This is a work of fanfiction based on the characters and world created by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series. All characters, places, and most magical elements belong to J.K. Rowling and the respective copyright holders. I do not own any of the original material, and this work is purely for fun and not for profit.
This fanfiction is a reinterpretation of the original story where there is virtually no conflict whatsoever and the relationships between the characters are wholesome and full of love. The content is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 12 The Mirror of Erised
Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were praised for inventing homing snowballs that rolled and threw themselves. Professor Quirrell played with the students all afternoon that day. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.
No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. All of Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons though, were so cozy, everywhere else around Hogwarts everyone's breath rose in a mist before them but thanks to some of Snape's clever enchantments and their hot cauldrons, everyone loved it down there.
"I do feel so jealous," said Draco, one Potions class, "for all those people who get to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because their parents allowed them or are on vacation."
He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle nodded solemnly in agreement. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, smiled at them. Draco had been even more pleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Overjoyed that Harry had won, he forgot all about how the Slytherins had lost. He got everyone laughing when he said a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker after he graduated. Everyone found it so funny that after that whenever anyone saw Draco they would just start laughing. For awhile, they stopped serving milk in the Great Hall because students drinking milk would end up spitting their milk everywhere whenever Draco even walked by because they remembered how funny that joke was. And everyone was so impressed at the way Harry had shown off on his broomstick, everyone started learning different blessings so they could all bless Harry too. Draco was so impressed he learned a new blessing every night, it seemed, and he blessed Harry and everyone else in the Slytherin dorm with things like a great night's sleep filled with incredible lucid dreaming adventures, exciting prophesies of their futures, and inspiration for personal projects that would enrich everyone's lives for generations. The only sadness he felt during this time was not being able to spend Christmas at Hogwarts with Harry.
It was sadly true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. In fact, the Dursleys were actually coming to Hogwarts. Dudley wrote a letter to Dumbledore himself and after receiving special permission from the Ministry of Magic, it was a done deal. There was talk of bewitching their memories or enchanting their tongues so they wouldn't be able to tell anyone about magic but in the end the Ministry chose to simply trust Harry's family (and of course Piers Polkiss). Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once. He was more over the moon than when he was literally over the moon; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever had. Ron and his brothers were staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.
When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.
"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.
"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."
"Would you mind if we helped anyway?" came Draco's warm voice from behind them. "I'm not trying to earn extra House points either. And I've always wondered, how much do gamekeepers get paid? I bet it's a fortune! What do you do with all that extra money, Hagrid? I'm hoping to be gamekeeper myself when I graduate Hogwarts! I suppose that must be the best job in the world — and that hut of yours, Hagrid, is like a palace compared to what my family's used to."
Ron smiled at Draco and hugged him just as Snape came up the stairs.
"Good afternoon all!"
Ron slowly let go of Draco.
"Afternoon, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Draco was just insultin' his family. Just kiddin', Draco."
"Gamekeepers get paid very well, Draco. And if you want to become one I'm sure Hagrid and myself would be more than happy to help you make that dream a reality," said Snape silkily. "Five points to Gryffindor, Weasley, that looked like a really nice hug. And I'm sorry it isn't more. They've been getting onto me about handing out so many points. And I want to help with the tree too. We can move this whole thing along very fast, all of us."
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle came and took hold of the tree along with Snape, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, everyone taking care not to scatter needles everywhere. They all started grinning. They all love Christmas.
"Got a good hold Draco?" asked Ron, he always had Draco's back. "One of these upcoming days, I'm going to go out and get you a Christmas present —"
"Me too," said Harry, "my gifts are going to fundamentally change the way you all live your lives."
"That's the Christmas spirit," beamed Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, I'll go shopping with you, and then we can all have some dinner and treats afterward. Now, let's set up the tree in the Great Hall."
So the seven of them helped Hagrid take the tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.
"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"
They all put up the tree and Harry, Ron, and Hermoine stayed behind with Hagrid to admire the scenery. The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.
"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.
"Just one," said Ron. "And that reminds me — Harry, Hermoine, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."
"Oh yeah, you're right," said Hermoine, tearing her eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.
"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"
"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."
"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh — drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."
"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermoine.
