The next day, I left my friends outside at the end of our lunch break while I went to see Professor Beauchamp. I was ten minutes early for his lesson, and he looked rather surprised as I knocked on his door.

'Clariss! What are you doing here?' he said as he turned from his desk where he had been sorting parchments. 'The lesson doesn't start for another ten minutes.'

'I know sir, I'm sorry for interrupting,' I said as I entered the room and slung my bag on the table nearest the desk. 'I was wondering if you could look over something for me.'

I had decided last night that I didn't want to tell the exact truth to Professor Beauchamp. I was rather attached to the little trinket and didn't want to risk it getting confiscated if he thought that finding it in a wall outside the Charms classroom meant that it actually belonged to the school. I had lay in bed that morning and developed a little story.

'Look over something?' he repeated.

'Yes.' I drew the bracelet out of my pocket and held it up. 'It's this. My great-aunt sent it to me as a present this morning, and, well, she's known not to be all that careful in her purchases. It could have any mixture of strange jinxes on it.'

He held out his hand for it, and I gave it to him. He eyed the tarnished metal and bent wings sceptically.

'She's also rather blind,' I added hastily.

Professor Beauchamp peered at it intently for a while, and then turned and put it down on his desk.

'Very well. I'll have a look at it tonight and send it back to you when I'm done.'

He was as good as his word; two days later I was eating my breakfast when a second year Slytherin boy came up to me with a small packet and a note. The note said that the bracelet had passed all the tests he carried out on it, and that I should thank my aunt for sending me a nice, safe bracelet.

I felt myself relax slightly; it was only a bracelet, which meant that my dream was just a dream, nothing more. It was completely normal to have dreams about things that happened during the day, I told myself, feeling slightly silly for getting so carried away.

A week passed, and to my relief, I didn't have any other strange incidents happen to me. My sixth year was progressing smoothly, though it wasn't without its difficulties. As Ceres had warned, our free periods weren't turning out to be comfortable and relaxing, but were spent either in the library or the common room pouring over books and parchment as we struggled to cope with the huge amounts of work our professors were setting us. It was annoying that despite the fact I was doing half as many subjects as last year, I seemed to have double the workload. Among that was practicing the non-verbal spells that were being introduced into our lessons. I was finding these incredibly difficult and hadn't yet managed to pull off a single one. I had begun to try and practice at any available moment, which caused some of my friend's great amusement.

'Clariss, you look like you're trying to lay an egg,' Tristan said to me at breakfast on the second Tuesday of the term.

'Tristan!' I sighed in frustration, lowering my wand and turning away from the salt cellar I was trying to wordlessly levitate to glare at him. 'I swear I almost had it then.'

He and Murray snorted with laughter, and I felt my face redden. 'You can't talk, Murray. Have you pulled off a non-verbal yet?'

That silenced him. Murray was the only one out of our friends, beside me, who hadn't managed to perform a spell without words yet.

'Don't worry about it, Clariss,' Lily's voice soothed from my left. 'We're only a week into the term! It's gonna take time, remember what Will said? You're bound to struggle at first.'

'Yeah, but you can do them,' I replied darkly, stabbing at the remaining piece of sausage on my plate with rather more vigour than was necessary.

'Only one,' she reminded me. 'And I only managed that on Saturday. Don't worry about it, it'll come. At least you're trying.'

'I suppose so,' I said, my anger fizzling away. 'Thank goodness I've got Divination first to take my mind off those horrible spells. I'll see you later.'

Divination was turning out, once again, to be my favourite. It wasn't in any way taxing or trying like the other subjects, but the cynical half of my brain whispered that it might not be long. The new Professor was a gentle and ethereal woman, tall and willowy in stature with silvery grey hair and large blue eyes. The first time we met in class, I got the distinct impression that we had met before, but was not quite sure where. She was like someone encountered in early childhood that I only half remembered.

I arrived underneath the trapdoor in the North Tower with two minutes to spare before the bell rang, and saw that most of the class was already gathered there. Our class had reduced by about a third over the summer, but my Ravenclaw friends, Clarabelle and Regan, the same girls I had met on my first train journey to Hogwarts, still took the subject with me. I saw them standing with the rest of the class, and before I had the chance to hurry over and say hello, the silvery ladder descended from the trap door and the class began to climb up.

Throughout my six years at Hogwarts I had seen several teachers come and go, and it was always interesting to see how they decorated their classrooms and offices to their personal tastes. Professor Sye was no different to the others who had come. Gone were the spangled silks that Professor Patil had hung from every wall and draped over every surface, giving the place the feel of a gypsy's caravan. In their place were enchanting paintings of the sun, moon, stars, and ocean that Professor Sye had told them she painted herself. The room was lightly perfumed with the scent of sandalwood and the blue curtains over the windows cast a mystical half light over everything. It was a very calming room to be in.

'Good morning, class,' Professor Sye said in her ethereal voice as she stepped from the shadowy corner of the room. 'We're going to do something slightly different because today's lesson will be a practical.'

I exchanged looks with Clarabelle and Regan as we sat down at a small circular table. Our lessons so far had consisted mainly of note taking and question answering so far.

'We have spent the past week looking at spirits and beings in their different forms, not just the everyday ghost you can converse with at breakfast, but those who linger unseen and unheard,' she began. 'We can learn much from these beings about both past and future. To be able to contact these spirits, a certain frame of mind has to be used, and today I hope that some of you will be able to achieve it. We will be leaving the classroom and heading to a balcony in the Astronomy Tower.'

'The haunted one?' I blurted out. The entire class turned to look me, and I recoiled in horror. Where had that come from? It was haunted, there was no doubt that I knew that, but I had not known so until I said it. I looked back at Professor Sye, expecting her to be angry with my interruption, but instead she was smiling.

'Yes, it is haunted,' she said. 'Haunted by a spirit that you cannot see or hear with everyday senses. Hogwarts is privy to several of them, but this one I believe will be the easiest one for some of you to contact. Please open your books to chapter two and read the passages concerning frame of mind.'

I hurried to take my book out of my bag, aware that Professor Sye was still looking at me, a curious expression on her face. As I flipped through the pages, I wondered how I had known that the room was haunted. Nobody ever went onto that balcony, or into the room that lead to it, but I had never given it a second thought before, nor the fact that it might contain some sort of ghost. And why had I sounded so apprehensive, almost fearful about it?

I skimmed the paragraphs, not really taking them in and after ten minutes or so, Professor Sye told us to close our books and follow her, bringing only our wands. We followed her down the silvery ladder and along several corridors until we reached the Astronomy Tower. Practical Astronomy lessons were usually held on the roof of the tower, but there were several rooms on the way up that were used as classrooms to study theory, and it was to one of these that Professor Sye led us. As far back as I could remember, the room had never been used, but until this day I had not thought why. I, along with many other students, presumably, had just though it an old classroom. It was indeed old. The door had evidently not been opened in a long time, as it gave a terrible screeching noise as it was forced open. The room it concealed had been used as a sort of storage area come dumping ground. There were old, broken desks and chairs huddled together, along with an unused blackboard, old fashioned telescopes, piles of mouldering books and several rusty cauldrons. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of dust, including the floor, and our muffled footsteps sent great plumes of dust into the air.

The double door to the small, curved balcony was opposite the one we had just entered by. The view from it was beautiful; from it you looked over the smooth, sloping lawns and down to the sparkling lake. However, there was an unpleasant, musty smell about the place and the feel of the room was altogether strange; it felt as if we had just entered the home of a dying person. Our voices were hushed and our movements minimal.

'Here,' Professor Sye addressed the class in her usual hushed tones, 'if you can feel it, is a curious and powerful phenomenon. I want you to all close your eyes and concentrate on what you feel, like the book describes. Let your senses guide you to other emotions that may linger here. Seek them out, but do not try too hard; relaxation is essential. In a way, the emotions must come to you as well. Close your eyes and breathe deeply, sense the atmosphere.'

