Summary:

Previously: Little chat with Neville at the beginning and a surprise POV from one of the most controversial characters in the series

Coming up: Emmelia finally gets back to her dorm and...well why don't we just find out ;)

Notes:

I am SO sorry for this being late I'm sick and have a very high fever. I've mostly been asleep for our three day weekend, which is annoying...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The first thing that Emmelia noticed when she entered her empty dorm room was the oddly wrapped present sitting on the foot of her bed. Not because it physically stood out, but because the power emanating from it was almost blinding for Emmelia. It's aura was a thick silver mist that drifted around and covered almost all of her bed.

Emmelia stepped closer to the object, intent on opening it, until she noticed the faint whisper of Light Magic that seemed to be encircling the silver aura. Now that definitely didn't seem natural.

She moved closer, although much more cautiously. Maybe she should take the package to a Slytherin prefect. She didn't want to bother Professor Snape with her gift problems, especially since he didn't really seem to like her.

Picking up the gift, she turned it over in her hands in order to examine it. Slowly, she peeled away the tissue paper cover big what seemed to be a silvery piece of fabric. Sliding it completely out of its wrappings, she held it to the light and watched it shimmer.

She frowned at it for a few more moments until refilling it and bringing it down stairs back into the common room.

"Farley!" Emmelia said with an inviting smile, glad that the girl was staying over break to study for her O.W.L.s.

"Yeah?" Farley said gruffly. She seemed to be in a bad mood. Understandable, since there were stacks of paper and random books on the desk where she was sitting, surrounding her.

"I don't mean to distract you from your studies, but I was wondering if you could take a moment to make sure this isn't dangerous. It was sitting on my bed, and I'm not sure how it got there."

Farley raised an eyebrow before sighing, "Yeah, sure. Give it here kid." She held her hand out for the odd gift.

A few detection spells later, Emmelia watched the older girl's nose wrinkle in distaste, "Those are some compulsion spells you've got on this thing. Who'd you say gave it to you?"

Emmelia shook her head, "There was no name on the note. Just some vague message about its status as a family heirloom and something about how my father gave it to them for safekeeping."

"Yeah well, here," She stuck out the piece of fabric for her to take back, "I've mostly gotten rid of the compulsions. The rest will disappear in time." Emmelia checked and saw that the gold whips infecting the silver mess of the aura were indeed mostly faded.

"That's an invisibility cloak by the way. I'd be careful with it. Don't know how it's still in that condition if it's a family heirloom, but I'm too sleep deprived to care. Go back and do whatever girls your age are doing right now. I need," She yawned, "To get back to work.

Emmelia bowed her head slightly in thanks before turning and fleeing up the stairs to go finish the school work she'd been assigned for over the break.

After finishing the ridiculous Defense essay that Professor
Quirrell had assigned, Emmelia put the rest of her work away. While digging through her bag, she remembered the odd book that she'd been so attracted to last night. Before she'd gone to bed, she'd packed it in the first pocket of her bag.

Determined, she reached into the little compartment and took it out.

It was old, that was for certain. And definately muggle. Which begged the question, why on earth would Lord Malfoy be keeping an old muggle book in his extensive library. Emmelia opened it up in an attempt to understand what he was thinking.

The pages were blank.

That made her think there was some kind of spell that activated the magic of the diary. It definitely had a core, the entire thing was radiating Dark Magic to an extent she hadn't seen before.

Maybe she should write in it?

Unsure, Emmelia took out her ink and quills from where she had placed them while cleaning up. She had no idea what to write.

Feeling stupid, Emmelia wrote down the first thing that came into her mind.

Activate

She penned in a shaky script, still sorta unaccustomed to using a quill instead of a pen.

Her writing disappeared. Emmelia peered down at the book, more interested than she was before.

Slowly, a different word began to appear.

Hello

The book wrote back.

Immediately intrigued, she responded.

What are you?

I am not a what, but a who. Tom Riddle.

Emmelia furrowed her brow in confusion.

How in Merlin's name did you get stuck inside this old book?

