So, the year's over. You know I was hoping that I would be heading back to college to get my graduate degree already. Stupid virus outbreak. Least I was able to get a job. Please let things change by next year so that I can apply to more retail positions. And of course there's been so much boredom lately. Rain, writing, disinterest. Even hockey has tapered off as the Stanley Cup Finals came and went. Right now I'm just watching MST3K, , this is a bit of a new format but I'm mainly using this chapter to both A) clear up some conflict as we head towards the ending without giving my audience any confusion in the normal story and B) work out some point of view pieces from Hogwarts students. I'm going to start with Harry, as the original point-of-view character, it just seems the most appropriate. Don't worry, I'll be using others as well as I flesh out the story, I'm going for that Killer Angels and The Heroes of Olympus series feel. Remember, all of the Omakes are important, if not always story pushing. I also have a small announcement to make. The fanfic in this series based on the Ed, Edd n Eddy Great Picture Show is going to be separate from year two and three. I want to have a little bit of a breather. Oh who am I kidding, I'm too ambitious in storytelling for my own good. Right, I'm going to post some more story ideas I'm going to do in the front page sheet, including one between the X-men and Fairly Oddparents, one between Code Lyoko and Miraculous Ladybug and one between Dragonball and Scooby-Doo! And no, that last one will not involve Shaggy defeating Super Saiyan Blue blue effortlessly. That meme is dead and it was stupid to begin with. Get over it. Oh, and tune in for another announcement in the next chapter. Trust me, it's going to be amazing. I do not own Harry Potter or Ed, Edd n Eddy. Those are the properties of J.K. Rowling, AT&T and WarnerMedia.

Harry and the Mirror

It was dark, darker than he would like. The heavy snowstorm that had been going on all day had yet to dissipate by the time night had fallen, and it was still raging now at 2:00 a.m., making it difficult for him to see as he tried to navigate the winding corridors and sentianent staircases that made up his home. Yes, his home. That immaculately kept, tidy, sterile and upper middle class house that he was forced to reside at for the last ten years of his life wasn't his home. At best it was a place he was allowed to crash at and at worst it was a prison. A place where his so called family made it their life goal to make his existence as miserable as humanly possible. The only consolation he had was that Dudley was the only one who routinely beat him. They weren't family, not really. They may have his blood, but there was no love between them. His family was dead, buried in the ground for as long as he can remember, but now, at least now, he could see them.

To think that he had once been concerned by such trivial things such as homework, house points, Quidditch, Snape, the Philosopher's Stone and friends. Friends. Who needs them? They didn't understand. They thought that the mirror was dangerous, that it was mentally manipulative. What did they know? What did they know about never having any parents and not knowing about them, spending years thinking that they were worthless drunks who died in a car crash, not even having a picture of them to see what they look like? Ron may groan about having no money and getting constant had me downs, but he still had both parents in his life and he had six siblings that loved him and cared about him. Marie may live in a mobile home, had one parent that she didn't know was alive or dead and another that she rarely saw, but she still had her mother, she at least knew about and had pictures of her father, and she had two sisters that cared for her. HE HAD NOTHING!

The crash of a suit of armor brought him out of his internal rant. He must have gotten distracted. He stopped and quickly looked around with the intensity of a spooked cat. Luckily after about two minutes of quietly listening to both the dissipating echoes and the howl of the wind, he sighed in calm relief. No Filch, no Mrs. Norris, not even Peeves. He took a few deep breaths in order to calm his booming heart. He did not want a repeat of the other night when he was almost caught by both Filch and Snape on two separate occasions. As much as his invisibility cloak assisted in keeping him unseen, it didn't keep him silent and it made it almost impossible for him to move quickly. If anyone was nearby he couldn't put as much distance between him and them as he would like. Luckily for him, he was used to walking around unnoticed and unseen. A more roddy person would've undoubtedly been caught by now. He looked down at the suit of armor that he had knocked over, and thought that it looked rather familiar. He looked up at the corridor in front of him and grinned when he spotted a certain door. He was there. Barely restraining himself from sprinting, he rushed to the door, yanked it open and slipped in.

It was right where he remembered it, that ornate mirror standing in the middle of the room, his family, both real and imagined standing silently inside it, their smiling faces beaming from behind the glass as they waved at him in rapturous joy. His mother, with her fire red hair, kind and patient smile and her green eyes that were exactly like his. And his father, with black and messy hair cut close to his head, square curved glasses and light caramel eyes that glimmered with a mischief that didn't match his restrained grin. To see their faces gazing happily at him with better than even the gooiest and delectably made treacle tart. And Marie thought that it was dangerous.

