It had taken a while and a lot of practice, but Maya had finally been able to find what Takeshi had termed her 'empty space', her 'centre'. She had gone from not being able to anticipate any of his strikes to being able to block all of them. Even strikes that came from behind. For today's session he had upped the challenge, tying a blindfold over her eyes. According to Takeshi this would be the real test. If she could block all of his strikes whilst blindfolded, then she would be ready for the next step.

Of course, in true Takeshi style, he hadn't told her what the next step was.

Maya let go of her senses and sank into her centre. The blindfold became irrelevant, the cold air on her skin faded, the hunger in her belly quieted. She entered the 'empty space' that Takeshi had taught her, where her thoughts were calm and clear, where she could choose to feel or ignore them. Crack!

She moved without conscious thought, shifting into the correct position to block the strike Takeshi had aimed at her ribs.

She felt like she was dancing with him, a dance of life and death, a dance of harmony and conflict. He would strike, and she would counter, he would feint, and she would parry. No thinking, no doubting, just flowing from one movement to the next.

They must have been going for a good twenty minutes before Takeshi finally called a halt.

"You did good."

"I did?"

"You did."

"So, what's the next step?"

He grinned wolfishly.

"The empty space, the centre of your being. That is where people go when they meditate. You must practise allowing yourself to fall into it and back out of it again. Not just when you are anticipating a fight, but always. That is when you will have achieved true mastery."

"So, no more fighting?"

He laughed.

"We will still fight. I will teach you some more moves, we will continue with the quarterstaff for now. Once you've mastered that we will move on to eskrima sticks."

"What about teaching me to enter and leave my empty space."

"It is not something that can be taught, only something that can be learned."

"That's confusing."

"You have found your empty space; you have learnt to enter it and you can bring yourself out of it when instructed to. You must practice falling into and rising out of it until it becomes second nature. It is useful always, not just when you anticipate a fight."

"So, practice?"

"Yes, always you must practice. Even when you have learned something you must practice it always. Else you will forget." He tapped his staff against the ground, "Now, how about we try an attack defence combo for staff-fighting?"

Maya grinned and nodded.


Maggie glanced around, making sure Maya wasn't in earshot before turning back to the brothers.

"So, she looked exactly like Katherine?"

"Yeah, it was weird."

Damon nodded in agreement with Stefan. It had been eerie, how much the girl looked like Katherine, completely identical, right down to the tilt of her eyes. They could have been twins, if not for the fact that they'd been born five hundred years apart.

"And you're absolutely certain she wasn't Katherine?"

"I've been back a few times to investigate…"

Damon turned to his brother in astonishment.

"You have?"

"Yeah. You were clearly busy get everything sorted with MACUSA, so I went back to Mystic Falls and did some digging."

"Why?"

"I wanted to make sure it wasn't some elaborate trick on Katherine's part, and there was… I dunno how to explain it, there was just something about her."

Damon carefully studied Stefan. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was, but there was something off about what he'd just said. He could understand his brother being intrigued by the mystery behind a girl who looked exactly like their ex. What he didn't understand was the whole 'there was just something about her' thing. What interactions had Stefan had with this girl to be so drawn to her, other than saving her from drowning.

"So, what did you find out?" Enzo asked.

"Her name is Elena Gilbert, she grew up in Mystic Falls, I've seen photos so she's definitely human and definitely not Katherine."

"There's got to be some connection though, some tie to Katherine." Maggie said.

"She could be a descendant from some relative of Katherine's. Going by the records I found she was adopted, but I have no idea who her birth parents were, so that was a dead-end. I mean the resemblance is uncanny so there has to be some genetic component to it."

"What's this Elena like? Is she as much of a manipulative bitch as Katherine?"

Stefan glared at him.

"I haven't spoken to her yet…"

Damon scoffed.

"… but from all accounts she's a good person. The few people I did speak to described her as a star student. Popular, sporty, smart, compassionate, empathetic, caring, and friendly, were some of the ways she was described."

"That's not a no."

"It's not a yes either!" Stefan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Look Damon, I know how you feel about Katherine, but Elena's not her."

"This isn't about Katherine! This is about you becoming obsessed over a girl you don't even know."

"I'm not obsessed! I was just curious."

"Curious about what?"

Four heads swivelled towards Maya, none of them sure just when she had entered the room.

"Remember I told you about that car crash in Mystic Falls last month?"

"The one that went into the river?"

"Yes. Stefan was…"

"I was curious to know what had happened to the two people we pulled out alive." Stefan interjected, as angry as he was at Damon, he didn't want his brother to be the one lying to Maya.

