Harry was finding no answers to any of the questions that his mind kept on asking.

The moment the Potter family had returned to the Manor, Lily and James had immediately walked away without speaking a word to Harry or Alex, before shutting themselves in James' office. Harry and Alex had looked at each other in confusion, before Alex went off to see his parents.

Harry went to his bedroom, dragging his things behind him as his mind milled through many possibilities, none of which made any sense. When he arrived in his room, he unpacked all of his things before laying on his bed, contemplating the whole ordeal.

Alex knocked on his father's office door, hearing the muffled voices inside quiet down, before the door opened. James was standing in the doorway.

"What's up, kiddo?" James said to his son, appearing only somewhat like his normal, carefree self. "Is there something bothering you?"

The younger Potter couldn't believe his father. Wasn't it so obvious that something was up with them? They weren't exactly being casual in their behaviour - for Christ's sake, even Lily wasn't speaking to Harry, and she tended to spend the majority of her time gushing over him.

Alex played dumb. "Well no," He murmured, "But I figured since I haven't seen you in six months... Maybe we should talk?"

James furrowed his eyebrows in concern and slight confusion, before turning to something that Alex couldn't see from behind the door, before turning back to Alex. "Yeah, sure. I'll be out in a minute, just gotta finish a quick discussion. Meet me in the lounge?"

The door shut as Alex nodded, but he only stood in front of the door briefly to hear the quietness in the room continue, although slight words could be heard but couldn't be made out. Of course his dad was smart enough to put up a muffling charm.

Alex walked to the lounge, drinking in the nostalgia of seeing his house after so many months, and ran his hand over the dozens of tomes that lined the room. They were all dusty, showing signs of neglect, and Alex chuckled at the the thought that the only reason they were dusty was because Harry hadn't been home. Harry cherished each and every one of those books - Alex wondered how he hadn't guessed that Harry was a completely obvious choice for Ravenclaw earlier?

Thinking of Harry made Alex feel indecisive. His brother had an odd affect on him, but he could only imagine that all siblings had an on-and-off relationship. Alex hated to think that there could be any animosity between him and his brother - they had always been inseparable - but now Alex saw that their personalities weren't just completely opposite, but they didn't mesh well.

Alex wasn't going to let their differences stop them from having strong bonds, however. He would always embrace his brother with open arms, no matter what. He could only hope that Harry would do the same.

Since Halloween, Alex had stopped in his bullying ways, and had separated himself from Ron - if only slightly. It was enough to completely separate himself from the bullying - although he still appreciated Ron's true Gryffindor personality and the way that Ron was loyal to a fault. Harry had obviously been happy to see that Alex had done this, and had begun talking to him much more.

Alex sat in the large chair in front of the fire, and smiled as he thought of Hogwarts. Over the months, he had formed a small group of friends that surprisingly meshed very well together.

Hermione Granger, the girl who Ron and Alex had driven into the bathroom, had forgiven them very quickly after the whole troll incident, and actually became friends with them. After getting her overbearing personality, Hermione was quite sweet and only had the best interest of everyone else in mind as she made decisions.

Alex also knew that Hermione was quite close friends with Harry, which also made sense. Alex knew that she was closer with Harry's group of Ravenclaws, and he wasn't jealous at all. Of course, it made sense that Hermione would trust them more - after all, Harry had saved her life while Alex had put her in the situation where she needed her life to be saved.

He could only hope that their friendship would continue to grow. He already found himself quite fond of her, and enjoyed the bond that was growing in between him, Hermione, and Ron.

Alex was jerked out his thoughts when his father walked into the room, seeming much more pensive compared to his usual attitude.

James sat down across from Alex, staring into the fire. "Hey, kiddo."

"Hey, dad," Alex said, looking at his father warily, not sure what the conversation they were about to have would entail.

Putting his elbows on his spread-out knees, James leaned forward and stared at his son, showing much more concentration than Alex had seen in his father in a while. "You know, I'm really sorry about me and your mother's behaviour lately. I know we've been really distant, and we've chosen a really rough time to do this - you know, with the attack and everything. Great job in that match by the way, sorry I wasn't able to tell you enough the day of. Bloody fantastic."

