One of a matching pair, the enchanted mirror allowed its owner to communicate instantly with whoever possessed its counterpart simply by speaking their name into the glass. Sirius and James had originally used the mirrors to speak to one another while serving separate detentions at Hogwarts, and decades later, Sirius gives James’s mirror to Harry so that the two of them could remain in contact without relying on owls, fireplaces or the Floo Network.

And of all the tragic mistakes made throughout the Harry Potter series, few are as frustrating as Harry’s failure to actually USE the mirror. It didn’t require a complicated spell and it was right there at his fingertips..An object sitting at the bottom of his own trunk that could have allowed him to speak directly to Sirius at almost any time.

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