The Hogwarts owl-the first in twelve years- showed up on a Tuesday morning in July. Mackenzie and Tess squealed, Alan and Martin jostled to get close to the disdainful bird sitting on their kitchen table, and Adrian calmly took the letter from it, checked the address, and handed it to Alan.
"Well Alan, it looks as if you're a wizard."
Alan scoffed at that. "Real funny, Dad. I know better than to fall for your jokes anymore." He was a cool and logical boy who had inherited his father's aptitude for potions, although he didn't yet know it. Magic seemed utterly absurd to his scientific brain.
Adrian sighed. "Well gang, I think we need to have a family meeting. There are some things that we haven't discussed yet." The children straightened up warily as they wondered what misdemeanor their father had uncovered this time. He was uncannily good at that. "Magic is real." Alan snorted. "Perhaps you'd like a demonstration." With a flick of his wand, hastily retrieved from its hiding place atop a pictureframe, two forks began to waltz across the tabletop. He rounded on Alan. "Is that proof enough for you? No? How would you like to have pink hair?" Alan's siblings roared with laughter when his hair changed color. "As you can see, magic is real, and I am a wizard."
"Can Mum do magic too?" Tess asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid not, sweetie." Mackenzie told her daughter, "I'm what the magical world calls a muggle. That means that neither I nor any of my parents or grandparents have magic. But magic is a dominant trait, so it only takes one magical parent for a child to be able to do magic. You three all can do magic because Dad can do magic."
"We didn't want to tell you before, because we live with muggles and most muggles don't know that magic exists. We were afraid that if we told you too early you might be too young to understand that it had to be kept a secret from your friends."
"But what does that have to do with my letter?" Alan ventured, "And would you please change my hair back?"
Adrian flicked his wand and changed his elder son's hair back to dark brown. "The letter is from a boarding school for magic, informing you that term begins September first and giving you your list of school supplies that you'll need."
"How'd you do that? Know what's in it already?" Martin climbed into his lap, "Can you see through envelopes?"
"No, but I can read minds." He told the child. "I know what it says because term at Hogwarts has always begun on September first, and the letters always include a list of supplies. Some things will never change."
"Did you go to school there?"
"I did, as a matter of fact."
"Did you like it?"
"Some parts I did, some parts I didn't. No school is all fun all the time."
Returning to Diagon Alley for the first time since his "death" was a strange and nerve-wracking experience for Adrian. His former students were all over the place with their own children. It took a conscious effort not to slip into old habits.
In Madam Malkin's, they ran into none other than Harry Potter and his son, who was being fitted for his school robes as well. He and Miss Weasley had clearly wasted no time to already have a child starting school.
Potter's son was chatting a mile a minute as he was fitted for his robes, and Adrian almost felt bad for his former student. Judging by his expression, the boy had been at it for hours now and pretty well worn him out. With equal apprehension for different reasons, Alan allowed himself to be directed onto a stool next to the Potter boy and Adrian took a seat by the door a bit closer to Potter than he would have liked.
To Madam Malkin's obvious relief, the Potter boy turned his attention to Alan instead. "Hi! I'm James! Are you going to Hogwarts too? Can you believe they won't let first years have brooms? I think I'll have to smuggle mine in. I've been flying for years, you know, and that rule is silly. I want to join the quiddich team immediately. My father and grandfather were both seekers and if dad could join the team as a first year then so can I, don't you think?"
"I think that's an awfully small thing about which to get worked up. Besides, I imagine you'll get better marks without the distraction." Alan pointed out. Adrian smiled inwardly. That was his son alright!
"Well, I suppose, if you're interested in that. I suppose your parents must be friends with all the teachers then. I've met one of them." James informed him proudly.
"I haven't met any." Alan said, a little stiffly. "I didn't know about magic until yesterday morning."
"Oh, so you're muggleborn then. Who brought you here? Muggles can't get in here you know." James was starting to sound an awful lot like someone else. Adrian glanced over at Harry to see if he'd noticed it too, but Harry continued to beam proudly at his son.
"My Dad brought me. He's a wizard but he doesn't like to do magic and didn't tell us children that he could until my letter showed up."
"Oh well that's lame. Living like muggles is horrid, I've heard, They're not like us." Adrian glanced over again. Harry still hadn't noticed. In fact, the proud beam looked as if it had been fixed in place to cover up an exhausted blank stare.
As he had stood still throughout his fitting, Alan finished up before James. "Thank you ma'am. Dad, may I go look at their nightclothes? Mine are becoming small on me."
"Certainly. They'll cost less and fit better here than the muggle shops."
Potter was staring at him incredulously, and until he spoke, Adrian was seized by a fear that he might have guessed his identity. "How…How do you DO that? How do you get him to be so polite?"
"Oh it's easy. I taught my children manners from the start, and I enforced them. Rules have to be enforced with children if they're to learn them." Adrian couldn't resist the jab at his former identity's former student's parenting skills and lack of discipline, but he kept his tone light and conversational. "Impressionable young minds need a measure of consistency."
"I don't think I liked that boy." Alan commented as the two of them browsed potion ingredients. "He seemed awfully full of hot air."
"Believe me," Adrian told his son, "It runs in the family. But don't tell anybody I said that. I'd prefer his father not remember that he's met me before."
Alan wrinkled his nose. "I see no reason to speak to him again, so there is no reason for me to say so."
Adrian ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about it, squirt. Chances are he'll continue his family's tradition of being in Gryffindor, and you'll either continue our family's Slytherin tradition or end up in Ravenclaw. You don't have to interact with people from other houses very much if you don't want to."
"What are those?"
"When you get to Hogwarts, you'll be sorted into one of four houses. Your house is the people with whom you'll eat, sleep, and attend classes for the entirety of your time at Hogwarts. Each house has a set of characteristics associated with it. Slytherin, which both my mother and I were in, is known for ambition, cunning, and wit. Kind of a play smarter not harder mindset. Gryffindor is traditionally our rival. They're known for bravery and hot-headedness, so they are prone to rushing into things and trying to defend anyone they think is a "good guy". Ravenclaw is known for intelligence. They'd rather be studying than most anything else. Hufflepuff values hard work and loyalty over personal gain."
"You're right, I can't see James and I being in the same house."
While I do like Harry and don't think he'd purposefully let his children be little shits, I imagine his fame being overwhelming. He's young and probably being promoted professionally faster than he should be for political reasons, so he's (as usual) got more responsibility than he's really ready for except that now he's trying to juggle that with a family. Kids are impressionable, his are growing up with their dad the savior of the world and their mom a professional athlete, and he (and Ginny if she's still playing professional quidditch) are scrambling to balance two careers plus three children plus fame and maybe not doing enough to counteract the influence that seeing the way people treat them has on the kids.