THE MIRROR OF ERISED

Lily nodded as she took the book, checked her spot, then closed it and eyed her son briefly before saying, "I'm keeping my promise son. You wanted to know about Snape," she sucked in a huge breath and said, "so here it goes."

She was the only one who spoke for almost a solid half hour. The three boys didn't trust

themselves to speak on the matter without cursing something in the process. When she was finally done, ending with the last bit of information they knew about Snape's current whereabouts, or thought they knew since they were rumors, she looked pleading at her son, begging him to understand what these other three just couldn't. There was too much bad blood between the lot, but Harry didn't have to inherit his father's grudge, simply based on this books facts about him.

When she was done, Harry nodded slowly to himself, rubbing his temple again. Everything his mother had just told him came as a surprise, but he also got that feeling again. The one he had when they had told him Remus' story. He felt right again, whole, like another part of his life was explained. Then he met his mother's eyes, and said to the room at large, "alright. I'm not going to say anything then. I'll wait until these books are over before making a final judgement call."

Lily beamed and threw her arms around her son, thanking Merlin she had such an understanding boy.

Then when she leaned back from the hug, she stood up, marched over to James in the chair, and practically dragged him into the kitchen.

Once in there and hopefully out of earshot of the others, she said, "I'm sorry."

James blinked, he hadn't been expecting that. Before he could say anything though, she kept going, "It's just that, I have to believe Sev wouldn't do this. You know counter curses are done in the same manner, and-" her voice caught on a catch in her throat.

Taking this moment, James cut in with, "Lily I'm not mad at you for defending him. Lord knows if I was, I'd never not be mad at you." She made a face at him, but he pressed on, "I was just hurt when you made it seem like you were going to stand there and do nothing when it said he was going to kill our son."

Lily shook her head hard from side to side, her hair whipping into her face as she spluttered, "No, I would never!" Then, when she saw the look in those hazel eyes, he still looked beyond hurt and unbelieving she rushed on, "I was just trying to get you to see that, you have been wrong about him before. At least try to do what Harry is, give him these seven years at school to prove that he's not the man you think he is."

James' face scrunched up. He would never like Snape. How could he, when James still had a lurking fear that one of these days he was going to come and try to take Lily away from him, for good this time. He had never shared this fear with anyone, but it still lurked in the back of his mind every night like a growing fungus. He thought his friends would tell him he was ridiculous, and Lily would probably slap him for suggesting she couldn't handle herself and take care of her own life. Still, to appease an obviously upset love of his life, he did promise her this.

They made their way back into the living room to find a rousing debate between these three boys, Sirius and Remus were trying to convince Harry that it was a great idea for him to go and pull a prank or two at school. Despite the fact that Harry was out of school and could do no such thing, or already had with no influence from them.

Harry was laughing along and trying to explain that he really thought this was a bad idea, but without any real force in it. He seemed to be enjoying just sitting and talking to them at all.

When the two parents reentered the room, Harry went quiet and looked at the two as if fearing they would start arguing again, while Remus and Sirius took one look at them and began gagging at once.

"Please," Sirius choked, clutching at his throat, "please at least leave the room if you two are going to start making out again."

"We're begging, save poor Harry's eyes from such a sight," Remus agreed in disgust.

Harry was laughing again at once, while the married couple took their spots on either side of him.

James and his two friends began bickering at once, the two of them arguing that this was how they made up all the time in seventh year, while Lily looked about for her place.

Once she found it, she began reading.

Christmas was on the way.

And immediately frowned with concern. Fragile as she felt right now, she might just burst into tears all over again if Harry, A) went back to the Dursley's house and was ignored or B) stayed at an empty castle for the holidays.

The other three looked just as concerned about this, so Harry was quick to say, "I have a great feeling about this Christmas."

At their astounded looks he said, "Really. I think I get a wonderful gift, several actually."

When they all beamed at him with pure joy, Harry decided to decline mentioning that there was something else that happened on Christmas that had been bothering him since he'd laid eyes on his parents. This was not the first time he'd seen their faces, of that he was sure, but like the book had said the Dursley's had no pictures of them. Then why was he so sure on this day that he might just get his eleven year old wish?

Brushing it off, he let his mother go on without a fuss.

Days in December were usually seen snow covered. The lake was frozen over, and the Weasley twins got into trouble for enchanting snowballs to follow around and bounce off of Quirrell's turban.

"An old favorite gag of Peter's," James laughed.

Owls that managed to get through the storm had to be nursed back to health.

"Poor dears," Lily muttered.

Potions classes were the worst, as students were forced to huddle around their cauldrons for their only source of warmth.

"Yeesh, at least Slughorn put warming charms in there," Sirius grumbled, shivering a bit himself at the sound of that.

Malfoy was his usual self, loudly making the comment how he pitied students who had to stay at school for Holidays because they weren't wanted at home.

"You really shouldn't talk about yourself like that," Remus snapped, anger bubbling up in him again at once.

Harry wouldn't let himself feel dejected at Malfoy's snip, instead beamed over at a man he really was starting to think of as his Uncle, not that he had anything real to compare the feeling to, but it felt right all the same.

Malfoy had been furious Slytherin had lost its match,

"A real pleasure I'm sure," Sirius grumbled.

and had tried to run the joke that Harry would soon be replaced with a frog on his team.

"I'm sure it wasn't any funnier to them then it is to us," Lily said, rolling her eyes at these childish antics.

Nobody else ever laughed along though, to impressed with Harry having stayed on his broom the way he had, so Malfoy had resorted back to picking on Harry for not having a proper family.

