Prologue

Natasha Strauss dashed into the empty Slytherin dormitory and slammed the door behind her.

Her heart was pounding furiously against her chest and she felt herself gasping for air. Her head was spinning and she felt nauseous.

"It can't be. They're pulling my leg," she muttered to the empty room, trying to steady herself as she made her way slowly to the cupboard next to her bed at the corner of the room.  She took a deep breath and yanked open the cupboard door.

She felt blood draining away from her face as she faced the full-length mirror mounted in the inside panel of her cupboard.  There was no reflection.  It was as though she wasn't there at all.

*

More than an hour later, Natasha was still standing in front of the mirror.  But this time, she was staring back at a sixteen-year-old girl with long blonde hair and eyes that took on the rare shade of violet.

She was trying to assure herself that she had had a hallucination earlier, when she heard loud footsteps and the voices of the girls who shared her dormitory.

Kathleen Curtis, a girl with bright green eyes and dark wavy hair that hung just below shoulders, was the first to notice her. "Nat! Where were you? We thought you were walking with us!"

I was with you.  I followed you right into the common room, Natasha cried silently.

Tessa Holmes frowned. "I could have sworn you were walking right behind me.  How did you disappear without us noticing?"

You're quite right. I disappeared. But I don't know how.

"We thought you were playing hide-and-seek with us!" Pamela Dawson chipped in.

I was with you. Only that you couldn't see me.

***