Mirror, Mirror

"Whoa, those dark circles! Harry, what happened to you? Did a succubus drain your vitality in the middle of the night?" Oren slapped his thigh. "I get it—you're cosplaying a panda."

Harry...

"I sneaked into the Restricted Section under the Invisibility Cloak last night and nearly got caught."

"The Restricted Section? What's so interesting about that place? Why sneak in?" Oren looked at Harry in confusion.

"Well... Oren, don't you go there all the time? I was curious, and I also wanted to look up Nicolas Flamel. Though that wasn't the important part." Harry scratched his messy hair.

"Go on." Oren pulled out two turkey legs from Hermione's gift and fed Ron a turkey butt.

Ron...

"I found a mirror in an abandoned classroom. I saw my parents in it." Harry spoke excitedly.

Oren!!!

What the hell? Harry's parents? Wasn't he the only one left on his family register? Oh no, this kid was possessed!

"You should've brought us with you. Maybe we can go together tonight. I want to see your parents too." Ron was a little resentful that his best friend had gone on an adventure without him.

"I want to see your family and Oren's family too. Maybe you can point them out to me."

"Come on, you can see my family anytime." Ron waved carelessly. "Maybe the mirror can only show dead people. We still haven't looked up Nicolas Flamel."

"Okay, then we'll go together tonight." Harry stuffed a biscuit into his mouth and spoke indistinctly.

"Why? Why can't we go in the daytime? Is it more exciting at night?" Oren looked at the two of them, puzzled.

The two little ones???

He had a point. They couldn't even argue with him.

Harry said, "Then shall we go after dinner?"

"Eat my ass. What's worth eating at that table besides salted meat? Come on, let's go see the mirror." Oren dragged the two of them out of the dormitory.

"Forget it, Oren. Let's go tonight. If Hermione finds out we spent the whole holiday without finding any information on Nicolas Flamel, she'll nag us to death." At the thought of going to the Library, Ron seemed to lose all color.

"Good luck, then." Oren took out Dumbledore's notes and began flipping through them.

The two little ones...

Ron said, "Sigh... come on, let's go to the Library first."

"What a pity. Oren isn't interested in whatever's beneath that trapdoor. If he helped us look, we'd probably find Nicolas Flamel quickly." Harry sighed and resigned himself to going to the Library.

That night, the three of them squeezed beneath the Invisibility Cloak.

"It's really freezing." Ron rubbed his hands together frantically from the cold.

Oren said, "What's wrong, Ron? You think this is cold? Did a succubus drain your vitality too?"

"It should be around here." Harry's voice was a little hoarse. "Wait! Yes, this is it."

The three of them rushed into the room and shut the door.

Harry ran to the mirror. "They're here! Can you see them?"

Ron said, "No, I can't see anything. I can only see you in the mirror."

"Stand where I am and take another look."

"Uh... I see myself in the mirror. It looks like I became Head Boy, and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup."

"What? Oren, come take a look too."

"Go away, don't interrupt me while I study this alchemical device." Oren hugged one of the mirror's legs and examined it closely.

And inwardly, he complained: No way was he staying up in the middle of the night to stare stupidly at a mirror.

"Could this mirror be showing the future?" Ron asked excitedly.

"How could it? Are my family going to come back to life in the future? Let me look again." Harry shoved Ron aside.

"You already looked by yourself all night. Let me have another turn."

"Meow~" Their pushing and shoving finally attracted Mrs Norris.

The two exchanged a look. Harry grabbed Oren, then covered all three of them with the Invisibility Cloak.

Oren said, "Hey, stop pulling me around. It's only Filch—mmph!"

"Shh, don't make a sound." Harry and Ron barely managed to cover Oren's mouth together.

"Whew, it finally left." Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

Ron said, "It'll definitely go get Filch. Let's get out of here."

"Hey, hey, I haven't figured it out yet."

"Let's go!" ×2

The next morning.

Ron suggested, "Want to play chess?"

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Go see Hagrid?"

"No. You go by yourself."

"Seriously, Harry, stop going to that mirror. You nearly run into Filch every time."

"You sound like Hermione."

Ron...

Harry looked at Oren. "Are you going to see the mirror tonight?"

