Author's Note:
Hi, I'm rather new to writing altogether and while I had always liked reading fanfictions, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. In the end I think that sink or swim would be the best and in the end I will be posting this fic here.
Gamer fics are always nice for me to read but I realized that slowly but surely they end up the same and I wanted to write something slightly different. hopefully my idea has some merit and whoever will be reading it will gain some satisfaction from taking time to read through it all.
Thank you.
Chapter 1: The Letter
Looking through one of the many windows that littered the decript house that she was temporarily housed in along with her twin and her relatives. Dorea thought just the situation had devolved into what it was now.
Living with her relatives was never a pleasant thing.
Her aunt petunia, the horse faced and thin woman that she was, always liked to make snide comment or two about both her and her twin, Harry, sometimes even going as far as comparing her and Harry to their parents, whom their aunt had said died in a car crash due to their drunken father.
Dudley Drusley, her more than obese uncle, was a petty man with no nonsense attitude with people he deemed 'unnatural'. Unfortunately for Dorea and Harry weird things seemed to follow in their wake making the rather large man livid with his perceived slights against his normal way of life.
Her cousin, who if the past had anything to say about it, seems content to become the same size as his dad was a bully who tried his hardest to make their lives as hard as possible. Be it by chasing them around the neighborhood with his little gang of miscreants or by destroying their important work, such as cooking or cleaning, to make trouble for them and cause Dorea's aunt and uncle to punish them. Be it piling up an enormous amount of chores on the already ridiculous list that was given to both her and Harry or locking them up without food in their bedroom.
While the life at Drusleys was hard and made Dorea's outlook on life lean more towards survival of the fitters as well as might is right, it wasn't bad enough that some had, she wouldn't dream of deluding herself into thinking that her home life was the harshest there was because really, she had few ideas in mind that could be much, much worse than it is now.
While there were many things in her life that she had found enjoyable such as books and lazing about outside in the shade of trees where there is just the right temperature, there was one thing that made her not snap at her relatives. Sure her life was bearable under their care but she wasn't a saint and she had, more than once, felt the need to show her overgrown walrus of an uncle that she was more than a little displeased with their 'care'. She had one thing that she truly wholly treasured in her life. Her twin, her brother.
Harry Potter.
He was the yang to her yin, his compassion tempered her need to exact revenge, his meekness protected by her rage.
He usually had much less work than her because unlike her, who would respond in kind to the snide remarks and physical show of authority, Harry tried his best not to react and lessen his burden as much as possible.
It was something, while Dorea didn't approve of, that worked with their relatives and if they had become mindlessly against her twin, she was there to either redirect that problem upon her and bear the burden.
The redirection was made all the more easier since she had turned six. Her before bright red hair started turning white, her brown doe eyes bled into red and her skin started losing any semblance of colour becoming more and more alabaster. With looks like that it was no wonder that Dursleys called her freakish and even people at school and in their neighborhood had taken to calling her a vampire behind her back. In truth, she had a recessive case of albinism which in the end made her susceptible to sun and warmth, making her like winter much more than other season because she could easily stay outside as the weather didn't bother her much.
But that little tidbit of information didn't really matter to her relatives, for them it was some sort of 'freakishness' that they wanted no part of.
Years went by like that without any major change before the normalcy was interrupted.
It all started few weeks before Rea's and Harry's birthday. Harry woke up early just like she did, everyday, and went close to their front door where the letters would usually be at that time.
Nothing seemed unusual at first but her twin had spotted a letter made from parchment, looking old and noble, addressed to him. Both he and Rea were curious of it and what it contained but before they could even open it Dudley had tattled on them and her uncle took the letter from them. Once they had read from where the letter had come from, Dorea could see two emotions in them recognition and fear.
She found it curious as she hadn't seen such emotions upon her uncle's face, ever. More so when one realizes that such strong emotions were brought forth from seeing a letter rather than any sort of dangerous situation.
