Desires In Another Mirror

'Well, you can't just stroll in any old how,' Luna said for the umpteenth time, as she and Harry sat in Rita's library after dinner on Monday night. 'They'd catch you in a second and then you'd be done for.'

'And I can't Portkey in?'

'Nope. Can't use a Portkey anywhere in the centre of London.'

'Floo powder?'

'I've heard they guard the fireplaces.'

'Hmm...' said Harry, idly tracing shapes in the dust on the shelf beside them.

'And if I was to walk in, what would happen?'

'Intruder Charms, I expect.'

'Well... what if I set it off, but they couldn't find me?'

'How do you mean?' Luna asked.

'Does my dad still have an Invisibility Cloak?'

Luna grinned. 'No.'

'Oh... any idea where I could get one?'

'He gave it to you. On your eleventh birthday.'

'Oh! Useful...'

'Yeah, your mum wasn't too impressed, she's very safety-conscious and she didn't want you to go off having adventures, but your dad thought you could be trusted.'

'Oh. Could I?'

'Mostly. You've been in trouble a few times, nothing too serious.'

'Glad to hear it.'

'So, you think if you used the cloak you could get in?'

'It seems the most likely way. And now I need to figure out how to actually get to London...'

'Oh, that's easy enough. Apparate.'

'But I don't know how! We don't learn until we're seventeen!'

'Really? Gosh, we learn at thirteen here. It's an important skill. Never mind, I can take you side-along. It's easy that way.'

'I didn't think you were going to come!'

'Well, Harry, I can hardly leave you in London by yourself, you wouldn't have a clue! You'd be caught in a second.'

'Well then, tell me what I need to know. I don't want you to get hurt, this is my problem.'

'Oh, don't be silly. I'm coming with you.'

Harry sighed, as Luna frowned at him. She didn't look the least bit dreamy today, but determined and forceful. He had often seen Hermione look that way, and he knew it meant business.

'Alright,' he sighed. 'But you can't come inside the house. The cloak isn't big enough to cover both of us.'

She shrugged, accepting the compromise for now.

'When do you want to go?' she asked.

He sighed, considering. He wanted the chance to see his parents again before he went, but the longer he put it off, the more difficult it would be.

'Tomorrow night,' he said, finally.

'Alright,' said Luna. 'We should wait until everyone's gone to bed. We'll have to get past the patrols, too.'

* * *

Harry, unsurprisingly, slept badly on Monday night, and so on Tuesday he was sluggish and stupid, and even Flitwick expressed dismay at his lack of attention.

'What's wrong, Harry?' Ginny asked, as they sat together at lunch. 'You're awfully quiet... is everything alright? Is it about... you know? Because I'm sorry if I was pushy...'

'No, it's not that,' Harry said weakly.

'He didn't sleep much last night,' Dudley said. 'You were tossing and turning all night, mate.'

'Sorry,' Harry mumbled.

'And you're not eating your lunch,' Hermione pointed out. 'You'll be starving come dinner time if you just leave it.' She glanced sideways at Ron, who was shovelling down his food as usual. 'Take a leaf out of Ron's book, he's got the right idea.'

'Ha, ha,' said Ron, indistinctly.

'I'm fine,' said Harry, a little crossly. 'Just a bit of an off day, that's all. I'm allowed to have an off day, aren't I?'

'Of course you are,' said Hermione. 'But we just wanted to know if there was anything we could do to help.'

'Well, there isn't,' Harry snapped.

Hermione's face fell, and Ron glared at Harry. Harry sighed.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'Just ignore me, I'm being horrible. It isn't your fault, Hermione. And, Ginny, it isn't yours either. It's nobody's fault but my own. I'll be in a better mood tomorrow, hopefully.'

Ginny squeezed his hand under the table before turning to talk to Victoria. Harry spent the rest of the meal in silence.

The afternoon was not much better - Harry had Potions with Hestia Jones, but he wasn't really paying attention and his potion was a mess. Hestia just sighed and wished him better luck next time.

By dinner time, Harry's stomach was churning with nerves. He didn't feel equal to conversation, but he sat with Victoria and Ed anyway, since this would be his last chance to see them. He asked them how their days had been, and tried to listen properly.

He went to bed early, hugging Hermione, patting Ron on the back and kissing Ginny before he went. They looked confused, but they smiled, seemingly taking it as an apology for his moody behaviour.

He got into bed, still fully dressed, but didn't sleep, waiting anxiously. He and Luna had decided that midnight would be late enough. He feigned sleep as the other boys came in, got into bed, talked over the day, and then one by one dozed off.

When midnight came, he took out his cloak and sneaked down to the Bell Room to meet Luna.

'Here,' she said, handing him a rough woollen coat. 'We'll have to pretend to be Muggles, you'll need to wear this. Follow me, we need to get out of the house before we can apparate.'

Wordlessly, he followed Luna through the corridors and down stairs until they reached an outer door. Behind it was a gravel-covered courtyard. They stepped carefully, trying not to make the gravel crunch.

'I haven't seen the school from the outside yet...' Harry mentioned, once they were away from the courtyard and concealed in the row of trees opposite the house.

