Mirror, Mirror

Terence felt Percy’s hand rip out of his as he stepped through the mirror. When he stepped out he was confused. He thought for sure he would be going back to his flat in London, where he lived before going into the mirror. But instead, he was in what he knew was his childhood home, this is where he came back to in the past. Did it not work, was he right back where he started.

“Ex-excuse me, Lord Higgs, I was hoping to get to see my daughter one last time. If you would allow me to be there for her burial.”

Terence swung around and looked at the meek woman standing in front of him. She barely came up to his chest, her hair was mostly grey with a few streaks of black. He didn’t know who she was.

“What?”

She cowered more into herself. “I know you said that she got what she deserved but she was my only child. I would just like to see her off, like a mum should.”

“Uh…ok.”

“Oh, thank you master, thank you so much. You’re a fair and just wizard. I’ll bring the children in.”

Before he could ask what children, she was gone. As he waited to see what she was going to do, he headed over to the desk that was behind him. He was in his father’s office, but the decor was very different from what it had been. His father would never allow such trinkets such as the small figurine of a flying Kenmare Kestrels quidditch player circling a quidditch pitch. Kenmare was Terence’s favorite team so it must be his office now. He guessed even without the second war his dad died.

The door opened and in walked the small woman. She was holding a toddler in her arms, but his eyes went right to the little boy to her side. Calen was there, he looked healthy, something he hadn’t been since he was two but now he looked to be about six, an age he never reached.

“Calen,” he said, rushing to the boy and lifting him up into his arms, hugging him tightly.

“I can’t breathe,” Calen managed to say.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to squeeze so hard. I just missed you.”

“You saw me earlier.”

“I still missed you.”

The toddler girl made grabby hands for Terence. He sat Calen down; the boy had been squirming to get down. Then he took the girl from the woman’s arms.

“Thank you again master, I will not forget this kindness.” She bowed a few times and left.

Moments after she left the door opened again and in walked a stunning teenage girl of about fourteen or fifteen. She had long, straight, waist length red hair. Her eyes were a sparkling grey. Terence knew her on sight.

“Lucy.”

He didn’t expect the scowl from her or the absolute loathing in her eyes.

“Greta said that you wanted to see me. Unless it’s to tell me you’re about to throw yourself off Blackpool tower we have nothing to talk about.”

The venom that was coming out of her mouth truly surprised him. His brain was trying to play catchup with what was going on. If he had Calen and the toddler looked just like him, Terence suspected he did go back to try and get Calen back. Then having another child to help Calen live. That would mean he and Percy weren’t together anymore because no way would Percy stand by while Terence went on to have two children by a man Percy remembered despising and murdering. Was that why Lucy was so angry with him?

“Lucy, I know you’re angry,” he tried to placate.

“I’m so bloody beyond angry. You keep me here prisoner and then expect what? I’m not one of your brain-dead followers. You are evil and despicable. You just had Greta in here begging for you to let her go to her own daughter’s funeral after you murdered her.”

His ears rang, there was no way he just heard what he thought he did. He couldn’t kill anyone, he couldn’t. Maybe it was self-defense, which was the only explanation.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I need to talk to your dad, Percy.”

Now his ears rang from the slap to the side of his face by the girl. “Don’t you dare say his name. Not after what you did to him.”

The bad feeling he had earlier was now worse. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You may have everyone else terrified of you, but I know what you are. A pathetic, sniveling coward. Severus and Sirius spent their last days being ashamed of you. Disgusted by the man you turned into.”

“Where are they?”

“Same place they’ve been since you ordered their murder. The graveyard next to Remus and the Potters. Harry said they would want to be together, well, not so much Severus but he would want to be beside Sirius, so Lainie agreed. Why are you pretending you don’t know all of this already?”

“I didn’t order their murder. They were my parents.”

“You said it was them or you. You picked you.”

“I would have rather died then kill them. I swear it.”

“Why are you acting different?”

“What?”

