"You seem to be having fun," I deadpanned as Violet kept tugging me along, the halls of Hogwarts dark and quiet under curfew.
"Jonathan, you need to see this," she whispered urgently, barely containing herself. She wasn't even trying to be sneaky anymore, she was practically bouncing with excitement, glancing back at me every few steps as if afraid I might vanish if she let go for even a moment.
It was hard to reconcile this version of her with the girl who had been lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling and pretending not to be terrified of meeting Sirius Black. Right now, she looked… light. Almost carefree.
How cute.
I let myself be dragged without resistance, hands in my pockets, footsteps unhurried. If my suspicions were correct, and they almost certainly were, then I already knew where this little midnight adventure was headed.
"You know..." I said casually. "...most students would be afraid of getting caught wandering the castle after curfew."
She shot me a look over her shoulder. "You're not afraid."
"Of Filch and his mangy beast?" I snorted. "Hardly."
That earned me a quiet laugh, and she slowed just enough to match my pace as we descended a staircase I hadn't seen before. The air grew colder, the torchlight thinner. The excitement in her movements didn't fade. But it sharpened, focused itself into something almost reverent.
She knew this place. Which meant she had already been here once.
"So..." I continued, feigning ignorance. "...care to tell me what's so special about whatever you're about to show me?"
"You'll understand when you see it." She said simply.
Interesting answer.
We reached a corridor that felt... wrong. Not dangerous, not cursed, just... wrong. The kind of place Hogwarts quietly nudged people away from unless it wanted them there.
Violet stopped in front of a tall, arched doorway and for the first time tonight, she hesitated.
Then she pushed the door open. I stepped inside after her and stopped.
At the far end of the room stood a mirror. Ridiculously tall, its gold frame etched with ancient runes that hummed faintly against my senses. It wasn't reflecting the room properly. The glass looked deep. Like the surface of a lake that hadn't been disturbed in centuries.
So it really was the Mirror of Erised.
I felt a flicker of curiosity stir despite myself.
Not excitement.
Not longing.
Just the question of what it might show me, or if it would show anything at all.
With that curiosity, I turned to the mirror and looked into it, and felt the air leave my lungs as my eyes widen.
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"...and they are just there! Do you think this mirror can let me talk to them?! What do you think Jonathan?" Violet kept talking excitedly, her eyes never leaving the images of her parents in the mirror.
Her mother smiled gently as she brushed a strand of red hair behind her hair and her father smiled with a twinkle in his eyes as he ruffled the hair of her reflection, making her hands go up only to stop in disappointment.
But this mirror was showing them so maybe there was a way to get to the other side and Jonathan was definitely smart enough to figure it out. Jonathan who… who was not answering her at all
She frowned with confusion as she turned back to look at him, only to flinch back with fear as she saw his face.
"Jonathan?" She asked, more like whimpered, as she saw the murderous hatred on his face. And then a huge cracking sound echoed throughout the room and she saw that there was now a very noticeable crack on the wall.
"…I'm sorry." Jonathan said with a dead voice and when she looked back at him, he was smiling sadly. But she could see that his hands were still clenched tightly. "I'm okay now."
Even she could tell that he was lying.
"Jonathan..."
"You can stop hiding now, professor Dumbledore." Her friend said before she could speak and her gaze snapped to the side as she heard footsteps and saw the headmaster walking towards them with a smile.
"I am impressed mister Richards. How long have you known that I was following you?"
"Since the second turn from the transfiguration classroom." Jonathan said without care, making her eyes widen. They had been followed that long?!
"Professor..."
"I see that you have found the Mirror of Erised." The headmaster said, his smile still on his face but looking melancholic. "Before either of you speak..." The headmaster continued gently, folding his hands in front of him as he looked at the mirror rather than at them. "...allow me to say that you are not in trouble. Curiosity, after all, is one of the cornerstones of learning."
He turned then, blue eyes sharp despite the softness of his smile.
"Still, I must ask." He said before pausing. "Have you figured out what this mirror does?"
Another pause, longer this time.
"It does not show truth," he continued quietly. "Nor does it show lies. It shows something far more dangerous than either."
His gaze flicked briefly toward Jonathan, then back to Violet, lingering there.
"Tell me," Dumbledore said, voice low and even, "what did you think it was showing you?"
"...it showed me my parents." Violet admitted as she looked down. "It showed them standing here with me, a life where I never lost them." She said and as she looked into the eyes of the headmaster, she understood what she was shown.
"It shows me what I want."
"Indeed." Dumbledore said with a sigh. "The Mirror of Erised shows us the deepest desire in our hearts. Countless young bright men and women wasted their lives sitting in front of this mirror as they looked into the dreams it showed. That's why it will be moved from here and I must ask you to not look for it miss Potter." The headmaster said as he looked down at her with gentle eyes. "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live miss Potter, never forget that."
"...what do you see in the mirror professor?" Violet asked, unable to suppress her curiosity, as she looked up at the headmaster. Who opened his mouth for a moment before closing it and looking at the mirror once more before answering her.
"I see..." he said at last, eyes still on the mirror. "...the consequences of a different choice."
He drew a slow breath, as though the air itself carried memory.
"A life where I did not mistake cleverness for wisdom, nor ambition for purpose."His gaze dimmed, just slightly. "A life where I focused on what truly mattered, rather than what I believed to matter at the time."
Violet did not really understand his words. It was hard to imagine the headmaster as someone who had made foolish choices that he regretted. As someone who had lived a life that was something to regret. It was difficult to see the jovial old man who spoke nonsense during feasts and made weird jokes during his classes as someone like that.
Then he turned away from the mirror.
"What about you, mister Richards?" He asked as he looked down at Jonathan, who had kept silent till now. "What do you see in the mirror?"
"...I see the creator of this abomination." He said, his voice calm but Violet could see the embers of the rage from earlier in his eyes. "He's being crushed under its weight." He then around and left.
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