Harry Potter and the Reflection of Tromedlov

Chapter 1: Inside a mirror.

It wasn't the first time that an owl had brought a letter to number 4, Privet Drive. Harry didn't take much notice when he saw the bird fly into his room. He was worried, though, when he saw that it hadn't come to perch next to him, but had flown right through the room and down the stairs. And he he was even more worried after hearing the high-pitched scream of his aunt.

He went downstairs to see what had happened, and saw Aunt Petunia gesticulating frantically as if the letter she had in her hands was burning.

Hoping that no-one had noticed him, Harry came closer, curious to know the reason for all the noise.

The envelope was exactly like the one the one Harry remembered, the one he had received four years before, announcing that he was being admitted to Hogwarts. But it wasn't his name written on it, this time.

"Mr. Dudley Dursley,
Big room on the first floor,
Number 4, Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey"

Harry's heart sank.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL
Of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
********
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Dursley,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress

After reading the letter, Aunt Petunia sat down and stared at nothing for a while. Dudley was staring at her; the surprise could be read in his tiny little eyes. But his astonishment could never be compared to Harry's, whose face was as white as a sheet with shock.

What will happen to me now? Aunt Petunia will be furious, and Uncle Vernon — they hate the Wizarding world! I'll get punished again, and they probably won't give me permission to go to Ron's house next week! thought Harry desperately.

He was a thin boy, with thick, rebellious black hair, green eyes, and a pair of glasses that were always on his nose. His face was never as red as Dudley's, but now it was positively ashen.

Ever since he remembered, he had always lived with the Dursleys. He knew that they weren't his true family. They were forever repeating how much he had to be grateful for, and how they had taken care of him since the day his parents had died. How his parents were feckless and irresponsible, and lived off other people. They'd told him this sort of thing so many times that in the end he'd half come to believe it.

But then, one day, he found out he was a wizard, and that his parents were like him. That they died trying to save him from the most evil being that ever lived — Voldemort, or "You-Know-Who", as most wizards called him.

Harry found out that he was famous in the magical world, and he began to attend Hogwarts. The school was his home. He was happy there, and his life was worth living.

Obviously, he DID have enemies there. He had a lot of homework to do, and he'd got into trouble many times over the past few years. Professor Snape, head of Slytherin House, detested him.

Harry risked his life at least ten times a year, losing the bones in one of his arms and having them grown back in the course of one painful night.

He was, even without any reason, looked at suspiciously by his classmates, but despite all these things, Harry loved Hogwarts, and he wouldn't swap it for any other school in the world.

He knew how much the Dursleys hated magic. They were people that wizards called 'Muggles', normal humans with no magic powers. They hated even the word 'magic' itself, and they loathed any hint of spells and so on.

This was why Harry couldn't accept what was now happening in front of him as being true. And what happened next was even harder to believe.

"What does it mean?" Uncle Vernon asked, frowning a little. This question seemed to awaken Aunt Petunia as if from a dream.

"What do you mean, 'what does it mean'?" she asked, her mouth spreading into a vast smile of satisfaction. "Finally those fools realised the truth about me! They admitted my sister and not me to Hogwarts, and after that our parents always cared more about her than about me. But I have some magic in my blood too — and that's why my baby angel has been given a place. Come here, Duddy, and let Mummy hug you! Are you happy?"

Aunt Petunia stood up, a big smile all over her face, and hugged her enormous son with pride. Harry's eyes had gone so wide it looked as if someone had put a growing spell on him.

The next few days were awful. The Dursleys weren't scared any more by that fact that he was a wizard now that Dudley was supposed to be one too. They even locked him up back in the cupboard under the stairs where he had lived for eleven years, and wouldn't let him go and see Ron. Busy buying Dudley's equipment, they paid no attention to Harry save for preventing him from using his owl, Hedwig, to contact Sirius.

I only hope, he thought sadly, that they'll let me go back to Hogwarts— But strangely enough the days passed quickly, and it was soon the first of September.

Uncle Vernon eventually remembered that Harry was supposed to be going to Hogwarts as well. "I wish to God I never had to see your face again," he muttered, allowing Harry to get into the car with all his school things.

Harry was relieved to see the Hogwarts Express, but his happiness was short-lived. Dudley ruined the whole trip. Dudley had bought a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and had eaten, unfortunately, an earwax-flavoured bean. He spat it out right onto Harry's face, and just at the moment that Malfoy had the bright idea of opening the door to the compartment.

Needless to say, they immediately became friends. Soon Draco's cronies Crabbe and Goyle had crowded into the small compartment. They spent a while mocking Harry until he got tired of the teasing, got up and left.

