The Mirror of Erised

As soon as Harry got out of the Gryffindor changing room, he was nearly tackled to the floor by Hermione as she hugged him, all the time shouting 'It was Snape! He was jinxing your broom!"

While they were walking with Hagrid, they mentioned this and he said, "Nonsense! Why would Snape do that?"

"How should we know? Why did he try and get past that three headed dog on Halloween?" Harry asked.

Hagrid stayed silent for a moment before asking, "Who told you about Fluffy?"

Rachel, who was drinking hot chocolate as they went, spat it out as she laughed. "Fluffy?!"

"That thing has a name?" Hermione asked.

"'Course he has a name, he's mine. Bought him of an Greek fella I met in the Hogs head las' year. Then I lent him ter Dumbledore to guard the… urr…" Hagrid began to trail off, so Harry tried to encourage him, but failed.

"Shouldn't have said that… No more questions! Don't ask anymore questions! That's top secret, tha' is."

"But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy's guarding, Snape's trying to steal it." Harry said.

"Listen. Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher, one of which who is helping to protect the sto- to protect whatever Fluffy is guarding. He aint 'bout ter steal it."

"So why did he try to kill Harry, then? I know a jinx when I see one. You have to have eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking." Hermione said.

Hagrid, who had seemed to have lost his temper, said in a deep voice, "Now listen, here. All three of yer. Yer meddling in things that shouldn't be meddled in. What Fluffy's guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."

"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry asked.

Hagrid, now going as red as a cherry, walked away while muttering to himself, "I shouldn't have said tha'. I should not have said that, I shouldn't 'av said tha'."

Nothing much went on after that. The children went to the Library frequently to look for Nicolas Flamel, Hagrid refused to talk about the matter anymore and Christmas was on it's way, which meant the holidays would soon begin.

When the list of students who were staying for the holidays came round, Harry jumped out of his chair and made sure that his and Rachel's names were down first. So they wouldn't have to go back to Privet Drive with the Dursley's.

Hermione was going home to stay with her parents and Ron was staying at Hogwarts as Mr and Mrs Weasley were going to Romania to visit Ron's brother and dragon expert, Charlie Weasley, the former Quidditch super star.

One afternoon in the Great Hall, Ron had challenged Harry and Rachel to a game of chess, the Twins again him, which they took on happily. About half way through the game, they regretted that decision.

Ron had taken one of their Bishops, both rooks, along with 6 pawns. The Twins hadn't even gotten half of that.

"Knight to E 5." Harry said.

The Wizard chess piece moved to the only safe place it could, or so the Twins thought. Hermione had just come in with her trunk trailing behind her, but didn't say anything as she saw they were in a heated game.

Ron looked around the board, saw what they didn't. "Queen to E 5." He said smugly.

The queen got off of her throne, picked it up and threw it at the knight, making it smash to pieces.

"That's totally barbaric!" Hermione cried.

"That Wizards chess." Ron replied as he took the remains of the knight off the board and out of the way. He then studied her and added, "I see you've packed."
"See you haven't."

"My mum and dad are going to Romania, remember?"

"Good. You can help these two then. They're going to look in the Library for Flamel."

"But we've looked a hundred times!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione put her finger to her lips and whispered, "Not in the Restricted Section. Merry Christmas."

She walked off and out of the Hall and Ron muttered, "I think we've had a bad influence on her."

"Amen." Rachel said as she tried to focus on the game again.

BANG!

BANG!

"C'mon, Rach. Get up!" Ron shouted from downstairs in the Gryffindor dorm. The foot step could be heard going away from the girls dorm.

Rachel got up in a sitting position, stretched and swung her legs out of bed and slipped her slippers on. She got her dressing gown on and headed down stairs, making herself promise to kill Ron later as it was 7am.

BANG!
BANG!

"Harry! Wake up!" She heard Ron shout as she entered the dorm. The first thing she saw was the Christmas tree, which she would bet all her money that it wasn't there when she went to bed.

"Merry Christmas, Rachel." Ron greeted when he saw her. She nodded in greeting and sat down in front of the fire.

"Merry Christmas, Harry." Ron greeted again cheerfully.

"Merry Christmas, bro." Rachel said as she stared into the fire. It was already looking like the best Christmas she'd ever had.

"Merry Christmas, guys." Harry replied. "What are you wearing?"

"That's none of your business." Rachel said, but felt pretty idiotic when Ron replied, "Oh, mum made it." He paused for a moment and said, "Looks like you've got one, too. Both of you, actually."

Rachel snapped her head to look at Ron and Harry asked, unbelievingly, "We've got presents?!"

Ron nodded and said, "Yeah!"

Harry was down and in the dorm like a bullet, his blue dressing gown flying being him.

"What were you expecting? Vegetables?"

"Would have been better than what I was expecting." Rachel replied as she took one of the gifts from her pile.

