Mim could feel a tightness around her arms and legs as her consciousness returned to her. Indenting stones across the side of her body that was pressed firmly to the ground. She tried to move a little, but thick rope would not allow it. Her heart thumped loudly, the pulsing sound deafening her ears to her surroundings.

She remembered they had finished their potion exam… she had wanted to wait to see Uncle Sev so she had taken a detour away from her fellow students.

Pain…

Burning…

Hands…

She tried to open her eyes slightly, hoping she was still on Hogwarts grounds.

Hoping she could get away.

As her eyes fluttered open, she saw a familiar purple turban.

"Professor?!" gasped Mim, the relief left her as quickly as it arrived. As Quirrell turned around a sinister smile face met her confused expression – he wasn't twitching at all… "You're – why am I here? What are you doing? Help!"

"Quiet," he snapped. She froze and did as she was told, her mind putting the pieces together that her professor was a part of the reason she was tied up… in the forbidden forest… alone…

She watched him pace, as he muttered under his breath. She assumed she had been hit in the head as she found it hard to concentrate and was unable to make out any words.

She had to come up with a plan. Stall him, she may not know why he had taken her, but she had no intention of finding out where.

"Why are you doing this?" Mim asked him.

"That is none of your concern," he said coldly, turning towards her. "It was bad enough when you'll foiled my plans during Halloween… The troll was supposed to be the perfect cover –"

"You let the troll in! Why… what is on the third floor?"

He snorted.

"I am not telling you anything, Potter!"

"But why let the troll in? Was it a distraction?"

He watched her for a moment, surveying how much to tell her, how much he wanted to reveal.

"My master seeks the item being guarded, and that is all you need to know." He said.

"Master… Voldemort?"

He flinched, his hand twitching towards his head before he regained control.

"You are smart Potter, I will give you that." He said. "I met him when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me… decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me…"

Mim attempted to keep her glances around as subtle as possible, it still looked like the forbidden forest, but she could not see the castle above the thick treeline above. The dark suffocating the possible time of day.

She had to get back to Hogwarts, but which way was it?

A high shrill voice broke her concentration. Her head snapped back towards the sounds which appeared to be coming from Quirrell…

Slowly, gently, Mim began to wiggle her wrists hoping that she could get them loose enough to break free.

The high voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to her… face-to-face…"

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough… for this…"

Mim felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting her to the spot. She couldn't move a muscle, her attempts of loosened the ropes abandoned. Petrified, she watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban.

What was going on?

The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot. Mim would have screamed, but she couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Mim had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"Mimosa Potter…" it whispered.

"Voldemort," she whispered.

"You see what I've become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapour… I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… like a mere parasite."

Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own…"

Quirrell was walking backward at her, so that Voldemort could still see her. The evil face was still smiling. She tried to take a deep breath, and regain control of her body, she needed to get away. She needed to live. Her fingers twitched as she tried to remember all of the training she had growing up, he had made sure to leave her wand behind in the corridor… magic would probably do her no good anyway. She barely knew anything compared to the two evil wizards in front of her. She needed to distract them, she had no idea what there plan was; she had heard of this Elixir and had a strong hunch that is what was on the 3rd corridor that was forbidden under Fluffy. She had to give people a chance to know she was missing.

"You'll never get it! Dumbledore has it protected!" she told him, hoping to distract them as she gently began to loosen her binds.

"How touching…" it hissed. "I always value bravery… Yes, girl, your parents were brave… I killed him first; and he put up a courageous fight… now of course, I know he was a fool protecting what wasn't even his… but your mother needn't have died… she was trying to protect you…"

"He was my dad too!" she glared at the head, not quite sure where her confidence came from. "He loved me, and would have taken care of me. Just because you don't understand love doesn't mean it is worthless!"

He laughed humourlessly, watching the young girl with amusement. As he did so he noticed her arms move slightly, before the rope fell behind her. Mim scrambled to her feet and began to run in the opposite direction to where Voldemort and Quirrell were standing.

Voldemort screamed "SEIZE HER!"

Mim could hear the footfall behind her, but she focused on her immediate surroundings, ensuring that her feet couldn't get stuck on branches. At the moment she didn't fully care which way she was running. She could worry about getting back to the grounds once she could no longer hear the laboured breath and footsteps behind her. She screamed for help, knowing several magical creatures lived in the forest, alongside the possibility of a search party. She did glance back, she focused only on trying to maintain her speed, ensuring that she didn't fall on a root, or hit her head on a branch.

Mim felt Quirrell's hand close on her wrist. At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Mim's scar; her head felt as though it was about to split in two; she yelled, struggling with all her might, and to her surprise, Quirrell let go of her.

