Harry was exhausted. Right after waking up he had comforted Hermione, then had to get through a day of classes, and then had talked to Ron, and later to Draco. After dinner, Harry played a quiet game of Chess with Blaise. Harry wasn’t thinking about anything, but his next move, when suddenly he felt like he wanted to see the mirror. He was so tired, but he wanted to see it so bad.

He had to stand in front of it; to look into its immenseness. Harry had to see his parents and he even wanted to see himself in the mirror.

Harry decided that tonight after everyone went to sleep, he would slip out. But Harry knew that Draco would follow him if he knew he was leaving. He would have to trick him somehow. It was only eight at night; Harry had time to think about it. “Queen to B4,” said Harry. He watched his Queen move across the board.

The time began to near eleven pm and more and more students started leaving the Common Room. Blaise and Harry had played about half a dozen games of Chess, when Blaise said that he was going to sleep. He put the chessboard away and then turned back to Harry, “You’re starting to get better. You almost beat me more than once! Well, good night.” He walked to the stairs and out of view.

Harry sat in his chair and looked around at the people that were still in the Common Room. Among them, was Draco. Harry saw him talking to Crabbe and Goyle. How can I fool him into thinking that I’m not leaving tonight? I can pretend that I fell asleep on the couch. I mean I have done it before. Then again, I might actually fall asleep.

Harry decided that he would try it. Though he knew there was a very high possibility that he might actually fall asleep because he was so tired. He took off his glasses and lay down on the couch nearest to the fire. Harry closed his eyes but he couldn’t drift off to sleep with the subconscious pull of the mirror. Like the thought of going to the mirror was somehow keeping him awake.

“Potter fell asleep on the couch,” said Crabbe, in his usual gruff-sounding tone. “Should I wake him?”

“No, just leave him. Come on,” said Draco. Harry heard them all leave. He waited just in case they came back for something they had forgotten. After a couple minutes, Harry opened his eyes to an empty Common Room. Harry put his hand on the stone door and it opened.

He slipped out, slowly making his way back to the room with the mirror. Every step he took toward the room brought him relief from the day’s troubles. As he stood in front of the mirror, once again, he felt relaxed from almost all thought.

Like always he stood there for hours. It was two am when he heard the floor creak behind him. Harry wanted to keep looking at the mirror, but wanted to turn around to see who was behind him. His curiosity got the better of him. He turned around to see Dumbledore.

“Professor!” Harry said, surprised. “I…”

“I know you have been coming here, Harry. And I can’t allow you to come back to this mirror. I can see that it has started to attach itself to you, in a way, but I didn’t think it would so quickly. I’m having the mirror moved this very night. I just hope you won’t go searching for it after I have placed it somewhere else. But I will have moved it in a place you won’t find it. Come,” said Dumbledore, all in a calm voice.

Harry turned back to the mirror, he didn’t want to leave it. “No. I want to stay. I want to stay with my parents,” said Harry, sadly.

“Is that what you see, Harry, you parents?” Dumbledore said calmly, as he moved a couple steps closer to Harry.

“I see my parents…and an older me. But they’re both blurred,” said Harry, quietly as he faced the mirror.

“Older self? What does your older self look like, Harry?” asked Dumbledore, his voice never wavering for a single second.

“He’s older; almost an adult. He’s much stronger than I am. He has longer black hair. Its still messy, but it falls over his eyes. But when I see him, I feel like I want to…” Harry’s voice drifted into the stillness of the room.

“You want to what?” asked Dumbledore.

There was a pause before Harry spoke again. “I want to kneel to him. He’s powerful. I can feel it,” said Harry.

“You said that him and your parents were blurred? How so?” asked Dumbledore, in his usual calm. He moved even closer to Harry, his feet hardly even making a sound.

Harry seemed to be in a sort of daze as he stared at the mirror. He distantly heard Dumbledore, but felt he should answer. “I can see them, but their faces and their bodies are blurred. I can’t see either my parents or my older self clearly. And I can’t see both at the same time; I either see my parents or my older self. For however long I see my parents, is however long I see my older self,” Harry muttered.

“Harry, we must leave this mirror. I can see now, how greatly it has affected you. If you won’t leave by yourself, I will put a spell on you if I have to,” said Dumbledore, part of his calm leaving to get his point across to Harry.

Harry turned back to Dumbledore and was almost glaring at him, “You wouldn’t put a spell on me.”

“Are you so sure, Potter?” asked Dumbledore. Harry couldn’t figure out what Dumbledore’s was thinking and it made him even more frustrated. He didn’t want to leave the mirror. He wanted to stay and just keep looking into it. He turned back to it and sat down.

“I guess you leave me no choice. “Haero!”*

Harry could feel his body freeze up. Harry could still think, see, and hear all that Dumbledore was doing and what he would do. He saw Dumbledore move in front of him, blocking the mirror. “Sorry, Harry, but you must forget about this mirror, as hard as it may be. As you stay away from the mirror, its effects will eventually cease. I want you to see me take the mirror away to show you that it won’t be here,” said Dumbledore. He turned toward the corridor. “Flitwick.”

