#20 Buried and Burning Flame

Saoirse watched as a section of the wall turned into a large mirror. She was suddenly faced by her own reflection- thick black hair back in a messy ponytail, brown eyes wide. Saoirse didn't usually see her reflection except in the bathroom, so she was momentarily distracted by herself. Did she always look like this to other people?

But there was no time for vanity. She placed her palm to the mirror, meeting her reflected counterpart. At first it felt like ordinary glass, but then she passed through with ease. Saoirse took a deep breath before allowing herself to come through the mirror. She passed through it like water, and it felt like taking a dive in some new, unnatural place.

It was the same as before, just her and the torches. A door was at the end of the room. As Saoirse walked towards it, she wondered where exactly in Hogwarts she was. How many rooms were there like this one? If she were to fall and hit her head at this moment, would anyone ever find her? She didn't fancy the idea of being entombed in Hogwarts in the slightest.

Through the doorway was the sleeping beast that Saoirse had seen before. She paused at the threshold before approaching it, staring at its massive form. Saoirse had no fear of underwater creatures- it was surprising how much one could do by simply rotating something in the other direction- but the Gerodenus had legs it could chase her with. And very large tusks.

Saoirse reached into her pocket and found her ancient fruit before she approached. She made her footsteps loud on purpose, so as not to surprise it. She stopped a healthy distance away from the creature, and gently tossed the fruit towards it.

"Hello, beastie. Gerodenus. Sorry to wake you."

Saoirse backed up a step when the creature snarled at her. A proper wizard might have gone for their wand, but to her the natural instinct was still to widen her stance and prepare to chuck the heaviest object she had on her- in this case an apple. However, the Gerodenus seemed placated by the sight of the ancient fruit. Saoirse expected it to gobble it right up, but it just sat there staring at it.

This left Saoirse perplexed. Had she gotten the wrong thing? It wasn't attacking her, but nor was the creature eating her offering. Why not? It wasn't supposed to eat it out of her hand, was it? Saoirse wasn't about to go up to touch a creature like that without a decent escape route.

She poked at the fruit with her toe, moving it a bit closer. "It's for you! Lunch! Don't tell me... you've eaten already?" Saoirse wasn't sure if this creature possessed any sentience.

Saoirse watched as the massive creature lumbered away, disappearing into the shadows. The wall ahead of her shifted, revealing four mirrors. She glanced behind her, not thrilled about the idea of turning her back on a strange creature. Warily, she approached the mirrors and read the text as it changed to English.

So each mirror was connected to a House. She paused, deep in thought. She supposed as a Gryffindor, she should choose bravery first. Also, she had no clue how she was to show the other things. Particularly ambition- Saoirse's only real ambition was to graduate and leave, at the moment.

She stood before the Gryffindor mirror. She thought back to all the times she had plunged into the ocean, or into the river by her grandparents' manor. And more recently, into the Black Lake at Hogwarts. Other students thought she was batty, but to Saoirse it was just a normal thing. Maybe it didn't count as bravery then? But then, she had been frightened lots of times and still continued to do it.

Saoirse wondered if she was brave or stupid. Maybe both? Her House certainly had its fair share of dunces. The mirror had told her to speak, so she did. It did feel, however, incredibly awkward speaking to a inanimate object aloud.

"My... bravery. There are so many scary creatures in the water. But I still swim, because... I won't let them stop me doing something I love?" Saoirse wasn't sure if the mirror would be convinced.

For a moment, nothing happened, and Saoirse wondered if she had missed the point. But then the word on the floor glowed and the mirror surface rippled. Suddenly she could no longer see the room behind her, but another room identical to the one she stood in. It still continued to shift and change.

Saoirse watched as two people appeared before her. She immediately recognized her father, Nateo. It took her a moment to recognize the woman standing next to him, as she had only seen her in pictures. Long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, brown eyes like hers. It was her mother, Niamh. They were gazing into each others' eyes. Saoirse placed her hands on the mirror, wanting to call out.

A third person appeared- Saoirse, herself. She stood between her parents. Something was off about all three, she realized, the longer she looked at them. Although her mother and father were lovingly fixated on each other, their gazes were oddly blank. Their head movements were jerky, not human. As Saoirse squinted, she saw the glint of strings hanging down from the ceiling.

Suddenly, her mother's limbs were yanked backwards, and she folded in half. She was pulled back into the shadows, and vanished. Saoirse watched in horror as her father contorted the same way, crumpling up like a ball. Both her parents had their limbs manipulated and twisted without any groans or crunching. As horrifying as the sounds would have been, somehow the dead silence was far more eerie.

Only Saoirse was left behind. But rather than being drawn and manipulated, her strings were snapped and she was left lying broken on the ground. Figures appeared around her, formless but still somehow recognizable. She heard the voices of her grandparents, of other students at Hogwarts.

