The mirror view reached the top of the cliff. At the top was a small clearing with some ruins. The mirror flew a short distance into the ruins. There was an opening in the ground leading down into total blackness. The mirror image seemed to flutter around the opening as though it was too scared to proceed.
"Once at the top our champions face one final challenge. They must descend into the Pit of Despair to rescue our fair Princess! Here in the pit our champions must face their greatest fears."
"Now of course we can expect all of you to be following behind our champions to watch them meet their challenges during the Princess Marauder. As you have all seen we have placed enchanted mirrors throughout the hall," Harry gestured to the large mirror behind him and then to the other ones around the hall. "These mirrors show the images captured on special crystal balls. To track our champions we call upon some special assistants. Dobby!"
At Harry's call, a very familiar house elf appeared 10 feet off the ground riding an elf-sized broom. The broom quickly accelerated like the Firebolt it resembled to zip the elf around the room. Dobby was giggling madly as he dove on the students and whipped the broom back and forth.
Harry heard one of the twin's comment, "I didn't know elves inherited their master's desire to fly like crazy person."
"Either that or they were bloody made for each other!" the other Weasley responded. Harry grinned at them and refrained from commenting.
"Our Elven friends will follow our champions on their quest. Some others will be stationary at certain key places to capture the action. The images from their crystal balls will be presented here at Hogwarts for all to see and enjoy! Similar mirrors will also be installed in various places including: Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang for the rest of the population to watch."
Harry grinned over at the champions who were looking a bit pale. "So be ready champions - the world will be watching!
....
"Those mirrors are interesting, Harry," Hermione commented that night in the common room. "Where did they come from?" Harry and his friends including Ernie and Daphne had been sitting in the Gryffindor common room talking for two hours before Hermione finally asked her question. Harry was rather impressed. The twins had only expected her to last an hour.
"Spying on the girls' loo apparently," Harry answered with a small grin.
"Harry James Potter! What do you mean by that?" Hermione demanded. Padma had turned from her place leaning up against Harry to glare at her boyfriend.
"Not by me!" Harry protested. "The Marauders did it when they were in school- at least until Mum caught them and boxed their ears for it according to Mooney." Now the listening girls nodded with satisfaction.
"Still, when Padfoot told me the story I could see it had potential. It sort of looks like it works the same as a Muggle telly, but not really. Wizards used to use's scrying mirrors to observe distant events. Even Muggles heard about them."
"Like in the Disney stories," Hermione commented with a nod.
Padma shook her head. "Not really. I remember seeing Snow White with my aunt when I was little. Scrying mirrors are a part of divination that is now a lost art."
Hermione made a little face at the mention of her least favourite subject. "Divination? So really they were used to tell the future?"
"No," Padma disagreed, "divination used to be defined as the study of using magic to gather information. Seeing the future was only a part of the overall field. One ritual reportedly used a map and a focus of some type to locate missing people or objects or search for underground minerals or water. Even Muggles have heard of 'divining rods'. Wards started to become common that prevented divination magic from penetrating into protected areas and the Ministry suppressed much of it as interfering with privacy concerns. If you ask me they were helping some wealthy contributors hide their misdeeds. So over time we lost that magic.
"Now, the old scrying mirrors were used literally to watch events as they happened. But there were limitations on the mirrors. The user had to enchant a bird or other animal to link their vision to the mirror. If the animal died or the spell broke somehow the mirror became useless and could not be used again with another animal."
Harry smiled listening to Padma's explanation. He picked up when she paused. "Back when they were in school, my father and Remus managed to link a small crystal to a mirror. They mounted the crystal on a small statue and enchanted the statue as an air freshener. Then they tricked a First year girl into placing it in the loo.
.....
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