I wasn't stuck. In fact, I'm not even real. The real Tom Riddle placed me into his diary along with all of his knowledge. He wanted to find a way to help kids long after he was gone. Consider me a helpful little guide on your way through Hogwarts.

You seem awfully Dark and powerful to just be a helpful little guide… I mean there's obviously nothing wrong with Dark Magic, but there's so much of it radiating from you that I find it hard to believe that you were just a little guide that some students made on a whim.

Fair enough. It was my final school project for my sixth year charms class. You're very perceptive Mister…

He trailed off, as if waiting for her name.

Miss, actually. Miss Emmelia Potter-Black. I'm a first year.

My apologies, Miss Potter-Black. Odd name combination. What House are you in?

Slytherin

A Potter in Slytherin? That hasn't happened for decades. Centuries even. I take it that you were raised by the Black side of the family, instead of the Potters.

Neither, actually. All of the Blacks but one are either in prison or dead and all of the Potters are dead. I was raised by muggles.

I am… Sorry to hear that. I too was raised by muggles. In an orphanage. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father was a useless prat.

I lived, or live, I guess, with my Aunt and Uncle on my mothers side. She was a muggleborn.

I see. I too was a halfblood. Well, that's assuming that your father was the pureblooded Potter-Black.

My father was just the Potter actually. Well, Im sure he has a bit of Black in their somewhere, knowing their reputation. Anyway, I'm not sure why, but the current Lord Black named me his Heir right before he was sent to prison. I suppose it doesn't really matter why he did it, just now im Heir Black.

You're a lucky girl. I didn't have the fourthought to get an inheritance test until I was a fifth year.

I don't know what an inheritance test is. I didn't take one. I just signed the papers that my account manager at Gringotts gave me.

You haven't taken the test? That means that you could still have inheritances that the Goblins didn't have prepared for you. You could have living family.
I'll have to take the test once summer comes around. Thank you, for telling me about it. I have to go now, its way past lights out.

Goodnight, Emmelia. Wait, I have one question for you before you go.

What is it?

How did you know that I was a powerful Dark object?

Oh, I'm Magic Blessed.

Emmelia awoke in the middle of the night. She wasn't sure why, but she had this undeniable urge to go exploring. She wanted, needed to examine every inch of the castle.

Without thinking, she reached for the invisibility cloak that someone had gifted her. Pulling it around her shoulders, she tiptoed up the stairs and into the Slytherin common room. Quietly, she pushed open the portrait door and stepped out into the quiet halls of Hogwarts.

It was surreal, almost. She was so used to each corridor being filled with the bustling of hundreds of students and staff. In the dark of the night, the silence that surrounded her was almost haunting in the way that it consumed everything around her. She flinched at every noise, no matter how small. Everything set her on edge.

She found herself wandering through a passage of abandoned classrooms when she saw a shimmering aura float through an open doorway and out in front of her. Immensely curious, she followed the trail into the room.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Her curiosity growing, Emmelia removed her invisibility cloak and moved closer to the mirror, wanting to look at herself but see no reflection. She stepped in front of it.
Her heart made a massive leap in her chest when she saw someone in the mirror with her. She whirled around.

Her panic was lessened slightly when she saw that there was no one in the room with her. But now she was even more confused than before, because she had not just seen only herself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing ominously next to and beside her.

But the room was empty. Narrowing her eyes, she turned slowly back to the mirror. There she was, reflected in it. But no, that wasn't right. It wasn't her. Not completely at least.

The girl in front of her was taller and older than she was, looking around sixteen or seventeen. But they had the same facial features and red silky hair.

She stepped nearer still to the mirror and reached out her hand in an attempt to touch the women. The woman simply shook her head at Emmelia. Frowning, Emmelia turned her attention away from the woman and towards the many people in the background.

There was a woman standing to the right behind what Emmelia suspected was a grown up version of herself.

She looked kind, much kinder than the rest of the people in the mirror. She had such a striking resemblance to Daphne that Emmelia assumed it must be the grown up version of her.

The woman to her left had to be Pansy, with Hermione right beside her.

Farther into the background were a number of other people, most of their faces concealed by the hoods they were wearing. Emmelia thought that she could make out the faces of an adult Blaise and Draco. Maybe Tracy Davis was there too, but she wasn't sure.

