When no one answer his knock, Harry cautiously stuck his head in to the headmaster's office. Dumbldore wasn't in his office but after a second of indecision he decided that surely it couldn't do any harm to wait inside. Professor Dumbledore knew he was coming right? The hallway was cold with the chill of winter creeping inside while the office was warm, and Harry couldn't think of a solid reason that he really should step inside.
Slowly he walked into the warm room noticing the expansive collection of oddities that the headmasters had furnished the space with. The most obvious item was Fawkes who sat on his perch looking at Harry with bright eyes, his feathers fetching shades of red, orange, and yellow. The bright colors made Harry thing of late fall, and that the Phoenix must have mottled recently to be looking so magnificent. Another though drifted across his mind that Fawkes looked like he was smiling at him, which was mostly absurd because having a beak makes in pretty difficult to smile, or rather do anything in lip like fashion.
He turned his back to the bird not wanting to consider the possibility or the highly likely chance that the bird knew something that he didn't. The bloody Phoenix was smart. Instead he turned his attention to the objects that decorated the shelves encircling the room. Glass bobbles, trinkets made of fine china or seemingly delicate metal sculptures, were only some of the hundreds of things that covered the shelves. His unwavering curiosity was brimming at the surface and he stepped closer to the shelves to examine some of the more unusual looking items.
As he looked at the various trinkets he caught a movement in the corner of his eye. Focusing on where he though he saw something he realized that it was only a small mirror. Curiously he looked more closely at the object. It was small, he could see his face in it but not much else. There were curious carvings all around the golden frame that looking like knots that never broke. He blinked his eyes quickly when suddenly the knots appeared to be moving, twisting amongst themselves. The blinking didn't change things at all, the knots really were moving. Alarmed Harry stepped back from the mirror and turned away only to find himself looking out over a dark field that was lit up with flashing spell lights.
He blinked in confusion as he looked around. There seemed to be some sort of battle going on around and it only took a moment to figure out that no one could see him and he couldn't do anything. He catch anyone's attention and everything seemed pass through him without notice. He was purely a spectator.
All around him wizards and witches shouted spells that he couldn't hear. In fact he couldn't hear, feel, taste, or smell anything around himself at all. Even so he could help but let out startled cries when a particular nasty curse struck someone and they crumpled to the ground.
And suddenly he was looking at himself staggering across the battlefield his hand firmly grasped and dragging another person with him. A wayward spell caused the mirror Harry(because that must be what was happening, Harry reasoned, he was seeing all the things around him in the mirror, somewhat like a pensive) to drag the person's hand he was holding to the ground and their hood fell off. Harry was more than a little shocked to see that his mirror self was holding hands with non other than Draco Malfoy. And by the way they were clinging to each other, there didn't seem to be much animosity left between them. Curiosity and disbelief were coursing through him as he watched himself half drag Malfoy up to his feet while also somehow also being dragged by the blond Slytherin.
Watching in amazement as the duo stumbled through the battle dodging spells and casting counter charms to protect each other as if they had been doing it their whole lives. Almost effortlessly they would push and pull each other out of harms way and as he watch he realized that it seemed like there was something else there. They seemed to trust each other in a way that Harry didn't think that he could ever trust the real Malfoy.
And when all of the fighting came to an unnatural standstill like time itself had stopped Harry and Malfoy stood ragged yet calm not letting go of the others hand. Out of thin air Voldemort appeared looking more hatefully and monstrous than he could ever remember seeing. The very air around him seem to shimmer with dark magic and when a violent tremble shook Malfoy, mirror Harry just moved closer and held his hand tighter.
Voldemort was hissing something at the two teens, and indeed they were teens no older than Harry would have guessed he was now at 17, but they didn't budge and mirror Harry just shook his head and gave Malfoy's hand another squeeze, and Harry saw an emotion he had never seen before in the blond's eyes flash hot and powerful.
The dark lord was shouting and waving his wand at the pair, pulling more dark magic out of the air, earth, and everywhere else it would come from to answer his call, his form becoming more and more distorted with each passing second. His skin was literally becoming black with what looked like scales, and his limbs and torso seemed to be stretching and becoming thinner, the bones almost protruding from the skin in certain places.
