Reflection: Chapter 1
Beta-read by Vaughn

Past 1981

James closed quickly the door behind him and leaned, drained, against it. 'Thank Merlin for secret rooms,' he thought, relieved. He, his wife, and their infant son were at Hogwarts for some serious business with Dumbledore. Naturally, their closest friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, were also present.

And Peter had been bothering James non stop. He'd wanted to talk about something, but James would be lying if he said he wanted to. Peter had always been the odd one in their group (if you looked over the fact that Remus was a werewolf). He always just came along and rarely had an idea of his own. He also didn't like to prank as much as the others. So James didn't really think highly of him and could sometimes be pretty mean towards the sandy haired guy.

He finally pushed himself away from the door to take a look around. The room was relatively small, just big enough to take four long strides in length and three in breadth. He saw in the rear of the room a painting that was as black as the night. It could have been a life-size mirror if it reflected something. He walked slowly towards it and, frowning, realized that it WAS a mirror.

"But why doesn't it show anything?" he wondered out loud. He tried to look in it from different angles but the mirror refused to show anything else other than darkness.

"How strange," he muttered softly, even though there was no one to hear his words.

Future – 1995

Harry hesitantly opened the door and peeked into the room. It seemed innocent enough, no three-headed dogs. He swung the door wide open and walked in.

'Small room,' he thought, musing. He let the door fall closed behind him and immediately walked towards the strange mirror at the far back. He carefully touched the pitch-black surface.

"So, you're the strange mirror Herm told me about," he said to the mirror, and crouched down in front of it. He peered deep into it, but saw nothing and frowned. Then he studied the edge carefully and grinned as he saw the strange symbols.

"Aha, so now I know why she's in the library looking for information about you." He caressed the edge, feeling the subtly carved in symbols under his fingers, and trailed with them a path to the spiral formed circle.

Past 1981

James stared for a long while at the edge of the mirror. It had such strange symbols on it, what could it all possibly mean? His gaze fell on a circle with a spiral in it and he reached out for it. His fingers touched the circle shortly and he pulled his hand quickly away when he felt that the circle was boiling hot.

"What the-" he said, and then went silent. He noticed, astonished how the black from the sides of the mirror slowly slid away to show a reflection, and soon the last stain of black disappeared from the middle of the mirror. James stared, in full shock, at someone that stood with his back towards him, wand in hand. He saw the hair of the boy shake sideways as he looked from side to side. But he was really startled when he heard a voice.

"-heard you. Show yourself!"

The boy still stood with his back towards him, and James took a step back. 'Who is that?'

"Hermione? Ron? If you're here under my invisibility cloak, I'll hex you into next week!" said the voice again. James realized it might be the boy's voice.

"Hello?" he asked hesitantly.

"Where are you?" the boy demanded to know."

"Um... behind you."

The boy turned around swiftly, and James' mouth fell wide open in shock. The boy looked like him when he was younger! The only difference being that he had green eyes. The boy was also rather skinny, while he had always been slender, but with muscles at in the right places.

James saw the boy, just as shocked, dropped his wand and stared incredulously at him.

"D-dad?" said the boy with a trembling voice, and looked at James with disbelief written all over his face.

James crossed his arms, ignoring the 'Dad', and stared with distrust at the boy. "I am James Potter. Who are you?"

The boy moved his jaw but there came no sound came. He shook his head in denial and quickly snatched his wand from the floor without even breaking eye contact.

"You can't be him," he finally said. "He's dead, you can't be him!" He pointed his wand at him and James quickly grabbed his own wand.

"What are you talking about? I am not dead! Are you a Death Eater? Did You-Know-Who send you to kill me and my family?" He growled softly under his breath and glared accusingly at the 'Death Eater' in the mirror. "I won't let you get them! Touch my wife and child and you're dead! Do you hear me?"

The Death Eater shook his head again and lowered his wand with obvious hesitation.

"I… I thought you were... are you really James?"

James nodded, still frowning, and the boy lowered his wand all the way. James saw that he clutched the sleeve of his robes in a tight grip with his other hand. The boy lowered his gaze and stared, unseeing, at James' feet. He licked his lips. "I thought… I thought you were a Death Eater, impersonating my father," he said with a trembling voice.

"Why would you think that?" James wondered, still not convinced that the boy in the mirror wasn't a Death Eater.

The boy raised his head and his emerald eyes locked with James'. "Because my father, James Potter, died 15 years ago..."

Future – 1995

Harry stared with a pained heart at his reflection… no, at his dad. To see him like this... he looked even more real than when he'd seen him in the mirror of Erised! 'Mirrors are funny things, I'll never be able to look at one the same again.' He took a deep shuddering breath and resisted the urge to run to the mirror and try to reach through it.

