"Hermione? Are you in here?"

The picture of the Fat Lady swung open to reveal an entrance the Gryffindor common room. The fire was crackling the last of its embers in the fireplace, nearly dead. The stars shown through the windows brightly, the moonlight's glow shown on the floor. A sixth year boy slept in a rouge chair fully clothed, but, other than him, the common room was empty.

Luna climbed over the doorframe, her necklace of butterbeer caps tinkled slightly as she moved. The portrait closed behind her, her robes falling over the frame.

The boy in the chair grunted slightly at Luna's presence. He shifted slightly, placing his hand on top of his red hair for support, then went back to sleep.

Giving mind not to wake the student, she crept quietly into the common room toward the stairs. However, when she reached the top of the staircase, she found the door leading to the girl's dormitory was locked.

Oh my, she thought mistily to herself. That hasn't happened before. How very odd.

She sighed airily, took the wand from behind her ear, and pointed it toward the door in front of her.

"Aloharmora." She casted, and the next thing she knew, there was a clink from the doorknob.

As she climed up the stone steps and entered the girl's dormitory, she saw that it, too, was empty with not a person in sight. Luna sighed in disappointment, and bowed her head. Hermione wasn't there either.

But just as she began turning her body toward the spiral staircase and began to descend down the stairs, a faint glitter twinkled in the side of her eye. Curious, the girl turned her head toward it. To Luna's greatest surprise, the glitter came from the side of the room – where the mirror in the corner was. The glitter was from inside the mirror.

Astonished, Luna froze for a moment, her body turned toward the stairs, her head toward the mirror. How could it be that a glint of light was inside the mirror? She turned her head around and searched around the room, but saw no other light source.

She blinked again for a moment at the glimmer of light. It looked as if it were moving slightly, as if brushed by wind. Curiosity took hold of her, and she turned her body toward the wall.

Reaching the mirror, she sensed there was something off about it. Although she saw a pale girl with blond mid-length hair staring back at her, she knew there was something more. There had to be. From what other place did the light come from?

She traced her hand along the reflected glass. It was smooth, but deathly cold. The mirror rocked slightly as she touched it, but she kept tracing the icy mirror along with her palm.

Without warning, she found what she was looking for. At the very edge of the mirror was a crevice, no bigger than an inch, at the side mirror's golden frame.

Placing her fingers inside of it, the girl pulled slightly on it. To her greatest wonder and surprise, the mirror pulled back. It shifted on its side as it revealed the greatest wonder yet.

The light she had seen earlier was a flickering tourch, dully burning in its holder. Past it, a dark cave-like path stood before her. A slight brush of wind passed her, blowing her hair back onto her shoulders.

The fear increased inside her. She was hardly ever afraid of anything ever before, but now she felt the worse presence coming the cavern. Terrible vibes filled her body. She wasn't afraid – she was terrified.

She swallowed trying to get push down the lump in her throat and gathered up all of the courage she had in her small body.

Stepping forward, she entered the dark path.

It was nothing like she had seen before in the École Hogwarts. The path was paved with crackling gravel, which gave a green tint by the mold and moss covering the walls. There were no candles, no light source except for the glow of the mirror behind her. The further Luna walked, the less she could see.

Luna felt so cold, she shivered. She grabbed the sides of her school cloak, pulling them tighter to the sides of her waist, trying to savor the warmth of her body.

Just as she began to wonder how to warm her feet up, suddenly fear shot through her body. Abruptly, a firm hand grabbed her cloaked shoulder. Her senses became shot and her knees locked. She tried to scream, but no sound came out. She vainly tried to pull away from the dark silhouette in front of her, but it was slightly too strong for her.

The hand quickly left her shoulder and imprisoned her small, bony wrist.

"Miss Lovegood," Madame McGonigal spoke harshly as she led the girl out of the dark passage the way they came. "You are a Ravenclaw student. What possessed you to come into the Gryffindor common room without permission?"

Luna began to breathe again, harshly, but breathing. Her body became warming as she found the transfiguration mistress ahead of her.

