There was no sense in denying that the Potter children were wildly excited about visiting the zoo that afternoon as their smiles never faded for one second, even as they reached the admissions gate. They had witnessed plenty of magical creatures within their upbringing, whether it was in person or through the books kept around the household, but there was something magical witnessing animals that even muggles were permitted to see.

While the children posed no issue of blending in with muggle attire, it was Renata and James that had to ditch their robes in order not to stand out. And when they arrived at the gates to purchase their tickets, Harry took a quick look around and was satisfied that they didn't stand out. He had heard stories from Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus about wizards and witches attempting to blend in among muggles and failing miserably.

"Look at all these muggles," Harry heard Ilaria whisper under her breath, " I want to touch one!"

"Ilaria," Harry snorted as he turned to his little sister, " they're people just like you and me. They just can't do any magic."

Ilaria didn't appear to care what Harry had to say at the moment as she was already in motion to poke a man's leg that was standing close to them in line. As soon as she did, the man jumped and turned around with an irritated look before he spotted Ilaria grinning up at him. All was forgotten or forgiven in seconds as he didn't have the heart to scold a child for merely brushing up against his leg.

Thank Merlin, he didn't know it was intentional.

"Hmmph," Ilaria said with her head tilted to the side, " I thought they'd be more squishy."

Harry continued to keep his sister in check while James paid for the tickets and Renata carried Monte through the crowds of people until they reached an opened area where she felt safe enough to set him down. Already, Monte was pointing in several directions, telling everyone where he wanted to go first.

The two youngest were already showing off their impatience at having to wait, but Harry couldn't blame them either. The lines were long and he was ready to start exploring too. Suddenly, he felt a hand run over the top of his hair, bringing him to glance up to see Renata gazing down at him.

"I think I've spotted some ice cream over there," she nodded her head in the direction of a van that was covered in sweet decorations, " why don't you head on over with Ilaria and grab something? Bring something back for Monte?"

She held out the money and Harry grinned in response before taking the muggle coins and bills. Ilaria didn't have to hear the instructions of listening to her big brother as she already grabbed his hand, and waited for him to lead the way.

As they arrived at the van, they also had to wait in another line, thankfully it was shorter than the one selling tickets. Off to the side, Harry couldn't help but noticed two boys standing there, ice cream already in their possession. One of them was incredibly scrawny and not to sound mean, but had a face that Harry could only relate to a rat. But perhaps he only looks so small compared to the rather large boy that stood next to him.

The other boy wasn't much taller, but he was rounder, quite overweight, and devouring some chocolate ice cream. Just when Harry thought he had been staring too long, a little girl had crossed paths in front of the two boys and Harry had witnessed the fat boy stick his leg out to trip her. Immediately, she went down, losing her ice pop and scraping her knee. The adults she was with assumed that she had just been rather clumsy, lifting her up to dust her off and abandoning the ice pop which only made her cry more.

Harry felt his nostrils flare at the scene, noting that the little girl didn't look much older than Ilaria at the time. He couldn't imagine what would have happened if they had chosen to do that to her instead.

"Harry, come on, it's our turn!"

Two cones and an ice pop later, Harry returned to his mother's side with Ilaria. He found himself not really in the mood for ice cream after witnessing the two bullies by the van, however, he knew his mother would question plenty more if he returned empty-handed. He settled on an ice pop, lemon-flavoured, while Ilaria had gotten strawberry ice cream and a chocolate one for Monte.

"Is everything alright?" It was only a matter of time before Renata had asked. Harry knew she could sense something was immediately wrong, even if he did smile to her face. It wasn't her fault, it was just her ability as an Empath.

"Yeah," he answered, " just two boys over there causing trouble. We avoided them though."

Renata didn't have a chance to glance over as James had finally returned to them, looking slightly flustered but thankful that they had their tickets and were permitted to continue. But he seemed to relax as Ilaria showed off the ice cream she had, offering him a lick of it.

To a six-year-old, ice cream made everything better.

And Renata wanted it to remain a good day, encouraging the whole family to move forward so they could start seeing the animals. Harry quickly forgot about the two boys from earlier, focusing on the animals that his siblings would point out every couple of minutes in excitement. While James had his hands full with lifting Monte and Ilaria up so they could see into the enclosures properly, Harry followed his mother to where she would read the information pertaining to each animal.

