Rowena Potter

The Mirror and The Stone

Getting back into the full swing of things wasn't very hard. Over the course of the next few weeks, classes went back to normal. Ron continued to be annoying and we still couldn't find anything on Nicolas Flamel. The only thing that really changed is that I spent more time with my kids than meals in the Great hall. Eve was a great help with that, as she would get food from the kitchen for us to eat together, instead of me having to eat with my housemates.

I tried to spend as much time one-on-one with my kids as I could, because recently the only time I've spent with my kids was family time. Austin and I spent time playing soccer. Maddie and I spent time exploring the woods that Eve brought us to. The time I spent with Daffodil was doing a wall mural, one that she had wanted to do for a while. Daisy decided she wanted to have a tea party, so the time I spent with her was a giggly ‘gossip’ fest. The vast majority of the gossip was between her stuffed animals.

Gianna and Asher having just turned 5 months old, my time with them was spent doing tummy time and playing run baby. We even managed to get a few games of this Little Piggy in. They were getting so big, they were almost able to sit up by themselves. Just recently they had started trying to do the army crawl, so I knew within the next month or so, I would have two very active babies crawling all around here.

I put a little extra care into my pets, because I feel bad for not being able to play with them all. Helen and Elena have grown into such playful kittens, always getting into everything. Arthur, Morgan, Natalie, and Oscar have hidden all time energy high as 6-month-old kittens. It almost seemed like they were actually bouncing off the walls. Eris, Eric, and Helena are finally growing out of that football puppy stage at almost 7 months old. Although, those puppies seem to find energy everywhere.

Merlin and Morgana, and Helga and Godric have all hit that age where they are calm, thank goodness. They still play sometimes, but they have run out of that puppy energy. Sasha and Salazar prefer to spend their days basking or with the other snake they found. Hedwig would perch on my shoulder after every day and chitter on about the gossip she heard from the other owls.

I only recently found out why I could understand Hedwig. I was having a conversation with her when Draco overheard, so he explained. He said the only reason I could understand her and not other owls was because she was my familiar. I didn't even know those actually existed until Draco explained it to me.

Nothing about the new semester really changed until Friday night, 3 weeks into the new term. We were discussing Nicolas Flamel when Hermione said something about the information possibly being in the restricted section. After much discussion, I donned my invisibility cloak to go check it out.

I snuck past Filch into the restricted section later that night. I spent more than an hour searching for any mention of Flamel on the covers of those books, but had no luck in finding anything. The only books I had seen so far were about curses and hexes. I made sure to steer clear of the books that seem to have a malevolent energy. Those books made it feel like I had spiders crawling up my back. Ick.

When I finally gave up and left the library, I got this card stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I was about to throw it away when I noticed the name. It was Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, and it mentioned Nicolas Flamel. I read the card. Nicholas Flamel was Dumbledore's alchemy partner. I shoved the card into my back pocket to show the others.

I was on my way back to my dorm when I had to slip through a doorway, just narrowly avoiding Professors Snape and Quirrell. The conversation I overheard just served to confuse me, with Snape asking Quirrell where his loyalties lie. What were they talking about? I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard them pass.

I decided to wait a few minutes before heading out. I took a moment to look around the room I had found myself in. The room was larger than I expected it to be, but still dank and creepy. Sitting in the middle of the room was a large mirror with what looked like gibberish written above it. ‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’ was inscribed across the top.

I approached the mirror, my curiosity getting the better of me. I did a double take when I finally saw what was in the mirror. My entire family, chosen and dead, was surrounding me. My parents to either side of me, my kids and Draco were there too. I looked around the room but there was nobody else there with me. I stared into the mirror for a minute before rereading the inscription.

I had to read the inscription a few times before figuring out that it was backwards. I show not your face but your heart's desire. Heart's desire. This did not seem like something that you should keep around kids. This mirror made me want to stare into it, to never look away. As much as I wish this was reality, I know I'm happy where I'm at. And in the end that was the only thing that got me to look away, knowing I had to be happy where I was at or I'd never be happy.

Once I was sure the coast was clear, I went back to my dorm room. Draco, Hermione, and Neville were all waiting there. I told them about the conversation I had overheard, and about the mirror. Then I handed Hermione the chocolate frog card, showing her the information I had found on it. That information seemed to have ignited a memory, because Hermione asked Eve to retrieve one of her books.

When Eve returned with the book, we poured over it. It didn't take us very long to find a mention of Nicholas Flamel in the alchemy book. The thing he was most famous for creating was the Philosopher’s Stone. The Philosopher's Stone was the main ingredient in the elixir of life and couldn't turn metals into gold.

I had Eve take everyone back to their beds, as I myself prepared for sleep. There was only one question on the minds of myself and my friends, why was the Philosopher's Stone in Hogwarts and who wanted to use it?