"Oh well if that's the case, he's an inventor," Hagrid said helpfully. "But that's all I'm gonna' tell yeh."
"Of what? You know what, that's okay. We'll find out, unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere — what kind of things has he invented? — I know I've read his name somewhere."
"It'll be a good research exercise for yeh," chuckled Hagrid warmly.
"Just have to research for ourselves, then, thank you so much, Hagrid!" said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking rather gruntled and hurried off to the library.
They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape and the dog were trying to protect? They knew it was in the best possible hands but they couldn't help but be curious. And now thanks to Hagrid's hint they had a better idea of where to begin; before they didn't really know what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He hadn't been mentioned in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.
Ron took out a list of subjects and titles he had decided to search while Hermoine strode off down a row of books and just kind of started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books. He knew he'd be able to get one if he just asked but he figured he would at least finish his first year before spoiling things for himself. These were mostly books that contained powerful Light Magic beyond the scope of what was taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced topics in Secrets of Joy and the Art of Light.
"What are you looking for, Mr. Potter?"
"Haa, something inspiring," sighed Harry.
Madam Pince the librarian pulled out a huge feather and showed it to him.
"This is a feather from Pegasus himself. It is said that one touch of it will inspire you and force you to excel in everything you do for weeks. You'd better touch it, then. Go on — touch it!"
Harry touched it and immediately felt inspired to clean the Gryffindor and Slytherin dorms, start a stage play about ancient sea creatures that rule the world from the deepest depths of the ocean and even had an surefire idea about how to bring an end to every political conflict on Earth that was ongoing or would ever arise. Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some excuse to touch it two or three more times, Harry left the library. He, Ron, and Hermoine had already agreed they weren't going to ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they were enjoying reading all the books they found along the way. Plus they didn't want to risk Snape hearing what they were up to and getting in trouble for giving them too many House points.
Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search that only the Christmas break would give them.
Five minutes later, Ron and Hermoine joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.
"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermoine. "And send me an owl if you find anything."
"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be funny to ask them."
"Very funny, as they're both dentists," said Hermoine.
Once the holidays had started, Dudley and Piers arrived with the Dursleys and they and Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. The Dursleys spent most of their time with Dumbledore and the professors so the boys all had the dormitory to themselves and since the common room was far emptier than usual, they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They all sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork — bread, English muffins, marshmallows — and took turns plotting ways of getting Draco a girlfriend, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.
Ron got along famously with Dudley and Piers. They stayed up night after night catching up and Ron and Harry answered all sorts of questions about magic. Ron also started teaching them all wizard chess. This was exactly like normal chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Ron's set was very old and battered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family — in this case, his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Ron knew them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.
When Harry and Dudley first gave it a go they played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent them, and they didn't trust Harry or Dudley at all. Harry and Dudley were excellent players but the chessmen didn't know their play style so they kept shouting different bits of advice at them, which was confusing. "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him."
On Christmas Eve, Harry, Dudley, and Piers went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but weren't expecting any presents at all. When they woke early in the morning, however, the first thing they saw was a large pile of packages at the foot of their beds.
"Merry Christmas everyone," said Ron sleepily as they all scrambled out of their beds and pulled on their bathrobes.
"You, too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? We've all got presents!"
"There's even turnips, too!" said Piers, turning to his own pile. Piers really liked turnips.
Harry picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it — it sounded exactly like an owl.
A second, small parcel contained a note.
We know it's not a flying broomstick but everyone thinks it's magical nonetheless. From Vernon and Petunia. Inside the package was a Gameboy along with Tetris, Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Megaman, Kirby's Dream Land and enough batteries to last two months if you never turned it off even when you went to sleep.
"Oh. My. God." said Harry.
Dudley got a Gameboy too. "Mummy and Daddy have outdone themselves this Christmas!" Dudley exclaimed. He got Donkey Kong, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fantasy Adventure, Castlevania II, and Dr. Mario.
Piers and Ron rushed over.
"Whoa!" Ron said, "Is it Video Games? My dad told me about them!"
"We can take turns," said Harry, laughing at how pleased Ron was. "Hagrid and my parents— er, aunt and uncle — so who sent these?"
