Chapter Three: The Mirror of Erised

Ron followed Harry through the halls, most of the classrooms they walked by had been turned into homes for various families. Every time they walked past, people would poke their heads out of the doorways to stare. Harry held his wand in front of him, pointed down at the floor.

"How do you know where you're going?" He finally asked. Harry took a sharp breath, clearly annoyed with the question.

"I can feel the area in front of me," he answered, not caring to elaborate further.

"Right," magic, of course, why did he bother to ask?

They toured the grounds around the school, where Wormtail and a couple of other wizards were growing crops. Beyond the hill Ron saw a merry stack of smoke rising from Hagrid's hut. In the great hall at lunch, Ron saw a couple of classmates who must've been sitting with their families. Neville and a short man with graying hair at a table by the window. James was busy chatting with a blonde woman and a large teenager Ron presumed to be her son. Hagrid and Mad-Eye were busy with a game of checkers while Lupin watched. And in the back of the room was—

"Hermione!" Ron shouted, practically dragging Harry behind him to go see her. Hermione's eyes widened in shock. "I'm-so-happy-to-see-you-even-though-you-don't-know-me-and—" He became aware that practically everyone was staring at them. James and Lupin started walking quickly over from their respective tables.

"I—erm—nice to meet you?" Hermione offered her hand politely.

"Oh, right," Ron brushed his hand off quickly. "I'm Ron Weasley. Can we sit with you?"

"I—" before she could finish, Ron sat down opposite to her. Harry sighed and took the seat next to him.

"Granger," Harry said.

"Evans." Hermione replied, with an equal lack of enthusiasm. "I didn't know anyone else came in, when did you get here?"

"I just—last night—I'm actually working on how to get home."

"Of course you are," Hermione smiled like she thought he was completely demented.

"He's a family friend," Harry said nonchalantly, picking up a piece of bread from the basket. "Went to the London academy for four years. One of the professors kept dunking his head in pickled brains so, you know …"

"Oh, you poor thing," Hermione's face fell. Ron stared, flabbergasted, at Harry. Usually he was terrible at lying, but he didn't even blink. "I'd better go, but," she turned to Ron. "It was very nice to meet you," she said slowly, the same way Professor McGonagall had to explain transfiguration to Crabbe.

"Wait-why'd you—" Ron sighed. "You didn't have to do that, mate."

"Look, I barely believe you," Harry said. "Better she thinks you're just thick." James and Lupin sat down in Hermione's place across the table.

"How's everything been today?" James asked.

"It's fine," Harry answered before Ron could, "we just looked over everything, we were just planning to work on the mirror a little, see if we could get it to work." Wait, were they? Ron didn't remember talking about it before. He allowed himself a small smile.

James and Lupin seemed shocked, they exchanged a quick look with each other.

"Good," Lupin said. "We were thinking, it might be a good idea for you to continue staying with James and Harry, Ron. We don't want too many people to ask questions about what you're doing here."

"Oh, thanks!" Ron exclaimed, relieved that they had suggested it instead of him. James beamed proudly, looking over at his son. After lunch, Ron and Harry headed up to the second floor to look at the mirror again. It still sat innocently in the center of the classroom, twinkling in the afternoon light coming in from the window. Harry took a seat on one of the tables in the classroom, far away from the mirror.

"I can't believe no one said this was here."

"Yeah, well, hopefully we can get it to work." Ron felt his breath shake as he looked into the mirror. On the other side he could see an empty classroom, maybe if he just waited another person could pull him back through—

"So, it shows you the thing you want most?" Harry asked.

"I guess so," Ron tapped on the mirror again, just to make sure it was still solid. "D'you want to try it?"

"Oh no, I … don't think it would work." Harry's eyes fell. Ron felt like an ass for even bringing it up. "You wouldn't be able to see my vision if I was in front of it, would you?"

"No."

"Good." Harry breathed a sigh of relief, Ron felt uncomfortably like they were being watched. "I'm sorry you're so far from home, you must really be close with your friends."

"I'm just happy both of you don't think I'm a git." Ron smiled weakly. "But we've been through a lot together …"

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"Oh you know … slaying trolls, saving the castle, oh you killed the basilisk in the basement second year—"

Harry turned as pale as a ghost.

"Oh, I er—guess they didn't know about that." Ron added sheepishly. "It should be fine? It only woke up because of some diary-version of you-know-who, I don't really understand it …"

Harry was quiet for a couple of minutes, staring down at the floor.

"Have you liked it here so far?" Ron asked, examining the back of the mirror. Harry seemed taken aback by the question.

"Yeah, I think so, it's … different than what I'm used to." Harry said. "But I think James is trying," he added.

"Dads are like that," Ron got down on the ground to look under the mirror, maybe it had a false back. "Mine once dumped a whole box of muggle screws out on the kitchen table and had us sort them by size, he thought it'd be quality time."

"He sounds nice."

"Yea, he is," Ron felt his eyes getting misty. If he could only figure this out, he could see him again …

For the next week, Ron fell into a routine with the Order. He stayed overnight with the Potters, then went out to help in the mornings before working on the mirror in the afternoon into the night. He met a bunch of different members of the Order. The blonde woman James spoke with on his first day turned out to be Harry's aunt, one of the only muggle members of the Order. She was much nicer than the last time Ron met her.

Neville and Hermione also turned out to be close friends, so Ron spent most of his time sticking around with Harry. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell anyone else what he was doing, so it felt nice to be around someone who already knew. Harry seemed patient and interested in Ron's life more than talking about his own. James was ecstatic that they were actually getting along. Each week the Order held briefings, Ron sat excitedly between Harry and Sirius as Lupin started the meeting. Sitting down together it struck Ron that even with everyone together in the same room, they only took up about half the seats.

"Thank you all for coming tonight," Lupin said, "Hagrid, our gameskeeper," Hagrid stood up from his place in the great hall, "thank you Hagrid, has asked for a friendly reminder to use flesh-eating slug repellent while working in the community gardens. We have potion ingredients mixed in with some of the food, so," Lupin squinted down at his piece of paper, "remember if you see a slug in the garden if its orange or yellow, squish that fellow." He cringed before moving onto the next item.

"Frank Longbottom is looking for two volunteers to accompany him on a medicine supply run up to Hogsmeade village, there is an auror outpost there but recent reports show that they've stepped down with staffing which is, actually a very good sign that the Death Eaters aren't paying as much attention to the castle as they used to." A few people raised their hands to volunteer. "Thank you, talk to Frank after the meeting to learn more about the run. James, looks like you had something on the agenda today—"

James stood up from his spot next to Lupin at the old staff table.

"I just wanted to say thank you to a lot of the people who have joined us recently," James said. "Most've you have met Ron by now and—"

A woman in the back started screaming, people stood up from their tables, pointing at the window behind the staff table. James and Sirius turned around, numb with disbelief, to see spells volleying against the barrier outside.