The messy haired boy stood next to his twin sister, who was preparing to bolt at the first sign of trouble (and ready to forcibly drag him along if needed), as Professor Snape tapped on the bricks of the far wall in the alley with his slim fingers.
Wilder didn't know why they'd answered the door when the 'Professor' had knocked, and he had even less of an idea why they'd gone with him instead of locking the door/ starting dinner for when their parents came home from work. Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe it was because they knew they were different and wanted to know why strange things were always going on around them. (In reality, neither of them wanted to begin the mind numbing taste of cooking and were just looking for an excuse to get out of it.) So they'd followed the black clothed man, at a very generous distance of almost an entire block, as he leads them into a pub named 'Leaky Cauldron' and started hitting an assortment of bricks.
Then to the twins utmost surprise the bricks, that had once been part of a solid wall, moved apart and open a doorway into a busy strip bustling with at least a hundred people dressed in colorful fabric. It was...well it was absolutely magical.
As the twins walked in long strides to keep up with Professor Snape, Wilder silently thanked every god he'd ever heard of because he had his twin sister walking next to him. Snape had explained it wasn't often a 'muggle' family had a magical child, and it went without saying that it was unheard of for a 'muggle' family to adopt two magical children from completely different bloodlines.
While Juniper Porter and Wilder Porter were 'twins', they didn't actually share any more blood with each other than they might with a complete stranger in Diagon Alley. They just happen to be found together by their parents, who desperately wanted children but couldn't conceive properly, in an orphanage by the ocean side when they were around seven years old.
The family had fallen in love with each other at nearly first sight, their parents accepted them as twins (because even back then they were inseparable) and raised them accordingly. The day the group meet, twenty- fourth of December was deemed the twin's birthday due to neither having a proper one. It was the entire family's favorite day.
It wasn't until they got older that their parents (and themselves) begin to notice the strange things that happened around them almost daily. Jumping off of the dining room chairs and staying suspended in the air just a second too long, disappearing for hours at a time while playing hide and seek, and the toys of a bullies suddenly lighting up on fire.
Everyone in primary school had called them 'freaky' and 'weird', but before the taunting got too far the twin's mother had come in like the tornado of a lady she was, and withdrawn them from classes and begun their homeschooling careers.
"This is our world," Juniper muttered softly, a small smile gracing her excited face. "There are people like us here."
Wilder nodded, "This is part of our world, but the rest of our world will always be at home with our parents."
"That was a given."
It was a nice beginning.
The twins walked slower, at least compared to Snape who's legs seemed to be a mile long, connected by hooked elbows as they moved through people and pointed to things that caught their attention. Which, to Snape's annoyance, it seemed like everything caught their attention to varying degrees.
Soon, but not soon enough, Snape was able to lead the twins towards someone no doubt more eager to deal with them. With a quick introduction to a woman with red hair, the introduction consisting of, "Porter twins, muggle born, and *sigh* without their parents."
Snape was gone.
"Hi," The women greeted, a shining light in her green eyes as she tipped her head towards the sun. "I'm Lily Evans, and I'm a professor at Hogwarts. I will be teaching you charms until third year."
Juniper bobbed her head in understand, she didn't speak often (to people other than her family) and absolutely never talked to strangers.
"I'm Wilder Porter and this is my twin sister, Juniper Porter. You can call us Wild and Juni, if you'd like."
Juniper and Wilder, were shuffled from person to person. Never spending more than twenty minutes with each person they were presented to, with the exception of Professor Snape, before their (sometime reluctant) guide were needed elsewhere.
They'd meet 'just-call-me-Lily' Evans, Professor Mcgonagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, 'I'm-just-James' Potter, Remus Lupin, 'I'm-a-cool-adult-Sirius' Black, Molly and Arthur Weasly, and 'Keeper-of-Keys' Hagrid within two hours.
Their excitement of being in this new world and understanding that everyone was busy was well gone and they refused to be shifted off to another person. So they did the most rational thing they could think of, they walked away while Hagrid's back was turned and he was talking about unicorns.
Even though they'd been with many people, they had yet to actually enter any buildings and get information they could use. While they were politely 'interested' in unicorns they didn't really think it would be important to them down the line.
"Let's go to that building first," Juni said, pointing to a large building near the end of the ally made of elegant grey bricks and a staircase of long stairs. "It looks promising."
"Okay, but after I want to check out the book stores."
"Sounds fair."
The twins walked up the massive staircase, taking passing moments to admire the view of the alley from higher up and catch their breath. It took them almost fifteen minutes, by Juniper's watch, or twenty minutes, by Wilder's watch, to reach the top of the stairs and slowly make their way into the building.
Inside was a rather large lobby with high marble ceilings and cold stone floors. Lined up neatly were twelve dark wooden desks and comfortable red velvet chairs. The most interesting thing about the building, at least to the twins, was that it seemed to be completely empty.
With nothing else to do and not wanting to walk right back down the stairs they'd climbed, Wilder and Juniper made their way to one of the counters.
To their surprise a goblin appeared behind the counter, snarling slightly at the two and brandishing sharp teeth.
"Children," The goblin snarled easily. "How might Gringott's help you today."
"We've never actually been here."
"Here? As is Gringott or-"
"My brother and I, only learned about magic today. This is our first time near a magical community." Juniper explained as she stood behind the velvet chair, Wilder making a comfortable place for himself on the chair. "We're Juniper Porter and Wilder Porter."
"I'm Kriftoran, Gringott is a goblin run bank and it never hurts to have a bank account. How about we set you up with one, a shared account all you need to do in answer some questions."
"I don't see any harm." Wilder shrugged, as Juniper watched the goblin carefully.
"Are you two siblings?"
"We were both adopted, we've been raised as twins even though we come from different bloodlines."
Kriftoran looked up the paperwork, letting his eyes wander over each of the twins a hard second. "Have either of you heard of a blood adoption?"
"No." Juniper answered simply.
"It's a practice that has fallen out with most of Wizard kind, but it could allow you two to share blood. For the right fee the two of you could share blood." Kriftoran explained, as he leaned back into his chair with a sigh. "Seven Galleons is the fee."
The twins looked at the conversion chart (muggle currency into wizarding currency) that was on the desk and both signed in unhappy unison, both knowing their family wouldn't be able to afford it. Neither of the Porter's made much money and would probably find it hard enough to send the twins off to school, much less worry about the cost of a blood adoption.
"We can't afford it," Wilder muttered before looking up at Kriftoran hopefully. "Unless we can work it off."
The ugly grin the goblin suddenly grew was enough to make Juniper run for the hills, and she would have if she didn't trip over the leg of a chair when she turned.
Juniper was just a little paranoid.
Yes, they could work off the cost.
All they needed to do was sign a worker contract, which just promised an agreed amount of money/ labor for the blood adoption.
Kriftoran expected the twins to work three hours at the bank every day for a week. Which wasn't that bad, all they needed to do was light cleaning, deliver mail around Diagon Alley for the bank, and provide tea for waiting customers. They also had to read two books, which Gringotts loaned them, one on the bank itself and the other on Goblin etiquette before their first day.
It was dark by the time the twins left the bank and most of the people in Diagon Alley were gone. No one noticed or seemed to care that the twins had disappeared.