Snorting in amusement at how his father's concentration failed to stay on point, which was a lot closer to his father's normal behaviour than how he had been acting lately. Wanting to get to the point, Alex asked, "What was it you and mom have been talking about?"

James grimaced, and looked his son dead in the eye, but it only lasted for a second before his eyes darted back to the fire. "I'm not really sure how to say this."

His curiosity was thoroughly peaked. "Please, just get it out. I'll ask questions after."

Scrunching up his nose in contemplation, James let out a huge breath and ruffled the back of his hair, dropping his head slightly, before bringing it back up. "You're not the boy-who-lived."

"What?" Alex was completely stunned. "Explain."

James fidgeted incessantly. "Back when the attack happened, when Pettigrew sold us out and gave Voldemort out location, Voldemort came, and he was defeated, but it wasn't by you. It was by Harry."

Several questions ran through his mind, and Alex wanted to ask all of them in a huge stream, but held back. "So how did I get," Alex pulled up his shirt, gesturing to the large jagged scar stretching across his midsection, "this?"

"Voldemort came in, and supposedly hit Harry with the killing curse, and somehow, Harry's magic not only blocked it, but retaliated. His magic slashed out across the room, and that's how Voldemort was killed, and how the room was destroyed, and now you have a magical scar." James spoke seriously, more seriously than Alex had heard him, and he sounded as if he was relieving a huge weight off his shoulders."

Alex nodded, coming to accept this. He had always known that something was up with the whole 'Twins-Who-Lived' thing. After all, how could one spell hit them both? The killing curse could only hit one victim at once. He had always known that Harry was smarter than him, academically, and had more magical power than him as well.

After all, Harry's first incident of accidental magic was at the age of 3, while Alex's was at the average age of 7. Having magic before the age of 5 was almost unheard of, and only legendary wizards had ever come of the people who had such well developed magic so young. James and Lily had kept their ages of their first cases of accidental magic a secret from any prying reporters.

Alex, dwelling on it now, noticed that from the moment Harry first displayed magic, that Lily had began to raise their expectations of Harry - and as that pressure began to grow, Harry began to change. He became more closed off, less social. But Hogwarts had changed him completely, and he had become happier and had even formed his own group of friends despite the fact that he had always struggled with a lot of social interaction outside of his family before.

Only one question was nagging at his mind. "Why did you make up the fact that it was both of us?"

"We didn't want you to feel like you were inferior," James explained somberly. "We love you both equally and would hate to see one of you grow up in the shadow of the other. Now we can see that both of you have become your own person, and have become your own people. You each have your own strengths and weaknesses, and issues that will only get worse over the next few years have started popping up. We think that right now is the ideal time to tell you - and we can only hope that it will bring you together even more."

Alex smiled, and silence rested across the father and son duo. The silence was nice, not awkward, or filled with pressure. It was time that Alex needed to accept the truth, and rewire what he had been taught his whole life.

Once he had dwelled on it enough, Alex asked the question that had truly been bugging him more than anything else.

"Hey, dad?"

James turned to his son with a questioning look in his eyes.

Alex grinned, "Do you know who Nicholas Flamel is?"

Harry laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling confused. So many unanswered questions ran through his head, and yet he had nobody who was willing to answer them. His mind was going a mile a minute and yet it felt sluggish, as his mental inquiries were getting no results.

Groaning in frustration, Harry hit his hands to the mattress.

A small knock came from Harry's door. His mother's soft voice came from the other side. "Harry? Can I come in?"

Closing his eyes, Harry took a deep breath and composed himself. "Sure, come in."

Lily was looking very somber, and Harry feared that her depression had made a resurgence in his and Alex's time back at Hogwarts, and Harry took a quick glance at her wrists to gauge how severe things might have been.

Luckily, they were unscathed, and Harry looked up to the ceiling again, before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and facing his mother. "Hey, what's been up with you and dad lately? You've both been acting really strange."

