"Mum?" whispered Harry Potter, finally recognising the figures in the strange mirror, "Dad?"
They looked at him, smiling. Slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees – Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.
The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.
Could it be, that the presence of Morr in the mirror of erised has altered it in such a way, that the mirror of erised, when it comes to showing the person who stares at its surface, if it involves those who have long been gone, actually summons the presence of those who the observer wishes to see, rather than mere shadow and illusion stemmed from their heart's desire?
To try and delve deeper would require an exceptional curiosity, open but logical mind and patience of a saint. Luckily, Zagreus has all that, but that still gives only a fighting chance against Snape's contempt.
Interesting choice of words there. "Patience of a saint".
Quite the irony, considering Zagreus is practically one at this point, what with having been appointed by Morr himself, in person no less, as one of his priests.
I wonder what would Zagreus be the saint of, to be honest. Saint of roleplayers, perhaps?
Harry: "Zagreus, what are you doing?"
Zagreus:"I'm cleansing my soul of any inner turmoil so that my spirit can face the oncoming test with fortitude and strength of will."
Harry:"Wait, what test are you talking about? I reckon charms exam with professor Flitwick aren't going to be until three months yet.
Zagreus:"I have private lessons of potions with Snape."
Harry:"Say no more mate. I completely understand."
Wonder what the fruit is? Creamy puts me in mind of a durian, but those don't have leathery skin. A Grey Wizard would probably think those are exotic murder weapons really.
A peach maybe? Searching for creamy flesh and leathery skin also brings up a custard apple, so that's a possibility too.
The mouse bit is ominous. It distracts Harry, so he isn't trapped in the Mirror's Grasp. However, as a rodent what comes to mind is Skaven, but a white mouse is typically associated with science (and being the unaware victim of science experiments). Not quite the raging and murderous egomaniacs of typical Skaven. Moreover, if Norris was truly the one here, then Finch's Cat might have been a hero here. Holding the line against the Great Horned. Rat's Inflitrators.
Honestly my first thought had been Morr, not the Horned God. After all, getting enraptured in a spelled reflection of your dead family isn't the sort of thing he would approve of. And there IS a consecrated shrine to him in the same building.
Harry got to see all the Potter family it seems with good descriptions of them. Though Harry Potter might get a little obsessed with seeing this mirror. Don't blame him for it but Harry might need some help from his new friend Zagreus.
Wonder how the mirror would look on windsight. It affect the mind so I expect some Ulgu, but its not only confusion but also desires and dreams of possible futures? So Azry as well. Chamon because of the enchantments?
We need the side story of the heroic tale of Filch and Mrs. Norris' valiant defence against rat infiltration right now, as we speak. A truly inspiring and thrilling tale of secrecy and subterfuge in equal measure I'm sure. They must both be awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He's having a full fucking adventure and nobody knows of it.
I see what Dumbledore is doing:
1) Avoided drawing direct attention to Zagreus.
2) Engaged the Magister's curiosity, there is very little chance that she'd leave him alone after that parting shot
3) By personally going to the meeting, he has given her a straight shot at the highest ranked person she's been around, if she was a violent zealot, she'd go for him, in which case he can subdue her(noting Dumbledore's personal prowess is about as high as HP setting gets, so he has reasonable confidence he can take her, and that if he can't then his death in combat would alert Wizarding society to the kind of threat they're facing, rather than the halfassed measures they're currently taking)
4) The Hogwarts wards are formidable, if she meets him in Hogwarts he'd hold more cards and can potentially ensure a safe conversation with Zagreus(and also determine if he needs extra measures for safety) when she seeks Dumbledore out.
All told, not ideal, but an ideal meeting was greatly unlikely to begin with.
Wonder how the mirror would look on windsight. It affect the mind so I expect some Ulgu, but its not only confusion but also desires and dreams of possible futures? So Azry as well. Chamon because of the enchantments?
We need the side story of the heroic tale of Filch and Mrs. Norris' valiant defence against rat infiltration right now, as we speak. A truly inspiring and thrilling tale of secrecy and subterfuge in equal measure I'm sure. They must both be awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He's having a full fucking adventure and nobody knows of it.
I am certain that the one who has been killing the Mouses and was watching Harry is our favorite backstabbing human who is actually wearing his truest skin at the moment and goes by Scabbers right now.
Bear in mind that Zagreus is worried he's already broken the Empire's laws by cooperating with Hogwarts teachers and sharing information. Dumbledore doesn't want to explicitly reveal us until he's got some reassurance that Miss Grey won't fly off the handle and treat Zag as a traitor.
Hiding things only makes it more likely however for their to be a negative response though once the information comes out although I am sure he has thought of that.
Dumbledore hadn't actually straight up lied, he just omitted that he had a person, while at the same time dropping bits of information that had to come FROM a person, barring unexpected magic.
