James, Rose, Albus, and I spent every moment we could poring over every book in the library about recent history. For three days, we basically lived in the library. We snuck food in during our lunch periods, and Scorpius, Arthur, and Luna seemed to have a system worked out to take turns bringing us dinner. The only reason we showed up to breakfast was to collect the newspapers.

Tuesday, I was taking a quick break to stretch my legs. You wouldn't believe how cramped you get after sitting hunched in a chair for hours. I was still seeing letters, and I had to blink several times before my vision cleared.

While I was trying to see again, I didn't pay much attention to where I was walking and tripped over step. I didn't fall on the floor, though. No, I fell on something much worse.

Someone, that is.

"Get off me!" Ciara quickly shoved me away and stood up. She dusted herself off as I picked myself up. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," I muttered, not feeling very sorry at all.

"You should be."

"Okay, fine, I'm not, then."

Ciara glared at me. "Prat."

I crossed my arms. "Takes one to know one."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you're very proud of that one. It take you a whole year to think of?"

"As if."

"Well, maybe it didn't, since you've spent every day in the library since we got here." She frowned at me suspiciously. "What are you doing in there? Making out with James Potter every afternoon?"

All right. There was a line, and she had just crossed it. I pulled my wand out and pointed it at her. It was maybe an inch away from her nose. "Take it back!"

"No."

Fine. I'd just hex her, then. "Everte Statum!"

Ciara was thrown backwards. Which would have been fine, if she hadn't fallen directly onto Professor Potter.

"What's going on?" He helped Ciara to her feet, then frowned at me. I smiled weakly.

"Astra hexed me, sir!" Ciara said, suddenly acting incredibly innocent and victimized.

Professor Potter sighed. "Yes, I saw that. Are you all right?"

Ciara nodded, eyes wide. She was very good at playing a traumatized victim. "I could have died."

"No, you could not have died," Professor Potter said sternly. "And I don't want you telling people that. You can go now, Ms. Malfoy." Ciara sent one last glare in my direction before walking away.

"Astra, why did you do that?"

I shrugged. "She was being a prat..." No way was I going to repeat what she'd said. For one thing, I didn't even know if James and Albus had told their dad why they'd been spending so much time in the library.

"Hexing other students isn't allowed." I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. It was allowed, as long as you didn't get caught. Anyway, according to James and Albus, Mr. Potter spent quite a lot of his time at Hogwarts hexing people. Mr. Malfoy, for instance.

"Astra, I know you're better than this," he said kindly. I looked down, my face heating up. That was it. Right there. That was how to make me feel bad about doing something. "Next time, just walk away, all right? I suppose I'll take five points from Gryffindor..." He sounded very reluctant about that.

I sighed. Perfect. To my knowledge, I'd just lost Gryffindor's first points of the year.

The week did not improve by Thursday. By then, I could tell Albus was getting ready to quit researching. Even Rose, who loved reading, looked a little queasy at the sight of the pile of books we had yet to go through.

I was about to suggest we turn in for the night when James jumped up, knocking his chair over. Rose glared at him. "James, we are in a li-"

"I found him!"

Immediately, everything else - sleep, food, my overwhelming urge to set a torch to the stack of books in front of us - all vanished. Albus, Rose, and I crossed around James. He was pointing at a passage in a huge, fairly new-looking book.

Chapter 9
Haughland Family Murder

The Haughland family, a family of halfblood witches and wizards from all over New England, had gathered for their annual family reunion. Little did they know it would be their last. The family was brutally murdered by a group of four wizards and witches. The only survivors were the three youngest, babies who had been napping at the time and thus were not found by the murderers. The culprits have been identified as Isaac Predatel, Semias Hart, and Alistair and Vane Hellion.

"Is there more?" Rose asked. The chapter was going on to talk about Semias Hart.

James flipped the page, scanned it, then flipped another. "Here."

Isaac Predatel had a wife and an infant daughter at the time of the crime. He was described by his wife, Katreena Predatel (née Pole) as a "loving husband and father to our daughter, Wren." She claimed that she had no idea why he would do such a thing. With no evidence that Katreena was in on the plot, authorities let her go free. Her husband was sentenced to life in prison, though many clamored for death by dementor's kiss.

Like the others, Predatel wouldn't answer questions. However, he did claim to be the group's leader. It is unknown whether he meant the group of apprehended murderers, or a larger, more secretive group. Several conspiracy theories have arisen based on his words.

This has been labeled one of the worst mass murders in the wizarding world in the twenty-first century.

"Wow." I glanced up at my friends, whose faces showed varying degrees of shock.

"That's awful..."

"Hey, we know more now, though," James said. "Wren's mom's name was Katreena
Pole."

"And her dad could be the leader of a group of psychopaths," I said, frowning.

"Yeah... Yeah, there's that, too..."

