June was approaching and with it end-of-the-year exams and summer holidays. Arielle finally discovered just what her father’s cloak did after putting it on one night and realizing that she was invisible. It seemed as if it was an Invisibility Cloak. They were really rare and hard to find. With her cloak she could go everywhere in Hogwarts, especially when she also realized that the Marauder’s Map that the twins gave her for Christmas showed where everyone at Hogwarts was at the particular moment and what they were doing. The map was also her legacy, so to speak, since she recognized the names on it from the start. It was made by her father and his friends. She cherished the gift all the more because of it.

She had gathered enough courage and went off exploring Hogwarts at night with the help of her cloak and map. She had almost bumped into professor Quirrell and watched with fascination as he was accosted by her Papa and threatened. She cheered for her Papa silently, before she hid in one of the rooms on her right, so that they wouldn’t discover that she was there. She found herself in a bare room that held nothing but a big mirror with dust all over it. She shed her cloak and put the map on it, but not before checking if someone was near and then muttering the closing incantation under her breath as she tapped it with her wand.

She walked closer to the mirror and with a swish of her wand and the incantation, “Ventis,” she dusted the mirror off, as the incantation made wind to come out of her wand’s tip. She gazed at the mirror with wide eyes and saw that there was something written on top of it. The inscription said ‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’ and she so totally didn’t understand what it meant. She turned away from the mirror, but not before she caught a glimpse of it in one of the windows opposite her. Her eyes widened as she turned back to the mirror and read it backwards. Now it said ‘Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire’. I show not your face, but your heart’s desire. So, this was the Mirror or Erised that she had read about somewhere in the library when she read about Wizarding Devices. She knew that if she looked in the mirror that she would see what her heart wanted most. If she was the happiest girl on the world, she would see only herself. With a gulp, she decided that even if the Hat didn’t consider her a Gryffindor, she had enough courage to face whatever she most wanted. She put her feet in front of the mirror, closed her eyes for a bit and with a deep breath opened them again as she looked up to the mirror.

At first there was nothing, but then the mirror shimmered for a bit and she saw a girl that looked like her standing with a tall man who had his arms around her shoulders. She recognized professor Snape, but didn’t know who the girl was, until the girl smiled at her and opened her eyes. She gasped as she realized that she was looking at herself standing with Severus. She watched with fascination at the Arielle in the mirror. The girl seemed different from her somehow. And then she knew why. She looked more like Severus Snape than James Potter. Did that mean she wanted to be his daughter for real? It must have been so. She put her hand on the mirror and gasped when she saw several more figures appear in it. Her late parents joined them and looked at her with love and pride in their eyes. When James Potter looked at Severus, there was no hate in his eyes however, but only gratefulness. Uncle Padfoot joined them and looked at Severus Snape with the same look in their eyes. She stepped back in shock and then stumbled over her feet as she went crashing down on the floor with wide open mouth.

Her heart squeezed painfully as she realized what she just saw. She wanted her parents and Uncles to not push her away because she wanted to be Severus’s daughter for real. She knew that Uncle Padfoot had a really big grudge on Severus, because her memories came back with Occlumency. She remembered him raging about someone called Snivellus when she was a baby. She realized that this was probably a nickname for Severus. She closed her eyes as she stood up. What she saw completely confused and shook her. Putting on her cloak again she activated the map and went off to her dormitory in the Ravenclaw Common Room. She knew that she won’t return to the room ever again.

She dedicated all of herself into her studies, to forget the scene she saw in the Mirror, to no avail. If she didn’t think of it at day light, she had nightmares about her parents’ death at night. She tried to occlude her mind every night, but the nightmares still slipped through. She grew more distant from all of her friends and family as well, which worried everyone around her. Finally, the last day of the exams came and Arielle found herself walking the corridors with her head low. As she wasn’t watching where she was going, she bumped into someone. Before she could fall down however, a hand on her shoulder prevented it. She quickly apologized and looked up. She was surprised to see Grandpa looking at her in concern. She felt someone gently entering her mind – she wouldn’t have noticed it if Severus didn’t teach her Occlumency and quickly put her shields up. The presence disappeared and Grandpa was watching her with pride. But he still looked worried about something and it looked like he was in a hurry. She asked him,

“Where are you going, Grandpa?”

Albus Dumbledore sighed as he explained that he was called to the Ministry of Magic. It seemed as if it was urgent and that he would return tomorrow. She gulped when she heard that and immediately knew that this was the night. She hugged him one last time before she waved at him until he left her sight. She kicked the stone on the floor and looked morosely at her fingers. She had to do it. She didn’t want to do it, but she had to.

