Archive of Our Own

Remus took a deep, shaky breath, and stalling a bit said, "there's not too much of this left. Your first year should be almost over."

"I sure hope so," Lily muttered, "I can't take too many more heart attacks."

Harry just smiled at them, but warned, "I can tell you now, you're probably not going to like this chapter. I can't remember what all Quirrell says, but I know it made me angry."

"Great," Sirius rolled his eyes, "something else to look forward to."

"He's not stuttering," James asked in surprise.

Harry shook his head sadly, feeling like he should pop himself in the head and saying, "No, he was faking it, I should have remembered that."

All three boys couldn't help but snort at the description Quirrell gave Snape, how many times had they called him a bat as well?

Lily muttered something incomprehensible, she felt like an idiot for not noticing Hermione had knocked into Quirrell as well in her made rush through the stands to save Harry when the book had mentioned it.

Quirrell going on to explain Hermione's attempts to stop Snape saving Harry would be wasted.

"Bless my soul," James breathed, looking like someone had just punched him in the gut.

"You've got to be joking," Sirius demanded.

Remus was just sitting there, staring blankly down at the page.

Then Lily suddenly let out a whoop of joy, saying smugly, "You see, I told you he..." then she trailed off, looking suddenly confused as the others.

"If Snape was trying to save you, if he didn't hate you like we thought he hated James, then what was all that crap all year?" Sirius demanded.

"Oh he hates me," Harry disagreed, "but not enough to want me dead."

"That, actually made me feel better," James said, blinking spastically in surprise.

"I can hardly believe it," Remus agreed.

Sirius snorted, but even he couldn't think of anything to say just then. Severus Snape had actually tried to save Harry Potter's life? What was this world coming to?

Lily looked like she was about to start crying all over again, but they were tears of joy this time.

Shaking off the last visages of shock he had, Remus now read on quickly.

They had all listened to the revelation fully from Quirrell in stunned silence, but at this last statement about killing their Harry made any happy feelings tossed out of the room, to be replaced by protective anger.

"You throw one curse at him, and no cell in Azkaban will stop me killing you," Sirius vowed.

"That's being kind," James snorted, a manic look gleaming in his eyes, "I can think of much worse things to do to him rather than killing."

"Sign me up for that," Remus and Lily agreed.

"Dammit," Lily snarled, "he's actually competent?"

"That's beyond a normal magical level," Remus said, voice edging into panic. "Wandless magic like that, the only wizard I can think of with that kind of ability is Dumbledore."

"Or Dumbledore's opposite," James breathed.

Sirius whipped his head around and looked at James like he'd grown a second head. "What do you mean by that? Harry would have noticed if Voldemort was there."

Harry groaned suddenly, pressing a fist to his temple, but quickly shook it off, sitting back up and saying, "I think he is there, but I can't remember, he's hiding or someone," he trailed off again, losing color by the second.

"That's enough Harry," James said at once, then he turned to Remus and said, "keep reading, it should explain soon."

"Gift with trolls eh? Is it because you act like them," James grumbled.

"We're all so sorry for your loss," Remus hissed. Normally he'd be laughing in agreement, or in this case disappointment, Snape hadn't gotten a leg ripped off. Who would have thought he'd be hoping that same man showed up!

"Mirror?" They all asked in surprise.

Remus didn't bother to think on it, but kept going.

"Dumbledore put something up to," James repeated from, looking confused. "Is this what Hagrid meant?"

"I don't get it," Sirius said, "the mirror shows your deepest desire. So anyone whose deepest desire was the Stone could look into it, and what, find out where it's really hidden?"

Remus snorted, saying, "I hope so. That means that it's actually hidden somewhere else, and then Quirrell will have to go off and find it there."

"All that set up, and it was never even down there," Lily rolled her eyes, still a little irked at the whole situation.

"I'd rather you do the opposite," Lily huffed, "let him find the Stone and walk away. He might forget you're there."

"Then I'll have come all this way for nothing?" Harry said in surprise.

"We'd rather you didn't come all that way at all," Remus sighed.

"But boy are we impressed you did," James added on at Harry's rather hurt look.

"Which reminds me," Sirius said, "what did Snape mean by Hocus Pocus? Quirrell's wasn't an antidefense spell."

"I've no idea," Harry said honestly, feeling that no one had ever explained that one to him.

"I'll give him that," Remus sighed, "even Snape isn't as scary as Voldemort."

"I'm just impressed this nit called him Voldemort," Sirius said in mild shock. "Normally his followers call him the Dark Lord, that was pretty bold of him."

"Maybe he's just preening cause he thinks he's about to win," James shrugged, still not really interested in whatever this loon had to say so long as he stayed away from his son.

"Well that's as tricky as it gets," James laughed. "His deepest desire is to give it to Voldemort. So long as that's true, he'll never find its real hiding place."

"Ingenious when you think about it," Sirius agreed, "because your deepest desire would be what you actually do with the Stone. Not the actual Stone, therefore its location."

"Only Dumbledore," Remus said in happy exasperation.

"I'll take that," James said with a weak smile. After all, Snape not wanting his kid dead was far more helpful right now than what Quirrell wanted.

"No way!" All four of adults said at once.

"It's not possible," Remus added on, "Dumbledore was still at the school at the time, Voldemort could never get in."

Lily and James shivered in disgust at the very idea Harry was that close to such a lunatic.

Sirius groaned, saying, "do we really have to hear the ravings of Death Eater lunatics? I got more than enough of that at my parent's place."