"Well, your father and I had a disagreement," Lily started.

"Yeah, I heard," Harry scoffed bitterly, ignoring the look of concern that Lily shot at him - it was very out of the norm for Harry to be so spiteful, but she understood that he had gone through a lot and had been given little to support from his parents. They had failed to provide help when he had needed it most.

"I'm sorry, we weren't there with you, Harry. We had a lot to discuss and work through, but it's finally been resolved." Lily spoke in a tone that somehow said to him that she wouldn't take any of his sass, but still showed proper remorse.

"It's... It's okay, Mom," Harry said, letting go of the anger, however small the amount, that had built up over the months of complete neglect from his parents. "Just... What did you need to tell me?"

"Well, as I was saying, your father and I had a disagreement. I wanted to tell you and your brother something, but James didn't want you to know - he didn't think you were ready. After a lot of arguing, he finally agreed with me - although he went against the opinion of someone he really trusts to see my side, which I'm very proud of him for. He's always been like that... Once he's set his loyalties, it's almost impossible to break them, no matter what." Lily dragged on wistfully, and happy look in her eyes as she smiled. It almost seemed as if she wasn't truly present in the room.

Harry pursed his lips, knowing his mother was getting off track, and asked, "Okay, okay, I get it. Now what did you agree to tell us?"

"Well, you see, Harry, you're the boy-who-lived, not Alex." Lily spoke as if she hadn't just dropped a life-changing bombshell on Harry's head.

Harry sputtered, at a complete loss for words. "Wh-what?! What do you mean?"

Shooting a look at Harry, as if to say, 'you're smarter than that', Lily said, "When Voldemort came to our house that night, you were the one who Voldemort attacked. You were the one who survived the killing curse, and it was your magic that lashed out, killing Voldemort. Alex's curse scar was created by your magic lashing out."

Throwing himself back on his bed, Harry stared at the ceiling, his mind running through many questions. Most of them, he could come to the conclusion himself. He could understand why they would lie, and why, despite the frivolity of it all, they had announced them to the public as the 'Twins-Who-Lived'. The wizarding community needed a beacon of light, and it was either both of them or neither of them. His parents could never live with themselves in they cast one of their children aside for the other.

One question, however, remained in his mind, nagging at him. "Who was it that told you not to tell us? And why would it make any sense to keep it from us at all?"

Lily smiled lightly. Of course Harry would get straight to business, skipping over any of the simpler questions that he could figure out himself.

"It was Dumbledore who told us to keep it to ourselves. Despite being hailed as a being of purity, Dumbledore is not perfect. He would twist anything if it was for his own greater good, and keeping you two in the dark would apparently have ended better for him. Perhaps it would've allowed him to better mould you two into his pawns." Lily finished with a small snarl, showing anger towards what she suspected were Dumbledore's true intentions.

Harry nodded, "Of course... It only makes sense that he would hide it from us."

Thoughts filled Harry's head, and he found the silence between himself and his mother lasting for several minutes. "Harry," Lily said, "I understand that it's been a long day, but I want you to get that this shouldn't cause any tension between you and Alex. This changes nothing."

"I get it. After all, the whole thing was probably just a fluke. How can a fifteen-month old defeat a dark lord anyway?" Harry snorted, "It's really quite ridiculous."

Lily smiled, smirking to herself knowingly, before she wished Harry a good night, and left him to his thoughts.

After a long conversation with his father about all things Hogwarts and quidditch, Alex found himself walking back to his room in thought.

He was excited to compose a letter to Hermione and Ron, telling them who Nicholas Flamel was, and what was being hidden in the school underneath the three-headed dog named Fluffy.

Alex entered his room with a grin on his face, before seeing Harry laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, turning to see who it was before looking back to the ceiling. Harry asked, "So dad told you?"

Nodding, Alex responded, "Yeah, more or less. I suppose I don't really have to ask you if mom explained it, right?"

Harry snorted, but nodded, "Yeah... But now it has me wondering."

