"You snuck out last night?" Blaise repeated, impressed. Draco was preparing to lay down several cards and ignored them.
"That's not the point, it's what I heard, pay attention!" Harry said, snatching the cards out of Draco's hand only to have them explode on him. Draco snickered.
"So you snuck out last night," Blaise repeated. "What did you hear, then?"
Draco was finally paying attention, so Harry began his story. When he finished, they both had their brows furrowed thoughtfully.
"So obviously," Draco began after a moment, "Quirrell wants to steal this stone, which is of course what that Cerberus you saw is guarding, and Snape wants to stop him."
"Right," Harry said, pleased that Draco had come to the same conclusion as him about the dog.
"And endangering children," Blaise mused. "Do you think Quirrell is causing your DADA headaches on purpose?"
Draco nodded thoughtfully. "That's possible…"
They all sat quietly for a minute, thinking.
"I've got it!" Draco said suddenly. Harry and Blaise looked up at his eager tone. "Wait, listen! Alright, so Quirrell is working for the Dark Lord but never took the Mark, and he sees Harry here and also knows about whatever this stone is because he's a teacher, and he decides to harass Harry with headaches because he figures that when the Dark Lord returns it'll get him brownie points, and he's trying to steal this stone because…well because he wants it, right? So he figures he'll get all this done this year, but Snape gets suspicious, because he used to be a Death Eater, so he might even know about Quirrell, and that's why he said he knew what Quirrell was planning!"
Blaise and Harry stared at him for a moment.
"…That's a bit out there," Blaise said finally.
"And what do you mean, 'when the Dark Lord returns'?" Harry asked. "What's to say he has to return?"
Draco flushed slightly. "Sorry Harry…I just…well, he was really powerful, and most people don't think he really even died, so I mean, what's to say that he's not going to come back? If he's not dead he has to come back eventually, doesn't he? And besides, I meant that from Quirrell's point of view. He probably thinks the Dark Lord is going to return."
"I certainly hope not, for Harry's sake," Blaise said pointedly. Draco flushed again.
"I said sorry," he muttered. Harry bit his lip and nodded.
"So anyway," Blaise said. "That was a really wild tale, Draco, but I suppose it's got possibilities."
Harry was thinking back to some of the books he'd read about himself, and remembered that one of them had mentioned Death Eaters as being Voldemort's followers.
"So Snape was a Death Eater?" Harry asked, unsure if he should be surprised or not. Snape was very intimidating, and after hearing the tone he'd used on Quirrell, Harry thought he might believe Snape capable of anything.
"Yeah, he was," Draco said. "But Dumbledore got him out of going to Azkaban because he said Snape had been spying for him."
"Not everyone can plead Imperius," Blaise smirked. Draco sneered at him. Harry frowned, feeling out of the loop, but let it slide.
"So I suppose my argument that Dumbledore wouldn't hire Quirrell if he'd been a Death Eater doesn't matter then," Harry decided.
"Well, no," Draco agreed. "And besides, the idea in my version of events is that Dumbledore doesn't know Quirrell was a Death Eater. The only reason Snape got hired is because he was a spy, probably."
Harry and Blaise nodded thoughtfully. This idea had merit.
"That's a paranoid conspiracy theory!" Hermione laughed.
Harry frowned at her. He had just told her what happened last night, and what Draco and Blaise's take on it had been. He'd been expecting a certain degree of reaction from her, and this just wasn't it.
"Well it's true that Snape was a spy, and it's true that he thinks Quirrell was trying to steal the stone thing, and endanger me. Why couldn't the rest be true?"
"Because, Harry, it's wild speculation," Hermione explained. "You can't assume that just because Quirrell is trying to steal something, and just because Snape accuses him of attempting to endanger children, by the way, not you in particular, that this makes him a Death Eater with an evil plot to give you annoying headaches and bring Voldemort back to power! Stealing and hurting people doesn't always make you a Death Eater. Just a bad person."
