Sorry that this is late again. Firstly, I've been busy writing more chapter outlines for the story, as I was running out of content. After this chapter, I only have two other chapter outlines already finished so I'm going to be taking a bit of a break focusing on getting two more chapters and an omake chapter done before moving towards writing them up for publishing. Secondly, hockey playoffs have begun. While I was writing the outlines I've also been spending everyday watching the playoffs on the NHL channel and on NBCSN. The teams I'm supporting are my favorite team, The Vegas Golden Knights, my second favorite team, The New York Islanders, and my hometown team, The Philadelphia Flyers. And if there's one thing you can say about the playoffs is that they're tense, unpredictable, and energetic. I mean, who saw the Arizona Coyotes winning their series against the Nashville Predators in overtime, or the 12th seeded Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Candians beating the fifth seeded Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins, or the Knights scoring four unanswered points in the third period to beat the Dallas Stars. If there's one positive thing that the Covid-19 pandemic gave us, it has given us the best hockey playoffs of all time. That still doesn't negate all the negatives it's given us, like an economic crash, millions unemployed, hundreds of thousands dead, millions being kicked out of their homes due to being unable to pay their rent and our government still not being able to overcome their petty dickery to save peoples lives because SOME PEOPLE DECIDED TO MAKE A HUMAN HEALTH CRISIS A PARTISAN DEBATE! Hey, remember when we thought that the biggest thing that would happen this year was that the president would be impeached. Remember how his trail was only six months ago? Yeah, that was only six months ago but it feels like it happened six decades ago doesn't it? It truly is amazing just how awful our collective existence is, isn't it? But still, it's nice that we're thrown a bone every once in a while. My favorite bone is the Supreme Court deciding that LGBTQIA employees can't be discriminated or fired by employers based on their sexual preference or sexual identification, saying that they are protected under the fourteenth amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (although I'm still surprised that the vote was 6-3 and that one of the votes supporting the decision came from a Trump appointed justice. Though then again, that same justice and the other Trump appointed justice also ruled against Trump on his tax returns, so maybe I should accept that human beings are more complex than assumptions should present)! But that is not the main reason that publication is slow right now. I'm currently in an intense interview process for a position as a life insurance agent and not only have I had three different interviews, but I had to do some cold casing that involved me going around and conducting fifty surveys in order to get me used to cold calling. I'm hoping I get the job, but there are a lot of maybes going on in that statement. I really want this job, I like the company I'm applying to and I like the people that have interviewed me and I want to work with them. But that's enough of that. On with the show! I do not own Harry Potter or Ed, Edd and Eddy, those are owned by J.K. Rowling, AT&T and Warner Media.
The Mirror of Erised
"You're kidding." "No, I'm not. That mirror showed me my parents. I...I saw them. For the first time, I actually saw them." When Marie had woken up on Boxing day, she didn't think that the first thing that one of her friends would tell her that he had slipped out last night under his new invisibility cloak to sneak into the library's restricted section and through a misadventure found a magic mirror that showed him his late parents. It definitely showed her that even though she had seen some strange things in the four months since she had been introduced to the wizarding world, there were still some parts of it that were able to surprise her. 'Still, first time he's seen his parents' faces? How is it possible that his relatives hate him and his family that much that they won't even keep pictures of them?'
"You could've woken us up." Ron stated crossly, glaring at Harry in annoyance. "You can come with me tonight. I'm going to go back and I want to show them to you." "I'd like to see your parents. What about you Marie?" Marie rolled her eyes, her face showing a disinterest that would earn Daphne's approval. "Eh, why not? Not like I have anything better to do?" she replied emotionlessly as she went to take a sip from her goblet of warm apple cider. That brief period of joy that she had the previous day had faded completely and had been replaced by the return of the depressed haze that had been hovering in her brain throughout the last two weeks. It seemed as though nothing could break through her stoney and empty shroud. "Great. I also want to see both of your families, all the Weasleys and Kankers. You can show me your sisters, brothers and all of them." Marie choked, spraying cider out of her mouth and coughing harshly. 'Except that.' she thought as she tried to regain her breath. "Are you alright?" Ron asked. "I'm fine. I'm fine." Marie wheezed as she put the goblet back on the table. "The cider went down the wrong pipe." As she leaned back up, she noticed something odd. Harry's plate was empty. And not in a way that suggested that he was finished cleaning it. "Harry, aren't you going to eat anything?" Marie asked, her worry hidden by her slight glare. "I'm not hungry." Her eyes creased as Ron's widened. Harry usually ate just as much as Ron. The only time that he had struggled to eat was before his first Quidditch match. "Harry, are you alright? Are you sick?" Harry gives her a blank look. "No."
This odd behavior lasted throughout the day. At breakfast they were barely able to get him to eat two pancakes and three pieces of bacon and at lunch he ate even less, only half of an apple and a hot biscuit. Nothing seemed to interest him. There wasn't that much of a concern when Harry refused to play wizard's chess Ron, as Harry was terrible at it and Ron was skilled enough to put most chess champions to shame. But then Fred and George asked him if he wanted to go flying so that he could practice bludger dodging and he said no. That really concerned them. Their worry grew throughout the day as they tried everything to try to get Harry to stop thinking about that mirror. They talked about Quidditch and the standings of the National Quidditch League, they discussed more ideas to get Malfoy expelled or to catch him in a prank, they tried to involve him in homework that they had gotten over the holiday, they played gobstones, they even tried to talk to him about researching for Flamel and trying to stop Snape. But it was all in vain, Harry would either not bother to listen, lost in his own thoughts, or would respond with disinterest. But mid afternoon, they had completely given up, leaving Harry to sit on a coach in the Gryffindor common room gazing distantly into the fire at something only he could see.
