At precisely midnight on the 31st of June, a rather tired Lily Evans gave birth to triplets, two boys and a single girl. The first boy had been given the name Allen and the other Harry; the girl had been named Maia. All three shared Lily's luminous emerald green eyes and their father, James Potter's, unruly black hair, though Allen's was more of a chocolate brown and Maia's was tinted with blue highlights. A week after the birth, this not so unusual family made their way back to their small homely cottage in Godric's Hollow; none of them were even slightly aware of the disastrous and imminent storm that was waiting to strike.
A year later, on the children's 1st birthday, that particular storm hit full force when Voldemort attempted to kill the Potters' youngest child, their daughter Maia. This attempt caused her second oldest brother, Harry, to subconsciously use an impressive bout of wandless magic to protect his sister, unknowingly rebounding the curse back upon its castor, thus saving her life. That protection, however, came with a devastating price for the both of them; for Harry, it was the complete loss of his left eye, leaving him with one green eye and soft black mist emanating from the empty left socket. His once jet black hair was now completely silver, a possible lingering effect of the curse. For Maia, it was the sudden loss of sight in her right eye. Unlike her brother, instead of losing her eye completely, the sclera turned pure black and the iris silver, a lingering effect similar to her brother's.
Now, the Potters were generally quite sceptical when it came to superstition, yet when they returned to their home to find the remains of what had once been the Wizarding World's most powerful Dark Lord that ever lived, along with two of their children barely recognizable, they panicked. While their reaction could possibly be deemed as natural, what they did next would cause them to become the most hated family in their world; that is, if anyone knew. Believing that the unnatural silver now tainting their appearance marked them as cursed, the Potters took up their two unusual-looking children and discreetly dropped them off at the home of their aunt, Petunia Dursley, leaving their brother, Allen, to be marked as the only saviour of the Wizarding World and the only Boy Who Lived.
It was 6am when Petunia Dursley was woken by the screeching of crows on the 1st of November, the day after the event that had left the Potter's children their state of separation, not that Allen knew of it; he would be kept in the dark for many years to come. But for Petunia it was a normal day, or so she thought, sadly for her, fate had other plans.
Petunia was fully clothed and starting to make breakfast when she suddenly remembered that a package was supposed to arrive that morning. And that was how Harry and Maia Potter where found, by a rather shocked Petunia; who promptly shrieked for her husband. By that point Vernon Dursley, said husband, was well and truly awake and raced down stairs to see what had made his wife scream so shrill. The reason was quickly became apparent, on their doorstep were to very freaky looking twins. One with abnormally long silver hair that partially covered one eye which was emanating a soft black mist and another with short pixie-like jet black hair who had one silver eye and one green eye. They were both regarding the two shell-shocked adults with a rather baleful gaze, as if telling them to stop freaking out and get on with it and if it were possible for an infant to raise one eyebrow they definitely would have been.
It took several minutes for the Dursley's to calm themselves. Once they got that far they each decided to pour the other a large glass of brandy, to 'soothe the nerves'. Several glasses of liquor later they were in a somewhat fit state to even contemplate what they were going to do with the extremely freakish children; that were now, sitting on the floor of their living room. Vernon was firmly of the opinion that they should dump them in some back alley in the slums of London. Petunia, however, was slightly more merciful. Though not by much, she wanted to send them to a… old acquaintance. Who would take care of them, but would never reveal the truth about were the children came from. The young children watched, and listened, to the whole proceedings with a considerable amount of interest. You see Harry and Maia mental capacity was far above that of a normal child; in fact their intellect and awareness rivalled that of many of the world greatest philosophers. So they held a great appreciation for the conversation going on in front of them, they were quite aware of its implications.
It didn't take very long for Petunia to outline the sensibilities of her plan to her husband and soon they were booking flights for a family holiday to America, during which they would drop off the children. They booked two business class seats; because Vernon insisted that he and his son would not travel in economy, and three economy seats, for Petunia and the twins. They were going to leave the twins at Yoruichi's current residence in New York. Petunia hated everything about Yoruichi, from her name to her nationality and the way she dressed (brightly coloured lycra and spandex, mixed with equally bright bolero styled jackets, completely horrible in Petunia's opinion) to her unflappable confidence and natural grace. But nonetheless she kept in touch with her because she was helpful in instances such as this. Due an incident, that had resulted in a life debt, which had happened two years after Lily had started at Hogwarts.
At that very moment, many miles away in night club of the more expensive areas of New York, Yoruichi felt a shiver run down her spine and she suddenly got a feeling of impending doom, or at least that something unsavoury was going to happen. Putting it out of her mind she took one last sip of the drink she'd been nursing, for several hours now, and started in the direction of the place that was currently 'home'.
When she arrived, she collapsed on the couch, pausing only to pull a blanket over her, and was soon sleeping peacefully. But her sleep wasn't so for very long, her dreams took her back to the past, to the day when she had learned of several things she now wished she didn't.
Yoruichi was very confused. She didn't like London, it made her nervous, and it was too big there were too many people, all squashed up. No easy escape routes, so the soldier within her was twitching at every little noise and movement. There seemed to be no space to move around, at least that's what is felt like when compared to the forests and naturally spacious landscapes that she had inhabited after her exile from the Soul Society. After wandering around for a while, getting increasingly more agitated and jumpy, she spotted a small dingy pub that most people seemed to just walk past without even noticing, 'The Leaky Cauldron' it was called.
