章 94: Chapter 94

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"Look, I know people always say you look just like your dad, but with your mum's eyes —" Ron said.

"No, that's not what I meant. I actually saw my parents in this mirror. And their parents, and their brothers and sisters, and a whole family." Harry told them how, the night before, he'd gone exploring under his Cloak of Invisibility and discovered the magical mirror in an unused classroom.

"Wow," said Ron, clearly impressed. "That must be some mirror."

"Show me," said Milo.

"Wait!" said Hannah. "You can't just go gallivanting off! You're supposed to have complete bed rest, remember?"

"You sound just like Hermione," Ron muttered.

"Someone has to," said Hannah defensively.

Milo cursed. She was actually right — if he got out of bed, he'd have to come back and stay a whole 'nother day to get back to full hit points.

"I think I'll have to chance it," Milo said. With luck (something he very rarely seemed to have) he wouldn't be needing all of his hit points for at least another day or so. Harry's mirror, however, might not be there tomorrow at all, and frankly, it seemed fairly plot-relevant.

"Let's go find it," Milo said, ignoring Hannah's protests. "But first, Harry — put it on your list. That, the Power of Love, and the Imperius Curse."

Harry shrugged, pulling the small stack of parchment which held The List (Milo made a note to make a few backups of it with Amanuensis or the Pen of Plagiarism +5, just in case) out of his school bag and diligently wrote them down.

Milo uncomfortably pulled his filthy Robe of Arcane Might over his pajamas. The way things were going recently, he didn't want to waste a Prestidigitation to clean it off — there was no telling when he was going to be ambushed next.

"All right," he said. "Lead on."

Harry, Ron, and Milo strode out of the hospital wing

"We should hide under the cloak," Harry suggested when they were out of earshot of the other patients.

"Oh, come on," Milo scoffed. "Three people can't wear one magic item. It just can't be done. I know I like to bend the rules sometimes, but seriously. Three people under one cloak? That's a stretch."

"Really?" Harry asked. "That's somewhat surprising. It seems large enough to cover all of us; I mean, it was made for an adult, right?"

"Trust me," Milo said authoritatively. "It's patently impossible. It'd be like trying to cast a spell in the same turn as running, or drinking two potions in a six-second period. Can't be done. End of story."

"Huh," said Harry. "Go figure. Okay, well you should wear it, then, because you're supposed to still be in the hospital wing."

"Good plan," Milo said, pulling the cloak over his dirty, bloodstained magic robes. "All right, let's go."

Harry led them through some unfamiliar Hogwarts corridors (always a rather risky prospect), past a door pretending to be a wall (and once, embarrassingly, directly into a wall pretending to be a door), down a staircase that turns into a ramp if you don't ask it nicely not to, and, finally, into an old, abandoned classroom. The Cloak of Invisibility turned out to be unnecessary, as the only person they encountered (if the word 'person' could even be applied here) was the Bloody Baron, who, as usual, ignored them entirely. In the classroom were cobwebs and a thick coating of dust on most of the desks and chairs, except for a wide corridor down the middle where a number of them had been pushed to the side — presumably to allow persons unknown to carry in Harry's mirror, which sat at the front of the room, where the Professor would stand to lecture the class.

Milo let out a low whistle.

"Now that," he said, "is one Hell of a magicky-looking item." The mirror was, for one, huge. It's top nearly touched the ceiling, and Milo couldn't figure out how anyone could possibly have gotten it through the door. The frame was of intricately worked gold, and if that didn't scream Magic, nothing did.

"That the technical term, you figure?" Ron asked wryly.

"Come on," Harry said impatiently. "Sit in front of it and look, it's my mum and dad."

"Whoa, hold on there," Milo said. "If there's one thing you learn as an Adventurer it's that you don't just go looking in random magic mirrors before finding out exactly what they do."

"But I know what this one does," Harry protested. "It shows my parents."

"Maybe," Milo said cautiously. "I've seen mirrors that create evil copies of anyone who looks at them, mirrors that suck you in and trap you, mirrors that blast you forwards in time, mirrors that switch your mind with the owner's, mirrors that make Suggestions you can't refuse —"

"My mirror does that!" Ron interrupted. "Tells me whether my shirt's untucked, my laces are undone, or there's something in my teeth! And when you ignore it, blimey, does it make a fuss."

"But this mirror doesn't do anything like that!" Harry protested again. "I looked into it, and I'm fine!"

Milo looked at him suspiciously.

"How do we know that?" he asked. "Seems awfully suspicious, doesn't it? I mean, if you were possessed by some evil being who placed the mirror here, the first thing you'd do is try to convince others to look at it, too, wouldn't you?"

"But I'm not — I'm fine, really. You're just paranoid 'cause of Hannah."

"Use Protection From Weevils," Ron suggested. "Remember, the thing you did on Hannah that made her Hannah again?"

"Good thinking. Protection From Evil," Milo cast on Harry. The Boy-Who-Lived was surrounded by a brief glow which faded in a fraction of a second. "Feel any different now?"

"No," Harry said with an audible edge in his voice. "Because I wasn't possessed. Can we look at the mirror now, or do you want to throw me in the water and see if I float first?"