Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would live in the U.K. and be a female, but since I live in the U.S. and I'm male, I think it's obvious I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: Sorry for taking so long, but I was busy and had a mild case of writer's block for this story. Please read and review. Constructive Criticism is welcome, but it is ultimately my story and while I intend to try to improve my writing with suggestions from my readers, I may not end up doing so. Sorry. Also, I'm trying to get Ron to have more dialogue but not quite succeeding.

Chapter 7: Mirrors, A House Elf, and Lockets.

Harry Potter walked into a room full of mirrors, but he did not know how he got there or why he was there. He didn't know why, but he walked to each mirror and looked into it. Some showed him as how he was today. Others distorted his figure. Still others showed him how he was in the past or what he would like to be in the future, but after he looked at each one, he thought, No, this isn't it.

He didn't know what "it" was, but he knew that none of the mirrors had been what he was looking for, and then he came to a mirror he recognized from his first year at Hogwarts. He had discovered the Mirror of Erised in this room full of mirrors. Still, it wasn't exactly what he was looking for, but it showed himself with his parents, Ginny, and Sirius Black. Ginny and Harry himself were each holding a small child, and there was a framed article from the Daily Prophet with the headline You-Know-Who Defeated by the Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One: Harry Potter. All of them looked very happy, and then Harry saw that his father and Sirius were each holding a mirror. These mirrors looked strangely familiar to Harry, but he didn't know why though he soon realized what looked so familiar about the mirrors: Sirius had given one of the mirrors to him during his fifth year at Hogwarts.

Then Harry was shaken awake by Ginny. "Sirius's mirror," said Harry before he realized that he was awake and Ginny had shaken him awake. "Ginny? What time is it and why are you waking me up?"

"It's only 2 a.m. I couldn't sleep," said Ginny. "What if you don't survive facing...him?"

Harry couldn't answer since he didn't really know the answer or even if he would survive facing Voldemort. All he knew was that he needed to try to defeat him so the pain and suffering that he had caused to so many families would stop.

"I thought so. You don't know, do you?" said Ginny.

"No, I don't, but I know I need to face Voldemort so he won't be able to cause any more suffering."

"I knew you were going to say that, but if you don't survive—"

"Don't worry, Ginny. I'll always be with you, in your heart."

"Oh, Harry, that's so sweet. Now you said something about 'Sirius's mirror' when you woke up."

"It was just a dream about mirrors."

"You were dreaming about mirrors?" Ginny asked sounding surprised.

"I'm as surprised as you are," said Harry as Ron let out a snore.

"How do you manage to sleep in the same room with him for most of the year?" asked Ginny.

"You get used to it. Neville, on the other hand,—" Harry began before Ginny kissed him. Before he knew it, he was on top of Ginny kissing her very passionately, but then he realized he couldn't let Ginny get her hopes up. "Ginny."

"What, Harry?"

"We can't do this, not now," said Harry.

"Let me guess, for the same stupid and noble reason you broke up with me at Dumbledore's funeral."

"Yes. I need to protect you."

"But don't you see? I'm already at risk. We're considered blood-traitors by Voldemort's followers. My dad works in the Ministry of Magic, and my brother is your best friend. I know you want to protect me, but you might not even survive facing him."

"I know, but it's just something I need to do."

"Harry, honestly, I'm not in any more danger being your girlfriend than I am not being your girlfriend."

"I just can't risk it, Ginny."

"Fine! See you in the morning!" yelled Ginny as she ran out of the room and started to cry. Ron let out another snore.

Girls. They're the most confusing things in the world, thought Harry before he wrote down "Sirius's mirror" on a piece of paper, locked the door, and fell back asleep even with Ginny yelling just outside the room.

"I don't understand it, Hermione. One minute he's all happy kissing me, and the next, he goes back to the 'I need to protect you so I can't see you' excuse," said Ginny.

"Guys are confusing, but don't worry, he'll come around sooner or later," Hermione said as she banged on Ron and Harry's door. "Wake up! Mrs. Weasley wants everyone to get their packing done today so we won't be late this year." When neither Ron nor Harry answered, Hermione and Ginny banged on the door. Still no answer, so Ginny then tried opening the door, but it was locked.

"Harry must have locked it after I left last night," said Ginny.

"There's only one thing to do. "Alohomora," said Hermione as the door unlocked and she opened the door, and she and Ginny walked in on Harry getting dressed.

"What don't you understand about 'I'm getting up. Let me get dressed'?" asked Harry.

Hermione ran out quickly while she said, "Sorry, I didn't hear you." However, Ginny stayed in the room.

"You put up a silencing charm last night, didn't you?" asked Ginny.

"Actually, I did," said Ron groggily . "Your yelling woke me up."

"Well that explains why I was able to get back to sleep," said Harry.

"Actually, you were already asleep when I did it," said Ron. "Now, Ginny, will you please leave so I can get dressed?"

