A couple of weeks after the incident at the zoo, Harry still didn't know what to make of the ordeal that had taken place, but he tried to place it at the back of his head just the same. He was trying to enjoy the rest of his summer while ignoring the fact that he had yet to get his Hogwarts Acceptance Letter. No matter what his parents said to reassure him that it would be arriving soon, he was starting to doubt it. But his father said that it would arrive when he least expected it, so Harry figured if he kept himself busy that it would arrive soon.

That particular morning in July, Harry had been sound asleep when he had been startled awake by the sound of the doors to his wardrobe opening. Reaching for his glasses that were resting on his nightstand, he placed them on quickly, only to watch as his clothing sailed into his room and fixed themselves inside the wardrobe.

He heard the sound of his parents outside, leaving him to leave his bed and make his way towards the open window. Taking a peek, he could see his father, broom on the ground and his wand in hand. The last couple of days, James had been complaining that his broom had been acting odd and was probably in need of some fine-tuning. Renata had suggested taking it to a professional but James was more than confident that he could manage it himself. However, the current and frustrated look on his face said otherwise.

Beside him, Renata was attempting to hide her grin behind a mug of coffee but she quickly lost the battle as soon as the broom rolled over when James demanded "up!" She broke into laughter, which attracted James' attention as he glanced over in her direction.

"Do you have something to say over there?" he asked her, placing his hands on his hips.

Renata shook her head. "Oh no, darling, I was just admiring the way you work your broom. Show it who's boss."

James shot her a look before muttering something under the lines of showing her who was boss before playfully lunging at her. Her laughter was cut off as she attempted to dodge him, but with a mug in hand, she was limited in her getaway, leaving her as easy prey. James caught her easily, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her near to him. His face was nuzzled into her neck where he said something that caused Renata's face to flush red before she used her free hand to slap his arm lightly.

"Alright, break it up you two!" A voice called from the distance and Harry stretched his neck a little further to see that Uncle Sirius and Uncle Adelmo had arrived. Harry smiled at the sight of his two uncles, knowing that whenever Uncle Sirius came to visit, it was going to be a fun time.

"There are children in the household," Sirius said as he approached Renata and James, " or did you two about my precious, not to mention innocent, niece and nephews."

"Oh, shut up, Sirius," James said, " they're all asleep right now and it wasn't like we were doing anything."

"Thank goodness," Adelmo replied quietly before greeting his sister with a hug.

Excited to go downstairs and greet his uncles, Harry turned only to let out a small screech when he spotted Ilaria, sitting in the centre of his bed. She seemed pleased at his reaction as a smile spread across her lips.

"Ilaria, how long have you been sitting there?"

"Long enough," she answered, " what are you doing?"

"I was just looking out the window," Harry told her, " Zio Sirius and Zio Adelmo are here. What are you doing?"

"I came to see you!"

Normally, Harry wouldn't have questioned his little sister's company, in fact, he welcomed it all the time, however, there seemed to be something that she had yet to say as she continued to stare at him. Harry didn't want to be rude either as he loved his siblings dearly, so what exactly did Ilaria want? Was it the typical younger sibling wanting to spend time with their older sibling or something else?

"Oh, um, that's nice," he began, unsure of how to proceed," well, it's good to see you. I'm going to head downstairs-"

"Are you sad?"

Ilaria always had a way of delivering questions and statements and that morning was no different it seemed as Harry was caught completely off guard. It brought him to stop in his tracks and look back at her.

"Wh-what do you mean? Why would you think I'm sad?"

"Because sometimes when I'm around you, I feel really sad," Ilaria told him, " I told Mummy and Daddy about it."

Suddenly, Harry felt uneasy as their parents were mentioned, wondering what their reaction would be. "And what did they say?"

"They said that I'm pathetic."

"What?!"

Never in a million years would Harry believe that his own parents had dared to call Ilaria "pathetic" or anything along the lines. And after a couple of minutes of discussing it over with his sister, he finally came to realise that they were calling her "empathetic" rather than pathetic. It seemed it was a strong possibility that Ilaria shared the same abilities as their mother, being a natural-born Empath.

