Unlike the other professors and the students that had followed them during their boring clean-up party or whatever they had been doing, Paton had found herself outside earlier. Despite what some may have thought, those pathways were a bit.. awful. Parchment and wrappers all over the place. Some time ago that wouldn't have been the case as she would've made sure things around the barns and pastures were always clean, however as of lately, not so much. A mental note was made to complain about how someone (the students perhaps since they were having this clean up thing), should take care of that.

As mentioned to someone earlier, she couldn't recall who it had been, coffee was very much needed. This is actually why she had ventured outside, for coffee. Now that she had a wonderful thermos full of her favorite kind in hand, Hady had ended up back inside for reasons unknown, maybe to do that complaining!

She had made it as fair as the fourth floor corridor when she heard voices and headed towards them. With any luck it would be someone cleaning and she could go tell them to tend to the pathways outside. Rounding the corner and heading down the next corridor all Hady saw was the blinding flash of white light ahead of her causing her to cringe and instinctively lift a hand to shield her eyes. "What is going on over here?" Whatever they were all doing it was messing with her eyes!

Dhruv was oblivious to the blinding flash of light. What they were not oblivious to was being unceremoniously spat out of the Mirror and onto the corridor. The professor, quite literally, skidded a few feet on their butt. Did the Mirror have to dump him so unceremoniously? In front of their colleagues and students too? Dhruv was not impressed; their ego was also slightly bruised.

But the important thing?

Hogwarts had gotten their good old DADA professor back! That’s right, folks! You got the cheerful, kind natured and happy Dhruv back!

“Hi, everyone,’’ they said, climbing to their feet and taking in the gathering.

So Professor Liu saw something in the mirror too? Desiree was relieved to know she wasn’t just seeing things… seeing things that weren’t real, at least. She glanced at the professor, but before she could ask any questions about the reflection in the mirror, a loud voice derailed her train of thought.

More people had joined the fray. There was Professor Carton acting entirely too happy; that was too much even for a cheery Hufflepuff like here! Then there was Brandon, Aurora, and Professor Paton, all of whom were acting entirely too grumpy and had been for a while. Wait. what? Brandon touched the mirror? Had all of the people acting strangely touched the mirror? Professor Gert beat her to the question, so she followed up with another one. “How long ago did you touch it?” she asked, turning to Brandon.

Blink, blink. What just happened?! All Desiree could do was watch in concern and confusion as Professor Liu fell and knocked Professor Khanna through the mirror. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “Are you alright, Professors?”


Norman rolled his eyes at Celina (Celeste). Aww, she was no fun! He leaned against the wall with arms crossed and a bored expression. He had no interest whatsoever in the mirror! “Whatever it is, it’s BOOOOOOORING!!!” he said, sounding like a whiny child.

He sighed and huffed until the question of touching the mirror came up. Truth be told, he’d touched the mirror months ago, but he didn’t want Celina to know that. “Maybe I did,” he replied. “Annnnnd why should I care?“

Yeah, this wasn’t much of a party. “Peace out, party poopers!” he called with a dramatic goodbye wave. As he turned away, he narrowly missed being knocked down by his fallen colleagues (Roulan & Dhruv). His bored expression suddenly turned panicked. That could’ve been him going through the mirror, and he had no intention of going in there! He was having too much fun partying out here!

Brandon shrugged at the professors asking him weird questions. "Maybe I touched it- so what? It was a couple mo- a while- ago and nothing happened to me. Mirrors don't hurt anybody, duh." Actually, Brandon's family had previously had some very scarring experiences with mirrors, so it was... weird for him to say that. "My friends touched it too, and they're fine. It's not a big deal." He didn't see what was up about all this mirror stuff. But just in case he did... he wouldn't out Aurora.

Brandon shielded his eyes from the bright flash of light, then blinked as Professor Khanna was unceremoniously dumped out of the mirror and onto the floor. "Uhhhmmm... Dunno how that happened," he muttered lamely, stepping away from the mirror so nobody would push him into it. For someone so convinced that the mirror was harmless, Brandon was suspiciously opposed to touching it.

Aurora was starting to grow a little impatient with the group conversing over the mirror including Brandon who had seemingly outed them all, even if he hadn’t mentioned them by name. The thirteen year old shot him a cold warning look to keep his trap shut before the Professors forced them to do something that they obviously weren’t willing to participate it. That was until Professor Khanna was accidentally knocked over and a bright light infiltrated the corridor.

