Chapter 25: A Whole World and a Pair of New Socks
Sunday began with Severus hopelessly oversleeping. After all the troubles of the day before, he managed to forget about the alarm-сlock charm. As a result, he woke up incredibly late: at almost eleven. Cursing stupid Tinky (it did not occur to her to wake him up), he went searching for his charges even without any breakfast. Strangely enough, the children were in the library doing their homework as was to be expected. Satisfied that the boys were not planning any mischief, Severus left without revealing himself.
Now he was facing a far more unpleasant task: telling the headmaster who had been absent from school on some Ministry business yesterday about the incident on the Quidditch field and the depressing results of the investigation. Severus honestly stated all his ideas and suspicions: the situation was too dangerous to get side-tracked by some political games.
"You know, you might be right," Dumbledore said thoughtfully when the Potions master finished his story. "I felt his presence too, a while back."
"And you did not tell me?" Severus flared up. "Are you out of your mind?" He regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. Despite his insufferable nature, the headmaster always had a reason for his actions and did not deserve such rudeness… "I apologize. I should not have said that."
"Do not worry, my boy," The headmaster smiled slightly. "Firstly, your indignation is quite understandable. Secondly, no one really knows if I am out of my mind..."
"…or inside someone else's," Severus muttered.
Dumbledore laughed.
"You have no idea how much you delight me, Severus. Unlike," he became serious again, "the situation at hand. I did not tell you about my suspicions for one reason only: I did not want to alarm you more than necessary. You have enough troubles on your hands, and I was not sure about the source of my feelings. More precisely, if you pardon me, I assumed that I could feel his increasing pressure upon you," he nodded at Severus' left arm. "It has increased, has it not?"
"A little," the Potions master acknowledged, "but not that much. The Mark is barely visible, and only if you look very closely. Then again, the resistance I felt during the match was not from the inside. Somewhere close, but not from the inside."
"Close? From the teachers' stands, would you say?" the headmaster frowned and stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Was it really Quirinus? I can hardly believe it."
Severus snorted.
"Minerva thinks he is a worthless twit. And, frankly speaking, I agree with her. I cannot stand him as you know full well, but I have difficulty believing that he is capable of doing such magic as we saw yesterday."
Dumbledore took off his glasses and started cleaning them, staring at Severus; his gaze became even more tenacious and intent if that were possible.
"You see, Quirinus is a little… simpleminded. But even simpleminded people have ambitions. And Tom can be very persuasive, as you are well aware. Far more astute people have been trapped in his net."
Severus winced.
"I know that better than anyone. I have nothing to say to it. Another thing disturbs me: I have never felt his presence near Quirrell before. After all, we regularly meet in the Great Hall and during staff meetings. I did not eat in the Great Hall yesterday evening and this morning, though…"
"And this means that we need to wait and watch. Will you tell Lucius?"
"Do I have a choice?" Severus asked gloomily. "Of course, I will. As soon as I have a spare moment..."
As soon as he finished, they heard wings flapping, and an eagle owl with a small parcel tied to its leg flew into the open window.
Silently cursing Lucius and his unfortunate timing, the Potions master unfolded and read the letter under Dumbledore's curious scrutiny.
Viens si ça te convient. Si ça ne te convient pas, viens quand même.
L.
"It looks like," he said sourly, "Lucius thinks that I have a spare minute right now."
"Of course," the headmaster nodded. "Go."
"Thank you." Severus folded the letter and put it into his pocket. "I will tell the boys to be careful and will ask de Combrai to look after them in the dungeons…"
"And I will take care of the rest. Do not worry."
X X X
To Harry's immense displeasure, Draco let Millie, Pansy and Blaise into the secret as soon as Nott and his cronies left. As least into that part of the secret that concerned Quirrell. Everyone immediately agreed that Harry should never be left alone anymore.
"We all should guard him in turns," Millie announced. "We can't all go everywhere together all the time. And it would be too obvious. However, if there were only two of us with Harry at any moment... By the way, should we tell anyone else? There are four of us; Granger and Longbottom already know too, it makes three pairs."
"That's quite enough," Harry said hastily. "There is no need to alarm the whole castle."
