Thanks again to every one for your reviews!! Hermione Granger, I took your suggestion and changed the last chapter slightly, particularly the newspaper article, thanks 4 your insight!!!

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling nor do I own any of her characters!

Chapter 11: Methuselah's Mystical Mirror

As the month of October rolled around, the castle grounds became cool with leaves of red, yellow, and brown falling to the earth, leaving the trees cold and bare. With one month already into the year, much was beginning to happen at Hogwarts, as it always did during this time of the year. In between classes, Hagrid could be seen through the castle windows tending to his patch of giant pumpkins, which (as usual) would be used to embellish the castle for their annual Halloween feast. Percy, who was determined to prove to the Ministry that they were right in assigning him as the Official School Patroller, continued to guard every square inch of the castle with his utmost dedication. Even Harry found it hard to concentrate on his life-threatening situation with all that was going on.

Defense against the Dark Arts class alone was very strenuous, as Professor Granita had proceeded with his lessons on the Repelling charm. He had started the class off with shielding simple, palm sized cushions and was now progressing to more massive objects, which of course required much more focus to repel. Harry was so determined on avoiding being hit by a very large book, that he ended up walking out at the end of class saying his head hurt from too much concentration.

In addition to that, the teachers insisted on assigning homework now almost daily in order to prepare the 6th year students for their NEWTs (Nearly Exhausting Wizarding Tests), which would be coming not this year but the next. Not to mention that the change in season also meant that Quidditch training would be starting soon and Ron, who was planning to start Chaser tryouts, took the liberty of making Harry his second in command.

"I guess we could make Ginny one of the Chasers," Ron began informing Harry at breakfast one Saturday morning through mouthfuls of porridge. "She was on the team last year when you got suspended......Besides, she said herself that she prefers to score goals rather than catch the snitch and she's pretty good at it when we're playing at home."

"Okay then," Harry agreed. "That takes care of one of the Chasers.......what about the other two?" Harry asked with much interest.

"That's what today's tryouts are for mate, which reminds me........Er-- Hermione, if your not doing anything--what I mean to say is if you're not too busy........maybe you can come and watch the tryouts with me--Er--I mean us?" Ron asked eagerly, nudging Harry very hard with his elbow.

"Um, yea Hermione......it's beautiful outside and we all could do with a bit of fresh air." Harry said while recovering from a slight surge of pain in his stomach from where Ron's elbow had collided.

Hermione looked up from her breakfast plate with a sort of torn expression on her face. "Oh no, I'm sorry but I've got to do something today.......I'm really sorry."

"Oh, okay then," Ron looked slightly disappointed and returned to his bowl of porridge. "What've you got to do any way?"

"Umm.......Oh it's nothing really......just something in the library, that's all." Hermione answered vaguely and returned to her breakfast, leaving Ron and Harry with a rather bemused look on their faces.

Hours later, Harry and Ron were out on the Quidditch pitch (Hermione- less) with their fellow team mates--Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, the beaters who replaced Fred and George last year, and Ginny who had gladly taken Ron's offer on becoming one of the three new Chasers.

The air was crisp and felt refreshing as it blew on Harry's face and through the fringe of his hair. It had seemed so long since he was out here and almost instantly, Harry felt as if he and the pitch were united as one. It appeared that his other team mates felt the exact same way for they too were gazing around at the stadium with great enthusiasm and gleaming eyes.

Soon, a whole range of Gryffindor students were arriving and began lining up along the side of the pitch, looking very anxious. "Right," Ron yelled out so that everyone could hear him. "I suppose you are all here to tryout for the Chaser position?......GOOD! Now first--OH NO!!"

Harry was about to ask Ron what was wrong, but he got his answer when he heard a large crowd of laughter. It was the Slytherin Quidditch team and they were headed straight at them.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, MALFOY?" Harry glowered.

"Hello, Potter," Malfoy said coolly. "Just wanted to wish Weasley here congratulations on becoming Quidditch captain........why, the Quidditch cup is as good as ours with this lot!" he eyed the members of the Gryffindor team and several grunts of amusement came from the surrounding Slytherins. "Pathetic!!!!!........I say you stop this foolish tryout Weasley, nothing you do is gonna make you a better team OR a better keeper!"