"Sorry Sirius," Remus said, and he sounded like he really meant it. "I'm not skipping."

"Hope it hurt," James muttered, any kind of pain he more than deserved for what he had tried to do to his son.

"Yes, but I would have never thought anything of it," Lily sighed, "teachers come and go from Diagon Alley as much as anyone else."

"Though I do hope he explains how he broke into Gringotts," Remus scowled, "as that is supposed to be impossible."

"Don't hold your breath," Sirius muttered, "probably some Dark Magic, or maybe a bribe to one of the Goblins told him it had been removed or something."

"I feel like breaking the mirror wouldn't actually work," James said, a small smile gracing his features.

"But please, do try," Remus said happily, "that way the Stone will be lost forever."

"At the moment?" Lily asked, "I don't think you get to pick your deepest desire. It's simply what it is."

"Maybe," Remus said slowly, "well, it is called the Mirror of Desire. Perhaps you can, in a sense, simply see what you desire at will. Dumbledore was the one that said it had to be your deepest."

"Dumbledore," James said the name like he'd never heard such a thing in his life.

"Alright James?" Sirius asked.

"Dumbledore showed Harry how to use the mirror," he said, running his hand through his hair in agitation, "and the last thing he said, next time you see it you'll know how to use it." He shook his head, he didn't believe in coincidences. Not one bit. "It's almost like he knew Harry-" but then he cut himself off, looking about the room like he expected someone to tell him he was being daft.

Instead, they were looking at him like he had just made absolute sense, and they looked furious.

"Are you telling me," Lily said slowly, "that Dumbledore intended for Harry to do this?" She had been thinking this same thing a little earlier, but had hardly been able to fully form the thought, it was just too horrible to consider!

"Not possible," Remus said, though his tone wasn't very believable. After all, if the Headmaster could be fooled by an idiot like Quirrell, what else could he be up to?

"But there's too much of a coincidence," Lily said, beginning to name the tasks out loud. "Hagrid giving Harry a musical instrument for Christmas, Dumbledore surely knew Harry and Hagrid were friends, could he have suggested a gift like that? The flying key room, testing his skills as a Seeker? The chess room, where one of his good friends could test his skills? I'll give you the rest are questionable, but the others just line up to well. To be perfectly honest considering the magic those teachers are capable of, I'd almost say it was easy!"

Sirius was looking about the room like he expected someone to say 'got ya' any second. When no one did he finally said, "I'll agree with you Lily," she turned to face him, because his tone didn't really match what he said, which made sense when he continued on, "but I think you're still a little sore at him for leaving him at the Dursley's. I am too, don't get me wrong on that, but come on. The man's had nothing to do with Harry's life since he dropped him off there. What possible reason could he have for 'testing' him and his friends?"

Remus sighed, rubbing his temple, before glancing over at Harry and asking, "Got any input?"

Harry shrugged, saying blankly, "I, yeah I feel like Mum might be right, but I kind of agree with Sirius, I don't know."

The momentary shock and thrill at Harry actually referring to her as his mother, out loud like that, actually did distract her enough that she really did decide she could let this matter go for now.

Remus nodded, and by now he had come to the conclusion Harry's first instinct was usually right. Still, with nothing to do in the meantime while they all pondered this, he kept reading.

"Great, the nutter talks to himself now," Sirius said absently, all of them who weren't reading were still only half listening, still stuck on the oddity that was their old headmaster.

"What?" James yelped, coming out of it first.

"Remus, read that again," Lily said, eyes almost falling out of her head she was so wide eyed.

Remus complied, and they all sat there like stunned fish for a moment.

"How could that have happened?" Harry asked, rather concerned by this reaction.

"I've no idea," James said.

"And that's why it's so bad," Sirius agreed.

"And if none of us knows how to do that," Remus muttered, "then this clearly isn't anything good."

"My question," Lily said, ignoring how high pitched her voice is, "was who said that?"

Remus glanced back down at the page with ice cold fear, forcing himself to read.

"Did your reflection smile before when you saw us?" James asked, not really curious to know the answer, just trying to keep himself in the here and now so he didn't freak out that Harry was now in such immediate danger.

"No," Harry answered honestly, though honestly he hadn't exactly been watching his own face.

"You're joking," Sirius groaned, "please tell me that was a really awful joke in which Harry now has the thing that lunatic wants, in his pocket."

Remus didn't even glance up at him, but shook his head swiftly from side to side as an answer before blasting on.

"But how," Lily couldn't help but blurt out.

"Really, scary, over the top magic," James grumbled, only having a few vague ideas himself.

Sirius couldn't help it, he snorted in amusement, saying, "Come on, you could lie better than that."

"I was under a lot of pressure," he defended, mentally adding he had no desire to share what his real deepest desire was with that man.

"Yes, please dare to make a run for it," Remus said fervently.

"Dammit," Sirius groaned. This Dark Magic, whatever it was doing this, just kept getting worse and worse.

"How, what-" Lily spluttered.

"I don't know, and I won't if you keep asking me that," Remus snapped at her.

At Lily's hurt look, he said, "Sorry, we're all a bit on edge."

Lily nodded, accepting the apology.

"Don't want that. Absolutely the last thing I will ever want," James was muttering.

All four of them couldn't get the idea out of their head, Harry was in the same room as Voldemort! It was impossible, but...

Harry knew, instinctively somehow, he did not like what Remus was about to say next, if the reaction to feeling like screaming meant anything.

"A face?" James said faintly.

"Out of the back of..." Lily whispered.

