Chapter 20: The Mirror of Erised

For the rest of the Christmas holiday, Harry spent almost all his time exploring the secrets of the Deathly Hallows. He read one book after another in the library and didn't find any useful information; he also quietly did some experiments on his Invisibility Cloak, which could be considered a little harvest.

This invisibility cloak could be said to have been passed down for I don't know how many generations. From Professor Binsi's mouth, it could be learned that Ignotus died in 1291, and it had been nearly seven hundred years until now, but time had not left any traces on it at all. Harry felt that this cloak was still as new as ever.

Not only physical methods (whether it was needle pricking, knife cutting, or fire roasting) could not damage the cloak, but spells also had no effect on it at all. Harry vaguely realized that another role of the invisibility cloak might be protection. The garment itself could protect against the damage of most environmental or range spells, while the invisibility effect could prevent people with malice from discovering himself.

But this was his only achievement. Apart from this, Harry couldn't think of any other secrets this thin cloak could have.

Just as the Christmas holiday was about to end, Neville returned to school early. He looked full of fighting spirit, and as soon as they met, he said he swore to completely expose Quirrell's conspiracy in the second half of the semester.

Harry didn't think Quirrell had anything suspicious. He knew the real bad guy was a certain "two-faced person." Although Quirrell wasn't very likable, he had always been like that, which didn't quite fit the description of a "two-faced person." Instead, if he really went to find a two-faced person, judging from his appearance of arranging conspiracies to seize the Sorcerer's Stone, the other side might be honest and simple and want to guard the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry felt Hagrid was more suspicious than Quirrell.

He let Neville continue to ponder the matter of the Sorcerer's Stone. When Harry was muttering the surname Peverell on the road, he felt he was walking on a great path, while things like the three-headed dog and the Sorcerer's Stone were as childish as children's play.

That night, just when Harry finished a day of nothing and flipped through a book preparing to sleep, he found Neville and Luo En returning with glowing faces.

"Harry, come with us quickly," Luo En said. "Neville found a mirror, a magical mirror, it seems it can predict the future!"

Harry followed them out curiously. On the road, he remembered that Zhang Qiu had mentioned a mirror. It seemed that divination was fulfilled here.

They came to an abandoned classroom. The desks and chairs were pushed to the corner, revealing a pile of shadows, and there was an overturned wastepaper basket on the ground—leaning against the wall opposite the door was something that didn't seem to belong there, but was placed there temporarily.

It was a magnificent mirror with gorgeous decorations and a golden frame. It hung straight up to the ceiling and was placed on two claw-shaped feet. The following inscription was engraved on the top of the mirror: ersedstraehruoytubecafruoytonwohsI.

Harry noticed at a glance that the last letter was not l but a capital i, which meant this sentence should be read backwards.

"I show not your face, but your heart's desire." He didn't rush to look at the mirror surface, but first spelled out the inscription on the top of the mirror slowly.

"Alright, let me see..." Harry looked at himself in the mirror again. When he concentrated, he also saw more things: many people shadows, standing behind him, which gave him a fright.

But he quickly recognized a few of them: Eve, Sir Tang Nade, and he also saw Aunt Petunia in a corner.

And standing behind him were a man and a woman, with deep red hair, olive eyes, a very beautiful lady, and a tall, thin man wearing glasses with messy black hair tilted back. They reached out their hands, as if they wanted to embrace Harry outside the mirror.

Harry suddenly realized that these were his parents.

He gently placed his hand on the mirror surface, as if he could touch them this way. For some reason, Harry felt that this mirror surface was not cold, but had a little temperature, as if this wasn't a mirror, and he and his parents were just separated by a layer of glass.

"Dad, Mom," he said softly. "But who are the others?"

Harry identified his other relatives: a tall, sturdy man standing beside his father, his gray pupils revealing a casual and elegant temperament, which was out of place with the similar appearance of the family. This might be his godfather, Harry guessed.

An old man, short and looking exactly like Harry, this must be his grandfather, and the old woman beside him must be his grandmother. Neville's grandmother left him so many maxims, while he could only watch her from afar across the magic mirror.

When he looked into the distance past his blood relatives, he saw Sir Tang Nade holding Eve's hand; a chubby red-haired witch, Harry remembered this was Luo En's mother; Aunt Petunia with a look of disgust; and a corner of a black robe dodging, Harry found that it was Professor Snape.

"What do you see, Harry?" Luo En asked.

