Christmas morning, Meghan bounded into Kate's room to find that her older sister had, for the first time in history, beaten her up on Christmas morning. Kate was already showering from her daily run and had quite forgotten what day it was. Her parents weren't up for another few hours, so Meghan and Kate sat on her bed discussing what they might have gotten as gifts this year. The tree had a fair few presents waiting beneath it.

Meghan, Kate noticed, had become slightly fonder of her in her absence. She certainly talked civilly to Kate longer than was normal for the blonde to do.

"So Pamela is kind of weird… she thinks hamsters are the coolest things on this planet. I would feel bad for her but she's always following me everywhere. Ellie and I try to avoid her but she's always there!" Meghan whispered in exasperation. "There's no nice way to tell her to bugger off!"

"Did you just say 'bugger off,' Meghan?" Kate grinned.

Meghan clapped a hand to her mouth. "I'm going British!"

Both girls giggled until there came a resolute knock on the door.

"Oh girls," Dr. Slate's deep voice resonated into the room. "Christmas has begun,"

The sisters bounded out of the room, practically bowling their father over in excitement. Their mother was already downstairs preparing the traditional coffee cake breakfast. Meghan grabbed her father's hand and tromped down the stairs as quickly as her legs permitted. Kate followed closely behind, her legs aching from the extra distance she had gone during her morning run.

"Merry Christmas, folks." Her mother put the coffee cake into the oven and gave everyone some eggnog. Kate smelled the nutmeg sprinkled on top eagerly. The family took seats inside of the den; Meghan quickly donned the Santa cap and started distributing gifts. Kate had given her sister an assortment of magical sweets, her father a book on alchemy, and her mother some magically traceable golf balls. Mrs. Slate was always losing her balls during golf.

Meghan had gotten Kate a book from a Muggle bookshop. Ella Enchanted was one of her favorite books, so she deeply appreciated it. Her parents had made her save their gift for last. They had gotten her a magical dentistry kit.

"Meaning the retainer can go." Dr. Slate said proudly.

"Really!" Kate removed her retainer, putting it in a napkin. The roof of her mouth tickled. She opened the instruction packet and took out the mold. Before the coffee cake was ready, she and her father had worked out how to use it. Of course, using it would require that she couldn't eat for an hour, so they decided to do breakfast first, followed by teeth brushing. She and Dr. Slate sat down and put the mold into her mouth. Her teeth felt as though there was clay hanging onto them. She took her wand and tapped it against the mold. Dr. Slate watched his watch. She would have to sit with the mold on for five minutes. During that time, Mrs. Slate and Meghan were playing with the magical candy Kate had given to Meghan.

"Ew, it was pickle-flavored!" Meghan gagged.

"Haha, I got strawberry," Mary Jane teased.

"Time's up," Dr. Slate said.

The mold slid easily off of her teeth. She took the mold and threw it in the garbage and went to inspect her teeth in the mirror.

"Wow," she licked her retainer-lacking teeth. "They're whiter too."

"Keep your retainer, just in case." Dr. Slate encouraged. "Your teeth look really good."

Kate smiled, a grin lacking a retainer and jolly cheeks. She washed off her retainer and stored it away in a bag. The whole family spent the rest of the day together. It proved to be a very nice Christmas.

While in her room, she opened her gifts from other friends alone. Hermione had gotten her a gigantic book about the runes. Ron had given Kate a box of chocolate frogs. Harry had sent her some Bertie Botts. Lavender and Parvati had decided to get a three-way friendship necklace and gave the third piece to Kate. It had a golden chain and small purple butterfly with their names in it. Dean had given her some soccer cards and Seamus had retaliated by giving her a Quidditch poster. The players moved around, so Kate thought it would be best not to put it up until she could make sure that no Muggles would be seeing it. Neville had sent her some sugar quills. Hagrid had given her a homemade red sweater that was far too big for her, but she wore it anyway. Wood, to her surprise, had given her a dream-catcher, with a note saying "to keep those bad dreams away, maybe I'll be able to get up before you now." She laughed at this.

Kate left her family with a goodbye and left on the train for Hogwarts, wearing Hagrid's sweater over a pair of her sister's jeans. Her own jeans were just too big for her now. Hagrid beamed at her when she returned still wearing his gift, the sleeves rolled up many times. She smiled at him and entered the castle with her friends.

