56 The Mirror of Erised

As soon as the feeling of gentle heat enveloping him subsided, Draco opened his eyes and looked around. The chamber was rather big, but it was dimly lit. And, in the middle of it, stood the famed Mirror of Erised.

The blond boy warily approached it.

Truthfully, he completely forgot about the fact that the mirror's primary purpose was showing the heart's deepest desire. He never thought of it before, but now he couldn't help but wonder – what did he want the most in this world? Money? Or was it power, fame, women?

Taking a deep breath, Draco made the last few steps and finally stood right in front of the mirror.

"What the hell?" he blurted out suddenly.

• What's wrong? Is this mirror cursed? Are you cursed? • Zosar asked worriedly. The phoenix followed Draco behind and closely looked into the mirror. However, he could only see his own reflection, so the fiery bird didn't understand what was so special about it.

"Ah, no… I am not cursed. At least, I don't think so," Draco replied distractedly. His eyes were wide as he stared into the reflective surface, seemingly unable to move his gaze away.

There, inside the mirror, stood himself – not a blond wizard from a powerful family, but a familiar muggle man. However, the strangest thing wasn't this – instead, what Draco found the most interesting and scary, was that the man, despite his appearance, seemed completely unlike himself. It almost looked like someone else was possessing his body.

It wasn't something easily seen – just a feeling Draco got from the familiar stranger's expression.

The man looked to be slightly afraid, but the emotion didn't fit on his face as though it was a look that was rarely, if ever, shown. The stranger walked quickly, and with every step, he got closer and closer to the mirror's glass - it almost seemed as though in a second, he would step out of it and enter into reality.

However, at the last step, he stopped.

The man touched the mirror's surface with his hands, as though trying to find a way to exit it. When he found out that it wasn't possible, he even banged with his fists on the mirror's glass a few times. His eyes turned more crazed the longer he tried to find a way to exit, and this gaze was entirely focused on Draco.

Just as the blond boy stared at the man inside the mirror, the man also stared at him. They were separated only by a thin piece of glass standing between them.

The lights in the chamber seemed to be turning dimmer and the blond Slytherin took a few steps back from the mirror. However, he was unable to look away – it seemed that something was approaching from behind that familiar stranger.

Something, that made the man in the mirror act even more crazed and afraid.

The man seemed to have also sensed another presence behind himself because he gave up on trying to exit the mirror. Instead, he quickly bit into his finger and proceeded to write on the other side of the glass with his own blood. The letters were slightly jumbled but they were recognizable:

'Help me!'

As soon as the man finished writing, he once again looked behind his shoulder and ran to the side of the mirror, completely disappearing from the blond boy's view.

For a moment, Draco didn't know how to react.

The image inside the mirror changed as soon as the man escaped. Now it seemingly returned to normal because it showed his older self, still in Draco's body, sitting on an elegant chair while being surrounded by other people who seemed to be very respectful towards himself.

But it didn't hold for long – a few seconds later, the mirror's image once again changed to show himself being surrounded by his family and friends.

Then it changed for the last time. But this time it just showed himself as he was currently – standing in the last chamber of the third-floor corridor, with Zosar at his side hopping around and curiously examining himself in the mirror.

Draco was confused for a moment – what exactly was happening? First, he saw his former muggle-self appear, looking extremely afraid of something chasing him from behind. Then the mirror's image changed a few more times, each showing the current Draco - only slightly older, but in different situations.

The young Slytherin didn't need to wait for long to understand the later images – actually, he was already rather happy with his life. He had everything he needed and what he didn't have – he knew that he could achieve with some time and effort. As such, the mirror first showed the things that he seemed to want the most, yet those things weren't at the level where they could be called the 'deepest desire'.

Draco had a good family right now, and he was satisfied as long as they were around and healthy. As for power and respect - he was on his way of getting it anyway. As such, he was truly a happy man right now. Maybe in the future, there would be another desire in his heart, but for now, this was all he wanted.