He remembered suddenly that he hadn't seen Ron and Hermione at the station - or on the train, for that matter. How could he possibly have forgotten about them? The shock of Dudley's admission to Hogwarts must have been bigger than he'd thought—

Harry did his best to look for them, checking every single compartment in the train. He caught sight of a lot of people he didn't know, most of whom didn't even give him a second glance, but he still couldn't find any sign of his friends.

He had one more look up and down the train, beginning to be seriously worried. Why aren't they here? he thought. Did they miss the Express?

Then he happened to pass the compartment where he had left Dudley, Malfoy and the others. Ron and Hermione were in there with them, and Harry couldn't believe the sight that met his eyes.

"Oh, so you finally bothered to come and look for us, Harry," Ron said venomously, sharing a Chocolate Frog with Dudley. Hermione was sitting on Draco Malfoy's lap, very busy fondling him. Harry's eyes had widened in shock.

This is impossible! he thought. I don't believe it—

"What's up, Potter, did you see a ghost?" A mocking flash had passed through Malfoy's pale eyes. He was stroking the back of Hermione's neck with one hand, and she seemed to be enjoying the attention.

"You know, Harry, Dray isn't really that bad," she said with a little smile as she inspected her nails.

Malfoy murmured something in her ear that might have been "I told you not to call me that in public...", as Hermione made amends by biting his ear-lobe and then kissing him passionately. Dudley was laughing like an ape, together with Crabbe and Goyle, as he watched Harry's expression.

"What are you doing, Potter?" Malfoy jibed. "You've gone so pale you look more ghostly than Nearly Headless Nick!" Hermione laughed.

The last straw for Harry was when he caught sight of Ron trying not to laugh.

"What are you doing? Malfoy, if this is a joke, it's not funny. Hermione, Ron — what has he done to you? Come on, let's get out of here..."

"Look at him, the Great Harry Potter, giving out orders," Ron mocked, eating a Chocolate Frog. "The Great Harry Potter who expects his followers to come running at his call..."

Draco Malfoy laughed in Harry's face. Hermione stood up gracefully from his lap as Draco himself rose to his feet, followed immediately by the others. Even Dudley was standing, occupying a good half of the compartment together with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Harry Potter calls his flock!"

"Leave us alone, Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter, don't mess with us."

"Go away, Harry Potter!"

They approached him slowly, the words coming out in a deliberate and monotonous tone. Harry didn't understand. They were all acting as if they were under a spell.

"Go away, Harry Potter! We don't want you!" Hermione shrieked in his face, while Ron clapped his hands in delight.

He closed the door of the compartment, his eyes burning and a painful lump in his throat. He didn't want them to hear him crying. He'd been an idiot. Had he really thought they were his friends? No, he was on his own... he'd always been on his own...

He turned to go, his eyes filling with tears... and only at that moment did he see the giant serpent in the corridor, coming swiftly towards him.

On Harry's left was Neville Longbottom, looking horrified. He was staring at the serpent just as Harry had done. Despite the speed the snake was moving, everything seemed to be happening in slow-motion.

For a moment, Harry was about to drag Neville back into the compartment to take shelter; but he couldn't bring himself to face his 'old friends' again. But for Neville's sake at least, he had to try...

Then something strange suddenly happened. Moving with an agility that Harry had never seen from him before, Neville stepped in front of Harry, shielding him with his body. He raised his wand and cast a single spell.

"Impedimenta!"

The snake stopped dead in a flash. And Harry was frozen too, his eyes even wider than when he'd seen Hermione kissing Malfoy. The snake writhed on the ground, and abruptly turned into a huge cloud of wasps that flew in their direction. Neville thrust Harry away and advanced to face them. "Get away from here!" he said urgently.

"I can't leave you here, Neville!" Harry yelled, trying to grab hold of his friend's clothing to drag him in the other direction.

"Harry, save yourself. I lost everything, you didn't. GO AWAY!" Neville's voice had a strangely different, almost feminine, tone.

"But..."

"DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO!" It was the last thing Neville said before the wasps got him.

His friend's painful shrieks were too much for Harry. He'd meant to do his best to save Neville, but instead he found himself racing in the opposite direction, trying to save himself. He had almost reached the end of the carriage when something reached out to trip him... or was it that he simply stumbled?... and he fell...

Harry found himself on the ground with a dreadful pain in his forehead. The noise of the train had disappeared and all around him was silence, but in the distance, he could hear a rhythmic snore.

Snore?

He opened his eyes only to find that everything was dark.

Wha..?

In front of his nose he thought he could just make out the cover of his bed back home in Privet Drive; it was as if something was blurring his vision.

He blinked two or three times, and then realised why he couldn't see properly. He wasn't wearing his glasses. He checked what he was wearing, and found that he was still in his pyjamas. He stood up and groped for his glasses on the bedside table, fumbling them into place on his nose.

