Disclaimer: This is for the ENTIRE story! I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER that wonderful idea belongs to J. K. Rowling! Furthermore AVPM or AVPS and any quotes from it are not my own ideas they belong to someone else! Also any songs used or mentioned in my works belong to their respective artists unless stated otherwise.

Summary: Part one of 'The Tragedy of a Hero' series. Skylar and Claire start their first year at Hogwarts. They make new friends and even some enemies, but things take a turn for the worst when they find a diary left behind in class and Skylar starts having dreams of a certain Dark Lord. Set in Chamber of Secrets. R&R.


The Tragedy of a Hero

Year One: Tragic Curiosity

Chapter One: The Tragedy of Fate

In the north west of England is a town called Manchester and in an isolated field on the outskirts of town stood a large manor. Not everyone knew that this manor was there for it took a special kind of ability to be knowledgeable of it. To most the place where the manor stood would appear as though there was nothing there at all and anyone wandering close would suddenly forget where they were going. To those with the special ability to see the manor, it would appear to be gloomy with its red brick walls faded from age and vines growing around the tall iron fence guarding it.

Inside, the manor is full of life as a nice family of four lives there. Mr. and Mrs. Darlington are the proud parents of their twin daughters, Skylar and Claire, and none of them are part of the normal world. The normal world to the Darlington family is full of magic and wonder for they are witches and a wizard and they are proud of it. The Wizarding World was all that they knew and they liked it that way.

Mr. Darlington works for the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Games and Sports under a man named Ludo Bagman. He is a tall and lanky man with dark hair and gleaming green eyes.

Mrs. Darlington is short and has a bit of a gut. Her hair is long and brown and she has big brown eyes that show every bit of her emotions.

Their twin daughters are identical down to the last toe except for three small differences. They both have their mother's long flowing brown hair, though Skylar's is wavy and Claire's is straight as a board. They both are short for being only eleven years old and they are both athletically skinny. However, their eyes are different colors; Claire has their mother's eyes while Skylar has their father's. The final difference between them is that Claire is right handed while Skylar is left handed.

Now, in the Wizarding World, being eleven years old is very important because it means that you will soon be starting your magical education at one of the many magic schools located around the world, provided you have been accepted of course. This is what the Darlington family was waiting for on a chilly June morning when Mrs. Darlington was making breakfast, Mr. Darlington was reading The Daily Prophet, Claire was sleeping, and Skylar sat on her bed immersed in a book called Men Who Love Dragons Too Much while waiting for her sister to wake up.

The twins once had separate rooms, but on their tenth birthday their mother announced they were to share a room in order to prepare for having to live in a dorm once they got into a magic school. Mrs. Darlington decorated the room according to what her dorm at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic had looked like. Each of the girl's beds was pushed along the far walls covered in pink bedding. A single bedside table stood next to each of the beds. There was a trunk at the foot of each of their beds, a single bookcase between them of which the first three shelves belonged to Skylar and the bottom three shelves belonged to Claire, and there was a single wardrobe across from the bookshelf that each of the girls shared.

Skylar didn't mind sharing a room with her sister, but she missed her room with all of her dragon action figures that would fly around the room and fight each other and her four bookshelves full of all the books she loved, but most of all she missed her queen sized bed that was made of cloud cushion. Skylar sighed as she thought of her room which was next to the room she was now in and dreamed that she had a wand to undo the magical lock her mother had put on the door. She was appalled by the pink walls around her and sore from the Hippogriff feathered bed she now slept on, but none the less she continued to read her book.

It was only when the smell of waffles came wafting up the stairs that Skylar became irritated with her sister's lie-in, so she climbed out of bed, replaced her book on the bookshelf and walked over to her sister's bed. She sighed deeply when she saw that Claire showed no signs of waking any time soon, but then she smiled mischievously as an idea formed in her head. She knew how to get her sister up and everything she'd need was in her trunk. She quickly opened the trunk and pulled out the worm hole stickers, invisible tarp, and wailing squids before walking to a place on the wall and ran her hand along until she found the small hole she had put to indicate that was where one of the worm hole stickers belonged and placed it there. She then ran to the other side of the wall and located the same hole before placing the second sticker over it. She smiled and shoved her arm through the wall, dropping the small pin she had in her hand to make sure that the stickers were working correctly. She then ducked her head into the room to see the glint of silver on the floor signifying that it was in fact working. Her mischievous smile widened as she finished setting her plan up.

