A/N: Again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I replied to them all, but there were a few repeating questions that I thought I should answer here, so everyone can see my responses. First of all, a lot of you were wondering what on earth Harry is doing with Lavender in the first place. Hopefully, this section will clear up the questions about that. Let me just say, though, that Harry is a teenage boy, and as with all teenage boys, the organ that makes his decisions for him is found considerably south of his chest. Another question that popped up a lot was what Harry would see when he looked at the mirror, so you all need to know that Harry's not going to look into the mirror. At all. Not now, not later in the story, not at any point. In fact, the next section is the last appearance of the mirror in this story. After that, it won't show up again. Harry *will* figure out how Hermione feels about him eventually, but he's not going to see the truth in any piece of glass. Other than that… well, other than that, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you? *grin* Enjoy!
Section 3:
Hermione discovered the mirror midway through the second term of her sixth year at Hogwarts. The timing coincided almost exactly with the beginning of Harry and Lavender's secret engagement. It wasn't entirely coincidental. For a sizeable chunk of the first term of sixth year, Hermione had found herself feeling like a fifth wheel with all of her friends in committed relationships. Realistically, she had known that her friends would end up in relationships sooner or later, but still, it hurt quite a bit more than she had expected.
Hermione had never been terribly good at making friends. Her bossy manner and aggressively studious ways meant that most people immediately classified her as intimidating or dull. As a friend, she actually had quite a lot to offer, but very few people made the effort necessary to find that out. For a long time, it hadn't mattered. Hermione had never been one to put much stock in universal popularity. Most of the students respected her and very few teased her, and usually that was good enough for her. As long as she had Harry and Ron, Hermione had never minded that she didn't have scores of friends. Besides, as much time as she had to devote to keeping Harry and Ron alive and passing their classes, she had never had much time for other friends. The two that she had filled her life so completely that she had never felt the need for much of anything outside of their close-knit friendship.
It had been something of a rude shock to discover that both boys wanted to find girls with whom they could have something more. While she was pleased that her friends had found girls to make them happy (especially Ron who had driven her crazy for half the summer and the first two months of school with his pointless pursuit), it was depressing to discover that her company was no longer important to her boys, now that they had girlfriends to occupy their time. Without them, her days had become horribly empty. She had needed something that she could do to fill up her time.
At first, she tried to pass the time with schoolwork. The library was, as always, her home away from home. Although her course load was not, technically, large enough to absolutely *require* a Time Turner in order to be able to complete all her work, there was no denying that it should have been enough to keep her very busy. Unfortunately, though, she had gotten so fully in the habit of efficiently managing her study time that not even her beloved books could fill all the hours of the day.
Next, she tried picking up a hobby. A random chance showed that she possessed a surprising knack for sketching. Applying herself with her typical determination, she researched drawing techniques and used talent spells to show her how to progress. As a result, she became very competent with charcoal and paper in a remarkably short period of time. Her sketches, charmed like wizard photographs to move but not to interact with the viewer, were beautifully detailed and startlingly expressive with an element of softness and warmth to them that came, for once, not from Hermione's analytical mind, but from her romantic and affectionate heart. Sketching became a stress-reliever for her; it served as a way to release her emotional anxieties and get her feelings out. When she didn't have homework or a book in her hand, she was now often found with a sketchpad, loving to take down quick sketches of the Gryffindor common room and all of her friends. Once she presented Ginny with a birthday present of a beautifully drawn and carefully framed portrait of her and Neville, Hermione's portraits became very highly in demand, especially for couples. And at that point in Hermione's sixth year, it seemed like everyone but her was in a couple.
Ginny and Neville had started the love-fest in the summer before Hermione's sixth year. After their experiences in the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore had encouraged Luna and Neville to spend time in Grimmauld Place with the Order of the Phoenix, to make sure that they hadn't been too harshly traumatized by the experiences they had undergone. Neville, grateful for the excuse to get away from the boredom of his grandmother's house, had practically moved in.
