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: Part three - main story starts here now. The mirror is revealed and Hermione gets her first view of it, though what she sees comes as something of a shock! *SS*
Chapter Four
Hermione was surprised when she got her first view of the mirror. It was nowhere near as ornate as she had expected it to be. There was no grand, bejewelled frame, just a rather worn looking plain gold one, with some strange letters inscribed in the top piece of the border. "Well?", she said, as she stood in front of it. So far all she could see was herself and the two boys on either side of her. "It only works if there's only one person standing in front of it", Harry said.
"And then what?", Hermione asked, "It's supposed to show you whatever you desire?" "Basically", Ron said, "so when Harry stands in front of it, he sees his parents - that's why we keep coming back up here". Hermione nodded, smiling sympathetically to Harry while she took all this in. "And what about you?", she said at last, "What do you see Ron?" She didn't seem to notice, though Harry did, the slight look of concern that crossed Ron's face before he managed to answer, and then his answer came very quickly as if he was trying to conceal something. "I um...well it's silly in comparison to Harry's vision anyway", he said, avoiding Hermione's gaze while trying to look like he wasn't.
"Yes, but what was it?", Hermione asked, "Come on Ron, I'm not going to laugh!" She attempted the joke to try and lighten the situation, but Ron still looked a little uneasy to Harry. "Well...", Ron started, hesitating again, "...I see myself as Head Boy and Quidditch captain, holding the Quidditch cup while I shake hands with Dumbledore". He carefully didn't mention that Dumbledore wasn't the only person standing with him in the reflection, a fact that he had kept to himself ever since Harry had brought him back to the mirror four months ago. Hermione seemed to accept this, but Harry was still looking at him a little quizzically, perhaps he had guessed that Ron was hiding something after all, Ron thought.
He was brought out of his thoughts suddenly by a laugh, a distinctly female laugh. "What?", he asked a little indignantly, "You said you weren't going to do that!" "Well...", Hermione said, managing to stop laughing but still smiling a little, "...it's just, Quidditch captain I can understand and everything, but Head Boy? I never knew you had it in you Ron!" "Ha ha", Ron said sarcastically, though he too began to smile, "just remember 'Mione, you know me well, but you still don't know everything about me - I can still surprise you sometimes!" "Ron", Hermione said, still smiling, perhaps a little wickedly now, "you never cease to surprise me!"
Inwardly Harry groaned, the subtext between Ron and Hermione had been getting thinner and thinner these last few years, but they still hadn't managed to actually come out and admit that there may be more to their teasing than either of them let on. They may have managed to fool each other, but Harry knew them both too well, and they hadn't fooled him for a second.
"Hermione", he said at last, before another mock war could break out between the two of them, "if you're going to look you better do it soon, we need to get back". "Okay", she said, gesturing to Ron to get out of the way so she could look into the mirror properly. For a few seconds the mirror seemed to cloud over and Hermione thought something had gone wrong, but then the image started to clear. At first she couldn't tell what she was looking at, because rather than seeing her own face looking back at her, she was looking at someone else's back. Eventually, the image came into focus enough for her to realise that she was watching herself (as she saw her own hands coming up to caress this stranger's neck) kissing someone.
She was more than a little surprised, but managed to conceal this from the boys as she peered more closely into the mirror. Having a sudden idea she turned so that she was standing sideways in front of the mirror, and as she had expected her reflection did the same so she now caught her first glimpse of the face of the boy she was kissing. To say that she was shocked would have been the understatement of the year. Of all the people in the world, she thought, why was the mirror showing her kissing him? Did it mean then, that she really---
She didn't have time to finish the thought as Ron's voice broke through asking her what she saw. For one of the few times in her life she stuttered a little as she tried to think up a convincing lie quickly enough, "I...I uh, see myself as - well I look older than I am now anyway. I'm...shaking hands with Mr Fudge - I'm the new minister for magic!" That at least sounded vaguely in character, though while Ron (obviously believing her) muttered something under his breath about how boring her dreams were, Harry didn't look quite so convinced.
Chapter Five
In fact, to say Harry wasn't convinced was something of an understatement. He watched Hermione closely for the next few days, while making sure that she didn't notice what he was doing. He still couldn't claim to know everything about her, but after six years at school together, he did know her pretty well. Well enough anyway, for him to notice that something wasn't quite right with her. She had been...just different somehow for the last few months. Nothing major, just unusual looks on her face, or some of the things she said - or didn't say as the case may be.
