Harry and Blaise had had a very long discussion about the mirror. Blaise was clearly more affected by it than Harry and wanted nothing to do with it. He warned Harry to leave it alone as well. Harry was less inclined to listen and a few nights later found himself in front of the mirror again.

He was so interested in memories their faces that the approaching footfalls went unnoticed.

"So, back again, Harry?"

Harry felt as though his insides had turned to ice. He didn't bother to turn around. He knew it was Dumbledore and if he was in trouble then he'd spend these last moments still looking at his parents.

"I didn't see you, sir." Harry said quietly.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore,

Harry finally turned to look at the Headmaster. He was relieved to see a gently smile on his face as he sat on a desk not far from Harry. "So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that, Sir." Harry said returning his attention to the mirror. He could almost imagine he could feel his mother's touch on his shoulder.

Almost.

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?" Dumbledore asked

"It, well, it shows me my family." Harry said with uncertainty in his voice. Dumbledore being here now meant something had either changed or was about to change.

"As it did with Mr. Zabini." Dumbledore said with a kind of sad smile.

"How did you know?" Harry asked turning to face Dumbledore.

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently.

"Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"

Harry shook his head.

"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want...whatever we want..."

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Blaise Zabini also having never known his Father sees a man that he secretly or perhaps subconsciously imagines to be his father. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible."

"The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. 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?"

Harry stood up. "Sir - Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?" Harry said finding his courage once more.

"Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks." Harry stared. "One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, he thought, it had been quite a personal question.

Harry had explained to Blaise what had happened with the Mirror and with Dumbledore. Blaise said next to nothing, only agreeing with Dumbledore not to search for the mirror anymore. This did not however prevent Harry and Blaise from enjoying their newfound freedom in the form of Harry's invisibility Cloak.

Explorer the Castle after hours, following Prefects, and most often exploring the Restricted Section of the Library. They mostly enjoyed the ability to do so, most times they simply ended up bored by the reading material so beyond them that it made next to no sense what so ever. They did however end up with a good idea of how and when the Library was patrolled.

They were in high spirits by the time the rest of the student body returned to Hogwarts. Harry was als pleased to see Marcus Flint had returned to his usual antagonistic self. There was some unspoken agreement between Harry, Blaise, Rebecca, and Marcus that Christmas morning wasn't talked about.

It wasn't long until Marcus was talking Quidditch with his team back. Despite the many things people like to call Marcus behind his back, and less often to his face, Lazy was never one of them. "Listen up Team. After the trouncing we gave Gryffindor I expect to see that again when we play Ravenclaw." he shouted at them as they ate breakfast on the first monday back to the normal class routine.

"For some inspired reason, Dumbledore has seen fit to have Snape referee the upcoming matches. Slytherin-Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor-Hufflepuff." Marcus said with a twisted smile. "Now I don't see a reason to let this opportunity pass us by. We're gonna be focusing on ball control and scoring. Potter, Derrick, Bole. I want you lot to read up fouls for Beaters and Seekers. I want you lot doing everything you can to make sure Ravenclaw is always at a disadvantage. Just don't make it obvious. Snape is going to have our back but let's not be stupid about this."

What that meant was harder practises than before. Harry was having to get used to intercepting players and intentionally ramming chasers and blocking keepers. By the end of their first new training regiment Harry was more sore than he ever had been from Quidditch practice. By the time he got back to the Slytherin common room he almost didn't want to open his books, but some less than gently prodding by Blaise and Pansy of all people had him reviewing their Charms homework.

By the end of the first hour Harry was so tired he grabbed his Keeper's Book by mistake. He opened it and found that Hermione had filled pages upon pages of information on the Weasley family. Harry hadn't checked his Keeper's Book in more than a month. Clearly Hermione had been much more diligent.

Harry very quickly flipped through the pages looking as far back as the last time he made an entry. After that it seemed to be just random notes but every now and then, something truly inspiring.

'Ronald is deathly afraid of spiders'

'The eldest Weasley, William or Bill is a Curse Breaker. Very advance types of Magic for that."

'Charlie, second oldest, works with Dragons. Extremely Dangerous.'

