Disclaimer: None of it is mine. It's all J.K. Rowling's
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Chapter 6: The Cave of Reflections
Darkness. The throne room was filled with darkness. Not just any sort of darkness: the sort of darkness that sucked away all light. The sort of darkness that spawned despair and drove away hope. On the throne at the end of the room sat a man with platinum blonde hair, cold grayish blue eyes, and majestic black robes. He was none other than King Lucius, ruler of the Kingdom of Slytherin. Circling him, were his comrades, the Death Eaters.
"What of the news of the Mage Knights?" asked Lucius.
A small, skinny man stepped forward. The most unusual aspect about him was his silver right hand. "Sir Harry Potter has set out to retrieve the Mirror of Erised. He is being accompanied by one of the Weasleys and a Mudblood."
"Remember your place, Wormtail," hissed Lucius. Wormtail cowered and stepped back.
"Oh come now, Lucius. Why not be a little more gentle on Wormtail?" said another younger man. He had scruffy blond hair, wore dark armor and chain mail, a black cape, and had two swords holstered on his belt. His name was Bartimeus Crouch II. "After all, it is because of him that James and Lily of Gryffindor are gone."
"But their son lives," said another man. He was well built and had a bristly mustache and wiry dark hair. His name was Walden McNair. "So long as their son is still alive, the Kingdom of Gryffindor could be reestablished."
"True," said Crouch II.
"What are we to do in the mean time?" asked a woman in dark, revealing robes. She was an exotic beauty with long, golden blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and olive skin.
"For the time being, Icicle, we should alert Quirrell about Potter's progress," said Lucius. "If no one has anymore to discuss than you are all dismissed."
As the Death Eaters exited the throne room, Icicle noticed a lone figure leaning on a pillar towards the back of the room. His arms were crossed and he was wearing a smirk on his face. He was very tall, had raven black hair, and was exceedingly handsome. He appeared to be around sixteen, but somehow, it was clear that he was really much older. He wore light silver armor and black robes and boots that gave him a shadowy look. He wore a black cape and had a sword holstered on his back. But the most striking feature about him were his glaring red eyes.
"Whatever are you doing here, sir?" asked Icicle in a tone that could only be described as reverence.
"Oh, I just wanted to see how Lucius was running the party," said the red eyed man. "A most excellent job he is doing." The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.
"He is doing his job. Nothing more."
"Great to know he's still running things. I suppose he's good enough," The red eyed man looked at Icicle. "Just remember to do your job as well. I'll check on you later." With that, the red eyed man disapparated.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
After three days of being treated as heroes in Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally left for their mission. Ron had been ecstatic about the treatment they had received, but Harry and Hermione had had enough. "Wasn't he the one who was complaining about staying to fight the dragon?" mumbled Hermione as they dragged Ron away from the village.
As the days passed, Hermione spent a good deal of the time wondering about her feelings. Every time she sat behind Harry on Firebolt, she felt her legs turn into jelly and her stomach would start to flip. At the same time, she felt incredibly safe and secure whenever she was with Harry. 'Am I falling for him?' she often wondered. 'How could I? Its just not supposed to happen.'
After journeying through the Ravenclaw hills for about a week and a half, the company finally came across the entrance to the Cave of Reflections. It was built into a mountain near the sea and its entrance was only about as large as a door. It could have been missed easily if they weren't being careful.
When they entered, the first thing they noticed were four large mirrors that blocked their way. "Oh that's bloody fantastic," muttered Ron. "We come all this way only to groom ourselves."
"No, wait," said Hermione. "There must be some kind of trick." She studied each of the mirrors carefully. She eventually found something strange about the mirror on the furthest left; while it appeared to be a regular mirror, its reflection was missing the entrance to the cave! "Hey guys, come here." Hermione promptly took a step forward and simply walked through the mirror. Harry and Ron followed.
After walking for some time, the company came upon a huge chasm with a thin stone bridge. In her eagerness to get to their goal, Hermione dashed to the bridge.
