The Darkening of Your Soul

Chapter 46

Harry lay on his bed, huge smile still on his face, mirror in his hand, just basking in this unexpected success for no more than ten minutes before the mirror started glowing.

Sitting up, Harry opened the mirror at once. “And?” Harry asked a visibly excited Tom and Barty, as both their heads were squeezed in the tiny frame.

“It’s magical!” Barty said with an enormous grin.

Tom looked equally chuffed but he obviously didn’t want to draw any permanent conclusions just yet. “All we know right now is that it’s definitely a magical artifact. Whether it’s the actual Philosopher’s Stone capable of creating the Elixir of Life remains to be seen.”

“Sure, sure,” Barty agreed with a few quick nods. “We’ll have to test it extensively, but the fact that it’s a magical artifact and not some transfigured rock is fascinating in and of itself.”

“How did you get it so quickly?” Tom asked, eyes widening enough that he actually looked a bit worried aside from pleasantly surprised.

Harry shrugged helplessly and then bent double as he was overcome with a bout of giggles once again. “I went to look for the Mirror of Erised,” Harry said once he caught his breath. “I remembered that in my first life I found it during the winter holidays.” Harry sobered a little and narrowed his eyes at the two other men. “That’s also probably why Dumbledore wanted me at Hogwarts. It was always his intention for me to accidentally discover the mirror, so I wouldn’t get caught by the magical illusion of it once I encountered it again during a confrontation with Voldemort.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Barty agreed quietly while Tom got a chagrined look on his face.

“Even now, when there is no sign of me anywhere near Hogwarts, that old fool is determined to see his little schemes concerning you through,” Tom muttered with a dark frown.

“Yeah, but I’m not the naïve little idiot I was in my first life,” Harry felt compelled to point out. “Anyway, I found the mirror in an abandoned classroom, just like last time. And when I looked in it, my reflection was holding the stone and put it in his pocket. At that moment, the stone appeared in my pocket and I ran all the way back to my dorms and had Kreacher bring it straight to you.” Harry briefly pursed his lips while gathered his thoughts. “I always assumed that Dumbledore didn’t put the stone in the mirror until after he moved it, but it seems I was wrong about that.”

“Or maybe he put it in only very recently,” Barty said, which made sense to Harry. “And he was waiting for you to discover it the moment you got back from the holidays.”

“I wonder how long it will be before Dumbledore discovers it’s been stolen,” Tom said with a smirk that was full of dark satisfaction.

“I didn’t notice any charms or something that would have raised the alarm,” Harry pointed out with an equally satisfied grin. “Then again, I didn’t stick around the moment I realized I had the stone.”

“You’ll notice soon enough by the large amount of Aurors suddenly turning Hogwarts upside down,” Barty said, but Harry immediately shook his head.

“I doubt Dumbledore would involve the authorities,” Harry said while Tom nodded in agreement. “Then he’d have to explain why he was hiding the stone at Hogwarts in the first place.”