Chapter 194: Harry Entranced by the Mirror of Erised
For a while, every night after curfew, a professor patrolled the castle grounds. Filch, who was driven nearly mad by the endless cock feathers scattered everywhere, had already cleaned them up five times. Still, every now and then, he would spot more. Sometimes they were around a corner in the corridor, sometimes by the archway... There seemed to be no end to them.
This ordeal had made Filch even grumpier than usual, and he glared fiercely at everyone he encountered. If anyone so much as raised their voice, they became his target, scolded relentlessly. The students who bore the brunt of his frustration loathed it, but had no choice but to steer clear of him. Filch's behavior was implicitly sanctioned by a certain Potions professor, and any show of dissatisfaction risked costing them house points.
Kyle, too, had been keeping a low profile lately. Every day, he diligently went to the library to work on assignments and read, returning to his dorm on schedule. He'd put his late-night swims on hold for the time being. Fred and George had warned him that Filch prowled the second floor most of the night, while patrolling professors often popped into the library to check for stragglers. Under such close watch, sneaking around to copy books was far too risky, so Kyle decided to wait until the situation blew over.
But not everyone was willing to wait. Harry Potter, for instance, had been obsessed with returning to the mirror ever since he realized who the people he saw in it were. He didn't intend to do anything when he went—just sit there, captivated, for hours. Ron tried to talk him out of it, but Harry wouldn't listen to a word.
On the third night, he finally ran into Dumbledore in the room.
"I... I didn't see you, sir!" Harry stammered, his hands and feet icy with nerves. Only then did he remember that the professors had been cracking down on nighttime wandering. What if Dumbledore suspected he'd been the one causing trouble lately?
The thought that Gryffindor could lose two hundred points over this left Harry feeling hollow, as if he'd turned to ice inside.
"It's odd that you became nearsighted the moment you became invisible," Dumbledore said with a smile.
Seeing the smile on Dumbledore's face, Harry exhaled a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Dumbledore didn't seem to be planning on taking any points. There was a patience and kindness about him, like a muggle gentleman who often walked his dog in the mornings back in Little Whinging.