Mist of Shadows
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Harry Potter and the Mirrors of Madness Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-10-22 06:42:09 +0000 UTCHarry had two seconds to take in the Mirror Hermione's appearance before she practically teleported across the distance and he found himself the recipient of a bone crushing hug from a copy of his bushy haired friend. "Hi."
"I missed you!" Mirror Hermione told him. "How are you alive?" She blinked when she noticed the Mirror Harry and the fact that there were two Rons. "What's going on? The voice didn't say much, just that I'd have a chance to find Harry."
"Long story short, if you stay here and the other Hermione walks out of the mirror, you'll get to stay with us," Mirror Harry offered.
"Oh, that's what it meant! Books, I need to pack!" Mirror Hermione squealed then kissed Harry on the nose and dashed back into the mirror, giving everyone a glance at her bottom as her shirt rode up enough to reveal the fact that she wasn't wearing panties.
"So, that happened," Ginny said, rather amused by the shell shocked look on Harry's face, both of them in fact.
"Should we be offended that she didn't say hello to the rest of us?" Ron asked.
Mirror Harry laughed. "I might be crazy, but I'm not insane enough to stand between Hermione and the chance to steal an entire library of magical books."
"Can you blame her?" Mirror Ron asked, thinking about the number of libraries he'd looted from the Death Eaters he'd killed.
"No, she probably ignored the voice that told her to pack everything," Mirror Harry offered.
"Sometimes that's all you can do," Sirius offered, flashing back to his time in Azkaban.
0o0o0
Hermione stepped out of the mirror and stared at the familiar room that had been filled with dozens of steamer trunks and countless piles of books scattered around the room on the tables and chairs. "Did they raid the library?"
"Several," Kreacher offered from where he was sitting at a house elf sized desk out of the way.
Hermione spun to look at Kreacher. "They were raiding libraries?"
"As Master always says, pillage and then burn!" Kreacher replied gleefully, making Hermione wonder about his sanity.
"Is Harry or Sirius here?" Hermione asked, trying to figure out what had caused Kreacher to lose his remaining marbles.
Kreacher smiled when his Master stepped out of the mirror behind the copy. "Old Masters are dead, long live the Queen of Darkness!"
"Queen of Darkness?" Hermione asked, wondering if it was time to run back through the mirror and smash the mirror, books be-damned.
"He refuses to use my name and keeps coming up with horrible titles," Mirror Hermione complained, glaring at Kreacher.
Hermione turned and stared at her duplicate. "What happened to your hair?"
"I stopped brushing it a couple of times a day," Mirror Hermione replied as she walked over to one of the chests, reached down and opened it, revealing a room-sized compartment and her lack of panties in the process, causing Hermione to stare.
"Why aren't you wearing panties?!" Hermione blurted out.
"I'm pretty sure Kreacher eats them," Mirror Hermione replied as she started wandlessly levitating stacks of books into the open chest.
Hermione turned and stared at Kreacher. "What?"
"Lies," Kreacher complained. "This is because of the Queen of Darkness thing, isn't it?"
"Yes," Mirror Hermione replied. "The other Harry said that I'll be stuck if you walk through the mirror which means we need to send everything through the mirror first because I'm not staying in my world."
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
Mirror Hermione scowled as she thought about everything that had gone wrong over the last couple of years. "The fucking wizarding world is corrupt."
"You'll have to be more specific," Hermione told her.
"Did Harry manage to steal the stone?" Mirror Hermione asked thoughtfully.
"No, Dumbledore took it and destroyed it or at least that's what he told everyone," Hermione replied, finding it hard to believe that he'd destroy a unique artifact when he could just lie about it.
Mirror Hermione nodded, knowing that he'd claimed to have destroyed the stone that was currently in her purse with Harry's gold. "I'm guessing by Ron's presence that he didn't get turned into a vegetable by Lockhart in the Chamber of Secrets?"
"He broke his wand and the spell misfired," Hermione replied.
"That was probably the beginning of the end," Mirror Hermione admitted as she went back to moving the stacks of books into the chest. "Harry blew up his aunt and nearly got tossed into prison because of Malfoy's influence at the start of third year."
"When you say blew up?" Hermione asked, not sure she wanted to know.
"Chunky salsa," Mirror Hermione replied with a faint smile, glad the bitch was dead along with Vernon. "Dobby killed Vernon when he tried to strangle Harry. Needless to say, Harry was kicked out which broke the bloodwards."
"He just caused her to expand in my world, but Ron's death probably changed things enough that he was in a worse mental spot," Hermione mused.
"Probably," Mirror Hermione admitted, not seeing a point in mentioning that Ron had lived for a couple of months before Lucius had him killed. "He nearly killed Draco in a duel because the little shite was being smug about Ron's memory getting wiped which caused his father to murder the Dursleys and my parents."
