A/N: Since I have nothing to say…here the chapter.

Chapter 21: Mirror, mirror

They carefully walked through the halls of Hogwarts to make sure that they weren't caught by a professor, no matter how unlikely it would be to meet a teacher in the middle of the night in such a giant castle. It took them about ten minutes before they were standing in front of an ordinary wooden door on the third floor. Sam looked at Harry confused, but the boy only smirked and opened the door before he entered the room behind it. Even more confused but also curious Sam followed and was surprised by the sight of a massive three-headed black dog that was currently sleeping but naturally quickly waking up. At first, the dog snarled at them threateningly, but when it caught the scent of Harry, it transformed into a playful puppy rapidly so that Sam could only stare at it. Harry walked over and started to scratch two of the heads while the third eyed Sam critically but didn't attack.

"Sam, meet Cerb. Loki, and I found him on one of our strolls, but we have no idea how he got here or why he's even here," Harry explained. "He looks intimidating at first, but once you get into his good graces, he is quite cuddly, and playful too."

"Cerb?" Sam asked while he slowly approached the third head that sniffed at him before he licked Sam from bottom to top covering him in slobber much to Harry's amusement.

"He likes you," he laughed before vanishing the slobber Sam now was covered in. "We called him Cerb since we don't know what his name is and since he is a Cerberus pup we shortened it to Cerb."

"What in the name of sanity is a hellhound of this size doing in a school? I mean what if some other student walks in here and gets attacked?" Sam shook his head in disbelief but dutifully started to scratch the third head behind the ear when it began to whine pitifully.

"We have no idea, but we think it is guarding something," Harry replied. "See the trapdoor?"

Sam nodded obviously thinking about what the secret was that the Cerberus was guarding, but he didn't want to explore it further, at least not now. Who knew what other dangers might lurk beyond the trapdoor. He didn't have his equipment with him right now, and he wasn't proficient enough in magic to risk it.

They were contently entertaining the puppy by scratching and rubbing certain spots when it seemed that the dog had enough and wanted to play instead. With a few movements of his hand, Harry had conjured a sizeable red ball and with a push of his magic sent it flying throughout the room. Luckily, Loki had enlarged the room enough so that they could play with the pup properly and not have to fear that it would crash into a wall every so often.

The next hour was spent playing with the dog and having much fun on both their parts, especially Harry who watched with satisfaction that Sam also had fun and wasn't burdened with the knowledge that his brother was in hell for at least a few hours.

"Thank you," Sam said when they finally left the puppy behind and were on their way back to the dorms. It was three in the morning, and they were both exhausted from playing with the dog so much.

"You're welcome, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help and stay with you in a time of need?" Harry snickered lowly.

They walked in silence, each of them lost in their own thought when they became aware of the fact that they had gotten lost and weren't on their way to the dorm anymore. Ending up in front of yet another door, they looked at each other before shrugging simultaneously, they both were curious what was behind it and decided to go in. Harry carefully pushed open the door only to find an empty and abandoned classroom. A bit disappointed about it he took a further step into the room closely followed by Sam when they became aware that the room wasn't as empty as they had first thought. In the middle of the room stood a large ornate mirror.

"What is a mirror doing in an abandoned classroom?" Harry asked confusedly stepping in front of said object.

"Perhaps someone stored it here and forgot about it," Sam mused standing next to Harry.

They looked in the mirror, their confusion rising with every passing second when Sam suddenly drew a sharp breath.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Harry asked him in concern.

Sam, on the other hand, could only stare at the mirror his eyes wide. "Dean?!" he finally rasped out.

"Huh?" Harry looked back and forth between the mirror and Sam having deducted that Sam obviously saw his brother in the mirror. That was when he saw the inscription in the frame. "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi? What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

This finally brought Sam out of his staring. "What?" he asked before he looked at the inscription himself wondering what irked him about it after having read it. "Wait, I know what that is. You have to read it backwards and rearrange the spaces.

"I show you not your face but your heart's desire," he recited showing just how much he was used to deciphering strange languages during their hunts.

"So that is why you see your brother. You miss him and want him here, so the mirror shows you your desire – him," Harry muttered. "But why do I see nothing in it?"

"Perhaps you do not desire anything at the moment, I mean you met your parents, you have friends who care about you, and you will never have to return to your…the Dursleys," Sam couldn't bring himself calling them family because they most certainly were not.

