– CHAPTER TWELVE –

A Backwards Desire

The Christmas season hit Hogwarts seemingly overnight, as Harmony woke up one December morning to find the grounds covered in inches of deep snow. Professor Flitwick adorned decorations across the whole school with a few flicks of his wand, whilst Hagrid trawled a gigantic Christmas tree into the Great Hall. Until that day, Harmony wasn't even sure if wizards celebrated Christmas; after all, was a belief in God and Jesus compatible with a life of witchcraft? In a rare moment of usefulness, it was the History of Magic teacher Professor Binns who clarified this for the first-years.

'No, traditionally, witches and wizards don't celebrate Christmas,' he mumbled. 'It was something picked up with the steady increase of the half-blood and Muggleborn population.'

'What about Jesus, then?' inquired Seamus half-jokingly. 'Couldn't he have been a wizard?' Unfortunately, the class never got to hear Professor Binns' answer, as he had suddenly fallen into his third nap of the day.

With the holidays quickly approaching, the most common conversation topic amongst the students was what they would be getting up to over the winter break. Most were heading home to spend time with family, whilst a few others were staying at Hogwarts for various reasons, usually not by their own choice.

Harmony had all but assumed she'd be spending her holiday with the Grangers, and was looking forward to having her first proper Christmas. Even on the day about goodness to all mankind, the Dursleys never showed Harmony any real gratitude. The most she ever got for Christmas were pairs of old socks, a dehumidifier for her closet (which was more for the benefit of the storage space than Harmony), or whatever loose change Uncle Vernon happened to have in his wallet that day.

Unfortunately, when the day came for Gryffindor students to let Professor McGonagall know what their holiday plans were, Harmony's ideal Christmas, and her heart, were quickly shattered.

'What do you mean I can't go?'

'Believe me, Miss Potter, it gives me no pleasure to say this,' explained McGonagall. 'We understand sending you back to the Dursleys is not an option, and procedures with both the Ministry and Muggle authorities are still ongoing. However, the Grangers aren't your legal guardians. Until suitable guardians can be found, myself and Professor Dumbledore are responsible for your safety, and the headmaster has made clear to me that he wants you here, where you're safe.'

Harmony couldn't quite fathom what McGonagall was saying as she held back her tears. Considering there was a giant three-headed dog in the castle and the troll incident was barely a month past, Harmony was genuinely starting to believe Hogwarts wasn't as safe as its reputation claimed. In that moment, she honestly felt she'd be far more secure back at the Grangers' semi-detached Ealing home.

'Harmony, I'm genuinely sorry to do this,' McGonagall sympathised. 'However, spending Christmas at Hogwarts is far from an unjoyful affair, and you won't be alone in the tower. Miss Patil is staying over the holidays, as are the Weasley brothers.'

For the week following up until the last day before the break, Harmony remained gutted by Dumbledore's decision, whilst Hermione and Pansy did their best to console their despondent friend. Hermione had even volunteered to stay at Hogwarts with Harmony just so she wouldn't be lonely.

'Please, you don't have to,' Harmony politely declined at the time. 'You've been going on for ages about how much you miss your mum and dad. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.'

Harmony herself didn't fully believe that last statement, but she knew it was what Hermione needed to hear. As much as the two girls depended on each other, Harmony knew she couldn't always rely on her honorary sister. Besides, even a Christmas spent at school was already miles ahead of one spent at the Dursleys.

'I'm sure Dumbledore has his reasons,' said Hermione. 'My parents are well aware it's a tricky situation; my mum was actually from a foster home herself. Maybe we'll be able to sort something for Easter?'

'I actually wish I was staying over Christmas,' added Pansy, 'but Mum is insisting I come home. I'm not sure she's going to be too happy when she finds out I'm "fraternising with the enemy". Speaking of which, have you noticed Quirrell has been acting even weirder lately?'

'Not really,' shrugged Harmony. 'Only time I've seen him since the Quidditch match, outside of class and meals obviously, was when George Weasley tried to knock Quirrell's turban off with a snowball.'

'I think we're focusing on the wrong thing right now,' said Hermione. 'The only fact we know for certain is a name: Nicolas Flamel. We need to find out who that is. I've been looking through every book vaguely relevant in the library, and still come up with nothing. I even asked to borrow Dean Thomas' smartphone to see if I could find anything online, but turns out there aren't exactly many 5G towers near Hogwarts. I'll have a look on my dad's computer when I get home, but until then, might be worth seeing if you can have a look in the restricted section.'

The Hogwarts library was a cosy and productive environment always full of students late into the night, but off to the back of the room was a caged-off area full of dusty bookshelves that look like they only got checked out once a year. This was the restricted section, which students had to have special permission from a teacher to check out a book from, and it was almost only ever older students specialising in Defence Against the Dark Arts who got access.

