Returning to this familiar place, Hermione could not help feeling a little nostalgic.
Her first real conversation with Dumbledore all those years ago had taken place in this room, before this mirror.
But this was clearly no time to reminisce.
Apart from the mirror, the room was empty. There was not even a ghost in sight.
"Don't tell me Gellert is here?"
Hermione looked at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore nodded.
The air in the basement was still.
Hermione surveyed her surroundings, sending her senses surging outward like a tide to cover every corner of the basement.
Nothing.
There were no fluctuations of magic, no hidden barriers.
She frowned slightly and channeled her magic again, a deep blue glow rising in her eyes.
Still nothing.
He was not invisible.
This made no sense.
Hermione turned to Dumbledore again, her face full of bewilderment.
With her current mastery of magic, even if Dumbledore cast an Advanced Disillusionment Charm with all his strength and threw an Invisibility Cloak over himself, she would have detected some trace of him, let alone Grindelwald.
Unless he was not in the room at all.
Dumbledore did not answer. He simply looked at the enormous enchanted mirror in the middle of the room.
Hermione followed his gaze.
The smooth surface reflected their two figures.
She froze for a moment, then her eyes widened as though she had realized something.
An utterly absurd thought surfaced in her mind.
"Don't tell me you hid him inside the mirror?!"
Dumbledore smiled and nodded. He walked up to the mirror and gently waved a hand over its surface.
Ripples instantly spread across the smooth glass like water.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward, passing straight through the ripples and into the mirror.
Still outside, Hermione looked at the mirror again. Only her reflection remained; Dumbledore