Harry nodded grudgingly. She did have a point. He leaned across the table (they were in the library, of course) and asked, "So what's your take on it then? What was Snape talking about, and how is Quirrell endangering children?"
Hermione's brow furrowed thoughtfully. "Well the endangering children bit could have been about the troll on Halloween…Quirrell could have let it in accidentally - "
"Or on purpose," Harry muttered.
"Or on purpose, yes," Hermione said benevolently. "And that's what that was all about. He did mention fighting a few once before, but he fainted on Halloween. But Harry, for all we know, Snape could be indulging in mad conspiracy theories himself. He could be completely wrong about Quirrell trying to steal this stone. And what the stone is is important too. If it was just some stupid valuable stone, clearly it's just greed. And if it's magical, which is much more likely, then what it does could be the key to figuring out what Quirrell wants with it, whether he's…" she paused, injecting her voice with as much scepticism as she could so that Harry knew for certain that she wouldn't believe it without further evidence, "…a Death Eater, or just, once again, greedy. Or something else altogether."
Harry nodded again. Another good point.
"What we should do then," he said, "Is try to figure out what it could be. I think it's Dumbledore's and it's more than likely something magical."
"I'll look into it, if you want me to," Hermione said helpfully. Harry smiled. "After all, I actually have all my homework finished, Harry." Harry stopped smiling. "Oh, and by the way, you shouldn't be sneaking out at night, it's terribly irresponsible! What if you'd run across Filch or Mrs. Norris? What if Snape had caught you? Be more careful!"
Harry knew that Filch would let him off easy if he caught him, and Mrs. Norris liked Harry because Filch did. The idea of having been caught by Snape, the ex-Death Eater though, sent shivers down Harry's spine.
"Alright, I'll be careful…"
The only way he could practice being careful while sneaking around at night with his Cloak, Harry decided, would be to sneak around at night with his Cloak more often. Or so he reasoned as he slipped out of the dorm for the second night in a row, Cloak wrapped tightly around him.
He thought he would do as he'd done last night. Wandering aimlessly certainly had proved it's merits before, and he was very willing to try again. He thought it might be fun to get hopelessly lost and then try to find his way back. He'd debated bringing Draco or Blaise again tonight, but decided against it again. He wanted to get a feel for his father's Cloak before he went off letting just anyone use it. It was still too new, too special.
Harry wandered in and out of rooms whose doors hadn't been closed properly, and after accidentally finding a passageway behind a tapestry, now checked every one of them. He found several, and after going up and down several hidden staircases that skipped who knew how many floors each, found himself at his goal: hopelessly lost.
Harry wondered which way he should go to find his way back. To his left was a staircase, but it only went up. That would not get him back to the dungeons. To his right was a corridor with a suit of armor and a door ajar. Harry decided to take a peek inside and see what he'd find. Sometimes they were just classrooms, but sometimes he found something interesting, like the room that reflected the sky, just like the Great Hall only smaller, and the room filled with old boxes, which he'd stopped poking through when he found a box filled with spiders. He didn't fancy finding something that bit even harder.
This room appeared to be a classroom, although it wasn't in use. All the tables and chairs were pushed aside to make way for a mirror. A rather large mirror.
Harry walked toward it, interested. None of the rooms he'd been in so far had had a mirror. He wanted to see what he looked like, invisible as he was. He noted a strange inscription across the top in a language he didn't recognise.
He looked in the mirror, and got the shock of his life. He could see himself. Not only that, he could see a whole group of people behind him! He looked down at himself and noted that he was still quite invisible, and looked behind himself to note that, to his eye, the room was empty. When he reached out, he touched nothing, even though there were so many people that they couldn't possibly have avoided his reach. Then he looked back at the mirror and got another shock as he recognised the woman standing at his shoulder.
"Mum?" he whispered. He looked at the man at his other shoulder. He looked a lot like Harry, but older. "Dad?"