James grit his teeth so much that it was starting to hurt. He was really beginning to hate this Malfoy brat almost as much as he hated Snivellus. He would always take jabs at all four of them, he and Sirius for being rather spoiled and rich, and Remus for his lack thereof. Still, he kept himself quite, for now, no sense in fighting with the book at least.

Harry was just wondering why Malfoy had made that leap. It was true, but as Harry had never even really spoken to anyone outside of his two friends, Malfoy had made quite the pompous jump that Harry wasn't spending his first Christmas back with anyone, made him unwanted at home. He wasn't wrong, but the oddness was there all the same.

Harry didn't deny the fact that he was staying at school for the Christmas break,

"Can't decide if that's a relief we won't have to hear about them, or depressing he's going to be in an empty castle," Sirius sighed. He and Remus had always stayed at school together, while James and Peter had nearly always gone home during the holidays.

"Go with the first one," Remus sighed, running his hand threw his hair sadly.

and Harry was looking forward to the holiday for once. That had a lot to do with the fact that the Weasley's were all staying as well, since Ron's parents were going to visit Charlie in Romania.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Lily beamed, while all of the boys perked up at once as well.

"This really is going to be fun then," Remus and Sirius both said, remembering back to all the times they'd had in an almost deserted castle, with tons of victims that weren't expecting a holiday prank.

Nobody bothered to ask why Charlie's siblings hadn't come along, they were sure the parents just wanted to spend some time with just one of their children on a holiday.

That day as they exited the dungeons they came into the entrance to find Hagrid hauling in some huge fir trees. Ron offered help, but Hagrid told him he had it handled, as Malfoy walked by and mocked Ron for that probably being a nicer tree then his family could ever afford.

"That boy has no boundaries," Lily said in disgust, while all four boys looked like they dearly wanted to punch Malfoy in his face.

Ron made a dive at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"Gah, can you say timing," Sirius snarled, really he hoped someone had a chance to shove it to that kid soon.

Snape tried to tell Ron off, but Hagrid stepped in and said that Malfoy had been insulting Ron's family.

"Thank you Hagrid," Remus said to the ceiling in relief. If he had to deal with another instance that Harry got in trouble because no one was there for his side, he might have lost his temper again.

"I meant what I said before," James said, "Hagrid is my favorite person in Harry's life right now."

"He certainly seems to be keeping an eye on him," Lily agreed fondly.

Sirius was still disgruntled Ron hadn't had the chance to punch Malfoy.

Snape clearly didn't care, still docking points from Gryffindor before shooing them all away.

"Merry Bloody Christmas to you to," James hissed in disgust.

Ron was grinding his teeth in frustration as Malfoy walked away, wishing he could get back at him,

"And I can't wait to hear all about it," Sirius said brightly.

Harry corrected saying he hated both of them, Malfoy and Snape.

"And I don't blame you one bit," Remus agreed.

Hagrid tried to cheer them up, reminding them it was the holidays after all, and invited them into the Great Hall to see the decorations. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were inside, hanging golden streamers and bobbers everywhere, and Hagrid was dragging in the twelfth tree that towered around with magical decorations.

"The castle always did seem even more magical when they decorated it," Lily agreed fondly.

They admire the decorations for a few moments before Hermione reminds them they need to run off to the library. Harry and Ron agree, and Hagrid reminds how close it is to the holiday for them to be doing homework.

"Nah," James said, "we always tried to get as much homework as we could done, so we could enjoy the actual break."

"I'm rather impressed," Lily admitted.

"Sure, we needed all the time we could get to plan out some of our ideas," Sirius agreed.

Lily then chose to roll her eyes at the ceiling.

Harry tells him they weren't doing school stuff, but trying to find information about Nicolas Flamel.

"Oh," all four of them said.

"Yeah," Harry said sheepishly, "I didn't have Dad to tell me who he was, so we had no idea what we were doing."

James momentary pride and thrill at hearing his son refer to him like that for the first time in his life didn't quite cover the fact that all four adults grimaced at the comment, so to change the subject Harry asked, "You said he was an alchemist? What's that, what do they do?"

James gave himself a little shake before answering, "err, I think mainly there goal is to turn metal into gold. It's a really shrouded branch of magic, which is why Flamel's card is so bloody rare. Had to nearly pay my weight in gold for the thing. His card didn't say much about it, just talked about his interests and his wife."

Harry nodded along and then asked, "So, you don't know what Flamel has to do with this then?"

"No," he admitted, shaking his head, he hadn't had much time to think on it really, but now that he was, all he could come up with was, "I know a lot of papers mentioned he and Dumbledore were working on something together, but I've no idea what. This was years ago to, I don't even think my parents were born, but really I've no idea."

Harry nodded in disappointment, as did the others. None of them had even heard of Flamel, so they had no idea what was going on.

Hagrid was shocked, demanding to know why they'd do such a thing. Hermione says they were just curious is all.

"Oh I'm so sure," Remus snickered, no person in their right mind would believe that.

Harry agrees, then admits his frustration that he was sure he'd read that name somewhere else before.

"Oh Harry," James said laughing, "now you see the importance of reading your Chocolate Frog Cards?"

Harry nodded, hoping his younger self would remember this as well soon. He already had a slight headache from remembering all the books they had sorted through.

Hagrid refuses to say anything else about it, and Ron just shrugs and says they'd have to find out for themselves then.

Lily couldn't help but smile indulgently at this. She knew better than to berate about their curiosity, she would have to admit even she would have done exactly what they were doing now.

They had been looking in the library for that name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, but the problem was they had no idea what he may have been famous for to get into a book.

"There's a new saying," Sirius laughed, "looking for a wizard in the library."

"I can't even imagine that," Remus said in disbelief, "stumbling through books and hoping to come across his name."