"Hermione, wait!" shouted Harry as he ran after her. It was too late. When Hermione put her foot on the bridge, she stepped through thin air! With a scream she started falling into the chasm. But, before she could fall into the depths of darkness, a hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. Hermione looked up and so that she was clinging to Harry's wrist for dear life. She felt herself go red as he pulled her back up onto the ledge. "Be more careful, OK?" he said. Hermione nodded mutely as she tried to hide her blush and calm her beating heart down.
'Oh dear Lord, I've really fallen for him' she thought.
The bridge was an illusion created by a clever use of mirrors and their reflections that were place all around the chasm. After a couple of minutes, the company was able to work out where the bridge really was and were able cross with no problem.
They soon entered the last chamber, only to find someone already there. He was a young man with dark robes and a large purple turban on his head. "Welcome," he said. "I was waiting for you three to show up. It was becoming rather boring just waiting."
"And who may you be?" asked Ron.
"Quirrell," answered the man. "I would've taken the mirror and delivered it to my master all ready if I hadn't been eager to meet you. I figure that the deaths of two Mage Knights and a Mudblood would be good for my reputation amongst the Death Eaters."
Upon saying this, Quirrell snapped his fingers and twelve trolls burst in. "Kill them!"
The trolls raised their clubs and sprang onto them. Harry and Ron drew their swords and started deflecting the clubs. Hermione also started to do the same with her staff. She twirled it around with a certain gracefulness that completely conflicted with the way the trolls swung their clubs. Ron used carefully calculated moves to deflect the blows that were being thrown at him. He eventually caught the troll he was fighting off balance and shouted "Wingardium Leviosa!" The troll lifted about twenty feet into the air. He then dropped it onto another troll, knocking the two out.
Harry used the trolls' attacks by using their momentum to swing himself behind them, whereupon he would bash them behind the head with the hilt of his sword. If that wasn't enough to knock them out, a good "Stupefy!" would do the job. As he knocked another troll out, Harry chanced to notice another troll creeping up behind Hermione who was busy knocking out the one she was fighting. Harry shouted "Expelliarmus!", disarming the troll, just when it was about to attack Hermione. Hearing the spell, Hermione swung her staff around and hit the troll right in it's throat, knocking it out. In a matter of minutes, all of the trolls were out cold.
"Why don't you fight yourself, you filthy coward!" shouted Harry.
"Very well then," said Quirrell. He shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"
Caught by surprise, Harry barely dodged the green light that issued from Quirrell. Quirrell wasn't finished. He again shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" before anybody had a chance to retaliate.
Quirrell laughed at the sight of Harry, Hermione, and Ron running from the bolts of green light issued from him. "You can't win, Sir Harry Potter. There is no way you can avoid the killing curse forever. Avada Kedavra!"
Harry knew that they couldn't keep up dodging the curses forever. Fortunately, he had already come up with a plan, though it was a bit of a risk.
"Avada Kedavra!"
This time, Harry didn't dodge the curse. Instead, he jumped right in front of it holding up a piece of a mirror! The green light hit the mirror and rebounded onto a shocked Quirrell!
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" screamed Quirrell as he fell down dead.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The company finally came up upon the Mirror of Erised. It was as high as the ceiling with a gold frame. Hermione read the inscription written on top of the tall mirror:
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi
She was able to figure out what it said fairly quickly:
I show not your face but your hearts desire
'So this mirror shows your heart's desire ' she thought.
She looked toward her side and saw Harry gazing at the mirror with a sad look on his face.
"Harry, what do you see?" she asked.
"I see my parents," he said. She remembered his explaining to her that he was an orphan. "I see my father, he looks just like me, only that his eyes are different and he has no scar. My mother, she has long red hair and the same green eyes as mine."
Hermione felt like comforting him but decided against it. She then looked into the mirror and saw herself and Harry...'wait a minute? Me and Harry? Side by side? This...this is my heart's desire?!' Hermione was shocked by the reflection and with a pang to her heart, she realized the truth.
'I'm in love with Harry!'