AN: This story is written for the International Wizarding School Championship.
School: Durmstrang
Year: Six
Theme: Alohomora
Prompt: #3 Mirror of Erised
Word Count: 2993
"Please?" Lily begged.
"No, get lost," James scoffed, looking up from polishing his broomstick in the Gryffindor common room.
"But you're not even going to be using dad's cloak tonight," Lily said. "How come I can't borrow it? I'll only need it for a few hours."
"Because dad gave it to me," James smirked. "Besides, if you had a good reason for needing the cloak, I'd lend it to you."
"Trying to find Wrackspurts with Lorcan and Lysander is a perfectly good reason to want the cloak," Lily said firmly.
"Not in my book," James said, rolling his eyes. "And who knows? I may decide I want a midnight snack, and I'll need the cloak to sneak down to the kitchens. My answer's no, Lil. Get it through your skull."
"Fine," Lily said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Don't say I didn't try to do this the nice way."
"What are you talking about?" James frowned.
"If you don't let me borrow the cloak," Lily said. "I'll tell mum and dad you used Uncle George's snackboxes to skive off History of Magic for the past two weeks."
"And who says they'd believe you?" James said, raising an eyebrow.
"Dad always believes me," Lily smiled. "Besides, you really think they'd doubt that story? It has your name written all over it."
"Fine!" James exclaimed, reaching into his bag and thrusting his cloak at his little sister. "Take it. But you better not lose it or anything. And I want it back first thing in the morning!"
"No problem," Lily said happily, letting the soft fabric run through her fingers. "Thank you, Jamie."
"And stop calling me that!" James hissed. "We're at school now; people could hear you!"
"Where are those two?" Lily huffed later on that evening as she sat huddled under her father's cloak. "They should have been here twenty minutes ago! At this rate all the Wrackspurts will be floating back to their nests by the time they finally get here."
Figuring she'd go and look for Lorcan and Lysander, Lily headed down to the ground floor towards the corridor she knew housed the Hufflepuff common room. As soon as she reached the corridor, though, it became clear why Lorcan and Lysander had failed to meet up with her. Peeves was bouncing along the corridor, passing right in front of the entrance to the common room, which would make it impossible for any student to sneak by without encountering poltergeist.
Guess we'll have to try another night, Lily thought to herself. It would be more difficult trying to get the cloak from James for a second night, but she reckoned she could manage to convince him to do so once she reminded him she knew that he had taken their father's broom for a joyride several times last summer.
Wonder if I can still sneak into the kitchens, Lily pondered silently as she turned the corner, where she saw the large painting of the fruit bowl that hid the Hogwarts kitchens. Peeves seems busy enough back there…maybe he won't notice the painting swinging open and I-
Suddenly, she heard a loud hiss behind her. Lily spun around and saw none other than Mrs. Norris staring directly at her, as if she could see right through the cloak.
Lily carefully backed away, hoping she could sneak off without the cat alerting her owner. But the sound of footsteps thudding told her that it was already too late for a clean getaway.
"What is it, my sweet?" she heard Filch call as he came around the corner. "Student out of bed? We'll have them for it, won't we?"
Lily turned another corner, cursing, though, when she realized it was a dead end. The was a single door at the end of the corridor, but the knob wouldn't budge as Lily tried to open up from under the cloak. Just as she was about to pull out her wand, Filch and Mrs. Norris turned the corner, trapping Lily in the corridor.
There's no way out, Lily realized as she stood as still as she possibly could. If she managed to open the door at this point, Filch would know for certain that somebody was nearby, and she was sure Filch wouldn't leave the area until he found her. If she did nothing, though, Lily had a feeling Mrs. Norris would lead Filch straight to her.
Just as she began racking her brain for a believable excuse as to why she was out of bed and hiding under an Invisibility cloak, however, there was a loud crash in the distance, followed by the familiar cackle of Peeves.
"Peeves!" Filch roared, turning around on the spot. "I knew you were down here! Come on, my sweet. If he's wrecked another suit of armor, we may be able to convince the headmistress to finally kick him out of the castle."
Lily watched the caretaker and his cat leave, hardly daring to believe her luck. Once Filch was out of sight, Lily quickly pulled out her wand and stuck the tip out from cloak and pointed it at the door.
"Alohomora!"
At once the door opened, and Lily quickly slipped inside before Filch could turn back.
As she caught her breath, Lily looked around the room. It appeared to have once been a classroom, for there were several desks and chairs pushed up against the wall. The only thing that seemed unusual, though, was the large object in the furthest corner, which was covered by a white sheet.
Lily knew it wouldn't be wise to try and sneak back to the Gryffindor common room at the moment with Peeves and Filch in the area, so what harm could it do to have a look?
She stepped over to the object and pulled off the sheet, revealing a long, elegant looking mirror.
"Whoa," Lily whispered. "Wonder what this is."
She looked up and saw several words engraved in the gold frame, but she couldn't decipher what language they were written in.
