The Mirror of Erised (Part Two)

Lin Yue glanced calmly at Ron and said in an even voice, "This is the Mirror of Erised. It can show a person their deepest desire."

"Your deepest desire..." Harry repeated, gazing at the Mirror of Erised before him, his eyes full of longing and fascination.

Wasn't it? His deepest desire was his family—the family who could be by his side.

Ron couldn't help turning to look at the Mirror of Erised, too. What did he desire...? Did he want to become even better than Charlie and Bill?

Watching Harry and Ron continue to stare at the Mirror of Erised, Lin Yue spoke without any emotion.

"This mirror was created as an alchemical object. It can show people with strong resolve the direction they should take in the future. At the same time, it can make people with weak resolve lose themselves in it, wasting their lives before the mirror and becoming nothing but a pile of bones."

Lin Yue's indifferent voice rang in their ears, making Harry and Ron shudder.

Even Harry, immersed in the sight of himself embracing his parents in the mirror, was pulled out of it by her words.

He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to turn around, putting his back to the Mirror of Erised.

When he opened his eyes, Harry gasped for breath, using every ounce of willpower to hold himself back. A fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead.

"Thanks for the warning, Lin Yue." Harry forced a smile. He'd come perilously close to losing himself in it.

Lin Yue looked at Harry without expression. "I was just stating a fact. That was the description of its function in the book."

Harry felt as if he'd been choked off mid-sentence. He'd been touched too soon... Lin Yue hadn't been trying to give him a warning.

"What would you see in the mirror?" Ron asked curiously. He really wanted to know what lay at the deepest core of Lin Yue's heart, since she never showed any emotion or spoke with any inflection, and focused only on studying.

Harry couldn't help looking at Lin Yue with curiosity, too. He really wanted to know what her deepest desire was!

But the mirror did seem a little dangerous. Should they let Lin Yue look into it?

Lin Yue, however, clearly hadn't given it much thought. She had simply heard Harry and Ron ask what she would see in the mirror—what her deepest desire might be.

To answer that question, she would need to look into the mirror. Once her mind reached that conclusion, Lin Yue walked up to it and gazed indifferently at the scene reflected within.

As soon as Lin Yue stood before it, the images in the mirror began changing at astonishing speed. A bed that looked wonderfully soft, bathed in sunlight, flashed into view. The Lin Yue in the mirror was curled up on it, sleeping peacefully.

The next image to appear was a table laden with all kinds of delicious food. Lin Yue sat before it, leisurely enjoying the meal.

Last came a fleeting image of her strolling through the mountains with Hermione. Then the mirror's surface was completely shrouded in mist, as if even the Mirror of Erised couldn't discover the deepest desire in Lin Yue's heart.

"What did you see?" Harry blinked and looked at Lin Yue expectantly. Had it been a perfect score on every subject? Or a scene of her winning the House Cup for Ravenclaw?

Lin Yue turned around, her mood unchanged, and looked at Harry and Ron.

"First, I saw myself sleeping in a bed lit by the sun. Then I was eating. After that, Hermione and I were out walking together. Each image passed in a flash. Finally, there was a mist, and nothing else."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look. Ron stared at Lin Yue, completely puzzled.

"Those are your deepest desires? Sleeping, eating, and going for a walk?"

"What was that mist at the end?"

Lin Yue shook her head indifferently. "I don't know. The book didn't mention anything like that."

"Okay." Ron scratched his head.

After one last lingering look at the Mirror of Erised, Harry left the classroom with Ron and Lin Yue without looking back.

He would never come here again, nor would he ever look into the Mirror of Erised again. He was firmly resolved.

He knew very well that his parents had protected him from Voldemort because they wanted him to live well.

Not to become a pile of bones, lost in fantasies before a magic mirror.

Harry and Ron said goodbye to Lin Yue at the corner. She hurried back to her Dormitory and resumed studying without missing a beat.

She had spent an hour going to see the Mirror of Erised with Harry and Ron, so now she had eight hours of study time to make up.

Eight days' worth of sleep would be just enough to make up for it, Lin Yue calculated quickly.

Her morning study session was finally over. Lin Yue closed her book and, before heading to the Great Hall for lunch, raised a hand and gave her left arm another smack, punishing herself for wasting study time to see the Mirror of Erised.

She opened the Dormitory door, hurried out of the Ravenclaw Common Room, and headed straight for the Great Hall.

By the time she entered, the House-elves had just served lunch at the tables. The professors and the other students staying at Hogwarts hadn't arrived yet, either.

With no professor there to stop her, Lin Yue finished lunch in three and a half minutes, then hurried back to her Dormitory and resumed studying.

By the time she returned to her Dormitory and had already started studying, the professors and students were only just beginning to file into the Great Hall.

Seeing that the food on the round tables set out especially for the Christmas holiday had clearly been disturbed, the professors who could guess what had happened sighed in unison with Harry and Ron.

For the next four days, Harry and Ron never managed to catch Lin Yue at a convenient moment.

Every morning at seven, she went to the Library to return her books and borrow enough to last the day. Then she ate breakfast, returned to her Dormitory, and studied.

She didn't leave her Dormitory except for lunch and dinner, and took only three and a half minutes to eat each meal. Including the time spent getting there and back, each meal took just seven minutes.

Harry and Ron couldn't catch her, and even the professors had no way to corner her. The staircases at Hogwarts seemed to have taken her side.

Wherever she wanted to go, they helped her along. There was no way the professors could run into her on the way.

The only person who had any contact with Lin Yue throughout those four days was Madam Pince.

She watched the girl's complexion grow visibly paler day by day, and her spirits seemed to worsen as well.

Finally, on the morning of the fifth day, when Lin Yue came to borrow books again, Madam Pince couldn't hold back.

