Disclaimer: All that is not JKR's is mine-and that mainly consists in the human character of Nagini and the influence she exerts on the magical world.

Chapter 19: The Mirror of Erised

Christmas was approaching, and Nagini couldn't wait. She had already written her name down on the list of students staying in the castle over the holidays. Theo, Blaise, and even Tracey were heading home for the holidays, but Nagini didn''t mind. There would be very few Slytherins, let alone students in general, left in the castle for the three week break. Nagini was looking forward to the peace and quiet that Christmas would bring with it, for after four months at Hogwarts, she was craving time alone.

Nagini shivered. They still had Potions in the dungeons, even though it was freezing. Her teeth chattered, and her breath formed little clouds when she exhaled. Everyone tried to stand as close as they could to their cauldrons and the fires underneath, but it didn't do much good. Nagini worked at a table with Theo and Blaise. The rest of the Slytherin girls were at the table in front of them, and the Slytherin boys were behind them.

Nagini rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them up enough to cut her gurdyroots without slicing off her own finger. She glanced over at Theo who had stuck his hands in his pockets and was jumping up and down, trying to stay warm, as his potion simmered gently.

"Your potion's about to boil over," Nagini warned him, looking in his cauldron. And sure enough, his potion began to bubble angrily. Nagini jumped away as scalding orange liquid sprayed out. Theo cursed and began to stir his cauldron frantically, trying to calm the potion, while Nagini pointed her wand at the emerald green flames and carefully lowered their temperature.

"Thanks," said Theo once his potion had calmed down.

"No problem," replied Nagini smiling before turning back to her gurdyroots.

Behind her, Nagini heard Draco Malfoy's drawling voice. "I do feel so sorry," he said loudly for the entire dungeon to hear, ""for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." Nagini froze. She knew the three boys were staring at Potter across the dungeon. The words were meant for him, but he wasn''t the only one in the dungeon who was staying at the castle over the holidays.

Nagini gritted her teeth together and stared down at her gurdyroots that she still hadn't sliced. Out of the corner of her eye, Nagini noticed Theo looking at her in concern. He had heard what Draco said and watched to see what Nagini would do. From up front, Pansy paused in pouring the solution of katniss into her cauldron. She turned around, smirking, and watched Nagini.

Nagini's hand was shaking as she began to cut her gurdyroot. Her eyes sparkled with tears, but she blinked them away. Even though the words were not meant for her, they still hurt. She was staying at Hogwarts, and as far as the others knew, she didn't have a family to go home to. But she did! Nagini wanted to shout it to the dungeon but forced herself to remain silent. It wouldn't do to make a scene.

From behind her, Draco continued, "I mean, you do have to feel sorry for them. Just think of how it must feel to know your family doesn't want you around. . ."

Nagini was fuming. Still holding the silver knife she was using to cut the gurdyroots, she turned around to face Draco and his cronies, who were shaking with laughter. Nagini glared at them, and their laughter suddenly died in their throats.

"Nagini," warned Theo quietly, but she ignored him.

She brandished the knife in the air and began shouting at Draco, who was staring at her in fear. "Who are you to say that?" she cried. "You don''t feel sorry at all! You just want to rub it in our faces, and make those of us who are staying at the castle feel horrible about ourselves!" The entire dungeon was staring at Nagini and Draco in shock. Nagini continued her tirade. "You don't know anything about our lives, so who are you to say our families don't want us!"

Pansy sniggered. "Of course, your family wants you Ferestael," she said. "Oh wait, that's right, you don't have a family. You're an orphan." Nagini glared at her, effectively shutting her up, before turning back to Draco, who was staring at her in shock, as if he couldn't believe what she was doing. The entire dungeon was also staring at her in disbelief, pointing at her and whispering amongst themselves. Nagini ignored them.

"You and your stuck-up-I'm-better-than-everyone-attitude-because-I-have-a-manor-and-parents-who-fawn-over-me can shut up and sit down," she railed at him, continuing to wave the knife in the air. At that point, someone grabbed her wrist and wrested the knife from her palm. Nagini looked up at Professor Snape's face glaring down at her.

"Stop your shouting," he said quietly. "You're disrupting class. Sit down and return to your potion now, unless you want a detention."

Nagini shook her head mutely, and under Snape's watchful gaze, she scooped up her sliced gurdyroots and threw them in her cauldron. The potion hissed and frothed, and Nagini began to stir it counterclockwise until Snape place her knife on the table and returned to his desk.

