Mirror of Erised

"Dear, are you all right? Would you like some tea?" Molly Weasley looked up at the young man entering the cramped kitchen.

"Mother, I told you before, I am fine!" It was plain to see that George Weasley was anything but fine. It had been a few months since he'd lost his twin. Fred and George Weasley were like two halves of a whole. "I'm going to help with the clean up at Hogwarts today."

"Are you sure you want to do that? After everything?"

"I have to, mum. Anyway, the school needs to be up and running before the next term begins. Too much time has been lost."

"Listen to you, going on about the importance of education. After the way the pair of you flew out of there..." She caught herself up. The twins' hijinxes had given her enough sleepless nights. Now she would give anything to get an owl from the school with a report of some mischief.

"Mum, just because we did all we could to that school, doesn't mean some young upstart can't benefit from too much education." He looked outside. "I have to go. The others are waiting."

George and his siblings had all volunteered to help at Hogwarts to get their mind off of the death of their brother. Although George was taking it the hardest, which was expected, all the Weasley children had been trying to cope with their loss. Hermione had been trying to Ron to talk about his feelings, but Harry knew that the Weasley men would talk when they were ready and was not about to force any of them to talk, especially after all the times Ron had understood when he had not been ready to talk. The only thing that puzzled either Harry or Hermione was why Ginny wasn't talking yet.

The large group walked down the road, just off the property of the Weasley family, and from there, Apparated into Hogsmeade. At Hogsmeade Station, they met with the familiar Thestral driven carriages. The group split into two carriages, and rode up to the castle in silence, all remembering the last time they travelled this way, there was more joy, with anticipation of the large feast.

They went into the Entrance Hall, where they met with Professor McGonagall. As they walked in, they treaded on some broken crystal balls. Silently, they all thought it had been nice to see them put to good use for once. She sent George, Harry, and Ginny up to the fourth floor to help the crew that had already started up there, and the rest she split between dungeons, near the potions classrooms, and the seventh floor to the Room of Requirements, which required a large crew on its own after the extensive fire damage. Percy had already been waiting there for them, and was working as an area supervisor, because of his time as prefect and Head Boy, for the area of the second to fifth floors.

George walked down the fourth floor corridor, repairing walls as he went. He stopped at a mirror on the wall, and remembered the passage to Hogsmeade on there. He remembered how he and Fred had been disappointed to discover it had caved in when they were in fifth year. He shook his head to get Fred out of there. He was supposed to be helping to get his mind off Fred, not remember him more so than he had over the past few months. This proved impossible, with so many memories of Fred along these very walls. The library, where they secretly researched for ways to make their inventions, the stairwell leading to the fifth floor, which held a monument to them - their Portable Swamp, even the washroom where Montague had appeared after they had pushed him head first into the Vanishing Cabinet.

He came across a large hole in a wall, leading to a chamber that he'd never seen before. He was about to repair the wall, when he saw something curious inside. He stepped through the hole and saw a mirror. It looked old and dusty, kind of faded, but old mirrors get that way. He was about to polish it, when he noticed something odd about his reflection. Although it was doing everything reversed to him, there was something off about it. He stopped polishing, and looked at it closer, although his reflection seemed to have a more extreme puzzled look on its face than he felt on his own, almost as if it were mocking him. Then he realized what looked off about his reflection to begin with - he had both ears. The reflection stopped behaving like him, and started doing something he hadn't done in a long time - it smiled. Not a small smile, but a broad, cheerful, slightly cheeky smile. He looked at the inscription above the mirror, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." He didn't know what language this was, and looked between the mirror and his odd reflection, when it made sense to try reading the quote backwards - "I show not your face but your hearts desire". This was the legendary Mirror of Erised, and the reflection was not his own, but his brother Fred.

Ginny walked down the hallway, looking for her brother or Harry to see if they needed any help, when she heard a distant wailing. She went running after the sound, to find out what was wrong. She came to a halt at the hole in the wall, where she heard from inside the sound, although now the words came out clearly.

"It should have been me! Why did you have to go? My brother! Why, him, why?" George screamed, over and over, through tears. He was kneeling, his head on the floor, banging his fist. She noticed a red fluid dripping from his hand

Ginny ran over to him. "George! Stop!" She put her arm around and tried to pull him up, but he kept forcing himself out of her grasp. "Percy! Come help, quick!"

Percy ran in, and bolted straight over to where George and Ginny were on the floor. "Ginny! What happened to him?"

