Alright, chapter ten! I hope you guys like it!
"You were in the library every moment you could?" Remus asked, halfway amused and halfway unsurprised.
"Of course," Harry said. "Though, those moments were never very substantial. They were really only a few spare moments between classes."
"And adding onto the fact that we really had no idea where to look in the first place, that made it especially difficult," Ron said.
"But once again, you prove that you have your mothers stubbornness," Sirius said. "She was always curious like you are. Once she found out about something, she wouldn't rest until she knew everything she could."
Harry smiled a little. This, telling his story, it actually proved to be an alright experience, aside from Sirius and Mrs. Weasley nearly having multiple panic attacks. Learning more about his parents… he certainly didn't mind that.
"Remember how horrified Hagrid was when he told him we were looking, though?" Ron asked after a few seconds. "He was so angry with himself for letting it slip!"
"And of course, he told us to drop it and that it was none of our business, which we promptly ignored," Harry said, chuckling.
"And that would be the part of your father coming out in you again," Sirius said. Harry couldn't help but feel almost a little bit proud, even though Mrs. Weasley was looking highly disapproving about the whole thing.
"So, did you find it?" Ginny asked eagerly.
"Well, we expected we'd find something once the holidays started, because we'd have a lot more time to search," Harry said.
"Though Hermione went home that Christmas, so we lost her valuable studying skills," Ron said. Hermione smiled.
"And you lost me keeping both of you on track, didn't you?" she said knowingly. Harry and Ron exchanged sheepish glances.
"Well, I started teaching Harry Wizard's Chess during the break too!" Ron said defensively.
"Oh, well that's important then," Hermione said impatiently. "More important than figuring out what Fluffy was guarding and why anyone would try to steal it."
"We also liked to discuss ways of getting Malfoy expelled, too. That was a valuable way to spend our time," Harry said quickly. Both the Twins and Sirius laughed.
"And how could you expect us to look on Christmas Eve?" Ron said. We were much too excited about Christmas morning and presents then!"
"You were, at least," Harry muttered. A few odd looks came his way, and he said, "Well, you see, when you've never gotten any real Christmas gifts for ten years of your life, you don't really expect to have some the eleventh time."
"That's right. You were surprised weren't you? I'd forgotten until now…" Ron said slowly.
"They never gave you any Christmas gifts?" Sirius asked, astonished and angry.
"Well, they did. They just weren't ever anything… that great. That year I think they sent a fifty pence piece."
"Just a fifty pence piece?" Hermione asked, irritated.
"Well, I did get other presents! And they were all much, much better! Hagrid whittled that flute for me, remember?"
"The one we used… Right, right," Hermione said, stopping before she gave anything away.
"And I got the traditional Weasley sweater as well as some homemade fudge," he said, looking over to the woman who made them. "Thank you again for that, Mrs. Weasley."
"It was no problem, dear," she said kindly, looking a bit sad.
"And then Hermione, you gave me that box of chocolate frogs. But the last one… I didn't know who it was from. A gleaming, shining, silvery cloak," Harry said happily.
"The cloak?" Sirius asked at once. "You mean your father's invisibility cloak? Is that how you got ahold of that?"
"I had wondered how you ended up with it," Remus said thoughtfully. "But who would have given it to you?"
"At the time, I had no idea. There was just a note that said 'Your father left this in my possession before he died, it's time it was returned to you. Use it well."
"Left this is my possession…" Remus repeated slowly, looking deep in thought. "But James wouldn't have trusted just anyone with it. He was very attached to that cloak."
"When did you use it first?" Sirius asked excitedly, breaking the sort of tense mood that was settling and making Remus roll his eyes.
"That night, actually," Harry said. The sudden memories of where he ended up that night and what he saw came flooding back to him then. The mirror… his parents…
Right on cue, his scar started to prickle again, the little pains shooting across his forehead. Remus was watching him carefully, apparently noticing that he'd stiffened up. Though most of the others were much too excited to hear about the cloak to notice his minor reactions.
"And where did you go on your first trip out?" Sirius asked, definitely far too eager to have noticed any unusual behavior on Harry's part.
"I went to the library so I could try to look for Nicholas Flamel some more," Harry answered, and even though he was worried about what was coming up, he couldn't help but laugh a little at the faces of both his godfather and the Twins.
"Your first trip out with an invisibility cloak… You could basically do anything you want… And you visited the library?!" Sirius asked wildly.
"Well, not just any part of the library," Harry said defensively. "I did go to the restricted section, thank you very much."
"I suppose that's a little bit better. But still. The library," Sirius said, grinning and shaking his head.
"Well, I can tell you, I had a very… adventurous night," Harry said. This time Sirius seemed to notice that he was a little tense.
"What happened?" he asked cautiously.
"Well, I made it to the restricted section alright. But the first book I opened… Madam Pince had cursed it. It started screaming. Loudly. Which of course, attracted Filch…" Harry said, trailing off.
"Ahh, tough luck, mate," George said.
"And then, as I was running away, suddenly Filch showed up again. And this time he had company," Harry said, sounding slightly irritated.
"Who could be worse than Filch, though?" Ginny asked.
Several voices around the room simultaneously said, "Snape."
"Yes. Snape," Harry confirmed. "I had somehow ended up in this really skinny corridor, and I was right in their way, they were bound to bump into me."
"Don't tell me you got caught using the cloak for the first time?" Sirius groaned.
