Summary: Alex/Harry resumes life at Hogwarts, finds an unique mirror, and gets to be Seeker in the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match.

The next night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Alex took out the invisibility cloak and Marauder's Map and went for a stroll around the school. He wanted to do a little exploring, which was something his biological father had done, and while he really shouldn't be wandering around after curfew, he had no intention of causing any trouble, which technically didn't break his promise to his adoptive parents.

While walking about, Alex almost ran into Filch and quickly slid into a nearby room that had a door that was ajar in order to escape bumping into the caretaker. The room appeared to be an unused classroom, judging by the dusty desks and chairs in it. However, there was one odd item, a tall mirror located 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 or the Roma language, and didn't seem to be German, French, or Spanish, since he'd seen samples of them. 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, 'carpe diem' 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. All he saw was his reflection, being handed the Quidditch Cup, with the rest of the Gryffindor team, minus Cormac, surrounding him and silently cheering. Did that mean that his heart's desire was to help win the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor?

"What kind of desire is that?" he asked out loud. "I would have expected something else." On further reflection, he realized that his life, while not exactly perfect, was still very good. He had a loving family, great friends, did well in school, and even though Malfoy was something of an enemy, he was more of an annoyance that could be ignored. If he had grown up with his biological relatives, then no doubt his life wouldn't be so wonderful, and his heart's desire would probably be something like having his real parents still alive. However, that hadn't happened, so his life was fine, and if his heart's desire wasn't something as trivial as winning the Quidditch Cup, then it probably would be nothing, that is, he wouldn't have any real desires at all.

His curiousity now satisfied, Alex stepped away from the mirror and returned to the Gryffindor common room, with no desire to do any further exploring. The next day, he told Beth and his friends about the Mirror of Erised. While they were all interested in it, and wondered what their heart's desires were, Hermione was also rather horrified with the fact that Alex had been out-of-bounds, and Beth made him promise to never wander about the castle after curfew again unless it was absolutely necessary or he had permission to do so from a staff member.

"You don't want Mum and Dad finding out you broke your promise and taking the cloak away from you while you're at Hogwarts, Alexander," reminded Beth.

"Actually, my promise was that I wouldn't cause any trouble with the cloak, Elisabeth," responded Alex, using his sister's full first name since she had done so with him. "Which I didn't do last night."

"Maybe not, but that argument isn't going to work with our parents," returned Beth. "So promise."

"Fine," sighed Alex. "I promise not to break curfew except when it's necessary or a staff member gives me permission."

After the next Potions class, Alex and Beth stayed behind and asked Professor Snape if they could speak with him privately later. He agreed, on the pretense of giving them detention for that evening. The two showed up at his office after dinner. "Professor Snape," said Beth. "Our grandparents told us some things about you over the holidays."

"What things?" demanded Snape, a flicker of alarm appearing on his face before quickly disappearing.

"Er, we sort of figured out that something is being hidden at Hogwarts," answered Alex. "Our cousin Ivan found out that you were injured and surmised that you must have tried to get past the three-headed dog that he and his friends found out about. That made us wonder if you were either after whatever's hidden or trying to stop the real person after it."

"When we brought it up to our family members, our maternal grandparents assured us that you were on the side of good and would never go against Dumbledore, and they swore us to secrecy the reason why they knew," continued Beth. "Well, your being Granny Ilsa's apprentice for a couple of summers isn't exactly a secret, but the other stuff they said definitely was."

Alex nodded. "So we just wanted to let you know that we know the basics of what happened after you graduated from Hogwarts, and to assure you that nobody else is going to hear about it from us. Er, you don't really mind that Granny Ilsa and Granddad Vladek told us?"

"Since it is your family that we are talking about, I do not," replied Snape. "They were there for me at a time when I needed support, and I can never repay them. no matter how many potions I brew for your grandmother's apothecary during the summer. And I would only trust members of your family and Professor Dumbledore to keep my past secret. Now, what was it you said about Ivan?"

Beth and Alex exchanged looks, because they didn't want to get their cousin and his friends in trouble. Professor Snape sighed and said, "I promise not to punish Ivan over it. Now will you answer?"

"He found out why the third-floor corridor is off limits," responded Beth. "He told us, because sometimes Alex can sometimes let curiousity get the better of him."

Snape raised a brow. "I take it Ivan found out because his friends told him," he stated. "Since I do find it rather hard to believe that he found out on his own."

Alex didn't confirm or deny this, but merely said, "Anyway, our family knows that something is hidden at Hogwarts, since Beth asked about it at dinner once, but we've promised our parents not to look any further into it and just let Professor Dumbledore deal with things."

"Good," said Snape. "Make sure you keep that promise. Since you two are supposedly having detention with me, you can spend the next couple of hours brewing a Swelling Solution."

Two days before the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch match, Cormac McClaggen reported that Professor McGonagall had put him in detention the day of the match. He was not pleased, to say the least, when the rest of the team didn't react negatively to the news, and instead focused on how happy they were that Alex would get to play and preparing him for the match.

The match turned out to be one of the shortest that anyone could remember, for after about ten minutes, Alex spotted the Snitch, went into a dive, and caught it before the Hufflepuff Seeker realized what was going on. Gryffindor won the match, two hundred points to ten. There was a celebratory party in the common room after, where Alex was hailed as the hero of the team. McClaggen looked very grumpy when he returned from his detention and saw everybody celebrating and making much of Alex. After grabbing some food and something to drink, the second-year retreated to his dorm room, muttering things that were no doubt uncomplimentary under his breath.

Author's Note: Sorry that it has been awhile since I updated this. I have been busy with other things in my life.