"Empathetic, I think is the word you're looking for, Lari, pathetic means something totally different. Something Mum and Dad would never call you."

"Oh," Ilaria said, thinking it over for a minute before continuing on, " so, are you sad, Harry?"

If Harry was being truly honest with himself, between the Dursley Incident and the lack of a Hogwarts Letter, he was sad or maybe just disappointment. And while he thought he could get away with a forced smile whenever needed, Ilaria had reminded him that he couldn't lie about how he truly felt. If it was true and Ilaria was an Empath, it meant that Harry's mood was capable of affecting both his mother and now his sister.

He couldn't hide his feelings and it would feel like he was lying to both of them if he said he was fine. So he actually had to feel fine and that meant getting over the little things that were bothering him. And if Ilaria was an Empath, he couldn't confuse her with lying, so he had to be honest.

"I'm a little sad," he admitted, " but it's just because I've been waiting on my Hogwarts letter, that's all."

Ilaria crawled over and then climbed off the bed to make her way over to him. She wrapped her arms around Harry's legs and squeezed them tight.

"Don't be sad, Harry."

With the promise that he wouldn't be sad for long, Harry made his way downstairs with Ilaria behind them. They had tiptoed passed Monte's room, where they could hear the boy snoring quite a bit from behind his closed doors. And as soon as they made their way downstairs, they raced to the kitchen to greet Uncle Sirius and Adelmo, who were settled at the table. There was the smell of breakfast foods cooking but rather than Renata cooking, it seemed James had taken the task upon himself.

As Harry skidded to a halt so he didn't crash into either of his uncles, but Ilaria made no attempts as she crashed into Uncle Adelmo's chest.

"Zio Momo! Zio Paddy!"

"Lari! Harry!"

Life was always good when Sirius came around to the household as he was always the life of the party. However, with his own business booming in the summer months, he didn't get to visit as often as the Potter family liked, but they enjoyed any time they got with him. While Adelmo kept his job as Head Healer at St Mungo's, Sirius' career had sprouted by accident.

Years ago when he had designed Renata's wedding dress, it had caused quite a buzz within the magical community enough that suddenly, every soon-to-bride wanted their own personalised gown. It had come as a shock, even though Renata told him that it shouldn't have, but suddenly, people were willing to throw all their galleons at Sirius for his designs. And so, during the summer months, when most weddings took place, Sirius found himself quite busy, visiting with future brides and designing their dream gowns for their big days.

And in recent days, Sirius was also designing some dress robes for the grooms, and bringing a modern twist to wizarding clothing. A lot of his newer designs he sported himself, usually to see how they would be perceived by the community. Just that morning, he seemed to be dawning one of his newest robes, made of soft black leather and decorated with gold lining. Adelmo, on the other hand, no matter how much Sirius begged him, seemed to prefer the comfort of his traditional robes.

"I hope I didn't wake you up when I was putting the laundry away," Renata said before kissing the top Harry's head. "It slipped my mind that you were all asleep."

"No, I was already awake," Harry lied, " I was just hanging out in bed for a little longer."

"Well, don't sleep the summer away, Harry," Sirius interjected, " you don't want to sleep through your birthday!"

"I won't!"

"Harry's having a birthday party!" Ilaria blurted out. But it was well known that Harry was going to have a birthday party that day as he also had plans of having Ron, Neville, and Huxley sleeping over.

"Speaking of which," James called over from where he was focused over a pan, " Harry, you need to make a list of things you want for your birthday!"

Thinking about it for a moment, Harry couldn't really think of what he would want for his birthday, let alone enough items to make a list. However, one thing did come to mind after a couple of minutes.

"Some chocolate frogs?"

It had become a competition over the years between the four boys when it came to the collector cards that came with the chocolate frogs. So far, Ron was in the lead with having two rare cards and that was over Neville and Harry that had cards that no one else would ever have. Harry had one of his grandfather, Fleamont Potter, and Neville had ones of his parents, Alice and Frank Longbottom, all of them created by Renata. But it was a never-ending competition as new cards came out every year with new faces of famous wizards and witches.