“Yesterday you had me thrown in that prison you made because I looked at you wrong. Now you’re acting like you have no clue what I’m talking about. And since you never felt the need to lie before, I’m confused.”

How did he become the person she described? A murderer. A heartless murderer. A whine caught his attention, and he realized both little kids were in the room with them.

An owl rested on a perch in front of him. He had gone back to the Burrow and was now sitting in its burned-out hull. There was a letter attached to its leg but there wasn’t a name on it. Gently he untied the letter.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any treats.”

The owl seemed to almost scowl at him but didn’t fly away. It was waiting for a reply.

Opening the envelope, he began to read.

Weatherby

         I hope this letter finds you well. We’ve had to pull up stakes. On chance that today is the day you come back to this time; I’m writing you. As you’ve noticed everything is wrong. Can’t explain in case this letter is intercepted. We’ve gone back to the start, Order was needed.

                                                               Royal

                                               P.S. Sorry about the Weatherby.

Kingsley had known the day that Percy and Terence went into the mirror and had guessed right. Percy needed to know what was going on. Terence being some horrible dark lord, it didn’t make sense. Terence didn’t even side with his friends, family, and housemates when half of the Slytherins chose the side of Voldemort.

For Kingsley to call him Weatherby meant he was letting him know that he still remembered the original timeline, how it was supposed to be. All he wanted to do was save Fred and now it looked like he had ended up giving the wizarding community another horrible dark wizard. The only good thing he could think of was that his Terence should be back in the shoes of this horrible one. His Terence would fix things…maybe…probably…he hoped.

Gone to where it started, Order was needed. Percy had a feeling he was talking about Grimmauld Place. It was where the Order of the Pheonix was resurrected for the second war. The war that he had hoped to stop.

When he got to the street in front of where he knew Grimmauld Place was he waited. He knew someone was probably keeping a look out. And he was right, soon a girl of about thirteen appeared out of nowhere. Black hair, black eyes, a slight hook to her nose. But there was also a casual smile on her face, her cheeks had colour and her hair was shiny and held back in a plait.

“So which Percy are you?” she asked.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Are you the Percy that walked into a mirror or are you the one that swore at me this morning for stealing your toast?”

“The first. Did I really swear at you out for stealing my toast?”

She nodded. “It was the last bit if that matters. As you can see we had to come back…but I guess you don’t know that. What’s time travel like?”

Another person appeared behind her. Percy’s knees almost buckled. It was Ron, but not the Ron he left when he went back in time.

“Ron?” Percy’s voice shook. Ron was face was scarred, way worse than anyone’s he’s seen, Remus and Bill included. One of his eyes was clearly fake but it didn’t seem to be special like Mad-Eye’s had been. Percy could only imagine the damage under his clothes, he feared his legs because Ron didn’t walk like he used to, it was with a limp.

“Perce,” Ron said, his tone clipped. “We best get inside.” Ron handed him a piece of paper. It was written there Number 12 Grimmauld Place. The Street changed and where no house had been it appeared. It must mean there was a new secret keeper. Seeing only the secret keeper could give the information, he assumed it was Ron.

He followed Ron and he limped, and the girl followed him. Inside was much different from the last time he saw it. Sirus had worked hard to make it very different from the place where he grew up. He didn’t want sad and lonely, colours were added to the walls. Muggle things like televisions and things like that was brought in. No need for muggles because magic could power it all.

But now, there was no life in the place, it was dark and gave him a sick feeling.

“We’ve started to fix it up. After Papa and Dad died, I really didn’t want anything to do with it. Reggie seemed to turn it into a tomb after I left.”

“Where did you go?” Percy asked.

“After they died I was still too young for Hogwarts, not like it’s an option anymore. But you took me in, well, the other you. We were a family for a while; you, me, Lucy and MJ.”

“LUCY? Where is Lucy?” he wanted to see her so much but had feared asking about her after finding out about the Burrow.

“She’s with that man.” Distain clear in her voice.

