Chapter 9 – Erised
Of all the colors in the world, Harry Potter despised white. While he admitted that it did look somewhat pretty in contrast with other colors, white in its singular existence did nothing for his imagination except to urge him to destroy it by making a large colorful mess. White, to him at least, was too bright yet felt too empty. He didn't like it one bit.
Unfortunately for him, Christmas was coming. By December, the residents of Hogwarts awoke to find the grounds under several feet of pure white snow. It's abundance bringing excitement to all the students of the school. Except Harry.
"Chin up, Harry!" Wayne laughed as the two made their way across the white grounds.
Many of the students had jumped out of their beds, hastily wore their winter coats, and ran to the snow covered open grounds. Snow angels, snow men, snow forts, and snow fights were in abundance. It was amazing how many people were up and about considering how cold the weather was.
"I don't like this." Harry said as he shivered yet again.
Harry also did not like the cold that much. His clothing at home consisted of Dudley's castoffs and the cloth was usually already thin. These facts guaranteed that he needed to layer his clothes during winters, and usually this wasn't enough. His energy levels also seemed to lower during the cold temperatures. His magic was being as lethargic as his body in times he needed it to keep warm. The one bright spot of his morning was when he witnessed the Weasley twins bewitch several snowballs to follow Quirrell, and bounce off the back of his turban.
"Look!" Wayne said excitedly, pointing towards the lake. "It looks frozen solid! I think some of those Gryffindors are trying out if it's hard enough to skate on! Let's go ice skating!"
Wayne did not share Harry's apprehension to the white and cold weather. In fact, he seemed even more energetic than usual.
"You go. I'll watch." Harry muttered as he wrapped his black and yellow scarf tighter.
"Oh c'mon, Potter. Ice skating is fun!"
Harry shook his head. "I don't know how."
Wayne sighed. "All right, do you want to go back to the common room then?"
Harry visibly glowed at the prospect and Wayne laughed.
"Let's get your frozen arse back to the fire then."
The two trudged their way back to the castle. As they entered, they saw Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley exchanging words.
"I do feel sorry," said Draco, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."
"My parents are going to Romania to visit my brother Charlie! It's not like that!" Ron shouted back to him, furious.
"Why don't you and your siblings go with them then?" Draco sneered. "Oh right. You probably can't afford to all go."
Ron was going red in the face.
Just as everyone thought Ron would explode, a large fir tree hit Harry and Wayne from behind.
"Blimey! Sorry fo' tha'. Didn' see ya there." Hagrid said in a way of greeting.
Draco and Ron, seeing as there was now a staff member that could act as a witness, disappeared from sight.
Harry looked at the fir tree. It was large and beautiful. It had some snow still attached to its leaves but was still mostly a nice dark green.
"Harry, why'd yeh look so glum?" Hagrid asked.
Harry was about to answer when Wayne said, "He hates Christmas. Apparently, it's too white and cold."
Harry scowled while Hagrid let out a booming laugh.
"Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."
Wayne agreed immediately and was bouncing as he and Hagrid discussed the finer points of the holiday. Harry followed at a more sedate pace.
"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree – put it in the far corner, would you?" Professor Flitwick smiled.
Harry stood still at the entrance, stunned by the look of the Great Hall. It looked spectacular. Holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room. Some of the trees were sparkling with tiny icicles and others glittering with hundreds of candles.
He turned towards Professor Flitwick who was charming little golden bubbles from his wand to trail over the branches of Hagrid's tree. Golden bubbles. Harry went straight to his teacher and began what turned out to be two hours worth of an impromptu decorating with Charms lesson. By the time Harry had finished helping the Professor, he noticed that Wayne had already gone ahead to the Common Room.
Harry sighed and started to head towards the Badgers Den. The best thing about being a Hufflepuff, for the late risers anyway, was that the common room was so close to the Great Hall. While Gryffindors had to walk a quarter to half an hour to get to breakfast, the Puffs needed only ten minutes. And that was if they walked particularly slowly. He wrapped his arms around himself as he began his slow trudge to the warm common room fires.
A slight rumble caught his attention and he hid behind a stone pillar. The painting of a fruit bowl was pushed forward, and from behind it came out two red-headed Gryffindors. They were both munching on apples.
"What's Dumbledore playing at?" George muttered.
Fred shook his head. "Blimey. A three-headed dog. Here at Hogwarts!"
