The Mirror of Erised pt 1

In your efforts to avoid the Weasleys and any retaliatory tricks they might send your way, you spent the next two days in the company of Crabbe and Goyle or in the library. Having the two large boys around provided you with a welcome modicum of protection and you made it through your meals unaccosted and blissfully prank free. But Crabbe and Goyle weren’t fans of spending their free time reading so your forays into Madam Pince’s sacred hall of books were done solo.

There was no difficulty in acquiring a secluded table in the corner while the majority of the school was away. But your plan to avoid the Weasleys in the sanctuary of the library was only seventy-five percent effective. The twins shared the top spot on Madam Pince’s banned list and when Ron Weasley wasn’t researching dueling hexes to use on you or ancient alchemists, he avoided the library like the plague. But you saw Percy come in at one point on Boxing Day.

Thankfully, the fifth year Gryffindor prefect was absorbed in whatever homework he came there to complete so you didn’t think he noticed you. You were able to spend a good chunk of those two days studying the process behind casting spells on liquids.

As for the practical part of your studying, you made use of the abandoned classroom where Professor Quirrell taught you the Stinging Jinx/Hex back in September to further practice your Colour Change Charm. You used your only other liquid-based spell, the Water-Making Spell Aguamenti, to fill one of your Potions vials with clear water and then spent hours attempting to change the color of the water.

But after two days, you hadn’t made any progress. You cast a quick Tempus and saw that it was past curfew. You gave a dejected sigh and packed it in for the night. Your dreams of impressing Gemma by getting the spell down before she came back from the holidays seemed more and more distant.

You shouldered your school bag and loosely gripped your wand as you opened the door and checked to make sure the coast was clear of any vengeful redheaded pranksters then slipped out into the corridor.

Less people the castle also meant less prefects and professors on patrol so you were fairly confident that you could make it back to the Slytherin common room without anyone catching you out when you weren’t supposed to be.

“Gaunt!”

You yelped at the sudden voice and whirled around to face the person who startled you… only to find yourself staring down an empty hallway.

You waved your wand and made a light. “Lumos!” But the added light didn’t reveal any perpetrators hiding in the shadows of the dark corridor.

“A little jumpy, aren’t you, Gaunt?”

You gave another yelp and whirled around to find Harry standing behind you. He appeared to be stuffing something inside his school cloak... which he was oddly wearing over casual muggle clothes that looked like they were meant to be worn by someone around Crabbe or Goyle’s size. You shook your head as your heartbeat finally returned to normal and focused on the more pressing issue than the Gryffindor’s odd fashion choices.

“Where’d you come from!?” you demanded. “And you realise it’s after curfew.”

“I could say the same to you,” Harry replied, “It’s hard to find you away from Crabbe and Goyle.”

“Those two are good sports about testing my food for tricks,” you explained.

Harry shrugged, “I think you’re safe there. After all, it was the twins who told me where you were hiding out. If they wanted to play a trick on you - they would have done it already.”

“Really?” you asked. So much for safety in the library. “I spotted Percy once but I’ve been keeping an eye out for those two and haven’t seen them.”

“They said they’re going to leave you alone in exchange for that Christmas present of a prank that you played on Ron,” Harry informed you. “But they did tell me to pass on to you that they’re going to be ‘keeping a closer eye on that clever little snake’.”

As relieved as you were to hear that you weren’t going to be receiving any retaliatory tricks, you weren’t sure you liked the idea of the twin tricksters keeping an eye on you. “So does that mean they figured out it was just a disguised Colour Change Charm?”

“Percy did,” Harry said, “He also managed to turn Scabbers back to his normal gray self so you’re safe there too. The old rat still seems jittery, though. I don’t think he’s slept much the last few nights. But then again, he’s not the only one.”

You assumed that last bit meant Harry had lost sleep too. But you didn’t press on it since you were relieved that the Weasleys had seemingly gotten over your ill-timed use of Parseltongue during the Christmas Feast.

“Sounds like you’re having an exciting first Christmas at Hogwarts,” you remarked then you glanced up and saw that Harry’s wild black hair was lying flat on his head for what was probably the first time in his life. “Nice hair.”

“Thanks,” Harry responded with a small pleased grin, “It behaved itself all day yesterday too. McGonagall even gave me three house points for ‘finally thinking like a wizard and smartening myself up’. That’s actually why I came looking for you. I wanted to thank you properly for helping me learn about my family. No one in Gryffindor thought to tell me about my magical grandparents until you gave me that hair potion so I thought I could pay you back by showing you something interesting that I found.”

