"…though the Witch knew of the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incarnation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table would crack and Death itself will turn backwards…" Selena read to herself on her bed at 4 in the morning by the light of the dim lamp next to her bed, while her brother Harry slept. She had randomly stumbled upon C. S. Lewis' classic novel 'The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' one lazy afternoon of cleaning. She was about to chuckle to herself at the irony of the title when her Great Horned owl, Elvis started making a racket, rattling against the lock of his cage. His neighbour, Hedwig, a snowy owl started screeching.
Harry woke with a start, and the twins groaned, knowing what was to come the following morning.
Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by the loud, hooting and screeching noise from his niece and nephew's room.
"Third time this week!" he roared across the table. "If you two can't control those bloody birds, they'll have to go!"
Harry and Selena tried, yet again, to explain.
"They're bored," Harry said.
"They're used to flying around outside. If we could just let them out at night –" Selena said.
"Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit if fried egg dangling from his bushy moustache. "I know what'll happen if those owls are let out." He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia.
Selena was about to argue back but her words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursleys' son, Dudley.
"I want more bacon."
"There's more in the frying pan, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, turning misty eyes on her massive son. "We must build you up while we've got the chance…I don't like the sound of that school food…"
"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," said Uncle Vernon heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"
Selena looked over at Harry with a disgusted look that said: "More than enough,"
Dudley was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry.
"Pass the frying pan."
"You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably.
The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples. Selena looked over at Harry and hissed. "Idiot!"
"I meant 'please'!" said Harry quickly. "I didn't mean –"
"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," thundered their uncle, spraying spit all over the table, "ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?"
"But I –"
"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.
Selena stepped in. "He didn't threaten any –"
"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID SISTER'S ABNORMALITY'S UNDER THIS ROOF!"
Harry and Selena stared from their purple faced uncle to their pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet.
"All right," they said, "all right…"
Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Harry and Selena closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes.
Ever since Harry and Selena had come home for the summer holidays, Uncle Vernon had been treating them like a bomb that was about to go off at any moment, because Harry Potter and Selena Potter weren't normal children. As a matter of fact, they were as not normal as it is possible to be.
Harry Potter and Selena Potter were a witch and wizard – a witch and wizard fresh from their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have them back for the holidays, it was nothing to how Harry and Selena felt.
They missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomach ache. They missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, their classes (though Harry despised Potions, because of Snape, the Potions Master), the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great hall, sleeping in their four-poster bed in the tower dormitories, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds, and, especially, Quidditch, the most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goal posts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks).
All Harry and Selena's spell-books, their wands, robes, cauldrons, Harry's top of the line Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in the cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon in instant they had walked in the door. What did the Dursleys care if Harry lost his place on the House Quidditch Team because he hadn't practiced all summer? What was it to the Dursleys if they went back to school without any of their homework done? The Dursleys were what wizard called Muggles (not a drop of magical blood in their veins), and as far as they were concerned, having a wizard anda witch in the family was a matter of deepest shame. Uncle Vernon had even locked Harry and Selena's owls, Hedwig and Elvis, inside their cages, to stop them from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world. Just their luck, he had used combination locks, so Selena couldn't use her powers to unlock the cages and free them.
That was something that made Selena stranger than her brother. Selena was a telekinetic, meaning she had the rare ability to move objects with the force of her mind, no magic required. She spent every evening practicing her powers in her room, by making some of Dudley's old broken bits of junk levitate in the air, though it was only at night, because her abilities were best to be kept secret from her Aunt and Uncle.
Luckily, Selena managed to sneak a few Wizarding World objects by hiding them at the bottom of her trunk. Those objects were: her lyre, her diary and her necklace. It was this necklace that left a more powerful ache inside her. There was not a day that went by where she did not wear it. It was a beautiful necklace, of a golden lion and a silver snake with emeralds and rubies for eyes respectively. It was given to her by her friend, Draco Malfoy, who she also had something of a crush on. It was he that she missed more than Hogwarts. She missed his blue-grey eyes, his platinum blonde hair that was always slicked back, his smirk that drove her crazy and his voice. Harry on the other hand, couldn't know anything about her feelings for Draco. Harry and Draco got along as well as cats and dogs did. They were arch rivals to the core. But even so, Selena couldn't wait to see Draco again. It felt like it had been years since she'd seen him, not a few weeks.
