Chapter 25: Deepest Desires

Albus and Ginny were busy playing a game of wizard chess against two of Albus's Hufflepuff classmates, Violet Waters and Chorlton Zapper, when Harry came into the Hufflepuff common room, led by Victoire, who had been put in charge of letting the visitors in. Ginny could tell something was wrong, and she hoped that James wasn't hurt.

"Where's James? Isn't he with you?" she asked, barely noticing it as Violet used the chance to take her Queen.

"He ran off looking for the Mirror of Erised," Harry informed her, "Scorpius and Galaxy followed him too."

"I think I've seen that mirror before. I saw myself riding a dragon when I looked in it," Chorlton spoke up.

"Where did you see it at?" Ginny asked him. She had heard about the amazing mirror, but never got to try it out for herself since it had been hidden away from the students while she was at Hogwarts.

"I think it was near the Potions classroom, but it's not in a room that's used as a classroom. I think it's in a storage area," Chorlton said, remembering where he had found it. It had been on the way to Potions class, and he had been distracted by the sight of himself riding a dragon in a mirror.

"I remember where the Potions room is, if that hasn't changed," Harry said, and he, Ginny and Albus went off to find James. Sure enough, they found the room where the mirror was. Scorpius was staring into it, looking very confused. He turned around, saw Albus, and yelped in shock.

"Why are you in the mirror? When I look at myself in this mirror, I turn into you," he stated.

"Are you sure you're seeing my little brother in there? Look for a scar," James suggested. Scorpius turned back to the strange mirror and looked closer. Indeed, James was right-his mirror self had a lightning bolt scar on his head!

"I see it! So this mirror shows me being Harry Potter?" Scorpius asked, "I always wanted to be able to look in the mirror and see..." Scorpius trailed off, tears of happiness forming in his eyes. It was the first time that he ever remembered actually liking what he saw in the mirror, instead of being constantly reminded that he looked like a little clone of his father. "Does this mirror show you what you want to see? Does it read your mind?" he asked Harry, still amazed at what was happening.

"Maybe it's telling you that you're too obsessed with Dad," James teased.

"Can I look in it too?" Galaxy blurted out, a little annoyed that Scorpius had been hogging the mirror. Scorpius stepped aside and Galaxy nearly shoved him away to get a better look at herself. "I'm an explorer! I'm exploring in a cave!" she squealed happily. Albus watched them shyly, wondering what he would see in that mirror if he was to look in it. He wasn't sure what it would be, he knew he loved being friends with Bunny and Hagrid. Maybe he would see them in the mirror.

"What does that mirror show, Dad? Is Scorpius right about it reading your mind?" Albus asked Harry quietly while Galaxy was having her turn.

"Sort of. Dumbledore told me that it shows your greatest and deepest desires. When I was your age, it showed me my parents and their relatives and ancestors," Harry explained.

"Come on, Al, look in the mirror too!" James called.

"Do you know what the mirror is showing us? Does it show us things that would make us happy?" Galaxy added.

"Yes. Dad told me that the mirror shows us the things we desire the most," Albus answered nervously. Even as James pulled him towards the mirror, Albus found he was afraid of it. How did the mirror know what people's greatest desires were? Was it like the Sorting Hat? What if it put a curse on him or showed him something frightening? What if it could show a person's fears as well? Albus stared, finally in front of the Mirror of Erised, and he relaxed. It wasn't frightening at all. In the mirror, he was sitting at a desk, writing something on a scroll of parchment. Surrounding him were pictures of his family, Hagrid and Bunny. Albus then noticed the award certificate next to the pictures. It read "Best fantasy author of the year" and had his name on it. Albus blushed when he noticed that, hoping that James couldn't see it. He had tried to write his own stories a few times, but he was too afraid of someone else seeing them and so they always had ended up in the trash.

"I'm sure I can make what I saw come true," James bragged.

"I don't think mine would be possible," Scorpius sighed sadly, "And it wouldn't change things, even if I could make myself look different. It wouldn't change my name or who I'm related to."