"You are lying!" James said, breaking Harry's heart with those three words. "My son, Harry, is barely one year old, how can you be him?"

Harry now ran to the mirror and placed his hands against the cold surface. He looked with pleading eyes to his father, begging him with them to listen and believe him. "It's true! I'm Harry James Potter. I'm 16 years old and currently at Hogwarts. You and mum died 15 years ago on Halloween!"

James frowned as he thought of something. "It's going to be Halloween tomorrow."

Harry's eyes widened and he realized that this all could just be an illusion or dream, but if it wasn't... then he was able to change the past!

"Listen Dad-James… Sirius is NOT the Secret Keeper! He switched places with Peter Pettigrew! The rat is a spy for Voldemort and he'll sell you out! Voldemort will know that you're at Godric's Hollow and he'll kill you and-"

"What the hell are you talking about!" interrupted James him. "I don't know who you are and what you want, but leave me and my family alone!"

"But-" Harry stared at his father's stubborn face. 'I'll lose him again.'

"No dad! I-!" He heard the door slam open behind him and, startled, turned around to face a confused Hermione.

"What are you doing here?" asked the Queen of Books as she dropped a pile of books on the dusty floor. Harry turned around and saw that the surface of the mirror was pitch-black again.

"My father-he was-I saw him! He was there!"

"Harry? Are you alright?"

Harry shook his head. "No! He-I-!" He sighed rather deeply. "I'm going to the Infirmary, I'm not feeling well."

Hermione put worried a hand against his forehead that he slapped away. "Do you need me to walk you there?"

"No, I can get there myself." He closed the door behind him, and Hermione shrugged as she sat down to study the symbols in her book and those on the mirror's edge.

Past 1981

James touched the mirror that suddenly had become black again. He didn't know what to think of the boy who claimed to be his son. 'My son is safely in Lily's arms,' he thought to himself and glanced again at the mirror. He shook his head, not realizing that he unconsciously was copying the boy's movement, and turned to the door. He opened it and went back to Dumbledore's office.

"Squinter Skittles," he said to the gargoyle, and it opened the way to Dumbledore's office, where he found his friends and wife. He saw that Peter was holding Harry and remembered the boy's words:

'The rat is a spy for Voldemort'.

Ridiculous !The meek little Peter, who looked up to them, a spy? Right!

But he still took Harry over from Peter. He just wanted to hold the little thing himself. It wasn't like he believed the boy or anything…

"Where have you been?" Lily asked him as she attached herself onto his arm.

"Oh, just wandering around, reliving our schooldays."

Remus smiled at them and James grinned back.

"Those were good times."

James couldn't agree more with his werewolf friend.

Sirius slapped Remus on his back as his show of agreement.

"Well, is been nice and all, but there's a Dark Lord out there who's out for our blood and I want to go home," Lily said, and took Harry over from him. James bit his lip. The boy had known about Godric's Hollow… maybe…

"Lily," a voice suddenly said. They all turned to watch Albus Dumbledore come closer. "My conscience forces me to ask this again; don't you think it's safer at the moment to stay at Hogwarts?"

"Nonsense," the red-haired witch answered briskly. "Harry and I want to be at home."

James had kept a close eye on Peter and had seen how he kept on rubbing his hands together in a nervous motion. Peter caught his eye and looked pleading up at him.

"James! I really have to talk with you before you go! Please!"

Something-James didn't know what-made him nod and he and Peter left the others to take a walk through the hallways. "Something wrong, Peter? You look troubled."
Peter buried his hands deeply in his pockets and kept staring at the floor. 'Like a child that knows he has done something bad,' shot through James head.

"I… don't be mad at me Jamie… I.." Peter took a deep breath.

"IbetrayedyoubutIdidn'tmeantoYouKnowWhoforcedmeandIwassoscared!"

"What?"

Peter grabbed the front of James robes. "You-Know-Who knows where you live! He and the Death Eaters will attack you one of these days! You can't go back there, Jamie! I don't want you to die!" His grip on James robes loosened and he slid down on the ground as salty droplets of regret trailed over his face. "And it's all because of me! It's my fault! If I hadn't listened to him… but he threatened my family and I… I didn't stand a chance… He threatened me with my sister… she's so young… how could I?"

James couldn't believe his ears and stared, incredulous, at Peter. His mind chose to focus on the 'how' instead of the 'why' for the time being. "But, Peter… how can you, when Sirius is our Secret Keeper?"

Peter looked up with teary, pleading eyes. "I… Sirius proposed for me to switch, 'cause he thought that You-Know-Who would come after him and if we switched, he wouldn't be able to betray you when they tortured him."

James opened his mouth, then closed it again.

'Sirius is NOT the Secret Keeper!'

James shook his head. The boy was right? Had it really been his son? How had he known?

"Peter… why?" he finally asked.

