Chapter One: Be Careful What You Wish For

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, was not at the moment feeling very happy. He should have been by rights, he had every reason to be happy, but he knew deep down something wasn't there that needed to be. It wasn't that he was once again the talk of the Wizarding world for having once and for all defeated Voldemort over the summer, that had been nothing more then luck and he knew it.

Voldemort had grown desperate this past summer. After repeated attempts of trying to destroy Harry James Potter, last of the Gryffindor line, he was in serious lack of ideas as to how. Because of the Wizarding bond between Harry and Peter from when Harry saved his life back in his third year, Peter couldn't go against Harry when he tried to kill him for Voldemort. In the end Harry somehow convinced Peter that he wasn't the killer he thought he was, and that he could break free of Voldemort's hold, therefore redeeming not only his parents but his godfather Sirius Black.

And that's exactly what Peter Pettigrew did. Peter never could cast the Avada Kedavra curse, he knew when push came to shove he couldn't, and especially against Harry. Peter's guilt at being the direct cause of James and Lily's death, and nearly Harry's own death several times had driven him nearly over the edge. Harry was the one to bring him back by yet again saving his life and helping him turn himself in to the Ministry instead, therefore the redemption began.

Peter was currently in St. Mungo's under going severe psychiatric treatment rather then locked away in Azkaban. Sirius was so happy at finally being free that he didn't care where Peter ended up, as long as he was locked away somewhere and would never be released again. Personally he wanted Peter's death, but Harry and Remus Lupin, Sirius's best friend, had convinced him that having Peter killed wouldn't bring back his parents, so to St. Mungo's he went under lock and key.

They placed a spell on him so he couldn't transform and escape, if he would even be capable of it. Using Muggle medicines that Hermione Granger, one of Harry's two best friends, told them about, Peter was sedated and in a world all his own. Eventually apart from a few nurses and a doctor no one even remembered Peter Pettigrew even existed, and Harry was more then happy to leave it that way.

Voldemort however wasn't happy, especially with the way Peter turned tail on him. Through perhaps major bad luck (or good luck on his part) he was able to infiltrate the barriers round the Dursley home at Number Four Privet Drive and decided he was going to settle things once and for all. He hadn't counted on another of his 'servants' betraying him however, and thanks to an anonymous tip off by owl Harry had time to prepare for Voldemort's coming.

Harry stood there face to face yet again that night, their wands pointed at each other, each wondering who would make the first move. Thanks to Dumbledore the Dursley's had been taken out of the house, so Harry had no qualms in doing what needed to be finally done. The training he had from Remus and Sirius the past two years paid off, and with a quick dodge against an Imperio Curse, Harry retaliated using Avada Kedavra, and Voldemort the scourge of the Wizarding world was no more.

So now Sirius was free, Voldemort was defeated, and yet Harry still wasn't happy. He hoped to have been able to go live with Sirius for the rest of the summer but to his dismay he was told it would take time for that to happen and was told he still had to finish out the summer with the Dursleys. How he survived this past summer was beyond him though because now that Sirius wasn't a 'wanted criminal' anymore, Harry had nothing to throw back in their face if they stepped out of line with him. The summer indeed, had been miserable and he'd stayed nearly locked up in his room the entire time only this time it was his own choice to do that.

Coming back to school now in his seventh year Harry hoped things would be different. It should have been, but he found himself getting deeper and deeper into a state where nothing anymore made him happy, although on the outside he didn't show it. To everyone else he was the saviour, the Harry that they all knew and loved, and he had to put up the faked smiles and hear the congratulations from everyone so often he thought he'd scream. Everyone that was but the Slytherin's of course. And especially Draco Malfoy.

A thorn in Harry's side if there ever was one was Draco Lucius Malfoy. Master of sneering and sarcastic remarks, always an unkind and cruel word for Harry. Although several of the Slytherin families had not allowed their children to return this seventh year, for some reason Draco Malfoy had returned to nearly every Gryffindor's dismay, Harry's especially.

