July 24th, 1891 — Knockturn Shop

Mirror | Sylvia Plath

Ford had been having a bit of a rough week, though only as far as work was concerned. The girls were doing quite well at all of their events, and to the best of his knowledge Mama hadn't even overspent her budget (much) this month, so that was all fine. It was even uncharitable to say that work had been rough, since most of the Spirit Ball earlier had been splendid. He'd been having a grand time up until Barnaby Wye started singing ballads making fun of George Robins, and even after that he was still having a mostly good time (just feeling vaguely guilty) up until the unauthorized hunt started. After that, however, he'd had to spent several hours of what should have been his sleep for the evening off chasing down ghost foxes and hounds in all the various neighborhoods of Hogsmeade. The ghosts participating all thought it was great fun, but they didn't have to get up and go to work the next morning, did they?

He was still catching up on the energy he'd lost on Tuesday night by the time he set off about his work on Thursday, so his feet were dragging a little. He didn't like this kind of work, particularly. Spirit-mirrors were technically legal, but they had always struck him as rather cruel, and so inspecting them wasn't a task he relished. The fact that these were in Knockturn, which was hardly a reputable shopping area, only made him more reluctant to go about it. He had decided he'd best just get through it as quickly as possible, but that plan was derailed quite quickly when he entered the shop and saw a familiar but unexpected face: Tycho Dodonus.

"Morning," he greeted, with obvious surprise. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

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Tycho Dodonus Roberto Devine

  

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Set by Lady!

Tycho had been having a ball of a week. The spirit ball had been a hoot and then the night before, he had been invited to a rather exclusive party. Truth be told, it was quite rare for Tycho to be up in the morning for anything. It was a bizarre experience to be up before noon. He was wearing his star shaped sunglasses to protect his eyes from the sun. He had enchanted them himself using a regular, boring pair of sunglasses as his base.

He turned at the sound of a familiar voice and he smiled broadly at his friend. He saw no issue with wrapping Ford into a great hug as if they had been friends for years rather than just a few months. "Oh no, sir. The line goes 'what is a pretty face like you doing in a place like this'?" He said as he inspected a rather ghastly looking relic. "Williams harassed me out of bed at the asscrack of dawn because rumor among the ghosts is that there is some terrible object or artifact or something here." He tapped the mirror of a doll and glanced at Ford as the doll tapped back.

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Ford had already learned better than to be surprised by the embrace, though it was terribly forward given how short a time they'd known each other. That was just what Dodonus was like, he'd come to realize. Maybe he was like this with everyone, or maybe it was just Ford, but Ford didn't mind. His verbal greeting was a little more confusing, because Ford hadn't heard that particular line before and wasn't sure why he ought to be publicly announcing that Dodonus had a pretty face.

"Oh, maybe we're here for the same thing, then," he said, following Dodonus' eyes over to the nearby mirror. "Though my Ministry memo didn't exactly call it terrible."

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Set by Lady!

"Well, I suppose that might be because they aren't the ones who could get trapped in it," Tycho pointed out as he continued to harass the doll-mirror. "I'm buying this doll in a mirror thing." He picked it up and placed it on the counter before turning back to Ford. "Now then beautiful, shall we see about this spirit mirror thing?" As he spoke, he eyed the other things in the shop, he couldn't help but make an idle observation about the lack of lighting in the room as he perched his sunglasses on the top of his head so that he could actually see things. "I know Knockturn Alley is the spot for dark wizards and all that but I don't think they need to take it so literally."

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   Fortitude Greengrass

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Dodonus announced he was buying the mirror he'd just been looking at, and Ford raised an eyebrow. He almost asked why, thinking that perhaps Tycho had some inventive purpose in mind for it, but stopped himself. Rich people didn't really need reasons to buy things, he remembered. They could just do things like this on a whim — or if not on a whim, then at least with far less care and planning than Ford spent painstakingly balancing the monthly budget for the Greengrass household.

