Chapter 3

Christmas was drawing near and I could feel the excitement coming off everyone in waves. It snowed last night which only added to the joyous atmosphere. Fred and George had bewitched some snow balls to follow Quirrell around and bounce off the back of his turban. I made sure to tell them how much I loved that. No one could wait for the holidays to start. Dumbledore even gave me some money to buy people some Christmas presents and have them delivered by post. I decided to buy Dumbledore a nice thick pair of socks.

Once the holidays had started, Hermione went home and Harry, Ron and I were left in the castle. Ron was trying to teach me and Harry wizard chess but we both sucked. I went to bed on christmas eve, full of excitement.

...

I woke up early christmas morning. I always do. Me and my brother used to have a competition to see who would get downstairs first. Our mum would take away our alarm clocks. We would try different strategies every year. Once my brother tried drinking five glasses of water before bed. The only thing he accomplished that morning was wetting his bed at the age of ten. I felt a pang of sadness as I thought of my brother. I missed him. I missed my mum and dad too. Christmas was alway family time in my house. And now I will probably never see it or my family ever again. I felt my eyes well up and a stray tear make it's way down my face. I quickly wiped it away and got out of bed.

I tried to be cheerful as I ambled down the stairs but it was hard. Ron and Harry weren't down yet so I sat down next to the tree. I was never really much of a cryer but at this moment it was impossible not to. I was never going home. I was never going to see my family again. Reality had finally caught up with me and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I buried my face in my hands and let it all out.

I didn't hear Ron and Harry walk down the stairs. I didn't know how long I had been crying for when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up. I'm sure my face was red and puffy from all the crying. "Joanne, are you okay?" Harry asked. I sniffed and wiped my eyes. Harry and Ron where looking at me in concern.

"I'm just home sick. I miss my family." I told them truthfully. Harry came and sat down beside me.

"You'll see them again in the summer." He tried to comfort me. That just made me cry harder.

"I won't though. That's the thing. I'll never see my family again." I said between sobs. This was news to them.

"What?!" Asked Ron. I took a deep breath. Oops. What am I supposed to tell them. I can't say I'm from the future. My family may as well be dead. My house may as well be destroyed. It hasn't even been built yet.

"My whole family died in an earthquake at the beginning of this year. The whole house was destroyed." I lied.

"I-I'm sorry." Harry stuttered, "I didn't know."

"That's okay, it's not your fault. This is my first Christmas without them." I said, quietly. I could see that Ron was really uncomfortable with the big display of emotion so I sucked it up and wiped my eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm ruining your christmas." I apologized.

"Not at all. You've had a rough time." Harry said.

We began opening our presents and I tried to forget about my predicament. I picked up a soft, lumpy package. It was a light blue Weasley jumper. It matched my eyes perfectly. I pulled it over my head, with glee. Harry and Ron got one too. Harry had gotten me some chocolate frogs and Hermione got me a wonderful book on dueling. I gave Harry a watch and I got Ron some chocolate frogs. I had given Hermione her present before she left. It was a book on advanced transfiguration. She had loved it.

I watched Harry unwrap a flute from Hagrid. It was small and I could tell he calved it himself. I looked on in wonder as Harry tore the rapping paper off the invisibility cloak. Come to think of it, what was Dumbledore thinking giving an invisibility cloak to an eleven year old? He could get into all sorts of trouble with it. Then again it is rightfully Harry's.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"It's some sort of cloak." Harry replied.

"Well put it on then!"

I watched as Harry threw the cloak onto his shoulders. His body just disappeared. It was like he was just a floating head. Ron's eyes widened as I feigned surprise. "My body's gone." Harry gasped.

"It's an invisibility cloak." Ron said in awe, "Their really rare. Who's it from?" Harry looked at the note.

"There's no name. It just says 'use it well'." Harry told us.

"You can use that to sneak into the restricted section of the library. There might be something there on Nicholas Flamel." I said.

"Great idea. I'll go tonight." He agreed.

...

Christmas dinner was amazing. There where dozens of fat roasted turkeys, mountains of mash potatoes, huge boats of gravy and much more. Everyone filled their plates with more than they could eat and dug in. Flaming christmas pudding replaced the main course. Some of the teacher where slightly drunk from the wine and red in the face. Everyone was laughing merrily.

