"Sooo… How was your Holiday?" Sophie asked brightly.

"It was… peaceful… Thank you for the gift." Lily said, meekly.

"That sounds… nice," Sophie said.

Inwardly she cringed, she didn't mind spending time with Lily, but the girl barely talked. It didn't matter with Hailey around who talked enough for three people, but when it was just the two of them, a lot of long awkward silences ensued.

"What about you?" Lily asked.

"Oh it was pretty normal, Just me, my parents, and some close family friends... Oh apparently my Uncles getting out of prison soon, He'll be leaving around the time I go home for summer. Which is kinda cool."

"O-oh… What did he…?" Lily asked tentatively.

"Oh he used to be pretty big in the organisation as a hitman and enforcer. He willingly took a fall for my dad back when they were liquidating our… assets, my mother was coming to term at the time so he did it so I wouldn't be born without a father. My dad respects him a lot so I grew up hearing a lot about him. He's kinda my hero," Sophie said conversationally.

Lily gained that conflicted expression she got whenever she was confronted by the moral complexity of her two friends. But she softened a little bit, and said in a tone that was a little wistful. "He sounds like a good uncle."

"Yeah, I've talked to him over the phone once or twice, but this will be the first time I meet him in person. I'm looking forward to it," Sophie said. "But apart from that, my holiday was pretty basic."

Lily nodded.

There was another silence.

Sophie chuckled. "I bet Hailey had a more interesting holiday than we have."

"Sounds like it." Hailey said conversationally, from beside Sophie.

Both girls jumped.

What, when did you-" Sophie shouted. Before calming down a little. "When did you get there?"

"Oh I've been listening for a while, I was just waiting for the right moment to appear. I'm practicing the Yakumo spontaneous appearance. Did I do alright?"

"I'll say, my heart nearly jumped out my throat." Sophie said. "Wait, the 'Yakumo spontaneous appearance'?"

"Yeah, we all do it." Chen said from the luggage racks. Causing the two girls to jump again and turn to the catgirl. "Mind you, me and Hailey can't do it without Ran or Yukari yet."

"Indeed. Even I have made a habit of it," Ran said from beside Lily, sending her jumping out of her seat. "Apologies for startling you, but when one spends time with my master, you tend to pick up her eccentricities."

Sophie glanced at all the youkai who now occupied the compartment. "I'm… gonna have to get used to this, aren't I?"

"Fraid so," Hailey said, giggling.

"Oh wow, this is so weird."

"What do you see?"

"I'm just being buried in snackfood and catnip. Damn Mirror me, I'm jealous."

"Let me see!"

Dumbledore sighed internally from within his shadowy alcove. He really shouldn't have been surprised that these two were back. They only came down here for the sake of curiosity in the first place, and with the flow of the conversation back then, he never did ask them to not come back down here again.

"Woah…"

"Pretty wild right? What do you see?"

And now they have found the Mirror of Erised

"No snacks, but I'm dressed like Ran, with my own Tabard. Yukari is standing behind me."

"Wa-seriously? Good grief you are obsessed."

Dumbledore decided that now was as good as any time to make himself known. "I really should have known that you two would be back, I did hope that your curiosity had been sated. But alas here we are again."

"Oh hey Dumbledore," Chen said shamelessly. "Well we figured out you were finished by now so we came to have a look. The Chess game slowed us down, but nothing else did."

"And came across this groovy mirror," Hailey said, doing some poses directed at the mirror. "Let me guess, it shows you your fondest wish?"

"Your heart's desire, in fact, but close," Dumbledore said. "I must say, I'm impressed, not many figure it out that quickly."

"Desire huh… and I just realised that they have written desire backwards on top of the mirror, and now I feel silly for not noticing," Hailey said, grimacing.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Well if it helps, that is also the mirror's name, The Mirror of Erised. A rather old artifact that came into my possession some years ago in fact."

"Yeah, it is pretty neat, but where's the real treasure?" Chen said, cutting in, who was checking around the mirrors base. "I mean come on, you wouldn't go through this much effort to guard this mirror, it's a charming novelty at best." She stood up and gave the mirror a critical look. "Unless it has some sort of hidden utility that is not immediately obvious by interacting with it."

