This chapter is dedicated to Makurayami Ookami, who wrote my 100th review.

The holidays ended and everyone had to return to Hogwarts. The first evening back, at dinner, Dumbledore made an announcement. "The Japanese Ministry of Magic has sent ambassadors to the British Ministry for the next several years. As they will be living in Britain for the immediate future, their children will attend Hogwarts. So today, two new students will be joining us. Ichirou Hirashi will be a third year and his brother Ryouta will be a first year. They will be Sorted in a minute and I hope you will all welcome them. Oh, and that is the reason why the house tables have been restored tonight. Tomorrow the smaller tables and mixing of houses will resume."

The Sorting Hat and a stool was brought forward and Ichirou walked rather nervously up to be Sorted. Mari craned her neck to get a good look at her cousin. The hat was on his head for only a second before it shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The Hufflepuff table burst into applause and a relieved Ichirou took off the hat and found a seat between Kyle and third-year Cedric Diggory, who immediately gave a cheerful greeting.

Ryouta confidently took his brother's place at the stool. After about ten seconds, the hat called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" An extremely happy Ryouta ran towards the Gryffindor table, still wearing the Sorting Hat. Professor McGonagall had to stop him and with an apologetic smile, he removed the hat amid much laughter. After that, he continued to the Gryffindor table, where he plopped in the space Neville and Hermione made for him and said, "Konnichiwa. I mean hello. I'm Hira- I mean Ryouta Hirashi, but call me Ry or Ryou for short."

After finishing their dinner, Ichirou and Ry went to the Slytherin table to say hello to their cousin, whom they hadn't seen since Mari's visit to Japan when she was five. Malfoy's mouth dropped open when he saw that the three seemed to know each other. "How do you know the family of the Japanese ambassdors, Kishi?" he demanded.

"Because they're my relatives, on my mother's side of the family," Mari responded coolly. "Ry and Ichirou are my second cousins, and their parents are my first cousins once removed."

"Don't forget that Minister Kishi is Mari's cousin, too," said Ichirou. "So you'd better be on your best behavior if you don't want a situation with Japan, whomever you are."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," said Malfoy. "An old pureblood and respected family."

Ry snorted. "How respected can your family be if there are rumors that your father was a Death Eater?"

"He was betwitched into doing the Dark Lord's bidding!" snapped Malfoy. "Father was found innocent!"

Ichirou shook his head. "That's because your father also gave the Ministry a whole bunch of gold to make sure his claim of being bewitched was believed. Such a thing would have never happened in Japan. While there might be people in the Japanese Ministry that would accept, what's the word - ah yes, bribes, the Ministry as a whole wouldn't tolerate that and the Japanese equavalent of the Wizengamot would have thoroughly in-investa-checked the whole matter to make sure someone was guilty or innocent."

Malfoy looked angry, but kept silent as Ichirou was the son of ambassadors. Ichirou, on the other hand, suddenly looked apologetic. "Oh, I am sorry, Draco. I did not mean to offend you. Please accept my humble apologies." He gave a little bow.

"Apology accepted," Malfoy said grudgingly. Ry and Ichirou nodded and then turned to Mari, who introduced the other Slytherins that were a part of Unity.

Ron asked quietly, so Maldoy wouldn't hear, "Why did you apologize to Malfoy, Ichirou? He's a -"

"Don't worry," interrupted Ichirou in the same quiet tone. "Draco is not someone I like, but as the son of the ambassadors to Britain, I cannot go around offending British people. It would not look well. Ryou, remember to do the same. You don't want to cause a situation between Great Britain and Japan."

"A what?" asked Ry, looking confused. "What is a sit-sit-that word?"

Ichirou repeated the word in English and then gave the Japanese translation. Ry nodded. "Oh. Mari, can you help me with English? I can speak it mostly good, but there are some words I do not know, and my grammer is not always perfect."