Hermione winced as she thought about her parents being dead. "Please tell me that he didn't get away with it."
"There wasn't any 'evidence' so Fudge had the charges dismissed," Mirror Hermione complained.
"Fucking Wizarding World," Hermione complained, angry that he'd gotten away with killing a version of her parents and wishing that she was actually surprised.
"If it makes you feel better, they died screaming," Mirror Hermione offered as she wandlessly packed one of the chairs along with the stack of books on it.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, doing her best to ignore the fact that she was glad that they were dead.
"Harry decided that there was no point playing by the rules if the ministry refused to do its job," Mirror Hermione replied with a smile, wishing she'd had the chance to view the memory of their deaths rather than just see the pictures of the aftermath. "Feel free to start levitating the chests through the mirror."
"Sure," Hermione replied as she drew her wand and started levitating one of the chests through the mirror, confident that the group would move them out of the way. "What did he do?"
"Harry found a charm that duplicates a material when it's exposed to a substance or force that you set when you cast it," Mirror Hermione replied.
"I remember that spell, it was a variation of the gemino charm. It's also unstable and hard to cast without something going wrong," Hermione mused, a touch surprised that he'd managed to cast it.
"Unless you just want the substance to duplicate uncontrollably for a couple of minutes," Mirror Hermione replied with a smile. "Harry had Dobby steal Draco's wand and used it to cast the spell on a plate filled with fudge while polyjuiced to look like Draco. After that it was easy to head to Hogsmeade, take the floo to the Ministry and pay an intern to take the fudge to Fudge's office."
"What substance did he link it to?" Hermione asked.
"Stomach acid," Mirror Hermione replied smugly as she moved another pile of books to the chest, rather proud of Harry for that particular bit of vindictive mischief. "The spell wasn't a curse which means the curse detectors weren't triggered and it wasn't a poison which means that any items that he had to detect poison wouldn't have caught it. Harry registered the reason for his visit as 'bribing Fudge', which means that when they investigated to find out how Fudge had been murdered, they found the record of Draco's visit. By that time, Harry had already hit Draco with an obliviate and returned his wand thanks to his cloak. He even had Dobby stash a book on self obliviation in his stuff."
"Let me guess, they jumped to the mistaken conclusion that Draco obliviated himself to hide the evidence?" Hermione asked.
"Exactly," Mirror Hermione replied with a smile. "It was nearly the perfect crime."
"Nearly perfect?" Hermione asked as she sent another chest into the mirror.
"The intern and Fudge's secretary both ate a piece of the fudge, so they ended up dying when the fudge expanded in their stomachs. Harry warned the intern not to eat it and they were a particularly obnoxious Slytherin that was a seventh year our first year so I don't feel as bad about his death as I probably should," Mirror Hermione admitted as she levitated the other comfortable chair that she wanted to keep along with two stacks of books into the chest.
"What about the secretary?" Hermione asked.
"She was a particularly nasty bitch that was responsible for most of the current draconian laws that make it almost impossible for werewolves to find work in Britain," Mirror Hermione replied, glad the bitch was dead. "Draco was tossed through the veil for killing Fudge and Lucius Malfoy ended up committing suicide by Dumbledore in front of a hundred witnesses."
"I'm surprised that Professor Dumbledore killed him," Hermione admitted.
"Killing your parents and causing trouble at the World Cup crossed a line," Mirror Hermione explained. "Dumbledore started showing up to every Death Eater attack he learned about and just killing the Death Eaters, no quarter, no surrender."
"Did they ever manage to catch Pettigrew?" Hermione asked, making a note to get more information later.
"Ginny inherited the rat which meant he was running around the girl's dorm, Crookshanks objected and killed him a couple of days before the Goblet of Fire spit out Harry's name. He changed back and Amelia Bones looked into Sirus's conviction and had it overturned. Harry refused to participate in the tournament and Crouch Junior died screaming which resulted in the school being closed because Dumbledore couldn't protect the students or at least that was what some of the people in the ministry claimed."
"Lovely," Hermione claimed as she went back to sending chests into the mirror.
"Harry and I spent the rest of the year being tutored by Sirius and Remus," Mirror Hermione explained, not seeing a point in mentioning the fact that they'd been killing and robbing Death Eaters with a vengeance, at least until she had a better idea how she'd react. "Everything was getting better until Snape grabbed his arm during an order meeting, screamed in agony and exploded, killing half of the order and Harry."
Hermione winced. "That's nasty."
"Apparently, we were a bit too effective," Mirror Hermione admitted. "Dumbledore managed to survive thanks to several charms on his robes and unleashed hell on the Death Eaters so some of Voldemort's remaining Death Eaters used fiendfyre on the alley, it's gone, same with half of London and the statute of secrecy."
