Sterling felt his heart lurch with shock, quickly closing his magical vision and approaching the mysterious mirror with cautious steps.
This was an extraordinarily ornate mirror, cast entirely in gleaming gold that caught and reflected the moonlight streaming through dusty windows. Two strange claw-like stands supported its magnificent frame, while a peculiar inscription was carved along its ornate top edge.
No matter how Sterling examined those supports, they resembled dragon claws with their curved, predatory elegance.
"Sterling! Oh, what an incredibly tall mirror."
"Merlin's beard, how much could this thing sell for?"
Harry and Ron had their attention completely captured by the mirror the moment they entered, drawn like moths to a flame. They gathered around it eagerly, squinting at the strange inscription in the dim light.
Sterling moved quickly to stop them. Was something carved on what was obviously an alchemical creation safe to recite casually?
But he never expected Ron's mouth to move so quickly. Before Sterling's hand could cover those traitorous lips, a string of inscription flowed out without any stumbling whatsoever!
When you memorised potion recipes, how did you not realise your pronunciation was this good? Reading such long, archaic sentences faster than simple words!
Sterling glared at him with exasperation, though fortunately nothing catastrophic happened.
"Sterling, why are you glaring at me?" Ron's voice carried genuine hurt, as if he'd been unfairly accused.
"Sigh." Sterling helplessly covered his face with both hands. "Do you remember the wizard Professor Vitam told us about who accidentally recited inscriptions on a pharaoh's sarcophagus while exploring pyramids?"
"How do you know this isn't a dangerous spell? What if it suddenly summons a swarm of flesh-eating scarab beetles inside your body? Professor Vitam's lessons were completely wasted on you!"
Ron looked properly chastened, his freckled face paling slightly.
Actually, he wasn't usually this thoughtless. It was just that being with Harry allowed him to share cognitive load, while being near Sterling made him outsource even more thinking to his brilliant friend.
Ron had become a walking brain outsourcing company.
When "reliable" or "Ravenclaw" units appeared nearby, he automatically abandoned portions of his thinking ability while proportionally increasing his hands-on capability. This effect seemed to have no upper limit.
Special note: When "Ron" and "Harry" were both present with "Ravenclaw" nearby, rational thought would be completely abandoned.
Before Sterling finished lecturing Ron, he glanced left and nearly couldn't suppress a sharp cry of alarm. Harry was staring at the mirror in absolute rapture, as if witnessing the most precious treasure imaginable within its silvered depths.
Inscriptions on alchemical creations couldn't be read casually, but could the creations themselves be used safely?
How mirror-shaped alchemical artefacts worked wasn't exactly difficult to imagine, and this was infinitely worse than Ron reciting random inscriptions! Sterling immediately grabbed Harry's shoulders and pulled him away from the mirror's hypnotic surface.
He felt his sadness had completely evaporated. No time for melancholy when preventing his friends from potential magical disasters.
Who exactly had been responsible for researching these reckless Gryffindors anyway?
"Sterling! I saw my parents!" Harry's green eyes blazed with desperate joy. "They're smiling at me! And you're all there too, everyone by my side! We're having Christmas together in the most beautiful house!"
Oh? Just seeing illusions? That seemed manageable. From Harry's entranced expression moments ago, Sterling had wondered if his soul was being absorbed by the mirror. Novels always described such artefacts that way.
"Harry, you should exercise extreme caution around alchemical creations you don't understand..."
"But I can see my parents hugging me!" Harry's voice cracked with longing. "They look exactly like in the photo album Hagrid gave me. They're right there, reaching for me..."
Seeing crystalline tears gathering in Harry's emerald eyes, Sterling couldn't help loosening his protective grip. The next moment Harry broke free and positioned himself before the mirror again, looking as if he wanted to dive headfirst into its reflective surface.
"Sterling, Harry he..." Ron tugged Sterling's sleeve with worried fingers. He somewhat understood Harry's desperate longing for his murdered parents, but he also recognised that what Harry saw were merely illusions.
Sterling observed Harry before the mirror, feeling his own understanding deepen painfully.
No, he definitely understood too well.
Harry, guided by both Sterling's and Terry's patient teaching, actually wouldn't lose to ordinary Ravenclaws in accumulated knowledge. He couldn't possibly fail to realise everything in the mirror was an elaborate falsehood.
