The moment "Voldemort" was beheaded, the Mirror's entire Utopia immediately began shattering.
As Harry had said, this was the final act—three plays that made him feel happy. The first was pleasant school life, the second was warm family life, and the last was the satisfaction of killing his enemy.
All three plays had ended. His contract with the Mirror of Erised concluded accordingly, so the Mirror's Utopia had no further need to exist.
Harry and Ron were instantly put to sleep by the magical shockwave, while Sterling still maintained consciousness by using his own massive magic power to counteract it.
Before his eyes, the kaleidoscope-like sky broke open from the middle, like a cracked egg. They were lifted upward, wrapped in white light, passing through the fissure. Above this was a tranquil black night. The quaint small town began disintegrating from the stone-paved roads into countless fragments. Sterling could see many faceless mannequins floating aimlessly. On one somewhat hunched mannequin, Sterling saw Andrew's achingly familiar clothes.
Continuing to rise with those fragments—this time it was Hogwarts, also the most gently dissipating part. Vast light particles rose from the castle, Forbidden Forest, and Black Lake. That water pool strangely expanded to fill the entire space's top layer. Everything was ascending, flowing toward that pure darkness.
"Plop—"
A soft sound. Ursula sat on a tree stump, watching three people roll out from the Black Mirror Kingdom's gates.
Then the gate rotated to another angle, ejecting a large pile of books from another mirror surface. A fluffy brown head emerged from beneath the books, looking around a bit dazed.
"Ah—Harry! Sterling! Ron!"
Hermione finally spotted them. She quickly swept the books off herself, hurrying forward to help Sterling up.
"Hermione?"
Sterling had clearly seen her emerge from a different fragment—meaning she hadn't been in the Mirror's Utopia at all?
No wonder Ron had appeared, but she still hadn't.
Hermione didn't look like Ron, who seemed like a completely different person now. She just appeared to have changed into more quaint plain-colored robes, wearing an oversized pointed hat, with what looked like a rather large ruby set below her wand handle.
"Did you all meet up? After I entered, I fell into an incredibly large library—it seemed to be inside an oak tree, bigger than Ravenclaw Library, even bigger than Hogwarts Library. I tried so many methods but couldn't get out..."
Hermione spoke like a machine gun. Sterling felt her speech speed seemed even faster than before, and from her expression... this wasn't deliberately accelerated. Maybe she'd even intentionally slowed down?
Merlin—hopefully future people debating with her won't be too discouraged.
"You seem to have entered a different space from us. Ron and I both entered the Mirror's Utopia, which was holding—or temporarily housing—Harry..."
"Hold on—" Ursula extended her hand to her mouth. Her hand immediately twisted and deformed into a "living megaphone."
"That Ron wasn't in the Mirror's construct either. Only you were initially inside. The other two were accidentally transported to other spaces—historical fragments created by the Queen. A while ago, the red-haired kid's fragment happened to collide with Harry's fragment, knocking him over."
"Speaking of which, the histories these two kids entered were quite interesting..."
Ursula smiled, covering her mouth, but wouldn't say more.
Just as well—Harry and Ron were slowly waking now. Harry had been directly sucked from the present world into the Mirror's Utopia by the Mirror of Erised. He hadn't experienced Avalon as a transfer station. Now he stared dazed at the ever-changing Black Mirror Kingdom walls.
"Harry..." Hermione called softly. She was quite curious about what had trapped him in the Mirror's world. Harry exchanged his story with her—Hermione's experience was unexpectedly mundane. As she said, she hadn't even found a method to leave the oak library...
So she'd frantically read books inside, almost daily randomly using Knockback Jinx on bookshelves, dropping piles of books, then diving in to read them.
During this, Sterling looked at the faintly visible pink five-pointed star on her neck, feeling that distinctive "engraving" aura, and felt himself go numb.
"I discovered this in a magic book placed alone at the library's very center. But I studied for ages without learning it, until one day a white-haired, blue-eyed, incredibly beautiful older sister suddenly appeared in the library. She modified this magic for me, then I could learn it... Though using it still feels somewhat awkward."
Very similar to Ron's experience... His side had been Merlin; Hermione's side would be who?
Sterling shook his head. He didn't currently care about this—or rather, he currently didn't care about anything else.
"Grandma Ursula, how long were we in the Mirror's Utopia?" he asked.
Ursula thought for a moment. "Seems like quite a while... I've even returned to Atlantis once. I still have some fresh seafood here."
Sterling quickly told the other three his time speculation. Hermione had the biggest negative reaction. Thinking she'd lost so much study time—though she'd studied the same in Avalon—she felt like the sky was falling.
Sterling was too far beyond standard for comparison. Terry originally, according to exam results, was about the same as her—but adding these months, there was no comparison whatsoever. She might as well prepare to take third place grade-wide.
Ron's reaction was equally huge—but wild joy.
Fantastic! He silently cheered internally. Missing so much study time, even if end-of-year exams went slightly worse, Mom would understand, right?
Though under Terry and Hermione's guidance he'd achieved a good first-year student level, Ron subjectively still considered himself a novice.
"We must hurry back to Hogwarts. After so long—not even mentioning whether Professor McGonagall and the others are worried—I feel our bodies will be soaked into an unhealthy pale color." Sterling said. Seeing Harry's "what are you talking about?" expression, he thoughtfully explained.
Hearing his body had been constantly protected by Snape-brewed potions and placed in Snape's office, Harry immediately showed an expression like he'd eaten something foul.
"Quickly, quickly—I haven't sent letters to Mom and Dad for so long; they must be terribly anxious!"
Hermione stamped her feet. Initially she hadn't expected to spend this long. Her highest estimate had been just two or three weeks.
"Right away, right away..." Sterling made a small cut on his fingertip, marking each person's eyes one by one with the blood.
Then four clean Stunning Spells.
"Grandma Ursula, after I resolve present-world matters, I'll come see you again!"
Waving goodbye to Ursula, Sterling also cast a Stunning Spell on himself.