Disclaimer: If I were J.K. Rowling, this story would be published, not on a fanfiction site.
Chapter Ten
The Mirror of Erised
The rest of the term sped by in a rush, and before Harry knew it it was the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately, Ginny had been unsuccessful in trying to convince Mrs. Weasley to let Harry come over there for the Christmas holidays, as the two of them, along with Mr. Weasley, were going to Romania over Christmas to visit Ginny's (and Ron's) brother Charlie.
Thankfully, Ron wasn't going to the Burrow either, so Harry would at least have a friend still at Hogwarts (Hermione was going home to visit her Muggle parents).
Harry, Ron and Hermione (and Ginny too) had all been incredibly excited when they had discovered what this mysterious 'Stone' could be. They were, however, very disappointed to discover that they had no proof that this 'Stone' was the 'Stone'. Though it fit the puzzle (it would be something very suitable for someone to be after – it could turn all metal into gold and produced the Elixir of Life, which made the drinker immortal) there was simply nothing that could prove their theory.
Harry's Christmas at Hogwarts was his best Christmas by far. For one thing, he actually had –
"PRESENTS!"
Harry awoke groggily to the sight of Ron sitting gleefully at the end of the latter's bed, eagerly surveying the pile of presents at its foot.
"Finally, you're up!" he said.
Harry then turned to see – to his shock – a whole pile of presents at the end of his bed!
"I've – I've got presents!" he said gleefully.
Ron looked at him oddly. "Yeah, 'course you do!" he said. "What'd you expect, dragon dung?" He snorted. "Well, open them, then!" He then proceeded to open his own pile of presents.
Taking his first present hesitantly from the pile, Harry glanced at it to see that it was wrapped in plain brown paper and was, according to the messy scrawl on the front, from Hagrid. Inside was an odd-looking flute that appeared to have been whittled by Hagrid himself.
The next present – If you could call it a present – was merely a note which read; We received notification that you are staying at your school and enclose your Christmas present. From Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. A fifty pence piece was taped to the back of the note.
His next few presents included Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, fudge and an emerald-green woolen jumper from Mrs. Weasley, and a thin golden chain with a lightning-bolt hanging off the end from Ginny. It was the last present, however, which intrigued him the most.
The present was some kind of a fluid, watery-feeling silvery-grey cloak. "Hey, Ron, look at this!" he said. Ron, who had been about to open a suspicious-looking orange-wrapped package from Fred and George, turned to him and gasped –
"Harry, I think that's an Invisibility Cloak!"
"A what?" asked Harry automatically and rather stupidly. He did, however, get the gist of what his friend was saying, and stood up immediately to wrap the cloak around his body, leaving his head exposed and rushing to the mirror.
His body was gone! It didn't even seem transparent – he could literally look right through it, and his head looked like it was suspended in midair! Hastily he pulled the hood of the cloak over his head and stared as he vanished completely from sight.
"A note fell out of it, look!" said Ron, plucking the aforementioned note from the ground which, if that was possible, confused Harry even more, as it read; Your father gave this to me before he died. It is time for it to be returned to you. Use it well. The note was not signed.
After acting the audience to a very amusing display courtesy of Fred and George and involving Percy and his Prefect badge, Harry enjoyed the best Christmas lunch he had ever had. However, this wasn't the thing that made this particular Christmas the oddest Christmas Harry had ever had.
That night, he headed out to look around the school. He was properly alone for the first time in a while, and found that quite odd in itself. Generally he had Ginny's warm, comforting presence in his mind, but right now she was asleep. And whenever Ginny wasn't there, he always had others nearby, but tonight the corridors of Hogwarts were eerily empty. And it was then, when he was wandering around innocently (or at least, as innocently as you could get when sneaking around after curfew) that he found what made this Christmas so odd.
It was a mirror. Left in an unused classroom and towering over the other boxes of inordinate knick-knacks that seemed to have no apparent use, the mirror didn't just stand out because of its size. Its ornate golden frame and elegantly clawed feet helped, too, but the thing that really set this mirror apart from the rest was the inscription at the top. Erised stra ehu oyt ube cafru oyt wohsi. What was that, some kind of foreign language?
And in a flash, it came to him. Although Ginny was still asleep, his mind was still sharpened by its link to hers, and that was how he figured out something he never would have figured out otherwise – the mirror's inscription really read; I show not your face but your hearts' desire. It was written backwards!
Wondering fervently what his hearts' desire was, Harry stepped in front of the mirror to see –
It was like a shuttle camera! Images flitted over the mirror's shiny surface slowly enough for Harry to make out what they contained, but fast enough to stop him from dwelling on them too long.
The first image was of a man who looked startlingly like an older version of Harry, his arm around a woman with fiery red hair and startlingly green eyes. The woman had an arm around the man too, but her other arm was supporting a baby with the messy black hair of the man and the gleaming green eyes of the woman.
It was Harry as a baby with his mum and dad.
Just as tears began to form in his eyes, the image changed. Or did it? The picture seemed to be exactly the same, but if you looked closer, there were some minor differences. The man in this picture wasn't James – this man had green eyes. This man really was an older version of Harry!
The woman was different too. Her hair was longer and a lighter shade of red, and her eyes were brown. She was also shorter than Lily, and the baby she was holding had brown eyes.
Harry gave a start when he realized who the woman was supposed to be – Ginny!
Now Harry was really glad Ginny was asleep. Him and Ginny with a baby – perhaps even married? – was supposed to be his hearts' desire? It was a confused Harry that returned to the first-year boys' dorm that night.