Thirteen-year-old Teddy Lupin was absolutely mesmerized by his reflection in the mirror. He knew he shouldn't have been out of bed, but he had quite a bit of trouble sleeping. He always did on the second day of May. It wasn't as though anything too terrible had happened to him that day—he was hardly a month old and had been peacefully sleeping in his crib. For years, Teddy had no idea what May second meant or why people got so bent out of shape on that day. He would go downstairs for breakfast and see his gran crying or receive letters in the mail wishing him well. He had no idea what it meant until he was seven years old and someone finally told him that on May second, 1998, his parents had died. He knew they were dead long before that, of course, but the gravity of why or when or how had never quite sunk in until that fateful day when his gran had finally told him.

Since then, May second was a day without sleep. Normally, Teddy would just lie in bed and stare at the stars, picturing his parents in the constellations above looking down on him. It was what his godfather, Harry, had taught him to do. He would point to various stars and tell him who they were to Teddy.

"Those two bright ones there? I think they're my parents. Next to them are three other bright stars: I like to think those are Sirius Black and your mum and dad, all together at last. As it should have been."

Still, something had compelled him that night to take the invisibility cloak and go for a little stroll. On the third floor, across from the Restricted Section, he had found an old door leading to a dusty room with a single object standing in the middle: the mirror of Erised. It had been covered with a curtain and as Teddy took it off, he began to see something he never though he would see in his entire life.

There was his reflection, of course: a lanky boy with sandy-brown hair and piercing amber eyes in Hufflepuff robes. But in the mirror, a young woman with bubblegum-pink hair had her arms wrapped around him as she changed her eyes to all colors of the rainbow. Next to her, with a hand on Teddy's shoulder, was an older looking fellow with his same sandy hair and amber eyes. Both of the adults were smiling, looking at their dear son. That's all they were doing—looking at him, touching him, loving him. It was a sight he had never seen before nor one he had ever expected to see in his entire life.

These where his parents: Nymphadora and Remus Lupin. They were long gone to the world but remembered fondly by those who loved them and who held some piece of them within their minds and hearts. Teddy gazed with admiration at the image before him. He had his mother's rounded face, his father's brows, his mother's dimples and his father's chin. He was tall and lanky like his father, but young and healthy looking like his mother.

Teddy collapsed onto the ground, tears welling up in his eyes as his nose felt warm and crinkly as it always did before he cried. In the mirror, his parents knelt onto the floor next to him—his mother played with his hair as his father stroked is back, both smiling still and seeming to be so obsessed with their son. Teddy could have cried, he thought, but he heard his voice in the background, breaking out of his trance.

"Mr. Lupin?"

Teddy spun around, jaw dropping. "Pro…Professor Longbottom?" He asked weakly. "Er…what—"

"I've seen Harry disappear underneath that cloak in your arms enough times to know how you got here," his Herbology professor whispered. "It's late, Teddy, you ought to be in bed."

"I can't sleep, Professor," Teddy mumbled. "I can never sleep on this day."

Neville Longbottom sighed and walked deeper into the room, closing the door behind him. He knelt next to Teddy, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Neither can I," he confided. "It's a day I dread every year." He paused for a moment, glancing into the mirror. "You see them in there, then? Your parents?" He asked. Teddy nodded slowly.

"I do," he said quietly, wiping away tears with his pajama sleeve. "They aren't doing much—just smiling, looking after me." Teddy blinked a few times, moving his gaze away from the mirror. "How…how did you know?"

Neville chuckled a bit darkly. "Because, Teddy," he told the boy. "I see my parents too."

The two men sat in front of the mirror for a moment longer before Neville cleared his throat. "It doesn't do us any good, you know? To see what cannot be."

"I know," Teddy voiced, a bit hoarse from holding back his sobs. He looked up at his professor with kind but sad eyes. "Will you walk me back to my common room?"

Neville, wiping a tear from his own eye, replied: "Of course, Teddy. Let's go."

The two men walked away from the mirror. Neither would return to see it again.