"Of course," said Mari. "I think my friends will be happy to help. And it's 'mostly well', or 'fairly well', not 'mostly good', Ry. I'll have to ask the rest of the group, but I think you would be a good new member for Unity. That's the name for the large group of first-years that got together despite house differences and are friends." When Ry looked slightly puzzled, she thought for a moment and then translated the last sentence she had said in Japanese, albeit not perfectly, since she hadn't spoken it much in years. He nodded in comprehension when she was done and then offered to help her with her Japanese, which she accepted.

The next day, Ry was introduced to the rest of Unity and accepted as a new member of the group. After reading the rules and charter, with some translation help from Mari, he agreed to what was written and signed his name. Unity then worked on their Transfiguration homework and helped Ry improve his English. In return, he helped Mari with her Japanese and taught a few words to the rest. Predictably, most of the boys wanted to learn swear words, but Ry didn't know any beyond the few that he had heard in school or from his older brother. The girls weren't very happy that the boys wanted to learn swear words, but looked pleased when it turned out Ry didn't know much. What they didn't know was that he later whispered to the boys that if they wanted to learn more Japanese swear words, to ask Ichirou.

James and Kyle stayed out of it, for they weren't really the type to swear. The one time that James had uttered a swear word, Stella had given him a talking to and after that, he had said them in his head if he really needed to relieve his feelings, since he hated disappointing his foster sister. It hadn't helped that he had used the word because he was angry that Mari had done better than him on a math test, and Stella had to scold him about that as well. James shook his head, wondering what had been the matter with his nine-year old self. How did he get the idea that boys should be smarter than girls back then? That was just idiotic. Well, at least the wizarding world had given women more equal treatment before the Muggle world. After all, the first female Minister of Magic had been elected by the Wizengamot almost two hundred years before women could vote in the Muggle world. Then again, that hadn't meant everyone accepted her. Several members of the Wizengamot had walked out after Artemisia Lufkin had been appointed Minister.

Kyle, on the other hand, had never sworn since the one time his adoptive mother had washed his mouth out with soap and water after he had used a swear word. Since he never wanted to go through that again, he, like James, said the words in his head if it was necessary to relieve his feelings that way.

That evening, James asked the Weasley twins for the Marauder's Map, for he wanted to do some exploring while using the Invisibilty Cloak. George took it out and said, "You know the password to open it, right? 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'." He tapped the Map with his wand at the same time. "And the password to close it is-"

He trailed off as he looked down at the map and saw a dot labeled "Harry Potter" standing next to a dot labeled "Fred Weasley". "What's the matter, George?" asked Fred. He looked down at the Map and gasped. Then the twins exchanged a look and grabbed James by the arms. "We need to have a word with you."

They went into a nearby broom cupboard and George did a Silencing Charm on it so nobody could overhear them. "You're really Harry Potter, aren't you?" demanded Fred. "The Marauder's Map has never been wrong before, and since it says Harry Potter is next to us, then it has to be you."

James sighed. "Okay, I am Harry Potter, but you can't tell anyone. I'm a Metamorphmagus, by the way, so I was able to change my appearance."

"I take it then that Sirius and Remus know the truth about you and are keeping it a secret?" asked George.

James nodded. "I told them the first time they came to Hogwarts."

"What about Stuart and Stella?" demanded Fred. "They-"

"Obviously have to know the truth," finished George. "Since you're pretending to be their younger brother."

James nodded and explained, "When I appeared at the orphanage, there was no note left with me, so Mrs. Draper, the director, had to make one up. She couldn't come up with a last name, so Stella and Stuart suggested that I be given theirs and could be their brother. They realized who I really was and told me and my friend Mari when they returned for the summer holidays. I decided to remain as James Lydell, since I don't want to be treated like a celebrity. I just want people to like me for me, not because I'm the Boy-Who-Lived. After my other best friend, Kyle, got his Hogwarts letter and turned out to be a wizard too, I let him in on the secret."

