Cohen didn't know either.
Hogwarts had hundreds of empty classrooms; who knew where Dumbledore had hidden the mirror?
But Harry was certain it wasn't far from the library; the place he'd impulsively wandered into last night was the restricted section.
"Didn't I already tell you about Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone?" Cohen whispered to Harry.
"But what's in the restricted section is really intriguing..." Harry replied sincerely.
Fine, turning Gryffindors into low-Gryffindors is a family tradition.
Cohen felt Dumbledore definitely had a million ways to get Harry to willingly follow his carefully designed training program.
And Cohen felt Dumbledore was definitely plotting a "Cohen Growth Plan" as well.
Damn it, has the game begun?
"The Art of Judging People," "Social Skills," "Dark Psychology"...
The Boggill Game, Dumbledore's ultimate goal was to completely eliminate Voldemort before his own death, which had little to do with Cohen, and Cohen's name wasn't mentioned in the prophecy...
As long as Cohen didn't become a serial killer at school, that was fine.
"Here!" Harry suddenly pointed in a direction for Cohen from under his Invisibility Cloak.
They were now in a secluded corridor on the side of the library—a dead end where almost no one came.
At the end of the corridor was a small classroom, its dilapidated wooden door barely closing properly.
If Harry had hurriedly escaped from the library, he would have easily and subconsciously run towards such a secluded place, since logically Filch should have blocked the library exit first, not this dead end.
The abandoned classroom had many tables and chairs piled against the walls, forming a large, dark mass in the night, along with an overturned wastebasket.
There was something in this room that stood out from its surroundings—right opposite the entrance.
It was a very grand mirror, reaching all the way to the ceiling, with two claw-shaped feet beneath a golden frame, and an inscription at the top:
[Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi] .
If viewed in a mirror image, this meant "I show not your face but your heart's desire."
"This is the mirror!" Harry exclaimed happily, removing his Invisibility Cloak and rushing to the mirror.
His family members were smiling at him in the reflection.
"Cohen?" Harry turned and called to Cohen, who was still standing there, "Would you like to come see my parents?"
"Oh—"
Cohen's gaze wasn't on the mirror or Harry at all.
He had just heard the creaking of the wooden door being "blown" by the wind; Harry assumed it was just a draft—but Cohen didn't think so.
[Soul Strength: 99]
Who has a soul strength of 99 points in their wind?!
Oh, it was just the wind. I thought it was some crazy, centenarian old headmaster from Nantong who was a lifelong bachelor who loved sweets and liked to stalk eleven-year-old students at night.
Dumbledore's Disillusionment Charm was indeed incredibly powerful—almost on par with Harry's Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows.
If Cohen hadn't been able to see spirits, he wouldn't have noticed Dumbledore coming in.
To prevent Dumbledore from realizing "Cohen has spotted him," Cohen only glanced curiously at the door before turning and running to Harry's side.
"Can you see my family?"
Harry excitedly pointed at the person in the mirror—but from Cohen's perspective, the mirror only showed Harry's lonely shadow.
"Harry, I can't see anything," Cohen confessed. "There's only yourself in the mirror."
"Why don't you stand here—come on, here." Harry thought it might be a matter of position, so he stepped aside, letting Cohen stand directly in front of the mirror.
In the few seconds it took Cohen to walk over, he imagined all sorts of things that might appear in the mirror, such as Voldemort's corpse, Cohen eating with Rose and Edward, even eating with Ari and Herbert...
but the mirror still showed nothing.
Cohen frowned, but then he understood.
The alchemical runes on the mirror were probably for mind-reading—but mind attacks didn't seem to be able to target Cohen.
"What's wrong?" Harry looked at Cohen, then at the mirror.
Cohen could feel Dumbledore's gaze sharpening as he stared at him from behind—Dumbledore probably wanted to know Cohen's inner desires to determine if he had gone astray…
"I still can't see, but I think I know what to do—" Cohen had a strange feeling that he only needed to touch the mirror…
Cohen stretched out a finger towards the Mirror of Erised, his fingertip lightly touching the cool glass surface.
It was like the "Risk App, Install or Not" warning that popped up when installing software on a phone.
In his previous life, Cohen knew how to "ignore the risks and continue installing" when he was fourteen—his life became colorful from that moment on, especially yellow.
Harry didn't quite understand, but he quietly waited for Cohen to finish.
The reflection in the mirror before Cohen changed.
"Did you see something?" Harry asked quickly when he saw Cohen's previously calm eyes soften.
"Edward and Rose, they prepared a sumptuous dinner for me—" Cohen replied, "but it was obvious they were all lovey-dovey in the kitchen—completely oblivious to the fact that I, a little bachelor, was right next to them."
"Ha!" Harry felt a sense of relief upon hearing that Cohen had also seen his parents. "This mirror might actually allow us to see our loved ones—"
But Cohen's foster parents were still alive.
Harry suddenly felt a pang of sadness; his parents could only be seen in this mirror.
"It's beautiful, Harry," Cohen said, making way for him. "But I think we need to bring our focus back to reality—"
"But it's the holidays." Harry sat down directly in front of the mirror, his eyes never leaving his family in the reflection. "At least I can see them."
Harry didn't want to leave, and Cohen didn't really want to either—because Dumbledore was still watching, and the old man was truly unafraid of dying from lack of sleep.
Leaving now would feel like abandoning a friend; Cohen insisted on playing the part completely, perfectly portraying a good person—no, Cohen was, after all, a good person.
Bored, Cohen moved a chair and began experimenting with magic in a corner.
Of course, he couldn't practice spells like Avada Kedavra under Dumbledore's watchful eye; Cohen needed a spell to prove his innocence.
"Expecto Patronum."
A plume of silver smoke billowed from the tip of Cohen's wand; the mist indicated the first step of the spell was successful.
Harry, focused on the mirror, wasn't looking this way, but Dumbledore was different—Cohen could glimpse the spirit of the old man who had been looking at Harry in the distance now looking back at him.
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(End of Chapter)