"Let's go back to Gryffindor Tower and play a game, Scorpy. I thought you would cheer up if we followed James," Galaxy said, "I like you a lot, but I wish you didn't hate yourself so much. It's not your fault who your father is or that you look like him."

"I wish I could believe you," Scorpius sniffled, beginning to cry again, "But those scary dreams seem so real and I'm reminded of them every time I look into a mirror or see a picture of myself."

"Like Galaxy said, we should go play a game so you can stop thinking about it so much," James interrupted, "Maybe then you'll start thinking about how you live in Gryffindor Tower which is very different from your father."

"That's exactly where you need to go too, James Sirius. In case you've forgotten, you were supposed to apologize to your cousin Fred," Harry pointed out sternly.

"Come on, Scorp," James sighed, annoyed that Harry had remembered that, "I need to get that done so we can play." Scorpius and Galaxy followed him out of the room. Harry was about to leave too, but then he looked at the Mirror of Erised and became curious. What would it show now? Would he still see his parents in the mirror? He stepped up to it. They were still there, his parents, the original James and Lily Potter, smiling at him. But now Ginny and his children were in the mirror with him. I do wish my parents could have met their grandchildren, he thought wistfully, James is so much like his namesakes. With that thought, he left the room to find James Sirius himself.

After Memorial Day, there was only a month until final exams, and most of the classes were geared towards review and for the 5th years, discussion of what was likely to be on the OWL exams. It didn't seem long before it was June, which meant that it was finally time for the exams. Bunny sat in the common room late on Sunday night, reading her Potions book. She liked Professor Sprite and thought she was sweet, but Potions was the subject Bunny had the most trouble with. Not only did she find some of the more delicate instruments awkward to use, given her abnormally large size, but she also found it difficult to remember the more complicated directions. Though Rose, who was usually her partner, often helped her, as Potions was probably Rose's best subject, Bunny still struggled with it.

"I wish Severus Snape was still the Potions teacher." Bunny was startled at hearing someone speak in the quiet room. Melissa was standing near her, looking at the book Bunny was reading.

"It does sound like he was very good at it; I heard he made his own improvements to some of the formulas. I like Professor Sprite, though, because she's so patient with me," Bunny admitted.

"I wouldn't even care if all Sevvie-poo did was scold me, I would still love to have him as a teacher," Melissa sighed romantically. Bunny didn't think she'd like a teacher who just scolded her all the time, and Snape sounded rather scary from what she knew about him. But if that's what Melissa liked, then it wasn't Bunny's position to tell her not to gush about the former Potions Master. There were suddenly more sounds as a hooded figure crept out of the boys' dorm. The mysterious person yelped in surprise upon seeing Bunny and Melissa were awake and his hood fell down, revealing that it was Chorlton.

"Aww, I thought you were Rocky," Melissa pouted, as she found the young vampire almost as interesting as her "Sevvie-poo." "Are you doing late-night studying like Bunny too?"

"No, I was told that Hagrid had some dragons that he was going to use in the exams, and that he was going to show them to me if I snuck out after dark," Chorlton answered innocently.

"Why would Professor Hagrid want you to break the rules? Who told you that?" Melissa asked, suspicious. She had seen David Longbottom talking to Chorlton earlier that day, and she suspected it was probably another of his tricks.

"David Longbottom. His father is the Herbology Professor, so I assumed he knew Hagrid wanted to see me. He told me Professor Longbottom would be there too and I could feed the dragons a special plant," Chorlton responded, sounding a little hurt that Melissa was being so suspicious of him.

"You do know that David Longbottom is one of the biggest troublemakers in our year? He's the reason Gryffindor has so few points right now, he keeps losing them," Melissa said bluntly, raising an eyebrow at Chorlton's naivety. Bunny found she was almost impressed with David in a weird way. One person singlehandedly losing their house so many points wasn't something that normally happened. She decided to go to bed finally, leaving Chorlton and Melissa to talk. Tomorrow was the start of an important week, and she would need to be alert for her exams.