Peter still stared up at him. "I don't know," he answered, full of sorrow. "I really don't know."

At that point, James made an important decision: he reached his hand out to his kneeling friend. Peter looked confused at his hand and then back at James' face.

"Wha-?"

"Come with me," James said. "We are going to Dumbledore and you will tell him everything that has happened."

Peter still stared fearfully up at him. "And after that?" asked he with a shaking voice.

James gave him a small smile. "After that, we'll make sure he won't get to you anymore."

Peter smiled as he wiped his tears away and took James' hand.

Future – 1995

Bright flashes of green and blue shot in front of his eyes and Harry slumped down in his chair. His head hit his desk with an echoing bang, followed by the disturbed voice of a Potions Master, who told him to restrain himself from sleeping during class.

But Harry's attention was elsewhere...

He was attacked with images: of his parents, of them laughing with Peter Pettigrew, Peter helping him unwrap gifts at age 6, Peter taking him to a Quidditch game, Peter taking him to get his own wand…

In barely 10 seconds, Harry got a whole new childhood, which he had spent more than half of with Peter Pettigrew and the memories to this life found a place in his head amongst those of his childhood at the Dursleys.

"Potter!"

Harry's shot up in his seat and stared unfocusedly around.

"Potter!" sounded the irritated voice again. His eyes finally fell on the gloomy man that stood scowling in front of him.

"Mister Potter," snarled Professor Snape as he glared down at him. "Pettigrew might not mind it if you fall asleep during his class, but I do! 10 points from Gryffindor!"

'Peter teaches History of Magic,' remembered Harry from the new memories he had just received and he stared speechlessly in front of him as Snape resumed his lesson. 'But… isn't he a Death Eater? No, he isn't anymore. He told Dumbledore,' realized Harry. 'But that means… my parents! They are alive! Peter didn't betray them!'

"-dismissed."

"Hermione!" Harry turned immediately towards his bushy-haired friend. "Herm! Do you know where my parents are?"

Hermione stared in shock at him, her book hanging silently in the air. "Harry… " she said, clearly feeling uncomfortable. "What are you talking about?"

"My parents!" said Harry, gleefully watching her. "Where are they? I can't remember them being teachers here, or Aurors…" he trailed off as a new memory was triggered in his mind. His 5-year-old self, standing in front of his parent's grave with both Peter and Remus Lupin holding his hand.

"-know they died when you were 5…"

"… they still died…"

Past 1981

James peeked into the room and went in when he saw it was empty. He and Peter had talked with Albus and they made preparations to stay at Hogwarts. They hadn't told anything to Sirius, Remus, or even Lily, because they were liable to attack poor Peter. And poor Peter indeed. The sandy haired man revealed to them that his Dark Mark was sending terrible pain through his body that evening and he was now in the infirmary. Last time James had seen him, he was withering in pain on the bed he was scraped on: his face had been ashen and sweaty.

Meanwhile, James had slowly come to the conclusion that it really had been his son he had talked with and frankly felt horrible enough for treating the boy like he had done. 'Sometimes I'm really not a nice person…' James sighed deeply and walked to the black mirror. He touched the spiral shortly, but the mirror stayed the same. Had he wasted his chance to talk with his son from the future? No, apparently not, since the black started to crawl away again to show the image of the sleeping boy.

"Harry?" said James softly as he watched the boy stir awake.

"Hmmm… dad…?"

"Wake up, kid!"

Harry opened one emerald eye and the other shot open as soon as he saw his father in the mirror. James smiled uncomfortably as Harry sat up. "Dad?"

"Yeah…"

"I thought... that maybe I had imagined you. That it had been another dream."

"A dream?" James settled down in front of the mirror and stared at Harry, who sat cross-legged on the other side.

"Yeah, I dream a lot about you," confessed the youngster and smiled softly. "About you and mum."

"I'd never thought that you would end up looking like my splitting image."

Harry gave him a lopsided grin. "I hear that a lot; about me looking like you." He grimaced as he thought about it. "Only too bad that Snape hates me because of it."

James frowned. "Snape?"

"Oh, he's a professor here at Hogwarts."

"'Snivellus' Snape is a professor?" laughed James mirthfully.

Harry frowned ever so slightly as he was reminded of the fact that his dad hadn't been perfect. Had it been before he had peeked into Snape's Pensieve, he would have laughed with James, but now he couldn't. "He's a good professor…" he mumbled.

"Oh sorry, it sounds like you like him… but I can't get over the fact that it's Snape," laughed James. "He hates children!"

"Well, I didn't say I liked him," Harry answered uncomfortably. "He actually hates me and I can't stand him either."

James stopped laughing. "He's not putting you in danger, is he? What does he teach?"

"Potions, and I'm getting into more danger outside his class."

"How come?"

"Well, it started in my first year-"

To Be Continued