Given the trio's suspicions about Quirrell, that only made it more unlikely they'd get access. Harmony just had to hope Hermione could find what she needed on the Internet.

On the morning after the last day of term, Harmony went down to the train platform to see Hermione and Pansy off. No other students who were staying at Hogwarts over the holidays had bothered to do the same, mainly due to most of them wanting to have a lie-in with no lessons on the horizon.

After hugging her friends goodbye and watching the Hogwarts Express set off on its long journey back to London, only Harmony and Hagrid remained on the platform. The pair walked back to the school grounds together, discussing their respective Christmas plans and hopes for the New Year.

'Why don't you pop by on Christmas Day?' Hagrid suggested. 'Got some of my homemade Christmas cake on the go.'

Harmony smiled, pretending to be enticed by the idea of Hagrid's cooking. 'Yeah, maybe. I don't really have any plans, anyway. Only two other first-years left in the tower. Parvati is Hindu, so she doesn't really do Christmas, and Ron…well, he's Ron.'

Hagrid seemed confused, so Harmony explained to him Ron's recent antagonism towards Hermione. 'Ah, that there does explain some things,' he said in realisation. 'Maybe now's a good time to try and patch that up. 'Tis the season, after all.'

'I don't know,' Harmony shrugged wearily. 'Ron's a bit of a stubborn git.'

'Aw, now that's a load of codswallop,' Hagrid grumbled. 'Harmony, one of your best mates is a Slytherin. If you can manage that minefield, how hard could burying the hatchet with Ron be? From what I gather, he's clearly not a monster. He's just a bit…troubled, is all. Remind you of anyone?'

Hagrid soon left Harmony as they passed his hut, leaving her to walk the last stretch back to the castle by herself. As she did, Harmony thought of what Hagrid had said. She thought back to the day Ron had upset Hermione, how obvious it was to Harmony that Ron knew he'd done something wrong but couldn't admit it, and then pondered the odd but good-natured boy she had first encountered on the train. Maybe now that she didn't have to avoid him to appease Hermione, Harmony could reconnect with that version of Ron.

When Harmony arrived back in Gryffindor Tower, the common room was almost completely empty. Percy Weasley was sat at a desk in the corner, writing out an essay Professor Snape had assigned his class over the winter break. Meanwhile, Ron was sat alone in an armchair by the fireplace, flicking through his collection of Chocolate Frog cards. With the slightest trepidation in her heart, Harmony took a seat in the armchair next to him.

'So…you doing all right there?' she asked, not really knowing how else to start.

Ron shrugged. 'Alright, I suppose. Just trying to figure out what cards I'm missing from my set. You don't happen to have a Newt Scamander, do you?'

'Sorry, no,' Harmony replied. 'You got much planned over the break?'

'Nah,' Ron said despondently. 'I'm only here because Mum & Dad decided to bog off to my brother Charlie's dragon sanctuary in Romania. Percy's got a lot of O.W.L. coursework to catch up on, and Fred & George are happy enough to run about the castle, but me? To be honest, I'm a bit fed up.'

Harmony nodded along. For the first time possibly ever, she actually related to the feelings of a boy. 'Well, there's got to be something we could do.'

Ron's attention was piqued as soon as Harmony said the word "we", as an idea visibly sprang into his head. 'You ever played wizard chess before?'

After dashing upstairs to the boys' dormitory, Ron returned to the common room with a well-worn chess set. Harmony had never played the game before, but vaguely understood the rules. When she tried to pick up her first piece though, Ron slapped her hand away.

'No, you don't move them,' he chastised her, the mean streak he had towards Hermione re-emerging. 'Here, let me show you. Knight to C3.'

Upon uttering the direction, Ron's queen-side knight budged past the pawns and took up its new spot on the board. What followed was a game far more entertaining and cathartic than any board game Harmony had ever played, which didn't mean much because she had played very few. When one piece defeated another, it didn't simply knock it off the board, but literally attacked it and smashed it into little pieces. Being inexperienced, Harmony lost a lot of pieces, but the few times she managed to trick out Ron and smash one of his were enormously satisfying.

By the end of their game, Harmony had quite decisively lost to Ron, and all of her chess pieces were little more than specks of rubble.

'How are you supposed to keep playing if you destroy most of your soldiers every game?' Harmony asked.

'You can put them back together with a basic mending charm,' said Ron. 'Not me though; I'll probably only mess it up. I'll ask one of my brothers. Want a rematch later?'

