Story 4 'A Twin in Mine Shadow'
Chapter 1 Studying my Future
It was late one night in a silent boarding school, too late for owls to still be asleep. Overlooking the shadows of the giant lake stood a tall dark tower, belonging to none other than Gryffindor house. It was in this tower, in the fourth year girls' dormitory that held the only flame alight in the castle.
In front of a grand gold mirror stood a fourteen-year-old girl, plagued with the curse of insomnia and hunger. Her hair was the darkest shade of brown that tinted to black at night, and her eyes were dark also. Unlike the rest of the girls in her dorm that slept with night-dresses and delicate sleeping gowns, this girl wore simple pyjama bottoms and a dark green T-shirt. Her hair was tied back as always, and her state as dishevelled as her signature look. But underneath the muggle clothes and scruffiness, there was no warmth or happiness. Though she looked so muggle and Gryffindorish, she was in fact of pure blood and high nobility. She was in fact a Potter.
Her name being the god-awful 'Eliza,' everyone (even if they were not her friends) was forced to call her Lizzie. Most did so under the threat of her temper, others (especially her friends) so that she would be more comfortable.
If Lizzie divided the student body into two different groups based on the people she liked and detested, she knew that the latter would over-rule the former. She was not popular, so she therefore did not have many friends. Unlike her twin brother James, Lizzie was not so happy, big headed and good. She was dark, malicious and mean because of the way people treated her, or mistreated her more like. The only things that she and James had in common were their dark hair and eyes, and that they were both humorous and pranksters. They detested each others' friends, but not each other. All of James' friends always made fun of Lizzie's gothic fashion style and lack of normality, whereas Lizzie's friends did the same. She did not care, anyway. No, Lizzie Potter was too strong and proud to let stupid Gryffindors like Sirius 'Reject' Black and Remus 'Werewolf' Lupin get to her.
"Maybe if you took a sleeping potion your eyes wouldn't be so droopy dear," the mirror said when it acknowledged Lizzie for the first time that night.
Lizzie ignored the statement and just gazed at her dark, boring reflection. She hated the feeling of loneliness. Yet, she was supposed to belong in Gryffindor house.
'If only I could have been in Slytherin,' she mentally told her reflection before she climbed back into her scarlet bed to try and drift away.
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The following morning, breakfast was nearly over when Lizzie awoke from her dreams. She was aroused by the streams of light peaking through the scarlet curtains of her four-poster bed. She rolled over until the quilts were off her and was planning to stay that way, until the time her clock read made her jump at once. She quickly rushed about the dormitory to find all beds empty and dishevelled.
'Stupid self-centred bitches,' she said to herself. She knew that none of them liked her, which was why she hated them all. She thought they were all the same rubbish type- mere mudbloods and muggle-loving bimbos that always thought they were too popular to care.
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By the time Lizzie made it to first period (which was Divination unfortunately), she was already more than half an hour late for the class. Professor Trelawney was not pleased with what she thought was 'inappropriate truancy,' and settled with giving Lizzie a detention the following evening. After a time-wasting discussion about Lizzie's ignorance for school rules in front of the class, the girl was finally excused and sent to her seat.
In almost every lesson at Hogwarts School, the classes were always divided up into houses. This was not done by the teachers or the Head master of the school, but by the students themselves so that they could be different from each other. Kind of like social status really.
However, in Lizzie's classes things were different. Since this Divination group consisted of Gryffindors and Slytherins, what one thought would be the perfect division was shown false by the one Gryffindor that ignored the rules and sat with the enemy. The person in question being none other than Lizzie Potter.
"Hey Lizzie. I thought you were ill because you weren't at breakfast this morning. Where were you?"
Lizzie answered the question a few seconds later, once she'd thrust her book and quill out of her bag. She gazed back at the blonde-haired Slytherin on her left and answered:
"I slept in is all. I didn't miss anything did I, Luc?"
He smirked at her, which instantly made her suspicious. However, before he could reply Professor Trelawney's annoying voice boomed at them:
"Three points from both of your houses, Miss Potter and Mr Malfoy. Now if I catch you two talking again then you'll be separated for the rest of the year. I won't tolerate your stupid behaviour anymore."
Lizzie felt nearly every eye in the room resting upon her and Lucius. She smirked as her twin brother James cheered from across the room. Her eyes darted towards him to find him hidden with a blonde girl behind a huge book, and that they had begun snogging the life out of each other. Lizzie winced in disgust and directed her attention towards Lucius again.
"So, what did I miss?"
