It was just another weekend at Hogwarts. Most students spent their weekends either loafing about or catching up on schoolwork. Or, in Hermione Granger's case, studying with their eyes burned out. This weekend - for the first time in weeks - Harry had some free time. But today, Harry wasn't really up for chatting with Ron and Hermione or playing Quidditch. No, today, Harry decided, he would simply wander the castle grounds. So he hopped out of the armchair and set off.
He first visited the astronomy tower, then the staircase, the herbology classroom, and the Room of Requirement.
Then suddenly, he felt an urge to go somewhere he had not been since he was eleven years old; somewhere he had been warned not to go.
Harry rushed up to the Gryffindor common room, quickly muttering "Hello" to some fellow classmates, and grabbed his invisibility cloak, slipping it on when nobody was looking.
He darted past The Fat Lady and snuck through the library, and into the abandoned classroom that lay beside the restricted section.
Harry was now in a familiar room, that was lit by only the dim light of a candle.
And then he saw it; the mirror. The bright, vibrant mirror, that seemed to light up the second his eyes caught sight of it. "The Mirror of Erised" was still etched across the top of the glorious thing on golden writing.
He knew he really ought not to do it, and that it would only upset him if he did - but he found himself staring into the wonderful thing.
His parents stood there welcomingly; his mother offering him a sweet smile, with her green eyes twinkling and his father giving him a goofy grin with his dark hair and glasses.
Although, deep down, Harry knew that they were simply reflections, he couldn't help but convince himself that this was real - that they were standing right in front of him at this moment.
And then another person appeared in the mirror - a man with a mound of curly hair.
Sirius.
Harry couldn't bear to look in the mirror any longer. He pulled his eyes away from it and sat down on the dusty ground. He knew that he shouldn't have looked at it in the first place, and that it was really his fault - but did it really have to show him his godfather? Did it really have to remind him of the death of the last remaining relative he was certain cared about him?
Harry sighed, bending his head down even lower. The candlelight started to flicker, then brighten, then flicker again - only to brighten again. Harry pulled himself up, wiping the dust from his robes. The candle stood on a rusty table. Harry was about to blow it out, and then usee a spell to ignite it again when he noticed something.
A thin, small vial filled with a strange purple liquid sat beside the candle. Harry had not noticed it before. The liquid seemed to puff up, then fall, in the same way that the candlelight had acted only seconds ago. Harry picked up the vial and noticed a tiny slip of paper tied to it with a piece of string. He held it up to the candle so that he could see it better, and begun to read what was written on the slip.
"See what could become,
History can be undone.
The time has come at last;
You can modify the past."
The minute Harry had finished the poem, he leapt up excitedly.
He knew in an instant what he wanted to modify.
He could change his fate. He could have the life he never had. He could have his parents back.
Harry unscrewed the cap of the vial, and held it to his mouth. But before the violet liquid could reach his lips, he began to think.
This could be a trick. No, this was most likely a trick. A death eater had simply thought of the most tempting thing possible, scribbled it on a piece of paper, stuck it to a vial of liquid, placed it somewhere no one but Harry was bound to find it and waited patiently for Harry to come across it. This was most likely a poison that would either end Harry's life immediately or transport him to Voldemort.
Harry examined the bottle, biting his lip. He didn't know what to do. He wished Dumbledore could tell him what to do, but he probably didn't know either …
Harry frowned, placing the vial back on the table and screwing the lid back on tightly.
But then he glanced at the mirror, and saw the happy faces of his parents and Sirius. He couldn't bear it any longer. He needed to do this.
So he pulled off the cap, tossing it onto the ground, and held it to his lips.
"One,
Two,
Three."
The potion soared down his throat before anyone could stop it.