Harry and Selena looked nothing like the rest of the family. Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black moustache; Aunt Petunia was horse faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink and porky. Harry and Selena on the other hand, were small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes. They may have been twins, but they weren't identical. Harry's hair was jet black and always untidy and he wore round glasses. Selena's hair was long, wavy and dark red, like a burning ember. She would only wear her hair in two styles, one; down, in long silky waves that flowed around her heart shaped face elegantly, two; in an elegant low ponytail, tied up in a bright green ribbon, done into a bow. One thing the twins had that was identical, aside from their eyes, was on their foreheads was a thin, lightning shaped scar.
It was these scars that made Harry and Selena particularly unusual, even for a witch and wizard. These scars were the only hint of the twin's mysterious past, or the reason they had been left on the Dursleys doorstep eleven years before.
At the age of one, Harry and Selena had somehow survived a curse from the greatest Dark sorcerer of all time, Lord Voldemort, whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak. Harry and Selena's parents had died in the attack, but the twins somehow escaped with their lightning scars, and somehow – nobody understood why Voldemort's powers had been destroyed the instant he failed to kill Harry and Selena.
So, Harry and Selena had been brought up by their dead mother's sister and her husband. They had spent ten years with the Dursleys, never understanding why they kept making odd things happen without meaning to, believing the Dursleys' story that they got their scars in the car crash that killed their parents.
And then, exactly a year ago, Hogwarts had written to them, and the whole story had come out. Harry and Selena had taken up their places at wizard school, where they and their scars were famous…but now the school year was over, and they were back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to being treated like dogs that had rolled in something smelly.
The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry and Selena's twelfth birthday. Of course, their hopes hadn't been high; they'd never given them a real present, let alone a cake – but the twins could always rely on one another for birthdays. Selena had sewn together Harry a T-shirt with the letters: 1# Twin Brother, written in gold but she wanted to wait until later to give it to him.
When Selena wasn't practicing her telekinesis or doing chores, she would be sewing together new clothes for herself and Harry or playing her lyre in the sunshine. Still, what else did she have to do to pass the time. The quicker the days flew by, the sooner she'd be back at Hogwarts and the sooner she got back to Hogwarts, the sooner she'd see Draco again.
At that moment, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat importantly and said, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day."
Harry and Selena looked up, hardly daring to believe it.
"This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career," said Uncle Vernon.
Harry and Selena went back to their toast. Of course, they thought bitterly, Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party. He'd been talking of nothing else for two weeks. Some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get a huge order from him.
"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," said Uncle Vernon. "We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia, you will be –?"
"In the lounge," said Aunt Petunia promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."
"Good, good. And Dudley?"
"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"
"They'll love him!" cried Aunt Petunia rapturously.
"Excellent, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon. Then he rounded on the twins. "And you two?"
"We'll be in our bedroom, making no noise and pretending we're not there," said the twins tonelessly.
"Exactly," said Uncle Vernon nastily. "I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them drinks. At eight-fifteen –"
"I'll announce dinner," said Aunt Petunia.
"And, Dudley, you'll say –"
"May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Mason?" said Dudley, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.
"My perfect little gentleman!" sniffed Aunt Petunia.
"And you two?" said Uncle Vernon viciously to Harry and Selena.
"We'll be in our room, making no noise and pretending we're not there," they said dully.
"Precisely. Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"
"Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer, Mr. Mason… Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason…"
"Perfect… Dudley?'
"How about: 'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and I wrote about you.'"
This was too much for Aunt Petunia, Harry and Selena. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son, while Harry and Selena ducked under the table so they couldn't see them laughing and gagging.
"And you two?"
Harry and Selena fought to keep a straight face as they emerged. "We'll be in our bedroom, making no noise and pretending we're not there," they said.
"Too right, you will," said Uncle Vernon forcefully. "The Masons don't know anything about you two and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills. With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the News at Ten. We'll be shopping for a holiday home in Majorca this time tomorrow."