"I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, turning a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mum. I told her you and your brother and friend were going to be here for Christmas. You're all in for a treat," he said with a sly smile, "she's made you all Weasley sweaters."
Harry tore open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge. He was so happy he had another sweater he could wear along with his brown with orange puff balls sweater. Dudley's was red and Piers' was blue. They all put them on immediately.
"Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always my favorite color, maroon."
"That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge, which was very tasty.
His next present also contained candy — a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermoine.
This only left one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it.
Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds. Ron gasped.
"I've heard of those," he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every Good Flavor Beans he'd gotten from Hermoine. "If that's what I think it is — they're really rare, and really valuable."
"What is it?"
Harry picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.
"It's an Invisibility Cloak," said Ron, a look of awe on his face. "I'm sure it is — try it on."
Harry threw the Cloak around his shoulders and Ron, Dudley, and Piers all gave a yell.
"It is! Look down!" said Dudley.
Harry looked down at his feet, but they were gone. He dashed to the mirror. Sure enough, his reflection looked back at him, just his head suspended in midair, his body completely invisible. He pulled the Cloak over his head and his reflection vanished completely.
"There's a note!" said Piers suddenly. "A note fell out of it!"
Harry pulled off the Cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:
Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry Christmas to you
There was no signature. Harry stared at the note. Ron, Dudley, and Piers were all admiring the Cloak.
"I'd give anything for one of these," Piers said. "Anything. What's the matter?"
"Nothing," said Harry. He felt very strange. Who had sent the Cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?
Before he could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was flung open and Fred and George Weasley bounded in. Harry stuffed the Cloak quickly out of sight. He didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else just yet.
"Merry Christmas!"
"Hey, look — Harry, Dudley and Piers have all got Weasley sweaters, too!"
Fred and George were wearing blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F on it. the other a G.
"Piers got a blue one too! Their sweaters are better than ours, though," said Fred, looking at everyone's sweaters. "She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."
"Glad to see you're all wearing them. Comfortable, right?" George asked. "They're enchanted to be lovely and warm."
"I think I'll always love maroon," Ron boasted as he snuggled the sweater closer to himself.
"You haven't got a letter on yours," George observed. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid — we know we're called Gred and Forge."
"What's all this noise?"
Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking eager to join in on the excitement. He had clearly gotten halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Fred seized.
"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry and his brother and Piers all got one."
"I — can't — wait —" said Percy thickly, as the twins lovingly forced the sweater over his head and righting his glasses which had been askew.
"And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."
They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by his sweater.
Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce — and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the normal ones regular people usually bought, with the little plastic toys and paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Harry and Dudley both filled their pockets up with wizard crackers for later. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Vernon had just told him.
Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.
When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of super-explodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Dungeon-Troll kit, and his own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.
Harry, Dudley, Piers, and the Weasleys spent an incredibly happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Then, cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Ron. He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't tried to help him so much.
After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor Tower because they'd tagged him "it".
It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it: the Invisibility Cloak and whoever had sent it.
Ron and Piers, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother them, fell asleep almost as soon as they'd drawn the curtains of their four-posters. Harry leaned over the side of his own bed and pulled the Cloak out from under it.
His father's… this had been his father's. He let the material flow over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air. Use it well, the note had said.
He had to try it, right now. He motioned to Dudley and they slipped out of bed and wrapped the Cloak around themselves. Looking down at their legs, they saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling.
Use it well.
Suddenly, Harry and Dudley felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to them in this Cloak. Excitement flooded through them as they stood there in the dark and silence. They could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and he could learn the halls better than Filch would ever know.
Ron grunted in his sleep. Should Harry wake him and Piers? Something held him back — his father's Cloak — he felt that this time — the first time — he wanted to use it with Dudley.
They crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole.
"Who's there?" asked the Sexy Lady. Neither of the boys said anything. They walked quickly down the corridor.
"Where should we go?" Dudley asked. Harry stopped, his heart racing, and thought. And then it came to him.
"The Restricted Section in the library." He and Dudley would be able to read as long as they liked, as long as it took them to find out everything they ever wanted to know about magic and of course who Flamel was. They set off, drawing the Invisibility Cloak tightly around themselves as they walked.
