The Silent Bookstore Manager at Hogwarts

【Flame Script】, a wondrous and powerful technique. Harry felt the burning power bursting forth from his soul because of this great technique. He gently picked up his wand and wrote down a few wondrous characters.

That was the simplest and most basic Flame Script. This was Harry's first time testing the great technique he had just learned, so he chose the simplest and most dangerous method.

"Next is... infusing magic."

Magic flowed into the characters through the wand, and the characters written in the Flame Script almost instantly began to emit an orange-red light. In the next second, he even felt the temperature of the paper rise. Soon, the white paper was burned to ashes by the few simple characters, and then everything became quiet.

"No matter how many times I watch it, it's still unbelievable..."

Harry looked at his wand. It was completely different from any spell. The Flame Rune seemed like a more wondrous creation. He could even imagine how to use the Flame Rune to set a trap and then trigger an explosion to catch the enemy off guard.

"But can it be used in alchemy?"

Harry looked at Red, who was carefully writing something in Flame Script. Magic spread steadily and elegantly from the tip of his pen onto the white paper.

"Sure, one of the fundamentals of alchemy is high temperature. In a sense, you could become an alchemist while working as a blacksmith. Speaking of which, have you thought about your own weapons? Besides your wand and Transfiguration, you should at least have your own weapon on hand."

As Red spoke, he mentioned that there was a blacksmith shop on the ground floor of the castle, but the place was not yet cleaned up. If they wanted to use it, they would have to spend time repairing it all the way from the bottom of the great spiral staircase. So Red was only mentioning this to Harry.

"I understand..." Harry was still immersed in the sense of accomplishment of acquiring new magic, so Red didn't say anything more and continued to study the books about Transfiguration.

At midnight that day, Harry looked at the sleeping Ron and put on his Invisibility Cloak. Although the person who gave him this Christmas present did not say their name, Harry could only think of one name. Only that person would give Harry such a precious gift.

"But why, Headmaster Dumbledore...?"

Harry moved through the corridors of Hogwarts like a ghost, silently passing by Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris wagged her two tails, looking around the empty corridor with a puzzled expression. She seemed to sense something, but upon closer inspection, she found nothing. So she could only call out softly twice. Night Watchman Filch shook his lantern but also found nothing unusual.

"What's wrong?"

Filch lowered his head to ask Mrs. Lorris, but only received two confused cries. He then assumed that Mrs. Lorris had misjudged the situation and that nothing had actually happened, nor were there any wandering wizards at night.

Harry watched quietly as Mrs. Norris and Filch staggered down the corridor and continued toward their destination. Hogwarts was unusually lively at night, if you counted the presence of non-human beings.

Harry ran frantically, following the route he remembered, until he arrived at the mirror. But instead of looking up immediately, he quietly hid beside the mirror, wearing his Invisibility Cloak, pondering about Dumbledore.

"All seemingly contradictory things ultimately have their own underlying logic. As long as you can grasp this logic, all contradictions will be resolved..." Harry silently pondered these words. He could clearly sense that Headmaster Dumbledore had no ill intentions towards him, but a series of questions kept weighing on his mind. If Headmaster Dumbledore really had no ill intentions, then what was his purpose in doing this?

Harry pondered, but in the end he took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked at the mirror he longed for.

It was a warm and beautiful home that didn't exist for him, a scene of his father and mother surrounding him. Even knowing it was fake, Harry couldn't help but want to take a few more glances.

"I'm sure I'll get a really bad scolding from Red..." Harry thought to himself as he stood quietly in front of the mirror, staring at the reflection with almost greedy eyes.

But five minutes later, he decisively withdrew his gaze and looked at the doorway of the room with the mirror. Someone had been watching him there. Although the visitor was very discreet, Harry, having learned the [Illumination] spell, still managed to catch some clues.

"In other words, our dear Harry stayed up all night just to look at this mirror..."

Red's voice instantly put Harry at ease, but then he felt awkward.

"that........"

"Also, Headmaster, please stop hiding it. We're already so familiar with each other," Red called out casually. Dumbledore could only walk in with a helpless smile. Of course, he didn't want to be exposed so quickly. After all, the Mirror of Erised was originally prepared by him to test Harry, but now it seemed to have backfired a bit.

"Sigh, have some decency with this old man... Harry, what do you see in the mirror?"

Dumbledore, sporting a large white beard, silently walked in through the door. He looked at Harry, who stood quietly with his head down, seemingly aware that he had done something wrong.

"I...I saw my family, but I know they are all gone..."

Harry hesitated for a moment, then, under the watchful eyes of Red and Dumbledore, told them what he had seen.

"Yes, it seems you've also discovered one of the endless joys that the Mirror of Erised can bring to people..."

"Simply put, this mirror allows people who look at it to see what they most want to see, right?" Red's words made Dumbledore, who was about to make a few more comments, give a helpless smile and then nod.

"That's right..."

Headmaster Dumbledore took two steps forward and stared intently into the mirror, as if it held his most cherished possessions.

Harry glanced at Dumbledore, then furtively looked up, only to see Red's expressionless gaze, and immediately looked down again.

"Red, do you want to come and take a look?"

After a long silence, Dumbledore withdrew his gaze, keeping all his thoughts to himself, and then looked at Red and asked him this question.

Red nodded, stood in front of the mirror, and looked up... but the mirror was blank, reflecting nothing.