The Mirror of Erised

Eliana returned to Hogwarts two days early. She wanted to put all the curtains back before anyone else arrived.

Otherwise, what was she supposed to say if a classmate noticed? That she had failed to steal the curtains, washed them herself, and slunk back to hang them up?

Who had ever heard of a theft backfiring so spectacularly that the thief got beaten up too?

She had a reputation to protect!

Not many students stayed at school for Christmas, and the castle was nearly empty, but Eliana still chose to hang them up in the middle of the night.

Why? Because she wanted to save face. No risk of public humiliation was worth taking.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly. She used the Levitation Charm to guide every curtain back into place. Even counting the walk, it took less than half an hour.

She really was a genius!

Eliana reached the Gryffindor Common Room with her hands on her hips. Before she could say a word, the Fat Lady's portrait swung open.

It was no exaggeration to say Eliana's heart nearly stopped.

What was going on? Had someone caught her sneaking out? Was Professor McGonagall waiting here to nab her?

Could her luck really be that bad?

A lump of empty air crawled out and collided with her.

"Who's there?!"

Eliana raised her wand and barked the question. Had the castle spawned a new monster over Christmas?

No. Her nose twitched. That scent was familiar. It had to be a person, and someone she knew—

"Ow." A pained cry came from the empty air, followed by an excited shout. "Eliana!"

It was as if a hole had suddenly been torn in the air. Harry's messy hair appeared.

"Oh, Harry." Eliana relaxed and began rubbing her aching forehead. "What is that thing?"

"It's my dad's Invisibility Cloak, but that's not important." Harry spoke urgently. "Perfect timing. I want you to come see my mum and dad."

"What?" Eliana didn't understand.

Weren't Harry's parents dead? How could she see them?

But after taking the full force of Mrs. Brown's righteous fist for speaking without thinking, she held her tongue.

"There's a mirror—my mum and dad are inside it—but Ron couldn't see them for some reason. I'm not sure whether I'm the only one who can—"

At that, Eliana, who had barely been interested a moment ago, slipped straight under the Invisibility Cloak.

She wanted to see what was so special about this thing that only Harry could see it.

She didn't believe it!

With both of them under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry led Eliana straight to the room behind the armor where the mirror stood.

"This is it!"

Harry hurriedly tossed the Invisibility Cloak aside and pulled Eliana up to an enormous standing mirror.

"Can you see them? My mum and dad!"

Eliana saw Harry, wearing his pajamas, reflected in the mirror.

"Hmm..."

Eliana began wondering how she could take Harry to the Hospital Wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that he seemed to have lost his mind from missing his family, all without mentioning their nighttime wandering.

Harry urgently leaned toward the mirror, looked into it, then turned back. "Look again. Ron said he couldn't see them yesterday either."

Eliana's competitive streak flared. She strode up to the mirror. Was this fancy mirror really picky about who got to see?

She stared at it, dumbfounded.

The Eliana in the mirror looked a little older, but she was dressed completely differently. She seemed to be in a castle, wearing clothes that looked expensive from head to toe. Perched high on a chair, she held a glass of wine as red as blood, her legs crossed. Beneath her feet rose a towering heap of gold coins, mixed with jeweled necklaces of every kind.

She seemed incredibly powerful. Eliana watched her tap a fingertip, sending a swirling hurricane drifting from her hand and out the window. In an instant, the sky changed.

What?

Eliana's eyes flew wide, and she lunged toward the mirror.

"Can you see them—my family?"

Eliana turned back, eyes still wide. "Do you think this mirror shows another world? Like the parallel universes William James proposed?"

Harry hadn't understood the latter half, but he tried to make sense of the first. "Another world? Maybe. My parents are in another world."

Eliana stared into the mirror. "Then why does the me over there have it so good?"

She was crushed. Utterly crushed.

Her own poverty was sad enough, but knowing that she was filthy rich in another world? That was painful!

"Then let me look again." Harry came forward, pressing his lips together. Remembering the loud argument he and Ron had had yesterday, he made an effort to speak calmly. "I want to see my parents again."

"Go ahead, look all you want. It just makes me angry. I'm not the one living the good life."

Eliana stepped away from the mirror in a huff. She even appeared to give it a kick.

I'm poor and weak, and you tell me that in another world I'm rich and powerful.

What's that supposed to mean?

Who asked you to tell me?

Big mouth!

You deserve a slap!

Puffed up with anger like a pufferfish, Eliana drifted over to sit in the corner.

A voice came from beside her. "This is the first time I've seen a Wizard react to the Mirror of Erised like that."

"Then you haven't seen enough." Still fuming, Eliana snapped back.

Suddenly, she realized what had happened and looked up in horror.

Harry, absorbed in the mirror, whipped his head around in alarm too.

They both met a pair of kindly blue eyes.

"I—I didn't see you, sir," Harry said.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, you're out wandering at night too?" Eliana said.

Dumbledore smiled and winked at them, putting them both a little more at ease.

"Harry, it seems that, like the countless people who have stood before the Mirror of Erised before you, you've discovered its fascination."

Harry looked at him in confusion. "The Mirror of... Erised?"

"This thing is supposed to be fascinating?"

Eliana muttered in protest.

From Dumbledore's words, she could more or less guess what the mirror did. But she couldn't understand how seeing an imaginary version of herself with everything she lacked could make anyone happy.

Did an image with her face really count as her?

Whenever Eliana thought of the mountain of gold beneath her mirror self's feet, she couldn't help grinding her teeth.

If the mirror was so capable, it could make the gold real and let her take some home!

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was still patiently explaining things to Harry. "People become entranced by this mirror, even driven mad, because they don't know whether what they see is real or whether it can ever come true..."

"Speaking of which, I wonder if young Ellie could satisfy an old man's curiosity. Why weren't you bewitched by the mirror? Was being surrounded by wealth and power, as it showed you, not what you wanted? Could the Mirror of Erised have made a mistake?"

For some reason, he looked almost expectant.

"Of course it's what I want!" Eliana said loudly. For some reason, the old man in front of her seemed to falter.

"But what does a flat image prove? It can't even give me the money. Useless thing."

She looked as though she wanted to kick the mirror again.

"I'm not like Harry. Harry wants to see his parents, and maybe the mirror can comfort him. But it can't give me what I want. If I want money, I have to earn it myself. If I want power, I have to train and grow stronger myself."

She shrugged. "I want those things to actually be mine. What use is some imaginary picture in this stupid mirror, besides making me jealous?"

"And since this stupid thing dared to make me jealous..." Eliana turned to glare at the mirror. "One day I'll be even richer and stronger than the me in there. Then I'll tell this stupid mirror its imagination was too small. It didn't even dare to dream big."

"A remarkable way of looking at it." Dumbledore chuckled, then turned to Harry.

"The mirror will be moved to a new place tomorrow, Harry. It does no good to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

"Now, why don't you two put on that marvelous Invisibility Cloak and go back to bed?"

The two of them squeezed together as they left the room. Harry suddenly turned back. "Sir, what do you see when you look in the mirror?"

Eliana pricked up her ears.

"Woolen socks," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I see myself holding a pair of thick woolen socks. One can never have enough socks, yet people insist on giving me books for Christmas."

Eliana tilted her head and quietly made a note of that. She had given him a book this year.

Honestly, who would have thought the greatest Wizard of the century needed socks?