The Persequi Potion has been pushed to the back of everyone's minds for the entirety of November and December. Schoolwork is slowly piling up, which the students didn't notice until Agnes received a bad grade in Transfiguration on an assignment. After that, they all started to work together to get their grades up. By the time Christmas break hits, the group is so exhausted that they don't think they have the brain capacity to even think about their secret potion.

Most of the students have gone home for the holidays, but Julia, Ethan, Agnes, Hannah, Maria, Lauren, and Alana are staying on campus to finalize their homework. That, and two of them have a choir Christmas concert to perform.

"Tomorrow is the concert! Are you guys ready?" Julia asks and turns to her friends, Maria and Hannah.

The two girls groan and look down at the snow. "No," they say at the same time. The seven friends are currently walking around the edge of the lake dressed in their winter clothes. The snow is coming down, but thankfully there is no wind.

"I just can't believe Olivia joined the choir last minute. She hasn't gotten practice in or anything, she just thinks she can join and be the best singer." Lauren sighs, knowing Maria and Hannah just wanted to do choir to get away from school and drama. Olivia joined last week, right before the concert. Maria and Hannah look at each other, knowing what the other is thinking. Olivia was singing way too loudly the past week. She probably thinks her voice is so beautiful that it should drown out everyone else's.

"Barely anyone is going to be at the concert anyway," Ethan points out. "Over half the school went home. It'll just be us at dinner with a few other students and the teachers."

"Wait. The teachers?!" Maria stops walking and puts a hand on her forehead. "Why did I sign up for this again?!"

"It'll be fine. Claudia and I will be up there with you." Hannah smiles confidently despite her feeling nervous herself. Maria feels better at the reminder that her own cousin will also be singing alongside her.

Avery and Graesyn Ringe left for the holidays, so everyone sleeps in the Gryffindor dorms that night. Ethan's roommates have also left, giving them more space. Julia and Hannah sleep with Ethan in his dorm room, giving their own beds up for their friends. Maria, Alana, Lauren, and Agnes sleep in the same room that night, and are woken up by the other three when morning hits.

"Merry Christmas!" Julia, Ethan, and Hannah yell as they burst into the room. The four girls who were sleeping sluggishly sit up and rub the sleep out of their eyes. Julia, Ethan, and Hannah run down to the common room and yell, "Get down here, guys! Presents!"

The fire is lit to keep the room warm while the seven friends sit around the couches opening presents. Julia and Agnes get Quidditch gear such as goggles, a broomstick repair kit, and gripping gloves. They aren't sure they are allowed to use the gloves in games, but are glad their parents thought of it anyway. As Alana opens a jar of Every Flavor Jelly Beans, Maria unwraps a new Hufflepuff scarf and a cool looking book that she puts aside to read through later. Lauren gets a bunch of candy from her brother, which she starts eating immediately. Hannah opens a few weird presents from her siblings. This includes pink lensed glasses with huge, sparkly frames that are said to see through invisible spells. David brought them down and gave them to her when he woke up. They might just be a prank from him, but Hannah loves them anyway. Ethan doesn't receive anything since his parents think he's staying at a camp, so everyone who received candy shares with him.

Once the clock hits noon, Agnes sits up and looks around the common room mess. It looks like a tornado came here and tossed everything around. "Don't you guys have to go get ready for the choir concert?"

"Ugh, yeah you're right." Maria chews on the last of a strawberry flavored jelly bean and shakes Hannah awake. "Get up, girl! We have to go meet up with the rest of the choir and see Professor Flitwick.

"Okayyy let's go get dressed." Hannah wakes up from her nap and leads Maria to her room to get their choir robes. Good thing Lauren told Maria to bring her robes down so she didn't have to stop at her common room before the meeting.

"You guys got this!" Alana yells right before they head up the stairs.

Maria and Hannah get their golden choir robes on and help each other with their hair. Maria just wants it in a low ponytail, but Hannah insists she does something different, so Maria lets her play with her hair. Hannah ends up Dutch braiding it on her head and then putting it into a low ponytail. She puts her own hair up into two low pigtails that drop over her shoulders.

The other five members of the group put some casual clothes on and leave to go get some lunch. They didn't have much of a breakfast this morning, and therefore are more hungry than usual. All they had to eat was candy. Halfway through the meal, Hannah and Maria join them, as does an unexpecting guest.

Julia is surprised and also confused when her family's owl flies through the window and drops off a newspaper. "That's odd. I never get the news, and it doesn't even say who it's from."

