"Reflected Desires"

"Reflected Desires"

At the café where Stephen had taken Fleur, the atmosphere was quite curious.

It seemed that many of Fleur's admirers frequented this place, as they all looked at Stephen as if he were the final boss. As if they expected him to be a villain who had kidnapped the princess, making her suffer, and dreamed of being the ones to rescue her and win her love. And they weren't entirely wrong about the fact that the "princess" had been kidnapped, but unlike their fantasies, this princess seemed more than happy with her supposed abduction.

"Why are you so happy now?" Stephen asked, since when he had first seen her that day, she had been furious.

"Cough! I'm not happy. So, what do you want to talk about? If it's to apologize, I'm not interested," Fleur said, her cheeks still red.

"Sigh... You seriously drive me crazy. No, I'm not going to apologize anymore. I don't feel like arguing with a spoiled little girl," Stephen said, tired.

"Spoiled!? If you're not going to apologize, then why are you here?" a furious Fleur demanded.

"I already told you. I'm going to be a little more direct. So first, if you ever ignore me for a whole month again and don't answer my calls, it won't be as easy as just a few spankings. Got it?" he said, giving Fleur a wicked smile. Something that, instead of scaring her, made her blush even more.

"Yes," she replied softly, wondering why her heart was pounding so much.

"Good. For Christmas, come visit Grandma—she misses you. And for next year's tournament, we're signing up for the paired dueling event. That's all," Stephen said as he took a sip of the coffee he had ordered. After tasting it, he made a face of disgust, as he wasn't used to it, but endured it to maintain his cool image.

In reality, most of it was an act, as he had followed the advice of a Muggle book that one of his classmates had sent him, unaware that this "personality" would be the one most supported by the girls. Even some boys would think it was cool, but that was for later.

"P-paired?" Fleur asked, so red she looked like a tomato.

"Yeah. Any problem?" Stephen asked, watching just how red someone could get.

"No. It's fine, let's do the paired duel," Fleur said, happy with how the word sounded. Though she didn't realize Stephen thought that was why she was upset. If she knew, not even his "cool act" would save him from a good beating.

"Alright, let's go. The guys are waiting for us," Stephen said as he paid the bill and started walking. Fleur quickly got up and followed him with small steps, while everyone in the café died of envy—something Stephen noticed but gracefully ignored.

A few days passed playing with their friends and visiting houses during Christmas, including Fleur's, where her father looked at Stephen with a mix of anger and pity—something that confused Stephen until the end of the holidays.

Then, Stephen and the twins returned to Hogwarts, this time with less luggage and heavier wallets.

"Honestly, I don't know why you guys keep doing this if you already have money," Stephen said, watching the twins count their coins one by one.

"Well, the problem is Mom," "Yeah, she doesn't let us have a joke shop," the twins responded.

"She prefers that we keep working with you after we finish school," "She thinks we'll have a better future with you," the twins said with an unusual seriousness.

"So, she confiscated your money?" Stephen asked.

"No, not even our mom is that cruel," Fred quickly replied.

"It's our way of proving we're serious about this," George commented.

"Wow, you guys can actually be serious?" Stephen teased as they entered the castle, followed by the twins, who complained all the way until they reached his room.

"Now that we're back, why don't we take a little tour to reclaim some territory?" "That's what I was thinking. You coming, boss?" the twins asked when they reached the Gryffindor common room.

"Sure, but let's split up—you two are too loud. I've had an overdose of you all week," Stephen replied as he walked out again.

"Well, we do tend to have that effect on people," "True, haha," the twins said as they also left the room.

As Stephen walked with no particular destination in mind, he arrived at the room where the Mirror of Erised was supposed to be.

"Right, the mirror. I've never really checked what my deepest desire might be. This is a good time," Stephen said as he entered the room.

When he entered, the first thing he saw was little Harry sitting as if he were hypnotized, staring at the mirror.

