1

It's around midnight when I walk downstairs. Carefully, trying not to wake any other students, I take small steps in the direction of where I guess the door must be. Of course I could use my wand for a small beam of light, but Hermione is a light sleeper and it'll surely wake her up.

The stone floor feels cold on the bottom of my bare feet. To my relief, I can already hear the fire cracking from the common room. Somehow, fire always reassures me. The warmth makes me feel comfortable and the sound of it is so familiar.

"Harry?" I whisper. He jumps up from the sofa as he turns around to face me.  "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Em." He relaxes when he sees it's just me and he sits down again. "Couldn't sleep. What about you?"

"Same." I sigh and sit down next to him. Harry looks at me and I know exactly what he's thinking. "I miss mine too. If I could only see them one more time."

The brown-haired boy wraps an arm around me and I notice a look of despair in his features. A tear in the corner of his eye makes my heart feel heavy. Suddenly, something changes in his eyes and a small smile appears on his face. He looks like he just came up with a great idea. "I want to show you something." He says as he grabs my hand. Before we leave the Gryffindor common room, Harry takes his cloak from the sofa. "Follow me."

I obey reluctantly, because even though I'm quite curious about where he wants to take me right now, I feel tired and I'm not in the mood for a midnight-adventure.

"Harry, where are you taking me?'' I say after we've been walking for a few minutes.

''You'll see, come on.'' We walk down another stairs and we turn to the right where we arrive at a locked door. I want to protest, as I think it is taking too long but Harry seems so excited that I decide to keep my mouth shut. If we're doing all this effort to get to wherever he's taking me, it must be worth it.

''Alohomora.'' The door opens and I follow my friend into a dark room. A strong scent of parchment and rain overwhelms me as I hold onto Harry's hand because I can barely see anything.
''It's in here. Look, over there!'' Despite the fact that he's whispering, you can hear the excitement in his voice.

''Is that... a mirror?'' Harry nods as an answer.

''You have to look in it.''

''Well yeah, that's the purpose of a mirror, isn't it? Is there something special about this?'' I ask a little dissapointed, realizing we walked all the way down here for a mirror. ''I mean, it's pretty, that's for sure. But what does it do that you had to take me here?''

The mirror has a golden frame that is decorated with lots of small details. The sides are covered with small shapes that look like bubbles. It must be over six feet tall and it looks quite impressing.

''Just,'' Harry says as he grabs my arms and pulls me a bit to the right. ''stand right here, and tell me what you see.''

I do as he says but what I see is completely different from what I had expected. ''B.. but how? How is t.. that possible?'' I can hear how much my voice is trembling. Tears start to fill my eyes and before I realize it, they stream down my face. But this time I don't feel sad, instead an overwhelming feeling of happiness hits me hard.

''The Mirror of Erised. Shows your deepest desire.'' Harry explains. ''You can see them, can't you? I see my family as well.''

I nod slowly as I sit down on the ground. The floor is hard and cold but I couldn't care less. Harry sits down next to me and doesn't say a word. I lay my head on his shoulder without looking away from the mirror. He bends his neck slightly so his head comes to rest on mine. His eyes are also locked on the magical object in front of us. The room is filled with silence as we do nothing but stare. This is the happiest I've felt in weeks.

I have no idea for how long we sat there before Harry gets up. ''We should head back to our dorm now. Before everyone wakes up.'' I realize that he is right and I take one last look before I follow his lead. It is that moment that I realize for te first time how stiff and frozen I am. My bare feet are so cold, that it wouldn't surprise me if my toes would fall off as I start walking. It must be early in the morning because the sun is already rising but the castle is completely silent. The first sun rays shine trough the windows, right in my eyes and even though the light isn't very bright, it hurts. We've been in that dark room for hours so we have to get used to the light again.

Harry yawns as we arrive back in our common room. 'We probably have like two hours left to sleep. Use it.' He says.

I nod slowly and give him a grateful smile. 'Thank you,' I whisper. 'I needed that.' He gives me a smile before he turns around and walks up the stairs that lead to the boys dorm. I let out a deep sigh before I also decide to get back to bed before anyone notices we were gone for most of the night.

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Hey guys,
If you're reading this then I just want to say: thank you for reading my first chapter!
Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy! Xxx