"There's something wrong with that mirror." Marie spat as she gazed out a window on the third floor. "How'd you figure?" Ron asked. "That thing has been affecting Harry all day. He's barely eating, he's not doing anything outside of starting into space. Something's wrong when a Seeker is not interested in the sport that he plays!" She had started pacing the floor. "I don't know if it's just some mental suggestion or just outright brainwashing but that THING is twisting his mind." "You sound worried. Are you thinking it might happen to us?" "YES!" Marie leaned against the wall, hyperventilating as she dragged her hands over her eyes. "I don't think we should go." "Marie, we don't know if the mirror has any mental effects. For all we know, it could just be a normal magic mirror." Ron walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Look, we know that Harry never knew about his family before he found out he was a wizard. This is the first time he actually saw what they looked like. People can say that he looks like his dad with his mom's eyes, but being able to actually see them? If you were him, wouldn't you be desperate to see them again?"
Marie considered this and she hated to admit that Ron did have a point. There was some part of her that knew just how Harry felt. Growing up with stories of her father, of how much she was like him, of who he was. Even the pictures he had of him weren't enough anymore. She wanted to know what happened to him, where he went, who he was as a person. It could be obsessive sometimes. "Okay, we'll go. But at the first sign of anything suspicious, we leave." Ron nods. "Even if we have to drag Harry out against his will?" "Ron, at this rate, that's likely to become a certainty."
Looking back on it, she really wished she had been wrong. When Ron and Marie went down for dinner, they noticed that Harry had changed, and it unfortunately wasn't for the better. Whereas before Harry had been lethargic and listless, he was now rather twitchy and high strung. His eyes flicked around the room, as if expecting someone to accuse him of replacing Dumbledore's shampoo with a mixer of ink and urine. As time went on, they saw that Harry didn't eat that night and when they returned to the common room he spent two hours before the three of them went to bed staring at a clock, tapping his fingers against the desk as it slowly ticked. When the three of them returned to the common room three hours later, Harry was practically vibrating in desperate glee. The three of them went under the invisibility cloak and slowly crept through the castle.
"Harry, I'm freezing. We should just forget this and go back to bed." Ron whispered. It was an hour later. They had tried to retrace Harry steps after he left the library the previous night for the last hour, but since Harry had been more focused in not getting caught by Filch and Snape, he couldn't really remember where he was going, even if he remembered the destination. In addition while Harry's enthusiasm kept the cold away, the same couldn't be said for Ron and Marie. Ron wasn't much of a morning person, but that didn't mean that he was a night person either. Marie meanwhile didn't have any pajama pants, leaving her legs exposed to the night air. In addition, neither of them had any slippers and Harry was so insistent that they head out immediately that he didn't give them anytime to put on socks, leaving their feet exposed to the frigid stone floors of the castle corridors. Both of them were miserable. "Come on Harry, my feet are getting cold." Ron complained quietly as they passed a tall female ghost. "Yeah, I'd rather not take the chance that walking across cold floors can give me frostbite." Marie muttered bitterly. "Come on guys, we're nearly there." Harry responded excitedly. "It's here, it's here." he stated as he approached a door near a suit of armor and opened it. "YES!" Harry threw the cloak off and sprinted into the room, Ron and Marie following behind him, shrugging the cloak off them.
Inside the room was a mirror five meters high and wrapped in a solid gold frame. It stood straight and rigid on two clawed feet and shone in the moonlight, the light reflecting off it's surface as if it had recently been cleaned. Harry was staring into it, almost reverently, as if he were about to start worshipping the thing. As the two of them got closer, Marie noticed that ornate writing was carved, almost seared into the frame above the mirror. It said Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. 'What is that, Latin or Old English?' Marie thought as she moved closer to Harry, still giving him a respectful distance. 'Whatever he's seeing there, I hope it's not contagious.'
"Do you see?" Harry whispered. Ron and Marie looked at each other warily. "Harry, we can't see anything." Ron responded. Harry grabbed Ron and dragged him in front of the mirror with him. "Look!" He exclaimed as he pointed at the mirror. "Look at them all... there are loads of them." "I just see the two of us Harry." Ron stated nervously. "Look at it properly, go on, stand where I am." Harry backed away from the mirror, leaving Ron in front of it. Ron eyes grew as he stared at the mirror, his mouth dropping in amazement. "Can you see your family?" Harry asked eagerly. "No...I'm alone, and older. And I'm head boy!" "What?!" Harry exclaimed. "Yeah I'm with him, what?!" Marie also exclaimed. "I am, I'm standing there with the badge that Bill used to wear. And I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup-I'm Quidditch captain too!" He looked over to them grinning. "Hey, do you think that this mirror shows the future." "How can it? All my family are dead." He then turned to Marie. "Why don't you have a go, maybe you can see them." Harry stated, shoving Marie forward in front of the mirror. Marie stumbled at the force of the shove, accidentally knocking Ron over and almost to the floor, forcing him to regain his balance outside of the view of the mirror. Regaining her balance, she was about to turn to glare at Harry when something caught her attention in the mirror, causing her to gasp.
It was herself, and yet at the same time it wasn't. She was older, much like Ron had described his vision, but where Ron had stated that he was a teenager late in his years at Hogwarts, this Marie was in her late twenties or early thirties, standing at a height of 1.8 meters. Her hair, at her current age being straight and short, in the mirror was long and wavy, going down to her lower back. On her face she wore black lipstick and mascara and several piercings, two on each side of her nostrils, three each on her upper ear and a pair on her earlobes and two small piercings on her left upper lip. She wore black designer skinny jeans, a pair of three inch black heels, a blood red short sleeve polo shirt, a loose fitting black tie and a black leather and chain collar around her neck. Her hands were adorned with blue nail polish and her arms had two tattoos that sprouted from under her sleeves, on her right arm a red and gold chinese dragon and on her left arm was a silver and blue tiger whose head curled up against a platinum watch with two sapphires and two emeralds representing the cardinal directions. The strangest thing to Marie was that she wasn't alone.