As soon as his back was turned, Nagini turned around in her seat. "Potter's not the only one staying in the castle for Christmas," she hissed at Draco, ""and you know nothing about me." He stared at her confused, and at a nudge from Theo, Nagini turned back to her own cauldron.

"What was that for?" muttered Theo leaning over.

Nagini glared into her cauldron and gripped her locket tightly. "He struck a nerve," she said icily.

Theo raised his eyebrows. "Really, Ferestael? I couldn't tell."

Nagini rolled her eyes but looked over at him. "I'm staying at Hogwarts for Christmas," she reminded him quietly, "and he was going on about all of us staying at Hogwarts not having families that wanted us."

"But do you really want to return to the orphanage for the holidays?" he asked cautiously. Nagini shook her head. "So, what''s the problem then? He, obviously, wasn't talking about you."

Nagini was still shaking her head. "He doesn't know me," she whispered. "He can't—they can't—judge me like that because they don''t know me. They don't know anything about me." Tear stung her eyes again, and Theo turned away, choosing to give Nagini a few moments to get herself together.

She shouldn't have done that, Nagini knew. She let her temper overrule her judgment, and now she certainly wasn't blending in. She would be the talk of the school for the rest of the day; she could only hope that they could find something more interesting to gossip about soon. She sighed, and Theo and Blaise looked over at her, and she smiled weakly at them. Relieved that she seemed to be regaining her sanity, they returned to their respective cauldrons. From behind her, Draco was still staring at her, wondering what had caused her to blow up at him like that.

Nagini stirred her potion, lost in thought. No matter what they thought, she told herself, she did have a family, and her father did want to be with her. He had told her so himself and reassured her often that once they were together again, they would never be separated. Nagini angrily brushed the tears that threatened to fall form her eyes. She shouldn't have let what Draco said get to her, but she did, and she regretted it. She knew the truth about herself even if the others didn't. She vowed she wouldn't explode like that again; she would apologize to Draco, make up some excuse, and hopefully put the entire incident behind her.

Nagini tossed and turned in bed as the other girls slept soundly. She couldn't get Draco's words out of her head. Just think of how it must feel to know your family doesn't want you around. But it wasn't true, thought Nagini angrily, covering her head with the pillow, trying to block out her thoughts. It didn''t work. She sighed and rolled over, staring at the ceiling. After a moment, she got out of bed and walked over to the window. She stared out into the depths of the lake, moodily. There was no way she was going to fall asleep anytime soon, she thought.

She looked behind her at the other girls, snoring lightly in their beds, as they slept peacefully. She felt a sudden urge to get away from them, to be by herself. Silently, Nagini slipped on her shoes and out the door to the common room. It was empty, but Nagini didn't want to wait here, sitting on one of the couches. She paced the room, restless, until her eyes fell on the wall that led to the rest of the castle.

Nagini quickly glanced behind her to see if anyone was coming. No one was, so she quietly walked over to the wall and put her hands on it. Did she dare, she wondered. Yes, she decided a moment later, just so long as she didn't get caught. With another glance behind her, Nagini muttered the password ("basilisk") and slipped through the black archway that appeared. She paused for a moment in the dim corridor, glancing around to see if anyone, human or ghost, had seen her. No one was there, and Nagini breathed easy.

Nagini wandered down the corridor and up several flights of steps. She was in a section of the castle she'd never visited before, but she wasn't worried about getting lost. She was confident she'd be able to retrace her steps back to the common room, or at the very least to more familiar territory. Nagini crept down the corridor, keeping close to the wall and glancing into the classrooms as she passed by. Most of them were empty and had white sheets covering the desks and chairs. One classroom, though, looked like someone had been inside recently.

Nagini pressed her face up to the door and peered inside. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Nagini cautiously opened the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. Before her, Nagini saw a mirror, as high as the ceiling. It was very beautiful and very old, thought Nagini approaching it. It had an ornate gold frame and two clawed feet; its surface shone brightly, unmarred by cracks or dust. There was an inscription carved into the frame along the top, and Nagini stood on tiptoe to read it: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Nagini murmured the words to herself, trying to decipher their meaning, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Nagini ran her fingers along the gold frame and took a look at the mirror. She gasped and stepped backward, almost falling over. In the mirror, she saw her reflection, and behind her, she saw her father. Nagini turned around; no one was there. Heart beating fast, Nagini slowly approached the mirror and put her hand on its glass surface. The girl stared back at Nagini, smiling happily, and her father placed his hands on her shoulders and smiled down at her. Then he leaned over and whispered something in her ear: "I love you, my daughter."

