The mirror of erised
By Sinful Starlet
Rating: PG probably - maybe PG-13 but that's pushing it.
Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling (though I wish I was) so clearly not mine.
Summary: Some time during their later school career, Harry and his friends come across the mirror of erased again with some surprising results!
Blurb: Okay, so this is set when Harry and the others are all sixteen or so, and I should probably add this is gonna be a RW/HG story (primarily anyway). It's also my first Harry Potter story so be kind - please! *SS*
Introduction
Hermione smiled as Neville yawned his way through breakfast that morning in the Great Hall. She put down the piece of toast she had been eating and asked, "Are you alright Neville?" "Wha---?", Neville started, before breaking off into another large yawn, making Seamus and Dean laugh at him. "Have you been having trouble sleeping or something?", Hermione asked gently, ignoring Seamus and Dean and still smiling kindly at Neville. "Well, uh...", Neville started, though he looked down a little as he suppressed another yawn, unfortunately missing the looks of the two boys sitting opposite him.
From her position sitting between them, Hermione couldn't see the looks Harry and Ron were shooting at Neville any better than Neville could, and by the time Neville did look up, it was a little late. "It's not my fault", he began again, "blame those two - they keep--". He had looked up then, and saw Ron looking like he was about to put the worst hex he could think of on him, so he stopped talking very quickly. "These two what?", Hermione questioned again, realising that it was Harry and Ron that Neville was talking about, though thankfully missing Ron's evil look.
"We keep waking him up when we're talking about Quidditch", Harry said quickly. "Yeah, sorry about that Neville", Ron said too, backing up Harry's story. Hermione looked at both of them a little suspiciously, but at that moment, Fred and George came to join them, and to Harry and Ron's relief, she didn't say anything else about it for the time being. Of course, that wasn't likely to last very long though, and in fact, as soon as she had left the Great Hall with her two best friends, she took the opportunity to ask them what was going on.
As it was a Saturday morning, and a fairly sunny Saturday morning at the end of May, most of the school were either out in the grounds or visiting Hogsmeade that day. Though, being sixth years themselves, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all allowed to visit Hogsmeade, they had all decided not to go this time, asking Fred and George to bring them back some sweets from Honeyduke's while they went to the library to research a particularly nasty potions essay Snape had set them that Wednesday.
Strictly speaking, they had another two weeks to finish the essay, but as it was getting closer to the end of term, Hermione had encouraged them to get to work on the assignment as soon as possible so they would have their time free to revise for end-of-year exams (Hermione) or get in extra Quidditch practices (Harry and Ron). The halls of the castle were, therefore, fairly deserted so Hermione knew she could safely talk to Harry and Ron without worrying about anyone interrupting them or overhearing what they were talking about.
"Ok", she said, as they rounded another corner, "so are you going to tell me what Neville was really going to say at breakfast, or do I have to go and get Snape's veritaserum?" Ron at least, tried to look outraged at what she was saying, and vehemently denied it immediately. This of course, started off another verbal battle between him and Hermione, one which Harry eventually interrupted before it could get too serious.
"Alright, alright!", he said, a little louder than usual to make himself heard over the top of the other two. Ron shot Harry a quick look, but Harry shook his head, "It's ok, Ron". Ron didn't look entirely sure, but reluctantly reasoned that arguing any more with Hermione was probably pointless. "If you have to know...", Harry started again, though the look on Hermione's face was really the only answer he needed, "...Ron and I...", he hesitated again, not quite sure how to say what he was about to tell her, "...we found something".
"Something that you weren't supposed to?", Hermione supplied, her tone was questioning, but it was really more of a statement. After six years at school together, she could read both of the boys fairly accurately...well, at least she could most of the time. Harry glanced at Ron quickly, who just shrugged, there wasn't much point in not finishing the story now. "Alright", Harry said again, lowering his voice even though they were clearly the only people in that particular corridor, "...we found the mirror of erised again".
Chapter One
Hermione's eyes widened in spite of herself. Harry and Ron had of course told her about the mirror in the first year when they had first found it, but since all the dealings with the Philosopher's Stone, the mirror had been moved again, and they had been unable to find it. Though they never said anything about it, Hermione had suspected several times throughout their school career that they must have gone looking for it at least once.
Though all of these thoughts ran through her head, what she eventually said was, "I thought you'd given up looking for it". Her tone had sounded a little more stern than she had meant it too, and she chastised herself for causing the look of guilt that flew across Harry's face. "I'm sorry Harry", she said quickly, encouraging them to keep walking as they had temporarily stopped as she questioned them before, "but I mean, you haven't mentioned it for years, and....I thought you'd given up on the idea of finding it".