"Oh, no, I didn't. I managed to sneak out into a side room along the corridor. And in that side room… was a large mirror."
Ron shifted slightly next to him, and Harry took a deep breath. It wasn't going to be too horribly hard for him to tell them all what he'd seen, but he knew that he'd be getting sad looks and 'oh, Harry's, and that was what was going to make it uncomfortable.
"Well, I figured I ought to stay in that room for a while, just to make sure Filch and Snape were gone. And anyway, I wanted to look in the mirror wearing the cloak and not see myself again. But when I looked in the mirror… there was a lot more than nothing there."
"What do you mean by that?" Sirius asked curiously.
"Well, I saw myself," Harry said, ignoring all of the confused comments about how he was invisible. "And… my reflection wasn't alone either."
"There was someone in the room with you?" Ginny asked worriedly.
"Oh, no, I was alone. But my reflection wasn't."
"How is that possible?" Mr. Weasley said, speaking up from across the room, where he had been trying to control his wife.
"I had no clue. All I knew was that when I looked in the mirror… I saw my parents standing next to me."
"Harry… how? They're dead. How could they show up in a mirror at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked slowly.
Harry rubbed at his prickling forehead for a second, before saying, "Believe me, at the time I was just as confused as you are. Not to mention freaked out. That was the first time I'd ever seen my parents. I didn't have any pictures or anything, so…"
He shrugged. And looking around at everyone, he saw that he had been right. Most everyone was looking sad or sympathetic. Mrs. Weasley looked like she would be up and hugging him as tightly as she could, if Mr. Weasley wasn't holding onto her hand so tightly. Harry sat back and watched everyone, until after almost a full minute of silence Sirius asked, "What did you do?"
"I stood there staring in that mirror for a long time. But I finally managed to tear myself away and get back to bed in the end."
"Why do I feel like that won't be the end of that mirror?" Remus asked, massaging his temple.
Harry let out a sort of bitter laugh. "Because it wasn't. I went back the next night."
"Of course you did. It's only natural to want to see them again!" Mrs. Weasley said sadly.
"I did bring Ron with me, this time, though. I figured if I could see my family in the mirror, maybe he could see his. He could see my parents; I could see the brothers he'd talked about that I hadn't met. But that's not how the mirror worked. When I stood right in front of it and looked into it, I could see my family there. But he could only see me. And when he stood in front of it, he didn't see his family. He saw something different, but I only saw him," Harry explained.
"What did you see in the mirror then?" Fred asked, looking over to Ron.
"I was head boy, Quidditch captain, and I had both the house and the Quidditch cup in my hands," Ron said quickly, avoiding his brothers' eyes.
"What does that…?" George asked, obviously very confused.
Everyone was looking mostly the same. Confused and still a little upset. At least, until Remus suddenly said "Oh!"
"Understood what the mirror does?" Harry asked him, and he nodded slowly.
"That's both wonderful and terrible at the same time," he said, looking sorrowful.
"What? Would you care to explain to us what's going on in your head, Remus?" Sirius asked.
"You'll find out in just a minute, Sirius," Harry said. "Because that night we were interrupted by Mrs. Norris, and we had to leave early. But I went back a third night."
"Even though I'd told him not to," Ron said. Harry shot a look at him and he said, "What? You were acting weird, that mirror was all you were thinking about. And you could have gotten caught; you'd had so many close shaves already!"
"Well, I guess I technically did get caught," Harry said thoughtfully.
"By who?" Sirius asked skeptically.
"Dumbledore. I was so eager to get to the mirror again that I must have walked right past him. But as soon as I sat down there, he said 'Back again, Harry?' And he was sitting on a desk against the opposite wall. Nearly terrified me."
"Only that man," Mrs. Weasley muttered.
"He explained to me that the mirror was called the Mirror of Erised. And he said asked me if I knew what it did. I mentioned that it showed me my parents, and he brought up that it showed Ron as Head Boy."
"Hold on, how did he know that?" Ron asked curiously.
"He just said that he didn't need a cloak to be invisible," Harry said, rubbing his forehead again.
"So he was there? When I came with you?" Ron asked loudly. "Bloody hell…"
"Anyway," Harry said, before Mrs. Weasley could reprimand him, "He told me that the happiest man on earth would look into the mirror and see himself exactly as he was."
"It shows you what you want," Remus spoke up. "Something you wish for."
"That's what I said. And he told me that it showed you the most desperate desire of your heart, or something like that. I'd never met my family, so I saw myself with them," Harry stated.
Mrs. Weasley sniffed a little bit.
"Anyway, he also said that he was moving it to a new home and that I shouldn't go looking for it again," Harry said.
"Which is probably a good thing," Remus said. "Just think, you could stare at that mirror for hours and hours. Seeing what you want the most but unable to get it."
"He said something along those lines too. Men wasted away in front of it or something like that," Harry said. The pain was building in his scar again, making it hard to concentrate.
"So did you get in trouble at all?" Sirius asked.
"Oh, no. He just told me to put my wonderful cloak back on and get back to bed," Harry said.
"Fantastic. Only you could wriggle out of that," Sirius chuckled.
"Sure," Harry answered dismissively. He rubbed his scar again, gritting his teeth.
"Does your scar hurt again, Harry?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Yeah. I'll be back in a minute," he said, getting up and hurriedly walking out of the room, leaving most of the people sitting in it glancing after him worriedly.
So, what did you think? =D