"I'm going to be sick." Sirius groaned, and the green coloring made it seem like he wasn't kidding about that.

"He, what, merged bodies with..." Remus tried to say, trailing off in confusion or horror they didn't know.

"That's not, he's not even-" Lily stuttered.

"Explains the magic beyond Quirrell's level," Sirius muttered bitterly. He felt itchy all over, like he needed a hot bath just from hearing about this.

"It gets weirder as you go on," Harry said, rubbing his temple again in agitation. His scar wasn't hurting him now, but he seemed to know that it was about to start hurting soon.

Remus wouldn't have believed that, until his twenty year old cub fell into the kitchen yesterday. While the baby he knew and loved sat in Sirius' lap.

"There's a nightmare I'll never forget," James said in disgust, he really wanted to go wash himself in pure soap.

"I might be fascinated if that wasn't the most twisted, darkest thing I've ever heard in my life," Remus said in disgust.

"Great," Lily snapped scornfully, "so our plan should be that no one ever wears something that covers up their head, ever again."

"I am going to be sick," Sirius vowed. It had been Quirrell himself drinking unicorn blood?! Even having an answer somehow made that whole thing worse!

The second Voldemort stated he knew Harry had the Stone, "Run," they all whispered, that thought the only thing any of them could really focus on anymore.

"LIAR!" Remus and Sirius snarled, angrier than they had been yet. How dare anyone imply James would beg for anything!

Harry could feel blood pounding in his ears, this was the part he had been remembering, he hated listening to someone say anything about his parents, but he also feared that the pain would be coming soon.

When Harry shouted this was a lite to Voldemorts face, his parents beamed at him, pleased to know that if Harry knew anything about them, it was this one truth.

"I might laugh if that wasn't the most disturbing sentence I've ever heard in my life," James said faintly. A man turning on the spot backwards so the thing in the back of his head could keep an eye on Harry was definitely one of the stranger, and still most terrifying moments, of his life.

Remus' voice almost stuttered out, he really didn't want to be the one to read this. To know details of how Voldemort had torn away a part of his family, starting with James...

Then James surprised them all by puffing out his chest and saying, "I'm not surprised one bit. He'd have to kill me to get to you two."

Lily's lower lip was quivering, while she didn't appreciate that statement one bit, she wasn't about to argue it either.

"Do you want me to read?" Harry offered, when it seemed Remus might pass out.

"No," he said, bolstering his courage. If James and Lily could hear this without crying over it, he could certainly read it.

"Of course I did," she hissed, her wand appearing in her hand, looking ready to curse the world any second now to protect her family.

"And we don't blame you one bit," Lily whispered to Harry.

Harry smiled around at his parents, never having been more proud to be their son then in this moment.

"Hoping that bastards done now," Sirius muttered in disgust, hearing that had been almost as bad as hearing they were dead the first time.

"The potion would have worn off," Lily yelped in concern. It would be dangerous for him to just go back through that fire.

"Would you rather he stayed in there with them? Him? How would you even..." Sirius began hotly, but faded off into mutters at the end.

Harry couldn't help but burst out laughing at him, which calmed them all down.

Since Harry was alive and laughing, and didn't have black burns all over his body from that fire, Remus read on with only medium anxiety.

Which immediately flew up to the highest level of anxiety it could get. Harry may be fine now, but how much had Voldemort/ Quirrell hurt him before Harry gave up the Stone?

Blinking the red vision out of his eyes, Remus quickly read.

"He's dead." Sirius spat, looking quite deranged at hearing anyone put their hand on his godson. "I don't care where he is right now, he is dying."

"Not going to stop you," the others agreed, privately thinking they would all help.

Harry winced, putting his hand to his scar again, there was the pain he had been remembering.

"Why?" Lily yelped, pushing Harry's hand out of the way so she could look him in the face, "what spell was he doing to cause that to happen to you?"

"It wasn't a spell," Harry muttered, frustrated that he couldn't remember why this was happening, even though it felt really important.

"Keep going Remus," James said evenly, he wanted to get past this part already.

"Who'd have thought yelling and struggling would actually work," Sirius said to himself, pleased beyond measure it had.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Remus whispered.

"Why can't he touch me?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"Don't question it, run for it," James said quickly.

Remus pushed the thought aside for now so he could read on.

"Remus!" Harry yelped in shock as the book actually split down the spin as Remus ripped it.

He didn't look very sorry, looking at the remnants of the pages in his hand like they themselves were Quirrell's skull.

Lily waved her wand, and the book flew back into his grasp, completely repaired, then she snapped at him, "What did I tell you-"

"You told Sirius he couldn't ruin the book. You didn't say anything to me," he pointed out.

"Wohoo, loophole," Sirius cackled, slapping a high five with his friend.

All four adults were still breathing more rapidly than normal, the mental image of Harry being pinned to the ground and strangled one that would leave a scar on them for the rest of their life they were sure, but the distraction had done its job.

Harry was again laughing along at these antics, safe and sound right here with them. Sirius cuddled the baby closer to him, and both of Harry's parents leaned in to their son as Remus forced himself to go on.

"Hope you can't heal that," Lily said nastily.

Remus couldn't help but stutter over those lines, of Quirrell actually going for his wand, but one glance up at the black haired youth squished between his parents and he was able to finish.

"Who was screaming, you or him?" Sirius asked.

"Both of us?" Harry muttered, still rubbing his scar.

"You're rubbing that an awful lot," James frowned.

"I just remember the pain, really, really well. That's something I wouldn't like to have had back."

