Nearing the end of November Carmina was told something that slightly changed her look at things around her. It was nothing horrible. Actually, it wasn't even bad. One day, upon finishing the day's last potion with Dumbledore, Headmaster informed her of a slight disadvantage that seemed to occur in time-travelling.

"There is a quite simple spell to know if it's your case—stand still, please."

He waved his wand in a wide gesture. The light-blue ray of light that shot from it changed its colour when it hit Carmina and bounced back from her. It was greenish now. Dumbledore nodded and waved his wand again. This time a large number ten appeared above her head. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.

"Well, not quite my expectation."

"What happened?"

"I made a bit of research and found out that in every known case of time-travelling the traveller kind of 'froze' for a short time, meaning that he stopped getting older. The length of this freeze-up took from one to three years usually, then the person continued aging again. It is simple to see if the aging process has stopped. If it did, the spell turns green upon impact with the traveller. A slightly more difficult spell indicates how long it will take to break this freeze-up. The number is in years. I think your case is ten years because you didn't actually do a time-travel. At least not in the way as we know it."

"Oh. Wait, did you find something that would help to send me back home?"

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I don't think you will be able to get back, Miss Stetson."

Carmina blinked. "But… I got here. If I could get here there must be a way for me to get back, too."

"Miss Stetson, nothing like this has ever happened before. We cannot even try to find a way back for you very well, because we don't know how you happened to come here. Or where you came from. If you ever get back, I think it will happen the same way as before – spontaneously, in a natural way."

"Well, that's… unexpected, but I think I should have expected it. Will it ever happen, Professor Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I cannot tell you anything for sure. I can only tell you my presumptions."

Suddenly Carmina remembered dialogue between Harry and Dumbledore on the King's Cross in the seventh book. She decided to take Headmaster presumptions into account as well as Harry did – or will do.

"Presume then." she gave him a little smile, knowing it won't be the last time he heard that words.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Well, I cannot be sure about this, but you did say you have read all those books about our world, didn't you?"

"I did."

"Did you like our world from reading about it?"

"Yes, I did."

"Have you ever wondered how it would be if you could get here?"

"I did. Wait," Carmina stared at him incredulously. "Do you want to tell me I have transported myself?"

Dumbledore's beard twitched. "Yes and no, Miss Stetson. I don't think you have some special ability of teleportation through universes. However, I do think you wished to come here on some subconscious level. I don't know how it could happen, but I think something has happened that made our two universes connected in some way. I assume you were able to come, because you wanted to come. I think the magic awoke in you during the transport. In your world it must have been laying dormant in every potential witch and wizard. Maybe there's something in your world that is pushing the magical powers down, so that they'll never manifest. It might be even partly the reason why you felt so uncomfortable when you finally arrived. You weren't accustomed to feel the magic manifesting inside of you."

"But why was it only I that came? That story is famous at home, Professor. If our universes connected, why was it just I?"

"My presumption is that you wanted to come and you strengthened that wish right when the connection happened. I think it was a very short occurrence, Miss Stetson, surely there would be some consequences if the connection was a long-lasting one. Were you perhaps thinking about this world when you fainted, as you put it?"

Carmina paled a bit. "I… I was writing a letter to my friend. I was writing about the last book, because she hadn't read it still and wanted to know something about it, before she went to get it. I didn't write much about it though, I thought about the book as I wrote and I put down only not so important things, so that I wouldn't spoil the book for her. Do you think that had me transported?"

Dumbledore smiled at her. "I do, Miss Stetson. It must have been a coincidence that there was a person wanting to come here and thinking about this world at the very time when the connection took place."

"How can I ever get back?" Carmina whispered.

"I think that if the connection happens again and you want to go home and you think about it just then, you will return."

Carmina looked at him. "I don't think it will ever happen. Maybe if I knew when the connection would happen, but other than that… it would be too much of a coincidence. I would have to be really unhappy here to want and wish to leave. I would have to wish for it every single day to ensure the connection would pick me up. I don't think it will happen."

