I, London Man, did NOT write this story. This was written by Early-Frosts. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did NOT steal this story. Also, I want to thank Early-Frosts for letting my host their stories.

Chapter 26: Twenty Five: Making Connections

Family Matters

Disclaimer: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.

Warning: This story contains slash.

Chapter Twenty-Five – Making Connections

Jonathan Potter's birthday party went off without a hitch. It was a quiet, family affair; not at all what Alexander had expected. The Potters had always struck him as a being the type of family that would make a huge fuss over birthdays, even if turning eighteen wasn't a milestone for a Wizard in the way it was for Muggles or even Muggleborns.

The party was held mid-afternoon on Saturday. Only the Potters attended because it was a family-only event. Not even Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who were extremely close with the Potter family, were invited. They, Alexander later learned, would be attending a second celebration to be held on Jonathan's actual birthday the following week along with the youth's schoolmates. That party, the Cullen boy assumed, would be the loud ruckus he'd been expecting.

He was invited, as a friend of Jonathan's. But he wasn't sure if he would attend. It seemed to be just the sort of situation that could accidentally reveal his connection to the Potter family to the world at large.

The Boy-Who-Lived seemed to genuinely like all of the presents he received. He warmly thanked Charles for a box of sweets, Cara for some Quidditch gear, his parents for the new broom they purchased for him, and Alexander for the set of defensive spell books he'd ordered.

There was a certain longing in the boy's eyes when he opened his gifts from Cara and his parents that Alexander couldn't quite understand. He wanted to ask about it right away, but feared that he'd end up pointing out something that Jonathan would prefer his parents and sister not know about. So Alexander ended up waiting until he had a moment alone with Jonathan. That moment came when Lily began to hand out pieces of cake to everyone; Jonathan received the first piece and Alex was able to corner him off to the side while Charles and Cara were waiting for their pieces.

"Problem?" Alexander questioned.

"What? No, everything is great."

"You suck at lying," the younger boy pointed out. "You're sulking."

"It's nothing."

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't be sulking," Alexander pointed out with a superior smirk that he'd picked up from Rosalie. "And saying that 'it's nothing,' proves that there is an 'it' to begin with."

Jonathan grunted in frustration. "I haven't been able to play Quidditch in almost a year. Not since the final game of the season last year."

"Playing a sport means that much to you?" Alex asked almost incredulously. "It means so much that you'd pout on your birthday."

"It's not really the sport that I miss. When I play, I don't have to think about Voldemort or the war or any of the other things wrong with the world. I only have time to focus on the game. It's as if, for an hour or so, I can pretend I'm not who I am. I'm just another bloke playing a game that Wizards all over Britain play on a regular basis."

It was a remarkably honest answer. But then again, Jonathan had started being more and more open with Alexander ever since their talk in the Cauldron over a month prior, so it shouldn't have surprised the Cullen Wizard so much to hear it.

Alexander chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Well, I don't know how to play, but you could teach me."

Jonathan looked at the green-eyed boy in shock.

"We don't have to," Alex added quickly, unsure of what the older boy's expression meant. "I just thought that, if it's something you can play two-on-two, we could play. You, me, Charles, and Cara, that is. Just modify the Quodpot field as necessary and grab some brooms from the school's supply. But if you don't want to-"

"Alex and me versus Cara and Charles!" Jonathan shouted, surprising everyone in the room.

"What?" Cara asked, he mouth full of birthday cake.

"Alex just asked me to teach him to play Quidditch!" the oldest of the Potter children exclaimed excitedly before he began to wolf down his piece of cake. His statement was a bit of an exaggeration of what Alexander had said, but the other boy let it pass.

James and Lily shared a surprised look at one another.

"You want to learn to play Quidditch?" Alex's twin asked slowly.

"Well, sure," the sixteen-year-old boy answered.

Charles was grinning broadly. "That's ace!" he shouted between mouthfuls of cake.

"I'll take that to mean 'cool.'"

In a matter of minutes, Alexander found himself with a broom in his hand being marched off towards the Quodpot field. The four children didn't go by themselves; James followed along behind them under an invisibility cloak. Both Lily and James wanted to go and watch, but there were many students who hadn't left campus for spring break—for the Hogwarts students, in particular, the vacation had been unexpected and so many weren't able to plan accordingly—and the students that did leave campus had begun to return already. It was too much of a risk that they might be seen. So they drew straws, with James winning the opportunity to watch the match.