"We didn't have a better idea," Harry defended.

The library was huge, tens of thousands of books on every subject imaginable, so they had no idea how to start.

"You could look until your seventh year and still not get through half of them," James agreed.

Harry balked at him, had they done this? "Maybe, but I really think I find out about him over

Christmas." Yet he wasn't so sure. Perhaps he was wrong, and they really never did find out the mystery of the tiny package.

Lily simply decided to keep going, Harry was now looking quite discouraged, and she really was feeling bad for him.

Hermione tried to do it by sorting through subjects, while Ron wandered around and grabbed books randomly.

Remus laughed, saying, "good a system as any I suppose."

Harry on the other hand wandered back towards the Restricted Section. These were books for the higher levels of learning, filled with all manner of Dark Magic for advanced Defense Against the Dark Art's classes. Harry wasn't allowed to just search through these though, as you needed sign permission to get back there.

All four adults were now frowning, hoping dearly this object had nothing to do with that section. If it did, it would only heighten there worry about what was being kept in a school full of children.

Harry was interrupted from his mental speculation by the librarian, Madam Irma Pince, asking from behind him what Harry was doing. Harry said 'nothing,' and she snapped that he could get out.

James huffed at that, muttering, "she never did like students. Why she works with them is beyond me."

"Can you believe an adult would actually yell at someone to get out of a Library," Sirius laughed, "that's as backwards as it gets."

Harry wished he'd come up with some better excuse, but left the library anyways. He and his friends had already decided not to ask her for help,

"But I bet she'd know in a second," Lily sighed.

They were sure she'd know where to find Nicolas Flamel, but they didn't want the news getting around to Snape that they were asking.

"Now you're just being paranoid," Remus laughed, "since I doubt Snape would even think to look in on you lot looking up some old name."

"We were being cautious," Harry defended, feeling stupider by the minute.

"Don't worry love," Lily said, patting him on the cheek, "they're only messing with you. I'd be more worried if they didn't."

Harry relaxed at once, smiling around at them all again.

Harry waited outside the library without any hope that Ron and Hermione would come out with any better luck. They'd been looking for two weeks now to find this guy, but it was hard going when all they really had were odd times in between classes and Madam Pince breathing down their necks. Harry knew what they really needed was a long, unsupervised period of time.

"So you plan on spinning the whole of your break in there?" James asked in disgust, "really Harry, someone in that school needs to teach you how to live."

"Oh I doubt they will," Sirius replied for Harry, "have you ever known any eleven year old that can focus during the Holidays?"

"I seem to recall us getting some of our best work done then," Remus argued, glimmers of

mischief appearing in his eyes.

"Yeah, but that was something we actually wanted to do," Sirius finalized.

Harry's guess was right, Ron and Hermione came out a few minutes later with dejected looks on their faces. Hermione prompted the two boys to keep looking while she went home for the break, and to send her an owl if they find anything. Ron suggest Hermione could ask her parents if they've heard the name, but Hermione tells them they wouldn't know because they're dentists.

"She could still ask them," Lily said, thinking it over, "Muggles do actually know some famous wizards, like Merlin for example."

"Still, if we haven't heard of him, I doubt a couple of Muggles would have," James said with a shrug.

Lily couldn't argue with that.

Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel.

"Saw that coming," Sirius chuckled.

Since practically the rest of the school was gone, they had the run of the common room and spent days next to the fire toasting anything you can spear, and plotting ways to get Malfoy expelled which weren't always plausible but always fun.

"Brings back all the good memories," Remus chuckled.

"You stayed behind during break?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh yeah," Sirius nodded along with his friend, "Moony and I always did."

Harry bit his lip, wanting to ask why, but feeling it was a bit rude, but then Remus answered for him anyways, "my parents loved me dearly, but it was very hard for them to ah, take care of me during the holidays. The school was much better equipped, so I chose to stay there."

"I hated my house," Sirius said in bright tones, "so I always kept around to keep him company."

"I went home most years," James added on without being asked, "my parents pinned for me if I was gone too long."

"You would think they'd be glad to be rid of your big head," Lily muttered.

James kept going, pretending he hadn't heard that, "and Peter always went home as well. His mother doted on him like no other."

"Poor thing, she's been sick for a month now," Remus said sadly, "which is why we haven't

blamed him for not being around too much."

Harry nodded along sadly, and then let his mother continue reading when she realized how depressed the other boys were getting.

Ron also started teaching Harry how to play wizards chess which was just like Muggle chess, except the pieces moved on voice command.

"I've never been any good at that game," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You were always too impatient to learn," Remus chuckled.

Ron had been using his for so long they responded on command, while Harry played with a set Seamus Finnigan had let him borrow, and they didn't listen to him at all.

"See, it's not just me," Sirius cried.

"You can't blame it all on the pieces," James laughed, "just admit you never could remember which way the pieces went."

Sirius huffed and crossed his arms, mumbling something about ganging up on him.

Harry was having such a good time that on Christmas Eve he went to bed looking forward to another fun day, though not actually expecting any presents.

Lily pursed her lips but quickly read on, keeping Harry's words in mind.

As much to Harry's surprise as anyone, he was awoken by Ron the next day to find a small pile of wrapped gifts on his bed. Harry exclaims his surprise and Ron just laughs, asking what did Harry expect, turnips?

Not one of them could think of a thing to say to this. They were all too pleased that Harry had a proper Christmas at all to mock Ron's comment.

The first parcel contained a whittled flute, with a note from Hagrid.

"You have a musical talent we don't know about?" Remus chuckled.

"Doubt it," Harry laughed himself, feeling warm all over at these feelings.