Harry and Ron greeted Hermione and Kate asking quickly about their vacations, but no one took time to go over them in depth. They were back on the Nicolas Flamel hunt.

"So Harry got an invisibility cloak from someone for Christmas," Ron said quietly.

"From who?" Hermione asked, pushing her bushy hair over her shoulder.

"We don't know." Harry said softly. "But I used it to look up Nicolas Flamel… rather… tried to. The Restricted Section literally screams at you if you open a book without permission." Harry shuddered. "I went at night, so that would have been doubly bad."

"Harry! You were wandering around after hours? You could have gotten into serious trouble!" Hermione scolded. Before Ron or Harry could protest, she continued. "But did you find anything on Flamel?"

"No," Harry said. "I didn't. I did find the Mirror of Erised though."

"The what?" Hermione asked, frowning. She pushed her hair behind her ears.

"What did you see?" Kate asked at the same time. Hermione turned to look at her inquisitively. "It shows your heart's desire." She explained quickly to Hermione. "Basically, whatever you most wish for."

"Oh," Hermione said softly, clearly feeling lost at her lack of knowledge.

"How did you know that?" Ron said aghast.

"I read it in the inscription. I found it too." Kate blushed, realizing that they might ask what she had seen. Maybe she had no business asking Harry what he had seen. That could be incredibly private.

"I saw my family," Harry said. "Ron saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain."

"Oh," Kate said. "What did you do?"

"I went back a couple of times, but Dumbledore told me that it would drive me mad if I continued." Harry said, looking slightly pink in the cheeks. "And he said that they were moving it."

"'They' being who?" Hermione asked quickly.

"Dunno. He just said it was moving. I assumed it was him that would move it."

"So you spent a few nights looking at yourself in a mirror…."

"That showed his family," Kate interrupted.

"…and you found nothing on Flamel?" Hermione ignored Kate.

"Right. But I still think that I've heard of him before." Harry said pensively.

Ron stopped and looked at Kate. "When did you find the mirror?"

"Oh, I don't remember. A few weeks back. I was bored one morning and looked around for awhile until I found that." Kate shrugged.

"What did you see?" Ron stared at her.

"A mirror with an inscription," Kate said, flushing.

"Did you look in it?"

"Yes," Kate said slowly.

"Well come on, what did you see? We told you ours." Ron said eagerly.

"I… I was… older. And prettier." Kate turned even darker. She looked away from her group and saw Oliver Wood talking to Fred and George about a gag gift they had sent him. "Excuse me," she started leaving to talk to him. He was walking away from Fred and George just as Kate finally approached him.

"Hello," Wood smiled.

"Thanks for the dream catcher. I'll be hanging it on my bed." Kate smiled. "But you probably won't beat me up anyway."

"Why would our Oliver duff you up?" Fred asked in mock alarm.

"No-." She started but Wood cut her off.

"Because she's been a bad little firstie." He punched her in the arm.

"Ow," she mocked pain. "I'm getting out of here. Creeps." She joked, shooting a nervous glance at them.

Caitlin Eusden was a particularly good friend of Kate's. She had always been there to help her with her homework or help her find a class. She was a third year student with a pleasant smile and a pretty face full of freckles. The older girl often told Kate that they were connected by freckles, though, Kate was unsure what she meant by this. Caitlin Eusden and Sarah Smithers, a Ravenclaw, were good friends who were as close to pranksters as the rules would allow. They mostly liked to say goofy things and see how many people would believe what they made up and then discredit it about a week later.

"Kate!" Caitlin had rushed up to her in the corridor one day. Lavender and Parvati had been talking about a new shade of lipstick and what clothing it would look best with. "Kate, you need to come with me." She tugged her away.

"What's up?"

"Sarah's waiting for us." Caitlin grinned. "We have discovered a secret-y secret." She whispered.

"Ooh!" Kate's face broke into an eager smile. "Righto, bring me to this hidden place."

They came to find a curly-haired Sarah waiting by a slightly open door. They were in the corridor passing a portrait of Gregory the Smarmy. Sarah's face was flushed and her eyes were bright. Caitlin and Sarah grabbed Kate by the arms and dragged her in.

"What is this?" Kate lifted an eyebrow. They seemed to be in a room with nothing but a pool. "Are we going swimming?"

