"All right, it needs practice. I'll clean your robes after our toast."
Harry smiled. "To family," he said, clinking his goblet against Draco's before taking a sip. The punch really was strong. "Where's Dad? We should have a toast with him, too."
"Last I saw, he was heading inside." Draco cast a series of quick charms that not only cleaned Harry's sleeve, but made his robes look fresh-pressed once more, falling in a straight line from collar to hem. Harry could even swear they had a slight, pleasing fragrance now. "Why don't we toast Severus during our speeches? That's how it's usually done, although we were supposed to give our speeches before we opened the presents, not when everybody has cake to eat, for Merlin's sake--"
"Different family tradition," said Harry. "That's all right. I'm sort of part-Weasley, in a way."
"Well, at least you don't have the goblet to prove it." Draco glanced around. "Time to mingle again, I think. Hmm, it looks as though Mrs Weasley is about ready to sit people down at those long tables over there." Draco waggled his eyebrows. "Well, serving isn't usually my style at all, but in this case, I suppose I'll lower myself to ask for a plate of food that I can bring to Kingsley Shacklebolt on duty."
"Good thinking," said Harry. "I'm going to find Hermione so I can have her show me what she found out about the mirror."
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Harry ended up sitting across from Hermione and Ron for dinner. He knew for sure that Dobby had had a hand in the party when the food arrived all at once, Hogwarts-style, blinking into existence on the tables arranged on the lawn.
Draco was nowhere to be seen, but Harry figured that meant he was off with Kingsley, so that was good.
Harry was in a hurry to talk mirrors, so he pretty much gobbled down his roast chicken and asparagus, even though he didn't much like the asparagus. It was in some kind of fancy sauce that was much too lemony. He was tempted to ask Hermione what she'd found out, but it didn't seem like such a good idea with so many other people nearby. He didn't really want word about the mirror to get all around the school. His real friends, they'd understand what was going on, but once rumours started to fly?
Harry had had enough of being called a dark wizard. If people heard, third or fourth-hand, that he was trying to find a way to talk with his dead parents, he'd probably end up accused of necromancy.
As soon as his food was polished off, Harry pushed his plate and cutlery to the side and headed over to the gifts table to get what he needed. He soon wished he'd summoned the book and notebooks instead, since on the way there and back he had to stop several times to have short conversations with people who wanted to wish him well. He was itching to get back to Hermione so they could find some out-of-the-way spot and get down to business.
At least this time, it was a good sort of itch.
"Come talk with me," Harry said, the minute he'd made it back to the table.
She took one look at the spiral-bound notebooks piled in his hands, and nodded.
Ron was engaged in a furious debate with Charlie. Something about the Montrose Magpies. Harry didn't think that Ron even noticed Hermione and him leaving. They went inside and found a seat in the corner of the living room. It wasn't exactly secluded, but nobody much was paying attention to them, either.
"The first third of the book was basically background information on mirrors. You'll need to read it, but the real key to what you want to do is actually here," said Hermione, flipping through the second notebook of her translations until she found a well-thumbed page. She started reading out loud.
"Mirrors as magical artefacts are nortoriously temperamental. Even Borislav Bogdan himself, right up until his sudden death by --" Hermione shook her head a little bit. "See this is one of many places where the translation rod failed. When it couldn't translate a word I just copied down the Bulgarian, but I've no idea what it means. Neither did Viktor. Well, of course not. He doesn't speak Middle Bulgarian . . ."
Harry peered over her shoulder. "All right, Even Borislav Bogdan himself, right up to his sudden death by something-or-other, had to rely upon the mirrors he had mastered each time he attempted to manipulate or repair one that another wizard had created. "
"Bodgan is considered the foremost authority on magic mirrors, even though he died hundreds of years ago," explained Hermione.
"But he knew how to repair them, that says." Harry grinned. "Now we're getting somewhere. What's the process? What do I have to do?"
"You have to read the rest of my translation. The whole book, before you try any kind of repair spells. I mean it, Harry. And you have to talk the whole thing over with your father. There are a lot of dangers you'll need to avoid. But--"
"But?"
Hermione closed her eyes and sighed. "I almost don't want to tell you. I know how you get, Harry. I know how much this means to you."
"But what?"
Opening her eyes, she fixed him with a glare. "I'll tell you, but only if you swear to me, swear, that you won't do a thing to the Mirror of All Souls until you have Snape's blessing and approval."
Harry hadn't planned to, so that was no bother. "Sure. I swear."
"You mean it?"
"Yes, of course I mean it!"
Hermione smiled, then. "All right. Well, it's just that a lot of the book is about how mirrors are so difficult to manipulate because it takes a lot of magic to affect them. Only the most powerful wizards have been able to manage anything beyond the standard sort of talking mirror, and even getting to that point requires quite a process. This Borislav Bogdan discovered new ways to spell mirrors, but only because he was fantastically powerful. It talked about him having control over his dark powers, earlier on. So . . . I was going to say, but if anyone can make this work, it's probably you."
Harry grinned. "Oh, I can't wait, I can't wait--"
"You have to. You swore."
"It's an expression, Hermione! I'll read the whole book thoroughly, I promise, and so will Snape, and we'll decide on everything together."
"Good," said Hermione, nodding. "Now, the part we were reading aloud, it talked about how Bodgan had to rely on mirrors he had mastered, remember? That's the very first thing you have to do, Harry. Master a mirror of your own."
Harry's euphoria dimmed a little. "Come again?"
"Mirrors are odd, Harry. It's like they communicate with each other magically, and they know whether or not you have any business messing about with them. Which means you have to become the master of one, first."
"Wait, you lost me."
"That's why you have to read the whole book. But basically, you have to start with a regular mirror and change it into a basic magical one, first. All by yourself, mind, so the mirror will regard you as its master. But that part has been done loads of times; it's safe enough. Then there's a spell progression that you have to work your way through, learning how to control spells and such on the mirror you've mastered. Once you've done all that, then you can try repairing what they call a 'foreign mirror,' meaning, one will regard you as a stranger."
"All right, mirrors are very weird," said Harry, sighing. He hadn't counted on anything like this. Making his own magic mirror from scratch? It sounded like quite a project to him, but then again, the end results would be well worth the trouble. "So how do I start?"
Hermione flipped open another spiral-bound notebook and pointed. "There. That's the first incantation. You use that to begin working with your regular mirror. The first step is sort of giving it the ability to hear you. Even that's supposed to be quite challenging."
Harry stared at the instructions, then flipped open the Bulgarian book to look at the diagram Hermione had written a reference to. She hadn't copied those out into the notebooks, which puzzled Harry, since he knew how good her duplication charms were. But then again, they did take time, and she'd had more than enough to do to complete the translation for his birthday.