There was no doubt about it; it was his room at number 4, Privet Drive. Harry's heart was racing in his chest as an uneasy feeling threatened to overwhelm him. He began to shudder convulsively, hugging himself with both arms as he rocked backwards and forwards, trying to calm down.

What happened? A minute ago I was on the Hogwarts Express... He was confused. Had he ever really got on that train? He was starting to doubt it.

He looked for the calendar where he marked off the days until he could go back to school, checking for the last marked day with shaky fingers. The fifteenth of July. It wasn't even his birthday yet.

But in that case...

"Was it a dream?" he said out loud, sitting down on his bed. He couldn't stop trembling, despite the warmth. Instinctively, he put up one of his cold hands to touch his forehead, and finally noticed that his scar was burning. That was what had been hurting him since the moment he'd woken up. Hearing his voice, Hedwig awakened inside her cage and ruffled her feathers.

Harry couldn't forget what he'd seen in the nightmare. It was a nightmare... wasn't it?

Ever since the day, a few months ago, when he'd seen the resurrection of Voldemort, he'd had a horrible feeling that something was going to happen to him. Something bad.

He knew that Dumbledore had placed a magical barrier on the Dursleys' house to keep him safe for the moment, which acted as some reassurance. But his scar hadn't stopped burning, and the nightmare was still vivid in his mind.

"I'm an idiot... Hermione and Malfoy kissing! Fancy coming up with an idea like that. And Dudley! That fat lard-ball wouldn't make a wizard in a million years..." But his own voice sounded strange in his ears. He was still shaking at the memory of Neville being tortured by the wasps. He wanted to go back and help him. Why had he run away? Even if it was only a dream, he still felt guilty. Inside her cage, Hedwig put her head on one side and and made a soft sound.

Harry stood up and walked over to the desk. His hands were shaking, but he managed to switch on the light and find a quill. He looked for some parchment, trying to keep his hands steady for long enough to let him write a letter. It took several attempts, but he finally made it.

Yes, that's what I'll do. I'll write to tell Sirius, and to Ron and Hermione. I don't suppose it's serious... but then my scar's still hurting, and that has to mean Voldemort's up to something...

Several sheets of parchment were crumpled up and thrown away before he was finally able to produce a letter that satisfied him. By the time he managed to get it right, he found that he had also managed to calm down a little.

"Dear Sirius,

"How are you? Everything's much the same as usual here — the Dursleys haven't forgiven me for the way I left last year, or the jokes that Fred and George played on Dudley. It's pretty tense.

"Do you have any news about Voldemort?

"This evening something weird happened. I had a nightmare where Dudley was accepted to go to Hogwarts and everything started going really odd. Hermione and Ron were friendly with Malfoy, my aunt was proud to have Dudley as a wizard in her family, and Neville Longbottom managed a very powerful spell. All very unlikely, wouldn't you say?

"When I woke up my scar was hurting, and it's still hurting now. You told me to tell you if anything unusual happened, so I thought I'd send Hedwig. I hope to see you soon. I miss you.

~Harry"

He let Hedwig out of her cage and tied the letter to her leg. The owl was glad to stretch her wings.

"Go and look for Sirius, Hedwig," he murmured, stroking her. Then he let her go, and stayed at the window for a while as he looked at the street in front of him. He didn't doubt that Hedwig would find the person she was looking for. She never got a direction wrong, even when Sirius was hidden and in exile.

After a moment, he decided that he felt better, and he went back to bed, trying to sleep. But it was useless; he couldn't sleep a wink.

He tossed and turned in bed for some time, then got up again and went back to his desk. Although it was only 3 a.m., he couldn't sleep. He decided to write his letter to Ron and the one to Hermione, so that when Hedwig returned, he'd have the letters ready to send off at once.

§§§

The days at Privet Drive passed slowly. Harry's scar had stopped hurting, but he couldn't get rid of that uneasy feeling.

Hedwig's arrival came as a shock. It was as if the memory of the owl that had arrived in his nightmare had returned. He froze. It took him several minutes to realise that this was Hedwig with Sirius's reply.

The owl had to spend quite some time trying to get his attention, and by the time that Harry finally recognised her she seemed to be very irritable. He tried to calm her down by giving her one of her favourite biscuits. Eventually, Hedwig let him retrieve the letter from her before going back to her cage to rest a little and drink some water.

"Dear Harry,

"Nothing here is different from usual. I've searched for news about Voldemort, but the Daily Prophet doesn't say anything about him. As we expected, Cornelius Fudge is trying to keep it out of the press.

"Everything around here seems to be quiet, anyway. I can't say I like this apparent calm. You say your scar's been hurting again - and nothing else? No more dreams?

"Let me know immediately if anything odd happens. And please don't leave the protection Dumbledore has set up for you.