His parents smiled sadly down at him, but no one could really think of anything to say to that.

"Hopefully die from pain overdose," Sirius said in a chipper tone, then added on, "though that would kill my fun."

Remus' mouth twitched at that, but Sirius seemed so sincere, he decided not to ruin that comment by pointing out that this act was clearly hurting Harry as well. It wasn't hurting him now though, which gave him the strength to read.

"Oh I doubt that," James breathed.

"Help arrived, maybe Ron and Hermione," Lily offered, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Bloody hell," Sirius groaned, that wasn't a good sign, was it possible other Death Eaters had arrived?

"Jeez, if you had actually stopped there-" James began, then broke off his own sentence, not even wanting to say any of those next words.

"It's okay," Harry said into the awkward silence. "I'm alright then. Nothing else happens for the rest of this year." Except going back to the Dursley's he privately added.

"Well I should hope not," Lily yelped, "isn't five deadly situations more than enough for all seven years at school!"

Harry gave her a sheepish expression, but didn't seem like he was going to answer.

Remus didn't give him the chance.

"Are you dreaming again?" Lily asked.

Harry shook his head no, smiling now. His scar, he remembered, didn't hurt anymore. The opposite in fact, he felt quite content and happy, if a bit drowsy.

"Strange indeed," Remus said, rubbing his jaw, more grateful than anything that whole ordeal seemed to be over.

"Who wears golden glasses?" Sirius asked redundantly since he knew Remus was fixing to read.

"Oh," they all muttered in annoyance. None of them had really decided on their feelings about Dumbledore just yet, this book was certainly implying a lot of bad stuff about him.

"Right to the point then," James said, frowning slightly. He really would hate it if Quirrell had gotten the Stone after all of that hard work his son did.

When the negative of this was told, "I will admit, that's a relief," Sirius sighed.

"That she will," Remus actually chuckled, having much of a relationship with the Hospital Matron, amazed he could feel alright again after that awful last scene.

"How come you guys never gave me that much candy when I was in there?" Remus demanded, unable to hide his smile.

James snorted, saying, "Please, if we gave you candy every time you wound up there, we'd put every candy shop in the country out of business."

"You're only encouraging him," Lily reminded, "since buying that much would in fact be good for their business."

"Fine, then all of our teeth would simultaneously rot out," Sirius grinned.

"Never stopped you trying before," Remus smirked, but then he finally admitted he had let the joke drag on too long so quickly kept reading before anyone else could throw something out.

"Sounds about right," Sirius laughed.

"Really though," Lily asked, "what did the school know about that?"

Harry shrugged, answering, "I honestly have no idea. I never wanted to ask anyone."

They couldn't help it, all five of them cracked up laughing at that. It seemed a lifetime ago they were reading about Mrs. Weasley scolding her boys on the platform about a toilet seat.

"Killjoy," James sighed, though like Remus, entirely used to Madam Pomfrey's ways.

"Three days," Lily moaned.

"If it makes you feel any better," Harry said, "that's the longest I'll ever be in the hospital wing." Then he frowned and rubbed his temple, annoyed at this random habit of his gut speaking, and his brain paying for it.

Lily looked like she dearly wanted to ask why Harry had wound up in there any other time, but felt it wasn't worth it right this moment.

"One track mind eh?" Remus chuckled, honestly curious what had happened to it as well. His cub sure went through an awful lot of trouble to keep it safe, he did deserve to know.

"Okay, I'm not mad at Dumbledore any more," James sighed, he clearly had come at a time when Harry needed him, which was the most important thing to him.

"Remembered why Dumbledore was supposed to be gone so long yet?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded brightly and said, "Oh yeah, it's because he said he flew. When he got to the ministry though, he apperated back. I don't know how he flew, he didn't say," he trailed off with a shrug, having remembered asking him this shortly before he headed to the boats at the end of the year.

"Might have used a Thestral, like Hagrid at the beginning of the year," Lily speculated.

"We never even proved that's how Hagrid did it," Remus pointed out.

"Why would he fly anyways?" Sirius demanded, "Hagrid I can understand, but Dumbledore has every means at his disposal-"*

"Sirius," James broke him off, "let it go. We're not going to find that out."

Sirius huffed, but did indeed let the matter drop.

Remus shuddered in disgust. How many times was he going to have to read Quirrell had almost taken this child away like he had his parents?

"I guessed as much, from the way Harry was passing out," James murmured to himself, the only reason he had been able to hold himself together was because of his living son at his side now.

"Then yeah, I guess I forgive him to," the other three agreed.

"Destroyed?" Sirius said blankly, "after all that, he went and blew it up."

James snorted, asking, "Why do you assume the only way to destroy something is to blow it up?"

"That's just what came out okay, I didn't mean it literally," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"The thing," Lily said at once, eyes narrowing dangerously. "I think I might reconsider my forgiveness."

"Now Lily," James began, but then she looked at him, and James quickly redirected, "keep going Remus."

"To be honest, I don't think I'd want to live that long anyways," Sirius said, "be bloody depressing outliving everyone you know by a couple hundred years."

"Nutter, I swear," James snorted. He'd had plenty of instances being in Order meetings to hear of such explanations from Dumbledore, but they never got old.

"Glad Dumbledore taught you that," James said proudly. It would drive him nuts to sensor himself not calling Voldemort by his name because Harry still feared it.

"I'm not even going to ask if he said 'yes, of course,'" Lily sighed, pressing her face into her hands in preparation for this answer.

"Well, then Lily's thing about having to show your full head should at least be applied to all future teachers," James muttered, still forcing down a shiver of disgust.