"Slytherins are already beginning to talk," Blaise said solemnly. "While you were gone this morning, we've heard a lot of things. Some people are accusing the Gryffs' team, of course, as your injury benefitted them most. The redheaded twins tried very much to save you, though. Flint was wondering about it the whole morning until Pucey remembered that you had been seen in their company."
"Yes, we talked with them a couple of times," Harry admitted guardedly. "They are nice guys. What else is being said?"
"That someone of the senior Ravens must be responsible because no one else has the brains for it; that it was an outsider because there could be no one else; that it was you because you only seek attention," Blaise listed obediently. "The last version was the favourite among Nott and his gorillas; they shouted about it for a long time until Olivia threatened them with a detention. Then they shut up."
"Is that all?" Draco inquired.
"No," Blaise started whispering. "Some of the seniors said that You Know Who is back."
"Voldemort?" Harry was surprised.
Both girls winced and shivered.
"You can't say his name!" Millie flared in a whisper.
"Dad always says it, and nothing happens," Harry countered quietly. "Which means it's not dangerous."
"I'm still scared," Pansy admitted.
"Alright," Harry shrugged. "Whatever you say. Let him be the One with the Most Stupid Name in the World."
Everyone laughed — even if awkwardly and a bit nervously.
"What about him?" Draco prodded.
"Nothing special," Blaise replied. "I think they were really scared. When they noticed me around they changed the subject."
"So it's only rumours," Harry concluded. "There is nothing of interest."
At this moment Nott, Crabbe and Goyle returned to the boys' dormitory. When they appeared, everyone stood up and went to the Common Room, and there was no opportunity to discuss their secret, so they changed the subject.
Only late at night and already in bed, Harry realized that, firstly, they did not decide what to tell Severus and, secondly, Draco did not mention the Philosopher's Stone at all.
X X X
"Do you realize what you are doing?" Severus asked, rushing into Lucius' study. "Do you know what I was doing when Sherlock delivered that note?"
"You were talking to Dumbledore," Lucius answered impassively. "When anything happens to you or to me, you always talk to Dumbledore. I got used to it. So what happened at the Quidditch field?"
"How do you know?"
"It is elementary, my friend. You did not object, ergo, you did talk to the headmaster. You had no time to find out what happened to me which means something happened to you. Since the first game of the season was yesterday, it is very probable that something occurred there. Am I right?"
"Yes, you are," Severus waved his hand and sat down. "But I am afraid that is not a joking matter. Someone attempted to kill Harry yesterday. By throwing him off his broom, to be exact."
Lucius' calmness evaporated immediately.
"What Harry was doing on a broom during a game, may I ask?"
Severus grimly told the whole story starting with Higgs' broken leg, the headmaster's interference and the crazy broom.
"May I kill Dumbledore, please?" Lucius asked wearily when Severus was done.
"I'd rather you kill Quirrell. It will solve most of our problems. I am sure Cissy will be allowed to visit you once in a while. Every third Sunday, for example."
"Ridiculous."
"You are quite right. I have no idea what to do. For now, I asked the Baron to look after the boys, but it is only a temporary measure. And it is not even the worst part of it. Do you know whose presence I felt when I tried a counter-curse?"
Lucius' face darkened even more.
"I can guess. Was he close?"
"Very."
"This is bad. We must activate the wards as soon as possible. Can you take the boys home earlier?"
"I think we can hold till Christmas. He is weak now as far as I can tell. And I will not let Quirrell out of my sight."
"Good. What about that stone of yours?"
Severus snorted.
"Of mine... Ha! It looks quiet. The children have not approached it again. Luckily, Harry is very sensible for his age. They have no time to wander around the castle: Quidditch practices take up a lot of time. There was a reason I agreed to it, you know…"
"Yes," Lucius replied sourly. "I noticed."
"You are welcome to take my place," Severus snapped. "I think Dumbledore will agree just to see the results."
"Alright, alright, do not get riled up."
"By the way, was there a reason for you to invite me?"
Lucius smirked and cheered up a little.
"Oh, I have a hectic social life these days. I had a visitor from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, with a very interesting proposal."
"Which, of course, you declined."
