Sorry for taking my time... Here's the next chapter. I would appreciate some reviews, nice or not! Be honest!

A few minutes after the last students had their chance at trying the Thin Ice, the bell rang. As Harry was quickly picking up his bag and rushing towards the exit, he was intercepted by a worried Thalia. "Come with me" were the only words she said as she departed towards the small door situated behind her desk, the three velvet packets under her shoulder. He indicated to Ron and Hermione that he was not going to join them for diner, and he docilely followed his teacher through the door. It unblocked in the DADA teacher office, which he had visited a few times before. Each and every time, the content of the room had been matching with the teacher, and this time was no exception. The desk was quite tidy, entirely covered with papers of all sorts organized into neat little piles. The rest of the room, on the other hand, was a total mess. Books were overflowing from a small library situated on the left wall of the room. On the other stone wall, a huge amount of records were randomly placed on shelves, besides an old record-player that was standing on a table as if on a throne. Before he had time to see anything else, Thalia faced him and spoke. "I could try bringing all I need in here, but it would take a while, so instead I'll just bring you into my apartments. I would ask you to not mention this to anyone likely to spread the word or transform it into a ludicrous rumor." She quickly opened the massive steel door that was facing the small door giving access to the classroom with a key came from God knows where, and as soon as it opened she entered it, closely followed by Harry.

The first sight Harry caught of Thalia's room was a fulminating Snape sitting on a large black leather couch. "So that explains her warning about the rumors," Harry silently told himself, uncertain on how to react. Thalia was still behind him, in what he thought was a simple vestibule, and he knew he couldn't explain his presence here to the potion's master – he ignored it himself. "What in the Devil's name are you…" he started.

"The Thin Ice," Thalia said, finally appearing to Harry's side, "it changed."

"Oh," Snape replied, instantly soothed. "Which one?"

"The one showing the next week."

"What did you see?"

"You."

"So that's how you knew I was here," Snape laughed.

"Wait," Harry said, interposing himself between his two teachers, "that means that Professor Snape is going to hurt you in someway?"

"No, of course not," Thalia replied after a short while. "Remember, the furthest you go in the future, the hardest the picture is hard to interpret. In this case Severus probably symbolizes something like my love, or my link with Voldemort, or my job at Hogwarts or something like it… It might be a false alert of some kind but I wouldn't think so. Whatever it is, I am going to be hurt, Severus too. And I believe you too Harry."

Thalia stopped talking, and Harry sunk into his mind. For God knew how long, Thalia had been using these mirrors to predict what danger Harry would be facing during this year. Harry suddenly felt relieved. Dumbledore, as always, had a plan to protect him against Voldemort. "So what should I do?" Snape asked, looking at Thalia, who was holding her head into her hands and rubbing her temples.

"Check every Thin Ice to see what's coming."

"Every one?"

"Every one, from the next five minutes to your entire life, I want to know everything that changed even so slightly since the last time you used them," the woman replied abruptly, still staring at her own palms.

The potions master got up and left the room at a quick pace. With a gesture of the hand, Miss Beauregard invited Harry to sit at the place his teacher had been sitting seconds earlier. He accepted the offer, and threw himself on the comfortable couch. The boy noticed that the cushion had already taken Snape's shape, indicating to Harry that his teacher had been waiting for Thalia for more than a while. He also realized that he was sitting next to a pile of homework Snape had probably been correcting. He quickly glimpsed at the names that adorned every sheet of parchment and quickly found his. Twisting his neck until the pain was barely bearable, he managed to find out his note. 10 out of 20. "Not so bad," Harry thought with a smile. Hermione would probably consider this result as absolutely shameful, but it was better than the usual 0 he had received for the past 4 years. Still grinning, he faced the worried woman that had sat next to him and simply said: "Thank you for asking Snape to be a bit nicer to me."

"What?" she replied, confused. "Oh right… Don't mention it," she added with a wink.