"Even if everything you would like to change happen like it did in the books? You cannot change it, Miss Stetson, you know it. I don't know what would happen if you changed the books' events, but to be honest, I don't want to know it. I think it could be disastrous for us."

Carmina looked at him, startled. That man could read in people just well.

"Well," she paused, thinking hard for a while. "It wouldn't be nice to have that one person die, but I think I could manage it in the end." her voice shook with uncertainly as she spoke. She really liked him. She saw Dumbledore raise his eyebrows and she sighed.

"OK, it would be horrible. But I love this world for more than just him. I think." she said, trying to convince herself. She gave up.

"Uh, I don't think I want to think about this right now, Headmaster. I will know when it happens. I would have to love him a lot to be that unhappy later and I don't think I'm ready to think about how much I like him or if I even love him. I really don't want to worry myself with this right now, when there are so many things yet to happen."

"That is understandable, Miss Stetson. But tell me, do you really want to go back home? In this moment, I mean."

Carmina thought about that for a while, glad for another thing to think about.

"Actually, I think that no. No, I think I don't really want to go back. It may be a little strange, but when you think about it, it is like living a dream. I wanted to be a witch and now I am. I wanted to live in this world and get to know all the interesting people, and now I live here and I can get to know them. Studying the law cannot compare to this. Of course I miss my friends and family, but to be honest, it isn't so many people to begin with. My parents were already dead when I got transported here and I have just one sister. She lives in another country and we never liked each other much, we have completely different personalities. She is my sister and I love her, but it is not like I couldn't live here without her. In addition, I don't really have any good friends back there. They are mainly people I know and talk to, so to speak. They won't miss me much, and I won't miss them that much too."

Dumbledore seriously nodded and they sat in silence for a while. Then Carmina remembered the spell that Headmaster cast on her. She forgot the topic of her going home immediately. Had he told her she actually stopped aging?

"So… to speak of that freeze-up - I will be twenty for the next ten years while the others will grow older?"

"Yes, Miss Stetson." Headmaster smiled at her.

"So Severus will be seven years older than me eventually?" she asked curiously.

"Exactly."

"Interesting. Can I tell him?"

Dumbledore paused for a while and regarded her thoughtfully.

"Tell me, Miss Stetson, how much have you told young Mr. Snape already?"

Carmina met his gaze calmly. "He is a Slytherin, sir, and my close friend. To be honest, I expected him to work out there's something amiss in our story. A month ago he confronted me with his conclusion that I have lied. I told him I have lived in Slovakia for five years when I was younger, and then here. I also told him I cannot say more, because it might be dangerous and that you have put a spell on me forbidding me from saying or doing anything that would cause a slip of the tongue. He believes me and is happy I told him—partially at least—what was happening. He is just a bit angry that I worry about things I can't tell him. He accidentally saw me in tears a couple of times and it angers him that he can't do anything apart from trying to comfort me and not to ask about it. He is angry with you too, sir. He thinks I worry even more because of your spell. I'm sorry about that."

"Oh. Well, that could be expected. You can tell him if you want."

Carmina nodded and stood to leave.

Severus was quite pleased to hear he would be older than her. Her age didn't matter in their relationship, but sometimes it struck him as a bit uncomfortable, being friends with a girl older than him. He never was friend with anyone older—those people usually tried hard to make him see them as his superiors. Carmina didn't seek it and it was putting him off his balance sometimes. But in three years they will be the same age, so he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As the Christmas holiday approached, Severus became increasingly agitated. They were quite good friends by now, but she was letting it go as long as she could endure it. She wasn't sure he liked and trusted her enough to tell her if it was something too personal and she didn't want to ask, if it was.

She asked him one afternoon, at last. They were sitting on magically heated rocks at the lake. Severus kept throwing stones into the water angrily. He was playing dumb and stomping his foot. He was driving her crazy.

"Why are you so down? What happened?"

"I'm all right," he retorted and tossed out another stone.

"You're not," she argued quietly. "What happened? For the first time I noticed something off about you last Tuesday. What's up? Or is it that personal and serious you cannot tell me? If so, just tell me and I will let you be."

