The mirror of erased

By Sinful Starlet

Rating: PG probably - maybe PG-13 but that's pushing it.

Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling (though I wish I was) so clearly not mine.

Summary: Some time during their later school career, Harry and his friends come across the mirror of erised again with some surprising results!

Blurb: Okay, part two. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first part. That was mainly just to set the scene so hopefully it should pick up a little more now, although I won't be hideously offended if you think it's still a little slow! Hope you enjoy it anyway! *SS*

Chapter Two

Harry looked at Hermione a little quizzically as she sat down at the table with him and Ron. She had a slightly odd expression on her face. What was it? The closest approximation Harry could manage was something between guilt and embarrassment, which didn't make any sense to him, though Ron clearly didn't understand either as he just shrugged as Harry shot him a quick, questioning look. Both of the boys were smart enough by now though to know when to let something go when they were with Hermione, so they just started pulling books off the shelves to research Ganderweed and its applications in modern day magic, as opposed to those of the earlier centuries.

Hermione said very little at first, though maintaining all the outward appearance of concentrating on the book she had propped in front of her, her mind was still working overtime, trying to rationalise what had happened outside the library just then. She caught Ron's gaze as she looked up at one point. He was smiling as usual, though there was still a feint look of concern in his eyes. Thankfully at that moment, Ginny Weasley walked into the library. She returned Harry's wave and also waved to Hermione as she looked up, but before she could come over to the table, Hermione got up to walk to meet her. She made her excuses to the two rather confused boys she left at the table and quickly hurried out of the library with Ginny in tow.

She didn't really have much of a plan beyond getting out of the library for a few minutes, so she just suggested a walk around the grounds to Ginny, who was happy to go along. Harry stared after Hermione for a minute before he turned back to look at Ron, who was frowning as he struggled to make out a particularly confusing passage in one of the older books. "Is something up with Hermione?", Harry asked, after another minute had passed. "Dunno", said Ron, looking up and shrugging, "she had this really funny look on her face when she was standing outside the library, while I was talking to Katie - no idea why though". A sudden realisation hit Harry, and though he had no way of being sure, if he was right, it would certainly explain Hermione's strange behaviour.

Though Hermione and Ginny returned to the library about half an hour later, he didn't get much of a chance to test out his theory. Hermione seemed perfectly normal again, chatting quite happily with him and the others, laughing with Ginny when Ron managed to find another book with a screecher inside. A screecher was a book with a possessed text inside, that screeched and screamed as soon as it was opened, unless the correct charm was intoned before it was opened - like the book, in fact, that Harry found in the first year when he had been searching the restricted section of the library.

He did eventually manage to think of something though, and kept one eye on Hermione as he casually asked Ron, "So, what did Katie want to talk to you about?" Ron, as predicted, didn't seem to think anything of the question, though Harry did see something flash across Hermione's face. It was only there for an instant, but it was definitely there. "Oh, nothing much", Ron replied, as casually as Harry had asked the question, "just some more practices she was thinking of arranging - she was just checking whether we'd be able to make them - she hasn't fixed anything definite yet though".

Harry nodded, though once again, he cast a quick glance at Hermione, and whatever look had been there before seemed to have gone now, she looked relaxed and normal again. Well, Harry thought, that had been a fairly successful test. He didn't know whether to actually say anything to Ron about it, but he decided it was probably best to wait for a while, at least until he had talked to Hermione on her own about it first.

Chapter Three

After lunch, they had all split up again. Ginny, waving a cheerful goodbye to Harry and the others went off with some of her friends who were back from Hogsmeade and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were left on their own again - managing to dodge Fred, George and the rest of their friends from Gryffindor. They decided to have a walk outside. They'd been sitting inside all morning, (except for Hermione who had gone out with Ginny earlier), and felt the need of some fresh air, so they all walked out together to visit Hagrid.