I glanced around at the class and then seeing that others had followed Professor Sye's instructions, I snapped my eyes quickly shut. Standing here like this made me feel very silly; this wasn't the type of Divination I was used to, or even sure I could master. I was used to dealing with interpretations from books, signs and sums; this was about as far away from that as you could get. Here, I had nothing to go on except a feeling that I had to look for, yet not look for, and that I might or might not actually experience. It all seemed a bit unlikely to me.

But then I remembered the strange vision I had experienced at the welcome feast. Was Professor Sye asking for something like that? But I had no idea where that had come from; I had merely stood up to find myself in that odd place. It may have just been a by-product of tiredness and over-excitement. I certainly hadn't used any level of concentration to make it appear.

As I stood there, trying to relax into the quiet mood of the room, I felt something begin to creep into my mind. A strange tingling feeling was running up and down my spine, and I felt myself being drawn towards the doors that opened onto the balcony. It was if some invisible force was pulling me closer, willing me nearer...

I took a step towards it, unable to stop myself. Dimly, I was aware of my classmates opening their eyes and turning to look at me, watching my progress across the room, but I didn't look at them. I kept moving towards the doors.

And then it hit me.

I gasped as a powerful surge of emotions coursed through me and my eyes flew open. I felt a great pang of shock that hit me like a furious bolt of lightning and left me reeling in its wake. There wasn't time to recover as the feeling gave way to one of utter horror laced with a great yearning sadness that tore at my heart and rendered me speechless as tears formed in my eyes. Slowly, the feelings subsided, and I was left shaking and gasping for breath, the tears of my own shock glistening on my face. I realised that I must have screamed or cried out, as the rest of the class were gathered round me, a mixture of concern and fear on their faces. Behind them, Professor Sye was regarding me with a strange expression that I couldn't quite read; it seemed like a mixture of elation and triumph. But in an instant it was gone, replaced by an impassive look.

'You felt it?' she whispered in her mysterious voice. 'It can come as quite a shock the first time you experience something like that. Here, take some chocolate; I came prepared, just in case.'

She handed me a couple of squares of chocolate and I took a bite, wanting to be rid of the horrible shaking feeling. As I ate, my limbs stopped quaking and my breathing returned to normal. However, it did nothing to clear my thoughts.

'Can you explain to us what it felt like?' Professor Sye asked, gesturing to the rest of the class, who, now that I seemed to have returned more or less to normal, were looking less fearful.

Steadying myself, I began to recall what I had experienced. 'It felt like someone who had experienced, or was experiencing, a huge tragedy,' I said. 'Something that caused her a lot of pain. Something that upset her. Well, not upset her—it tore her heart.'

'It was a woman, then?' Professor Sye asked. Up until then I wasn't aware that I had given the feeling a gender, but now that I thought about it, it did make sense. There was something feminine about those feelings.

'Yes,' I replied. 'It felt like a woman, somehow.'

'You could be right,' she said. 'It only seems to be women who experience it. Could you tell anything else from it? Was she perhaps on the throes of death or contemplating suicide? Did she throw herself from the balcony?'

'No,' I said. 'No, she didn't kill herself. She saw something from the window, I'm certain of that.'

I was certain that I was right, I just didn't know why. It was like how you instinctively know that comfort is good and pain is bad.

'Do you know what it was? What caused her to feel all that?'

I shook my head. I had no idea what the woman had seen that had broken her heart so terribly, and after that experience, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. As I looked at my professor, I saw a strange look in her eye. It wasn't the triumphant look she wore a few minutes ago, it was different. I couldn't say for definite, but I got the idea that Professor Sye already knew the answers to the questions she was asking me. As I looked, the vision I had had on the Welcome Feast crept into my mind. I had a funny feeling that she might know about that as well.

She said nothing more on the subject, but led us back to the North Tower where she set us notes to copy from our textbooks. I, however, had a lot of difficulty concentrating on the task I was supposed to be doing. Most of the words made no sense on the page, and the ones that did only haunted me. Words like ghost, apparition, spirit, and vision leaped out at me and plagued my mind, swirling my thoughts around in a confused mess. I knew who I needed to talk to, and so when the bell rung to signal break I was the first through the trapdoor. Lily had Care of Magical Creatures, so I made my way outside to wait for her. Just as I was descending the marble steps to the Entrance Hall, the doors swung open and a dozen dripping wet students came pouring in, Lily among them. I hadn't noticed, but it was pouring with rain outside and meant we would spend break time in the Common Room.

'Hey, Clariss! Fancy a shower?' Lily said shaking her head like a dog and sending drops of water all over me.

'Don't do that!' I shrieked, shrinking away from her. 'I had one this morning thanks! Look, I need to talk to you.'

'What's the matter?' she asked, looking at me. 'What's happened, you look really pale!'

'Shh!' I hissed, checking to see if anyone was listening. Thankfully, our greeting had caused us to fall behind from the main group, who were already half way up the stairs. 'Something happened in Divination just now. I sort of had a funny experience.'

'Like the one at the feast?' she asked, completely serious now.

'Sort of. I don't know. It was really strange, Professor Sye took us to this disused balcony in the Astronomy Tower and told us that some kind of ghost haunted it and that she wanted us to try and experience it.'

'And you did?'

'Yeah,' I said. 'But I was the only one who did.'

'What was it like?' she said. I looked at her in suspicion, but was surprised to see that she looked genuinely interested.

'It was like a shock at first,' I said, 'and then this terrible sadness and longing. It was strange. It felt like it was a woman who had seen something from the balcony that broke her heart.'

'How do you know that?' she asked.

'I don't know. I just felt it, it was like an instinct. It was scary,' I confessed. 'I think I'm going mad.'

'Why?' Lily looked surprised at my declaration. 'Clariss, you were in a Divination lesson! Things like that are supposed to happen. It's what Professor what's-her-name wanted you all to experience. You should be proud that you were the only one that did. People have been Seeing things for centuries, just because you have doesn’t mean you're bonkers.'

I had to admit, what Lily was saying made sense. There were plenty of normal explanations for what had happened. It was also a mark of our friendship that Lily had said this. Ordinarily, she would have been the first person to say that Seers were definitely mad.

'Do you think this and the vision I had last week are connected?'

'No,' she said after a moment's thought. 'I don't think they are. What you experienced today was like what your Professor said. It was probably some sort of ghost. That other thing was like a vision, wasn't it? I mean, you actually saw things, but after all, you were full and tired, it could have been a product of that.'

'Yeah, I suppose,' I agreed. It definitely made sense to think of it that way, and it was comforting to see that there were other explanations. I cheered slightly, feeling as if a dead weight had lifted out of the pit of my stomach.

I hadn't been aware that we had been walking as we were talking, but now that my mood had lifted I saw that we were in fact on the third floor, nearing the entrance to the Charms corridor. There, I saw something that lifted my mood even more. A lone, dark figure was loitering by the archway. I knew that figure and that stance; I had admired it for years. It belonged to Hero van Millen, Albus Potter's friend, and the guy I had harboured a not-so-secret crush on since my fourth year.

'I swear Hero looks even more gorgeous when he's surly,' I whispered to Lily, nodding at the corner we had just passed. Lily turned to look.

'I don't see him,' she said. 'Was he actually there, or are you just making a general comment?'

I turned my head to look again. She was right, he had gone.

'He was there,' I told her. 'Must have gone down the Charms corridor.'

'Shame,' she said, mischievous twinkle in her eye. 'He is better looking when he's brooding on something.'

'Lily!' I exclaimed. 'You've got a boyfriend! What would Conor say?'

'No harm in looking,' she said cheekily.

'You leave him alone,' I warned her, trying unsuccessfully to look serious. 'He's mine.'

The topic of the dashing Hero carried us all the way up to our Common Room, where we were bombarded by a high-spirited Tristan and a disgruntled Murray, who had apparently been gambling again. All thoughts of paranormal experiences and visions forgotten, we went to lounge in front of the fire, teasing Murray for yet another loss.

‘You know what, even though I chose Ryan at the tryouts, I’m still a little unsure. Perhaps I should have gone with Hodden.’

