Fun Fact: Zander can speak two languages English and Gaelic.


(Harry POV)

Compared to how the first half of our break, including Christmas, had gone, the second was almost nothing in comparison. We hung out, played games and spent time together, but by the time it was the day before we were to depart, I was already longing for the adventures of Hogwarts again and finally, it had hit that I needed to keep looking for anything I could about Nicholas Flamel.

Henry hadn't seemed to forget though, as when I went into Uncle Zanders office, to see if I could find anything in the many books he had on his bookshelf in there, I saw my cousin, sitting in my uncles Chair as he read through a book about historical wizards also well known in the muggle world.

"Any luck?" He shook his head with a groan as he closed the book and after a moment of watching him look pathetic, I said. "You know, perhaps we can ask Uncle Sirius, Remus and Aunt Xayla. One of them is bound to know something."

"Won't they be suspicious?"

"No, I doubt Uncle Zander could tell them what the school's hiding, so I don't think they'd know any better than we do. Look, we're not finding anything on our own, so it never hurts to ask and if it's discovered what we're trying to do then, we can just tell the truth."

He seemed to think really hard on that decision, but after a moment, he stood with a nod. "Alright, I'll ask Aunt Xayla and you ask Uncle Sirius. Whoever is finished first will ask Uncle Remus."

It ended up being that I would ask both Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus about Nicholas Flamel, as when I approached them, they were sitting by each other, with Toby, the twins and Amber, playing monopoly. "Hey, can I talk to you guys." I looked at my uncles and after exchanging a glance between each other, they nodded and stood.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah." I led them into my Uncle Zanders office and sitting down, I asked. "Have either of you ever heard of a guy named Nicholas Flamel?"

"I have." Remus said and I looked at him, "why?"

"What's he famous for?"

"He's famous for many things, but he's the one who invented the philosopher's stone."

"Hm." I tried to think if I'd ever heard of it and when I hadn't, I asked what the stone did. "It's a little ruby-red stone that can be used to create the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal, as well as transform any metal into pure gold."

My heart sank and I stared hard— nearly slack jawed at my uncle, before finally, after a long pause, saying. "That's why Snape wants it."

"What about Snape, how do you know him?" Uncle Sirius suddenly sounded angry and after a moment of wondering whether or not I was in trouble, I decided to tell the truth, Henry and I had agreed to do. "Henry and I found out that what the Gringotts thief was trying to steal was hidden at Hogwarts, and at Halloween, there was a troll in the dungeons and then there was Fluffy and…" I paused as my Uncles looked at me in utter confusion, then taking the time to clear my thoughts, I began again and told them everything that's happened this year, even about my broom being jinxed while playing Quidditch.

As my story came to a close, Uncle Sirius looked like he was going to spit steam. "Padfoot, from what a lot of what he's saying, it sounds like a lot of coincidences have occurred. We can't just go storming down the doors of Hogwarts and yelling about these things."

Uncle Remus then looked at me, "Harry, thank you for telling us about all of this. We'll do our best to see what we can find out about everything, okay?" I nodded and looked down, feeling as if I were in trouble. I hadn't meant to upset Uncle Sirius, but I had and would that cause trouble for me at school with Professor Snape? What if Uncle Remus was right and I was wrong?

I was attempting still to shift through my spinning thoughts, when Uncle Sirius suddenly looked at me, not seeming to be as angry, though I know that he probably felt bad because I'd looked like I'd done something bad.

"How do you like the cloak?"

"The what?"

"Did you not open the parcel I gave you before you left for school?" Suddenly, it hit me that I had indeed not opened the parcel and when I shook my head, my Uncle looked absolutely shocked. "Come on." He suddenly said, reaching over to pull me from the office. "You've got to open it right now."

"Uh… um… okay?"

I followed him up the stairs now, wondering as I did about the parcel that lay forgotten at the bottom of my trunk. Why had Sirius given it to me in a parcel? Had he not wanted Aunt Rose or Uncle Zander to see him giving it to me? He'd said it was a cloak though, so what was so special about it?

"Get it out." I hurried to my trunk as Uncle Remus entered the room after me, and closed the door behind him.

When I found the parcel at the bottom of my trunk, I pulled it out and sat on the bed with it as my uncles encouraged me to open it. Nervously, I did and as the paper came off, a fluid-like silky, silvery material fell from the packaging and over my legs, it was beautiful, like nothing I'd ever seen before and was very reminiscent to me of the way a strong Patronus might look. I was just going to ask if it was supposed to help me ward off dementors, when suddenly, I looked down and saw that my legs… were gone?

I placed my hands over where my legs were supposed to be and feeling that they were there, a sudden sense of giddy joy came through me and standing up fast, I grabbed the cloak and threw it over myself.

"It's got it! that old cloak's still got it!" Sirius cheered and not sure if I believed him, I looked down at my body and when I couldn't see it, I went and pulled out the mirror my uncle had also given me. When I couldn't see myself in the reflective glass, I put the mirror back, then ran over and surprised my uncle with a bear hug.

"Thank you! This is the best gift ever!" He laughed as he pulled my hood down to look at me.

"Now, don't tell your aunt and uncle that I've given this to you. Your uncle Zander doesn't want you getting into mischief, especially since you have the map. He's worried that with those items, Dumbledore will find out who you are immediately, so Harry… you really have to be careful when you use that cloak, okay?"

"How would the fact that I have it, give me away?"

"It was your fathers cloak, Harry."

"Just like the map?"

"Well, the map was all of ours." Remus said, "but the cloak has been in your family for generations and Dumbledore had it for a while before Sirius stole it back."

"Elf magic." I remembered and Sirius nodded with a smile.