"No, it's not," Severus mumbled. He kicked a stone from before him. After a minute of silence he said almost inaudibly: "My parents don't want me home for Christmas."

Carmina was quiet for a while.

"Not even your mother?" she asked then.

Severus looked at her a bit uncertainly.

"Another thing you 'just know'?" he asked.

Carmina's mouth corners tugged upwards.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I know it can't be comfortable for you to have someone else knowing things about you."

"You're not 'someone else'. It doesn't matter much to me. Just a little. Mother is trying to make father stay with her. I don't know why, she should have left a long time ago and taken me with her. But she always sides with him. Always."

"I'm sorry about that. Does it mean you will be on that Christmas I-don't-know-what?"

"I think not. No girl would go with me, only maybe some younger Slytherin girl just to get there. I will rather hole up somewhere until the whole farce's over. I will appear to grab something to eat or drink at most."

"I think I will have to be there to the end. Hard luck."

"Word has already spread that Dumbledore wants you there. Someone will ask you to go with them for sure."

"Not that it will help them."

Severus glanced at her from side, but before he could ask what she meant a derisive arrogant voce was heard from behind them.

"What, Snivellus, you must be off with joy someone's finally talking to you. But you did it with some potion nevertheless, didn't you? Why else would be Carmina talking to you?"

Severus gritted his teeth and jumped to his feet. "Bugger off, Black. No one here's interested in anything about you."

"I can't see an ant which would move its tentacles because of you," added Carmina. She stood up too and coldly looked at the intruder. James Potter and Peter Pettigrew backed him up, both with dull smirks on their faces. "And if you call me Carmina one more time, Black, you will pay. I didn't say you can call me in that familiar manner."

"So if you let me, everything will be OK," Black winked.

"What do you want from us?" Severus hissed.

"Nothing from you, Snivellus, that's for certain," Sirius muffled contemptuously and turned to Carmina. "I came to see you."

"Yes? Do you need to be kicked somewhere again, perhaps? That's probably the only thing I can help you with."

Sirius's cheeks turned slightly pink, but he continued as if nothing was said.

"I came to ask you to go to the Christmas Ball with me. You'll go with me, right?"

Carmina turned incredulously to Severus next to her. "Did he just say what I think he just said?"

"Perhaps," Severus shrugged, watching her intently.

Carmina looked at Black before her again.

"Are you normal? I wouldn't go with you if you were the last male on the whole planet! In this school there is only one person I would go there with!"

"I hope that doesn't mean you are going with Snivellus?" Sirius exclaimed indignantly.

"Severus isn't attending the 'Ball' and I'll go alone. Now about face!"

"What? Alone? You would do much better if you took my offer. People will think no one's interested in you or worse, that you're not interested."

"You can think whatever you want, but last I checked, I was an adult, three years your senior and you, Black, would have to beg on your knees to make me talk to you longer than five minutes. Either way I would not go there with you. Now bugger off." she pulled out her wand. Her eyes flashed warningly when Black's mouth opened again. He quickly closed it.

He was turning around when his eyes fell on a satisfied looking Severus and he barked out with animosity, "Just you wait, Snive…"

A light erupted from Carmina's wand with a bang, without her opening her mouth. Big letters appeared above Sirius´ head, creating words and sentences. They were floating in the air, along with a number of small hammers. The words said: "I am not to humiliate people; it is not nice. I mustn't call them names if I don't know them; it's a sign of my conceited narrow-mindedness, not that I know what those long words mean. I am an arrogant idiot."

Each sentence appeared for a few seconds to be replaced by another. Every time the words appeared, small hammers threw themselves at him and took to hit his head repeatedly, as if trying to beat the meaning into him. They paused for a while, while the sentences changed, floating around his head calmly again, but attacked as soon as the words were firmly back in place.

"Hey…! What is it? Carmina, cancel it!" Sirius yelled, waving his hands wildly in a fruitless attempt to protect his head. Carmina's satisfied smile disappeared.

