"Something is wrong," Hermione said.

"You always think something's wrong," Ron said. He'd started becoming more accepting of Hermione as she'd started spending more time with them, but Harry could tell she still grated on his nerves sometimes.

"He hasn't been coming to study," she insisted. "I hardly ever see him anymore."

"He's a Hufflepuff. Maybe he's been making more friends over there, being a hero and all."

Harry frowned. Steven had never lacked for friends even before the incident with the troll, but he hadn't noticed him spending more time with his own group.

Hermione had only started spending more time with them since Steven had left her to her own devices.

"Maybe it's better that he stay with his own kind, being a badger and all," Ron said.

"Ron!" Hermione said. "He's been nothing but a friend to all of us, and you act like you don't care."

"He'll be old enough to play on the 'puff team next year...I'd hate to see what he could do with a bludger," Ron said, shaking his head. "He could take somebody's head off."

Hermione sniffed. "It's always about Quidditch. I'm sure that Steven would never try to hurt someone."

"He knocked a troll out with the door to the girl's bathroom," Ron said. "I'm surprised he doesn't break people's bones just shaking their hands."

"Well he doesn't," Hermione said firmly. "And it doesn't change the fact that something's wrong."

They argued like an old married couple; at least like the couples on the sit-coms the Dursley's liked to watch.

"Besides," she continued. "It's not like the professors would let him play if they thought someone would get hurt."

Ron stared at Hermione for a moment. "They're keeping a giant three headed dog on the third floor behind an unlocked door. It's not like they're that worried about student safety."

"Hermione's right," Harry said quietly. "Susan Bones asked me the other day what we had Steven doing all the time. The Puffs aren't seeing him any more than we are."

Ron looked startled. "It can't be anything bad. It's Steven. He's practically Hagrid in a kid's body."

"He's smarter than Hagrid," Hermione said, lowering her voice. "And he might be tough physically, but he misses his family terribly."

Harry and Ron both stared at her for a moment. She was better at understanding people than they were in some ways, although she did have her blind spots.

"We need him anyway," Harry said.

"Why?"

"Music soothes the savage beast." Harry said, his voice low.

"So what can we do?" Ron asked. "It's not like we can stop him."

"We find out what he's doing," Hermione said. "Then we decide what to do."

They stared at each other, then nodded reluctantly.

Getting the Weasely twins to cast disillusionment charms on the three of them had taken some fast talking on Ron's part; worse; in order to see each other they had to remain in contact with each other. It would have been easier just with Harry and Ron, or especially if it had just been Harry, but Hermione had refused to be left behind.

Luckily their classes let out before Steven's on a Friday, so they were able to wait for him to get out of class.

Normally it would be risky trying to navigate through the hallway invisibly when it was full of students, but according to Hannah Abbot, Steven always stayed until he was the last one in class.

They waited patiently as the class was dismissed, hiding in a corner in a little used part of the hall. The students left class quickly, excited about the weekend.

They waited almost five minutes; by the time Steven finally came out the hallway was entirely empty.

He looked cautiously down the hall, then started walking toward them.

The direction he was coming wasn't the way back to the common rooms. It wasn't a direction he should have been going at all.

Harry held his breath as Steven passed and he could hear Hermione do the same. Ron kept breathing normally.

They let Steven get some way down the hall before they began to follow him.

He led them down a winding path, almost as though he knew someone was following him. Harry suspected that he didn't, however. This seemed too much like a path he'd traveled many times before.

They began traveling up, past the first floor, the second, even the third.

It wasn't until they reached the fifth floor that he finally seemed to reach his destination. He looked both directions, then slipped into what seemed like an unused classroom.

They waited and five minutes passed, then ten minutes, then fifteen.

Finally they couldn't stand it any longer. Whispering among themselves, they approached the door and gently pushed it open.

Steven was sitting cross legged in front of a massive mirror, staring into it. He didn't move a muscle.

They stood and watched him for five minutes. He didn't move once. Slowly they backed out of the room and made their way down the hall.

"If he wanted to stare in the mirror he could do it in his own room," Ron muttered. "He doesn't even comb his hair."