Hagrid had obviously made it himself. When Harry blew it, it sounded a bit like an owl.

"Maybe you could use it to call your bird to you," Sirius chuckled.

The second wasn't as well received. It contained a fifty-pence piece from the Dursley's.

"Friendly," Harry said, thinking privately that was the nicest thing they'd probably ever given him.

All four adults gritted their teeth in frustration, but Harry was clearly in too good a mood, and they refused to let their moods be sunk as well.

Ron was fascinated with the muggle money, having never seen currency shaped like that.

"I'm guessing he's never seen muggle money then," Lily smiled.

Harry lets him keep it, then turns back and wonders who the other present could be from. Ron points out one package that he suspects could be from his mother, as Ron may have made the comment Harry wasn't expecting any gifts.

"It's official," Lily beamed, feeling close to tears at the way the Weasley's had taken Harry in, "we are taking Harry over to the Weasley's as soon as we're done here."

"Might be a bit odd," Remus said, trying not to laugh, "we've never been formally introduced. You just want to show up on the doorstep?"

"I'll think of something," Lily said with confidence, and James chuckled to himself, not

begrudging her this at all. In fact they were all thinking to themselves that they really needed to come up with a way to thank both Hagrid and the Weasley family.

Harry did indeed get a sweater knitted by Mrs. Weasley. He also got a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.

"Best kind of gifts you can get," Sirius chuckled.

Harry unwrapped his last present to have something silvery grey fall to the floor.

"No way," all three boys breathed. It was impossible, that was locked up in the house, right now.

Puzzled, Lily gave them an odd look, but she couldn't deny she was thinking the same thing.

Harry groaned slightly, pressing his fist to his head in pain, but quickly shook it off at their

concerned looks, saying, "I, I think I know what that is. I don't-" pursing his lips, Lily decided to quickly read on before Harry pressured himself too much.

Harry tries it on and finds it to be an invisibility cloak.

"It can't be mine," James said, praying that he was wrong, that his son really had been able to inherit his birthright, "my cloak is here in this house."

"How many invisibility cloaks can there really be though?" Sirius breathed, leaning forward

eagerly.

"Perhaps Hagrid found it when he took Harry," Remus offered.

"It's possible," Lily murmured, "we might have tried to hide Harry under it, but of course he

would have been crying..."

All four of them were getting exceptionally pale the longer they thought about this, but James still managed to say, "yes, but then why wouldn't Hagrid have given it to him with the flute?"

They were all stumped, and Harry was fighting back the urge to be sick, the building tension in his head from knowing the answer, yet not being able to grasp it...

Lily decided to read on, hoping they would get an answer.

Harry eagerly put it on and then looked into the mirror to find he had vanished.

"Quite a shocker at first," Sirius agreed, wanting to laugh as he thought back on all the times he'd snuck up on people in that.

A note had fallen out of the folds,

"Explaining everything to him I hope," James muttered, shifting his weight around in agitation.

and Harry read it to find that his father had left this cloak in someone's possession before he'd passed away,

"I did what?" James balked.

"No one even knows it exists except for the people here," Sirius spluttered.

"And Peter," Remus added on quietly.

Everyone got very quiet as they all thought of something at once. Peter hadn't been hanging around them much lately, Peter had asked to borrow James cloak for a few missions for the Order, what if, James sucked in a deep breath and said, "what if Peter's still alive? He could have borrowed my cloak, but there are a million reasons why he wouldn't be here, or even heard about us dying for ages."

The others all exchanged looks, then Remus asked, "but then why wouldn't he have come looking for Harry?"

James swallowed thickly, but he had no answer for that. None of them did.

Lily reached around Harry to give James shoulder a soft squeeze, saying, "I guess we won't know until we find out, yeah?"

Nodding numbly, he didn't protest as Lily kept going. All three boys had a mix of feelings they were sorting through. Honestly, it may not have been Peter, but even Remus or Sirius in the same circumstance, but it still didn't answer the question of where they would have been for the past eleven years of Harry's life?

and that the person was now passing it along to Harry. There was no signature, and Harry couldn't help but wonder who'd sent the cloak.

"We'd all like to know that," Sirius grumbled.

Wondering if it really had once belonged to his father?

"Oh, I've no doubt about that," James murmured.

But before he could do much else the twins made an appearance, and Harry stowed it away, not wanting anyone else to know about it quite yet.

"Can't blame you on that one," Remus agreed, "James didn't show me that thing for almost six months."

The twins were wearing sweaters as well, one with the letter F, the other had a G stitched into it.

"They switched those," James said at once.

"Unless they didn't, because they knew one would assume they would switch those," Sirius laughed.

"Unless they thought you would think they hadn't switched them, because they knew people would think they had, so they did switch them," Remus joined in, smiling at the inept sentence.

"Please," Lily begged, "don't do this to me? We'll be here for an hour, and I doubt we ever really find out."

"Oh fine," James huffed.

Fred comes over to investigate Harry's sweater and claims it was better than theirs,

"Oh, I doubt that's true," Lily said at once.

while George turns his attention on Ron and demands to know why he wasn't wearing his. Ron groans that he hates the color maroon,

"I'm sure it clashes with his hair marvelously," Sirius laughed.

while Fred points out that Ron doesn't have a letter on his. Obviously that was because Ron didn't forget his name, unlike the twins who knew their names where Gred and Forge.

"I'm sure that's exactly what your mum intended to name you," Remus cackled.

Percy stuck his head in then, claiming they were making too much noise.

"It's Christmas," James frowned, "really, does this boy ever have fun?"

The twins notice at once he isn't wearing his sweater either, and demand he put it on despite Percy's protests.

