9
Hogwarts was easier to get back to than it was returning home. Upon returning, Gabrielle easily started slipping back into her class routine and her lessons, but just as Troy and Chad were spending more and more time with each other and Taylor and Kelsey were bonding, Gabrielle was experiencing some form of after holiday blues. She was spiriting herself off in secret without Kelsey or Troy to the rarely used north stairway of the library by herself to watch herself in the Mirror of Yensid. In the reflection, she saw herself and Troy in a school in Albuquerque singing together in a school talent show or she could tap it again and watch herself, Taylor and Sharpay in a Boston Catholic school and hanging out together in the hotel as Sharpay left them for mysterious chores. While Kelsey appeared in the first visions, she didn't appear in the second setting. In other visions produced from tapping the glass, Gabrielle saw herself and Alex attending school as best friends in another school and in yet another she saw her parents alive and working as archaeologists in Egypt. There were other visions and settings that flitted past from time to time, but the Boston and Albuquerque settings were obviously the most powerful.
"Back again, Miss Russo?" Professor Dumbledore came up the North stairway to the library and paused as he noticed Gabrielle sitting on the floor off to the side and staring into the mirror. The embarrassed teen beauty jumped to her feet out of respect and fear she was in trouble. Professor Dumbledore looked upon her curiously; his long white bead hanging straight down as if he was Merlin himself. It wasn't round as a beard that she'd expect on Santa Claus, but it was certainly voluminous. His compassionate and knowledgeable eyes looked upon her for a response.
"It appears…" He looked to her and back to the mirror. "That you like so many before you have discovered the mystical powers of the Mirror of Yensid to try to delve into its mysteries"
"I don't understand what I'm seeing." Gabrielle looked back at it. When they both looked into it together, only their reflections appeared. "Is it showing me the future or memories of the past I've forgotten?"
"Yes and no…" Dumbledore replied slowly. "Let me put it like this, the mirror can show you as you could be or who you might have been. It shows us other worlds in other timelines that once were or almost occurred. Let's say, I traveled back in time and stopped myself from becoming headmaster of the school. If I traveled forward in that history, I'd find that Albus Dumbledore still just a teacher or master of another school like Alexandria or Mecklenburg, but… I never really changed time because the teachers of this Hogwarts would still remember me as headmaster. Two timelines co-existing in separate universes linked by common moments in history. Time is immutable, it cannot be changed or altered… All there is out there are… countless parallel worlds, each existing and resonating with their own histories."
"So…" Gabrielle understood the secret. "Those other Gabrielles… each of them are living events I might have experienced."
"Conceivably…" Dumbledore revealed. "But as far back as time goes, not all of them are results of alternate events in your life but the consequences of your ancestors, their ancestors and the people they knew in their lives. You see, the further you go back in time, the more possibilities occur ahead of us. The future is always changing by what we do now, but the past… the past remains the same, even when those we know try to change it."
"It can show me what my life would have been like if my parents hadn't died!" The young beauty realized its secret!
"And had they done so, you might never have made the friends you have now." Dumbledore revealed to her. "So, is one life really better or worse than the other? Do you believe you are better off having friends or by having your parents in your life… or neither. As wonderful as the properties of the mirror may be, it is too easy to get lost in the lives it lets us see, and that is why I've decided to send it to my friend Victorious Crumbs at Mecklenburg."
"That's Justin's school…" Gabrielle realized the school at Mecklenburg was also Wiz-Tech.
"I believe so." The powerful wizard admired its frame and size. "Shame… I'm not sure what to put here in its place… maybe a nice suit of armor or a good trophy case. I'm not sure what will encourage students to favor this way to the first floor." He looked to Gabrielle with a light grin. "If you have any ideas, feel free to let me hear them."
"A nice potted plant?" Gabrielle looked to him favorably.
"Well, that certainly would get Madame Sprout's attention…" He realized. If the mirror was not going to be around any longer, Gabrielle would go back to spending time with Troy and Kelsey. She had barely seen then since the return from the holiday break. Troy was certainly thinking the same thing. Without having seen Gabrielle, he was getting more and more distracted. Daydreaming a lot and getting diverted by his imagination. As he laid in his bed in the Gryffindor First Years room in the Southwest Tower, he thought of Gabrielle and wondered where she was. Sharing the room with him was Chad, William, Scottie McFarland and Rashesh Patel whose twin sister was in Ravenclaw House. As Troy laid back on his bed wondering about Gabrielle, Chad, Scottie and Rashesh were sitting in the window sharing snacks and telling jokes. They each tried Bertie Blott's Every Flavor Beans then moved on to a box of Emerald Emmies's Mint Chocolate Animal Crackers, both available from Honeydukes. Chad got one that made him roar like a lion, and Rashesh had another that had him trumpeting like an elephant from his native India.
"William, Troy," Scottie spoke with his native Celtic accent. "Come on over here and try a mint."
"I'm good." William was playing with Hector, his pet ferret, and feeding him scraps from his roast beef sandwich.