Color you curious. It appeared as though your efforts to mend the breach between your houses hadn’t been completely worthless. “Oh? And what’s that?”

“I found it when I was exploring the castle after curfew on Christmas. Come on, it’s not far from here.”

You really didn’t want to get busted out after curfew but your curiosity won out so you fell into step behind Harry and followed him down the library corridor in the opposite direction you were intending to go. “Out exploring, huh? I guess this explains why you didn’t get much sleep. I figured you would’ve had your fill of that after you found that monster dog back in September.”

“My exploring was related to that,” Harry confessed, “At least at first. We figured out what Fluffy is guarding but we’re still trying to figure out who is trying to steal it. After you showed Hermione that our main suspect is… well, ‘innocent’ doesn’t seem like the right word where Snape is concerned, but with Snape and you crossed off our list we needed to find some new suspects. I thought I might catch someone acting off late at night when they didn’t think anyone was looking.”

“Interesting that you never said how you’re doing this,” you noted offhandedly. “But keep your secrets. Merlin knows I’ve got plenty of my own.”

Like, for instance, the potentially deadly knowledge that the actual culprit they were looking for was Professor Quirrell. But considering how calm the stuttering man acted when you were the only one around… maybe Harry was onto something with his late night surveillance plan? You just hoped his snooping didn’t get him killed. The Defense professor didn’t seem to have Harry’s best interest at heart.

Harry led you around the outside of the library and then down a hallway that you didn’t recognize. You eventually reached the door of what looked like an out-of-the-way classroom. Harry pulled it open and went right in with an odd familiarity that told you he’d done it a couple times before. You glanced over your shoulder and briefly eyed the nearby suit of armor. Its empty helmet seemed to be facing in your direction… like the invisible knight inside was staring at you. You gulped and quickly followed Harry into the room.

“Here it is,” Harry announced. He was standing before a magnificent mirror. It was as high as the ceiling with an ornate gold frame and stood on two clawed feet. The mirror was propped against the wall like someone put it there to keep it out of the way while everything else in the room, like the desks and chairs, was piled up against the far wall

“C’mon, Potter, I know what a mirror is,” you teased him, “You may have just started doing it yesterday but some of us take pride in our appearance and occasionally look at our reflection.”

“Mmm…” the Gryffindor barely responded to your jibe and was staring transfixed at his reflection. There was a sad smile on his face.

“Really in love with that new hair, are you?” you taunted.

“...” Silence.

You walked over and turned to stare at your own reflection next to Harry’s. The naked emotion shining in Harry’s reflected emerald eyes as he stared forlornly at his reflection told you that this was anything but a regular mirror. No one stared that intensely at their own reflection.

“So… obviously, this is a magic mirror,” you stated as you gave him a light poke in the side, “What’s so special about it?”

“It’s my family…”

Even though it came out as a whisper, those three words spoke volumes.

“I’m not sure how it works,” Harry admitted, “But I don’t just see my parents. There are some older people behind them too. Based on what you and Percy told me during the Christmas Feast and the fact that he has very neat gray hair... and is standing near my dad… I guess that’s Fleamont Potter. And that would make the woman next to him my Grandmother Euphemia. So then maybe the two over there are my mum’s parents?” He paused for a beat then looked over at you, “I brought Ron here last night but he didn’t see what I saw and he didn’t see his family either. Just an older, very successful version of himself. I think the mirror shows different things to different people. But since you’re an orphan like me, I thought you might see your family too. You said you didn’t even know who all your family is so maybe the mirror can help you fill in the blanks.”

Your stomach twisted. After what you learned from Millicent about your mother the other day… you weren’t sure if you wanted to see your Gaunt Family ancestors. That went triple for your Great Aunt Merope’s offspring.

“Here, you’ve got to stand in the center.” Completely oblivious to your apprehension, Harry grabbed your arm and dragged you into the spot he was just in. “Do you see them?”

No sense in putting this off. You were already standing in front of the mirror. You focused on your reflection and watched as it shimmered and changed. The young, nearly fourteen year old boy reflected in the mirror was replaced by an adult man. Practically everyone looked older than you, a Hogwarts first year, but by your best guess… the older you looked to be in his late twenties.

The adult you turned and smiled at something outside of the frame and a second later a woman stepped into view. Her features were smokey and you couldn’t really make them out so your attention was instead drawn to the baby boy she was cradling in her arms. The woman came closer and handed the baby off to the older you who gently cradled the baby boy in his arms with a warm positively loving smile.

Your jaw dropped and your eyes practically bugged out when you realized what you were seeing. The baby… was yours… your son. And the woman… was your wife!