The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry lit a lamp so they could see their way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair, and even though Harry could feel his arm supporting it, the sight gave him the creeps.
The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, he held up his lamp so they could read the titles.
The titles didn't tell them much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. The hairs on the back of Harry's neck prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.
They had to start somewhere. Setting the lamp down carefully on the floor, they looked along the bottom shelf for an interesting-looking book. A large black and silver volume caught their eyes. They pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on their laps, let it fall open.
A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence — the book was screaming! They snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earsplitting note. They stumbled backward and knocked over the lamp, which went out at once. Panicking, they heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside — stuffing the shrieking book back on the shelf, they ran for it. They passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild eyes looked straight through them, and they slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor, the book's shrieks still ringing in their ears. Harry knew Filch would only escort them back safely to the dorm but they had only just started their exploration.
They came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. They had been so busy getting away from the library, they hadn't paid attention to where they were going. Perhaps because it was dark, Harry didn't recognize where they were at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, he knew, but he must be five floors above there.
"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was out at night, and somebody's been in the library — Restricted Section."
Harry felt the blood drain out of his face. Wherever they were, Filch must know a shortcut, because his soft, loving voice was getting nearer, and to his horror, it was Snape who replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll make sure they're safe."
Harry and Dudley stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see them, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into them — the Cloak didn't stop them from being solid.
They backed away as quietly as they could. A door stood ajar to their left. They went for it. They squeezed through it, each of them holding their breath, trying not to move it, and to their relief they managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Harry and Dudley leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away. That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before they noticed anything about the room they had hidden in.
It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket — but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.
It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Both Harry and Dudley figured it out at once: I show not your face but your heart's desire.
Their panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch and Snape, they moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at themselves but see no reflection again. They stepped in front of it.
Harry had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself from screaming. He whirled around, taking the cloak off the two of them. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed — for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.
"What happened?" Dudley whispered. Harry looked but the room was empty. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror.
There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder — but still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not?
"Can you see them? There's people in here with us!" Harry exclaimed.
"What, like the ghosts? Ghosts are usually always visible, right?" Dudley asked.
He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air — she and the others existed only in the mirror.
"There's a woman behind us!" Harry said.
She was a very pretty woman. she had dark red hair and her eyes — her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green — exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time, the same look Petunia used to give him. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did.
Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.
"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"
Dudley looked closely into the mirror. All at once he saw them.
"Whoa! Is that your parents? Are they ghosts here too? Oh that's wonderful, Harry! But why can't we see them outside the mirror?"
The two of them just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees — Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.
The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.
How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. They couldn't stay here, they had to find their way back to their beds. He tore his eyes away from his mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and they hurried from the room.
"You could have woken me up," said Ron, crossly.
"You can come tonight, I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror."
"I'd like to see your mum and dad," Ron said eagerly.
"And I want to see all your family, all the Weasleys, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone."
"You can see them any old time," said Ron. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people. Shame about not finding Flamel, though. Have some more french toast, why are you eating everything?"
Harry couldn't eat enough. He felt more full of life than he'd ever felt before. He had seen his parents and would be seeing them again tonight. He had almost forgotten about Flamel. It didn't seem very important anymore. Who cared what the three-headed dog was guarding? What did it matter if Snape and the dog had things covered?
"I can't wait to meet your family tonight too," said Piers. "It's so cool how ghosts exist!"
What Harry feared most was that he might not be able to find the mirror room again. With Dudley, and now Ron and Piers covered in the Cloak, too, they had to walk much more slowly the next night. They tried retracing Harry and Dudley's route form the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.
"You said it was near a suit of armor, right?" said Ron. "I wonder if it's the one on the fifth floor."
"I'm pretty sure you're right," Harry said. "Let's go."
They passed the ghost of a tall witch gliding in the opposite direction, but saw no one else. Just as Ron started boasting that his feet were strong enough to carry him millions of kilometers, Dudley spotted the suit of armor.
"There it is, Harry! It's here — just here — yes!"
They pushed the door open. Harry dropped the Cloak from around all of them and ran to the mirror.
There they were. His mother and father beamed at the sight of him.
"See?" Harry whispered.
"Oh wow! It's so nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Potter!" said Ron.
