Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 15: The mirror that was.
When Harry woke up, he was surprised to find that he was in his four-poster bed. He was more surprised to see that there was no one in his dormitory. He went down the spiral staircase, and found Ron and Hermione, talking very seriously. They jumped when they saw Harry, and Hermione ran up to him and hugged him.
'Do you feel alright?' she asked anxiously.
'Yeah,' said Harry. 'Why shouldn't I be?'
'You've been out of it for about a week now. We all thought you might be – you know …' his voice trailed off.
'A whole week?' Harry said. 'That's ages. It had to be in the holidays, didn't it?' Harry's voice was more light and happier.
'Now I'm worried,' said Ron.
'I just think that Sirius would have preferred me to be happy. I can't be miserable for my whole life, can I?'
'No,' said Hermione, 'you can't.' Harry nodded; an owl flew in the open window. It was jet-black and had something rolled in its mouth.
'That's the Prophet,' Hermione said in surprise. 'I thought they stopped getting delivered ages ago.' She opened the paper, and began to read carefully, smiling as she turned the back cover over.
'Nothing,' she said happily. 'No deaths, dementor attacks, or anything.'
'Good,' said Harry, looking into the fire.
'You hungry?' Ron asked.
'No,' said Harry truthfully.
'You've been out of it for a week, and you ain't hungry?' Ron asked incredulously.
'Yep,' said Harry. Then he remembered a week ago. 'Where's Andrea? Where's she going?'
'Beauxbatons,' Hermione said after a pause.
'Permanently?'
'Yeah,' Ron said sadly.
'That means in a week's time, I'll never see her again?'
'I'm sorry, Harry,' Hermione said.
That's OK,' Harry said.
'Well, I'm glad to see that your normal again,' Hermione said, looking Harry up and down. 'You worried us all when you were – um –'
'Out of it?' Ron supplied.
'Yep,' said Harry, though the truth was eating him horribly.
He had not been unconscious for a week, but thinking of Sirius longingly. He didn't know why; he had gotten over his death so long ago. At night, he had nightmares about him, mainly involving the veil, and running through halls and halls of dust spun spheres.
He never ever told anyone, though, for fear that they would tell him that he was mad, or yell at him. He would keep all of this inside himself, hiding it from everyone else. Harry wanted to be with him, to hear his laugh, and to receive his letters which he missed so much…
'Harry – are you awake?' Hermione said from a long way away from Harry, who was remembering Number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Harry thought about it over and over again, so he wouldn't forget it. He could see Sirius giving him a badly wrapped parcel – the mirror!
Harry jumped back to reality with a cry of 'The Mirror! I can use the mirror!'
'The what? What mirror?' Hermione said.
'You carry around a personal mirror?' Ron said, smirking slightly.
The portrait hole opened, and Harry turned around. It was Andrea, accompanied by Phorion.
'What happened, Harry?' Phorion called out.
'I fainted' he called back to Phorion, who looked like she had just come from a battle. She had a big scar to envy Harry's horizontally across her forehead, which had evidently just happened; there were fresh droplets of blood hanging from it. Her right arm was in a clumsy cast, that she had unmistakably made herself. Her hair was wild, but also lank, hanging like it had no use. One of her eyes was half-shut, and kept on flickering madly. There was another trickle of blood coming from her mouth.
'What happened to you?' Hermione said, as Harry was taking in her bizarre appearance.
'I had a fight,' she said.
'With another centaur,' Andrea supplied, not looking at Harry, who was thinking about Sirius.
Hermione hugged Phorion gently, and she brought her near the fire. She cleaned off the blood, made a better cast, and healed up most of her scars, including the one on her forehead.
'Hey,' said Ron, 'now you and Harry match!'
Although it was a lame joke, everyone laughed. Harry edged closer to Andrea, who was still refusing to look at Harry.
'Andrea, I'm really sorry,' Harry said quietly.
'Yeah, I'm sorry, too. Sorry for even liking you, Harry; how could you? I don't care of this stupid voice thing is I your head, I know you like me, so can't you just – Harry? Hello? Are you even listening?'
'What?' Harry said blankly, remembering when he had had Christmas at the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.
'Forget it,' she said, and sat in between Ron and Hermione. Harry just sat into a seat nearby, staring into the fire where Sirius' head had once talked to him.
'He's gonna jump into the fire again!' Ron yelled, and Harry felt Phorion grab him from behind. Harry didn't even try to fight.
'The mirror,' he murmured to Phorion, who widened her good eye.
'Harry and I are going to take a walk,' she announced.
'What?'
'Why?'
'Let them go,' Hermione said, and a bewildered Harry followed Phorion.
'What do you know about the mirror, Harry?'
'The two-way one?' Harry asked, playing dumb.
'I know what the mirror is, Harry. I've got one.'
'You've got one?' Harry asked in disbelief.
'I mean, I used to own one. My love I and had one each for when we were separated.'
'Who?' Harry asked, before he could stop himself.
'Firenze,' she said, and Harry understood why she was on his side, why she had helped him…
'Sirius had the other mirror, didn't he' Phorion asked quietly as they turned a corner.
'Yeah,' said Harry.
