"I show not your face but your heart's desire. But read backwards, like in a mirror. Clever."
Alexandra took a glance once again at the image of her parents in the mirror. Already, she felt compelled to touch it, to come closer to touch her family. But that was not her family wasn't it? Her family was dead and buried or in jail, and Alexandra hadn't known them. Whatever was in the mirror was only a reflection of her desires. Nothing more.
As she thought this, the reflection changed once more, depicting her with Hermione, Nigel and a few other first-years laughing and partying. By the looks of it, her friends and she were standing in the Great Hall, which looked decorated in Ravenclaw colours. A Cup of impressive size was posed next to them. Alexandra nodded negatively. Then it changed again, showing a different Alexandra surrounded by young children. And again. All images reflecting things Alexandra had wanted at one point or another of in her eleven years and a half of life. Things she had never told someone else. Desires she didn't want someone else to know.
She closed her eyes for an instant, trying to regain her self-control. When she reopened them, the image in the mirror had changed again. Unlike the previous one, Alexandra's reflection was not present there. The mirror showed what looked like the interior of a cathedral, crowded with people. Even more interesting, judging by the clothes these people were wearing, it looked like there was wizard and non-wizards being together. Alexandra had no time to wonder at this impossibility. The crowd divided in two, and a woman in a long emerald dress advanced in direction of the altar. As she bent in front of a man looking like a priest, she realized what the scene was. It was a crowning ceremony, further confirmed by the priest posing a crown of gold with emeralds and sapphires on her head.
The woman rose and saluted the crowd, which erupted in cheers and applauds. The mirror's view then dived, giving her a prime sight of the newly-crowned woman. Long black hair. Flamboyant green eyes. A face more feminine, more beautiful than the one she watched every time she looked into a mirror. The woman was her. Or rather, an older version of herself.
"Enough of this game." she whispered. "I don't want to be a ruler, too much paperwork and too many hours of work."
Her older self in the mirror looked at her with a sense of amusement, as though she had waited for this remark. The rest caught Alexandra completely flat-footed.
One instant there was an older version of herself in the mirror; the rest there was a flock of ravens and the mirror shone like magic itself had decided to imbue it. A stream of light came to touch her right hand, provoking a terrible amount of pain in her. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was terribly unpleasant.
The light of the mirror vanished and her normal reflection came back. Definitely weird and creepy.
"Show me where the Philosopher Stone is." Alexandra ordered to the mirror, out of breath of the last ordeal. She had passed too long in this room. It was already at least two hours she had left the Ravenclaw tower, and while she had until early morning to go back, Alexandra had also to go back through the obstacles that she had already passed to get here.
The normal reflection of her smiled and flickered. A moment later, the reflection smiled at her. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket – and as it did so, Alexandra felt something heavy drop into her real pocket. Somehow – incredibly – she'd got the Stone.
"That-that was the protection? Asking for the Stone?" Asked Alexandra, taking the Stone in her hands. Her reflection seemed insulted by that, and with a finger touched its head.
"Intention." The reflection nodded, as pleased she had understood the solution of the enigma.
Alexandra turned back, put back the Stone in her pocket, and began to walk away.
Somehow, the mirror had known she had no intention to use the Philosopher Stone and had given it to her as a result. How could the mirror knew that? Taking a new drink from the potion protecting from the black flames (which had fortunately replenished in the last minutes), Alexandra left the mirror room without turning back.
Arriving in the room of Snape 's challenge, she took a minute or two to read again the riddle and drink the potion protecting from violet fire before replacing the tiny bottle she had taken. Passing the room where the troll was still lying unconscious, Alexandra tried to guess what had really been planned with the magical mirror she had seen.
That the Headmaster himself had placed the mirror there was quite obvious. She was ready to bet this type of mirror wasn't found at the first corner of Diagon Alley. Dreams, desire... the mirror was able to show everything. It was dangerous, even with her limited view of the Wizarding World. Using it to protect the Philosopher Stone was a brilliant idea, except if the person searching it wasn't interested in using it. Someone like Alexandra.
Alexandra had had the time to guess in her research for Operation Grand Chelem what she would do if she had a Philosopher Stone. Eternal Life? Living eternally sounded cool in theory, but Alexandra didn't like the idea in practise. Seeing everyone die around you, one by one, until only yourself are still alive, appeared to be a very unpleasant fate. Unlimited gold? For all intent and purposes, this was exactly what she had been granted when she came at Gringotts, compared to the sums of money she had at the Dursleys. At the age of seventeen, she would be even wealthier. Taking her broom from where she had left it in the chess room, Alexandra mounted it and flew across the obstacles of Flitwick and Sprout. The chessmen were still reconstituting themselves and did not oppose her.
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