Uncle Vernon destroyed the letter making Harry and her fearful that they would never know what was written inside but the strangeness didn't seem to disappear. Indeed, rather than recede it's limelight it seemed to trive and grow under it.
Copies of such mail slowly started coming in groups, owls would stay around Privet Drive, looking upon their house noiselessly like in some sort of horror flick. Uncle Vernon took to barricading the letter flap as to crush any chance of any letter getting through it and Dorea watched the situation with awe. She wasn't sure who was it that seemed to drive her uncle into insanity in mere days but she wished to be able to study their ways, it seemed like a useful skill.
The only thing that irked Dorea was that all the letter they had so far gotten hands on, but weren't able to open to read the contents, had the recipient of the mail stated as Harry Potter, there was no mail for her.
Then came what Dorea liked to call a breaking point for her uncle. It was Sunday and the mailman wouldn't be coming as they had their day off, something that made Vernon so chipper and happy that if it weren't for his obese frame she would be able to mistake him for a happy teen rather than his usual grouchy old self.
She wasn't sure when exactly it had started but slowly a rumbling sound started getting stronger and stronger, increasing it's strength and fear effect before all hell broke loose. Letters that seemed endless started to fly from their chimney, the fireplace was almost never used thankfully, it fly in an angle reaching almost the ceiling before falling onto the floor like leaves under the ministrations of a breeze.
Her uncle couldn't endure such stress it seemed because he chose that very day to leave their suburban house and temporarily relocate to an old and weary house upon a small rock miles off the shore of England that could only be reached by boat.
The house seemed like it was standing on it's last foot, made of wood that seemed aged and rotten. Web cracks were on all windows while some of them didn't even have glass in them, they were simply boarded up as if it's last tenant didn't want to bother with repairs. A layer of dust had already settled on every inch of the house, so much so in fact, that both Harry and Dorea combined were only able to clear two upstairs bedrooms, one for Dudley and one for Vernon and Petunia.
As for Harry and her? They were delegated into sleep with thin fabrics on the ground floor without any beds, at all. The only thing that prevented Rea from calling authorities on her relatives was the most likely inability to arrival at the small speck of rock that the house was on as there was a raging storm outside with lightning and all.
The raging storm all around both her and Harry put a damper on them, more so when this was their birthday, usually it would involve much less chores to do and maybe a slightly bigger dinner, even if Drusleys were bullies it didn't mean that they had no good bones in their bodies, but now with this out of the way house the best Rea could do for her twin, her sweet lovable twin, was to draw the birthday cake on the dusty floors. The clean lines contrasting well against the pile-up of dust inside the house making it easy to distinguish as they waited upon the end of the day, the time both of them had been born.
"Happy birthday, Rea." said Harry, a sweet smile adorning his face accenting the bright green eyes of his that danced with joy no matter the circumstances.
"Happy birthday, Harry." she could feel his smile affecting her, her lips pulling up into a grin as they lowered their heads a little and blew at her dust art. The image of their imaginary cake blew away and as if it was the signal for things to start a heavy sound echoed throughout the house, coming from the doors as if someone was banging upon them harshly.
The sound was so loud that both Rea and her twin jerked at the sound, their heads snapping towards the door as Dorea heard the mad scramble of her uncle from upstairs.
It wasn't long before the sound repeated itself over and over. Dorea quickly realized the potential unknown danger and urged her brother to move away from the doors, something which with he complied unsurprisingly easily.
The interval became shorter with each repeat as if whatever was doing the ruckus was slowly becoming impatient. Rea looked on as the slowly increasing in speed pounding obviously affected the worn doors, if the sounds it was starting to emit under the strain were anything to go by and they had finally given when their uncle was finally able to descend the stairs, clothed in thick clothes to gain protection from the outside weather and a double-rifle in hand.
The doors fell comically rather than the lock giving out first, it was both it and the hinges, and the doors fell inwards onto the dusty floor revealing the silhouette behind it.