Beside me, Murray scratched out a name for the fifth time, muttering to himself. Apparently it was some Beater- related thing, but whatever it was, it was distracting me from the Charms homework we were supposed to be doing.

‘Murray,’ I hissed for the fifth time, ‘will you be quiet? I’m trying to concentrate!’

‘Clariss, I’ve got drastic Quidditch problems, I can’t hush it up,’ he said, and then added to himself, ‘Perhaps I should give Ryan a chance against Hufflepuff, but if he plays like he did in our last practice then we’ve got about as much chance of winning as a Flobberworm has of outrunning a Bowtruckle.’

I put my quill down and glared at him. He was really trying my patience.

‘What?’ he asked as he looked at me. ‘It’s a serious problem!’

‘Not for the library! I’m trying to do this essay. Where’s yours?’ I added, looking around for his essay and notes. ‘We were supposed to be doing this together.’

‘In my bag,’ he replied, turning back to his parchment. ‘I gave up on it when you started muttering to yourself. That’s always a sign it’s hard. I’ll do it at the weekend; I’ve got more important things to think about. Do you think I should drop Ryan?’

‘Who’s Ryan?’ I thought hard to put a face to the name, but I had no luck.

‘Fifth year. Quite tall. Great mess of blonde hair,’ he said. ‘I think I’ll give him another chance,’ he added to himself. Evidently he didn’t want my opinion anymore. ‘After all, he did out-fly Hodden in tryouts.’

‘Right, well,’ I said, putting down my quill and sighing. ‘I’m not going to get anything done with you muttering away.’

‘Occupational hazard,’ he replied, ‘being friends with a Quidditch Captain.’

I grunted in agreement as I packed away the things from my essay; quills, ink, notes, and the essay itself. My life had been full of essays for the past few weeks. I was like a constant cycle: essays, lessons, eating, sleeping, and then back to essays again. Occasionally there was a weekend thrown in, but that was mostly devoted to homework as well. Everything was boring, even in Divination we were confined to the classroom, making notes on various states of mind required for trances and the like. I’d had no more strange experiences, but everything was so monotonous now that I almost wished that something would happen.

‘See you,’ I said to Murray, and walked off towards the door. A boy was holding it open for me.

‘Thanks,’ I grunted, not really looking at him, my mind was engaged elsewhere.

‘It was Clariss, wasn’t it?’

I looked up at the boy who had spoken. I stared at him for a moment, feeling incredibly silly that I had no idea who he was when he apparently knew me. Then it clicked.

‘Oh, hi!’ I gushed eventually and he smiled, guessing what I had just done. ‘You’re Will, aren’t you? Albus’s friend? The one with the green dreads.’

‘Yup, that’s me,’ he said. ‘But without the dreads. How are the non-verbal spells going?’

‘Getting there,’ I said as we began to walk down the corridor towards the staircase. ‘Pulled a few off, but always after a lot of practice.’

‘They say practice makes perfect,’ he said. ‘It gets easier, I promise. Unlike memorising moon charts, that never gets easier.’

‘You do Astronomy?’ I asked.

He nodded. ‘Wish I hadn’t sometimes. Anyway, enough of that dull stuff. First Quidditch game of the season soon!’

I pulled a face, remembering the conversation I’d just had with Murray.

‘Not a fan?’ he asked with a laugh, seeing my face.

‘It’s not my favourite pastime,’ I told him.

‘That’s a surprise, considering the sister you’ve got.’

He was right; my sister, Aeron, was the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. My other sister, Amentia, had also played for her house a few times while she was at school.

‘I guess I’m just odd like that. I get it from my Mum, she hates it. But my Uncle Percival had a big influence on Aeron,’ I said.

‘Percival?’ he asked with a frown. ‘Not Percival Flint? The one who writes for Which Broomstick?’

I nodded in confirmation.

‘You are an oddball!’ he said, though he seemed rather impressed. ‘You’ll be watching though?’ he asked. ‘It’s always good to support the team even if you don’t actually like it.’

‘Oh, I’ll have to be there,’ I said. ‘Not only would my sister be angry but my friend, Murray, is Gryffindor Captain. He’d murder me if I missed it.’

‘The bloke you were with just now?’ he asked and I nodded. ‘It should be a good match. Both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff have lost star players. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces them.’

‘It will,’ I said, but privately I disagreed. Listening to Murray rambling on about who to include in his team was definitely not interesting in the slightest.

‘Anyway,’ Will said, slowing down at the entrance to a small corridor. ‘I’ve got to go down here. Hand something in. I’ll see you around.’

‘Yeah, see you,’ I said as he disappeared down the passage.

He was a nice guy, I thought. Easy to talk to and genuine. He had nice eyes as well, sort of a deep brown colour. It was a shame he hadn’t been with Hero, though, I thought as I ducked behind a tapestry depicting some Creaothceann players. Behind it was a set of spiral staircases that would get me to Gryffindor Tower twice as fast as the main staircase.

As I climbed I let my mind wander to Hero Van Millen. I’d liked him for years now, though my crush was probably not as strong as it had been in previous years when he just had to enter a room and I’d go the colour of a tomato, but I still thought he was the best looking guy in the school. Despite his good looks, he was a nice person, or so I’d heard, having hardly ever spoken to him before. He’d never really had any girlfriends or craved attention to feed his ego, in fact I could only remember him having one girlfriend, a girl called Florence Astrova, a Gryffindor in the year above. I remembered glaring at her every time I saw her for the three months they went out with each other and was incredibly happy when I heard they’d broken up.

As I climbed in tighter and tighter circles, my head began to spin with the circles and my ears began to ring. That was odd, I never usually got this dizzy walking up this staircase. I shook my head to clear it, and finally the corridor it lead to came into sight. I hitched my skirts a little higher so that I wouldn’t trip over them.

‘Ara?’

As I reached the top step I heard someone call my name from the end of the passage, and I raised my candle a little higher so I could see the speaker. It was Professor Marcher, the witch who taught the girls household spellwork, and behind her was a short girl with dark hair that I had not seen before.

‘Ara, this is Annie Prankerd,’ Professor Marcher said, pushing the girl forward a little. ‘She has just been Sorted into Gryffindor. Would you show her the way to the Tower? I have some business I need to attend to.’

‘Of course, Professor Marcher,’ I said, curtsying.

Professor Marcher swept out of the corridor, her robes billowing behind her, leave the new girl and I alone. I smiled hesitantly, I’d never been comfortable with strangers, but this girl seemed friendly. She had a pretty face and a wide smile that lit up her light blue eyes. She had fairly tanned skin and her hair was brown, but looked like it had been bleached by the sun in places and she had rosy cheeks that were scattered with freckles. She looked like she spent a lot of time out of doors.

‘I’m Ara Grey,’ I said, breaking the silence, aware that the girl was taking me in just as much as I was her. ‘Your name was Annie?’

‘Yes,’ the girl said with another smile. ‘Annie Prankerd.’

‘Follow me then, Annie. I shall escort you to Gryffindor Tower.’

We walked on in silence for a bit, along corridors and passages until we reached the main staircase, where Annie’s eyes widened to the size of dinner platters as she took in the carved wood and marble and large, ornate paintings and their frames.

‘Very grand place this, isn’t it?’ she asked me. She had a strange accent that I couldn’t place, though her voice was soft and clear. ‘There’s nothing this grand at home, though the castle must have been once. But that was destroyed in the war years ago and is naught but a crumbling wreck now. Is everything this grand?’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ I replied. Coming from the background I did, I had not really considered the grandeur of Hogwarts. ‘I had not thought on it before, but I suppose it is.’

‘I was ever so excited when Father said that I could finally come,’ Annie told me as we began to climb the stairs. ‘I wanted to start at the beginning of the year when everyone else would have been, but I was needed at home for the harvest. I’ve known I was a witch for years; Ganis, the old warlock who lived by the river told me when I was little, but I didn’t know there was a school for magic until I received a letter when I was eleven. Mother and Father said I could not attend though.’

‘How so?’ I asked. She was a very talkative girl and had such a lively way of expressing herself that I felt myself warming to her.