Standing next to her with his arm around her shoulder was a tall man about 1.9 meters in height. Unlike the goth inspired look that older Marie had, the man wore more formal clothing, a combination of a light blue collared shirt and pale green tie underneath a light gray sweater and a pair of khakis and brown dress shoes. But the most recognizable thing about him was a familiar sock hat that covered his hair. She knew who he was immediately. As she looked closer, with a little bit of hope, she saw that on both of their right hands had a gold ring around their ring fingers. Her older self was snuggling into his shoulder when she saw her older self sprout a sly grin. Her older self moved closer and wrapped her arms around her husband and gave him a sultry gaze. He blushed as Marie saw her older self speak words that she couldn't hear, but she did see his blush flush a deeper and deeper red. Unnoticed by him, Marie saw that her older self's hand was creeping closer and closer to the edge of his hat. Then, her older self pulled his hat down over his eyes before bopping him on the nose. Her older self chuckled as Double-D returned his hat to the top of his head, grumbling. And then the amount of people in the mirror grew.
First to join was a woman with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that went down to the middle of her back. She was freckled with a pair of brass earrings and wore a lime green blouse with dark blue skinny jeans and a pair of red sneakers. The woman had apparently seen what the older Marie had done, as she was chuckling behind her hand. She removed the hand to show that she had a radiant buck toothed smile. She then sprouted a cunning grin of her own and snuck up behind Double-D. With strength and surprise, she grabbed the back of his head and shoved it forward. He stumbled and grabbed Marie in a vice grip to keep himself from falling over, causing his open mouth to smack into Marie's, bringing them into a kiss. The two of them blushed heavily as they withdrew, causing May to start laughing heavily. Angered, the older Marie chased after her, the two of them flying in and out of frame like a Scooby Doo cartoon.
The two siblings disappeared out of the frame for a twelfth time, but when they returned, they weren't chasing each other anymore. Instead the two of them were being dragged back into frame by their ears. The person dragging them was a redhead with short curly hair cut just above her milk chocolate brown eyes. It was obvious by the annoyed glare that she was giving the both of them that it was Lee. She wore a light blue denim jacket over a magenta t-shirt with blue sweatpants with a white stripe on each side and black steel toed boots. She had evolved and was now acting more like their mother had been when they were younger and causing trouble as she glared at them reproachfully. A devious smirk then appeared on her face before she placed both of her younger siblings under her left arm and started to give both of them nogies, showing that she hadn't changed that much. The older version of May and Marie squirmed out of her grasp and while May was busy trying to fix her hair style while grumbling bitterly, Marie shoved Lee, looking like she was hoping to get a rise from her, only for Lee to start chuckling, causing Marie to pout. But then something unexpected happened.
A man with long shoulder length wavy black hair, a goatee and an outfit consisting of a black dress shirt, black dress and black dress shoes. While there were a few gray hairs in his goatee and his hair, he looked almost exactly like he did in the photographs that her mother had shown her at a time that seems so long ago. He was laughing, almost like a dog when it barks. Next to him, watching her children tenderly, was her mother. She was much older, her strawberry blonde hair now almost silver and tied back in a bun. There were wrinkles under her eyes, which were framed behind a set of thin wire frame glasses. But she also looked healthier, she looked less stressed, her hips weren't as wide and she wore a pale yellow shirt and cut jeans. She had a peaceful smile on her face that Marie had never seen on her. She then noticed that she wasn't the only one who looked healthier, as when Lee smiled back at her, Marie noticed that the caps Lee got for the two root canals she had when she was seven weren't there.
Then two new characters ran into the frame. They were children, the oldest looking no older than eleven and the youngest no older than seven. The elder child was a girl with long black hair wearing a teal blue shirt and green shorts, while the younger child was a boy with spiky blonde hair wearing a red and black striped shirt and dark blue shorts. They were darting around the adults, the boy gleefully sprinting while carrying a letter in his hands while the girl chased after him in anger. They weaved in and out of frame, around the adults, between them, under and at one point they even went over Lee. The chase ended when Marie grabbed the boy and lifted him up into her arms, causing him to shriek in surprise. She started to smother the boy, causing him to try to get away. The girl, now shown to be her future daughter, pouting at her mother's action until she felt her father tap her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw him give a coy smile before giving her the letter. She takes it and looks up at her mother, who gives her a wink, before she smiles and hugs her father and opens her letter. She then starts cheering, jumping up and down as she shows her mom before running and showing her grandparents and her aunts, who interacted with her with pride and joy.
It was perfect. It was everything that she wanted. What was it to her that this wasn't real? What did it matter that the life that was being presented was likely to never happen? This vision was hers, it belonged to her alone. And nobody was going to keep her from staying here staying at this hypnotic and poignant dream. At least, that's what she thought. But then the vision faded and she became dimly aware of someone shaking her arm and shouting at her.
"MARIE! MARIE! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Marie dimly returned to the world of the living. She was back, back in the moonlight room somewhere on the fourth floor in the early hours of the morning in the middle of winter in the Scottish Highlands, standing in front of a magic mirror in a cold stoney castle in her pajamas. As she returned to a state of coherent consciousness, much like coming out of a drug induced haze where you don't know where you are and find yourself with a strange man or woman who is just as confused as you are, she found that she wasn't where she originally was. Where she had previously been about 2 meters away from the mirror, she was now less than half a meter from it. Ron was grasping her right arm, trying to drag her from the mirror as her left hand stretched out towards the mirror's surface, almost touching it with her finger tips. Still in a slight daze, she let Ron lead her over towards a desk off to the side and out of view of the mirror, where he sat her down.
