#172 - The magic mirror changes

“Muen, come quickly! Hagrid had Hedwig deliver a letter to you.”

Harry ran over with a letter as soon as he squeezed through the portrait hole into the common room.

Muen curiously took the letter, then noticed Ron and Hermione on the sofa in front of the fireplace, seemingly waiting for him.

“Thanks.”

Just as Muen took the letter and was about to open it, Ron walked over and asked curiously,

“Muen, why don't you buy an owl?”

Ron remembered very clearly that Muen was a generous little wizard who was willing to give gold Galleons to Bouncing.

The price of an owl shouldn't be anything to Muen.

“That's right, owls can not only deliver letters, but also send gifts to friends at Christmas.”

Harry also very much agreed with Ron's statement, although he wasn't sure if he would receive any gifts for Christmas.

Muen had never thought about buying an owl before; in his opinion, Bouncing was enough.

However, Harry's words surprised Muen.

“Do you have to give gifts for Christmas?”

Muen asked softly.

“Of course! Not only do you give gifts, but you also receive many gifts from friends.”

Ron actually liked this holiday very much, even if the most valuable gift he received every year was an old sweater, he never tired of it.

At this moment, Hermione, who had already walked over, immediately caught a loophole in Muen's words.

“Have you never celebrated Christmas?”

Muen was very afraid that this little witch would immediately say, "And you say you're not the son of a tramp."

So he immediately gave a disingenuous answer.

“Of course I have.”

“Okay, I hope you're telling the truth.”

Hearing Muen's perfunctory answer, Hermione pretended to be indifferent and sat back on the sofa.

She already knew that this classmate of hers had secrets, and she had already planned to start exploring Muen's secrets.

Muen had indeed never celebrated Christmas, but he had celebrated similar festivals in another world.

In the town of Xilin, Muen remembered the three most important festivals.

The Bathing Festival, the Sabbath Festival, and the Harvest Festival.

At the end of each autumn, when the Harvest Festival arrived, the neighbors in Old Soldier Lane would give each other some of the best crops of the year.

Muen guessed that this should be similar to Christmas.

“Actually, Christmas not only gives you gifts, but also a two-week vacation. Starting next weekend, are you staying at school, Muen?”

Harry had already registered on the list of people staying at school for Christmas. He was very sure that doing so would allow him to have the best Christmas ever.

Ron and his two twin brothers would also stay, because the Weasley couple were going to Romania this year to visit Charlie, who was raising dragons.

“I'll think about it.”

Muen couldn't be sure yet.

He disappeared from the dormitory for three minutes on weekend nights.

And during the Christmas holidays, the little wizards would inevitably revel and stay up late.

At that time, the possibility of him being discovered would be very high.

“Okay, anyway, the list registration doesn't close until next week, but tonight, let's go take a look at the Mirror of Erised, okay? Harry said he'd feel more at ease with you there.”

Muen of course knew what Ron meant by "more at ease."

He looked at the curious gazes of the two little wizards in front of him, and the equally hopeful expression on Hermione's face across from him. Muen nodded helplessly.

“Okay, but we have to come back early.”

Nighttime castle roaming meant delaying bedtime, and delaying bedtime would delay getting up early the next day, which would ultimately affect the time spent learning magic.

So Muen wasn't very interested in things like nighttime castle roaming.

But considering the requests of his three friends, he reluctantly agreed.

The only thing Muen could do now was to balance all the time and try not to delay the progress of learning magic.

Seeing Muen agree, Harry and Ron happily slapped each other's hands.

In their opinion, with Muen joining this team, the nighttime castle roaming plan was already more than half successful.

Muen didn't keep paying attention to these two little wizards. Noticing that they were chatting about other things, Muen opened the letter Hagrid sent him to the side.

Muen, I've had a very special little idea, but I might need a little bit of your help.

If you have time, you can come to the wooden hut by the Forbidden Forest on Wednesday afternoon.

After reading the contents of the letter, Muen guessed that Hagrid's little idea shouldn't be very small.