'You miss him, don't you?' Phorion said after a bit. 'You want him back, don't you?'
'Yes!' said Harry rather loudly – that was exactly what he wanted!
'You want to use that mirror, don't you?'
'Yes!' said Harry, louder still.
'No,' Phorion said sadly.
'No what?'
'No, you can't use it.'
'But if I put it through the veil…'
'What veil?' Phorion said. She sounded scared.
'In the Ministry of Magi–'
'The veil? Definitely the veil?'
'I can draw a picture of you want!' Harry said angrily; what did she know about the veil?
'That won't be necessary. I know what it looks like.'
'How?'
'Never you mind,' she said irritably, which was a first, Harry thought.
'You want to go there, don't you?' she said, stopping.
'I do,' said Harry.
Silence. Then – 'It could be a trap, Harry.'
But Harry was already forming a plan.
'So? I went last time, and I'm still alive! I just need the mirror, don't I?'
'Harry –' Phorion began, but it was no use – Harry had already started running to Gryffindor Tower. Although she caught up with him easily, she said nothing all the way back. She even managed to convince Harry to take a few wrong turnings; he was too wrapped up in thinking of Sirius to care about anything else.
'Where are we?' Harry asked.
'I'm not sure. You were leading the way,' Phorion said with a smile; they were in the entrance hall.
'Well, since we're here, we might as well go now,' Harry said, striding to the door. Phorion's good eye opened in horror.
'No!' she cried. 'You – you – you left the mirror!'
Harry swore, and they both ran up the Harry's dormitory. Whilst Harry ran up the spiral staircase to his bed, Phorion told they that they were going to the Ministry of Magic.
'What? He can't be that stupid,' Hermione said.
'He's out of his mind,' Ron said.
'Well, he'll curse you if you don't go. He wants to put the mirror in the veil.'
'The veil? Oh, this is all about Sirius, isn't it?'
'Yes,' Phorion said as Harry came dashing down the stairs, his eyes strangely unfocused.
'What are you waiting for? Let's go!' Harry said. Then he added, 'where's Andrea?'
'She left just now,' Hermione said sadly.
'I didn't say goodbye,' Harry said in a strange voice.
'And you never will!' Hermione said angrily. 'Can't you see that she likes you? And now she's gone –'
'I don't have time to listen to this, Hermione,' Harry said loudly. 'Sirius is waiting for me, you know – well, we'll all be late, come on!'
'We're going with you?' said Ron.
'Exactly,' Harry said, folding up his Invisibility Cloak, walking to the door.
'We'll all be late,' he repeated.
'Let's go,' Phorion said, adding to Ron and Hermione: 'we need to keep a very big eye on him. He'll kill himself if we don't help out.' Ron and Hermione nodded grimly.
'How're we going to get there?' Harry asked the group brightly. He had no ideas, and the voice wasn't helping him.
…You can't go, Harry, you can't …not even the centaur knows …but – look! She's keeping something from you, Harry, isn't she?
'Phorion!' he practically bellowed. 'What're you keeping from me?'
'Excuse me?' she said.
'You know how to get there, don't you?'
'I can only read the stars.' she said.
'But you can read this…' someone yelled in the near distance. Two shapes came over the corner quickly. Harry raised his wand, but Ron knocked it out of his hands.
'Don't attack my brothers,' he said.
'Eh?' said Harry, who had again lost track of concentration of their conversation.
'Forget it,' Fred said, as he came into view.
'Yeah, everyone knows you're cracked up, mate,' George said unhelpfully.
'What's that?' Phorion asked Fred.
'This, my friend, is the Prophecy-thingy. I've forgotten the name –'
'Yeah, well, it might tell us how we're going to get there,' George said.
Harry snatched the sphere and opened it. The gaunt lady rose up, peering at Harry.
'For when would you like your future to be unravelled?' she said in her mystical voice, raising her arms wide.
'Twenty minutes from now,' Harry said in a loud voice.
'You are in a room with a dip in the middle. It has a big, round arch in the middle, with what looks like a curtain in the middle. Call on me of you need me,' she ended, and shrunk back into the sphere.
'That was a big lot of help,' Harry said angrily.
'Well, it was,' Hermione said.
'Was it?' said Ron dubiously.
'Yes, it was,' Hermione said, firing up; she had evidently not forgiven Ron yet. 'Because it told us that we would be at the Ministry in at least twenty minutes, which means we'll get there quickly.' She paused thoughtfully. 'But I know only Fred and George can apparate, so –
'That's it! Side-along-apparation! Phorion, do you think you can apparate?'
'Of course,' she said grimly, nodding.
'Right, I'll take Hermione and Ron –' Hermione made an indistinguishable noise in her throat. Fred hastened to correct himself. 'I meant, I'll take Ron and Harry, and George can take our two lovely ladies here.'
'Well, we need to get past the gates, in any case,' Hermione said worriedly. 'Oh, this is even more complicated then when we took the Thestrals and we can't even take them, because none of us are covered in blood…'
'Lets just get to the gate – Sirius is waiting,' Harry said, as if he was explaining the alphabet to a two-year-old.
I realise the ending of this chap sucks. Review!