"What in Merlin's name happened back there?! You looked like you were possessed!" Marie blinked, looking into Ron's worried blue eyes. She felt hazy. She liked her mouth. It was dry. With difficulty, she moved her arms. It felt like she was moving sand. A headache was coming on. She opened her mouth. "I...I don't know." she rasped. "When I was looking into that mirror, I just couldn't look away, I couldn't leave, I didn't want to leave." "What did you see? Did you see your family?" The two of them looked up. They had forgotten that Harry was there, but now he was kneeling down, looking up at her eyes. Her eyes darted away as she regained her breath. "Yes and no." She got up, Ron still holding her arm. She was grateful for that, as she felt a strong need to get back in front of the mirror. "It was a life that I always wanted. The life I want to achieve and the life I started with at the same time. It was, it was." She sighed and shook her head. "It was just a hopeless dream. A past I never had leading to a future I'll never see." It was stunning to her that that sentence was such a struggle to say.
She looked behind her friends, to the mirror still stood in the center of the room. There was a strong desire to return to being in front of that mirror, but that was fought heavily against by a new feeling, fear. That mirror had manipulated her mind, controlled her body, took away her free will. Whatever that thing was, there wasn't any doubt left in her mind that that mirror was infused with dark magic. Anger now coursed through her veins. Steeling herself and resisting the urge to go back to the front of the mirror, she instead went behind it.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, concern in his voice. Marie grabs the side of the mirror before twisting her head so that her visible eye is looking at him. "I'm breaking this." "WHAT?! WHY?!" "Because this thing is dangerous." she spat as she bent over and braced her hand underneath the mirror's frame. "Whatever magic this thing has is twisting our minds, forcing us to continue to gaze at this mirror like we were Narcissus! And I for one will not be allowing any of us to starve to death entranced by something that isn't real!" "But it showed me my parents! It showed you and your family happy! It showed Ron achieving his dreams!" Harry shouted, approaching Marie with his hands balled into fists. "Exactly!" Marie shouted in response. "It showed me what I wanted, it showed Ron what he wanted and it showed you what you wanted! But it can't bring it here! This mirror works off of drug logic. It gives you a hit to draw you in and then continues to reinforce that high until you're so hooked that that's all you think about! All it's doing is manipulating you!" "You're just trying to keep me from seeing my family!" "THAT ISN'T YOUR FAMILY!" she shreached. "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IF HALF OF THE PEOPLE IN THE MIRROR EVEN EXISTED! WHEN I SAW THE FUTURE VERSION OF MY FAMILY, I AT LEAST HAVE PICTURES OR MEMORIES OF THEM AS A REFERENCE POINT OF WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE! YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THAT, SO WHAT YOU SEE AS YOUR PARENTS MIGHT NOT EVEN BE WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE!" She started to lift the mirror, her arms straining against the weight of the five ton mirror. "I'm sorry Harry, but I'm not going to let you waste away staring at something that's no longer there!"
She did not expect the sudden burst of pain on her right cheek, nor the taste of copper in her mouth. She then felt another burst of pain on her right eye, as well as a ringing in her ears, her vision flashing white spots as she let go of the mirror. She hit her head on the hard stone floor, intensifying the pain in her head as the ringing increased. And then she started having trouble breathing. A vice grip pressed down on her throat, causing pain at the back of her tongue. She started rasping, the white spots disappearing as the room came into hazy clarity. She saw a pair of round glasses over emerald green eyes on a snarling face. 'Huh, I guess I should've seen this coming. Probably wasn't a good idea to try to destroy it while he was still in the room.' A pair of arms wrapped around Harry's throat then, pulling him off of Marie's. She gasps as she started to get up, rubbing her throat as she regained her breath. She looked up and saw Ron struggling to restrain Harry, as Harry was ramming his elbows into Ron's sides in an attempt to make him let go. "Ron grab his other arm!" she shouted as she got up and sprinted towards them. She grabbed Harry's left arm as Ron grabbed his right. "Come on!" she commanded and the two of them dragged their unwilling prisoner out of the room and towards Gryffindor Tower, Harry shouting at them as they moved.
As they moved down the corridors and up the flights of stairs back towards the tower, Harry started to resist his bondage less and less. Eventually when they reached the seventh floor, Harry stopped. He went limp in their arms as he let them listlessly drag him back towards the portrait hole. "Bittere roote." Ron said. "It certainly is." The Fat Lady said, looking rather hungover and a spilled goblet of some amber liquid on the ground. The portrait swung open and they pulled themselves into the common room and up the stairs to the 1st year boys dorm. They tucked him into his bed and sat down on Ron's. A cold wind was audible outside of the window, its howl roaring in the night. None of them slept.
"Really? He did that?" "Yeah, but I don't think that it was a conscious action. That mirror is twisting his mind to the point where it's the only thing that he cares about." "Do you two think he remembers?" "I'd be surprised if he didn't, but it's a possibility." It was the next morning in the Great Hall. Ron and Marie were sitting across from Fred and George at breakfast the next morning. Overhead the enchanted ceiling was showing a bombardment of a massive blizzard, with thick snowflakes flying through the air at 90 kilometers per hour. Marie and Ron looked terrible. Neither had bathed and they haven't slept a wink since they woke up to head to the mirror they both now feared. Both of them had bags under their eyes, though one of Marie's was hidden by the black eye she now sported on the right side of her face. Both had caffeinated beverages in front of them. Ron had tried a regular coffee with cream, but he had shoved it away saying that it tasted like muddy water, so he was currently drinking his second steaming cup of black chai tea. Marie on the other hand was finishing off her third drink of six shot espresso. It didn't help their mood, but at least it kept them functioning.