"Miss Lin Yue... have you been feeling unwell these past few days? You look very pale."

Madam Pince watched Lin Yue with concern. Her face really was too pale, and the dark circles beneath her eyes were pronounced.

"Thank you for your concern, Madam Pince. I'm not feeling unwell." Lin Yue answered without expression, but her voice was unusually hoarse and dazed.

It was the fifth day. She hadn't slept a wink for four whole nights, yet she had only made up half of the study time she'd lost. She still had the other half to make up.

Madam Pince pressed her lips together and looked at Lin Yue. "If you're unwell, go to the Medical Wing. Don't make us worry, all right?"

Lin Yue nodded, her gaze lifeless. "All right. Thank you, Madam Pince."

She took the books Madam Pince handed her, put them in her bag, and hurried to the Great Hall. She hastily ate a little, then returned to her Dormitory to study.

Harry and Ron couldn't catch Lin Yue, and they couldn't very well go to Ravenclaw Tower every day to look for her. Besides, they had homework of their own to do.

So they put their plan to get her to relax out of their minds for the time being.

At last, on the morning of the ninth day after Christmas, Lin Yue used eight whole nights' worth of sleep to make up all the study time she'd lost.

She put the books she'd finished into her bag and braced herself against the desk to stand. But at that moment, her breathing grew heavy, her mind became terribly muddled, and the world seemed to spin around her.

As darkness descended over her vision, Lin Yue's body crashed backward onto the floor. Fortunately, the Dormitory at Hogwarts had a carpet; otherwise, she would have been badly hurt.

Her black hair spilled over her face, making her complexion seem even paler, like a vampire with not a trace of life.

The dark circles beneath her eyes also showed just how exhausted she was. The sun slowly climbed above the horizon, and sunlight gradually crept up from her ankles.

Even when the sun had risen high and the light fell across her face, Lin Yue didn't stir.

Day turned to night. Only when the moonlight appeared did Lin Yue manage to open her eyes.

Her gaze remained lifeless and still. Struggling, she braced both hands against the floor and pushed herself upright.

She looked indifferently out the window. The bright night sky made her muddled mind realize something.

She stumbled backward and sat down on her bed, then raised her right hand to look at the watch on her wrist.

Eight in the evening... So she'd passed out—she'd been unconscious for an entire day.

Lin Yue's mind struggled to work it out, then arrived at the next thought without any effort.

So she'd lost nearly fifteen hours of study time, from five in the morning until eight in the evening.

She slowly lifted her head, wanting to get up and fetch her bag from the desk, then return her books and borrow new ones from the Library before curfew.

But before she could stand, her muddled mind—unable to keep her balance—sent her tumbling back onto the bed.

"Mm..." Lin Yue let out a grunt without changing her expression. Since she couldn't walk, she simply rolled onto the floor.

Bit by bit, she used her arms to drag herself toward the washroom. She no longer had the mental energy to control her legs.

Her mind was too foggy; she could barely control her body. Cold water... Even in this state, the solution came to her without effort.

Back home, whenever her mind had grown just as muddled from studying, or she'd been too tired to get out of bed, her mother or father would pour a basin of cold water over her. Then her foggy mind would start working again.

Her head would hurt afterward, but it was remarkably effective.

Struggling, Lin Yue dragged herself to the washroom with her arms. Lying on the floor, she reached out and turned on the tap. She didn't choose warm water; the bitterly cold winter water poured straight over her.

The cold water quickly soaked her head and body. As she shivered uncontrollably, her mind slowly forced its way out of the haze.

But her face grew even paler, and her lips turned a dark purplish black. Bracing herself against the floor, Lin Yue climbed to her feet and turned off the tap.

With her right hand against her head, she leaned weakly against the wall and rested for a while. As soon as she felt she'd regained a little strength, she turned and left the washroom without hesitation.

She grabbed a towel and roughly dried her hair. Ignoring the water still on her body, she took off her soaked clothes and changed into dry ones.

She raised her right hand to check her watch. All that struggle had wasted another hour. It was already nine at night.

She needed to make up sixteen hours of study time, her throbbing brain told her.

Picking up her bag, Lin Yue walked unsteadily to the Dormitory door and went out.

When she reached the small library in the Ravenclaw Common Room, Lin Yue stopped abruptly.

She raised a hand and touched her cheek. It was as icy as her hand. Then she recalled how she'd looked in the mirror after climbing off the washroom floor.

Her face was pale, her lips dark, and she looked sickly all over. Her mind began to piece things together using memories of the past.

She'd been in a similar state before, back when she'd been with her parents. She'd been ill.

Back then, she'd taken some medicine and continued going to school, just as her mother had told her to. So even when she was ill, she still had to study. That was the rule her mother had set.

Her teachers and classmates hadn't reacted at all, either. Nobody had told her to stop studying.

But what about Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Headmaster Dumbledore? Lin Yue wondered without a flicker of emotion.

Judging by how they'd made her rest on Christmas Day, they would make her rest in this condition.

But she couldn't let her studies fall behind. She should study even when she was sick. Besides, she wasn't ill now; her mind was just foggy and trying to make her sleep.

So she couldn't go out now. She couldn't let anyone see how she looked. She should stay in Ravenclaw Tower, in her Dormitory, and study.

Giving up on the idea of borrowing new books from Hogwarts Library, Lin Yue reached into the small library at Ravenclaw and pulled out four books. She forced herself to walk quickly back to her Dormitory.

She pulled out her chair, sat down at her desk again, and resumed studying. She opened a book and carefully read its contents, settling back into her studies.

The night grew deeper. Pale moonlight shone across Lin Yue's ashen face, making the scene of her studying all the more desolate.