Ron left to take the chess set back up to his dorm. Just from playing the game, Harmony realised Ron wasn't dumb or foolish like so many assumed. He was undoubtedly smart and had a strategic mind, but perhaps just wasn't the most academically-inclined. It still didn't explain his poor attitude at times, especially towards Hermione, but Harmony had more hope now that maybe this rift could be mended after all.

On Christmas morning, Harmony woke up for the first time genuinely excited about the day. Parvati was still fast asleep and, despite not celebrating, Harmony did consider waking her up so she could join in but ultimately decided against it. Having spent several months sharing a room with her now, Harmony knew Parvati savoured every moment of beauty sleep she could get.

Harmony headed down to the common room, where Ron was already awake and getting the fireplace up and running. 'Merry Christmas, Harmony,' he said upon seeing her enter the room.

'Merry Christmas, Ron,' she said in return. 'Should we wait for your brothers, or-'

'Nah, they probably won't be up for ages. Why don't you open up your first one?

Harmony rooted about under the Christmas tree, looking for any presents addressed to her. She would have been happy to receive only one, but after her trawl she had ended up with quite the stash; still nowhere near Dudley-levels of presents, but more than enough.

Given the first-years weren't allowed off the school grounds unsupervised yet, her presents from Hermione and Pansy weren't much. Hermione had bought her a box of about a dozen Chocolate Frogs, whilst Pansy's was just a framed photo of the trio hanging out in the courtyard, their giggles and smiles forever silently captured in the animated picture.

The Grangers had also sent along a couple of gifts. Dominic had, quite typically, given her a pocket mouth hygiene kit, whilst Naomie had gone to the effort of knitting her a homemade jumper. It was made of baby wool in white, pink, and blue, formed in the pattern of the trans Pride badge Harmony still proudly wore on her school uniform.

'Mate, your jumper looks so…comfy,' lamented Ron as he examined his own Christmas jumper from his mother, which comparably looked quite coarse and itchy. 'Why does she keep making me maroon ones? I tell her every year: anything but maroon!'

Harmony stuck on her jumper and went through the last of her presents. Hagrid had given her a hand-carved flute, saying it might prove useful against certain magical creatures, whilst McGonagall had simply gifted her a nice little Christmas card; Ron received an almost identical one. Then there was only one present left, and Harmony had no idea who it was even from. There was a note attached to it, but it bore no name. It simply read:

Harmony,

Your father left this in my possession before he died.

It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well. Merry Christmas.

Harmony opened up the present with great trepidation, completely unsure what she would find inside. What she ended up finding was a very fine wizard's cloak. The cloth felt silky and smooth to the touch, the material sparkling in the light like stars in the night sky.

Ron was agape as soon as he saw what Harmony was holding, nearly dropping the tub of homemade mince pies his mother had sent him. 'Bloody hell! Is that…is that what I think it is?'

'Um…maybe,' Harmony shrugged. 'It just looks like a nice cloak.'

'Could be. Try it on. Then we'll know for sure.'

Still unsure what Ron meant by that, Harmony wrapped the cloak around her body. It did feel incredibly comfortable and relaxing to wear; it was a comparison that seemed contradictory, but Harmony likened the sensation to lying in a bath whilst somehow staying dry. This illusion of serenity was quickly broken by another of Ron's shocked exclamations.

'Woah! I knew it. I knew it!' he said excitedly.

Harmony remained confused until she looked down at herself and realised her entire body was no longer visible. She stormed over to the nearest mirror just to confirm her eyes weren't deceiving her, but it only shocked her further. All Harmony could see of herself was her disembodied head floating about five feet off the ground.

'My…my body's gone?' she exclaimed, baffled.

'It's not gone,' Ron corrected. 'That's an invisibility cloak you got there, that is.'

Harmony pulled off the cloak, returning her body to the visible plane and reverting the clothing to its silvery original form.

'Those things are mighty rare, Harmony,' Ron went on. 'Who gave you it?'

'I don't know. The note says it was my dad's but…who gave it to me?'

Harmony didn't think Halloween could be topped, but the Hogwarts Christmas feast was just as delightful, if not more so. She gleefully let out her own inner Dudley and ate more than she ever had in her life: turkey, bacon, chipolatas, stuffing, Brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, potatoes both mashed and roasted, gravy, cranberry sauce, and whatever else she could find on the table. Given only a few dozen students were staying at the castle over the holidays, everyone sat together at one big table rather than being separated by house, which gave Harmony the chance to catch up with the likes of Susan Bones, Morag MacDougal, and Parvati's Ravenclaw twin sister Padma Patil.

The conversation amongst the first-year girls, wanting to take advantage of the ample snow outside, eventually led to organising a house snowball fight for after the feast. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had enough young ladies still at school to make up three on a team, but Gryffindor unfortunately came up short.

'No fair, we've only got two,' argued Parvati.