"Oh, you would be surprised how dangerous this mirror can be," Dumbledore said sagely. "Many individuals have wasted away or been driven mad sitting in front of this mirror, looking longingly at things the mirror is incapable of giving, only showing. Although I suppose one with such simple desires such as you are unlikely to feel its allure."

"Yeah, I can get that stuff whenever I want it, provided Ran isn't looking. No point sitting around looking at somebody else enjoying what I could have myself." Chen said dismissively. "But that was a deflection if ever I heard one."

"True enough." Dumbledore said. "I suppose it was too much to hope that I could dissuade you so easily. The object in question is in fact hidden inside the mirror and can only be taken out by one who wants it, but has no desire to use it. One of my better ideas I like to think."

Chen blinked, before breaking out in laughter. "Oh that is Devious! I love it! The thief would have to know what it was and still not want to use it. So you'd either have to trick some greedless innocent into pulling it from the mirror for you, or hire a burglar who is professional enough to not fantasise about using it with more money than what the item is worth to them. And that's only if they know the mirror is here and how the enchantment works before coming. Let me guess, breaking the mirror dooms the object into oblivion until the mirror is repaired."

"You are correct. "Dumbledore chuckled. "I am indeed quite proud of this one. It would take even a talented mage days to unravel the enchantments without compromising the mirrors enchantment and, as you put it, 'doom the item into oblivion'."

"You should be. It's almost evil how you've made this. Now I know why it's so easy to get down here, it's only supposed to waste the thieves time!" Chen said, almost giddy. "And with your silent alarms, you have plenty of time to arrive before they arrive at the final insurmountable obstacle and take them down before they could even hope to figure out the mirror."

"Well I appreciate the sentiment if not the wording," Dumbledore said. "I did put an awful lot of thought into this, and I'm glad it tickles your fancy."

"Your welcome. There is only one thing I don't understand… What is in the mirror, you haven't said yet."

Dumbledore gave a wry smile. "Come now, one of the criteria for obtaining it is knowing what it is. I'm afraid you will not be hearing it from me."

"Oh come on!" Chen cried out, "at least give me a hint!"

"No sorry, I do fear that if I did, it would be far too easy for you to pull it out of the mirror." Dumbledore said. "As while powerful and quite dangerous in the wrong hands, from what I understand of you, nothing it offers will be of any value to you. So I'd rather not tempt fate."

Indeed from what he understood from his observations, and confirmed from her mirror vision, Chen was a very uncomplicated soul, untempted by power or wealth, desiring only adventure and creature comforts, and her youkai nature already offered her a very long life, with no biological expiration date, indeed, most youkai are capable of existing indefinitely as long as their magical needs are met. The stone would hold no temptation to one such as her.

Chen slumped. "Awww, man, that sucks. That's gonna eat me all year."

"Well if it's any concession, it is being moved to its new hiding place at the end of the school year. If it still bothers you by then, I see no harm in letting you know."

Chen stood up and looked Dumbledore up and down. "Really?"

"Like I said, I do not think it will hold any allure to you, so once it leaves the castle, I see no reason why I can't tell you. However in return I ask that you do not come back down here for the rest of the year, as I am quite old, and do need my sleep, so these false alarms can be quite taxing for my old bones."

Chen considered it. "You know what, that's fair. Come on Hailey we are leaving!"

She turned around to see Hailey still admiring herself in the mirror. "Seriously Hailey? Stop feeding your ego, Dumbledore needs his sleep."

"Fiiine," Hailey said, somewhat sulkily, as she stepped away from the mirror.

Dumbledore let a look of concern cross his face. "Hailey, I know it can be tempting-"

Hailey waved him off. "Relax , relax, I was listening, people waste away and all that. No need to worry, I wasn't planning on wasting away or anything, I was just 'trying it on', as it were."

"Trying it on?" Dumbledore said.

Hailey gave a sharky grin. "Other people may see their desires, but I see my future, and it was quite nice getting a little sneak peek."

Hailey then followed after Chen as they made their way to the room's exit, leaving Dumbledore to ponder Hailey's words.

He did stop his pondering long enough to add. "Oh by the way, Fluffy responds well to music, it puts him right to sleep, just thought you might like to know."

"You mean it was actually that easy?!" Hailey said, whirling around indignantly.

"His Name is actually Fluffy!?" Chen said, equally incredulous.