The pain in her head lessened — she looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers — they were blistering before his eyes.

"Seize her! SEIZE HER!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Mim clean off her feet landing on top of her, both hands around Mim's neck.

Before she could use her self-defence training he howled leaping back from her as his hands burned, the smell of his burning flesh assaulted her nose. She didn't bother to look, she scrambled back to her feet and began to run again. Calling out into the dark forest.

She heard hooves galloping. It was coming from her left, a centaur jumped clean over a fallen branch, over Mim, and charged at Quirrell. His screams dulling from his burning hands rose again. Hoofs trampled on him the smoke still lingering off his hands stamped out. Mim watched unable to look away as Quirrell's writhing body stopped the pain and horror of his injuries etched upon his face.
Mim wondered if he was dead, the answer came with a sharp gasp from the man on the floor. His whole body began to seize. As he did so the palomino centaur rushed to her side in an attempt to protect her from the new threat. They watched as dark opaque smoke oozed, from his head, as red eyes luminated within the centre of the looming smoke… the body stilled, taking its last breath. The eyes narrowed furthers as the smoke charged towards her, the centaurs attempt to block failed as it shot through the young witch's torso. The pain unbearable as her scar felt as though hot lightning had struck it her vision gone. She wished it had knocked her out, that nothingness had come with the darkness, but the sounds of the forest and hoofs reached her consciousness.

She faintly recognised that her knees stung and were seeping with warm liquid. It was as she realised this her vision slowly began to return and the blurry figure of the centaur was standing over her.

"Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Mim to her feet, she stood, her wobbly knees barely carrying her weight. Her scar still throbbing painfully.

"Thank you. Thank you!" she hugged the centaur's chest. He stiffened ever so slightly, she moved away, trying to keep her sight focused as the black spots glided across her vision.

"Sorry." She said quietly. Her knees almost buckled beneath her she caught herself on a branch. The centaur frowned in concern. She tried to focus on him, fighting the blackness as it attempted to take her. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Mim, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on her forehead.

"You are the Potter girl," he said. "Let's get you back to the castle. Where its safe. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way. My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Mim could clamber onto his back. He guided her wobblily form, her head still thundering in her skull.

"Rest, I shall take you to Hagrid… Sleep Mimosa Potter, the stars have told of battles to come."

Something gold was glinting just above her. She blinked. She blinked again. The smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above her.

"Good afternoon, Mim," said Dumbledore.

Mim stared at him. Then she remembered: "Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He's got the Stone! Sir, quick —"

"Calm yourself, dear girl, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."

"Then who does? Sir, I —"

"Mim, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."

Mim swallowed and looked around her. She realised she was in the hospital wing and…

"Dad? Where is my Dad?" she look frantically around the empty hospital wing.

"Ah! After much coercion between, myself, Madam Pomphrey and Severus he agreed to have shower and your uncle may have slipped a sleeping draught into his blueberry smoothie. He has not left your side since we found you." He assured her. Mim slowly settled back to a more restful position.

"Is Uncle Remus here? Or can Uncle Sev come up… there is no one else in the wing."
"I shall arrange for a discreet visit from Severus." He said gently. She nodded her eyes now trailing to the table piled high with what looked like half the sweet shop.

"Tokens from your friends and admirers, though I see your friend Ronald has saved you the trouble of opening your chocolate frogs," said Dumbledore, beaming.

"How long have I been out?" she asked him, her eyes trailing from the pile of sweets to the headmaster.

"Two and a half days," he said gravely.

"Do we know what happened? All I remember is waking up in the forest, Quirrell was talking about a stone, and –"

"Relax, my dear girl. Or Madam Pomfrey will throw me out," he put his hand up gently.

The two spoke for around ten minutes about Voldemort, and what had happened, and how Dumbledore's friend was going to destroy the stone. He told her when Voldemort left Quirrell's body it killed him, and that he was nowhere to be found. Likely hiding, planning.

Finally, Dumbledore asked for a sweet, and was disgruntled by ear wax. It was as Dumbledore was about to leave the hospital wing doors burst open and a very worried Tony Stark almost apparated beside his daughter's bed, his expression melting into one of relief as he saw her green eyes open for the first time in days.

"Mim, honey. Thank God," he kissed her head, keeping his lips pressed against her hair for a moment. Mim patted her father gently.

"Dad, I'm ok," she smiled reassuringly.

"I shall leave you both, and arrange a trip from Severus,"

Her father cradled her in his arms, holding her sore form to him. smoothing her hair while he held her.

"Dad, I am ok," she promised him, hugging her father just as tightly.

Sorry it has been so long, just finished a teaching degree and started teaching, but it is the summer holidays now and I am going to enjoy some me time and get some writing done. I have missed it! Xx