It was enough for him to be worried anyway. Hermione was one of his best friends, and the closest thing that he had to a sister - he cared for her very much. He had considered just going up to her and seeing if she would tell him what was bothering her, but decided that maybe the direct approach wasn't the best idea in this case. He hadn't said anything to Ron about it. If his theory was right, then Ron probably wouldn't be the best person to be talking about this with, but even Ron seemed to have noticed something. Harry caught him watching at her in the library when she didn't know that he was looking, and looking concerned when she was late meeting them after a lesson.
He figured that it had something to do with the mirror of erised - though what he wasn't quite sure. Since that one night that she had gone with them, Hermione hadn't gone back to the mirror, neither asking them about it, or saying she would go when they asked her to. Harry even asked Ginny, as vaguely as he could, to see if she knew anything, but apparently this was something Hermione was intent on keeping to herself.
He decided finally, that the best thing to do would be to talk to her himself, he just had to find the right moment. Looking back on it later, he realised that the plan he put into action wasn't one of his greater ideas, but it did work - after a fashion anyway.
Chapter Six
One night, about a week after they had all gone to the mirror together, Harry and Ron had said their goodbyes to Hermione and Ginny and gone their separate ways to their dormitories. Harry pulled the hangings around his bed shut and feigned sleep, slowly biding his time until he was sure that Seamus, Neville, Dean and even Ron were fast asleep. It was about two hours before he could safely make a move, and then he crept out of bed, as silently as possible, grabbing the invisibility cloak and heading towards the door.
Once in the hallway, he set out towards the girls' dormitories. He knew which was Hermione's room because he and Ron had walked her there and met up with her there plenty of times over the course of their time at Hogwarts. He got to the door and opened it as quietly as he could, closing it quickly behind him once he was in the room, as instead of the silence he expected, he heard voices. He moved forward slowly, and found to his surprise, that Hermione, Lavender and Parvati were all still awake, sitting up on their beds, talking.
"There's nothing to tell", Hermione was saying as Harry got within hearing distance of them. "Really!", Parvati said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yeah come on Hermione", Lavender prompted, "we're not blind - we know there's something going on". Harry smiled in spite of himself, apparently he and Ron weren't the only ones to notice the change in Hermione's behaviour. Trying to make the gesture as casual as possible, Parvati leaned over to her bedside table and retrieved her wand, making her lamp burn a little brighter and then sitting back, wand still in hand.
"Lavender and me may not be the top of our year like some people", she said pointedly, though not unkindly, "but I'm pretty sure at least one of us could manage a decent truth spell---". "Alright, alright!", Hermione said, cutting them off before they could actually do anything. Actually telling the two of them how she was feeling at the moment was not something she particularly wanted to do, but it would be much worse if they used a truth spell - at least this way she could give them the edited highlights of the true story, rather than the whole thing. Lavender giggled excitedly and jumped onto Parvati's bed next to her, as Parvati's bed was the closest to Hermione's own, her eyes lighting up with the prospect of hearing some juicy gossip.
Harry had to stifle a laugh at Lavender's behaviour, but he knew he would be in serious trouble if they caught him now so he kept one hand clamped firmly over his mouth, and moved round a little so he could see Hermione's face clearly as she talked. "I...", Hermione started, still looking extremely reluctant to be saying any of this, but seeing she couldn't get out of it either, "...last week I found out that Harry and Ron had found the mirror of erised again". She groaned inwardly when she realised that neither of them knew what the mirror was, so she started again.
"It's an enchanted mirror", she explained, "it shows whoever stands in front of it, their innermost desires". Lavender looked like she was about to say something, but Parvati interrupted her, "But why were Harry and Ron looking for it in the first place?" Hermione hesitated again, but she did reply at last, "Harry...", she trailed off, knowing that this was a big confidence of Harry's that she was about to betray. Under the cloak, Harry listened more attentively than ever, not entirely pleased about what Hermione was going to have to say.
"He sees his parents", Hermione said quietly, before she looked back up at the two girls facing her, "that's why Harry wanted to find the mirror - when he stands in front of it, he sees himself with his parents". Harry had expected some kind of comment from the girls about that, but they both just looked a little shocked and surprisingly sympathetic. "You have to promise never to say anything about that to Harry or anyone else - ever", Hermione said, "I was one of only three people who knew about it, and I know it's not something Harry would want broadcast around the school - and before you ask - I'm not telling you where the mirror is either".
Harry felt extremely proud of Hermione when he heard that - that really was a display of loyalty. He wasn't entirely surprised to hear Lavender and Parvati affirming their agreement to Hermione's terms without any argument whatsoever, but he was surprised by how sincere they seemed to be, and he realised that this time, they really would keep this a secret. "So", Parvati said after a while, "that's why Harry went looking for the mirror...but once you knew about it, you went too didn't you?" It was phrased as a question, but it seemed fairly obvious to everyone in the room what the answer was.