Alexander suspected that Lily cheated somehow in order to let her husband win. He seemed far more enthusiastic about watching the game than she was and the Witch didn't seem all that disappointed or surprised with the outcome.

The entire afternoon was devoted to playing the sport. Alexander quickly found that he had some natural talent as a seeker. He played on Jonathan's team and, while his biological brother defender their goal, Alexander raced about the field in search of the little golden snitch.

Charles played the position of seeker for the other team. As the game progressed, he became increasingly irritable and seemed to be angry that he was being beaten by Alexander during the latter's first experience playing the game. He began to curse—something Alexander had never heard the younger Wizard do—and mutter about how he liked to play chaser and how two-on-two wasn't any fun because his position was eliminated.

Honestly, much of the talk of positions and the names of the different balls used in the game might as well have been Greek to Alex. Jonathan had gone through a quick discussion of the rules of the game at the outset, but all Alex really knew was that it was his job to catch the golden, winged ball that flitted about. And that everyone was having an amazing time. In fact, this was the single, most fun activity that he'd done with the Potter family in the two months he'd been spending weekends with them.

Jonathan promised that Alex would have even more fun on a proper Quidditch pitch with multiple goals and full teams. Playing two-on-tow with one goal and no bludger, he said, was only half as much fun as a normal game.

Alexander didn't know what a 'bludger' was, but he didn't like the sound of it.

When the fourth game in as many hours came to a close with Alexander catching the snitch, the four teens decided that it was time to go inside and clean up for dinner.

Later that night, Alexander was quietly reading a book on the Statute of Secrecy—double-checking his theory about how telling Jacob Black that he was a Wizard wasn't a violation of international law—in the main room of the suite. The room was empty except for him. At least, it was before Cara plopped herself down on the couch next to him.

"What are you reading?" she asked after an initial moment of silence

"Just some stuff on the Statute of Secrecy," Alexander explained. He could tell from the way his twin sister was looking at him as he continued to read that she wanted to talk to him about something, so he closed the book and sat it aside. "Something on your mind?"

"No," Cara answered too quickly.

"Is being a sucky liar a biological trait?"

"What?"

"Nothing," the black-haired Wizard said with a shake of his head. He pulled his dark-tinted glasses off and rubbed at his eyes.

"It was fun, playing Quidditch today. It was the first time we all did something where things weren't . . ." she trailed off.

"Unbearably awkward and tense," Alexander finished.

Cara didn't respond as to whether her twin's completion of the thought was what she meant or not. "I'm trying."

"Huh?"

"I wasn't before, but I am now," the hazel-eyed Witch began again. "When I first found out that you were my brother, I didn't know what to think. You were so very different from what I always thought my twin brother would be like. I mean, we're twins, so I thought we'd have more in common than we do. I couldn't stand that you weren't the person I always thought you'd be. I didn't want to get to know you; I wanted you to become the person I pictured in my head. But I don't want that anymore."

"Then what do you want?"

"To get to know you. I want to start over, if you'll let me."

"Start from scratch," Alexander mused aloud. "Just start from the beginning and try to get to know one another?"

"If we can," Cara added hopefully.

The Wizard smiled before turning to face his twin. He extended his hand out to her. "Alexander Cullen," he introduced.

The Witch smiled, "A pleasure to meet you Alex. I'm Cara Potter."

"The pleasure is mutual."

Alexander and Cara stayed up for several hours talking in front of the fire. They swapped stories about growing up in their respective homes and about going to their respective schools. The Witch couldn't believe that Alexander had decided to start up a friendship with his former rival, Cirilla. Alex, likewise, couldn't understand how Cara could kiss Cormac McLaggen, a boy who had once eaten so many doxy eggs on a dare that he'd ended up in the hospital wing.

But for every difference they found in one another, they also found a similarity. For instance, they both had a habit of taking a deep breath to try and calm down before speaking. Although Cara said that she rarely succeeded in actually calming herself down, she did it anyways. She claimed that it was a trait they had inherited from Lily Potter.

Thinking back, Alex could remember the Witch taking a deep breath whenever she was about to say something of major importance, like when she told the story of how Alexander had ended up in Petunia's care.

