AN: Once again my interest is waning, but I am trying to be disciplined. I should be able to get through the first book; however, I don't know if I want to go onto Chamber of Secrets or if I want to skip ahead. Anyways, here's this chapter.

The Mirror of Erised

Selena woke up on the morning of December seventeenth to see that the Hogwarts castle and grounds had been covered in snow. Glistening white snow sat beautifully on the stone architecture. The Black Lake was frozen over. Selena found herself daydreaming about skating over it.

After a rather enjoyable morning of sitting by the common room fire in a plush armchair softly stroking a purring Bastet, she headed off to Charms class. Selena liked Charms well enough, but one thing ruined it for her. Professor Flitwick had decided that the pair-ups he picked would last for the rest of the year. She was stuck with Draco Malfoy as her primary partner. Fortunately, for four-person pair-ups, she would get to work with Terry.

Draco struck up a rather unwanted conversation while they practiced the unlocking charm, "It's so unfortunate that certain students have to stay at Hogwarts over winter holiday because they're not wanted at home, Isn't Potter?" He asked, overly pleased with himself.

Selena huffed. Terry's jaw tensed. They both wanted to shoot back but couldn't find a clever enough remark. She simply carried on with her spell work. She pointed her wand at the lock on the table, "Alohomora!" It unclicked satisfyingly.

"Don't feel too bad for me, eh? Wouldn't want the sadness to ruin your holidays." She smirked at him, picking up the lock and re-securing it.

He snorted and readied his wand to have a go.

After class Selena headed to meet Ron, Hermione, and Harry at the library. There they would continue their search for the mysterious Nicolas Flamel. They had already searched through many books. He wasn't in any of the modern history books they had searched so Selena decided to look for books with older historical figures. She skimmed through the spines looking closely for anything related to the names Nicolas or Flamel. She found nothing.

She resolved to look for books on magical items and their owners but before she could Ron was calling down the aisle telling her that it was time for lunch.

When she arrived in the Great Hall, she discovered that it had been decorated for Christmas. It was beautifully arranged with holly and mistletoe. An enormous, elegantly decorated tree stood in the very front by the Head Master's podium. "It looks lovely in here," Selena said, taking a seat next to Terry.

"Yeah, it does," Terry replied quickly, clearly interested in discussing something else. "Are you really staying over Holiday?"

"Well, yeah," She shrugged. "Believe me, it's much better than the alternative."

"Oh, well, David and I will be going home for the holidays. I'll miss you loads though." Terry said. He looked uncomfortable.

"Terry! Hurry on up. I know you haven't packed half your things. Mum'll have a fit if you forget anything." David called walking away from the Prefects' area and towards them.

"Shu- up!" Terry hollered through bites of a sandwich. Selena no longer found herself bothered by the talking while chewing. Instead, she laughed heartily and took a bite of her own sandwich.

When he finished devouring his meal, he leaped up from the table. "Bye Selena! I'll see you next term!" He said, running out of the hall.

"Argh Terry! Don't run!" David Boot called out. "See ya, Selena! Hope you have a great holiday!" Soon David was gone too.

That night back in the common room, Selena discovered that she was the only first-year Ravenclaw that stayed. In fact, almost all of Ravenclaw house had left. There were four other students with her. One of them was a fifth-year prefect called Penelope Clearwater.

Selena sat on a plush armchair petting Bastet until Penelope approached her, "Selena, up to bed." She requested softly. Selena didn't protest. She was rather sleepy.

She spent the days leading up to Christmas playing wizards chess with Harry and Ron. Wizards chess followed the same rules as Muggle chess except that the pieces were alive and opinionated. She had to ignore several pawns pleading with her to choose a different one. She beat Harry easily but lost to Ron every match.

Selena Potter had not expected to find presents waiting for her in the common room on Christmas morning. It was a strange feeling, seeing multiple packages addressed to her. She'd only ever gotten one. What felt stranger though, was opening them without Harry. They always opened everything together. She thought about taking them down to the Great Hall so that they could be together but shoved the idea away quickly. Harry would not have waited for her.

