This'll be probably the only update for who knows how long.

AH, we have linebreaks!

disclaimer: no own.

I kept running long after the footsteps behind me faded. I was saying the password almost before I found the right stretch of wall. Never had I been more glad to see the empty common room than at that moment. Quietly, I took off my shoes and padded across the cold stones of the floor to the door to the girls dorm. As silently as I could, I eased open the door and slipped in. I flopped onto my four-poster bed and fell asleep instantly, not bothering to close the green silk curtains.

The next morning at breakfast, Draco was looking over at the Gryffindor table with a look of disgust on his face.

"He's Harry bloody Potter, the rules don't apply to him," he grumbled when asked about it. He looked even more pissed off when post came in. Six large owls were carrying a long, thin package covered in brown paper, bound directly for the Boy-Who-Lived.

"It's a Nimbus Two Thousand…"I murmured as we watched Harry open it.

"What?" Draco yelped, outraged. "But first years aren't allowed on the House teams!"

"He's Harry bloody Potter," I mimicked, "the rules don't apply to him." A small brown owl fluttered over to me with a folded piece of parchment. Slipping the bird some toast, I opened the note.

Ari-

Be glad you don't have to sit here, ever since that broomstick arrived it's been "Quidditch" this and "Quidditch" that. Honestly, I actually told them that I'm not speaking to either Harry or Ron until they stop fawning over that stupid piece of charmed wood.

They are such men. Honestly, it's like they've never seen a broomstick before!

They're leaving now, so I may as well follow. See you in class.

-Herm

Draco scowled and got up, following Harry and Ron out of the Great Hall. Knowing what was about to happen, I decided to stay and finish breakfast, holding back a couple of yawns.

The day went by very quickly, so much so that before I really knew it, I was in the common room working on Herbology homework.

Illusion Weed is commonly used in invisibility potions, as well as being a key ingredient in the potion used to start the initial transformation of an Animagus, since an Animagus form is comsidered a 'false form'. Illusion Weed must be used quickly, because it vanishes anywhere from one to three hours after harvesting.

Setting aside my Herbology assignment, I picked up the Charms parchment.

Pick five charms or spells you would most like to learn over the course of this year.

I thought for a moment, trying to pick out what would be considered first year material. I immediately wrote down Levitation before thinking some more. Tickling Charm followed the first, and Engorgement Charm and Shrinking Charm were next.

"That's four…" I murmured. "What else…?"

"I wrote down the Animation Charm," Draco said. "I heard from Alexander that it was going to be on the exam."

"Alexander?" I asked.

"My guide. I heard you got Victoria."

"Ah. Makes sense," I said. Remembering what the book said, I grumbled under my breath, "Stupid pineapple…"

I don't ever remember having as much fun in school as I did in Hogwarts, and it amazed me that it was Halloween already.

Slytherins had Charms first thing, before the Ravenclaws. Professor Flitwick finally announced that he was going to teach us the Levitation spell, which brought on a round of subtle cheering from the class. He put us into groups of two, and I got paired with Pansy.

"Good luck, Muggleborn," she sneered quietly, putting odd emphasis on 'Muggleborn'. I gave her a Malfoy-worthy smirk and copied the wand-motion.

"Wingardium Leviosa," I said clearly. Once I was sure the spell was anchored, I raised my wand and watched in satisfaction as my feather rose. Pansy made a strangled noise not unlike the whistling of a teapot.

"Very good, Ms. Granger, five points to Slytherin!" Flitwick praised. I let the spell stop and the feather started drifting down. I caught it and handed it to Pansy.

"Good luck, Pansy," I said sweetly. She snatched the feather from my hand furiously and set it on the table. She tried three times to make it levitate. I don't think I've ever had so much fun in one class before.

The classes flew by, and soon, it was the Halloween Feast. Honestly, it would take an army of young children with a massive sweet tooth to eat all the candy that was put in front of us.

There were live bats swooping through the Great Hall, and it freaked me out for the first ten minutes or so until I got used to them.

All throughout the meal, something was tugging at my mind, telling me that I needed to remember it. It didn't hit me until half-way through that Hermione never made it to the Great Hall. A flash of anxiety jabbed through my chest as I remembered what was going to happen. I was about to get up to go find her when the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and Quirrell came barreling through.

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!" he hollered. I paused for a moment to regain his breath before saying one past sentence before passing out. "Thought you ought to know."

There was dead silence in the Hall. Then everyone started screaming at once, and some students were running towards the double doors.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore boomed. Everyone froze and shut up. "Head of Houses, please calmly lead your students back to the dormitories. The rest of the staff would please follow me."

I saw Professor Snape discretely tell the Head Girl something, and then he left through the secret passage behind the Head Table. When I realized what was happening, I panicked.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked me.

"My sister, she's in the girls' bathroom that the troll is about to go into, and she doesn't know about it!" I said frantically. I relaxed marginally when I saw Harry and Ron thinking along the same lines as they snuck out.

"The professors will find her, she'll be fine," Draco reassured me, "Come on, let's get back to the common room."

I nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

The next morning, I saw Hermione at the Gryffindor table, chatting with the boys as if they'd been friends all their lives.

"And there's the Gryffindor Golden Trio," I murmured. Harry was dressed in red and gold instead of the uniform black, which alerted me to the impending Quidditch match.

"Dammit," I muttered, "us against them, and I really don't like how it's going to end…"

"Are you a Seer or something?" Vincent suddenly asked from my left.

"Or something…" I said as we all got up to head out to the pitch.

Not matter how many times you read it, there's absolutely NOTHING that can prepare you for your first Quidditch game. My heart nearly stopped more often than I cared to count because of all of the maneuvers that the players had to pull. Even though I knew he was going to be fine, I had to stifle a gasp when Harry's broom started to jerk around.

I looked around me and saw Snape staring at Harry, and it took me almost ten seconds to remember what was happening. I looked for Quirrell. I saw him a few rows down from Snape, staring at Harry as well. I was debating rushing over to make him stop when I saw Snape start thrashing around trying to put out the fire on his robes.

When I saw Harry shoot towards the ground, though, I knew it was all over.

"And Potter catches the Snitch! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

Even though I knew it was going to happen, I still groaned and sulked with the rest of Slytherin.

"He didn't CATCH it, he nearly SWALLOWED it…" Flint was grumbling an hour later. I was sorely tempted to try a Silencing charm on him, even though I knew it was at least fourth year material.

Hogwarts was pretty uneventful for a while, and soon Christmas was on its way. I knew something important was going to happen, and I couldn't remember what until it hit me in the middle of Transfigurations around the middle of the month. The Mirror of Erised.

"You," I hissed at Draco one evening.

"What?" he asked, setting aside his homework.

"You're coming with me, we need to find something."

"Why?"

"So we can beat Potter to it."

Draco was silent for a moment before he said, "I'm in."

I remembered reading something online about the Mirror being stashed in the Room of Requirement, and I knew that we were technically out after curfew, but at the moment, it didn't matter.

It wasn't long at all before I was opening the Room of Requirement. It looked like an old classroom: full of dust and grime, with the desks and chairs pushed up against one wall, stacked up to make as much room as possible. In the center of the floor was the Mirror.

"We came all this way for a mirror?" Draco whispered. I rolled my eyes and pointed at the rim.

"'I show not your face but your heart's desire,'" I read. "It's not a real mirror. You don't see a physical reflection, you see a reflection of what you want in your heart."

Draco looked at me like I'd grown a second head and another pair of arms. He glanced in the Mirror and, even though I couldn't see what he did, I definitely saw the blush form on his pale face. Sighing and rolling my eyes again, I walked in front of the Mirror and pushed him aside. What I saw shocked me.

I was standing in the Mirror, but it wasn't the physical self I'd gotten used to over the last few months. I saw myself as an adult, with a man holding me in his arms, a man who looked eerily familiar. Glancing at Draco, I looked back at the reflection. My heart twisted painfully when the two people in the Mirror kissed briefly before the me in the Mirror held up her left hand. On it sparkled a beautiful silver ring with a green gem. Then she reached up one of her sleeves and pulled out a wand.

I'd had enough. I stumbled away from the Mirror, making the scene vanish.

"My, my, you two are the second students I've met here tonight," Dumbledore's voice said from behind us. I jumped and stifled a shriek.

"Professor, don't do that!" I said as I whirled around. Dumbledore smiled serenely.

"You would do well you go to bed, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger. The Mirror will be moved tomorrow to a new location. Oh, and five points to Slytherin, Ms. Granger," he added, "for correctly identifying an obviously powerful magical object not covered in classes."

"Yes, sir, thank you. We'll go now." I saw Draco yawn out of the corner of my eye and wondered just how late it had gotten. As we walked out of the room, I just caught the headmaster's last words.

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

The two of us trudged along silently back to the dorms.

"What did you see?" Draco suddenly asked. I looked at him. He looked uncharacteristically curious.

"I saw myself…as an adult," I said, trying to phrase it vaguely enough that he wouldn't catch on. "I was with a man, and I was wearing a beautiful ring, and I was… happy." I looked at him, startled by the look on disappointment in his eyes. "What about you?"

"Oh…" he mumbled, not acting like himself at all, "I was older, with a girl, we were…" he trailed off, muttering the last part and not looking me in the face.

"You were what?" I asked.

"Making out," he snapped, his face turning red again. I giggled.

"Draco's got a cru-ush, Draco's got a cru-ush," I said, grinning. He took a half-hearted swing at me.

"Stop that," he said, still blushing, "I do not."

"I think you do, Dray," I said. He looked at me.

"What did you call me?" he asked.

"I called you 'Dray'. It's the first half of your name, isn't it?" I asked, curious. Did he not like it?

"Oh."

"It's alright if I call you that, isn't it?" I asked. "I won't use it if you don't—"

"It's fine—Ari," he said, smirking playfully. With that, he said the password (when had we gotten to the dungeons, anyways?) and went into the common room. He must have gone into his dorm as soon as he went in, because I didn't see him till breakfast the next morning.

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