'Percy dreams of being the Minister of Magic one day.'

'Ronald idolizes the Quidditch team, the Chuddley Cannons, despite losing streak spanning decades."

'Parents Arthur and Molly. Arthur works for the Ministry, Molly homemaker.' Harry rolled his eyes at the polite term for did nothing. Technically speaking Aunt Petunia was a homemaker and all she did was spy on the neighbours and make Harry cook and clean.

Harry kept reading through the notes and pages. Finally the random facts started mentioning Ginny.

'Idolizes you, go figure.'

'Loves Quidditch, family trend.'

Twins mention mischievous streak and extreme temper.'

'Percy mentions love of Wizarding Fairy Tales.'

Harry wrote back his thanks and explained that they most likely had more than they would need. Harry explained that with no more spying on the Weasleys needed, Hermione might wanna spend her time investigating the Philosopher's Stone.

Going over all of Hermione's note Harry came to the conclusion as the youngest of the siblings, Ginny would be just a bit over protected. He couldn't risk separating her too much without their Trust.

Fred and George were friendly enough, Harry figured he could be around Ginny with them and not trigger the big brother protection. Percy just needed the right ego strokes. Now with the knowledge of his Ministry aspirations, that wouldn't be too hard. Ronald would be the worst and most difficult to overcome if at all. But for now Harry needed to work on the Weasley Parents.

It was all kind of a blur. Inspiration, desperation, situation, and finally reputation.

Harry threw another punch as Ronald threw him to the ground by his collar. A crowd had formed around them cheering and chanting. Harry staggered to his feet. Felt the blood pooling from his nose. He saw Ronald's bleeding and swollen lip. It was all too easy.

"You fight worse than you dress, and seeing I'm sure everything on you is second rate, that's saying something." Harry said before spitting on the ground. He welcomed Ron's advance. He felt the air force out of him as Ron's shoulder made contact with his stomach. Harry was thrown to the ground once more, this time with Ron on top of him rearing a fist. At the apex of Ron's wind up he just stopped.

Suddenly they were throw away from each violently, both rolling away. By the time Harry knew what was happen the crowd of onlookers was scattering in all direction. Harry caught his bearing and looked up to see a furious Professor Flitwick.

"The, the, NERVE of you two. In the middle of a corridor rough housing like a pair of neanderthals." Flitwick shouted at them. His wand in hand, Harry was about to speak but was forcibly silent by a subtle twist of Flitwick's wand. "Do not even try it Mr. Potter. I know how much you had a part in this!"

Harry lowered his head. Flitwick muttered under his breath and Harry felt his nose tingle and the bleeding stopped. "Now, that will be 50 Points from each of you and detention. I think Hagrid has some need of extra hands this weekend. Now I expect to find out that both of you returned to your respective common rooms this afternoon without delay and were not seen leaving them until tomorrow morning" Flitwick said in such an authoritative voice that if Harry had not planned for this to happen with this fallout in mind, he would have been inclined to comply.

Harry took off as fast as an embarrassed, punished Slytherin should. He returned to the Slytherin common room and immediately went for his Keeper's Book. He wrote to Hermione and asked her to pass a message to the Twins that he wanted to speak with them tonight, after curfew. Harry gave her specific instruction on what to tell Fred and George and where.

Harry returned the book into his trunk and locked it tight, but not before retrieving his invisibility cloak. Harry having blown past all the attention he had received when he first entered the common now returned to it in all his glory. The entire room seemed to be looking at him. He wasn't sure what they wanted, but Harry knew well enough that he needed this to be a victory or they'd never forget this perceived weakness.

"Does anyone know how to get blood out? I think I let Weasley bleed on me" Harry said with a smirk. The Quidditch team were the first to laugh and join Harry, followed by the older boys. They all mostly proceeded to give Harry a rough time and jokingly roughed him up. Finally one of the 5th Slytherin girls approached with a shake of her head and a few swishes of her wand all the blood had been removed from Harry white uniform.

"Potter, eventually we'll expect you to not get blood on yourself." she said before returning to her friends.

