Hi everyone! My first try at a Harry Potter fic! Be sure to tell me how it is, o.k? Thanks!
(FYI: (for your information) This is a ?/? fic. No, I won't tell!) Also, tell me if you want a sequel, o.k? Review please! Oh yeah, *.................* means someone's thinking!

A Night Of Reflections
Part 1

The girl slipped quietly slong the hall. *Ahh...* she thought when she saw the solitary suit of armor standing at the corner of the wall. *There it is.*

She remained silent, no one must know she was here. *Where was that door again? Oh yes, I remember now.*

Her slippered feet glided silently along the floor, Harry's invisibility cloak rested on her shoulders. She had stolen it earlier in the evening while he was at dinner in the Great Hall. She heard a loud bang, followed by the sound of feet pounding along the corridor. She gasped in fright and half-ran, half-slid to the side of the corridor as fast as she could in her fuzzy slippers. She snickered with suppressed laughter as Seamus clumsily skidded along the hall, followed by a furiously angry Cho Chang. "How dare you run away from me!" she savagely whispered to Seamus's retreating form. "All I did was kiss you, one little kiss! Oh, you..." she growled ferociously and followed him down the hall.

She giggled and slid down the rest of the hallway. When she came to the door she was looking for, however, she stopped all laughter and the familiar feeling of uneasiness and pessimism swept over her. Oh yes, she knew full well the effects of what she was about to do, but she wasn't stupid. No, far from it. She knew what she was about to see wasn't real, and never would be, but for some reason she had to come back. She slowly fingered to book she was holding under the cloak with her, wishing she had never found it. She sighed and walked into the dimly lit room. She slid the invisibility cloak off her slim shoulders and set it on a small table by the door.

"Lumos," she whispered softly. The room was suddenly lit with a soft white light. A year ago she would have been amazed at her power, but now it was nothing different. Sure, the first time she had shown her magical side, she had locked herself in her room and cried for days. She had thought she was a monster when she made a large antique jar fly across the room and hit her father on the head. He blacked out and lost some of his memory. She couldn't help it, she had been angry at him. So angry. He had been drinking again, and he had hit her mother. The next thing she knew the jar had hit him in the head. She knew she had done it. She didn't see it, it was so fast, but she KNEW it was her. Her mother had embraced her new abilities whole-heartedly, and her father did so as much as was possible for him. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her.

She gently unwrapped the tall package in the middle of the room. The shining surface of the beautifully made Mirror of Erised gleamed back brightly at her. She gasped in amazement as the image of Harry Potter and herself sitting together, her arms around his waist, her head resting on his chest, his hands moving softly through her newly grown long, flowing waves of hair, a complete look of bliss and love on both their faces. The images had never come this fast before. *I have to do this now. It'll be too late if I do it any later. I'm getting too used to it.* She sighed again and traced her index finger lovingly over the images one last time. She then rested her fingers on the book she had brought with her. "Why did I even have to go looking for this book," she whispered softly.

Truth was, she didn't know why she had looked for it. O.k, she knew, it was to save her. One day, if she kept looking at this mirror, she would never be able to stop. She had to stop it, but she didn't want to. She sighed again. She knew she had to.

She stood in front of the mirror, opened the book slowly, and began to whisper under her breath.

"Aorya, dissaprato, majetice,
Nhamo, chivna, vanishi,
Klihie, aloholoc, nasvita,
Aorya, dissaprato, marrior!"

The last words she whispered as loudly as she dared, with tears streaming down her crimson cheeks. She watched silently, except for a small sob every few seconds, as the image slowly faded from the magical mirror and her own image replaced it, bit by bit. *There. Now I can never see another image in it again.* The thought filled her with relief, but at the same time sadness invaded all her senses. She had been comforted by those images, and they had been her rock when everything else was floating around foolishly in the sky.

She was so angry that she ripped the book she was holding to shreds. She cooled down after a minute and sighed for a long time before she stopped and cleaned up the mess she had made of tiny paper scraps.

"Oh well," she whispered as she tiptoed out the door after extinguishing the light, "I guess I'll just have to find another rock then."

As soon as the door was shut a shadow crept out from behind the desk in the corner of the room. It uncovered the mirror and stared at it's own reflection, nothing more, without a hint of surprise.

"If only you knew," it whispered, " If only you knew that I had to do that a long time ago, or I would've gone mad not having you here with me like you were in the images. Then maybe your sacrifice wouldn't seem as such a heavy burden."

The figure let out a breath it hadn't realized it was holding, pushed its unruly hair back from its resting place on its forehead, covered the magical Mirror of Erised once more, and walked slowly out the door, closing it softly behind it.

"Oh Hermione," Harry Potter whispered in the direction she had started walking after leaving the room with the cursed mirror, "I could be your rock, if only I could get up my courage and tell you that I...." *It's hard to say even when I'm by myself, darn my shyness!* "I love you."

*There.* His concience whispered inside his head, as it had been doing very often, ever since he had first seen Hermione, in fact. *That wasn't so hard, now was it? Now all you have to do is go up to her and tell her! You're not that scared, are you? You know she likes you now.*

*Well, maybe you're right, just this once, and she DOES like me....* Harry blushed with the thought.

*See, I told you so.* His concience said in an annoying sing-song voice inside his head.

"Oh, just shut up!" Harry whispered threateningly to it.



Yeah, I know, Seamus and Cho?! Well, I had to pair Seamus with someone, and Cho was the only one who halfway fit! Thanks for reading, and please review! (Oh yeah, I LOVE Harry/Hermione, and they were (in case you couldn't guess) the main couple of this story. Hope you liked!)