When night fell, she sneaked out of the Ravenclaw Common Room – this time without her cloak and map. She just stepped on the staircases that lead the way to the third floor when someone pulled her back. She almost yelled out in surprise, but a hand came on her mouth and muffled her voice. She looked frantically around her to see who was holding her and sighed in relief when she saw that it was only Cedric. Behind Cedric was Neville who was watching her with a determined expression in his eyes. She gulped. They knew what she was up to. She opened her mouth to say something, when Cedric interrupted her,

“I don’t know what goes on in that pretty head of yours, but you’re not going there alone.”

That shut her up. She couldn’t believe she really heard what she heard. She really wanted to clean her ears now, to be sure. She gaped at him and when he nodded solemnly, she smiled at him in relief and hugged him for all he was worth. She hugged Neville too. They were the best friends anyone could ask for, and she told them that. That left the two Hufflepuffs blushing furiously, until she asked them if they were really sure about that. After receiving a nod from the both of them, she led the way to the forbidden corridor.

The stairs deposited them on the third floor and she opened the door to the corridor with a beating heart. She silently apologized to her Papa and everyone that cared about her and entered with a determined expression. As quickly as she could, she started singing a lullaby that she remembered her mother singing to her as she opened the doors that held the three-headed dog. Cedric and Neville entered behind her, wands drawn just in case the dog wasn’t sleeping. But they were both wrong. For the dog was already asleep, a harp playing a soothing melody not far from him. Arielle quickly opened the trapdoor and after looking at Neville and Cedric one last time, jumped in. She landed on something soft, but didn’t have any time to think about what she landed on as Cedric and Neville fell down on the thing as well.

She tried to move her legs to stand up when she realized that the legs were covered with slimy weeds. She looked curiously at Neville and Cedric and realized that they were both covered with the thing as well. Suddenly Neville exclaimed,

“It’s a Devil’s Snare! Calm yourselves down and it’ll let go of us. If we move around too much it’s going to kill us.”

That really was a comforting idea, but Arielle didn’t have time to panic. She closed her eyes and occluded her mind so that she was completely relaxed. She felt the wines deposit her on something hard and opened her eyes. She was free. She quickly stood up and waited for her two best friends to come down as well. A few minutes later, they were making their way to the doors on the other side of the chamber they were in. A flutter of movement made them stop as they listened to the sound in the next chamber.

“It sounds like birds,” Cedric mentioned. Arielle nodded and opened the door with determination. But as she quickly saw, those weren’t birds at all. They were keys. She ran to the door on the other side of the chamber and after trying every unlocking spell she knew, she gave up and looked at the keys again. Then she noticed that there were brooms as well. She and Cedric looked at each other and she knew he knew what they were supposed to do. She looked at the lock again and shouted out,

“We need an old looking one, probably a big silver one.”

She looked in the air and tried to find the key, while Cedric mounted the broom. He wasn’t the Hufflepuff Seeker for nothing after all. She quickly pointed the key with a squashed wing out and off he was. Almost ten minutes later he threw the key in Arielle’s hands and quickly dismounted the broomstick. The lock clicked when she put the key in and they were in the next chamber. It was dark and it looked like a graveyard of some sorts. But when they came to the centre of the chamber light flared up and they realized that they were on a Chessboard. A giant chessboard. She gulped. She was no good at chess. She looked frantically around herself as she tried to see what they could do now, when she heard Cedric mutter,

“Ah, we have to play ourselves to the other side. How ingenious.”

She looked at him in confusion and he smiled at her gently,

“Take the Rook on the left side, Elle. Neville, you take the Bishop on the right. I’ll be a Knight.”

She couldn’t feel happier when she realized that not only did Cedric know how to play chess, he was great at it! The moves he did were brilliant and he took out more pieces than the two of them combined. It wasn’t until she heard him sigh that she realized what he was about to do. Her heart clenched as she shouted out,

“No, Cedric! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it!”

He looked at her with a small smile on his face as Neville joined the pleading. He looked to the queen again and with a strong voice said,

“You know what to do, Elle. When the Queen takes me, you’re free to checkmate the King.” He gave her his famous kind smile and added, “Don’t worry about little ole me. I’ll be fine.”

With that he turned and gave an order to his Knight and Arielle could just watch as he was hit and thrown to the floor. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. She couldn’t watch it. She heard Neville sob and slowly opened her eyes again. She moved the required amount of places and whispered, “Checkmate,” to the King. She watched as his giant sword fell down on the floor and as soon as the clang calmed down she went flying to Cedric along with Neville. She pulled his head on her lap as Neville pulled out some bandages from his pocket and with a whispered incantation, the bandages were wet. He gave one to Arielle and she gently patted his wound with it, trying not to hurt him too much. She heard Neville sigh as he quietly said,

“You go on ahead, Elle. I know it’s your destiny to do it. I believe in you and Cedric does too. Just take care and come back to us, okay?”