Harry couldn’t see Flitwick enter the room because he was behind him, but he could hear him. “Flitwick, I would like you to take the mirror out of the room. I think you know where I want it for the time being, until I move it again. I wish Harry to see the mirror being moved away,” said Dumbledore. He moved away and Harry looked into the mirror to see his parents. They looked as happy as ever to see him. For how were they to know that the mirror they were being shown in, was being moved away from their son.

Distantly, as Harry took in the faces of his parents, he heard Flitwick utter a spell. Harry then saw the mirror being lifted off the ground, with ease, and levitated out of the room.

“I’m sorry, Harry, but you had to see the mirror being moved.” With a flick of Dumbledore’s wand, Harry was free to move around again. He got up and turned toward Dumbledore. “Come, let’s walk.”

Harry followed Dumbledore out of the room into the empty corridor. They walked a ways in silence. Harry knew that Dumbledore was trying to distance Harry from that room.

“Harry, do you know what mirror that was?” asked Dumbledore as they turned a corner.

“No,” said Harry. He was still thinking of the mirror and how it had been taken away from him. They were walking slower now.

“That mirror was the Mirror of Erised. It shows someone their true desires; their deep desires. The words on the top of the mirror, ‘res ipsa loquitur,’ mean ‘the thing speaks for itself,’” said Dumbledore.

Harry stopped walking. I don’t understand. I knew my desire was to see my parents because I’ve never known them, but what about the older me? Well, I do want some power, like Draco had said, but to make people kneel to me? I didn’t know that was a deep desire of mine.

“Is there something you wish tell me about the mirror?” asked Dumbledore. Should I tell Dumbledore? Do I want him to know that I have a desire to have power? No, I don’t want him to know that. I don’t want him to think badly of me.

“No, Professor,” said Harry, as he turned to look at the floor.

“Is there anything else that has been on your mind, Harry. Since we’re walking around,” asked Dumbledore, casually. They had begun walking again.

“Professor, do you remember on the first Friday of school, I asked you why Snape hated me? And you said that it wasn’t you’re story to tell? Well, I figured out why he hates me on my own,” said Harry.

“And what did you figure out?” asked Dumbledore coolly, his cloak ruffled behind him as he walked gently.

“Well, you gave me two parts of a riddle: you told me that my father and Snape were in the same year and that I looked amazingly like my father. And so it came to me before I fell asleep one night. Snape hated my father, but because I look like my father he’s taking it out on me,” said Harry to Dumbledore. “What I don’t know is why Snape hated my father.”

“Clever, very clever. I always do my best thinking before sleep, as well. But, Harry, it’s still not my story to tell. There’s no information I can give you. It’s not my information to give. If you would like to know, then you’d have to ask Professor Snape himself. Though from what you’ve told me and from what I’ve seen, it’s not likely he’d tell you so lightly,” said Dumbledore, as they crossed a couple more corridors.

It didn’t seem that they were going into any distinct direction. Harry noticed they weren’t going in the direction of Dumbledore’s office. They were just walking almost in circles. Harry wondered if Dumbledore knew this, but it’s his castle, so he must have.

They turned the corner to find Snape and Quirrell talking. But they had been talking so quietly, that Harry hadn’t even heard them. Harry noticed that Snape looked upset and that Quirrell looked a bit frightened. “What’s going on here, Severus,” asked Dumbledore, in a deeper voice than he had used previously with Harry.

“We were just talking,” said Snape, stepping away from Quirrel. Harry noticed that Snape gave Quirrell a nasty look, as if telling him to stay quiet. Professor Quirrell nodded repeatedly and very nervously as he agreed with Snape.

“Potter, what are you doing out of bed?” asked Snape, just noticing him.

“He was talking to me, Severus,” said Dumbledore turned to Harry. “You should be getting to sleep, Harry. Professor Quirrell will you walk Harry back to the Slytherin Common Room. Severus, come with me.”

“C-come on, H-Harry, we must r-run along. Its n-nearly three in th-the morning,” said Professor Quirrell. They walked in silence, but since Harry knew the way better, he walked in front of Quirrell. They eventually got to the blank wall that led to the Common Room. “G-good n-night, Harry.”

Professor Quirrell walked away from Harry and as he did, Harry got a searing pain in his scar. For a second, Harry couldn’t even think and the pain was so unbearable that he bent over. But then it was gone. Harry looked up and saw that Quirrell was gone.

“Awakening,” Harry muttered to the wall. The stone door opened and Harry walked through into an empty room. As he was making his way down to the dormitory, Harry realized what Professor Quirrell had said about it being three in the morning. He knew that he wouldn’t be getting a lot of sleep.