After lying to his father and pretending that he was sorry and would behave like a proper pureblood in the future the day after Christmas, Alex no longer had to undergo punishments or lectures. He still couldn't send out letters to his friends other than Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise, but he didn't care because he had his notebook. He was no longer confined to his room, but he couldn't leave the house. That didn't bother him as Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise visited. They cheered him up immensely and Daphne one day wistfully said, "I really wish I hadn't been so annoying when I was younger, Alex. Then we could have been good friends. It wasn't until you made me see reason and we started Hogwarts that we became friends."
"That's all right, Daphne," said Alex. "Kids tend to believe what their parents tell them. It takes them awhile to figure things out on their own and stop believing everything they're told. If I weren't naturally a rebel, I would have swallowed everything I was told and ended up like Draco Malfoy, minus the spoiling."
Daphne's sister, Asteria, who would be attending Hogwarts the following year, visited as well, and she showed no signs of becoming a prejudiced pureblood. The again, Alex had spoken to her a few times before, and Daphne would convince her sister that Muggleborns were equals to purebloods. Alex made a note to have Asteria be introduced to Ginny, since Ron's sister was the same age as Asteria, and hopefully the two girls would become friends.
Two day before it was time to leave for Hogwarts, Aurors appeared at the Carrow home and arrested Alecto for using the Cruciatus Curse on her nephew. Alex couldn't figure out how it happened, as only his five closest friends knew and they had sworn not to tell anyone else. Then he realized that they had only promised not to tell the rest of the Hogwarts Gang and one of them could have told someone else. It would most likely be Neville, since Ron's parents were away and the Dr. Grangers and Ms. Evans couldn't exactly contact the Ministry. Neville could have told his grandmother, who then would have notified the Ministry.
That turned out to be wrong, for when Amycus Carrow protested and said that his sister never used such an Unforgiveable curse, Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt said curtly, "That's not what Mr. and Mrs. Greengrass informed me. When they asked you of a way to help train their daughter to behave more properly, you suggested the Cruciatus Curse, saying that your sister had used it on your son and it worked admirably. While they do wish to teach a daughter a lesson, purebloods aren't so abundant that they'd even think of using the curse. The Greengrasses were horrified that you would allow such a thing to happen to your son and contacted the Ministry."
Amycus cursed and Auror Dawlish added, "Think yourself lucky that you're not being arrested to, since there's no evidence that you did the Cruciatus Curse too." Alecto was led away and Amycus stormed about the house in anger for the rest of the day. Alex was rather pleased with the whole situation, even if it meant that Daphne and Asteria could no longer visit. He would still see them at Hogwarts, and unless families like the Malfoys and Parkinsons chose to snub the Greengrasses for what they had done, he'd see them at parties.
After that was the trip back to Hogwarts. During the journey, Daphne took Alex aside and demanded, "Why didn't you tell about what your aunt was doing to you, Alex? You can imagine how shocked Teria and I were when we heard our parents going on over what Mr. Carrow told them. Father informed me that while he wanted me to behave better, he wasn't about to use a spell like that to teach me a lesson, especially considering that there aren't many purebloods these days and children are therefore precious."
"I didn't really feel comfortable," responded Alex. "Besides, there was nothing you could really do, other than say some words to try and make me feel better."
"Well, I could have told my parents about it!" snapped Daphne, looking angry. "When you will stop being so idiotically brave and Gryffindor! Your so-called family has been doing horrible things to you in an effort to teach you to behave the way they want, but you keep silent and not tell your friends so that they can really help you! Sue's aunt is high-up in the Ministry, Nev's grandmother has some pull, and Ron, Ernie, Tony, Ling, and Padma have parents with some connections, and they all could have done something! It wouldn't make you cowardly to tell someone what was going on and get some help. If Mr. Carrow hadn't told my parents what his sister was doing to you, you'd still be under the threat of it happening again!"
"I was embarrassed!" cried Alex. "I didn't want any of my friends to know what was going on!" That was a lie, but he didn't want to make things worse with Daphne by telling her that his closest friends in the Hogwarts Gang knew and had been sworn to secrecy.
"Embarrassed? You should know us better than that! We'd never make fun of you or anything! And if it's pity that you don't want, well, you should know that we have enough sense not to show it in front of you and none of us would start treating you any different. Why couldn't you at least have confided in Em, Di, and Mia? They're your first and oldest friends, and you should feel comfortable enough around them to tell them what was going on! They might not be able to have really done anything, but they could have at least written to the Weasleys about it and gotten some help."