"That one looks like the jumper." Ron said, and he was right. Rachel got a Metallic Purple jumper, the same colour as were wand, with a red R in the middle. Rachel, of course, was taken aback and speechless. She felt like crying, as this was really the only gift she was every given and was extremely thankful for it. She stuck it on immediately and wore her Weasley jumper with pride, hardly able to keep herself from smiling like an idiot.

Harry, as Ron predicted, got a Weasley jumper, but Scarlet red and an H on the front. The rest were from Hagrid, Hermione and Mrs Weasley. Hagrid carved an owl shaped whistle for both of the Twins and Mrs Weasley sent all three of them bucket loads of chocolate, as well as Hermione.

Which left one more present under the tree, addressed to Harry and Rachel. It was extremely light and was wrapped in a stars and moons paper.

Harry unwrapped it carefully, to reveal a silky looking cloak. As soon as Ron saw it, he shouted in excitement.

"I know what that is! That's an invisibility cloak!" Ron said as he put down his box of chocolate frogs.

"Lemme see that." Rachel said and extended her hand. She felt the silky cloth, which nearly fell through her fingers. She threw it over her shoulders and Ron said, "Yeah, thought it was. They're really rare, who could have given one to you?"

Rachel, who was to busy pretending to be a ghost, asked, "Who's it from, what does the letter say?"

"Letter?" Harry asked as he looked inside the package.

"Yeah, it fell on the floor when you took the cloak out."

Harry soon found what she was talking about, and picked the piece of parchment up. It was sort of yellowy, showing that the paper was quite old and on it had very neat joined up handwriting.

Your Father left this in my possession before he died. It was time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

"That's all it says?" Rachel asked as she let her head come into view.

"Yup, use it well." Harry said. "Now, let me have a go."

The day passed very quickly, much the everyone's disappointment. The Christmas Dinner had been the best without a doubt. Big, huge stuffed turkeys sitting along the four tables.

After dinner, however, Harry got to thinking about looking for Nicolas Flamel. He could go anywhere he wanted with this cloak, even sneak into the restricted section if he was lucky.

Ron had just gone up to bed, tired after eating bucket loads of food, Rachel was about to do the same when Harry said, "Do you reckon we test this out?"

"What? The cloak?"

"Yeah. We can do anything we want with this."

Rachel though about it for a while before sitting up, stretching and told him, "Go get it then."

"Not yet. Meet me down here at midnight, no one will be up except the Prefects."

When Rachel went up to her dorm, harry did the same and laid in his bed, waiting for midnight to come. He wanted to know who this Nicolas Flamel was, what his connection with Dumbledore were, and what was down beneath that trap door. All the sorts of things were going through his mind then, what could be down there like a weapon or something. It must have been valuable. If Snape was 'protecting' it, what other teachers were helping?

Midnight came eventually, and Harry made his way down to the dorm, where Rachel was quietly waiting for him.

They put the cloak on and made there was towards the Library, which was cold, Dark, eerie and creepy. Books were sat at the table open wide for them to see and a couple chairs were left out untidily.

They made there way to the restricted section, unlocked the steel lock, opened the door and walked towards the F section.

"I cant find Flamel, Harry. What makes you think he's here?"

"He has to be. Hagrid looked ashamed of himself when he mentioned Flamel, he knew we'd do research and he knew we'd find it in one of these books. He just has to be here." Harry replied as he put one book back on the shelf and opened a new one. But this time, it came as a shock. A face appeared from the book and gave an ear splitting scream that flooded the whole Library.

"Shut it, Shut it!" Rachel yelled as she let a book fall and slammed her hands over her ears.

Harry closed the book instantly, and shoved it back onto the shelf.

"WHO'SE THERE?! SHOW YERSELVES!" Shouted a familiar voice.

"Filch!" Rachel exclaimed. "What do we do? Where's the cloak?"

Harry looked to where he left the it, which was on an old chair, grabbed it and flung it over both of them and began walking to one of the main isles, trying to see where Filch was. Instead, they found Mrs Norris.

"There's a door over there. Back away slowly." Rachel said as she gripped her brothers arm.

They made their way towards the door, but found it was locked. Casting Alohomora, they rushed through the door and locked it again. Before she let out a breath, Harry put his hand over he mouth to prevent her.

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." Said the icy voice of Snape.

"I-I-I don't know w-what you me- mean, S-S- Severus. I-I-"

Unable to keep in the breath she was holding, she hastily breathed out and back in, making a small, but noticeable noise.

Both the Professors heard it and looked around. After finding no one there, Snape became edgy. Harry and Rachel, both holding their breathes in for dear life, both thought they were found out, as Snape's eyes rested on them.

He brought his attention back to Quirrell and continued, "We'll be having another chat soon. Then we'll be able to see where your loyalties lie."

He turned and walked out of the corridor, leaving Quirrell shaking and muttering to himself as he walked away in the opposite direction.

"Let's go and hide here for a while." Rachel said as she edged towards an unlocked door.

