The rest of our break was wonderful as Harry settled in at the cottage and got to experience our quiet way of life. Harry seemed very relaxed to just sit around the house and have the freedom to do whatever he pleased, which was mostly talk with Remus and my dad.
New Year's Eve was also an exciting event, despite us not being at the Weasley's. Harry got to officially meet Luna when the three of us hung out, and although I wasn't dancing around our sitting room like I had at the Weasley's a year prior, we still had an exciting time. We spent the night drinking sweet-cranberry tea made from Mr. Lovegood' garden and discussing our favourite classes at Hogwarts among other topics. Harry and Luna also became well acquainted and bonded over being in the same year and the trivialities of what that entailed. Harry didn't even seem phased by Luna's bluntness or eccentric nature which made me very happy; especially since I knew Luna was having some difficulties with the students from their year.
When we arrived back at Hogwarts a few days later however, it was only to be harangued by the Weasley's who had not faired very well being left alone in the castle. So, much like they had when we left, the Weasley's were waiting for us in the front hallway when we arrived along with all the other students off the train.
"Have a happy Christmas Marnie?" George asked after spotting me and enveloping me into a hug.
'Quit hogging her will yah" I heard Fred exclaim from behind his twin.
Fred then took me by the wrist and brought me into his own embrace which lasted slightly longer than George's did.
"Jeez, I was only gone less than two weeks," I said while the twins both escorted me to the Great Hall for supper.
"Tell us everything," they both said as we sat down with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of our friends who we had sat with on the train back.
"Miss us did yah Fred?" Lee asked with a grin while he had already started piling food onto his plate.
"This place seems almost haunted when everyone isn't here," Fred said while George nodded.
"Well there are ghosts," I said smartly but this only prompted the twins to give me rueful looks.
"And having only Ron and Percy for company isn't much fun either," George added, causing Ron to aim some peas from his spoon towards his brother.
"Ronald!" Hermione chastised when some missed their mark and landed in her hair.
"We did aim some snowballs at Professor Quirrell as he was strolling the grounds though," Fred said triumphantly while Hermione and Angelina gasped in horror.
"Calm down, he didn't figure out it was us; we ran away before he even turned around," George explained while I just shook my head.
"Did you get my sweets Marnie?" Ron asked, interrupting his brothers' anecdote, much to George's annoyance.
"Yes, we ate most of the chocolate frogs already. It was really kind of you Ron," I said while I noticed the youngest brother blush.
"That reminds me," Harry whispered which caused Ron and Hermione to bow their heads towards him.
I tried to listen to their conversation but Lee and George were too busy laughing at something Fred had said to be able to hear anything else.
We later left the feast after having overstuffed our stomachs and meandered our way back to the common room. The twins were ahead of me slightly as they were trying to enchant some part of Ron's clothing as a prank. I hadn't had the energy to hear the plan or put sufficient effort into stopping their antics against Ron.
"Hey Marnie," Harry said as he fell back to walk beside me so that it was just the two of us.
"I was wondering if you would want to take the first midnight walk with me under my dad's cloak tonight?" he asked with a grin.
"I would have thought you would have invited Hermione or Ron," I said.
"I haven't even told them about it yet, although I will soon. But I thought it would be something for my first venture to be with my sister," he said with a smile.
"That sounds brilliant," I answered while I felt some energy resurface.
So, we all sat in the common room while Harry and I waited for everyone to else to go to sleep. I sat with the twins reading a new book about magical herbicides while Harry sat conversing secretively with Hermione and Ron. I watched them from behind my book while I thought of ways to get Harry to tell me what was going on without him trying to protect me from whatever he thought I needed protecting from. I had noticed him talking in hushed tones with Ron and Hermione quite often leading up to the Christmas break, and it seemed to be continuing.
About an hour later, the girls were the first ones to retreat to our dorm while I told them I would follow later on. Lee was next while I also saw Hermione retire to the first-year dorm around the same time. It then came down to the Weasley's who we had to outwait. The twins hadn't stopped filling me on their time while I was away, explaining new schemes they were planning and all the new things they had discovered. Apparently they had snuck out with the map every night over the holiday. But, as I sat with my book, they eventually bid me goodnight and went upstairs. Ron soon followed and it was just me and Harry. He already had the cloak stashed under his school robes which made it easier to escape. Since no one was left in the common room, we put the cloak on inside before leaving through the portrait.