"Guys..." Troy sat up. "Did I offend Gabrielle or something?" He sat in his undershirt and underwear. "After the holidays, I thought we were good, but for the last few days, I've barely seen her. Today after Professor Lupin's class, it seemed as if she couldn't wait to get away from me." He reached into the box and took a mint. "Did I do something to her?" He tried the mint and was almost immediately crying with the voice of a bald eagle. His owl, Horace, turned to watch the spectacle as William's ferret stood on its hind legs like a person and swayed its body in curiosity on what was occurring. William just focused back on his book and allowed the guys to laugh and cajole at each other's antics. Troy meanwhile shook off the effects of the mint and laughed at himself.
"She's probably hanging out with Taylor and Kelsey…" Chad tried to dissuade Troy's feelings of being left out. He noticed his turtle Walter on the floor near William's bed and went to retrieve him. "Troy, you can't let her get into your head. You got to keep your head in the game… and in your wizard studies…" He stepped on something under his foot.
"Ow!!!"
Who said that? It wasn't William, Rashesh or Scottie. Troy looked confused. They each drew quiet and looked around the room wondering where that sixth and decidedly feminine voice came from. William looked under his bed, and Rashesh dropped to the floor, but Troy noticed an extra shadow that did not look right gradually backing away nervously past the heater in the middle of the room. What were the odds of two rare invisibility cloaks in the school? He jumped up with his hand extended and pulled off the cloak!
"Oh, Troy, you missed me!!!" Gabrielle stood there beaming with Kelsey giggling as the guys raced around in various stages of clothing. "Boxers, briefs, boxers, briefs, boxers…" She definitely saw them in another way! Rashesh rushed to his bed for a blanket and Chad jumped into William's bed with him to cover up. Struggling to get his pants up, Troy stumbled and fell over his bed and Scottie slid under his bunk with the sight of the two sudden females.
"William, you look cute in those tighty-whiteys!" Kelsey giggled effervescently with Gabrielle.
"Gabrielle!!!" Chad was freaking out as William kicked him out of his bed. He pulled his bathrobe on to cover up. "You can't be in here! It's against the rules! Especially with Kelsey… She's from Hufflepuff!!" He reacted embarrassed and upset. Kelsey reacted alarmed.
"Gabrielle!" Troy fixed his belt. "You and Kelsey could get tossed out. She can't be in Gryffindor House!!!"
"Oh no, I…"
"What's going on up there?" Chad's brother, Tad, was hurrying up the winding staircase to the boys' upstairs rooms. With Gabrielle quickly pulling her invisibility cloak back on over her and Kelsey, Tad entered in his role as prefect. He looked a lot like his younger brother, but instead of the large crest of thick brown hair, he had a shaved head but the same Danforth chiseled jawline and good looks. "What are you guys getting into?"
"Nothing!" Troy got a non-vocal vow of silence from his house brothers. Scottie came out from under his bed, and Rashesh pretended to be reading. William watched as Hector followed Gabrielle and Kelsey's shadows across the room.
"We were just…" Troy watched as the friendly ferret continued tagging after the girls. "…Horsing around." He picked up the Emerald Emmie's box. "Like a mint?" He offered.
"Not now…" Tad refused the candy. "You guys…." He turned to head back out, and Troy hoped he didn't bump into Gabrielle or Kelsey on the steps down to the common room. Reading at the table, Chelsea Daniels noticed a chair sticking out suddenly jump under the table and lowered her book. First year Valerie Birckhead and Third Year Michael Radcliffe were bumped by something as they entered from the Fat Lady portrait. Once clear, Gabrielle stood in the corridor leading to the main hall and pulled off the cloak.
"I can't believe we did that!" Kelsey's eyes were as round as two silver dollars. "We both could have gotten thrown out of school. My heart is still pounding!" She held her chest to slow her racing heart.
"You better get to your house!" Gabrielle hugged her and they split up in separate directions. The young brunette from Waverly Place only got a few steps away when she noticed Sharpay, Tawny and Lily coming down from the fourth level to the archway for the assembly hall in the next part of the castle. They were talking and gossiping between themselves. Gabrielle couldn't hear what they were saying, but she knew how to get closer. Pulling the cloak over her head, she vanished from sight and daintily glided down to catch up with them.
"I can't believe she wore that to class." Tawni Hart was a Hollywood witch who had spent the last seven years of her life being shared between her mother in England and her father in Southern California. "Who ever thought orange was a winter color? I mean, as if…"
"This school is not nearly as exclusive as I had hoped." Sharpay carried Trixie, her Chihuahua familiar, on her arm as they headed down the stairs. "I mean… have you seen some of the people they allow to attend here? Birckhead? I hear her daddy got her in because he just happens to work in the Ministry of Magic." She stopped on the landing down to the great hall outside the assembly hall. "There is a Native American in our Levitation class!"
Tawni and Lily gasped in shock.
