new year (ehm ehm.. it's summer actually, I know.. I.. mm.. kind of lost track of time? :D sorry!), new chapter, new story! enjoy your reading dears!
disclaimer: all the characters of this story belong to J. K. Rowling. I'm writing just for fun! :)
mirror, mirror on the wall.. who's the fairest of them all?
. . .
It was a clear, cold Sunday morning and despite the icy wind blowing, streets were crowded and overdressed people could be seen merrily walking around the town, arms full of packages and big smiles plastered on their faces.
From the window of her first-floor apartment, Hermione was witnessing that scene and thinking by herself how much she loved days like that: people were finally able to feel happiness again after so many years of fear and mourning now that the war had ended, the streets were back to their original state with Christmas decorations dangling down from every streetlamp, door or facade and almost every shop in Dyagon Alley had reopened, making the once dark, shabby alley once again full of light and life.
But most of all, Hermione loved Sunday because it was the time of her weekly hobby: the antiques market day!
Every since she had moved in that flat, four years before, she had taken the habit to walk around the stalls of the little market that they would set up every given Sunday in the little square behind St. Paul church, and today, chill or not, she wasn't going to make an exception.
She glanced one more time at the bustling street below and hurried to get dressed.
Mere minutes later, a fully clothed Hermione Granger emerged from the bathroom, bangs of hair still going anywhere around her head like a lion's mane despite all her best attempts to tame them into a more normal hairstyle. Then she grabbed her wand, purse, scarf and winter cloak. She was ready!
Quickly throwing a glance at the little mirror on the wall to check one more time her appearance, she stepped on the threshold, said goodbye to Crookshanks (that was still loudly snoring on his red pillow) and got out, making her way down the alley to St. Paul church.
When she arrived the market was more crowded than usual, most probably because it was only four days to Christmas and people hurried to buy their last-minute gifts.
As far as she was concerned, Hermione had already bought all of her presents to her friends (a guide of handy house-spells for Ginny who had finally moved in with Harry; the first copy of Dumbledore's complete biography by Elphias Dodge for him and.. no, she didn't take a book to Ron too, it would've been wasted money.. she had taken him a new quidditch training uniform instead, since the old one was so torn that more than once he had returned home almost frozen to death..) so she could enjoy her day calmly walking around.
First thing she did, was going to her favourite stand of old books: the seller was an old nice man with a mess of white hairs and a warm face that always greeted her like a daughter..
'but' she thought 'probably that was just because I'm one of his best customers after all..'
Hermione had estimated that she spent more than half of her salary in books every month, and that was definitely saying something!
As if on cue, the old salesman appeared to her side with a broad smile
"Good morning, Hermione!"
"Good morning Mr. Sandcreef" she smiled back, starting her perusing of the books "do you have anything new to show me today?"
"for you, always!" he said laughing.
He jogged to a corner as fast as his thin legs allowed him and started picking old looking books and discarding others.
"these have just arrived!" he explained passing her three heavy-looking tomes "they came right from a private library of one of those rich ancient houses.. it seems that the young owner didn't want them anymore and sold the whole collection, and that's a pity if you ask me.."
Hermione examined the books Mr. Sandcreef has given her while the old man kept rambling about how old those books were and what a shame it was to give away such a valuable treasure.
The books were old indeed, Hermione could tell just by touching the hard leather cover that had become all wrinkled with time and had little stains over the corners. But the pages were absolutely well maintained, writing still legible despite the odd calligraphy and the illustrations still held their vivid colours.
Definitely, they really were valuable books.
She pondered, looking at the three tomes in front of her: she had plenty of money with her but.. was it really that necessary to spend Merlin only knew how many galleons for three books? Sure, the spell book looked extremely fascinating and Hermione was totally positive that she would find it full of new spells to learn.. and yes, also the herbology book combined with the potions one were absolutely inestimable.. for once, the potion text 'De Iniquia Potionibus' was one of the rarest books she had ever had the privilege to put her hands on..
Mr. Sandcreef seemed to read her thoughts.
"they are quite unique in their genre, Hermione, I'm sure you're the kind of person that would appreciate them.."
"yeah, sure Mr. Sandcreef, but I don't think that I can afford them right now and -"
The old man raised his hands to stop her
"Hermione, Hermione please.. I would make a special price just for you, of course! You're my best customer after all"
"No, really, I can't.. I –"
"Don't make such a fuss, child" he interrupted her again "I must insist! Listen, I have a real bargain for you: if you take the potion and the spell ones, I'll give you the third book for free! Deal?"
Hermione could just surrender to the temptation and agree, paying without a flinch the still incredibly high price the man told her.
"I'm sure that you'll treat them fairly" he smiled again offering her the books "you're a really good child, not like those spoiled brats that there are nowadays! It's such an incredible shame that they gave away these invaluable treasures and –"
Hermione greeted again the man and left the stand while he still rambled about ungrateful offspring and decayed manners. She had heard that same monologue so many times now that she had almost learned it by heart.
Shrinking her newly acquired books with a swift movement of her wand and safely putting them away in her bag, she resumed her idly walk between the snow covered stands, greeting a few people but mostly just basking in the warm sunlight while looking at all the interesting things that the different stalls offered.
She bought a nice photo frame for her mother, in which she would put the family photo they had taken two years before and that she had magically developed to make it move; then in another little stand she bought a pair of odd, bewitched and completely useless pair of spectacles for his father, because he loved magical stuff almost as much as Arthur Weasley did with the muggle ones..
Finally, when lunch time was approaching and most of the people were already leaving the market, Hermione turned to the last stand that she hadn't already visited: it was a nice little stall where a short plump man sold antique furniture.
She greeted the man with a nod and a smile and he let her do her own tour without bothering her with useless chatter.