"Which, of course, I accepted," Lucius said with a smirk. "However, this agreement has consequences which you will have to take care of."
Severus sighed.
"I knew it."
X X X
A week after the infamous "war counsel" Harry was about to climb up the wall. His friends took the threat of an attack very seriously. Harry did not get to spend a single minute outside the Slytherin Common Room alone. To his horror, either Draco or Blaise followed him even to the toilet.
When Harry tried to object, Draco said, "The toilets in this school have a bad reputation. There are trolls there and Merlin knows what else. You don't want to end up in Granger's place alone, do you?"
Harry did not. Although he wanted even less to look like an idiot in his schoolmates' eyes. Sadly, even dim-witted Crabbe and Goyle started to take notice of all these manoeuvers, not to mention Nott.
"Guard for His Highness!" he shouted one morning when Harry was about to step out of the Common Room into the corridor.
Giggles were heard all over the room, of course. Harry shrugged and pretended he had not noticed, but his hands just itched to hit Nott. Sometime later, someone drew a huge frog with a Snitch in its mouth on the blackboard in the Transfigurations classroom. As McGonagall did not get an admission, she took a point off each House so no one could feel offended.
Whispers spread out of Slytherin too. Ron Weasley joined the mockers with evident pleasure, as well as some people from other Houses. Although no one of their crowd, even those not privy to the secret, laughed.
"Some people's intellect leaves much to be desired," Padma once said haughtily to her sister, as they both examined Ron from head to toe. The girls looked like they noticed a slug in a strawberry bush.
Sadly, it seemed like the redhead did not know what 'intellect' was.
Anyway, all this constant supervision and mockery drove Harry into quiet rage. Finally, when during an Astronomy lesson under the cover of darkness someone pinned a note to him that said "The Coward Who Lived", Harry had enough.
"Thank you very much," he grumbled, shoved the paper into Draco's hand and ran down the stairs before anyone could blink. After reaching the dungeons, he deliberately turned the wrong way, dove into one of the unused classrooms full of rubbish, crawled under a broken desk and hid in a pile of some dusty rags — old window or canopy curtains, or something like that. Just as he anticipated, soon there were voices in the corridors outside. His alarmed friends were searching for him, but it did not occur to anyone to look in this cluttered room. Several minutes later everything went quiet. Everyone must have gone to de Combrai's apartment. The Baron would instantly find him if they asked for the ghost's help, but until then Harry had a chance to sit here alone and to rub it in, at least for five minutes.
It seemed like five, then fifteen minutes passed, but no one came. Dim light poured from the false window, and in the twilight he could barely see the shape of things around him. In the far corner, some glassy rectangular surface gleamed.
Harry started feeling like a fool. It was time to get up, dust himself off and go to make peace. If I fall asleep here, he thought drowsily, they will alarm the whole castle, and Severus will definitely kill me.
"Harry?" said a voice from the door. "Are you in there?"
"Yeah," he grumbled, relieved and ashamed at the same time.
Draco silently slipped into the room, came closer and sat beside him.
"Don't be angry," he begged. "I think we really overdid it."
"Don't be angry too," Harry replied. "I shouldn't have reacted like that."
"Mmm."
They sat in silence for a while.
"They must be searching for us," Harry said tentatively.
"Nah. I told them I knew where you were and that they should just go to sleep. They think you're at de Combrai's."
"How did you guess that I was not there?"
Draco snorted quietly.
"It's easy. I would have turned the other way, too. Let's go, shall we?"
The boys stood up and dusted themselves off, as the rags they sat on were really dirty. Harry sneezed loudly and quickly put a hand over his mouth.
"There's no one here. Only the Baron is somewhere around, but he won't give us away. Hey, what is that?"
Harry turned. Draco was pointing at that shiny surface in the far corner.
"I think it's a mirror."
"What is it doing here? Let's go and look."
Harry nodded, and they started carefully making their way through the piles of broken desks and dirty scratched chairs. Finally, they ended up in the corner near the window.
There was indeed a huge mirror in a gilded frame. Its luxuriously carved top almost touched the ceiling; the legs looked like griffon's paws.