'Well, we're not leaving anyone out,' said Padma.

'What about Ron?' Harmony chipped in.

Parvati looked offended at the mere mention of his name. 'Weirdo Weasley? No way. He's a creep and an arse.'

'I thought you hated him?' Susan asked Harmony.

'No, that's Hermione,' she clarified, 'and yeah, he's a bit…odd, but he's not bad; not deep down, anyway.'

'There's just something off about him, y'know?' said Parvati. 'At least his brothers are weird in entertaining ways. Ron is just…Ron. Whatever. He just gives me the ick.'

Harmony looked a few seats down at Ron who, despite his family being sat right beside him, looked ignored and alone. He just stared off into space, his mind clearly elsewhere. Harmony knew it wasn't fair to exclude Ron, but first she needed to sell Parvati on the idea.

'Well, put it this way,' argued Harmony, 'You'll get to see him pelted over and over again with snow.' Suddenly, Parvati was very in favour of letting Ron join the team.

Once the meal was over, the first-years headed over to the field near Hagrid's hut and chaos quickly ensued. There had been some initial discussion of keeping score of how many hits each house got, but it eventually devolved into a battle royale to see which team could endure the barrage of cold pellets the longest. In the end, Ron ended up proving an asset to the Gryffindor side, taking a lot of hits but scoring far more in return, but it didn't really matter who was winning. By the end of the game, Parvati had let go of any animosity she had toward Ron.

With daylight quickly fading and most of the players wet and tired, the snowball fight eventually fizzled out. Before heading back to the castle though, Harmony wanted to drop by Hagrid's as promised. Ron and Parvati ended up tagging along and, whilst they were as unimpressed with Hagrid's baking skills as Harmony and Hermione had been, they enjoyed his company nonetheless. After that came dinner, and then the students retired to their common rooms for the night. Fred and George got chased around the tower by Percy after they stole his prefect badge, whilst Harmony, Parvati and Ron played a few rounds of wizard chess and gobstones before calling it a night.

As hard as it was to wake Parvati up, she was the exact opposite when it came to falling asleep, doing so within five minutes of lights out. Meanwhile, Harmony couldn't help but let her mind race about the day just passed. After all the fun and excitement of Christmas, it was only now she realised the biggest mystery of the day remained unsolved: who had sent her the Invisibility Cloak?

As the question ran through her mind over and over again, Harmony came to a different but equally exciting realisation: with her cloak on, she essentially had free reign over the castle at night. In fact, with staff at an all-time low, there would be no better time than tonight to get away with a little rule-breaking. Harmony knew that she didn't want to pull the kind of antics she was sure Fred and George Weasley would with such power, but there was one small thing she thought couldn't do much harm: sneaking into the restricted section of the library.

Without further delay, Harmony slipped on her Invisibility Cloak and headed down and out of Gryffindor Tower. The Grand Staircase was only lit by a couple of candles per flight, and all of the figures in the portraits were fast asleep. As Harmony tiptoed her way down the steps to the first floor, trying to not wake up any of the snoring paintings, she realised she had now locked herself out of the girls' dormitory. It panicked her for a moment, before quickly realising that Gryffindor Tower was so vacant that she could easily just sleep on the common room sofa.

Harmony arrived in the school library, which was empty except for the pale ghost of a young woman. She was sat on the windowsill, overlooking the Black Lake, reading a romance novel about the forbidden love of a giant and an elf. It was the Grey Lady, the Ravenclaw House ghost, and luckily Harmony was as invisible to her as any other living being. As subtly as she could, Harmony grabbed one of the hanging lanterns and headed over to the restricted section, casting Alohomora on the locked cage and sneaking inside.

The books in the restricted section looked old and flimsy, ready to fall apart at the slightest nudge. They all had long and indecipherable titles, often in Latin or some other ancient language, making it hard to ascertain what any of them were even about. Harmony grabbed the first book she found that she could understand and sounded vaguely applicable to Nicolas Flamel: Infamous Witches & Wizards of the United Kingdom.

She carefully opened up the ancient tome, making sure not to damage the fraying spine and delicate pages, but she had barely read a sentence before the book started screaming at her. A horrifying face emerged from the pages themselves, as if trying to break through the paper, and let out an ear-piercing and guttural shriek. In shock, Harmony dropped both the book and her lantern before rushing out of the library. Surely the teacher on duty or, worse, Filch and Mrs Norris, would be on their way to the source of the noise soon.

Harmony tried to move quickly but silently. She may have been invisible, but anyone could still hear her, and the echoey halls of Hogwarts would carry the sound of her stomping footsteps to anyone else on the floor. She tried to take the quickest route back to the Grand Staircase, but was forced to a sudden stop as Professor Quirrell came wandering down the corridor in the opposite direction. The purple-clad teacher scanned the hallway with his beady eyes and his wand drawn. He was looking for something…but what?