"Let's focus on the 'Pole' part," Rose suggested. "Wren said her grandparents went to Hogwarts. So, there's either a Predatel or a Pole somewhere in the records."

"And who is going to let us read the records?"

"We could ask your dad," I suggested.

Albus shook his head. "Bad idea."

"Really bad idea," James said. "He told me he doesn't want us obsessing over this."

"A bit too late for that," I observed.

"Let's ask Madam Pince about it, then," Rose said, standing up.

James and I exchanged a glance, then I smiled sweetly at Rose. "How about you do that?"

Rose immediately frowned. "Why can't you come, too?"

"It's Madam Pince..."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll go by myself." She stayed put a minute longer, then grabbed Albus's arm. "You're coming with me, though."

"Kind of defeats the purpose of going by yourself," James muttered as Rose dragged Albus over to the librarian's desk.

I reached past him and picked up the book. Modern Magical Malefactors. I quickly jotted down the title on a slip of paper and tucked it into my pocket. We might need the book again later.

It was about twenty minutes before Rose and Albus came back. They were staggering under the weight of four huge, old books which were almost as big as a small child.

"Here we go. Everyone take a decade," Rose ordered. She shoved one book towards me, and Al pushed another to James.

I opened the book to the front page.

Hogwarts Student Records
1960-1969

I sighed. This would be at least a couple thousand students I'd have to go through. Wonderful.

One of the first things I noticed was that not only did the records contain a list of every student and their House and year, but also a list of all of the House points each student earned and lost, and every award or recognition they received. At least it was in alphabetical order. I flipped through the 1960 part until I reached the P's.

After a while, I determined that there were no Pole in that year.

Slowly, I worked my way through 1961 and 1962. A few names caught my attention, like Bellatrix Black (I shuddered just seeing her name), Arthur Weasley (James and Al's grandfather, I thought), and Lucius Malfoy. Proof that all these people existed beyond being grandparents. Or existed at all, in Bellatrix's case.

1963, I finally found something.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. 1st year.
Points gained: 32. Points lost: 0

I smiled. Finally.

Quickly, I flipped to the next year. Caleb must have come back. And there he was again.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Second year.
Points gained: 48. Points lost: 2 - hexed Narcissa Black.

Wren's ancestors and Ciara's didn't get along? How perfect!

I kept reading.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Third year.
Points gained: 67. Points lost: 20 - Called Emerald Tyler a "Mudblood."

Oh... That wasn't good. Not good at all.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Fourth year.
Points gained: 43. Points lost: 3 - setting fireworks off in hall (spelled "Can we go steady, Amerda?"); 5 - Disrupted class by starting fight with Lucius Malfoy.

Well, that's lovely. Maybe Amerda was the girl he ended up marrying? I was pretty sure "go steady" meant "date" in the sixties.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Fifth year.
Points gained: 37. Points lost: 10 - PDA with Amerda Stillens.

I wondered if that was the same Amerda. And what exactly did they mean by "PDA"? Holding hands? Full out snogging in the Great Hall? Not incredibly specific.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Sixth year.
Points gained: 23. Points lost: 10 - called Xenophilius Lovegood and Arthur Weasley "blood traitors" and hexed them; 10 - PDA with Amerda Stillens; 10 - PDA with Amerda Stillens; 30 - consistent PDA with Amerda Stillens.

Well, that was lovely.

Caleb Pole. Ravenclaw. Seventh year.
Points gained: 17. Points lost: 30 - consistent PDA with the ever-available Amerda Stillens.

Based on all the PDA, I decided it was a safe assumption that Caleb Pole married this Amerda Stillens.

Rose closed her book with a sigh. "Nothing!"

"Same here," James said.

"This is stupid," Albus said, slumping back in his seat.

I suddenly realized that I probably should have told them when I first found Caleb's name. I felt my face heat up. "I found something..."

"Oh, great!" All three quickly crowded around as I flipped back to Caleb Pole's first year. I pointed out each successive year, then we searched for Amerda Stillens. She was also in Ravenclaw, and her points reflected Caleb's fairly consistently.

"There's a start!" James said, grinning. "We know something now!"

"Can we be done for today, then?" Rose asked. "I promised Iris I'd help her with the Transfiguration assignment."

James shrugged. "I guess. We might as well."

"I'll stay," I said suddenly. I wasn't even sure why. I just didn't want to leave, not now, not when I had just learned more about who Wren was.

"I'll stay with you," Albus offered immediately.

I shook my head. "That's okay, Al. I need time to think, I guess."

"All right, seeya, then," he said. My friends stood up and filed out of the library, leaving me alone. I sat back in my chair. When I closed my eyes, I could see white pages, with black words. It slowly faded, though. We'd been doing basically nothing except reading for three days. It felt nice to relax.