It had started last year at some point, Harry didn't remember when, his pure hatred for Draco took an all new high note. Ron and Hermione couldn't help but notice the way Harry would tense up the moment Malfoy walked into a room, and it was almost as if icicles formed in the air from the coldness that radiated off of Harry. Only Hermione noticed that something wasn't quite right though this past month since they returned to school, and for a change she held her tongue and told no one, probably because she wouldn't be believed.

The facts were there though, she could see it so clearly, but then she always was the cleverest of the three of them. Not that Ron nor Harry were stupid, they weren't, but she always saw more then they did, and being Head Girl this year had it's advantages for that. She could be out and about when the others couldn't, and in the past month since their return she had seen things that were definitely a bit strange, to say the least. And most of those things involved Draco Malfoy.

She held her thoughts though, for it would do no good to tell anyone what she thought she knew. Ron, now her steady boyfriend, would either laugh at her, or go beat up Malfoy for what she'd seen. Harry on the other hand, she knew wasn't really all that he appeared, but she couldn't put her finger on why or what caused it. She wanted her best friend happy like her and Ron were, but she didn't know what on earth to do bout it.

So now one month into the new and final term of their time here at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, things for everyone were taking it's toll. Harry was miserable inside, but still having to show a brave face to the world. Hermione and Ron were having arguments again because of Hermione's Head Girl duties taking too much of her time away from him, and the rest of the seventh year Gryffindor's were behaving like nothing at all was going on. Quite infuriating really for Harry because he was thoroughly sick of his friends treating him like he was some type of god rather then just a kid.

Sitting in the commons now by the fire Harry was wondering just why on earth he wasn't happy, and for the billionth time couldn't find an answer. He glanced round the room and his eyes fell on Ron and Hermione on the love seat near him, cuddling as usual when they weren't fighting, and he gave out a small sigh.

Hermione glanced over at Harry, hearing the sigh. 'What's wrong, Harry?'

'Hmm?' Harry said and looked startled. 'Nothing why?'

'You're sighing, Harry, that's not nothing,' Hermione said giving him the usual once over look.

'Really, Hermione, it's nothing all right? Promise,' Harry said giving her a small faked grin.

'Harry...you're sure you're all right mate? Want to play some Wizard's chess or something?' Ron said looking worriedly over at his best friend. He had noticed things weren't exactly straight with Harry lately, but he had decided not to say anything for fear of upsetting his best friend.

'I'm fine, Ron, stop bugging me already will you two?' Harry said exasperated already. 'I'm going out flying, be back later,' he said and nearly sprinted out the portrait hole before either of them could say anything more.

He felt bad that he had just blown them off, but how could he tell his friends what was wrong with him when even he didn't know? Flying would help, it always did for him, and he knew that in the air at least there would be no questions that he couldn't answer. In the air he was free, not the Boy Who Lived or anything else, but just Harry and that's all he wanted at the moment, so he headed downstairs towards the staircases that would give him his freedom.

Something didn't want him to reach the Quidditch pitch however, because halfway down the stairs they shifted. Not that this was uncommon, but Harry had hoped somehow he'd have made it outdoors and it seemed this was not to be. It put him on the second floor, but not in the direction in which he needed to go. He had two choices then, either wait for the next stairs to move, or go in the new direction and hope it would lead him out. He opted to just keep walking.

Strangely enough he didn't recognize the area in which he was now at, though after six years he thought he knew everywhere nearly within the castle. He almost cursed himself for not bringing the Marauder's Map and his invisibility cloak with him just incase Filch was lurking round and he'd be caught. He knew it wasn't exactly curfew yet but it had to be getting close since dinner had ended it felt like ages ago now.

The corridor he found himself in now wasn't like the others, it was darker for one, and void of pictures he noticed. That in itself was definitely odd to him as he never had seen anywhere inside the castle that hadn't at least one of the moving Wizarding pictures in it, and this corridor was noticeably bare. It wasn't cleaned like the other ones either, cobwebs seemed to hang from anywhere they could, ceiling, candle holders, even the walls, but luckily no spiders were scurrying bout. Unlike Ron, Harry didn't have a fear of spiders but he didn't exactly like them ever since meeting Aragog the giant spider back in his second year, and they still made him a bit squeamish.