Once everything was in place, Skylar stood outside of the room she shared with Claire and stuck her hand through the worm hole stickers before dropping the wailing squid which immediately burst into deafening screams for ten seconds. After the squid became quite she heard Claire moving about the room.

"Skylar! I'm goin' to flippin' murder you!" Claire screamed before marching from the room, but something odd happened to her as she walked over the threshold of the door into the hallway. Skylar had fastened the invisible tarp over their door so that anyone who walked through the door would become tangled in it and that someone was her sister Claire who now stood struggling to remove the invisible cloth. "Get this thing off of me before it ruins me 'air!" Claire wailed as she sent a glare to her sister who was leaning against the wall holding her stomach in laughter.

"W'at ees going on up 'ere?" Mrs. Darlington asked in her normal French accent as she made her way up the stairs to witness Claire seemingly struggling to free herself from air and Skylar laughing hysterically.

"Skylar's invisible tarp." Claire answered breathlessly as she was finding it hard to breathe from struggling and the fact that the tarp was blocking out any fresh air.

Mrs. Darlington gave her green eyed daughter a stern look before helping her brown eyed one from the cloth. "Skylar, 'ow many times 'ave I told you not to prank your sister like this?"

Skylar instantly stopped laughing at the hard edge in her mother's tone which signified she was in trouble, "Sorry Mum." She whispered while looking at the wood floor beneath her feet.

Mrs. Darlington shook her head, "No yew are not. If yew were yew would not continue to do zings like zis." She chastised as she easily pulled the invisible tarp off of Claire.

"Me 'air!" Claire shrieked before running through the door across from the room she shared with her sister which happened to be the restroom.

"Breakfast is ready." Mrs. Darlington said with a hard edge to Skylar before gently knocking on the bathroom door and kindly relaying the same message to Claire and walking off in the direction of the stairs.

Skylar sighed and gathered up the things she used to prank her sister, replacing them in her trunk before following her mother down to the dining room knowing that Mrs. Darlington was going to be upset with her for the remainder of the day.

The dining room was a large room occupied by a long cherry wood table in the center and a fireplace on the wall. The floors were the same wood as was in the rest of the house and the walls were a deep grey color that gave the room a depressing feel while the high chandelier lit by one hundred candles gave the room a spooky feeling as the light flickered across the walls casting odd shadows. The table was set with a big breakfast made up of bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and waffles which were the twin's personal favourite food. At the head of the table sat Mr. Darlington reading his newspaper and to his left sat Claire who had fixed her hair and was eagerly awaiting food. Skylar took the seat next to her sister as Mrs. Darlington began fixing plates starting with her own and ending with Skylar's.

Skylar immediately began chomping down on her bacon and eggs while she waited for her sister to finish with the syrup for her waffles which would take a moment since Claire liked to add something called Nutella to her waffles before drowning them in the syrup.

"What we doin' today Isabelle?" Mr. Darlington asked his wife with a smile since he wasn't working and it was rare for him to get an off day. He always told his children never to work under Mr. Bagman because they would be worked to the bone even when there was no magical event to plan.

Mrs. Darlington sighed irritably after finishing her bite of toast, "I 'ad 'oped that zee girl's acceptance letters to Beauxbatons would be 'ere by now so zat we could all go to Diagon Alley together, but zay are not 'ere so I suppose zit will be a day at 'ome dear."

Beauxbatons Academy of Magic had been the school that Mrs. Darlington attended to learn magic and her only desire was to see that her daughters attended the school as well.

Mr. Darlington shook his head at his wife and sat straight in his seat, "I thought we decided that they would be attendin' Hogwarts." He responded with frustration.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was the school that Mr. Darlington attended and just like his wife he desired their daughters to attend the school he had graduated from.

Skylar rolled her eyes and concentrated on eating as she had heard this argument about a million times in the past year and there had yet to be a decision made. Mrs. Darlington would argue that they would learn to be proper pure blooded ladies at Beauxbatons while Mr. Darlington would argue that they would have more freedom to develop into great witches at Hogwarts. If either of the twins tried to voice their opinion on which school they should attend, they would immediately be shot down.