We walked silently through the halls as I realized Harry had probably never been out after curfew in the castle. We went up to the Astronomy Tower before returning down and walked back towards the Divination Tower on the other side of the castle. However, without the map, the darkened halls were slightly unfamiliar and we eventually got lost. While looking around we suddenly came to a dead-end hallway which had us opening doors as we sought an exit. Behind one door which looked like all the other classroom doors we had opened; we found a fairly larger room which seemed the most promising to find a way out. However, the almost empty room had a featured mirror right in the center.
"Do you think we will show up in the mirror?" Harry asked curiously.
We headed towards it and were both suddenly shocked when we saw an image reflected in the mirror while under the cloak; but it was something entirely different than ourselves. Impossibly, there was a different person in the mirror which caused us both to gasp out loud and stumble away from the mirror.
"Wait, it's…" I said as I stood from under the cloak and slowly approached the mysterious mirror.
I could only stand in shock and silence while I felt hot tears spring to my eyes.
"Marnie, I don't understand," Harry said while I felt him step beside me in the same amount of awe and bewilderment.
"Do you see her Harry?" was all I could ask.
"Yea," he whispered. "I can see both of them," he finished while I furrowed my brow.
"Both of them?" I asked.
"Yea, they're my parents Marn, aren't they?" he asked while I tried to make sense of what he was saying.
"I only see my mum Harry. And she's… she's looking at me, really looking at me Harry. Like I'm her daughter and not just a stranger," I said while I felt Harry slip his hand into mine.
"That's wonderful Marn. I see my parents. They're standing on either side of us. And they're smiling, just like we're a family portrait," he said quietly while I tightened my grip in his hand.
"What does this mean Harry? I don't understand how this is possible," I said.
"I don't know Marnie. But there are all sorts of complex magic. Like your necklace for example," he stated while I reached up to hold the ruby in my hand.
"But does it do anything besides show us our wishes?" I asked, hearing the slight desperation in my voice.
"I don't know," was all he said.
We stood there silently for an indeterminate amount of time before we eventually decided to leave. We walked back under the cloak in silence, too deep in thought to have anything constructive enough to say to one another. It was only when we reached the portrait again and stepped into the common room that we took off the cloak and acknowledged each other.
"Goodnight Marnie," was all Harry said while he brought me into a tight embrace that lasted a few moments.
"Goodnight Harry," I replied before kissing his cheek and turned towards the girl's staircase.
That night's sleep did not come easily as I stared up at the ceiling and only thought of the look in my mother's eyes as she looked between Harry and me. She had a loving smile and held her arms out towards us, although Harry hadn't been able to see it. But the thing that was truly keeping me awake was that look, the look of recognition in her eyes that I had never seen. It was something that I had obviously always wanted and now that I had seen some variation of it, my heart hurt and rejoiced at the same time. It was a long time later that I did finally manage to drift off into a fitful sleep.
"Lena!" I heard from behind me as I turned around on instinct.
"Lena, you will never in a million years guess what just happened!" the red-headed girl said as she caught up to me; to whom I knew was Lily.
"James Potter asked you out," my voice answered without me even thinking about it.
The girl gasped in response.
"How in the name of Merlin did you guess that?" Lily asked while her cheeks turned scarlet to match her hair.
"Lily, anyone could have guessed that! The boy is smitten with you," I continued to say in that hollow voice. "The real question is what did you say in return?" I continued but I already knew the answer.
"Well, I may have said yes this time," Lily replied timidly before turning her eyes straight towards mine. "You know, he's pretty mature now and I threatened him against anymore pranks on Sev," she said with more determination.
"Well it's about time you accepted that boy. We were expecting he would implode if you didn't say yes this year," I continued while Lily swatted my shoulder.
I instinctively put my hand up to the place she had hit me since I could actually feel the residual impact from her swat.
"So, Lena," Lily said cheekily. "Now that I've said yes to James, what are you going to do about S-"
Before Lily could finish her question I was abruptly woken up by Ange who was shaking my shoulders.
