Dear Harry,

This will probably come as a shock to you, and I'm terribly sorry about that. My name is Anjali Kumar, and I am your aunt.

I was born in India to a magical family, the youngest of four children. I was supposed to attend Ardramatsya Institute for Magic, but when I was eight years old, my family died in a Lethifold attack. I was too small to interest the creatures, but they devoured the rest of my immediate family in a single night. I was sent to live with my only living relative, my father's sister, who'd married an English wizard named Fleamont Potter some fifteen years before.

Fleamont Potter was your grandfather, Harry. His wife, my aunt, was your grandmother. Her name was Ehimaya Kumar Potter.

The Potters took me in immediately. Your father James was my age, and though we were cousins, by the time we started at Hogwarts we considered each other more like siblings. I was Sorted into Ravenclaw, and despite your father's Quidditch popularity and lion pride, he always made time for me. Your mother and I didn't initially know one another, but in fourth year we were paired together on a Herbology project, and we grew to be rather good friends.

Your parents were wonderful people, Harry, and they loved you very much. We were living in the darkest of times, and there was precious little to be happy about—but in the Potter household, there was nothing but smiles and laughter and love, and it was you that drew it out of them as much as they brought it out in each other. They loved you dearly Harry, and they would be so proud to see you at Hogwarts, especially in Gryffindor where they were, though they would have been happy no matter where you ended up. I never want you to doubt that.

I'm sure you must also be wondering why this is the first you've heard of me. You might be angry, rightfully so, to learn that you had some family that could have taken you in instead of Lily's sister. I wish that were the case—I went back and forth with the Ministry of Magic for close to three years, begging them to let me bring you home so you could grow up the way I did, raised by your father's sister alongside your cousin.

The Ministry, unfortunately, refused me custody. Your closest blood relative is, after all, Lily's sister, while I as James' cousin appeared to have a more distant family tie. Moreover, I am not of the Potter bloodline, so I had no power as a Head of a Wizarding family. The Minister told me it was for your safety, and she assured me that you would be better protected with a stronger blood tie, especially as I didn't even have the resources of being the Head of the Potter family to use to defend you. Even that would have been bearable, for the sake of your well being, if I were allowed to visit you.

Wizards were forbidden from making direct contact with you, Harry. We were physically unable to find your location on a map—your Aunt and Uncle's house remains, to this day, Unplottable to wizards and only accessible by Muggles (though I suspect that once you return to their house for summer, that enchantment will be lifted, as you will also be a trained wizard). There were only four people who knew and could visit where you lived: Albus Dumbledore, the Minister of Magic Millicent Bagnold, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid.

Unplottability is difficult to explain, as it comes in several forms. I won't bore you with unnecessary digressions, but the charm placed over your house made it so witches and wizards could never physically visit you, unless they were one of the four I mentioned before (and since last year, Cornelius Fudge, who is Bagnold's successor). However, Professor Dumbledore very kindly told me the address of your Aunt's house, and I used the Muggle post to mail you for every birthday and Christmas. If I tried to contact you more than that, the Ministry would be made aware of it. Fanmail was blocked from your house, as all of it came through the Owl Post, and like I said before, your house was untouchable by magical means. There were Ministry workers monitoring the Muggle post, too. A Christmas package and a birthday present wouldn't raise any alarms as they'd assume it was another Muggle relative of yours, but if I contacted you more than that they'd get suspicious and look through my parcels.

This was when I learned the true natures of your aunt and uncle. Every single package I sent you over the past ten years was returned, unopened, with not a single acknowledgement of you. They had seen the posts when you were young, and realized I sent parcels every year on July 31st and December 25th. They went out of their way to make sure you never saw them. I kept sending you gifts, and I came to expect them to return, which they always did. For ten years, up to your eleventh birthday five months ago, I kept every single gift and letter I sent you that came back to our doorstep.

Then Revati boarded the Hogwarts Express and I knew you must have been there, somewhere. I looked for you, but you must have already been on the train. I hoped Reva would get to know you, and though it seemed to be a rough start, I was delighted to learn that not only were you housemates, you actually became friends. She doesn't know about any of this, by the way—all I've told her is that she has a cousin in Surrey. I never told her who you were, even though she would have recognized your name instantly. I imagined that you'd at least recognize her around the school, if nothing else. But I knew that even if you never spoke to her, I would tell you everything this Christmas.

Why not before? Because you would be busy with classes and I didn't want you to have to face the stress of Hogwarts with all of this loaded on top. I hoped, by waiting until now, that I would give you the time to recover from the shock of everything.

