Chapter 14: Mirror of Erised

As the trio got busy with their classes and research, they were surprised when December came so soon and it was time for the Christmas holidays. Hermione went home to see her parents while Ron stayed at Hogwarts as his parents went to Romania to see his second eldest brother, Charlie. Unfortunately, Ginny went with them, so letters were more scarce now as Harry was reluctant to sending Hedwig to fly so far so regularly.

Eventually, after Hedwig followed Errol to see where the Weasleys were, Harry and Ginny decided to send a letter a week to give Hedwig a bit of a rest in between each journey, which seemed to make Hedwig happy if her nuzzling was anything to go by for Harry.

With Hermione gone, it was up to Harry and Ron to continue the research on Nicolas Flamel, but they were having no luck. Harry was sure that, knowing Dumbledore, the information would be in the Restricted Section of the library and the old man expected him to go into it because of Gryffindor rashness. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Harry wasn't in a rash mood, though he was considering an attempt to get inside if his bad luck continued.

Harry had been getting no luck with using Legilimency on Ron over the last couple of weeks. Dumbledore gave Ron no information about Flamel and just wanted to know of Harry's progress. At least his cover wasn't blown as Dumbledore was happy with Harry's continued friendship with Ron and apparent lack of researching.

Even with the bad luck with finding anything related to Flamel, the happy atmosphere of Christmas kept Harry's spirits up and eventually, it was Christmas Day at last. As he woke up, he went downstairs and was greeted by Ron and some presents under the tree in the middle of the common room.

"Morning Ron. What's up?" Harry questioned.

"Morning Harry. I'm just about to open my presents as everyone's gone out now. It seems as though you've got some too," Ron replied with a smile.

Harry's eyes widened in shock. He had never gotten any presents, at least not since his parents died. Who would send him anything?

"I-I've got presents?" Harry enquired sceptically.

"Yeah! Come on! Open them! Seems like Mum sent you a jumper with the rest of us too!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry grinned as he separated the presents with his name on them from Ron's pile. He found that, as Ron said, Mrs Weasley had sent him a 'Weasley jumper'. There were also two more presents, one from McGonagall and another from an unknown source.

The present from McGonagall was his own game of Wizard's chess that she had transfigured and charmed herself. Harry made a mental note to thank her when he next saw her. The other present was a cloak of some kind. On top was a note that read:

Dear Harry,

This was given to me by your father before he died. Now, it has been returned to you.

Use it well.

Even though the sender's name was not on the note, Harry had a good idea on who could've given this to him; Dumbledore. This was just another part of his scheme to make Harry feel indebted to him. First getting him away from the Dursleys, then giving him his father's old cloak. He had to stop himself from growling as Ron was right behind him and he didn't want to blow his cover.

"Hey, what's that?" Ron asked as he saw Harry looking at the cloak.

"It's some kind of cloak. It was apparently my father's," Harry replied.

"Well, go on then! Try it on!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry put the cloak on and found that the parts of his body wrapped up by the cloak disappeared.

"Wow! What the-?!" Harry tried to say, still in shock at witnessing his body vanish.

"I know what that is! It's an invisibility cloak!" Ron explained.

"Really? Well, this solves our problem with the Restricted Section if we need to go in now," Harry said, grinning.

"You've got that right. Who gave it to you?" Ron asked.

"The note didn't say. It just said; "Use it well."" Harry responded.

"Weird..." Ron said.

A few seconds later, Hedwig flew into the room and dropped another present off into Harry's hands. Looking at the label, he saw that the present was from Ginny.

'Well, that explains where Hedwig's been recently. She must've been with Ginny while she got this present sorted after I sent her present over,' Harry thought.

"Who's that from?" Ron asked.

"Helen," Harry said after a few seconds of thinking, pretending that he was still reading the label.

Ron fortunately accepted the answer and let Harry open the present. He just hoped that Ginny hadn't gotten him anything magical. Fortunately, she hadn't. In the box was a small statute of a black dragon with green crystals for eyes. The note attached to it said:

Dear Harry,

When we were in Romania, they had loads of dragon statues of different kinds and colours. This one made me think of you. It's a very rare breed called the Darklight dragon. Apparently, they are surrounded by a dark aura, but are actually affiliated with the light side of magic on the inside. I hope that you like it.

Love Ginny

"What is it then?" Ron asked impatiently.

"A dragon statue. She said that she went to a castle and they were selling some dragon statues. She found one that had my features. See?" Harry said, showing Ron the statue, but not the note.