"Still I can't believe that that mirror affected Harry so much that he tried to strangle you." Fred stated grimly, nursing his own cup of chai. "I know that he can have a temper when he gets angry, but he's not one to get violent." George also muttered, a cup of green jasmine was in front of him. Marie took a sip from her small cup, looking at their troubled faces. "I know, that's why I think it's a good idea if we destroy that mirror as quickly as possible. You guys think you can get the beater bats from the Quidditch shed?" Marie asked. "Sure. Shouldn't be too hard. Madam Hooch decided to stay here this year so all we have to do is tell her that you want to practice making breakaways while dodging bludgers and we should be able to get the bats and smash that mirror to pieces." George answered. A loud howl came from above, causing all four of them to look up. They look back down. "But not today." Fred finished, drinking his mug. "Yeah, we're more likely to get lost in the snow and freeze to death before we even get to the Quidditch shed." Ron replied. "Least that explains why Hagrid isn't here." Marie muttered as she finished her espresso.
She looked over at Harry. He was sitting over at the nearly abandoned Hufflepuff table, gazing into one of the fires on the wall. The other three follow her gaze. He had been staring at it ever since they got there an hour ago. The four of them wordlessly got up and walked over towards him, stopping on the other side of the table away from him. "Hey mate, are you alright?" Fred asked. "Yes." Harry whispered disinterestedly. "Do you want to play a game of chess?" Ron asked. "I'm not interested." Harry answered. "Well, do you want to have some hot chocolate?" George asked. "Not really." Harry uttered. The four of them looked at each other worriedly. "Harry, I know that you want to see that mirror, but please, no matter what that mirror shows you, it's not going to bring them back." Harry didn't answer. "Harry, I know that you don't want to hear this from me but I'm begging you, don't go back to that mirror tonight." Marie said, tears rolling down her face. Harry turned sharply, an intense, hateful glare blazing from his face. The four of them back up, terrified. Harry remained glaring at them for a good minute before turning back around, his gaze returning to the fire. Knowing that there would be nothing else that they could possibly say to him, the four of them returned to their seats, the four of them grasping the mugs to keep their hands from shaking.
"It's getting worse. If we don't destroy that mirror soon, he's never going to leave that room. Not without force anyway." It was the late afternoon. The blizzard had intensified as the day had gone on to the point where the gates to the entrance hall had to be barricaded to keep it from collapsing. Despite this, Marie and Ron had decided to spend some time in a courtyard by the Transfiguration classroom. It was cold and biting, forcing Marie to cover her face with a balaclava and to offer Ron her spare one. "We're not going to do anything if this storm doesn't let up. Unless you want to risk detention by breaking off pieces of furniture from the common room and using table legs as clubs." Ron states coldly. "Honestly I'm prepared to actually do that if the storm doesn't let up by tomorrow." Marie replies. "Even without staring at that thing all the time it's killing him. You noticed how he didn't eat anything at breakfast or lunch." "Yeah, he didn't drink anything either. Nor did he eat or drink last night at dinner." "Exactly, if we don't destroy the mirror soon he's going to starve to death, if he doesn't die from thirst first."
"Speaking of eating or drinking, I noticed that you didn't do any of that earlier at lunch either." Marie looks down and starts rubbing her gloved hands together. "Is the mirror affecting you as well?" She turns to him, a tired expression in her eyes. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't. I don't know what would've happened if I had touched the mirror, but I don't want to find out. I'm already struggling enough with keeping myself away from that room." "Really?" Marie nods. "Weird. I was in front of that mirror as well, so why aren't I feeling any desire to go back to it?" "Probably because you weren't in front of it long enough to have much of an effect on you. Or maybe because what you saw wasn't as emotionally poignant for you to leave that much of an effect on you. Either way, it's actually rather fortunate that you don't feel that way because you still have a clean mind and can think about the situation rationally." She turned back to the storm, the darkening sky causing the torch flames to cast a dark and menacing glow along the wall of the terrace. "I, on the other hand, don't have that luxury. I'm not sure how that mirror works when it comes to its mental influence, but I'm worried about its effects on me. For all I know I'm just as likely to develop an intensified desire to look in the mirror again as I am to lose that desire. And I'm terrified by the prospect that I'll be acting like Harry is now tomorrow."
The two of them stood silently, the harsh roar of the wind the only sound filling the courtyard. They stood there for five minutes before Ron opened his mouth. "What did you see in that mirror that made you scared enough to decide to destroy the mirror? I noticed that when you told my brothers what happened last night that you didn't mention what you saw in the mirror. Bloody hell you barely told us what you saw while we were there last night and even then you were vague about it." Marie rubbed her gloved hand over her eyes, holding back a wince as she brushed one finger over her bruise. "I saw...I saw." she choked. It was harder to get the words out than she thought it would've. "I saw a future. A future that I want to happen so badly." she answered sadly. "I was married to the guy I like back home. I had kids. My dad was back and married to my mom. She didn't look as stressed. Everything was...perfect."
She bit her lip, inhaling a sharp intake of breath. 'I will not cry. I will not cry.' She braced herself on a stone pillar, the snow hitting her with the stinging sensation of paintball pellets. It felt oddly soothing. "That actually sounds very nice. But, if you knew that, why were you so passionate about destroying the mirror earlier this morning?" "Because it's like I said then, it's just a lie." she said as she turned away from the openings. "It was a fantasy. A fantasy that more likely than not will never come true. Double-D is as likely to marry Nazz or May or some other girl than he hasn't met yet as he is me. Heck it's more likely that he'll marry Hermione in the future, seeing that they share similar interests and have the same passion for education and learning. I also know that it's almost a certainty that I'll never see my dad again, wherever he is, and that I'll probably keep my hair short instead of let it grow out and wear bright clothes rather than become a goth. Christ for all I know my metabolism will crap out and by the time I'm the same age I was in the mirror I'll weigh thirty stone. All I saw was a possibility. And I can't spend the rest of my life obsessing over what might be or what could've been. And to see Harry obsess over what might've been, to forget to live with us in the here and now, it, it's heartbreaking."