It was the Return of the Gaunt Family.

“I have a family…”

“Really? So you see your parents too?” Harry asked from right next to you.

“No, my parents and ancestors are a bunch of bigoted tossers and murderers. I don’t see them. This… it’s my family. I’ve got a wife… and a son… and…”

The reflection shimmered and the older you was suddenly even older, looking to be in his early forties this time. The baby he was previously holding was standing beside him and looked to be your current age. But then three other kids appeared. A girl and two boys. Younger than the first boy but all of them shared a lot of your features. And there was still no mistaking older Marvolo’s almost deliriously happy smile as he stood there in the mirror surrounded by his family.

“Three sons,” you corrected yourself, “And a daughter! I… I’ve done it! I’ve got kids to carry on my family name! I’ve restored the Gaunt Family!”

Your mysterious wife remained a smoke-shrouded mystery. You couldn’t make out her face or even her hair. You tried to discern who she was through the features of your children but they mostly looked like you. You finally managed to tear your eyes away from the reflection and looked over at Harry. “What is this mirror? Is it showing the future?”

”Ron asked something similar,” Harry said, “But how can it… when my family’s dead? There’s some writing at the top. But it’s not in any language that I can understand.”

You stepped closer and stared at the inscription that had been carved into the oranate gold frame above the glass.

‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’

‘“Any idea what it means?” Harry asked.

“None,” you admitted. “But the letters are at least from the English alphabet… so it’s probably something Latin-based.” You went for your school bag that you brought with you to your study session and pulled out some spare parchment and a quill then quickly copied the inscription. “I’ll see if I can find anything about it in the library tomorrow.”

Harry smirked, “You’re starting to sound like Hermione. I guess that’s why you two seem to get on alright…. at least when none of those other Slytherins are around.”

For a split second, your mirror wife’s smoky features shifted and her hair became bushy brown.

“GAH!” you yelped and jumped back out of view of the frame.

Nope. Not touching that one.

“You alright?” Harry asked.

“Yeah… er… I thought I saw something odd in the reflection,” you stammered. “I think I’ve had enough of that mirror for one night.”

“Then I’m going to use it for a bit longer,” Harry decided as he took the spot you vacated and once again started to stare at the magical reflection of his family that only he could see.

What the mirror showed you was amazing but you knew it was only a vision in a magical artifact. Your future family would never come to be if you remained standing in front of the mirror for the rest of your life.

But meanwhile, Harry’s transfixed expression as he gazed upon his parents and grandparents gave you the odd feeling that he’d be staring into that mirror all night if no one stopped him.

“Er… you know it’s past curfew,” you tentatively reminded Harry. “You don’t want to be caught out at night by Filch or one of the professors.”

“They won’t see me,” Harry half-heartedly waved off your concerns. “I’ll be fine. You can go if you’re so worried.”

“But… you can’t stay here all night,” you pointed out.

“Not all night… just a bit longer,” Harry told you in a way that sounded entirely unconvincing. “I didn’t even know what my parents looked like before I saw them in this mirror. My dad’s hair looks like it’s as messy as mine used to be. I guess he doesn’t like using the family hair potion. And I’ve got my mother’s eyes… and so does the woman behind her...”

From the softness of his voice and the wideness of his eyes, you could see that Harry was completely enraptured by the reflection he saw in the mirror. You knew what it was like to finally get your first glimpse of a parent that you hadn’t known your whole life. While the information that your mother was an arsonist and murderer with the **** Eaters had soured you on staring at her too much… that wasn’t the case for Harry. And you couldn’t find it in your heart to tear the other orphan away from something that he’d clearly been craving his whole life.

“Alright, I’m going,” you announced, “But... er… be careful.”

“Mmm…” Harry barely responded as he continued to stare transfixed into the magic mirror with the same sad smile.

You shook your head as you left the classroom and tried to squash down the weird twisting you felt in your gut. “There’s something funny about that mirror.” You turned and looked over at the nearby suit of armor that was once again looking in your direction. “Keep an eye on him, will you? I’m going to look into this.”

The twisting in your gut got worse when you spotted Harry at breakfast the next morning. The Boy-Who-Lived looked dead on his feet and his hair was back to its previously messy self. You watched from across the Great Hall as the Gryffindor boy barely picked at his food and you strongly suspected that he spent all night standing in front of that mirror and was likely looking forward to going back and doing the same later on that night as well.

Your resolve to find out what the mirror was and how it worked strengthened. Harry had clearly been ensnared by the vision of his family but you needed to find out if there was any additional magic at play beyond the initial image.

