn't realize that she scratched him everywhere. She quickly healed it for him and inspected him further only to find more wounds. She hung her head in shame but still couldn't get the "I'm sorry" out though. It was self-defense after all.

"Why didn't you want me to look?"

"We've been here for hours, Elsa. You were glued to that mirror. You wouldn't listen to me and I was scared. I didn't know what else to do. I had to get you away from this evil thing."

She stared at him in stunned silence. That couldn't be right. It had to have been only a few minutes. As if to prove her wrong, a bell rang nearby, announcing that it was time for morning classes.

"We've been here all night?"

Jack nodded and sighed. "I should've done this earlier. I just… I didn't want to hurt you. So, was it worth it? Did you get your answer?"

"It was just us and these strange blue fairies flying around. What could it mean?"

Jack shrugged and sighed. "Harry Potter saw his dead parents in the mirror. You didn't see anyone that looked like he could be our father?"

"No. I don't understand. It's supposed to show us our deepest desires. I don't desire fairies!"

"Well, maybe fairies are a clue. I know where we can find some. We should ask them what they think."

"Yes. Take us there later."

Elsa's mind switched into overdrive. This little trip to the mirror had taken them a lot longer than expected. They were supposed to come back to their beds before their roommates woke up so no one would find out that they were sneaking around the school past curfew but now that plan had to change.

"We're late for classes. We have to go to our towers to get our stuff and then back down. We're going to be so late. I have Potions, Jack. I can't arrive late to Potions! Snape will kill me!"

Jack scratched his head. "I guess, we could skip the morning classes but we need a good explanation. What would be a good excuse for both of us to be out?"

"We got lost?"

"We've been here too long already. I don't think this will fly."

"We're sick?"

"Do you know of any jinxes or something that could make us sick?"

"Not really."

"Me neither."

They stood by the door, waiting to open it. She was running out of ideas.

"Fine," Jack said in a resigned voice. "I'll do it."

"Do what?"

"The only thing better than sick." He walked to the end of the dark chamber where some old damaged furniture laid. "Does this count as partial repayment of the favor I owe you?"

He picked up a broken piece of wood and inspected it. Then, he hefted his leg on top of a chair and lifted the leg of his trousers.

"What are you doing?" Elsa had a sneaking suspicion but was hoping that she was wrong.

"Unless you have a better idea?"

She had no more ideas at the moment. Maybe if he gave her more time, she could come up with some kind of a plan, but they didn't have time. The classes had already started. Soon, the teachers would start looking for them. They had to have a reasonable excuse for their absence.

Jack hesitated. "Madam Pomfrey can heal it, right?"

He looked to her, hoping she had come up with a better plan but since she didn't, he braced himself. He was really going to do it.

And then, he sucked in his breath and struck his leg with the jagged piece of wood.

A/N: Hmmm. Tom is up to something again and what do you think those blue fairies mean?