"Well you should wear it anyways," Lily huffed, she thought it was a lovely and sweet idea.

They then insist Percy will be sitting with them at dinner and march him back out of the room in between them.

"I'm sure he loved every moment of that," Sirius laughed.

That night at dinner the school went all out on the holiday feast, including sets of wizard crackers. When you pulled one the whole thing exploded, releasing prizes inside. One set released some mice that ran every which way.

"Ew," Lily crinkled up her nose, picturing all those mice running over the food.

"I'm sure they made Mrs. Norris happy though," Remus chuckled.

At the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped out his hat for a bonnet,

"Lovely mental image," James laughed.

and Harry could see McGonagall talking happily with Hagrid, both of whom had clearly been heavily drinking. At one point Hagrid leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, causing her to giggle.

"Ugh, take it back," Sirius cried, pressing his fists to his eyes.

"All the teachers have clearly indulged too much," Lily said, crinkling up her nose again.

Harry had got his own set of rewards from the crackers, including his own wizard chess set, and a grow your own warts kit.

"We always used to get great prank ideas from those things," Remus laughed.

Those mice had disappeared, and Harry had a feeling they would turn into Mrs. Norris' dinner.

"See, even the evil cat's happy on this merry day," James chuckled.

Then all of the Gryffindor boys went outside and had a wild snowball fight until it got to cold and dark, then went upstairs where he and Ron played a game of chess. Percy tried to help, which ended up doing more harm than good.

"Poor Harry," Remus agreed, "I can't stand when people try to backseat play me."

"Well, you can't blame that one on me," James and Sirius both said.

That evening Fred and George somehow got a hold of Percy's prefect badge, and he chased his twin brothers around the common room trying to get it back.

"Wow, why didn't we ever think of that?" James whistled.

"Because I would have killed you both," Remus said pleasantly.

It had been the best Christmas of Harry's life, but something had been nagging in the back of his head all day. Who had sent that invisibility cloak?

"I really hope you figure that one out, soon," James pleaded, eyeing his son for any trace of remembrance.

Harry was shaking his head sadly from side to side, as mystified as they were.

That night after everyone went to bed, Harry creeped out of his own and tried the cloak on again.

"You have more restraint than any of us," Sirius told him, "I would have run around the castle first thing when I found it."

Standing there, invisible in the darkness and the folds of his new cloak, an idea came to Harry. He could go anywhere in the castle, and no one would ever know.

"Well that's going a bit far," Remus said lightly, "it makes you invisible, not impervious."

"I just hope Harry doesn't use it to sneak into classrooms, and set up a trap so that when a certain student sat down-" Lily began hotly.

"That was never proven," James declared, pointing wildly at her.

Lily just rolled her eyes at all of them.

He considered waking Ron and taking him, but then decided he'd use it alone this very first time.

James shrugged, saying, "Nah, I used it at home by myself all the time, I took Sirius along with me our first night there."

"Which is how we got caught," Sirius chuckled, "I'd never used the thing before, and we weren't used to sharing yet."

"You two still don't know how to share," Remus rolled his eyes.

He pondered for a moment on where to go, before settling on the Library.

"Really?" All three boys demanded in disgust.

"The whole of Hogwarts, and you choose to go in there?" James demanded, looking faint.

"That's a waist of the cloak," Sirius agreed.

"Leave him be," Lily said before Remus could jump in, "the Library has been on his mind for weeks now, I don't blame him for that being his first thought."

All three boys muttered a bit more, but Lily wouldn't hear it and just moved on.

The Restricted Section was at the back of the library.

"Well that's not so bad," James said, picking himself back up slightly, "at least he's doing

something he couldn't do during normal school hours."

Lily rolled her eyes, honestly why these boys wanted Harry to be a rule breaker was still beyond her, but she couldn't fault Harry for his curiosity driving him to this place.

Harry stepped over the bit of rope separating this spot from the rest of the books and began inspecting the titles. Then he heard some whispering, and it seemed to be coming from the books.

"Might be," Remus said curiously, "I doubt Pince used more than a bit of rope to make sure no one snuck back there."

"Good point," Sirius said slowly, "there really might be a spell on those books."

Now very curious, Lily read on.

Harry chose one thick tomb from the shelves and let it fall open in his lap, only for the book to start screaming in his face.

"Oh my gosh," James gasped, before laughing his ass off.

"Of all the rotten luck," Sirius cackled.

"It's not funny," Harry mumbled, rubbing his ears in remembrance, "that thing gave me a heart attack."

All three boys were still laughing at this spot of misfortune, even Lily wanted to bite her lip to stop from laughing for a moment, before she remembered, "you know this most likely summoned Madam Pince."

That dried up all of their laughter pretty quickly, James noting, "well, look at it this way, can you really imagine Harry getting into much trouble for sneaking into the Library?"

"McGonagall might reward him again," Remus agreed, his voice still trembling slightly with

laughter.

Harry put the book back and made a break for the door, only to find Filch blocking the entrance.

"Really, I swear that man doesn't sleep," Sirius said in disbelief.

Harry had to sneak very carefully past him, the books scream still ringing his ears.

"What a first use," James chuckled.

"I'll give you credit, we never thought of that," Remus agreed.

Harry stopped in front of a suit of armor. He'd been so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going.

"That's like, the third time you've made that mistake," Sirius said in disappointment.

"Well he's gotta learn somehow," James said sadly, wishing that Harry would find another of his treasured objects.

Harry knew there was a suit of armor near the kitchens, but he knew he was several floors above that.

"There are suits of armor all over the castle," Lily said in confusion.

"Yeah, but this one was posed a certain way," Harry tried to explain.

"Okay, that makes sense," Remus agreed.