The two of them went over to a bench next to a corridor. Marie slumped into it, physically and emotionally exhausted. Ron quietly joined her. Marie sighed as she watched the snow continue to pile up on the low wall. "What I don't understand is why my mother and both of my sisters were there. May I might be able to see as I'm still writing to her, but I'm not on speaking terms with Lee or my mom. If that mirror shows us what we want, then why would it show me people that I don't want to see right now?" Ron put his fist under his check, his other index finger tapping his leg as he sat there, pondering. His eyebrows then suddenly shot up, his eyes widening as he stumbled upon an answer.
"Maybe, you did want to see them." Marie shot up in disbelief. "What!? No, no I don't want to see them! I don't want to talk to them, I don't want to write to them! As far as I'm concerned they can wallow in their own stink for all I care!" Ron stared at her, clearly not convinced. "Marie, you said that that mirror shows us what we want. It showed Harry what he wanted most of all, it showed me what I wanted most of all and you admitted that it showed you most of what you wanted most of all. Admit it, you want all of your family in your life and you want all of them to be happy." Marie opened her mouth again to protest only for Ron to interrupt her again. "And before you deny it, I'm not the one that spent most of the last month acting like a depressed husk because you were homesick." "I wasn't homesick!" she growled. Ron quirked an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush. "Well, not completely." "Not completely? What on earth did they do to make you this miserable?"
And so Marie told him everything. About how her mother had hid that her father was a wizard, why he left them, that he was still alive, that she was registered for this school from the day she was born, about how she apparently had a vault she never knew about. She talked about the massive burst of accidental magic she had afterward, about how afterward her sisters had shut her out, as if she was some kind of wild dog that would bite them at the smallest opportunity. While May had got over it and apologized, Lee hadn't and in fact had gotten cold and even hostile with her. She talked about how angry she was, at Lee, at her mother, at her father, at herself, at the wizarding world in general. She talked about her struggle with forgiveness by extending the olive branch and her pride in wanting her family to apologize first, her guilt in hiding her communication with her little sister, her guilt on how her last words to her mother were ones of bitterness. Every bit of confused and strained mismash of anger, frustration, bitterness, sorrow, understanding, pain, desire, fear, worry, misery and angst spewed out of her like a broken faucet. By the time she was finished, she looked just like she felt, physically and emotionally exhausted.
Ron stared at her with pity, watching as one of his best friends came close to suffering a mental breakdown. He grabbed her hand and gently grasped it. "Hey hey, it's alright. It's okay. Just take a few deep breaths." She did, having not noticed that she had started hyperventilating. "Now, it's okay that you feel this way. And considering how stubborn you can be, it's no wonder that you kept such a big grudge. And honestly, your older sister sounds like she needs to apologize first. You don't need to write to her if you don't want to." Marie nodded, a sense of relief washing over her. "But, what's going on between you and your mum can't continue. It's tearing you apart and you're on the verge of a complete emotional collapse. Yes, what she did wasn't right, but you weren't exactly innocent in what happened between you and I think she believes that she can't apologize first because she thinks that you won't listen to her. You need to write so that she'll know that you're willing to talk to her. You don't have to apologize right away if you don't want to, but you do need to start repairing bridges." He gets up, his hand still in Marie's. "Come on, let's get out of the cold." Marie looked up at him, a large smile, the first she's had in three weeks, hidden behind her balaclava as joyful tears glistened at the edges of her eyes. "Yeah, that sounds nice."
The two of them headed back into the castle and had an early dinner in the Great Hall with the rest of the Weasley's. While the sight of Harry staring nearly resolutely as a gargoyle at the fireplace in the Great Hall was demoralizing, Marie was able to laugh at a few of Fred and George's jokes and even poked fun at Percy on several occasions. It felt nice to experience the simple pleasures of joy and humor again. So when the two of them went up to the common room with large mugs of hot chocolate, they were focusing on trying to enjoy the rest of the day. Try did not expect the sharp raping on one of the windows when they arrived.
"Oh my god!" Marie sprinted to the window and opened it, the harsh wind almost causing the Great Gray Owl to tumble into the room as it flew in. After closing the window with Ron's help, they went over to the owl that had set down by the fireplace. "How on earth were you able to get here through this storm? I know you're tough but you could've waited another day if you needed to deliver a letter." The owl blinked tiredly, a defiant gaze locked on Marie. It then moved its head towards the couch. Ron and Marie followed its view towards a cushion where two things rested, a massive envelope that seemed to be bursting at the seams and a 5.5"X8.5" package wrapped in red wrapping paper with white snowflakes. Ron, being closer to the couch, went over and picked up the envelope. "It's for you." He said as he handed the envelope to Marie. She looked at her name, which was spelled out in neat orderly script. 'Is this?' she thought. Her eyes flicked up to the top left of the envelope and her suspicions were confirmed.