"That's it?" James questioned. "Just chocolate frogs? What about...um...a...a....new broom? We could get you a new model, let Monte have your old one-"

"Hey! What about me?!" Ilaria called out. " I want a broom!"

"You both can use it then," James said before Renata shot a look in his direction, "er, when your mother says it's okay. But back to what I was saying, we could hit the Quidditch shop and see what new models are out, Harry."

"It's not like he can take it to school with him, Prongs," Sirius interrupted, " first years can't bring brooms, thanks to you, remember? I think McGonagall made that quite clear."

"Wait, wait," Renata held her hands up, " I haven't heard this story before. What do you mean first years can't bring their brooms, what did you do?"

As breakfast was underway, Sirius revealed the story behind James ruining the privilege for all first years bringing their brooms from home. Apparently, back then, James had been boasting about his Quidditch talent to fellow Gryffindors, mostly older students. The majority of them had attempted to brush him off, telling him that he just had a huge ego, but no way to prove it. After all, it wasn't like he could join the Quidditch team at the time, and the older students wouldn't be around for the flying lessons of the younger students.

So to prove himself, James decided to take his broom, climb into one of the windows of the Gryffindor Tower, and fly out of it. Everything had been going so well, James was an excellent flyer and he could hear his peers cheering him on, that was until he came face to face with Professor McGonagall. She was on a broom as well, and in just a few short and stern words, demanded that he land.

He did so quickly, only to have his broom confiscated paired with a hefty amount of detentions. His broom was mailed back home to his parents, and it was announced the next day in the Great Hall that all first years were to turn in their brooms, in which they would be promptly returned to their parents. In the meantime, they could all use the old spare brooms for their lessons.

"Your father was not very popular that year," Sirius chuckled, "everyone gave him hell for it."

"Including you!" James said, knocking him in the back of the head. "You're the one who kept telling everyone what I did!"

"I was merely telling everyone about your skills."

As the two bickered about the intentions of Sirius' gossiping ways back in school, Harry was about to reach for some orange juice when a shadow passing the window caught his attention. He paused for a moment, looking at the window, but didn't see anything, making him believe that he hadn't seen anything at all. But just seconds later, there was a tapping at another window in the kitchen.

Renata was the closest, leaving her to open the window and reveal an owl that flew in. It dropped an envelope into her hands before flying off.

"What you got there, love?" James asked from across the way. "Another letter from the Ministry asking you to join them?"

She let out a laugh and at the same time, Harry let his chest deflate in disappointment. He had been hoping that it had been his letter and not another request from the Ministry harassing his parents to join in. It was quite common for a letter to arrive, asking either James or Renata to join the Auror forces or something to do with Magical Law Enforcement. And no matter how many times they rejected the idea, the Ministry was quite persistent.

Renata shook her head each time, sometimes mentioning it to her brother and reminding him that there had been a time where she couldn't even keep a job, and now she was finding herself with plenty of offers. Harry knew his parents were great, but he always wondered why the Ministry was so infatuated with the idea of having them join. Was it for the name or their talents? Perhaps both?

"No, actually," Renata said, " this one is for Harry."

Not a sound was made as soon as the thick, yellowish envelope was placed in front of Harry, where he sat at the table. All eyes were suddenly on him, but Harry's eyes were glossing over the front of the envelope that was indeed addressed to him.

Mr H. Potter

The Potter Cottage

Tring

Hertfordshire

Unable to process what was taking place at the moment, Harry looked up to his parents for some guidance. Renata had made her way into James' lap, the two of them smiling at him, along with Sirius and Adelmo. Only Ilaria looked as confused as Harry did as she didn't know what was happening. He received an encouraging nod from his father before his gaze returned to the envelope.

Finally, Harry picked it up and turned it over to see the seal. It was purple wax, with a coat of arms born in the middle of it.

A lion. A badger. A snake. An eagle. All of which surrounded the letter "H."

"What is it, Harry?" Ilaria brought him out of the little trance. "Who is it from?"

Ripping open the top of the envelope, Harry pulled out the letter and cleared his throat.

"Dear Mr Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Finally.