‘They said I was still needed at home,’ she said. ‘I am the oldest girl and my brothers and sisters were still young you see, and Mother could not have coped on her own. How long have you been here?’

‘Since I was eleven,’ I said, and I laughed as her eyes widened. ‘Though I am one of few. Many are like you; they start when their families can spare them, or they have found husbands. Others leave because their families need them at home or they get married.’

‘That’s a long time,’ Annie said. ‘I bet you know loads of magic. I don’t think I could be here that long; I’d miss my family too much. Don’t you miss yours?’

I shook my head. ‘It’s only me and my father now,’ I told her, ‘and I don’t miss him very much. You get used to it after a while.’

Annie looked as if she wanted to pursue the subject further, but something, perhaps the etiquette she’d been taught, held her back.

‘I cannot wait to begin lessons,’ she said instead as we ascended to the sixth floor. ‘I do hope I don’t find myself too behind.’

‘I am sure you will not,’ I told her reassuringly. ‘We take our lessons with a variety of ages and abilities. Plenty of students start their education late so you certainly are not the only beginner.’

I saw her look a little relieved and I could tell that this was something that had been worrying her, despite her outward show of excitement and ease.

‘Well, here we are,’ I said, stopping in front of a painting of a pious looking nun. ‘This is the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. You have to speak a password to gain entry.’

As I spoke these words, a great dizziness came over me, and I put out a hand to steady myself as the room slid out of focus.

As suddenly as it had come, the dizziness stopped, and everything came back into view. Breathing hard, I looked down at myself. The elaborate black gown I had been wearing only seconds ago had vanished, replaced with my normal plain robes. The painting of the nun had also gone, and in her stead was the Fat Lady, and she was looking at me quizzically. I didn’t blame her, I was trembling like an Aspen leaf and I must have looked terrified.

‘Are you all right, my dear?’ the Fat Lady was saying.

‘I- I’m fine,’ I stammered, taking a few tentative steps towards her.

‘You were just standing there, staring at the wall, and when I asked for the password you didn’t say anything.’

‘I’m fine,’ I repeated. ‘I’m okay.’

‘Are you sure, dear?’ she asked concernedly. ‘You’re as white as a sheet, should I send for someone?’

‘No, no. I’m fine. I was just thinking, that’s all. Can you let me in?’

‘Are you absolutely certain you don’t want me to send for the matron?’

‘Yes! I’m perfectly fine! Maleficent! Can you just let me in, please?’

With one last doubting look, she swung forward to admit me, and I climbed, still trembling, through the portrait hole.

‘Clariss!’

I turned around, still slightly dazed, to where someone was calling my name. It was Lily; she was sat on the sofas by the fire with Conor, Tristan and Murray. I had hoped just to go straight to my dormitory to collapse on my bed, but now Lily had noticed me, I couldn’t ignore her. I wandered over to them, acutely aware that I was still trembling. I hoped they wouldn’t notice. I don’t think I could find an excuse in this state.

‘Where did you go?’ Murray asked as I reached the sofa. I was feeling slightly unsteady so I gripped the back of it, my knuckles turning white. ‘I left only a couple of minutes after you did but I couldn’t see you anywhere.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I – I was talking to someone.’

‘Who?’ Lily asked and I saw her raise an eyebrow as she looked me over.

‘That Will guy,’ I said vaguely. I really wanted to go upstairs. ‘Your brother’s friend.’

‘Must have been some conversation,’ Tristan snorted. ‘Murray came back ages ago.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Look, I’m really tired, I’m going to bed. Night.’

Before they could say anything else, I had turned away from them and made my way dazedly to the staircases that led to the dormitories. I was still trembling head to foot, and must have looked a state, judging by the looks they were giving me. As I walked away I heard Murray mutter, ‘Is she all right?’ I ignored him.

Five minutes later I was lying on my bed, staring at the overhead curtain. What had happened to me? My heart was still racing and even though I was wrapped up in my covers, I was shivering and shivering as if I would never be warm again.

‘Ara Grey,’ Lily said, as if she was trying the name on her tongue. ‘No, I’ve never heard that name before.’

It was hours later, and we were sat huddled on the covers of my bed, whispering together in the darkness, the gentle snores of the others sounding around us.

Lily had found me not long after I had climbed shaking into my bed. Ripping back the covers, she had opened her mouth as if to demand what on Earth had gone on downstairs and why I did not stay to sit with her and the boys like I usually did. But she had stopped short when she saw my face and how I was quivering uncontrollably, and her anger turned at once into concern. I wished it hadn’t. She had asked me what was the matter and if she should get some help, in the same worried voice that the Fat Lady had used. I hesitated before I answered, wondering if I should tell her what I had really experienced and remembering her scepticism when it came to things like this, but then I thought of how she had reacted before, when I told her what happened in that Divination lesson and somehow I knew she’d accept it, as strange as it seemed.

She had listened with rapt attention as I told her everything that had happened, how I had been climbing the stairs behind the tapestry and the dizziness I had felt, and then suddenly, how I found myself in that other place, that other time. After I had finished telling my outlandish tale, we sat there in silence for a while, the curtains pulled around my bed and listened as Ceres, Olivia, and Amelia came up the stairs to get ready for bed. At long last, she had broken the silence.

‘That’s some evening you’ve had,’ she said, and I laughed. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders, a weight whose presence I hadn’t acknowledged or known I was carrying, but had in fact been pressing me to the ground since I had come back to myself in front of the Fat Lady’s portrait. Subconsciously, I had known that Lily would believe me and not scorn me or call me stupid, and vaguely, I wondered why I had ever doubted that she would.

‘I know,’ I murmured in agreement. ‘It came as a bit of a shock, I can tell you.’

I had then asked her if she had ever heard of someone with that name before, which brought us to our present conversation.

‘No, I hadn’t heard of her, either,’ I said. ‘Though I suppose if she’d ever done something she’d be listed by her married name. They all got married back then, didn’t they?’

‘That’s true,’ Lily said. ‘Are you thinking of looking her up, then?’

‘Can’t hurt, can it?’ I said, pulling the blanket tighter around myself. ‘I want to know who she was, and I might find something that’ll tell me why I’m reliving bits of her life.’

‘How’re you going to do that if you don’t know what her married name was?’

‘She might have been something at school,’ I replied. ‘You know, like a Prefect, or exceptional at Charms or something. Did they have Prefects back then?’ I added as an afterthought.

‘No idea,’ Lily replied. ‘Can’t hurt to look though, like you said.’ We were both silent for a moment, wrapped up in our own thoughts, before Lily spoke again, ‘Do you think you should tell your Divination teacher? Professor Whatshername?’

‘Professor Sye? Hmm, I dunno,’ I said. I hadn’t really thought about telling anyone else, and I didn’t particularly want to, even though this sort of thing was supposed to be her area of expertise. It felt like it was something private and personal, something I wanted to share only with someone close to me, and I didn’t feel like Professor Sye was that.

‘Just, you don’t really know what’s happening,’ Lily said, shifting uncomfortably on the bottom of my bed. ‘Anything could go wrong, if you’ve never experienced flashbacks like this before, and you can’t control what happens in them.’

‘Mmm.’ I thought that Lily did have a point, but I was reluctant to let anyone else in on my secret.

‘Just think about it, okay?’ Lily said, and I felt the springs rise as she got off the bed. ‘Night, Clariss.’

‘Night.’ She pulled the hangings back around my bed, and I turned onto my side, listening to her footsteps crossing the room and the rustle of fabric as she got into bed. Then, all was silent.

That weekend, I rose early, something that was incredibly rare for me. When I didn’t have lessons, I usually woke no earlier than ten. But today I had something I wanted to do. Since my flashback in the week, I had been thinking non-stop about the girl, Ara Grey. Who had she been? When had she lived? And most particularly, why had I slipped back in time to her life? I didn’t expect to find the exact answer to that question, but I might find a book or two on something along the lines of what I had experienced. I was less interested in the other girl, Annie, though I had given her some thought. It was mainly because I had become Ara and seen and felt everything from her point of view that I was desperate to learn more about her, and this was why I was headed to the Library and the Trophy Room today.