Eddward Marion Vincent,
2 Drummerton Court,
Peach Creek, Wisconsin, 54424
"Oh my god! Please please please be what I think it is." She ripped open the envelope and withdrew two pages of folded printer paper. At the very top of the first page was the name Nicolas Flamel. As she skimmed down the page and the next one, she started to giggle. As she progressed further and further, the giggling got louder and a massive grin spread across her face. "Marie? Are you okay?" Ron asked with a bit of concern. She turned with resounding speed and wrapped Ron in a crushing hug and started to jump around the room. "YES! YES! YES! OVENMITT DID IT! HE DID IT! HE GOT THE INFO! HAHAHA! OH I CAN'T WAIT TO RUBS THIS IN MIONE'S FACE!" "Marie. Ribs. Cracking. Spine. Snapping." "Oh sorry." Marie said as he let him down. "I'm just so excited! All those nights of research are finally over!" Ron's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean?" "Yes, we finally have information about Nicolas Flamel!" Ron blinked and then started to laugh. "Oh thank Merlin, we no longer have to go to the library and search through boring tomes!" "All we have to do now is read just a few pieces of paper." Grinning, the two of them turned to the article.
"Okay, no wonder we couldn't find anything in those books about modern wizards, he was born back in 1330 in the fourteenth century. We weren't going to find anything there." "Great, so we basically spent the last six weeks of our lives wasting our time." Ron groused bitterly. "Hey, all we had was a name and we couldn't ask the librarian for help. Nobody can blame us for not finding anything with such limited information to start off with. Besides, it doesn't seem like he was that important. Or that interesting, to be honest. No children, didn't marry until he was thirty eight, moderately wealthy due to his wives previous two marriages, ran two shops as an independent scribe, donated regularly to the Catholic Church, even designed his own tombstone which is now housed in the Musee de Cluny. But he had to have been both interesting and important for Dumbledore to work with him, unless Dumbledore really liked creating medieval manuscripts. How old is Dumbledore anyway?" "I think he turned 126 earlier this year." "What really?! Then how in Christ's thorny crown did Flamel live long enough to actually meet him. There's got to be something we're missing."
It was at that moment that she got a better look at the third section. 'Posthumous reputation as an Alchemist?' She quickly read through the first paragraph, her eyes widening as she progressed through it. "Ron, you got to listen to this! Legendary accounts of Flamel's life are based on 17th century works, primarily 'Livre des figures hieroglyphiques'. The essence of his reputation are claims that he succeeded at the goals of alchemy: that he made the Philosopher's Stone, which turns base metals into gold, and that he and his wife, Perenelle, achieved immortality through the Elixir of Life." Marie put the papers down, frozen in shock. "Marie, do you think that those rumors might have some basis in fact?" Ron uttered in slight disbelief. "Harry said that the package that Hagrid withdrew was no more than five centimeters long. Do you think?" Marie asked in silent awe, the realization already already confirmed in her head. "Yeah. I think whatever that dog is guarding is the Philosopher's Stone."
The two of them sat in silent amazement as they let this information sooke in. "Wow." Marie stated as she leaned her head back into the couch. "No wonder Snape and Filch are after this. To have all the gold you want and to live forever." "Yeah, who on earth can resist something like that?" "Not to mention that with all of that gold they wouldn't have to deal with snot nosed kids that they hate anymore. They're practically trying to get their hands on the ultimate retirement fund." The two of them laid back on the couch, amazed at what they knew. "Geez. All the gold and years you could ever want. What do you think you would do with it if you had a Philosopher's Stone Ron?" Ron brushed his hand through his hair as he considered Marie's question. "Well, I'd probably buy the Chudley Cannons. I'm sure I'd put together a better team than the current ownership group. I'd also get a new house, new clothes." He then withdrew his wand. "Maybe a new wand as well. This used to be Charlie's and it never quite felt right with me. What about you?" "Me? I'd get a new house as well, put down a deposit for my college tuition. I'd probably get a cell phone, never had one of those before. Get a laptop and some art software, maybe an easel and a kiln. My own sink so that I can dispose of the chemicals I'm going to use for film development, a dark room, a film camera and a digital camera, a printing screen, ink, carving tools, a high pressure hose, a tub of liquid rust, about twenty copper plates, an ink press, ground, a 3-D printer, a laser printer, a sports car, some new clothes, a bike, actually a lot of things." She then sighed wistfully, a small smile on her face. "But the biggest thing I'd like to do is to travel the world. To go to every art museum in the world and study the works of the great masters. To see the greatest feats of architecture in the world and the treasures they store. To experience the culture of every country I can go to and see every important sight. With all the money in the world and all the time in the world, I'd be able to experience the breath of the world and all its wonders."
Ron grinned. "Sounds ambitious." Marie sighed. "Yeah, I guess it is. But hey, I can dream can't I?" "Heh, I suppose." Ron then picked up the package. "Got to really hand it to this Double-D guy, he really pulled through for us. Looks like he also sent you a late Christmas present." he said as he handed her the package. "Nah, I asked him to get a present for Runcorn and if there's an issue that I have with him is that whenever someone asks him for help he's never able to say no. I swear, that guy is going to wear himself out doing too many favors for people." She opened the package and pulled out a copy of Of Mice and Men. "See, just fulfilling a favor. He wouldn't send something to someone who's just an acquaintance…" she trailed off as she spotted another book. She pulled it out and took a look at the cover and read it completely. She opened the book and skimmed through the first chapter. She then closed and started to silently chuckle. "What? What's so funny?" Wordlessly, Marie handed him the book, her mouth in a pained closed smile as she struggled to keep herself from guffawing. Ron looked at the cover and read it out loud. "The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott". He opened the book and saw that written on the blank cover page in blue ink was this a message.
Eddy and I thought that this would be a good resource for you to use in your research. If your friend likes the book we got her, please send me another request. I'm more than willing to get her more literature. I understand your worries about isolation, but I find that spending time with others tends to help me get out of my bad moods. I noticed that you are spending time with your fellow students and seem to be having a good time. I suggest talking to them about these feelings, you're not doing yourself any favors by suppressing them. If you would like to write to me again, I am willing to reply, though I'm not going to do your suggestions on "stupisd things". I suffer enough of those without seeking them out. Keep working and I guess I'll see you this summer.