It was actually about three hours later when they finally left, Hagrid had insisted on making them an afternoon tea and playing a few rounds of exploding snap with them while they filled him in on their news. Hermione noticed that neither of the boys mentioned the mirror of erised, so she didn't either, but the fact that they didn't mention it was enough to bring it to the forefront of her mind again. She waited until they were almost back at the castle again before she mentioned it. Harry wasn't surprised that she wanted to see the mirror herself, though Ron seemed to be. They agreed to go that night, they would meet up in the common room at one o'clock in the morning and go down together.

* * *

Hermione shivered a little as she made her way down to the common room again that night, she had pulled on a jumper over her pyjamas but it was still a little cool. She managed to sneak out of the room without waking Parvati or Lavender, but she acknowledged with a smile, that wasn't really too difficult. The common room appeared to be deserted when she walked into it, and she wondered whether she'd beaten the boys to it. "Harry? Ron?", she called as quietly as she could, looking all around her, because she realised that they might have been hiding under the invisibility cloak.

She walked round to the sofa nearest the fire and started to sit down, jumping up like a shot again though as the sofa gave a muffled grunt. She looked down at the sofa in surprise, though the mystery was explained seconds later as Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off him and Ron, who had been sitting side by side on that very sofa. She breathed a sigh of relief, and her face broke into a smile as she caught sight of Ron's yawning face. "Bloody hell 'Mione!", he managed between yawns, "You could have warned us!"

"What are you talking about?", Hermione asked, a little confused, "I called out your names and you didn't answer - I didn't think you were here yet". "We came down early", Harry said, by way of an explanation, "we must have dozed off again while we were sitting on the sofa". "Of course", Ron interjected, trying to conceal a teasing smile, "having you sit in his lap was a fairly effective way to wake Harry up!" Hermione was glad of the relative darkness of the room because she couldn't help it when her face coloured a little at what Ron had just said.

Harry, in the meantime, had a very sarcastic expression on his face, enough to stop Ron laughing anyway. Ron wiped the smile off his face and tried to look apologetic, but it wasn't really working. "Come on", Harry said in the end, standing up and gesturing for Ron to do the same, as he draped the invisibility cloak over his arm, "we better get going if we're going to go tonight". "Oh cheer up!", Ron said to Harry, apparently still quite amused, "You weren't offended were you, Hermione?", he asked, turning to her for support.

Though she was still feeling more than a little embarrassed, Hermione did manage to shake her head and smile back at Ron. "And anyway", Ron went on, clearly trying to lighten the mood, "it could have been worse". "What do you mean?", Hermione asked, sharing a confused look with Harry. "You could have ended up sitting on me!", Ron replied, still grinning, so infectiously in fact that Hermione and Harry couldn't help but laugh too. Ron did look a bit put out when Hermione kept laughing after the other two had stopped, and it took him a moment to realise what she was finding so funny.

The two boys were dressed like Hermione, with jumpers over their pyjamas, but while Harry's was just a plain emerald green (given to him by Mrs Weasley two Christmases ago) - Ron's was clearly one of his mother's more eccentric creations. It was navy in colour, rather than the traditional maroon (Molly had apparently realised at last that maroon really didn't go with Ron's violently red hair), and had a figure in Gryffindor Quidditch robes emblazoned across the front. Ron eventually realised that this what she was smiling at, and managed a look of annoyance, though he wasn't really angry, seeing the comedy of the situation himself.

"Alright!", he said quietly, "Not all of us get to go shopping at The Hole over the holidays!" "The Gap!", Hermione shot back, though she was having a hard time trying not to laugh, knowing Ron was only calling it that to annoy her. "Come on you two!", Harry said, trying not to laugh himself, "We better get going before we wake someone up". They made their way over to the portrait hole, pushing it open and wedging a folded sheet of parchment into the doorway at the bottom so they could pull the 'door' open again without waking the Fat Lady.

Once outside, Ron, being the tallest, threw the cloak over all three of them and together, they made their way down the corridor and several flights of stairs towards the first-floor room containing the mirror of erised. Harry snuck a look at Hermione as they walked along the corridor. She had a slightly nervous expression on her face, though whether that was because she was worried about them being caught or because of...something else, he wasn't sure.