"No wonder Dumbledore told us all off on even thinking of going anywhere near there."
"Curiosity has been known to kill the cat, Forge. This definitely could have killed us."
"Good thing we aren't cats then, right Gred? We're LIONS!"
"Same time tomorrow, then?" George grinned.
Fred smirked, "Did you have any doubts?"
The two laughed uproariously as they headed towards the Great Hall. Harry waited until he could no longer hear the twins practicing saying 'Sit!', 'Stay!', 'Roll Over!', and 'Play dead!' before continuing his walk towards his common room.
"Hey mate." Wayne greeted Harry as he arrived.
Wayne was wrapped up in a Christmas sweater and sitting in front of the fire with the other first years. They looked like they were playing exploding snap. There were mugs of hot chocolate littered next to them. Harry found a spot on the floor and joined them.
"You left." Harry pouted.
Wayne laughed. "Sorry mate. I did try to get your attention. You were staring at those gold baubles so intensely I don't think you heard me!"
Harry kept pouting but couldn't stop a smirk when the cards exploded in Justin's face.
Wayne pushed his mug of hot chocolate towards Harry. "Cheer up, mate! Think of it this way, you got a private lesson with Flitwick! He's your favourite Professor, aint he?"
Harry shook his head. Professor Quirrell was his favorite. He accepted the mug anyway. He took a deep gulp from it, feeling ten times warmer. He loved chocolate. Maybe he could forgive Wayne just this once. He needed to ask the boy something anyway.
"Hey Wayne, don't you have a pet dog at home?" he asked.
Wayne nodded as he carefully removed a card from the deck. "A pitbull, Roger. Why?"
"What does Roger like to do? Do you play with him?"
"Mostly fetch. We used to play tag when I was a kid but then he got bigger and scarier to do that. Got a nasty bite, that dog. Post man almost lost an arm once when Roger was being a bit too friendly." Wayne laughed. "Mum was so embarrassed. Good thing Dad healed it right up before obliviating the bloke."
Harry tuned out the rest of Wayne's rambling as his face took on a pensive look.
"Fetch... Hmm..."
The rest of the day consisted of the first years playing games and making smores in front of the fire. Most of the upper years were playing with the snow outside the castle, so the first years were able to enjoy the best seats in the common room. Harry kept winning at Exploding Snap so they grabbed a box of Bertie Botts and were daring each other to eat the suspicious colored ones. They laughed as they each tried to guess what the flavour could be. Harry's supposed soap and lime turned out to be marshmallow and grass, while Wayne's black pudding and red liquorice was pepper and rust. Poor Ernie's raspberry and cherry turned out to be blood and liver. After all their sugar rushes had subsided, the tired Hufflepuffs retired to their dormitories.
Unfortunately for Harry, he could not fall asleep as quickly as his dorm mates. He quickly rearranged his pillows to look like a human body, tucked it in, and walked out of the dorms. It was nearing curfew and most had already gone up to bed so there were only a few upper years loitering in the common room.
He quietly left and walked towards the forbidden corridor. It was a cold and quiet night. He started to regret leaving the warmth of his four-poster bed. He sneezed.
After walking the entire third floor, he finally found the door that led to the forbidden corridor. Harry carefully phased through it. No use in risking the creak of the door, especially in the dead silence. He was greeted by a low growl. When the Weasley twins spoke of a three headed dog, he pictured a normal dog with three heads. He realized that he was incredibly naive in his assumptions. In front of him was a dog that not only had three heads, it was quite massive. He could easily fit in any one of its mouths.
At first, dog and boy stared into each others' eyes. Well, tried to anyway. There were way too many eyes for Harry to keep track. He settled for staring at the head in the middle.
Harry didn't really like Dudley's Aunt Marge. But he did learn a thing or two about dogs from her. He was usually employed as dog sitter every time she came over with her pets. Unfortunately for him, he didn't really get along with any of them. Acting more as a chew toy than as a sitter. He didn't think he could survive being this dogs' chew toy though.
The dog released another menacing growl. Harry carefully held out his right arm. One of the heads, the one on the right, slowly came closer. It sniffed his hand. The two other heads followed, sniffing him quietly. He almost jumped a foot in the air when the head at the left licked his hand. Harry smelled his left hand. He grimaced. He smelled like marshmallows. How thick could he get?
The dog started to wag its tail and jumped up and down. Harry grinned.
"Play?" he asked.
The dog barked.