"Poor grades, no friends, complaints from professors..."
"What did you expect? Her father is a Muggle."
"Why does she talk so weird? Where is she from?"
"Look at how she dresses!"
"You know it's her fault her mother is dead."

The formless shapes surrounded Saoirse, starting off critical but becoming more and more mocking. They circled around the broken mannequin, sentences and voices blending together until all Saoirse could hear were choice words being inflicted on her simulacrum.

"Motherless..."
"Freak!"
"... blood purity..."
"Moron."
"... should never have been born..."

Tears had welled into Saoirse's eyes. Though all the forms were ignoring the real her, these were all things that people had said about her within earshot. It was like she was watching a movie of her life, of all the horrible insecurities that others had inflicted upon her. And to see her own form there lying sad and still- she didn't deserve it. She was just a little girl.

"Stop it!" Saoirse shouted. A few voices stopped, but still the majority continued. She screamed at the top of her lungs. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

The voices stopped. One by one they turned to look at her, ghostly shapes flickering in imaginary wind.

"Leave me alone!" she snapped. "Stop putting your personal issues on me! My mother's dead, my father's a Muggle, get over it! You feel big and strong, bullying a kid with no mom? Well, I don't need a mom to break in there and wring your bloody necks!"

Saoirse watched as the figures descended upon her, leaving her mannequin form behind. She was the object of their vitriol now, and took a single step back. They were slowly disappearing, morphing into one single person who towered over her. She was cloaked, and Saoirse couldn't tell who she was. But she descended on Saoirse like a demon, sneering and insulting.

"Do you really think you matter? That anything you ever did matters?" The woman reached up and pulled back her hood. Saoirse found herself staring up into her own mother's face, cruelly twisted. Puppet strings hung from her fingertips, glinting in the harsh light.

"If you weren't here, I would be alive. I wish you had never been born."

Saoirse turned away from the mirror, head in her hands. She paced in a circle, tears spilling out onto her cheeks. When she looked up, the creature that had stolen her mother's face was still there. This wasn't some sort of terrible dream, this was something she had to face here and now. This was just another bully, hurting her for their own amusement. She kept crying, but out of rage now.

"Oh, shut it. You're not my mother. She would never say that." Saoirse pointed an accusing finger. "Dad always said she was so excited to meet me. She always wanted to have a baby. And if she was here, she would be proud of me! I bet no one has ever loved you, you pathetic monster!"

Saoirse pulled her fist back. "So next time you pretend to be someone else, don't do such a terrible bloody job of it!"

She punched at the creature's face as hard as she could.

Saoirse had been expecting the punch to hurt- even punching a real person in the mouth usually left her with scraped knuckles- but she hadn't expected the mirror to completely repel her fist. It was like punching a brick. She held her fist in one hand and walked in a small circle, wincing and gasping and doing her best to not scream or swear in frustration.

When she looked up with tear-filled, angry eyes, she watched as her un-mother was taken away, along with her own simulacrum. Despite her punch not working, it seemed that it had ended the torment. The reflected room went dark, and it was over.

Saoirse was left breathing heavily and wiping tears from her eyes and cheeks with her one good hand. That had been horrendous. She wouldn't be able to erase those images from her mind for some time. She looked at the other three mirrors. She had to go through it all again, three more times? Hopefully Gryffindor was the worst one. She didn't want to have to be brave again for quite some time.

Wearily, she paused to mill over which one to go for next. If anything, it distracted her from the pulsating pain of her right hand and the terrifying vision. Her mother's family, the Lammermoors, usually ended up sorted into Slytherin, but Saoirse didn't feel she possessed any attributes of that House in the slightest. She wasn't sneaky, ambitious, or a pompous pureblood.

That left Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw was for people who were clever or studious, neither of which suited Saoirse. She decided to go with Hufflepuff. Loyalty and love was something she understood, although she doubted she epitomized kindness like they usually did. She stood before the Hufflepuff mirror, reflecting on the word 'loyalty'.

She didn't feel loyalty towards her mother's side of the family. Why would she? They had abandoned her, and then only changed their mind when it suited them. As for being at Hogwarts, Saoirse still resented it for having been torn away from her old life. She did like being in Gryffindor House, however. Especially standing up for Jonathan King with Tobias Twiggs. That moment had made her feel strong.

"Alright. Please don't make me punch you again this time." She sighed. "Loyalty. The first-years get it so bad here. When a fifth-year shoved Joe's face into hot oatmeal, I... felt helpless. But when I saw Tobias Twiggs stand up for his friend, I knew I had to do the same."

She remembered the chaos that had followed, and smiled. "I got in so much trouble. Lost House points, had detention... but if I had to do it again, I would. I would protect him every time. Not just him, either. Anyone who was being hurt."