The first package was small, poorly wrapped, and contained only 50 p. "Hmmm feeling generous this year, weren't they?" She murmured to Bastet who had sauntered into the room. The cat rubbed against her bent leg as she went for the next one. She opened an equally small but more neatly wrapped package. It contained some candies (pepper imps and chocoballs) and a note.

Merry Christmas Selena,

Enjoy some sweets.

Signed,

Terry and David

Selena smiled brightly and carefully sat the note beside her. Next, she opened up a small white box. Written on the side was "From Hagrid to Selena" Inside was a wooden figurine. After taking it from the box she realized it was a cat. "Aw," She sighed. It was perhaps the sweetest gift she'd ever received. She resolved to sit it on her night table when she was done.

Next, she opened the largest parcel. "Oh wow," She said in shock. She picked up a large knit sweater in both hands and held it to her chest. It was a light purple color and had a large navy S embroidered on the chest. Under the sweater, she found some fudge and a note.

Have a Happy Christmas Dear,

Mrs. Weasley

Selena slipped the lilac knit over her head and sat the fudge with Terry and David's candies. She peeled back the wrapping on the final parcel. Inside was a book. It was a very old copy of a book she already owned. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them?" She read aloud. She opened the cover to find that it had been signed by the author. Who would have sent this to her? She flicked through the pages and a slip of paper fell out. It simply read:

Learn all you can

A very Merry Christmas

"How odd," She muttered and ran back up to the girls' dormitory with her gifts hugged to her chest. Selena placed them on her bed except for Hagrid's whittled cat which she placed on the night table and left for the Great Hall.

She entered to find Harry and the Weasleys sitting at the very end of the Gryffindor table. She couldn't help but walk quickly. "Morning Harry!" She called.

"Oh good! Selena's got one too," Fred said brightly.

"Now we all match," George observed.

All of the Weasleys wore large knit sweaters, even Percy. Harry had one of his own as well. Selena sat down with them and enjoyed a full English breakfast, "What'd you get?" Harry asked her excitedly. She could tell that he was buzzing to tell her something.

"Oh well, this," She started wiggling the lumpy bottom of her sweater. "Terry and David gave me some candies. Hagrid gave me a little wooden cat. Oh, and… I got a really old book."

"What book?"

"Oh, it's that Magic Creatures book that we already bought 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them' only it's old."

"From who?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. It just came with a note that said, 'Learn all you can. A very Merry Christmas.'"

"I got a mystery gift too. It's an invisibility cloak. The note said it was Dad's."

Selena was very surprised by this and a bit disappointed. Harry had gotten an invisibility cloak and she'd gotten a dusty old book. "That's so strange." She murmured before taking a sip of pumpkin juice. "You don't reckon it's cursed or something?"

"I don't think so. I've already tried it and it hasn't attacked or anything."

After breakfast, they headed outside and started a snowball fight. They broke off into teams and sent flurries of snowballs at each other. By the time they were done Selena was cold and wet, but her cheeks burned warm and red. She enjoyed a warm turkey sandwich and hot cocoa for lunch.

Soon after they headed up to their respective common rooms. Selena spent the rest of her day playing with Bastet and flipping through Newt Scamander's informative work. It contained information on creatures of all sorts. There were unicorns and centaurs and a wide variety of winged horses. There were more dragon breeds than she imagined existing. Even with her eyes burning she couldn't stop reading about all of the incredible creatures that existed within its pages…

Selena woke up the next morning with her glasses askew and the book lying to her side open on a page about Gnomes. She pushed the glasses up into her hair and harshly rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As she stretched out her sleepy limbs Bastet leaped onto the bed to greet her. "Morning Bast," she yawned. The cat raised her head to Selena's head, much too impatient to wait for pets. She fixed her glasses and started getting ready for the day.

Selena was ripped from the pages of her Christmas gift by Harry saying something utterly baffling, "I saw our parents." She turned so quickly the glass of pumpkin juice beside her spilled and nearly splashed the book's ancient pages.