~Sirius"

Harry sighed. No news about Voldemort, anyway. Sirius didn't know what he was plotting. He looked at Hedwig, who was drinking some water in her cage, and decided that it was now Ron and Hermione's turn to get a letter.

§§§

The figure of the boy approaching the owl was reflected by a mirror.

"Enough, Kanna."

The small, pale demon dressed in white, moved the surface of the mirror she held. The glass was now reflecting the room where they were staying in.

A man was sitting in front of her. Long, black hair framed a face too beautiful to be human, while his red eyes were shining with an evil and mocking light. A hard smile curved the edges of his mouth while he stared at the image now looking back at him.

The face in the mirror was very different from his own: red eyes injected with blood, spectral and almost invisible body, a face that was as hideous as the one gazing at it was beautiful.

"What are you laughing at, Naraku?" the image inside the mirror asked.

"Nothing, Voldemort. Just — I expected him to be better." The person named Naraku closed his eyes while an evil grin appeared all over his face. "That boy, he's the one that reduced you to such a state. You couldn't destroy him in fifteen years, and, even after you resurrected, you failed. I really expected him to be better."

"Fool!" the image inside the mirror hissed. "The boy would be no problem at all if he weren't protected by that spell! His mother died to save him, that's why I couldn't touch him! In fact—(1)" Noticing Voldemort's annoyed tone, Naraku closed his eyes once again, smiling.

"Are you forgetting that I have every memory and experience that you have ever had? I know very well why you didn't destroy him. That's exactly why I expected him to be better. Someone like him is no problem to me. He's not even worth destroying." The expression on the demon's beautiful face became satanic.

"Oh yes, you have all my memories — just as I have yours. So you know very well that you shouldn't underestimate that boy, Naraku. Don't make that mistake. Harry Potter must be killed!" Voldemort's red eyes narrowed in hatred as he spat out the name.

"You're an amateur—" Naraku's voice mocked him.

"Be very careful, Naraku. You're dealing with Voldemort himself — a name whose very shadow can cast fear across the Western World, the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. Don't dare to call me an amateur..."

Voldemort's eyes had narrowed to tiny slits as he spoke, his face very close to the surface of the mirror.

"I'm in no hurry to kill him," Naraku retorted casually. "I have better plans for him..."

"You stole my power. The only thing I want is to see Harry Potter dead. You know that he could kill me instead, if you keep him alive. And he might even be the one to kill you."

"I stole your power?" Naraku retorted and stood up, glaring at the mirror's surface. "Keep in mind that it was you who trapped yourself. You wanted to possess my body and my power. But you were absorbed, and now you must subjugate to my will." Voldemort seemed to boil with rage inside the mirror. But it was the truth.

Recently, he had met a vagabond, who introduced himself as one of his best followers. He congratulated Voldemort on his recent resurrection, and then he gave him a strange piece of stone that it would make him stronger.

The fragment was part of an evil oriental gem named Shikon no Tama, a stone that had the power to make every evil wish come true. The Jewel gave Voldemort more power, and even a semblance of a true body. But then Naraku arrived, attracted by the fragment, saying that it was his and he wanted it back. He asked Voldemort for it directly, offering an alliance in exchange.

But Voldemort had other ideas about it.

Naraku had a handsome and powerful young body — the body of a demon, not that of a man. Voldemort thought he saw his chance to become in truth the most powerful evil wizard on Earth. When he heard of Naraku's ability to incorporate the bodies of others into his own, he challenged the demon to try absorbing him, with the intention of controlling his host's mind and obtaining his power.

But unfortunately for him, his plan turned against him. When he was finally inside Naraku's body, he discovered that the demon was very different from the humans whom he had possessed. And he learned it too late. The demon that he should have possessed had possessed him.

But in the end even Naraku could not achieve his aim. Voldemort's power was too strong for him to possess completely. It was as great as his own but of a different order. Ultimately, the two souls and bodies became merged, with Naraku receiving all Voldemort's memories and experiences, and Voldemort gaining those of Naraku himself. They were two equally powerful entities blended inside one body.

"So what's your plan? The boy must be killed! He was the cause of my ruin, and he could even end up destroying... Naramort."

"Mmmmm... 'Naramort'. Nice name." Naraku smiled at the idea, staring into empty space for a moment before returning his gaze to the reflection inside the mirror. "I won't simply kill him. Why should I destroy one who would be so easy to... employ?" An evil laugh echoed in the room while a flash of understanding passed through the red eyes of the man in the mirror. He smiled at last. "Harry Potter will regret that moment when his mother sacrificed herself to save his life. He'll come to regret it with all his heart..."

Inside the mirror, Voldemort laughed devilishly.

(1) Voldemort was referring (spoiler for GoF) to the fact that after he was resurrected he could actually touch Harry. But since Naraku already has all these memories, finishing the phrase would be useless.