After all, for this tall keeper of the Forbidden Forest, the range he gestured for "small" was far beyond that of ordinary people.

However, Muen was more curious about what the idea was specifically, so he immediately wrote a reply to Hagrid.

After drying the ink on the paper, Muen borrowed Harry's Hedwig again and troubled it to make a trip.

For this, Muen paid two strands of Flame Slug meat as a reward.

After 11 p.m., the little wizards in the Gryffindor common room gradually began to return to their dormitories.

After Wood returned to the dormitory with the newly researched Quidditch match record book, only the four little wizards who had been planning for a long time were left in the common room.

“Let's go, no one's around~”

Although it was the second time roaming the castle at night, Ron was still a little excited.

Even though he was still in the common room and hadn't set off, he kept his voice very low.

“Don't worry, just follow me.”

After coming out of the portrait door, Muen became the leader of this nighttime roaming team.

Relying on his memory ability far superior to others, Muen could accurately recall the route he and Harry had returned on last night. Even though the stairs had changed dozens of times during this time, Muen could still distinguish the direction through subtle differences.

After walking down five changing staircases, no problems occurred, which relaxed the nervous little wizards a lot.

“It doesn't seem that difficult!”

Ron was originally worried that there would be accidents if there were too many people, after all, there were four of them last time, and they were almost caught by Filch.

“It's not that difficult, but it also depends on who you come with.”

Hermione had been following closely behind Muen. After hearing Ron's statement, she frowned and replied.

However, just after Hermione finished speaking, Harry suddenly discovered something very familiar to him.

A set of tall silver armor.

“It's here! I knew your ability was most suitable for nighttime castle roaming.”

After confirming the armor, Harry looked at Muen with some envy.

“That's right, if there's a next time......

Ron wanted to say something more, but Muen had already taken the lead in entering the abandoned classroom.

Discovering that the Mirror of Erised was still in its original place, Muen took out his wand and cast a [Luminescence Charm].

“You can look first, I'll be responsible for guarding.”

“Okay, I'll go first.”

“Then you have to be quick.”

Muen didn't care about the order of the little wizards. He first took his wand and went to the place where he had found the footprints yesterday.

The thing Muen was worried about still happened.

The remaining half of the footprint had completely disappeared.

Muen took out his wand and shone it around again, but he didn't find anything.

“Could it be that someone else has been here?”

When Muen first discovered the footprints, he couldn't determine the time they were left behind.

After all, this is an abandoned classroom, possibly left behind by people a long time ago.

But only one day has passed, and half of the slipper footprint has disappeared, which can only prove that someone has been here during this day.

After using [Lumos Solem] without any findings, Moon took out his monocle again, feeling uneasy, and observed the surroundings. Except for the Mirror of Erised emitting a pale white magical energy, there were indeed no other discoveries in the entire classroom.

Moon carefully checked the entire classroom before turning to look at his three classmates.

Harry still saw his parents and a large group of family members in the mirror.

Ron, on the other hand, saw himself as a grown-up.

"Oh, look, I'm the Head Boy, and I'm wearing Bill's old badge, and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup, and I'm the captain of the Quidditch team!"

Ron's tone became more and more excited, and in the end, even he himself opened his mouth in surprise unconsciously.

"What's happening in this mirror is definitely my future!"

Ron said excitedly again.

However, the two little wizards next to him looked at him strangely.

"The book says that the Mirror of Erised only shows a person's desires, and also, Ron, you'd better keep your voice down."

Hermione reminded him impatiently from the side, she couldn't stand boys who liked to brag.

"But the me in here is too real."

Ron wouldn't give up his guess because of what others said.

But just as he wanted to watch for a while longer, Hermione couldn't wait to stand in front of the mirror.

"Oh, wait, I haven't seen enough yet."

Seeing Hermione's back appear in front of him, Ron's voice unconsciously increased again.

"Keep it down, Ron."

Hearing Moon's reminder, Ron reluctantly left the range of the Mirror of Erised.

"What did you see, Hermione?"

"I... I seem to have become a professor, and still teaching Transfiguration! I've also published many books, been in the newspapers, and been interviewed by many people."