The mirror did not reflect them. Instead of them, there were some trees bending under a gale, probably some forest. Harry gazed deeper and realized that he knew the place; it was not far from the Malfoy manor on the road to the Parkinsons'. As soon as he understood what he was seeing, the image changed. There was the manor's park, then the house itself. The windows glowed bright, warm and comforting, and Harry suppressed a sigh. He had not realised he missed home so much.
"This is great," he said quietly.
Draco did not answer. Harry turned and saw that something was wrong with his brother. Draco was looking into the mirror as if bewitched, the expression on his pale face stupefied and horrified.
"Draco?"
Only then did Harry suspect that they were seeing different things. At first, he thought that the mirror showed the viewer familiar faces and places as such magical objects were very common. But why was Draco so scared then?
"Hey," he shook Draco's shoulder.
His brother gained his senses, shuddered and jumped away from the mirror.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
Draco only shook his head.
"No… This can't be," he managed at last. "This is a nightmare. An illusion..."
"What did you see there?"
"It doesn't matter," Draco shook his head again and stepped away. "Let's go. I don't like it. It must be some Dark artefact."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "It's strange. It didn't show me anything out of ordinary." He sighed with regret.
"What did you see?" Draco inquired suddenly without taking his eyes off the mirror.
"What? I saw home," Harry smiled.
"Whose home?"
"What do you mean, 'whose home'? Ours, of course, who else's? It's so much time till Christmas…" He sighed again.
Draco frowned warily.
"I don't understand," he muttered, glancing in the mirror. "Wait, what is this?" He pointed to the upper end of it.
Harry looked up and realized that the pattern on the frame was not just random curves, but letters.
"E, R, I," he tried to decipher it. "Then S… or is it an E? I can't see anything. It's pitch dark in here. Well, almost."
"Yes, the frame is not glowing," Draco answered. "We are lucky there is a window. In the dark we could have broken our legs in all this rubbish."
"If the window was not there we wouldn't have seen anything and left," Harry countered. "Nothing can be done, we will return next time with a candle or a torch."
"Why?"
"I'm curious," Harry shrugged. "I want to know what's written up there."
"I'm not sure I do," Draco grumbled.
"What did you see there?"
"It doesn't matter. Don't ask, eh?" He sounded frightened again. "Alright, I will come here with you again, just don't ask questions."
Now Harry was really worried. Insisting was pointless, they would only quarrel now. The main thing was that Draco agreed. Maybe if they read the inscription, everything will become clearer.
"Alright," he conceded. "Let's go before Severus starts searching for us."
X X X
On Friday night when everyone was asleep, Draco and Harry left the dormitories under the Invisibility Cloak and crept back to the room with the mirror. Nothing changed there: piles of old desks, broken chairs and other rubbish were still intact.
They closed the door very carefully so no light escaped out (in case Severus had trouble sleeping or Filch walked by), lit up a candle and edged toward the corner with the mirror.
It did not change a bit, it was still huge, solemn and a little dusty.
Harry looked into it, expecting to see a forest or Malfoy manor, but this time there was a bright light, and he saw…
"Mum?" The word just slipped out of his mouth.
"What?" Draco asked warily over his shoulder.
"Mum is there," Harry replied happily, still gazing into the mirror. "Look, she's decorating the tree!"
In the mirror, Narcissa Malfoy, dressed in comfortable dark blue robes, was walking around a huge Christmas tree, hanging up fairy lights with her wand. Everything was so familiar, so real, that Harry's breath caught in his throat.
"Harry," Draco whispered hoarsely, "it's a whole month till Christmas. Why would Mum be decorating now and without us?"
The illusion fell apart like a house of cards. It seemed that even the picture in the frame dimmed and moved away, although Harry knew that nothing changed.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, probably ... We need to read the inscription."
"Maybe we should leave."
Harry stubbornly shook his head.
"No. I want to understand. Pass me the candle."
Draco complied, Harry put out his hand as high as possible to see the top of the mirror.
"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," he read slowly. "It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe it's a different language," Draco proposed after some hesitation.
"Only if it's a Goblin one. Doesn't sound like anything I know. It's certainly not Latin, Greek or Gaelic..."