'Marie.' he internally growled. He hadn't forgotten her actions of the previous night, her doubts, her words of fake worry, how she tried to take and destroy what was his! He knew that she didn't have any friends before coming here just like he did, she should have understood how he felt about this better than anyone and yet she tried to destroy the mirror. And he knew why she did it; possessiveness. She wanted him, for his money and his fame and his status and she couldn't stand the idea that he had found something that he cared about more than her. Her tales that the mirror was corrupting his mind, ensnaring him like a mouse to nutella, that it was dangerous and giving him a mental compulsion that was forcing him to come here, lies, ALL LIES! Everything she said was just a way to justify her selfish desire. Well he knew better, it was time to cut the leach off before it could get attached, something that he will do tomorrow. Or in a few days, he didn't know but sometime when he left the mirror. But for what? Food and sleep weren't really important anymore, nothing was. Just sitting in front of this mirror, for as long as he wanted.

"Back again, Harry?" Harry jumped, pivoting around like a startled raccoon. Behind him, sitting at one of the desks that was propped next to the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore, in a pale gray nightgown and maroon slippers. Harry realized with barely restrained horror that he must've walked straight past him, so fixated was he on getting to the mirror and cursing Marie's existence that he had completely missed the headmaster.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you." he said with a kindly and understanding smile. "So," he stated as he joined Harry in the center of the room. "You, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights and tortures of the Mirror of Erised." 'Tortures? How can showing my family be a torture?' Harry thought indignantly. The only thing that kept him from lashing out at the headmaster was what little bit of rationality that allowed him to still respect him. So he decided to just make a neutral statement so that he could keep himself from cursing him. "I didn't know that it was called that sir." Dumbledore smiled down at him, like a patient grandfather. "But I expect you've realized by now what it does?" Harry looked over to the mirror, the familiar and comforting image of his family now gone as he and Dumbledore shared the same space. "It, well, it shows me my family…" "And it showed your friend Ron as head boy." Dumbledore interrupted.

Harry froze. A taste of sick saliva glistened on his tongue. "How did you know?" Dumbledore chuckled, a sense of ease returning to Harry as he did so. "I don't need a cloak to become invisible." he answered gently. "And what did Miss Marie see?" Harry liked his lips, a combination of nervousness and resentment building in his gut. "She said she saw her family, and yet that she didn't. She called it a dream that could never happen, a past that she never had leading to a future that will never happen. But, for some reason, she hated what she saw, she tried to destroy the mirror!" "Hmm," Dumbledore pondered. "I believe that she had some familial issues before coming here, if what Professor McGonagall told me about their trip to Diagon Alley and her visit to her home beforehand are still the case." Harry was about to harshly lash out, especially as he thought about the Dursleys, but he was able to keep his yap shut. "She hasn't talked or written to either her mother and her older sister in months, Ron and Neville had to bribe her just to get them Christmas presents the other week." Harry then had a moment of clarity go through his mind, along with a semblance of sympathy. "But, she's also been really depressed lately. Earlier this month she had a break down in the library. And when she looked in the mirror, she, she acted just like I did when I first came here." Dumbledore gestured, as Harry reached his epiphany. "So, she wanted to see her family, but didn't want to see them."

"Ah yes, a most complex and confusing desire. A desire more subconscious than active." Dumbledore walked a little closer to the mirror, his hands behind his back. "I will admit, I have been worried about her the last few weeks. The progress reports I've gotten from the other professors had shown a feeling of apathy towards a lot of her class work, the biggest concern coming from Professor Snape telling me that she was no longer smuggly smirking at him whenever she turned in a perfect potion." he chuckled at this. "I was willing to let this play out, as it's natural for troubled young minds to struggle adjusting to a new environment, but when I saw her reaction to the mirror and her discussion with the Weasley's, I admit I started to plan to confront her about this. Thankfully, young Ron was able to pull her up from the myre and help her understand better than I could have."

He then turned to Harry, the kind and wise twinkle in his eye shining even in the dark. "I'm sure by now you've noticed that you and Miss Kanker have several similarities in how you've grown up. Missing parental figures, isolation from people your own age, poor living conditions and a cavalier respect for the rules. While there are certainly differences in your lives, as there naturally be, it's only natural that you would have similar desires. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. And Miss Kanker, who has had her family torn apart through circumstances outside of her control, see's them reunited and their bond stronger than ever. You've also probably seen her similarities to Mr Weasley. Both living with relatively large families, both struggling with severe poverty, both wanting to break away from their older siblings shadows and to make themselves distinct from being part of a group. Ronald, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself as the best of them all and similarly, Marie sees herself as relatively well off and successful, living a life she always wanted. And with those desires combined it showed her family happier as well, not having to go through the struggle of scrapping and compromising just to survive."