"How bad is it?" Hermione asked.
Mirror Hermione sighed. "About what you'd expect from a horror movie, the goblins closed the bank and the rest of Britain has been shooting or stabbing anyone that waves a stick around or walks around in a robe in public, they've already killed a couple of old ladies that went to the laundromat in their bathrobes and tensions are getting worse."
"In that case, let's hurry," Hermione told her as she increased the pace, wanting to grab the books and leave before something showed up to screw up their plans.
0o0o0
"Do you think she was killing Death Eaters for their libraries?" Mirror Ron asked thoughtfully as he stacked another chest against the wall.
"What makes you think they're books?" Ron asked as he helped Ginny stack one of the heavy chests.
Ginny laughed. "It's a version of Hermione, what else would it be?"
"Gold or ancient magical artifacts?" Ron suggested, fairly sure the chests were filled with books.
"It's probably both," Harry suggested as he levitated another chest over to the wall, making room for the next chest.
Sirius glanced over the rather impressive collection of steamer trunks, none of which actually matched implying that Hermione had picked the chests up at various shops over a period of time rather than all at once. "I thought my family had an impressive, if dark library, she's been collecting."
"Do you think she talked Harry into buying her a library?" Ron asked Harry.
"Maybe she found an estate sale," Harry offered, leaning toward the other Ron's idea, if only because she had a lot of chests and he doubted they contained clothes.
Mirror Hermione stepped out of the mirror followed by Mirror Kreacher and Hermione. "Sorry about that, I wasn't leaving without my library."
"I'd be worried if you would," Mirror Harry offered with a smile.
"Are all of these books?" Ron asked.
"Other than the black chest, don't open that, it contains the shrunken heads of my enemies," Mirror Hermione replied, causing Ron to stare at her in disbelief.
Ginny laughed. "Underwear?"
"School supplies," Mirror Hermione lied, not wanting to explain the actual details of the chest that was her entrance to the infinite library until she made sure they were actually trustworthy and who they looked like.
"Why do you have Kreacher?" Sirius asked.
"Harry left him to me in his will," Mirror Hermione replied as she took the chance to get a better look at the group now that she wasn't worried about Hermione losing her library. "He's been a lot of help dealing with Death Eaters and keeping Dung from robbing me blind."
Sirius glanced at the mirror that was back to showing reflections then focused on the other Hermione. "He's not the most honest of sorts and he probably managed to convince himself that you're better off without anything particularly dodgy or valuable."
"If he steals any of my books, I'll have Kreacher set him on fire," Mirror Hermione warned him.
"I've already told him the library is off limits and he shouldn't be stupid enough to steal from any of Harry's friends but I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Sirius told her, wanting to make sure he didn't get have to listen to a lecture because Dung's sticky fingers resulted in him spontaneously catching fire.
"How did we die?" Ginny asked.
"Ron was murdered by one of Malfoy's goons in the hospital after he got obliviated by Lockhart in the Chamber of Secrets, everyone else died a couple of weeks ago when Voldemort used Snape's dark mark as a bomb, it took out half of the house. The only reason I survived was because I went back for a book and the library has better wards."
"He must have tied another spell to it before the meeting," Sirius mused, relieved that Snape's dark mark was gone so that he couldn't use him as a way to kill everyone.
Mirror Harry sighed. "Something must have pushed him over the edge."
"Dumbledore started killing every Death Eater he found, it made recruiting almost impossible and he was losing people every time he tried attacking people," Mirror Hermione explained. "After the attack, Dumbledore decided to take the gloves off and started killing the death eaters while they were at home, there's no reason to stay with the statute of secrecy broken and people going on witch hunts."
"Welcome home," Harry offered.
"Thank you, can I borrow a shirt and your shower?" Mirror Hermione asked hopefully.
"Let's go, I'll grab some clothes and a towel," Hermione told her alternate as she headed for the door.
Ron waited until Hermione left with the other Hermione. "Do you think that's why she was just wearing a shirt?"
"Her stuff was probably caught in the blast," Ginny suggested as she walked over to look at the mirror, curious what her duplicate would be like. She froze when she realized her reflection was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that was thin enough that she could see her nipples quite clearly.
"Blimey, I didn't need to see that," Ron complained as both Hermione's walked back into the room, having noticed Mrs. Weasley headed their way and decided that they needed backup.
"See what?" Hermione asked.
"Ginny's shirt," Ron replied as he pointed at the mirror.
"What's wrong with her shirt?" Harry asked as he walked over to get a better look at Ginny's reflection.
"Hey," Ron complained.
"Quit being a prat, it's just a shirt," Mirror Ron said, not seeing a problem since Ginny was the one their Mum would yell at.
"I thought you were going to grab a shower?" Mirror Harry asked.
"Mrs Weasley is coming, I wanted backup," Hermione admitted.