"I know!!!" Sharpay lead the way to Slitherin Hall downstairs. "And that's not the worse of it! I heard Kelsey Neilsen's mother is half mortal, and Sherman Shatterhorn, neither of his parents practice magic!"
"How did someone like him get in here?" Folding her arms before her chest, red-haired Lily Finnerty expressed a little attitude with a twitch of her pampered head. She was a Manhattan native; her grandfather was a judge and her family lived in a Long Island estate.
"His grandfather got him in…" Sharpay stroked Trixie with her right hand. "But that's not the worst thing I heard… Gabrielle Russo. She lives above… above… I can't say it… A sandwich shop!"
"You mean like…" Tawni and Lily looked at each other. "In public?" They reacted extremely offended.
"What does Troy see in someone like that?" Sharpay and her Slitherin sisters turned the right way toward the entry hall. "He deserves someone with pose, refined tastes, incredible beauty and fine breeding… like me! Not someone who orders dinner from the face of a clown!"
"I could not say it better." Lily agreed. "But… another few months and we'll be ready for her."
"Gabrielle Russo is going down!!!" Tawni declared.
"And then Troy will be all…" Sharpay stopped taking and felt a strange presence near her. "Do you guys feel like we're being watched?!"
"Yeah…" Lily looked around the hall outside the assembly hall. "I felt it when we left the Great Hall." They looked around curiously. They couldn't see anyone around them. Moonlight was coming through the grand window at the end of the balcony, and the torches lighting the way to the first floor were casting multiple shadows in numerous directions. It made it look like there were several people around them from just their three shadows.
"Take Trixie to Slitherin House for me." She handed her Chihuahua to Lily as her nervous brown eyes looked around the school. "I'm checking on the you-know-what for you-know-who."
"Okay…" Lily took Sharpay's dog and turned toward the twisting staircase near them to head to their hall. Just a little spooked and on edge, the blonde diva looked around the balcony area and up to the roof for someone hovering over her head, but there was nothing there. She backed up looking behind her and turned running down the stairway to the first floor. On the bottom landing, there were fewer torches burning but still a lot of shadows for just herself. What the heck was going on here? Her mind was playing games with her. She took the passageway under the stairs and strided back to the first floor of the main hall again trying to figure it out. In the dark area between the two parts of the castle, she looked sideways and saw her shadow and a second hooded shadow right behind her. What the heck was that? One of the ghosts of the castle? Not letting it know she could see it, she entered the bottom floor under the moving staircases and casually took one of the steel rods propped by the wall by her for use in hanging the tapestries. She headed toward the staircase leading toward the third floor corridor then swung around and struck the air hard behind her with the rod. It actually knocked out if her hand as if it hit something!!!
"Who's there?!" Sharpay pulled her wand out to light the shadows. "I warn you! I have a wand and I know how to use it!!!" The extra shadow had vanished, but she stepped and checked every part of the floor around her for anything she could touch. Whatever it was, being invisible did not mean it could not be touched. There was something near her feet. She could hear faint wheezing and gasping. Whatever it was, she had hurt it, and now she was going to punish it, but she didn't get that far. She heard voices from the side corridor and raced up back the way she came to keep from breaking curfew. The voices meanwhile kept getting closer. It was a late study session by eight Ravenclaw students led by prefect Monica Danvers, the daughter of Professor Danvers of Wiz-Tech. Ravi Patel, Terry Ahern and Taylor McKessie were among them.
"I leave you here to return straight to Ravenclaw." Monica told them with a toss of her blonde hair. "I need to meet the other prefects. No side trips!" Her younger charges understood and headed to the back staircases, but Taylor stopped and looked behind her. It sounded like someone calling her. Her house brothers and sisters stopped on the stairs and waited.
"I forgot my history notes." She claimed. "I'll be right there." She paused until her Ravenclaw family was in the second floor hall then turned and looked around. She extended her wand from out of her book bag. "Who's there?"
"Taylor…" The voice was somewhere in front of her. The Ravenclaw darling thought she knew that voice. Working out the physics in her head, Taylor noticed the steel rod against one wall and realized how it must have been swung to land where it was. If the person it hit was roughly her size… she turned to her right and reached to the floor pulling off Gabrielle's invisibility cloak. Her best friend was laying on the castle floor coughing up blood and holding her chest in deep unforgivable pain.
"Oh my god, Gabrielle!!!" Taylor pulled the cloak off her to hide it in her book bag.
"Sharpay hit me to the chest!" Her eyes full of tears, Gabrielle was laying on her side considerably wounded. "I can't breath!!!"
"Somebody help me!!!" Crying for her friend, Taylor fired an emergency flare into the hall from her wand then lifted Gabrielle up slowly to get her to Madame Pomfrey in the medical ward upstairs. Any students not in their respectful halls came and looked off the stairs to see what had happened and with them, a few teachers like both Madame Sprout and Severus Snape and eventually even McGongal and Dumbledore to help Gabrielle…