The first time she heard about it was when she was a first year at Hogwarts. There had been frantic, excited whispers among the students about this magical mirror that tells you about what you want the most and she had initially cast them aside. But she too, had only been a child at the time, and curiosity soon got the better of her.
She had snuck out one night, when she was sure she was safe, and slipped into the Room of Requirement.
It hadn't been difficult to find the mirror, and she found herself standing in front of it, looking eagerly.
The image surprised her somewhat. It was her, plain little her, but she was surrounded by people. Friends, family. Her eyes nearly welled up at her reflection. She supposed she had known it all along, but to see it, was a confirmation she did not need.
At eleven, all Myrtle Warren wanted was to not be invisible to those she held close.
She did not have the courage to return to the Room until years later. But something drew her to it. Namely, rumours that Tom Riddle was involved in Dark Magic.
She had denied her feelings to herself for a long enough time, that she no longer knew what was true and what was not. The Mirror, she knew, was the way to find out.
And find out she did. The image had changed in those two years, just as a part of her knew it would. She was still in it, standing beside him, his eyes looking at her with love and admiration, something she knew to be an impossibility. A tear rolled down her cheek.
At thirteen, all Myrtle Warren wanted was to not be invisible to Tom Riddle.
He had been the one to tell her to meet him that night, near the girls' washroom. She had suspected something was wrong because why else would he, the charming Tom Riddle with the piercing eyes who could have any girl in the entire school, ask her, quiet, shy, plain Myrtle Warren? But her heart made her push those thpughts aside, and fill her mind with hope instead.
Hope. It was ironic in hindsight, really. Had she really been hoping for him to see her the way she saw him? Even decades later, she chided herself for her folly. She would still float by the Room of Requirement sometimes. The Mirror was still there, as it had been all that time ago. Her reflection would stare right back at her, and sometimes, she would laugh at the cruel twist of fate.
All Myrtle Warren ever wanted was to not be invisible to the world.
Notes: For TGS' Through the Universe Challenge. Prompt: Mirror of Erised.