"I had", Harry replied, looking a little happier, but still not completely himself, "well...", he paused again, seeing the slightly sarcastic look on Ron's face, "...well, I had for quite a long time, but after everything that happened during the Tri-Wizard tournament, especially after---". He trailed off and Ron looked a little angrily at Hermione for upsetting Harry. "Harry--", Hermione started in a much gentler voice but he cut her off. "No, it's ok Hermione - really", he went on, managing a smile, more to placate Ron than Hermione herself, "I tried not to think about it for a long time, but eventually I just...I needed to see my parents again, so I went looking for the mirror".
Hermione looked a little questioningly at Ron, who spoke at last, answering her, "Yeah, he went searching for it by himself". "I don't think he would have told even me if I hadn't caught him sneaking back into the dorms one night...think it was some time in February wasn't it?", he asked, looking to Harry who nodded. "Anyway", Ron went on, unconsciously running one hand through his flame-red hair, "I wasn't about to let him go running all over the castle at night on his own - so I started going with him".
"I thought I could at least cause a distraction if we ran into a teacher or something - I mean it's not like we've got the Marauder's Map anymore". Hermione nodded. The Marauder's Map had been an extremely useful tool on more than one occasion, but it had been taken by Mr Crouch's son while he had been masquerading as Mad-Eye Moody during their fourth year. When the truth about Crouch had been found out, Professor Dumbledore had taken over the office, sorting out all his possessions, and presumably the map, with them. In any case, they hadn't seen the map since, so they were forced to do without.
"Most of the time we manage to sneak back into the dorm fine", Ron said, "Seamus and Dean both sleep like logs, but Neville is a bit of a light-sleeper so we've woken him up a couple of times". "We've never told him what we were really sneaking out for, but he trusts us enough not to ask if we don't want to talk about it". "I'm sorry we didn't tell you", Harry said, smiling apologetically at Hermione, "but I wasn't sure you'd---". "You weren't sure I'd approve?", Hermione finished, with a smile of her own, prompting smiles from the other two, and proving her guess right.
"I know Dumbledore moved the mirror for a reason", Hermione said, by way of an answer to Harry's unspoken question, "it's very powerful in its own way, and I agree with him that it's not something you should become dependent on, but it doesn't exactly seem to be an obsession yet!" "Seriously Harry", she said, as their laughter abated a little, "you should be careful around it - I don't want it to have too much of an influence over you - but if you're only using it to see your parents - then I don't really see where the harm can be".
"See?", Ron said triumphantly, making Harry frown at him in moderate annoyance. "I knew you'd be okay with it", Ron said, by way of explanation. "Really?", Hermione said, quite touched by that, although she didn't really know why. "Yeah, you know me 'Mione", Ron said, with a slightly mischievous grin, as he held his hand over his heart and tried (failing miserably) to look sincere, "I have absolute faith in you!" Hermione playfully swatted him, though she couldn't help laughing along with Harry.
They walked along in a comfortable silence for another few minutes, occasionally stopping to talk to friends they met along the way to the library. Ron stopped for a few minutes just as they reached the library doors to talk to Katie Bell, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, and the current captain since Oliver Wood and Angelina Johnson had left. Ron and Katie had become good friends since he had joined the team last year. With both Wood and Angelina leaving the same year, Katie had had two new players to find.
Though Ron was disappointed on losing out on the position of keeper - which went instead to Jack Delaney, who was in the year below him - with Harry's prodding, he had tried out as a chaser, and made the team straight away. There were more than a few comments about favouritism since there were now three Weasley's on the Gryffindor team (when Ron was counted with Fred and George who were still the team's beaters), but as soon as they started winning, any objections seemed miraculously to fly out of the window.
As Katie, (like Fred and George) was in her seventh and final year at Hogwarts, she had stayed behind from Hogsmeade to study for her N.E.W.T.s, though she was now on her way back to Gryffindor tower to meet up with Alicia, her best friend and fellow chaser on the Quidditch team. Harry said his hellos to Katie but then disappeared into the library to find them a table to work at. Hermione hung around the door for a minute, though she wasn't entirely sure why. She could just as easily have waited for Ron inside, and there was also the fact that Harry was in the library on his own, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave Ron there with Katie.
It wasn't that she didn't like Katie, in fact she was having a lot of trouble figuring out why she was reacting the way she was, so much so that she didn't actually realise that Katie had said her goodbyes and Ron was speaking to her again. "Hermione?", he asked, looking a little puzzled, breaking her momentary reverie. "What?", she said a little shortly, before she fully realised what had happened, "Oh, sorry Ron". "You alright?", he asked, with a trace of real concern in his voice, though his face still held a smile. "Fine", Hermione said quickly, managing a smile of her own, though she still wasn't entirely sure what she had been feeling just then, "come on - Harry'll be waiting for us".