Ron was turning purple with anger and reached into his robes for his wand, but Harry held him back. "You listen here Malfoy!! Gryffindor is ten times better than your team and we're gonna beat you so bad that you'll be crying to your dearest daddy!!" Ron yelled malevolently as he tried to fight out of Harry's grasp.

"Oh we'll see who's the better team, Weasley.....oh and good luck with finding new Chasers, you're going to need it!" And he along with the Slytherin team walked off, jeering and singing loudly a verse of "WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

By the time the tryouts had finished, the bright afternoon sun was beaming down and Harry was glad now to be seated in the shade of the Gryffindor common room, exhausted from a very tiring morning. Ron on the other hand was pacing up and down the room, taking out his aggression on a scarlet and gold coloured pillow.

"OOH! I HATE IT WHEN MALFOY'S RIGHT........THAT RUTHLESS GIT!!" Ron yelled as he threw the pillow at Harry's face, which would have hit him if he hadn't have caught it. "I can't believe that out of nine people, only ONE was decent enough to play on the team, Natalie McDonald!!......the rest of them were all rubbish!.....HOW ARE WE EVER GOING TO FIND ANOTHER PLAYER?"

Harry thought hard. Ron was so furious that Harry didn't dare tell Ron that he too wasn't that great of a Keeper either. Instead however, Harry settled on giving Ron encouraging advice. "Erm, maybe th--"

"ARGH! I'll get Malfoy if it's the last thing I do!!!!" Ron bellowed so that everyone in the common room could hear him, many of them cheering Ron on with support, others frightened at the snarl on Ron's face. No one even noticed the portrait door swing open and a small first year girl enter, who plopped herself down on a chair next to Harry. She seemed to be absorbed in a letter of some sort.

"Hey Annabelle!" Harry called out to her.

She looked up from her letter, "Oh hi Harry," she said sweetly as Ron muttered words of anger under his breath, still quite upset.

"Oh, don't mind Ron.....he's not in his right mind at the moment," Harry assured Annabelle when he saw her glance uneasily at Ron. "What are you reading there?" Harry asked, changing the subject.

"What, this?" She held out the sheet of parchment. "Oh it's just a letter from my brother."

"You mean Oliver?" Harry remembered how she had told him her relation to Oliver Wood at the Start of the Year feast. "How's he doing these days?"

"He's doing fine," Annabelle answered. "He just wanted to congratulate me on making it into Gryffindor......he's been so busy with Puddlemere United that he hasn't had the time to write." She smiled, "He said that it's all thanks to me that he's doing so well."

"What do you mean?" Harry inquired.

"Oh, well ever since he got accepted on the team, he's been making me practice with him......he says that I'm a natural!" She smiled even more.

"You mean, you practiced scoring on Wood--I mean, your brother?" Ron asked. He was now listening intently in on the conversation.

"Of course I did, ever since I was 8......it was Oliver who taught me how to fly! He said he wouldn't be surprised if I made the house team." She frowned, "I guess I'll just have to wait till next year though.......I heard that first years aren't allowed on the team."

"Hmm," Ron was deep in thought. "Harry, you think if I went to McGonagall she'd let us bend the rules a little bit......I mean she did let YOU on the team in your first year."

"I dunno, Ron. Would you like to be on the team Annabelle?" Harry said.

"Are you kidding?....Of course I'd like to be on the team!" Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Well it's settled then, I'm going to go have a chat with McGonagall." Ron leaped from his chair and ran towards the door. "See ya at dinner!"

Harry spent the hours before dinner talking to Annabelle in the common room. She seemed very keen on the sport of Quidditch and Harry was hoping with all his might that Professor McGonagall would let her on the team.

