Before leaving, Hermione managed to get the password to the headmaster's office from Hagrid.
In exchange, Hagrid earnestly pleaded with them not to mention his dragon egg hatching endeavor to Dumbledore, to which Harry readily agreed.
"Cockroach cluster..."
In front of the grotesquely ugly gargoyle, Hermione pronounced the password to the headmaster's office, and the concealed passageway slowly opened.
Returning to the headmaster's office, Evan's heart was devoid of the panic he felt on his first visit.
After all, he now knew the Occlumency basics, which, albeit not at a high level, should suffice for the time being. They were four in number; Dumbledore's attention couldn't possibly focus solely on him.
"Professor Dumbledore isn't here?" The group of four stepped into the headmaster's office, which was tidy and orderly, but empty, eliciting disappointment from Harry.
Evan was also puzzled; according to his calculations, Dumbledore should have just finished receiving Snape's report. Could they have gone to find Quirrell immediately upon receiving the news?
After silently mourning Quirrell for a second, Evan noticed something different in the headmaster's office since his last visit.
There was a new addition—a towering mirror that reached all the way to the ceiling, adorned with splendid golden patterns around its edges, and supported by two claw-shaped feet. Everything about it was so distinct and prominent.
Not only Evan noticed the mirror; Harry seemed spellbound, standing in front of it, staring blankly for a long while without snapping out of it.
"Harry, what are you looking at?" Ron approached, patting Harry on the shoulder.
"Don't you see? There are two people in the mirror with me. I think they might be my parents," Harry couldn't help but step closer. In his eyes, the mother in the mirror reached out her arms to him, and Harry mimicked her, only to touch the smooth, cold surface of the mirror.
"Really? Why don't I see your parents?" Ron leaned in curiously, hoping to glimpse Harry's parents, but instead, he saw a different scene.
"I see myself as the head of the student council. That's really great!" Ron described his dashing appearance with the prefect badge in the mirror, happily telling Harry that perhaps the mirror could predict the future—that must be his future self.
Hermione, worried by Harry and Ron's entranced state in front of the mirror, cautiously avoided looking directly at it, warning them.
"Until we understand what this is, you'd better stay away from that mirror. It could be a dangerous piece of Dark Magic!"
"Surely not? This is in the headmaster's office..." Ron spoke nonchalantly, but upon seeing Harry's fixated gaze on the mirror, he too felt a twinge of unease.
"The Mirror of Erised..." Evan murmured softly, gazing at the mirror.
It seemed his previous guess wasn't wrong—Dumbledore, that sly old fox, had no intention of putting the mirror and the Philosopher's Stone in their rightful place until he was certain Harry could pass the test of the Mirror of Erised.
"The Mirror of Erised? Is that its name? Do you know it?" Harry, momentarily distracted from the parents in the mirror, asked eagerly.
"I read about it in a book," Evan nodded, but didn't reveal that the book was titled 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.'
"What's it for? Why can I see my parents in it?" Harry asked urgently.
"Does it predict the future? I'm definitely going to be a prefect, right?" Ron looked at Evan with hopeful eyes.
Harry didn't believe Ron's theory—after all, his parents were dead. If the mirror could predict the future, did that mean they would come back to life?
"The Mirror of Erised shows the deepest, most desperate desire of one's heart. In other words, you see what you most want to see," Evan shook his head, dismissing Ron's guess, and explained.
Harry and Ron were both a bit disappointed; this meant that what they saw was not real, merely a projection of their innermost desires.
However, they quickly rallied, urging Evan and Hermione to see what their deepest desires were in the Mirror of Erised.
Evan hesitated, but Hermione stepped forward first, curious to see what the mirror would reveal after understanding its purpose.
"Hermione, what do you see?" Evan asked.
"It seems like just an ordinary mirror?" Hermione looked at her reflection, puzzled. There didn't seem to be anything different—it was just like looking in a mirror any other day.
Just as the others wondered if the mirror was broken, Hermione suddenly spoke up.
"No, there's a change."
Curious, Evan looked over to see Hermione, her cheeks tinged with red, happily say,
"In the mirror, my front teeth are a bit shorter... I should look better now."
"That's your deepest desire?" Harry and Ron were at a loss for words. They would have found it more believable if she had seen a few bags of sweets.
Hermione didn't see it that way, quite pleased with her mirrored self. After all, what she wanted right now was just that—not even the Philosopher's Stone would tempt her to trade.
"I think you look pretty good as you are," Evan chuckled, surprised that Hermione's deepest desire turned out to be about fixing her front teeth. They were quite cute a bit longer.
"Really?" Hermione suddenly brightened, her already rosy cheeks deepening in color.
Harry and Ron sensed that the atmosphere was a bit off, as if they were intruding, and hurriedly urged,
"Evan, your turn to look."
"Yeah, we're all curious to see what you'll see."
Evan nodded, his interest piqued as he took the spot Harry had vacated and looked into the mirror.
Evan half-expected to see his future self triumphing over Dumbledore and Voldemort, but, unfortunately, none of that was there.
In the mirror was a modest living room, with an ordinary family of three. In the center stood a boy not yet twenty, who bore no resemblance to the current Evan.
The boy had a healthy, lively complexion and was holding a gleaming university acceptance letter, with his proud parents gathered around him, talking. Evan couldn't hear them, but they seemed very happy.
This was a scene Evan had never witnessed before. He had always thought his life before the transmigration was confined to white hospital rooms, his parents' worried faces, and the stench of disinfectant.
"Evan, what do you see in the mirror?" Harry noticed Evan's eyes were moist and gently patted him.
Evan snapped back to reality, wiping his eyes before speaking cheerfully to the others.
"I just saw myself, after a long struggle, finally becoming the Minister for Magic after graduation. That's truly touching..."
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