38 Christmas Eve! Part-2

[System Log: Compulsion Ward averted]

'What, a compulsion ward? In Hogwarts?'

Harry concentrated to feel the mana around him and felt some traces of mana lingering in the air, it must be quite a weak compulsion ward but still, who would place a compulsion ward in the middle of the corridor, Harry thought about ignoring the ward and continue on his way back, but in the end, his curiosity won as he took a left turn curiously examining the surrounding magic. The compulsion ward was laid at every corner or turn, Harry followed the path laid out to him as he thought who could be up to this, his most likely guess being Dumbledore, only he could place wards around Hogwarts without being spotted by the painting, and his other suspect Quirrell was with him for the last three hours so it couldn't be him.

Following the path, Harry arrived at one of the many abandoned classrooms of Hogwarts, the only difference was Harry could sense someone was in there.

'Alohamora~'

He opened the door and peered into the room, at first he was a little confused as to what Charlus was doing staring at a mirror while sitting in the middle of an abandoned classroom, but then he sensed various runes hidden on the mirror, the mana from its surroundings was constantly being drained into the mirror and used as a fuel to do whatever was trapping Charlus. Secondly, he sensed another presence in the room observing both him and Charlus, this cleared everyone else from his suspicion, the only question left was what does the mirror do, and why did Dumbledore bring him here.

[System Log: Compulsion Ward averted]

Another window popped up as another ward tried to affect his mind, telling him to ignore a specific corner of the room. Harry walked into the room, deciding to see what this was actually about, he spoke up, "Really Charlus, staring at a mirror on Christmas eve? Don't tell me you are this narcissistic and this is the reason you didn't go back home for the holidays?"

Harry watched as Charlus jumped up from his spot, he was a little confused at first, which already Harry counted this as a red flag in his mind before Charlus got his bearings and spoke, "Harry...u-um I mean Hector, what are you doing out this late," he stammered and Harry could see a faint blush on his face.

At this point, Harry realized he had never really said more than a few bland sentences to him, "I could ask you the same thing, but staring at a mirror at midnight, really?" Harry walked a little closer to him while his mana sense was trained at Dumbledore.

"It's not that," Charlus countered hotly, "I mean this is not just a mirror, come look into it, and tell me what you see?" he moved aside and vacated the spot directly in front of the mirror. Harry hesitated, his mana sense once again trailing the runes on the mirror before he activated [Gamer's mind] and stepped forward to look at the mirror. He saw himself, or rather he saw Hector staring back at him. he looked at his blank face as Hector's cold eyes regarded the image in the mirror before a notification interrupted his musings.

[System Log: Attempted attack on user's mind detected.]

Harry sharply looked away from the mirror and took a few steps back, Charlus looked concerned and immediately stepped forward, "You okay Harry?" Harry watched the concerned expression on Charlus's face so he nodded towards him before looking back towards the mirror.

"Stay away from that mirror," Harry warned, "It tried to enter my mind," he looked towards Charlus and gave him a blank look, "and you need to work on your Occlumency, no non-living object should have the power to try and form a proper Legilimency attack," Harry took out his wands waved it towards the mirror, trying several diagnostic charms on it.

"Indeed it shouldn't" Dumbledore's voice broke through the brief silence as Charlus almost jumped out of his skin, he looked around as Dumbledore dropped his disillusionment charm. Charlus looked guilty towards the mirror, and then somewhere around his feet, Harry stopped casting his spells. There was nothing unusual about the mirror although the runes on it were a little weird, Harry had yet to come across a similar runic language.

"That mirror is an old dark artifact... it shows a very specific image to every person, what did you see in the mirror Charlus?" Dumbledore asked.

Charlus peeked at Harry for a second before he responded, "The 5 of us as a family..." his voice trailed off in the end as he tried to hide from Harry's gaze, Dumbledore, on the other hand, beamed at Charlus, "Exactly my boy, let me explain it a little bit so you can get it, the happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Charlus thought for a moment before he answered, "It shows us what we want… whatever we want… but that makes..." he trailed off and Dumbledore once again beamed at him, "Close but not quite, It shows us nothing more and nothing less than the deepest, most desperate desire hidden in our hearts. Your ultimate desire."

Harry read the inscription on the side of the mirror, 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi...'

He scoffed as he read the inscription, "I show not your face but your heart's desire... that's like the worst cryptogram I have ever seen..."

Dumbledore's face took a solemn turn, "Throughout centuries, many talented wizards have fallen to the allure of the mirror, wasting their lives in a fantasy rather than living their life, make no mistake it is a dark artifact, one that will be moved away tomorrow so I urge you both to not come looking for it again." Dumbledore insisted and Harry scoffed internally, 'Who are you fooling, this was merely a test you designed, now the question arises why is he trying to test Charlus, or me...'

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AN: Anyway as things progress towards Christmas, I am finally thinking about finalizing the love interest for Harry, there are only three candidates as I think they could somehow understand Harry.

1. Natasha Romanoff - you know who she is, she would be the closest to Harry's age, in the Marvel Universe actually so a good option... she also had gone something similar to HYDRA so there is that...

2. Wanda Maximoff - Her exact date of birth is unknown but was somewhere in the 1989s, I can take a year or two off to make this pairing more viable... I like Wanda and she is a bit of a fan-favorite... anyway her own tragic life would be beginning soon so it is an ideal time to decide if she's the one...

3. Daisy Jhonson- One of my favorite characters, or at least her earlier version when she was just a humble Hacktivist, before she fell for Ward and became dark and twisty... Anyway born in 1988, so there's the third choice...

Now Since I can not start a poll here, it is on my P.atreon, it is open to the public so anyone can vore there is no issue with that!

Anyway, the poll would be there for just 2-3 days because I need to get started on some time skips! You would know why around chapter 48 or so...

there are 14 advanced chapters on P.atreon -patreon.com/WN_Translations

Latest Chapter 52- Hideout! Part-1