"Quirrell deserves it," Remus said without any remorse. None of them disagreed.

"You would think his followers would realize this," Sirius pointed out.

"Nah, they're too dumb to work for themselves, they need someone telling them what to do," James snickered.

"Let that be as true as it ever gets," Lily vowed, personally thinking about starting up a new Department just for this job alone if it kept Voldemort out of their lives for good.

"Again," Sirius snorted, thinking back to the mirror and how they were sure he'd technically lied about that answer even if they didn't blame him.

"Which I would do every single time forever," Lily growled, a glint of something in her eyes none of the boys had seen before this day.

"Yes," James said eagerly, he had been wanting to know this since the first chapter! Why had Voldemort done this to his family?

"Why the bloody hell not," Sirius groaned.

"Cause I was too young," Harry said sadly.

"Was?" James asked, eyeing him hopefully, "are you saying he does tell you then?"

"I," he hesitated for a moment, then accepting the pain that was coming he spoke with his gut, "yeah, I think he does." The pain flowed through him, and he brushed it off as soon as he could, allowing Remus to go on.

"I'm pretty sure we all hate to hear that right now," Lily muttered.

"Yeah," James sighed, "I hope he bleeding answers that question. Quirrell not being able to touch you certainly helped, but was still odd."

The longer Remus kept reading, the more curious his tone became. This was something he'd never heard of, and he still loved learning new things.

Lily hadn't realized she was crying until she blinked, a tear traced her cheek down her face. Then she saw that Harry was smiling at her, and she whispered, happier then she could ever remember being, "so I saved you?"

Harry nodded, unable to speak himself.

The three boys exchanged happy smiles, all thinking that if they had to die, at least they had left Harry with this small precious gift. Their love and protection over him, even if they couldn't be there in person to deliver it. Each of them had questions of how this had really worked, as surely Lily wasn't the first mother to die for her child, but they decided to wait until much later to question the actual act of that magic.

"Just out of curiosity, though I'd really like to know the answer myself, why on earth would you think he'd know who gave you the invisibility cloak?" Remus asked. "It's not like you knew then what you know now."

"He's the headmaster of the school," Harry tried to explain, "I thought he would know everything that goes on there, I don't know, I didn't even have anyone else to ask really."

"Fair enough," he agreed, albeit sadly.

"I did what?" James balked.

"So we were right," Sirius said slowly, "sometime in the next year, the Order must find out about it, and everyone starts using it. Or Dumbledore could mean him specifically, in which case," he trailed off.

"Why would he need it?" Lily asked what they were all thinking, "he's already said that he can be invisible without it?"

"Well maybe he couldn't," Remus offered, "there could be a million reasons why he couldn't have turned himself invisible, and he needed an untraceable way."

"Well, remind me never to offer it up anyways," James sniffed, privately thinking that he didn't care what the bloody Order needed it for, his family was going to need it more all too soon.

"Can't deny that," Sirius chuckled. They had used the cloak for more than sneaking into the kitchens of course, but Dumbledore didn't know about that bit.

"Ah no," Remus interrupted himself, "if Harry actually ever calls him Professor Snape, and means it mind you, I'll eat a quaffle."

All of the boys laughed, while Lily simply rolled her eyes indulgently.

"Best answer you could have given," Sirius snickered.

"Yes, and no," Lily said sadly in regards to Snape hating James, "but since you already know that complicated answer," she trailed off, eyeing Remus expectantly, who took the hint.

"What?" Harry yelped.

Remus couldn't help but burst out laughing, and without looking up read.

Harry ignored this, still eyeing his father.

The three boys exchanged rather uneasy looks, that was a rather nasty tail for all parties involved, so James said slowly, "well, you see, ah-"

Then Sirius cut in quickly, "Let's start with, it was my fault, end with the bugger didn't actually die, and we can fill in the middle bit later, yeah?"

Harry nodded grudgingly, very curious to hear this.

"Maybe Dumbledore will tell you now," Lily offered, though none of them really expected him to give Harry the full story.

"Well," James said, looking like he'd just swallowed a lemon he spat out, "okay fine. Yeah, call us even. But anything he does to you over the next six years is fair game for me to hate him again."

Lily snorted, but none of them could disagree.

"And I'm sure he did go back to detesting James' memory at once," Sirius said in a false happy voice.

"That was a bombshell out of nowhere," Harry explained to the kind of confused looks.

"I think we've kind of worked out how the mirror worked," Remus said.

"But I'd like to hear him explain it anyways," Sirius said in a stuffy tone, "so no cutting out."

Remus gave him the stank eye before reading.

James couldn't help but snort with mirth at Dumbledore's self-deprecation.

"Yeah," Remus nodded, "about what I worked out."

"Know it all," James snickered, while Remus stuck his tongue out at him.

"But Quirrell didn't technically want to use it," Lily pointed out with a ruffled brow. "So shouldn't that still count?"

"But Voldemort did," Sirius reminded with a renewed shudder of disgust at the thought, "and I think that's what made it count. If Quirrell had just been down there on his own, then maybe he would have gotten it on a technicality. It all depends on how liberal the mirror was with the spell, if Quirrell's intentions to give it to someone who would use it still nullified him."

"You scare me when you get all logical like that," Lily smirked back without argument.

"Blech," Sirius retched, the nausea he had been feeling had died down, but he didn't appreciate the reminder.

"Never assume what flavor a bean is by the color," James said wisely, "otherwise chocolate flavored can look like bark."