He had barely recovered from the strangeness of watching someone make an impulse purchase when Dodonus called him beautiful. It was almost certainly just one of Dodonus' strange turns of phrase, and he probably didn't mean anything by it, but it made Ford's cheeks color all the same. He was beginning to think this call was going to be a little more complicated than he'd anticipated, even if he found nothing out of the ordinary. Tycho Dodonus complicated matters just by existing in the same shop.

Ford cleared his throat and tried to focus on the matter at hand. He privately agreed with Dodonus and Williams' assessment of the cruelty of spirit mirrors, but that wasn't the official Ministry line, so he felt he had to say something in response. "Well, they do have a permit to sell them," he pointed out, but very weakly — it was clear his heart wasn't in the defense of spirit mirrors as a concept, much less their particular use here in this shady Knockturne shop. "I'm just supposed to make sure they're operating under the terms of their license, not confiscate them, or anything."

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Set by Lady!

Tycho missed the way that Fords cheeks colored as his gaze traveled around the shop rather than staying on his friend. There were many interesting things, some veering to the morbid which was always a little fascinating. He would perhaps return some other time to peruse more of the items on the shelves. As it was, he was here to see the mirror.

"Ah! Then if it passes your inspection, I shall buy it. Perhaps see about setting any potential ghosts trapped inside free. And if there isn't any, tinker with it." It would be a bit of fun to poke about and see what made it tick. Perhaps repurpose it to do something a little more useful than trapping ghosts. "Your job must bring you such interesting acquaintances, I personally feel. Ghosts, creators of spirit mirrors, dementors, maybe?. Though I would always rather not come across a boggart."

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   Fortitude Greengrass

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Ford smiled at the remark as he moved towards the back room of the shop where his memo said the mirrors were kept. He certainly thought ghosts were interesting, but not everyone did — though he shouldn't be surprised that Tycho agreed on that front, given the company he kept at home. Still, it was nice to be in the company of a kindred soul, at least on that aspect.

"Dementors don't make for good company," Ford pointed out mildly. He had reason to know since he'd taken over the management of the fledgling dementor Cash Lestrange had created, but he didn't think a statement like that would give anything away about his experience on the subject since it was rather common knowledge. If he got into details he might get into more trouble, but even then he could probably brush it off as typical Spirit Division training with anyone who didn't work in his division and know better.

"Boggarts are much nicer," he continued, though he was aware nice was not an adjective many would have used. Ford liked handling boggarts, though. He was good at it, and boggarts could be interesting, if one approached them in a detached way. "If you do ever run across one, call me straight off and I'll handle it for you."

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Set by Lady!

Tycho idly followed Ford towards the back room. "I would imagine not," Tycho agreed. Still, he would rather relive his own worst memories and be plunged into depths of despair than to be witness to his deepest fear. Tycho supposed that was a matter of opinion though. He had also never been near a dementor so his opinion might change after actually experiencing the proximity of one.

"Oh? I shall flutter my eyelashes and croon oh, my hero at you in advance, then," Tycho said, following through on the promise to flutter his eyelashes quite flirtatiously over the top. He stopped that with a laugh. "In seriousness, I shall be sure to alert you should I have need for your expertise." Tycho did know what form his boggart took but for once felt it a little too intimate of a thing to divulge. Besides, for some reason he did not want Ford Greengrass to see even the fabricated image of him lost to insanity.

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Ford grinned at the Oh my hero comment, but also blushed slightly again. He was sure that this one was just Dodonus being who he was and making jokes, but if he really was like this with everyone then sooner or later someone was going to think he was serious. Hopefully it was someone sweet and fun and things just worked out for the pair of them, not someone who was likely to take offense and make a big fuss (or whose brothers were likely to take offense and make a big fuss — did Dodonus flirt with women like this? Ford wasn't sure he'd ever had the opportunity to see one way or another).

"If you could schedule your spiritual emergencies during the workday that'd be grand," Ford joked as he continued towards the back room. "Then I can get paid with more than your eyelashes and gratitude for handling them."