The Cullen boy finally made it to bed shortly after midnight. He was surprised to find that Charles was still awake and waiting for him. The younger of the two green-eyed boys was wearing yellow fleece pajamas with the Hufflepuff crest on its breast pocket.

"What's up Charles?" Alex whispered in an effort to not wake up Jonathan, who was snoring on the other side of the room.

The redheaded boy pulled out a box of assorted chocolate candies and handed them to Alexander. "I wanted to thank you for saving me. Twice," he explained. "I found these for you when I was looking for something to give John. I hope you like them."

"Thanks," Alexander responded as he took the box. "You didn't have to."

"I had to do something; you're always doing things for me." With that, Charles crawled into his bed and went to sleep.

The Cullen boy remained where he stood. He examined the box of sweets in his hand and the forms of his two biological brothers for a long time. With a satisfied smile at how things had gone that day, he put the little box of candy in his book bag and went to bed.

The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet. There were no arguments and very few awkward moments. Perhaps most importantly, however, was the fact that no one called Alexander by the name 'Harry.' Not even James.

Despite the rather pleasant weekend the Wizard had with his biological relatives, he was still extremely relieved to be home on Monday afternoon. He hadn't bothered remaining at the New England Academy to do work after classes were dismissed; he went straight home so that he could be back in the Cullen house's warm and comforting atmosphere.

After greeting his mother with a kiss on the cheek, he went down to his room to retrieve the various papers he'd accidentally left there. He'd meant to take the plans for the awards ceremony with him when he went to the Potters' suite so that he would have something to work on if things got tense, but it had slipped his mind and he ended up leaving them in his bedroom at home. After retrieving the papers, the mortal went to the living room to work on things.

Alice and Edward joined him on the largest of the sofas in the living room shortly after three that afternoon. Alex wasted no time before wrapping his arms around Edward's nearest one and leaning against him, happily enjoying his boyfriend's strong presence.

"How was your weekend?" the vampire questioned.

"Pretty nice, actually," the mortal explained. "No fighting, I learned to play Quidditch, and Cara apologized to me and has started calling me by my name. She confirmed my theory that her problem has been the different between what she always imagined I'd be like and what I actually am like."

"Some definite progress."

"This weekend was one step forward, now let's see if the next one is two steps back or not," the Wizard muttered.

Alice patted his shoulder sympathetically. "You're still planning to use next weekend to ask about the search for you?"

"I didn't want to ask this weekend because it ran the risk of ruining Jonthan's birthday," Alex explained. "Things are as comfortable as they're gonna get; I should just ask and get it over with. The answers to my questions will set the tone for everything that follows."

"How so?" the spiky-haired vampire asked.

"I don't know what happened, but I've gotten enough clues from Skeeter's book and from things that have been said that I should be able to tell if they lie to me. And even if I can't tell based on what I already know, I plan to ask at dinner in front of Charles, Jonathan, and Cara. If Lily and James lie in a blatant way, it'll show on someone's face. Of course, being a mindreader would help." The last was added with a playful kiss on Edward's cheek.

"There are only a handful of weekends left before summer break; the Hogwarts students usually go to school until June, but they've matched our schedule for the year because we're hosting the Tournament. So I have to make a decision about what sort of contact I want with the Potters for the summer pretty soon. I want to keep in touch with my biological brothers and sister; regardless of what Lily and James did or didn't do, I can't attribute it to their kids. The problem is that I don't know how close of contact I want. I have a lot of considerations to take into account to decide that and this conversation should help bring things into focus."

Edward leaned over and kissed the top of his boyfriend's head. "What answer do you want them to give you?"

"I don't know," the green-eyed immortal confessed. "Just the truth, I guess. I don't want to spend the summer with them and there's nothing that they can say that would make me want to. But if they tell me the truth, no matter what it is, I think that I'll feel better about occasional visits and letters and the like. If they lie to me . . . then that's it for me and Lily and James. I'll keep some contact with Charles, Cara, and Jonathan and might even arrange to visit them after I turn seventeen, but that's it. After the end of the school year, I'll wash my hands of Lily and James if they don't tell me the truth."

