Our Secret Marriage: First Year

Chapter 12: Our Parents

"VICTORIA!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

"VICTORA!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Crawling out of bed, I go to the main door of Slytherin Tower where I just went to sleep a few hours ago after being woken up by Madam Pince and open it to find...no one? I am about to shut the door thinking the voice yelling and banging on the door is the result of over reading when Harry's body appears out of nowhere.

"Harry? What in the name of God are you doing banging on the door like a madman? What if you woke up one of the seniors?" I yawn, stretching. "Wha-"

I don't get to finish my question before he pulls me out of the door, covering us in some sort of cloak Harry drags me through the halls and into what seemed to be 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 me is 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.

My sleepiness fading now that sufficient oxygen has been pumped into my brain, I watch as Harry moves nearer to the mirror dragging me along.

Harry had to clasp his hand to my mouth to stop me from screaming. A man and a woman who looked suspiciously like me appears in the mirror's reflection, the man has dark brown hair, deep brown eyes like mine and the woman with fair almost white porcelain skin that matches mine, her facial features resemble mine most unnervingly, Harry stares at me like he knows what I'm seeing.

"M..my parents...it can't be..." I whisper, tears forming in my eyes.

They are dead but they seem to be alive right in front of me. My Dad waves his hand at me, cooing something I can't hear, my mum smiles at me like I'm the only thing she can see. Their arms are wrapped around each other in a small gesture of love. No! It isn't real.

Forcing myself to look away from the mirror, I round on Harry who seems to be quite satisfied with himself. " Harry... can you see them? My parents?"

"I see mine. So, I assumed you'd like to see yours," he says, knowingly. "I ran in here just a few moments ago when I came from the Restricted area in the library. Snape and Flitch were after me even though I had the invisibility cloak with me." He adds, gesturing at the shiny material draped over his arm.

"Unknown person sent me this telling me it belonged to my father."

I pale slightly at his words wondering about the suspicious sender but as distracted by the words above the mirror, there was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Creepy...

"Harry, let's get out of here...something is not right."

A sudden noise outside in the corridor stops him from replying me.

"Quick!" Harry throws the cloak back over us as the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door. Harry and I stand as still as possible. After what seemed an age, she turned and left.

"This isn't safe -- she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on." I pull him out of the classroom and into the corridor.

The next day the snow hasn't melted at all and I overhear, Ron and Harry in the corridor as they made their way to lunch.

"Want to play chess, Harry?" Ron asks cheerfully.

"No."

"Why don't we go down and visit Hagrid?"

"No... you go..."

Harry's voice is distant and distracted and I know for a fact that he's still thinking about the mirror. Catching his arm before he goes into the great hall, I pull him

"I know what you're thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go back tonight."

"Why not?" He growls, angrily.

"I dunno, I've just got a bad feeling about it -- and anyway, you've had too many close shaves already. Filch, Sev-Professor Snape, and Mrs Norris are wandering around. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you knock something over?"

"You sound like Hermione, Vic." Harry mocks, rolling his eyes at my worries.

"I'm serious, Harry, don't go," I insist, tugging on his robe, being shorter than he makes me look like a little sister pestering her older brother.

Harry only shook me off and stomped off into the great hall, I knew then that whatever I said wouldn't stop him from going back to the mirror, so I offer to follow. For three nights in a row, I find myself with him in front of the mirror, just sitting, looking at our parents. For three nights, we stayed there, nothing to interrupt us from looking at our parents. Nothing at all. Except --

"So -- back again, Victoria, Harry?" I feel as though my insides have turned to ice as I turn to look behind us. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore.

" We didn't see you, sir," I mumble, looking at my feet.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you,"Dumbledore chuckles, and I am relieved to see that he was smiling.

"So," Dumbledore huffs, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with us, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"

"It -- well -- it shows us our parents --"

"Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?" I shook my head. "Let me explain. If the happiest man on earth he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is.

"It shows us what we want... whatever we want..." Harry guesses.

"Yes and no," Dumbledore answers quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. The two of you, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. 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, and I ask you both 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?"

Nodding, we go back under the cloak and leave.