Author's Note: Hey guys! I've finally found the time to start posting my new revised version of The Twins Who Lived: The Sorcerer's Stone. Hope you enjoy and sorry for the extremely long wait! I know the posting for this story was greatly overdue.
The peculiar cat that had been keeping a suspicious watch over the Number 4 Privet Drive House started to create an uneasy feeling inside Mr. Dursley. The cat showed no sign of drowsiness as the source of the shadow's existence behind it came from the moon and stars instead of the sun. It was sitting as still as a statue, its yellow eyes fixed on the corner of Privet Drive.
A man appeared on the corner the cat had been keeping its eye on, appearing so suddenly and silently. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed. The man was indeed very strange, like nothing a regular passerby on Privet Drive would usually see. Long robes and a purple cloak clad his body, along with high-heeled buckled boots. The bright and light blue eyes accompanied his half-moon spectacles, crooked nose, and shiny long beard. This was Albus Dumbledore.
Albus Dumbledore did not seem to mind the slightly eerie and unwelcome feeling on this street, and the house that was his ultimate target. He rummaged through his cloak, searching for something as the cat watched him intently. For some reason, the strange cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."
The item he pulled out of the inside of his pocket looked like a silver lighter. He flicked it open and clicked it, causing the nearest street lamp to go out with a little pop. Each click from the Put-Outer caused each light to go out until the street was nearly dark. Any person from his or her house could look out of the window and barely see a thing.
Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back into his pocket and approached the cat, which was standing guard in front of house number four. He sat down next to the cat before looking at it and saying, "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."
He turned to smile at the tabby cat, but instead smiled at a rather strict-looking woman. She too wore spectacles, but instead of half-moon, they were squared. She wore a cloak as well, an emerald one; her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.
"How did you know it was me?" she asked.
"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."
"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor
"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."
Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.
"The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped You-Know-Who?" said Professor McGonagall.
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."
Professor McGonagall flinched as Dumbledore continued. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."
"I know you haven't, but you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-Who, oh all right, Voldemort, was frightened of. But everyone's saying that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead."
Dumbledore bowed his head and reached out to pat Professor McGonagall on the shoulder.
"That's not all," said Professor McGonagall continued in a trembling voice. "They're saying he tried to kill the Potters' twin sons, Harry and Henry. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill those two little boys. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that he couldn't kill the Potter twins. Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."
Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore sniffed as he took a golden watch out from his pocket and examined it. It was very odd, and it did not show hands and numbers but little planets moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"
"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"
"I've come to bring Harry and Henry to their aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now."
"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry and Henry Potter come and live here!"
"It's the best place for them," said Dumbledore firmly. "Their aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to them when they're older. I've written them a letter."
"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. The Professor reprimanded Dumbledore about the muggle family not being able to care for two famous legendary wizard twin boys. "Every child will know their names!" she exclaimed.
"Exactly. It would be enough to turn any boy's head, being famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! They'll be much better of growing away from all that until they are both ready to take it," answered Dumbledore.
Professor McGonagall thought for a moment, her mouth open, until she changed her mind. She swallowed then said, "Yes, you're right, of course. But how are the boys getting here?"
"Hagrid's bringing them."
"You think it wise to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"
"I would trust Hagrid with my life," answered Dumbledore.
A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them, steadily growing louder. Then a sign of a headlight appeared, and then soon the source of light morphed into a large motorcycle. It fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them, carrying a large hairy man, who appeared to be half-giant.
"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. No problems, were there?"
"No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got them out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. One of 'em fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."
"I suppose you can't tell me which of the two is the one asleep?" Dumbledore joked lightly.
"Er," said Hagrid as he looked at the bundle of blankets to see the two baby twin boys. Like Hagrid said, one of them was asleep while the other was wide awake, his hauntingly very green eyes staring up at the three adult figures. Each of the Potter boys had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The baby that was asleep had the scar on the right side of his head, and the one awake on his left side.
"Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.
"Yes," said Dumbledore. "They'll have their scars forever."
"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"
"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy, especially when in telling two twins apart. Without those scars, Hagrid, you wouldn't have known that Harry is the one asleep while Henry is the one wide awake."
Hagrid's jaw dropped slightly in amazement as McGonagall looked up at Dumbledore in shock.
"H-How can you tell them apart, Dumbledore?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"Lily once sent me a letter that told me that Henry's eyes are just a little bit greener."
Dumbledore then took Harry and Henry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.
"Could I - could I say good-bye to them, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over the two Potter boys and gave them each what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.
"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"
"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid.
Dumbledore approached the front doorstep of the muggle house and laid the bundle of blankets that carried the Potter twins. He tucked a letter, which he pulled out of his cloak, inside the blankets, snug in between the blanket and the Potter twin who had his eyes wide open.
After a moment of silence, Dumbledore said, "Well that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."
Hagrid ascended on his motorcycle and flew away, his eyes still streaming with tears. Dumbledore took out his Put-Outer and returned the lamp post's lights. Everything seemed as normal as Dumbledore looked back to see the street, except for the bundle of blankets on the front doorstep of the house where now the peculiar tabby cat seemed to have returned.
"Good luck, Harry and Henry," murmured Dumbledore. Then with a swish of his cloak, the man disappeared into the night.
Little did the Potter twins know that in a few hours' time, Mrs. Dursley would wake them up with her scream when she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor would they expect their life to be spent in harassment by their cousin Dudley... The two couldn't know that there was really such thing as magic, nor that at this very moment, there were magical people called wizards and witches who were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry and Henry Potter - the twins who lived!"