I am aware that I am dumping quite a lot of information on you, and I'm sorry, Harry, truly. I know it must be extremely overwhelming, and I can't properly convey how much I hate having to put all this on your shoulders. I just felt that I owed you an honest, thorough explanation as to why I haven't been present in your life. It is my biggest regret.

There is one more piece to this that I am legally forbidden from telling you, and that could certainly change the way you see things. My hope is that one day the restrictions placed on me are lifted—but til then, know that this is almost the whole truth, and I would explain the last bit of it were I able.

I'm also not telling you all this to guilt you into forgiving me. I know you must be angry, and I'm not trying to diminish or minimize that by any means. I just wanted to make sure you were getting the full story, because it's the least you deserve. There must have been something I could have done, some loophole I could have found, and my failure in that had serious consequences in your life. If you are upset with me, I understand completely. If you don't want me to ever contact you, I would understand that, too—though make no mistake, Harry, I want nothing more than to be a part of your life.

Love always,

-Anjali Kumar

P.S.: This box has been magically expanded to contain every parcel I sent you over the past ten years, as well as this year's Christmas present. Some of the gifts may no longer interest you, as they were meant for a smaller version of you. If you want to discard anything in that box, you will face no judgement for doing so. Other gifts are more personal, and I hope you find comfort in them.

Love,

-Anjali Athai (Aunt)

Reva sat downstairs in front of the fire with Ron. Her eyes were fixed, unseeing, on the flickering flames. She felt Ron's gaze on her a few times, but the ginger never broke the silence, which she was grateful for. Her mind was racing. She wasn't sure how to process.

Harry hadn't read any more of the letter out loud to them. Those four words—I am your aunt—lingered in the air as they all fell silent, stunned, not knowing how to react. Harry stared blankly at the page, and when Ron asked him gently if he needed space, he nodded absently, refusing to meet Reva's eye. Ron and Revati headed downstairs immediately, where they had now been sitting for forty-five minutes. Fred and George were still there, but they seemed to take a cue from the first years' sullen silence, and didn't try to engage them, instead keeping their heads together to cause some kind of mischief.

"I didn't know," Reva breathed finally. She kept her eyes fixed on the fire, but she knew Ron was staring at her. "My mum never told me…"

"Why d'you think she mentioned it now?" Ron asked. "Why not years ago?"

Reva thought back. She remembered her first conversation with Hermione on the train, when they spoke about family. Mum says I have a cousin somewhere in England, but she mails him on Christmas and his birthday every year and he never responds, she'd said. Knowing what she did now about Harry's aunt and uncle, Reva supposed it all made sense. "You've heard as much as I have about the Muggles Harry lives with," she said. "I imagine they didn't take too kindly to Mum, probably wouldn't let her see or speak to Harry."

"That's awful," Ron sighed. The two of them exchanged a slightly guilty, but mutually reassuring glance—they both knew, of course, how bad prejudice against Muggles could be in the Wizarding world, but it wasn't as though they hated the Dursleys because they weren't magical. They couldn't stand the way those particular Muggles treated their friend.

"Oh, Merlin," Reva choked out, remembering something else.

"What is it?"

"I just… I always knew Mum lost someone around Halloween, I'd just always thought it was her family in India. She doesn't like to talk about it."

"But Halloween—" Ron gaped. All magical children knew that as the day You-Know-Who was defeated by Harry Potter, just over ten years before.

"Yeah," Reva whispered. "If she's related to James Potter, then that's the day she lost him."

The two first years fell silent once more. Eventually, Ron started snoring away in his armchair, but Reva didn't wake him. Instead she sat, wide awake, staring at the fire in front of her. Her thoughts were loud and a little overwhelming as she tried to understand just what was going on.

An hour passed, then another.

The portrait door creaked open, and Reva looked up, frowning. She didn't see anyone, but she caught the flash of a scuffed white trainer and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Is anyone there?" She called hesitantly.

For a long moment, there was no response. The portrait hole swung shut. Revati began to figure she'd just imagined it, when—

"Gah!" She yelped, jumping as Harry pulled the Invisibility cloak off his head. Ron grunted in his sleep, but didn't wake up. "Harry!"

Harry didn't say anything. There was a strange look on his face, joy mingled with terrible sorrow.

"Are you headed out?" Reva asked in a whisper, moving closer to him and away from the fireplace where Ron snored lightly. Harry shook his head absently.

"Just coming in," he murmured. "You didn't notice when I left, you were just staring at the fire."

"Oh." Reva didn't know what to say. What did people typically do when they found out one of their best friends (who happened to be a famous hero) was their long lost cousin? "Where did you go?" She asked lamely as she sat down at a table in the back corner of the common room, avoiding the elephant in the room. Harry seemed all too happy to go along with it and sat down across from her.

"Restricted Section," he said, "To look for Flamel."