Nagini stared, entranced, unable to tear her eyes away from the mirror before her. What did it show, she wondered. The future? The past? Nagini watched, spellbound, as her mirror-self turned around and hugged her father. He laughed and lifted her high in the air, holding her close. The girl burrowed her head in the man's robes, and he stroked her hair gently, smiling at her all the while.

Nagini stayed that way for what seemed like hours, staring at the mirror, until a sound from outside shook her from her reverie. She stood up, muscles sore from kneeling on the cold stone floor for so long, and looked again at the inscription running along the edge of the mirror. She wondered what it meant, and then an idea struck her. She hurried over to the desk and rummaged through the drawers until she found a roll of parchment and a piece of chalk. Nagini placed the parchment over the strange inscription and, using the chalk, made a rubbing of the words. She carefully rolled the parchment up and slipped out of the classroom. With ears perked for any sound that meant someone was heading her way, Nagini quickly retraced her steps to the common room. She placed the parchment on her bedside table and crawled into bed, thoughts of the mirror following her into sleep and haunting her dreams.

The next morning Nagini hurriedly finished breakfast and stood up. "Where are you going?" demanded Theo, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Nagini and Blaise answered at the same time, "The library." They smirked, and Theo groaned.

"Why, Nagini? I mean, there's nothing wrong with the place, but you spend almost every waking moment in there. We only ever see you at meals and in classes. What are you doing?"

Nagini grinned. "Studying," she and Blaise said in unison. They had had the same conversations a few times a week, and her answer never changed.

Theo raised his eyes to the ceiling, dark with clouds. "Heaven help me," he begged. Nagini and Blaise laughed at him, and after a moment he joined in.

"No, but really," Theo said, calming down. "What are you doing?"

"Studying," Nagini said simply. "See you later, guys!" she called as she left the Great Hall.

Behind her Theo called, "You do realize Christmas break is only three days away!"

Nagini grinned. She knew perfectly well that Theo and Blaise thought she was going crazy over schoolwork, but she wasn't doing homework. Ever since she had stumbled upon the mirror in her nighttime wanderings, Nagini had been determined to find out what the mirror was and what the inscription meant. She needed to whether the mirror showed the future or something else entirely. So Theo was right—she did spend nearly every waking moment in the library. She'd looked through books about magical mirrors and their properties and books detailing the magical uses of glass and mirrors, but so far, she hadn't had much luck. Today, she was going to try a book she had spied on the shelf entitled The Nearly-Forgotten Magical Artifacts of Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. It had seemed promising, considering she thought the mirror had to be thousands of years old.

Nagini entered the library and headed straight to the aisle where she'd seen the book. As she ran her fingers lightly across the spines, she prayed that no one had taken the book. There! She breathed a sigh of relief and took the book off the shelf. She brought it back to her usual table and immediately turned to the index and looked under ''M' for mirrors. Nagini ran her finger halfway down the page and stopped. There were two entries: Mirror of Aevus and Mirror of Erised.

Nagini quickly flipped to the first entry and scanned the page. The Mirror of Aevus, or the Mirror of Time's Passage, shows the viewer images from both the future and the past. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine what one is seeing unless the user has been trained to pull specific images from its depths. The mirror is made of black glass and has a silver frame. At the top, an hourglass is carved into its surface and an inscription bearing the mirror's name surrounds the symbol, making the mirror easily identifiable.

Nagini stopped reading. While it was interesting, the Mirror of Aevus was obviously not what she was looking for. She turned to the second entry and held her breath as she scanned the page. The Mirror of Erised, also known as the Mirror of Desire, originated in Greece as early as 1500 BC and as late as 350 BC. The mirror has a gold frame and the inscription carved into it reads "I show not your face, but your heart's desire" in mirror writing. The mirror shows the viewer his or her deepest, most desperate desire. Many people have wasted away from staring into the mirror too long, unable to pull away, or have been driven mad, unsure if what the mirror shows is real or even possible.

Nagini leaned back in her seat, stunned. She had found it; she was sure of it. The Mirror of Erised, she thought to herself. A mirror that shows its viewer his or his deepest, most desperate desire. She smiled sadly to herself. She had seen her father. Her deepest, most desperate desire was to be with her father again, to have him hold her and tell her that he loved her. Nagini got up and put the book back on the shelf where she had found it. Nagini walked with a spring in her step out of the library, smiling brightly. She knew that her deepest, most desperate desire would come true, and soon too. After all, her father had promised.

~Kasyntra