Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Labyrinth or Harry Potter, as all characters involved belong to Jim Henson and J.K. Rowling, respectively.
Forget About the Baby
Chapter 10: Heart's Desire
Sarah could not believe the turn of events that the past school year had taken, though she found the eventual division of house points a little silly and unfair (and felt a little bad for Slytherin for being lead on like that). Professor Quirrell, hiding the soul of Voldemort under his turban? That's the kind of thing you'd want to keep a secret.
She walked slowly down the third floor corridor, smiling and waving at various students heading home for the summer, laughing to herself in a quiet, inside joke at the pleasure and quiet the stone walls would bring.
Truthfully, she could not have wanted anything more, at that point in time. Or so she thought.
She stepped past a few more empty, deserted rooms and turned back towards the stairs, having finished her share of the rounds of the castle, but a certain door in particular caught her eye. While there was nothing remarkable about the door itself, there was almost a pulsing energy that seemed to be breaking out of the room, beckoning her to come forward.
While she had learned in the past that nothing was exactly what it seemed in her favorite castle, Sarah threw caution to the wind and placed a hand gently on one brass handle, tugging slightly.
She was surprised at the ease of which the door opened and stepped inside the room, initially let down by what she saw inside- a mirror. There were a few books piled up in the corner and a rug on the floor, but the only thing of any real significance was the mirror.
It was a tall, oval mirror with a glassy surface and elegant carvings in brass with inlaid leaves. On the top, the words "erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" were inscribed. Sarah traced her fingers over the thin letters, thinking to herself quietly. Were they some kind of... riddle? She had always been good with riddles.
Disregarding the mirror's inscription for the time being, she gazed into her reflection, intending to check her hair.
Her heart sped up quickly at the sight she saw instead, blinking twice to clear her vision and try to categorize what she had seen.
Where her reflection should have been, she saw a younger version of herself, smiling lovingly at her younger brother, Toby, who stood next to her mirror self, waving. The first thing she realized was how happy her reflection and her brother looked together, grinning at each other as they did when they shared a particularly silly inside joke.
Her two parents, her father and her step-mother, stood behind her mirrored self as all four of them laughed together, looking like the perfect picture of a family.
Sarah could not draw her eyes away.
She knew it was an illusion, she knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be real. That wasn't what her life had turned into.
But wasn't it better to look at what could have been instead of the life that she had been resigned to? It wasn't as though she particularly enjoyed the life she had.
Hearing the door creak behind her, Sarah jumped in surprise and whirled around nervously to see the surprising sight of Headmaster Dumbledore, giving her the knowing smile that she had grown so fond of. He stood next to her quietly for a minute or two before he placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke to her.
"My dear, you are not the first to have discovered this mirror. It has had many uses, not all of them particularly good, and it has served a final purpose," he told her quietly as she fought to draw her eyes away from her brother's smiling reflection.
She was still and quiet, not daring to respond. He continued.
"What do you see in the mirror?"
Pondering the question and debating what to tell him, she decided that a half-truth was better than a lie.
"I see... my family. My parents and my younger brother."
He nodded knowingly and his eye took on another twinkling glint. Sarah was getting a little sick of the twinkle. It made her dizzy, as though someone was rifling through her mind's drawers of information.
"Keep in mind that while the mirror can show us what our heart desires, it does not always show us the exact truth," he stated plainly, pausing to smile at her reassuringly. "I will leave you here for a few more minutes, but I request that this is your final visit. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
Sarah reached a hand out, placing it on the surface of the mirror, tracing the outline of her figure slowly.
She remembered what it felt like to have a family, to have people to spend time with, to have people who loved her for everything she really was instead of letting her strive to be a person that she wasn't.
She remembered what it felt like to be loved.
She spent the first few weeks of summer assisting Professor Snape, delving into potions and pushing the Goblin King and her brother into the farthest realms of her mind. She wondered what they were doing together, right now, and where they were.
No, she wasn't wondering that. She wasn't going to think about it.
The Headmaster had left a few days prior on a trip to the Burrow, replying to her inquiries with the message that there was a parcel that needed rescuing. Sarah secretly wondered if that "parcel" was a certain Potter child, but refused to bring it up. Especially not with Severus, who managed to scowl and scare the living daylights out of her whenever she mentioned it.
Furrowing her brow in confusion, she stirred a conception potion for the infirmary as she focused her thoughts on pummeling the one man who deserved it most in the entire world and his arched eyebrows, his puffed hair-
"Miss Williams, if you stir that potion any more furiously, the effects will be lost and your previous three hours of work will be for naught," Professor Snape proclaimed, scowling at her in frustration and pushing the cauldron out of her way, proceeding to stir the potion with his slender, nimble pale fingers.
She muttered some apologies and sighed, placing her face into her hands. She sat up a minute or so later, watching him stir the potion.
Her tired eyes were barely open, from lack of sleep and nightmares, and she could not focus if her life depended on it.
Professor Snape leaned over towards her and she could smell the sulfur and coal lingering on his robes. He cleared his throat nervously and she looked up, startled.
"I have a matter that requires some taking care of at my home in Spinner's End. I was wondering if you would like to accompany me on the journey," he said, trailing off near the end of the sentence.
Sarah perked up, realizing that she probably looked like an idiot with how large her smile was. A trip! To Snape's home!
"You mean like a vacation?" she asked gleefully, clapping her hands in delight.
"No, you silly girl, not like a vacation," he groaned, "There will be work. I'm going to expect you to apply yourself on this 'vacation'..."
But Sarah had already walked off, murmuring something about a suit for bathing, and Severus realized that it was a lost cause to try and convince her otherwise.
Secretly, he was pleased.
