Funny how stories can start in the strangest of ways. A window cracking, A hurricane tumbling in, a monster rising from the sea, A great Snake dying to the sword of a child.
Or with a little boy sitting in front of a mirror.
Of course, that little boy was far from normal, just as the mirror showed little of your own reflection.
Harry wasn't sure how long he'd been in front of the Mirror, It couldn't have been more than an hour, but it certainly wasn't any less.
What could cause him to lose track of time in such a manner, you might wonder. To answer it was the mirror.
The mirror wasn't all that much to look at from an honest perspective. A gold frame with interesting inlay, and strange lettering it may have had, but there were many things in the stoney castle called far prettier.
The surface was a silver disk like all Mirrors, but what it showed was far different than a barren stone room with a single boy as it's occupant.
At first it had shined with people of black untameable hair, and a family of soft faced brunettes an blondes with the occasional red-head dotting the landscape.
Harry, the bright boy that he was, had quickly put together that they were his family. A family that didn't seem to include Aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon, or his cousin Dudley at that.
But he'd barely been there for a minute when the Mirror had rippled like a pond.
What it showed as a result sent Harry's heart to a pounding rhythm like a set of drums.
At first the scene was fairly Innocuous, it was the living room of what appeared to be a fairly well lived cottage. With so much red and gold draping the windows and flowing down the walls that he almost mistook it for the Gryffindor Common Room. But it wasn't, that was made obvious by the cribb in the corner Garnered in even more gold and red than the rest of the room. It also contained a small child with black hair and green eyes that harry was stunned to realize was himself.
That stunning revelation almost caused harry to miss the man that barged into the room that looked to be in the middle of a mental breakdown.
His black hair was frazzled to say the least, it looked like he'd almost ripped it out in frustration. His eyes were a dull gray and radiated a 'WHATAMIGONNADO' Feeling.
"What are Lily and James THINKING! Leaving me in charge of Harry!? Are they idiots? I've almost dropped him at least fives times!" Only to pause as his shoulders droop theatricaly "Oh Who am I fooling! Of course they're Idiots I've actually dropped him once after all!" The mans said out loud, and Harry was stunned to find that he could actually hear the man.
Because as far as Harry could tell after a quick run around the reflective device, it wasn't emitting any sound at all.
The Man tisked to himself as the high pitched squealing sound of tiny Harry distracted him from his own panic."Oh, Harry" the man said, his voice going from manic to a small gentle thing of a loving parent as he made a swift stride towards the crib. Leaning down to get a better looked at the squealing tot.
"Did I wake you up kiddo?" The man said as he reached out to the pat the crying mini-harry on the head. "Sorry, I know how much you like those dreams of yours Pup." His raking gently through the tiny puff of black hair that the boy had, his gentle voice calming the unwilling-ly woken child.
His high pitched sobbs fading to a soft sniffling as the man went on. "Guess I have some things to learn Kiddo, do treat this godfather of yours well- we'll be learning it together after all." The man that was apparently his godfather ended with a chuckle.
As the child him's sniffles ended, his bright green eyes opened wide as the tot began looking around. The Man cringed slightly, having seemingly realized what the kid was looking for.
"Ah, sorry kid but ah Lily and Prongs aren't…" The man paused, "Well they had to leave for a bit." Little him seemed to be hurt by this, eyes watering visibly as he opened his mouth to start squealing, only for the man to pick him up swiftly before single sobb passed the tiny him's lips.
"Shh Kiddo, no need to worry you've got your uncle Sirius to look after you, you'll be fine." despite the confidence in "Sirius's" Voice the man himself looked like he didn't' really believe that. The mirror rippled after that, and played a different scene with similar content.
Each new scene showed the man apparently named Sirius Black and new escapade that somehow involved Mini-Harry.
Some Of them showed his Tiny replica causing harmless mischief, like falling asleep in the very invisibility cloak he'd used to find the Mirror, or Sirius turning his own hair bright green to get the tiny one to laugh, others just Sirius doing his best to play around with the Toddler.
But some were of Sirius just rocking Harry's crib by hand ("Ha, my mum would have a heart attack if she saw this… Or maybe she'd just the killing curse?" Sirius said sounding distinctly proud with himself) as he gave little snippets of advice.
Some were silly ("Don't forget your pants in the Quidditch locker room") Other were strange, and harry had a feeling he wouldn't understand them until much later in life. ("Always wear protection Kid") some were oddly serious for the silly, easy going man, that took a toddler messing on him with mild sigh. ("Cherish what you got kid, you never know when it's going to be to late." Silver eyes held a strange sort of dimness as Sirius took a long look at liquor bottle, only to poor it down the sink.)
Harry soon found he much preferred Sirus's bed time a stories as he regaled the tot with his youthful escapades. ("The entire ravenclaw team had to forfeit because they were laughing so hard they kept falling off their brooms!")
Harry didn't know how long he sat in front of the mirror, wide eyed in rapture as he learned more about his parents from the mirror in a single night, than he had in his entire time at Hogwarts.
But by the time he managed to drag himself away from the mirror that certainly didn't show him his face, and into his own bed, the light of the sun could be seen cresting over the mountain.
That was the first time Harry Potter visited the mirror of Erised, but it was most certainly not the last.
He would see it no more than ten times over the next year, but he would only come for a visit for nine of them.