"Look! Look at them all… there are loads of them… It's so nice to meet you all," said Piers.
"I want to have a closer look," said Dudley.
"Yes, please, look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."
Harry stepped aside, but with Dudley in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family anymore, just Dudley is his comfortable pajamas.
Dudley, though, was staring transfixed at his image.
"Harry, look!" he said.
Harry came closer. This time when he looked in the mirror he saw both himself and Dudley but they were older, there were beautiful women standing next to them and several children all around, waving. He also saw Vernon and Petunia and Mrs. Figg too! Everyone looked so happy.
"Wow! Who are they? Is that us? Is this the future? Is that our families?"
"Let me try!" Ron said. Harry and Dudley stepped aside and Ron stepped forward.
"What can you see, Ron? Can you see all your family standing around you?"
"No — I'm alone — but I'm different — I look older — and I'm Head Boy!"
"What?"
"I am — I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to — and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup — I'm Quidditch captain, too!"
Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry.
"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"
"How can it? All my family are dead — let me have another look —"
Harry stepped forward and saw exactly what Ron had described. Harry was starting to get the idea.
"Let me try next!" said Piers.
What Piers had reflected back at him blew everyone away. It took a few seconds to process what they were looking at. There were billions of people, children, adult, and elderly alike, praising him. They were all so happy they were crying tears of joy. Piers had solved world hunger, made houses affordable for all, and adopted the human race as his own. There was no more sin, in its place there was eternal peace and prosperity, the people had joy unimaginable, everyone's dreams were coming true, then they even saw God himself descend from Heaven to be part of the party Piers had created.
"Holy crap, Piers! You did all this?"
They all stood there transfixed, staring into the mirror, taking in the sheer glory of it all.
A sudden noise outside in the corridor put an end to their trance. They hadn't realized how loudly they had been talking.
"Quick!"
Ron threw the Cloak back over them all as the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door. The four of them stood quite still, all thinking the same thing — did the Cloak work on cats? After what seemed an age, she turned and left.
"We'd better go — she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."
And they all hurried out of the room.
The snow still hadn't melted the next morning.
"Want to play chess, Harry?" said Ron.
"Absolutely!"
"Why don't we go down and visit Hagrid later?"
"You read my mind!"
"Hey, are you still thinking about what Piers saw in the mirror too? That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. We should go back tonight."
"I dunno, I think I understand what the mirror really is, it just shows you what you desire most. It probably isn't good to look into it too much."
"Ah, yeah the inscription above it says as much. You're right. We can take the inspiration it gave us and use it to make the world a better place. Man, when God descended down from Heaven… that was truly astonishing. Piers has the most sincere heart and mind… I'm so glad to have met him. Could you imagine if he was a wizard? He would bless everyone in the entire world!"
"I know, and I would help him do it."
"Me too. Let's start a movement."
"Agreed."
And so Harry decided that he wouldn't get attached to the mirror, but would visit his parents one more time to say goodbye.
That third night Harry went alone and found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn't meet anyone.
And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry's stomach sank down as he realized this was it, this was the last time he would see his family. He knew the images weren't even real but he felt he owed it to them to say goodbye.
And then —
"So — back again, Harry?"
Harry felt as though his insides had turned to ice. He looked behind him. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore. Harry must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror he hadn't noticed him.
"I — I didn't see you, sir."
"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling.
"So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk and coming to stand next to Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."
"I didn't know it was called that, sir."
"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"
"I show not your face but your heart's desire."
"Very clever, as expected. It showed you your family, it showed Dudley the two of you later in years happily married with lots of children, it showed Ron as Head Boy and it showed Piers the most incredible sight of the world without sin, living in harmony, and with God Himself descending down to be us."
"How did you know —?"
"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently. "Yes, the happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.
"The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable Cloak back on and get off to bed?"
"I was getting that exact idea. I only came to say goodbye."
"That's my boy."
"Um, may I ask, what do you see when you look in the mirror?"
"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, juicy, knockers. You know, bronze, lion-shaped ones. For castle doors."
Harry stared.
"Very heavy, quite symbolic."
"Of what?"
"I've never thought about it."
It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, he thought, as he scooped up Scabbers and placed him on his pillow, it had been quite a personal question.