As I dressed and scribbled a note to Lily to explain where I’d gone (she’d be incredibly surprised and probably slightly worried if she woke up to find my bed empty), I felt a sort of thrill of excitement and butterflies in my stomach. It almost felt like a sense of foreboding. I decided I would head to the Trophy Room first; the Library wasn’t open until nine at the weekends, and that gave me plenty of time to search the large room. It was always unlocked, and I had specifically checked yesterday what time students were allowed to be out in the morning. I had no problem there; it was seven as I left the common room through the portrait hole (I saw the Fat Lady’s eyes following me as I went down the stairs), and students were allowed out at six.

I had only been to the Trophy Room once before, in my first year, just out of curiosity. It wasn’t something that had really interested me since as I had won no prizes to be displayed there, and I had forgotten just how long it was and how high the shelves stretched towards the vaulted ceiling. I stared aghast at the size of it all; centuries upon centuries of prizes and awards, Prefect lists and honours, and I had no idea where to start. I didn’t know what period in time the flashback had taken place; judging by the gowns they had worn and the way they had spoken it could have been any time from the early nineteenth century to the 1200s, though I suspected that it wasn’t quite that far back.

The newest trophies seemed to be those closest to the door, and the dates grew older as I walked in. I suspected that the was designed so that it expanded magically whenever someone came to put a new trophy, as there seemed to be no empty space. Everything was very quiet, and my footsteps echoed loudly around the room as I walked. Pale morning sunlight streamed in from the high windows on the left, illuminating the tiny dust particles that were floating lazily around, and catching on the shiny surfaces of the cups and shields on the higher shelves, making them wink and sparkle in the light. The place had a faint smell of silver polish, mingled with dust and the scent of the oak shelves. It was rather comforting, I thought, and I breathed deeply, steadying my quivering stomach. I had to remind myself not to pin all my hopes on finding something; she could have been a completely unremarkable student and had never done anything to warrant merit or recognition, and I must not expect to find anything this morning, but it was hard not to feel the anticipation.

As I walked further into the room, I passed the huge silver shield that commemorated Lily’s dad defeating Voldemort in the Great Hall. It was beautifully engraved, and it hung proudly on the wall above the shelves, glinting in the morning sun. Next to it was a memorial shield, listing all those who had died that day. I scanned the names, and was surprised to see just how many there were. I had always known people had died; there were whispers that several ghosts that floated around the school had died in the battle, but I hadn’t imagined it would be so many. Their age was listed next to them, and I noticed that many of them were students, barely older than I was now. One of them was Amelia’s uncle, and I saw a few other names that I recognised, too, including a Fred Weasley. Judging by his age, he must have been one of Lily’s Uncle Ron’s brothers. I couldn’t imagine facing what they had, or being as brave as they were and to lay down my life like that. I was just a student, just a child, and so had they been.

I shuddered at the thought of their sacrifice and wondered if I would have been able to do the same. Thanks to them, I would never have to. I stared at the memorial for a few moments, trying to pour out my silent thanks to them before moving on. As I walked, I glanced from left to right to look at the masses of awards that littered the shelves. I saw my mother’s name on a list of Prefects for the year 1997. My father’s and Uncle Percival’s weren’t there; I knew that they had caused too much trouble at school to be considered for Prefects, but I did find my Uncle’s name on a Hufflepuff Quidditch shield. I pulled myself away from searching for any more familiar names; I had come here for a reason, and I moved resolutely on. When I thought I had moved far enough down, I looked at a shield to find the date. 1813. Yes, this would be a good place to start.

Meticulously, I began to check every shield, every medal and trophy, every list of Prefects, Head Boys and Girls, and magical merit awards for a mention of someone called Ara. I jumped every time I saw a name beginning with A, but it was never her. I searched further and further down the room, going from the 1810s to the 1800s and then into the eighteenth century. I searched all the way to the 1400s, but there was nothing. Ara Grey had never won any kind of award or had a position of merit when she was at school, and I began to feel the sinking feeling of disappointment. Angrily, I whirled around; I was not angry that my search yielded nothing, but that I had allowed myself so much hope at finding an answer when I knew that there was a very real possibility that I would find nothing. I could have kept searching back into the fifteenth century, but something told me that I wouldn’t find anything. Ara Grey had been at school later than that.

My stomach suddenly gave a loud rumble, and so I abandoned my search for some breakfast. I would head to the library afterwards. I had hoped that I might find some mention of her name and a rough idea of when she had been at school so that I’d be able to do more research on her life in the library, but it hadn’t quite played out like that. I would just have to do it the hard way. I checked my watch. It was half past nine. I’d been at this for two hours and had found nothing. With a sigh, I left the room and began to climb down the marble staircase to the Great Hall.

‘Find anything?’ Lily whispered as I slipped onto the bench next to her in the Great Hall.

‘No,’ I sighed as I loaded my plate with bacon and eggs. ‘There was nothing.’

‘Well, you didn’t expect to find anything, really, did you?’ Lily said, going back to her sausages, but I could tell from the tone of her voice was slightly disappointed, just like I was. I smiled.

‘No. And I’ve still got the library,’ I told her. ‘I’m going to head there after breakfast.’

‘Oh, please don’t!’ Lily whined.

‘Why?’ I asked, slightly bemused.

‘Because Conor and the other boys are going down to the Quidditch pitch,’ she said. ‘I won’t have anyone to talk to. And anyway, I’d quite like to come, you know, and I don’t fancy the library this early in the morning. I need some fresh air.’

‘Fine, I’ll go after lunch,’ I said with a sigh. In truth, I was rather impatient to be finding something. ‘But if it’s fresh air you want, why don’t you go down to watch the guys?’

Lily made a face. ‘Apparently they’re going with Ollie Fletwock and some other Ravenclaws, so Ceres automatically leaped at the chance. I don’t fancy listening to her prattle on about Ollie for three hours.’

I laughed. ‘Sounds like someone I remember from last year...’

‘Oi!’ she exclaimed. ‘I did not prattle on about Conor.’

‘Not for three hours together, I’ll admit,’ I said, ‘but boy, did you go on. I thought it would finally be over when you just got on with it and snogged him, but no, after that, it got worse! All that crap about trying to find out if he really liked you, or if he just considered you a bit of a snog after a Quidditch match.’

‘Clariss!’ Lily exclaimed. ‘I was not that bad!’

‘Oh, you were,’ I assured her, thoroughly enjoying seeing Lily flustered like this. ‘I’ve changed my mind; I’m going to the library so you can get a taste of your own medicine with Ceres. Ha!’

‘You’re so mean!’ she squeaked, and reached over to hit me playfully on the arm. ‘You wouldn’t dare to do that; I could choose to remark on all the times you’ve gone all goo-goo eyed over Hero, or that time in third year with Andrew Faulkner!’

‘You wouldn’t!’ I said. Andrew had briefly been my boyfriend for a few weeks when I was fourteen and I didn’t particularly want to remember how mushy and soft I’d been over him. ‘Okay, okay, we’re even. I won’t mention Conor-agonies, and I’ll stay with you. You can’t mention anything with Andrew.’

‘Deal,’ Lily said, sticking out her hand. I shook it. ‘Come on.’

I pushed my empty plate away from me and stood up, Lily following suit, and together we walked towards the Entrance Hall and our common room.

‘What do you want to do?’ I asked as we scrambled through the portrait hole when we reached Gryffindor Tower.

‘Don’t mind,’ Lily said. ‘Chess? Snap? I don’t particularly feel like homework. Murray was playing with a pack of cards earlier, he’s probably left them here, somewhere.’

She walked off towards the armchairs by the fire, and I threw myself onto the sofa, oblivious to the group of students sat at the tables in the corner until one of them called my name.

‘Clariss! Lily!’ I looked up over the back of the sofa. It was Albus and a group of his friends. ‘Come over and join us!’