Harry and Selena looked at each other. They knew they shouldn't feel too excited about this. Neither of them thought the Dursleys would like them any better in Majorca than they did on Privet Drive.
"Right – I'm off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And you two," he snarled at Harry and Selena. "You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning."
Harry and Selena left through the back door. It was a brilliant, sunny day. They crossed the lawn, slumped down on the garden bench, and Harry sang under his breath:
"Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me…"
Selena put a hand on his shoulder. "Cheer up Harry, I didn't forget your birthday."
"That's because it's your birthday too."
"I know," Selena said, trying to think of something to cheer her brother up. "Harry, I know you miss Hogwarts, I do too, but it's not good in sulking about it. Why don't I sing, would that make you feel better?"
Harry gave her a weak smile. "Sure,"
Selena grinned and walked onto the lawn and started to sing and twirl to the melody of her voice. Harry's smile grew wider as he watched his sister do a pirouette, listening to her angelic voice. It was sweet that she was doing this for him, but the pain of loneliness was unbearable.
Selena sensed this and stopped singing and walked back over to the bench – sitting down with him. She wrapped her arms around Harry, hugging him. Harry hugged her back. "Harry, we have but only a few more weeks and then we'll be back at Hogwarts, brewing Potions, playing Quidditch and going on amazing adventures."
"We're still going to be spending our birthday pretending we don't exist." said Harry glumly.
"Well…yeah, but we need to think on the positive side of things."
"Don't sugar coat it Selena, I know you miss them too."
Selena sighed heavily. "Yeah, I do…"
It was worse than having no cards, no presents, and spending their birthday pretending they weren't real. It was something they missed more than Hogwarts, more than Quidditch, Harry and Selena missed their friends, specifically their best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Selena also missed her three dorm mates; Adeline Knotley, Odessa Digby and Vanessa Shadowmend. Then there was Evangeline "Evan" Barkridge, Vanessa's cousin and Asha Grail, a mutual friend Selena met through Vanessa.
All of them, however, didn't seem to be missing them at all. None of them had written to them all summer, even though Ron had said he was going to ask them to come and stay, and Vanessa had asked Selena to a sleepover with Evan during the holidays.
Countless times, Selena had been observing her uncle for any clue to the combination to unlock Hedwig and Elvis's cages. She could unlock stuff with telekinesis, but she needed the code to make it possible. Harry had been on the point of unlocking the cages by magic and sending either Hedwig or Elvis to someone with a letter, but they both knew it wasn't worth the risk.
Underage wizards and witches weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. Neither of them had told the Dursleys this; they knew it was only their terror that they might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them from locking them up in the cupboard under the stairs with their wands and Harry's broomstick. For the first couple of weeks back, the twins had enjoyed muttering nonsense words under their breaths and watching Dudley tear out of the room as fast as his fat legs would carry him. But the long silence from their friends had made the twins feel so cut off from the magical world that even taunting Dudley had lost its appeal – and now their friends had forgotten their birthday.
What wouldn't they give now for a message from Hogwarts? From any witch or wizard? Selena would almost be glad of a sight of her archenemy, Veronica Blackwood (a Muggle-born and Champion of many Beauty Pageants), just to prove it wasn't a dream…
Not that their whole year at Hogwarts had been fun. At the very end of last term, Harry and Selena had come face to face with none other than Lord Voldemort himself. Voldemort might be a ruin of his former self, but he was still terrifying, still cunning, still determined to regain power. Harry and Selena had slipped through Voldemort's clutches for a second time, but it had been a narrow escape, and even now, weeks later, they kept waking up in the night, drenched in cold sweat, wondering where Voldemort was now, remembering his livid face, his wide, mad eyes –
Then they saw it. "Harry," Selena gasped, pointing at the hedge. "look there!"
Harry looked and almost fell off the bench. The hedge was staring back at them. Two enormous green eyes had appeared among the leaves.
The twins jumped to their feet just as a jeering voice floated across the lawn.
"I know what day it is," sang Dudley, waddling toward them.
The huge eyes blinked and vanished.
"What?" said Harry, not taking his eyes off the spot where they had been.
