Now that he was on the Quidditch team, class was no longer Eliot's favorite part of Hogwarts. Quidditch practice beat everything else by a mile. Quidditch games were even better. Remus was so proud of Eliot that after he won his first match against Ravenclaw, Remus scraped together the money for a small pennant advertising Eli's favorite Quidditch team, the Montrose Magpies. After Eli was done writing a passionate letter back about how it was a waste of money, he pinned it to his dormitory wall next to the Hufflepuff one Cedric had given him. Quidditch was Eliot's main concern, the thing that brought him the most joy.
A lot of strange things were occurring at Hogwarts that year, but Eliot was too preoccupied to notice. A troll was in the dungeons on Halloween, but once the initial fear passed Eliot brushed it off, assuming that was probably to be expected at a magical school. There was talk about Snape acting strange, but Eliot thought it wasn't possible for Snape to get any stranger than he already was. Overall, he decided that if anything weird was actually happening, it was none of his business. He was much too busy balancing classwork and Quidditch to deal with anything else. And by the time December rolled around, all he cared about was going home to see Remus.
Eliot's ability to ignore the unusual happenings at Hogwarts came to an abrupt stop when he returned from the winter holidays. He was pleased that he was able to spend the entire break with Remus, though Eliot knew that Remus's constant presence meant he must be out of work again. He felt refreshed and ready to return to his responsibilities, but his excitement was quickly cut short by a strange interaction with Harry. After the first dinner back from the break, Harry stopped Eliot before he could return to his dormitory.
"Eli!" Harry shouted from the doorway of the Great Hall.
Eliot whipped around. "Hey there, Harry."
"I have, um, a strange question," He said. "But I promise there's a point."
"Ask away," Eli replied.
"Er... Are your parents dead?" Harry asked.
Eli was taken aback. "What brought you to that conclusion?"
"Hermione mentioned you'd only ever talked about them in the past tense. I just figured... I'm sorry," He explained.
"No, no, it's fine. You're right," Eliot said quickly. "My mum's dead, my dad's in Azkaban. Why do you ask?"
"I can't tell you here, but I have something to show you. Meet me outside the Hufflepuff dormitories at midnight," Harry said.
"Sure." Eliot grinned. Harry already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and Eliot didn't mind being a part of it. If it involved wandering out of bed at night, it had to be something interesting. He wondered what having dead parents might have to do with it.
At midnight on the dot, Eliot got out of bed, still fully dressed. He crept down to the common room and swung open the door, but he found an empty hallway.
"Harry?" He whispered.
"Over here!" Harry hissed.
Eliot looked around dumbly. "Where?"
Harry's head suddenly appeared in midair. "Here!"
Eliot jumped back. "What the—"
"SHH! It's an invisibility cloak," Harry said. He took off the cloak and threw it over both of them. "Filch can't see us under here."
"Alright, got it. Lead the way, then?" Eliot muttered.
They walked down the corridors for what felt like forever. Eliot was worried about getting caught by Filch, and had to keep reminding himself that they were invisible. They couldn't get in trouble if they couldn't be seen. Finally, Harry opened the door to a classroom and walked in, with Eliot following close behind. Harry closed the door behind them and pulled off the invisibility cloak.
"What? Why are we in a classroom?" Eliot asked.
"That." Harry pointed at a mirror at the front of the room. "I... When I look in it, I see my parents. I thought you might want to see yours."
Eli felt tears pricking at his eyes, but quickly blinked them away. He had few photographs of his parents, and knew little about them, his mother especially. "Thank you, Harry."
However, when Eliot walked up to the mirror, only one of his real parents was there. The reflection showed Sirius on one side of him and Remus on the other, both with a hand on Eli's shoulder. Remus was noticeably healthier, his hair thick and his scars gone, and he and Eli's robes were significantly nicer than they were in reality. Sirius was in the clothes he had been wearing the day he was taken from Eliot. That fateful day. The day that changed his entire life for the worse.
A father places his child on a bench. "Wait here, Eliot. I'll be right back for you, I promise. I have some business to attend to."
"My mum's not there," Eliot mumbled. He wondered what that meant. He wondered what exactly he was supposed to get from this. "Can it only show living people?"
"No. It shows me my parents." Harry shook his head.
Eliot didn't particularly care about his mother's absence from the mirror. He never knew her, anyway. But he couldn't peel his eyes away from what he did see in the mirror. His gaze flicked back and forth from his father's eyes to his own. Identical.
The sobbing and laughing. The laughter of a man who's lost nearly everything. All but his son. He rushes to grab the young child from the bench, but he doesn't run. He holds his son.
"What is this, Harry?" Eliot asked, shaking away the memory and trying to focus on what was in front of him.
"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "Ron doesn't see his family in it, either."
"My dad's there. Remus is." Eliot put his hand against the mirror, and Sirius's hand raised up to meet it.
The last words his father ever said to him. "I love you, Eliot, I don't know what's going to happen, but I need you to know that I love you. You're the most important thing in the world to me. I love you so much, Eliot."
"Who's Remus?"
Eli looked at Harry sadly. He so wanted to explain everything. "The man who raised me."
Harry didn't respond, save for a nod.
Eliot looked back to the mirror and Sirius said, "I'm proud of you, Eliot." He wondered whether it was Sirius's actual voice or some fictional version of it that his brain had created. He wondered if his dad ever called him Eli, or if that was something Remus started. He tried to remember, but he couldn't be certain. It had been ten years since he last saw his father. Practically a lifetime.
The child is torn from his father's arms. The child is shrieking, held by cold government officials; his father is sobbing, calling out to his son as he's dragged away by Aurors. They would never see each other again.
The Sirius and Eliot in the mirror hugged. Eliot desperately wished what he was seeing was real. All he had ever wanted was to meet his father, ask him what really happened that day, have two parents like everybody else. He wondered if the mirror showed the past — but that wouldn't make sense, he hadn't seen his father since he was a toddler. Maybe it showed the people one loved most? He wasn't sure exactly what the mirror's function was, but he didn't particularly care if it meant he was able to see his dad again.
He and Harry sat next to one another and stared into the mirror until the early hours of the morning.
From that day forward, Eliot was acutely aware of all the strange goings-on. The mirror was too interesting to ignore, especially because Harry was the one who found it. The fact that Harry always seemed to be drawn to the strangest parts of the Hogwarts experience worried him.