Ginny and Neville had always gotten on well together. When Ginny was still a shy first year, she had been too intimidated to approach most people for help on her schoolwork, but Neville had always been so gentle and unassuming that she had never minded going to him with questions. Without him, she never would have passed Herbology. They became a bit closer after Neville invited Ginny to the Yule Ball in her third year. Hermione, the only person in whom Neville felt comfortable confiding, knew that the shy boy harbored a bit of a crush on the red-haired girl, but that he was afraid of acting on it. He was convinced that if word got back to Ginny's brothers that he was interested in their baby sister, George and Fred would use him for bludger practice and Ron would never speak to him again. It wasn't until that summer, in the limited confines of the hidden house, that Neville had finally worked up the courage to ask Ginny out. She said yes.
They were a surprisingly sweet couple. When they were in a room together, Neville simply couldn't take his eyes off her. He watched her with palpable adoration as if he found it impossible to believe that someone so perfect actually wanted to be with him. Neville was the prototype of the considerate boyfriend, constantly showering her with tiny gifts, relishing the opportunity to do anything to make her smile. Ginny, for her part, was overwhelmed at being, for the first time in her life, the center of someone's world. As the youngest child, she had spent most of her life feeling like she was a step behind everyone else, and that they all knew things, had things, experienced things that were quite simply out of her reach. With Neville, she was no longer on the outside looking in. Everything they shared as a couple was special and personal and sparklingly new. He had never had a girlfriend before and was so sweetly eager to learn everything she could teach him about how she liked to be kissed, and touched, and held. Loving Ginny had given Neville a sense of confidence and self-worth, and loving Neville had given Ginny a sense of peace.
Ron, seeing the effects of their relationship on his formerly timid friend and his formerly restless sister, had decided that he needed one of those for himself. Hermione had been, in Ron's estimation, the obvious choice. Everyone expected the two of them to end up together, anyway. Elderly relatives, eager for a family wedding, were in the habit of writing in and asking Ron if the two of them had gotten around to setting a date. Hermione was smart, pretty, and already used to having him around all the time. She got along wonderfully with his family and was already aware of all of his bad habits. Best of all, he felt completely at ease around her. He never stuttered or stammered or blushed fiercely around Hermione the way he did around other girls. Convinced that he and Hermione were meant to be, he started an all-out campaign to win her heart. It took Hermione months to convince him that they weren't destined to be anything but very good friends. It probably would have taken longer if Luna hadn't tricked him into a kiss at the Halloween Feast.
Harry, seeing his best friend so happily in love, had decided to try it out as well. In the aftermath of Sirius' death, Harry had been desperate for any affection he could get. It shouldn't have been so surprising that Harry and Lavender would fall in love. Lavender, in the manner of most teenage girls, seemed to fall "desperately in love" with someone new every season. In the years that they had spent as roommates, Hermione had often teased Lavender about her string of boyfriends, asking after the newest "flavor of the month". That she would fall in love with Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world and star of the Quidditch team who just so happened to be both in her year and in her house was no real surprise. Truthfully, it was surprising that it hadn't happened earlier. And once Lavender set her eye on a boy, she never experienced even a moment of doubt that he would fall in love with her in return.
To those who knew him best, it wasn't such an enormous surprise that Harry fell in love with Lavender, either. Lavender was really strikingly pretty, in the utterly feminine way that Harry had always found easy to appreciate. Harry had been raised by the Dursleys to believe that his life would always be cold, drab, empty and unemotional. Up until his eleventh birthday, he had honestly believed that he was unlovable and undesirable, and that there was never any chance that anyone would want him. Thanks to Hogwarts and the support of the friends he had found there, Harry had grown somewhat more accustomed to the idea that he was actually deserving of love, but when a pretty, popular, vivacious girl smiled at him and flirted at him and so obviously showed that she wanted to be with him, Harry was, instinctively, dazzled. Lavender was considered quite a catch in the Hogwarts circles, and Harry had been on cloud nine when he realized that she truly wanted *him*.
