I yawned and stretched out on my bed, sitting up to see Pansy sitting at her desk writing on a parchment. "Morning sleepyhead. You were out late." She said, setting her quill down and turning around. "Spill!"

I sat up, holding my sheet against me. "I had a private date with Susan." I replied as innocently as I could.

"Till 11:30! An hour and a half past curfew?" Her eyebrow raised questioningly.

"We lost track of time."

"Uh huh. And you're glowing. Spill"

"So we had dinner…" I wasn't sure how much I should share

"And?!"

"And nothing." I felt my cheeks start to blush as I remembered last night.

"No, spill! I want details. I know where you sleep after all."

"Ok, fine. So we kissed…."

"And?"

"And that's all. We had dinner and kissed." I could feel my cheeks burning from both embarrassment of sharing an intimate detail, as well as the residual excitement.

She squealed in excitement and ran over to me and gave me a hug. "I'm so happy for you two." After she released me she said, "You know, if you could maybe share a kiss out in public today, you'd be doing me a HUGE favor."

What do you mean… this is about that betting pool isn't it!" I said halfway angry.

"Calm down. It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone either way. I'm your friend, and that information is between you and Susan. But I called Valentine's day and it looks like I was right."

"So how much is the pot worth now?"

"Fifty Galleons last I checked."

"That much?"

"Yeah, but I think a few others wagered on Valentine's day, so I'd be splitting it."

"Well, we are going to be spending the day together, so…"

"Yay!" She squealed clapping quickly.

I wrote a quick note to Susan saying good morning, and I'll hope to see her when lunch starts. Waking up one of the little stone snakes I now keep in my room I told it to deliver my message, and watched as it slithered away.

"How do they get in and out of the common rooms?" Pansy asked.

"I don't know." I tilted my head in thought. "They can't talk back so they can't tell me. I'm still not quite sure how they even find the people I want them to."

"Well I guess that part at least is similar to how the owls find who they're looking for."

"I guess. But I'm still not sure how the owls know either."

"True." Pansy said and then went back to her writing and I took a shower. By the time I finished showering Pansy was gone. Looking at the time I only had thirty minutes left until lunch. I quickly got dressed and headed out the door to find Susan. She was waiting for me outside the Great Hall. Her eyes lit up when she saw me and we walked into the hall holding hands. We were halfway to her table when I stopped which forced Susan to stop along with me.

"I'll explain later." I whispered to her, and as she turned her to face me I stole a kiss. I had planned to keep it short and sweet, but I lost a little control when our lips met. There was a loud wolf whistle from the Slytherin table and everything got super quiet. We broke our kiss to nearly half the hall giving us an applause. Susan was red and mouthed 'you owe me'. I walked her to her table and said "Library after lunch?"

Susan just nodded and I left her to join my fellow Slytherins. Pansy just gave me a wink as I sat down across from her. After lunch Susan and I went to the Library to begin looking into what I saw in the mirror. Susan started trying to find information on magic mirrors and I looked through archived Hogwarts yearbooks. Since I'm eleven, she should have graduated in 1980, but just in case she started Hogwarts at the age of twelve, I started my search with the 1981 yearbook and worked backwards. 

It was the 1970 yearbook when I saw her. It was a group photo. All it said was 'the Black sisters'. 

"I found her!" I exclaimed in a whisper, but not quiet enough to keep Madam Pince from giving a 'shush' from her desk. Susan looked over as I pointed out the woman I saw in the mirror. 

"She's pretty, not as pretty as you though." She kissed my cheek then continued, "So what's her name?"

"I'm not sure yet." I said as I marked the page and flipped to the solo pictures. "Bellatrix Black." I said when I finally came to her picture.

"Bellatrix, that's an unusual name." She paused for a moment. "It sounds familiar for some reason."

"Yeah, I know I've heard the name before... maybe during a class."

"No, I mean I've heard the name before coming to Hogwarts."

I just shrugged my shoulders as I excitedly flipped through the pages to find her sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa. I flipped through the rest of the pages of that and the preceding seven yearbooks for all the pictures I could find, and bookmarked each page. I went and paid for copying paper to make copies of every picture there was. 

When I got back to our table, Susan slid the book she was looking through towards me and said, "I think I found the mirror."

I read the brief entry on the mirror. "The earliest definitive documentation of The Mirror of Erised is in a diary belonging to Queen Nefertiti, but most scholars agree that the mirror, or at least similar mirrors, date back to the times of Merlin and Morganna. This mirror is one of those magical artefacts that seems to have been created in a spirit of fun (whether innocent or malevolent is a matter of opinion), because while it is much more revealing than a normal mirror, it is interesting rather than useful. The mirror shows not reality, but the most desperate desire of a person's heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad. The mirror disappeared sometime in the late 1800s and it is thought to have been destroyed."

"What is it doing here in Hogwarts, then." I asked and Susan shrugged. I finished making my copies, my favorite being one of her holding a trophy in hand as the Hogwarts Dueling Champion'. If she is my mother, that means dueling runs in my blood. We spent the rest of the time till dinner working on our assignments.

Author's note - I know this seems like a short chapter, but I plan on posting the next chapter on Wednesday, providing I get my next chapter finished before then. Hopefully, my desire to not disappoint people means I get off my butt and get over my writing slump. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and as always I am open to any ideas or suggestions for year two.