That evening, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for dinner with Annabelle and her first year friends, who were all gawking at Harry's scar with amazement and whispering to each other words that Harry couldn't make out, but were making him feel a little uncomfortable. Ron was still probably meeting with Professor McGonagall and he hadn't seen Hermione all day. When he reached the Gryffindor table, he took a seat next to Neville and began serving himself a spoonful of spaghetti.

No sooner had he slurped up his fork full of noodles, Ron came sprinting towards him and by the looks of it, he seemed very happy.

"I did it Harry!! She's on the team!" Ron sat down next to him. "Yea, hear that Annabelle..........You're on the team!!" She squealed with excitement.

"She couldn't refuse--I told her that we really needed her on the team and that--we really needed to beat the Slytherins--I knew she wanted to show Slytherin just how much better we are than them." Ron said as he ate ferociously and swallowed. "Say, where's Hermione?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Probably in the library as usual......look, here she is now." But she wasn't alone, Artemis was walking right next to her and both of them took seats across from Harry and Ron.

"And what have you two been up to?" Ron asked before Hermione had a chance to say anything.

"Oh, I was in the library and we--er--we kind of ran into each other as we came to eat," Hermione explained as she busied herself with a roll of bread and butter, although Harry could sense Hermione's voice quaver a little. "That's all, it wasn't like I was with him the whole day or anything.......RIGHT Artemis?"

"Ugh, right.......we met at the entrance," Artemis answered, and he too seemed a bit anxious.

"Okay," Ron dismissed the subject. "Well guess what then............go on, guess." His eyes were wide with joy and his smile stretched from ear to ear.

Hermione looked at Ron strangely. "Umm, what Ron?"

"Tell 'em Harry.........tell them the good news!!" Ron said still smiling.

"Um--well...............Gryffindor has a full Quidditch team again, Natalie McDonald in 3rd year and Ron's just convinced McGonagall to let Oliver Wood's sister be on the team."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Hermione exclaimed. "I just wish I was there to watch the tryouts."

"Oh that's okay.............but you'll be at the practices, right?" Ron questioned.

"Sure I will!! I can't wait to see the whole team play together," she replied excitedly.

That night, Ron and Harry decided to get a head start on a new game plan for their first match against Slytherin. They found such a task quite difficult though with Hermione insisting that they did their homework instead. "You'll be sorry when Monday comes and you two haven't even started you Transfiguration essay," she said shrilly as she sat, busily knitting one of her garments for the house elves.

"Oh Hermione come off it!" Ron said. "I know for a fact that you want to see Slytherin go down just as much as we do...........Besides, we're not the ones wasting our time on knitting silly hats and scarves for elves that don't even want them."

"Ron, just because I want Gryffindor to win doesn't mean I'm going to write your essays for you." Hermione said as she crossed her arms. "And for your information, every hat and scarf that I left out have all been taken........it looks like the house elves may want freedom after all!" Hermione now had a sort of smug expression on her face.

Still, Harry knew something that Hermione didn't. She was wrong; the house elves working at Hogwarts would probably rather die than ever give up their so-called 'slavery'. The only reason that all Hermione's well-crafted clothes of freedom were disappearing was that Dobby was the one taking them all, and Harry had never had the heart to admit this to her.

"All right, we'll start our essays," Harry said just so Hermione would stop pestering them, However, Harry and Ron never even got the chance to open their books (Self-Transfiguration and its Dangers) for at that moment there was a loud tap on the Gryffindor Tower window.

"HEDWIG!!" Harry exclaimed as he quickly ran over to the drafty window and opened the latch to let her in. Gracefully, Hedwig landed on top of Ron's Quidditch sketches with a roll of parchment tied to her foot, which Harry carefully untied. "It's a letter from Lupin," Harry informed his friends.

"Well what are you waiting for, READ IT!" urged Ron.

Harry unrolled the parchment and began reading it aloud.

Dear Harry,

How have you been? I haven't heard much from you lately so I suspect that you've been okay. You've probably heard about Mundungus from the Daily Prophet ......I don't want you to worry, we're all doing our best here. At the moment we are currently devising a new tactic, we're not quite sure if we want to follow through with it though, for it is quite dangerous. Oh, tell Ron that it's great to hear that he's been made captain, we're all very proud. Keep in touch........We'll try to give you more updates soon as to our situation but for now, just stay on guard. I've tried using Sirius' old mirror, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Lupin

P.S. Always remember to keep practicing your Occlumency.

