DUMBLEDORE HAD CONVINCED Chloe not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again, and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bottom of the girl's trunk.
Chloe wished she couldn't forget what he had seen in the mirror as easily, but she couldn't. She started having nightmares. Over and over again, she dreamed about her parents disappearing in a flash of green light, as a high voice cackled with laughter.
"You see, Dumbledore was right. That mirror could drive you mad," said Ron, as soon as Chloe told her best friend about the dreams she'd been having.
Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Chloe being out of bed, roaming the school two nights in a row, and understandable disappointment that she hadn't at least found out who Nicholas Flamel was.
The Golden Trio had almost given up hope of ever finding Nicholas Flamel in a library book, but Chloe was sure she had read the name somewhere.
Once term had started, Chloe, Hermione and Ron were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Chloe had less time, since Quidditch practice had started again.
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Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't seem to dampen his spirits.
The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Chloe was on Wood's side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years.
Quite apart from wanting to win, Chloe was rather relieved to discover that she had far fewer nightmares when she was tired out after training.
During one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood had a bit of bad news. The fifth-year boy had just gotten very angry with the Weasley twins, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their broomsticks.
"Will you stop messing around!" Wood yelled, furiously. Chloe had kept herself from laughing at Fred and George, as Wood bellowed, "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"
George Weasley really did fall off his broom at those words. "Snape's refereeing?" He sputtered, through a mouthful of mud. Chloe found it difficult not to find it amusing. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin." George pointed out.
The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too. "It's not my fault. We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us." Wood pointed out.