"Maybe your parents sent it over? That's your family owl, right?" Alana suggests, thinking that is the only logical explanation.

"Yeah, I'm just surprised it didn't get lost. Gravy always makes a wrong turn." Ethan gives the owl some of his food while Julia looks at the paper.

"Oh no..." The group all looks at Julia as her face falls and she starts explaining, "Listen to this: Barkeeper of the restaurant Three Broomsticks, Loui Drakon, found dead the evening of December 24th. Investigation is pending, but no suspects have been identified as of now. However, it can be confirmed that the cause of death is undoubtedly the Killing Curse, which has been sighted by numerous residents of Hogsmeade over the past few months. The only lead Ministry Aurors have at this time is a tall, black cloaked figure with a hood covering their face. Owner of the beloved Honeydukes sweets shop insists he witnessed a fight. "Lights were flashing everywhere, but there was no way Loui stood a chance against this guy. By the time I got outside, Loui was dead and the cloaked figure was gone." Searches continue to sweep through the town of Hogsmeade, but without further evidence and sightings of the mysterious person's looks, hopes are beginning to dwindle for the Aurors."

"That's terrible! Is your mum okay?" Agnes asks with clear worry in her eyes.

"I'm sure she is. I'll write a letter to her tonight just to be sure, but I feel like there would have been a letter about her if something happened." Julia remains optimistic, knowing her mother would never be tricked by a killer during an investigation.

"Well, whatever happened, it was definitely the guy who attacked Alana and Agnes when they recklessly went through the tunnel again." Lauren slightly glares at the two girls, scolding them in a motherly way.

"Again? What are you talking about? You four went last year and left me behind!" Agnes crosses her arms and wants to argue more, but knows it's not worth it, especially on Christmas. "Changing subjects, yes, it probably was him. We have to wait for the potion to know for sure."

"Unfortunately we keep screwing it up. At this rate the cloaked killer will wipe out all of Hogsmeade and the Aurors still won't have a lead." Hannah sighs, wishing the Ministry could catch the guy already. At least the village is now on high alert, so he might not make another attack again for a while. "Anyway, we need to get ready and meet up with Claudia. Wish us luck!"

"Of course, and you'll do great. All three of you!" Julia hugs her two friends and waves them off as they leave the Great Hall.

"Well that was fun. Let's go get our seats so we can be in the front row," Alana suggests and the others agree. They finish up their food and leave to get good seats.

Professor Flitwick changed the practice room into a concert stage with a few rows of seats. Julia, Agnes, Alana, Ethan, and Lauren file into the front row, leaving the middle open for teachers. Everything seems to be going smoothly until the other audience members show up.

Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore, Snape, and Sprout slide into the seats next to them, McGonagall taking the seat next to Julia. Professor Knisely comes in a bit later. He tries to hide it, but Lauren and Ethan both notice him limping to his chair. Maria and Hannah peek from behind the curtain and see him limping as well. They both find it a bit suspicious, but decide to worry about it after their concert. After him, the rest of the students who are staying trickle into the auditorium, and Julia's breath hitches. "Shoot."

"What's wrong?" Agnes, who is sitting next to her, whispers so that she isn't overheard by McGonagall.

David, Katie, and Stephen Miller all take seats right behind Julia and her friends. David rubs his hands together and does a small bounce in his seat. "I can't wait! This is going to be so good. Finally I have a reason to come to the choir concert."

"Hannah doesn't have to be in the concert for you to go, David." When Katie talks, she seems to not be able to hold back a smile.

"Yeah she does! If I went just because then it would be... weird." David sinks into his seat and Lauren thinks she spots his cheeks form a red hue.

Stephen leans between Lauren and Ethan's chairs, seeing that Lauren is interested in the gossip. "There's a girl named Gwen Zenny in the choir. She's a fifth year and David fancies her."

Julia turns around and smirks at David, not realizing he's had a crush on someone this whole time and she never knew about it. Stephen looks to his side to see Ethan's reaction, but then does a double take. "Eth-mhmhmmnnh?"

Lauren quickly covers Stephen's mouth and hisses a "Shh!" to catch his attention. "We will explain later!"

Stephen scratches his head and nods, sitting back into his seat right before the curtains open. The lights dim over the audience and brighten on the stage. Professor Flitwick carries his stool out and places it in the center of the stage. He stands on it, back turned to the audience, and raises his wand. At the gesture, the choir all files in orderly and stand where they were told at practice. As the professor lifts his hands to start conducting, the choir takes a noticeable breath and waits for his cue.

