THE MIRROR OF ERISED

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

Despite the weather everyone had been complementing Daisy on how impressive her staying on her bucking broomstick had been. All except Malfoy who increasing jealous and angry of Daisy flat out ignored her. Daisy wasn't complaining. She would also be returning home soon for another Christmas with the Marauder's – along with Dean. This development had occurred the week prior when McGonagall went around making a list of students who were staying at Hogwarts, Dean immediately signed up. Surprised Daisy asked him why he wasn't going home. Dean had confided that since he was a baby he had been raised by his aunt and uncle-who despised him.

Daisy finally realised why Dean had been so affected by what he'd heard on Halloween-and why he had such a know-it-all attitude. He really had been all alone all his life and he'd tried to gain friends and get ahead using his intellectual prowess.

Angered by this Daisy ran to her room and two-way mirrored James. She explained the situation and James agreed that Dean would be welcome to stay with them. Dean was overwhelmed by this generosity and after some coaxing (he didn't want to impose) accepted. He was extremely grateful. Ron and his family were going to Romania to visit his brother Charlie and Neville was going to his family, so Dean would've been all alone.

They arrived in the hall for lunch, the day before the holidays and stopped dead. The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. They saw Hagrid helping with the trees whilst Professor Flitwick, had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

Dean suggested that since there was still half an hour before lunch the four of them go back to the library, they had been desperately searching for information on Flamel ever since Hagrid let it slip. How else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Dean took out a list of subjects and titles he had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Daisy wandered over to the Restricted Section. She had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and she knew she'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, girl?"

"Nothing," said Dasiy. Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at her.

"You'd better get out, then. Go on - out!" Daisy wished she was as smooth and fast at thinking up a lie like Sirius as she left the library.

She, Dean, Neville and Ron agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Daisy waited outside in the corridor to see if the other three had found anything, but she wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, Ron, Neville and Dean joined her, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.

"I'm sure they know but I can't risk asking Sirius, Remus and Dad about Flamel" Daisy started "But Ron and Neville maybe you guys could ask your parents?"
They both nodded in agreement.

That night Daisy went up to bed to start packing her trunk, whilst her dorm mates were still in the common room, when she noticed a parcel on her bed. She picked it up and felt it. It was very light. She unwrapped it. Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds. Before examining it further she saw a note had fallen out of it.

Written in narrow, loopy writing she had never seen before were the following words: Your father left this in my possession many years ago. I have finally run out of uses for it and feel that it should be returned. You could always give it to your father or tell him about it, but I feel that perhaps if he doesn't know you'll be able to put it to better use.

A Very Merry Christmas to you.

P.S It is a cloak of invisibility

There was no signature. Daisy stared at the note. Before she could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was flung open and Parvarti and Lavender walked in. Not ready to share this with anyone Daisy stuffed the cloak in her trunk.

Later that night after everyone else was asleep Daisy decided to try this mysterious cloak. She slipped out of bed and wrapped the cloak around herself. Looking down at her legs, she saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling.

Put it to better use.

Suddenly, Daisy felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to her in this cloak. Excitement flooded through her as she stood there in the dark and silence. She could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know.

She crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady. Daisy said nothing. She walked quickly down the corridor.

Where should she go? She stopped, her heart racing, and thought. And then it came to her. The Restricted Section in the library. She'd be able to read as long as she liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. She set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around her as she walked.

The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Daisy lit a lamp to see her way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair, and even though Daisy could feel her arm supporting it, the sight gave her the creeps.

The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, she held up her lamp to read the titles.

They didn't tell her much. Their peeling faded gold letters spelled words in languages Daisy couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. The hairs on the back of Daisy's neck prickled. Maybe she was imagining it, maybe not, but she thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.

She had to start somewhere. Setting the lamp down carefully on the floor, she looked along the bottom shelf for an interesting looking book. A large black and silver volume caught her eye. She pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on her knee, let it fall open.

