Using the Mirror of Erised to find Horcruxes (was Re: Harry's Army)

[Rebecca Johnson]

No: HPFGUIDX 143812

bboyminn:
> Let's not get too literal here. Just because you can't absolutely depend on the true of what is shown in the mirror doesn't mean that everything it shows is a lie. In fact, everything it shows is TRUTH within a certain context. It is true Harry desires his parents. It is true the Quirrel imagines himself handing the Stone to his Master. It is true that Ron desires to be better than all his brothers. However, despite the /truth/ of these visions; seeing them doesn't make them reality  ...edited...  <

NymphandoraCallel:
  Thank you for your response, I definitally do agree with this, although I had not though of it yet in those terms, everything that the mirror has shown has, in fact, been a truth in its reflection of the person’s desires, but thats where I see the problem.  
   
  bboyminn:
  >The Mirror CAN be depended on to show you the /truth/ of your desires, but desires themselves are not necessarily reality.
  My point is that it might be possible to learn the location of one or more Horcruxes using the Mirror, while I say that, I also acknowledge that much like the problems Quirrel had with the Mirror, wanting the
Horcruxes might not work out exactly as you had planned.<
 
NymphandoraCallel:  
  Ok, so the mirror shows you desires, not reality, assuming Harry could use it to find the horcruxes, would it be able to show the actual location of them, or would it be just showing Harry finding them, in a fictional location?  The truth which the mirror is showing Harry would then be the desire to find the horcrux but not actually telling him where to look.  And even if it was able to show you where to look, how broad of a view would you get??  For example had the mirror shown the location of the fake locket horcrux, would you have seen the locket at the bottom of the basin after the potion had already been drunk?  That would not have been terribly helpful without the knowledge of the potion, the inferi, the cave or the even location of the cave... basically putting him where he was originally.
 
 bboyminn:  
>In a sense, the Mirror of Erised is a /context/ driven object in the same sense as the Room of Requirements. When Harry wanted to find out what Draco was doing in the Room of Requirements, he could never frame
his desire in the proper context to allow the Room to allow Harry to gain entrance. In the end, Harry was able to find the Room that Malfoy was using because he discovered the correct context in which to frame
his desire. 
  The same would be true for the Mirror, if you can't frame your desire in the proper context, then the Mirror is never going to show you what you need to know. In that sense, it can not be /depended on/ to show absolute knowledge or absolute truth. But in a more general sense, just because the Mirror can't be counted on to show absolute knowledge or absolute true doesn't mean that everything it shows you is a lie.<
 
NymphandoraCallel:  
Exactly, the mirror shows your deepest desires; which is not something as easily changed as walking by the room of requirement three times saying something different.  Harry’s deepest desire may be Dumbledore helping him find the horcruxes or victory over Voldemort or again his parents only now with Sirius and Dumbledore joining the group (and Ginny, Ron and Hermione) after the defeat of Voldemort. I don't think that you could just think something was your deepest desire and force it to be so.
   
  Also, one of my problems with the mirror being able to show you the location of the horcruxes or Harry finding them is that every time we have seen the mirror in use the observer has been looking at his own reflection, as he currently is, and in his current location, but with other people or things around him.  What if he could use the mirror to find out WHAT the other horcruxes were?  Harry could be standing there surround by the seven destroyed horcruxes, he would then know what he had to look for
my only concern would be does the mirror *know* what the horcruxes are?  Could it tell Harry what they were if neither he nor the mirror already knew?  Again, and correct me if I’m wrong, every instance in which we have seen the mirror in use it has shown the observer with something that he has, at one point or another, seen or come in contact with (Harry’s parents, head boy badge, warm socks
).  The exception to this has been the actual SS, which the *mirror* knew what it looked like,
 so it could reflect it
  But does it know what the horcruxes are or where they are in order to show them to Harry??  
   
  And anyway, where is the Mirror of Erised now?
   
  NymphandoraCallel