Skylar smiled faintly as she remembered telling her parents that she wanted to go to the Durmstrang Institute. That had made both of her parents go quite for a long moment and give her the most priceless look she had ever seen… of course the moment was short lived as they dove into another argument over which one was responsible for their daughter wanting to attend a magic school that taught The Dark Arts and wouldn't listen when Skylar tried to explain that she was only joking.

Skylar was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts as her sister stood and glared at her parents, "Over me dead body!" She snapped making Skylar wonder what she had missed. "I won't go to either of them because I'm goin' to Pigfarts!" Claire added in a matter of fact tone.

Skylar couldn't help but nearly choke on her mouthful of egg as she laughed at her sister's determination.

Pigfarts was a magical school the twins had invented when they were four with the imagination of a child. It was housed on Mars and kept secret from the rest of the magical community so that no unwanted visitors would be poking around since the only way to get there was a rocket ship.

"Pigfarts! Pigfarts!" Skylar chanted in a singsong voice as she remembered their drawing of Rumbleroar the magical talking lion who was the headmaster of the space based school.

Claire smiled widely at her sister before adding her part to the song. "Here I come!" She chanted in the same tone.

"Pigfarts! Pigfarts!" Skylar continued.

"Yum! Yum! Yum!" Claire finished before the two burst into fits of laughter.

Mrs. Darlington blinked at her daughters before turning to her husband with a rather perplexed look on her face, "Jean, do yew know vat Pigfarts is?"

Mr. Darlington thought for a moment before shaking his head, "I've never 'eard of it."

"Never 'eard of it?!" Claire screamed in shock before shaking her head and flopping back into her seat with her arms crossed. "How could've you never 'eard of it?!" She added before turning to her sister, "Can you believe that father's never 'eard of Pigfarts? It's only the greatest wizarding school in the galaxy! It's on Mars!"

"Anyway," Mrs. Darlington started, waving her hands dismissively at Claire as she always did when the twins expressed an interest in which school they were to attend, "Zis argument does not change our plans. Zee only zing that vill change zem is if yewr letters arrive soon." She informed the rest of her family before returning to her neglected food.

"Claire dear, clear zee table please." Mrs. Darlington ordered once everyone had eaten as much as they possibly could. "Skylar, yew get to wash pots." She added to her second daughter before she and Mr. Darlington swept out of the room still discussing which school their daughters were to attend.

Skylar sighed and put her head onto the table while Claire gathered the used dishes from it. "Don't we get a say in what school we go to?" She asked her sister with slight frustration because their parents weren't even considering what they wanted.

Claire shook her head as she wiped all of the food onto one plate, "Apparently not." She said with the same frustration, "And don't we have Loki to do our cleanin'?" She added in regards to the house elf their family owned.

Skylar looked up at her sister and shook her head, "D'you think that we should just pick a school for 'em? I'm tired of their arguin'…" she suggested ignoring the question about the family's house elf.

"Yes!" Claire said enthusiastically as a wide smile spread over her face, "I think Pigfarts or Beauxbatons." She added as she began to balance the dishes in her hands.

Skylar stood and smiled as well, though it wasn't as wide as her sisters. "I completely agree with Pigfarts."' She said keeping their joke ongoing, "But I think Hogwarts would be a better fit for me." She added as she walked into the kitchen to get started on washing the pots.

The kitchen was a large and rather silver looking. It looked more like is belonged in a five star restaurant rather than in someone's home.

"What?" she heard Claire scream from the other room in surprise and she could just imagine Claire's brown eyes going wide and her mouth open in a perfect O shape. "Hogwarts has really gone to the dogs." Claire added as she entered the room with her hands full of dishes. "Mum says that Muggle-borns 'ave taken it over because the 'eadmaster has some sort of fascination with them."

Skylar sighed and rolled her eyes, "Who cares who goes there? It's a huge castle!" She said as though the fact that the school was a castle justified its greatness. "There's so much to explore and all of those Muggle-borns would be extremely fun to prank!" Her green eyes sparkled at just the thought of being able to prank someone other than her family. "Besides the only thing you're goin' to learn at Beauxbatons is how to balance books on your 'ead and curtsy correctly. Who needs to learn that rubbish?"

Claire stopped walking towards the counters and gaped at her sister. "Any respectable Pure-Blooded lady needs to!" She snapped angrily before finally setting the pots on the counter next to the sink. With a sigh she turned to her sister, "We're not goin' to argue over this are we?" she asked, clearly not wanting to wind up like their parents, forever locked in this argument.