When they reached the Bolivian Spider Monkey exhibit, Harry watched as one of the monkeys was grooming her young and when she finished, she carried the baby monkey away on her back. Several of the animals they had observed made it a point to describe how some of them were fantastic mothers among the animal kingdom. Some were fiercely protective of their young, while others made sure they had everything their young needed, even if it meant sacrificing themselves in the long run.

There were plenty of other facts but Harry found it difficult to focus on. Instead, every time a mother was mentioned, he would glance over in Renata's direction.

How could she not be his real mother?

The feeling of guilt seemed to be returning as he remembered his early request with his father to talk about Lily.  Renata had never treated him differently from his other siblings, Harry had never felt left out or ignored. Hell, she had even stopped working at her own restaurant for years while he was growing up and before his siblings came along, just to make sure that he had everything he needed.

And while no one told him the stories from the past, deeming him too young to know, Harry had heard the adults discussing just how far Renata would go for her children...all three of them, due to her own upbringing alongside Uncle Adelmo.

In the animal kingdom, Renata was a top mother, so why did he want to know so much about a woman who was never going to be there for him? He should just be thankful to have a loving mother, father, and two siblings that looked up to him even when he didn't do anything.

But if Harry thought he was the only one that felt the awkwardness or troublesome thoughts concerning the situation, he didn't understand how Renata felt because she tried to mask it as well.

Ever since she and James sat Harry down to discuss Lily, there was a knot in her stomach that never seemed to go away. When James brought it up that they needed to talk with Harry, she had been absolutely terrified. Harry had always been a relatively easy-going child, but there was fear that he would come to resent her or maybe not feel as close to her once he learned the truth. She knew he had the right to know, she just hoped nothing would change afterwards.

Unfortunately, it did, even if they both didn't notice right away.

There was something on Harry's mind after the discussion, something that was bothering him, but even if she asked, he wouldn't tell her. She could only feel his feelings, but she couldn't hear his thoughts. And of course, it led Renata to believe that Harry was somewhat upset with her or maybe upset with the idea that she wasn't his biological mother.  Maybe he suddenly didn't feel as close with her anymore or maybe he was caught up in the thoughts of "what if?"

What if Lily had survived, where would the Potter family be?

Renata couldn't blame him for wondering such things, she assumed it was only natural. But she hoped that Harry wouldn't grow to resent her or his siblings for that matter. It didn't seem to be in his nature, but it was something new and difficult to process.

His nightmares appeared to be more frequent, but he wouldn't talk about them either. When he was younger, he had no problem asking her to check under his bed for monsters or he would tell her about what had caused him such a fright. Nowadays, he resulted to saying that he was "just fine" even with his face paled and his forehead beaded with sweat.

When she had brought it up to James, he claimed that Harry was probably just acting tough. After all, he was getting older and probably didn't want to admit to his mother or rely on her every time he had a bad dream. And while she could understand that, she still wanted Harry to know that he could always tell her or James for that matter if something upset him. They knew better than anyone that adults still suffered through nightmares and it was best to talk about them rather than just brush it off.

"Mummy, are you coming?"

Disrupted from her own thoughts, Renata looked over to see her family waiting on her, ready to head to the Reptile House.

"Right behind you."

The Reptile House was kept dark, except for the lights coming from the displays and the little lights scattered on the floor to keep people from tripping. Harry shivered once they entered, it was already a windy day outside, but inside, it was even cooler. Of course, Ilaria and Monte didn't seem to care as they were already standing on the tips of their toes to observe some colourful and poisonous frogs.

James started making silly frog noises which had them giggling and also spoke in different high pitched voices to make it sound like the animals were talking. However, Harry was only amused by it for a few seconds before he spotted Renata walking ahead of them. For some reason, despite spending so much time with her, between the restaurant and at home, it felt like he hadn't spoken to her in ages.

Hurrying over, he went to link arms with her but found himself hesitating at the last second. Foolish questions had surfaced to his mind at the wrong time, such as : if it came down to saving her children, would she choose Monte and Ilaria over him?