They'd reached the section where the mirrors were, it seemed. Ford noticed three that looked like spirit mirrors, but they still hadn't encountered a shopkeeper.

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Set by Lady!

"I shall do my very best, sir," Tycho said with a mock salute as he followed the Ministry man to the back room. The fact that there was no shopkeeper felt kind of sketchy to him. "Which one do you think it is?" Tycho asked, feeling an odd need to whisper. He peered at the mirrors, a couple seeming either normal or just a run of the mill cursed non-spirit mirror.

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Ford rolled his shoulders back as he surveyed the mirrors. It wasn't often he was seen as a source of knowledge in a room, but this was his area of expertise (or at least close to it) so he'd might as well take advantage of the moment and stand a little taller. "You can tell the ones that are built for it by the way the light hits the glass," he explained, pointing out one of the three he'd noticed. "It's easier to see at an angle than straight on. It's almost like it's fogged, but only a little bit. Like the glass is deeper than on a normal mirror." There was something about the charm that had that visual effect, though it was subtle enough that no one would notice unless they knew what to look for.

"But the best way to see if they're occupied is just to go stand in front of one. The ghost will definitely show up. It's not as though they have anywhere else to go," he pointed out. He took a few steps towards the nearest mirror, with Dodonus right beside him, and peered into the glass. Nothing floated up to the surface to greet them — but something entirely unexpected happened instead.

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Set by Lady!

Tycho nodded as he took this information in, peering at the mirrors to see if he could see what Ford was referring to. Ty followed Ford to the mirror and peered into it. Nothing peered out at them but instead, one disorienting moment later, Tycho realized he was now looking out into the room of the shop instead of their reflections in the mirror.

"Were we spirits all along and never knew? Or did we die just now," Tycho said though he knew the former was unlikely, at least. Unless Williams just saw fit never to tell him. Either way, they were very much now stuck inside a mirror.

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Ford may not have ever experienced that dizzying series of events, but it wasn't difficult to piece together what had happened. Everything around the pair of them was dark and formless, except for the floating surface of the mirror through which the shop beyond was visible. Ford reached out to touch the glass with two fingers, gingerly feeling to determine whether or not it was solid.

"Well, fuck," he breathed. This was not particularly helpful, nor an answer to either of Dodonus' questions, but it was as much as Ford felt capable of given the circumstances. He looked around, wondering if this was an illusion, but saw nothing to indicate that it was.

"I'm surprised there's a floor," he mused as he stared down at whatever they were standing on. He couldn't see anything particularly, but he could certainly feel it beneath his feet. "Spirits wouldn't need one."

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Set by Lady!

When Ford pointed out his surprise that there was a floor, Tycho noted this fact with a nod. "Maybe this mirror wasn't meant for spirits, after all?" Tycho suggested, feeling the glass himself and finding it to be quite solid. Now this was quite a predicament. Tycho had been through plenty of odd experiences but being trapped in a mirror was not one of them.

"I don't suppose you have experience in this area?" He doubted it but who knew?

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Ford let out a short, humorless bark of laughter. "If it were up to me these wouldn't even be legal," he said. He waved a hand towards the glass in a vague, angry gesture. "So no, I haven't spent much time mucking around inside any."

Spirit mirrors were inherently cruel, in his opinion, and he was sure if they were routinely used on living humans they would have been far more related than they currently were, or even outlawed. Wizards seemed to have a different set of standards for beasts, beings, and spirits than they did for other wizards, though. There were few, even within his own division, who shared his opinions on the subject.

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Set by Lady!

Tycho nodded in agreement. He was cavalier about a lot of things in life but his personal connection with spirits as well as what passed for a moral compass abhorred the mistreatment of spirits. They had been a living, breathing being once and deserved the same respect one would give to the living as far as Tycho was concerned.

"I am hesitant to use any spells in case they just bounce off the glass and hit us. We're both too pretty to sport scars for life on our faces." He looked around to see if there would be anything useful in here, as unlikely as it may be.

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