Skylar shook her head as she began to fill the sink with hot water and soap, "Of course we aren't, because I've got a great idea." She turned to Claire with a smile, "What if you went to Beauxbatons and I went to Hogwarts? That way everyone gets what they want." She wasn't too sure about being separated from her sister, but she also didn't see many other options for their situation.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Claire beamed as she pulled herself onto one of the empty counters. "Then mum and dad won't 'ave to fight anymore." She added in a hopeful tone as their mother's voice rang into the kitchen from the dining room.

"I do not vant my beautiful daughters to be 'Ogwarts girls!" She cried at her husband. "Yew fell in love vith me because I was a classy, glamorous, proper, Beauxbatons student, or did yew forget zat?"

"I 'aven't forgotten that." Mr. Darlington's determined voice responded, "I just think that they can be all of those things at Hogwarts as well."

"No, zey will turn out just like Narcissa Malfoy if zey go to 'Ogwarts and we all know-" Suddenly Mrs. Darlington stopped talking and squealed in delight. "Zee post is 'ere!" She yelled excitedly. "Girls yewr letters from Beauxbatons are 'ere come and read 'em!"

"There's letters from Hogwarts too!" Mr. Darlington added with equal excitement.

Without a second glance at the pots, Skylar eagerly walked with Claire out of the kitchen, "Mum, dad," She started as they entered the room where their parents were, "before we read those letters we 'ave summat to tell you."

"We made the decision about what school we're goin' to so that you'll stop fighting over it." Claire continued without giving their parents time to react to what her sister had said.

"I'm goin' to Hogwarts."

"And I'm goin' to Beauxbatons."

Both Mr. and Mrs. Darlington looked at their children with a bit of shock, but Mr. Darlington's face quickly turned into a smile while Mrs. Darlington's turned into a scowl. "Yew are both going to Beauxbatons and zat is final!" she shrieked before giving them each a pale pink and gold envelope. "Now read yewr letters so we know what to buy at Diagon Alley."

The second the letter reached Claire's hand she ripped it open and pulled out parchment that was identical to the envelope and began reading aloud.

"BEAUXBATONS ACADEMY of MAGIC

Headmistress: Madam Maxime

Dear Ms. Darlington,

We regret to inform you that you have been denied admittance to Beauxbatons at this time. We ask that you do not take this denial personal as we have discontinued the acceptance of any student that lives outside of our area.

Yours sincerely,

Lady Aria

Chief of Admissions."

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Witch, International Confed. of Wizards)

As Claire read the letter her excited smile quickly turned sad. She looked up at her mother when she had finished reading, "I can't go then?" She asked with a look on her face that said she was about to cry.

Mrs. Darlington looked furious as her slightly rounded face turned scarlet red, "Madam Maxime said zat she vould make an exception for zee two of you! I'm sendin' 'er an owl right now!" She snapped as she sat at the dining table and conjured some parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink before starting to write furiously.

"Well c'mon then, what do the Hogwarts letters say?" Mr. Darlington asked completely unfazed by the Beauxbatons rejection letter and held an off white envelope with green writing out to them.

Skylar smiled slightly as she took the Hogwarts letter from her father and opened it. She did just as her sister did and began to read the letter aloud.

"HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Darlington,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress."

Skylar turned to the second page and continued to read.

"UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)One plain pointed hat (black) for day wearOne pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart…"

Skylar shook her head and stopped reading, "There's like ten or so books by this Gilderoy Lockhart. And a list with a wand and stuff like that. Oh look! It says I can bring a pet! I want a cat!" she smiled widely at this as Mrs. Darlington finished her letter and attached it to the family barn owl named Prince.

"We will get yew a cat dear." She said in a slightly better mood. "Now, come on and we can go to Diagon Alley so yew can get zee things yew need for 'Ogwarts and Claire a vand. She will be going to Beauxbatons even if it means I 'ave to move back to France." She said with determination before walking up to the large fireplace and throwing a pinch of something into the flames which caused them to turn green and shoot high. "Come on now, yew kids know zee drill." She ordered as a very sad Claire climbed into the flames.

"Diagon Alley." Claire announced clearly.

"Sky dear, yew next!"

Skylar followed her sister's lead and closed her eyes as several fireplaces zoomed around her. The next stop would be Diagon Alley and Hogwarts!