Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

22

Hermione had never had such a Christmas dinner as the one at Hogwarts. There were a hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats fo thick rich gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizards crackers every few feet along the table. The part favors were nothing she had seen before. Hermione pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang but it went off with a blast like a cannon and covered them in a cloud of blue smoke. 

Dumbledore was wearing a flowered bonnet instead of his wizard's hat and was chucking at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Flaming Christmas puddings soon followed behind dinner. Hermione nearly gagged when her tongue touch the metal of a silver Sickle in her slice. She watched as Hagrid was getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine and then kissed Professor McGonagall who giggled and blushed. 

When Hermione left the table, she was laden with things out of the crackers including a pack of non-explodable, luminous balloons, a wizard chess set and some cauldron cakes. In the afternoon, Hermione was building snowmen while Harry and the Weasleys were having a furious snowball fight. Sadly, one of her snowmen had been taken down by Fred, who was avoiding being hit by snowballs. But he did help her rebuild it again and then put a spell on it so it waved and winked at her. 

When everyone was cold and wet and gasping for air, they headed up to the Gryffindor common room and sat near the fire where Hermione was reading her books she had gotten for Christmas as Fred sat down beside her with George and they proceeded to discuss new pranks for the end of the holidays. Soon people started to head up to bed till it was just Harry and Hermione. Harry was brushing his hand over the cloak, smiling a sad smile.

"Everything alright?" Hermione asked him.

"This was my dad's. The note said it was." Harry claimed to her. Hermione shared him a smile as she went to back to read when Harry jumped to his feet. 

"The Restricted Section! Hermione we can use this to go to the Restricted Section!" Harry suggested to her. Hermione knew part of her thought he was insane, but he had a point. This was the only way for them to enter the Restricted Section without being caught and they needed to find out who Nicolas Flamel was. 

"Do you want me to wake up Ron?" She asked him, getting onto her feet. Harry shook his head. 

"No, I think it should just be the two of us. Come on," Harry said. He wrapped the two of them underneath the cloak and they proceeded to the library. 

The library was pitch-black and extremely eerie. Harry lit a lamp and held it in front of them so they could see the books they were reading. They soon made their way towards the Restricted Section of the library, stepping over the rope that separated these books from the rest. Once they were deep within the Restricted Section, Harry pulled the cloak from them and set it down with the lamp. The books weren't much help in telling them what they were about. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled words in languages Hermione was trying to remember what they said. 

Hermione decided she had to start searching. She went one way as Harry went another. Hermione scanned the books, trying to pick out one that jumped out at her. After a bit of light scanning, her eyes caught sight of a book. It was one of the more brightly colored of a moss green and the title read My Home on Lake Placid: How the Croc Became My Company by Delores Bickerman. Hermione picked it up as she turned it over and gasped. It had a picture of an older woman, who looked like Grandma Elka but with a smug and mean look on her face and was wearing a plaid shirt, holding onto a crocodile in her hands. Why do I keep seeing my Grandma's face yet they have a different name, Hermione pondered as she attempted to open the book. However the moment she opened the cover, a loud shrieking noised cause her to almost drop the book. 

Hermione rushed over to where Harry was to find Harry struggling with a book and forcing it into the shelf. 

"What was that?" she asked. Before Harry could answer, the sound of footsteps caught them off guard. Hermione quickly ran over to Harry as he struggled to get the cloak over their heads. Once they were covered, Harry went to grab the lamp but it fell to the floor. Hermione didn't have to tell Harry as they ran as fast as they could through the library, past Filch running inside the library and down the corridor. They had been too busy trying to get away when they found themselves lost. Due to the darkness, Hermione didn't know where they were. 

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library--Restricted Session." 

Hermione stiffened, clinging to her book, when she picked up on Filch's voice that was getting closer to them and to their horror, Snape replied, "The Restricted Session? We'll they can't be far, we'll catch them." 

They spotted Snape and Filch walking around the corner and and came ahead of them. Hermione and Harry scurried down the narrow corridor till they found a door opened ajar and squeezed right through it. They were lucky they could get through without Snape or Filch noticing them. Hermione watched as they walked past them and down the corridor. 

It was a few seconds before she noticed something about the room she had hidden in. It looked like an unused, empty classroom except for right in front of them standing like it shouldn't be there at all was a magnificent mirror as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame standing on two clawed feet. Hermione looked up and saw there was an inscription on the top. 

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. 

Harry had made the first move towards the mirror. He had barely stood a minute when he clapped his hand over his mouth before shooting his head backwards then back to the mirror.  

"What is it?" Hermione asked him. He stayed silent, unable to explain what he was seeing. Suddenly Harry uttered the words 'Mom' and 'Dad' under his breath. Curious Hermione walked beside him, wanting to see what was in the mirror. For a moment she saw just her and Harry until she noticed something moving towards her. Hermione's eyes widened as she saw a woman dressed in a long golden robe bejeweled with animal designs as she held onto a blue parrot. There was also an older man in emerald green robes with a light green coat with the collar up. He had a long white pointed beard and his piercing silver eyes gazed down at Hermione. There was a locket of some sorts wrapped around his neck. 

The woman smiled at Hermione as she lightly placed her hand on Hermione's shoulder. Soon there were other people, older and younger, the women all carrying different animals right beside them. Hermione felt her heart beating rapidly inside her chest. 

Suddenly the mirror shifted again and Hermione's reflection grew till she was older almost eighteen or twenty. She was now dressed in a beautiful silver dress, her hair pulled back from her eyes in a long high ponytail with flowers. In her hands were large law books. Suddenly she saw men walking around her. She knew three of them were Barty Crouch Jr., Fenrir Greyback, and Scabior. They were shaking hands with her. Why was she seeing this? What is she seeing? Soon she was shaking hands with the Weasleys twins, Ron, Percy, Harry, then the very Minister of Magic and other members of the board. 

It was a bit too much for her to bare as she started to walk away from the mirror. Harry on the other hand seemed to be getting closer to it. Thankfully there was a distant noise that seemed to bring Harry to his senses. 

"I'll come back," he whispered before he grabbed hold of her wrists and proceeded to head back to the dorms. Though Harry wanted to see the Mirror, Hermione wanted to stay as far away from it as possible.