Harry didn’t notice the strange tension between Kyle and Albus Dumbledore at all.
Standing off to the side with an expression full of embarrassment and shame, his eyes darted around, not daring to look Dumbledore in the eye.
He looked thoroughly mortified, though this was standard Gryffindor demeanor upon being caught breaking school rules.
Kyle knew the look well—he saw it dozens or hundreds of times a year.
“D-Dumbledore, Professor…
we didn’t mean to wander around at night.
It’s because…
because…” “Now, now, Harry.
It is the holidays, after all.
Nothing can stop a young wizard’s desire to explore the castle during break.
It’s really no big deal, is it?” Before Harry could finish, Dumbledore interrupted him with a smile.
His words left Kyle entirely speechless.
Since when could school rules be brushed aside like this?
As expected of the Savior.
“So, Harry, I take it you’ve discovered the mirror?” Harry didn’t pay attention to Dumbledore’s actual question.
Hearing that Dumbledore knew about the mirror, he blurted out eagerly: “So it’s called the Mirror…
Is it yours, Professor?
Why did I see my parents in it?
Does it mean I’ll see them again someday?” “Calm down, Harry.
Do not let the Mirror bewitch you.” Rather than answering Harry right away, Dumbledore turned his eyes to Kyle.
“Mr.
Shafiq, since you also know about the Mirror, would you be interested in experiencing its magic?” As he spoke, he stepped toward the classroom containing the mirror.
From the moment he entered the room, Kyle had maintained Occlumency and made sure never to step within the mirror’s field of vision.
After all, he had no desire to let his innermost thoughts be laid bare by a mirror.
At that moment, Harry stood quietly in front of the mirror, his face a complex mixture of sorrow and happiness, deep sadness tinged with a faint ray of hope.
Kyle had never seen so many conflicting emotions on a single face before.
Yet, considering Harry’s past and what he was seeing in the mirror, his feelings were understandable.
By now, Kyle recognized the mirror’s name and origins from the inscription engraved along its top frame: *Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi*.
This was the famous Mirror of Erised, rumored to have been forged by Goblins, with the inscription bearing the creator’s name.
Feeling a sting of sympathy for Harry, Kyle turned to Dumbledore.
“No, thank you, sir.
I believe I know clearly what I want, and I have no need for false images in a mirror to comfort or fulfill myself.” “You clearly possess a firm willpower, Mr.
Shafiq.
By the way, may I call you Kyle?” “It’s my honor, Professor.” Their conversation didn’t disturb Harry in the slightest.
By then, he had slumped onto the floor in front of the mirror, looking much calmer, smiling at the image inside while wiping away tears.
“Well now, Harry, don’t you want to know what I see in the mirror?” Professor Dumbledore said as he stepped beside Harry.
“Oh, Professor!
Sorry, I didn’t notice you…
I mean…
goodness, you don’t show up in the mirror!
Did you use some kind of magic?
What do you see?
Is it my mom and dad too?
Look, my dad is waving to you!” “I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.
One can never have enough socks,” Dumbledore said.
“Another Christmas has come and gone, and I didn’t get a single pair.
People will insist on giving me books.” Harry’s expression turned into a giant question mark again.
“But Professor…
but…
my parents are right there.” “It is a miraculous mirror.
It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts.
You have never seen your family, so you see them standing around you.
However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth.
Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or even been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.” The Headmaster’s words clearly frightened Harry, but the sight of his parents in the mirror made him reluctant to tear his eyes away.
Panic and conflict were written plainly across his face.
“Give it up, Harry.
Stop indulging in falsehoods.
The effect of this mirror is indeed grand, reaching a height comparable to the Resurrection Stone to a certain extent.
But a lie is a lie.
I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want you drowning in an illusion.” While Kyle offered words of advice to Harry, his heart was filled with intense disappointment toward the school and Dumbledore.
First, a Class 5X dangerous magical creature—a three-headed dog—was placed in a school corridor.
Then, a Class 4X dangerous creature—a troll—appeared in the dungeon.
And now, even the famous Mirror of Erised was placed inside the school.
Was this still the safest place, the ancient Hogwarts?
Recalling what Dumbledore had told Kyle in the girls’ bathroom: “Of course, Mr.
Shafiq, Hogwarts is always the safest place.
That was merely an accident—a test subject belonging to the professors managed to slip out.
You can live and study at Hogwarts with complete peace of mind.” Thinking back to those words, and looking at the mirror before him, Kyle felt a chill run through his heart.
If a school in the Muggle world put a lion in a hallway, locked it up as a forbidden zone, let a wolf wander into the basement, and put a computer loaded with explicit material into an abandoned classroom where any student who found it could use it…
would the principal still dare to claim the school was safe and that students could study with peace of mind?
The conditions in that hypothetical scenario were infinitely less dangerous than Hogwarts.
After all, Professor Snape, one of the top three fighters in the school, had his leg bitten by the three-headed dog.
Professor Quirrell, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, had fainted from fright over a troll (even if he was faking it).
Honestly, Kyle was starting to think the Weasley twins were the true chosen ones.
With their obsession with breaking rules, neither of them had ended up feeding the three-headed dog or the troll.
If that wasn’t being favored by fate, what was?
In a castle touted as the oldest and safest, under the protection of the greatest light wizard of the century, so many hazardous artifacts and creatures kept appearing.
What did the school—or rather, Dumbledore—view Hogwarts as?
His personal storage room for dangerous items?
And what was Dumbledore’s goal in doing all this?
Testing the Savior?
Training the Savior?
In short, regardless of the motivation, the great, righteous, universally admired Dumbledore was subjecting all the underage wizards in the school to unbelievable danger.
What did that prove?
For the Greater Good?
Kyle sneered inwardly.