Lily grinned and made her way over to them as I got up off the sofa and followed. There were four of them sitting around the table; Albus, his friend, Will, the girl, Tabitha, and, my stomach lurched pleasantly as I noticed, Hero Van Millen. They’d replaced the usual wooden chairs with comfy-looking armchairs, like the ones grouped around the fireplace. I frowned.

‘I thought you couldn’t Transfigure the furniture in here?’ I asked as I walked over to them, remembering the time I had tried to practice Vanishing spells on the legs of the table where Lily was working.

‘You can’t,’ said Albus. ‘We conjured them; the old ones are over there.’ He pointed to the corner where, sure enough, several wooden chairs were stacked neatly against the wall.

‘We thought it’d be much more comfy,’ Hero said in a silky voice that sent shivers down my spine. ‘Here, have a seat.’

I had to admire his spellwork as he flicked his wand, causing two more comfy-chairs to appear out of thin air. He didn’t utter a single syllable. I hadn’t managed to pull off a single non-verbal conjuring spell yet, and was having trouble with the consistency of the ones I could manage. Some people have all the luck, I thought ruefully.

Lily plonked herself down unceremoniously in the chair next to Albus, leaving, whether intentionally or not, the seat next to Hero free. Unlike Lily, I settled myself in what I hoped was a classy and dignified manner, aware Hero’s eyes were on me.

‘You’re looking more alive, Clariss,’ Tabitha said to me from across the table. ‘You fell asleep in your free period the last time I saw you.’

‘Oh yeah,’ I said, remembering with a tinge of embarrassment. It had been the first day of term, and I had been up most of the night occupied with the strange vision I’d had at the welcome feast. The first glimpse I’d had of the world of Ara Grey.

‘What else are free periods for, if not sleeping?’ Hero said, winking at me. My throat went dry as I tried to think of a response that didn’t sound stupid, but my mind was blank. Oh, come on! How hard was it to spit out a couple of words?

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ I managed to say finally. He was smiling at me, and I had to look away, scared that he might see something in my eyes that would betray the fact I liked him perhaps too much.

‘Your last name is Flint, right?’ Hero was asking me.

‘Yeah,’ I said. I was really saying that too much.

‘Your sister was in my sister’s year, I think,’ he said. ‘Amentia, right?’

‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘She was in Ravenclaw.’

‘Hera was a Gryffindor, like us,’ he said. ‘They had Herbology together, I think. How did Amentia do in her NEWTs?’

‘Really well,’ I replied, relieved that I was managing to produce coherent sentences. ‘She wants to be a Healer eventually, so she had to get top marks.’

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘Has she started the training programme this year?’

‘No, next. She’s travelling for a year first,’ I told him, gaining in confidence as my words unfolded like a normal human’s did. ‘She’s in Greece at the moment. My parents are going to stay with her over Christmas.’

‘Are you going?’

‘No,’ I replied. ‘Her flat is too small for more than three people. Plus, Aeron is staying to study for her NEWTs and I’m staying with her.’

‘Ah, NEWTs,’ Hero said with a sigh. ‘I’ll be staying over Christmas for them as well, so you won’t be alone.’

I noticed that he didn’t look too upset about the coincidence.

‘So, how are you finding sixth year?’ he asked. ‘Wanting to throw yourself in the lake yet?’

‘Not yet, and I’m praying it doesn’t get that bad! Non-verbal spells are a bit trying at the moment, but I’m enjoying Divination. That sort of cancels the bad stuff out.’

‘Divination?’ he said. ‘You’re not one of those types, are you?’

‘What do you mean, one of those types?’ I asked, pretending to be offended.

‘You know,’ he said, grinning. ‘One of those ‘see the future’ people. All episodes of the second sight and collapsing everywhere because they think they’ve seen some sort of omen in their breakfast cereal.’

‘Hey! It’s not like that!’ I protested.

‘Professor Patil was,’ he said.

‘Well, okay, but I’m not like that,’ I said. ‘It’s more about calculating and reading body language and being intuitive and stuff. That’s what I like doing.’

‘You’ve still not convinced me,’ he said, poking his tongue out. ‘I much prefer the past.’

‘The past?’ I said with a small jerk. Was I just being paranoid, or was there a certain knowing look in his eye? I stared at him. No, I was just being silly, there was nothing but an innocent smile on his face, nothing to suggest that he knew anything about my visions to the past.

‘Oh yes. History and all that.’

‘History as in History of Magic?’

He nodded.

‘No way!’ I exclaimed. ‘That was so boring. I dropped that as soon as I could.’

‘It’s not boring, it’s fascinating,’ he said with a grin. ‘It’s just the teacher that’s boring. Give the subject a different teacher and it would be so much better.’

A few months ago, I would have flatly disagreed with this point, saying it wasn’t just the teacher, it was the subject itself that was the problem. However, I’d regressed into the past itself, and lived it through another person’s eyes. It didn’t seem as boring as it used to, or at least parts of it didn’t. Of course, Lily would be the only person to know of my experiences. I was going to have to carry on my vein of disdain, and I was going to make the most of it.

‘But something has to make history teachers boring in the first place,’ I said in what I hoped was flirtatiously argumentative manner. ‘It’s got to be the subject; that’s the thing that links them together. I mean, have you read any of those textbooks? Historians are all boring! A change of teacher won’t make the subject more interesting.’

For a moment, I was terrified, and my smile faltered slightly. Had I gone too far? But he broke into peals of laughter, and there was a cheeky look in his eye that I found particularly attractive.

‘Fine,’ he said, his eyes twinkling. ‘Let’s agree to disagree. And I’m sure you’ll get the hang of those spells soon, Clariss. You seem like an intelligent girl. Flawed in your dislike of history, but that apparently can’t be helped.’

He held out his hand to shake mine, and I took it, my heart leaping into my throat. His grip was firm and his hand felt smooth and warm and solid against mine. For a fleeting second, I didn’t want to let go, and I felt a slight shiver of pleasure run up my spine. He dropped my hand and smiled at me.

‘Oi, Hero!’ Will called across the table where he was lounging, feet up on the top. ‘You can’t keep Clariss all to yourself. Let the poor girl have some space to breathe!’

I giggled and glanced across at Hero, who leaned back in his chair, grinning at Will. I thought I saw a shadow of red flush up on his face for a moment, but then it was gone. Was I just seeing things, or could it perhaps mean what I hoped it did? The conversation that Will had been having with Tabby, Lily, and Albus swelled out to include Hero and myself, but I didn’t find myself joining in much. I tried to keep my eyes from Hero, but occasionally they betrayed me and flicked back to take him in, and I could have sworn that a couple of times, our eyes met for a fraction of a second.

All too soon, it seemed, the boys and Ceres traipsed back in, the boys rather windswept and red-cheeked and Ceres practically bouncing rather than walking, her face alive with excitement. She rushed over to us, grinning broadly and, to my reluctance, dragged us away from Hero and his friends and over to a corner by the fire.

‘Guess what?’ she gushed, beaming at Lily and I.

‘Ollie asked you out?’ Lily guessed. She was smiling at Ceres’ enthusiasm; apparently, small doses of Ceres’ love life she could stand.

‘Not quite, but we’re going to Hogsmeade together in a couple of weeks, and he’s going to sit with me at breakfast tomorrow!’

‘Nice one,’ I smiled. ‘Did you ask him, then?’ My eyes darted back to the table we’d just left. Hero was still sat there, but he was engrossed in a conversation with his friends. I felt slightly disappointed.

‘Well, sort of,’ Ceres said. ‘We’d been talking for ages about all kinds of things, and we were really getting on, so I mentioned Hogsmeade and the date sort of set itself up! Great, isn’t it?’

Ceres launched into a description of what seemed like every word that had been exchanged between her and Ollie. I glanced sideways at Lily. Her eyes were beginning to glaze over, so I nudged her. She gave a start and glared at me.

‘Ceres,’ she said, interrupting her mid-flow. ‘Clariss and I have to go to the library. We’ve got a massive Ancient Runes essay due in for Monday.’

I tried to look like this wasn’t new information to me, and prayed that she wouldn’t go asking Murray or Conor if they had completed their essays. She seemed convinced, though, and slightly crestfallen. I felt a pang of guilt as I saw her smile ruefully.