"About what?"

"About the possible connection that your cursed scar could have to me if it was my magic that caused it. After all, cursed scars have always been known to have some use or another." Harry spoke what was on his mind, not holding back knowing he was in the full privacy of his brother, the person he trusted most.

Alex contemplated his brother's words. "Well, if my cursed scar was caused by your magic, and you think it might mean we have some sort of... deeper connection. What does that mean about your cursed scar?"

Silence seemed to echo throughout the room, before Harry whispered, "I think that may just be the smartest conclusion you've come to in your whole entire life."

The conversation continued no further, and the brothers stayed silent. Harry laid on the bed in quiet contemplation while Alex unpacked his things and prepared for bed.

Right as Alex was about to shut the light off, he heard Harry mutter, "Merry bloody Christmas," before turning away from Alex.

With a snort, the lights turned off in the Potter bedroom and the boys fell asleep, their minds filled with questions from the many events that had happened within that day.

Waking up on the morning of Christmas Eve day had been a surprisingly pleasant experience for Harry. He found that he quite enjoyed the soft sunlight that peeked in through the curtains and pulled him out of his peaceful slumber.

Sitting up in his bed, Harry looked over to see Alex was still fast asleep in his bed, snoring quietly which made his brother smile lightly. Some things never changed...

Harry headed off to the bathroom, washing his face and brushing his teeth, before going to the kitchen. He had been used to cooking breakfast occasionally for his family, when he was in a particularly good mood.

Of course, Harry didn't realise why he was in such a good mood until his mother walked in and said, "Good morning, Harry. What has you up so early this morning? Eager for your midterms?"

Harry paused mid-pancake flip. Of course! Midterms! Today he would get the results of the tests that he had taken a little under a week ago to show how he had been progressing in all of his classes. A grin broke out on his face.

"I guess so, although, I must admit, I had completely forgotten about it!" Harry admitted, causing his mother to laugh as she combed her hair down.

Slowly but surely, the rest of the Potter family trickled out of their bedrooms within a ten minute span. Both James and Alex had entered with the same phrase, "Do I smell pancakes?"

Each time, Harry laughed and pushed a plate with a stack of pancakes their way, making him feel strangely like a mom, while his real mom was in the next room trying to fix her hair, which was being particularly stubborn today.

The whole family was soon sat along the island in their kitchen, all feasting on the pancakes Harry had made - all made with their specific preferences. Alex had chocolate chips, Lily had blueberries, and James only had maple syrup.

It was nice to know that the familiar routine that normally surrounded their family had returned, and it warmed Harry's heart. It also made Harry happy to know that Alex wasn't angry upon finding out about the whole thing from earlier in the week.

Before they knew it, an owl was pecking on the window, with two envelopes tied to it's claws. Harry tried not to show his excitement, but Alex had no such restraint as he groaned, and fell to the ground dramatically. "No! My one true fear! No..." He trailed off as he watched his mother pluck the envelopes out of the owl's grasp, pretending to die a rather dramatic death.

"Alex," Lily scolded, "Get up. You can read your results first, and we can laugh at your reactions." She handed both of her sons their envelopes.

James watched the whole ordeal with a wince of sympathy for his youngest son, as it reminded him quite a bit of himself from his younger years.

Harry read through his results with a serious, yet confident, look:

As given by the staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, here are the results of one Harry James Potter's midterm examinations.

Charms - O *

Transfiguration - O *

Potions - O **

Astronomy - E

History of Magic - O *

Herbology - O

Defence Against the Dark Arts - O **

* - indicates the best score in their year for the examination

** - indicates a perfect score on their examination

Harry groaned, "Damn!"

Lily shot Harry a surprised look, and exclaimed, "Watch your language, Harry!" She walked over, and held out her hand, allowing Harry to hand it to her before reading it thoroughly, looking for the thing that had obviously displeased her son.

"What?" She asked, finding nothing wrong. "This is amazing, Harry. What's wrong with it?"