If she tells Zag to come with her isn't he legally supposed to? Since she's a magister of the Colleges, could be a complicated situation tho since she's a grey one and iirc they aren't very liked by the rest.
Harry seeing so many Potters in the mirror could have been an effect of learning about his family with Hermione. At any other moment in history, he probably would ha e siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles.
Instead the whole became just his parents and then even they died.
I mean, IIRC, he saw the whole family tree in the book, it was only in the movie that they made it just his mother and father (which honestly was one of the few movie changes I thought was good, since he'd have remembered his parents from being a baby.)
The thing that concerns me a bit about the end is the fact that Dumbledore left out Zag. While I appreciate his trying to protect his student from potential retaliation, unfortunately Magister Grey either already knows about Zag, or soon will.
If she tells Zag to come with her isn't he legally supposed to? Since she's a magister of the Colleges, could be a complicated situation tho since she's a grey one and iirc they aren't very liked by the rest.
Ahaha yesss, we get back to one of my favorite bits of tension in this quest. Namely being that Dumbledore (and Hogwarts adults in general) do have a genuine benevolent interest in isolating Zagreus from Magister Grey and his homeland on a larger scale. Malleus is Malleus afterall.
Ahaha yesss, we get back to one of my favorite bits of tension in this quest. Namely being that Dumbledore (and Hogwarts adults in general) do have a genuine benevolent interest in isolating Zagreus from Magister Grey and his homeland on a larger scale. Malleus is Malleus afterall.
I am not sure I would call it A "Benevolent" interest in anyway except that Dumbledore is the kind of person to want to shield young people from information that he thinks will give them pain or put them in danger like the secrets he kept from Harry even after he his head told him he was old enough he could handle it because his heart would not let him.
I am also not sure how much of what we have told him he believes is true as we have only showed him one of the Major Memory categories we voted to show him and Flitwick so he may still think Zagreus mistaken about something's and or had his memories messed with to a degree.
Trying to be to mysterious and controlling of information is going to make him look worse to both the Adult Grey Wizard and the young Death Wizard. Zagreus will not appreciate being keep out of the loop and Dumbledore using information he provided to contact other people stranded on Earth with out telling him he has successfully made contact is going to be a source of distrust and make Zagreus question how open he has been about information from home and who he gives it to.
I am not sure I would call it A "Benevolent" interest in anyway except that Dumbledore is the kind of person to want to shield young people from information that he thinks will give them pain or put them in danger like the secrets he kept from Harry even after he his head told him he was old enough he could handle it because his heart would not let him.
No no, I say this as someone who's voted to keep secrets, link back up with Magister Grey etc but from an external view there is an entirely reasonable worldview that Dumbles et al would be perfectly in their rights as in loco parentis to want to permanently convince Zagreus to defect and stay full-time. Seriously, let's take away the horrific moon made of crystallized malice, chaos and undead invasions. You are still left with a comparative backwater that has consistent starvation, suffers from diseases even muggles have trivialize and mobs of people who love to burn dem witches. Add all the dhar nastiness back in and it gets even worse.
Of course on the other hand Zagreus very much loves his home, HP world is hardly perfect--especially since Zag might register as non human with all the baggage that entails--and I don't think I need to tell SV about the fraught history behind justifying isolating a kid from their culture because yours is 'better.' I legit think there's two entirely sympathetic sides here, but I think this hypothetical conversation summarizes some of the points I have:
Concerned Citizen: why did you send the poor 12 year old back to a place where people still do witch burnings on a weekly basis.
Alt!Dumbles: oh no don't worry, I sent him back in the care of his guardian! A high ranking member of their secret police/specs op squad who's also kinda sorta his military superior!
Concerned Citizen: his what superior?
Alt!Dumbles: ah well you see, after reading through the code of conduct he gave us, I determined there was--oh maybe--only a 5% chance she'd summarily execute him for revealing state secrets!
Concerned Citizen: you gave him back because there was some terminal thing with his weird 'arcane marks' that couldn't be treated here, and this was a last resort right?
Alt!Dumbles: oh no, a primer on those was one of the hypothetical state secrets being given, and Madame Pomfrey came up with great ways to mitigate and treat his unique magical backlash in general!
Concerned Citizen: right okay why the fuck did you send him to her then? A 5% chance of sudden kid death is still way too high when the alternative is "kid lives happily in our no witch burning lands"
No no, I say this as someone who's voted to keep secrets, link back up with Magister Grey etc but from an external view there is an entirely reasonable worldview that Dumbles et al would be perfectly in their rights as in loco parentis to want to permanently convince Zagreus to defect and stay full-time. Seriously, let's take away the horrific moon made of crystallized malice, chaos and undead invasions. You are still left with a comparative backwater that has consistent starvation, suffers from diseases even muggles have trivialize and mobs of people who love to burn dem witches. Add all the dhar nastiness back in and it gets even worse.