"My point," he laughed.

"You can say that again," Remus nodded in agreement.

"Another benefit of the cloak," Sirius snorted, "we never asked for permission to go in there."

"You never asked for permission to go anywhere," Lily reminded.

"She thinks resting will cure every disease in the world," Remus muttered.

"Poor kids, not being allowed to go in and see him," Lily sighed, then perked up at once saying, "Oh, Ron's okay. Poor thing, I've forgotten all about him."

"Well, since Harry didn't wake up and find him in the Hospital with him, I'm sure he wasn't too badly hurt," Sirius said brightly.

All four adults again exchanged superior looks, they had a feeling Hermione liked hugging Harry a little more than as a friend, but as Harry had shown no reaction to this, since he only had eleven year old memories it wasn't too surprising, they said nothing.

"Damn near screamed as well," Lily shuddered.

"Well when you put it like that, it sounds awful," Remus chuckled.

"A feeling I share," Sirius laughed. He'd long since known how crazy Dumbledore was.

"Entrance hall?" James said, frowning, "the owlery is up in the turrets, and they were on the third floor. What did they go down for?"

"Took a wrong secret passage," Harry answered, he had asked them this himself later. "Hermione was leading, and they were in so much of a panic, they decided not to risk taking any more. They wound up at the top of the stairs and there was the entrance hall..." he trailed off, then waved Remus on.

"I'll kill him," Lily vowed, "encouraging you to do that!"

"Lily," Remus said uneasily, but she looked like she was going red in the face as she snarled, "No Remus. Nothing you say will make this alright. Nothing Dumbledore says could make this alright. If he intended-"

"I'm not defending him," Remus said hotly back, "what I'm saying is give the bloody man a chance."

Lily paused, giving him an odd look, while he explained, "You made us promise not to kill Snape because of what we thought of him, well now I'm asking you to do the same. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard there is, and while I can fault him for a lot of things in this year," he waved the book around just to make sure they understood what he meant, "I'll not have you condemn him without all the facts. Six more books Lily, then you can go kill him if you want."

Lily deflated, but finally said, "Yes, alright, agreed."

James and Sirius were looking between the two wide eyed like a tennis match, but after a few more moments Remus continued.

Lily muttered something under her breath, but not loud enough for anyone to hear. She soon opened her mouth in protest again, but quickly snapped it shut. She came to the conclusion that if she started nagging on everything she thought Dumbledore did, rather than the man himself saying it, she was no better than the four boys around here this whole book. So she kept her mouth shut, and contented herself with mental scathing.

James groaned, saying, "this is why you have a reserve team."

"Maybe they still won with a quick replacement," Remus offered without any real hope. "Never mind," he sighed.

"Who did replace you anyways?" Sirius asked.

"Some seventh year who Charlie beat out of the team all those years ago," Harry shrugged, he'd never asked for details to angry at himself for missing the match.

"Bossy, bossy, bossy," Remus muttered. As good as her intentions were, the thing he hated the most about his condition was being cut off from his friends so much.

"Well you can't blame her since that time we released a horde of fire salamanders our last day there," James chuckled, no one would ever forget that ceremony.

"Aw," Lily smiled, "in all of this, I can't even be mad at Hagrid for his slip."

"Agreed," the boys all said.

"In consolation, he didn't know that at the time," Remus said bracingly, like Hagrid was really there to comfort him. "Otherwise I'm positive you wouldn't have said a word."

"I think they only send wizards off to live with Muggles who can't be rehabilitated in Azkaban," James said, frowning. "Hagrid's never done anything to deserve that."

"Rehabilitated?" Sirius snorted. "They bloody lose their souls in that place."

"Can we not talk about this," Lily groaned, she didn't want to think about that horrid place any more then possible, and Harry was looking a little funny at the mention of the place.

"True as well," Remus agreed. Voldemort wouldn't be much of a threat if he wasn't clever, and it was no leap at all to think he'd find some way to get past Fluffy without Hagrid.

"I've never tried that," James said thoughtfully, "you think if we just yell it loud enough people will get over it?"

Lily snorted and shook her head in disbelief, but since James clearly didn't mean it she didn't say anything.

'Wish you hadn't met him' they were all thinking.

"Chocolate Frog's cheers everyone up," Remus said, smiling eagerly.

They were all very curious to see what Hagrid had gotten Harry this time. Despite the disastrous consequences of his Christmas gift, he was still the one person through this entire story that had been keeping an eye out for Harry, that wasn't a student anyways. True he had made some disastrous mistakes, but who hadn't in their life?

"Oh," Lily murmured, looking about ready to burst into tears again.

"Thank Merlin," James breathed, "I'd hate for your only image of us to be some spooky old mirror."

Harry was smiling sadly, very much wishing he had that book now, having looked through it so many times he would have wanted to ask exactly when and why each picture had been taken.

Remus and Sirius exchanged very depressed looks, knowing that they probably hadn't been on that list of old school friends.

"You were in the book," Harry said slowly, looking at Sirius with a new light, then he smiled and said, "I knew it. I thought I had some memory of you, but it must have been your picture I'd seen. The wedding photo."

Sirius went bright eyed at that saying, "You saw me? That's awesome, here we were both getting depressed you'd never even know we existed."

Harry smiled and nodded, but the moment Remus kept reading, the less sure he felt. There was a picture of Sirius in his parent's scrapbook, but that wasn't the feeling he had of Sirius. It must be though, what else could it be?

