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Lily Luna squeezed Severus's hand, observing the desert all around her and the few - last - people - wizards - who had followed her in this crazy endeavour.
It was time to test the instructions she had received a lifetime ago from Merlin himself.
It was time to reveal humanity's last defence, the last bastion of hope, the reason why she had remained on planet Earth for almost eternity, even while others began to explore the infinite Space.
The Earth was not dying in an arid desert; it was full of abandoned cities, pollution that had compromised the very existence of life, and yet it had resisted... Until that moment. The sun would not last much longer, and only magic had allowed those few to save themselves; magic and the echo of a legend, of hope.
Lily Luna had chosen the desert only to protect the most precious thing.
She raised her hand and released the Power, dissolving the Illusion that hid the last hope from view.
The Mirror of Erised.
***
The Mirror of Erised had not been created; it had existed since the beginning of time, or so the legend went. Many had studied it at first; its true power did not lie in reflecting the illusions of the heart, but only manifested itself when all was lost.
The Mirror was a portal.
Lily and her companions advanced until she found herself a few centimetres from its reflective surface. Nothing was visible in the mirror, not even her reflection. The time had come.
Lily raised a finger and touched the glass, which rippled like the waters of a lake struck by a stone.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Let's go," she said to her companions, still holding Severus's hand. "To Atlantis."
***
The first thing she saw were the two moons, high and full and enormous and shining in the sky.
Then the columns, on either side of the mirror and behind it, creating an open-air temple.
Finally... The Men.
Lily Luna and her group stood on a small mound of earth. As the magical energy built and built, as everyone crossed... Lily watched the waiting men, led by what appeared to be a High Priest.
Men.
Not aliens. Not blue creatures, or tall creatures, or creatures with antennae or strange tails.
Men, like all of them.
The last of the wizards crossed the Mirror.
"Welcome," said the Priest, in Parseltongue - in Atlantean, as Merlin had taught her.
And then the magical energy exploded, lighting up the valley.
Once it subsided, Lily Luna realised that every object and piece of clothing they had brought from their world had disappeared, disintegrated. They were naked, all naked... Without talismans, without gifts, without food or water. Without wands.
A shiver shook her, and she turned back.
In the centre of the columns, emptiness.
The Mirror had disappeared.
***
Atlantis was bursting with magic.
Much of the magical flora and fauna on earth seemed to have originated in Atlantis. Magic sparkled in the air, in the water, in the earth, causing different natural phenomena.
Yet the people of Atlantis could not use it. They were Muggles.
Lily had consulted with the High Priest. He had told her about ancient prophecies, about the Mirror that had once appeared in the Temple, and about how they knew that the Time had come, that they should welcome the Gods beyond the Mirror and rejoice in their gifts, for a bright future.
For years, Lily had not fully understood... Until the first child was born to one of them - the Last Ones - and an Atlantean - the First Ones - and, after the first few years, it became clear that he had inherited magic.
Academies to be built. Knowledge to be passed on.
Arts lost in the old Earth, to be mastered.
They had already produced the first, rudimentary wands. It was a matter of rebuilding, with the help of future generations.
***
"The Mirror was not born," the Priest had told her at the twilight of his life. "The Goddess of Time created it. So it has been told."
Severus had held her tight that evening. In their home beyond the Temple, outside the village.
They, the only ones imbued with eternal life in that world.
"You can do it," he whispered, kissing her neck. "In any case, you have all the time in the world."
They made love before the enormity of the mission crushed her. Even before, even with Merlin's task, she had been the bearer of a mission greater than the Earth itself.
The cycle repeated itself, leaving her exhausted, with many questions and few answers.
***
Time passed relentlessly. Even Atlantis, the great civilisation of the Two Moons, was destined to disappear.
The temple was destroyed, the night sky shaken by flashes of mad magic.
It seemed like déjà vu: she, hand in hand with Severus, and a few others. This time they had also brought animals, seeds and plants. Hoping they would remain, that everything would not disappear like last time.
The Mirror was in front of them.
The efforts of an eternity of research on space and portals. Lily was not sure where it would take them this time. She was not sure of anything.
She raised her hand and touched the surface, which rippled under her index finger.
Once again, they crossed over.
***
Sun, sun high in the sky, scorching, young, familiar.
Lily stood atop a pyramid-shaped structure, something that stirred the echo of a memory within her. Steps, and a city of terracotta.
A Priest waiting with several acolytes, a city holding its breath behind him. He addressed them in an unknown language.
"Lily," whispered Severus, "I think it's a Ziggurat." He turned to her, his mouth agape, incredulous. "We're on Earth. In Mesopotamia."
Lily burst out laughing as people and animals continued to emerge from the Mirror, finding themselves on top of the world.
"Now it's all clear!" she finally exclaimed, wiping away a tear. "Don't you understand, Severus? The beginning and the end. Goddess of Time and Space. We are in a cycle! An infinite continuum."
Once everyone had come out, the glass of the Mirror became solid again, reflecting the sun's rays. Nothing disappeared, and Lily cast a translation spell to understand the Priest's words as everyone began to descend the long stairs.
***
Day and night, two moons and one sun.
The beginning and the end.
The two of them, the only constants in the universe, stuck in an eternal apocalypse.