The Mirror of Erised

"Oh, there you are. You said you were broken, so why are you still at your post?" Breeze glared at the sky-blue key with one broken wing. Without hesitation, he used the Summoning Charm to grab it, pulled off its wing, and jammed the bare key into the bristles of the Broomstick.

"See? As long as the broom comes completely apart, you can find it. No need to go flying around looking everywhere."

Breeze snorted and walked out. The Devil's Snare seemed to sense his anger and curled up without making a sound.

"Grow!"

Breeze stepped onto a vine and used a spell to make it grow rapidly, carrying him upward. His journey soon came to an end. He closed the Trapdoor, then patted the Three-headed Dog, who was trying to ingratiate himself.

"I read in a book that Three-headed Dogs fall asleep when they hear music."

That had originally been Breeze's plan for dealing with the Three-headed Dog.

As he rubbed the dog's ears, Breeze thoughtfully cast a powerful sound-blocking spell on each of its three heads.

"Muffliato!" Breeze waved his wand, then patted the enormous dog's head once more before leaving the forbidden area on the fourth floor.

Thanks to those simple obstacles, Breeze still had plenty of time to visit the Forbidden Section on the second floor and take another look around, hoping to soothe his irritation.

"I told you I don't like Christmas. Nothing good ever happens."

The novelty of opening presents had worn off. Breeze found himself disliking Christmas even more than before. He remembered that Betty had also been abandoned by her family at the Orphanage on this day...

Perhaps they had sympathized with one another because they had suffered the same fate. That was why Betty had paid attention to Breeze from the start, and then taken even better care of him because he was so "thoughtful and well-behaved." But now Breeze was all alone.

Who was that?

As Breeze walked down the corridor, he felt a gust of wind rush past him toward the stairs. From the direction it had come, Filch's voice rang out.

"Wretched brat!"

"Professor Snape, you said that if anyone was wandering around at night, I should come and tell you. I think that brat has already gone upstairs. We need to catch him quickly!"

Snape!

Hadn't he left? How had he gotten back so soon?

Breeze had no time to think. He followed the sound of the wind rushing upstairs. With his perceptive abilities, there was no way the boy could get away from him.

"You nearly got me blamed for your mess. Just wait till I catch you..." Breeze was already in a bad mood. Even Filch would get an earful if he crossed him. If Snape, the greasy, unpleasant man who was technically his Head of House, weren't around, Breeze wouldn't have been afraid of Filch at all.

Following the gust of wind, Breeze could tell it was a student, most likely a Gryffindor. Who else would get into trouble on Christmas, and be so clumsy about it? Where had he even found the nerve to come out? Breeze would have to seal the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room after curfew one of these days.

There was no way forward. What an idiot!

Breeze knew he was on the sixth floor, in a remote part of the castle. It was probably an abandoned classroom; it didn't even have a lock on the door.

Hearing footsteps behind him, the boy wasn't quite a complete idiot. He quickly slipped inside on tiptoe. Breeze followed, taking particular care to cast a sound-muffling charm over a wide area. Why not use the Desillusionment Charm?

Breeze wasn't stupid enough to think he could cast a Desillusionment Charm without a wand and still fool Snape. That would only alert him.

Soon, the footsteps outside stopped, then gradually faded away.

Breeze had started surveying the room early. A huge mirror stood in the center, almost reaching the ceiling. All around it lay overturned chairs, their disorderly, filthy surroundings at odds with the grand, magnificent mirror.

Had someone put it here on purpose?

Breeze wondered, when a small figure suddenly appeared in front of the mirror.

It was Harry Potter!

Had he been wearing an Invisibility Cloak just now?

Breeze had read about Invisibility Cloaks. They were magical items woven from Demiguise hair. The most famous was the Invisibility Cloak of Ignotus, one of the legendary three Deathly Hallows. Ignotus was one of the three Peverell brothers, and legend said that whoever possessed all the Deathly Hallows would become the master of Death. The other two Deathly Hallows were the Resurrection Stone and the Elder Wand.

Since an Invisibility Cloak could render someone completely invisible, people in later generations had also hunted Demiguises for their hair. These magical items were precious, a kind of specialized alchemical product. However, most did not provide complete invisibility, and Harry Potter's was no exception. It looked quite ordinary, nothing like what Breeze had imagined a Deathly Hallow would be.

Breeze thought he should leave. He had a feeling that following Harry Potter would only bring trouble. But... that mirror!

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." Harry couldn't help reading the words aloud. When Breeze heard them, he suddenly remembered a miscellany he'd once read that mentioned—

The Mirror of Erised, which showed a person the deepest desires of their heart?

Suddenly, Harry clapped a hand over his mouth, his face full of alarm, as if he had seen something impossible.

Breeze stopped in the middle of leaving and watched Harry's expression shift from panic to delight. His eyes grew more and more excited—or perhaps he looked as though he were about to burst into tears. He slowly caressed the mirror's surface, and only when he felt its coldness did he come back to himself.