'Nobody does very much,' said Luna. 'There are spies everywhere. At the moment nobody knows that this house is even in use. It's better not to go outside and ruin the illusion.'

Harry looked back at the house. It was a large manor house, but it looked dilapidated and abandoned, despite the comfort inside.

'Clever,' he said.

'Come on,' said Luna. 'We should go quickly. Put that coat on. We'll apparate a few streets away from Grimmauld Place, just in case.'

Harry shrugged on the coat she had given him, and grabbed onto the arm she offered, shutting his eyes tightly. He felt the same odd, twisting feeling that he'd had when Dumbledore had apparated him that summer - how long ago it seemed now! And yet it had only been a few weeks.

When Harry opened his eyes, he was standing in a dingy alley. There was rubbish scattered over the ground, and the walls were heavily graffitied and splashed with what looked like blood.

'Come on,' said Luna. 'Walk like you know where you're going. Don't stop if anyone shouts at us.'

He followed her out of the alley and into a large main street. It was rather dark - what streetlights there were, were either smashed or mangled into odd shapes. The light came from flickering fires at intervals on either side of the road. The road was full of potholes and puddles. As they walked, Harry's eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, and he could make out the shapes of tents and lean-tos lining the road, and then

people crowding around the fires. He could hear muttering, talking, occasional cries from far away. Occasionally he saw a house - some had sagging walls and roofs that had caved in, many more were just piles of rubble.

'Most of the Muggle houses got destroyed,' Luna whispered. 'The Muggles who are still free live in shanty towns like this one. There are a few houses left, but you'd be a fool to try and live in one. Knocking houses down is sport for Death Eaters.'

'Any food?' cried a woman from the roadside. 'We've got good stuff to trade! Warm

blankets, paper, shoes!'

'Ignore her,' said Luna. 'If we answer we'll never get past.'

They walked on, eventually leaving the Muggle settlement behind. The streets now were quiet, and their steps echoed loudly. At one point, they passed what looked like a large pile of bones, and later several cars crushed out of shape in a heap.

After a few minutes, they reached Grimmauld Place. They hid in the entrance of an alley while Harry took out his cloak and wand.

'I want to come in with you,' said Luna. 'I don't want to stay out here by myself... bad things can happen to girls out by themselves in London.'

'You can't come in with me,' said Harry, firmly. 'There's only room for one under the cloak. You'll have to apparate back now, before I go in.'

'But I want to help you!'

'You already have helped me. I'll be alright, I'll be invisible. Everything will be fine. Go back now, Luna. I'm not going in until you leave.'

She looked at him for a moment, biting her lip.

'Alright,' she said at last. 'Good luck!'

She flung her arms around him and hugged him tightly, and he hugged back.

'Thanks for all your help!' he said, throwing the cloak around his shoulders. 'Go on, go.'

With a sigh and a small pop, she apparated away. Harry arranged the cloak so that he was entirely covered, and approached Number Twelve.

As he walked up the path, a loud klaxon sounded, and Harry winced. That must be the Intruder Charm. Still, it didn't matter. He was invisible. Instead of going up to the front door, he passed it and went down the stairs to the basement entrance - the window there was big enough to climb through, he had it on good authority from Fred and George. Alohomora was enough to open the window, and he clambered into the kitchen after checking that there was nobody around. He hoped the mirror would still be in the room where he had found it originally, and in any case that was the most sensible place to start looking.

He crept out of the kitchen and up the stairs. He heard voices in the hall and his heart almost stopped - that was Bellatrix Lestrange speaking, and a man... her husband, Rodolphus.

'It was probably just a cat again, Bella,' Rodolphus was saying. 'The door is still closed.'

'Kreacher, check the kitchen,' Bellatrix said, ignoring her husband.

Harry pressed himself against the wall as the house elf limped past, muttering. Had he closed the window behind him? He was fairly sure he had...

'You're entirely too complacent, Dolphus,' Bella said. 'You think we're safe, just because the Dark Lord is in power? There are still those who would harm us.'

'What, the Order of the Phoenix? They're all but dead! And I doubt any Muggles could depose the Dark Lord.'

Harry listened to them arguing as he crept up the stairs. He tried to tread carefully... there was a step that creaked, he knew. He avoided it, but he didn't see what was on the top step - a toy dragon. Its head squeaked as he stood on it, and he froze.

'There's someone on the stairs!' Bella cried.

Harry heard them running along the corridor and up the stairs - he had to think of a hiding place! They would surely guess that it was someone in an Invisibility Cloak, and search for him. There was no time to try any doors, which in any case might well be locked.

The banisters along the landing looked strong enough to take his weight... He climbed onto the other side of them, holding on tightly with feet and hands. Now he was hanging in empty space, over the hard, cold floor of the hall. If he fell, he would certainly be heard, and probably badly hurt.

He watched as Bellatrix and Rodolphus kicked about the landing, feeling for an intruder. He shifted his feet, wedged between two banisters, a little further out from the landing, and pressed his arms as close to the banisters as he could.

