Ch 89: Mirror of Erised

*Anos's POV*

"We need to go!" I said in a hurried whisper as we slowly backed away.

Something here didn't feel right and somehow the nape of my neck was hurting right now. It hurt a lot but I knew that this wasn't the place to scream.

No, what took precedent was the feeling of dread telling me to get away from here right now.

For a moment it was so overpowering that I almost contemplated turning away and running off alone but my hand on Harriet's mouth reminded me that I needed to take her with me.

'What the fuck is happening. And why so suddenly.' I thought as we slowly backed up from the bookshelves, almost making it 20 steps away before finally turning and trying our best to walk away without tripping on the Cloak.

*Sssssssh*

"Hithhh! " I bit down hard on my tongue to keep from screaming.

My neck felt like fire and it took a massive amount of focus to not immediately reach out for something in support.

"Are you okay? How did you get hurt?" Harriet asked worriedly.

She was too close to not have noticed that my breath had picked up and my teeth were grinding against each other.

" Nothing," I replied curtly.

I knew that any longer of a word and I would've screamed to the sky.

The more distance I put between myself and Zephyr the less the pain seemed to be, it didn't feel scorching anymore.

Slowly we made our way out of the library and were just about to step out before the pain seemed to completely disappear.

'It's gone?' I said rubbing my neck and feeling nothing out of the ordinary as the pain seemed to have vanished into thin air.

I let out a sigh of relief and stepped out of the library before.....

*Boom*

Some sort of bomb seemed to have gone off behind us and I didn't need to move my neck to see that it was a huge explosion, one with a lot of Magic behind it.

I didn't have the luxury to see more and stopped Harriet from moving her head.

"Don't see. Run, dammit run!" I said quickly.

Zephyr could take care of himself, whatever he was doing must've caused that but if we were caught here then no excuses would work, not to mention that it'll put a lot of focus on us. More than necessary.

"But-" she started a retort before I stopped her.

"No. We have to go. Whatever it was, he could take care of it." I said knowing full well the capabilities of a Fae and reluctantly she nodded and followed.

'Set. Go look.' I said as a part of my shadow squirmed and moved in reply, tearing itself from the rest of it, and departed after turning into a wolf and hurrying off.

In a few moments, a lot of the teachers would be in the library and be able to take care of the aftermath but I still owed Zephyr a great deal and my Shikigami were invisible to all except those I allowed to see them.

Hurrying fast we made our way away from the library, trying to find our way back to the Common room silently but our steps were hurried, and as much as I could do things to control myself I didn't have the same amount of control over Harriet, who seemed ready to run.

Whether she wanted to run back to the library to help our Teacher or to the common room because she was scared, I didn't know.

"Try to calm down. We didn't do any of that but if we get caught we might as well be blamed for it. We need to get back to the common room but if we make noise we might as well not be wearing this cloak." I said slowly trying to calm her down.

I was doing a lot of that nowadays, and for damn sure I needed to learn to do it better because my words barely had an effect on my panicking friend.

"Bu-" she tried to speak but the words caught in her throat as she seemed to be straining her ears suddenly.

I put my focus back into the surroundings and knew that someone was approaching from around the corridor.

'Shit.' I cursed mentally and grabbed Harriet and plunged into an open room before seeing the barest hint of a Purple Turban, identifying it as Quirell.

Putting my back to the door I watched through the walls to check if he had noticed us but Quirell passed by from the door without stopping. Running away in panic.

And for the first time, I was surprised by the spot on his head that was shrouded in a Black Cloud. Identifying it as Voldemort's residence on the anxious Professor.

'Whatever happened in the library wasn't done by him either.' I mentally addressed the possibility of this not being done by Voldemort or rather by Quirell on behalf of the Former Dark lord.

My hand instinctively went to the place at my neck where I could feel the ghost of the pain, almost thinking myself responsible but before my thoughts could spiral further I felt a slight tugging at clothes and turned to look at Harriet.

Instead of finding her terrified or afraid or panicking from the way I had basically shoved both of us into the room in a panic, I found her staring at a Mirror in wonder with the Invisibility Cloak now lying forgotten at my feet.

The Mirror was Tall. Very very tall and almost strangely filled with Human characteristics as its golden edges combined at the bottom to take the form of hands, with highly elongated nails.

'Those are claws.' A voice in my head provided and I couldn't unsee it now. Those definitely were claws, golden ones, and around them were carved words.

'What is this?' I asked myself quizzically even if I already knew the answer.

This was the Mirror of Erised. And I happened to be the unfortunate one to have gazed upon it.

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A/N: 2 down, 2 more chapters to go.

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