A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence - the book was screaming! Daisy snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earsplitting note. She stumbled backward and knocked over her lamp, which went out at once. Panicking, she heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside - stuffing the shrieking book back on the shelf, she ran for it. She passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild eyes looked straight through her, and Daisy slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor, the book's shrieks still ringing in her ears.

She came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. She had been so busy getting away from the library, she hadn't paid attention to where she was going. Perhaps because it was dark, she didn't recognize where she was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, she knew, but she must be five floors above there.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section."

Daisy felt the blood drain out of her face. Wherever she was, Filch must know a shortcut, because his soft, greasy voice was getting nearer, and to her horror, it was Snape who replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."

Daisy stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see her, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into her - the cloak didn't stop her from being solid.

She backed away as quietly as she could. A door stood ajar to her left. It was her only hope. She squeezed through it, holding her breath, trying not to move it, and to her relief she managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Daisy leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away. That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before she noticed anything about the room she had hidden in.

It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket - but propped against the wall facing her was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Her panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch and Snape, Daisy moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at herself but see no reflection again. She stepped in front of it.

She had to clap her hands to her mouth to stop herself from screaming. She whirled around. Her heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed - for she had seen not only herself in the mirror, but the two people she missed more than anything standing beside her.

She looked to her left and right but the room was empty. Breathing very fast, she turned slowly back to the mirror.

There she was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected next to her were two others. Was she in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not? No, no this was too cruel-Daisy knew these people were dead. She knew she should walk away but she stayed rooted there. On the left was her mother, smiling and waving.

She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes –she looked like an older version of Daisy. The woman was also crying and put her arms around a tiny boy standing next to her. He was holding a teddy bear. It was Daisy's younger brother Harry, who had been killed by Voldemort as well.

They just looked at him, smiling and waving. Daisy stared desperately back at them, her hands pressed flat against the glass as though she was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. She had a powerful kind of ache inside her, half joy, half terrible sadness.

How long she stood there, she didn't know. The reflections did not fade and she looked and looked until a distant noise brought her back to her senses. She couldn't stay here; she had to find her way back to bed. She tore her eyes away from her mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room.

The next morning she told Ron, Neville and Dean about her discovery and although they were disappointed about Flamel-they were excited to see the mirror. Particularly Dean who had never known his parents, the other three were stunned when he admitted he didn't even know what they looked like.

That night, with all four of them covered by the cloak, they had to walk much more slowly. They tried retracing Daisy's route from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour. They were about ready to give up when Daisy found it. Daisy ran to the mirror, her mother and brother beaming at the sight of her.

Dean begun crying again when had his turn. He had indeed seen his parents, unwillingly he moved to the side. Neville wouldn't say what he saw but also had trouble moving. Finally it was Ron's turn. But Ron didn't see his family. He saw an older version of himself-with a head boy badge, the quidditch captainship and indeed the quidditch cup.

Eyes wide he flipped to face his friends and asked

"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? We saw the dead - let me have another look" answered Dean

"Give me a bit more time."

"You're only holding the Quidditch cup, what's interesting about that? I want to see my parents."

They stayed there for hours all taking turns, nothing could make them leave this room. Nothing at all.

Except -

"So - back again, Daisy? And I see you've brought Dean, Ron and Neville"

Daisy felt as though her insides had turned to ice. She looked behind her. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore. They must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror they hadn't noticed him.

"I didn't see you, sir," stuttered Daisy.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Daisy was relieved to see that he was smiling.

"So," said Dumbledore, "you four, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that, Sir," Daisy was still the only one brave enough to speak.

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"

They all shook their heads.

"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror that is; he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Daisy thought. She was beginning to reach a conclusion when Dean spoke, "It shows us what we want... whatever we want"

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, and I must implore the four of you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"

The four of them made to leave when Ron asked.

"Sir - Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

They all stared.

"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "I am expecting that all I will receive this Christmas is books. It's always books and never socks."

It was only when she was back in bed that it struck Daisy that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, she thought, it had been quite a personal question. Perhaps that was the reason Neville-along with Dumbledore-didn't reveal what they had seen.