The man, if one could call him that, was tall, so tall in fact that he had to bend forward a little to get through the doorstep, his hair dark and wild with a very impressive beard. His whole body screamed bulkiness and his clothes were made to last rather than be fashionably. An umbrella in one hand and a white package in another. His beady black eyes scanned the room he had entered without an invitation before they settled upon the spot where Rhea and Harry were hiding in, as they weren't sure if whatever was out there and was doing such noises had good intentions.
The giant took a step forward but stopped when Vernon moved towards him, his rifle already aimed at the intruder.
"What are you doing here! This is our house! Leave!" screamed Vernon, his face turning red, Rhea wasn't sure if it was from the weight of the rifle or nervousness due to the situation.
"Well, there was a problem with getting a letter to yah, so I had volunteered to get it for yah." said the giant, he took a step forward closing the distance between him and uncle Vernon to a point where he could easily grab the rifle.
"We don't want any bloody letters! Now leave us alone!" roared her uncle, the nightmare of the post seemed to loom heavy over him as his face visibly darkened at the reminder.
"But teh letters ain't fer yah! It is an invitation for a school! The headmaster o' which is teh great Albus Dumbledore! Yeh knew it would come." the giant exclaimed, his face even hidden by the massive beard he was sporting seemed surprised at the denial of such opportunity.
"We don't bloody care! You can take your freakish letters and give it back to that freakish headmaster of yours, they won't be attending your bloody freakish school!" Vernon spat out.
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because when the giant heard Vernon talking badly about the headmaster his face darkened in turn and he took a threatening step forward before placing one of his massive hands upon the double pump action rifle.
"Albus Dumbledore is a great man! I won't have ye talking bad abou' him with me here!" he said punctuating his statement by bending the rifle for it's nozzle to be upwards.
Rhea was surprised, which was an understatement of what she felt and she could feel herself gaping, she wouldn't for the life of her miss such an supernatural event but she was certain that Harry would have been just as dumbstruck as her if she were to turn her head away from such a comical sight. Vernon, it seemed, was just as startled by the turn of events as her because the rifle fire and a hole was made on the ceiling of the ground floor. Startled by the shot and the futility of it, her uncle leg go of the rifle in favour of making some distance between him and the giant of a man and huddling with his family, said family of course didn't include her and Harry. The giant then nodded at the only male adult in a room as if satisfied with the point he made and let go of the rifle allowing it to clatter uselessly on the floor before refocusing on where the twins watched the whole debacle and didn't move an inch even as the overly large man was but a few steps away.
"Wha' are yeh doing on teh floor, Harry? Come, come it's cold." said a giant, a smile hidden behind the beard that could be seen from the slight twitch of it before he turned around and walked towards the fireplace and pointed his umbrella at it.
Dorea felt herself instinctively moving along with Harry as she wasn't about to make him face this giant alone but was nonetheless surprised as streams of fire left the tip of the umbrella and the fire started burning the wet logs inside the fireplace casting a friendly light all around the dreary ground floor.
The giant then left the parcel he had with him and sat down on the only sofa in the room, the wooden construct creaking under the massive weight as his eyes followed Harry as he took a seat on one of the seats in front of the sofa, Rhea sitting right next to him.
"Who are you?" asked Harry, a tad weary of the answer, not that Dorea could blame her twin the things seemed to spiral out of control for the past weeks in a never ending spiral.
"Me? I am the keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts, Ruberus Hagrid, but ya know all about Hogwarts, don't ya Harry?" said Hagrid beaming at Harry.
"No sir. Sorry sir, I've never heard of it." her twin said guiltily.
"What ya mean, ya never heard of it. Didn't they tell yah stories of your parents?" asked the giant back blankly.
"My parents sir? I was told that my father was a drunk and my mother an addict and that they died in a car crash." asked Harry questioningly, Rheas face too looked interested in what was told, she was always told that their parents were no-good drunks and addicts and while she didn't believe it overly much, seeing as most things Drusleys say to them were meant to hurt them, she would still have liked a confirmation.