The performance is flawless... mostly. Whenever someone watches Olivia closely, they can single out her voice from the rest. It goes way too high or too low depending on how everyone else is singing. Despite that, it is very pleasing to the ear. Agnes is very surprised at how many students are actually in the choir. There are about twelve in each row, and there are three rows of singers.

About halfway through the concert, the singers split off to harmonize. Alana notices that Maria, Hannah, and Claudia all are able to sing the high pitches with half of the choir, while the other half sings the lower parts. The last song they sing almost makes Julia cheer out loud, but she sees McGonagall look at her sternly and sits back in her chair. Everyone is astonished at how clearly the choir is able to sing Carol of the Bells. Even Olivia's pitchy voice isn't able to mess it up. When it's over, the lights turn back on in the audience and everyone gives them a standing ovation. David whistles through his teeth, which makes Hannah red with embarrassment.

Hannah, Maria, and Claudia run up to the group from behind the stage when Professor Flitwick allows them to go. Everyone exchanges hugs with them, and Katie says, "Well done, I'm so proud of all of you! In fact, the three of you deserve something. Orchideous."

Three bouquets of flowers form from the tip of Katie's wand. Two of the bouquets have yellow roses and black flowers as the main color to represent Hufflepuff, while Hannah's have red roses and small gold flowers.

"Yes, it was stellar! Now, I think I shall celebrate the choir with a feast tonight. Come, Professor McGonagall, we must alert the kitchen." Professor Dumbledore smiles down at the three choir girls and pats their shoulders.

"Amazing performance, ladies." Professor McGonagall congratulates them and follows Dumbledore out of the auditorium.

"Ugh, guys." Julia grabs everyone's attention and then mutters, "Jerk alert."

The group turns over to where Julia is looking and spot Olivia talking to Professor Snape about something. Maria smiles when she notices Snape seems to want nothing to do with the conversation. "He looks like he's having a blast."

"Better him than us. Why don't we take off before Olivia is pointed in our direction?" Lauren says, and everyone nods with her. "Alright, then let's go to the mirror room." Lauren grabs Stephen's wrist and drags him along with her.

Maria and the rest of the group say goodbye to Claudia, David, and Katie before following Lauren out of the room. They pass Snape and Olivia, but before either of them could say anything, they are already out the door and into the hallway. Stephen keeps asking Lauren questions about what's going on, and he almost says Ethan's name out loud about fifty times before they reach the mirror room. Finally, once they all get inside, they sit Stephen down and start explaining.

Ethan tells his cousin about his day when he snuck into Hogwarts from the train and posed as a second year Gryffindor. Stephen's jaw drops halfway through the story and stays that way until the end. "So, what you're telling me is, you, Ethan, a nine year old wizard, thought you could protect the school from a professional killer by sneaking into school and warning your sister?"

Ethan pauses and looks at his friends for help, but they all just stare back at him. Knowing he has no support, Ethan shrugs and nods timidly. "Basically... yeah."

"Awesome, glad we got that settled," Stephen says sarcastically. He looks around the room and then asks, "What's your plan?"

"There's a potion we discovered that was halfway through the process of being invented, but wasn't fully formed because wizards got stuck. We want to create the potion so we can find the killer," Maria explains.

"Right..." Stephen's eyes widen and he rubs his forehead, not believing how ridiculous this sounds. "Good luck with that. I won't tell anyone about Ethan, or I guess he's Kevin this year, so don't worry. I'm going to go have some cake and... see you around."

Once Stephen leaves, the group of seven shrug and start getting the supplies out for the potion once again. Now that they have some time to recreate it, they should start it up again before school takes over after the holidays.

Everyone has the first half of the potion mostly memorized by now, so they are able to talk while they brew it. Hannah brings up the topic a few of them have almost forgotten about. "Did you guys notice how Professor Knisely was limping today? He's never done that before."

"I did see that! I thought it was strange too, and how he was later than the other professors to the concert," Lauren points out. "For a strict rule follower, it is really weird to see him late for anything."

"Yeah, knowing him he should have been there before we were," Ethan adds, which makes everyone laugh.

By the time Agnes adds the water to settle the potion, they have to wait a few hours to make sure the ingredients all settle together. During that time, they all decide to go to the feast Professor Dumbledore set up for the choir.