"That looks just like a Darklight dragon! They're really rare. Some say that they're dark, while other say that they're light or even both. I can't see how that's possible though. They're surrounded by a dark aura and are feared throughout the Wizarding World. I can't see how something like that can be light," Ron explained.

"So, just because something is misunderstood, you label it as dark? That's a bit narrow-minded, Ron. It's called a DarkLIGHT dragon. That suggests that it's both light and dark. It wouldn't be called that if it was only dark. Maybe the dark aura is merely its external appearance and it actually has a good heart on the inside. Have you ever thought of that?" Harry questioned.

"Well, uh..." Ron stammered, not able to answer.

"Remember to make sure that you know all of the facts before you give an informed opinion, Ron. It could give you trouble in the future if someone disagrees with you and they have more evidence to back themselves up," Harry explained bluntly, not too happy with the redhead's narrow-minded opinions.

For the rest of the day, Ron was rather silent, which was a big relief for Harry as he was getting tired of listening to the redhead talk on and on about such trivial matters. That night, Harry decided to put his new cloak to use and went out to do some late-night research. Besides, this would make Dumbledore think that everything was going to plan and that Harry was a true Gryffindor at heart. He had no problem in taking advantage of that.

Harry was able to slip into the library no problem and quietly crept into the Restricted Section once he made sure that the coast was clear. He then used the Lumos spell and looked around until he found the section related to alchemy and search through the names until he got to names beginning with 'N'. Unfortunately, he found nothing written by a Nicolas Flamel, but he did find something that caught his eye about alchemical products. As soon as he opened it, however, it let out a piercing scream until he shut it and put it back on the shelf.

"Who's there?!" Filch called angrily.

~Get your cloak and run, Harry! Run!~ Sabrina cried.

Harry quickly extinguished the light from his spell and put his cloak back on just before Filch walked around the corner.

"I know you're in there! You can't hide! Show yourself!" Filch demanded.

Harry silently made his way out of the library and walked back towards the Grand Staircase to go to the common room, but he was stopped when he saw Snape pinning Quirrell against the wall in front of him.

"S-Severus! I-I-I d-don't-" Quirrell stuttered.

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell. Now tell me what you're trying to do," Snape threatened.

"W-what do y-you m-mean?" Quirrell asked unconvincingly.

"You know exactly what I mean. What-" Snape said before he stopped suddenly.

Snape then turned around to face the direction of Harry. Harry then put his hand over his mouth to stop his breathing from being heard too loudly and stepped away slightly. Fortunately, this was enough as Snape reached out, but couldn't reach far enough to grab the cloak off of Harry.

Snape then turned back to Quirrell and pulled him up higher by the collar.

"We'll have this discussion at another time, Quirrell, when you decide where your loyalty lies," Snape said ominously.

Filch then came around the corner and got an ear-splitting grin on his face when he saw Snape and Quirrell.

"Ah, professors! I believe that I caught someone in the Restricted Section. They just ran off, so that means that there's a student still out of bed!" Filch explained manically.

The three staff members rushed down the corridor in an attempt to catch anyone, but Harry was luckily away from them. Once he saw that they were out of sight, he entered the door next to him in an attempt to try and find a different way to the Grand Staircase. The room was large and open, with nothing inside apart from a single mirror in the middle of the room.

~That's strange. Hey, there's something written on the top of the frame~ Sabrina commented.

~"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". It's not in any language that I've heard of...What could it mean?~ Harry pondered.

~Maybe it's some kind of coded message~ Sabrina suggested.

~Maybe...Wait, of course! Erised is desire backwards! If I read it from the end backwards then...Yes! "I show not your face but your heart's desire". Interesting...~ Harry said.

Harry walked up to the mirror and looked into it to see his reflection. Just as he was about to turn around as nothing was happening, he then saw two figures appear next to him in the mirror. The first was a young man with jet black messy hair, hazel eyes and glasses. The second was a young woman with long dark red hair, emerald-green eyes and a bright smile on her face. It was them.

"Mum?" Harry asked, not truly believing his eyes.

Harry's mother smiled wider and nodded her head as he turned to look at who he assumed was his father.

"Dad?" Harry asked, receiving the same answer as his mother had given.

There they were. For the first time in so long, Harry could see his parents in front of him. But they were in this mirror. A mirror that showed what he desired most and nothing more. They weren't real. Seeing her son's tormented expression, the mirror Lily placed her hand on his shoulder and tried to comfort him as she smiled at him again. A solitary tear escaped from his eye as he wished, for the umpteenth time, that his parents weren't dead. A wish that had never come true.