"There must be a trick," Lily mused to herself, wiping a thin layer of dust from the face of the mirror. Though she had only been at Hogwarts for a few months, she knew that anything hidden away like this had to have impressive magic within it. But as she stood in front of the mirror, staring back at her reflection, she couldn't see anything special; it was just a mirror.
"I don't get it," Lily frowned. "Why would they hide a boring old mirror?"
After examining the mirror for a few minutes, Lily gave her reflection one last look before she covered the mirror back up and draped the cloak back over herself and snuck back out of the room.
"Well, well, well," James said the next afternoon as Lily approached him and Albus in the courtyard. "Where have you been all morning?"
"In the library," Lily said. "I forgot that I had a History of Magic essay due today. It was twelve inches on the Goblin Wars of 1400. I managed to get ten done, so hopefully Binns is forgiving."
"He isn't," James said. "But as proud of you as I am for slacking off in useless classes, give me my cloak back, will you?"
"Did you find any Wrackspurts last night, Lil?" Albus asked. "James told me that's what you were up to."
"No," Lily sighed. "Peeves and Filch stopped the twins from meeting up with me."
"Did you at least do something?" James asked. "Don't tell me I loaned you the cloak for nothing."
"I snuck into one of the locked classrooms on the first floor," Lily shrugged. "But there wasn't anything too exciting. There was just this giant mirror, but it didn't do anything."
"A mirror?" Albus frowned. "Are you sure it was just a mirror?"
"Yes," Lily scoffed. "I think I know a mirror when I see one."
"Hogwarts doesn't hide away things like plain old mirrors," James said, rolling his eyes. "You didn't check it for magic? Maybe it's one of those mirrors that shows your enemies! I saw one at the Auror office when I went with dad one time."
"I'm telling you, it's just a mirror," Lily said.
"Doubt it," Albus said. "You probably just didn't know how to work it properly."
"I'll show you!" Lily said. "Come down with me tonight and you can see for yourselves."
"Fine, but only because I was planning on swinging by the kitchens to visit Kreacher anyway," James said.
"Al, if you step on my foot one more time, I'll hit you with a leg-locking curse!" James hissed as the three siblings moved slowly along the first-floor corridor, all huddled under the Invisibility Cloak.
"Then stop elbowing me in the ribs!" Albus retorted.
"Shut it, you two," Lily said as she led the way down the dead-end corridor she had been trapped in the previous night. "And here we are."
"Alohomora," Albus said, pointing his wand at the door and unlocking it.
"Alright, let's see this mirror and get out of here," James said as he pulled the cloak off of them. "I'm starving, and I have a feeling they made extra desserts in the kitchen."
"It's over here," Lily said, stepping back over to the mirror. She pulled the sheet off, allowing her brothers to see the majestic object.
"Looks old," Albus commented. "Which means it's got to have something special about it."
"Have a look," Lily said. "Do you see anything?"
"Hmm…" Albus frowned as he stared at his reflection. "Well, no…not yet. What about you, James?"
"No," James admitted. "But maybe you need to use a spell!"
He pulled out his wand and pressed the tip against the face of the mirror. "Revelio!"
Nothing happened, though, and the three continued to stare back at their reflections.
"Maybe there's a button or something," Albus said, looking up and down the frame of the mirror.
"A button?" James smirked. "This isn't one of dad's muggle electronics."
"Maybe you need to use a different spell," Lily suggested. "Know any others that may work?"
"Not really," James said. "Guess we should have brought Rose."
"Or maybe Lily's right and it's just a mirror," Albus added.
"Ha!" Lily cheered triumphantly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," James said dismissively. "Lily was right about something…I'll alert the Prophet. Now let's get out of here before my stomach implodes."
"You just ate dinner a few hours ago!" Lily pointed out as Albus covered the mirror back up.
"Exactly!" James said. "I'm famished!"
"Well, we better enjoy this weather while we can," Ginny said to her family several weeks later as she brought out a tray of hot chocolates to the Potter's back garden, where the family was currently gathered around a small bonfire. "We're going to be getting quite a bit of snow tomorrow."
"But I like the snow," Lily said, sticking out her tongue and catching a falling snowflake.
"You won't be saying that when you're waist-deep in the stuff," Harry smirked, sipping his hot chocolate.
"So does that mean we can't play Quidditch tomorrow?" James frowned.
"Afraid not," Harry said.
"But I'm going to be a professional Quidditch player someday!" James said. "I'll need to get experience playing in all sorts of weather."
"Well how about we save that training for later on in your career?" Ginny smiled. "Besides, we're going to be spending the day over at the Burrow with your grandparents tomorrow. Granddad is going to be cleaning out the attic and I thought that we could lend him a hand."
"Could we see the ghoul?" Albus asked.
"We'll see," Ginny said. "But I do know that your grandmother will also be baking all day."
"We're in," Lily said at once, not wanting to miss a chance to sample her grandmum's pies.
"Thought that would do the trick," Harry chuckled. He checked his watch. "It's nearly midnight, you know."