Harmony stood up against the wall, trying to stay as still and quiet as she could, hoping Quirrell would quickly move on so she could escape unnoticed.

'It's here,' he said seemingly to no one, 'but not for long. I will find it for you soon.'

Harmony was baffled. Not only was Professor Quirrell talking to himself, he did so with a determination completely opposed to his usual demeanour; he didn't even stutter. Before Harmony could think what the teacher may have been searching for, Quirrell was himself interrupted by the arrival of another unexpected presence: Professor Snape.

'S-S-S-Severus?' Quirrell stammered, his speech impediment immediately making a return. 'What are y-y-y-y-you doing down here?'

'Patrolling the halls,' Snape answered matter-of-factly. 'As the on-duty teacher tonight, the real question should be: what are you doing here, Quirinius?'

Quirrell was left flustered, taking quite a time to respond. 'Oh! You're on d-d-d-d-duty? Ha, silly me! I-I-I-I-I-I thought it was my shift t-t-t-t-tonight.'

Snape looked doubtful of Quirrell's excuse, but he didn't question it. 'Well, now that you're here, you might as well know: there's been a disturbance in the library. Some student has snuck into the restricted section. Help me search this floor, would you?'

Quirrell nodded and the two split up, checking a few of the nearby rooms before moving on. Panicked at how to move forward without risking running into one of them again, Harmony decided it would be best to hide in one of the rooms they had already checked and just wait it out. For the moment, she remained motionless until both teachers had moved on, with Quirrell walking inches away from Harmony's face. Up closer to him than ever before, Harmony got an uncomfortably big whiff of Quirrell's turban; it smelt like something had died underneath it.

Once both Snape and Quirrell had left the immediate vicinity, Harmony dashed over to one of the rooms Snape had briefly inspected and shut the door carefully behind her. It was a disused classroom with very little furniture: a small desk, a chair or two, and an old chalkboard.

The only thing that particularly stood out about the room was the giant mirror that sat at the foot of the room. It had an ornate golden frame, and the mirror itself shone more like silver than glass. An inscription was carved into the border above the mirror in some seemingly-unknown language: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi. However, after looking at it a few more times, Harmony realised it was just backwards English; it actually read I show not your face but your heart's desire.

Curious, Harmony took off her cloak and looked into the mirror. At first, she saw only her reflection as normal, but then Hermione walked into frame. Harmony had to cover her mouth to stop herself from yelping. She looked to her side, just to confirm she was still alone, and there was indeed no Hermione in sight. There she was in the mirror though, walking up to Harmony's reflection and giving her a big hug. Then, Dominic and Naomie Granger came into view and did the same.

It was a bizarre sensation for Harmony. She couldn't physically feel the Grangers embracing her, but she felt the warmth in her heart of a real hug nonetheless. Harmony felt transfixed by what she saw in the mirror, her mind once again racing with the possibilities of what her Christmas could have been. As much as she had enjoyed her holiday at Hogwarts, all she had been dreaming of was a proper family celebration.

Harmony began to cry. She couldn't bear to look at the reflection anymore. At this point, it felt like it was teasing her. She pulled her invisibility cloak back on and, slowly but surely, made her way back to Gryffindor Tower. Knowing even trying to get back to the girls' dorm would risk setting off the protection charm, Harmony just slumped down on the common room couch, using her mysterious Christmas present as a blanket to keep herself warm.

It took Harmony far too long to fall asleep that night, as her mind kept drifting back to what the mirror had shown her. The inscription above it was certainly right: it showed her heart's desire, and it hurt so much.

Harmony woke up the next morning to the shrill sound of Parvati Patil screaming and pointing at her. This confused her at first, until she realised how she looked to Parvati. By using the invisibility cloak as a blanket, to everyone else it looked like Harmony's dismembered head was lying on the common room sofa.

Harmony threw off the cloak and stood up, but Parvati took a little longer to calm down. The noise was loud enough to summon all of the Weasleys to the common room, concerned by what might have been happening. Harmony was quick to stuff the invisibility cloak out of sight, knowing Percy would certainly have a lot of prying questions if he knew she possessed such a powerful item.

'What the bloody hell is going on?' said a particularly perturbed Ron. 'I can't get my lie-in with all this screaming.'

Parvati struggled to even get the words out. 'Sorry, I…I just came down and…and Harmony was…was-'

'I slept on the sofa,' Harmony interrupted. 'I'd forgotten something in the common room last night and ended up locked out of the dorm. Parvati was worried when I wasn't there when she woke up, and was just a bit shocked to find me here.'

