Author's Note: I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling.
Thanks for all of your continuous support on the story, it means a lot to me.
The remainder of the holidays were spent with Hagrid and Fang, his dog. Zoe and Hermione had gone alone to Hagrids on the night of January the 2nd because Harry had to go to the library to find out more about Mr Flamel. The school was set to start again in five days, so the students would arrive in four. This was a prime opportunity to research the first two obstacles set for the trapdoor. The three-headed dog and the door on the third floor. Harry had gone to look up some locking spells and some disillusionment charms to the door that they could use to stop Quirrell from noticing the door to take the item. Harry had also spent a lot longer in the library under the invisibility cloak than he should have; it was now half-past 10 at night. When Harry eventually got his nose out of the book on 3rd-year charms, he noticed that the room was empty, dark and quiet.
After putting the books back, he was about to head to the dormitories but he heard Filch on the prowl for students out of bed, even during the holidays. Harry's wand was still lit so he extinguished the light at the tip of his wand and covered himself with the invisibility cloak, once again. He narrowly avoided the deranged caretaker and slipped past him, whilst accidentally brushing the mangy cat Mrs Norris on the way out. 'Merlin, I wish I could properly kick that cat' he thought as he winded through the hallways of Hogwarts again. The two night-time prowlers and Harry were steadily running after each other. Harry ran from Mrs Norris who could smell him and Filch followed suit after the feline.
Luckily, Harry found a room off the side of the 2nd floor and entered, leaving the cat stranded and Filch clueless as to his location. The room looked to be a disused classroom and only contained one item. A long, full-body mirror stood in the middle of the room and sported a gold frame on two sturdy legs. An inscription at the top read: 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'. The strange words were clearly either back to front, broken apart or both together. Being the intelligent boy he was, he tested out his theories. The first two didn't provide anything, but when put together, the words read: 'I show not your face but your heart's desire'. Harry honestly pondered on the subject of his deepest desires, the usual stuff came up first, fame, glory, power, revenge. Suddenly it occurred to the boy that he wanted none of that. He was content.
He took some steps gingerly towards the mirror and was captured by its beauty. Yet before he could truly see what his heart's desire was, a voice called out to Harry from the back of the room. The Gryffindor turned around rapidly and was met with the face of the Headmaster, Dumbledore. "Harry. Do you know what this is?" Harry was honestly surprised that Dumbledore would keep more stuff behind easily unlockable doors but answered anyway. "It's a mirror that shows nothing more or nothing less than one's deepest, darkest of desires. It really is a fascinating artefact, really." Harry could sense that he was trying Dumbledore's patience and Dumbledore could see that Harry wanted to see what his desire was. The old wizard was the only one who knew and he intended to keep it that way.
"That is entirely correct, my dear boy, but I must advise that you do not search for this again. It will be moved come the morning. Harry, go back to bed and do not meddle with things you don't understand anymore. It will not end well for you. Many men and women have wasted away, by merely looking at what they may never attain. This is not the path that I want for you. If you saw anything in the mirror, it will not become the truth, it is a vision simply put and nothing else." Harry bade the old coot a goodnight, wondering if he could read minds like Harry knew Snape could. The Professor made sure that Harry had gone before looking into the mirror himself. He saw only the only he was aiming to do within the short time he had left.
The next morning, Harry had told his sister and Hermione what had happened after the library incident and Hermione asked what he had seen in the mirror. He replied with the truth, even if a disappointing one "I saw only a glimpse of a woman, she had brown hair and that is all I saw. It was like Dumbledore didn't want to let me see my desires. I don't even know who it was. At breakfast, Harry caught the Headmasters' eye and it twinkled with success. Harry didn't have to hear it, to know what it meant, he wasn't going to find the mirror or see his deepest desire. Yet he would still try. Later that night, Harry again crept out of bed, to find Hermione sitting on the sofa in the common room. She greeted him with a "Good evening Harry, what are you doing up." It wasn't a question as Hermione already knew the answer. He wanted to look for and in the mirror.
"Harry, you can't. Even if Dumbledore wasn't messing around with you, he is still correct. You could waste so much time in front of it if you find it and what will you do then? You can't spend the rest of your life looking for a mystery woman if she even exists among the millions of brown-haired women in the world." Due to the lecture from Hermione, he very reluctantly went back up to bed. His dreams were haunted by visions of people with brown hair and women who it could belong to. Then a thought popped into his head. The very person he had just spoken to had brown hair. Hermione could have been the mystery person.
More Harmony development here. Yes, those who have watched the movies and more importantly, read the books know exactly where the Mirror of Erised is. Those who haven't, sorry. Wait for a later chapter to find that out.