"Okay, I did tell them," admitted Alex. "And Ron and Nev. After the girls, they're my closest friends in the group besides you, Tracey, and Blaise, because I met them before school started. But I made them promise not to tell anyone."
"Will you stop acting so Gryffindorish?" demanded Daphne, looking exasperated. "You wouldn't be a coward to let them actually tell someone else that could help!"
"Being in Gryffindor has nothing to do with my behavior!" snapped Alex, thoroughly fed up. "I'd have acted like that if I had been in any of the other three houses!"
"Fine, be that way!" retorted Daphne, throwing up her hands. "I give up on you! You can consider your friendship with me over!"
"Excuse me?" asked Alex, not sure that he had heard correctly. "You're no longer my friend? Just because I didn't want what Alecto was doing to me known?"
Daphne turned pale. "Oh, Merlin, of course not! I didn't mean what I said. I was just so angry with you for being so stubborn and idiotic that it just came out. I'm very sorry, Alex."
"Apology accepted," said Alex. "But if our situations were switched, would you have told our friends what was going on and not swear them to secrecy, Daphne?"
She considered for a moment and sighed. "You have a point. I guess I would feel embarrassed and not really want to tell anyone, either. Okay, I'm sorry that I was so mad at you. Now, let's go back to the others before they start wondering what's taking us so long and look for us."
Back at Hogwarts, Emily stared at the Invisibility Cloak and wondered what she would do with it. A part of her wanted to put it on and go exploring around the school at night. But what was the point, when she knew the school quite well already and didn't have much of a desire to find secret passages out the school like the Weasleys twins did in their first year? Well, she did want to put the Cloak to use, and not by simply lending it to the twins so they cause even more pranks and mayhem. Finally she decided to use it just once to wander about the castle after curfew, but no more than that.
During her wanderings, she made an unexpected turning and looked around, wondering where exactly she was. She wasn't sure if she had explored this part of the castle thoroughly. Sounds of Filch approaching made her dive into the nearest room, whose door was ajar. After the caretaker had passed, Emily looked around the room she was in. It appeared to be an unused classroom, with a tall and rather beautiful mirror in a corner. Wondering what the mirror was doing there, she walked over to look and stifled a scream as she saw that she was not alone, according to the reflection. She swiftly turned, but there was nobody behind her. She turned back to the mirror and saw the same group of people. Was there invisible people in the room with her and the mirror made their reflections visible? She gasped as she recognized Emily and Aunt Petunia and knew that it wasn't the case.
She looked closely at the other figures and saw her parents and another couple that she knew were her maternal grandparents, based on pictures of them. There was a third couple that she guessed was her paternal grandparents, as they were elderly and the man looked liked her father and the woman had her father's hazel eyes. From what she saw in teh mirror, it looked wonderful. Emily loved her life with Aunt Petunia and Diana and there was nothing lacking, but there were times when she wished that her parents and grandparents were still alive so she could have gotten to know them. It would have been absolutely wonderful, her living with her parents and constantly visiting her aunt, cousin, and grandparents or their visiting her.
Emily finally tore her gaze from the reflected image to examine the mirror. Around the edge was written, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." She pondered over the inscription, because it didn't seem to be in any langauge she recognized. It definitely was in a Latin-based language, for it wasn't in Arabic script and she knew Chinese and Japanese were in characters, one for each word. But it wasn't English, nor French (she could speak some of the language), and it didn't seem to be Spanish, German, Porteguese, or Italian, for she'd seen samples of those languages. After some thought and the fact that it was a mirror, she realized that the inscription was backwards, in mirror-writing so to speak. Using that, she was able to figure out, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."
"So this mirror shows us our heart's desire!" exclaimed Emily in a whisper. "What we want most. And for me, it looks as if my heart's desire is to not just be with Aunt Petunia and Di, but also have my parents and grandparents alive and with me as well." She gazed at the mirror in silence for a few more minutes, as Aunt Petunia, her mother, and grandmothers blew her kisses. Her father appeared to mouth the words, "I'm proud of you," and her grandfathers mouthed, "I love you."
Finally Emily shook herself out of her daze and firmly told herself to go to bed and not go looking for the mirror anymore. While she loved gazing at her parents and grandparents, she knew quite well that they were dead and no amount of staring in the mirror would bring them back to life. They would not want her to waste her time with the mirror and longing for something that could never happen, short of a miracle from God. Which she doubted would happen, since according the Bible, Jesus had raised a man from the dead, but Lazurus had only been dead three or four days, not ten years.
She took one final look at the vision in the mirror and left the room, making sure that she was completely covered by the cloak. She would tell the rest of the Hogwarts Gang of this, but she was not returning, and was going to advise her friends not to look for the mirror either.