Of course on the other hand Zagreus very much loves his home, HP world is hardly perfect--especially since Zag might register as non human with all the baggage that entails--and I don't think I need to tell SV about the fraught history behind justifying isolating a kid from their culture because yours is 'better.' I legit think there's two entirely sympathetic sides here, but I think this hypothetical conversation summarizes some of the points I have:
Concerned Citizen: why did you send the poor 12 year old back to a place where people still do witch burnings on a weekly basis.
Alt!Dumbles: oh no don't worry, I sent him back in the care of his guardian! A high ranking member of their secret police/specs op squad who's also kinda sorta his military superior!
Concerned Citizen: his what superior?
Alt!Dumbles: ah well you see, after reading through the code of conduct he gave us, I determined there was--oh maybe--only a 5% chance she'd summarily execute him for revealing state secrets!
Concerned Citizen: you gave him back because there was some terminal thing with his weird 'arcane marks' that couldn't be treated here, and this was a last resort right?
Alt!Dumbles: oh no, a primer on those was one of the hypothetical state secrets being given, and Madame Pomfrey came up with great ways to mitigate and treat his unique magical backlash in general!
Concerned Citizen: right okay why the fuck did you send him to her then? A 5% chance of sudden kid death is still way too high when the alternative is "kid lives happily in our no witch burning lands"
I am not saying Dumbledore can't justify to himself his course of actions and probable reasons for it's just that like with Harry it could cause problems if he does not tell Zagreus about this conversation which is a distinct possibility which would damage the existing trust between them.
Mundungus' hook had caught a fish. One day, the thief had found an envelope in his pocket, on it letters cut from newspapers and magazines:
For the puppetmaster
He'd immediately delivered it to Dumbledore. Inside was a date and a time, late on Christmas eve, and a croquis of the Chesham tube station.
Dumbledore walked toward the meeting spot, drawing looks from the few people nearby. He did not stick out quite as much as on Privet Drive eleven years prior – with his long white beard and vibrantly coloured robes, he could pass for a unique take on Father Christmas. He walks by a pair of curious constables, wishing them well.
He was not as relaxed as his attitude suggested. Fawkes was perched on a nearby rooftop, ready to spring to his aid, he had already cast many powerful spells, for defence and awareness. Reaching the platform, he waited, glancing at his twelve handed pocket watch. It was time, but there was no one here.
Suddenly a nearby payphone rang. Dumbledore looked at it, puzzled, before realising it was for him. How interesting – he hadn't used a telephone since Voldemort's fall.
He picked up the receiver – there was no immediate reply.
"Merry Christmas to you," he said mirthfully.
A voice, distorted as if by magic, erupted from the speaker.
"Your catspaw speaks of Sigmar. Blasphemy is a bold way of getting my attention, but you have it. Who am I speaking to?"
Magister grey seriously creeps me out. In a matter of months, she has acclimated herself neatly to the technological advancements of our world without breaking a sweat, and now this scene reminds me of one of those spy movies, like "The Bourne identity" and the like. Maybe also "Scream".
She is giving me those vibes that I associate with those super assassins that follow you home without you even noticing and hiding in a dark corner of your room to murder you while they are brushing your teeth in the bathroom.
Do you think magister grey watches James bond movies in her free time?
Also, she is going to be the envy of her fellow colleagues when she comes back at the empire. Imagine the cool stories she is going to share with her teammates about the incredibly convenient pieces of technology, of completely mundane origin, that would make their job so much easier, like being able to coordinate operations that encompass great distances through walkie-talkies or mobiles, not to mention cameras to get a perfect copy of the information you are trying to get, like compromising documents or something.
The mouse bit is ominous. It distracts Harry, so he isn't trapped in the Mirror's Grasp. However, as a rodent what comes to mind is Skaven, but a white mouse is typically associated with science (and being the unaware victim of science experiments). Not quite the raging and murderous egomaniacs of typical Skaven. Moreover, if Norris was truly the one here, then Finch's Cat might have been a hero here. Holding the line against the Great Horned. Rat's Inflitrators.
Personally, I think at this point, the author is messing with us to make us see monsters in the shadows and omens in the tea leaves. What just happened was a mere coincidence without any association with the skaven.
But many of us (not me, of course) have taken the bait, along with the hook and sinker.
Honestly my first thought had been Morr, not the Horned God. After all, getting enraptured in a spelled reflection of your dead family isn't the sort of thing he would approve of. And there IS a consecrated shrine to him in the same building.
Isn't ironic, that the god of the dead is also the god that helps you to move on in life, rather than getting stuck in the past, dwelling in memories of people who passed away long ago?
I say this because, as you may know, both death and gods related to death, as well as any physical incarnation and manifestation of death, have a pretty bad rep nowadays.
I mean, just look at the way hades is mostly portrayed in modern media.
This, coupled with the fact that death eaters, Voldemort's minions, exacerbate people's fear through mortuary themes and iconography related to death, like the dark mark, and you get a pretty spooky outlook of death, I mean, more than it already is.