"I don't know. I was walking down here to see if he needed any help, and," Ginny continued to tell Percy about what she saw.

Percy, with some help from Ginny, pulled George off the ground, to lead him out of the room. He turned his head back to Ginny. "I think he should go home. I'm bringing him to Professor McGonagall's office to send by Floo." As he looked back, he got a quick glimpse in the mirror of himself, but wearing the familiar Hogwarts robes of his seventh year. Confused, he continued to lead George out of the room.

Ginny watched them leave, and then decided to clean up George's blood from the floor. She knelt down in front of the mirror, took our her wand and said "Scourgify." The pool of blood on the floor disappeared, and Ginny started to get up. While standing, she glanced into the mirror, and understood why George had been so upset. She saw herself, in front a smiling George and Fred, who were trying to pull a prank on her. She didn't know how long she stood there, all she knew was she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Ginny?" She turned around and saw Harry at the hole in the wall.

"Harry, what are you doing here?"

"I saw Percy taking George up to McGonagall's office. What happened?"

"I found him in front of this mirror. He was crying and screaming out about F-" She couldn't finish his name. She looked down at shoes, and awkwardly played with her hands.

Harry walked over to her, and asked, "Did you look into the mirror?"

"Yeah, I did. I saw George and Fred, trying to pull a prank on me. I don't get it, what is this mirror?"

Harry took a deep breath, and started to explain, "Ginny, this is the Mirror of Erised. Back in my first year, I was out late at night, trying to hide from Snape when I came across it. When I looked into it, I saw my family. Not just my mom and dad, but all my family on my dad's side. I brought Ron down here, and he saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain. At the end of the year, I saw myself with the Philosopher's Stone in my pocket, when I was trying to defeat Voldemort. This mirror shows us our heart's deepest desires. It's no wonder that George saw Fred, I'm sure having him back would be his deepest desire. However, Dumbledore told me this when he found me down here with the mirror. It does not do to dwell on our dreams. If we do, we can be driven to madness. Although, I think that maybe its helped George start the healing process. You have to leave the mirror alone." He put his arm around her, and after about a minute of silence asked her the question that's been on his mind since the battle ended, "Ginny, why haven't you tried talking to anyone about Fred?"

"Well, I didn't know who I could talk to. Mum's still broken up over it, and dad's been comforting him. George has had enough on his mind, and the other men in this family aren't big on talking about their feelings. Hermione's been busy trying to get Ron to talk, and I didn't think I should bother you with this, after all you've been through with the battle." She went back to awkwardly playing with her hands. This almost felt like before she could talk to him, back when she was shy and quiet around him all the time.

"Ginny, no matter what I'm going through I want you to talk to me. I've never truly loved someone until you, and no matter what, I want to know how you're feeling." He leaned in and softly kissed her. "We should get out of here and get back to helping everyone."

"Before we go, I just want to say goodbye. Do you mind?" Ginny looked him straight in the eye as she asked.

"No, it's okay." They both walked over to the mirror, Harry's arm still around Ginny's shoulder. However, when Ginny looked in this time, she saw something different.

Instead of seeing Fred and George, she saw herself and Harry, except instead of their grubby Muggle clothing they wore for repairs, Ginny was in a flowing set of white silk dress robes, and Harry in his bottle green dress robes. She looked up at real-Harry standing beside her and smiled. "I'm ready to go now."

"If you're sure." He stood back, while she took one last look at her brother.

"Thank you." She stepped back to his side. "Do you still see your family in there?" She asked.

"Ever since I fought Voldemort for the Stone, I've avoided this thing," he told her. "I don't know..." He looked in the mirror. "Wow."

"What do you see?"

"I see....me. In the finest dress robes I've ever seen," he started "You're wearing dress robes, too, in white satin. With diamonds sparkling in your hair. Ginny..."

She walked over. "Harry," she whispered. "I see it, too. Have two people ever seen the same thing before?"

"I don't know. It's possible, though, isn't it? If both have the same heart's desire?"

"I suppose it would be."

"I think this is a desire we can fulfill. Let's go tell the others. I think some good news will help everyone feel better right now." He stepped back to let her pass, noticing that she'd left her wand behind on the floor. As he bent to retrieve it, he saw a new reflection once again. He was wearing torn jeans and a rumpled shirt, holding Ginny's wand. He looked, in fact, just like he'd taken a break from cleaning a war zone to get engaged. Dumbledore's words came back to him.

"The happiest man in the world could look into the Mirror, and see just himself."