Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter Nine

Maria muttered under her breath and climbed out of bed, putting her contacts back in, then grabbed her hip flask and drained it. "Where are you going?" Dear asked as Maria laced up her boots.

"The third floor." Maria told her, putting on her robes and pocketing the wand.

"Do I want to know why?"

"Eh, maybe not." Maria said with a shrug, walking out of the phone booth. Admittedly she wasn't going to do anything bad, per se, but Dear would probably nag her about it when she got back if she told her. Better to leave Dear in the dark. She quickly checked the Marauder's Map, making sure that her way was clear. Fortunately it was pretty late at night, and she couldn't see anybody wandering about. Even Filch seemed to be asleep. The only thing to give her pause was that Dumbledore wasn't in his office, but she shrugged it off. Considering what she'd given him yesterday, he was probably out doing research, maybe even looking for more Horcruxes. She briefly wondered if she should have told him that there was technically only one Horcrux left (Harry, since Nagini hadn't become a Horcrux yet, then discarded the thought. She had no way of knowing that Harry was a Horcrux, or at least, not one she could tell Dumbledore that he'd believe. Better to just let him carry on. It would take him three more years to discover where the Locket was after all, so it wouldn't be too bad. At the very least he'd learn more about Voldemort, which couldn't be a bad thing.

Satisfied, Maria slipped quietly out of her office and headed for the Grand Staircase. She caught herself glancing from side to side, and forced herself to relax. She was a teacher here at Hogwarts now, not a student or an intruder. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her wandering the castle at night, even if she couldn't exactly give a good reason for why she was doing so. She put her hands in her pockets and entered the Grand Staircase, stepping onto one of the stairs just as it was about to float away. This immediately gave her another reason to be grateful that she had chosen to be a teacher this time around, as the stairs paused, then headed for the third floor corridor. The stairs were enchanted to take teachers where they needed to go, rather than the usual playing around they indulged in.

A minute later, the stairs reached the third floor corridor, and Maria stepped off, palming her wand as she did so. She reached out and grabbed the door handle, nodding to herself as the door remained closed and firmly locked. That was a good sign. If the door was still locked, then the Mirror was still there, and this wasn't a waste of time. Though once she thought about it, she realized she might not want to see it…She shook her head. She'd come this far. At the very least she'd go and see if it was still there. It was something she'd always wondered about, but had always slipped her mind, being otherwise occupied with more important things than idle curiosity. But she still had time before things would get going, so she figured now as good a time as any. Maria drew her wand, unlocked the doors, and stepped inside, then locked it behind her.

She looked around, and tried to decide if she should be surprised that Fluffy wasn't there anymore. She decided not to be. Without the Stone, there wasn't anything that desperately needed to be protected down there. The Mirror was valuable, but there weren't exactly many people trying to steal it. In fact, she had serious doubts that many people actually knew it even existed. So, it made sense to remove something as dangerous as Fluffy, especially once the giant dog was no longer necessary. Maria walked over to the trapdoor and pried it open, then cast Lumos. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Devil's Snare was still there. If you were willing to go down into the trapdoor, then you were clearly not just a student that had wandered accidentally in here.

Maria pointed her wand down into the hole and cast Incendio, burning away the vines. She knew that nobody was ever going to break into the…dungeon thing, so she didn't feel too bad about incinerating one of the defenses. Besides, she never liked that particular type of plant, especially not after several bad experiences with the stuff when she was just starting out. Once she was sure that the plant was dead, and that she'd extinguished all the flames, she jumped down, landing in the hole. She looked around curiously, then continued on her way. Surprisingly, she could hear the beating of wings from the room up ahead, indicating that at least a majority of the keys were still flying. Considering that it had been three years, that was a rather impressive feat of magic. Maria walked into the room and looked around curiously at the flying keys, considering her options.

She glanced to the side and noticed that there were three brooms still there. She considered grabbing one of them for a moment, then discounted it. They were, after all, school brooms. It didn't matter how good of a flier you were, at a certain point the brooms were just too crappy to be useful. She could stun the keys, but there was no guarantee that that would work. Since they were designed to protect the Mirror and the Stone within, it was likely that a simple stunning spell wouldn't do anything. Likewise, Accio was unlikely to work. As she continued to mull over the possibilities, something occurred to her, and she resisted the urge to face-palm. She'd been able to bypass the spells placed on the potion in the locket's cave, so it only stood to reason that she'd be able to do the same here.

Nodding, Maria confidently walked through the room to the door and tapped the door handle with her wand, putting far more effort into the Alohomora spell than was usual, easily shattering the spell keeping the door shut, and walked inside. "That was rather anticlimactic." Maria said to herself. It occurred to her that, when it came to things like these spells, which couldn't adapt or strategize, she had a massive advantage now. She continued along the path, wondering how she could cheat to get past the chessboard. She didn't want to destroy the chessmen, as they were a rather impressive bit of magic, especially if they still moved. She could apparate to the other side, but if Dumbledore had set up some way to record what was going on, a magical security camera of sorts, that would be difficult to explain. She could pass off opening the door as her knowing how to break curses, but ignoring the Hogwarts wards could not be explained. Theoretically, she could just play the game, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun. She was good at strategizing, but she had never liked chess, and it would take too long. She still needed to teach classes tomorrow after all. It occurred to her that she would have been better off if she had waited until Saturday or Friday, but it was too late now.