I looked at the cloak now as I removed it, running the liquid-like material through my hands. It reminded me of Gallium, the way it couldn't seem to decide whether it was a liquid or a solid and the way it just seemed to run through my hands as I touched it. I was in awe of its beauty and wanted to have it with me, always, but something was telling me that if I kept it with me at school, I would be caught.

"I don't want to be found out." It was the first time I'd really said it aloud and as I did so, I took off the cloak, folded it and set it on the bed as I sat between my uncles, grabbed a pillow and hugged it.

"Why's that?" Uncle Remus asked and I said the first things that came to mind.

"I don't want everyone staring at me and expecting me to save the world for them. I wanna just be a normal kid, like Henry and Amber. I like playing Quidditch and having friends and going on trips with my family. I don't mind being Harry Potter and in fact, I would love it if everyone called me that, but my name is famous because of something I most likely didn't even really do."

Uncle Sirius ran a hand through my hair as I looked down. Going on adventures was fun and I wished for many more of them, but I shouldn't have to fear every day that the world was going to find out who I was. It wasn't fair.

"Well," Uncle Remus said, "What do you want to do, Harry?"

"I wanna take the cloak to school." I finally said. "I wanna have fun and take the chance of getting caught and if I'm caught, then I will have to deal with that when the time comes but for now, I wanna be a normal kid, so that's what I'm going to do."

"You go, man!" Sirius cheered and I smiled up at him.

"Thanks Uncle Sirius, for getting me the cloak."

"Anytime, Harry. It was rightfully your dads, anyway."

I grinned now, ready to have so many adventures.

(Zander POV)

It was when the kids were all in bed, that Sirius had us all gather together in the dining room to talk about what Harry had come to him about earlier today. I sat there and listened, astonished at all that the boys had so easily figured out what Dumbledore was hiding there. As teachers at the school, we'd all taken an oath of honesty to never intentionally disclose any information to the students and for two of them to still figure things out so quickly, disturbed me beyond words.

Sirius however, was stuck on the bit of information, where Harry claimed that Snape had tried to kill him. "That right slimeball—" he let out a string of curses that made Xayla reach for him.

"Sir, calm down."

"I will not!" He said and then looked at me. "How come you didn't tell me that Snape was at Hogwarts?!"

"I didn't know you had such distaste for him." I admitted. "Rose informed me that he and Lily were good friends at one point, but I assumed any upset with him was trivial in nature. An old childhood rivalry."

"It was a bit more than that." Remus said, then as an afterthought, he added, "I don't get why he would have any reason to try and attack 'James Darken', though. From what you've said, Zander, Snape has his suspicions, but nothing is confirmed for them. In any case, even if he was suspicious, wouldn't he be suspicious of both Harry and Henry, not knowing which is which and wouldn't Dumbledore have known by now.

"Snape wouldn't tell Dumbledore if he was working with Voldemort." I looked at Sirius, a bit perturbed by his seeming reluctance to let the topic of Severus Snape go.

"I don't think Severus would try and kill a student." This was Rose's first comment on the matter and curious, I invited her to say more. "I didn't know Severus as well as Lily, but I'd met him when he was young and from what Lily wrote to me about him, I think he can be a bully and is very much misguided, but I don't think he'd murder anyone, especially not someone he's got suspicions of for being the son of Lily Evans."

"How can you be sure?"

Rose looked at Sirius and said the last thing I expected. "He wrote to me in his sixth year, not long before I 'died'."

"How come I didn't know this?"

I looked at her and she shrugged. "He wanted advice. It was a very personal letter and I didn't want to share his business with everyone. It was between him and I and it was about Lily." I nodded, understanding what she meant.

"Sirius." Rose now looked at him. "There's got to be something we're missing, if I know anything about Severus Snape, it's that he loved my little sister so much, he was borderline obsessed with her and so, I don't think he's trying to kill Harry."

"We're definitely missing something." Remus agreed and I nodded.

It took Sirius a moment before he nodded, then looked at Xayla, "Didn't you like Snape when we were at school?" She laughed and waved her hand.

"We weren't even friends or anything. I saw you guys bullying him once and thought we had so much in common."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't go after him." Sirius wrapped his arm tightly around his fiancé, who leaned her head on him in return.

"Me either— I think I'm happier this way."

"Anyway." I now looked at Remus, then each of the others in turn. "The information we have, we know we're missing something vital. The question then becomes, do we tell any of this to Dumbledore."

"No." Rose said, "We tell him anything, he will know. He is a very smart man, so we must pay close attention to what we say to and do around him." I nodded in agreement, as Xayla added.

"Zander, you need to keep an eye on the boys though, make sure they stay out of trouble, but more importantly, keep an eye on Severus. We may be wrong or right about him, but it never hurts to watch him."

"What about Harry almost getting thrown off his broom?" Sirius asked.

"We will investigate that, but for now, let's just make sure that Zander is always at his games and watching, and even you can go now." Xayla gave Sirius a beaming smile and leaning over, he kissed her.

"Actually, having Sirius visit from time to time might be really good for Harry." I agreed and everyone nodded. "The story I've given Dumbledore is that Xayla and Sirius started seeing each other in Hogwarts but things broke off during the war because Xayla was worried about Sirius dying and didn't want him to fight anyway. When James and Lily died though, she found and took him in and I discovered this not long after, but finding him innocent, we hid him, so it wouldn't be surprising that he's close with Henry and 'James'." Everyone nodded once more and I looked around.

"Alright guys, I'm glad we got this information." Remus said as he stood.

"Let's be glad we raised responsible boys that know that it's okay to come to trusted adults." Rose stood as well and I followed suit.

"I love those boys." With everyone's agreement to that, it was time to do as the boys had and go to bed before it got to be too late.