He knew he should have just turned round and headed back the way he came, but something in him kept pressing him forward, a need to know why this corridor was there and what it led to. So he kept going down the corridor slowly, his wand out just in case of anything, until finally he came to a door. It wasn't a big door, wooden like all the rest of the ones in the castle, the only thing different about it was that it had a keyhole unlike all the other doors. Only one other door in the castle Harry had ever seen with a keyhole, that being one back in first year when he went looking for the Philosopher's Stone, so he was a bit wary of the door.

It seemed however as if there were no hidden tricks to the door, and he gently pushed it open, surprised that not a sound emerged from it, not even the squeak of the hinges. As he peered round the door after opening it, he was mildly relieved to find nothing but a simple room was beyond it. Nothing waiting to kill him, nothing waiting to eat him, just simply nothing. Or at least, he thought there was nothing.

Something however was there, glinting almost dangerously in a darkened corner of the room. Harry approached it warily, his wand still out, then stood dead still when he realised what it was he was finally looking at. An object that stopped his heart, and the object was something he knew quite well. It was a mirror.

Not just any mirror either, but a mirror that could lead to a man's destruction. This was the Mirror of Erised. The Mirror of Desire. The mirror in which Harry had spent nearly six years trying to forget, and hoped that he would never have to see again. It represented too many lost hopes and dreams for Harry, loves that he would never again feel, people that he would never again see or touch. Everything that his heart desired but would never grasp again.

He knew he should have turned and run from it, his mind begged him to run away at top speed, unfortunately his body had other ideas. Without will he found his steps leading closer and closer to the mirror, unable to even stop himself, until finally he was in front of it unable to look away. He closed his eyes, as if that would be any help at all, but it wasn't he knew that. He suddenly wanted to see inside that mirror again, to see his mum and dad and family again, and with a small groan he gave in and reopened his eyes...and stared straight into another pair of green eyes.

He gasped then, this couldn't be right could it? The eyes that he looked into were...well...none other then his very own! Could the mirror be malfunctioning? Is that why Dumbledore moved it so far down from the other corridors? Although he couldn't exactly get those questions answered, something wasn't the same bout the mirror this time if all it showed then was his own reflection. That just couldn't be right. Where were his parents and family?

He reached out about to touch the mirror image of himself when something caught in the corner of his eye. A slight movement just enough to be noticeable, yet when he turned and looked nothing was there. He put his wand up again since he hadn't put it away when he looked into the mirror and did a quick scan again round him, again though there was nothing. Shrugging it off he turned back to the mirror for a second time, hoping at least this time to see his mum and dad if nothing else.

However this time when Harry looked into the mirror again he gasped in surprise. This time there was someone staring back at him from the mirror, and it was someone he knew, someone who had no right to be in there. The person was behind Harry's reflection in the mirror, so Harry whirled round again only to find again there wasn't anyone there, then turned back round towards the mirror to see what on earth was going on.

The Harry in the mirror shook his head at the Harry on the outside, and at that Harry stopped and gaped in surprise. He knew the 'reflection' wasn't really a 'reflection' then anymore, the same thing had happened when all those years ago he got hold of the Philosopher's Stone from his winking mirror image. Harry stepped closer to the mirror now, wondering why his 'reflection' would do that, and again the other person came into the mirror.

Harry tried frantically to think why this person would show in the mirror, certainly this other person was not his fondest desire, not by any means. He tried to point now to the person behind his 'reflection', only receiving a raised eyebrow for his efforts. The 'reflected' Harry then did something very odd, at least to the real Harry, he smiled and held his hand out to his side, nodding at something unseen, saying words Harry couldn't hear.

It was what happened next that nearly sent Harry into shock, for there was no way this could be happening. The person behind the 'reflected' Harry came up behind the mirror Harry and smiled, then took the mirror Harry's hand in his own and wrapped his other arm round the mirror Harry, while gently placing a kiss on the mirror Harry's neck. The real Harry watched all this stunned, but then a small gasp behind him brought him out of his shock and he whirled round to face the source.

Standing just behind him, gazing into the mirror with a look of pure fear and shock on his face, was none other then the 'reflected' other person. The person who had just taken the mirror Harry into his arms and kissed him, the one person who he couldn't believe could have been there.

'Malfoy?' Harry whispered in a tone of surprise and resentment.

