Chapter 3 | The Silver Dagger

I read over my schedule. First period - Charms, Professor Charlestons. Second Period - Herbology, Professor Longbottom. Third Period - History of Magic, Professor Binns. Fourth Period - Potions, Professor Delilah. Delilah?

I've never heard a professor go by their first name before. She must be new. Dad said Professor McGonagall used to teach Transfiguration. I tried to picture a much younger version of the Headmistress teaching first years to turn water goblets into animals, but I could not imagine it. I laughed. She seemed to dignified for that, somehow.

Our first day of classes was extremely tedious. Especially History of Magic, but I had expected that. My parents had had the same professor - Dad always said Aunt Hermione was good at the subject, though I couldn't understand how.

Professor Delilah turned out to be my new favorite professor (right after Neville, of course). She had also turned out to be the new head of Slytherin house. I wondered why McGonagall hadn't told us at the Sorting. Slowly but surely, the days turned into weeks, then months, and so on.

Until that one day.

It's still crystal clear in my memory.

Me, Ev, and Liam were in Defense of the Dark Arts. We were learning how to conjure patronuses for the first time that day.

"Expecto Patronum." Silver mist came from the tip of my wand, but no animal. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" I tried again, concentrating as hard as I could on that time last year when me and Ev were in detention for giving a professor a piece of Ton-Tongue Toffee from uncle George's shop, but we couldn't stop laughing about it.

A silver-grey fox burst from the tip of my wand. I looked over at Liam to see that he was grinning at the coyote he had just produced. It looked similar to my fox except that it was larger, with a heavier gate. Ev had managed to produce a cloud of silverish fog, but nothing more. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Expecto Patronum!" She gave a squeal of delight as she opened her eyes to see a silver dolphin, "swimming" through the air in front of her. Finally.

"Class dismissed!"

"Bye!" I waved to my friends.

I hurried down the stone steps to the Slytherin common room. I had a free period next, but Liam and Evelyn had Study of Ancient Runes. "Sea serpent," I said absentmindedly to the portrait, and the door opened. I saw the giant squid swim past one of the windows as I headed for the girls dormitory. I planned to use my last Nosebleed Nougat to get out of classes tomorrow, but….

Then it happened.

I was rummaging through my trunk, when I saw a gleam of silver sticking out from underneath my robes. I pushed the green and black cloth aside to reveal a gorgeous silver dagger. It looked old and worn out, but in a mysterious, intriguing sort of way. I reached out to touch the diamond-studded handle. I no idea how something so unusual yet alluring could have possibly ended up in my hogwarts trunk. That's when I noticed that there was a letter S engraved on the bottom of the dagger's blade. It looked exactly the same as the one on the my robes. But there was something else engraved on the handle of the dagger, between rows of diamonds. It read:

Erised uoye no, re vehcihwno peaw amai.

I knew I recognized those words from somewhere. At least, the first word. Erised. Where had I heard it?

Then it came to me. I remembered sitting on my bed, listening intently as my father described to me and my siblings his own first year at Hogwarts. And the Mirror of Erised.