"What about Arabic?"
"Why is this written with Latin letters then?"
"You have a point. Wait," Draco livened up and started searching his pockets. "Found it!"
Looking sideways, Harry saw him holding a piece of parchment and a quill.
"What do you need that for?"
"You'll see," Draco answered mysteriously, flattening the parchment on the nearest desk and bending over it. "Read the inscription again. Slowly."
"Erised... stra... ehru..."
Draco scribbled away. He finished, straightened and stepped to the mirror holding the parchment in his hands. The glass surface did not reflect anything.
Draco cursed under his breath.
"Alright, give me some light," he asked.
Harry obeyed, already guessing what that was about.
As he expected, Draco bent down and started writing the inscription backwards.
"I... show... not..."
"I show not your face but your heart's desire," Harry read at last looking over his brother's shoulder.
Draco stared at the parchment as though it was poisonous like a scorpion.
"It can't be," he muttered.
Harry looked at the parchment carefully, then turned to the mirror, brought the light closer and checked it.
"No," he said, "everything is correct."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Draco grumbled something distinctly unpleasant.
"What's wrong with you?" Harry was getting really worried.
"Nothing," Draco snapped, but relaxed right away, "Sorry. I saw some stupid things. Just forget it, all right? It's not important. Please."
"Alright." Harry was at a loss. Draco's insistent pleas did not correlate with the idea that it was not important. Harry knew all too well, however, that prying would do no good.
X X X
Draco has never in his life felt so alone and so miserable. The shameful and disgusting secret that he could not share with anyone troubled him greatly. Harry and he often hid (or tried to hide) their pranks and mischief — or sometimes, as in case with the Ministry ball, something more serious — from their parents and godfather. But never before did Draco have secrets from his brother.
The image from the mirror haunted his dreams. The more time passed, the more those dreams looked like nightmares. A week later, he just could not take it anymore. He waited for Harry to fall asleep, took the Invisibility Cloak and crept out of the Slytherin dormitories. He reached the room with the mirror, stepped closer and stared into the dusty surface.
Unfortunately, his hopes were for naught: the enchanted mirror showed him the same picture as before.
Draco came back two nights later. Then again. And again.
Draco clearly saw that Harry suspected something and was getting more and more worried, but he could not make himself share his fears or stop visiting the wretched mirror.
"Stupid glass," he whispered on the eighth night seeing the same image there as before.
"Can I help you, Mr. Malfoy?" a quiet voice came from behind his back.
Draco turned around, and his heart sank.
Albus Dumbledore was sitting on a desk near the far wall. Obviously, Draco was so distraught when he came here that he did not even notice another man in the room.
"I am sorry, I didn't see you, Headmaster," he managed, straitening and pulling off his magical cloak. It could not get any worse than this. If you got caught, at least behave yourself.
"Strange how near-sighted being invisible can make you, don't you think?" Dumbledore smiled gently.
Draco gulped.
"Yes, sir."
"Do not be afraid, Mr. Malfoy. Sit down, please. I will not tell anyone that I saw you here if you promise not to come back. I will move the Mirror of Erised to another place and will ask you not to look for it. I think you have already realized that it can be dangerous."
Draco nodded silently and sat on a desk nearby.
"Good. Now," the old wizard continued as gently and amiably as before, "can I help you? Maybe you want to ask me a question."
Draco clearly saw Dumbledore's face in the light of the moon that was almost full, and there was no condescension or pity in his eyes, only understanding. So Draco made up his mind.
"Can this mirror lie?" he asked hoarsely.
"There are many definitions of a lie." For a moment, the headmaster's smile became sly. "Do you know what this mirror shows?"
"Desires," Draco forced out in a whisper. "The most secret desires."
"True," Dumbledore agreed. "The most secret desires of our heart. However, it holds no knowledge or truth at the same time. The most important thing is not what we want, but what we are willing to do to get it. Or not willing, in some cases."
"So," Draco felt his hopes rising, "everything it shows doesn't mean anything?"
"Why? It means something." The headmaster was not smiling now. "For example, and please correct me if I am wrong, but something that you saw in there scared you."