Maria walked up to the chessboard, and realized she still didn't know how she was going to cheat. She knew the chessmen wouldn't let her just walk by, so that left that out. Then, something else occurred to her. Grinning, she pulled out her wand and waved it, silently casting Wingardium Leviosa on all of the chessmen and lifting them high into the air, too high for them to interfere, and she walked happily across the chessboard, continuing on to the next room. Surprisingly, the room was empty. Apparently they'd decided to remove the troll from the room and leave it empty. Shrugging, Maria moved on to the next room, where the potions were waiting. She considered the potions as the two rows of exotically colored flames burst into being, 'blocking' the path forward and backward. Smiling at how furious Snape would be if he knew how she was cheating, Maria walked forward and ran her wand along the ground just outside of the flames, extinguishing them. She then grabbed the two bottles of nettle wine and continued on to the last of the chambers, where the Mirror of Erised stood.

She stood there for a moment, considering it while she stood too far away to see the reflection in it, and then opened a bottle of nettle wine and started drinking. She soon finished it and vanished the now empty bottle, then stayed in place, staring at the mirror. "I find it works better if you stand close enough to see your own reflection." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. Maria shrugged.

"I'll admit, I came here less to see what it had in its surface, and more out of curiosity. I wondered whether you'd moved it or not."

"You do not wish to know what your heart's desire is?" Dumbledore asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I think I know what I'll see and, quite frankly, I have enough self-loathing as it is. I like to think of myself as a fairly selfless person, willing to do whatever it takes to help other people, but I also think that, if I look in the Mirror, then I'll end up seeing my family alive, and myself living a comfortable life, where I can live and work without worry, and therefore not in a position to be doing anything to help people. But right now, it's just an abstract thought. If I look in the Mirror, then all I'll receive is confirmation that, in the end, I am a very despicable person."

"It is not despicable to wish for a happy life." Dumbledore said kindly. Maria gave him a sad smile.

"It is in my case." She said. "Out of curiosity, did you confirm whether or not the ring was a Horcrux?" Dumbledore nodded, noting the change of subject, but letting it go, for now at least.

"I did. I must admit, I am curious as to why the ring would tell you that it was a Horcrux." Maria shrugged.

"Who can fathom the mind of Voldemort? Maybe it was just lonely and overconfident." She said, turning around. "Excuse me Professor, but my curiosity has been satisfied, and I need to get some sleep if I want to be able to teach classes tomorrow." Dumbledore nodded and watched thoughtfully as she left, worried. He didn't think she was a risk to herself or the students, but his own sense of duty would not let him alone unless he tried to do something to make her feel less hateful towards herself.

Nine weeks later

"Hi Sirius!" Maria said brightly, walking out of the phone booth. Sirius glared at her from over his bowl of soup.

"You realize it's been nine weeks since you so much as talked to me, don't you?" He growled. Maria nodded. "Please tell me you've tracked down another Horcrux." Maria raised her eyebrow at him.

"What? Last time I brought you to take care of a Horcrux, you just whined and made me give you ice cream."

"Because you didn't let me do anything." Sirius snapped.

"No, I haven't found another Horcrux. On the one hand, we're down to one, not counting the one that's him right now. On the other hand, I have no idea what it may be. I'll have to do more research."

"Down to one? But I thought you said that he made seven. The one that's him right now made it six, but still. Harry killed the diary, and you've killed the locket and the ring. That leaves three." Maria shook her head.

"You forget, I also killed Ravenclaw's diadem and Hufflepuff's cup." She told him.

"I didn't forget, you never told me that!" Sirius said, upset.

"I didn't, did I?" Maria acknowledged, nodding. "Oh well, now you know. Shall we get going?"

"Where are we going?" Sirius asked warily, finishing his soup. Maria grinned.

"I figured that, with finals over, tomorrow would be as good a time as any to get Peter." Sirius gave her a feral grin.

"What's the plan?" He asked, summoning his cloak.

"Well, there a few things that need to happen. I overheard Harry and his friends planning to meet Hagrid tomorrow evening, so we need to wait until they try and return to the castle. At that point, Lupin should have noticed your presence on the Marauder's Map, and he'll go after you. Now, Ron has taken to carrying Peter around with him, as Hermione's cat is suspicious of the rat. So, if you turn into a dog and grab Ron, you can take him to the Shrieking Shack. I'll be watching from under my invisibility cloak, and I'll hit the knot, allowing Harry and Hermione to pass. Now, I've planted seeds of doubt in Harry's mind, so he won't automatically think you're evil, but he won't necessarily trust you either. While you're trying to explain things to the three of them, I'll be standing guard to make sure Peter doesn't escape, and Lupin will arrive, at which point you can explain everything to him, and the two of you can explain everything to the three of them." Sirius gave her an admiring look.

"You planned this out, didn't you? Tell me, what do we do after we convince Harry and his friends of the truth?"

"Well, we stun Peter so he can't escape, then you, Harry, and I will cast our Patronuses, since the Dementors will probably have noticed you by that point. Lupin will have to stay behind, and I'll carry around an extra flask of wolfsbane potion just in case. From there we'll go to Dumbledore's office, preferably with you in dog form until we're safely inside his office. At that point, we'll explain the situation to Dumbledore, he'll summon Fudge, you'll get pardoned, and then Peter will be dealt with."

"Sounds good." Sirius said happily, following Maria into the phone booth.

"Of course it's good. I came up with it." Maria said cheekily, closing the doors and then walking over to the console.

Author's Notes

Yes, Maria's reasons for not wanting to look in the Mirror were her real reasons, she wasn't trying to manipulate Dumbledore.

Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!