"Tonight? Let's go now. Filch can't be patrolling in broad daylight too, can he?" Oren picked up a bag of copper ingots and pulled Harry away.

"No way, Oren! You're obsessed with that mirror too?" Ron asked incredulously.

"I'm not like Harry, getting fooled by a fake illusion."

Harry...

"I'm reverse-engineering it, understand?" Oren kept shaking the bag in his hand, producing a clanging of metal.

The third day.

Harry gave Oren a look, and Oren returned a look that said he understood. The two got up and left, leaving Ron completely baffled.

"You're here again, Harry." Dumbledore's voice startled Harry.

"Sorry, Headmaster Dumbledore. I didn't see you."

"How strange. Does turning invisible have the side effect of causing nearsightedness?" Dumbledore stroked his beard and pretended to ponder.

"Harry, you should have discovered what it does by now, shouldn't you?"

"Yes, Headmaster. It lets me see my family..."

"Enough, you two. Stop studying that piece of junk and come witness my magnificent alchemical creation." Oren impatiently interrupted their meaningless chatter.

"So you've spent the past few days making these two mirrors." Dumbledore curiously examined the large and small copper mirrors in the room.

"That's right. The larger one was modeled after the magic mirror."

Dumbledore said, "It is the Mirror of Erised."

"Fine, an imitation Mirror of Erised. The smaller one is the prototype."

"My boy, do these mirrors have the same function?"

"Of course not!"

"What's different?"

"Everything!"

Dumbledore...

"Let's try the small one first." Oren took out an alchemical remote control and pressed the switch.

The three stood before the mirror. "Mirror, mirror, tell me who is the most beautiful woman in the world."

Dumbledore looked at Oren in confusion.

"Ahem, Headmaster Dumbledore, that's from a Muggle fairy tale." Harry began telling Dumbledore the story. There was plenty of time, after all. It was a prototype; slow startup and a little lag were normal.

After quite a while, a figure appeared in the mirror. That person was Oren.

"Bang!" Oren launched a flying kick, ending the deranged alchemical device with a literal shattering.

"Ahem, it's only a prototype. It's normal for it to have some problems. Let's look at the finished product instead."

Harry...

Dumbledore...

"The Mirror of Erised specifically shows what people desire, while my mirror specifically stabs people right in the heart."

The three stood before the large copper mirror. Oren pressed the switch, and all three immediately put on expressions of agony.

"My God, Oren, what is this thing?!"

"My boy, I have to say, this device you made is a little too evil."

"Do it, Headmaster Dumbledore. Destroy it quickly. Hit it harder. If it breaks into smaller pieces, it'll be easier for me to recycle."

"Bang!" Dumbledore smashed the copper mirror into copper dust.

Dumbledore clutched his frail old heart and suggested, "I suggest we go sit by the Mirror of Erised."

"Seconded." ×2

Harry asked curiously, "Oren, this seems to be your first time looking into that mirror. What did you see?"

"I was standing on a mountain. It was pretty high, and I could see a sea of clouds below." Oren shrugged.

Dumbledore used magic to look at the image reflected in Oren's eyes, his face going dark.

In the mirror, Oren stood on a mountainside and looked at the sea of clouds below. Then... he pulled out a reclining chair and lay down. He fiddled with a metal box in his left hand while constantly chugging some strange drink with his right, completely giving up on life right there.

Harry asked, "Headmaster, what did you see?"

"Wool socks." Dumbledore stared into the mirror, his eyes full of nostalgia. "A pair of wool socks."

Oren pulled a bottle of Firewhisky from his pocket. "The mood's already here. Why don't the three lonely bachelors have a little drink?"

Dumbledore...

"All right, children. Go back and get some sleep."

Harry followed Dumbledore's advice and stopped seeking out the mirror. He kept trying to forget everything in it, to forget the nightmares he had every night.

But the green light and mad laughter in his dreams still tormented him terribly.

"Harry, are you really not going to consider it? How about trying the spell I saw in a book—Obliviate? I calculated that there's only a thirty percent chance it'll turn you into an idiot."

"Really, there's no need, Oren. I think I'll be fine in a few days. I really don't need magic to help." Harry was so frightened he nearly jumped up.

Oren curled his lip. "What a shame. Then heal on your own."