Harry pondered Dumbledore's words. For some reason his mind felt clearer than it had before he came down here and it kept getting clearer the longer he talked to Dumbledore. While he still wanted to go in front of the mirror and see his family, it didn't feel like a need anymore. He felt comfortable talking to Dumbledore and pondering the mirror itself. He also felt a bit ashamed of himself. While he had noticed that she was depressed, knew why and had tried to help her for a while, when the mirror came into his life he stopped caring about anything besides that. He stopped caring about his friend who was dealing with her own emotional baggage. 'Wait, why does she care about this, she told Hermione how much her mother hurt her and she's refused on multiple occasions to even mention her older sister. Why would she care about them? I don't care one wit for the Dursley's and they aren't in the mirror. Why wouldn't she feel the same?' He voiced his thoughts to Dumbledore and noticed his face crease with signs of bitterness and resentment.

"It's a strange thing, family. When you have a true family, regardless of blood, you find that they have so much complexity. There are times when you think they don't understand you, times where their smallest inadequacies can irritate you beyond all measure and times when you feel that you can never measure up to them or to their expectations. They could hurt you more than any other person, even when they never intended to, and they could be excruciatingly stubborn with each other." His face then shifted, this time into a happy, grateful and peaceful grin. "But they'll be more supporting of anyone when you're down, help you when you need it the most, shape your beliefs, provide you with guidance, make you smile on the most stressful or depressing of days and give you someone to talk to when you can't talk to anyone else." He sighed, a tinge of sadness leaking out of his throat. "And even when they hurt you, they're more than willing to put in the effort to achieve forgiveness."

Harry tried to understand, he honestly did. Maybe, at another time when he was a few years older and he had the memories of all those summers with the Weasleys, his conversations with Hermione, the Christmas's he had with Marie and her family and the quiet moments he had with his future wife, he would've understood. But on that cold December night in the dying days of 2007, with Ron and Marie and the twins only being good friends, with Mrs. Weasley being someone he had only met for a few minutes in the middle of a train station, having not even properly met his wife yet, with his only experience of 'family' being his torturous existence with the Dursleys, he didn't. But it did cause him to consider where Dumbledore was steering his way of thinking. He just hoped he was right. "Sir, is that why Marie had such a negative reaction to the mirror yesterday?"

Dumbledore smiled at him, his head nodding as he did so. "What was it that Miss Kanker said last night? 'I will not let any of us starve to death entranced by something that isn't real'? I believe that that recognition was what helped her to keep the worst of the mirrors effects at bay. The mirror is not a maleficent being, it doesn't try to actively harm anyone that comes to see it. But it wants people to look at it, to experience it, to embrace it. But it is not all powerful. The more base the desire, the less of a hold it has on someone. Ron, if you didn't notice, had no compulsion to return to the mirror. Think of what he wanted. Fame, glory, status. All a series of self gratifying ambition. Emotional driven yes, but shallow, temporary and ignoring the downsides that come with it. Responsibility, leadership, mediation, patience. Power is a very double edged sword and it can be as draining as it is intoxicating. One moment you can adore it and the next you despise it. And the most important part about power is that it fads. Whether through death, overthrow or quiet retirement, power ends and it can never be regained. Ron probably subconsciously recognized that, because the greatest he saw himself was as headboy, which only a seventh year student can be. Because of this, the effect the mirror had on him was minor."

"So, it must stand to reason that the more emotional the desire, the more power the mirror has. It's more intoxicating to come back to the mirror the more personal the desire, something that you yourself have experienced. The fact that Miss Kanker isn't here is a testament to her willpower, especially as the mirror's effect's increase with continued interaction with it." A dark look fell over Dumbledore's face. "So many have spent so much time interacting with it that they have wasted away in front of it, entranced by its power and the vision that it shows them."

Harry felt the remaining hold on his mind snap. His eyes once again glanced to the mirror, but his eyes no longer shown with desire and longing, but glistened with trepidation and fear. 'Marie was right, this mirror is dangerous. Why didn't I see that?!' A great feeling of shame washed over him as he stared at his hands, watching them shake with growing horror. 'I...I…' He ran his hands through his hair. 'WHAT DID I DO?!' he screamed internally. Dumbledore knelt down by the traumatised boy and placed both of his hands on his shoulders. "It's okay Harry, it's okay." Harry took some shuddering deep breaths before looking up and shakely backing away from the mirror. "I...I need to go and apologize." Dumbledore nodded before getting up and guiding Harry out of the room. "Do not worry yourself further about that mirror. It will be moved to another home tomorrow. However, I must stress this; do not go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it again, you will now be prepared." He then gave Harry a kind, comforting smile. "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"

It was a struggle to walk back to Gryffindor tower, both because what lingering desire to go back to the mirror remained tickling at the back of his mind and the guilt that gnawed at the remainder of it. He had tried to kill his friend. He had wrapped his hands around her throat when she was trying to help him and strangled her. If Ron hadn't been there, he might've committed murder. Sure, he wasn't in his right mind. Yes, she probably understood that, but that didn't make it any easier for him to try to bring himself to apologize. How could he even find a way to articulate how sorry he was to her? How would he even start? Those questions and more, flooded his mind as he returned to Gryffindor tower and went up the stairs to his bedroom, stuffed the invisibility cloak at the bottom of his trunk and flopped restlessly onto his bed.

