- Text Size +
A Broken Bit of Mirror


“Is that what you came all the way down here for then?” Lily asked, confusion in her voice, “To steal a broken bit of glass?”

Sirius tucked the piece of the mirror carefully into James’s bookbag. “It’s not just a broken bit of glass,” James snapped at Lily. “We told you that you wouldn’t understand what we were down here for, so shut up.”

Lily crossed her arms over her chest.

“Let’s get out of here,” begged Peter, “Before somebody comes back.”

The others agreed and hastened to the door, James being very careful not to let his bag hit anything on their way. Lily was still annoyed. “How is that shard worth risking your education over?” she demanded, “It can’t be worth anything.”

“Shows what you know,” snapped James.

“It’s worth an awful lot,” Sirius said, “If you know what you’re looking for, that is.”

Lily crossed her arms, “And since when is theft excusable at any rate?” she demanded, tapping her foot on the dark green carpet, staring at the boys accusingly. She was so angry, she almost didn’t register the sound of Peter’s terrified squeak as he pointed frantically at the door.

Before Lily knew it, James had grabbed hold on her and yanked her down to the floor behind the couch they stood near. Sirius had flattened himself so quickly the air had been blown right out of his lungs and Peter crouched awkwardly, sweat beading up on his forehead, as the sound of the Slytherin common room door creaking open reached their ears. James’s eyes were wide, imploring Lily to stay quiet as he raised his free hand to his lips in a motion for her to stay silent. She didn’t need to be told twice. From what Severus had told her of the other Slytherin students, Lily was in no way inclined to be caught snooping about their common room.

“Bloody old codger,” said a gruff voice that none of the Gryffindors recognized, “Maybe he’d still have both his eyes if he didn’t go on interferin’ in everybody else’s business like that.”

“Yeah,” agreed higher voice. “Where’s he get off accusing my mother...”

“Accused about the whole house, you know,” said the first voice. “I have a right mind to skive off Dark Arts.”

“Not like he isn’t teaching things we already know,” agreed the second.

The voices were coming closer, and Sirius pressed as hard as he could to the back of the couch. Peter’s lower lip trembled and sweat poured over his brow. Lily held her breath and could feel the nerves running through James’s fingers, which were twined about her own. The two Slytherins continued their discussion of Professor Moody as they passed the couch, their legs coming into view of the four crouching Gryffindors and headed on up the stairs without so much as a glance at the floor.

“I could bloody teach a more interesting Dark Arts curriculum,” said the first boy with a scoff, “Like to see the hair on old Moody’s head stand up if he knew half the magic I can perform!” There was a scuffling of their feet on the carpet and then the slamming of a dorm room door.

The Gryffindors relaxed - which entailed poor Peter Pettigrew toppling right over onto his side on the carpet. Lily realized she was holding James Potter’s hand and dropped it quickly as though it were filthy (which it probably was). Sirius rolled out of his hiding place and hurried them to their feet, “C’mon,” he urged them, “Let’s go. We’ve gotta get moving… If they’re back then any number of Slytherins could be on the way.” He waved them off toward the door of the common room and all three of the others rushed so hard they were tripping over each other on their way out into the corridor. “Quickly - quietly -” he prodded.

They ran down the corridor, their trainers squeaking on the flagstones, until they’d reached Professor Slughorn’s office door, where they slowed to a walk, where they would be able to at least have an explanation for their presence should they be caught. Lily looked around at them, her green eyes wide with the adrenaline still running through her veins.

“Your hair’s a bit --” James said, miming the way her hair stuck out from the side of her head.

“Oh really,” Lily snapped, the nervous energy expelling itself through her sassy tone, “I can’t imagine why my hair would be a mess - you’d think I’d just been running for my bloody life or something!” She reached up and hurriedly flattened it - the wrong side, that is - but before James could point that out, she said, “I don’t know what you lot were up to - or what you were doing stealing like that, but you’re going to be in very big trouble once Dumbledore finds out and --”

“So go with us to tell him what we’ve just done, why don’t you?” James snipped, “That’s where we’re headed anyway! It’s Dumbledore that’s needing the mirror, you git.”

Lily looked taken aback by this new information. “Dumbledore sent you to steal that mirror?” she asked, face blank with surprise. “But… why didn’t he just come down and get it himself? Or have Slughorn - or ask whoever you’ve stolen it from to just -” Lily’s eyes flashed with confusion.

“Because guilty parties always cough up the evidence of their wrongdoings without a fight!” guffawed James.

Sirius cleared his throat, “Besides, he didn’t send us, strictly speaking, but -- we are going to tell him. That’s the whole point of what we’ve gone for.”

Peter was still shaking.