"What?" She asked. Her hazel eyes went wide behind her purple rimmed glasses.

"I'll show you tonight. We'll sneak out under the cloak after curfew."

"You want me to sneak out after curfew? How am I supposed to hide from Mrs. Norris?"

"Ron and I'll sneak you in ours."

"Harry, how exactly will that work. Surely an older student or Prefect would say something."

"We'll sneak you in under the cloak."

Selena stared incredulously into his bright eyes for a few moments, "Oh, alright then. Hand it off to me after dinner."

Surprisingly, the plan went off without a hitch. Harry passed it to her at dinner. They stayed in the Great Hall until Percy shooed them off to bed. Then, she ducked into the nearest bathroom and threw it over herself. Ron and Harry waited outside for her signal. She tapped Harry's palm twice and they were off. She followed them carefully up to the West Tower and into the Gryffindor common room. The warm gold and red color theme contrasted tonally from the earthier blue and bronze theme of the Ravenclaw common room.

She tried not to look around too much. She felt as though she was seeing something not meant for her eyes. After everyone headed up to bed, Harry and Ron came running down the stairs and joined her underneath the cloak. She and Ron let Harry lead the way as neither of them knew where they were going.

As it turned out, Harry didn't know where they were going either. They had to head to the library and then retrace his steps. It took them a very long time to even make it to the library. By the time they reached it Ron was shivering. On the other hand, Selena was very hot. She had been underneath the cloak for the past two hours. She could feel her hair frizzing and sweat collecting in places she would rather it not be.

"I'm freezing," Ron whispered as they passed the ghost of an elegant tall woman. "Let's just go back."

"No!" Harry whispered sharply. "I know it's here somewhere."

If it were any other rule-breaking adventure Selena would have agreed with Ron. But this was about Mum and Dad. This was important.

"It's here - just here - yes!" They quickly shuffled into a door located just past a suit of armor. Harry and Ron dropped the cloak leaving her to pull it off. She smoothed her hair over and joined them in front of a mirror. It was as tall as the ceiling with an ornate golden frame. Words were etched into the frame at the very top. Selena squinted. It was difficult to read in the dim lighting. From what she could make out it said: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"See?" Harry's voice grabbed her attention. She stood beside him and looked at the reflection. Just as he said their mother and father stood behind them. Their father's hand on her shoulder and their mother's on Harry's. Selena's lip quivered and her eyes prickled. All either of them had ever wanted in life was staring back at them.

Their mother was beautiful. She had long, thick, dark red hair and bright green eyes just the same as Harry's. Their father looked startlingly like Harry. He was tall and thin with messy dark hair and glasses. His eyes were a deep hazel much like her own.

"I can't see anything," Ron spoke.

"Well, come over here," Selena waved him over.

"I just see you two."

"Come stand where I am," Harry said. Ron walked over. Harry and Selena stepped away from him.

Ron stood silently staring into the mirror. "Look at me!"

"Can you see your family?" Harry asked exasperatedly.

"I am - I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to - and I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup - I'm Quidditch captain, too."

"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? Our parents are dead." Harry answered frustratedly, "Let me have a look."

"You had it to yourself last night," Ron argued.

Selena ignored their squabbling and looked back up at the inscription. At first, she thought it could be a different language, but upon closer inspection, she realized the first word, Erised, spelled desire backward.

A sudden sound outside the door caught all of their attention. It sounded suspiciously like a cat. They all scrambled to get back under the cover of the invisibility cloak. Sure enough, when they opened the door the bright amber eyes of Mrs. Norris were staring at them intently.

She stared for an extended period of time before turning tail and running off. "She knows we're here. We've got to go."

Once she was safely back in the Ravenclaw common room, Selena ran up to the girls' dormitory and jumped into bed. She tried to get to sleep but the only thing on her mind was the image of her family whole as it should be. She hugged her comforter close to her chest and blinked away silent tears.