That place was a really curious one, thought Hermione moving around: there were all sorts of objects, from lamps and glasses to wardrobes and sofas, most of them that looked like they had come right from Voldemort's place.. too dark, with complicated shapes and emanating strange gloomy halos.
But despite the appearance, Hermione valued that most of them were harmless too. In fact if the war, or better, if Bellatrix Lestrange and her carving work on the arm, had left her anything useful it was her sixth sense for dark objects: she would always have shivers and her arm would start prickling when around them..
She was now observing an interesting set of china teacups with dark purple lilies on them (they were a tad gloomy, but would have looked so nice in her kitchen!) when some sort of glowing light coming all of sudden from the furthest corner caught her eye.
Approaching, she noticed that it came from something tall half-hidden under a heavily embroidered cloth.
Her curiosity winning over her prudence and her education, she easily let the blanket slip onto the floor to reveal underneath a full-length mirror with a complicated, rich wooden frame, pleasant to look and definitely very elegant. Probably the light of the sun hitting the silver surface had been the glow that had distracted her.
Getting near to give it a proper look, Hermione couldn't help thinking that it was really a beautiful object and found herself contemplating the idea of buying it.
'It would be stunning in my room' she thought admiring the carving work and the rich brown wood that perfectly matched the colour scheme of her room 'and, after all, I only have little mirrors at home.. I could really use a tall one..'
She shook her head, clearing her mind from those unnecessary thoughts. She didn't need another mirror, those she already had in the hallway and in her bathroom were more than enough. Definitely, buying that mirror wasn't the wisest acquire she could do..
'And those incredibly expensive books? Were they strictly necessary, weren't they?' Her insistent inner voice spoke again 'you already have plenty of books at home! For Merlin's sake, if you keep buying books like this, soon there will be no more room for you in that flat! And you're making such a fuss for a mirror?'
She considered cautiously that point of view.
'Yes but.. it must be expensive.. surely it looks like it is.'
'And were those books not?'
She mentally scolded herself for having bought those books, but after all they had always been her sweet spot, she couldn't deny it..
'Maybe if it's not too much expensive I could take it into consideration..'
She gestured for the salesman.
"It's your lucky day, miss!" he announced beaming when she asked for some details about the mirror "there's a very special price for this mirror, you see, only fifty galleons! A real bargain, isn't it?"
Hermione eyed suspiciously the plump man. That "bargain" smelled nasty to her..
"but surely it's much more valuable.. only look at the carving! What is that, oak? It's absolutely gorgeous!"
"mahogany in truth" he corrected "but you see, miss, I've been trying to sell this mirror for a long time with no avail.. it seems that it has some kind of problem with the reflection, all those few people who had previously bought it had complained about it and then had given it back to me.."
Hermione looked carefully at her image: it seemed perfectly normal to her, no deformation of any kind.. she wasn't slimmer nor fatter or taller or anything. Just her normal self.
"then.." she started cautiously, not moving her eyes from the mirror: there still was something about that bargain that didn't set quite right to her "then, there is the possibility to return it to you, shouldn't I be happy with it?"
The man hurried to answer in a mellifluous voice that of course there was no problem at all, only that in that eventuality he would return her only half of the paid sum, namely twenty-five galleons.
"it's a win-win situation, after all, isn't it miss? I would get rid of a mirror that's been absolutely hellish to sell and you, miss, would gain a real masterpiece for a ridiculously low price and with the chance to give it back.."
Hermione still thought that the whole business stank of something suspicious and probably there was something that that man... what was his name? He didn't tell her.. there was something that he was hiding to her, that he definitely wasn't saying..
Could it really be that someone gave back such a beautiful object just for some minor defects? That made absolutely no sense to her..
But still... she couldn't suppress the need she felt of buying it nevertheless. It was as if the mirror itself compelled her to buy it.. wicked, wasn't it?
"well, ok Mr.." she trailed, hoping the man would get the hint and introduce himself.
"Doboty" he rushed, offering his hand "Allan Doboty, miss.. "
She shook his plump hand, trying to recollect anything she could know about that name, but absolutely nothing came to her mind.
"I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you.. is it your first time here in this market? I've never seen you before.."
He smiled, nodding "you're a good observer, miss Granger! Yes, true, it's my very first time here in Dyagon Alley.. I used to go around the Scottish markets, but I thought it would have been a good thing to extend my business a little bit, so.."
Hermione nodded. That explained why she had never seen him before during her Sunday rituals..
"do you want to carry the mirror on your own, miss, or would you like some help?" he asked once he secured her money safely in the inner pocket of his jacket "I have a boy that could carry it for you at your place, if you wish, for free of course.."
Hermione frowned at the idea of a complete stranger getting in her house and assured that she could perfectly manage it on her own, shrinking the tall mirror with an easy movement of her wrist and putting it away in her now quite crammed bag. She should've taken the one with the undetectable extending charm on it instead of a normal bag but.. sincerely, when she got out of her flat that morning the last thing she could have imagined was that she would have bought a huge, incredibly heavy mirror!
She put a reinforcement charm on the fabric, just to be safe, and a light feather charm too to avoid a dislocation of her shoulder with the weight of the mirror..
Once she was finished and was satisfied with her work, she turned to greet again the salesman but he had already disappeared somewhere else.
'Probably to have lunch..' she thought with a shrug, starting to walk back to her flat 'strange person, anyway..'
So concentrated on her thoughts, she didn't notice the person sitting in the shadow that followed her with the eyes, smiling satisfied: it had all worked out as planned..
. . .
first chapter.. finished! how did you find it? let me know! how? in a review of course! :D
next chapters will be posted hopefully once a week, but.. who knows when the writer's block will come to find me? ;)
'till the next time dears! ^-^