It seemed like he hung there forever, heart pounding, palms growing sweaty with the effort of holding on. His nose itched, but he couldn't scratch it. His mouth was dry.

Finally, Kreacher came up the stairs to tell them that the kitchen appeared normal. Rodolphus said he was tired of chasing after figments of Bellatrix's imagination, and left. Bellatrix herself searched half-heartedly for a few minutes more before leaving too.

After a few moments, Harry climbed back over the banisters and sat on the cold floorboards, getting his breath back. He felt shaky, and too hot. His fingers ached, and there were painful red lines across his hands where the banisters had cut into him. But he hadn't been caught. He was safe, so far.

After a few minutes, Harry got up and carried on. He was careful to watch his step, as he climbed up another flight of stairs, and went down several corridors. He reached the entrance to the room where he had found the mirror without further incident. He opened the door quietly.

And there it was. The golden-framed mirror.

The room looked just as it had in his own reality. Harry stood for a moment and just stared, not quite believing that it would be this easy. He shook his head. It hadn't been easy, he had almost been caught. And he should go now, before he really did get caught.

When he had come to this reality, he had ended up where the other Harry had been - it was possible that the other Harry would arrive here once he went through the mirror. He would take the cloak off and leave it for him to use, so that he would be able to escape safely.

Harry was about to close the door behind him and prepare to leave when he heard voices, coming down the corridor towards him. He froze.

'Bella, I grow tired of your superior attitude,' Rodolphus was saying. 'You are no better than the rest of us.'

'That's all you know,' Bellatrix said.

It sounded as though they had stopped right outside the room with the mirror. Harry didn't dare move - the door was still ajar, and he would need to take the cloak off before he left.

'What, precisely, do you mean by that?' Rodolphus asked.

'The Dark Lord trusts me above all others, you know that.'

'Not exactly. He trusts you equally with the other Horcrux Guardians, I know that.'

'Pah, Snape and Dolohov and all those idiots? They don't deserve to be so well-regarded.'

Harry had to stifle a gasp. Snape, a Death Eater? Harry knew that he had been one before, but Dumbledore had assured him that he was working for the Order now. Perhaps in this reality he had never switched sides?

'They've served the Dark Lord just as well as you, and some of them much longer.' Rodolphus said wearily.

'I don't care.'

Rodolphus sighed heavily. It sounded to Harry as though they had had this argument many times before.

'Bella, you should be content. You've been entrusted with knowledge of one of the Dark Lord's horcruxes, a piece of his very soul. Why can't you stop wanting more? We are one of the most powerful families in Europe, our children are assured a bright future, we want for nothing. And yet you persist in this ridiculous need to be better

than our friends, our allies.'

'I am better. I know more.'

'Oh, and what do you know?'

'I know where all of the horcruxes are,' Bella said, smugly.

'Don't be ridiculous, how could you? The location of each one has only been entrusted to a single Death Eater!'

Bella laughed. Then there was silence for several moments before Rodolphus spoke.

'Bella... you didn't...'

'I did!'

'You... you spied on the Dark Lord himself?'

Harry's mouth opened in amazement. It seemed that Bellatrix was just as crazy in this reality as she had been in his own.

'It was for his own good! I can be more help to him if I know where every horcrux is, in case something should happen.'

'And does he know about this?'

'I... not yet.'

'So you at least recognise that he would not approve...'

'He wouldn't understand, not at first...'

'He is our Master. He is the Dark Lord. And you presume to know better than he does what is best for him?!'

'The Dark Lord... has a lot on his mind, and he may not always...'

There was the sound of hurried footsteps.

'Dolphus, where are you going?'

'I'm going to tell the Dark Lord of your treachery!'

'NO! Dolphus... you would be blamed too! And think of the children!'

'If you really cared for the children, you wouldn't have done this! You've put us all in danger, Bella!'

Harry heard Rodolphus running down the stairs, and Bellatrix following. The coast was clear.

But how could he leave now? What he had just heard was intelligence that could be vital to the Order. He couldn't be sure exactly what would happen when he went through the mirror, couldn't be certain that he could send them the information another way.

There was no choice. He had to go back.

Harry took a long look at the mirror, then turned and crept back the way he had come, down the flights of stairs, into the empty kitchen and out through the window.

He emerged onto the street, looking around warily, and saw Luna, hovering behind a tree. He took off his cloak and strode over.

'Luna, what are you doing here?' he asked.

'Are you still... the other Harry?' she asked.

'Yes, I didn't go through, but why are you still here?'

'It occurred to me that, if you didn't get through, you wouldn't know the way to get back to school.'

'I...' Harry stopped. 'Well, it looks like you were right.'

'I didn't want you to be wandering all alone. Anything could happen to you.'

'How long have you been here, Luna? It's nearly morning!'

And indeed, the sky was beginning to pale and the sun was just visible behind the row of houses.

'Almost since you went in...'

'Oh, Luna...'

'Come on, let's go back.'

He took hold of her arm again, and in a moment they were standing just outside the courtyard of the school. They approached across the gravel again, and went in through the side door.

McGonagall was waiting for them.

'Harry James Potter, Luna Ailis Lovegood, where the hell have you been?'