He simply didn't want to shatter this beautiful lie.
Sterling sighed deeply, his breath forming small clouds in the cold air. "Harry, let me examine it first, okay? I need to determine if it contains any hidden dangers."
"If there's no problem, you can continue looking. I won't interfere or judge."
Sterling gently pulled Harry away again. This time the boy didn't resist, though his gaze lingered hungrily on the mirror's surface.
Sterling took two steadying breaths, the cold air sharp in his lungs, and cast two layers of Draconic Protego on himself. Then he stepped before the mirror with careful deliberation.
The mirror surface that should have reflected his ordinary appearance rippled like disturbed water. A flower sea materialised, an endless ocean of white and gold petals stretching beyond the horizon.
A humanoid radiance as tall as a cathedral tower, its shape frustratingly unclear, knelt while holding Sterling in its luminous embrace. The warmth radiating from the vision felt almost real.
Beyond the flower sea stretched tranquil darkness, scattered light points dotting an infinite sky like diamonds on black velvet. Looking up revealed something huge and azure blue...
The image suddenly fluctuated violently, spreading countless ripples like a pond disturbed by heavy rain.
Then another scene materialised. This time Sterling recognised it immediately: a massive book signing stage, towers of novels stacked high, and fans from both Muggle and magical worlds cheering enthusiastically below.
Identical to the illusion Sterling had witnessed when first learning Mourning the Demon Dragon.
Sterling originally hadn't wanted to analyse whatever images appeared, only intending to check if the magic mirror had absorbed anything dangerous from him. Originally.
But the moment that flower sea from Galahad's story materialised, his attention was captured by an inexplicable feeling that gripped his heart like a vice.
When the scene shifted to the book signing, that overwhelming emotion simply vanished. He was someone who'd practised Dragon Magic extensively and wouldn't be so easily ensnared by manufactured desire.
Yes, desire. That's what this was.
Once Sterling regained his composure, he detected magic remarkably similar to that contained within Maleficent's Mourning the Demon Dragon inheritance book. Undoubtedly, this magic mirror reflected the user's deepest desires with supernatural accuracy.
So Harry saw his beloved parents, while Sterling witnessed worldwide literary fame.
But what was that first vision? Sterling remained unclear about its meaning.
Speaking of emotional responses, yes, he'd felt something profound, but Sterling was certain this wasn't his "desire". That emotion hadn't carried longing's characteristic ache.
"No immediate problem." Sterling yielded the mirror's coveted position with reluctance.
"This mirror shows what your heart most desires. I didn't detect any harmful effects on myself during exposure."
Hearing Sterling's reassurance, Harry immediately rushed back to the mirror like a man dying of thirst finding water.
Ron also squeezed before the reflective surface, not blocking Harry but positioning himself behind his friend while peering over his shoulder. Soon Ron's face also bloomed with joyful recognition.
Sterling studied that cryptic inscription with newfound focus. With proper clues available, this originally challenging text yielded its secrets readily.
"I show not your face but your heart's desire."
"Just reading it backwards? Really elegant solution." Sterling regarded this mirror with increasingly complex emotions.
This phrase... he'd encountered it before.
In the bottom right corner of the first page of the Mourning the Demon Dragon magic book, written in Maleficent's distinctive script.
Mystery solved. This mirror was undoubtedly an Avalonian creation, intimately connected to Dragon Magic. Perhaps even linked directly to Maleficent herself, since she was Dragon Magic's acknowledged master.
This marked Sterling's first encounter with genuine Avalonian artefacts in the present world, excluding items he'd personally transported.
If not for his current inability to locate Maleficent, he'd probably be desperate to reach Avalon and demand immediate answers.
As for now...
Sterling pulled a wooden match from his pyjama pocket, using Transfiguration to reshape it into a comfortable chair. The transformation felt effortless, magic flowing through him like warm honey.
Harry and Ron had accompanied him through this strange night for so long. He would quietly accompany them while they gazed upon their deepest dreams, no matter how illusory.
Anyway, countless mysteries surrounded his existence. If he had to immediately solve each puzzle, how could he possibly live any semblance of a normal life?
The three friends settled into comfortable silence, moonlight streaming through ancient windows while two boys lost themselves in impossible visions and one kept patient watch over their dreaming hearts.