"You… you—why are you here?"
After a brief silence, Harry was the first to speak, earning a bitter smile from Avada in response.
What Avada was about to say wasn't just for Harry—it was for Dumbledore as well. With his secret connection to Voldemort, sneaking into the Restricted Section to browse Dark Magic texts without even Quirrell's signed permission, and possessing a whole arsenal of regulated spells, anyone would suspect he was on the path to becoming a Dark wizard. He had to completely put Dumbledore at ease, or cooperation in the future would only become more difficult.
And just as Avada was wracking his brain for a solution, something unexpected happened—
Dumbledore seemed to cast a spell on himself, and then a sound rang out.
Rapid footsteps echoed from far away, mixed with a grumbling voice:
"Professor, you said that if anyone was wandering around at night, I should report it immediately—someone's in the library, in the Restricted Section!"
"It's Filch! Can you still stay invisible? If not, use my Invisibility Cloak!"
"…Please."
Avada could turn invisible, but he knew perfectly well that this so-called "Filch" was nothing more than an illusion created by Dumbledore. The real purpose was to herd them into the room where the Mirror of Erised was kept. And tonight, Avada needed to explain certain things—both openly and subtly—to Dumbledore. That meant he had to go before the mirror.
If necessary, he could even lower his Occlumency and allow Dumbledore to judge the truth of his words himself.
He had to eliminate Dumbledore's doubts completely—who knew what might happen otherwise?
"The Restricted Section? Then they can't have gone far. We'll definitely catch them."
This time it was Snape's voice, growing closer with the sound of approaching footsteps—Dumbledore was turning up the pressure.
"The sound came from that direction… this way. Follow me."
Harry grabbed Avada and retreated step by step, doing his best not to make a sound while quickly scanning their surroundings for a place to hide. His movements were remarkably practiced. Soon, he spotted a door on the left that was ajar. He signaled Avada with a glance and slipped inside sideways, carefully making sure the door didn't move…
Listening as the footsteps outside gradually faded away, Harry finally let out a breath of relief. He lifted the Invisibility Cloak and gulped down fresh air. Only after a long moment did he turn back to Avada, confusion in his eyes.
"So… why are you here too?"
Avada smiled—he had already decided how to face Dumbledore.
"I'm here waiting for you, Harry."
"What?!" Harry stared at him. "You—you knew I'd come? Was it you who gave me the Invisibility Cloak?"
Harry's eyes filled with shock.
Nearby, Dumbledore's mental presence seemed to twitch in surprise.
"…No. You only received the cloak today, didn't you? That explains why you chose tonight to come to the Restricted Section."
Harry looked even more puzzled.
"It's not easy for me to explain… this is the first time I've ever told anyone this secret."
Avada deliberately lowered his voice. "Sometimes, I can see visions. They show me things—fragments of the past, the future, or clues about certain events…"
"A few days ago—around the time you nearly fell off your broom—the vision told me that on Christmas night, you would come to the Restricted Section to look up someone named Nicolas Flamel."
"You knew?!" Harry blurted out.
"I did. And more than that, I wanted to stop you. That's why, if you looked through the Christmas gift I gave you, you'd find detailed information about Nicolas Flamel inside. He isn't mysterious at all—in fact, he's quite famous…"
"You wanted to stop me from coming to the Restricted Section? Why?"
Harry was both shocked and confused. "Were you afraid Gryffindor would lose points? But you're in Hufflepuff, aren't you?"
Avada: …
This kid had clearly spent too much time around Hermione.
And besides, if most of this weren't meant for the old man behind you, do you really think I'd need such an explanation just to fool you?
"…It's not about house points. I saw that you would be trapped by a mirror—like you'd lost your soul. For the next several days, you'd come here every night and sit for hours on end…"
He gestured lightly. "That one."
Harry followed Avada's pointing finger and finally noticed something on the wall directly opposite him—an object that seemed utterly out of place in the room, as though someone had set it there temporarily with nowhere else to put it.
It was a magnificent mirror, reaching all the way to the ceiling. Its ornate golden frame was supported by two clawed feet, and at the top was an inscription:
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
Avada watched as Harry approached the mirror. His face first went pale, then he studied it intently, step by step drawing closer until his nose was almost touching the glass, staring at it in a daze…
"…Dad? Mum?"
Avada quietly observed Harry's unmoving back—and the way Dumbledore's mental presence was gradually calming. After a long while, he cleared his throat softly, pulling Harry out of his trance.
"You saw your deceased parents in the mirror? No wonder you looked so absent-minded."
Feigning curiosity, Avada stepped closer. "May I see them too? I'm rather envious. I don't even know who my parents were, or what they looked like… huh?"
As Avada looked at what appeared in the mirror before him, a trace of barely perceptible relief flashed through his eyes. Then he deliberately frowned.
"Can you see them?" Harry asked eagerly.
"No… what we're seeing doesn't seem to be the same."
Avada stared at the mirror, murmuring, "I see myself opening a bakery."
"What?"
"I'm baking in front of customers… Merlin, there are so many people outside. The line stretches for dozens of meters. The bread I make is all very unique—shaped like magical creatures. Diricawls, Puffskeins, Nifflers…"
"I'm using my wand to perform magical cooking, and everyone's praising it…"
"Wait—those customers all seem to be Muggles?"
Dumbledore's mental presence suddenly surged violently. Immediately afterward, Avada felt a familiar sensation invade his mind—the shallowest form of Legilimency, the kind that could only determine whether someone was telling the truth.
He sighed inwardly.
Dumbledore still used Legilimency on him—exactly as Avada had intended.
He deliberately lowered his Occlumency, openly presenting his sincerity to Dumbledore. After all, everything he was about to say was the truth.
"…I understand now."
He lingered before the mirror a little longer, then turned to Harry. "Look at the inscription at the top."
Harry looked up, struggling to read the seemingly meaningless words. "Erised stra ehru…"
"Read it backward," Avada prompted.
Harry froze for a moment, then slowly spelled it out from right to left. "'I show not your face but your heart's desire'?"
"This mirror reflects the deepest desire of a person's heart," Avada said with a firm nod—only to be met by Harry's stunned gaze.
"You want to break the Statute of Secrecy?!"
For a moment, Harry even forgot about seeing his parents in the mirror. After half a year in the wizarding world, he had already grasped just how sacred and untouchable the Statute of Secrecy was.
(End of Chapter)