Harry's parents then faded away, leaving him alone in the mirror, and in reality, once again. However, that wasn't to last as a new figure appeared in the mirror. A young girl, around his age held his hand and beamed at him. She had bright fiery red hair and chocolate-brown eyes that held nothing but admiration, devotion and love in them.

As Harry watched the young girl, he soon realised that the girl was Ginny. He guessed that he did desire for Ginny to come to Hogwarts soon so that he could talk to her properly, but why would it be as strong a desire as wanting to see his parents again? Just as he thought this, his mirror self and Ginny morphed into adults as a new figure appeared in her arms. It was a small bundle that, on further inspection, had a baby inside. The baby had bright fiery red hair and emerald-green eyes.

Harry stepped back in shock at the image and tripped up, falling onto his back. When he looked at the mirror again, the image had vanished. What had it meant? Why did he see himself and Ginny older? Why did she have a child?

~What does it all mean?!~ Harry hissed in exasperation.

"Hello Harry, my boy," came a voice behind Harry.

Harry turned around to see none other than Dumbledore standing behind him with a grandfatherly smile on his face. Harry had been caught, but the smile on Dumbledore's face seemed to suggest that this was all part of the plan, so Harry was willing to go along with this for now, hoping that he wasn't going to get into trouble and get detentions with the old man. He'd rather have detentions with Filch.

"I see that you, like so many others, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised. I take it that you have realised what it does," Dumbledore said almost questioningly.

Keeping up appearances, Harry looked at Dumbledore with fake confusion, prompting Dumbledore to smile slightly before continuing, making Harry sigh in relief as the old man fell for it.

"I'll give you a hint. The happiest man on Earth would look into the mirror and see himself exactly as he is," Dumbledore explained as he looked at Harry expectantly.

"So...it shows us what we want? Whatever we want?" Harry enquired, keeping the naive child mask on.

"Yes...and no. It shows us nothing more or else than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts. Now you, Harry, have never known your parents. Yet you see them standing beside you in the mirror," Dumbledore explained.

Harry stiffened for a second. How did Dumbledore know what he had seen in the mirror. He hadn't felt a mental probe that would suggest Legilimency was used. Did he also know about Ginny?

"However, after tonight, the mirror will be moved to a new home and I must ask you not to go looking for it again. Well, goodnight Harry," Dumbledore said ominously.

"Goodnight, sir. And thank you," Harry said politely.

"Be careful as you go back to your common room now. The other professors may not be as accepting as me," Dumbledore said with that grandfatherly smile of his before he walked out of the room.

~Sounds to me as though he actually does want you to find the mirror again~ Sabrina commented.

~Another test to make sure that I'm following the right path. And the 'accepting' part was just another bit to make me feel indebted to him~ Harry said with a frown.

~Interesting how he knew that you'd seen your parents in the mirror, isn't it?~ Sabrina enquired.

~Yes, but he didn't use Legilimency. I felt nothing and his speech seemed like it was planned. He just expected that I would see my parents as it would be normal for someone like me to want them back~ Harry explained.

~True, true. Besides, he didn't make any comment about your second vision now, did he?~ Sabrina questioned.

~No, he didn't. That's what sold me on the speech idea. If he had used Legilimency on me, then he would no doubt have mentioned Ginny, yet he didn't even give any suggestion about another vision. That's comforting at least~ Harry explained.

~Indeed. Still, I didn't think that you cared that much~ Sabrina teased.

~Cared that much about what?~ Harry asked in confusion.

~About Ginny~ Sabrina replied.

"Well, she's my friend. I guess she appeared because I want to see her and talk to her face-to-face. As for the other part, I don't get it. Do you have any ideas?~ Harry said.

~I'm afraid that you're going to have to figure this one out on your own, my Harry~ Sabrina answered.

~So you do know! Tell me already!~ Harry demanded.

~No! There are some things in life that you need to learn by yourself. Your own desires are one of them, my Harry. I cannot tell you what lies in your heart when you don't even know yourself~ Sabrina responded.

~Fine! I'll ask Ginny then. She'll tell me if she knows~ Harry said, irritated at getting no answers.

~You can try, but she'll say the same thing as me. Then again, maybe she'll make you see sense in it~ Sabrina retorted.

Harry made his way back to the common room without running into anymore professors and thankfully didn't wake any of the boys up. He then got his parchment out and wrote a letter to Ginny, detailing his experience with the Mirror of Erised and what Dumbledore had said. He then woke Hedwig up and, after a protest from her, sent her off to deliver the letter to Ginny.

Harry then got ready for bed and went to sleep, hoping for some answers to this burning question; why would Ginny, grown up with a child be his heart's desire?