Harry and Hermione - along with Neville, to their dismay, and Draco Malfoy, to their delight - earned a detention for their nighttime excursion, as well as a deduction of fifty points each from their respective houses. This lost them any popularity they may or may not have had; they were the new most disliked members of Gryffindor house, who were angry (perhaps rightly so) for costing them a hundred and fifty points in one night, along with any hopes of winning the House Cup. Slytherin were in the lead again, and looked to win for the eighth time running. Ron, who had been in the Hospital Wing, did try to comfort them, but he, like Dany - who had stayed at the top of the tower to watch Norberta be flown off, and had been smart and hidden under the unfortunately forgotten invisibility cloak whilst she made her way back to Gryffindor Tower - gave off the distinct impression of 'rather you than me'.

The trip into the Forbidden Forest for their detention was unsettling to say the least. Having been rescued by Firenze the centaur from whatever that... thing that had killed the unicorns had been, Harry was convinced that Snape was working with Voldemort to steal the Philosopher's Stone, which Fluffy the three-headed dog was guarding. After McGonagall would not listen to their fears, Harry had intended to go after Snape himself, but his three friends had come with him, to the third floor corridor and down the trapdoor.

It was the most danger any of them had been in in their lives, or remembered being in, anyway; Dany had only been a newborn baby during her mother and brother's flight to Dragonstone in the greatest storm in a hundred years to escape Voldemort and Aerys Targaryen. The four of them had got through Professor Sprout's Venomous Tentacula, and managed to capture Flitwick's flying key, but then Ron had sacrificed himself in McGonagall's giant wizard's chess game and been knocked out by the white queen. Dany had stayed with him - practically declaring 'I won't be much use, Hermione is far more clever and Harry needs to go on' - and volunteered to go back to fetch help. Hermione had caught her up, carrying an injured Ron as she was, after she had been turned back by Snape's potion room. Ron soon woke up, albeit a little groggily, and they had raced back to the school to find a teacher, thankfully in time to save Harry from Quirell, who as it turned out was the traitor and not Voldemort.

Harry had woken up in the Hospital Wing to talk with Dumbledore, and to his relief had been able to attend the leaving feast, where Gryffindor had been awarded over two hundred bonus points for the brave deeds the four of them (and Neville) had done. They had won the house cup, beating Slytherin for the first time in years - Joffrey Baratheon had stood up and loudly proclaimed the unfairness of it all, and that his mother would hear about this, only to be dragged down by two Lannister cousins, Lancel and Tyrek - and Harry felt like he could never be happier.

This only made the return to the Dursleys for the summer infinitely more depressing than it would have been anyway. Hagrid's parting gift did manage to brighten Harry's day, however. It was a beautiful album of photographs (which moved!), all of his parents. Harry had never been more touched by a present. Back in his small bedroom in Privet Drive later that day - after a chilly reception from his aunt, anger from his uncle and (admittedly rather amusing) terror from his cousin - Harry pored over the book, trying to memorise every inch of the faces of his mother and father, which he had seen for the first time he could remember at Christmas in the mirror of Erised. His father James, who did look exactly like him, even down to the glasses, only with laughing hazel eyes, a longer nose and a mischievous grin. His mother, who was red haired and vivacious; she had green eyes, like Cersei Lannister, only Harry thought Lily Potter's were warm, kind and far more beautiful than Cersei's ever would be even if the Lannister woman's looks outshone all.

Other people often appeared in many of the pictures. Hagrid was in several, beaming widely, which were clearly from his own collection. Many more included people Harry did not know. There was one of his mum with a group of other young women around her age, and Harry had flicked it over and seen there were names on the back, scratched in pencil and dated 23rd December 1979; there was his mum, Lily, fierce Dorcas Meadowes, doe-eyed Mary McDonald, Catelyn Stark - Robb and Sansa's mother looked austere even then - alluring Ashara Dayne, smirking Barbrey Ryswell. They weren't all in the same year at school, so Harry wondered how they had met. Perhaps they worked together. It suddenly dawned on him that he did not know what either of his parents had done for a living. Uncle Vernon had always said his father was an unemployed drunk, but he had also said that his parents died in a car crash, so Harry wasn't that inclined to believe him.

He turned the page to the next picture. This one was of his father and his friends at Hogwarts, and though on the back it was dated (20th May 1977) it did not say who the others in the photo were. James Potter was in the middle, and would have been the shortest of the group had it not been for a plump, mousey boy who was a few inches shorter. Harry could not tell if his dad and the plump boy were short, or if the other three were just tall. Perhaps a bit of both. James had one arm around the shoulder of the plump boy and the other around a tall, dark haired youth with shoulder length hair and badges of muggle rock bands pinned to his Gryffindor tie. There was a blonde boy beside him, with hair just as long, who was smirking and looked strangely familiar. A rather shabby looking thin boy with light brown hair was stood smiling beside them. There was no question that the dark haired boy and the blonde were the most handsome members of the group, and knew it. Those two and James Potter seemed to have a natural air of confidence, whereas the others just looked pleased to be there. Harry suddenly realised where he recognised the blonde boy from. He looked almost exactly like Cersei Lannister, if she had been male and had shorter hair. This must be her twin, Jaime, Hagrid had said he was friends with his dad. Harry was amazed by how much like his sister he looked, he hadn't known that fraternal twins could be identical at the same time. Harry studied his face for a moment; born rich, handsome, talented. By all rights Jaime Lannister should be as detestable as Draco Malfoy or his nephew Joffrey. Yet surely his dad wouldn't be friends with such a person. And the Lannisters were not a dark family like the Malfoys. Pureblood, yes, incredibly so, but Tywin Lannister had been neutral in the war against Voldemort, which counted for something, didn't it? And Jaime was an auror, a dark wizard catcher, he had killed one of the darkest, most insane wizards of all time.

He turned the page and saw another picture, of just Lannister and James Potter. They were younger here, a small scrawny boy with messy hair who could have been Harry's reflection, and a tall, grinning thirteen year old who looked a little like Joffrey Baratheon but more likeable. They were clearly close friends. None of these people could have been that close with his dad, though, Harry thought. Not once had any of them come to see him after his parents had died. He looked back at the picture, saw Lannister's bright green eyes. An old memory came to him, of a day in the park nearly six years ago, of a man with eyes like that fixing his glasses, changing his face trying to kidnap him. Could that have been Jaime Lannister? Harry wracked his brains for memories of the conversation all those years ago. The man had known how old he was, and thinking back he was definitely a wizard; his glasses had stayed whole ever since that day, even with how many times Dudley had hit him. It wasn't an enormous stretch to imagine it was one of his dad's old friends. But of all of them, surely the busy, talented auror would be the least likely to visit a child, and even if he had then why had gone afterwards and never come back. And what had happened to the other three?