Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

Erised

The whole of Hogwarts was open to her in this cloak, she realized. Excitement flooded through her as she stood there in the dark stillness of the common room at midnight. 

She crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole. Her plan was to go into the restricted section of the library. She'd be able to read as long as she liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. She set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around her as she walked.

The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Hari lit a lamp to see her way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair, and even though Hari could feel her arm supporting it, the sight gave her the creeps.

The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, she held up her lamp to read the titles.

They didn't tell her much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled words in languages Hari couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. The hairs on the back of Hari's neck prickled. 

 A large black and silver volume caught her eye, it was on animagi. She pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open. It slipped around on the invisibily cloak, but Hari kept it on, because she wouldn't hear anyone coming.

The book was very interesting with a lot of information. Her wand moved slightly in her pocket, and out of a corner of her eye she saw a light entering the library. She shut the book and saw a face that appeared to be screaming on the front, she guessed Flich had heard it -- stuffing the book back on the shelf, she ran for it. She passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild eyes looked straight through her, and Hari slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor.

She came to a sudden halt before a corner. She had been so busy getting away from the library, she hadn't paid attention to where she was going. She saw Snape and Filch around it, and forgetting she was invisible, pressed herself to the wall.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section." Filch said,  Hari just managed to make out their faces in the torchlight.

Snape replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."

Filch and Snape came around the corner. They couldn't see her, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into her -- the cloak didn't stop her from being solid.

She backed away. A door stood ajar to her left. It was her only hope. She squeezed through it, holding her breath, trying not to move it, and to her relief she managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. She let out a thanks to being skinny. They walked straight past, and Hari leaned against the wall. That had been close, very close, too close. It was a few seconds before she noticed anything about the room she had hidden in.

It looked like an unused classroom., but propped against the wall facing her was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Her panic fading now, Hari moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at herself but see no reflection again. She stepped in front of it.

She jumped backwards in surprise, whirling around. Her heart was pounding far more furiously than when Filch had appeared -- for she had seen not only herself in the mirror, but two other people standing right behind her.

But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, she turned slowly back to the mirror.

There she was, reflected in it, scared-looking, and there, reflected behind her, were two adults. Hari looked over her shoulder -- but still, no one was there. Or were they invisible, too? Was she in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not?

She looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind her reflection was smiling at her and waving. She reached out a hand and felt the air behind her. If she was really there, she'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but she felt only air - she and the man existed only in the mirror.

She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes -- her eyes are just like mine, Hari thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green -- exactly the same shape, but then she realized, this was Lily Evans, her mother. She noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man with darker skin standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. That must be her father.

Hari was so close to the mirror now that her nose was nearly touching that of her reflection. They just looked at him, smiling. Hari was looking at her family, for the first time in her life.

The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and she stared back at them, her hands pressed against the glass as though she was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. She had a powerful kind of ache inside her, half joy, half terrible sadness.

How long she stood there, she didn't know. The reflections did not fade and she looked and looked until the light of morning coming in at the window brought her back to her senses. She couldn't stay here, people would be getting up soon and hurried from the room.

"You could have woken me up," said Ron crossly when she told him. "I'd like to see your mom and dad,"