Ron couldn't decide if he was mildly amused or mildly annoyed by Hermione's bossiness. After a while of having her breathing down their necks over every little task he and Charlie had strayed to the opposite side of the attic from the girls. Sadly, their plan of pawning off the fanatical prefect onto Tonks had only partially succeeded. Every few minutes Hermione would come over to check on their progress and find at least one thing they, well, mostly Ron, weren't doing to her satisfaction. Ron didn't mind though, after five years he had gotten used to her incessant nagging and had even begun to be comforted by it.

If Hermione was lecturing him about one of his faults, then all was right with the world. The fact that it usually led to a fight didn't bother Ron. Sure, it was strange, but he liked fighting with Hermione. Most of the time he would reassure himself that it was only because it added some spice to his otherwise boring life but, who was he kidding? His best friend was Harry Potter for Merlin's sake. If he were really to be truthful with himself he'd probably have to admit there were some ulterior and not so platonic reasons behind the constant sparring, at least on his side.

Ron idly wondered if Hermione would let them take a break and grab something to eat. Sure, they had had lunch barely over an hour ago but he was a growing boy, he needed his nutrition. Ron was sure he could get Charlie to agree to his plan and Tonks did look pretty miserable over on her side of the attic with Hermione but Ron was a little frightened to even mention the idea to Hermione. If Hermione had changed any over the summer it was defiantly to become more controlling, as if she wasn't controlling enough!

Even scarier, she had reminded him of his mother the other day. The very thought had made him shudder. So of course both his mother and Hermione had come bearing down upon him to check his temperature and make sure he wasn't getting sick. It had just made the frightening comparison all the more valid!

Rather than dwell upon the similarities between his mother and Hermione any longer Ron turned his attention to another task he wasn't so excited about. His most recently assigned project by Ms. Granger herself was to clean out the far corner of the attic. He'd already been working on it for half an hour and he still couldn't see the wall. On top of that Hermione had been over at least five times to see what was taking him so long.

Ron couldn't help but do an imitation of Hermione in an especially shrill voice, "Oh Ron, you're still not finished cleaning out that big, dusty corner that is absolutely full of heavy, cumbersome objects I wouldn't even be able to move!"

At least he was still capable of amusing himself.

Ten minutes, one very rowdy coat rack, three mischievous pixies, a desk, and one visit from Hermione later Ron discovered a very interesting mirror. It was tall, reaching almost the full height of Ron's six foot one frame and twice as wide as him. Its wrought iron frame looked really old, and not just because it'd been who knew how long since someone had cleaned it. At the top a huge ruby was embedded in the frame. There was something about it that beckoned to Ron, he had to touch it. Almost as soon as he touched the stone the mirror started to change. The surface became cloudy and started to glow a faint shade of blue that looked almost white. The surface also seemed to be moving, it looked like the Hogwarts Lake did when it was particularly windy. Ron had the distinct feeling that if he were to try to touch it his hand would go straight through.

But what really intrigued Ron about the mirror was the intense feeling of magic it gave off. It was so strong that he had never wanted anything more in his life than to be closer to it. It was the strongest feeling of magic he'd ever felt in his life, actually. For that very reason Ron held himself back from giving into temptation and stepping nearer. His parents had always taught him to never trust a highly magical object that had no practical reason to be so. More often than not that meant dark magic was involved. And something so powerful shouldn't have just been sitting around in someone's attic, not even the Black's who had had some very strong and very dark magical items in their house. Why hadn't he felt it's magic sooner, he felt if he were to run to the basement he would still fell the mirror's presence. What if it was a trap? But who could have placed it there?

Ron was so caught up in his contemplation of the mirror that he hadn't even noticed Hermione walk up behind him.

"Ron, what are you doing just standing there. We still have half the attic to clean."

Rather than respond Ron just continued to stare mutely at the mirror. Ron didn't even notice that Hermione had also become transfixed by the mirror's magic until some time later when he felt Charlie shaking him.

"Come on, Ron. We should get away from here. Whatever that is I don't think it's very safe. You were an inch away from touching that mirror before I even realized that all three of us had been staring at it for five minutes."

Ron felt pretty shaken up. He hadn't even known that he was reaching out to the mirror until Charlie had stopped him.

Both men averted their gaze from the mirror and turned around to shake Hermione from her trance just in time for Ron to see the catastrophe unfold.

Tonks was the last to arrive to see what all the commotion was about. Standing right behind her was the coat rack that had been giving Ron problems earlier. It was also at that very moment pulling her feet out from under her. She had been standing right next to Hermione who was standing next to Charlie who of course was right next to Ron. Tonks stumbled into Hermione and before Ron could even think to do something they were all falling through the surface of the mirror.