Rather impulsively, the third year grabbed hold of the nearest thing which happened to be Brandon’s arm to steady herself from the shock of being BLINDED by the ridiculous adults as she blinked and stumbled, touching her elbow onto the surface of the mirror accidentally in the movement and perhaps bringing in her fellow yearmate too.

Brandon's answer of yes, he had touched the mirror, had Rue glancing towards Aurora as well - wondering if perhaps she had been one of those aforementioned friends. Were the pair friendly? It was hard to tell over the recent months. She didn't have time to ask though, as the other chaos had already befallen the group of individuals and she was now preoccupied with both trying to right herself, having grabbed the wall after she'd sent Dhruv tumbling. An apology was on the tip of her tongue, but it was quickly forgotten by the next series of events. One moment her colleague had been there, and in the next they were gone, only to return with the bright flash.

And if she wasn't mistaken... The greeting was similar to one she'd grown accustomed to at the beginning of the term. "Dhruv, are you quite alright? Did you see anything inside the mirror? Does amacita sound familiar?" She questioned, glancing around at the others again. It was a rapid fire of questioning, but she was anxious any of the others would leave the area when it seemed that... whatever just happened had corrected at least one of the changed personalities. Although perhaps that was merely wishful thinking.

Hady's arrival was noted though Rue didn't quite have an answer for her question, so she remained silent. More pressing as well was the matter of Norman seeming to want to leave. While waiting for the DADA Professor's answer, she tried to think of a way in which to get the Transfiguration one to not leave. "Hold on just a second, if you will Norman. I was just thinking a congo line though the corridor might be a fine idea for the grouping." She was not thinking any such thing, but the more Professors around for the moment the better, and Norman certainly seemed in a partying mood.

Desiree's inquiry into her and Dhruv's health was answered with a smile and a small nod of her head, just at the moment that potentially two students began to topple towards the mirror as well. She hardly noticed, though even if she had it had been fortuitous enough for Dhruv - perhaps it was best not to interfere for the others either. Maybe they should have just been shoving Norman along after too. Or maybe a congo line wasn't such a bad idea if that spell was not actually what she thought it would be.

Dhruv took a pause to take in everyone there once more. There was Hadleigh looking quite puzzled; the ever concerned Desiree {who received a smile and a nod to confirm that they were okay}; Norman who was clearly panicked; Brandon who seemed keen on staying away from the mirror; a stumbling Aurora and of course, Rue who was working to figure things out. Dhruv was sure they would be able to help sort things.

“I’m quite alright,’’ they replied to Rue. “My ego’s just bruised because you lot had to see me get ejected from the Mirror like that.” But no major harm done. Their face turned serious. “Yes, it does.” Were they all ready to hear about an extraordinary tale? “Do you know how sometimes we see a shadowy figure in the Mirror? Would you believe you if I told you that it’s of someone who disappeared ages and ages ago as a student of Hogwarts? Apparently, one Macarius Burke was looking for a way to escape his impending marriage to a member of the Black family. He was planning to escape with his best friend, Ewart Milliphutt, whom he had been forbidden by his family to ever see again since Ewart was not a member of the Sacred Twenty Eight families.” Such Pure Blood nonsense that was.

“Macarius began working to modify his half of his two way mirror - the other of which Ewart had - so that it could act as a portal between his and Ewart’s location. They tested their theory out on inanimate objects but they hadn’t much success.” Which was rather sad if you asked Dhruv. “The night before the wedding, Macarious panicked and attempted to escape but only succeeded in melting his two-way mirror into a larger mirror in his family's home. That very mirror, actually.” The DADA professor pointed to the one they had just been spat out from. “But not writing a letter to Ewart asking him to at a designated place. When Macarius plunged himself into the mirror, he unfortunately became stuck in there since.”

The poor young man hadn’t even gotten the chance to see Ewart ever again. What. A. Tragedy.

“Amacita is the incantation that opens up to what should have been Ewart’s and Macarius’ meeting place.’’ They paused thoughtfully. "We may be able to free Macarius and possibly aid anyone who has been affected adversely by the Mirror to get back to their old self in the process." Unholstering their wand, Dhruv moved close to the Mirror. This was worth the try. "Amacita." The wand was waved before it.