Lavender initiated Harry into a world of physical pleasure that exceeded even his wildest expectations. Harry had always been far too shy to initiate anything more than rather awkward kisses, but Lavender experienced no such shyness and took great pleasure in teaching Harry just how good it felt to touch and be touched. Lavender stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas break, and Harry lost his virginity to her on Christmas Day. After that, with the aid of his Firebolt and his invisibility cloak allowing him to avoid the trick stairs, it was an easy matter for Harry to fly into the sixth year Gryffindor girls dormitory and spend countess long afternoons learning all the deliciously satisfying ways to love Lavender. Once Harry proposed, the two of them seemed to feel some sort of obligation to play out the roles of randy soon-to-be-weds who couldn't keep their hands off of each other.
Parvati, blissfully happy in her own relationship with Dean, didn't mind being barred from her room on certain afternoons provided that the same privilege was extended to her on other days, and Hermione, always the understanding best friend, made herself scarce as often as was necessary so that the couples had privacy to be together. But even Hermione couldn't spend all of her time in the library, and hanging out in the common room with Ron and Ginny, even with her sketchbook to keep her occupied, became much more difficult than it had been in the past since both the Weasleys acquired significant others. Hermione got along excellently with Luna and Neville, and the two couples always did their best to make Hermione feel welcome and included, but it was impossible for her not to feel that she was intruding on their time together. She needed a new hobby, one that got her out of Gryffindor tower all together.
Exploring Hogwarts was a way to pass the time. Striking out on her own, she started to spend her spare time learning the castle. She told herself that she was happy exploring and finding parts of the castle that had been abandoned long ago. She even tried to convince herself that her adventures were just as enjoyable alone, and that she didn't miss her friends as she poked around the dusty corridors. Borrowing the Marauder's Map, she became as familiar with the ins and outs of Hogwarts castle as any student had been in the history of the building. The original Marauders (and their modern day equivalents in the Weasley twins) had mostly been interested in exploring the school to find secret passage that led *out*. Hermione, always the eternal learner, was far more interested with what lay within. Between the map, the knowledge she had picked up about the building in Hogwarts, A History, and her own highly developed sense of logic, she was soon able to figure out every nook and cranny in the whole of the enormous castle. It was in her explorations that she found the room that held the mirror.
When she first saw the mirror, she had planned to look into it once to satisfy her curiosity, and then never return again. But once she caught a glimpse of what the mirror showed her, there was no denying its appeal. Hermione had wanted Harry for what felt like an eternity, and the chance to see herself in his arms was too much of a temptation to ignore. The image was especially potent as each day drove home to Hermione just how little chance she had of ever making her dream come true. The more deeply Harry became involved with Lavender, the more often Hermione visited the mirror. Though her will was strong enough to make her walk away from it every time, she could never quite fight the urge to return.
The mirror became her guilty secret. She rationed her visits to it carefully, calling into play her famous self-control. She didn't want anyone to grow suspicious and follow her to the abandoned classroom. She only went when she was certain that no one would be looking for her: during free periods when everyone would simply assume that she was in the library, early in the morning before anyone else was awake (Hermione had always been an early riser), or late at night when she simply couldn't sleep. She kept rigid control over her visits, never allowing herself to go more than three times a week, and never for more than an hour at a time. But even though she managed to restrict herself, she couldn't bear to give it up entirely. And tonight of all nights, when Harry had announced his engagement and Hermione truly had to give up all hope of her dream coming true, she simply had to stare into the mirror one last time.
Just as she had so many times before, for so many hours before, Hermione seated herself in front of the mirror. She knew she shouldn't do this. She knew that it would hurt even more than it had hurt all those other times. But this was the last time, she promised herself. She would look at her dream one last time, and then she would say goodbye to it. She blinked rapidly to keep the tears from clouding her eyes as she stared at the image of herself, blissfully smiling, wrapped in his arms. The tears, released from her eyes, streamed down her face unnoticed and unchecked.
"Harry," she whispered, as her fingers traced his image on the cold glass. "Oh, Harry."
That was how Harry found her.