"Now I must say how impressed I am to see so many of you back after the break." Ran said, her eyes sweeping across the class. "I am happy to see so much of the magical youth interested in expanding their knowledge. However… Throughout the course of the last semester, I have been approached multiple times with an interesting question. Mainly, why I feel it is so important to teach the sciences, and other such worldly pursuits to you all, when it will have such little impact on how you magicals live. I have received this question from multiple students, even some of the teachers, and I have heard it enough that I feel I need to explain it now, in class so as to minimise the need to repeat myself."

Ran then snaps her fingers, causing eight watermelons to fall into random places in the room, and picks up something from her desk, causing several Muggleborn students to flinch. "First a practical demonstration. This is a SIG P220 nine millimeter pistol, Manufactured in Germany, a rather Popular Mundane firearm, that has been in use since 1975. To any that Do not know what a firearm is, it is a Mundane weapon that by utilising small chemical explosives detonated by a small mechanical hammer, fires small metal objects called bullets at velocities exceeding the speed of sound, for the purposes of killing at range."

Ran then shrugged. "But of course this is all useless information to you right? Right now you're perfectly safe, the Castle is warded against muggle technology so logically this should not work, correct?"

There were some nods, although Ran noted with some pride that quite a few were very tentative. 'Good, they see where this is going'.

With a practiced motion, she pulled back the slide then swiftly and precisely blasted every Watermelon reducing them into chunks. Making several students cry in alarm and one student to duck under the desk.

There was a stunned silence as the students recovered from the sudden fruitracide and surveyed the sad remains of the watermelons.

"Now…" Ran said, catching everyone's attention as she laid the now spent pistol back onto the desk with a soft clack. "Can anyone tell me why it didn't work?"

There was a murmuring, and one person raised their hand. "You counterwarded it?"

"Good guess but no, this is a perfectly mundane pistol, I welcome you to check it for enchantments if you do not believe me," Ran said.

They took her word for it. Another person raised her hand. "The room is counterwarded?"

To this Ran shook her head. "No the room is the same as any other in Hogwarts, you are not getting any warmer."

Another hand. "There are no anti-muggle wards?"

"Getting closer, but no. There are indeed wards that prevent some muggle technology from functioning properly," Ran said. "The Key word being…" Ran Prompted.

Another hand. "The Wards only work for some muggle technology, but not all."

Ran Smiled. "Yes, The Hogwarts Wards are mainly targeting electronics and similar equipment, not as a matter of fact, firearms. They function uninhibited."

There was a murmur and another student raised their hand. "Why not, these… firearms seem pretty dangerous!"

"Simple… they never figured out how," Ran provided. "You see, it's relatively easy to block electronics from functioning, as wizards use nothing like Electronics. But a Pistol uses a mix of Chemical and Mechanical engineering to function, and is much harder to inhibit, if one does not understand how. While it's quite easy for a wizard to jinx a mechanical appliance into not working, making a ward to prevent it is quite impractical, and very limiting, as many useful things such as Clocks, scales, even doorknobs and hinges, simply nothing would work. And a chemical inhibitor, while slightly easier, would prevent fires from being lit, water from boiling, perhaps even prevent cakes from rising depending on how imprecise the ward might end up being… and that's only if they do not forget that the human body runs on such reactions. If one is not careful, such a ward could cause everybody in the castle to simply drop dead, or at the very least make them quite sick."

She let that rather chilling statement hang in the air for a moment before moving on. "As you may now understand, warding against all muggle technology is merely fiction, but that is not to say that you cannot specifically ward against firearms. One only needs to look at the chemical composition of the bullets propellant. Most modern firearms use a chemical compound referred to as Nitrocellulose, with this knowledge the potential wardmaker need only to inhibit the flammable or explosive properties of this specific chemical to render most firearms relatively harmless." While speaking, Rans Flying Chalk had been sketching out the chemical's composition. "To Bring it back to why they did not do this. The Wardmakers simply did not know enough, if anything, about chemistry to make this ward functional, not to mention that this propellant only came into use in the late eighteen hundreds, so this ward would be useless to any firearms made before then."

