“Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.“
Eishi walked fast and silent trought the corridors of the castle, taking extra care not to make any noise as he headed for the Room of Requirement. He needed to practice his potions. Who needs sleep when you can have perfection after all. The sixteen year old, at the end of his sixth year in Hogwarts, just one more and he would be out into the wizarding world. Potion making companies, large as they could get had already been requesting his recepies, calling them innovative and flawless.
But he knew best than to slack off. He would use every spare moment to practice with the freedom the school provided before going out in the magical world. He passed in front of the tapestry and, after three strides, a door opened and he entered the messy room, with his couldron already wating.
Honestly, the Room of Reuirement was the best place to find new and exquisit ingredients. The students that had come generations before had some peculiar taste in what to bring to school, hidden in their trunks.
The white haired teen was just about to star working, when something called his attention, gleaming faintly in the not-so-well lit room. He aproached it, shaking a bit, curiosity taking over. Rindou would be proud, he tought with a small smile.
When his eyes fell upon the object, he gasped softly in surprise. It was a mirror, a tall mirror, beautifully svelted with gold, words written at its top.
“Erised…” He whispered, taking yet another step closer. Once in front of it, he watched as his image changed. He stumbled back a little, expecting to see only himself reflected, but to his shock, there was somebody else there with him.
A version of himself stood there, what it seemed to be a lab at the back, potions boling, ingredients pouring themselves inside mortars. His very own experimenting laboratory. His eyes gleamed and the ones of his reflexion flashed a shy but proud smile in his direction.
This was his dream alright. Perfectly represented. Except for one little detail.
He looked back, Just to make sure nobody was behind him and then he turned back, eyes puzzled. A short, red haired girl with screaming yellow eyes stood beside him, a cat-like grim adorning her features as she punched him lightly on the shoulder.
When he went to sleep that night, after having experimented a bit, he couldn’t help but ponder about the images on the mirror. He decided to go the library at first light the next day.
…
Rindou, his best friend, was currently, to put it mildly, bugging the hell out of him as he scurried through the books in the library, running his índex finger on the old, dust spines, in search of one who would explain to him that mirror.
“Oh, c’mon Eishi, library this early in the moring?” She groaned and rested her head against a book case. “Let’s go to breakfeast, im starving!”
“You can go Rin, i will stay here a bit more.” When she pouted at him, annoyed, he sighed and pushed her a gently towards the entrance. “Go on, or you will end up missing the toasts with butter you love so much.”
At the mention of missing food, she turned, sending him a defeated glare, before hopping towards the great hall. He chuckled lightly at her retreating figure, going back to his search.
It wasn’t after ten minutes of searching and one resigned question to the librarian that he found what he was looking for. He opened the old, falling to pieces so called book and started scanning the pages in search of an illustration that matched what he’d seen the night before. His eyes fell upon the mirror and he read the title:
‘The Mirror of Erised’
It said that it was a mirror supposed to show the deepest, desperate desires in one’s heart, along with the story with how it had been created. He stoped reading, feeling his heartbeat suddenly too fast for na relaxing activity such as reading a book.
The truth is, his pulse had picked up as soon as he read about the deepest desires in our hearts. The lab he understood, but having Rindou standing beside him only confused his brilliant brain.
They had been friends since their first year, becoming so because Rin told him he was a weird boy and she liked it. After the second year, he had stopped resisting and finnaly come to accept her friendship once and for all. But he had always been a bit of an egoistic person. He’d never tought that his dreams would include someone else, let alone his deepest desire.
By the last period of the day, he had annalised over and over again their relationship, fiding it still hard to believe his own feelings.
A few days later, he had come to terms with the fact that he had a great affection for the girl, even if he was not sure where it came from. Maybe the mischievous smile, troublemaker attitude that always managed to get them both into trouble. Or maybe it was her cunning intelligence, so much like the Slytherins house they were both sorted in. He didn’t want to consider the other options, such as the way her hair fell in one of her eyes, or the thousand different ways her eyes sparkled according to her emotions.
He was interrupted of his over annalisis by the reason for it herself.