Lucius looked back at her and shrugged.
"Nothing much, really. Just a massive food fight between us and the Hufflepuff's."
Lizzie mouth dropped open, unable to control the envy that she felt inside.
"Just great. The one time the Hufflepuff's actually try to fight and I'm not there. Do I have the worst luck in the world or what!"
"What fight?" Lizzie eyed the girl who had turned around to ask the question. Lizzie was slightly confused as to why Narcissa had not heard of the fight. 'Must have not been that big a thing,' Lizzie thought to herself.
"The food fight between Slytherin and Hufflepuff at breakfast," Lizzie answered her.
However, Narcissa only gazed more confused at her best friend until she stated:
"I was in the Great Hall this morning. There was no fight."
Now Lizzie was confused. But after a moment of thinking, finally both she and Narcissa felt like they had read each other's minds and turned towards Lucius to find him shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
"So I lied; I suppose it was funny while it lasted," Lucius stated defeated, followed by a nervous laugh.
Lizzie hit him hard on the shoulder, to which she heard a loud 'Owe', but smirked when Lucius got in trouble for interrupting the class.
They continued working in silence until Lizzie felt a bit self-conscious, like the feeling you get when you think someone is staring at you. Lizzie looked up to find a pair of dark eyes on the other side of the room staring at her. She gave Sirius Black a look of utter loathing before she turned back to her work.
'Wonder what prank he's planning on playing this time,' Lizzie couldn't help but ask herself, before she was interrupted by the bell and the cheer of a mass of fourth years.
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The following evening Lizzie was seated in the Great Hall before detention. She had sneakily made her way towards the Slytherin table and charmed her hair-colour blonde so that none of the teachers would notice. For the first time at dinner she felt happy, because her plate was loaded with food and she was currently in the middle of telling Narcissa a hilarious joke.
"So once this woman gives birth, the baby finally pops out, but the healer takes it away from her so that it can be washed. He then comes in looking quite grim, which makes the mother ask:
'Healer, what's wrong?'
Still looking really grim, the healer replies: 'I'm afraid I have some good news and some bad news.' (Oh, and the baby isn't in the room by the way, guys)
The mum asks, 'tell me the bad news.'
The healer says: 'It's a mudblood.'"
Narcissa giggled at this, as Lucius and Severus smirked in turn.
"So the woman's now all distressed, and asks the healer again: 'What's the good news?'
'It's dead!'"
This created a few loud snickers, and Narcissa was laughing so hard that she looked like she found it hard breathing.
"That's a good one," Lucius commented. But that was all Lizzie heard before she was lifted up by the ear, by McGonnagall, and carried towards her own table.
When Lizzie was seated in her usual spot, (the far end) she overloaded her plate again and ate with a murderous look at McGonnagall and threatening words at anyone who dared comment on her blonde hair. She was halfway through her jacket potatoes, when something really wet hit her on the cheek. She looked down at the table to find a couple of baked beans rolled up in soggy tissue paper. This brought anger to her and she looked up to see who had been foolish enough to mess with her.
But as soon as she did so, she was once again hit with a large ball of soggy brown tissue containing beans. This made a few jocks snicker, which hinted to Lizzie that they had done it.
So she grabbed the beans and tissue and rolled them in her mashed potatoes. She glared from underneath her fringe, at her brother and the werewolf who were preparing little bean balls to throw at her. But before James took aim his face was covered with brown mashed potato. Lizzie laughed out loud and Sirius turned around in his seat to look at her. She was hit again by another ball of beans, and as she attacked, someone on James' side yelled 'food fight', which made every Gryffindor stand up and erupt into a massive food fight.
The fight was over once each person had been hit at least five times and when there was no more food left to throw. Professor McGonnagall was so angry that her face resembled that of a killer dog. She had been standing behind a group of Sixth Year jocks, but when things finally calmed down she rushed into the middle and started dividing the attackers with her wand. It was so funny that the other three houses had just sat there watching, their meals lying forgotten in front of them. Some even helped encourage the fight by passing leftovers and extra dishes to different parts of the table to be thrown.
Once the fight was over and every thing went awkwardly quiet, McGonnagall and Dumbledore managed to get a few people to reveal who had started the fight: Lizzie and James. Forty points were deducted from Gryffindor, half because of Lizzie and James and another twenty because of the involvement of the rest of the house. Nevertheless, the twins were both dragged all the way up to the Mad Bitch's office, so that she could settle their punishments.