Harmony then looked to Parvati, silently trying to get her to back up her alibi. However, Parvati was still in such a state of shock that she remained unable to properly answer. She just vaguely nodded and then wandered off out of the common room.

'OK, fine,' said Percy. 'Be careful next time, Potter. You shouldn't be out of dorm after lights out anyway. If you get locked out again, let me know. Alright?'

Harmony nodded, and Percy went about his oblivious way. However, Ron and the twins lingered, all of them looking knowingly at Harmony.

'Nice one, Harmony,' said Fred. 'Percy Prefect will be none the wiser.'

'What are you talking about?' Harmony responded.

'C'mon, show us the cloak then,' nudged George. 'It's OK. Ron told us.'

Harmony gave Ron a dirty look, which he reacted incredulously to. 'What? You never said to keep it a secret.'

'What did you get up to last night then?' asked George excitedly. 'Oh, the things I'd do to this school with a beautiful cloak like that…'

'Ooh, we could sneak into Snape's ingredients cabinet and replace everything with Every-Flavour Beans,' suggested Fred, 'or raid Filch's confiscated items cupboard and get back our vomit powder, or-'

'Guys, no!' said Harmony, putting her foot down. 'I'm not letting you borrow it.'

'Aw, come on, Harmony,' begged George, putting on his best frowny face. 'We'll give you a Galleon for every use.'

'I said no! Could we just keep this between us please? Last thing I want is a teacher confiscating it.'

Fred groaned. 'Fine. We won't say anything…so long as you told us where you went last night.'

It would have been impossible for all four of them to fit under the invisibility cloak, especially with how tall Fred and George were compared to Harmony and Ron, but that matter was solved by the mischievous twins. They knew of a secret passage that could get them from the fifth floor to the first without being seen, hidden behind a portrait of a nurse witch; supposedly, it was for hospital wing staff to quickly and safely transport students across the castle.

Harmony had been very reluctant to share knowledge of the mysterious mirror, but Ron and the twins were immediately fascinated by the idea and begged Harmony to take them. With some more careful sneaking around, eventually Harmony was able to find the disused classroom and the mirror itself. The four of them stood in front of it together…and nothing happened

'It's not bloody working,' said an annoyed Fred. 'We doing something wrong?'

'Maybe it only works on one person at a time?' theorised Harmony.

'Well, I'm going first. C'mon, let's see if this ruddy mirror knows me better than me.'

Harmony, Ron and George stepped away from the mirror, leaving Fred the only one gazing directly into its mesmerising sheen. Quickly, an expression of glee and vindication overcame the thirteen-year-old's face.

'What do you see?' asked Ron.

'Aw, wicked!' exclaimed Fred. 'Me and George have opened up a shop in Diagon Alley. We're filthy rich and…wait a tic, is that…is that Snape?' Fred then erupted into a fit of self-indulgent laughter; he never ended up explaining what Snape was doing there and why it was so funny.

'All right, Mr Gigglefit,' said George, shoving his twin brother out of the way. 'My turn.'

George looked deep into the mirror with excitement, but whatever he saw was certainly not what he expected. Rather than jovial or comforted, George seemed to be moved to melancholy by whatever he saw in his reflection. It was the first time Harmony had seen him lose the perpetual grin that usually affixed his face. He gawked into the mirror for a long while, only looking away once to glance briefly at Harmony, before stepping away from it without a word.

'George?' said a concerned Fred. 'What did you see?'

'I…I don't know if I should say,' he replied with trepidation. George took a seat at one of the empty desks, his mind still clearly elsewhere. Everyone else was slightly unnerved. How could seeing what he desired deep down make him feel so despondent?

'Right, well I guess it's my turn then,' said Ron as he stepped forward in front of the mirror. After a few moments, his reaction was thankfully more in line with Fred's.

'Bloody hell!' he exclaimed. 'I'm Head Boy. Dumbledore's just handed me the House Cup. Everyone's clapping and…and I'm Quidditch captain too?' Ron then did a little twirl and pose, admiring whatever his idealised reflection looked like. 'I look good!'

Fred was a little chuffed by Ron's description. 'You sure you've not gotten Percy's dream by mistake?'

Ron shushed his brother. 'Wait, there's more. Is that…Dean? Wow, he looks nice too. He's come up on stage with me and…and…' Ron's expression went from joyous to a rapid cycle through all the stages of grief. First he was shocked, then furious, before shaking his head in denial, then channelling George's dejection before sighing in acceptance.

'Ron? What happened?' said Harmony apprehensively.

Ron turned away from the mirror. 'Can we just go to bed now?'