"Marnie! You overslept, we're going to be late for class," she said while throwing my robes at me.
I hastily got up without giving my dream any more thought. And by the time we finally got to class I had a hard time focusing on the lesson or anything at all. My mind kept drifting back towards that mirror and the look on my mother's face. It was like the rest of the day went by in a trance since it was almost impossible to focus and the minutes seemed to drag on in an infinite concession of blurry moments.
By the time dinner was over and we were finally back up in the common room I could only stare at the opened book in front of me without actually reading it.
"Hey Fred, I think I forgot my favouite sleeping clothes in your guys' dorm, can I go up and get it?" I asked while Fred looked questioningly back at George before turning back to me.
"Of course Hare," he answered before I quickly got up and headed for their dorm.
"Forge, did Hare leave something in our dorm?" Fred asked as Marnie retreated for the stairs.
"No, I don't think so Gred," the other answered while they both stared at the staircase where Marnie had just run up.
After I returned from the boy's dorm I said quick good nights before heading upstairs and feigning sleep until the girls all came up and actually fell asleep about an hour later. I then snuck downstairs with the map and escaped through the portrait hole towards the room with the mirror.
When I finally entered the room I quickly approached the enchanted mirror and took a seat in front of it. After a while, my mother did the same and we sat facing each other while she remained smiling and reaching out towards me. I could never touch her or hear any words but the image always brought me to tears as my heart ached for it to be a reality. But as much as it hurt to be denied this actual reality, I found I couldn't pry myself away. After a few hours I noticed Harry and Ron approaching on the map and made my way out via the back-exit Harry and I had initially been searching for when we originally found the room. I didn't want to be spotted by Harry or especially Ron and have to explain myself, so I silently retreated to my dorm.
This became my routine every night after dinner as I would tell my friends I was going to the library or to study somewhere so I would get more time with my mother before Harry would eventually show up. I would sit in front of the mirror for hours and just watch as my mother and I sat together in a friendly silence; although I yearned to hear her speak.
On the fifth night I stayed longer than I had all week since Harry hadn't shown up yet.
"Ah, you and Harry are more alike than I would have anticipated, especially since you are not in fact related by blood," I heard the headmaster's voice say from behind me.
I whirled around in utter surprise since I hadn't seen his name approach on the map.
"This is the fifth night in a row you have come back here Marnie, and I must say I am concerned for your attachment to the mirror," Dumbledore said with a frown.
My eyes wandered to the floor as I felt I had been caught somewhere between a lie and a secret.
"You must know what the mirror does by now?" Dumbledore asked while I slowly turned my eyes back up to meet his which were surprisingly still twinkling.
"Umm, it shows us our wish," I said lamely as it was what Harry had called it.
"Yes, but only our most deep and desperate desire," he said seriously.
"That's why Harry saw his parents," I said while Dumbledore nodded.
"I will assume that you see some variation of Lena in your reflection," the headmaster continued, causing me to give him a small nod in return.
He then paused while gazing down at me.
"Marnie, I must ask that you never go looking for this mirror again," he finally said while I looked up at him with a desperate expression before he continued. "Many people have wasted away in front of this mirror as it is easy to become ensnared by the past and our own desperations," he continued while I thought of how taken I had become by the mirror.
"Promise me Marnie, that you will never go searching for this mirror again, and to know that it is being moved from this location tomorrow," he finished while looking at me expectantly.
"I promise," I said after a moment and finally felt my exhaustion set in.
My entrancement with the mirror over the last week had taken most of my energy and had kept me from properly sleeping.
"Shall I escort you back to the Gryffindor common room?" he asked while I nodded.
"Will I lose house points for this?" I asked, still feeling embarrassed for having been caught.
"I think the lesson of the mirror is difficult enough for a fourteen-year-old without having to worry about house points," he said with a small smile.
When we arrived at the common room he waved me goodbye before I entered. I then immediately changed my clothes and headed for the boy's dorm where I quietly put the map back in Fred's trunk before crawling into his bed.
"Hare?" Fred asked sleepily while I snuggled in beside him. "Is er'ything 'right?"
"It is now," was all I said while he put his arm over my body.
In two minutes flat I was fast asleep.