Harry, the Weasleys and I spent the afternoon having a massive snow ball fight. Harry, Ron and I verses the twins and Percy who, to everyones surprise, got quite into the game.

We where all soggy and wet as we walked back inside, laughing happily. We sat around the fire for hours, exchanging stories and jokes before finally going off to bed.

Not long after, I tiptoed back down the stairs to wait in the common room for Harry to get back from the library.

...

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke to find Harry shaking me awake.

"Come on! You've got to see this!" He exclaimed before running up the stairs to his dorm. He came down dragging a very grumpy looking Ron by the hand. He excitedly threw the cloak over us and pushed us out of the common room and down the hall.

"Harry, whats going on?" Ron moaned.

"Shhhh. Just wait, I have to show you something." He whispered to us. I could see that Harry was bursting with excitement. He was frustrated because we had to walk so slowly with us all under the cloak. I was almost sure we were lost. We had walked down so many corridors my feet hurt. We had taken so many turns. I lost track after left, left, straight, right, left. Harry seemed to know where we were going though.

We stopped in front of a normal looking classroom door. Harry opened it eagerly. He pushed us through and shut the door before throwing the cloak of us. It was a small room. Completely empty apart from a large full length mirror. Across the top of the mirror were the words, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi. Harry ran up to it. "See! Look, there! My parents!" He whispered. I looked into the mirror but from where I was standing all I saw was Harry's reflection.

"I don't see anything." Ron said.

"No they are there." Harry insisted.

"All I see is you." I told him.

"No, look." He grabbed Ron and dragged him infringing of the mirror. "You see them don't you." Ron looked in the mirror and his eyes widened.

"No. It's me! I look older and... I'm head boy!" Ron exclaimed in surprise.

"What?!" Harry asked.

"I am - I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to - and I'm holding the House Cup! And the Quidditch Cup!... I'm the Quidditch captain, too!" Ron tore his eyes away from the mirror and looked at us excitedly. "Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family are dead."

"It shows our desires." I told him, " Harry, you've never known your family, so you see your parents and your family."

"How do you know that?" Ron asked.

"Look at the words at the top." I pointed them out. "It's a mirror so they are written backwards. It says, 'I show not your face but your hearts desire'."

"What do you see in the mirror?" Harry asked, pulling me to stand in front of the mirror.

I quickly turned away. "I don't want to see." I said.

"What? Why?" Harry asked.

"Staring at a mirror all day is not going to get us anywhere." I insisted, "Things shown in this mirror are not true or real. I'm better off not looking."

"But it-" Harry began but a sudden noise outside in the corridor put end to our conversation. Harry pulled both of us towards him and threw the cloak over us. They rushed out of the room and down the corridor to get back to the common room.

...

The next morning the snow still hadn't melted outside.

"Wan't to play chess, Harry?" Ron asked.

"No." He replied bluntly.

"We could go down and visit Hagrid." I suggested.

"No...you go..."

"I know what your thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go back tonight." Ron said.

"Yeah, Ron's right. You should forget about it." I told him.

"Why not?" He asked angrily.

"I've just got a bad feeling about it - and anyway, you've been sneaking out a lot lately. What if you get caught. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you knock something over?" Ron exclaimed.

"You sound like Hermione." Harry muttered.

"Ron's right. That mirror is bad news. You won't accomplish anything by sitting in front of it all night, except exhaustion the next morning." I said.

I could see that he wasn't convinced. Why won't he listen to us? Maybe I shouldn't have waited for him to find it. I should have just given him the right book. But knowing about the mirror might help him when he is going up against Quirrell. Also, Dumbledore will convince Harry not to go back to the mirror after tonight so it should be fine.

...

I have finally mastered the full body bind. I've started trying to learn the shield charm. It is very advanced. Apparently some adults can't do it. However, I wanted to try it anyway. I managed to create a small shield. But it is only about the size of a dinner plate. I definitely need to work on making it bigger but I can only try a few times a day because it is really draining. I am getting better though. The sooner I master it the sooner I can move on and I am going to need as many spells as I can get. Unfortunately I am still in an eleven year old body so my magic has not reached it's full potential yet.

...