There was an awkward quiet at the Gryffindor table the next morning at breakfast. George Weasley seemed to be back to his normal cheery self, but he nonetheless refused to elaborate on what he had seen in the mirror the night before. This was especially vexing to Fred, who wasn't used to his brother keeping secrets from him. Ron, meanwhile, had yet to turn up, likely still asleep after a late night. Harmony instead spent the meal speaking to Parvati, and came clean to her about the cloak and the mirror, now that the prying ears of Percy Weasley weren't around to hear.

'An invisibility cloak?' she said, perplexed. 'Be careful with those. My uncle got one of them as a gag present once, but it stopped working after a few weeks. The enchantments on them tend to wear off eventually.'

Harmony doubted this was the case with her cloak, since it was working fine despite going at least eleven years without use, but she kept it in mind regardless.

At this point, Ron finally arrived in the Great Hall and, unlike George, he still seemed to be in a troubled mood. A depressed frown sagged on his face, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He sat down next to Harmony and Parvati, silently helping himself to some toast and juice, not even making eye contact with his fellow first-years.

'What's up with you?' asked Parvati. 'Couldn't sleep?'

'You could say that,' Ron answered in a monotone.

Harmony couldn't stand to see it. Ron hadn't been in the best mood most of the Christmas break, but now he looked utterly heartbroken. What had he seen in the mirror the night before? How did it go from something so pleasing, to making him feel horrible? Wasn't that the exact opposite reaction the mirror was intended to induce?

'Ron,' said Harmony in a supportive tone, 'if there's something wrong, you can tell us.'

'There's nothing wrong with me,' he denied. 'You wouldn't understand.'

Maybe she didn't understand this specific situation, but Harmony had been through more kinds of pain than anyone else she knew. Even if she couldn't do anything, she hated seeing others suffering.

Harmony put a hand on Ron's shoulder. 'If there's anything I can do-'

'Just leave me alone!'

Ron's shout echoed through the Great Hall, attracting the attention of nearby students. Before Harmony or anyone else could get another word out, Ron stormed off, leaving behind a half-finished breakfast. Like a worried parent, Percy chased after him, whilst Harmony and Parvati just exchanged uncomfortable glances.

'Told you there's something up with that boy,' said Parvati. 'If it weren't for Professor Quirrell, he'd be the weirdest guy at Hogwarts.'

Before Harmony could disagree with Parvati's sentiment (there were at least three other boys at the school she thought were stranger than Ron), it reminded her of seeing Quirrell talking to himself two nights before. He was looking for something, specifically for someone else, and was behaving very unlike himself. The thought then occurred to Harmony: was he looking for the mirror? Could it have something to do with whatever was protected by Fluffy?

Harmony wasn't particularly keen on sneaking around the castle for a third night in a row, but she had to be sure.

At this point, any fear of being spotted whilst traipsing about Hogwarts in her invisibility cloak had vanished for Harmony. She truly felt like more of a ghost than any of the actual phantoms that wandered the castle, and she was especially glad that it kept Peeves off her back.

Harmony quickly found the disused classroom on the first floor again. She had planned to keep watch under her cloak, and wait to see if Professor Quirrell showed up. Unlike the previous nights, he was meant to be on patrol duty, so he was almost bound to make an appearance, but what Harmony was looking for was any interest from him in the mirror.

When Harmony entered the room though, she found she was already not alone.

'Ron?'

Harmony threw off her invisibility cloak as Ron Weasley turned around in fright, not expecting to be interrupted as he stared into the enchanted mirror once again.

'Harmony?' he said in a high-pitched, trembling shriek. 'What are you doing here?'

'I was going to ask you the same. How'd you even get down here?'

'I used Fred and George's passageway. I overheard them mention the password. It's "heat from fire, fire from heat", if you wanted to know. It's actually easy enough to-'

'Ron!' blared Harmony in frustration. 'You're avoiding the question.'

'Right, um…' Ron's lips quivered, almost getting out a reply several times before thinking better of it. Harmony waited as patiently as she could, still keeping in the back of her mind that Quirrell or Filch could wander in at any moment.

Ron sighed and gave up trying to make excuses. 'I needed to see it again,' he said candidly. 'What the mirror showed me, I mean. I…it wasn't what I was expecting, and…and I was just confused; angry, even.'

'What did you see?' asked Harmony. 'You seemed so happy.'

'I know! It really was everything I knew I wanted, and then…and then Dean shows up and…and…'

Ron's breathing grew heavier, and his eyes looked ready to burst, but he was trying his hardest to keep his feelings locked up. Harmony could certainly relate; she'd spent most of her life up until a few months ago doing much the same. Whatever Ron was about to say, she knew it was both something he needed to let go of and yet was incredibly difficult to do so.