Of course she would, after all, they were her real children. She didn't give birth to Harry and there were other differences too. After all, her siblings definitely had Italian names and while Harry did speak Italian fluently, it was clear that he wasn't Italian like them. Not even half. She would have loyalty to them over him and what about his own father?

Renata was his wife and those were his children with her, would he pick them over Harry if a situation ever came to be?

No,no, no, stop thinking like that, Harry said to himself, it's not like that. She loves all of us equally, Dad too.

He continued to repeat it over and over in his head as he came to stand by Renata in front of the biggest tank in the place.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Renata said to him softly. "Shame it's asleep, but I would be too. I imagine it's dreadfully boring being inside there all day. There's no fun in being kept closed in by four walls day in and day out."

If Harry didn't know any better, it sounded like his mother spoke from experience, but that sounded like a silly thought.

They were interrupted by Monte racing over, grabbing Renata by the hand to drag her over to where a lizard was munching on some freshly delivered insects. However, Harry decided to remain behind and observe the snake that continued to sleep.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry whispered to himself and just as he was about to glanced over at the little information sign, he watched as the snake lifted up its tail and jabbed it in the direction of the sign.

Raising a brow and glancing back at the head of the snake, he could see it was awake now and if Harry didn't know any better, he would say that the snake winked at him.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry learned it had been bred in captivity. "Oh, I see—so you've never been to Brazil?"

In the middle of the odd conversation between the snake and Harry, Ilaria appeared at her brother's side and marvelled at the creature.

"Wow, that's a big snake! She's beautiful! It's a she, right?"

As Harry glanced over at the snake again, he could see the snake shake its head, leaving him with a smile. "No, I think its a boy, Lari."

"Oops, sorry, Mr Snake, but I still think you're beautiful. I-"

Before the little girl could continue with her compliments, they were interrupted by what sounded like a shrieking banshee behind them.

"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Quickly, Harry recognised one of the boys from earlier by the ice cream van, the scrawny one had done the yelling, while the bigger one was waddling over.  The scrawny boy had made his way over first and decided that he was going to push Ilaria out of the way, knocking her to the floor.

"Hey!" Harry growled, ready to defend his sister, but the larger one had arrived and punched him in the ribs to knock him away to get a better look at the glass. Harry felt the ache in his sides, but his first thought was to look over at Ilaria, who was tearing up after scraping her hands on the concrete floor.

Immediately, he glared in the direction of the boys, pounding on the glass. But nothing could prepare him for what happened next as the glass to the tank suddenly vanished and the two boys fell foward. Seconds later, chaos had ensued as the snake started to slither out of the tank onto the floor, while others definitely took notice.

As it came near the two, Ilaria's crying quickly came to an end, but Harry's focus remained on the snake as it paused in front of him.

"Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."

Harry didn't have a chance to respond when the commotion continued and adults started to get involved. In mere seconds, Renata had appeared, relief washing over her face when she spotted the two on the floor, seemingly unharmed.

"Harry! Ilaria! Are you two all right?"

Maybe it didn't mean anything at the time, but Harry couldn't help but noticed that she had said his name first before asking if they were alright, making him think of his silly questions from earlier.

"What happened?"

"Those boys pushed us!" Ilaria said pointing in the direction of the two that were being checked over by another man and woman. "The gorilla and the rat!"

Ignoring the insults, Renata looked to Harry for confirmation and he quickly nodded his head. Immediately, he watched as his mother's eyes narrowed into near slits before she turned around to face the other family. And suddenly, what came out of his mother's mouth was fast and full of anger, and all in her native tongue.

The other couple looked somewhat furious at the woman yelling at them, but they had no clue what she was saying. Harry did though and he quickly took to covering Ilaria's ears. However, he fierce nature had attracted James over from where he was trying to comfort a screaming Monte, who had gone practically mental at the sight of the loose snake.

"What's going on here?"

And for a moment as everything became quiet, Harry wondered if time itself had stopped. No one said a word for a little while, but he could see James and the other man staring each other down.

"Potter?!"

"Dursley."

"We should have known your kind was behind this!"