You parted ways with Crabbe and Goyle and rushed off to the library and spent the day researching magical artifacts. You took a brief break for lunch but your broad day-long search on magical artifacts turned up nothing. Madam Pince eventually shooed you out of the library so she could go to dinner.

Both you and Ron looked on in concern when Harry begged off from dinner and left the Great Hall before everyone else. You waited a moment then excused yourself from Vincent and Gregory and made a show of looking calm and disinterested as you strolled out of the Great Hall, almost like you were taking a bathroom break. But as soon as the double doors shut behind you, you broke into a run and raced up the main staircase after Harry and managed to catch up to him in the Grand Staircase having just jumped onto the end of the stairs he was at the top of before they pulled away from the wall and twisted to the side.

“Harry!” you called up the moving staircase while he stood at the top waiting for it to stop moving. “You’re going back to the mirror again tonight, aren’t you?”

Harry looked back with an expression of someone who just wanted the day to be over. “Yeah.”

“Maybe you should take a break?” you urged him as you hurried up the moving stairs, “I could tell at breakfast this morning that you spent all night there. Staring at a mirror all night isn’t healthy.”

“I could’ve sworn your best mate Malfoy spent hours each day doing the same thing,” Harry retorted but you could tell there was barely any energy behind the jibe at your roommate.

“For your information, Draco only stares at his reflection for ten minute intervals,” you countered once you caught up with him at the top. “Ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes after lunch, and another ten before dinner.”

“I don’t actually care about Malfoy’s grooming habits,” Harry stiffly replied.

The staircase finally stopped moving when it reached a new landing and Harry immediately stepped off and walked across to the next set of stairs. You hurried after him.

“Well, clearly there’s a problem if you spend more time staring into the mirror than Malfoy does!”

“...” He didn’t respond.

“Look, I get it…”

“No, you don’t!” Harry interrupted. He finally ran out of patience and stopped walking away so he could round on you. The new staircase seemed to sense that he was in no mood for games and stayed in place. “You knew your relatives were dark from the start. I grew up with the Dursleys who insisted that my parents were drunks who died in a car crash. But then Hagrid broke down the door and turned my world upside down when he told me that not only were my parents magical but they died to save me! You may have made peace with what your relatives are… but I haven’t! That mirror is the only way I’ll ever be able to see them!”

You didn’t have a good response to that so Harry left you behind and stalked off up the stairs.

“Sounds like you need a better argument, lad,” a nosy witch with a fittingly long nose felt the need to impart from her portrait on the wall beside you.

“What do you think I spent all day in the library trying to do?” you bit back.

“Hmph, well, excuse you!” the witch huffed before she walked out of her frame with her long nose in the air.

And, sure enough, the next day at breakfast Harry staggered into the Great Hall in a daze. The clear sign of another sleepless night in front of the mirror. But you learned your lesson the day before and weren’t going to approach Harry again unless you were prepared. There was no sense in fighting a Wizard's Duel when you didn’t have a wand.

Ron Weasley tried to do just that and was repeatedly rebuffed. His attempts to draw Harry into conversation were met with one-word answers and any attempt to get Harry to do anything was brushed off. Harry’s dazed expression told you that the only thing he was interested in doing was staring into the enchanted mirror that showed him his dead family.

The nagging unease you felt about the mirror became a blaring warning bell and the twisting in your gut transformed into a solid knot. Your resolve to find out more about the mysterious mirror became even more ****.

“I’m heading to the library again today,” you informed Crabbe and Goyle.

“Still workin’ on that colour charm?” Crabbe asked.

“Er… yeah,” you lied. The business with Harry and the mirror completely derailed your extracurricular studies. “Later.”

Madam Pince looked unsurprised to see you when you arrived at the library a few minutes later. You set your bag down at your table in the corner and got to work. Your search on magical artifacts the previous day had been too broad so you resolved to try and refine it.

You pulled out the slip of parchment that you copied the mirror’s inscription onto.

‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’

You still couldn’t make heads or tails of it. The letters looked like they were from the English alphabet but the words were completely foreign. The only word you recognized was the ‘on’ near the end but for all you knew it meant something completely different in the inscription. Since ‘Erised’ was the first word and the only one capitalized you decided to use that as a starting point and then practically dove into the History section to see if you could find any reference to it.

When lunch rolled around, you were too invested in your search to warrant taking a break. The only thing you found that was even remotely close was the name ‘Eris’ who was the Greek Goddess of strife and discord. You ultimately decided to discard that lead because you knew there was a separate Greek alphabet. If the mirror was from Greece then the inscription would’ve been in Greek. Plus, when you reflected upon the image the mirror showed you of a future family, the happiness you felt upon seeing the Return of the Gaunt Family realized in front of you didn’t seem like something with a basis in discord or strife.