After almost an hour of examining the mirror, trying to uncover its secrets, Stephen finally spoke to Harry.

"You know that if you don't sleep well, you won't grow enough, right?" Stephen said, surprising Harry, who thought he had appeared out of nowhere.

"B-Boss Stephen, when did you get here?" Harry asked, snapping out of his daze.

"I arrived at Hogwarts today. And here, about 57 minutes ago. Interesting mirror, isn't it?" Stephen said as he approached the mirror's frame.

"It's pretty. Is that your mother?" Stephen asked, noticing Harry's confused expression.

"How can you…?"

"See her?" Stephen finished the question as Harry slowly nodded. "When I wanted Ron to see it, he couldn't. He saw something else."

"Haha, after all, it's the Mirror of Desire, and if someone can't control their own desires, they won't be able to see someone else's. Don't worry, it's normal," Stephen said with a smile.

"So, you can control your desire?" Harry asked, a bit in awe.

"Nope. I just wished to see your deepest desire," Stephen replied teasingly.

"(Isn't that the same as controlling your desire?)" Harry thought, and even though Stephen couldn't read minds, Harry's expression gave him away.

"He has the face of a bad student," Stephen said while looking at the man in the mirror. "Just like you. Too bad you take after him instead of your mother—if you did, you'd be even more popular than you already are. Though, now that I think about it, where did you park your dragon?" Stephen teased, recalling all the rumors circulating in the wizarding world about Harry.

"I don't have a mount!" Harry exclaimed, already tired of the stories he had discovered when he joined Hogwarts.

"Too bad copyright laws don't exist in the wizarding world. Otherwise, you'd be filthy rich just from lawsuits," Stephen told Harry.

After laughing at him, Stephen suddenly turned serious and spoke softly.

"Harry, I'm sort of your mentor, so I'll say this for your own good," he said, surprising Harry with the seriousness in his voice.

"When you lose your world, sometimes you try to get it back with all your might, but that only harms you more than you realize. Even if you don't notice it, you'll only make your friends and loved ones suffer."

"M-my world?" Harry asked.

"Your world," Stephen said, pointing at the mirror, where Harry's parents stood.

"A lot of people have lost themselves in their desires. It's something very dangerous. It'd be best if you didn't come back. If you want, you can ask Hagrid to help you get a picture of them. It's better to remember them than to lose yourself. At least you have that option," Stephen said with a rare hint of sadness.

"boss Stephen, is it okay if I ask… have you been through something similar?" Harry asked, trying to be as gentle as possible.

"Yeah. Like you, I lost my world twice. Or maybe they lost me. Depends on the perspective..." Stephen answered softly. Seeing that the mood had turned too depressing, he suddenly spoke with energy. "Well, little Harry, it's time to go back," he said with a smile as he started ushering Harry out.

Once Harry left, Stephen turned to the mirror and saw all his old friends and family from the two previous worlds waving him goodbye.

"Sigh... Even though I'm no longer either of them, I guess the desire to say goodbye to them remained in me," he said as he watched their images slowly fade until the mirror was completely clear.

"Old man, I hope you're not watching my deepest desires. That would make you a pervert, you know?" Stephen said to one of the columns, as Dumbledore stepped out from behind it.

"Don't worry. I respect the privacy of all my students. I was just intrigued by your encounter with young Harry," Dumbledore replied, ignoring the subtle insult.

"Hmm?" Stephen looked at Dumbledore with suspicion.

"Apologies for that. I arrived just in time to hear your conversation. I hope you'll forgive me," Dumbledore said.

"It's fine. It's not something I want to hide," Stephen said as he began to leave.

"Though I must say, your analogy of calling what we lose a 'world' is perfectly accurate," Dumbledore remarked as he watched Stephen walk away.

Pausing for a moment, Stephen softly replied, "Yeah… analogy. See you, old man," and left.

Dumbledore remained there for a few moments, looking toward the mirror but never approaching it...

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