A few things happened at once: those that had fallen in a short moment ago, were instantaneously spat back out in another round of flashing light. They too were back to their old selves.

The moment Khanna’s spell was cast, the Mirror shattered into what seemed like a million different pieces.those who were adversely affected by the Mirror, those who were within the boundaries of the fourth floor and those beyond, were immediately brought back to their old selves.

The second thing that happened was a shadowy figure emerging from within. Upon a closer look, you will see that it is dressed in old fashioned clothing. This tells you the figure originated from a time distant in the past. He possessed a kindly and smiling face; it was the face of Macarius. After been trapped for so long, he was now free…

Free to find and join Ewart wherever his beloved best friend may be.

“Thank you,’’ he said softly and gratefully to the Hogwarts students and professors; the voice echoed around the corridor. Macarius soared upwards and away, eager to find his friend and make up for lost time.

As Brandon stepped away from the mirror, Aurora grabbed his arm in a stumble. "Get off me! Watch where you're-" His feet, while, usually steady, had not been expecting to be pulled off balance. As Aurora fell into the mirror, Brandon did too.

The real Brandon was dumped unceremoniously face-down onto the floor, right on top of his dear friend Aurora. "...Oof." A moment later, the mirror shattered and more people were dumped out. A fair amount of mirror shards landed on him, but thankfully didn't break any skin. He climbed unsteadily to his feet, physically unharmed but mentally reeling.

Months of his life had been condensed into a single very crowded moment. All of his friends and family probably thought he was a jerk now, he was convinced. His alter-ego had skipped some important classes that he'd have to make up... and- and- his sister would lose her mind if she found out that he was trapped in a mirror. He ran a hand through his hair, then started to abruptly cry. HIS ALTER-EGO WAS MEAN AND THIS WAS VERY UPSETTING TO HIM. He cared about poor Macarius, and had nodded at the shadowy figure as it disappeared, but he was far more concerned right now with the fact that his other-self had been both cruel and negligent-of-his-studies.

He'd even gotten detentions, and he'd never ever gotten detentions before. What would his stepmother think?

Brandon was okay, but... he was really stressed out right now.

Yeah, no. Norman was done with these sad sacks! He turned on his heel to leave when he heard Ruthann (Roulan) say the magic words. Conga line? Now you’re talking! He started dancing, completely ignoring Drew’s (Dhruv) story until the other professor’s spell shattered the mirror.

In an instant, the flighty party animal Norman was gone with the mirror. The real transfiguration professor appeared, standing where his counterpart had been only moments ago. No longer singing and dancing like a goofball, he watched silently as the shadowy figure of Macarius Burke emerged from the shards of the mirror and ascended. Two friends reunited after so long… a reunion which would never happen for him.

A slight wistful look in his eye darkened his usually stoic expression, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared. “Thank you all,” he said, glancing around the corridor at the students and professors who had helped put things right. “Sorry for my other half’s antics!” Mistaking people’s names, silly dancing… Merlin, that guy was embarrassing! But that was the least of his concerns now…

With a wave of his wand, he started to clear the mirror shards, and he noticed Fox out of the corner of his eye. Unlike his doppelganger, he couldn’t turn a blind eye to a student! “Hey,” he whispered, keeping his voice down so as not to attract unnecessary attention. “It’ll be okay. That was not you…”


Goodness gracious! Desiree was completely overwhelmed. So many things were happening before she had time to process them! She nodded, relieved to hear that Professors Liu and Khanna weren’t hurt, but before she could say anything else, Brandon and Aurora went down too. She eyed the pair with concern, but she was so distracted by Professor Khanna’s story that she completely forgot to ask about their well-being.

So she was right… that mirror was a portal! Poor Macarius Burke though! That family sounded horrible, tearing apart a friendship like that! Shame on them! She eyed the DADA professor with an intrigued expression as he explained the meaning of Amacita. Ohhh, so that’s what the spell did?

She watched with curiosity and confusion as the spell shattered the mirror and the figure of who she assumed was Macarius Burke appeared. She smiled at his thanks, though she didn’t feel as if she did anything. Bye! I hope you find your friend! She thought as she watched him go.