‘You can tell us everything when we get back,’ I said, aware that Lily was looking daggers at me. ‘We’ve got to get this out of the way first, though.’

‘Okay then,’ she said, perking up slightly. ‘Have fun with your essay.’

We said goodbye, and Lily steered me forcibly out of the portrait hole.

‘Aww, why did you have to go and say that?’ Lily hissed at me when we were firmly outside the Gryffindor Common Room. ‘I don’t want to have to listen to Ceres go on about Ollie!’

‘She looked so upset when we said we were off,’ I said, shrugging my shoulders. I wouldn’t be pressured into feeling bad about my promise to Ceres. ‘Anyway, I listened to you go on about Conor, you listened to me about Andrew in third year, we should listen to Ceres. It’s what friends do. And she’s so excited about it. It’s not like your ears are going to burn off or anything.’

‘You never know,’ Lily said with a wink. ‘But I suppose you’re right. We should apologise to her when we get back.’

‘Yeah,’ I agreed. ‘So, are we off to the library, then?’

‘Ooh, yeah!’ Lily exclaimed, her eyes widening. ‘I just said that as a way to get out of it, but that’s a good idea! We can research Ara!’

‘Shh!’ I hissed, casting about myself in case someone was near.

‘Oh, don’t worry about it, Clariss,’ Lily said, tugging me down the corridor. ‘Even if anyone did hear, they wouldn’t have a clue what I was on about.’

‘I suppose,’ I agreed.

We ducked behind a tapestry, taking a shortcut that would take us to the library. With a start, I realised that this was the same passageway in which I’d had my flashback the other day. I shivered and quickened my pace.

‘So,’ Lily said as we entered the library. ‘Where do you feel we should start?’

‘Dunno,’ I whispered, heading over to the history section. The library was nearly deserted; the only occupants were the elderly, stooped librarian who frowned at us as we entered and three students; two Hufflepuff girls and a Slytherin seventh-year. They were bent over piles of books and parchment at the desks at the end of the aisles. ‘I suppose we should start here.’

I paused in the middle of an aisle I had selected at random and peered up at the masses of dusty tomes that extended up the shelf nearly to the ceiling. Suddenly I felt the vastness of what I was trying to do; there were thousands of books here, just in this one aisle, and I was just searching for one name. How on Earth was I ever going to find anything? It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack; I could search for hours and not find a thing. For a moment, I wanted to just turn around and leave.

I walked along the aisle, looking at the titles, sliding books off the shelf at random, flipping them open, and then putting them back again. Suddenly, Lily appeared at my elbow, two books clutched to her chest. One, I recognised as one of our old textbooks, a much battered and abused copy of A History of Magic.

‘Thought we should start with the familiar ones,’ she said, showing me the books. The other one she had was Hogwarts: A History.

‘Not bad,’ I said. ‘I’ll start with something more specific.’ I slid a green, leather bound copy of Notable Events of the Seventeenth Century: Revised Edition from the shelf.

‘Why seventeenth century?’ Lily asked, looking at the book I’d selected.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It just seemed like the right sort of time frame.’

Lily shrugged her shoulders and turned back towards the table at the end of our aisle and let her books tumble out of her arms. I pulled out the seat next to her and flipped my book open and scanned the contents page.

‘So,’ Lily said as she opened A History of Magic, ‘you reckon the seventeenth century is a good place to start?’

‘It might be an idea,’ I said. ‘I honestly don’t know why, but I think I’ve got a good feeling about it. Like when I picked out that book it felt right.’

‘Perhaps it’s your Inner Eye talking,’ Lily said grinning mischievously.

‘Oh, shut up, you,’ I said, giving her a withering look. ‘It felt like back in that Divination lesson when I was telling Professor Sye about what I felt. I just knew the person was a woman, and now I just feel like we’re looking for someone in the seventeenth century.’

‘How come you didn’t feel like that when you were looking at all the stuff in the Trophy Room?’

‘I don’t know.’ This was something that had just popped into my head, too. ‘Perhaps it was because her name wasn’t actually there. I mean, I knew when I’d gone too far, didn’t I? Perhaps she’s mentioned in one of these books.’

I prickled at the thought, gently fingering the spine of the book. Contained within it's pages might be the answer, or at least a reference to who Ara Grey had been. She felt incredibly close.

‘What sort of things went on in the seventeenth century?’ I asked.

‘Goblin wars, mostly, it looks like,’ Lily said, flipping through pages of her book. ‘Oh, and the Statute of Secrecy in 1689 or something.’

‘Oh yeah. It was first signed in 1689, but it didn’t come into effect until 1692,’ I said.

‘Wow,’ Lily said with a snort. ‘Someone paid attention in History of Magic. Oh, here’s something!’

‘Where?’ I leaned over to her, scanning the page she had her book open at in excitement.

‘Says here that the Hogs Head was Headquarters for a couple of Goblin Rebellions. It could relate somehow to Hogwarts.’

‘When did they happen?’ I asked, my spirits falling; I’d hoped for a mention of Ara, at least.

‘Hold on a second, ah, here it says there was some in the early part of the century, 1612 through to 1614, and another one in 1680. Ring any bells?’ she asked with a laugh, though we both knew she was only half joking.

‘Hmm. Try the 1680 one. Sixteen-twelve sounds too early.’
She began to flick through the pages of her book, and I turned my eyes back to mine and scanned the contents page.

‘I’ve got something, look,’ Lily said, giving me a nudge. Pointing to a paragrap in the middle of the page, she began to read, ‘In 1680, the Wizard’s Council was beginning to seriously consider the Statute that had been proposed several years earlier,’ she read. ‘The increasing number of attacks, both Muggles on Wizards and vice versa, prompted them to rethink their blanket rejection in 1675. Needless to say, the leader of one of the goblin clans at the time, Gudbug the Gross, was not happy about his clan’s exclusion from the debates that raged, and tempers began to flare. A group of goblin rebels, including Gudbug, re-established their Headquarters in Hogsmeade that they’d used in the Goblin Rebellions nearly seventy years before. The Wizard’s Council feared the intentions of the rebel goblins, and sent representatives, headed by one Waldric Eldon, to negotiate peacefully with them, but the goblins rejected their advancement, and a fight broke out. Four goblins were killed in the fight, along with a villager, Hubert Madder, who tried to intercede on behalf of the goblins, and many more were injured, including Eldon himself. The wounded were taken up to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where many recovered, thanks to the careful ministrations of the young matron, Miss Ara Grey.’

We were both silent as the words sank in.

‘It’s her,’ I said eventually. ‘We’ve found her.’

I looked at Lily and we broke into identical broad grins.

‘You were right, it was the seventeenth century,’ she said. ‘And she was a matron here. Do you think she’s the matron when you’re her?’ Lily asked.

‘No,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘She’s definitely a student. She wears the uniform. But all that guff about “the Wizard’s Council sending representatives to negotiate peacefully with them,�’ I said with a snort. ‘More like they sent a hit squad to take the rebel goblins out in the middle of the night.’

‘How do you know that?’ Lily asked.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, that’s what the book goes on to say,’ she explained. ‘About how the goblins accused the Council of attacking them at the dead of night. Most of the residents of Hogsmeade agreed, apparently.’

‘What?’ I said with a start. ‘I was just guessing!’

‘Well, you’re correct. The Council leaders got a right rollicking. The Chief got thrown off the Council altogether, it says here.’

‘He didn’t,’ I said slowly. ‘He just got demoted to Secretary...’

We stared at each other, open mouthed.

‘It’s like I’ve been there before,’ I said quietly.

‘You know, my mum always says that if you think you’ve been there before, you usually have,’ Lily told me in an equally soft voice.

‘You mean, as in reincarnation?’ I asked. This was getting far too weird.

‘It’s a possibility,’ Lily said. ‘You’re regressing back to her life, you can remember all these details of what happened in that goblin war, and you knew when to look. It makes sense.’

‘Makes sense that I was Ara Grey.’