"Drunks? Lily and James!? What drunks! They were both heroes, brilliant people! They didn't die in a car crash, that's for sure, they died protecting you!" Hagrid bellowed mortified at what they had been told.
"What do you mean, they died protecting him?" interjected Rhea, not liking the fact that the large man seemed to totally ignore her as if she was unimportant compared to her brother, she wasn't jealous but at the same time it felt rather off putting to be treated in this way.
The beady eyes of a large man finally left the lanky frame of her brother and connected with her eyes for a moment before the large man flinched from the sight as if hurt, and started to focus on her with a weary look on his face as if facing a potential threat.
"Who are y-yeh?" Asked Hagrid, stuttering slightly at her.
"Dorea, Dorea Potter, you know the twin of Harry Potter?" she said exasperated, thinking that she understood why he didn't connect the two before but still felt slightly hurt that she had to remind people that she was related to her brother, it wasn't her fault that she had a case of albinism, she thought with a frown on the face.
The man looked at her for a moment before recognition seemed to flash past his eyes and he started to talk too low for her to understand him.
"Yah see, there was a war, and yer parents were one of the good guys. The problem with that was that yer parents were targets and the' had to hide but the leader of the bad guys found out where they had hidden themselves and killed both of them before he tried to do the same to Harry but instead of killing him, the bad guy died." Hagrid said, as if it explained everything and didn't bring up even more questions.
Like, how could Harry survive an attack when he should have been around two years old and instead the bad guy had died, what kind of weapon was he using, a faulty pistol?
"Err, what kind of war are you talking about, I didn't hear anything of the sort happening in Britain and I'm pretty sure it would've been all over the news." asked Dorea.
"Yeh wouldn't have heard about it in the muggle world. Teh war was in the magical Britain. Yeh know all about magic, don't yeh?" He asked for confirmation, but seeing the blank looks on the twins faces he sighed deeply and explained himself.
"Yeh don't know? Yer a wizard, Harry! And an invitation to attend Hogwarts had been given, just like yeh father and mother had attended once they had turned eleven." he said, taking out an envelope that was eerily familiar, Rhea quickly placed it as the copy of the letters that seemed to drive her uncle mad and quickly wondered if perhaps the one behind them was the rough looking giant man in front of her.
He gave the letter to Harry and her twin quickly opened it, his eyes growing wide with each line read and soon Rhea couldn't keep herself contained and rushed from her chair to see what was written on it that made her twin so surprised.
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 Mr. Potter,
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 on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
A school for magic, wow Dorea wouldn't have thought of that. But as quick as her surprise lasted, it changed when she realized that only Harry was getting the letter instead of both of them.
"What about me?" asked Rhea, garnering attention of everyone inside.
"What about yeh?" asked Hagrid back, his puzzlement clear by the scrunching of his face.
"Do I get a letter too? I mean, we are twins and all, do I get to be a witch too?" Dorea asked, hope clear in her voice, only to be shattered moments later.
"There ain't a letter for yeh. That means yeh a squib." he said with a pitying glance at her that caused her heart to clench painfully.
"A squib?" she asked, her voice wavering a little.
"Yer a child of a wizard and a witch, ye should've been a witch but since yeh can't use magic but can see it unlike muggles, then that makes yeh a squib. Born to family of wizards with no magic of yeh own." he said.
"Are you sure this letter is for me? I mean, I'm nothing special, I'm Harry, just Harry." asked her twin and Rhea's heart only clenched even more as she realized what he was doing. He was trying to underplay whatever the chance he got to make her feel better, just like he did during school for Dudley, but that he was using the same tactic at her that he would've normally used on their mean relatives made her more sad then cheer her up.
"I'm sure yer a wizard. Didn't strange things happen to yeh? When you were very sad or angry?" asked Hagrid.
Rhea thought back on times when she was with her twin and realized that those weird things usually happened when he was, indeed, high on emotions. Another things she realized and finally completely understood was that weird things had never happened to her when she was alone, only when Harry was with her. Unlike her who had no magic to call on, Harry's responded to her emotions accordingly.