They took the cloak off and took deep breathes, trying to figure out what had just happened. When they caught their breathes, Harry notices they were in some sort of old classroom. There were desks and chairs up against one of the walls, and on the opposite side of the mess, was a mirror.

This mirror was about 10ft high and six foot wide, covering a good half of the wall.

There was a strange inscription on the wall, which said 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'.

"I think it's Latin." Rachel said as she came nearer to the mirror. As she came closer, she noticed that she wasn't the only one in the mirror, nor was Harry.

They stood in the middle of the mirror, and behind them were two adult figures; a man and a woman.

The man and pitch black, untidy hair. He wore oval shape glasses and very deep, gentle eyes. Rachel noticed that this mans hair was like Harry's, which stuck up from the back. She also noticed that his eyes were similar to hers and were both a Hazel colour.

Harry noticed similar qualities as well. Rachel's hair was black, but long, which was usually tied back in a pony tail, whereas the womans hair was a deep brown, but was the same wavy style and length. Harry notices her eyes, just as Rachel had noticed the mans. They were bright green, like his, and the same shape as his.

It took a while for Harry to understand who these people were. Rachel had already come to a conclusion, but decided to stay quiet.

"Mum?" Harry asked the woman. She smiled and nodded her head, letting a lone tear slide down her cheek. The man put his arm around her in comfort, but smiled at the two children as well.

"Dad?" He asked again. The man smiled and nodded also, letting his teeth come into view.

Unnoticed before, Rachel began to see other in the mirror. Older men and woman who were stood in the background, waving at them.

"Do you really think its them? Do you think they're really here?" Rachel asked, but got no reply. Harry stood in front of the mirror, watching hungrily as he got closer to the mirror so he was flat up against it. He couldn't hear her, he was to caught up. He was, for the first time, looking at his family. The one thing he wanted, but couldn't have.

The night drew on, until the sun was just over the horizon. Both the twins sat and stared at the mirror, trying to take in everything.

"Maybe we should head back now, before everyone wakes up." Rachel said as she got up. "We can come back later, and bring Ron this time too. I'd like him to meet them."

Harry considered this, and agreed.

They went back to their common room, got dressed and waited. As soon as Ron was awake, Harry was onto him before the other could hear what he had to say.

"Me and Rachel have something to tell you. We were looking for Flamel last night in the restricted section of the Library on the ground floor, but came across an old classroom, in this room was an old room was a mirror and-"

"Whoa. Hold on, slow down." Ron said as he sat up in bed. "Okay, tell me again, but slowly this time."

Later, night had decended once again, the three of them got under the cloak and went towards the Library, through the restricted section and back into the old class.

Harry whipped off the cloak and ran to the mirror, Rachel and Ron at his heels.

"There! You see them, don't you? They're-"

"That's me!" Ron exclaimed. "Only, im head boy. And im holding the Quidditch cup! And bloody hell! Im Quidditch captain too!"

Harry and Rachel looked closely into the mirror and saw what they had seen before, their family with their parents in the front.

"I look good. Hey, do you think this mirror shows the future?" Ron asked.

"How can it? Both out parents are dead." Harry said in confusion.

To him and his sister, the mirror showed their family, but to Ron, it showed him being… well, the best. He was head boy, Quidditch captain and winner of the cup.

Neither of the twins understood this, but quietly decided between themselves to come back the next night.

They sat there on the floor in front of the mirror, Harry once again drinking in everything he could, while Rachel was trying to figure out what it was, and what it done. They sat there for a while before hearing a gentle voice saying, "Back again, hmm?"

Harry snapped his head up and saw that on one of the old desks was a man. He wore half moon glasses and an emerald green cloak. Professor Dumbledore.

"We… we were just-" Harry began, but was interrupted.

"I see that you, like many others before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised." Dumbledore said as he got to his feet and walked towards them. He sat down behind temand lookedinto th mirror.

"I trust that you now know what it does." Once he saw the twins shack their heads, he continued, "Let me give you a clue. The happiest man alive, would look into the mirror, and see him as he was. His own reflexion would be there, smiling at him, with everything he desired."

"Of course. Ron sees himself being the best, that's what he wants… I think." Rachel said.

"So, it shows us what we want. Whatever we want." Harry said.

"Yes, and no. The Mirror of Erised shows us nothing more or less then our hearts deepest and most desperate desires. You two, see yourselves standing in the mirror with you family. Your friend, Ronald, who has always been one of the youngest of six brothers, therefore overshadowed, sees himself doing everything they did. His brother, Charlie, the Quidditch captain. His eldest, Bill, wearing the head boy badge with pride.

"But what you must know, is that men and woman have wasted away in front of this mirror, enchanted from what they see. The mirror with be transported to a new home tomorrow, so I ask that neither of you go looking for it again, okay?"

The twins both nodded and Dumbledore said, "Now, why don't you two get that cloak back on, and get off to bed?"