Goddess

It was the day before the start of a new year at Hogwarts, and Professor Severus Snape was miserable. And with good reason. This was the fifth year he had to teach Potter’s damn son and that useless Neville Longbottom, not to mention a seeming endless stream of Weasleys. To make it worse, he had missed out on the Defense Against Dark Arts job again, and to top it all off, Dumbledore had given the position to Remus Lupin. Again. After everything that had happened last time. Over me he chose that, that…werewolf! he thought as he gripped the glass of brandy he was holding as he sat at a lonely table in the corner of the inn at Hogsmeade, attempting to control his anger.

"Excuse me sir."

Snape whirled around in his chair, his eyes narrowing in annoyance at the small old man with a cart overloaded with a strange assortment of… junk. The little man, seemingly oblivious to the poisonous look that Snape was giving him, smiled up at him. He was almost as small as a dwarf, his wizened and smiling face framed by white curly hair. His eyes were milky white and unfocused, Snape realised he was blind. Still, he wasn’t in the mood for being nice, not even to sweet little blind old men.

"Sir, would you like to buy one of my pretty magical trinkets? All have mystical powers and a reasonable price."

"No. Please leave me alone," said Snape without even bothering to glance at mismatched pile on the cart.

"I have goods from all over the world! This ancient lamp, from China, is said to have…"

"I said NO!"

"But sir, I am sure if you would just have a look you will find…."

"I am sure I will not," spat Snape, getting up from his chair. He threw down several coins on the wooden table and stormed out of the inn in a whirl of black. Can’t a man wallow in his misery in peace? he thought as he stormed down the street. Too angry to see where he was going, he walked into something hard and fell to the ground. Swearing, he opened his eyes to see the same old wizened face again.

"Are you okay sir? You walked right into my cart"

"I’m fine," he said, getting up quickly and brushing the dust from his robe. Is there no escape?

"Well, now that we’re both here, you might as well look at my merchandise…"

Snape sighed irritably. "If I buy something from you, will you leave me alone?!"

The old man nodded his head happily.

Looking through the cart, Snape could see that the "merchandise" was, in fact junk. Some had simple charms weaved into them, and talked, flashed and moved in attempt to gain his attention, but nothing that he actually wanted or couldn’t do himself. His eyes then caught sight of the battered old lamp that the old man was talking about before. He pulled it out and inspected it carefully. The brass it was made from was dented and tarnished, and as he held it, a spider crawled out of the spout. He dropped it in disgust and turned his attention back to the pile. Something was shining where he had just pulled out the old lamp. Reaching in, he pulled it free from the dancing teacup some other things that he couldn’t identify, and held it under the light. It was a hand held mirror encased in silver, which was carved in strange, swirling patterns on the back. He turned it over and looked at his reflection. A pale man with a hooked nose and lank hair stared stonily back at him. The reflection then gave a big grin and winked at him. Snape dropped the mirror in surprise. How strange…

The old man picked up the mirror from the ground and wiped the dust off it.

"Ah, I’ve has this one for a while. Just an ordinary mirror, no magic powers at all… No one ever wants to buy it." He handed it back to Snape.

His curiosity aroused, Snape decided to take it anyway. There was something not right about that mirror. He turned around to face the old man.

"How much…" But he wasn’t there. There was no trace of the man or his cart, and no evidence that he had ever been there apart from the mirror that he still held in his hands.

Strange. I guess he really wanted to get rid of this mirror really bad. He looked at his reflection once again, which behaved and reflected nothing unusual. Must be cursed or something. Slightly happier now that he had something to distract him, he tucked the mirror into his robes and made his way back to the castle.