"Maybe you're right," Harry agreed when right at that moment in the mirror suddenly a girl his age with honey-blond hair and ice blue eyes appeared wearing a light blue summer dress and coming to stand next to him before she snuck an arm around his waist leaning against him. "Er… what?" was his very eloquent reaction to that.

"What is it, what happened?" now it was Sam's turn to be concerned.

"A girl I don't recognise suddenly appeared and snuggled against me," Harry said his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

That made Sam snicker. "It seems that the only thing left for you to desire is a girlfriend to love. But I have to say that you can wait for a few more years for that kind of desire," he started to laugh upon seeing Harry's indignant look.

"Agreed," Harry retorted before he turned away from the mirror. "However, I am tired so let's get back to bed."

"That I can agree with," Sam laughed lowly.

They both set off towards the dorms enjoying the silent castle at night but turning one corner Harry suddenly stopped Sam, quickly dug into his pouch pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over Sam and himself just in time because right at that moment two people rounded a corner down the corridor – Snape and Quirrell.

"You don't want me as your enemy Quirrell," Snape threatened the other professor, pushing him against a pillar.

Harry and Sam looked at each other in confusion, wondering what was going on though Harry refused to jump to conclusions concerning Snape since by now he knew the man quite well and liked him so he would always try to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I-I don't know what you –" Quirrell replied with his usual stuttering.

Snape obviously just wanted to reply something when his head snapped towards where Harry and Sam were standing under the invisibility cloak, but he surely couldn't see them, could he? Ah, he probably had heard them breathing or a ruffling of their clothes. Well, to Harry it looked as if they would serve detention with the man not that he was overly concerned about it.

"Very well," Snape told Quirrell having turned back towards the man. "We'll have another little chat soon when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

Quirrell shakily nodded before he skittered down the corridor and out of sight. Once Snape was sure that the other professor wouldn't return he turned back to where the two were hiding under the cloak.

"Mr Potter, listening in into other peoples' conversations isn't a very endearing trait as is being out of bed after curfew," Snape told him but without any bite to his voice.

Harry sighed and stepped out from under the cloak becoming visible for the man. "Professor Snape, I'm sorry I didn't mean to listen into your conversation, but I didn't want to give myself away to Quirrell, I don't trust him," he replied not even trying to excuse himself for being out after curfew. Knowing that it was against the school rules, he didn't try to get out of any punishment the man would give him for it.

Snape rose an eyebrow. "May you perhaps tell me why you don't trust him?" he inquired.

"Didn't I mention it before? He was the one to curse my broom during the Quidditch match," Harry replied a bit confused, he thought he had told the man, but obviously, he hadn't. "It is a wonder that Loki hasn't done anything yet, but he probably hadn't the time to do anything," he wasn't concerned that Snape would hold that information against Loki since he wanted something from the pagan and calling him out on that would ruin his possibility to meet Lily again.

Snape's eyebrow rose even further. It was really a wonder that Quirrell was still alive with how protective the pagan god was of the boy though perhaps…quite a few ways of getting rid of the man that were untraceable flittered through his mind. It seemed that the man's days were numbered and should Loki take any longer he surely would act, lest the man got another chance to hurt Harry.

"Indeed. Though, that doesn't give you the right to be out after curfew. I think…," he said, but Sam interrupted him deciding that it was time to intervene before Harry was punished for something that wasn't entirely his misdeed, taking down the cloak.

"Professor, it was my fault that he was out after curfew," he told the man. "I had problems sleeping, and he thought that a walk through the castle might help."

"Alas, you two were out after curfew so you both will serve detention with me tomorrow evening," Snape replied with a small smile.

It seemed that Sam wanted to protest about it, but Harry placed a hand on his arm and shook his head.

"It's okay; we broke the rules, so we have to bear the consequences," Harry said more for Sam's sake. "At what time shall we be at your classroom?"

"Right after dinner," Snape stated. "Now move along and see to it that you stay in bed for the rest of the night."

Harry and Sam nodded, and Snape watched them leave, a smile gracing his face, would anyone see him like that he didn't doubt that they would suffer a heart attack over it. That was when he remembered something.

"Mr Potter," he called after them before they could round a corner. "Five points to Gryffindor for looking out for one of your classmates."