She then started observing him so intensely that the boy engaged another conversation in order to escape her glare. "You really think I'm in danger?"

"Yes. Severus doesn't seem to think so but I'm sure something's wrong. I got used to interpreting these, and every time the Thin Ice shows him to me, it's because there's something wrong."

"How come?"

"I tend to put myself in danger for him, and he does the same for me. So when we see each other, it's because we will face a situation in each we will have to mutually save each other. And very few people can cause a situation like this…"

"You think Voldemort will attack Hogwarts?"

"Not the Dark Lord, no, not himself. But I would say Death Eaters, very probably."

"How can you be so sure?" Harry asked.

"I've been interpreting other things than these Thin Ices. Dreams are also a certain form of warning, when you interpret them correctly."

Suddenly, without being able to control himself, Harry burst to laughter.

Though he did not hate Divination as fiercely as Hermione, he still thought it was absolutely ridiculous. He had stopped counting how much hours he had wasted trying to interpret ridiculous images splotched in his tea cups, or inventing fatalistic dreams in order to satisfy Miss Trewlaney's taste for predictions of misery and woe. Somehow, he knew that if Divination was Thalia's way of protecting Harry, he would face many false alerts. "Why are you laughing?" Thalia asked, intrigued. Suddenly, Harry stopped his salvo of giggles, that must have seen very insulting to Thalia. After all, she had been very serious when she had told him that she believed her dreams warned her of imminent dangers. "Well…" Harry answered, "it's simply that I have tried interpreting dreams with Miss Trewlaney, and…"

"Oooh!" Thalia laughed. "Well if you consider Divination as being what Miss Trewlaney teaches you, then you all all the reasons in the world to grin."

"How come?"

"Well Miss Trelawney thinks that a book is what is going to tell you your future. Real divination is far more private."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know… Say you dream of a black crow. In the christian symbolism, a black crow represents the Devil, so as any black animal. So therefore, any good interpretation book will say that you will soon be in very great danger."

"How is that bad?"

"Well it isn't really, since if you have no experience involving a black crow, then yes, the most common association with this animal is the Devil. But it isn't always true. In my case, for example, a black crow is associated with Severus. So if I dream of a black crow, it's a good sign. Only some people – like Miss Trewlaney – refuse to believe that one same symbol may have many different significations."

"I think I know what you mean," Harry suddenly said. "When I was in third grade, I kept… I kept seeing a black dog. Miss Trelawney said it was announcing my death."

"What do you think it means?"

"Well I would think it represents Sirius… family."

"Shit!" Harry heard Snape screaming as his teacher burst into the small room. The man looked panicked, and he was pacing around the couch Harry was sitting on, staring at the ground. "I saw… I saw you…" he said very rapidly, his eyes twitching in every direction.

"Anything else?"

"Yes…" Snape replied. "You, and Lucius."

"Please don't tell me," Thalia said, exasperated, her voice trembling, "that you think I'm cheating on…"

"No of course not," the man snapped, to Harry's relief.

He did not want to witness any domestic rows that night. "No, it's bigger than that. Malfoy… he's coming. He's coming here," stuttered Snape, his eyes revolving almost as quickly as Mad Eye's magicall eyeball.

"Do you know in how long?" Thalia asked, slowly encouraging the potions master to sit down.

"We have a week, if not two, before it happens. Eerrrmmm… did you check if you were clear for the month?"

"Yeah, it hasn't changed, that's why I thought of an attack. Why?"

Snape was now sitting on a couch almost identical to the one Harry was sitting on, and Thalia was at his sides, staring at his worried features. When Snape replied, her face faded to a worrying shade. "I saw mine… it showed you and Malfoy, again," he simply said.

"Oh, I'm way to tired to figure this out," Thalia quickly complained, before starting to speculate on the possible issues of the situation. "Well it obviously mean we are going to have to fight. You know they never harm me."

"Neither do they harm me. You think they know?"

"Of course not, or else you would have seen someone else than Lucius."

