Chapter 107: Family (Edited)

As a seemingly precious magical object, the Mirror of Erised was quite resilient, and at least it had survived Fish's successive blows without sustaining any damage.

Of course, Harry and Ron reacted quickly enough to stop Fish, who wanted to keep hitting the mirror.

"Fish, what are you doing?"

Harry and Ron grabbed one of Fish's arms and struggled to pull him away from the Mirror of Erised.

"I want you to deliver the delicious and fun things into the mirror, meow!"?"(●ΦωΦ●)?

Fish replied as he broke away from both of them.

"Uh... So all you see in the mirror is food and fun?" asked Ron.

"That's right, meow!" nodded Fish.

"So, this mirror probably shows us what we want most?"

Ron rubbed his chin, seeming to guess the function of the Mirror of Erised.

"So what you want most, Red-headed No. 4, is to be president of the prefect council, meow?"

"Uh... Can't I?" Ron blushed and said stubbornly, "You must know that Bill is the only one in our family who has been president of the prefects' council, and Percy might do it later, but George and Fred sure as hell can't!"

Listening to Ron ramble on, Fish didn't quite understand what he was talking about, because he had no idea what the term prefect council president was.

But Fish could see the essence of the problem in these words.

"Got it, meow!" Fish patted Ron's shoulder cheerfully, "You want to be president for the same reason I want to beat Minerva!"

Then, without waiting for Ron's response, Fish saw a new change in the mirror in front of him.

"Meow hahahaha!" Fish pointed to the mirror and laughed, "I see Minerva forced to do my homework for me, meow!" (●▽●)

Harry and Ron: "..."

What can I say, that's a very Fish wish.

Fish laughed for a while and then thought of something else, but the mirror showed nothing but food and play, and only images of himself "bullying" Minerva, so he soon lost interest in the magic mirror.

"It's not real... it's not fun, meow..." ?ω?

After trying again to get the food out of the mirror to no avail, Fish turned away from it and opened his magic bag to retrieve his Christmas present, trying to satisfy his newly awakened appetite.

"Do you want to eat?"(●Φ~Φ●)つ

Fish ate, giving Ron and Harry a portion of food as he ate.

"Thanks Fish, I'm a little hungry too."

Ron took the food without a moment's hesitation, but Harry waved his hand. "No thanks," he said as he stepped back in front of the Erised mirror. "I'd like to see my parents again."

Having guessed that the vision in the mirror was an illusion, Ron's interest in the Mirror of Erised had waned considerably, though he still wanted to see his moment of glory as President of the Prefect Council and Quidditch Captain, it was clear that his best friend needed it more, so Ron stood off to the side, eating a sandwich with Fish, and watching Harry stare at the Mirror of Erised.

Tilting his head back to empty the remains of the bag into his mouth and lick the powdered snacks from his fingers, a sated Fish sat cross-legged on a table, his body squirming restlessly.

"Redhead Number Four, how much longer are you going to stare at the mirror Scarhead, meow?" ?ω?

Bored, Fish tugged at Ron, who was standing next to him.

Ron shrugged and replied helplessly, "I don't know, after all Harry has never met his parents... oh, sorry..."

Suddenly remembering that Fish was also an orphan, Ron covered his mouth, and after seeing that Fish didn't seem to care much, he asked sheepishly, "Why don't you try again, Fish, and see if this mirror can show your family?"

"Meow?" squirming Fish paused slightly and then jumped up from the table, "I'll try meow!"

Rushing to Harry's side, Fish patted him on the back, "Scar-head, meow! It's Fish's turn to play!"

"What? Ah... okay..."

Harry snapped out of his self-imposed world and saw that it was Fish who had woken him up, so he reluctantly gave up his place.

Fish took Harry's place, staring wide-eyed into the mirror.

Look... (●ΦωΦ●)

"What does it look like? can you see it?" asked Ron curiously as he waited a moment, seeing Fish standing motionless.

"No!" Fish shook his head, frowning in confusion, "Even the food and Minerva are gone meow.... only Fish himself."

"How can that be?"

Harry was puzzled too, he had managed to see the entire Potter family, how could it not have worked on Fish?

It couldn't be that Fish had just appeared out of nowhere, could it?

In fact, the reason was simple: when Fish left his mother, he was just a common, ignorant cat. By the time Fish got the pearl of light, he didn't remember having a mother at all.

As for the father, it is even more unlikely that Fish remembered, since cats, like tigers, are raised only by females.

Even in domestic cats where both parents are kept together, males rarely show affection for their young, and some go so far as to deliberately injure or even kill them to regain the mother's attention.

Also, before being adopted by Professor McGonagall, Fish had always been a solitary cat and had never wanted a family, so he had no such obsession.

But after being adopted by Professor McGonagall, Fish's family was always Professor McGonagall, not the two cats she had no memory of.

"Oh, there's Minerva!"

After thinking of Professor McGonagall, the image in the mirror returned to that of Fish supervising Professor McGonagall doing his homework.

"So the mirror isn't broken, meow?" ?ω?

Fish took two steps forward and curiously touched the mirror with his finger.

But whether the Mirror of Erised was broken or not, Fish no longer cared, he only transformed into two images, neither of which were real.

Fish changed back into his cat form and ran to a wooden chair, resting his front paws on the chair leg and sharpening his claws.

Harry and Ron didn't bother him, they were used to Fish suddenly ignoring everyone and running off to have fun.

"Let me see it again, you've seen it for a long time."

Ron, still longing for the prefect council president version, walked past Harry and stood in front of the mirror.

"You're just holding up the Quidditch cup, what's so interesting about that?" Harry said, shoving Ron.

"Don't push me...". Said Ron.

The two jostled in front of the mirror for a while, but eventually Harry, being the more obsessive one, regained his place in front of the Mirror of Erised and was once again caught up in the fantasy of being reunited with his loved ones.

When Ron looked, there didn't seem to be anything else to do, and for a moment he felt confused....

So what am I supposed to do now?

He stood there for a while, and finally ran over to Fish, pulled out his wand and used the spell (Lumos) to create a small ball of light, and began to taunt the cat.

"Meow~ ?(=?ω?=)?"

Fish immediately pounced on the ball of light, while Ron quickly waved his wand.

Unfortunately, Ron's reflexes and speed were poor compared to Fish's, and his (Lumos) couldn't detach from his wand like Professor Flitwick's, so after only a couple of teasing swings, his wand was caught by Fish.

Luckily, Fish remembered when he bought the wand and knew not to bite it, so after putting it down, he just twirled it around the table twice.

After dropping the wand and handing it back to Ron, Fish leaned back on the table and looked at Erised's mirror.

"I know what it means now, meow!"

Fish, lying on the table, returned to his cat-person form and jumped off the table.

"What?" Ron asked unconsciously before he realized it, and Harry, who had been looking at himself in the mirror, came over curiously.

"That, meow," Fish said, pointing to the line of text above Erised's magic mirror, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi, which backwards means, I show not your face but your heart's desire."

Fish patted Ron on the shoulder and congratulated him, "Redhead Number Four, it's just as you guessed it, meow!"

And then he folded his arms in glee, tail and ears held high.

"Fish is smart!"(●ΦωΦ●)