Ħ4 years later, in 1991, Dumbledore, now headmaster, had brought it out, and, tucking it out of sight in a disused classroom, initiated some key modifications to the mirror, so that it could hide the Philosopher's Stone. In September of 1927, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Albus Dumbledore looked into the mirror and saw his former best friend, Gellert Grindelwald, indicating he still has lingering feelings for him, as well an old memory of himself and Grindelwald in a barn where they made a blood pact swearing an oath never to fight each other, showing that Albus still valued that memory, manifested before him by the mirror as his greatest desire, of the time when his friendship with Gellert was at its strongest that led to the two of them cementing it with the pact in the first place. Īlbus Dumbledore standing in front of the mirror and seeing his former best friend and lover, Gellert Grindelwald The Mirror had been kept in the Room of Requirement since around 1891. A succession of teachers have brought back interesting artefacts from their travels, so it might have arrived at the castle in this casual manner, either because the teacher knew how it worked and was intrigued by it, or because they did not understand it and wished to ask their colleagues' opinions. It is unknown how it came to be at Hogwarts.
Some were even driven mad by seeing their most desperate desire presented before them as a mere image confined within the frames of the mirror, unable to achieve what they are witnessing. Indeed, it became grimly apparent over the years that the mirror could bring more harm than good many wasted their lives before the mirror, losing track of reality as they were deluded by what they saw and unable or unwilling to accept it as mere fantasy. The mirror is one of those magical artefacts that seems to have been created in a spirit of fun (whether innocent or malevolent is a matter of opinion), because while it is much more revealing than a normal mirror, it is interesting rather than useful.
The Mirror of Erised was created before the end of the nineteenth century. " Men have wasted away before it, not knowing if what they have seen is real, or even possible." - Albus Dumbledore explaining the danger of the mirror to Harry Potter Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. The writing engraved on the frame of the mirror was supposedly in a foreign and probably dead language, but if one looked closely it said " I show not your face but your heart's desire" backwards, with the spaces rearranged. But of course, it is intrinsically inherent for human nature to desire something greater than one's own self - meaning that an event wherein the mirror fails to carry out its intended purpose rarely, if at all, happens. The happiest and most satisfied person in the world would look in the mirror and see a reflection of them, exactly as they were, for they would then have no one and nothing more to yearn or desire for that the mirror could ever show them. The Mirror of Erised was a magical mirror, which, according to Albus Dumbledore, shows the " deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." The name "Erised" is "desire" spelled backwards, as if reflected in a mirror. " The mirror shows the most desperate desire of a person's heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad." - Description It has clawed feet and a gold frame inscribed with the phrase " Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. " The Mirror of Erised is an ancient, ornate mirror.