“You lot are completely mad,” Lily said, but she said it with far less anger than she’d felt a moment before, now there was a sort of curiousity about her. What was that mirror? She looked at James’s bag, her eyes knit together. “What’s so important about --”

“We’re not telling you anything about it,” James said, cutting her off before she could ask any questions, afraid Sirius might be all too open and willing to answer them. “You didn’t want anything to do with what we were up to, remember? All too eager to turn us in if we were up to no good, but now that it’s something helpful you want to know all about it? No way, you don’t get to share in the glory we’re going to get for what we’ve done!”

“Of course your big head doesn’t want to share any recognition!” Lily snapped, “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to ask to be included! I don’t want anything to do with whatever this is!” She turned on her heels and stormed off down the corridor and up the steps to the Entrance Hall, pushing past another couple Slytherins as she went.

“Good! We don’t want you to be!” James shouted, but Sirius put his hand on James’s arm.

“Let it go, mate, she’s already walked off,” Sirius said, stopping James from shouting any more as the Slytherins passed by them.

James fumed as the Gryffindors went up the stairs and through the castle to Dumbledore’s office. “She’s so stuck up, don’t you think so?” he demanded as they jumped trick steps and rode ‘round rotating staircases.

Sirius shrugged, “Not really. You were pretty bloody stuck up yourself, actually,” he said honestly.

Ignoring this assessment, James fumed on, “Forces her way into the mix and then acts like we made her come along - ruddy spying on us and acts like we’re the bad guys. Tries to tell on us to Dumbledore! Where’s her House allegiance? I’ll tell you where - not where it belongs, that’s for sure! It’s that Snape character’s fault, you know. Turning her head against us… Brainwashing her, that git is.”

Brainwashing?” gasped Peter, “How could he do that?”

“Hypnotizing her, I bet,” James said.

Sirius laughed, “I wouldn’t put it past him, honestly, but I doubt ol’ Snivelley’s been hypnotizing anybody. Maybe the smell of his filth has addled with her brains a bit.”

“He certainly does smell,” snorted James. “Could’ve smelled him coming all the way from the Great Hall!”

They were just about to the fifth floor corridor where Remus had told them Dumbledore’s office was hidden when Peter’s stomach growled so loudly that it seemed to echo off the walls. Sirius looked ‘round at him. “Blimey, Peter! You better go down to the kitchen and nick us some dinner and we’ll go up to the dorm and have a bite before we go talk to Dumbledore.”

Peter looked at the gargoyle statues uneasily, “Don’t tell Dumbledore without me,” he said.

“We won’t!” Sirius promised. “We’ll go up to the dorms and see you there.”

“Okay.” Peter nodded, “I’ll be right there.” He turned and scrurried off down the hall quickly.

James called after him, “Get some extra treacle tarts!”

The two boys were true to their word and went up to Gryffindor Tower instead of trying to get in to talk to Dumbledore just yet. Once to the dorms, Sirius magicked their room door locked and James slipped the mirror out of his book bag and onto his bed. They both stood back a few feet, staring at the square bit of mirror before them, as though waiting for something to happen.

“How do you s’pose it works?” James whispered to Sirius without tearing his eyes off the eerily reflection-less glass.

“Dunno,” answered Sirius. “Maybe it’s like --” he paused, unable to think of anything to compare the mirror’s workings to. “Maybe Voldemort sort of… projects… his… his being into the mirror somehow?” He looked at James, “Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

“There’s a muggle telly program one of the boys on my street watches, he’s told me about it before - they have things like that on the program, but it’s not very realistic. Just muggle nonsense, mostly… space travel and whatever,” James replied with a shrug. “I s’pose it could be sort of like a live telly broadcast, but… but in a mirror.”

Sirius rubbed his chin. “How do you think Malfoy -- you know -- summons him?” he whispered.

“Maybe You-Know-Who summons Malfoy,” James suggested.

“It seems like there ought to be some sort of two-way communication, though,” Sirius said, “Like how a muggle telly-phone works.”

“Maybe he can just… hear us,” said James. Even speaking the words made a chill run down his spine and he shivered. So did Sirius. They both turned to stare at the mirror again, this time half expecting the face of the Dark Lord to swirl into being before their very eyes from the blackness of the image in the mirror’s glass.

They’d been there some time without realizing it when there came a cry from the other side of the door behind them - “c’mon guys, let me in!” - that made them both jump nearly to the ceiling.

“Oi!” Sirius laughed, trying to pass off his own surprise. “You nearly leaped out of your skin.”

“So did you, mate,” replied James, pulling open the dormitory door and letting Peter in. Peter had a couple big bags hanging off his shoulders as he toddled through the door frame and the smell of pork and spiced apples and treacle tart filled the room. “Oh boy! That smells exquisite!” James exclaimed.

Peter grinned as he put down the bags. The boys converged onto the food so eagerly that they didn’t even notice the shifting of the light in the mirror’s image, or the flash of a peeking face ‘round the frame...