The sun shine that streamed through the windows of the first year dorm would've normally helped rouse it's young charges for classes, a gentle hand on the shoulder to get them ready for the day, but for Harry, who had spent the entire night tossing and turning, too anxious and too consumed with guilt and shame to sleep, it felt like a harsh gauge to the eyes. He dimly realizes that he hasn't slept for the past two days as he takes off his clothes and heads to the shower. The warm water cascaded down his back as he struggled to wake himself up. 'There's no avoiding this.' He thought moroselously. 'If I don't do this now, I'm going to have to do it eventually and the longer I put it off, the greater the chance that this festers.' he thought. Still, that didn't make him any less frightened and to this day, he didn't know if he threw up afterward because he hadn't eaten in two days or because he was that anxious.

He struggled to make it down to the common room and down the stairs towards the Great Hall. He was dizzy, his mouth tasted like copper and he was hyperventilating. By the time he reached the Entrance Hall, he had to sit down on the stairs to catch his ragged breath before he entered the Great Hall. When he entered through the double doors, he spotted his friends ('Hopefully not my former friends.'), sitting at the Gryffindor table. They seemed to be discussing something joyously and that Marie's smiling again. Another pang of guilt and shame shot through his soul. 'Focus, Harry, focus. Focus on what you're about to say.' Stealing his nerve, he walked over to them as best as he could, his feet feeling as heavy as lead as he trudged towards Ron and Marie. As he got closer, he spots Ron seeing him and gesturing to Marie. When she turns around to see him, he chokes as he gazes at the black eye and purple ring around her throat. He bit the inside of his cheek and continued moving forward, stopping just in front of her.

The two stare at each other awkwardly. "Umm...Hey." he started ineptly. "Hey." she responded lamely. The two squirmed silently, each trying to decide what to say or who should speak first. Finally, Harry was able to heave the words out of his mouth. "Marie, about the other night…" "Hey," Marie interrupts. "I understand that seeing your parents was important to you, and I acted incredibly harsh when we were there. I should have been more understanding of that." "No," Harry refuted, tears coming to his eyes. "I overreacted." Marie opened her mouth to counter, but Harry stopped her. "I don't care that I wasn't in my right mind. I shouldn't have acted like that. I shouldn't have attacked you. I shouldn't have hurt you. *sniff* I shouldn't have tried to...to." He couldn't say it. All he could do was bring his hand up to his mouth to keep him from sobbing. Marie, reacting almost on instinct, got up and engulfed him in a massive hug.

"It's okay. We both made mistakes that night." She then stepped back and gave him a reassuring smile. "Besides, my sisters did a lot more damage to me for lesser reasons than that." "What, really?" Ron asked in bewildered concern. "Yeah." Marie said as if it was a common thing while she rubbed her throat. "Believe it or not, this is actually the 18th time someone strangled me. If I'm not careful I might start enjoying it." Marie grinned, but both Ron and Harry just stared at her in confusion. She sighed. "Why are people my age so sheltered? They don't appreciate my humor now."

"No," Harry muttered. "But I do appreciate you looking out for me. And I'm sorry that I was too stupid and obssessed to see it then. So, thank you. For what you did." Marie gave him a soft smile. "Hey, no sweat man. You would've done the same for me." He smiles back, finally relaxing as his fears were blown away like dust. "So anyway, Ron and I were planning on going sledding later now that the storm's gone. Want to join us?" Harry blushes timidly. "Well, um, I've never gone sledding before." Marie scowled. "Did your relatives make it their life's goal to make yours as miserable as possible?" she asked bitterly. She huffed before she smiled again. "Don't worry, it's easy. I'll even ride with you to help you steer." She then grabbed him round to shoulder and guided him to a seat. "Now, we're going to ask Percy to transfigure some firewood for us. And after that we're going to walk over to that hill Hagrid's is at the base of."

AHHHHHHHH! WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG TO DO! Simple, I intended to write some chapter's about Norbert (or Norberta), but when I was rereading the book, I found I had completely forgotten an entire chapter. I did intend to skip it, but then I figured that it would be a good way to show more of the growing Scooby Gang and get some petty revenge on Malfoy while introducing my version of an established but unseen character. But god was it a slog at times, as I had to basically invent a new side story. Don't worry, I've got more passion for the next few chapters both inside and outside of Hogwarts. But I've also gotten a job at Wendy's, and until January I was working overtime for seven straight weeks, sometimes waking up before the crack of dawn to work. And when I get home I just don't want to work. But I'm more relaxed now and this time the next chapter won't take five months to publish. Stay safe, see you next time.