Before Harry could think long on it, he heard voices coming from behind him, and

recognized Filch telling someone that there had been an intruder in the restricted section.

"Where did you inherit all this bad karma from?" Remus demanded.

"I think it's retribution for you lot," Lily said primly, "that karma's getting back at Harry for all the stunts you pulled at school."

"Don't say that Lily," James said, clutching his chest in pain, "I'd never forgive myself for that."

"I think it's just Harry's ignorance," Sirius said bracingly, "things should get better the longer he's at school."

He saw that Filch was talking to Snape as the pair came around the corner, and Harry realized that though they couldn't see him, the cloak didn't stop him from being solid.

"Well I'm glad you figured that out beforehand," James snickered, "I remember when Peter first got the cloak on his own, he ran straight into a wall."

"He still claims it was an accident and he tripped, but come on," Remus agreed.

Harry quickly backed into a partially open door, managing to do so without moving it.

"See," Sirius said brightly, "he's learning already."

He waited several moments to make sure the pair of them were gone before glancing curiously around the room he'd been hiding in, to find it only housed a mirror.

"Well that is odd," James agreed, "who stashed a mirror in a classroom?"

None of them had any idea, so Lily read on, expecting Harry to shrug it off and ghost out of there. They'd probably never get an answer, and with any luck Harry would go back to the common room without another incident.

There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"Could you try saying that in English," Remus said, going a bit cross eyed.

Lily was frowning at the words, saying, "No, that's how it's spelled."

"You think maybe it's a different language?" James asked, leaning around Harry to look.

"None that I recognize," Remus said.

They all passed the book around, taking a look at the odd inscription, but none of them had a clue what it could be, until Sirius said slowly, "Hang on, this first word is backwards."

"What?" Remus asked, leaning over to see what he meant.

"See here," he pointed out, "Erised is Desire spelled backwards, that's the only word though, dang it," he muttered scanning through the rest of it.

"Well maybe," Remus said, taking the book from Sirius, then getting up and going into the

kitchen, when he came back, he had a quill and fresh parchment, and he then scribbled down the sentence in the same manner.

At first, they still couldn't make any sense of the words, but then Remus said slowly, "I think I've got it. The words aren't spaced right, but if you fix it like this, it reads 'I show not your face but your heart's desire' unless you can find another combination that works?"

James took the paper and looked at it, then at the original and then nodded saying, "No, it makes sense."

Lily and Harry had been sitting there, watching them all with fascination. Lily spoke up, "That was brilliant. I can't believe you three worked that out."

"What, did you think we got through school on our good looks alone?" Sirius quipped.

Smiling around at them, Lily decided not to press the issue, and so she took the book back, rereading that line, and still shaking her head in disbelief, she kept reading.

Curiosity winning out, he walked closer, only to freeze up and clap his hand to his mouth to stop himself from screaming.

"What, why?" They all said, in a panic at once, they really didn't want to deal with yet another deadly situation already.

"Because I wasn't alone," Harry whispered, so quietly to himself none of the others even heard him.

He was looking into his reflection, which still should have showed an empty room, only to find it full of people.

"Now what on earth?" James demanded, blinking in shock.

"That's impossible," Sirius said, "nothing has ever been able to see through the cloak."

"That's what you caught on," Remus stated, looking stunned, "how about the crowd of people in the room?"

Lily was looking expectantly from Harry to the book, but Harry was clearly not listening to any of them. He was rubbing his temple furiously, whispering, "It's them, I knew I'd seen them."

Pressing on loudly over the still bickering boys, she knew by now the best way to settle her son was to just complete the memory.

Harry glanced around himself again to confirm the room was still empty before taking a look back at the object. Perhaps its trick was that it showed people, invisible or not?

"Possible," James said slowly.

"But wouldn't you have bumped into one of them?" asked Sirius.

Harry reached behind himself, and if she'd really been there he would have been able to touch a woman standing right behind himself. There was nothing but air there, which meant these people must only exist in the mirror.

"Don't touch it," Remus said at once, going pale as a sheet, "it could be some trick, and you fall through and get stuck in there."

Now they were all looking very concerned, wanting to egg Harry out of that room, knowing it was pointless, so they instead comforted themselves with leaning in very close to their Harry.

The woman was very pretty. She had dark red hair and green eyes; eyes just like Harry's.

Lily stuttered a bit, glancing up at her son with shock etched into her face.

"Oh," James whispered, looking from Harry, to Lily, to the book and back again like one of them was going to scream 'got ya.'

"Well, that was unexpected," Sirius murmured.

"I stand by what I said," Remus gasped, coming out of his shock, "It could still be a trick,

personalizing it to a particular wizard."

She was crying as she gazed down at Harry with his eyes in her face. Smiling, but crying.

Lily looked like she was about to start crying herself, but her voice remained steady as she kept going.

The man beside her was taller, with black hair that stood on end, just like Harry's.

"I don't like this," Sirius moaned, his head dropping into hands as he shook it back and forth, "I really don't like this."

"My poor boy," James whispered, giving Harry a quick hug. This was, by all accounts, the first time Harry was laying eyes on his parents, and it was through a mirror. A possibly dangerous, dark object, that could suck his soul out or something equally as awful.

Both Sirius and Remus and Harry looked like they were going to burst into tears right along with Lily, but Harry was the saving grace as he said, "Remember. I'm here, and I know you guys now. I-I'm sorry you have to hear about this-"

"Don't," Lily interrupted, bucking up her own strength when she saw her son's face, "this is what we wanted. To hear about your life, the good and the bad."

"This just happens to be an awful mix of both," Remus muttered.