"Is it really?" Ginny said. "Merlin, time flies! But I suppose with picking the kids up from the train station and going down to the muggle village for dinner, our schedule got a bit off track. After this round of hot chocolate, you'll need to go inside and start getting ready for bed."
"I haven't gone to sleep this early all term!" James frowned.
"We don't care if you go to sleep," Harry yawned. "Just be quiet enough so your mum and I can. We're exhausted. But while we're out here, tell us more about your first term at Hogwarts, Lily. Was it like you imagined?"
"Better," Lily beamed. "I met nearly all of the ghosts, except for the Bloody Baron, but I'm alright with that. And Professor Trouton says I'm one of the strongest students in Defense Against the Dark Arts that he has ever seen! And I managed to memorize two of the secret passages to get around at night-"
Lily's eyes grew wide as she realized what she had just admitted to her parents.
"Er, not that I sneak around at night," she said quickly. "What I meant was-"
"Oh Lily, your father and I are perfectly aware that you picked up the same disregard for rules as your brother," Ginny sighed. "You three get it from your father, I'm afraid."
"Right, just from me," Harry smirked.
"So you don't mind if I sneak around the school at night?" Lily grinned.
"We do," Harry said quickly. "You need to respect the rules at school, Lily. Don't go making a habit out of it. But in the rare occasion where you absolutely must sneak out to go to the kitchens or-"
"Hunt Wrackspurts and Nargles," Lily added.
"Right," Harry smiled. "In those cases at least have the sense to ask James for the Invisibility Cloak. Merlin knows you must have enough blackmail to convince him to loan it to you from time to time."
"I did loan it to her once," James defended. "And she didn't even use it properly! All she did was find a boring old mirror in an abandoned classroom. How pitiful is that?"
"Mirror?" Harry repeated.
"Oh yeah," Lily shrugged. "It was a really nice one, though. Don't know why it was hidden, but it looked beautiful."
"Tell me," Harry said. "Did the mirror have words engraved into it?"
"Yeah, it did!" Albus said. "We saw it too. We went down with Lily to see it one night. It looked like it was written in Latin or something."
"Ah," Harry nodded. "Just like I thought. Sounds like you three found the Mirror of Erised."
"You know about it?" James said.
"I found it when I was at school," Harry told him.
"But what's so great about it?" Albus asked.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "Didn't you look at it?"
"Yeah," Lily nodded. "But we couldn't figure out how to work it."
"You mean…when you looked into the mirror," Harry said slowly. "You-You just saw your reflections? All three of you?"
"Well what else would we see in a mirror?" James asked.
"Fair point," Harry said thoughtfully.
"So it is just a mirror then?" Lily asked.
"Well, yes, to some," Harry said. "Um, listen you three, I just remembered your grandmum brought by some biscuits. Why don't you bring them out for us to enjoy here? And while you're inside, I suppose we could do with one more round of hot chocolate."
"Alright," Albus agreed as him and his siblings got to their feet and headed back into the house.
"The Mirror of Erised," Ginny said. "I thought you said that it showed you-"
"Your greatest desires and wants," Harry nodded. "It does."
"Well then are you sure that's what the kids found?" Ginny asked.
"Neville mentioned a few weeks ago that the mirror was moved to the first floor," Harry said.
"Then how come the kids think it's just a normal mirror?" Ginny asked.
"Dumbledore told me," Harry explained softly. "That if someone was truly happy, he or she could look into the Mirror of Erised and use it just as a regular mirror…because there would be nothing more that could truly want or need. Ginny…our kids are happy."
"Of course they are," Ginny smiled, taking his hand.
Harry squeezed her hand as he thought back to his own childhood. The countless nights he spent under the cupboard with the Dursleys'. The bullying he endured in his muggle primary school. The pain that he constantly felt over never having a real family for years. The losses he had to face so early on...His children hadn't experienced any of that. They didn't know what it felt like to be pushed aside and made to believe they were worthless, and they never would. And to Harry…there was nothing more he could hope for his children.
"We added marshmallows to the hot chocolate this time," Lily announced as the kids returned to the garden.
"These biscuits are delicious," James said, stuffing half of one into his mouth whole. "Grandmum out did herself."
"Hey dad? Remember when we were little and you would make shapes out of the smoke from the bonfire?" Albus asked. "Can you do that again?"
"Sure," Harry said, gathering his thoughts. "I can do that."
As he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the flames, causing a beautiful phoenix to erupt from the smoke, Harry took a moment to take it all in.
They're happy, Harry thought to himself as the kids all cheered and watched the smoke phoenix fly around the garden. Their childhoods…they're nothing like mine was. They're happy.
That thought kept circling through Harry's head for the rest of the night, even several hours later, when Ginny and the kids wound up falling asleep out in the garden, curled up cozily underneath blankets next to the bonfire. It kept circling through his head as he felt his own eyelids grow heavy, and he fell asleep peacefully next to his family.