She nodded with tears flowing down her cheeks. She looked at Cedric and then said, “Please go and tell professor Snape what happened after he wakes up. He’ll know what to do.” With that she stood up, but not before she put a small kiss on Neville’s cheek and a gentle one on Cedric’s forehead. She waved at the two of them as she went through the doors. A disgusting smell assaulted her as soon as she opened the door and she saw that the troll she was supposed to fight was already knocked unconscious. There was a gaping hole in his head and she tried hard not to be sick at the sight of the brains scattered around the room. She quickly entered the next chamber and came to a stop. There were several potions bottles and a piece of parchment. She picked up the parchment and read it.

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,
One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end,
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

She recognized the scrawl immediately and smiled. It was Papa’s. She read the logic puzzle again and slowly tried to decipher the meanings. Finally she grinned as she knew the answer. Putting the rounded bottle that was the potion to bring her back, she picked up the smallest bottle next and drank it before she lost her wits. The potion caused her to shudder as she felt as if ice flew through her veins, but stepped forward and through the flames. She closed her eyes and opened them once she knew that she was out of danger and not in the flames anymore.

She grinned to herself as she saw professor Quirrell already there muttering to himself about something. Her heart clenched as she realized in front of what he was standing. She had just enough time to dodge, when the professor suddenly turned around and sent roped flying towards her. She quickly cried out the Shielding Charm as a Petrification Spell was sent her way. She didn’t count on the red stream of light coming out of the professor’s wand quietly and as she didn’t know what the spell was, and didn’t have time to dodge, she felt her body grow stiff as she fell to her right hard.

Professor Quirrell laughed cruelly and turned his attention back to the mirror muttering something about imbecilic girls and the Stone being in the mirror. She suddenly realized that the professor wasn’t stuttering and knew right away that it was only an act. She tried to crawl as fast as possible so that she could see herself in the mirror for professor Quirrell started going on about breaking the mirror and seeing if the Stone fell out. She sneered in the rope that was around her mouth. How stupid can one get? Finally she could see her outline in the mirror and stared at it, wanting to find the Stone as quickly as possible. She was shocked when she saw herself stand up and free herself from the ropes that were around her body. The other her winked and grinned at her and pulled something out of the inner pocket on her robe. It was a ruby stone that gleamed in the firelight, before putting it back. Suddenly Arielle felt something hard in the pocket and opened her eyes wide. She knew that somehow, she had the stone in her pocket now. The girl in the mirror winked one more time and disappeared. Suddenly she was brought back to the reality as she heard that creepy voice telling professor Quirrell to use her to get to the Stone. She gulped and as soon as she was released tried to scamper back to the flames that guarded the exit from the room. Her body went rigid as she was put under the Locomotor Mortis spell and pulled towards the mirror. Quirrell yelled at her to look in the mirror and tell him what she saw. She occluded her mind then and looked in the mirror again.

“I see myself wearing the Head Girl badge!” she lied through her teeth. She smiled dreamily to increase the effect. Quirrell shouted at her again and she was flung against the wall where she tried to stop her eyes rolling to the back of her head. She heard a crash and knew that the Mirror of Erised was no more. Suddenly she felt her scar burn and she knew that Voldemort came out. She dared a look at professor Quirrell and saw him pulling the turban down. She almost puked out the dinner she had when she saw what was at the back of his head.

It was Lord Voldemort.

She saw his red eyes turn to her as he hissed, “Arielle Potter… See what I’ve become? A mere shadow and vapour… I have to posses another man’s body to take shape. The Unicorn Blood I’ve been taking for the past few weeks strengthened me and the Elixir of Life will help me get my body back… Now, why don’t you tell me where the Stone is, before I kill you?”

She gulped and then realized with a jolt, that Lord Voldemort didn’t know she had the Stone. She shook her head as she stood up and walked back into the wall. “Never, I’ll never help you Voldemort!” she shouted at him.

“Why should I? You killed my parents! Why should I help you get your body back, you parasite?”

She heard him chuckle slightly and then there was no air in her lungs as professor Quirrell’s hands were around her throat. She scratched at him as she tried to gulp as much air as possible. She heard him yell out suddenly and saw him watching his arms with shock. They had blisters and were turning to dust. She looked at her own arms and came to a decision. She threw herself forward and put both her arms on the professor’s face, hearing her own yell in his screams, for her scar was threatening to split open, it burnt so much.

And then, darkness took her.