Anyone who had the decency to read the Hogwarts: A History would know the Mirror of Erised (although Katherine was pessimistic about it - probably only she and David read it) and she often thought where it was, if it was still intact, and most importantly, what she would see. She was half sure about the answer of that, but no one would know truly unless they tried it out, would they? So, even though this mirror was no match (this probably wasn't even a mirror to begin with), she often came here in winter to daydream and today was no exception. She turned on her small radio, set it beside herself and just watched the beautiful room the mirror seemed to be reflecting...

It was the day right after Kitty had served her detention with Professor Rosalyn, and Kitty was trying her absolute best to put the whole episode behind her. She'd already apologized at the Slytherin table for the misunderstanding, and later she planned to find Katy (of Slytherin) to personally apologize. Now, though, she was going on like it was a normal day (because technically it was) and acting her usual cheerful self.

As she walked down the corridor with the strange mirror, she caught sight of Katherine staring peacefully into it while listening to a radio. She decided to approach her.


"Hello Katherine," she greeted her housemate. "Um...I was wondering. Is it okay if I take your picture? It's for my photo album I'll be showing everyone at the end of the year. Kind of like an unofficial yearbook, just with locations along with people."

She knew that Katherine could be harder to talk to than other students, that was probably the reason why they hadn't really spoken much (aside from casual greetings) in all the time they'd lived at Hogwarts together. Still, she didn't expect her to say no to her request, though maybe she would.

Katherine turned towards the voice. It was Kitty, who apparently hated Slytherins. Not that Katherine would really treat her differently now, since she didn't even treat the girl in a specific way to begin with. They were barely acquaintances. Last term she wanted to ask her how she got the badge and what else she'd suggest, but... after everything in her own life, it didn't really matter.

Anyway, so, this was why she took photos during the Feast? Well... Katherine thought about it. Would it... harm her in any way if her photo was taken..?

"Show who?" she asked, but she also absent-mindedly combed her hair to look better, and straightened out her eyebrows. "Would you give me a copy too?" So that she'd... keep it, she supposed. She didn't have anyone specific to show it.

Things were going great so far. She hadn't said no and was even combing her hair as if preparing for a picture. "Everyone who wants to see it will be able to," she answered truthfully. "Gryffindor's, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins." She only listed the houses since this was the day right after her detention and she didn't want to give the impression that she was some kind of bigot against of Slytherins. "This is something I started two years ago, where I'd take pictures of people and places inside Hogwarts and then show them to people at the end of the term. This year I've gotten some very interesting ones. Remember that portal a lot of us vanished into earlier this term? I'm the only person who took pictures of the 'other' Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the headmistress took them away." She hoped her babbling wasn't annoying Katherine, but how could anyone be bored by the portal?

"And looking back at my previous albums, I realized you weren't in any of my pictures, and that really shouldn't be because we're dorm mates and you'd look great on camera." Okay, so maybe she was using flattery, but at the same time she was completely sincere. At the feast she'd tried to take her picture without permission, but now she realized she should have asked. It just never occurred to her that someone might not want to have their picture taken by her. "Ooh, and I'd give you a copy if you wanted, sure!"

Oh? Katherine didn't know Kitty kept her own album; but it was nice of her, meant she liked this place and people enough to remember them. Katherine wasn't so sure about the 'people' part, but she'd invest in her own camera... sometime, when she went home again.

Wait, she'd been through portal? Katherine looked at the girl with surprise. "You are? What was it like? How did you come - wait, let's get the photo out of way before you can tell me about it."

And no wonder she wasn't in any of them - she hadn't been (still wasn't) very social back then. Anyway, she didn't dwell on it that much, because it made her depressed, so she just arranged her pose: She was already sitting down, but she threw all of her hair to one side (the other side from the camera so that her face would show), folded her hands under her knees, and turned her head to the camera while her body was parallel to the mirror.

"How does this look?" Since she wasn't the photographer, she didn't know if the light was right. On Kitty's command, though, she'd smile.

