"What'd you wanna do Kiddo," Tony asked his daughter as they sat quietly reading in their sitting room within the castle. The flow of the last few days leading up to the New Year taking it's toll. Mim had spent a lot of her time with the Weasley family, having snowball fights, and making sculptures and building structures out of the compacted snow. She had even made a miniature version of her Malibu home.

"I dunno, maybe we could do a project together?" she said, putting a bookmark in her book. "How is the magical electoral stuff going?"

"I haven't blown up too much stuff yet," he said, she laughed. "It's a little too dangerous for you to be around, even though you are brilliant and would help move it along. How about you help your old man with the theory."

"You're not old." She said, jumping down from the sofa, putting The Hunger Games on the coffee table.

"Come let's mathematically formulated magic," he clapped his hands together. The two worked on possible equations…

"What if we take a knot approach?" she asked writing up the equation after another two hours had flown by. The two high IQed individuals almost giddy with the mathematical component application to magical properties.

"Three dimensional spaces, perhaps..."

"What if we considered that magic works on a different vibration to the earth? Which is how we can manipulate it?" Mim suggested adding another section of the equation.

"Interdimensional knots… let's give it a try."

Another four hours went by and the board was full of symbols and lines of numbers that would make most individuals cry. Unknown to the Starks, Severus had decided to pay them a visit on opening the door he was faced with the horror or the slightly dishevelled pair frantically writing on a humongus white board that barely had any white sections visible.

" – then that could even open up to –"

Severus cleared his throat making the two jump.

"What is happening here," he said his eyebrow raised.

"Mathematical application of magic alongside electronics."

"I see," he glanced around the room at the various rags of marked kitchen roll they from where they had furiously wiped away a failed equation. "Do I dare ask the last time you ate… or perhaps went to the toilet?"

"Errrrrr…" Tony looked at his daughter concerned.

"Food is probably a good idea," Mim said nervously looking at her uncle. He sighed, pinching his nose.

"Sit," he ordered them both.

They obeyed, sheepishly sitting on the sofa as Severus went over to the mark where teachers could call house elves to their homes.

"Hello Sir," a tiny female house elf squeaked.

"Hello, could we perhaps have some vegetarian meals for Professor Stark, myself and Mim?" he asked.

"Right away, Sir." She bowed and disappeared with a crack.

The food took another minute before the three began to eat together.

"Uncle Sev?"

"Yes, Hatchling?" he looked at her. Her tone alarming him slightly.

"Could we… could we maybe have more 'detentions'. That way I can see more of you, but it's still a way that if Voldemort comes back it isn't suspicious."

"That… is a good idea. I shall plan a… reason to give you one."

She beamed at him, and begun to eat again, happy that she was going to get see more of Sev, and less of Professor Snape.

He stood up and hugged the little girl, smiling as she melted into him.

"I'm sorry I am so mean to you in class, Hatchling."

"I get it, plus it's a little fun to backchat, but not get in real trouble."

He and Tony began to laugh at her response resulting in a round of hysteria around the table.

"Mim where are we going?" Hermione asked as they passed the troll tapestry for the second time.

"You'll see," she said smiling as she kept the image of the soft lavender room, with comfortable chairs and galaxy lights on the ceiling. She heard her friends gasp as the door appeared. Mim waved her hand to follow her as she walked through.

"This is the Room of Requirement," she gestured around as they stood in awe. Hermione's eyes on the long shelves of books in mahogany shelves. Ron's on the ceiling. "My Uncle Remus told me all about it. It will turn into pretty much anything you want."

She gestured to the cosy room around them.

"This is incredible," Hermione gasped as she looked around, slowly walking towards the books, she stroked one of the spines.

"So, it can change?" Ron asked her. She nodded.

"We'd need to leave then come back in. You need to walk past it three times with the image in your mind and… ta da!" she grinned.

"Brilliant," he said looking around. "You reckon we can takes things from here and they'd stay?"

"I dunno, maybe. We can experiment,"
"Wicked," Ron grinned, Hermione picked up a hard copy book with excitement.

"Oh I hope we can. I have wanted to read this for ages." She gestured.

"We can stay here for a few hours." Mim said. "I have detention with Snape at five, but you guys can stay here til you are ready to leave."
"I still can't believe he gave you a detention for cutting ginger instead of Katniss roots." Ron scowled at the memory in his mind. Mim shrugged.

"Not like I can really do anything about it," she said, wishing she could tell her friends the truth, but knowing it wasn't safe for them… or Uncle Sev for them to know.

As January became February, and February morphed into March; Mim and Snape got to spend more time together as the detentions began a monthly occurrence. Often with the ruse of cauldron's and cleaning supplies out in case someone came in. Mim cherished this time with her uncle where the two talked about their interests and she got to share stories about her friends, and how her other classes were going with him.

"I am glad that you have made friends who care for you, Hatchling." He said as she finished telling him how Hermione had made her laugh as she had began to colour code her notes and create revision schedules for herself, Mim and Ron. "We were all a little worried about that, but it's clear they are your friends."
"I know, I am glad too… Uncle Sev? Is professor Quirrell ok? He's loosing weight and he looks a lot paler, more gaunt than when we started the year."
To Mim's great surprise her uncle began to frown.

"Mim, I want you to stay as far away as you can from him when you are out of lessons… I don't quite know what's happening… but please. Avoid him."

As she watched his grave and serious expression she nodded. He hugged her, kissing the top of her head.

"You think it's something to do with Voldemort?" she asked him quietly as they hugged.

"I don't know, but I want you to be cautious until we do."

Before they could blink the Easter, holidays had rolled around, most students seemed to stay at school vs Christmas. The older years looking more and more nervous and they stayed up pouring over books and scrolls for their OWLs and NEWTs. It was one of the days in the library when they trio stumbled upon Hagrid. Who confessed he had a dragon egg, and asked them if they wanted to watch it as it hatched. They agreed eagerly, and helped Hagrid get it safetly to a reserve where it would be able to have a good life with other dragons. Ron's brother Charlie had been helpful in this. Mim and Hermione has used Papa James' cloak to sneak him off where two of Charlie's friends had been waiting. The next morning they heard that Malfoy had gotten detention for roaming the halls. They suspected that he was looking for them, as they had the cloak, they had been able to get back to the tower without being seen. This insight lifted the groups spirits further as they made their way towards the exam period. Her father had managed to get smaller items such as torches, and other battery operated appliances to work, however was still having issues with things that needed to be plugged into the mains. For now he had decided to focus on how he had this success, and how to apply it to larger items that had stronger electrical needs.

On the final day of the Easter holidays, Mim decided to spend the night in her room in her fathers, where she began to pull together her most recent project.

Tony spotted his daughter sitting with her lip bitten in concentration.

"What are you making?" he asked walking in as he was her pull up a piece of thread.

"I thought I would make a map of Hogwarts," she said. "I analysed the castle and the grounds, mapped it out." She lifted up the small dark green section of cross stitch. "It'll take months, I reckon it'll be something to continue next year." She grinned.

"I looked forward to seeing it finished Munchkin," he walked over and kissed her temple, she touched his arm as he did so. Then her father left the room.

There was a definite shift in the air, especially with the older years as they prepared for their exams. First years were nervous as this was their first set of tests at Hogwarts. Mim – after her uncle's words on Quirrell – had started to pay more attention to the headaches she was experiencing in her Defence classes, and the visible changes in the man's health.

She did as he asked and made sure she was never the first or last in the classroom, and made sure she never was with the man alone.