hogwarts is twice as better during the holidays–– the halls are spacious, the chattering decreased, the glass windows are frosted from the snow, and they serve the best hot cocoa in the morning. it’s something that he has always anticipated all year, and despite the fact that he hasn’t come home for a good six years, jongdae doesn’t feel lonely. he has friends, a load of assignments, and the whole castle to wander around when the authorities aren’t looking.
jongdae thought he knew his way around the castle already since he had numerous night walks last semester, but the idea changed when he found himself inside a room he hasn’t quite visited yet. the walls are almost bare, save for old painting of unmoving wizards and windows tainted with dust. he walked further inside, eyes wandering everywhere until he’s greeted by a giant glass mirror.
he couldn’t quite decipher how something as common as this could make him awe. was this magical? jongdae carefully held the surface, his palm touching cold, cold glass. it didn’t seem like it –– but the thought slipped after hearing a voice, and then his reflection suddenly changed from one to two bodies.
“jeez, do you think jumping on people in an abandoned room is normal?” he looks at her, now wondering where and how she got there. jongdae shakes his head, dismissing the thoughts as he answers. “i see us.”
the word ‘us’ originated from nights spent together, talking aimlessly over things jongdae didn’t just blurt out to anyone, of conversations kept secret and sympathies for each other’s tales. “what are you doing here?”
for the longest time, the mirror of erised seemed to be an urban legend that keep the students of hogwarts on their toes. it gives people something to talk about but no one really, save perhaps a few, has ever really found the magical object so the stories circulating are often made up or exaggerated versions of one that has been passed out from one year to the next. in her mind, adara has conjured up so many scenarios of how her own experience with the mirror will go should she ever find it but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine it to turn out like this.
“you see us?” she calls out, bewildered, then proceeds to take a step closer to the mirror itself though her eyes refuse to land on the reflection before her. jongdae is one of the very people she can call a friend but their relationship has never really warranted the descriptive word “us” with this one being a first. “i couldn’t sleep.” the answer is simple and honest and it that split second of courage, she turns her head to finally look at the mirror.
it’s really anticlimactic and really sort of disappointing the way the mirror shows a perfect reflection of the two of them in their pajamas. adara blinks once, twice, then looks again in silent hope for the reflection to change but it refuses to do so. she stares at jongdae in the mirror but nothing comes out - no crown an scepter, no confetti, no gold coins and not even them in their older years; just the two of them standing side by side. “is this thing broken?” she asks with a chuckle, trying to make sense of what is happening.