I couldn't relax for long. The records were really interesting. I flipped through them, my eyes catching interesting names. It was strange. You could almost paint a picture of some of the students based on what was written in the "Points Lost" section.

Arthur Weasley got in trouble a few times for hexing future Death Eaters. In his seventh year, he also lost a few points to PDA with a Molly Prewett.

Lucius Malfoy seemed a thousand times worse than Ciara. By fifth year, he'd lost countless points for calling people Mudbloods or blood traitors and hexing them.

Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Andromeda Black were all surprisingly different. While Bellatrix lost House points regularly for various fights and name-calling, her sisters were all good students, at least in the sixties.

I was almost asleep before I realized how late it was. 10:00? Already past curfew. I jumped to my feet and stumbled out of the library. I didn't really care to lose any more points this week. Stifling a yawn, I wandered down the hallways.

Wait, this isn't right.

I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. This wasn't the way to Gryffindor Tower. I started to backtrack, but I was too tired to figure out exactly where I was. Finally, it occurred to my exhausted brain to open one of the classroom doors and see what part of the castle I was in. I walked over to the closest door and opened it enough to peek my head through.

For a moment, I thought it was empty, which was discouraging. But... It seemed vaguely familiar... Had I been here before? I took a tentative step forward, then another, and my eyes alighted on a mirror.

The mirror.

I remembered this. I'd promised I would stay away. But suddenly, I was filled with an overwhelming longing to see my family in the mirror again. Maybe they weren't real. Maybe they were only phantoms of my imagination, shadows of my wishes. But it surely couldn't hurt to have one last look. Right...?

"Only for a minute," I muttered as I walked, almost against my will, towards the Mirror of Erised.

I stepped in front of it, expecting to see the faces that had filled my dreams regularly materialize in the mirror.

But they didn't come.

Instead, something else that I'd dreamed about almost as frequently appeared.

Someone, that is.

I stared into the familiar blue eyes of Wren Predatel.

She looked just like I remembered her. Brown hair, cut off above her shoulders. A slight smile on her face. Small and frail. And completely innocent.

Why did that have to change? Why did my friend have to leave? Why did my image of her have to be destroyed by what she did?

This isn't real, a bitter voice in my head whispered. She's not your friend. She never was.

A recurring theme in my thoughts. I seemed to bounce back and forth between those two opposites.

She was your friend.

She wasn't.

She cared.

She didn't.

And I didn't know what to believe.

But for now, here she was, the way I wanted to remember her. And that was fine with me. Maybe... Maybe I could stay just a few more minutes...

Seconds later, I felt someone shake my arm. I jumped, and quickly looked away from the mirror. James and Albus were standing next to me, looking concerned.

"Astra...? Are you okay?" James asked slowly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. I hadn't even been here that long. How did they find me already?

Albus looked unconvinced as he said, "You were crying..."

"What? No, I wasn't." I quickly lifted my hand to feel my eyes. And they weren't dry. When had I started crying?

"Astra, we've been calling your name for about ten minutes..." James slowly grabbed my head and led me away from the mirror.

"That can't be possible," I said slowly. "I've only been here about a minute..." But I wasn't so sure that that was true anymore.

Albus shook his head. "It's been a lot longer than that."

"What did you see?" James asked, glancing over his shoulder at the mirror.

"Oh, you know..." I really didn't want them worry. And I knew that was exactly what they'd do if I told them the truth. "My family, again."

James blinked, then looked slightly hurt. I immediately felt bad. He could see through my lie, obviously. "Really?"

"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile onto my face. I quickly rubbed my tears away. "I'm fine, really."

Albus glanced uncertainly at James. "Okay..."

James shrugged. "Well... All right, then." He smiled at me, but I could tell it was forced. "Let's just go back to the common room, all right? It's past midnight."'

I nodded, and James threw the Cloak over the three of us. We walked up to the common room in silence, and I quickly said goodnight before running upstairs. I was in great danger of crying again, but I managed to keep my emotions under control until I reached the safety of my pillow.

~~~~

I don't think I will change the name, it's good enough I suppose. Anyway, I don't want to give Hannah Sue (hannahsue--) extra work!

Also I'd like to give shawnschocomuffin a shoutout for making my day! She told me that, "I'm still so amazed by ur writing bc I literally feel like I'm reading something by JK Rowling." Just, words cannot describe how sweet this girl is. Everyone go follow her and read her book Arrogantly Yours, Brad Simpson. It's great (even if it isn't fanfiction...jk that doesn't matter!)!

Anyway, yesterday I made a chapter outline for each of the chapters in this book, and let me tell you: it has helped me immensely. I suggest you all do it for your books and see if it works for you!

The thing is, I knew where this story was going. I was just having trouble getting there, and making my chapters flow. Now, I know exactly what's going to happen, and it's beyond wonderful!

Vote and comment and send in your questions!

~Ellie