A/N: Hey guys! i hope you're doing well today! So, I'm curious. When this first book is over, should i post the next one as another story? My default is yes that i will, but what do you guys think? please let me know!

Fun Fact: I did not give Henry his name because it sounds like Harry, but because it isa common muggle name— now theres an easter egg for you.


(Henry POV)

The morning we were to go back to school, Dad pulled Harry and I aside, with Uncle Sirius and Remus and explained that after discussing what Harry had told them, that they were going to make sure that we were alright and that dad would keep an eye on Snape.

Harry had told me about him telling Uncle Sirius everything, so I wasn't surprised that we were pulled aside, but honestly, I felt relieved. Harry and I had spent so much anxiety filled time worrying and trying to figure everything out on our own, it was like we'd nearly forgotten that we had a family at all that we could rely on. It was nice to know that relying on our family wasn't only an option, but had ultimately been the right decision.

With our agreement that we wouldn't go accusing Professor Snape of anything and that we would keep Dad in the loop of any new developments that we discovered, we were taken back to the others.

Goodbyes were always hard for Mum, it seemed, as while we hugged her, she began to cry again and Harry hugged her especially tight with promises to write. We hugged Uncle Sirius and Aunt Xayla and congratulated them on both their engagement and their pregnancy. It was exciting to know that just before our second year, there would be a little baby here to play and be with.

"Better be a boy." I said, "Poor Sam's gonna need some man energy while we're all gone." I ruffled my little brother's hair and he gently shoved at me, though he quietly smiled.

"I've got Uncle Sirius and Remus." He said, and I nodded.

"That's true, but Uncle Sirius and Remus are grown ups."

"I'm more manly than you'll ever be." Jade stuck out her tongue and the adults in the room cackled.

"Alright, well, it's nearly time we leave." Dad said as Toby hugged Relena and Remus, and they spoke quietly.

I hugged Uncle Remus after Toby and Harry and after saying Goodbye to my siblings and cousins, I went to my dad, where we waved at everyone, then headed back to school.

School had only been back in session for a whopping one week, when Harry and I decided that we wanted to take the cloak and map out and go on an adventure around the school. We'd promised our family that we wouldn't go snooping for evidence against Snape anymore, but we still wanted to use the items Harry had been given to have some good ole' fun. After all, that's what The Marauders had done, so Harry and I were set on our adventure and Friday night was when we were going to make it happen.

It would be after everyone was fast asleep and we waited a long time for that, as Draco was kept up rather late, retelling a story he'd told us earlier this week about something or other he'd gotten on Christmas. When he was done though and fast asleep, Harry and I took out some quiet slippers we'd gotten from a shop in Diagon Ally and putting them on, we made our way to the common room, then out of Slytherin house, Harry throwing the cloak over us and pulling out the map as he did.

"Okay, let's go this way." Harry said quietly, after activating the map. Looking at it with him, I could see that we were pretty far off from any teachers. "I wanna explore the main castle for now, and we can explore the dungeons later since not many people patrol down here anyway."

We walked through the labyrinth that was the dungeons, then making our way up the stairs, we emerged up near the Great Hall.

Then we began our explorations.

At first we used the map, scanning new areas and making our way to them, but soon that began to become more tedious than fun, so at one point, while in an entirely unknown part of the castle, I convinced Harry to put away the map and afterwards, we just made our way around, completely blind

It was far more fun this way and we learned and found things we never expected to find, even a suit of armor, which closely resembled the one near the kitchens, though we knew we must be many floors above there by now.

Harry was examining the armor and pulling out the map to check where we were, when I saw a glint of something inside the room and stopped. "H— James, look." Sometimes, I had to remember, that even if I called him Harry in private, we were in open school halls and wondering ears might be listening.

Looking over to where I was pointing, my cousin followed me into the room, his nose to the map as he did. At first glance, the room looked to just be an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs piled against the walls filled the space. Looking further, I even noticed there was an upturned wastepaper basket near the door.

However, all this wasn't what had caught my eye earlier, the gleam I'd seen turned out to be something much more. Propped against the wall facing us now was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just brought it up here to keep it out of the way.

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. I moved out from under the cloak to go look at the mirror more closely and when I stood directly in front of it, my heart nearly fell from my chest.

I was there as I am here, but the mirror didn't reflect the unused classroom around, but it showed the world. It reflected the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon and so many other things that it made my head spin, so to keep from getting disoriented, I turned away quickly and looked at my cousin. "James, you gotta see this mirror." He looked at me and nodding, he handed me the map, as he moved forward under the cloak.

"Keep an eye on Dumbledore's dot, it's moving toward us…" I looked down at the map to see that the Headmaster was indeed a couple of floors below us when Harry trailed off. Looking back up at him, I watched intently as he reached a hand out from under the cloak and touched the mirror.

"What do you see?"

"I'm in class, and going through life as I normally do, but I don't look like you… I look like me." He looked at me as I moved toward him now and got under the cloak, still glancing at the map as I did.

"Hm." Handing him the map, I looked back up at the inscription, which made no sense to me, until I used my wand to write the letters in a little light font on the ground, and after a moment, I let out a breath. "I show not your face but your hearts desire." Harry looked at me, but suddenly, before saying anything, he straightened.

"We need to go." Nodding, I erased the letters and we hurried out of the room, going the opposite way of Dumbledore to get back to our common room.

We reached the common room fairly quickly and hurrying inside, we sat down in chairs and began to discuss what we'd seen in the mirror and what that meant, based on the message I'd interpreted from the inscription on the mirror.

"Our hearts desires." Harry mused, "I guess that means…"

He looked a little embarrassed to finish the thought, so I didn't make him. I knew he wished more than anything else that he could be himself without anyone else caring. That was simply who he was as a person, but unluckily for him, being himself without being recognized just wasn't possible for him and so I knew it hurt a lot more than he let on.

"I'd like to explore the world, I suppose." I said to my cousin in trying to put the topic of conversation onto myself instead.

"That does sound fun." He agreed and for the next hour, that's what we discussed. The world and places we'd love to go see someday. By the time we were tired, it was almost one in the morning and so with that, we dragged ourselves into bed.

Exploring the world would have to wait, but for now, we had this huge school, with it labyrinths of corridors and secret passageways, it would probably take us our entire seven years to explore it all and then, there'd be the grounds to explore! Tonight had been a good place to start though. We'd figured out a few of the more tricky hallways, found a secret room with a hidden artifact and even got away, without getting caught.

Our very first adventure as Junior Marauders..? Was a success!