"Good. Good," Snape repeated a second time. "So there is a real attack on the castle. Potter," the teacher said, suddenly turning his head towards his student, who jerked upwards in surprise, "do you mind trying the Thin Ice?"

"Out of question !" Thalia shouted, taking both Snape and Harry by surprise. "You know he's too young to face those things! Like if he didn't have enough pressure on him already!"

"I don't want him to face the thinnest one, I just want to know if he will be in danger in the next month or so," Snape replied.

"The next month, end! I'm coming with you, and you have two shots, that's it!"

"Alright, I didn't intend on screwing his mind up anyways!" the man added, as if Harry were absent.

The two adults stepped up and entered a room that probably officiated as Thalia's real office. It was filled with objects of all sorts, most of which Harry had not discovered yet. The only piece of furniture it contained was a desk, apparently the third one Thalia possessed. Only, this one was covered with a mount of random papers, more authentic than the surreal little piles of parchment that officiated on the two other desks Harry had previously seen. Finally, in the corner of the study were placed, as Miss Beauregard had announced earlier, about fifteen Thin ices, placed from the thickest to the thinnest. Harry stopped in front of it for a second, simply fascinated. It had to be as large as cellophane at the very most, but it still help itself up on the easel like the other ones. Only, he was quickly followed by Thalia, who walked up to him, grabbed him by the shoulders and placed him in front of the mirror she had brought in class. She whispered in his ear: "Believe me, you will regret it." Before Harry had time to understand if she was nicely warning him or plainly threatening him, he was told to blow on the Thin Ice, and he did so. Instantly, he saw the image of Lucius Malfoy. He turned himself to face his two teachers, who looked at him for a while, before Thalia asked Snape to contact Dumbledore. As the man left the room and walked toward what Harry understood was a chimney, Thalia asked him to move on to the second Thin Ice. "This one," she said, "will show you what lies ahead of you for the next month. Go on!" He activated the glass once again, and what he saw shocked him: reflected on the smooth surface of the glass, he saw Hogwarts' potions master.

He was about to walk away when he noticed that Thalia was still firmly holding him by the shoulders. He tried to wriggle himself out of her firm grip, but he was unable to. "She's defending her boyfriend," Harry heard echoing through his mind, "she knows he will harm me and she doesn't want me to tell anyone." He put his hand to his pocket to grab his wand, but before he had time to, he heard Thalia talk to him. "Calm down, Potter! You think you know what this picture is supposed to mean?" she said, her tone of voice strangely resembling Snape's. "You arrogant child, you don't know anything about these, and now you think you can understand one of the world's best Thin Ices? This is want happens when you put these artifacts in novice hands." Harry immediately stopped moving. She was right. He did not know any of the secrets of this form of magic. He looked at the square object once again. "But it's so obvious," he thought. "It is showing me Snape, only Snape. What could that possibly mean?"

"Look," Thalia replied, as if she had been reading his mind, "it's not showing you Snape at this moment, is it? It's showing him in the dungeons, with his potions… Look beyond what you see."

Before he had time to say anything for his defense, Harry heard Snape calling for Thalia. "So, what did he see?" the man screamed. "What was that sir?" he then asked. Harry understood he was communicating with the Headmaster. Miss Beauregard gave him a look filled with warning, then left the room. As he was about to follow her, his eyes fell in the last mirror of the row, the one that could show him the end of his own life.