Harry had been edging closer to the mirror this whole time in fascination, his nose nearly touching the glass now.

All four of them shivered in disgust at this, they still didn't want Harry touching that thing.

Aloud he whispered for the first time, Mom? Dad?

Then they all shivered again, as they realized this was probably the first time in his life he had been able to utter those words. Sucking in a deep breath, Lily forced herself to go on.

They did not respond, but just continued to stand there smiling at him. Around them were other people with physical features Harry recognized in himself, Harry's family that he was seeing for the first time in his life.

Both James and Lily fought back fresh waves of pain when they realized that this was most likely their parents, others that Harry obviously had never seen.

Now Harry had his face pressed right up to the mirror, like he was hoping to fall right through and be with this image.

Lily's breath hitched slightly as she read that, this being her worst fear since this had started, and she didn't give the others a chance to panic as she blasted on.

Harry stood there for an indeterminable amount of time before a distant noise reminded him where he was. He glanced around with worry that he may be caught and decided it was time to leave, but whispered he'd be back to the mirror before he left.

"Oh thank Merlin," they all breathed in relief.

"Okay," Remus reassessed, "you're clearly drawn to it, but any person in your situation would be..." he trailed off, still trying to figure out the magical property of this object.

"I show not your face, but your heart's desire," Sirius repeated.

"So that's all it will do," James said slowly, "It will just show you what you want most in the

world."

"I still don't want you going back," Lily said quietly, "I'm afraid you'll waste away your life

staring at that."

"Can't do anything about it now," Sirius muttered.

Lily decided to agree with him, so pushing back the rest of her rising emotions, she kept reading.

The next morning Harry was telling Ron about what he'd found, and Ron was expressing his desire to see Harry's parents.

"I don't think it will work like that," Remus said at once, shaking his head.

"Well, we didn't know that then," Harry said, shrugging, trying to remember what Ron did see, and as always, coming up blank.

Harry agreed he'd like to see Ron's family to, and Ron waved him off saying he could see them whenever he came around. Then he wondered if the mirror only showed dead people.

Sirius made an awful noise, somewhere between a snort of mirth and a scathing rebuke.

James interpreted that noise pretty well, and said for the others, "That was the most tactless thing he could have possibly said, and yet Sirius may have said the same thing."

"It did pop into my mind," he admitted.

Then Ron voiced that it was a shame Harry hadn't found anything out about Flamel. Harry hardly noticed, thinking so what if Snape got the Stone. Who cared about Flamel, he was going to see his family again that night.

All four adults exchanged uneasy looks, Remus saying, "may have spoken to soon. What if this thing has a compulsion about it, and you'll eventually just waste your life away in front of it."

"I know I don't do that." Harry said at once, he felt he wouldn't have the same feelings about that mirror if he had. Right now, he mostly just felt a sense of loss, he'd have like to keep that mirror back in his life, so that he could see his parents whenever he wanted, but he was also thinking there was something else. Something important about this mirror, but it didn't involve him, or Ron.

Nodding and feeling reassured, Lily kept going.

Harry's biggest fear is that he may not be able to find the mirror room again.

"That reminds me," James said, "what on earth is that mirror doing there?"

"Could a teacher have left it there, and they're going to use it in there next class?" Remus offered, "Quirrell for example, could be teaching his seventh years about dangerous objects."

"Well, since we've still no idea," Sirius rolled his eyes, "how about we just see if Harry can find it again first."

That night he and Ron spent hours wandering around the castle on the hunt for it, and just as Ron wanted to give up, Harry spotted the suit of armor and led Ron inside the room.

None of them could really decide how they felt about this. They were happy beyond belief that Harry really did know what his parents looked like, before now anyways, but they still feared what this mirror's true power was. Nothing for it now though.

The reflection still proudly showed all of Harry's family, beaming at the sight of him.

"Well at least it's accurate," James beamed down at his son as well, trying to play that off as a joke.

Ron however couldn't see anything, so Harry moved out of the way, effectively erasing the image he saw, and putting Ron in the center.

"That sort of makes sense," Remus agreed, nodding along, "it will only show the person standing directly in front of it."

"Now, let's see what Ron sees," Sirius said a bit eagerly.

Ron however didn't see his family, but himself standing alone wearing a head boy badge.

"That's his heart's desire," James snorted, "he's hardly shown any ambition, the opposite in fact if his attitude towards his Perfect brother is to go by."

"Let me keep going," Lily scolded, she had a bit of an idea where this was going.

He also had a Quidditch Captain badge, and was holding both the Quidditch cup and the House cup.

All eyes cleared from confusion now.

"Oh," Sirius said sadly.

"Yeah, I can see why Ron would want to be the best of all his siblings," Remus agreed with a small frown.

James let out a low, throaty whistle, saying, "damn though, I was Head Boy and Quidditch

Captain, and the responsibility of all that nearly made me go bald."

"It made you easier to be around though," Lily chuckled.

"Moving on," Sirius said quickly, not wanting the couple to start making googly eyes at each other.

Ron eagerly asked if the mirror was showing the future,

"We can only hope," James said sadly.

and Harry pointed out that as his family was dead, it wasn't likely. Then he told Ron to move, because he wanted to see his parents again. Ron wanted to stay put though, and they began arguing loudly.

"Comparing the two, yeah I've got to give you your do Harry," Sirius chuckled.

"Leave Ron be," Remus defended, "I'm sure anyone would want to stand around and look at that thing forever if they had the chance."

None of them mentioned what they were thinking now, what would they see?

Then they heard a noise outside the room, and quickly ducked back under the cloak just as Mrs. Norris came into the room. Both Harry and Ron wondered at the same time, did the cloak work on cats?