"And this is why I teach such things to you. Because this is not irrelevant to your lives, this is the world you live in, dangers and all, and in order to protect yourself and live your best possible life, you need to understand it. This knowledge can not only make you better people, but better Wizards. How much more efficient is Transfiguration if you understand the object on a molecular level? How much more complicated can you make potions or Alchemy if you understand both the chemical and magical properties of a material? And how much safer will your homes be when you understand precisely what you are warding against? To push the boundaries of the impossible and the immaterial, you must first learn the possible and the mundane."

Her students are wide eyed now, but Ran was not finished. "Not only that, but it is also good for tempering magical arrogance. Too many of you have been taught by your families and peers to dismiss the mundane world as beneath you, that magic is inherently superior to anything 'muggles' could create with technology. It is this hubris that has claimed the life of many magicals, and it is this hubris that I wish to save you from. To that end, another demonstration is needed."

She snapped her fingers yet again, and the classroom, visually at least, dissolved around them. Instead of Rans various knick knacks, they were instead surrounded by a bustling street in what appeared to be a foreign city, street signs decorated in what to the more learned, could identify as Japanese.

"Welcome to Hiroshima, Japan on the sixth of August, nineteen forty five… and the most frightening day of my life."

"Postal bats… Postal bats, functionally identical to Postal owls, and are similarly bred for intelligence, and imbued with the navigation magic that makes delivering magical post possible…" Lily said, pouring over her book on the history of magical communication.

"However historically only those within The Vampiric Aristocracy have been allowed to use them, in the distant past this was enforced by the vampires themselves, but was made law by the International confederation of wizards during the vampire treatise in the year…" She started skimming the pages a little bit. "...Since the collapse of the Vampiric Aristocracy, Postal bats were only kept by hobbyists and some of the more high society Vampires as a symbol of status. This was until the re-emergence of Lady Remilia Scarlet of Romania, second cousin to the last Vampire king. In 1857 she had approached the last remaining breeder of postal bats, and proceeded to buy out his entire menagerie, the man then retiring on the quite large sum. It is Understood that Lady Scarlet then proceeded to breed them as a hobby herself from that point onwards. Today Postal bats are only used by Lady Scarlet and those within her household. Remilia herself is known to favour Alibino bats specifically. Because of this, Postal bats are currently the rarest form of non-lost, non-obsolete magical communication in the world today..."

Lily looked up from her book, her brow creased, wondering 'in that case, who is Dirty Secret?'

Authors Note:

For A start, Reupload because I forgot to put in the Authors note.

But yeah, this part is proving difficult to write, mostly because Fuck all happens in the first year when you take out the 'Whats Fluffy guarding subplot' and I lack the interest or attention span to write a blow by blow of Hailey's school year, some people can do it, and very well, Like the "Harry is a Dragon, and that's ok" story (thank you 'The Indominator' for that recommendation, as my Bibliovore tendencies can never be fully quenched and must be fed constantly), but for me, I'd rather just get to the interesting bits, which unfortunately means I have to find ways like this of padding stuff out with enough interesting events so they story doesn't jerk around too much.

But still, this chapter does reveal two things, one Lily is a little detective, which will be important later, and two, Ran has absolutely no chill, which is important always.

New Chapter of my other story probably coming out later today. Also was considering taking one of my other writing projects off the 'work on while procrastinating' pile and actually publish them on the site, which one would you guys be the most interested in?

London Margetroid story, as previously teased on this story.

Hailey Komeiji - where infant Hailey was kidnapped by Koishi and raised by Satori in old hell.

Hailey Potter-Inaba - Where six year old Hailey is adopted by Tewi into the planet spanning Inaba clan, and turned into a bunny girl.

Hailey Potter, Whom the Gods love - Where she escapes the Dursleys with the help of the Goddesses of Moyria and becomes a devout Shintoist loose in the foster system.

And even some non Hailey Potter ones:

Zero's Familiar Quest - a Familiar of Zero/Touhou Crossover Where time stops for Louise and she is Pulled into Gensokyo by Yukari and told she must Earn a Familiar. Romance and Polyamory abound.

Voiddimension Blanc: kindred spirits - my first serious attempt at a Hyperdimension story, featuring Blanc, as she is thrust into the Familiar of Zero world to try and find her wayward girlfriend Neptune, while getting involved in the problems of a blue haired bookworm.

Let me know if any of these capture your interest.