"I just had Déjà vu' to your first day there," James wanted to laugh at Harry once again getting all of the stares in that Great Hall, but at Harry's annoyed look, he held himself back.

"I wish some students hadn't taken to heart the advice of emptying their heads," Lily said lightly.

James and Remus gave her annoyed looks, but Sirius actually laughed for a moment before he realized Lily had meant them, then he just scowled at her without any real heat.

"Maybe next year you won't go pulling as many stupid stunts, and you'll actually earn points," Lily said without any real hope.

James snorted, for some reason he highly doubted that. Then Lily looked at Harry's face, and she agreed it was wishful thinking.

"Recent events?" Sirius asked.

"They stop counting the last day before exams start," Remus puzzled.

James went wide eyed before he gasped, "you mean he's going to award you three with house points for what you did?"

Harry muttered, "us four," but not loud enough that Remus stopped to ask.

"I officially cannot meet your friend without laughing at him," James chuckled at such a vivid mental image as a sunburnt radish.

"That bumped you to third place," Lily sighed, this didn't seem fair to her at all. Through the whole of their first year, Harry and his friends had constantly broke the rules, and been awarded for it. The only time they had been punished, and still Harry was almost put in danger because of it. She really, really didn't like this pattern that was forming.

"So the school does know some of what happened," Sirius said in surprise at Percy's statement.

"The three of you are going to win that hundred and fifty points back," Remus surmised.

"But that would leave them twenty points short," Lily added up.

"So Dumbledore's rewarding you guys for what you did, but not so much that you beat out another house," James said approvingly.

Lily sighed, she wished they weren't rewarded for it at all. She was proud of her son for what he did yes, but if he came to the conclusion that it was alright now to go breaking rules and then expected to be awarded, they were going to have a hard six books to come.

"Never mind, they did tie," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Has there ever been a tie?" James asked.

"No, not that I can think of," Remus said, "so this might be interesting."

All four adults couldn't help themselves. Despite how wrong they felt this was, they all said, "Congratulations," and Harry's eyes light up like Christmas all over again. Mostly though, they were just proud of him, and happy that Neville had been rewarded as well for what he had done. What's done is done.

"Oh, I'm sure Snape's very pleased about all of this," Sirius laughed.

"Can't say I'm surprised Snape's opinion of you hasn't changed," James sighed.

"Disappointed though," Lily muttered.

"Knocking out mountain trolls is a good memory now?" Lily asked.

"Well when you look back, yeah, I was pretty proud of that incident," Harry shrugged.

"Has anyone ever gotten such bad marks they were thrown out?" Sirius laughed.

"You should try it sometime," Lily said sweetly.

"Why do you keep picking on me," Sirius grumbled.

"Because you know I don't mean it," she shrugged, eyes twinkling.

Sirius couldn't help it, he smiled back.

"Pointless really for the purebloods to be reminded of the no magic during the holidays," James laughed.

"Even if they forgot to give them to you, the rule would still apply," Lily giggled.

"Oh no," Remus groaned.

"What's the matter," James demanded, Remus looked like he didn't know whether to be angry or sad, and it was rather an odd, torn expression.

"I've just realized where he's heading back to," he sighed.

"Crap," Sirius hissed in disdain.

"You know what, I lied," Lily told Harry, going a shade of red in the face at remembered anger, "I'll take the mountain troll."

"Last you left, they weren't speaking to you," James groaned. "So I suppose if you just have to put up with that for three months, it won't be too bad."

Harry kept quiet, knowing full well it was better not to say anything he was thinking about the Dursley's to this lot, and just mentally preparing more calming speeches about why they shouldn't kill them yet.

Despite the sudden dread, they all couldn't help but laugh a bit at that mental image Harry painted of so many wizards bombarding the Muggle station.

"Yes," all four of them said at once, glad Harry's friend didn't wait till another year to ask him around his place.

"Hell, please let him stay all summer," James begged.

Harry blinked, having an odd feeling about bars being ripped off of windows? Something involving Ron? He had no idea.

"Wish you had told them exactly why you weren't famous at that place," Lily muttered.

"Why didn't you?" Remus demanded.

"I just made some snide comments every now and then, like that first day I met Ron," Harry shrugged. He hadn't really believed that, whatever he said, he'd be taken away from the Dursley's, so he never thought to tell anyone. What good would it do?

Lily rolled her eyes, how young was this little red headed girl again?

Harry however was smiling indulgently, like he thought that was the cutest thing in the world. Odd though, since back then he'd just felt embarrassed.

"Why do you over exaggerate every punishment you should have gotten, but can't be bothered in these moments," James laughed at Harry's summation of his school year.

"I can't believe the nerve of your ugly face," Remus grumbled, unbelievably after everything Harry had been through, still hating those Dursleys and their very nerve of being around Harry at all.

"Hardly," Lily muttered scathingly, "family is the last word I'd use."

"Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid are better family than that lot of slugs," James hissed.

Remus half considered it a bleeding miracle the man had even shown up to get Harry, considering the last time he'd only dropped him off as a cruel joke.

Sirius puzzled over something, thinking back to those awful first three chapters when he had felt like a murderous psychopath, and came to the suddenly odd conclusion that Vernon had never actually called Harry by his name. He had just called him boy at every opportunity. It seemed a miracle Harry even knew his name. Well the first chapter said Vernon never even learned Harry's name, maybe this was implying he never had. Sirius couldn't decide whether to laugh at the man's stupidity, or crack the man's head open and let all the dust out.

"You haven't heard the worst of it," Lily snapped of Hermione's innocent comment regarding Harry's Uncle.