Kitty adjusted her camera and aimed at Katherine. "Puurfect! Smile!"

Click Click Click

She excitedly snapped three pictures of her. The lighting was just fine and so was the angle. Right after they were taken she checked them to make sure they came out right, and sure enough they had.

"Thank you Katherine, these are great," she said, moving over to show her photos. "When the album is finished I'll give you a copy. It'll probably be at the end of term feast." She beamed at her before remembering what else she'd been about to say.

"So...do you want to hear about what's on the other side of the portal?" She smiled conspiratorially as she asked, as she had the vague suspicion that she wasn't supposed to talk about it.

Purfect.

Kitty used the... hybrid word 'purfect'.

While it kind of... suited... okay, no, this was disgusting and terrible, but Katherine couldn't really do anything about it. At least the prefect was an avid photographer and didn't make her wait too long. Wait - she was getting to see a copy of the album? Wow. "Thank you," she said as she looked at the photos, then nodded. The photos looked fine. "Do you... sell this album?" Because this was some serious effort she was putting into, who would do it for free?

"Of course!" Her expression was all serious and curious. WHAT did Kitty know?

It really pleased her that Katherine liked the pictures. The question about if she sold them caught her by surprise. "Um...not really, no." The thought of money had never even entered her mind. She hoped Katherine didn't think she was silly for not selling them. "I give them out for free, though usually I only give out about a dozen or so. Hopefully I'll give out more this year, though." And this would be the first year she gave one to Katherine, so already she had a head start.

But now it was time to tell the story of the portal! Kitty moved to sit down beside the radio Katherine had set up, leaning against the wall and wrapping her arms around her elbows. "It all began when I was doing a final patrol of the sixth floor corridor. I heard voices nearby, so I came to investigate and I found a mysterious portal on the wall. I'm naturally curious, so I decided to explore, but before going in I wrote a note explaining where I'd gone and pinned it to the wall. Also, I wouldn't have gone in alone normally, but I was worried for whoever had gone in before me - those voices were coming from the portal. So I went in, and found myself in a corridor like the one I'd come from, but covered in darkness. I heard voices up ahead, but it was hard to see, so I called out. Normally I wouldn't have done so, but I was pretty certain one of the voices belonged to Tenacius, and I was right. Leon was also there and several others. None of them knew what the place was either, though I think Leon said it might have been an alternate reality. We decided to explore together, following a pair of human footprints. Other students stumbled in the portal and joined us later on, including Brent - that guy who transferred last year to our school." She tried to remember who had first seen the bones, but she couldn't be sure. "That place looks very similar to Hogwarts, almost like an exact physical copy - but with some creepy differences. Besides the darkness and fog, there are these dark green plant tendril things growing on the walls. At first we wondered if it was something escaped from Herbology, but it didn't look at all familiar. Also, there are these very strange white flecks falling around us. It's kind of like snow mixed with dandruff. After awhile of exploring, we discovered BONES on the floor." A small pause. "We really, really hoped they were animals bones and not human bones, but now I'm not sure anymore. We also found scraps of the gamekeeper's shirt, but I'm sure the bones were NOT his," she added hastily. "Then, we heard a terrible growling sound coming towards us. It became louder and louder, so at once we turned and ran back the way we came. I dropped my camera and had to go back for it, and Zoryn seemed completely oblivious, so Leon had to carry her." Really, that Zoryn was something. "She DID catch one of those weird dandruff things, but I don't know if she still has it."

"We crashed into the portal, and at first it seemed like it wouldn't open. The growling was becoming louder and louder." Her voice became breathless for a moment as she excitedly relayed the information. "And then...we came through. It opened and we were saved. Leon made sure w all came out safely, even showing the last of us out. Then he came out and the portal closed behind us. The headmistress and teachers were all waiting for us, and my camera was confiscated as soon as I said I had pictures of that other place."

Whew!