"Stop! Stop! The boy will not be going to that freaky school! We won't allow it!" Thundered Vernon, causing Hagrid to look behind him where the Drusleys hid from him.
"What do yeh mean, yeh won't allow it? His parents signed him up just as he was born and they have paid the whole seven year tuition!" barked Hagrid but it seemed the large man from Hogwarts didn't scare their uncle anymore as he pointed at the larger man and took a threatening step forward that didn't seem to do it's intended job.
"We tried our best to keep the freakish things away from them! We won't have you polluting our good work and help him with his freakish magic!" snapped Vernon.
"You knew about magic? What about my parents? Did you know that they died protecting me?" asked Harry, his voice low but carrying across the ground floor.
"Of course we knew all about it. Just like my sister. Precious Lily that could do no fault. Our parents were so happy when she received the letter but I was the only one that saw the truth. That she was the freak. Our parents started to pay her all the attention because she was their special little Lily and she needed all the help she could get. Well she got everything and then she died in that bloody freakish world. Good riddance." spat Petunia, distaste clear on her face.
"Then why didn't you tell me? Why did you tell me they had died in a car accident!" asked Harry, his emotions running high, and with his feelings so did the wind pick up a little.
"We tried our best to make you perfectly normal. Tried saving you from the freakishness, at least one of you seemed to get it." Vernon said, casting a glance at Rhea that made her try and disappear into the background.
"Yes, we don't care that the boy has his tuition paid, we are his guardians and no barmy headmasters will be able to do anything about it. So take your freakish letter and tell your freakish Dumbledore that the boy won't be attending." said her aunt scathingly but it seemed that they forgot what happened before as Hagrid stood up with an ominous creak and turn towards them, fury etched on his features.
"I tell yeh! Albus Dumbledore is a great man! The leader of light and some muggle won't be talking about about him in my presence!" he said and he looked around the room to see if they got it and his eyes spotted their cousin Dudley, still in his pajamas, that opened the package that Hagrid brought with him.
A quick flick of the umbrella and their cousin now sported a pigs tail on his backside causing both her and Harry to burst into a weak laugh, while their relatives screeched and fussed about it.
"Yer look like a pig, so it was fitted yer get a tail to make it work." he said proudly.
"Mr. Hagrid, was that magic?" asked Harry with wonder, making Hagrid turn to him with widened eyes and respond fast.
"Yah, But can yah not talk about it to others, I'm not suppose teh use any magic, yah see." Hagrid said, to which Harry only nodded.
Hagrid then took the package from it's place and handed it to Harry. A quick peek and Rhea was even more saddened. It was a birthday cake but instead for both of them, it was addressed only for Harry, like she didn't exist.
Looking around the room she realized with a slowly sinking dread and realization that Harry was going away to that school and she won't be attending with him, instead she would be stuck, alone, with the Drusleys all the while knowing that her twin would be learning spells and magic that she would never will be able to use.
At that moment, her look towards her aunt changed form anger and hate to pity, she now understood how she must've felt. Left behind by her sister, knowing of the fantastical world out there but never being able to interact with it. It was no wonder that Petunia had become so bitter.
Rhea could only hope that such a thing wouldn't happen to her.
/
Getting out of her uncle's car along with Harry, his trunk and the cage that held his mail owl, Dorea thought of how the things proceeded from that fateful stormy night.
The next day Hagrid took Harry to the wizarding alley. At first Harry wanted to invite her but in the end Rhea said that she didn't want to see what kind of mysteries are hidden there, they would only make her more and more sad and she knew it.
So in the end only Harry went with Hagrid and came back with a trunk full of things. Textbooks for first years with charms that would levitate things, of beasts that are common knowledge in the world of magic, history books of wars that were hidden from the mundane side of the world. He had also brought with him a wand that he was informed to be a brother wand of the man who had killed their parents and a snowy owl that had black tips on it's wings.
The few days that were before September first, the day that Harry would leave for a boarding school in Scotland made the Drusley house at Privet Drive strained.