Harry caught the underlying point. They expected there to be a next time, and for him to not get blood on himself. Very quickly did the moment pass and the boys returned to their celebrations and rough housing.

As the night went on Harry was eventually released from the male machismo and returned to his bunk. He checked his Keeper's book and saw that Hermione had relayed the message and the Twins were more than happy to meet with him in the dark of the night after they had seen what happened to Ronald.

Harry knew that he'd have to play his hand pretty hard to make sure that Fred and George, would not want to

Harry waited until the common empty for the most part and with the aid of his invisibility cloak exitted unnoticed. He made his way to the last corridor before exiting Hogwarts. Hagrids's hut was in sight just beyond the hill and the stone steps. Harry still under the protection of his invisibility cloak saw the twins on either side of the stone archway he'd need to go through.

He slowly backed up and was about to fake his entrance when he was specifically called out. "Potter?" Fred said looking up from a piece of parchment. He looked directly at Harry. Harry had only ever been caught by Dumbledore and that was simply due to his own stupidity. No one had ever caught him in the cloak. Not Filch, nor the Prefects, not even Snape.

George joined his brother and looked directly at Harry. Whatever that parchent was it let them know he was in the room. Harry removed the cloak and approached them. Harry could see the amazement on their faces. "Invisibility Cloak." He answered simply. "You?" he asked nodded at the folded mass of parchment.

"Map of Hogwarts. Show everyone in Hogwarts." Fred said then remembered he was angry at Harry and shoeved the map into his pocket. "You've got a lot of nerve wanting to see us after what you did to Ron." George nodded and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, You're just lucky that Granger was able to remind us that Ron isn't exactly fair when he explains anything to do with you." George said with a half frown. "You don't look like you er, took the beating of a lifetime. Ron on the other hand." George made a sympathetic grimace. "We are here though, so what do you want?"

Harry was grateful that they weren't planning on being violent with him. "I wanted to apologies. Not to Ron, he won't accept it. But rather, to your parents." Harry said, instantly regretting not coming up with something better to said. He now realized how awkward it sounded. "I rather do enjoy the Weasley company. You two are hoot. Percy is a shining example of polite, studious, and in certain circles, a good person to befriend." Harry smirked.

"I'd like to hang out sometime regardless of one soured source." Harry gave them a knowing glance. "You think you guys could butter up your folks so I could write them up explaining how much a help you've been? Hogwarts has been so big and scary. I would have gotten lost without your help. The older students scare me, but you're always there for me." Harry wiped away nonexistent tears and gave them a dry smirk.

Fred and George shared a knowing and gleeful glance. "I think we might be able to do something." Fred said faking modesty.

"It might be possible." George said with equal amounts of bad acting.

The three of them worked out the finer details of their charade and were about to say their goodbyes when Fred's expression changed. Like someone had told him they had poisoned the Pie he had just eaten.

"Potter. Did, did you getting into a scrap with Ron just so you could butter up our folks?" Fred asked sounding suspicious. "I'm not upset, but I'm looking at this and it seems a little too clean cut round the edges. Trust me, I know when something looks too clean, ain't that right George?"

George nodded. "Like when a Professor asks how Quidditch Practice went the day after a big prank." George said leaning in. "They never ask about that. Not once. Unless that is."

"They know something." Fred finished. "You come along after making a fool of yourself and you want to make good with mum and dad. Put yourself in our shoes. That seems a little too convenient, don't it?"

Harry just kept his expression, that of a Deer caught in headlights. He pretended to get his thoughts together, when in actuality he had been thinking his way out of this the entire time. "When you put it that way it makes me sound like a mastermind." Harry said sounding like he was accepting compliments. "You can ask Ron. I was just running when he turned the corner and there he was. Not everyone has an Enchanted map. I couldn't have known he would be there."

"I was supposed to meet Blaise in the Library. I was late, nothing more." Harry said doing his best to sound genuine. "I'm a little surprised you guys think I could have come up with a plan like this." Harry smiled and slipped his invisibility cloak over his shoulders. "I'll see you guys later." And with that Harry was no longer a floating head. He quickly ducked around the twins and was gone.