Fred started laughing and said, "This is brillant! Everyone in the wizarding world, except for the ones that know your secret, are either looking for you or wondering where you are!"

"But you're in Hogwarts, under the name James Lydell!" continued George, joining in his twin's laughter. "If you can keep it up, it'll be the longest-running prank in history!"

James blinked, then realized that the Weasley twins would definitely keep his secret. They were pranksters, after all, and this could be seen as a prank. "Thanks, guys."

George shrugged. "No problem. Even if we weren't pranksters, we'd still keep your secret." He exchanged a look with Fred, gesturing at the Marauder's Map. Fred nodded and the two handed the Map to James.

"You can have it for keeps," said Fred. "Since you're the son of one of the Marauders and the godson to two more, James."

"Thank you, Fred and George," said James, touched. "But if you need to borrow it, let me know and I'll lend it to you."

The twins nodded and then George removed the Silencing Spell and they left the broom cupboard. After his dormmates were asleep, James took out the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map and silently made his way out the Ravenclaw common room. Donning the cloak and checking the Map to make sure nobody was around, he began exploring the school. After awhile, he noticed that Filch was coming his way, according to the Map. As the corridor was narrow, there was the chance Filch could run into James, since the cloak didn't stop people from being solid. He noticed a nearby door standing ajar and quickly ducked into the room.

After Filch had passed by, James took the opportunity to look around the room. It seemed to be an unused classroom. Then he spotted a tall mirror standing in a corner, looking as it had been simply put there to keep it out of the way. He looked at the Map to make sure that there was nobody around, then cautiously approached the mirror.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. He frowned, trying to work out what language it was. It wasn't English, and didn't seem to be German, French, or Spanish, since he'd seen samples of the langauge. It definitely wasn't a non-Latin based langauge like Arabic or Japanese. He wondered if it was Latin, but the only Latin he knew was the Hogwarts motto, 'mater' and 'pater', and that many of the spells were Latin-based.

Finally, after much thought, he realized that it was just English written backwards, like mirror writing. He worked out the inscription to be "I show not your face but your heart's desire." That meant the mirror would show your heart's desire, or what you most wanted. Curious, he stood in front of it, wondering what his heart's desire was. However, all he saw was his own reflection, which was odd. Did that mean he liked his life the way it was now and therefore had no heart's desire? He would have thought he would have wanted his parents to be alive. Then he realized that if his parents had never died, he would never have had Stuart and Stella to be his foster siblings, and he wouldn't have met Mari and Kyle until going to Hogwarts. And there was no guarantee that they would have been his friends if that had happened.

He then wondered why he didn't want to be not found out, which was the other logical choice. After a moment of thought, he realized that he didn't really worry about that. The nine people that knew his secret were trustworthy and would never tell anyone without his permission. He would never be found out unless he slipped up or decided to reveal himself.

James shook his head and decided to leave. He obviously was perfectly happy with his life, at least for the time being. With that, he silently made his way back to the Ravenclaw common room and went to bed. The only ones he told about the incident were his siblings and Mari and Kyle. Stella wasn't very happy that James had been wandering about the school at night, but after a mild scolding and telling him to be careful, didn't say anything more on the subject.

Over the next week, Ry was told about the Philosopher's Stone being hidden at Hogwarts, after being sworn to secrecy. His grammer and vocabulary improved, though it was obvious from his accent and the occasional mistakes he still made that he wasn't a native English speaker. Malfoy had taken to ignoring Mari, since she was related to the Japanese Minister of Magic and amabassadors. As Ry was now part of Unity, Malfoy also ignored the group, though it was rather obvious he still didn't like the way things were going.

Author's Note: I hope nobody minds Fred and George finding out about James being Harry Potter. George was still suspicious even thought Stuart had said that James wasn't Harry Potter, so he would look at the Marauder's Map to confirm things. Naturally, they would keep the secret, since they are trustworthy, despite being pranksters, and it would appeal to their sense of humor and they would see it was the greatest and possibly longest-running prank ever.