Harry was happy that he could leave the house due to their relatives and their pettiness, and a tad sad that he had to leave Rhea behind. In the end he had promised her that he would write whenever he could and talk about his Drusley free life.
Dudley, the young walrus that he was, had no tact whatsoever, something that wasn't surprising, at all. He had to be rushed to a hospital because of the magically created pig's tail on his behind and was milking the situation for as much as it allowed and more, god knows how he will function in society once he becomes an adult. A good thing that came out of the whole debacle for Rhea and Harry was that their cousin became weary of magic due to what had happened to him and he tried his hardest to make as much distance as possible whenever in the same room and the usual Potter hunting was taken off the roster of activities for the day.
Their aunt and uncle, on the other hand, became much different to the two of them. They started to treat Harry like one would a leper and tried their hardest not to have anything to do with him than it was necessary. Dorea on the other hand experienced something akin to a grudging familial love.
Her aunt and uncle became civil towards her once it was revealed that unlike her parents and brother, she didn't possess the gift of magic wielding. She no longer had to take up a ridiculous amount of chores, she still had some of them but at least she had some time for herself. Rhea wasn't sure how she felt about their change in attitude, on one hand she no longer had such a rough time as before and with her brother away at the boarding school, Dorea was certain that she alone would have to do what they both did together, on the other hand the whole thing felt like a large pity gift. A second rate reward that was given to her only because she couldn't get first place.
It was maddening.
She felt her eyes water as she looked on her twin, Harry, someone that would always be with her, through thick and thin. It didn't matter what problems assaulted one of them, the other would be there to console the other. She realized with a weight on her chest that she no longer would be able to talk to her brother when things got bad, she would be stuck here in their suburban house of normality with only her relatives and no friends to speak of, she had to thank Dudley's Potter hunting and the vicious rumors of aunt Petunia that made everyone shy away from her, while her twin was going on something akin to an adventure.
Life was unfair, something that she had learned a long time ago.
"Take care, Harry. I know you will do well once you start trying. This won't be the same school as the one we shared with Dudley, you don't need to be worse than others, so study well and don't slack off. Some people would kill for such a chance." she said, her sight watery from tears that threatened to spill with a shaky grin as she pulled her twin into a hug.
"Yeah, I'll try my best. You need to take care of yourself too. Drusleys seemed to be more tame than usually but be careful. I'll write once something interesting happens, tell you how the school looks like and maybe if I make some friends." Harry said, his voice was a little wobble from the painful separation.
"Take care, brother." she said, pulling herself off Harry as she watched as he slowly entered the king's cross station, lost in the sea of people.
Rhea took one last look to see if perhaps she could still make out Harry before coming back to the car and driving back to Privet Drive.
The drive itself was a little long but she had so much on her mind that it didn't bother her as much and they quickly entered the parking spot by the driveway.
She quickly left the car and went upstairs to their new bedroom, a room that before the fateful stormy night was Dudley's second bedroom where he kept all his toy, now it was hers but she didn't have the strength to do anything important or fun. The goodbyes themselves took more out of Rhea than she imagined, so with a sigh she threw herself at the bed and blankly stared at the white ceiling, thinking of the future and what it will bring her.
She knew that while the magical world was most likely fantastical, it would be much better if she didn't interact with it as much. The inability to use magic seemed like a crucial piece of evidence that she would never properly mesh with the society hidden behind magical barriers.
She wasn't sure what she wanted to do later in her life, she just turned eleven for god's sake and she shouldn't have to think about such things but now that she knew that there was such a great world out there, most other things in life would look mundane and boring for her now.
Her musing were cut short when a sound entered her ears and a game-like notification appeared in front of her, startling her badly.
Ding!
'System has been successfully integrated.
Proceed to a tutorial by thinking 'Tutorial'.'
"What the f-?!"
What do you think?
The Gamer side of the story will slowly start from the next chapter for those who came specifically for it.
Both negative and positive reviews are welcome. :)