Draco straightened proudly, but did not have a chance to reply, because Dumbledore elaborated, "I am sorry for my unfortunate wording. Not scared, maybe, but alarmed or troubled you. Trust me, I am quite familiar with the feeling myself."
"Are you really? So it's normal?"
Dumbledore smiled again — and this time his smile was a little sad.
"I hope so," he said in a strange voice. "At least it is often so. If I were you, Mr. Malfoy, I would not worry much. Whatever you saw, I do not think it will harm you or anyone else."
"Why?" Draco tensed again. "How do you know that?"
"I know this, because you did not like what you saw, my dear boy. It means you are capable of not following your desires blindly. Whatever they are."
Draco blushed. He realized that he had received a very adult compliment, but did not know if he was pleased to hear such things from a man who was not a friend of the family. Well, he was not an enemy either...
"Thank you," he said, not wanting to be impolite. "May I... ask another question?"
"Of course."
"What do you see in the mirror? If it is not a secret..." Right after uttering the words, Draco realized that he had trapped himself. Now the headmaster had the right to ask the same question. I'll think of something, he thought.
Dumbledore fell silent, staring at him.
"I see myself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks," he said finally.
Now Draco was completely at a loss.
"You see," the old wizard continued calmly, "one can never have enough socks. Each Christmas I hope to get a pair, but people will insist on giving me books."
"I see," Draco commented, just to say something.
"Now," the headmaster jumped off the desk easily, "I think it is time for you to return to the dormitory. It is very late. Good night."
"Good night."
The headmaster nodded and left. Draco clumsily put on the Invisibility Cloak and yawned. For the first time in a long while, he was sleepy.
He left the room with the mirror without looking back.
X X X
In the darkness of the dormitory, Harry stared into space where the bed curtain should be.
Draco sneaked out again in the middle of the night. And he had taken the Invisibility Cloak.
And Harry had a suspicion where to.
It was not clear what to do about it. He had already tried asking, and he did not want to nag. Should he ask Severus for an advice? That would mean not only admitting to finding the mirror, in the first place, but giving Draco in, a least partly. Even if he tried beating around the bush... No, that would not do. And he certainly could not follow his brother everywhere. Nott had just quit with his stupid jokes.
The door opened, and then closed. There were footsteps, the rustle of bed curtains...
"Draco?" Harry called out.
Everything went quiet, and then the curtain moved, Draco crawled on his bed and sat close.
"Did I wake you?" he whispered.
"No," Harry answered honestly. "I was not asleep. You... Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Draco answered in a while. "I..." He flopped on the bed, and now both of them were lying on their back side by side. "I went to the mirror, you know."
"Yes, I know."
"I wanted so much to see something different there," Draco whispered, agitated. "I... I was very scared."
"I know," Harry repeated. "I guessed. Did you?"
"No. But today I saw... I talked to Dumbledore ... the real one, not from the mirror. He waited for me there."
Alarmed, Harry rose upon his elbow.
"What happened? Are you in trouble?"
"No, he was not angry. He said it happened sometimes. The most important part is what I decide to do. He promised not to tell anyone if I gave my word not to return there."
"Will you keep it then?"
"Do you think me mad? I'm sick of that mirror. I have nightmares of this thing!"
They lay in silence for a while.
"Draco," Harry said carefully, "can you tell me what you saw?"
"Yes," he replied after a pause. "I can now. I saw that... I saw myself finding the Philosopher's Stone."
"And?"
"And I was alone. All alone in the whole world ... There was only that thing and I."
"Do you really want that?"
"Of course not! But..."
"Yes?"
"I really want to find it."
Even in the darkness, Harry saw Draco shutting his eyes.
"Listen... Let's find it."
"What?!" Draco jumped up. He had a good chance of hitting Harry's nose if Harry did not duck. Now they were sitting face to face.
"I'm telling you, let's find it. Together."
"Why?"
"Because. I'm curious to see it. We can turn some stuff into gold for a lark. The girls will like it. Well, what do you think?"
Draco smiled very slowly.
"Harry, you're a genius."
FOOTNOTES:
Viens si ça te convient. Si ça ne te convient pas, viens quand même (Fr.) — Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient come all the same.