Liana and Harry Potter were twins, but they didn't share anything. Liana was the older twin, with red hair and her father's hazel eyes. Harry was the younger twin, born five minutes after Liana, with black hair and his mother's green eyes. Liana was extroverted, ambitious, intelligent, cunning when need be, and proper- basically the daughter that the Dursleys never had. They actually treated her like family and gave her her own room, but they forced their nephew to sleep under the stairs in a cramped cupboard.
"Up! Get up!" Petunia Dursley growled, pounding on Harry's cupboard door. She sighed and yelled, "Now!" and smacked her hand against the door of the cupboard. She heard no response and she turned to Liana, who was standing in a lavender sundress behind her. "Would you be a doll and wake your brother up?" she asked in a more civil tone. Liana nodded. "Of course, Aunt Petunia." Petunia walked away.
Dudley Dursley, Harry and Liana's cousin, jumped on the staircase to rudely wake the boy up. Liana rolled her eyes and glared at Dudley. "Stop, I'm waking him up, cousin." Liana commanded, giving him a meaningful look. "You're not the boss of me!" he said indignantly. "Well, somebody's got to teach you how to act around here." Dudley let out a hmph and ran for the kitchen. The door to the cupboard opened, but Dudley pushed it back in, slamming Harry back into the cupboard. "Dudley!" Liana chastised, but Dudley couldn't hear for he was already in the kitchen..
"Oh, here he comes, the birthday boy!" Petunia crooned as Dudley entered the kitchen with Liana following behind.
"Why should he get gifts when my presence itself is a gift?" Liana joked, sparking a shake of the head from Petunia and a small chuckle from Uncle Vernon. "You hush up now, Liana," Petunia said good-naturedly, "this is Dudley's day and you should at least be kind to him for once."
Harry entered the kitchen, and Liana swore by her diamond necklace that anybody could cut the tension with a knife. "Why don't you just cook the breakfast and try not to burn anything?" Petunia said icily. "Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry said, seeming resigned to the fact that this was just another day in the Dursley home.
"I wish you wouldn't be so cold to him, Aunt Petunia," Liana said aside to her aunt. Petunia shook her head. "He's not like you or Dudley. He doesn't have any drive or talent or anything." Liana decided not to respond except for nodding her head.
"Hurry up! Bring my coffee, boy!" Vernon barked at Harry. "Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry said.
"You ought to get your own coffee one of these days, Uncle Vernon," Liana said with a grin, attempting to pull it off as a joke. "You are a cheeky little girl," Vernon chuckled, "but why do that when I have him?"
"How many are there?" Dudley demanded.
"Thirty-six," Vernon answered.
"Thirty-six? But last year I got thirty-seven!" Dudley barked.
"Yes, well, some of them are a bit bigger than last yea-"
"I don't care how big they are-"
Liana returned to the kitchen and stood beside Harry as he cooked. "How does it feel being the help?" she raised an eyebrow at her brother.
"Doesn't feel any worse than my own sister being the favorite."
Liana clenched her jaw, but as she was about to respond, she was called into the living room to watch Dudley unwrap his presents.
Later on, the Dursleys and the twins were at the zoo, in the reptile house, looking at a boa constrictor.
"Make it move," Dudley commanded his father.
"Would have been nice to add a please to that," Liana muttered under her breath.
Vernon rapped on the glass of the cage. "Move!"
Dudley rapped the glass afterwards, even harder than his father did. Vernon winced.
"MOVE!" Dudley bellowed at the snake. "He's asleep!" Harry shouted. Liana shot a warning look at Harry. He should know better. "He's boring!" Dudley replied.
It seemed like Liana had only turned her back for a second before Dudley fell into the snake enclosure. The snake slithered out of the enclosure, and Liana leapt out of its way. She wasn't afraid of snakes, but the thought of a boa constrictor wrapping around her wasn't exactly inviting. She could have sworn she thought she heard the snake thank her brother. He replied, "Anytime."
Liana was quite alarmed. Snakes never spoke English.
The next couple of weeks seemed to go by in a whirl. There were letters, letters, letters all around. It got to be so much that they isolated themselves to an island, met this giant man who told Liana and Harry they were a witch and a wizard, and the twins found themselves in Diagon Alley, buying supplies for their first year at Hogwarts.
"I can't believe you actually asked him for a Platform 9 3/4! You know anyone normal isn't going to know what that is!" Liana shook her head as she and Harry pushed their carts through the station. A red-headed family was nearby, pushing carts as well.
"Come on, Platform 9 3/4 this way. Percy, you first, of course," a middle-aged looking man out of the ginger bunch said, motioning what Liana suspected to be one of his sons towards a wall between platforms 9 and 10. Harry and Liana exchanged a curious look. The boy ran towards the wall and through it, amazing the Potter twins.
"Fred, you next."
"He's not Fred, I am!"
"Oh, sorry George."
