Reflection

Archive: Padfoot...Snuffles, not p r o v e n guilty
Summary: Post OotP, Harry contemplates life without Sirius
Pairing: None
Disclaimer: JKR owns everything mentioned here, I don't
Spoilers: OotP
Author's Notes: Dedicated to Alice who cried when she read it!

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Harry sat and stared at his Hogwarts trunk lying beside his bed. It was only a few weeks ago that he had been looking forward to spending the Summer with Sirius at Grimmauld Place, yet now as he sat at Privet Drive, it seemed so unreal. The sunlight was shining through the window, and suddenly something caught his eye. The light was reflecting off a fragment of glass - the mirror Sirius had given him. Slowly, he dragged himself off the bed, and walked towards his trunk. Dropping to his knees, he picked up the fragments, and pieced them together. Some pieces missing, the scribbled writing on the back didn't seem to make sense. Tears in his eyes, he wiped the smuged mirror, and screwing his eyes slightly managed to make out the writing: "you need me". "Yeah," he muttered, "I do need you - I've always needed you".

Looking up at the dark closed window, he wondered just how long he had been knelt there. Standing up, rubbing his knees, he looked out at the darkness. The sight of those glinting eyes that evening several years ago sprang into his mind. The memories of meeting his godfather for the first time, his help through the Triwizard Tournament, and the sight of his falling backwards through the veilied archway came back to him. His dreams no longer full of Ministry corridors, haunted instead by those eyes - that grim-like dog staring at him. Tears welling in his eyes again, Harry looked back at Hedwig's cage - still empty. It had been over a week since he had let her out for her nightly flight, and she still hadn't returned.

Harry glanced at his watch - 10pm. Moving towards the bed, he heard a soft rapping at the window. He turned back, lifted the catch to open it, and the snow white Hedwig flew in. As he reached to close the window again, two amber eyes glinted at the end of the road. Angry with himself for imagining the eyes again, he slammed the window shut, and turned to Hedwig. His eyes moved down to the parchment she was clasping - who would be writing to him? He moved slowly towards her, partly not caring who the letter was from - after all, Sirius couldn't send a letter now, so it was hardly important.

Unrolling the parchment, and starting to read, Harry took a sharp breath: surely this was some kind of cruel joke. The letter appeared to be from Sirius, but how?

"I needed you as much as you needed me - use the mirror again"

Tearing his eyes away from the parchment, Harry glanced at the fragments of mirror in his trunk. "Just my luck," he muttered, "the mirror's broken so much it won't work - it didn't work when I tried it before anyway."

He held the parchment in his hand, but before he could muster the strength to screw it up, he noticed a small package that had been concealed in the parchment: a small brown parcel. Hands shaking, he reached out, and carefully unwrapped it. Not knowing what to expect, he tipped the contents of the parcel onto his bed, and looked down. A mirror, but different to the one he had been given previously. This one was black, with an inscription like that on the Mirror of Erised. He turned it over, and saw the same scrawled writing on the back.

"Use it when you need me - I know I will"

Harry's heart lifted - squinting through those tear-filled eyes, he had never wanted to hug Hedwig so much. Even the thought of Sirius' last duel with Bellatrix couldn't block out the new image in his mind - Padfoot, the only 'father' he had truely known.