"My parents, and family," Harry found himself a bit choked up. "Or rather, there are also those who are willing to treat me as family, although most of them are no longer here."

"Uh, sorry," Luo En looked at the inscription on the top of the mirror again. "I didn't notice this line of words at first, I thought it predicted the future."

"No, thank you," Harry sniffed. "I'm very sad, but also very happy. Although they are not by my side, being able to see them a few more times from the magic mirror is already very good."

"By the way, you all thought it predicted the future," Harry adjusted his emotions, trying not to let his sadness spoil the fun of the two friends. "What do you see?"

"I see, I'm in fifth year," Luo En looked into the mirror again, his emotions gradually rising. "I'm a prefect, and also the captain of the Quidditch team, I'm holding the trophy. Everyone is cheering for me, I'm the best goalkeeper ever, I can even hear the team members singing 'Wei Silai is our king'!"

"Alright, what about you, Neville?" Harry asked curiously.

Neville pushed Luo En gently. He left the front of the mirror reluctantly. Neville took a deep breath, and his expression became determined: "I see myself at seventeen, covered in blood, standing in the ruins of Hogwarts."

He made a gesture of holding a sword and swung it along with the action in the mirror. "I'm holding a sword inlaid with rubies, killing a mottled python. That is Voldemort's last vitality, but with one sword of mine, it vanishes into smoke!"

He did the action of swinging the sword tirelessly, over and over again.

Harry asked with some confusion: "If the mirror reflects the desire in the heart, then why is there blood, and the ruins of... Hogwarts?"

"Sorry," Neville woke up from in front of the mirror. "I have always been a bit afraid of Voldemort, I thought I had to fight until my relatives and friends died one after another, and fight until Hogwarts fell, to have a glimmer of hope."

"But regardless of whether this is necessary," he added, "I will persist until the last moment."

"Let's go," Harry said. "Indulging in fantasy is of no help, we still have many things to do."

When Harry left this abandoned classroom, it felt as if a big stone had fallen to the ground in his heart. It turned out that what I had always longed for was my family. Any glory of my ancestors was just a sustenance. I don't care about being anyone's descendant, I only care about being my parents' child.

"I told you," Hermione took off the Invisibility Talisman on her head. "That mirror is desire, not the future. Harry saw something different, didn't he?"

Hannah pursed her lips tightly and didn't say a word.

"And, you also saw, Neville's greatest desire is to defeat Voldemort," Zhang Qiu advised. "Even if you are his best friend, you have to step aside in the face of revenge."

After the three little boys and three little girls left this classroom one after another, Deng Buliduo lifted his invisibility, slowly came to the mirror, and sighed for a long time.

Suddenly, he raised his eyebrows, cast an Invisibility Charm again, and quietly retreated to the side.

Harry returned to the mirror, slowly took off his Invisibility Cloak, and with half joy and half sadness, reached out to touch the mirror surface.

I don't know how long it had been, long enough for Deng Buliduo to add another Invisibility Charm to himself, before Harry finally retracted his hand and draped the cloak over himself again.

"Good night, Dad, Mom," he said softly. "See you tomorrow."

When Harry was doing homework in the library, what he thought about was not going to the Restricted Section to find knowledge about the Deathly Hallows, but finishing his homework quickly and going to the mirror to spend more time with his parents. He noticed last night that when his eyes stared at his parents, others would gradually retreat and leave, and his parents would also make more movements, such as embracing himself in the mirror.

Harry finished his homework, didn't even return to the dormitory, and rushed to that classroom with his books. But he found that there was already someone there. Hannah was holding the hem of her skirt, bowing to the mirror with a shy face. And Neville was sitting on the side, holding a wooden stick in his hand, looking at his watch anxiously from time to time.

"Let's not laugh at each other." He remembered the agreement of the three last night, not to indulge too much in this mirror, but obviously neither he nor Neville had kept it.

"Wei Silai is our king~ never let the ball into the goal~ Gryffindors sing loudly, Wei Silai is our... oh, ahem, Harry?"

Harry turned his head sharply and saw Luo En standing in the corridor, holding a vase in his hand.

"You wouldn't be here to queue up too, would you?" Harry said with a hint of teasing. "I think they will take a while, why don't we go back first, King?"

"Um, I just happened to pass by here," Luo En's ears were red. "I was just thinking of going back to the dormitory. I've been reading your novel these days, fascinated by it, wishing I could read it all night long. I mean, I didn't take this mirror to heart." ===== CHAPTER 21 =====