Dudley stroked the Invisibility Cloak. This thing felt like it was woven from water, with a cool and refreshing sensation to the touch.
"Use it well..." Dudley looked at the note Dumbledore had left, his gaze flickering slightly.
"How to use it well? This thing isn't something that needs to be used under normal circumstances! Wearing it means you can do whatever you want. Breaking some school rules would be the least of it, or even..."
Thinking of this, Dudley suddenly realized something, and his breathing stopped slightly.
"Or even, you could directly bypass everyone and enter the third-floor corridor without worrying about being discovered. Everything seems to make sense now," Dudley thought to himself.
"Professor Dumbledore, you've really paved the way completely. All that's left is to tell Harry to wear the Invisibility Cloak and go look in that corridor on the third floor. With Harry's abilities, getting the Philosopher's Stone wouldn't be very difficult. So why does Dumbledore want to do this?"
Dudley couldn't quite understand. He knew too little to analyze the true nature of the situation.
Dudley tried on the Invisibility Cloak and found it was really very useful. Not only could it conceal the body, but it also concealed one's aura without any leakage. Unless you encountered someone like Dudley with extremely high spiritual intuition, no one would discover any problems.
This thing could truly be described as a treasure. Even though Dudley hadn't seen other Invisibility Cloaks, he could feel that Harry's cloak should be very special. Other Invisibility Cloaks probably couldn't achieve such effects.
After breakfast, Dudley joined everyone in snowball fights and attended the Christmas dinner, making the day very fulfilling and interesting. The only regret was that Dudley kept thinking about the tarot cards, which made him somewhat worried.
In the evening, Hedwig finally returned with Petunia's letter.
"The tarot cards were bought at a small shop. They hadn't been opened, and they didn't know two cards were missing."
Looking at the letter from his mother, Dudley frowned. At the end of the letter, Petunia asked if Dudley wanted the tarot cards sent back so they could go to the shop to settle accounts.
Dudley thought about it and decided to have them go to the shop to see if two cards had been overlooked. It would be best if they could find them. If not, so be it.
However, this letter was destined not to be sent tonight. Hedwig absolutely refused to move, and even though Dudley gave it many small dried fish, it still sat there, staring at Dudley with its eyes, motionless.
"Alright, alright, we'll send it in a couple of days, okay?" Dudley helplessly petted the owl.
Meow.
This action caused Dudley's big orange cat's displeasure. It ran over and meowed at Dudley, as if saying Dudley had another cat outside.
After the night grew deep and quiet, Dudley fell into a deep sleep.
Just past two in the morning, Dudley felt someone shaking him and immediately woke up. He saw a pair of hands without a body beside him. Having just woken up and not being fully alert, Dudley almost immediately chanted a curse.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and realized this might be Harry wearing the Invisibility Cloak.
"Dudley, wake up, wake up quickly," Harry's lowered voice came through.
"What's wrong?" Dudley sat up.
"I discovered something. Come with me to see it." Even though Harry's voice was very low, Dudley could still hear his excitement.
"What is it?" Dudley was puzzled. Harry looked like this... could it be that he went out wandering in the middle of the night wearing the Invisibility Cloak? What did he discover? Did he go to the third-floor corridor?
"Come with me and you'll know. Ron, Ron, wake up quickly. I'll take you to see something good."
Harry also woke Ron up. The three hid under the Invisibility Cloak and quietly left Gryffindor Tower.
Under Harry's guidance, they soon arrived at an abandoned classroom. Many desks and chairs were messily piled in the corners, and in the center of this classroom was something that obviously didn't belong here... a mirror.
This was a very magnificent and imposing mirror, reaching all the way to the ceiling, with an ornate golden frame, supported by two claw-shaped feet at the bottom, with a line of runic-like characters carved at the top.
"You woke us up in the middle of the night just to show us this mirror?" Ron said in surprise.
Dudley said nothing. He looked at the line of text at the top of the mirror, which seemed to be Latin. To avoid the situation of not recognizing words left by travelers after crossing over, Dudley had specifically learned several languages, including Chinese and Latin. Although his mastery wasn't very good, he could still understand simple sentences. After all, he wasn't an ordinary person... Beyonders had bonuses in many aspects.
Harry didn't explain anything, just had Ron look at what was in the mirror, his face bearing a happy smile. Dudley was still studying that line of text.
Soon, he discovered that the line wasn't meant to be read normally, but needed to be read backwards.
"I show not your face but your heart's desire," Dudley murmured softly.
"The Mirror of Erised. Erised spelled backwards is desire."
Dudley finally understood the meaning of those runes.
"Do you see? My father and mother, they're smiling at me," Harry said to Ron and Dudley with a smile.
"No, that's not right. I see something different. I became Head Boy, I also became Quidditch team captain, leading the team to win both the House Cup and Quidditch Cup. My goodness, can this mirror predict the future?" Ron said in amazement.
"What?" Harry was stunned. "This... impossible. My parents are already dead. They... How can this be?"
Dudley sighed. "This mirror doesn't predict the future. It just shows you your heart's desire. In other words, whatever you want to see, it will present."
"So that's how it is..." Harry's expression became dejected. His originally happy smile disappeared, leaving only loneliness.
"Harry, you still have me, and Dudley. Isn't he your brother..." Ron comforted Harry.
"Mm." Harry just lowered his head and hummed in response, then changed the subject. "Dudley, look quickly and see what you desire most?"
"Me?" Dudley pursed his lips. Right now, he didn't seem to have anything he particularly desired.
But Dudley still stood in front of the mirror and looked into the Mirror of Erised. Ron and Harry looked at Dudley curiously. They couldn't see what was in the mirror and could only wait for Dudley to tell them.
Crack...
The Mirror of Erised shattered.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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