Percy Jackson and the Mirror of Erised

38) In the Library

Please read the author's note at the bottom, and have a happy Easter!

We talked in my room for awhile. Hermione and Ron marveled at the pictures on my wall for awhile.

Harry told me about how he had seen Snape in the Forbidden Forest. He'd been talking to Quirrell, my least favorite person in the world.

"I don't like Quirrell," I stated.

Harry looked confused, "Why not?"

"He's scary."

Hermione looked confused, "How so?"

"He has a face on the back of his head," I said, shrugging.

Ron stared, "What?"

I rolled my eyes, "He has a face on the back of his head. Beneath his turban. It's scary. I don't like it."

Hermione shook her head, "That's impossible."

"I saw it in a dream. Either he has it on his head now or will get one eventually. I saw it. And I know it's true because I saw him with the mirror before we even knew what the mirror was!"

Hermione looked a little concerned, and I turned to Ron, "Is that normal in the wizarding world? I've never seen it anywhere else."

Ron shook his head, "I've never heard of it at all. Maybe some accident. Birth defect. I dunno."

I shrugged and watched my friends leave. It started getting late, and Hermione was proud of herself for connecting with Hogwarts.

I stared up at the ceiling, thinking of the horrid face.

It definitely did seem like Snape was a bad guy. I wanted to trust him. I really did. But lying half-dead in Luke's arms made me worried about him. Maybe he was working with Quirrell. They wanted to be immortal together. Are they gay? I don't ship, personally. Maybe Snape is in love with the second face. That'd be weird.

I pushed that thought out of my mind and went to sleep.

The weeks that past were largely uneventful. Snape continued to be his angry self. He'd started with slapping all of the demigods with rulers when he was annoyed. I now have constantly bandaged knuckles, along with Draco. I managed to convince Ron that Draco was a good person, too. Hermione, Draco, Ron, and I all watched a movie in Draco's room one night. Ron also agreed to keep Draco's cover.

Ron and Harry had started to be nice to Quirrell. Harry gave him smiles in the hallway. Ron stood up for him when people laughed.

I had started having me frequent dreams of the second face. I often found myself climbing into bed beside Draco, scared out of my wits. He was never annoyed. He came to my room when he had nightmares.

The school had largely forgiven Ron and Harry. They'd all heard Harry's speech and seen Ron run off. And when I'd come to breakfast smiling with them, they'd mostly forgotten about it. There were still a few who flared at the boys, though, which was getting annoying.

Hermione had also started organizing and color-coding her notes. She'd started writing them in Greek because I could use it better and Ron could read it too. That left Harry our, but he just ended up copying Ron's.

We'd been studying much more frequently. My training with Luke had ended. I'm allowed to go in the forest whenever I want now. So I've got lots of free time. I spend that time with Hermione, working to keep my memory sharp.

Ron has gotten annoyed by Hermione's nagging to start studying, "Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron said. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all."

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me."

The teachers thought the same thing. We had so much homework that even the Easter holidays were boring.

"What is one of the twelve uses of dragon blood?" Hermione quizzes while we were doing homework in the library.

Harry and Ron both struggled to find the answer while I spoke up, "Oven cleaner."

Hermione nodded and we went back to homework, Ron and Harry shooting me mock glares. I just smiled at them.

We were studying in the library one day when Ron suddenly burst out, "I'll never remember this!"

He stared longingly out the window. The sky was clear for once, which was awesome. But we were studying instead. The sky was blue. I like blue.

I looked up at Ron and nodded, looking out the window too. Then Hagrid came in and Ron exclaimed, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid his something behind his back, looking at us, "Jus lookin. An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said proudly. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerers St—"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around, seeing if anyone was listening. "Don go shoutin about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry said, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy—"

"SHHHH!" Hagrid said again. "Listen — come an see me later, I'm not promisin I'll tell yeh anythin, mind, but don go rabbitin about it in here, students aren s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh—"

"See you later, then," Harry said.

Hagrid shuffled off and Hermione looked thoughtful, "What was he hiding behind his back?"

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron said. He came back a minute later with a large pile of books on the table.

"Dragons!" Ron whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

Harry said, "Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I met him."

"But it's against our laws," Ron said. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlock's Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden — anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" I said.

"Of course there are," Ron said. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione said.

Happy Easter! I had been planning on writing something to celebrate, but had forgotten. Instead, I think I'll do a Q&A. I don't know if anyone will actually ask anything, but then at lease I've done something. So, I'll probably post the Q&A questions and answers with a separate chapter. You can ask anything about me, the characters in this story, or anything else you want to ask.

Happy Easter!