Harry took a few steps closer and stared up at them. Looking at the rest of the group, he realized that they all looked like him, somewhat.
Harry spent the rest of the night with his family.
"Look, do you see them?"
Blaise shook his head. "I only see us, standing here."
Harry had decided to bring Blaise and Draco back with him tonight to show them his family. Draco had refused to wake up, though, so he and Blaise went by themselves.
Harry looked himself. It was just him and Blaise, standing in front of the mirror in their pyjamas. His heart sank. Maybe it only worked once?
"Hang on," Harry said, taking the cloak off of both of them and stepping away from the mirror to set it on a chair. Blaise gasped and stared at the mirror.
"It's changed," he said. Harry looked at it. He couldn't see anything different.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Do you see them?"
Blaise turned a bit red. "No, it's something else…" He tore his gaze away from whatever was so interesting in the mirror and looked at the inscription. "Erised…"
Harry looked at it too. Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi.
"That's ridiculous," Blaise said after a moment. "That's not a language at all. No language that uses our alphabet has all of those words in it. It doesn't even look runic."
"So what are you saying?" Harry asked. "It's gibberish?"
"No, I said it's not a language…I think…it is! It's spelled backward. That is ridiculous."
Harry frowned up at it. Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire…
"'Arts desire' is the only part that makes any sense now," Harry said in confusion.
"No, it's 'Heart's desire', the words aren't separated properly," Blaise said distractedly. "It says 'I show not…your face, but your heart's desire'!"
He abruptly blushed again, and looked back into the mirror.
Harry's eyes widened. This made sense. He'd been thinking it was a mirror that showed you all your family or something.
"Cool…can I see mine again?"
Blaise didn't miss the eager tone in Harry's voice. He pulled his own gaze away from the mirror and said, "I don't know, Harry…"
Harry frowned, almost angry. "Why not?"
Blaise shook his head. "This is dangerous, especially with the way you're reacting to it."
Harry blinked. "You mean, my being able to see my family is dangerous?" He actually did feel kind of angry now. "Just get out of the way, Blaise. I want to see them again."
"Harry," he said, standing firmly in between Harry and the mirror. "It's showing you want you want to see."
"Yes, 'Heart's desire', I got that. So?"
Blaise sighed. "If there's one thing you should learn from being in Slytherin, Harry, it's to never trust something or someone that gives you exactly what you want, but doesn't ask anything in return. This is definitely dangerous."
Harry sighed. That did sound reasonable. But he didn't want to be reasonable; he just wanted to see his parents again.
"Harry, promise you won't come back here, especially without me or Draco. It really isn't safe."
Harry looked back at the mirror with longing in his eyes. Blaise stepped in front of the mirror again and said, "Harry, promise."
"Can't I see them just once more?" Harry pleaded.
Blaise frowned, but gave in eventually. "Fine. Just once. But only if you promise."
Harry promised. Blaise sighed and stepped out of the way, and there they were. Harry stared at them again, memorizing every inch of his parent's faces in particular. Then Blaise was pulling him away and Harry had to put the Cloak back on and leave.
Harry was very tired the next day, having spent most of the past seventy two hours awake. Draco sulked when he found out what they'd done the night before, especially when Blaise teased him about sleeping as heavily as Vince and Greg. He had agreed with Blaise, though, about Harry's not going back to that mirror.
"You're just lucky we don't have classes for another week or so," Pansy said, looking down her nose at Harry in disapproval. Harry was sprawled out on the couch next to Pansy, half dead to the world and watching Blaise and Draco play chess. It suddenly occurred to him through his stupor that Blaise, Draco and Pansy had all stayed over break. The castle had otherwise pretty much emptied out. At the Christmas feast, there hadn't been enough people in the entire Hall to fill up the Slytherin tables, let alone all the rest. Hermione had stayed too, although Dudley had gone home, after inviting Harry along with him. Harry assumed it would be a much happier Christmas all around if he stayed at school and had refused, but he had to wonder why his three Slytherin friends (and Hermione) hadn't gone home as well.
