Erised

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood," Draco spat, having just run into Hermione on the way to Potions.

"I think all that hair gel is causing your brain to melt," Hermione snapped. "Because it was you who ran into me."

"Watch your step, Mudblood," Draco said in a silky, threatening tone. "You don't want to get on my bad side. I could make things difficult for you."

"Are you threatening me?" Hermione demanded indignantly.

"I'm just saying, Mudblood," Draco said with a shrug.

"Don't call her a Mudblood," Ron said.

"Why not?" Draco asked.

"Because I said so," Ron said, using his height advantage to look down his nose at the blonde Slytherin. "You don't want to mess with me."

"She is a Mudblood," Draco pointed out.

Ron punched him in the jaw. Draco fell to the ground, stunned. Hermione and Harry both stared at Ron.

"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "What on earth are you doing?"

"I am sick and tired of him calling you names and getting away with it," Ron said angrily. "From now on, every time he insults you I'm going to punch him."

"Fighting in the corridors?" Snape asked, emerging from the Potions classroom. "Fifty points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley. Mr. Malfoy, are you alright?"

Draco nodded shakily as he picked himself up off the ground, Ron still glaring daggers at him.

Draco glared right back. "That was a mistake, Weasel."

"I can handle anything you throw at me, Malfoy," Ron said in a tone that was a lot more dangerous sounding than Draco's threats.

"Ron, stop it," Hermione scolded. "I don't want you fighting with him on my account. I can take care of myself."

"I've given you six years, Hermione," Ron said. "Six years to get him to stop, and he didn't. I'm taking over now, and we're going to do this my way. Right, Harry?"

"Right," Harry said grimly.

"It's none of your business," Hermione snapped.

"You're my best friend," Ron argued. "It is my business. No more, Malfoy," he added, as the Slytherin started walking towards the Potions classroom. "If you do so much as block the light when she's taking notes, I'll have your head."

"I'd like to see you try," Malfoy shot back, before disappearing into the classroom.

"Ron, you're impossible," Hermione said. "I don't need you to take care of me."

"You're my best friend," Ron repeated. "It's my job to take care of you."

He walked into the Potions classroom, assuming that Hermione and Harry would follow.

He didn't catch the half-exasperated, half-adoring way Hermione looked at him.

*

"We're lost," Hermione proclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "And it's your fault."

"My fault?" Ron demanded. "You're the one who wanted to go down the Charms corridor in the first place, instead of sticking with the areas we were supposed to patrol!"

They were patrolling the halls of Hogwarts, checking for students out after hours and keeping general order in the castle.

This would have worked a lot better if they weren't lost. Hogwarts was a big place, after all, and even after six years they didn't know all of it's secrets.

"I told you we should have turned left at that statue of Wilbur the Wanderer," Hermione snapped.

"We wouldn't have been there if you hadn't insisted we take a right at the tapestry of Gwendolyn the Greasy," Ron argued.

"What is this classroom doing unlocked?" Hermione said vaguely, walking over to a slightly open door.

Such was the way with them, Ron mused. At each other's throats one moment, perfectly amiable the next.

He shrugged. "I don't know. See if anyone's in it."

Hermione poked her head in the door, then gasped and walked inside. Ron rolled his eyes, but had no choice but to follow her.

"What on earth is a mirror doing in a deserted classroom?" Hermione said.

Ron's throat went dry. It couldn't be...Harry told him Dumbledore had moved it. The Mirror of Erised couldn't still be at Hogwarts. But he looked over, and he recognized the mirror that had shown him his deepest desire his very first year at school.

Hermione was standing in front of it with a puzzled expression. She looked back at Ron, then at the mirror again.

"That's funny," she said. "You're all the way back there, but the mirror shows you standing right here." She pointed to the ground beside her.

Ron stared. "What?"

"I wonder what it's doing here," Hermione said, studying the inscription across the top.

Ron walked over to stand beside her, his eyes fixed on her face as he tried to decipher her statement about his location.

"What use would anyone have for an old mirror? Do you think this might have been an old Charms classroom, and this mirror was charmed somehow?" Hermione went on, examining the carvings along the frame.

"Hermione, what do you see when you look in it?" Ron asked, her earlier comment making him suspicious.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ron, we're standing in front of a mirror. I see our reflections."

Ron frowned in confusion. "That's impossible. This mirror is enchanted, you're supposed to see..."

He trailed off, having turned to look in the mirror. Indeed, the mirror was showing nothing but their reflections.

Maybe it was the wrong mirror. Maybe he had been mistaken. No, because there at the top was the inscription, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

He swallowed convulsively.

Hermione looked sideways at him. "What are you supposed to see?"

"Your heart's desire," Ron said weakly.

Hermione looked up at the inscription, comprehension on her face. "I show not your face, but your heart's desire."

"It's the Mirror of Erised," Ron explained hastily, needing something to say. "Harry found it in first year, he showed it to me. I saw fame and fortune and success. Harry saw his family. Dumbledore found out we'd seen it and moved it, we thought he'd moved it out of Hogwarts. But," he laughed a bit nervously, "apparently not."

Hermione was staring at their reflections, a sort of shell-shocked look on her face. "It can't be working properly, then," she said in a disbelieving tone. "Because if it was, we'd see our heart's desires. But as it is, all we see is our reflections."

This theory was disproved when Mirror Ron and Mirror Hermione suddenly started snogging like mad. The real Ron and Hermione jumped, startled at this new development.

"We're not supposed to see the same thing," Ron said. "It doesn't work like that. You're supposed to see your desire, not someone else's. We can't see the exact same thing." He was aware that he was repeating himself, but he couldn't help it.

Mirror Ron and Mirror Hermione thankfully stopped snogging, and were now waving at Ron and Hermione with happy looks their faces. Mirror Ron wrapped his arms around Mirror Hermione's waist, twirling her around while she laughed and held onto him tightly.

A small grin twitched the corners of Ron's mouth. He looked beside him and found that Hermione too was fighting a smile.

"Oh, Godric, what are we doing now?" Hermione demanded.

Ron looked back at the mirror and grinned outright. Mirror Ron and Mirror Hermione were lighting fire to what looked like jack-o-lanterns.

"Pumpkins?" Hermione asked, eyebrows raised.

"I like pumpkins," Ron said defensively. "They smell good when you burn them."

"Burning pumpkins," Hermione said thoughtfully. "You have unexpected depths."

Ron looked down at her, realizing that one or another of them were going to have to bring up the point of all of this. It didn't look like Hermione was going to say anything.

"This mirror shows us our heart's desire," Ron said. "Hermione, don't you realize? It's-"

Hermione put a small hand over his mouth. "I know, Ron."

Mirror Ron and Mirror Hermione were snogging again.

The real Ron and Hermione soon followed suit.