He spent a good hour playing fetch with the Cerberus. He got sick of thinking of the dog as Cerberus or three-headed dog so he started calling it Kirby. He would conjure his ghost instruments, changing its code to enable Kirby to interact with it. Using Arithmancy, he was finally able to quantify that the code written within each spell could target certain objects. Affect certain beings only. From the universal set of things in the world, all he had to do was find the correct subset and consequent code that reacted to that subset for the ghosts! His first test on the troll had succeeded (the boxes only affected him but the troll and its club phased right through it) and this test on Kirby was quickly becoming even more fun. Unfortunately, the materials didn't last very long. After imbuing a purpose for it, such as allowing Kirby to fetch the stick and bring it back to him, it would disappear in a puff of smoke-like substance.
Harry grinned as he pet Kirby. The dog quickly got on its back and was whining for Harry to scratch its stomach. He made wide sweeping arches with his arms in order to do it properly. He laughed as as Kirby started kicking the nearby wall in happiness.
"Who's a good boy, who's a good boy" Harry cooed. "I know!"
Harry quickly took a spare marshmallow he had in his pocket and enlarged it.
"Here you go Kirby!"
The three headed dog quickly sat up and started to fight over the sweet treat.
He conjured a bowl and quickly filled it with water. He pet the dog once again before moving towards the door. A definite whine stopped him. He turned to Kirby and smiled at the sad look on all its faces.
"I'll be back soon. We can play tag next time! But for now... Stay!"
Harry waved and phased through the door as he heard Kirby bark in farewell.
The rest of the holiday blew past Harry as he spent his days playing with his school mates during the day, and Kirby at night. He learned chess from Cedric Diggory. He continued to beat the pants off of his fellow first years of all houses in exploding snap. He even let Wayne drag him into a snow ball fight that included first years from all four houses. Draco's team won, of course. The Slytherins team had sneaked into the other teams bases and stolen all the pre-made snowballs. Surprisingly, Draco chose Harry for his team so he was included in the post-game celebration of hot chocolate in the Great Hall. The Slytherins hot chocolate tasted fancier than the one he tried at Hufflepuff. Draco said that their chocolate was imported from somewhere. Harry welcomed the warmth it gave anyway, no matter where the chocolate came from.
Kirby was going through his training quickly. After picking up a dog training book, it was quite easy for Harry to begin the lessons. Kirby could now 'speak', 'sit', 'roll over', and 'play dead'. Instead of marshmallows, he also started giving Kirby proper dog treats and bones. The three headed dog still preferred marshmallows though. Harry avoided giving him too much, but always had a few in his pocket just in case.
When the rest of the students returned home, Wayne decided to stay with Harry at Hogwarts. Harry grinned at his friend and tossed the boy a mug of Hufflepuff hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. The hot chocolate spilled and Wayne cursed. It was shaping up to be the best holiday he ever had, despite the cold and all the white.
On Christmas morning, Wayne woke Harry up by jumping up and down on the latter's bed.
"Happy Christmas, Harry!"
Harry grinned and saw a small pile of presents at the foot of his bed. The two boys high five'd before diving into their own piles.
Harry got various sugary snacks from his fellow first years from the other houses. He'd gotten boxes of Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Cauldron Cakes, and Liquorice Wands. His sweet tooth already ached at just the sight of it all.
The Weasley twins had apparently written home to their Mother about him since he also found a green hand knitted-sweater as well as mince pies from them. The twins also enclosed a note that said they were accepting applications for a protégé if he was interested. He chuckled at that. Draco Malfoy had given him what looked to be an expensive eagle-feather quill and a bottle of green ink. His dorm mates, excluding Wayne, had all chipped in and bought him a new leather messenger bag charmed to be of feather-weight and bottomless. Wayne had even given him his very own pack of exploding snap cards and a chess set.
"You're so good at games that you might as well have your own deck and board to play on."
Harry thanked him.
There was even a gift from the Dursleys. He got a fifty-pence piece and a note that told him not to be back until summer. He was touched that they remembered him.
There was one package that did not have a label, only a note.
Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.
Ripping off the wrapping, Harry stared at the soft fabric.
"Hey Harry, I'm going down to the common room to trade chocolate frog cards with that sixth year. Want to come?" Wayne asked, the boys face covered in chocolate.
