"All right, all right, quit yapping." Tris cut off Ginny's chatter, quickly recited a spell, then swept his wand in a wide arc.
The lake, rippling under the chilly breeze of early spring, stilled with the sweep of his wand. In that instant, a vast stretch of water around Tris and Ginny became perfectly smooth, like a mirror.
Tris smiled in satisfaction and recited another lengthy incantation, gently moving his wand. A moment later, he and Ginny vanished from where they stood. Their images appeared beneath the water instead, but they were not swimming or floating at the surface. They were standing.
To be precise, they were standing upside down beneath the surface.
A string of gasps rose from the spectator area.
Most were astonished by the strange effect of Tris's magic, something wholly unfamiliar to them. But a few older wizards murmured in surprise.
"Mirror magic? Youngsters still study that these days?"
Mirror magic had once been quite popular because one minor spell within it, Mirror Seal, could imprison an opponent inside a flat surface. Unless they were equally proficient in mirror magic, escaping was difficult.
Simple, but effective.
However, once people discovered that surges of magical power could shatter the mirror surface, they quickly abandoned the spell. The other cumbersome forms of mirror magic fell into obscurity along with it.
For the past twenty or thirty years, no one had heard of anyone still using or studying mirror magic.
Yet today, they had seen an underage wizard use it. Quite a few older wizards found themselves feeling wistful.
"First, he used magic to calm the lake and create a mirror surface, then created a mirror world on that surface and pulled himself and his sister inside. A very good idea. What an interesting young fellow.
"Albus, this young