Sincerely, Double-D
P.S. Please don't write a love letter to me again, you're not very good at them.
"Uh Marie, what is this about a love letter?" Ron asked. "That cheeky little a-hole." Marie chuckled as she wiped a few tears from her eyes. "He did this to get back at me for all the trouble I gave him when we were working on projects back in elementary school." "What did you do?" "Oh you know, flirted, joked, kissed him and tried to get him to touch my breast." "What was that last part?" "Uh, I didn't read the directions and caused some lab accidents. He gets really annoyed when his work is delayed." she responded with a nervous look in her eyes. "I can see that. I swear I felt that I aged 100 years trying to find out who Flamel is. I can only imagine how long that this guy took." "Oh it likely took him less than five minutes." Ron looked at her with incredulity. "WHAT?!" "Yeah. All thanks to the internet." Ron was now completely confused. "What the bloody hell is an internet?" "Think of it as a giant library filled with every bit of information you can think of and you can access it with little more than a few words written in a search bar. And all of it is practically instant as long as you have the right equipment." "Equipment?" "Computers." Ron is about to ask when Marie interrupts him. "I'll explain later."
Ron shook his head as he picked up the book again. "So is this important for what we need to know about Flamel." Marie shook her head in the negative. "Not really. It's just a bit of fiction for fun. There might be a deeper meaning if you look into it deeper, but it's just a story that people like. We muggles have tons of stories like this, going back thousands of years." Marie then got a slightly depressed look on her face. "Least he bothered to send a Christmas present." "What? You mean your family didn't send a present?" "No, well at least I don't think so. I didn't find one in the pile I had on Christmas morning." "Did you search for it?" "Well no, not initially. I wasn't really focusing on who sent what when I was stacking them to carry them down here. I only tried to find it after I came down stairs and tripped...over the...ottoman." Marie got up off the couch and got on the floor in front of one of the arm chairs. "It's still here somewhere. Help me find it." Ron quickly got off the couch and started to search the room, under the desks and chairs and couch as they tried to find the illusive present. "Ah ha! Found it!" Ron shouted, using his long gangly arms to extract a rectangular box from under the Christmas tree. "It must've slid under here when you tripped." Marie, who had been checking behind the wood container, moved to where Ron is and grabbed the, where written on the package in black sharpie were two phrases.
To: Marie, From: Your Family.
"It feels heavier than I thought it would." Marie commented as she fell into an armchair. With a sigh to steel her nerves, she ripped off the wrapping paper and opened up the box. Underneath it was actually three packages. The first was a record player which didn't have a plug for some reason, which initially confused Marie until she pulled out a set of forty AA batteries. 'Oh so it's battery operated.' she thought as she removed the record player. She then gasped. "What? What is it?" Marie said nothing as she withdrew a record. It was a 12 inch vinyl record covered by a tan cover. On the front of it was a bearded man dancing with a woman on top of a chair and written across it with dark gold letters was the word Rumours. Marie smiled, her eyes misting with tears as she rested her head against the cover. "Thank you Mom. Thank you so very much." Ron placed his hand on her shoulder. "I take it you like it." Marie moved the record player over to the coffee table, tore open the battery case and placed two batteries inside the case. She then flipped the album to show Ron. "Before my family moved to Peach Creek, we used to live in a city called Chicago. We lived in a run down apartment in Englewood. To afford the rent my mom would work multiple jobs. One of those jobs was at a jukebox diner. We would sometimes go to the restaurant to see her after school. Now, a jukebox is a music box that holds multiple songs and records. And this was my favorite album to listen to. I would listen to this all the time whenever my sisters and I went there. When we moved, there weren't any diners I could go to listen to and we couldn't afford a cassette player or a CD player and the car radio is broken. This is the first time I will listen to this album in three years."
Marie carefully removed the record from the package. Carefully balancing the black record between her fingers, she placed it on the phonograph. She checked the song listing and carefully placed the needle on the record and turned it on. At that moment, the melodic beat of the drums and minimalistic guitar flowed out of the speakers, followed by the ethereal keyboard chords and then the soothing voice of Stevie Nicks singing about letting someone go while warning about the loneliness that will come when you're looking back on what had been. It was just as good as she remembered it, a slow dance song about the loss of love because of insurmountable differences. "God, I can not tell you how much I've missed listening to this. I've asked my family for this album every year for three years and to finally have it…" "Well I will admit, this is better than the Celestenia Warbeck my mum always listens to." The two of them listened to Dreams and the following subsequent songs on side A before it receded into nothingness and the needle released from the record. "Is that it? Only six songs?" "No, there are five more songs on the other side of the album." Marie then flipped the album over and placed it on side B. "I'm going to have to be very careful with this. These records are extremely fragile and I don't know how to repair it if it gets so much as a scratch on it."
She placed the needle back on and The Chain started up. As the guitar started to flow, Ron spoke. "We'll ask Fred and George about that spell later. It shouldn't be too hard for us to figure it out." Marie smiled before she hurried upstairs. She returned clutching a long roll of parchment, a few quills and an unopened bottle of ink. "Come on." she gestured with her head towards a desk. "I'm going to need some help with this and I'm pretty sure that Mom will like to hear from one of my friends." Ron grinned as the two of them headed over to the table as outside the window the snow started to calm and the storm began to cease.
God this took a long time to finish. You can't see this but this is about eighteen pages of work including the foreword. Still probably would've gotten this done sooner if I didn't end up addicted to Netflix's two seasons of MST3K, so that's also partially to blame. Also Lego Indiana Jones and Napoleon: Total War but I do need breaks. Expect to see the next chapter in two weeks. It will be shorter this time and I'll be spending a lot of time primarily focusing on writing more outlines. Stay safe, remember to vote and thank you for your time.
