the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 6: emotion

The delicate piece of wood laying on the floor outside of the Mirror silently mocked Esmeralda. Her wand had been kicked so many times by people coming in and tripping on it that it now laid in the back corner of the room. Ever since she was trapped she had not been able to do magic. Doing wandless magic was extremely difficult and only very powerful witches and wizards could do it, and sadly, Esmeralda was not one of them. She realized that no kind of magic could be performed inside the mirror when she tried to turn into her Animagus form.

Esmeralda was sitting in front of the Mirror while twirling a piece of her hair in between her fingers. She had been waiting for Sirius to come back ever since he left. She was happy that she could finally talk to someone. In the beginning, she would try and get the attention of the people looking into the Mirror, but no one was ever able to see her. She gave up after multiple failed attempts.

She was able to look at her reflection only when there weren't people looking into the Mirror. When there were people looking into it she could only see the person's desire. That's why she was shocked when Sirius first came into the Room of Requirement and looked into the Mirror. She could not see her reflection nor his desire.

Esmeralda saw that her hair was a mess and decided to quickly put it up in a bun. She wanted to look a little bit more presentable the next time she saw Sirius because the first few times she had been crying. The bun turned out a little messy since she didn't have the longest hair. A few pieces of hair fell down the back of her neck as well as the frame of her face. She smiled at her reflection and looked at the door expecting Sirius to walk in at every moment. 

"This is so stupid," she muttered to herself and looked away from the door.

She stood up and straightened her clothes with her hands. She started twirling around the room trying to shake off her boredom. Since she couldn't exactly go anywhere, Esmeralda found multiple things to do to get her mind off her situation, one of them was twirling until she got dizzy.

She didn't notice Sirius walk into the Room seconds after she stood up. He stood in front of the mirror holding back his laugh. He saw how clumsy Esmeralda was while she was twirling. After ten seconds of twirling, she stopped with her back towards the Mirror and held her head.

"Merlin, I don't know why I keep doing that,"

"Neither do I," Sirius said causing Esmeralda to jump and turn around, falling unto the ground.

"Bloody hell !" she said as she held her head, "You know you could've let me know that you were here in a different way, right ?"

Sirius smirked at her.

"But where would the fun in that be ?"

He sat down in front of the Mirror like the last time he was here. Esmeralda was still in the same spot on the floor where she had fallen. She had closed her eyes and was still holding on to the sides of her head.

"My head hurts, it's not funny," Esmeralda groaned, "And how are you on what I suppose is a beautiful, sunny day ?"

"I went for a swim in the frozen Black Lake and then made snow angels while I was shirtless," Sirius replied copying her sarcasm, "It was wonderful."

Esmeralda laughed weakly as she sat down slowly. She dragged her body towards the mirror to sit in front Sirius and smiled. She didn't know why she was nervous, it was the third time they were seeing each other, but she was. Sirius was nervous, too, but he tried to hide it as best as he could. He was still thinking that he was talking to a ghost and didn't know how to feel about that.

"How've your classes been ?" she asked, "Anything interesting ? I might be able to help you with some things given that I already studied them. Although I don't know if they have changed the teaching program."