“What man?”

“Her other father.”

“Lucius?”

“Higgs.”

“Why is she with him?” If he were evil now why did he have her?

“You had to make a choice. Lose Lucy or lose MJ. He wouldn’t kill Lucy; she was his after all. Everyone knew you had to choose MJ, even Lucy knew you had to and wanted you to. So don’t blame yourself. She’s not being beaten or abused but kept prisoner in that place. Everhart’s portrait is keeping an eye on her, he’ll let us know if something changes.”

Ron had disappeared further into the house, not saying a word to him since coming inside.

“What happened to Ron?”

Her cheeky smile disappeared. “He’s the only one left.”

“What do you mean?”

“Harry Potter. Hermione Granger-Weasley. Ginny Weasley-Potter. Neville Longbottom. Luna Lovegood-Weasley. Those were all killed in the second round of torture and deaths. They let Ron live, but they might as well killed him. He’s been a living ghost since it happened.”

“Will someone please tell me what the hell happened after I left. I can’t believe Terence would do this kind of thing.”

“Follow me. They thought if you came back you would need to see for yourself.”

“Where’s Kingsley? He was supposed to be here.”

“His light went out a few minutes ago.” There was no emotion now on her face.

“His light? What does that mean?”

“In the beginning we didn’t know how to keep track of who was dead, being held or was in hiding. So, Dad made the lights. He got the idea from Mrs. Weasley’s clock. If someone is in hiding, it’s red. If they are being held it’s black. If everything is normal, it’s orange but if they are dead it goes out. Kingsley’s went out just a few minutes before you arrived.”

“Oh Merlin,” he said, putting his hand to his mouth. He felt the tears spilling out of his eyes.

She looked at him curiously. “It’s strange to see you cry.”

“Why’s that?”

“You were the first one to run out of tears. It gets to the point you’re just numb to all the deaths.”

He continued to follow her but stopped in his tracks. He saw the candles. A long table with at least fifty candles. So many were out. They all had names in front of them, carved into the candlesticks.

Arthur Weasley- black

Molly Weasley- out

Bill Weasley- black

Charlie Weasley- out

George Weasley- out

Fred Weasley- out

Ron Weasley- red

Ginny Weasley- out

Hermione Granger- out

Neville Longbottom- out

Alice Longbottom- red

Frank Longbottom- out

Harry Potter- out

Luna Lovegood- out

Remus Lupin- out

Sirius Black- out

Severus Snape- out

Elaine Snape-Black- red

Percy Weasley- red

Lucy Weasley- black

Molly Wood-Weasley- red

Oliver Wood- out

Regulus Black- orange

Mad-Eye Moody- out

Nymphadora Tonks- out

Albus Dumbledore- out

Draco Malfoy- black

“Draco?” he asked. Sure, Draco was in Gryffindor this time around, but Draco being a part of the Order, which was strange.

“He’s being kept in Azkaban. A fate worse than death. It’s how we lost Fred and George; they were on a rescue mission but never came back. The candles are good because we didn’t lose anymore that night going after them. We hope for the day Draco’s light goes out. Then he’ll finally be at peace.”

“No one else tried to get him out?”

“We lost two of our best fighters trying to get him out. When he was taken we had already dwindled down to almost nothing.”

Looking back at the table he counted seven black flames, three orange and nine red. The rest were out. Percy was sick to his stomach. He didn’t get along with Draco that much because he was a little minion of his brothers. But even the Draco in the original time didn’t deserve this. He was choosing not to think about most of his family being dead.

“I can see it in your face. You can’t go. If you think someone else should try…send Ron. He’ll welcome the death that awaits him.”

Percy was suddenly very scared for Terence, his Terence. The one that came back in the same time as him. If any of the remaining Order finds him he would be murdered on sight. Percy knew he needed to find Terence and go back through the mirror, there was no way he was staying here with the dead and dying. She was right about Ron; he was already dead just no one told his body.