The next day found Alexander walking towards the central administrative building bright and early. As he made his way across the courtyard, he caught sight of Cirilla Bellcroft sitting on a bench writing in a green-covered book.

"Hey, Cirilla!" Alex called to his maybe-friend.

The platinum blonde girl's head shot up. When she saw that it was Alexander who had called to her, she smiled at him and motioned him over.

"Whatcha doing?" the Wizard asked in a sing-song voice.

Cirilla put the book into her bag. "Not much. Just jotting down a few notes for my next campaign into my diary."

"Planning to run for president again?"

"Yes," the Witch answered. "And before you ask, this time I'm doing it for me. Not to try and live up to my sister or my parents' expectations. There are some things I feel that need to be done to improve the school."

"Look out, world!" Alex cried in a dramatic voice. "Cirilla Bellcroft is a strong woman out to take you by storm! And she doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks!"

The girl laughed musically. "I suppose you'll be running again as well."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I think I'll call it quits after this year."

"Really?"

"I'm tired," the black-haired teen confessed. "This year has just been too much. Too much drama, too much to do. I want my last year here to be nice and relaxing. I want to remember going to Quodpot games and hanging out with my friends, not spending hours in the office everyday after school."

"Rats," Cirilla said as she snapped her fingers in mock defeat. "I've been working on an election platform for weeks so that I can have the pleasure of throttling you."

The Wizard just shrugged. Their conversation was cut off rather abruptly at that point as someone began to shout Alexander's name.

"Alex!" Eric Weathercrest cried as he sprinted from the doors of the central administrative building towards his friend. He spared a brief moment to scowl at Cirilla—he suspected that the Witch's abrupt change in attitude was some sort of ploy—when he arrived before addressing the Student Body President. "Someone broke into the office!"

"What?" Alex and Cirilla asked simultaneously.

The three magic-users raced to the Student Government Office. The room was a complete and utter disaster zone. The door handle had been cursed off and was sitting on the floor in multiple pieces, papers were strewn about, chairs and the filing cabinet had been toppled over, and all of the drawers in Alexander's desk had been opened and emptied onto the floor.

Alex looked at Cirilla. "Please find Headmaster Justinius and Professor Brekenridge."

The Witch left to do as the Wizard requested, leaving Alexander and Eric to sort through the wreckage.

"Who would have wanted to do this?" Eric asked out loud.

"I don't know. Whoever it was, they were searching for something," Alex said as he looked through the papers that had once been in his desk but that now littered the floor.

"Is anything missing?"

"No," Alexander said. "At least, not that I can tell. I'll have to go through everything, one sheet at a time to be certain." He was about to stand up when his eyes caught site of something yellow sticking out from under his overturned chair. His heart skipped a bit when he retrieved the little scrap of cloth.

It was a pocket from a fleece shirt with the Hufflepuff insignia on it. It looked like it had been caught on the metal juncture that connected the armrest to the back of the chair and had been ripped off when the seat was knocked over.

Squatting down behind his desk, Alex could soon hear several footsteps approaching. Professor Brekenridge's high-heeled shoes clicked in a very distant manner whenever she stormed her way through the halls of the school. Upon hearing the sound, Alex pocketed the yellow scrap of fabric.

"Great Merlin's ghost!" Cordelia Brekenridge exclaimed when she looked around the room.

The group of Wizards and Witches wasn't able to put together a solid theory as to why the office had been sacked. Although it looked like the perpetrator was searching for something, nothing appeared to be missing. Without some further evidence, no plausible theory could be formulated.

Of course, there was 'some further evidence.' Alexander just kept hit hidden in his pants' pocket.

The Cullen Wizard ended up spending every spare moment of the rest of the day tying to put the office back together. At times, it seemed like a hopeless cause. But, by the end of the day, the office was in much better shape. He'd need more time to straighten things up and reorganize all of the documents that had been spilled on the floor, but at least things didn't look like an army of angry hippogriffs had invaded.

It wasn't until the Cullen Wizard returned home that he dared to pull the little scrap of cloth out of his pocket and examine at it. It was a perfect match for the Charles's pajamas. Although there were bound to be over a hundred Hufflepuffs with identical pajamas, Alexander just knew somehow that the person who broke into his office had been his biological brother. But why?

"Oh, Charles," he asked the silent walls of the tool shed. "What have you done?"