‘Well, nobody knows what happens after death, do they?’ Lily said in a rational voice. The tone seemed strange considering what we were discussing. ‘I mean, we know people can choose to be ghosts, but other than that, anything could happen to the soul.’

‘I think I need to go back to the Common Room,’ I said, closing my book firmly and standing up.

‘Do you want me to come with you?’ Lily asked, a concerned look on her face as she half rose from her chair.

‘No, I’ll be okay.’ I managed a smile. ‘I just need to get my head around the possibility.’

‘Okay,’ Lily said, sitting back down as I turned to leave. ‘I’ll see you later.’

I walked slowly through the corridors back towards Gryffindor Tower. My mind was whirring, but I wasn’t a shivering mess like I was when I’d had my first flashback. I was calm, collected, if a little startled by the idea of reincarnation. The more I thought about it, though, the more it actually made sense; the fact I was having flashbacks to Ara’s life, how I knew all the details of the Goblin Wars Lily had found... The difficult part was trying to come to terms with the fact that I had once walked in the seventeenth century. That I’d had a family and friends and a life I had absolutely no knowledge of until now. It was a very strange feeling.

My head gave a sudden throb and I winced in pain. Perhaps it was too much, trying to get my head around being another person. A ringing started in my ears and my head began to spin. I closed my eyes against the noise, and suddenly, I collided with someone.

‘Oh!’ I exclaimed, my eyes flying open as they flicked up to the figure. ‘I am so sorry, Professor,’ I added, curtsying hurriedly as I recognised the sweeping robes and towering figure of Professor Black.

‘Not to worry, Miss Grey,’ he said in a rich voice, reaching out to steady me as I stumbled forward. I stepped away from him quickly.

‘You know my name?’ I asked, not daring to look up into his face. For some reason, I found Professor Black somewhat intimidating, yet fascinating at the same time. I generally tried to avoid him, if I could, but if I did somehow manage to see him around the school, I could not help myself from looking at him. I was grateful that I did not have him for any of my lessons. I wasn’t quite sure where my feelings stemmed from, but there was something about his confident manner, and the way his eyes seemed so penetrating. It could even have been the fact that he was so much younger than the other teachers, I guessed only five years older than my own eighteen years. He didn’t look like a member of staff, but rather a student, just masquerading.

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I have a good head for names, and not much that goes on here escapes my notice.’

‘Oh,’ I said rather lamely. I made a curtsy again and began to walk away from him, not liking how he was making me feel so uncomfortable, but he was speaking again.

‘I was on my way to the Herb storeroom, but it appears to have changed location since I was a student,’ he said, and I was sure, even though I dared not look directly at his face, that he was smiling. ‘Would you show me the way?’

There was no way in which I would ignore a direct request, especially not from a Professor, so I curtsied in a demure manner, and began to lead the way. I tried to walk quickly, so that he would be walking behind me, but he quickened his pace and fell into step at my side. I chanced a glance up at him. Close to, I could see that his robes, though simple, were of a very fine material, and very well cut. They were obviously expensive. I looked up at his face. His dark hair was wavy to his shoulders, and framed his face, accentuating his high cheekbones and solid jaw line. He was walking only inches away from me, and I could feel the breeze from his swinging arms on my hands.

‘I believe your father is on the Wizard’s Council,’ he said after a while, turning to look down at me. I snapped my eyes away immediately, but I could have sworn I heard him chuckle, perhaps amused that he had caught me staring.

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘We have something in common, then,’ he said. ‘My father is also. Mufrid Black is his name.’

‘I believe I have heard my father mention him,’ I said diplomatically. It wouldn’t do to repeat exactly what he had said about the man; it was not polite hearing.

We were silent for a few minutes, during which we descended a staircase onto the second floor. I did not attempt to speak to him.

‘There is much talk of a new treaty,’ he said, finally, breaking the silence between us.

‘I do not know, Professor,’ I said sternly. ‘My father does not discuss Council dealings with me.’

‘I meant not to offend you,’ he said with a laugh, which angered me more. ‘Indeed, quite the opposite! I was merely suggesting there had been talk, outside the Council, about new legislation referring to new Muggle and Wizard relations.’

He stopped and turned to face me, and I defiantly met his gaze, annoyed that he seemed to be teasing me.

‘I should very much like to hear your opinions on the subject, Miss Grey,’ he said. ‘It seems to me like you would have some interesting ideas. However, I believe I can find my own way from here. I thank you.’

He bowed to me once, and strode up off the corridor, leaving me standing, gaping after him.

It was hard to describe the feeling of sliding from one time into another, I thought as I hurried back up to Gryffindor Tower. Or rather thrust would have been a more accurate word, for abruptly and without choice I had found myself standing in that corridor, being steadied by Professor Black’s strong, masculine hands. I had come back to myself in a deserted passageway on the second floor, and immediately began to hurry back to the Common Room, thinking about what I had just experienced. It was almost like walking through an invisible portal that separated the past from the present. When it happened, at the moment I passed through the invisible veil, I was blissfully unaware that anything had changed. That particular realisation, and its possible significance, would hit me later, when I was back as Clariss Flint. But as I collided with Professor Black, I was no longer Clariss with all her memories and attachments. All that had been stripped from me. My thoughts were someone else’s, my thoughts not my own, and as I moved, I lived each new experience for the first time.

I was not as shaken as I had been that first time when I had come back to myself outside the portrait of the Fat Lady, but I was still a bit shocked. The experience had come upon me without warning, and had left me reeling in its wake. The conversation I’d been having with Lily in the library came back to me.

If you think you’ve been somewhere before, you usually have.

I shook the thought from my mind. It was too much to deal with now.

That night, the dream I’d had after I found the bracelet concealed in the wall returned. I woke with a gasp to find myself reaching forwards towards the end of my bed, as I had been reaching forward in my dream. The golden bracelet no longer glinted on my wrist, and there was no handsome, dark figure before me. I knew instantly who he was now. It was Professor Black, the man I’d run into as Ara yesterday. There was no mistaking it.

I threw back the covers and slipped out of bed. I’d not spoken much after returning from the library yesterday, and to my great relief, Lily had not approached the subject we’d discussed. I walked to the foot of my bed and rummaged around in my trunk for a moment, finally finding the scarf in which I’d carefully tucked the bracelet. I unfolded the material and let it fall into my hand.

It looked somewhat different to how I’d seen it in my dream, only a few minutes, yet at the same time over three hundred years, earlier. The colours were less vivid; the gold was paler, duller, and the rubies no longer glowed like the fire of a thousand suns. It looked like it was, old and tarnished. Somehow, the light weight of the metal in my palm calmed me, and I crossed to the window by my bed and looked out across the grounds.

According to my watch, it was only six o’clock, so the sun hadn’t risen yet, but already the landscape as filled with pale light. There was a yellowish glow behind one of the distant grey mountains, indicating dawn was on its way. The ground below was swathed in silvery mist, and I marvelled at how it clung to the grass, leaving the trees to poke up through. It was very beautiful in an eerie sort of way.

As I fingered the bracelet, I noticed something in the corner of my eye, something that looked like a smudge of one of the diamond sections of glass in the window. I leaned forward to get a closer look and saw that it was a series of scratches. Someone had carved their name into the glass in tiny, italic letters. I peered intently at it to see if I could decipher the name.

Ara Grey.

I recoiled in shock, my heart fluttering weakly inside my chest. It couldn’t be!

And yet, it was. Minute as though the lettering was, there was no mistaking it. Ara Grey had sat here once, exactly where I was sitting and carved her name into the window. She had slept in this very dormitory. Perhaps she had slept in my bed.

This was just too strange! I was experiencing flashbacks to her life. I had found what I was now sure was her bracelet concealed in a hole in a wall, and now I had found her name carved on a window next to my bed. It was tangible proof, actual evidence other than just a name in a book, that Ara Grey had really existed and had lived and gone to school at Hogwarts.

But what did all this mean? These things could not be down to chance; there had to be a reason for all of this. Could Lily be right? Could the reason actually be that once, a long time ago, I had been Ara Grey?