"What do you mean, 'what's wrong with it?' That Astronomy grade is what's wrong! I've got to pull it up if I want to beat Hermione for first in the year!" Harry exclaimed, clearly frazzled.

Harry muttered something about how sad it was that he was competing with a Gryffindor for first in the year.

On the other side of the spectrum, Alex laughed nervously as he rubbed the back at his head. James leaned over, and said, "Here, let me see. It can't be that bad."

As James read through Alex's report, he somehow managed to choke on his coffee.

As given by the staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, here are the results of one Alexander Charlus Potter's midterm examinations.

Charms - E

Transfiguration - O

Potions - D

Astronomy - P

History of Magic - P

Herbology - A

Defence Against the Dark Arts - O

* - indicates the best score in their year for the examination

** - indicates a perfect score on their examination

Shooting his son a look of extreme amusement, James muttered, "How did you manage a dreadful in potions? You're only in your first year!"

Alex scrunched up his face, before giving an angry look and whispering, so his mother wouldn't hear him, "I swear, Snape's out to get me!"

James snorted, gaining the attention of Lily, who was preoccupied arguing with Harry about his grades. Alex gave his father a baleful glare, and James passed Alex's report to his mother.

Harry read the report over his mother's shoulder, and broke down laughing immediately. "Oh Merlin! A dreadful in potions! How do you manage, Alex?"

Lily put Alex's report down, shooting a sharp look to Harry who quickly shut up, before turning to Alex. "Other than potions and history of magic, which you are going to bring up," Lily said with an intimidatingly serious glare which made Alex recoil away from her, "This is a fine report card. Outstanding in Transfiguration and DADA? Great job! Although, it seems that you're taking more after your father than me... He was always better in transfiguration while I was quite talented in charms."

The Potter matriarch almost seemed to drift off to memories of her past before turning to Harry, putting a hand on his shoulder, and looking at Alex sternly. "You both did very well, and while you both have some areas you could improve in, who doesn't?"

Alex snorted, before gesturing for his mother to pass Harry's report card over, and James and Alex looked over it together. James, once again, barely managed to not spit out his coffee, exclaimed, "Bloody brilliant, Harry! This is great!"

Harry groaned, how could they not see that his astronomy grade was simply not acceptable!

Alex laughed at the report. "How in the world do you manage?" He asked his brother. "Not only do you manage to save someone's life, but you also are unconscious for a week of the semester and you still get the best exam in... Five of seven subjects!"

Harry smirked, "I don't know, I suppose I'm just... magic."

The whole family burst out laughing, all enjoying the family banter, before being interrupted by another owl showed up at the window, pecking urgently.

"Oh no," Lily muttered, going to retrieve the owl. "We finally see the results of that interview from the other day."

She handed the owl a sickle from the small jar of change on the counter, before grabbing the paper. The rest of the family could only watch as Lily's composure deteriorated over the course of whatever the front page article was.

Finishing after about forty seconds, she handed the newspaper to James, who began to read with the twins reading from over his shoulder. The headline on the first article read:

POTTER TWINS ALMOST KILLED BY TROLL LET LOOSE IN HOGWARTS,

Harry Potter, voted #3 heartthrob of the year by Witch Weekly, defeats full grown mountain troll in just his first year, saving a helpless girl's life!

The second article had an equally terrible headline.

HARRY POTTER ALMOST KILLED IN ATTACK AT HOGWARTS

Hit with a bone-breaking curse, eleven-year old Harry Potter was hit with a bone-breaking curse and fell from two stories up, almost dying! Is Dumbledore capable of keeping his students safe in his own school?

Harry groaned, rubbing his temple, before muttering, "Merry bloody Christmas."

OoOoOoOoO

Thanks for reading! In-depth reviews are totally appreciated, and actually, the few longer reviews I got today after posting last night encouraged me to write a whole chapter in a night! Your reviews really make a difference, even if they're negative.

If you have any questions about the story or any thoughts that you don't want to post publicly, feel free to private message me! Thanks again for reading and (hopefully) reviewing!