"Only if Harry comes with me," said Ginny as she winked at Harry.

"Fine, I'll come with you," said Harry since he had finally finished getting dressed.

"Good," said Ginny in a less-than-innocent tone as she and Harry walked out of the bedroom.

"Harry. You're up, here's your breakfast," said Mrs. Weasley as she moved Harry's plate by magic to the table, "And Ron's is on the counter. Ginny, are you finished packing?"

"Yes, Mum," said Ginny.

"Good, I need to talk to you about some things I should have told you earlier," said Mrs. Weasley. Ginny and Mrs. Weasley left the kitchen as Ron and Hermione entered it.

"About time you two love birds come down," said Harry as he began eating his breakfast.

"It's not my fault it took Ron three years to notice I was a girl and then another two to realize he has feelings for me," said Hermione.

"Hey!" said Ron while his face turned as red as his hair from embarrassment.

"But I don't want to talk to you about your love life," said Harry. "Instead, I want to tell you I had a dream about mirrors. And I think it might be important in our search. Hermione? Can you?" Harry said as he pointed to the doors.

"I don't think your dream has anything to do with helping us conduct our search, but if the conversation is going that way, I will," said Hermione and she cast an Immutable charm on the doors of the room.

"Now that's done. My mirror dream led me to the Mirror of Erised, and in it I saw two mirrors, and one of the mirrors was the one that Sirius had given me and that I had forgotten about when I needed it the most," said Harry.

"Harry, you might have just had that dream because this house reminds you of Sirius. It was his after all," said Hermione.

"No. This dream felt very important for some reason. Like my mind was trying to tell me something," said Harry. "If I only remembered where I put that mirror."

"Don't worry, Harry, you'll find it," said Hermione.

"And you'll probably want to start packing after you finish breakfast. Mum will be bloody mad if we're late again," said Ron as he grabbed his breakfast and began to eat it.

After Harry and Ron finished their breakfast, they both went upstairs to pack. Hermione had already finished packing since she had been up earlier with Ginny and had used the packing spell that she had seen other wizards and witches do. Ron tried to do the same spell, but failed horribly with one of his pairs of pants landing on Hermione's head. Harry had considered using this spell, but then decided, he probably should do it the Muggle way since he hadn't unpacked everything. Soon, Harry realized that there were shards of broken glass in his trunk, and Harry had come to the realization that he had thrown the mirror into his trunk and had shattered it in doing so, and he swore.

"I can't believe I forgot it was in here all this time," said Harry.

"What use is it if it's broken? And do you realize breaking a mirror is seven years of bad luck?" said Ron.

"Seriously, Ron. After six years of studying magic, you don't realize that one of us could just repair the mirror?" said Hermione.

"That's it! Reparo," said Harry, and the shattered pieces of the mirror rearranged themselves and the mirror became whole again. "Of course, I still don't know what use it will be with Sirius dead. If I only had thought of contacting Sirius this way before, then I wouldn't have believed Kreacher," said Harry as he looked in the mirror and the mirror didn't show himself, but Kreacher's little bedroom in the cupboard. "That stupid house elf, hiding all of these possessions—"

"House elves aren't stupid!" snapped Hermione. "If only wizards wouldn't treat them like filth and actually paid them for their work!"

"Do you have to insist on freeing house elves when they don't want to be free every time someone brings them up? Seriously, it's an unrealistic obsession," said Ron.

"Ron! It's not an obsession! I wish you could understand that!"

"Calm down, I think I've found something related to—" Harry started to say.

However, Hermione had noticed an extendable ear and cast the silencing charm on the door. "I wish Fred and George never invented those things sometimes," she said.

"I think I've found something in Kreacher's room that's at least a clue to a horcrux," said Harry.

"What?" asked Ron.

"Remember that heavy locket that none of us could open two years ago?" asked Harry. Hermione and Ron both nodded. "I think it might have been one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Maybe you need to be to speak parseltongue to it in order to open it."

"Harry, what are you seeing in the mirror?" asked Hermione.

"Lockets. A lot of them. Looks like Kreacher was collecting them," said Harry. "I'm going down there." Harry then ran out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen and Kreacher's little cupboard. When he got there, he searched and searched for the Slytherin locket, but was unable to find it, but he did find a clue to it's possible location. "Mundungus," Harry muttered, remembering that he had seen Mundungus and the barman from the Hog's Head doing business in stolen goods from Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

"What about him?" asked Ron.

"He stole it," said Harry.

"You don't know if it was ever in here," said Hermione.

"He still stole things from this house. He stole my things," said Harry.

"You don't know what he stole," said Hermione.

"But I do remember he was doing some business with the Hog's Head Barman. If they allow us to visit Hogsmeade this year, I say we pay him a visit," said Harry. "I probably should get back to packing now."

"There's no need to. We finished it for you," said Ron. Hermione glared at him. "Well, Hermione finished it for you."

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