She reached out a hand and felt the air behind her. If they were really there, she'd be able to touch them, all of their reflections were so close together, but she felt only air – she and the others existed only in the mirror.

How long she stood there, she didn't know. The reflections did not fade and she looked and looked until a distant noise brought her back to her senses. She couldn't stay here, she had to get back to bed before the morning. She tore her eyes away from her adult friends faces, whispered, 'I'll come back,' and hurried from the room.

Emmelia awoke in the morning with a splitting headache and an unsettled feeling in her gut. Nevertheless, she awoke and did her morning routine before heading down to breakfast.
Draco was back from his little trip to his Manor for the Yule Ball, and the two reluctantly sat together for the meal, making boring conversation to entertain themselves. After breakfast, the two went separate ways, Emmelia to the library to look up the strange mirror and Draco to the first year boys dorm to do Merlin knew what.

Emmelia flashed a small smile to Madam Pince as she entered the library, before heading to the table that she and her friends had claimed as her own. Laying all of her stuff out, Emmelia pondered what section she would have to go through in order to find information on the artifact.

Suddenly, she remembered her conversation the night before with the Diary Man, Tom Riddle. Hesitantly, she took out the small journal and began to write.

Hello, Tom

Hello Emmelia, He replied immediately, What can I help you with?

Do you happen to know anything about a mirror that says Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi on it?

Ahhhhh, that would be the Mirror of Erised.

So you know about it?

I do. Its reflection shows the onlooker their greatest desire. However, its known to be extremely dangerous. Many have become so enraptured with what they see in the mirror that they never leave. They die from dehydration or starvation.

Oh

I have to ask, why are you curious about it?

I ran into it, last night while I was exploring Hogwarts. I was-wondering what it was.

You saw it? Why was it at Hogwarts?

I'm not sure actually. I only found it because it's aura was seeping through the walls.

Right. What's it like, seeing the Magical Cores of everything around you?

It doesn't really affect me. Before I turned eleven, I didn't really know what it was. I just thought that some people were more special than others.

So you didn't know anything about magic before you turned eleven? Did nobody tell your relatives?

No, they knew. They were just too big assholes to tell me.

I see. I take it that you don't like them all that much.

No, I don't.

Is that all?

I suppose. Guess I'll have to change my plan of going back to the Mirror tonight.

Please do. I'd rather not have my only companion for years get stuck looking at some magical mirror.

Goodbye Mr. Riddle.

Goodbye Miss Potter-Black.

Emmelia awoke in the middle of the night once more. Again, she had the name urge to take her new invisibility cloak and go exploring again. Thankfully, with Riddle's message about the dangers of the Mirror still fresh in her mind, she managed to push the feeling aside and fall back asleep.

Tom Riddle had been stuck inside this Morgana awful diary for so many years. He didn't know how long, it was impossible to tell when you didn't even know what time it was in the real world. He hasn't even asked the girl who found him for the date!

Speaking of that girl, she was odd. Very odd.

For one, she was Magic Blessed. Something so incredibly rare that Tom didn't know how to feel about her. Another thing was that she felt...weird.

Not bad weird, just familiar somehow. He couldn't put his finger on it. They seemed to have some kind of connection, so much so that he could actually feel her Magical Core move about whatever room he was confined too.

There was another thing about her that was odd. He couldn't latch onto her soul, at all.

He knew it was possible for him to do, he'd done it before with Abarax Malfoy, almost possessing him completely before his original self had stopped him.

So that begged the question, why couldn't he do it with this little girl?

It certainly wasn't for a lack of trying, he'd put almost all of his energy into attaching himself to this kid, to no avail.

He thought that it might have something to do with their odd connection, but he wasn't sure. About anything really.

Except for that fact that he needed to actually get to know this girl. If he couldn't steal her soul for her own, then maybe he could convince her to help him of her own will.

Notes:

As always, like and comment! There was a formatting issue for this chapter too. I'm pretty sure that everything that was bolded or italicized is gone, which is aggravating. ANYWAY, have a wonderful week everyone!