"Yep," all three said at once, while James elaborated, "but they can still smell you, and hear you. You've got to be very careful around her, cause if you don't fool her, she'll still run off for Filch."

"Or just bark at her," Sirius snickered.

It seemed to, as she turned and left.

"Good," all four of them said, they really didn't want Harry getting caught again, even Lily

couldn't deny her son this reason for being out of bed.

Ron convinced Harry to go back to bed then, and he did so reluctantly. The next day Harry lay around, clearly not interested in doing anything, and Ron guesses correctly what's on his mind and tells him not to go back to that mirror.

"Well that's surprising," Lily said, "I'm surprised Ron isn't demanding he can go with you."

"Yes well, Ron can simply conjure up that image in his head whenever he wants," James pointed out, "whereas Harry wants to be able to memorize his a bit more."

Harry grumbles that Ron was starting to sound like Hermione.

"Because he's being cautious," Remus rolled his eyes.

Ron insisted he was serious, Harry shouldn't go.

Sirius opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but Remus quickly picked up a pillow and smothered him before he had the chance.

Harry ignored his advice though, and that night he put his cloak back on and went in search of the mirror again, this time not running into anyone along the way.

"Lucky," Sirius said, finally shoving Remus off of him.

He finds the mirror easily enough and throws his cloak away, eagerly running forward to look into it for hours, when a voice behind him pointedly asks that Harry's back again.

"Who on earth?" James yelped in shock.

"I've no idea," Sirius and Remus both said.

"It couldn't be a teacher," Lily muttered, "he said 'again' so, whoever, knows he's been there before..."

Harry cleared his throat a bit, and then pointed at the book, smiling slightly. All four jumped

guiltily, then James eyed Harry a bit. He had a look on his face, like he might actually remember what was coming this time.

He didn't, but he had a good feeling about this meeting, which is why he was so unconcerned.

Harry turned on the spot to find Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore?" they all said in shock.

"I didn't even know he left his office," Sirius said in surprise.

"Don't be daft," James rolled his eyes, "he's got to use the loo at some point."

"Really you two," Remus shook his head in disbelief at them, while Lily ignored them

completely.

Harry felt nervous as he blurted out he hadn't seen him, but Dumbledore didn't seem mad though, but was instead smiling as he told Harry how narrow sighted people could be while invisible.

"Well you don't seem to be getting in trouble," Sirius said brightly.

"Remember that time he caught us rigging up one of the statues, and he actually believed Peter when he said we were just admiring it," James laughed.

"I thought he had lost his marbles," Remus agreed.

"So you lot are saying Dumbledore, the headmaster of this school, let's his students get away with breaking the rules?" Lily demanded.

"Yeah, seems like it," all four boys said.

Then he points how Harry found the Mirror of Erised.

James snorted, saying, "well that's a clever name."

Harry admits he didn't know it was called that, and Dumbledore prompts that he does know what it does, yes. Harry starts to say that it showed him his family, and Dumbledore interrupts to point out that it shows Ron as head boy. Harry starts to ask how he knew that,

"How long has Dumbledore been coming there?" Remus demanded.

"And how did Harry never spot him?" James demanded.

"Search me," Lily said, shrugging.

and Dumbledore tells him he doesn't need a cloak to become invisible.

"Well that's true," Sirius agreed, "there are plenty of ways to pull it off."

"But mine is still the best," James jumped in at once.

Then he goes into detail of explaining that the mirror only shows what you truly want to see. Harry never knew his family, and so he saw them, while Ron wanted recognition without being overshadowed by his brothers.

"Well that was kind of depressing," Sirius said, frowning a bit.

"Dumbledore has this way of saying things that sound really smart, but tend to be barmy," James agreed.

Then he tells Harry that the mirror will be moved, and that Harry shouldn't go looking for it again, but if he ran across it now, he'd at least know how it worked.

"How many mirrors do they have hanging around that school?" Remus asked, that had felt a little ominous to him.

"I think he was just in teacher mode then," Lily suggested, "preparing Harry for the future and all that."

Harry was feeling very frustrated all of a sudden, for some reason knowing quite well that he would come across that mirror again. Why though, he still had no clue.

Then he tells Harry to go off to bed. Harry asks if he can ask one more question, and Dumbledore points out he just did, before granting him one more.

"I hate it when people do that," James grumbled, "it's like they're mocking you for using your manners."

"That's why I just blurt out whatever I want," Sirius said happily.

Harry asks what Dumbledore sees in the mirror, and Dumbledore tells him socks.

"Err," Remus said, looking at Lily oddly, "want to run that by me again?"

When she did, all five of them exchanged looks and said as one, "Liar."

Harry felt frustrated, shaking his head from side to side. Would this feeling ever go away? Why did he know that answer, but couldn't actually seem to answer it himself?

The other four adults just felt a little frustrated, Lily even saying, "Well that hardly seemed fair. He knew Harry's."

"It is a personal question," Remus disagreed, "I can hardly blame him."

"Of course we would tell you Harry," James told him, "If any of us actually knew of course."

Lily shrugged, slightly agreeing with Remus, and completely behind James on that.

Harry just stares, and Dumbledore says that another Christmas had come and gone and he didn't receive a pair.

"Well you can expect five lovely pairs this year," Sirius said brightly.

Harry chuckled at his antics, then pondered for a moment why on earth there was an importance to socks in his life? Not relating to Dumbledore, but someone else... it was gone as soon as the idea had come.

It was only as he crawled into bed later did Harry reflect that Dumbledore may have been lying, but then again, it was a personal question.

"At least you acknowledge it," Lily approved.

"My turn," James said brightly.

Remus rolled his eyes but held his tongue.