Mirror Malfoy and Harry seemed to be completely oblivious to the danger they were in because they had stopped paying any attention to the evil that was happening right in front of them. Instead they were of all things looking at each other, as if they had eyes only for the boy standing in front of them. Malfoy looked vaguely nervous yet determined as he stared deeply into Harry's eyes as Harry stared back just as determinedly but without the nervousness and with a certain tenderness that seemed to be only for the blond.
Voldemort's chanting had become more erratic and Malfoy finally cast a brief look at the crazy man. A smirk suddenly blossomed over his features and he leaned forward close to Harry and whispered something into the others ear. A similar smirk spread over Harry's own features as he whispered something back and suddenly two pairs of lips were meeting in a deep yet amazingly tender embrace.
For a split second Harry was locked in surprise and horror before he was closing his eyes and trying to wish that he were anywhere but right there.
To his relief the entire scene changed and he was looking at himself again. This time he was talking to a girl with short blond hair that was sneering at him as he shook his head before grabbing her hand. The girl's sneer immediately fell away and a small blush replaced it, though she still didn't look like she wanted to meet his eyes.
Confusion was coursing through Harry as he looked at the two. He had never seen the girl before in his life, though there was something about her that screamed familiarity. She certainly didn't go to Hogwarts and yet here they were sitting out next to the lake, the squids tentacles floating lazily on the surface in the warm weather, and it wasn't hard to guess that they were quite close by the way the mirror Harry was kissing the blond girls knuckles softly. The mirror Harry murmured something against here hand and the girls gray eyes flashed in irritation as she yanked her hand back.
Her gray eyes. Harry felt his eyes widen as he realized who the girl looked so much like. Fucking not again, he thought frantically once again trying to pull his gaze away from the scene and feeling nausea roll through him when once again the setting changed, only to be replace once again by himself and Malfoy.
This time they were both standing in the quidditch pitch. They had on practice gear and Malfoy was saying something with a smirk that made Harry laugh and shake his head. Malfoy raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for a response. The mirror Harry looked at Malfoy in mild disbelief and shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Sure why not?". A grin spread over the blondes mouth and he tossed a snitch into the air.
Harry watched feeling a sense of unease about the almost normal situation as the two took to the air speeding after the small golden ball. They turned and twisted in the air, and the mirror Malfoy seemed to be equally matched to fly against Harry as the two flew, using as many tricky maneuvers as Harry to try and reach the snitch first. To Harry's shock and surprise, Malfoy managed to catch the snitch before the mirror Harry managed to.
Malfoy gave a small shout as he spiraled lazily towards the ground. Harry followed slowly behind looking more uncertain than upset about not getting the snitch first. His eyes were completely trained on Malfoy as the Slytherin dismounted his broom and stood on the pitch waiting for the Gryffindor.
Harry watched as mirror Harry dismounted his broom and slowly walked the short distance until he was standing close enough that Harry realized what was going to happen almost immediately. His eyes snapped shut and he was trying to back away but the mirror Harry had already leaned forward and was a breath away from the other teen's lips.
It wasn't as shocking this time, and Harry felt there was something terribly wrong about that as he looked away from the duo, this time face with the image of not only Malfoy and himself, but also a great number of Harry's friends. Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Neville were all gathered around a large table, along with who he realized with mild surprise, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott. They all seemed to be eating dinner and there was quite a few number of empty drinking glasses littering the table. Slightly more surprising wasn't the fact that himself and Malfoy were sitting a little too close for comfort and one of his hands seemed to be caressing Malfoy's thigh, though once again he felt like it was wrong that he didn't find it feeling more wrong, was the matter of how Hermione and Zabini seemed to be practically devouring each other with their eye's and Ron didn't look to upset about the situation because he kept glancing over at Parkinson without trying to be notice while Pansy was doing the exact same thing to Ron.
The entire scene was extremely unsettling and Harry was looking away though something about it also felt wonderfully right.
And he was watching himself and Malfoy brutally mash mouths looking like they had both gone a few rounds and based on the disarray furniture and broken objects around them they had. He had a bloody nose and large gash above his right eye, and Malfoy's left eye was already sporting the beginnings of shiner and there seemed to be a large tear in his sweater.
And he was watching a moody looking Malfoy glance at mirror Harry across the History of Magic class room, while mirror Harry was casting glances over at Malfoy even though he seemed to be holding Hermione's (Hermione of all people? harry wondered slightly horrified. She was practically a sister to him!) hand non to secretly underneath the table. Hermione leaned close and whispered something in Harry's ear that cause a dry smile to skit across his face.