Seeing Hermione's surprised and satisfied expression, Moon's resentment towards this mirror grew even more.

He couldn't understand why his classmates saw themselves, but Moon saw a cracked scarlet moon and those strange scenes.

However, Hermione's will was equally firm. She only stood in front of the mirror for three minutes before consciously walking away. "I think the book is right, the harm of the mirror far outweighs the benefits. It will make people addicted and become unrealistic at all."

Although Hermione explained it correctly, it couldn't stop Harry and Ron's eager hope to see it again.

Seeing the two little wizards still pushing each other, Hermione said helplessly.

"Wait a moment, Moon hasn't seen it yet."

After Hermione finished speaking, the three little wizards turned their heads and stared at Moon.

Moon, who was still on guard, had actually been hesitating.

After all, the scene he saw was too strange and had nothing to do with himself.

But seeing that everyone had given him space, Moon still walked over automatically.

"No... What's changed?"

"What's changed?"

Moon didn't answer Harry's question immediately, he just kept staring at the scene in the mirror.

The scarlet moon was still the same as before, but the obvious crack had become much smaller.

The Whomping Willow, which was originally pitch black and ghostly, had also regained a bit of green.

Most importantly, the Thestral, which was originally black, had now turned into a unicorn.

"Why is this?"

"What did you see?"

Seeing the change in Moon's expression, Hermione asked worriedly from the side.

"It's similar to last night, but the changes are a bit big."

After Moon described the scene he saw, Hermione thought for a moment and said in a deep voice.

"If the Mirror of Erised shows a person's desires, then I think everyone's desires should also change."

Hearing Hermione's uncertain tone, Moon hadn't had time to respond when Ron added.

"What's in the mirror must be the future, because the future will also change."

However, his point of view obviously couldn't get the approval of the rigorous Hermione.

The two little wizards' voices became louder and louder, and Harry took the opportunity to stand in front of the mirror.

But at this moment, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor outside.

"Quick, let's leave!"

Hearing Moon's reminder, the little wizards quickly followed the team and ran towards the stairs in the distance.

Just as they had walked up two steps, Mrs. Norris led Filch to this classroom.

"Meow ~" (Where are they?)

After sniffing hard for a while, finding that the familiar smell was gradually dissipating, Mrs. Norris reluctantly left.

"Dear, it doesn't matter, we'll go find them somewhere else."

Filch didn't blame Mrs. Norris, but followed his cat step by step and left the classroom.

Not long after they left, a pair of big footprints appeared on the ground in front of the Mirror of Erised again.

"It seems that Fox was right, maybe we can really catch this fleeting shooting star."

When this old voice echoed in the abandoned classroom, Moon and the others had already returned to the portrait entrance. After checking the password, the Fat Lady complained impatiently about the little wizards going out late at night.

"Can you please not disturb my sleep in the future!"

"Okay, we'll try our best."

"Not try your best, it's definitely! Child."

Entering the common room again, it was already one o'clock in the morning.

They hadn't been discovered by anyone along the way, but just as they were about to enter the dormitory, they were still blocked by a little beast.

"Chirp chirp ~"

(Caught you ~)

After winter came, Bouncy's sleeping time became longer and longer.

After waking up tonight, it found that Moon hadn't returned, and thought that a new game of hide-and-seek had begun.

So it started searching for Moon's whereabouts in the common room. "You're really amazing."

Moon picked up Bouncy from the ground, then turned to look at the others.

"You guys go back and rest."

Seeing the little wizards leave, Bouncy tried to open its eyes wide and looked at Moon.

"Chirp?" (Went exploring?)

"How do you know?"

"Chirp chirp ~"

(Mrs. Norris told me.)

When Bouncy said this, it raised its head, as if saying I knew it a long time ago.

"Oh, so Mrs. Norris is a little cat who likes to snitch, it seems that I should have less contact with it in the future." "Chirp chirp!" (That's not true!)

On the way back to the dormitory, Bouncy kept defending Mrs. Norris.

It was afraid that its good friend would be misunderstood by others because of its words.