Harry shook his head. When he was sure he was alone in the room, he pulled the cloak out of the package. Just by touching it, he knew that it was a highly magical object. His fingers were tingling with the energy embedded in the cloak. He pulled it over himself and looked in the mirror. Discovering that he was a floating head turned out to be much more fun than he thought it would be.
"Wicked."
Harry kept the cloak on him at all times. He could already use magic on himself to become invisible but using the cloak gave him a certain kind of warmth. The kind of warmth he always thought he lacked, even more so during the holidays. The type of warmth he always saw in the Dursleys when they thought he wasn't looking. The type he knew the Weasley's had as they were laughing and teasing each other that Christmas morning, in matching sweaters. He kept the cloak in his new bag, running his hand over it every once in a while. Just feeling that tingle in his fingers made him smile. It felt comfortable, familiar.
He spent the rest of the day playing in the snow with the Weasley clan and Wayne. They made snow men and snow angels. The twins even taught them to put spells into snow balls for the next time the first years would have another inter-house snowball fight. The jelly-legs snow ball seemed fun. Christmas day was spent laughing and shivering with his closest friends.
Unfortunately, Wayne caught a nasty cold. His friend was all sniffles and sneezing during dinner. By the middle of it all, Madam Pomfrey escorted Wayne to the Hospital Wing and informed him that he would be staying the night. Harry, however, had a blast with all the delicious food for dinner. There were a hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers. He had fun pulling the wizard crackers and engulfing the whole hall in multi-colored smoke. The professors didn't scold him for this and even secretly laughed with him when several live, white mice quietly fell into Percy Weasley's soup. Percy shrieked when he pulled his spoon out, intending to dine on the scrumptious soup, only to find a mouse seated quite comfortably on it. Harry brought all the treats he got from the crackers; a bonnet, non-explodable luminous balloons, a grow-your-own warts kit, and a few chocolate galleons.
He visited his friend right after dinner. Poor Wayne could only drink broth and have a few crackers. He couldn't taste anything either. Harry handed over his chocolate galleons and swore that they helped with the cold. Wayne tried it and thanked him. He promised to be back in the morning with a few chocolate frogs from his stash.
As Harry was walking back to the Hufflepuff common room, Peeves blocked his path.
"You!" the poltergeist screamed. "Poor peeves-y punished for your tricks!"
Harry stared at him. "But you had fun, didn't you? That was the deal. Your help, in exchange for a bit of fun!"
Peeves seemed to contemplate on it. "Yes. Fun with Potter. Potter fun like Peeves-y! Potter and Peeves shall have more fun soon, yes?"
Harry grinned. Before he could answer, Peeves suddenly looked afraid and flew off.
"Till next time!"
He turned around, a feeling of dread suddenly washing over him. The Bloody Baron stood a few feet from him, his eye brow raised. His ghostly body was still covered in blood.
"Young Potter." He said in greeting.
Harry grinned a bit. "Good evening, Mr. Bloody, sir."
The Bloody Baron tutted. "How goes your experiment with Sir Nicholas?"
"Fairly good. I should be able to finish by the end of the school year."
"Don't be cocky. It has never been done before. You think just because you are the first who have discovered our Council in many years then-"
Harry handed him a handkerchief. It was ghostly pale and slightly transparent.
"You've got a little stain there." He said, pointing to his own chest.
The Bloody Baron looked startled. He tentatively reached for the handkerchief, curiosity escalating as he was able to hold it. He carefully wiped a bit of blood off his clothes. He became gobsmacked. Some of the blood came off! He looked up only to see Harry running away from him and towards the Hufflepuff Common Room.
"Happy Christmas, Mr. Bloody, Sir!"
The handkerchief suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke-like substance and the Bloody Baron released a booming laugh. Maybe the boy wasn't leading Sir Nicholas on after all.
That night, Harry had begun to make a dent into his Christmas Candy. This made falling asleep incredibly difficult despite having a very physically exerting day. Once again running his hand over his cloak, he decided to explore the castle. After all, the students and staff had a prank break during the holidays. It was just too cold for him to be in a mood to pull any pranks. With his warm invisibility cloak, the cold was no longer a hindrance to him.
Harry laughed as he ran in and out of classrooms, layering charms and spells over various objects. Oh what a surprise the students would have in store for them when they returned! He came close to the library and smirked. It was the only place he had not pulled anything in. He quietly entered. All thoughts on pranking escaped his mind, however, when he saw the entrance to the restricted section.
