Disclaimer: I do no own Harry Potter.

Chapter 11

"Pawn to E5," Ron said.

"Knight to E5," Harry said as his knight smashed the pawn.

Christmas break had started a couple days ago and so far it had been pretty uneventful. The holiday consisted mostly of me watching Harry and Ron play Wizards Chess - Ron winning the majority of the time.

Watching the two play this game continuously was getting kind of old because there wasn't really much to do because the school had become practically vacant once the holidays started.

"I'm going to go walk around..." I said as I stood up and walked out of the common room.

Outside of the room was silent and kind of dark. Through the windows I could see the snow falling heavily though the night.

I glanced at the walls of the castle that were covered in paintings. Each one of the moving figures watched me as I walked by, some smiling, some waving.

I made my way down to the main floor of the castle and saw many of the ghosts passing by. Many of them didn't notice as I walked by and one even flew directly through me, which felt as though I had just had a bucket of ice water dumped on me.

"H-hello Miss P-p-potter," I heard a voice stammer.

I turned around quickly, not expecting to run into anyone at this late hour.

"Oh, hi Professor Quirrell," I smiled back at him.

"Y-you're up l-late," he said slowly walking towards me.

"Yeah," I said taking a step back. "Just walking around."

"I-I do that s-sometimes t-too," he said still creeping slowly towards me.

"I noticed," I said, trying to back away without seeming rude.

"I-interesting h-how people do t-that," he said.

Then he stepped closer to me in a single stride. He slowly lifted his hands and went to reach for me. I couldn't help but notice the crazed expression in his eyes and I stumbled backwards and almost fell to the ground, but was stopped when I hit a wall. My scar suddenly began to burn painfully and my hand flew up to hold it. Suddenly, Quirrell was pulled backwards and the pain stopped.

"What is going on here?" Snape growled at Quirrell, still holding the back of the man's robes.

"N-nothing, S-S-Snape!" he stammered. "I-I j-just ran i-into M-Miss P-P-Potter h-here!"

"Oh really, Quirrell?" Snape spat. "Is that what happened? Just a coincidence?"

"Y-y-y-yes! Of course!" he stammered even more.

"Get out of my sight!" Snape snapped and threw him from his grasp.

Quirrell stumbled around for a moment and practically ran out of the corridor.

Snape glared at the hallway, watching it with an angry expression as if he expected the man to return.

"What was th-?" I started, but was quickly interrupted.

"He didn't touch you did he?" Snape snarled.

"No, but why did h-"

"Did he try to hurt you at all?"

"Well, no I-"

"What did he say to you? Did he threaten you?"

"No, but-"

"If he ever tries to be alone with you ever again, you tell me, okay?"

"I will, but I don't understand-"

"If he ever corners you again, uses any spell you know to get away from him, okay?"

"What is this abou-"

"Okay?" he repeated.

"Yes!" I answered. "Can you please tell me-"

"Follow me," he said walking back through the corridor. "You're going back to the Gryffindor Tower and I ask that you remain there for the rest of the night, Miss Potter."

I then realized that this whole answering questions was a one way street. He wasn't going to tell me anything that I wanted to know.

I practically had to run to keep up with him and I noticed him glancing back every so often to make sure I was still following him.

Within a few minutes, we arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait.

"What's going on?" she asked us.

"I ask that you do not allow Miss Potter out of the tower after hours," Snape demanded.

"It's not passed curfew, she's not breaking any rules," the Fat Lady said.

"Fine," he said turning to me. "Miss Potter, I ask that you please do not wander the hallways at night after tonight."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Just do as I say!" Snape half-yelled.

He put his hand on his head and looked down.

"Please, Miss Potter..." he begged.

It was silent for a moment, but then I nodded my head.

"Okay..."

"Thank you," Snape said still looking at the ground.

I walked towards the portrait and opened the door.

"Goodnight Professor," I whispered as I walked into the common room.

"Goodnight..." he whispered back as the door to the tower closed.

I walked into the common room and jumped when the silence was broken.

"Checkmate!" Ron yelled. "I WIN AGAIN!"

"Ugh," Harry groaned. "Oh, hey Emily."

"Whoa I didn't even hear you come in," Ron said.

"Anything interesting happen?" Harry asked as he put away some chess pieces.

"Um..." I said as I thought about Quirrell and Snape. "Nothing really..."

I'm not sure why I didn't tell my brother, after all it was really odd what happened in the hallways, but I just couldn't bring myself to talk about it.

...

"Merry Christmas, Emily!" I heard Harry and Ron call from the common room.

I rubbed my eyes as I got out of bed. I ran down to the common room where I found presents surrounding the Christmas tree.

Ron was ripping apart a gift that turned out to be a sweater with the letter 'R' sewn on it.

I smiled when I saw that Harry had gotten one too.

"We have presents too?" I asked him.

"Yeah," Harry smiled as he pulled on his sweater that had the letter 'H' on it.

I ran over to the tree and picked up one that had my name on it.

Within the next half an hour or so, each one of my presents had been opened. I got a sweater with an 'E' on it and some candy from Mrs. Weasley; a book on potion making from Hermione (she's always going on about how wonderful I am in potions); a chocolate frog from Ron; a box of chocolate cauldrons from Neville; and a pair of old, apparently used, socks from the Dursleys.

"Did you get something from the Dursleys?" I asked Harry as I examined the socks that I was given.

"Yeah," he a coin. "What did they get you?"

I held up the socks to show him and he laughed.

"Aren't they lovely?" I asked laughing.

"They match you're sweater!" Harry said half-laughing.

I picked up the book that Hermione had given me and opened it up to the first page.

"Wait," Ron said looking at the tree. "There's one more."

He walked over to the tree and picked up a gift that had been placed out of sight.

"It's for both of you," Ron said handing over the gift to us.

I picked up the note that was on it and it read:

"Your father left this in my possession before he died. It's time to return in to you. Use it well," I read aloud.

I looked at Harry who appeared to be just as confused as me.

Both of us ripped it open and it revealed a very large cloak.

"Well, put it on," Ron said eating a chocolate frog.

When Harry put it on though, both Ron and myself stopped what we were doing.

"Bloody hell," Ron said dropping his half-eaten chocolate frog on the ground.

"What?" Harry asked.

Then he saw it. His whole body, other than his head, were completely invisible.

"That's an invisibility cloak!" Ron said walking over to us. "But, who gave it to you?"

He looked from Harry to me, both of us not knowing the answer.

"There wasn't a name on it," I said. "It just said that it belonged to our father."

...

Thanks for reading - I hope you liked it! Sorry about the last chapter, I do realize that it was incredibly boring - I hope this one was a little better anyway. Tell me what you think!