Harry loosely saluted him with a smile before they vanished out of the Potions Master's view heading back to bed. Snape shook his head before he also took off down towards the dungeons and his own bed. It had already been late when he had confronted Quirrell, but now it was far past his shift for patrolling the corridors, and he was tired.

The next morning they told Loki about what they had found on their little tour through Hogwarts the night before, but even the pagan had no idea on who the girl was that Harry had seen. So the day went by without any further incident, and in the evening Harry and Sam found themselves in detention with Snape. However, they only had to help him prepare ingredients for a potion the man had to brew for the infirmary, so it wasn't that bad. Harry actually had fun learning new things about potions as did Sam who filed away the information for later use.

Afterwards, Harry didn't return directly to the common room, he instead went back to the mirror and the girl it showed. Actually, he spent the next four evenings analysing, inspecting and sitting in front of the mirror trying to find out what it meant with what it showed him. One evening, he even made a sketch of the girl to show Loki, but the pagan still had no idea who the girl might be.

It was on the fifth evening that he finally had enough and resigned.

"That stupid thing must be broken," he muttered to the empty room about to leave it behind.

"So back again, Harry?" a voice behind him asked causing him to jump about a foot into the air.

Harry turned around only to find Dumbledore standing a few feet away from him.

"Professor, I would ask you to not sneak up at me in such a way," he told the man.

Dumbledore snickered lowly. "I must apologise; it wasn't my intention to frighten you, my boy. So you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised," the man said while stepping in front of the mirror gazing at it.

"Well, if you call it that way, though I think the thing is broken, Sir," Harry replied not even put out that he had been caught while staring at it not that he thought that it was forbidden.

"Can you think of what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?" Dumbledore inquired with a smile gracing his features and eyes twinkling merrily.

"It shows us our heart's desire, Sir," Harry said confusion showing on his face.

"Indeed, my boy. The happiest man on earth could use the mirror as such, a mirror; it would show him exactly as he is. You on the other hand who have never met your parents would see them standing around you while Mr Winchester who recently lost his brother would see him at his side," Dumbledore explained, assuming that it was his parents Harry was seeing. "However, the mirror neither gives us knowledge nor shows it the truth. Men have wasted away in front of it, entranced by what they saw or even driven mad by it not able to discern what is real and what not anymore."

That rose Harry's confusion even further. His parents? That was when he remembered that Dumbledore didn't know that he, in fact, HAD seen his real parents during the holidays.

"But Professor, what's confusing me is that I do not see any of that," Harry said exasperatedly frustrated that he couldn't find out what it was precisely that the mirror was trying to tell him.

That had Dumbledore dumbfounded. Harry didn't see his parents? That was strange indeed.

"Might I ask what you see instead?" he questioned.

Harry looked at the older man contemplating whether he should reveal what he saw or not. In the end, he decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell the man.

"At first I didn't see anything at all except my mirror image, but after a while, suddenly a girl appeared whom I didn't even know or recognise. That is why I think that the thing is broken," Harry revealed.

Dumbledore blinked a few times stroking his beard while musing about what he just heard. It was fascinating what the boy reported to him. However, it was getting late, Harry surely should be back in his dorm now, and he could always muse about it in his own office. So he decided to send the boy back to his dorm.

"Harry my boy, as of tomorrow I will have the mirror moved from here, and I have to ask you to not go looking for it again, it doesn't do good lingering after dreams and forget to live," he said with a grandfatherly smile.

Harry, on the other hand, looked at him as if he had gone nuts throughout their conversation.

"Professor, why would I want to search for a mirror that obviously is not working correctly?" he asked cocking his head in bewilderment.

"Very well, my boy. However, you should hurry along before Professor McGonagall catches us and deducts house points from us for being out after curfew," Dumbledore state looking over his half-moon glasses with twinkling eyes.

Harry laughed lowly before he nodded and with a "Good night," he raced from the room and back to the Gryffindor dorms. However, when he lay in his bed sleep just didn't want to come to him. Instead, he was lying there musing about what Dumbledore had told him about the mirror and the girl he saw in it.

Who was she?

A/N: So who will get Quirrell first, Snape or Loki? Or will it be a combined deed? However, one thing is for sure…Quirrell stayed alive for far too long! 'til next chapter!