Hours later, you smacked yourself in the stomach to get it to stop rumbling and ignored the hunger pangs that came with it when you finally found a reference to someone called Varrick the Vanished who perished in front of something called ‘the Mirror of Erised’. You noted the reference number in the passage and flipped to the glossary in the back of the book to find that the reference was from a book called Magical Mirrors written by a German witch named Grimhilde Königin.

You all but flew through the library shelves as you searched for the book by both the author’s name and the title… but found nothing.

****, you decided to seek help from the librarian. “Madam Pince, I’m having trouble locating a book. Can you please check to see if we have it in our school library?”

“And what book are you looking for, Mr. Gaunt?” the librarian asked with a steely glare. This was why students so rarely asked Madam Pince for help.

“It’s called Magical Mirrors,” you answered, “The author is Grimhilde Königin.”

“I’ll check,” Madam Pince said. You were all but holding your breath as the librarian went through her records. “Ah, you’re in luck, Gaunt. The book was originally written in German and is produced by a German publisher. Hogwarts has one of the only twelve English-printed versions.”

“Great! Can I check it out?”

“No.”

“No?” you repeated as your face fell.

“The Headmaster removed the school’s copy from the library back at the beginning of the holidays,” Madam Pince informed you.

“What? Why?” you sputtered. You finally found the book that had the answers you needed… only to be denied by the loopy Headmaster.

“He’s the Headmaster,” the school librarian reminded you, “If I questioned every strange decision he made I’d give myself a headache.”

“Well… can you ask him to return it?” you requested. “It’s important!”

“And what is so important about that book, Mr. Gaunt?” Madam Pince asked. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you skipped lunch today.”

On one hand, you wanted to help Harry. But on the other hand, you didn’t want to alert the staff that he’d been out wandering the halls after curfew for the last four nights. There was already so little good will between the two of you… if Harry learned that you went behind his back and snitched on him, it would destroy all the progress you made in mending your house rivalry over the holidays. So you settled for telling a hastily crafted lie.

“A… friend… of mine was taking advantage of the holiday break and the fact that half the student body is gone to… you know, explore the castle. He came across this strange mirror and showed it to me the other niii...day.” You mentally kicked yourself for the near slip. “I’ve been in here researching the mirror for almost two days to see if I can figure out how it works. And that book is the only source of information I could find in all that time. So can you please, please ask the Headmaster to return it? If the English version is that rare… I doubt I’ll ever be able to get my hands on one of them without paying a small fortune.”

“I’ll ask Headmaster Dumbledore the next time I see him,” Madam Pince eventually replied. “But if he says ‘no’ then there’s nothing I can do about it. He’s the Headmaster and he makes the rules. If you’re that ****, you could try to acquire the German version and a translation spell. The mirror will still be there when it arrives.”

Would it? And would Harry? You had no idea how long it would take for your owl Romeo to fly from Scotland to Germany and then back. It could be weeks or even months before you got a copy of the book. By then it might be too late.

Madam Pince must have noticed your uneasy expression because she called you out on it, “Have some patience, will you? You young students expect all your problems to be solved instantly and with little hassle. Hogwarts wasn’t built in a day, you know!”

“Right… er… thank you, Madam Pince,” you replied with a dejected sigh. “Please ask the Headmaster. In the meantime… I guess I’ll see what else I can dig up…”

You did everything you could to look calm as you made the long walk back to your table and sat heavily down up on the chair. Damn. The faint glimmer of hope that you found after two days of searching was snuffed out by the Headmaster.

Demoralized, you didn’t make anymore progress that day and simply sat there for another hour staring at the incomprehensible nonsense words that you copied from the mirror’s frame.

‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’

You still had no idea what they meant and to make matters even worse… Harry didn’t come down to dinner that night.

The blaring warning bell and the knot in your gut had increased to a shrieking siren and an actual stomach ache. If the mysterious mirror really was the fabled ‘Mirror of Erised’ that you found a reference to in that other book then there was at least one wizard who ‘perished’ in front of it. You didn’t know what the circumstances were surrounding Varrick the Vanished’s mysterious disappearance but you knew that you absolutely wouldn’t let Harry suffer the same fate.

You really didn’t want to turn Harry in and get him in trouble… your ‘friendship’ was fragile at best but if you didn’t find something soon you would have no other choice. His life might be at stake.

Marvolo Gaunt House Point Ledger

Current Total: +61

Points awarded by: SS, RH, QQ, MM, FF