Draco didn't answer him, he was still looking behind Harry in the mirror. Suddenly his face went paler then even normal and he pointed at the mirror. 'P-P-Potter...' was all he seemed to be able to stammer out.

Harry turned back to the mirror quickly, and then he too was again stunned into silence. While his back had been turned the 'reflections' of himself and Draco were smiling out at them, nodding their heads as if some signal had been made. But what was even odder was his parents and Lucius Malfoy were there just behind the two boys, and smiling while watching the two boys in the mirror. Then suddenly the three of them turned to face the two real boys on the outside and the smiles faded, replaced by frowns and a shake of their heads.

'Potter...what the hell is going on? Why is my father there and why the hell do I have...are we....well....doing...that?' Malfoy finally asked finding his voice and pointed to the two boys who were still holding hands.

'You can see all this? You see everything in the mirror?' Harry said quickly and turned back to face Draco.

'Of course I can see it you stupid git! Why shouldn't I see it? What the hell is it though?' Draco said angrily.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Harry. 'Why are you here anyway, how'd you get here?' he asked Draco staring at him just as angrily.

'Not that it's any of your business but I happened to be heading out to the Quidditch pitch to do some practice when I saw you heading off into that corridor. I followed you that's all,' Draco said in an icy voice.

'Why the hell were you following me then? You should have kept on your way, Malfoy, or were you hoping to get me in trouble or something? And why didn't I see you follow me?' Harry said sharply.

'Right like I'd want to report on you and get detention myself. In case you've forgotten, every time I do get you in trouble I land in it too, Potter,' he said muttering. 'Secondly you're not the only one round here that has an invisibility cloak,' he smirked.

'Wh-what? How'd you know...' Harry began but was cut off.

'That little stunt back in third year in Hogsmeade. I'm not stupid you know, once I figured out how you managed to just partly appear there I knew it had to be a cloak. I wasn't about to let you be the only one, Mr. Perfect, so I 'borrowed' my father's,' he sneered.

'Borrowed eh? Guess Daddy doesn't know you stole it more than likely,' Harry smirked back.

'Sod off, Potter, it's not your concern anyway. Besides, I think we have other problems at the moment,' Draco said now while looking over Harry's shoulder at the mirror, an odd glint of near fear in his eyes.

Harry turned round and refaced the mirror, and gasped. The three adults were looking downright angry at the two 'real' boys on the outside, and the 'reflections' of Harry and Draco seemed to be discussing something unheard between them while pointing at the 'real' boys. After a few moments and a nod of approval from the three adults in the mirror, the two boys stood side by side and gazed out of the mirror reciting something, clearly a spell.

A strange light seemed to glow now round the mirror causing the real Harry and Draco to take a step back. Suddenly from out of nowhere they could hear voices, and what struck them as odd was it was their very own voices, but they just couldn't understand what was being said. As the two mirror boys locked gazes on the two real boys, the real Harry and Draco began to feel themselves being pushed towards the mirror, unable to fight whatever it was going on.

A wind picked up then round the boys, cobwebs in the room were being torn from wherever they were weaved, and the candles flickered and went out. The voices got louder then, and were then joined by three more, one of which both the real Harry and Draco recognised as Lucius Malfoy's. A flash of light came from the mirror and the wind died down, the candles re-lit on their own then, the room once again stilled and silent.

The only difference however was that the room was now empty. There was no Harry, no Draco to be found. The mirror was stilled, no reflections of anyone, just dark and haunting, only reflecting tiny pinpricks of candlelight from the room in which the two had just stood.

Somewhere in Hogwarts a few floors above the room, a very wise old man named Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, looked up from the papers he was reading on his desk. He shivered slightly though it was summer, and the room was actually warmed just the way he liked it. He stared thoughtfully off into the air, a feeling that something had happened but for the moment he wasn't sure what it was. He returned to his papers then knowing that soon enough he would find out, and somehow he had a distinct feeling it was going to involve both Harry James Potter and Draco Lucius Malfoy.

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Original posting date: 2002-04-03 2:25:17 AM
Edited on: June 09, 2003 5:55 AM ©Piriotessa/Piri Malfoy/Piri Lupin-Snape