And he was watching a much, much older looking Malfoy looking at a tomb stone. And when Harry saw his own name etched into the stone he realized with an uncomfortable jolt that Malfoy wasn't really as old as he first assumed, more tired that anything.
And he was watching as a blond girl with brilliant green eyes fling herself at mirror Harry who had to be around thirty or so years old. She was crying and holding up a slightly bloody elbow for inspection. The older mirror Harry inspected the elbow with care before cleaning and healing it with a tap of his wand and proceed to brush a tear off of the girls face. Giving her a kiss on her her blond head and rumpling her thin hair before she gave him a small kiss on the cheek and was off running again.
When Draco stuck his head around the corner with a concerned look on his face, Harry realized who's hair the little girls had come from. And those eyes...
The scene started to slowly dissolve around his eyes as he watched with mirror Harry say something to explain, and suddenly he was back in the headmasters office feeling slightly drowsy and blinked a few times to make sure that he was back in the real world.
Dumbldore was looking at him with a stern expression that Harry had rarely seen on the Headmasters face.
"Harry, I apologize for not being here when I asked you to be but I would have though you would have learned by now not to go around investigating strange objects." He chided gently, yet sounding very serious.
Harry immediately felt guilt. Of course he should have, it had gotten him into enough trouble in the past hadn't it?
"Sorry professor, I guess my curiosity, err, got the better of me," He said sheepishly not wanting to meet the stern look in the older man's eyes.
The Headmaster, gave a tired sigh, "I just worry about you my boy. Why don't you sit down so we can talk?"
Harry mutely sat in the chair in front of the headmasters desk feeling very much a small child that had gotten his hand caught in the cookies jar.
"The mirror that you were looking through Harry, is called Eralevir" The headmaster explained and when Harry opened his mouth in confusion to ask, he held up a hand and continued. "Do you remember your experience with the mirror of Erised? That mirror that you were just looking into acts in a similar fashion. In fact it was modeled after and made by the same wizards who produced the mirror of Erised."
"So nothing in that mirror was actually real." Harry said feeling both relieved and at the same time sad about what he couldn't tell, because for the most part all he had seen was himself and Malfoy closer than he wanted to be.
"To the same extent that what you saw in the mirror of Erised could be be real." Dumbledore said, "And just the same it is better not to spend to much time dwelling on the things that you saw come to pass."
"Harry what did you see in the mirror?" Dumbldore asked looking at Harry without the usual twinkle in his that he was so used to seeing.
"I saw myself and," He trailed off fighting off a blush, "and Malfoy."
"What about you and Mr. Malfoy?" The headmaster prodded looking sternly at Harry.
"We err, we didn't seem to want to fight anymore." Harry said the severity of the Headmaster making him feel uneasy. And besides that wasn't a total lie was it? The Harry and Malfoy in the mirror really didn't seem to want to fight with each other. They had been much to busy doing...other things...to each other.
"Was that it? Or was there something more to it?" He prodded further.
Harry felt himself becoming defensive and not exactly knowing why. "No there err, wasn't anything else."
He frowned and looking away from the headmaster. Why was he lying? Or at least not telling the headmaster of how...intimate...the two in the mirror had been. Though it wasn't like it could hurt anything could it?
Dumbledore sigh and Harry looked back up at the professor in time to see a trouble look mar the older mans face for a split second before the usually twinkle was back in the headmaster's eyes.
"Well, if there was nothing else, I did have a reason for you to come up here in the first place if I remember correctly." He said smiling at Harry.
"Sirius is going to be here in a few days. With the reappearance of Wormtail, it the ministry has had no choice but to pardon him."
"Really?" Harry exclaimed ecstatically, enthusiasm washing away all of the uncertainty he had been feeling moment before.
"I though you would like some good news what with all of what has happened recently." The headmaster smiled kindly at Harry, "I must admit though, I do have some work to do. So if you wouldn't mind leaving me, I do believe there is still perhaps some dinner in the great hall if you find yourself so inclined."
"Right sure, no problem." Harry said standing up.
"Thanks Professor, and err, sorry about the mirror," He added guilty almost looking over at said object before thinking better of it.
"Think nothing of it Harry," Dumbledore advised as Harry left his office.