He slowly walked towards it, scared that any sound would alert his teachers, or even worst, cause one of the mirrors surrounding him to shatter. When he arrived to the object that beheld the key to his destiny, he peeked by the half-open door. From his point of view, he could clearly distinguish Dumbledore's head floating in the midst of the flames that had appeared in the fireplace seconds ago. He could also see Miss Beauregard wrapped up in Snape's arms, both facing the hearth of the chimney. Turning his back on the scene, he closed the door behind him. Silence fell in the room, making it easier for Harry to overhear his own heart pounding in anticipation. He faced the thinnest of the Thin Ices and gently began blowing on it's surface. After a few moments, an image started to appear, causing Harry's heart to roar even louder. Finally, as Harry thought his chest was about to blow, the image fully appeared, and he found himself facing… his own reflection. Panic was starting to flow into his body when he came back to his senses. He shouldn't let this image affect him. He even had the courage to take a few steps forward in order to look, as Thalia had told him, beyond what he saw. Only, his face was all that was to be seen. It was only after a while that Harry started to notice a few differences between the face on the Thin Ice and his own. First of all, the portrait seemed darker, as opposite to Harry who was quite pale. Also, it looked older than the fifteen-year-old boy. It had a beginning of beard, and his traits were anchored deeper into his skin than Harry's. His hair was slightly longer too. Finally, a broken nose and a small scar near his inferior lip broke the general symmetry of his features. Harry was about to decide that this represented himself, simply older, when he noticed something wrong about the reflection's eyes. Not only were they cold, and filled with hate, but they seemed… different. As Harry was about to put the finger on this anomaly, Thalia walked into the room. The student had plenty of time to turn his back on the Thin Ice, which immediately returned to it's clear state, before the woman had time to set eyes on him. "Come on," Miss Beauregard said, unaware of Harry's discovery, "Albus wants to talk to you."

"How could you have been so stupid!" Hermione shouted. She and her two most loyal friends were sitting alone in the Gryffondor common room. It was about three in the morning and a pale, full moon was watching over the children from one of the windows. Ron and Hermione were both lying on couches in their pajamas, while Harry was sitting on the ground, fully clothed. The boy had only arrived in the common room two hours ago, and since then he had been narrating his hectic night to the two Gryffondors, who had been waiting for him since the end of classes. On a nearby coffee table lay a tray filled with bread and supper leftovers, so as a huge pitcher of pumpkin juice, courtesy of Fred and George Weasley. "What do you mean, stupid?" Harry replied, annoyed.

"Well you heard Miss Beauregard. A Thin ice can literally drive you mad!" the young girl replied.

"They asked him to use them," Ron said, defending Harry.

"Not the one that showed him the threat to his life!" Hermione retorted.

"Don't worry, I don't understand it anyways…" Harry mentioned.

Hermione suddenly appeared quite relieved. She sat back on the heavy cushions of the couch and closed her eyes. Harry took this physical response as an invitation to continue, and so he did. "Like Thalia said… It's probably some form of symbolism… I always thought Voldemort would be the one killing me…"

"Well now you know he'll never kill you," Ron pointed out, "you can fight against him any time."

"Of course not," Hermione said, her eyes still shut. "These images can change you know… Maybe this… person is only there temporarily."

"True," Harry said, to Hermione's satisfaction. "That's why I have to go back there and check again."

The two boys turned to face Hermione, awaiting a grandiose reaction of fury, but they were deceived. She remained on her back, and a slim smile had appeared under her closed eyelids. "Try all you want," she told Harry, "but it's never going to happen."

"Why, you want to stop him?" Ron asked.

"I won't. Thalia will. Snape too."

"No they won't," Harry laughed, "they don't even know I saw it. I'll simply sneak into her office and…"

"That's what I mean," Hermione interrupted. "They don't want to stop you from seeing the mirror, they want to stop you from entering her room. Think about it, those are her private apartments. Don't you think there's some security to prevent the students to enter them? And when do you think you'll enter them? At night? She's going to be in them, she lives there!"

Hermione's smile widened. Apparently, she was very satisfied with her expose. The two boys consulted themselves silently, making eye contact. "That is quite of a problem," Harry finally said. "But I'll find a way."

"Forget about the Thin Ice," Hermione replied, "and tell us what happened next."

"Yeah, Harry, what next?" Ron added, quite in vain.

