<Mirror of Erised>

[potter_fan122]

((Ginny, Lavy, or Aiden only, please.))

The halls were all dark, and everything was silent. It was one of the few weekends that most of the students left for a short holiday. Stacey thougth everyone she knew was gone, and they wouldn`t be back for two days.

She sauntered through the cool hallways, her eyes a bright yellow-- almost the shade of a full moon. She figured she might as well go somewhere she hadn`t been yet. And there were very few places that she hadn`t been yet. She had already looked over the first, second, third, and fourth floors without finding anything new. It wasn`t until the fifth floor when she saw something new.

It was just a door. A normal door. She wondered why she had never opened it before. Of course, all of her classes had always been on the fourth floor or lower because the only class that was on the fifth floor was one she had refused to take.

She walked up to the door and raised her hand in front of her. She felt nothing of dangerous power behind the door, so she rested her hand on the latch. After pulling on it gently, then with more force, she pulled out her wand.

"Alohamora." She said softly. She door swung open with a soft click and she stepped inside, pulling it closed behind her. This wasn`t anything new, going into locked rooms and such,  so she wasn`t worried about it. Besides, she had seen some of the worst things a witch could see at this day and age.

The room looked empty, except for the staircase that would normally lead to the profesor`s personal quarters. She walked toward them now, walking up them slowly. After unlocking that door, too, she entered the room, closing that door behind her also.

She turned around slowly and her eyes fell on something she had never seen before. It was a large mirror with a thick stone frame. She walked closer to see what the carvings on it spelled out.

"Mirror of Erised." She mumbled, her eyes flickering a confused green. She now stood directly in front of the glass and she just now looked into the picture being reflected back at her. She gasped. What she saw made her turn around. Nothing. It was just her in the room.

She turned back to the glass.

She saw herself in a beautiful ivory dress, holding Aiden`s hand beside her. He was wearing a classic Muggle suit and they were both standing in front of a cathedral-looking building. It was their wedding day.

Stacey stared at the mirror, her eyes wide and now electric green. She raised her hand to the mirror, to touch it, but her hand only touched the cold glass. She realized her mouth was open and she closed it quickly. Shakily, she sat down to stare at the Mirror of Erised-- the looking glass that made a person see their deepest wishes.

As she sat down the scene changed. She and Aiden were standing in front of a small house and Stacey held a bundle in her arms. They were older, and Stacey knew exactly what the scene was. She stared at the scene for she didn`t know how long. But she jumped into the air when a voice spoke somewhere behind her.

[LavyBrown]

Lavy stepped out of the dark corner, "No one's been in here for so long I almost forgot this place was here," She said gently, "I've been assigned this floor but no one ever comes here. I felt someone come in..."

She stepped farther into the light but no completly into it. The high window the full moon and the smooth white tile coupled together to create a ghostly effect. It added an unearthly tint to Lavy's coffee colored skin.

She looked brifly into Stacey's mind to see what she had seen and was not happy at what she saw. She and Ginny had tried. And they could keep trying. Lavy could show Stacey her past with Neo. But what would that prove....that she and Neo and failed? She could show Ginny's worst moment with her ex husband. But that still wouldn't help. She was worried and with every passing day, with every minute that Stacey imagined her perfect life  the more uneasy Lavy was. Something would just not sit well with this marriage.

She couldn't give up. She wouldn't. She had failed once with a freind and now....he wasn't breathing. Thinking about Nate hurt her in a place that she refused to acknowlege and now Stacey was entering that place in her heart.

"Please..." she wishpered, her voice cracking, "...please tell me what to do, what to say to get you to reconsider." She let her head fall into her hands. She stepped back into the the dark so that Stacey couldn't see her anymore. She didn't want her to see her possibly lose it. She was suppose to be strong.   

[potter_fan122]

Stacey turned on her heel, recognizing Lavy`s voice. She watched Lavy for a moment as she spoke, but as Lavy`s hands covered har face she rushed over to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Lavy, shhhh. It`s okay." She soothed, blinking quickly but was still unable to stop the silent tears that overflowed her eyes. "You`ve try to be strong for too long. You can let it out." She could feel that Lavy was on the brink of tears, if not already crying. One of the things that hit Stacey the hardest was when and adult cried. Lavy was both a friend and basically an adult.

She just decided to ignore the question for now, she didn`t want to answer it, but she knew it would be pointless.

[LavyBrown]

Lavy bit her lip. She wasn't going to let the sob that was trying to come out, out. She had to keep it together. She had given of the option to cry long ago. It wasn't a viable one anymore. She had kept her emotions in check for so long it seemed that at the first sign that they were coming out, she nearly paniced.

"No!" She whispered, more to herself then to Stacey, "No," She stepped back again, breaking out of Stacey's grasp. She took a deep breath, an unsteady one.

*You are not going to do that, Lavender Brown, that's not an option for you.* She thought, realizing to late that he hadn't put a block around that thought.

[potter_fan122]

Stacey sighed softly as she heard the thoughts Lavy had forgotten to block. "Lavy, really. How many times have you seen me break down to my very ugliest and not even had a single thought about it later? At least that no one except mabey Ginny could hear." She said, finding only that after she spoke the words sounded slightly cold.