On the way to McGonnagall's office, Lizzie cast a few glances at James, to find his hair and clothes soaked with potato goo, beans and pork. His glasses were dangling off his left ear and his shoes were leaving brown goo prints on the floor. As soon as he caught her eye, they both grinned at each other, noticing that their states were not very unlike.
When they reached the office, McGonnagall stormed in as James and Lizzie followed closely behind.
"Sit." It was more of an order than a question, so they both quickly sat, hoping this was the worst of her temper.
"I am very disappointed in you two, you know. This is not the first time you have been the cause of mischief in this school, so I have figured that everything must come to an end at once. Mr and Miss Potter, this is the last warning that I am giving you. You should bear in mind that from this moment on, any small amount of trouble you stir, even so much as answering back a teacher, will get you excluded. You may not take this seriously, but once you have been excluded three times then you will be immediately expelled from Hogwarts. In order to help you understand the seriousness of the situation, I will be contacting your father who currently works at the ministry as the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Both of you will receive a detention every night for a month, starting tomorrow evening. You two along with the rest of Gryffindor house will be in charge of cleaning the Great Hall tonight, making sure that it is clean and spotless by tomorrow morning. Any questions?"
Both the twins just stared at each other, desperately holding themselves from laughing out loud. McGonnagall took this as a sign of approval, and opened her mouth to dismiss them.
"Then off you go to the Great Hall. Remember that you are to clean it the muggle way, therefore if any magic is detected then you will be in trouble again. You may leave."
As soon as the two were out of the office, they burst out laughing together. Each was desperately holding onto the other for support, but in a matter of seconds they collapsed together onto the shiny floor.
Lizzie felt the heavy weight on top of her leave as soon as James was lifted up by Sirius and Remus. He then laughingly held out his hand towards his sister, which she accepted in order to stand up.
"That was the best food fight we've had in ages," Sirius exclaimed while Remus nodded.
"What did McGonnagall say anyway?" Remus asked as soon as James stopped laughing.
"Oh nothing, just the usual about being excluded and that sort of shit. Looks like Dad's coming to school again," James exclaimed, explaining the situation.
Meanwhile, Lizzie was still laughing her head off really loudly, which made Sirius forget what he was about to say next.
"Hey, could you just shut up for a bit?" Sirius said rudely to her. At once Lizzie stopped laughing, and her happy expression turned into a threatening frown.
"What did you say to me, Black?" Lizzie moved forward threateningly, making sure that Sirius saw her spiky boots and clenched fists. She narrowed her eyes to slits, and was not surprised when Sirius gulped slightly loud.
"Oh just leave him alone, Lizzie. Come on guys, lets leave the freak to herself," James said as he grabbed Sirius' arm and steered the gang away, leaving Lizzie to stare after them standing on her lonesome self. Her expression brightened now that her brother's mates had left, but the sadness in her heart returned once again. She fought off the feeling of loneliness, and walked slowly towards the Great Hall. She was startled in her slow stroll, by a voice coming from the boys' toilets.
"Psst, Lizzie." Lizzie turned towards the voice to find the white head of her friend emerging from it. She smiled, happy to see him and waited for him to catch up.
"Hey Lucius. What are you doing here?"
The boy just smirked back and replied:
"Just having a fag. By the way, Dave and I are going to lock Tiffany and Bob in a box to see how they mate. Do you want to come watch?"
Lizzie gave a disgusted look at Lucius and what he had just said. David Grimly was another friend from Ravenclaw, and he and Lizzie were the only foreigners among the Slytherin gang. Bob was Dave's male snake, and Tiffany belonged to Lucius' sister, Regina.
"Lucius, that's gross. You know they could kill each other while you're not looking. And besides, I already have to clean up the Hall after the fight."
Lucius laughed and thrust his hand over Lizzie's shoulder.
"That was the greatest fight I've seen in years. Oh well, its not like someone's gonna grass you up if you don't turn up. Just come to our common room and have some proper fun."
Lizzie sighed as she thought the offer over in her head.
'He's right, it's not like anyone in Gryffindor is going to miss me or anything. No one in there likes me, and I hate them all.'
She cast a glance back at her friend, and seeing the expecting look in his eyes, decided to give in.
"I suppose one minute in the Slytherin common room wouldn't hurt," She exclaimed smiling.
Lucius smirked in return and together they turned around, heading towards a very different place than where Lizzie was expected to go.
End of Chapter One. I have been thinking about this story for a very long time now, and have finally decided to put it up. This story is not about depression or death by the way, just the fun years of Lizzie and James Potter. Please leave a review so that I can find out what you think or answer your questions.