"What mirror Harry?" Hermione asked with curiosity once Harry had finished reading.

Harry had never told his friends about the magical mirrors and began explaining, "When we left Grimmauld Place right after Christmas last year," Ron shuddered. He wasn't very eager to discuss anything relating to last year's Christmas, for they were all forced to spend it at St. Mungo's Hospital due to the vicious attack on Ron's father.

Regardless of this, Harry continued, "Well, Sirius gave me this two way mirror--kind of like those Muggle Walkie-Talkies--so that we could talk to each other.......he and my dad used to use it when they were in detentions," Harry frowned. "When Sirius died, he left me his half of the mirror so I gave it to Lupin just before we left for Hogwarts.......So that we could find out about Voldemort from him and the Order."

"Okay.......so Lupin has and mirror and you have a mirror........but why can't he reach you?" Ron questioned.

"I broke my half," Harry said reluctantly. He was not so willing to admit his slight stupidity. If he hadn't have broken the mirror, this whole conversation could have been spared and the three of them would probably have much more information dealing with everything going on back at Grimmauld Place. "I'm not really sure how to fix it. That's why Lupin can't reach me."

"Well did you try a bit of Spellotape?" Ron asked.

"Yea, but I don't think it worked," Harry reached into his robe pocket and felt around for the taped up mirror, "See." He showed it to them for the first time.

"Can I see it for a minute Harry," Hermione said. He handed it to her gingerly as if it were going to fall to pieces any moment. Hermione held it in her hand and pulled out her wand. "REPARO," she said as she attempted to use the spell to fix the broken mirror. She had used this spell before to repair Harry's broken glasses, yet nothing happened. "REPARO," she tried once again, and still there was nothing. "Hmm that's definitely strange," she examined the mirror more thoroughly and her index finger landed on what appeared to be a strange marking on the back that Harry had never paid attention to before.

"What's that?" he asked, craning his neck to get a better look. The marking was rather faded but Harry could still make out its image. It appeared to be a silver crescent moon amongst flames of fire and engraved in the center of it was a large letter M.

"I've seen this mark before," Hermione informed. "Somewhere in a book I've read.....Harry, this is no ordinary mirror!"

"Hermione I think we knew that......why else do you think you can use it to communicate with others!" Ron said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant, Ron," Hermione snapped. "If I remember correctly, this mark belongs to Methuselah the Mighty." Harry and Ron stared at her with a blank expression. "I swear, you two would never pick up a book if your life depended on it!......Methuselah the Mighty was the one who produced this mirror many years ago, Harry."

"So. What's so special about that?"

"Well........first of all, there were only about half a dozen pairs ever made, which makes them very rare, I wonder how Sirius and your father ever got their hands them. Secondly, you see this moon here," she gave Harry and Ron a better look at the marking on the back. "I read that all the mirrors that Methuselah made contained fragments of moon stones in it, and were wrought within the fiery breath of a dragon......that's what makes this mirror so special..........so magical......not only did the moon stones hold bits of magic in them, but being made in the fire of a dragon makes this mirror almost unfixable if broken. Harry, no human alive could ever repair this." She gave Harry a sympathetic look.

"So there's not a single way that this mirror can be fixed then?" Ron blurted out.

"Well......it said that no HUMAN--Muggle or Wizard could fix it. As for what other means of repairing there are out there, I have no clue what-so- ever."

Harry sat quietly and deep in thought. This was one of the very few times that Hermione had ever failed to find a solution for something--even if he needed her help now, more than ever before. At the moment, the mirror was his only key to keep him in contact with Lupin. If he used Hedwig, they ran the risk of the letters being intercepted and who knew if Voldemort had spies set up at the Ministry, watching the Floo Network.
There ya go! Well PLEASE PLEASE don't 4get to post a review on your thoughts!