"No! Silly, this is a looking pool! Look in!" Sarah pointed, just barely touching the surface. They looked down and saw Fred and George goofing around on their brooms and Oliver beet red in the face from shouting at them. Sarah sighed. "They're just dreamy."

"The twins?" Kate stifled a laugh. They certainly weren't bad-looking, but she had never considered them dreamy.

"You're friends with their brother," Caitlin said, staring too. "Do you think you could put in a good word for us?"

Kate really did laugh at this. "I could try, but for all it would do… I wouldn't hold my breath. Does this pool only show them?" Kate was in awe of a pool that showed only the Weasley twins.

"No, it shows anything that's going on around the castle. Like this," Sarah cleared her throat, "Roger Davies."

They were looking down at the gorgeous Ravenclaw Quidditch player slaving over a scroll. He looked up suddenly and watched a pretty Asian girl walk by.

Caitlin scoffed with disgust.

"He's such a wanker, Sarah. I don't understand you."

"But he's pretty, you must admit." Sarah giggled.

"How'd you find this?" Kate asked.

"Oh, we were bored. We walked by this place about three times and there was a door suddenly. Don't know where it came from, but I see hours of amusement from this lovely little pond. Thought you'd like to share the fun." Caitlin winked. "Who do you want to see?"

Kate blurted, her mind far ahead of forethought, "Professor Quirrell."

"Ew, why? He's such a queer pasty little fellow." Sarah wrinkled her nose. The pool rippled and revealed a sweating man beneath an overly large turban. He seemed to be muttering in terror to himself. Then he flinched and began to cry.

Caitlin and Sarah exchanged glances. Kate seemed transfixed by the whole scene. What was he talking to? Kate felt in her heart that something was off. Something was definitely off about him.

"Oh, let's try someone else," Kate finally breathed. "Erm… Caitlin Eusden."

They were looking at themselves from their rear-ends. The three girls burst into helpless giggles.

"Is my bum really that large?" Sarah squirmed to look at it.

"Ooh, you know who's a cutie pie?" Caitlin nudged Kate. "Neville Longbottom!"

"Aw, isn't he the bloke who fell off his broom?" Sarah said sympathetically.

"Yeah, nice chap though. Surprising that he'd be in Gryffindor, but there you go."

They looked down suddenly and saw Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe all having a guffaw at Neville as he hopped away, face close to tears. Kate's mouth dropped.

"Those little jerks!" She spat. "Ooh!" Standing, she pumped her fists. "I have to go," before she darted out the door, she peeped back in, "but thanks! That was really awesome guys!"

"No problem. Now go save your friend from that pettifogger." Sarah rooted. Moments after Kate had fled, Caitlin and Sarah were back to "lad surfing."

Kate had forgotten where she had seen Neville and the three Slytherin boys and so gave up and wandered to the library. There was little chance of her getting much time to think in the Gryffindor common room. In the library, she sat at a desk completing a Charms essay with her mind elsewhere. Part of her was still furious at Malfoy for various reasons but the rest of her was lost in curiosity about Quirrell. If she thought about it, he was probably just some schizophrenic psychopathic type. He never seemed ill-meaning, but that feeling she had had during the troll incident was too strong to ignore. Then again, Harry had sensed a similar feeling when looking at Snape.

They could be working together, Kate thought, blankly crossing her t's. No, no. Kate liked Snape, she couldn't figure out why, but she did. Quirrell was weak. She knew he was more likely to betray someone that Snape. He hid himself inside that gargantuan turban like a weasel soon to be sniffed out. Kate rolled up her parchment with fierce fingers. Then there was Druce who still was going on about Cygnus. That's all he would talk about no matter what her question was. It was all she could do to keep from screaming in confusion. Stuffing the remainder of her supplies into her bag, she left the library. The halls were sparse and silent. She knew the only reason that Madam Pince had not shooed her from the library earlier was that Kate had struck up a conversation with her about books at the beginning of the year.

Not understanding the knot at her chest, Kate had a sudden urge to fling herself down and cry. Perhaps it was confusion, maybe just the beginning of adolescence kicking in, but Kate practically ran up to the Gryffindor common room, barely stopping to say goodnight to anyone, and collapsed whole-heartedly onto her bed, weeping silently into her sheets.

And if you can't run… This path shall swallow you! Weak fool! Have you no motivation?