"Oh." She repeated. She wasn't expecting that, but she supposed it made sense. It didn't explain the odd expression in Harry's eyes, though, which worried her. "Did… did something happen while you were there?"

Harry was silent for a long moment. "I'll tell you about it in the morning, when Ron's awake." Then, he switched topics. "I read your mum's letter."

Reva didn't say anything. She'd figured as much, but she supposed there was always the possibility that Harry just set it aside so that he wouldn't have to deal with it just yet.

"She said you didn't know." Harry sighed and glanced at her furtively. "You didn't know that you're my cousin."

There was an aching kind of hope in his voice, but his face was guarded. Revati felt worry swirl in her stomach. Her heart pounded with anxiety as her palms sweated nervously.

"No," Revati agreed. "I didn't know."

Harry stared in her direction, but wouldn't meet her eyes. Instead, his gaze fixed on a point just above her ear. "Is that… are you okay with it?" He asked hesitantly.

Revati blinked. "Wait, what?" She asked incredulously. "Am I okay with it?" She gaped at the nervous boy in front of her before flinging her arms around him in a tight hug. "Harry, you're one of my best friends and I just found out you're family. Of course I'm okay with it. I was worried you weren't! I mean, it's a lot to handle, isn't it?"

Harry looked relieved as he hugged her back. Pulling away, he let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through his already unruly black hair. "Yeah, of course. But… I dunno, your mum's letter just felt…" He shook his head slowly, eyes distant behind his glasses. "It felt like she really cared. I didn't ever feel like she was lying to me."

Reva smiled. "She does care," she said fondly. "There's nobody kinder in the world than my mum. And that's the thing about her—she never lies. She's always told me the truth, even when I was five and I asked her about my dad…"

"What's the deal with your dad, then?" Harry asked, eyes alight with eagerness. Reva supposed he'd want to know all about her family—their family.

Reva shrugged. "He and my mum went a few times a couple years after she got out of school. She ended up pregnant and he ran off. I've never met him."

"I'm sorry," Harry said quickly. "I didn't know… I mean, you only ever talk about your mum, so I figured they weren't together, but…"

"You thought they'd divorced, or something," Reva finished knowingly. "No, nothing like that. You heard Snape last month."

"It's Snape," Harry pointed out. "I thought he was just lying."

"He is, sort of," Reva said. "I mean, my mum knows who my dad is. There are spells people can cast during a pregnancy to figure that sort of thing out. Plus she was very careful about everything. But… well, she was twenty and just dating around. She wasn't exactly looking for a long term commitment at the time."

"And your dad just… left?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Reva shrugged. "But apparently the aunt she moved in with—"

"My grandmother," Harry put in.

"Really?" Reva said, only a little surprised. She'd figured it was something like that, but it was still odd to hear that she was related by blood to the Boy-Who-Lived. "Well, your grandmother was really supportive of her, as was her husband and son… oh. Your dad." She realized. Her mum had never really used names in her stories, except for her cousin's friend, Remus, who of course was the uncle who came over for dinner on Sundays. Revati had once thought it was because the memories were too painful. Now, she supposed, it was so that Reva didn't piece together the secret. She might have been a little hurt, except that her mum had still never lied to her, despite the obviously secretive information she was privy to, and that meant the world.

"Yeah," Harry smiled, a hint of pride in his eyes. "My dad."

Reva smiled back at him. "Well, your dad had some friends who were willing to help my mum out."

"Really?" Harry asked eagerly. "Are they still around?"

"Er…" Reva frowned, thinking about it. "Well, one of them comes around for dinner every week, he's the one who sent me the book on jinxes. I think another died in the war, that's what mum said. And she lost touch with a third, says he disappeared or they had a falling out or something."

"Oh." Harry said.

"Yeah." Reva said. "It gets a bit lonely sometimes." She glanced out the corner of her eye. "But now that I know I have a cousin my age, I'm sure it'll get a lot easier. You can spend summers with us!" She realized, beaming with excitement. "Mum would love to have you, I bet, and you're family, aren't you? I can show you the farm, and you can help me with the Nogtails, and we can have dinners with Mum—fair warning, her cooking's not amazing, so we'll probably be eating a lot of Chinese takeout… that is, if you want to stay with us, of course." She finished hesitantly.

"I'd love that," Harry said immediately, grinning. His green eyes glowed bright in the flickering firelight.

"Good," Reva said. "Then it's settled."

Silence fell over them once more.

"You find anything on Flamel?" Reva asked finally.

Harry's eyes glinted. "No," he said, "But I found something way better."

last update for a while - it's finals szn! yuck.

hope you guys enjoyed!

stay safe! love you all!

-alidfi