"Why would you suddenly enjoy your holidays?" James asked, "because you know how to curse Dudley now?"

Harry just chuckled, that momentary memory of something bad happening gone in an instant to be replaced by what he had been feeling then.

"Oh," they all said brightly.

Lily frowned in concern at once, as she knew full well Petunia did know that rule, as she constantly reminded it of her whenever the slightest odd thing happened. Hopefully Harry wouldn't get into too much trouble because of it...

"Okay, that could be some potential for a lot of fun," James said, an evil grin spreading across his face.

"That's the end of this book," Remus said, glancing down at the last two words.

"Well I think it's time for dinner then," Lily said getting to her feet.

"I can help," Harry offered, following her into the kitchen

"No dear, I won't even let your father help, this is my thing. Go badger the boys with fifty questions I know you've been holding back."

Harry smiled at her, but did as he was told, walking back in to find them all laughing about some of the pranks they had pulled back in school, but there was a dark undertone to it. They seemed to be focusing on the ones that had disastrous, unplanned side effects. Several students seemed to have wound up in the hospital wing because of them.

Harry didn't want to think about the Dursley's when he was in such good company now, so he threw out the first question that came to mind. "So about that awful Quidditch match?" Harry began cautiously.

"Really?" James laughed. "You want to bring that up now? After everything we've just read?"

Harry merely shrugged, as far as he was concerned, he was alright. He didn't even feel any lingering trauma from this, which didn't bode well for his mental health, or this gut feeling that this wasn't his only deadly encounter. So he did what he had been watching his family do this whole time, deflect. "Yes," he said simply.

Sirius sighed and began, "Alright, yeah, you've earned it. So it was my fifth year right, and just before the game I was mad and distracted, which is probably why I didn't notice that my little brother, Regulus, was a Seeker for the Slytherin team, in his second year! Scrawny little git, I wouldn't have believed he could stay on a broom that was almost as big as him."

Shaking his head in remembrance, though with his mixed feelings about his brother he really couldn't decide if they were fond or not, he kept going, "anyways, so after I had basically ignored him for the past two years, I didn't see any reason to change that now, and the game went on as usual. That is until James went to make our fifth goal in a row, and one of the Slytherin beaters on the team lost it. I'll admit, I was distracted by watching Regulus, so I didn't see him, guy's name was Runcorn I think, big ol' sixth year. Yeah anyways, he knocked a Bludger right at James, who didn't have the Quaffle at the time mind you, and I did what any beater would and dove down to intercept."

Sirius paused again, frowning a bit and saying, "Don't rightly remember the rest of it, since that's the last thing I remember before waking up in the hospital wing."

"Well we do," Remus said, looking pale as he glared at his friend, who clearly looked like he wanted the story to end there. Knowing that wasn't fair, he turned to Harry and finished, "Sirius was coming in from one direction to block the Bludger, and Regulus came in from the other, he must have seen the snitch or something. James tried to cut away, but having three things pelting him at once, it's no wonder he collided with one of them, which happened to be Regulus. All three boys managed to dodge impact however, but then Runcorn blew the second Bludger in their direction, and still disoriented from that three way near knock out, one of the three didn't have time to move out of the way..." he trailed off, wincing in disgust.

"It was awful," James agreed, "that thing hit Sirius in the back of the head, and he fell nearly forty feet to the ground. Everyone was distracted by calling a foul on both teams."

"I thought he was dead," Remus said, looking like he was going to pass out while looking his friend full in the face, "I didn't even realize he wasn't in the air any more, and when I saw him on the ground below-"

"But I'm not," Sirius said loudly, mimicking Harry earlier, but hey it had worked then right. "Spent a while in the hospital wing, and then I was as good as new."

Lily was looking genuinely upset for all of them, not having attended this game, she couldn't even imagine the trauma of seeing that now. She had been listening in from the kitchen, rather curious to hear that story herself.

Harry smiled around at them, as he decided to let the story go. His family clearly didn't like revisiting the incident. Yet this shared memory only reinforced what he knew for a fact back when he had first woken up and laid eyes on these people. They were all loving, caring, and his. Nothing would ever change that.

Thoughts on Philosopher's Stone:

The first book of this series does an excellent job right off the bat of showing you exactly what you're getting for the next seven, yes still seven I'll get to that latter, books. Whimsical fun mixed with a healthy dose of 'this is some real shit you need to learn to survive.' Magic is only introduced and teased until you hit chapter 6, and even then you only get the real life experience of what's been building up in 8. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is such a fascinating space I swear you could throw the most boring person in the world, like Vernon for instance, in there and you'd still find something interesting in that school. Harry being the focal point really makes you feel like you're there, because he's not much of an opinionated person. While traveling through him you don't get his impressions, you just see what he does and you gather your own opinion of it. The characters are introduced at an excellent pace, it quickly sets up their character, but then as the story progresses you realize there's more depth to them and you get to watch them interact and change throughout the year. Even subtle future plot points are laid out that you won't even notice until your second read through. Fourth favorite in the series, 10/10 for me, would recommend to anyone of any age.

*I couldn't find a way to work it into the book, but the reason Dumbledore flew instead of getting there quicker was because of Fudge. At the beginning of the book Hagrid mentioned how Dumbledore got messages from the man all the time, and Dumbledore was more than tired of having to arrive and help the man, so he was dragging his feet if you will to go up there. They don't even meet Fudge until the second book, and they don't see his true colors until the fifth, and by that time this really wouldn't have a reason to cross their mind. Found that interesting.