"I told you. Don't call me Carmina," she told him icily and sent him flying twenty meters backwards. She glared at the remaining two. They didn't hesitate, ran to Sirius and further to the castle, Sirius waving his hands around his head desperately.

Severus laughed.

"How did you do it nonverbally? It is quite hard to do verbally, too." he looked at her with interest. His eyes were bright with satisfaction.

"I don't know. I never tried it verbally, even. I think it has something to do with my wand. Remember Ollivander when he was talking about those hairs intertwining but not exploding? He looked like he awaited something unusual. I just concentrated on what I wished to do and the wand did it. I guess the unicorn part liked the idea of reacting to injustice and the thestral found a way to react in real, even if I didn't know it exactly."

"It was perfect. Thanks. That's probably the first time he got what he deserved and I can't lose points for it."

"Any time. This was not the first time Black tried to 'talk' to me. If it's going to happen again, I think I'll have to hex him into next month or kick him again."

Snape laughed quietly. His bad mood disappeared for the rest of the evening.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Carmina was quietly standing apart from people in the Great Hall. It was the Christmas Ball and the entire room was full of teenagers. She didn't know why she obeyed Dumbledore's wish. He was already forcing her to do unpleasant things (but logical and necessary, she had to admit that) this last stunt was probably just the next out of many more.

She was asked to dance with Black five times by now, all in the span of half an hour. One would think he would have grasped the meaning of "No" by now. Aside from Black she was asked to dance by six other boys. She saw each one of them call Severus names without a good reason at least once. She just smiled coldly and refused.

The Ball was only for fourth-years and up and their dates, whatever year they were. The Hall didn't seem to be emptier, though. The huge decorated Christmas trees could be at fault; they took quite a bit of space.

A while before eight PM she saw Sirius discussing something with his friends, often glancing her way. She rolled her eyes. As if they could be of any help to him. She would not dance with him. She looked across the Hall. Near the Slytherin Christmas tree she saw a five-member group of Slytherins. To her surprise, Severus was standing there with them. He was looking around irritated at all that "fun".

Carmina smiled slightly and rearranged her blue-green dress robes she bought in Diagon Alley. She wasn't sure whether he would turn up or not. Carefully, to not hit or be hit by dancing couples, she made her way over to them. She never talked to him in the presence of his "acquaintances", but she'd rather try it than stand in that corner alone, bothered by idiots. Moreover, she saw Sirius making his way through the crowd to the corner again.

The group of Slytherin boys noticed her presence when she was almost there. They measured her up and down immediately and although a Hufflepuff she seemed to pass their test. Well, the robes were doing their work.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. I think I'm going to take your schoolmate away for a while," she said with a polite smile and turned to Severus.

"Dance with me, Severus?"

He regarded her for a moment, a surprised shadow in his eyes. Then he moved silently and led her to the middle of the Hall.

"I see you appeared eventually. Maybe I'll get rid of that ass finally."

"I saw his last attempt. We all did." he inclined his head in the direction of Slytherin boys. "They found your interaction quite amusing I think. What did you tell him that he went that red? One would think such a colour was impossible to achieve," He smirked slightly.

"Oh, just something along the line that not even a Love Potion would make me dance with him and that I'm starting to feel a shortage of performance of painful kicks."

Snape snorted. "You really seem not to like him."

"Do I? And here I thought I was so imperceptible." she raised her eyebrows ironically. "Look at the Gryffindor Christmas tree."

Severus turned Carmina slightly to have a better view without turning his head, and smirked. Sirius Black stood there along with Lupin and Pettigrew. He was glaring their way furiously.

"Perfect."

"Don't you want to go somewhere else? Dumbledore will think I'm going to have a short walk outside to clear my head. I might be able to flee from here at last."

"You don't mean you want to let the opportunity to dance with those who hadn't asked yet slip by?"

"I will be more than happy to disappear. I'm running out of ways how to say no."

He flashed a quick glance her way. "Well, let us go."

Only two pairs of eyes watched them leave—one frowning and grumpy from the Gryffindor Christmas tree and a twinkling blue one, which seemed to see everything.