'Restricted, huh?' thought Harry as he approached it.
Before he could enter, he heard a meowing. Light from a lamp cast an eerie light over the library. From the entrance, the caretaker and his cat came into view.
"Stay alert, my sweet. Sniff em out." The man whispered to Mrs. Norris.
Harry sighed. The library had lucked out for the night. He phased through a walls to get back to the corridors.
He found himself in an unused classroom. It was covered in dust except for streaks from the door going into the room. The desks and chairs were piled against the wall. Propped against the wall facing him was something that looked out of place. It looked like it was only put there to keep it out of the way. It was a magnificent mirror. It was tall, almost reaching the ceiling. It had an ornate gold frame with two clawed feet. At the top, there was an inscription: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
More than its mysterious look, Harry was also mesmerized by the power he could feel emanating from it. It was calling to him. It was weaker than his cloak, though. Still, the sheer amount of power he could feel prompted him to approach the mirror. He dropped his invisibility cloak in order to get a better feel of the mirror. He stepped in front of it and felt the full blast of its power.
"Happy Christmas, Harry." A voice surprised him.
He turned around and felt as though his insides turned to ice. And he hated the cold. Sitting on one of the desks was none other than Albus Dumbledore. His only encounter with the powerful wizard was when he botched up his first year prank. Thankfully, he was viewed as a victim and not the perpetrator of the prank. That only happened since he was careful to let people see him as an average behaved student. Now he was caught out of bounds. This could have severe implications for future pranking.
"I – I didn't see you, sir." He stuttered.
"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore. Harry was relieved to see that the Headmaster was smiling. "That is a fine cloak you have there, Harry. Far too precious to let it gather dust on the ground."
Harry turned red and picked up his cloak right away. The same feeling of warmth spread to him, reassuring him. He felt more confident.
"So," Dumbledore started as he walked towards Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."
He glanced at the large mirror and frowned. "It's magical, sir."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, I believe it is. Very magical, in fact. Have you realized by now what it does?"
Harry's frown deepened. "Aside from feeling very powerful, no sir."
It was Dumbledore's turn to frown at him. "What do you mean, Harry?"
"Well," he said as he turned to face the mirror, "it feels magical. I can practically taste the magic inside it standing where I am right now. But I just don't see it. It's just a normal mirror, isn't it?" He waved to his mirror-self and laughed as he made funny faces at himself. "Is it unbreakable?"
Harry didn't notice Dumbledore wipe a tear from his eye.
"No, unfortunately it can be broken just like any other mirror. It will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry. I do not think you will encounter it again. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"
Harry shrugged, wished the Headmaster a happy Christmas, and disappeared under his Invisibility Cloak.
Albus faced the mirror and smiled at the two people who always haunted his dreams.
"Maybe I have done something right after all." He whispered, before disappearing himself.
OMAKE
Justin Finch-Fletchley was thirsty. He awoke and rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. Turning to get out of bed, he dreamed of being back in his own bed soon. He stood and walked towards the pitcher of water near the other side of the dormitory.
As he took a great gulp, he turned to the bed nearest him.
Harry Potter was a likable fellow. He was fun, but sometimes too quiet. When he first heard about Harry's legend, he had been shocked. After hearing about it, he was extremely nervous to befriend the boy. What could he say to a celebrity of the Wizarding World? He was a muggleborn and had only even heard the story fairly recently. He felt unworthy.
He shook his head to wake himself up a bit more. He suddenly heard a rustle of something close to him. He turned to Harry.
"Harry? Mate?" he whispered.
He approached the boy and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. It was unusually soft. When Harry's face came into view, he had to stop himself from screaming.
Harry's face was white with x's for eyes.
Justin ran to his bed and pulled his covers over his head. Trying to slow down his heart beat. He heard another rustle of cloth and the sound of movement from bed springs. Heart still racing, he pulled down the covers and slowly stood once again. His legs felt like jelly. He approached Potters bed, his fear slowly escalating.
Once again, he saw Harry in bed. Potter was sleeping on his side, covers up to his chin.
"H-H-Harry?" he stuttered.
Harry slowly sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. They were now green and normal. He shook the younger boy by his shoulders.
"Y-Y-You were white! A-A-And soft! And your eyes! They were 'x's!"
Harry stared at him. "I think you've had a few too many smores mate."
When Harry convinced him to get back to bed, he did not hear the younger boy sigh in relief and mutter, "That was close."