"Oh. What did happen to them?"

"Well, the girl I pulled out was released from hospital the next day."

"What about the person Damon saved?"

"She's in a coma. Damon managed to get her breathing again, but neither of us realised that she'd hit her head rather badly when the crash occurred, and well, she hasn't woken up yet."

"Will she wake up?"

"The doctors don't seem to think it's likely."

"Oh." Maya threw her arms around Damon and hugged him tightly. "You tried. Dobby says dinners ready."

Maggie waited till Maya had skipped out of the room heading back to the dining room before speaking.

"You haven't told her?"

"There's nothing really to tell!" Stefan defended.

Damon just sighed.

"Katherine's written to her twice since December."

"Saying what?"

"Nothing really, the first one she apologised in case she'd scared Maya, and the second one wished her luck in her exams. I have no idea why Katherine's showing such an interest in Maya, and I didn't want to say too much about Mystic Falls in case it was some elaborate plot on Katherine's part."

"You're going to have to tell her at some point mate."

"I know."

"You're sure she's just some human who's distantly related to Katherine?"

"Positive."

"Then I'll tell her over dinner and explain why I didn't mention it before now."


Over the past year the Enchanted Bean had become a favourite spot for Maya, Kamala and Sora. They'd spent many Saturday afternoons there, sipping drinks, doing homework, and chatting about everything from magic to movies, whilst there accompanying adults gathered together at another table. studying and hanging out together. Whilst there accompanying adults got together for coffee and gossip at one of the other tables, Muneeba, Mio, and Damon, had built just as strong a friendship as their kids had. So much so, that even though they all agreed that their kids were sensible enough, and would soon all be old enough to start coming on their own, they probably wouldn't, because it gave them a good excuse to get together as well.

As soon as they entered the café, Maya gave Damon a quick hug and darted off to join her friends as their favourite indoor table. They had a favourite outdoor table as well but given the pouring rain, they'd all agreed over texts that inside was best. Kamala had been the first to arrive today and had quickly snagged their chosen spot, it was in the rainforest room, so called because it was decorated with images from the rainforest. Monkey's swung from tree to tree, snakes slithered through the branches, and jaguars prowled through the underbrush as tropical birds swooped overhead. All three girls loved its bright decorations, and it didn't hurt that it was on the opposite side of the café to the galaxy room that the adults favoured.

"What do you two know about people who are identical twins but probably aren't related? At least not closely related." Maya asked as soon as they'd exchanged greetings.

"What you mean like Ikiryō?"

"Maybe, what are Ikiryō?"

Sora let out a gentle huff at the blank expressions on her friends faces, it was times like this when she remembered that neither of them had grown up in the magical world. Though to be fair Ikiryō were a fairly uncommon phenomenon, and she wasn't sure what the word translated to in English.

"Let's order, and then I will tell you."

Maya had a quick flick through the menu and decided she wanted to try the Rainbow Splash today, partly because it looked tasty, and partly because she wanted to see Damon's face when she came back with multi-coloured hair. It wouldn't last longer than twenty-four hours, but it would be a fun twenty-four hours. She ordered a small cauldron cake to go with it, having not long eaten lunch she wasn't particularly hungry. Sora also ordered a cauldron cake along with a butterbeer, whilst Kamala decided to get a slice of chocolate cake and a cup of Dreamcatcher tea.

Their order appeared on the table as soon as they'd placed it, and Maya took a sip of her fruity drink before turning her attention back to Sora. Kamala let out a little giggle at the streaks of blue and violet that had begun to appear in Maya's hair, but she too kept her attention on Sora, who insisted on taking a bite of cake and a sip of butterbeer before starting.

"Ikiryō is when a person feels such a strong emotion that their soul is expelled from their body and reappears in an ethereal form. It haunts places or people, sometimes across great distances, wandering until its owner finds peace, only then can it return to its body."

"Huh. I don't think this is an Ikiryō. I think this is something different, I'm sure there's a name for it, I just cant remember what it is."

"What do you mean?" Kamala asked as she dug into her cake, "What happened to make you so interested?"

"So, remember I told you about Katherine?"

They both nodded, remembering Maya's explanation of why their shopping trip over the winter break had been cut short.

"Well Damon and Stefan went back to Mystic Falls last month, that's the town they grew up in, to lay flowers on their mum's grave. While they were there, they saw this car crash into the river so they both jumped in to save the occupants. Well apparently, the girl Stefan pulled out was the spitting image of Katherine, only she's completely human."

"Maybe they're related."