"Mum?" "Dad?"

Breeze understood that Harry Potter had seen his parents. Accounts of Harry Potter had mentioned those two outstanding wizards. Breeze hadn't looked into them closely, but he remembered that they had died fighting You-Know-Who, on the night Harry killed him.

Breeze suddenly wanted to see his own deepest desire, too. He had always felt that his life was rather ordinary, and his goals had always been simple.

Then...

Breeze used the Levitation Charm to push the door open. Its creaking brought Harry fully back to his senses.

"I... I'll come back."

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak over himself and hurriedly looked out the door. After confirming no one was there, he reluctantly left the room.

Breeze removed his Disillusionment Charm and Desillusionment Charm, then walked up to the mirror. Looking at the Latin words on its surface, he read, "The Mirror of Erised shows a person the deepest, most desperate and powerful desire of their heart."

As Breeze spoke, his reflection appeared before him. Beside him in the mirror stood a number of people. They respected him, admired him, and believed in him. The sight brought a smile to Breeze's face.

"Not a bad dream."

Breeze didn't know what was going through his mind, but all the people in the mirror suddenly disappeared. Someone unexpected slowly appeared in their place—An Qing, sleeping!

That was the person in Breeze's mind!

"Y-you, why are you here?"

His desire?

Was this what Breeze wanted?

Did he want An Qing to sleep forever? He certainly wanted that, but more than anything, he wished An Qing would disappear from his world forever. Whenever he thought of An Qing, he felt as if he didn't belong in this world, as if he were about to vanish from it without a trace. He couldn't accept that!

If he died because the world rejected him, the world would forget him, as if he had never existed in the first place. Breeze couldn't accept that.

"I'm sorry..." An Qing slowly began to wake in the mirror, but the voice came from inside Breeze's mind.

Breeze felt his whole body turn cold. He tried to control himself, and only when he found that he could move freely did he glare at An Qing, who was gazing at him gently from inside the mirror.

"Leave me. Now!"

Breeze didn't want to meet An Qing at all. It terrified him and left him feeling helpless. He couldn't kill himself to escape An Qing. All he could do was shout in a low, furious voice, "Why did you choose me?"

An Qing looked at Breeze's disgusted expression with a gentle, remorseful gaze. "I understand your concerns, but I would never hurt you. You know perfectly well that I am you, and you are mine."

"No!"

This was the sight that frightened Breeze most. Why had An Qing woken up and started talking to him?

He never wanted to become An Qing, because that would mean his existence had no origin, no meaning, and no place in this world.

"Relax. We'll be finished soon..."

An Qing gazed at Breeze with helpless affection from inside the mirror, then closed his eyes. Natural Magic Power from the surroundings gathered around the mirror, spreading across its entire surface. Only when strange characters began to appear did An Qing fade away like reeds bending in the wind.

At the same time, the cluster of memories in Breeze's mind began to dissolve. The instant they vanished, Breeze's pupils turned deep red, and his black hair turned silver-white.

A chilling aura spread from Breeze's body. Natural Magic Power surged wildly like a gale, as if it could erupt at any moment and destroy everything around him.

"Breeze, don't worry about what anyone thinks. Please, always..."

Breeze stood expressionless, feeling the Natural Magic Power churning inside him. It kept flowing out of him, while magic power from outside continued to flow into his body.

"Please, always be yourself..."

As the voice faded from Breeze's mind, he felt as though he had lost both his shackles and the gaze he had long grown used to.

A crisp crack snapped Breeze out of his dazed state. He was slumped on the floor.

Breeze's damp eyes slowly changed from red back to pure black, and his silver-white hair returned to its original color.

"Should I thank you?" Breeze gritted out.

An Qing had left—or perhaps he had set Breeze free.

Breeze looked at his own disheveled reflection in the Mirror of Erised. One corner of the mirror had developed a barely noticeable crack. That had been the source of the sharp sound.

"Legend says you're evil, a reflection of desire, and that you make people lose themselves in you..."

Breeze didn't understand why the Mirror of Erised had helped him—or whether An Qing's power had forced it to. He didn't know what the mirror had given up, either. But he knew he was free. It had happened unexpectedly; he'd been released before he had even found a way.

Maybe An Qing had never meant him any harm in the first place.

Breeze didn't want to prove it one way or the other. He only wanted to live peacefully as his true self. He belonged in this world.

The scene in the Mirror of Erised changed once more, as if it had sensed the shift in Breeze's feelings.

In the mirror, at the end-of-term feast, Breeze received the House Cup from Dumbledore. He had earned the honor through his own hard work. It belonged not only to his house, but to Breeze himself.

As the end-of-term feasts came and went, Breeze grew older. He received the House Cup year after year, eventually graduated, and became a confident, elegant young man. Carrying his notebooks, he began to travel the world, learning things Hogwarts could not teach him. As his knowledge grew, so did his renown, and he earned the respect of many wizards...

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