Liana was amused. "Look, it's another set of twins, but they actually look alike," she said, glancing between her brother's dark hair and her red hair resting on her shoulders. It seemed more likely that she was related to this family of strangers than her own brother. Harry laughed slightly in response to Liana's comment.
"I'm only joking, I am Fred."
Next thing Liana knew, Harry was heading towards the family to ask the mother how to get on the platform.
"Yes, not to worry, dear. It's Ron's first time to Hogwarts, as well." she motioned to a redhead boy who appeared to be around their age. "Now, all you've got to do is walk straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Best to do it at a bit of a run, if you're nervous," the woman directed. Liana noticed that she seemed like quite the mother hen.
"You should go first," Liana told Harry, stepping back and gesturing towards the wall. "You know you'd rather taste brick before me, anyway." She joked.
Harry shook his head, but ran towards the wall anyway. He got through and Liana guessed he was on the other side.
"Your turn, dear," the friendly woman said.
Liana ran through.
Harry and Liana had made an agreement to find friends of their own at Hogwarts, so while Harry found his own compartment, she sat alone in a compartment until a tall blonde with long hair walked into the compartment with a blond boy in tow.
"See, Kalista, it's already occupied!" the boy shouted in annoyance at whom Liana presumed to be Kalista.
"There is one person, Draco," Kalista rolled her eyes. "Say, you look familiar," she squinted, taking a closer look at Liana. A look of realization came upon the blond siblings simultaneously. "Liana Potter," Kalista addressed, "Kalista Malfoy," she introduced herself, holding out a hand for Liana to shake. Liana shook her hand.
"This is Draco Malfoy, my brother," she gestured to the boy, who nodded. "He's in your year."
"It's nice to meet you," Liana smiled.
"Please, the pleasure's all ours," Kalista said. "Have you any idea who you are?"
"Well, since everyone seems to know a great deal more about me than even I do, I guess the answer would be, 'not exactly'."
"Rumor has it you were taken in by Muggles after the Dark Lord killed your parents," the Malfoy girl said.
"We aren't supposed to discuss this in these kinds of places, Kalista, Father said-"
"Do I look like I give a damn in hell what Father says?" Kalista whirled around towards her brother, fury in her eyes. Draco gulped, making eye contact with Liana.
"Kalista, please, we have an audience," he snapped at his sister.
Kalista composed herself. "Very well, then. We will discuss your rigid obedience to Father Dearest later. Anyway," she turned back to face Liana. "my apologies for that. Being taken in by Muggles was unfortunate for a witch with your great ability. It doesn't make you much better than a Squib! Imagine!" Kalista shuddered. "So I suppose you don't know much about our world."
"No," Liana shook her head.
"She'll learn in time, Kalista, you don't have to teach her," Draco said, looking out of the window and looking very bored.
"I don't want to overwhelm her, anyway," Kalista decided.
A couple of hard-to-look-at boys entered the compartment. "There you are, Malfoy!"
Draco turned his head to look at the boys. "Crabbe, Goyle." he addressed them.
"We've been looking everywhere for you."
"Wish you hadn't found me," Liana thought she heard Draco mutter under his breath.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Now, while you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you house points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup."
"God, I'd hate to be a Hufflepuff. I think I'd leave if I got sorted there," Draco, who was standing beside Liana with Crabbe and Goyle on his other side, said with contempt.
"You'll get sorted into Slytherin, Malfoy," Goyle said, "but Potter here looks like a Weasley and would probably be sorted into Hufflepuff."
"If Potter were a Weasley, would these robes of hers look as decent as they do?" A girl with black hair and blue eyes asked, coming from behind Draco and gesturing to Liana's robes.
"You have a point, Payne."
"Kylie Payne," the girl introduced herself to Liana.
"Nice to meet you." Liana was admittedly tired of meeting people.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Liana joined her fellow Slytherins at their table in the Great Hall.
"See, you were wrong, Goyle!" Crabble said. Goyle stuck his tongue out at Crabbe.
"How mature," Kalista rolled her eyes. "Welcome to Slytherin, doll. They say we have a bad reputation, I say we have a legendary reputation. After all, most legends have a bad reputation. That raises questions about what kind of reputation you'll turn out to have, Potter."
"She's already got a legendary reputation, dimwit," Draco cut into the conversation, sparking a glare from his sister. "She's the Girl Who Lived."
"She didn't build that on her own, though, did she? I'm just curious to see what she'll do without her brother's name attached to it." Kalista said with a small smile to Liana.
Liana looked towards the Gryffindor table. "Seems my brother's making himself some friends."
Draco scoffed. "Such poor taste. The Weasleys' Gringotts Vault is so empty they could have their whole family live in it."
"Ah, poor taste indeed," Liana said, squinting her eyes in thought. Before she could get too deep into her reverie, Kalista pulled her out by saying, "So, you're not that bad in spite of being brought up by dirt, Liana."
"Thanks?"
"Trust me, coming from this witch, that's a compliment." Draco said, before getting elbowed in the side.
Liana looked around the table. So, this was her new family for the next 7 years. Nice.