"I don't think that was an ordinary mirror," Hermione said.

That seemed obvious to Harry. Given that it reached the ceiling, it would have been impossible to even get it in the room without magic.

Harry frowned. "Should we wait for him, or confront him about it?"

Whatever it was, it was obsessing Steven, and it couldn't be healthy.

"He hit a troll in the head with a board," Ron said flatly. "And knocked it flat out."

Hermione hesitated. "For once I agree with Ron. Steven would never hurt anyone intentionally, but if he's under some kind of a spell..."

"So we wait."

"It'll be a while," Ron said. "Some of the puffs say he doesn't come back until almost curfew."

Harry stared at Ron for a moment, noticing the same expression on Hermione's face.

"What?" Ron asked. "He's my friend too. I can ask a few questions just like everyone else."

Hermione stared at him for another moment, then patted him on the shoulder.

"He's going to be here for hours." Hermione said. "Waiting around here won't do anyone any good."

"Yeah," Ron said. "We'll miss supper."

"So we come back after lights out," Harry said.

Hermione hesitated. The old Hermione would have lectured them about breaking the rules, but now her lips just tightened and she nodded.

It was his entire family. His mother and father smiled back at him, their hands on his shoulders.

He'd never seen them before; his mother was pretty.

Just seeing it made his heart ache.

"What do you see?" Ron asked, jostling behind him.

"There's people in there with me," Harry said. He was reluctant to step aside. "What do you see?"

"Just me," Ron said. "With the Quidditch cup. And I'm head boy!"

Hermione pushed him aside. She'd been reluctant to look in the mirror, lest they fall under whatever spell had captured Steven, but curiosity had apparently got the best of her.

"I'm the Headmistress of the school," she said. "My face is on chocolate frog cards as the most powerful witch of my generaton."

"Do you think it shows the future?" Ron asked hopefully.

Away from the mirror, Harry shook his head. "My parents are dead. The only way that can be the future if I'm de..."

Hermione frowned, examining the mirror.

"There's an inscription...Erised stra..." Hermione scowled for a moment, then her face brightened. "It's written backward, like how you'd see writing in a mirror.

Harry stared up at the writing. He'd have never caught on to that.

"I show not your face, but your heart's desire," Hermione read, saving Harry the trouble of working it out.

Harry frowned for a moment, then he scowled. "It's not real then. It just shows us what we want to see."

"What do you suppose Steven sees when he looks in there?" Ron asked quietly.

"Same as me, I suppose," Harry said. "His family. Only it's got to be a lot worse for him, because I never knew mine."

"He was really happy before," Hermione said, her voice subdued. "You can hear it every time he talks about it. He doesn't talk about it much...I think it hurts him too much."

"So what do we do?" Ron asked helplessly.

"I know neither one of you trusts the professors much," Hermione said. "But maybe this is one of those times."

"We could talk to Steven first," Harry said.

"Troll..." Ron reminded them.

Harry sighed. He wasn't nearly as intimidated as Ron seemed to be about the troll thing, although that might be because he'd had years of experience dodging bigger, stronger children. Who'd have thought Harry Hunting would have come in useful? It certainly did on the Quidditch field.

"We could talk to McGonagall," Harry said slowly. "She's our head of house."

"She's not HIS head of house," Ron said.

"Well, what about Professor Sprout?" Hermione asked. Professor Sprout was approachable, and she was sure to do what needed to be done to help protect Steven.

"She'd tell him we told her for sure," Ron said.

"Snape?" Harry said. He grinned at the expression on his classmates' faces.

"Professor Flitwick might work," Hermione said. "He's smart enough to get things done."

"He's gone for the weekend," Harry said. "A Wizarding conference."

"Dumbledore?" Ron said, staring behind them.

"That might be best," Hermione said. "If we could get into his office. How do you make an appointment I wonder..."

"He'd know about this mirror for sure," Harry agreed.

"I do indeed."

Harry and Hermione froze as they realized that Ron hadn't been offering Dumbledore up as a choice. He was standing behind them.