RUN!

"Ach!" Kate sat up, grabbing her throat. It felt as though she was suffocating. Coughing, she reached for her glasses and got up to pour herself a glass of water. Cool liquid rolled down her throat, soothing the cough. Kate stared out the window at the bright moon, lighting up the star-dusty sky. She didn't feel like running at all. Sighing, Kate put the glass down on the windowsill.

"I can't sleep either,"

Kate jumped, not expecting Hermione's voice. She turned and saw the bushy-haired girl, a droopy look on her face.

"What's up?" Kate asked concernedly.

"Oh, it's this business with Fluffy and the Stone."

"Stone?"

"That's right, you weren't there," Hermione yawned, "'Scuse me. We learned who Flamel is. Apparently he and Professor Dumbledore created the Sorcerer's Stone."

"Which is…?" Kate looked dumb-founded.

"You don't know either?"

"Apparently not," Kate shrugged.

"It's a magical stone that can transform any metal into gold," Hermione started, and yawned again. She slapped a hand to her face, trying to stop the inevitable.

"Oh! Does it make that drink that makes people immortal too? An alchemy thing?" Kate's eyes snapped open as she recalled some mythology involving such a thing.

Hermione beamed. "You do read!"

"You know that," Kate scolded. "Just 'cause I don't have a photographic memory like you do doesn't mean I don't read."

Hermione blushed. "Sorry,"

"It's okay," Kate shrugged. "So this is what Snape, Quirrell or various other suspicious people are going after, yes?"

Hermione nodded.

"I don't understand what for,"

"What?" Her eyebrows shot up. "Isn't it obvious? Anyone would want that! Just think! Eternal life and wealth!"

"Oh," Kate giggled, "when you put it that way…. But the eternal life bit is kind of stupid."

"Why?"

"Wouldn't you get bored living forever? I want to know what happens after death."

Hermione sat down in a chair next to her bed and looked out the window. "I'm scared of that."

"I understand,"

They talked quietly for another half hour before Hermione announced that she was going back to sleep. Once she heard Hermione's snores, Kate slipped out of her pajamas and to the common room. She groaned when she got outside into the chilly morning air. Breathing a couple of times into her hands, she got off to a reluctant start. Her legs felt heavy for the first few yards, but eventually she was able to sprint properly.

After she was all cleaned up, she plopped down across from Wood, who was moodily twiddling a quill. His eyebrows were furrowed in intense thought. Kate tilted her head inquiringly.

"Snape is going to ref," Wood blurted. "And I don't think we're going to do so well."

"Hey, Snape won't be allowed to ruin your game," Kate tried to be optimistic, "as long as you guys are playing your best, I'm sure you'll win."

Wood shrugged. "Hope you're right."

"I am," Kate said confidently. "I'm always right."

"Are you now?" He smiled wryly. "Cocky little kid, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am," she giggled.

The next morning during lunch, Kate wrote to her family again.

Dear Mom, Dad and Meghan,

School's going well, though that shouldn't be anything new. My friends Caitlin and Sarah showed me this nifty pool and I can look at whatever I want from there, like a camel or a giraffe. But I didn't ask about those because I'm a silly goose, I guess. There's another Quidditch match coming up. One of the more foul-tempered professors is going to be a referee. Personally, I like him despite his short-comings but I can see where the team would be a little frightened. Professor Snape knows that if Gryffindor beats Hufflepuff that they'll be ahead of Slytherin. He's the Head of Slytherin House. So be thinking of the team. Positive thinking, I always say.

My friend Oliver Wood is the captain of the Gryffindor team. He's becoming more like the older brother I never had. It's quite cool, actually. It's nicer than having a sister. Only joking, Meghan. Okay, I've got to leave now.

Hugs and love everywhere,

Kate

Rolling up her parchment, she looked around for Harry. He, Ron and Hermione were naturally in the Great Hall eating lunch. She joined them and made herself a peanut butter sandwich.

"Did we tell you who Flamel is?" Ron asked eagerly, biting into his own sandwich eagerly.

"Hermione did,"

"I knew I'd read that name before," Harry said beaming.

"Where had you read it?" Kate asked.

Harry explained about the wizard card in the chocolate frog that he'd given to Neville.

"Excellent," she grinned, rubbing her hands over her plate to rid her fingers of the crumbs.