Ginny's mind was pulled off the thin shirt when her reflection tapped the watch she was wearing on her left wrist with her finger a couple of times, indicating that there was an issue with time. 'Mum is going to blow her top,' she thought as she stepped through the mirror and into a copy of the library with empty shelves.
Ginny twitched as something slammed into the door from outside, causing the walls to shake and dust to fall from the ceiling.
"Open the fucking door!" someone shouted from the hallway that sounded suspiciously like Malfoy.
Ginny glanced at the blackboard that was propped up next to a couple of suspicious rune covered red sticks and a large red button. "Press button and jump back in mirror!" she read the words then hit the button and jumped back through the mirror as the door shook again.
Mirror Ginny quickly hit the mirror with a finite, not wanting the blast to travel through the mirror on the off chance that the connection hadn't broken like the voice suggested. "Fantastic, I love you guys."
"What's going on?" Ginny asked her duplicate, wishing her alternate had decided to wear something more appropriate.
"No clue," Mirror Ginny admitted. "Half the order was pulled away because of an attack on the queen a couple of weeks ago and then Dung showed up twenty minutes ago saying that everyone was dead and that he'd worked out a deal with Malfoy, something about a marriage contract and that I should leave with him. I stunned the shite out of him and ran for the library. That's when I heard the voice telling me to write a note and prep Hermione's plan S."
"Plan S?" Hermione asked.
"Scorched Earth," Ginny replied with a shrug. "I didn't ask, she just told us to never push the button if we didn't have a portkey or a way out unless we wanted to die."
Mirror Hermione glanced at the bag that Mirror Ginny had grabbed. "How much did you manage to take with you?"
Mirror Ginny shrugged. "Most of Harry's trust vault and all of the books in the Black library. Hermione called it a go bag. I've spent the last week hiding and trying to ignore the sirens in the distance and the bombs. I'm just glad that I'm alive."
"I'm glad you made it," Mirror Harry offered.
"Speaking of making it, I’ve lost everyone and my biggest regret is not showing them how much they meant to me, social norms be damned! Everyone here, barring Krecher, is someone I love so do I have any takers?" Mirror Ginny asked as she glanced around the room, giving everyone else a smile.
"Yes," Mirror Harry replied without hesitation, causing Ron to scowl at him. "What? She's offering and I'm not currently in a relationship."
"Wait? That's all I had to do?!" Ginny blurted out then promptly went beet red when she realized what she'd just said.
Sirius shook his head, knowing that he'd lose the ability to tease Remus about Tonks if he admitted that he wouldn't mind having some fun with the girl in a couple of years if she was still interested because she was in great shape and probably had a decent sense of humor if she was anything like their Ginny. "Pass, you're less than half my age so hit me up in a decade."
"I'd want dinner first," Mirror Hermione offered, thinking about some of the books she'd found on ritual sex that required multiple people.
"You're not supposed to-" Hermione stopped talking when a chime rang. "What's that for?"
"Molly," Sirius replied as he waved his wand and conjured a jacket. "I wanted enough warning to hide a book," he admitted as he tossed the jacket to Mirror Ginny, wanting to avoid listening to Molly explode because of the girl's outfit.
"Thanks," Mirror Ginny replied as she pulled the jacket on, turning her outfit into a mostly acceptable outfit.
"Do we have a story?" Hermione asked.
"Keep it short and simple," Sirius suggested in a whisper, barely finishing before the door opened and Mrs. Weasley walked in.
Mrs. Weasley glanced around the room then focused on Sirius. "What's going on?"
"They jumped out of a portal, I was just about to talk to Albus about it," Sirius told her, figuring bringing Albus into things would be the easiest way to keep her from going into a rant.
Molly turned and focused on Hermione. "A portal?"
"Several actually," Mirror Hermione agreed, figuring they'd need Dumbledore's help to get official identities, unless they wanted to deal with the ministry or the mundane government which would probably take months or years. "It's been a very long day, I want a shower and a change of clothes before I dredge everything up, again."
"Let's go," Hermione told Mirror Ginny, wanting to get her out of the room before Molly could focus on her clothes.
"Fantastic," Mirror Ginny replied as she slipped past her mum's alternate and followed Hermione, wondering if she could talk them into sharing a shower with her to 'conserve' water.
"Nice to see you alive," Mirror Ron offered when his mum opened her mouth to argue, deciding to take one for the team and distract her.
"What?" Mrs. Weasley sputtered, thoroughly distracted.
0o0o0
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Don't worry, the white rabbits are very fluffy and helpful.
Heather Wimberly
Oh no..mirror worlds drive me literally insane.
Mist of Shadows
Honestly, if it works, it works.
ZeroLink21
Yes the absolutely best way to distract Molly is to say she died in another world lol tftc
