768To all the ones who have read, reviewed, favourited, put on the alert list list this story.
Without you all this would have never been possible.
Harry knocked at the Headmaster's door.
'Come in' a voice said from the inside.
Harry opened the door and looked at Professor McGonagall.
'Harry! What a surprise!' she said quickly getting up and heading towards him, a smile on her lips.
'Good afternoon, Professor' Harry said, shaking her hand.
'Minerva. It's Minerva' she said.
'I just can't get used to it' Harry answered with a kind smile and Minerva beamed.
'Please, take a seat' she said.
They both seated themselves.
'So...' Minerva said 'what does bring you here?'
'Well...' Harry aswered 'I have been asked to...'
He was interrupted by a knock at the door.
'Come in' Minerva said.
A young woman poked her head in.
'Excuse me, Headmaster' she said, glancing at Harry 'but we need you in the Astronomy Tower, for those...'
'Yes, yes, I am coming' Minerva said, getting up from her chair 'Harry, do you mind?' she asked. with an apologetical smile.
'Oh, don't worry. I will wait here. I know the place' he answered grinning.
'I am sure you do. I will be coming back in a couple of minutes' she said, quickly heading towards the door and closing it behind her.
Harry looked at the wall.
'Good afternoon' he said smiling.
'Good afternoon, Harry. How are you?' Dumbledore asked from his portrait.
'Fine, thanks' he replied, glancing at Snape, who totally ignored him.
'What about Miss Weas... sorry, Mrs Potter?' Dumbledore asked with a kind smile.
'She is alright, thanks'
'Minerva has told me that you have just had a little girl, haven't you?'
'Yes, it is right. Lily' Harry said with a smile and pretended not seeing that Snape had closed his eyes, wearing a strange expression on his face.
'Have you noticed what there is there?' Dumbledore suddenly asked with a smirk.
'Where?' Harry asked, turned his head and saw that behind his shoulders there was the Mirror of Erised.
'Oh Merlin. I hadn't seen it' he said, looking startled at the Mirror.
'Why don't you look inside?' Dumbledore proposed.
'Look inside?' Harry slowly repeated, looking alternatively at Dumbledore and at the Mirror.
'Yes, look inside!' several voices from the other portraits shrieked.
'Won't you tell us that you are afraid of a Mirror?' Phineas Nigellus asked, with sarcarsm in his voice.
Harry didn't reply and looked at Dumbledore.
'Look inside, Harry' Dumbledore repeated with a smile.
Harry nodded, sighed and looked inside, feeling his heart pouding more quickly, remembering the faces of his parents, his mother's wet eyes, his father's wide beam, which he had seen in that Mirror almost twenty year earlier.
He stared at the Mirror but he saw nothing but his own reflection.
'It... it does not work...' he slowly said, turning his head and looking at Dumbledore.
'For Merlin's sake, Potter, you are so thick' Snape snorted.
'Oh, Severus, don't be so impolite' Dumbledore said.
'But... I don't understand...' Harry said, wearing a puzzled expression on his face.
'Harry...' Dumbledore said 'Remember what I told you when we met in front of this Mirror? How did I explain you what it was?'
'You said... you said...' Harry muttered, trying to remember 'You said... that the happiest man of the world would have been capable to use it as a normal mirror'
'Exactly, Harry. Exactly' Dumbledore said nodding, a proud smile on his lips, tears in his eyes.
'I...' Harry said, but he couldn't finish his sentence, as he heard a sudden noise.
He looked above and saw that all the former Headmasters were clapping.
Dylis Derwent was laughing and crying at the same time, Armando Dippet had his thumbs up, Everard had a wide beam on his lips, Dexter Fortescue was clapping and cheering, even Phineas Nigellus was smiling, even though he was pretending not to. They were moving from one portrait to another, whispering excited, waking up the ones who had been sleeping, 'He is happy! He is happy!'.
All those people, whose names he barely knew, were proudly looking at him, in their eyes the very same joy they had had when he had defeated Voldemort.
Harry looked at them, his eyes full of tears, and he saw his life flash in front of him, the lonesome cupboard where he had lived for ten years, his parents smiling from that Mirror, Cedric dying in front of him, Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower, the lifeless bodies of Remus, Tonks and Fred. And he saw Ron and Hermione hugging him after Voldemort's fall, Ginny walking towards him on their wedding day, the first time that Andromeda had placed Teddy in his arms, Ron proudly holding the newborn Rose, his children's first smile. And suddenly he realised that all those events, sad and happy, were like parts of a big path that had lead him there, in that very same office, where he had cried, he had cheered, he had grown up and he had learnt do deal with joy and grief, with life and death.
'I have... I have finally got here...' he said, looking at all of them, tears in his eyes, a wide beam on his lips.
'Yes you have' Snape surprisingly answered and maybe, just maybe, he was smiling.
And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make – The Beatles
A/N Wow. It's over. I'm feeling really sad and a bit excited. This fic has been with me for four months... so many things have happened in my life in this period and each chapter of this story mirrors those events, in a sort of way.
Anyway, I hope you've liked it. I've really enjoyed writing it. And, please, REVIEW! Oh, by the way, which is the chapter you liked the most? Just curious...