Wow, then. Katherine didn't think that was silly, that was just so... noble, she supposed. She wouldn't do it, by the way. "That's really kind of you," she said in the end, "and thanks for giving me one." Maybe she could like Kitty. Maybe.

But now it was story time, so Katherine straightened up and started listening closely. Yeah, she'd heard it first appeared on sixth floor too, and that was precisely why she'd avoided the corridor at all costs. Curiosity killed the cat, after all. But at least Kitty was a somewhat clever kitty, and put up a note. Now, at that moment though, Katherine absolutely didn't agree with them: Clearly this wasn't a place that should be there, so why did they even decide to discover it!? And so it became a huge party, instead of a party of the ministry. Katherine listened with her mouth open as she couldn't believe what they did... they even discovered bones on the floor! Katherine couldn't help but shake her head to herself, but didn't interrupt.

The... groundskeeper... he... Katherine's face went white in fear, and she even shuddered. How wat Kitty sure those weren't his bones? Katherine deeply frowned. This was so disturbing, wasn't it? Explained why the corridor was sealed... and she was also glad they could return safely, with the photos on Kitty's camera. That must be a nice evidence to identify it... she shuddered again.

"What do you think it is, though?" she asked then. What could it be?

"You're welcome," Kitty replied with a small smile, in answer to Katherine thanking her on being given a free photo album. Of course she would never think to charge her friends over something like this, and whether or not Katherine thought they were friends - Kitty certainly did from this conversation onwards.

What did she think the portal was? Good question. "I've obsessed a lot about what it might be," she admitted. "One of the first things that I thought of was that maybe the charm protecting Hogwarts from Muggles backfired. Remember how we learned from Hogwarts A History that if a Muggle were to approach Hogwarts, all she or he would see would be a giant, crumbling ruin? Well I wondered if the portal was some kind of glitch that made us see Hogwarts how a Muggle would. But that theory went away as soon as the monster started chasing us. Although you could argue that it was just an illusion meant to scare people, none of the teachers acted like it was - and let's not forget that the caretaker has also vanished. So that theory was impossible." It had been a good first guess, she had thought - but in reality there was zero evidence that anything on the other side of the portal was an illusion, it just wasn't true.

"Another theory could be that the portal is a secret compartment of Hogwarts - like the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requirement. I don't know what it's purpose would be, though. It could also be an entirely different reality, and the portal is a rift between our worlds. I know it sounds crazy, but with all the magic we already know about, is it impossible?"

Ravenclaws always had to answer a riddle before entering their common room, Kitty liked to think that made her open minded about different ways of thinking and possibilities. Katherine was also a Ravenclaw. "What do you think it might have been?" she asked her curiously.

Katherine listened closely to her. The first theory didn't really sound possible, and Kitty soon came to that conclusion. If the spell had gone haywire, it would have stopped working altogether like it happened once (all written in Hogwarts: A History - had Kitty read it?), not... turn around. So she skipped commenting on that, and focused on her next theory instead.

"What about the monster, then?" she asked, "someone would still need to put the monster in." Was she saying... a second Lord Voldemort was on rise?.. "But... this sounds like the most plausible, doesn't it? Someone who is a wannabe put the monster there - don't ask me how, and is eliminating the people here one by one..." She frowned then, and shuddered. Was Kitty capable of defending them if it came to that? She wanted to go to her Common Room, please and asap.

"I'm not sure how to explain the monster," Kitty confessed, after thinking about it for awhile. "We didn't get a view of it. I think there are creatures in our world that we haven't discovered, or ones that have been discovered but that are kept hidden. Newt Scamander didn't include all the creatures he discovered in the first edition of his field guide. Who knows what else we haven't discovered?"

There was another theory too, but she knew next to nothing on the subject. "It's also possible that this was a completely different world, another dimensional reality. I have zero proof that such there are alternate realities, so take this with a grain of salt."

"At any rate, I think we'll be okay if we stick together," she concluded. "Hogwarts has faced many dangers before, but we've always stuck together and overcome them."