However, he couldn't help but think about the very first image that appeared inside the Mirror of Erised. Why would it show his muggle self, especially one that was afraid of something? Also, there was another thing that didn't escape his eyes before the image in the mirror changed to reflect his actual desires – for a moment there, just as the picture flickered, there was a shadow inside the mirror. It was also gradually approaching and seemed to be slowly chasing after his former body.

Why would the mirror show it to him?

He thought he understood that his muggle body was dead and he experienced transmigration into the Harry Potter series all those years ago. It might have been unbelievable, but hey – he was living in a world of magic right now. If it was possible to do anything just by saying a few words in Latin and waving a wooden stick, then why wouldn't reincarnation be considered reasonable too?

When Draco first woke up inside this body, it took a while to get used to it, and he did have some regrets about his previous life being short. Yet, right now, he had next to no desire to return to his slightly mediocre and normal life because magic was so much more exciting! So why would a mirror, which was supposed to show the heart's deepest desire, reveal such an image?

Did he forget something from his former life? Something... important?

• So, are we getting the stone today? • interrupted his thoughts Zosar.

The phoenix didn't seem to have sensed anything weird, so Draco also gradually calmed down and decided to think about this issue later. Anyway, as soon as he got the stone and left the chamber, he would never have to see the Mirror of Erised again in his life, so what did it matter?

Draco released a sigh and closed his eyes, quickly pushing all of the distracting thoughts aside. Instead, he used all of his mental power to concentrate on one thing – the Philosopher's Stone. Gradually, he convinced himself that his biggest desire was possessing the stone, and when he was finally certain that this wish seeped into his very being, Draco opened his eyes and stared into the mirror.

Draco's image, which showed the reality before, suddenly smiled. And, just as it happened when Harry received the stone, the reflection inside the mirror also made a show of putting the red rock, which more resembled a crystal, inside his pocket.

The blond boy suddenly felt one of his uncharmed pockets sinking with unexpected weight. Without wasting his time, Draco quickly fished out the item and looked at it through the chamber's dim light.

The stone looked rather unassuming.

"Do you think it's the real one?" the young Slytherin asked Zosar skeptically as he rolled the stone in his hand.

The phoenix flew over and carefully settled on Draco's shoulder, leaning in closer to study the red crystal.

• It's rather hard to sense for some reason, but this thing IS rather powerful, • the bird finally commented after looking at the stone for a few minutes. • I thought that a rock which could make one immortal would resemble a phoenix's power in its nature, yet the feeling it gives off is closer to death. I think one of those guys, who like playing with corpses, would be ecstatic to possess this stone. •

"Necromancers?" Draco asked doubtfully.

Zosar nodded.

Well, necromancers also tried to attain immortality, so maybe it was logical. But Draco somewhat doubted that someone like Nicolas Flamel, who was famed for his many contributions to the Wizarding World, as well as his closeness with Dumbledore, was a Necromancer. This profession was looked down upon in their world because it truly didn't contribute anything useful to the society, but only served to creep out normal people.

And it wasn't even all that powerful unless one spent a lot of time in graveyards soaking up death magic, and months upon months just to create one obedient undead creature. Even then, most of those creatures could be defeated with fire, which was a fact known even to first years. So, only one in hundreds could actually become a powerful Necromancer, and even then they could only do research on ancient artifacts or try to find new ways to reach immortality.

Most of the Necromancers never succeeded in their endeavors – they either became liches or conducted various experiments on themselves and other people. The experiments usually ended up in failure, so either Necromancers died at their own hands or magical law enforcement had to, eventually, take care of them.

"Well, as long as it's a real thing then that's all that matters," finally concluded Draco. "Since we now have it, let's go back."

Zosar nodded and with a burst of flames the both of them disappeared, leaving the mirror to once again stand alone inside the otherwise empty chamber.

What they didn't see, however, was an appearance of a shadow, which was now much closer to the surface of the mirror. And it seemed as though it was carefully trying to peer through the glass into the real world.