Despite the explosive reaction of the previous time, she went for it. Harmony held Ron's hand and gripped it comfortingly. 'It's OK. What happened?'

Ron was practically ready to bite his tongue off. He squeezed tightly onto Harmony's hand, took the deepest of breaths through his nostrils, and finally came out with it.

'He…I mean…we…kissed. Like, full-on snog. Like…like we wanted to.'

Harmony was taken aback, but not in a bad way. She certainly hadn't seen it coming, but mainly because she hadn't been thinking about it. Harmony herself didn't know yet who she had feelings for, if she ever would, and was in no hurry to find out. At that moment in time, she was still working out other aspects of herself.

'So…do you think the mirror is wrong?' she asked. 'You don't think that you're-'

'No, I-' Ron desperately deflected. 'I just…I didn't know how to feel. I hadn't thought about it before, but now that I've seen it, I…I can't stop.'

Harmony related to Ron's struggle more and more by the second. Her own gender incongruence was something she'd always deep down known, but simply couldn't put to words. Instead of a slow burn over several years though, these emotions had hit Ron all at once; it would be a lot for anyone to process.

'I just…I just want to understand why,' said Ron in vain.

'Perhaps I can help with that,' spoke up a familiar, husky voice.

Harmony and Ron were startled stiff as they turned to see Professor Dumbledore casually sat at the desk in the corner of the room, peering knowingly at the first-years through his sparkling half-moon spectacles.

'Professor?' said Harmony in bafflement. 'How long have you been there?'

'Long enough, my chinas,' said Dumbledore cheekily, getting up from the desk and wandering over to the mirror. 'I see you've both discovered the dual-edged sword of pleasure and pain that is the Mirror of Erised.'

Harmony was taken aback that not only was Professor Dumbledore in the room with her and Ron, but how he was behaving so differently. When speaking to the school, he had the demeanour you'd expect from a respected elder: firm, caring, a little bit eccentric, but foremost wise and controlled. Now though, he seemed far more relaxed and livelier, speaking in a casual and irreverent tone more befitting of a fun uncle.

'Have you figured out what exactly it does?' he asked.

'Yeah, immediately,' said Harmony frankly, pointing at the inscription above the mirror. 'The whole backwards thing isn't exactly subtle.'

'Ah, fair enough,' Dumbledore chuckled. 'Then I'm sure you'd like to know whether what the mirror shows you is true or not. In essence…it is neither. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts. So for you, Ron, you see yourself standing proud, as a unique soul rather than just another of the Weasley gaggle, being loved for who you are. Harmony, you see the family you've always wanted; the parents taken away from you before you could even know them. What you see isn't "knowledge" or "truth" or a vision of your future, but it is the truest reflection of your inner self…whether you know them or not.'

Ron slowly processed Dumbledore's speech. 'So this…this means I'm…I am gay?'

Dumbledore reassuringly patted Ron on the shoulder. 'Why do you sound like you've been given a death sentence? I know it's not easy being outed, especially to yourself, but this does not mean you are lesser. It just means you know something about yourself you didn't yesterday. Believe me, kiddo…I've been in your shoes.'

Ron looked up at Dumbledore. Neither exchanged a word, but they each instinctively knew what the other meant. Ron suddenly hugged Dumbledore like a family member, finally letting his emotions go and unleashing the waterworks that had been building up inside all night. Harmony was nearly brought to tears herself. Perhaps Dumbledore could be a guiding light to Ron, an example of what was possible, like Hagrid was to Harmony during her own coming out.

'Be free, young Ron,' said Dumbledore. 'Continue to build your best self. Now then, to what I actually came here to do: move this haunted antique to a safer home. As tempting as it may be, my dears, don't go looking for it again. "It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live" …wait, was that the quotation? Ah well, you understand what I mean. Now get under that fancy blanket of yours and scamper back to bed.'

Harmony, however, wasn't quite ready to leave 'Sir, just one thing. You said I saw my birth parents in the mirror…but I didn't. I saw the Grangers.'

Now it was Dumbledore's turn to be confused, as he looked at Harmony in ponderous disbelief. 'Really? Curious. Why do you think that is?'

Harmony shrugged. 'I don't know. I guess I can't exactly miss a family I never even knew…but I do miss the one that chose me.'

Dumbledore nodded. 'Thank you, Miss Potter. I'm sure we'll all make sense of this in due time. For now, though: goodnight.'

As she and Ron threw themselves underneath the invisibility cloak and left the room, Harmony looked back one last time at Dumbledore. The headmaster himself was now looking into the Mirror of Erised, his hand pressed against the glass, staring longingly at whatever he saw in the reflection.

'I'm sorry,' he said remorsefully. 'I cannot forgive you…but I miss you all the same.'