He wanted to ask them, but he thought he might have fallen asleep, because the next thing he remembered was Pansy telling him it was time to go to lunch, even though he knew they'd only just decided to skip breakfast. He trailed groggily behind her and sat down gratefully when she pushed him into his seat. Blaise took one look at Harry and started filling up his plate for him.
"Harry," Draco said, waving a hand in front of Harry's face. Harry yawned at it. Draco dipped his hand in his goblet and flicked the liquid in Harry's face.
"Stop't Draco," Harry muttered in irritation, waving his hand half-heartedly.
He heard a conversation going on around him, but couldn't be bothered to listen until someone poured what felt like a bit of ice-cold water down the back of his robes.
His eyes flew wide open and he yelped in surprise, but it was drowned out by Blaise and Draco's laughter.
"I didn't mean for you to actually do it, Pansy!" Blaise was saying through his snickers. Harry turned and glared at Pansy, who shrugged.
"You needed to wake up," she said reasonably.
"She's right, you know," Blaise said. "I think Dumbledore wants to talk to you. He's been looking at you all through lunch."
Harry looked up at the staff table. It was true, Dumbledore was looking at him. When he made eye contact, Dumbledore nodded at him. Harry looked back at Blaise, flummoxed.
"What did I do?"
"Well you were practically sleeping on your plate, Harry," Blaise said, smirking.
"Or maybe he knows what you two were doing last night," Draco added with a slight pout.
"He doesn't look stern enough for you to be in trouble," Pansy pointed out. "Eat your lunch and don't worry about it."
Blaise turned out to be right. Once Harry had finished his plate, Dumbledore stood and swept over to them.
"If you would come with me, Mr. Potter? I'd like a word in my office."
Harry nodded and stood slowly, hoping that Pansy was right and he wasn't in trouble. Blaise gave him a hopeful thumbs up and Draco mouthed 'good luck' as he walked away.
Dumbledore had settled himself behind his desk and offered Harry a lemon drop already. Harry refused, too busy staring around himself in awe. Dumbledore had a fascinating office. Harry was currently staring at a large bird on a perch in the corner, and he missed Dumbledore's question as it cooed at him. Harry tore his eyes away from the bird and looked at Dumbledore.
"I'm sorry sir, what did you say?"
Dumbledore smiled cheerfully at him. "A phoenix is the best sort of distraction, isn't he?" Harry looked at the bird again and nodded. It was very beautiful. "His name is Fawkes."
"That's a nice name."
"I like it too," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. "My question though, before we were so happily distracted by my beautiful phoenix, was to ask you how you are adjusting to Hogwarts?"
"Oh," Harry said, wondering what he should say to that. "It's great… The classes are really interesting, and I've got a lot of friends."
"Yes," Dumbledore said with a nod. "Friends are a wonderful thing. They can sometimes give very good advice."
"Sir?" Harry asked, a faint suspicion growing at the back of his mind.
"You have a very good friend in Mr. Zabini, for example." Dumbledore smiled at him, and Harry knew he was right that Dumbledore knew somehow about his discovery of the mirror.
"Sir," Harry began slowly, "If I may ask, how -"
"I don't need a cloak to become invisible." Dumbledore allowed him to digest this information for a moment before continuing. "The Mirror of Erised is indeed a very powerful and dangerous artifact, Harry." Harry was relieved to see that Dumbledore didn't look angry at all. "Men have wasted away before it, or been driven mad by the possibilities it holds. I would not leave it unsupervised in a school. As it is, the Mirror has been moved to a new home. I'll ask you to take Mr. Zabini's admirable advice and not go looking for it again."
Harry nodded. "I've promised Blaise and Draco that I won't go looking for it again, sir. I won't."
"Thank you, Harry. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."
Harry nodded again, and Dumbledore dismissed him.
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