Trotting behind the angry teacher, her dirty blonde hair bouncing everywhere, Luna quickly reacted. "I came to find her. Hermione's in this passage somewhere."

There was no response after her words. Only the footsteps of the mistresses were heard, echoing down the passage. The mirror was coming close now, but the stillness began to make Luna uneasy, combined with the darkness of the cavern and the rats scuttling along its sides.

Trying not to look at the small creatures, she continued. "Ronald de Weasley said last night that when he tried to collect Hermione for dinner, she didn't say anything when he called her."

Still silent, the professor came to the end of the passage and began to open the mirror.

In desperate plea, Luna gave a soft, airy cry. "He said heard an unknown voice in Hermione's room."

Madame McGonigal stopped abruptly dead in her tracks. She whirled her head around at Luna's frightened face. A mixture of concern and disbelief filled the mistresses face. Her mouth was open slightly and her jaw quivered slightly.

Luna stared into the old woman's eyes. They were not full of fear as much as they had been full of concern.

However, not a moment later, the teacher pulled her shoulders back and stood up straight. "You had better get to your next class, Miss Lovegood." She said as she nudged Luna out of the passage.

Obediently, Luna stepped out from behind the mirror ahead of the teacher. Immediately, her ears heard the mirror close softly behind her, but stopped abruptly.

"And Miss Lovegood," McGonigal spoke as her head poked out from behind the mirror. "Please, tell this to no one."

---

Luna sat on the cold floor, staring straight ahead. The dungeon's roof dripped slight droplets of water onto her head, but she paid no attention to it. She just couldn't forget about Hermione. Where could she be? Who is she with? For a few moments, Luna questioned this, giving a quick thought that the Hiffypinks or Greeseachers might have taken her, but that thought left her mind quickly.

Gliding into the dark, damp hallway was Draco Malfoy, followed by his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle. Along side him was Pansy Parkinson, Malfoy's newly found girlfriend, with a smug look on her face as she strutted beside him.

Quickly, not wanting to get into any trouble with the boy, Luna quickly picked up the newspaper beside her and began to pretend she was in deep thought.

But it was too late. Malfoy quickly spotted the girl and smirked. "What's that there, Loony?" he said dully as he spotted Luna on the floor, reading the upside down newspaper, The Quibbler.

"Oh, I see why you're reading. 'Phantom of the École Hogwarts spotted near local resident's homes.' Is that anything like the abominable snowman?" He mocked. All the Slytherins laughed haughtily at his remark, while the Ravenclaws looked down upon him, shaking their heads.

"But you know," he spoke, his voice now becoming more sly and mellow. "They do say things about him. Like how his skin is like yellow parchment, and how there's a great black hole where his nose didn't grow."

Spotting Pansy with her back turned to him, he gave a sly grin. "You must be always on your guard, or he'll kill you with the killing curse."

Quickly grabbing her from behind, he imprisoned his girlfriend's arms with his, and teasingly held his wand at her neck. She giggled slightly as taunted her.

As the boy and girl flirted, they were unaware of a hand coming toward them. The firm hand broke the lock between Malfoy and Pansy, and grabbed his wand right out of his hand.

Everyone fell silent as Madam McGonigal looked sternly at them. "Those who speak of what they know find too late that prudent silence is wise."

Walking closer to him, she continued. "Draco Malfoy, hold your tongue," As he gave a great scowl, she forcefully pushed his own wand at his chest. "Keep your hand at the level of your heart!"

And only a few feet away from the group, just as the ballet mistress finished her words, Hermione Granger woke with a start.

X

Er, yeah. Let me explain one thing. In the Rowling version of HP, there is nothing to avoid the Killing Curse except with love…aha…well, I thought that sounded just a bit too cheesy for this story, and so I decided to avoid Avada Kedevra, you had to hold your hand at the level of your heart. This is exactly equivalent as holding your hand at the level of your eyes to avoid the Punjab lasso. I couldn't necessarily tell you this in the middle of the story, so I'm telling you here. Sorry if any of you got confused. –sweat drop-

Yumi