"Well they brought me in Dumbledore's office, and I told him what I had seen. Then Snape and Thalia told them what they thought was going to happen, and the Headmaster agreed, so they called up all of the teachers and they created a sort of emergency plan."

"What kind of plan?" Ron inquired.

"Well they can't tell the students that an attack is going to be held on Hogwarts, obviously, or else there would be a wave of panic. And since they suspect Malfoy's father… Anyways the teachers think that Voldemort's servants will attack when we are all together, or else Thalia and Snape wouldn't have been warned by the Thin Ice."

"So what are they going to do?" Hermione urged Harry to continue.

"Well if we are in the Great Hall, they'll use, errmm, some sort of defense spell, called the… ermm, the Cage or something."

Both Ron and Hermione looked at the young boy quite incredulously. "Well the general effect is we'll be locked in the Great Hall…" Harry explained.

"And the ennemies will be locked out," Hermione finished.

"Yeah."

"It's called the Fool's Cage, just for you information," she said.

"Fool's Cage," Ron laughed as Harry nodded, "why such a name?"

"Well because it is quite stupid for a spell," Hermione admitted, finally looking at the two boys. "Of course, you're safe, but you can't exit the area that's under the charm. Nothing can enter it either, so you need to have food and necessaries with you… And it can't be stopped."

"You mean…" Ron started, unsure.

"That once it's cast, you can't do anything but wait for twelve entire hours."

"That is kind of stupid," Ron admitted.

"Yes, when you're not ready for it and you have the possibility to fight," Harry said. "But Dumbledore made sure we'll have enough food for everyone, and what can we do? Risk the lives of the students and attack the intruders? At least we'll all be safe."

Silence fell upon the small group. Hermione had closed her eyes again, and the two boys could tell that Morpheus was calling her into his arms. Harry had to admit he was quite sleepy too. He had spent the last two hours talking, and the eight previous preparing a strategy to fight Lord Voldemort. He had also discovered the face of his future killer. Of course, he was jumping to conclusions saying that this very man would kill him, but he was unable to face the other option: the option that maybe this man represent Harry himself, and that the Thin Ice indicated to the boy that he would end up destructing himself. He shrugged and chased this idea from his already troubled mind. "So that's it," he said, with no other objective than to wake up his two friends. They both jerked upwards and forced themselves to open their tired eyes. "Oh I'm so sorry Harry," Hermione said," it's just… We've been waiting here for hours and we're kind of sleepy."

"Oh it's alright," Harry replied, "you can go to bed if you want to, I'll just stay here two minutes or so…"

As if answering a magical command, Ron got up and slowly made his way to his dorm, muttering a weak "Good night". Hermione laughed and got up, but as she was about to leave, she stopped and turned to look her friend in the eye. "I just wanted to say," she told him, "that at least now you know Miss Beauregard and Professor Snape are doing all their possible to save your life. Even… even if you sometimes think they hate you… they would do all their possible to save your life and protect you from Death Eaters."

"I know… It's a bit funny actually," he replied. "They spent the entire night trying to find a way to save my life, but you should have seen their faces when Dumbledore asked one of them to escort me back to the common room."

"What'd they do?" Hermione asked, giggling.

"They argued about who should do it, and for who it would be less hard to return to the Gryffondor tower with Potter's son."

"I'd say Snape should have done it."

"Yeah I thought so too… We were about to leave when Dumbledore said that Professor MacGonagall would bring me back here, and that instead of doing so, Snape could go back to his apartements, in the dungeons."

They both laughed, and Harry spoke. "At least he found a suddle way of telling them he disapproved of sleepovers. Like they are going to listen to him anyways…" On this comment, Hermione bade Harry good night and started climbing the stairs that led to the girl's dorm. Harry, on the other hand, stayed seated for a little while, staring at the flames dancing in the fireplace and helping himself to the food that layed on the small coffee table that had been in this room for God knows how long. It was only when he realised it was already four in the morning that the boy got up and went to his bed. Within seconds, he was sleeping.