"I know what day it is," Dudley repeated, coming right up to them.
"Congratulations," said Selena, her eyes fixed on the hedge. "So, you finally learned the days of the week. Want a medal?"
"Today's your birthday," sneered Dudley. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you two got friends at that freak place?"
"Better not let your mum hear you talking about our school," said Harry coolly.
"Although you would make a good mascot, pity you lost that tail." Selena smirked.
Dudley flinched, gritting his teeth. He hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down his fat bottom.
"Why are you two staring at the hedge?" he said suspiciously.
"We were discussing on what would be the right spell to set it on fire," said Harry,
Dudley stumbled backward at once, a look of panic on his fat face.
"You c-can't – Dad told you you're not to do m-magic – he said he'll chuck you two out of the house – and you haven't got anywhere else to go – you haven't got any friends to take you –"
"Jiggery pokery!" said Harry in a fierce voice.
"Hocus pocus!" said Selena.
"Squiggly wiggly –"
"MUUUUUUM!" howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he dashed back toward the house. "MUUUUM! They're doing you know what!"
Harry and Selena paid dearly for this moment of fun. As neither Dudley nor the hedge was in any way hurt, Aunt Petunia knew they hadn't really done magic, but they still had to duck as she aimed a heavy blow at their heads with the soapy frying pan. Then she gave work to do, with the promise neither of them would eat again until they'd finished.
While Dudley lolled around, eating ice cream, Harry and Selena cleaned the windows, washed the car, mowed the lawn, trimmed the flowerbeds, pruned and watered the roses, and repainted the garden bench. The sun was blazing overhead, burning the back of their necks. They knew now that they shouldn't have risen to Dudley's bait, but Dudley had said the very thing the twins had been thinking themselves…maybe they didn't have any friends at Hogwarts…
No… Selena thought. There was no way that was the case. Draco broke his own houses stereotype by befriending her and helping her with her powers. He even gave her that necklace at the end of term. Why would he go that far if he never considered her a friend?
"Wish they could see the famous Potter Twins now," Harry said savagely as he spread manure on the flower beds, his back aching, sweat running down his face.
Selena sighed heavily as she watered the roses. "Think positive, Harry, think positive and we'll be at Hogwarts in no time."
Harry looked up from the flowerbed. "You make it sound like your living a Cinderella fairytale?"
"We both are, and we both know that magic does exist?"
"But those books you read are just fiction, they're not real."
Selena turned her head around like a deer in headlights and aimed the hose at Harry, spraying him with water. "Hey!" Harry shouted as Selena glared at him.
"Those books hold very important messages in them, and I stopped going on about Princes and Fairytales years ago!" she snapped.
Harry laughed. "Oh, come on, I'm not the one who used to dress up in Mrs Figgs heels and go on and on about being the Princess in a storybook."
Selena blushed. "When I was four," she reminded him.
She looked over at Harry and read his thoughts.
"Harry really? If Ron and Hermione weren't our friends, why did they go through the trapdoor with us?"
"Well…um…"
"Exactly,"
"Then why haven't they been owling us?"
"I don't know, but I know they would never ignore us. They must know that something's up, we haven't been owling them either." Selena reminded him.
It was half past seven, in the evening when at last, exhausted, they heard Aunt Petunia calling them.
"Get in here! And walk on the newspaper!"
Harry and Selena moved gladly into the shade of the gleaming kitchen. On top of the fridge stood tonight's pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets. A joint of roast pork was sizzling in the oven.
"Eat quickly! The Masons will be here soon!" snapped Aunt Petunia, pointing to two plain cheese sandwiches on the kitchen table. She was already wearing a salmon pink cocktail dress.
Harry and Selena washed their hands and bolted down their pitiful supper. The moment they'd finished, Aunt Petunia had whisked away their plates. "Upstairs! Hurry!"
As they passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. They had only just reached the upstairs landing when the doorbell rang and Uncle Vernon's furious face at the foot of the stairs.
"Remember, you two – one sound –"
The twins crossed to their bedroom on tiptoe, slipped inside, closed the door, and turned to collapse on their bed's. The trouble was, there was already someone in their room.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, that right belongs to J.K Rowling