"That's what Stefan and Damon both said. Isn't it weird though, that they look so alike when, even if they are related, there's like five hundred years between them? Wouldn't the genetics become more watered down as time passed?"

"It's kind of weird."

"Not necessarily. Pigs share the most genetics with humans, we have about 98% of our DNA sequence in common. Genetics behave oddly sometimes."

Sora sighed at the confused look her best friends bestowed on her.

"We're related to pigs?"

"Honestly Kamala, didn't you pay any attention when we went to the Hall of Science last month?"

"I don't remember anyone mentioning we were related to pigs."

"Neither do I."

"You'd gone to the loo."

"Oh! I remember why I don't remember now."

"Did that sentence make sense to you?" Maya teased.

"Hush!"

Sora and Maya both began to giggle as Kamala shook her head in mock disappointment.

"I don't know why I put up with you two."

"Because you love us."

"Because we're the only ones who can understand you when you get excited." Maya suggested.

All three of them erupted into laughter, their earlier conversation, not forgotten, but shelved for now in favour of teasing each other.


Dear Aunt Cissa,

Thanks for your last letter. The lavender shortbread biscuits you sent were lovely thank you, I can see why they are your favourites, please pass on my compliments to Kreacher. Give my greetings to Lord Malfoy, I hope you're both well. Many thanks for your suggestions on interior decorators for the London Townhouse. Kalital has helped me to arrange for some quotes from the people you suggested and once we have all those, I will probably make a decision. I think neutral colours would be best for now, what do you think?

School finished for the year last month. Lexi and Stefan took me to a Bon Jovi concert to celebrate the end of my exams. There a muggle rock band that the two of them are very fond of, they've been going to Bon Jovi concerts since 1987. It was a lot of fun, Damon accused them of corrupting me with their awful music choices, but he laughed as he said it, so I know he didn't really mind. He took me to see another Broadway musical to celebrate how well I did (A's and B's across the board which would be O's and EE's at Hogwarts). It was called Wicked, and it's based on this old story called the Wizard of Oz, I enjoyed it a lot, I especially liked Elphaba the main character. She was a witch and everybody in Oz thought she was really wicked, but she was really a good person. Damon got me a mug, a jumper, and a flying monkey toy as souvenirs.

We spent the last month in Florida, Damon and Stefan took me there on holiday, Maggie and Enzo, and Lexi and Lee joined us on the weekends. We spent the first two weeks in Orlando going to all the theme parks; Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld, and Legoland. It was loads of fun, we went on so many rides, and we got to swim with dolphins and feed some penguins which was awesome. I want to be an astronaut, but if I didn't, I think I might like working with animals, especially penguins, there really cute.

We spent a week visiting the state parks. We went hiking a lot, which was Stefan's idea because Damon doesn't really like hiking. I got a lot of pictures and I got to talk to a lot of snakes, it's funny to watch Stefan get all twitchy when I talk to snakes. He says he's worried they might bite me, but I think he's scared of them. I got to talk to an alligator as well, we went kayaking and there was an alligator on the bank of the river, it's a bit different to talking to snakes but it was fun. I couldn't pronounce her name properly, but I asked if I could call her Verde, because she was this really bright green and she said yes.

She was only three years old, and she'd just moved into the territory we found her in a few weeks ago, apparently alligators live with their mums until they're three. Verde said it was time for her to claim her own territory and look for a mate, she wanted to know when I would seek a mate of my own, but I told her I wasn't old enough which she seemed to find very funny. It was really cool talking to an alligator, I'm trying to persuade Damon to take me to a Dragon Sanctuary, Mr Crowley says I will be able to talk to dragons as well, but that they tend to speak in this really archaic dialect. Damon hasn't said yes yet, but I think he will.

Our last week was spent in Cape Canaveral which is where the Kennedy Space Center is located. It was absolutely amazing! Damon arranged for us to have a private tour of the Space Center, and I got to chat with a real-life astronaut who'd been to space and everything! It was so great. We did the Astronaut training experience as well, they gave us actual astronaut training, we got to experience microgravity like we would if we were walking on Mars! And we took part in this simulation experience, I got to fly the rocket! It was just a simulation, but it was so cool! We also went to this place called the Dinosaur Store which had lots of dinosaur fossils. I think dinosaurs were a bit like dragons, so I'd probably be able to talk to them too if they were still around. We did other stuff as well, but the Space Center and the Dinosaur Store were definitely the coolest! Damon is the best guardian ever!

I've enclosed loads of photos from our trip to Florida, hope you like them!

Lots of Love,

Maya.