Harry would never visit two nights in row, or stay after midnight. ("A growing boy need his sleep Kiddo, never stay up to late-unless your pulling something on someone, then it's okay." Sirius's eyes seemed to chuckle as they lit up at the idea of causing mischief "if your going to do something than do it well, but don't obsess. That just hurts everyone." Silver eyes glimmering with what Harry could only call experience "It isn't worth it if it consumes all of you, because then there's nothing left of you to enjoy it")
Each time he came the mirror would regale him with the escapades of Sirius Black Babysitter extraordinaire, as he did what he could to take care of Harry over an undetermined amount of time.
As it went on, it was quickly revealed that the romance between Lily and James potter was far less perfect than people seemed to think if only from how much time Sirius was taking care of their child.
As Sirius put it during one of his Naptime rants, (where young Harry was to asleep to pick up bad habits from Sirius's cursed filled monologues.)"They were amazing, as Boyfriend and Girlfriend, but damn do they suck at marriage!"
Thankfully Sirius seamed to do his best to avoid that subject, more focused on expressing regrets to the barely cognizant toddler in what should have been a doomed attempt at avoiding the repetition of Sirius's own failures.
"Sometimes I wish I talked more to those outside my own house, It would have helped me avoid a lot of embarrassment over the years."
Other times His godfather just gave random advice that seemed oddly wise of the man.
"Ravenclaws with their brilliant minds and unusual eccentricity, I won't lie to you and say they aren't some of the brightest people you'll ever meet. But sometimes even they get stumped by riddles, and other pursuits. So while you might not be able to help them with the answer, you can certainly point out what the answer isn't."
But for Harry's ninth visit to the mirror he couldn't help but hesitate at the door handle. He didn't know why, he never had on any of his other visits.
But somehow Harry knew this one would be different.
When Harry left the room that contained the mirror of desire, he would be wiping tears away from his eyes. His teeth grit with strength unfound, and his eyes glowing with indeterminable resolve.
Harry would not return to the mirrors residence that year, the thought of looking for it wouldn't even occur to him. He knew exactly what he would see in it's rippling folds.
But he could not return until he'd earned it.
Because now he had someone to please, someone that he wanted to be proud of him.
("Your going to be great Harry, your going to make this world twist to your tune, and I know your parents would be proud of what your going to be, and oh so jealous that I'm going to be the one to see it." the Black sobbed "Be kind to Hagrid kiddo, he's going to be looking after you for a bit." Sirius said with tight voice, "But don't worry, Padfoot's going to be along soon, he just has to finish a Hunt." Silver eyes glinted with murder and no good would come of it.)
And so Harry James Potter gained a goal and a role model.
The Final time Harry encountered the Mirror of Erised that year it was not by choice.
"Use the Boy." snake like voice hissed from every corner of the room
Quirrell spun and reached out his hand, "Come here boy!" He growled "Now!" Harry being an eleven years old and without a weapon did as he was told. The steps down the stairs, felt like a death march as he neared the mirror that he had so adored only minutes before.
Halting directly in front of the mirror Harry was surprised at what he saw.
"Now, what do you see."
Sirius, was Harry's first thought draped around Harry like a cloak as he hugged him from behind a smile on his face as he pulled a red stone from his pocket and moved to put it in Harry's. But Harry didn't want the stone, didn't want to so much as touch it.
He didn't trust himself with something as powerful as that, it should go to someone responsible.
Like Sirius.¹
Sirius froze, the stone only inches away from Harry's pocket. Before he started laughing, Harry's reflection disappeared entirely, as Sirius threw the stone into the air only for it never came down.
"Harry" his godfather said to him, and only him "You've just made me the proudest man on earth."
A wide grin broke out over Harry's face, only for it to fall when Quirrell yelled "What is it! What do You See!"
Harry wasn't very good at lying so he told the truth. "Someone proud of me." Harry could see Quirrel blink in the mirrors reflection, and scowl as he brought out his wand. Harry panicked briefly, only for the mirror Sirius to wink at him and say "Don't worry Kiddo, I got this. Now, duck."
Harry, assuming Mirror Sirius knew what it was talking about, dived to the floor just into time to hear Quirrell shout "Avada Kedavra" as the green light flew over Harry's head and straight into the Mirror as Sirius flicked the exact point where the killing curse would meet it's silver surface.
The mirror shattered with a thunderous crack, but no before the green ball of death bounced of it's surface and into Quirrell's face.
Unfortunately for Harry he wasn't escaping this encounter unscathed as a piece of the Mirror's reflective debris buried itself into Harry's shoulder.
Harry passed rather quickly, the blood forming a large pool underneath him as he slumped into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile in Azkaban:
A black dog of incredulous size despite being fairly malnourished, napped fitfully in one of darkest cell of the prison. The near constant thunder and lightning meaning that sleep was in short supply, if only because of how loud it was.
The ever present chill to the air doing no-one any favors as it forced nightmare after nightmare upon the prison's inhabitants. The dog itself whimpered fitfully, whines cutting through the air periodically as whatever dream it had got worse and worse.
Only for it squawk into the waking world when something small smacked into it's nose with fleshy 'Thwak' sound. With the sound of crashing wave, the dog disappeared to reveal a malnourished man. Thin as his bones, and ratty unwashed black hair, as his held his nose in pain.
"My poor nose." He whined to no one, once he was sure that no permanent damage was done glanced around the room to see what had hit him.
A cursory examination revealed a red rock that was the likely culprit. Picking up the tiny ruby like rock and examining closely he couldn't help but find it rather familiar looking.
It kind of reminded him of the philosopher's stone nicholas flamel had made centuries before.
It even had the same cracks too it was almost like it really was the- only to pause as his brain processed that thought,
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
A/N:PLEASE REVIEW TINY MORTALS!
1:I broke down laugh after I wrote that down, I mean Sirius? Responsible?