“You are going to practice tonight?” She asked, flopping beside him and tilting her head upwards towards the sky, her eyes following the owls that, enjoying the early dusk, had left their nests and were flying around the castle towers.
“Yes, why?” He asked, looking at her for a moment before lifiting his pale eyes as well.
“Im coming with you.” She said simply, a small smile playing on her lips. “I feel like exploring today.”
In times like these, he tought he would never stop beeing amazed by her atittude. In all the years they had known each other, she still held a small portion of that child like innocence within her.
“Okay.” He answerd, even tough he knew she would come eihter way.
She finnaly turned to him, expression a new. She looked like a cat ready to strike its pray and he realised, shocked, how beautifull of a woman she had become. He averted his eyes, thanking Merlin for the red of his cheeks beeing hidden in the ever darkening sky.
She tilted her head, looking at her friends quizicaly but didn't say anything.
…
They combined the hour to be ten minutes before midnight. He waited at the foot of the stairs for her to exit her bedroom. As soon as she got out, he frowed, giving her a disappointed look.
“What? A girl needs her snacks all right?.” She whispered, holding the food to her chest and they walked out, casting an invisibility spell on themselves.
As they glided quietly trough the corridors, the red head turned back to look at her friend. Illuminated by the light of the moon coming from a window, he looked almost ethereal, like a ghost quite too solid.
His eyes were looking ahead, a relaxed expression she rarely got to see on his handsome face. She only ever saw this when they were alone, or when he was brewing his potions.
She smirked inspite of herself. That expression was just as interesting as the other he’d do when someone chalenged him. It was like seeing a god ready to give you his punnishment. Dangerous and magnificent.
He looked back at her when they reached the tapestry and held out his hand. She took it without another word and they closed their eyes, thinking the right toughts to open the door.
They realesed each other upon entering the room and she almost imediately started fooling aorund, runnig in between piles of objects as he prepared his things to start ‘cooking’ the next potion.
“Just dont get lost Rindou.” He said, trowing a glance back at the ever curious soul behind him. She peaked from a pile of desks and chairs and made a continece, gigling and made to go back to her exploring.
It was now or never, he panicked a bit as he quickly decided. He had to know. Blame it on continous coexistence to make him so similar to his red haired friend. He called her and she hopped towards him, a question written on her eyes.
“I want to show you something.” He said, not making eye contact. She only just hummed and followed him to the mirror. When she saw it, her eyes went wide with happiness and she started scanning it, making a lot of questions. Until their figures were exactly in front. She stopped her talking and the white haired boy tensed.
There his wish was, with Rin of the mirror standing just as close as the real one, punching him on the shoulder. He gulped and scratched his neck, preparing himself to ask the feared question.
“So…hum, what do you see?” He tried. He really did try to be casual about it. But it sounded strained, much too loud to his own ears. All tough, if Rindou had noticed, she didnt coment on it.
Instead, she turned to him after what seemed like the longest pause in his life, tilting her head to the side, her expression confused.
“What do you mean what do i see? Its a mirror,of course i see you and me.”
The boy’s heart faltered at that and found he simply could not look away from her eyes. He needed to explain, he knew, because she was looking worried at him, like he was going crazy, but the words refused to leave his mouth.
Rather, he put a hand on her shoulder and when she smiled at him, he leaned and kissed her forhead.
When his lips left her skin, a light feather’s touch againts it, she, with eyes as surprised as the Rindou in the mirror and slightly less terrified than Eishi’s expression was becoming, pulled him in for a hug, as warm as the covers from their beds.
He was stuttering something, but the girl only laughed, pating his head as she did so.
They spend the rest of the night inside the room of Requirement, with Rindou playing with a variety of magical objects while Eishi experimented with his potions. At some point he explained what the mirror did and she confessed that she thought had seen a foreign land on the background, and seen herself and Eishi exploring its territory.
When morning came, both Slytherins were fast asleep, heads on shoulders and a top of hairs, hands barely touching on a very confortable matress lying in one of the many piles. How it had gotten there and why, only Merlin would know.