"Lavy," She said in a softer tone, "It`s not healthy for you to hold your emmotions in like you do all of the time. You need to let it out when it gets to be too much, and don`t you tell me that it hasn`t been too much." She said barely louder above a whisper.

[LavyBrown]

Lavy stared at Stacey for a long time, fighting back tears. It was a few minutes before she pulled herself back together. She shook her head, "You don't understand. Where I've been, where I've come from, tears set you up to be harped on. You don't show weakness. That only gets you into more trouble....you don't know....what I've had to live though to get where I am today. If you knew...."

"No....weakness, vulnerability...those words are no longer a part of my vocabulary. I told myself long ago that I couldn't be those things anymore. I have to be the rock. The stable, consent one. I can't....I won't."

She staggered backwords into the wall, taking deep breaths, *No, no, no, no, no.....* she said to herself, this time making sure Stacey couldn't hear what she was saying.

[potter_fan122]

Stacey shook her head to herself and stepped forward as Lavy stepped back. "Lavy, I do know. You`ve let me see it. I`ve only seen and felt it, I haven`t lived it. But it was enough." She took a shaky breath. "And... to answer your first question would be impossible." She said with a small sigh of defeat.

She just couldn`t believe that Aiden would have the will, the strenght, or the ability to force her down. Already she was much more powerful than him. It had been that way since they had first met. That first night when they had met in the forest she had befriended him by showing him how she used fire. And of course she couldn`t do then what she could now, but he had only improved a small margin compared to her mastering of the element.

"To make me think that he could ever hurt me..." She took a sharp breath, holding back her own tears, "You would have to search his mind with every powers you have and tell me three bad thoughts that he`s ever had against me." She swallowed loudly. IT was taking a lot for her to say this, and she hated the words coming out of her mouth.

[LavyBrown]

"It doesn't work like that. You guys are in the honeymoon stage still. Nothing major bothers you. It's only small annoynces right now. And that's what ruins marriages. He's a pack rat or she never shuts up. It's things like those that you need to worry about."

Lavy took a deep breath. She was almost completly back under control of her emotions, "I could find hunderes a little things in his mind. Everyone has them with their significant other. And I willl find them if I look. Some are stonger then others. The stongest ones are the one's I'm worried about."

Lavy stopped again. She was sitting but she sat up staright. She was in control again and she had to act the part. She crossed her wiped her face of for anything tear that might have stained, straighened her cloths and crossed her legs, "I really want you to think about what your doing. Your young and beautiful and have your whole life ahead of you."

[potter_fan122]

Stacey carefully planted herself a couple feet from Lavy before she responded. She knew Lavy would do anything to make Stacey wait and think a little longer, but she had already thought about it for three years. It had been long enough.

"If the things that bother you are little... can`t you just get over them?" She asked softly, not meeting Lavy`s eyes. She knew Lavy`s words came from experience and she was only trying to help, but she couldn`t help but feel terrirorial over Aiden. She knew she was young, although she was too modest to think herself pretty, but she knew what she wanted.

The way she looked at it, there was only good that could come out of her marriage. She had had plenty of time to think. She and Aiden had even talked about things together-- homes, pets, even children someday in the future. She knew she was ready, and she wouldn`t let anything hold her back. She knew she was being stubborn, but sometimes you just have to be.

[LavyBrown]

"It seems that easy I know but it's not. Little quirks that people have always had and will never get rid of. I now you think that this will be as easy as breathing. And I'm not saying that it won't in the beginning. I'm worried about later."

Lavy looked at Stacey and wondered why she wouldn't look her in the eye. It made her slightly uncomfortable. She didn't like going into people's minds if there was another way around it. And looking into others eyes was the most reliable other then going into the mind. Eyes rarely lied.

(short i know sorry)

[potter_fan122]

((Lol. It`s okay.))

Stacey felt Lavy`s doubt and looked up to meet her eyes. "I don`t want to hear what you have to say." She explained, her voice barely louder than a whisper. "I`ve heard it before and I`ll hear it again." IT was true. Not only had Ginny and Lavy tried to delay her marriage, but her own mother had as well. Of course her mother`s reasons were much more selfish and self-centered rather than based on Stacey`s future happiness.

She took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. "Lavy, I know you only mean well, but I have it in control." Her eyes were locked on Lavy`s. She didn`t blink as she spoke or afterwards-- and her eyes showed that she believed what she said.

[LavyBrown]

Lavt smiled at her, "I know you do For now anyways." She stood up and brushed off the back of her pants, "You found the mirror?" A subject change was in order she thought, but it at least had to make sence. The only netural conversation she could think of was the mirror.

It shinned so brightly, even though it wasn't in the direct moonlight. She walked up to it and touched the glass. it was cool under the fingertips. She didn't look into the mirror however. She knew what it would be if she did.

[potter_fan122]

Stacey watched Lavy get up, but didn`t say anything. Her eyes flashed a few shades darker, always betraying her emmotions to others. When Lavy asked about the mirror, she was confused slightly. She could sense that it was a subject change, but made little sense.

"Um, yea." She said, nimbly stading and walking up to the mirror.