Since not a lot of people are attending the feast due to being at home, the four long tables are replaced with three big round ones. As much as it hurts her, Julia makes Ethan stay and watch the potion, not wanting to risk Katie or David noticing him at dinner in such a small crowd. However, she does promise to bring some food up to him after it's over.

The feast is enjoyable, especially since Olivia is sitting with some of her other Slytherin friends who have stayed behind for the holidays. Both Professors Snape and Knisely are absent from the room, but it makes sense. Snape probably doesn't want to have another run-in with Olivia, and Knisely is most likely tending to his wound. The fact that Knisely doesn't attend the feast confirms their suspicions that something happened to his leg, and the friends are all thinking the same things. Is he the one who attacked Agnes and Alana in Hogsmeade? First thing's first, they need evidence, and their evidence is currently stewing in a cauldron on the fourth floor.

The friends excuse themselves early from the dinner in order to get back to Ethan and give him some food. Julia manages to sneak up two plates of steak and beans with mashed potatoes. Maria carries a jar of gravy and Hannah brings a glass goblet of chocolate fudge with ice cream on top.

"Thank Merlin! Could have sworn you had forgotten about me up here." Ethan is akin to a vacuum, and in no time the plates are shiny clean. He starts munching on his dessert and the girls begin the rest of the potion, starting with the moonstone gems.

"Alright, this is the last of them." Maria hands the gems to Julia who puts them in correctly this time. After a few moments of waiting, they all clap their hands when nothing explodes.

"We did it! Now we just need the guidance aspect. Any idea as to how we are going to do that?" Julia asks, grateful that the moonstones are taking to the potion better than before.

"Yes, I was reading through these books while you all were eating without me, and-" Agnes cuts Ethan off.

"We were only gone a few hours. You can't have read through even one."

"Oh, actually I was able to skim through all eight of them." Ethan pauses and looks at the girls who are all staring at him in shock. "I was locked in this room and I was bored!"

"Alright, Mr. Smartie-Pants. Go on." Alana gestures for Ethan to continue his suggestion.

Ethan takes a book off the pile and clears his throat before opening it to a marked page. "Anyway, this book has a section all about guidance ingredients. The most famous one, which also works the best, is called a beetle eye. It's not actually a beetle's eye. It's just a round stone that has the representation of a yellow and orange beetle. And, this is the best part, they can be found in most students' required equipment for Potions class."

"So we have them already?" Hannah asks, not believing their luck.

"Not in my box. I used all those when we made the Jawbind potion at the beginning of the year. Do you have any, Lauren?" Maria turns to her blonde friend who thinks for a moment and smiles.

"Yes, I do believe so." Lauren rummages through the back of the room where they all keep their ingredients. The group decided to bring their ingredients from class and store them here since they would probably need it for the potion. "Ah, here! Now, how do we add them?"

"According to this, and don't worry, I read the entire section this time," Ethan glances at Lauren who crosses her arms in annoyance, "the eyes should sink to the bottom of the potion. Add them all one at a time until they are all touching the bottom of the cauldron, then stir until they dissolve."

"That sounds way too simple." Maria gets a bit nervous about this. Every time they have added a new ingredient, the room fills with smoke and they have to start over again.

"Only one way to find out." Alana tries to stay confident, but she backs away with everyone else.

Agnes stays by the cauldron with Julia to help her determine when to add another eye and when to start stirring. Right when the last of the rock dissolves, the liquid starts bubbling. Agnes goes into a bit of a panic. "What's happening?"

"It's unstable," Lauren explains. She remembers learning about unstable potions in class last year when they were starting off. "It'll take awhile, but when it's time the potion will either explode or evaporate."

"How long have we got? We used the last of the moonstone gems." Maria takes a few steps toward the cauldron and peers inside. Sure enough, tiny bubbles are floating to the top and ending with a pop.

"It depends on the potion, but given the ingredients we used, we have around two and a half months at best." Ethan recalls reading about unstable potions while the girls were eating. He just glanced at the paragraph, but he was able to retain some of the words.

"It's fine, we have time. All we have to do is learn how to calm it down. Then we got it. For now, I think we should all head back. It's getting late, and we don't want to have this potion taken away from us when we're so close." Usually Julia would want to stay and work on the potion more, but she knows it's not wise to roam the halls this late, especially with a teacher like Snape walking around as well. The friends all agree and hide the potion along with the ingredients, should a student or professor come inside the mirror room.