"Perhaps this will be better" she thought to herself as she slipped, unnoticed, into the small pub. Once she was inside she was pleased to find that there were very few people and that they all seemed more interested in what they were doing than bothering with her. Happy that she'd found a place to rest and recoup her energy, she promptly settled in the furthest corner of the room; facing the exits and all the occupants, and began to sleep; head resting comfortably against the cool brick wall.
"Hello. . . hello, are you okay?" she was awoken to someone lightly shaking her shoulders, calling out softly. She awoke in an instant but, habitually, kept her breathing level, showing no signs of having woken. After it became apparent that they weren't going to leave her alone, she quickly opened her eyes and shunpo'ed behind them then said in a soft, but cold voice.
"What are doing?" They whirled around and she noticed that they looked to be only 12 or 13, and similar enough to be sisters. The one on the right was slightly taller than the other; though neither of them were anywhere near height, at 6"1' she cut a pretty impressive figure. But that wasn't the most noticeable difference; the most noticeable was that one had fiery red hair and emerald green eyes while the other had soft dark brown hair and pale blue eyes. Yoruichi was broken out of her unconscious assessment when the one with red hair spoke.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that you looked pretty uncomfortable and when you were curled up like that you looked like a child." she opened her mouth as if to say more but was interrupted by the other.
"Come on Lily, she looks old enough to take care of herself and I want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"But, Tuney! I wanted to get you an owl so that we can write to each other during the year."
"I'm sorry for troubling you." Yoruichi broke in.
"Oh, no it's fine" Lily replied, completely ignoring her sister. "Do you want to come with us into Diagon Alley?"
"Diagon Alley? Where's that?" Yoruichi said, confused.
"You don't know?! But, you're in the Leaky Cauldron! And you're far too old to be a new Muggleborn student at Hogwarts!"
"Well of course I'm in the Leaky Cauldron; I did read the sign before I came in! And of course I'm not a student, but what's Hogwarts?"
At that point Yoruichi awoke, but she could remember the dream, and its continuation. That was the day that she had learned that magic, the wand-waving witches kind of magic, existed. She had spent the next two weeks with Lily Evans and during that time she learnt many things. She also bought a lot of books to study, and to give to Kisuke. Sadly, at the end of their second week together there was a Death Eater attack (Lily had explained about Voldemort and the Death Eaters) and it was only due to Lily's quick thinking and inventive wand work that they got out alive. And because of this she had a life debt to Lily and any others of her blood.
"Come along Dudley, the Gate 10's this way" Petunia said kindly to her six year old son, leading him toward the plane. They had decided that while that were dropping of the 'freakish brats', as they called them, they would have a holiday.
The plane trip passed relatively uneventfully, the young twins were silent, sleeping contently in each other's arms. For which Petunia was eternally thankful; she wanted to sleep off the migraine she'd gotten from Dudley in the airport while they were waiting to board.
Ding, dong, ding, dong! Yoruichi's doorbell rang incessantly demanding her immediate attention.
"Hai, hai, coming, coming" Yoruichi murmured sleepily as she pulled on a black silk robe and ambled toward the door.
"Who is it?" she said yawning widely, opening the door to see the rather annoyed Dursley family, with extras, waiting impatiently outside.
"Ah, come in, come in.," she said opening the door fully and letting them walk past her and into the apartment. Closing the door behind them she led them into the kitchen. "Have a seat, would you some tea?" she said cheerfully, gesturing to the stools that lined the bar; seeming completely unaware of her state of undress.
"That's fine, but could you put some proper clothes on first," Petunia replied stiffly, with a sickly fake smile planted firmly on her face. The only sign of her displeasure was a slight twitching around the corners of her mouth.
"Ah, yeah sorry 'bout tha', just woke up 'n all." Yoruichi said smiling amicably "Be righ' back."
Yoruichi returned a few minutes later fully clothed and, somewhat, more awake than she'd been before. "So what's all this about" she said gesturing toward Petunia and her family.
"I'm here to... call in a favour." Petunia said quietly. She paused before explaining fully "I want you to take care of these children." She said gesturing to the young twins sitting silently next to her.
Yoruichi paused, looking carefully at the children in question, before slowly nodding her acceptance.
"Mm'kay, don't see any problems with that. Are you coming back for them?
"Most definitely not!" Vernon exclaimed loudly before going off into a full on rant about how there was no way in the deepest depths of hell he was going to have vicious little freaks anywhere near his precious Dudley. Petunia glanced quickly at her husband before getting up and dragging him and Dudley towards the door. They left without any further word.
Yoruichi waited and till she could be sure they were gone before looking sadly at the children in front of her. She felt very sorry for the children that would now be living with her, as she was leaving America in two months and returning to the Seireitei, she and Kisuke had been cleared along with the other Vizoreds and they were all welcome back home. Ah, it would be nice to be back there and not in cat form. 'I wonder how Soi Fon is –
She was cut off by two soft lyrical voices conversing quickly
"We should shed these forms soon, brother."
"You are right sister; they will do us no good."
"Especially now that we have been awakened."
"You remember key?"
"Of course, what do you take me for? An imbecile?"
"Of course not, sister"
"NOW!"
"Earth, Sky and Shadow. Hear us now!"
"Quod fuimus mutata sit ut revertatur. Reverti!1" A soft silver glow encased the twins and their forms slowly started to meld and change. And when the light flickered and faded instead of year old infants there were two twelve year olds that looked eerily similar, yet completely different. Pale skin, same height, same build, but after that there were subtle differences, hair colour, eyes.
"Greeting, Yoruichi Shihōin, Goddess of Flash, Former Captain of the 2nd Division of the Soul Society and Commander in Chief of the Secret Mobile Corps and former Head of the noble Shihōin Clan." The twins spoke as one, their melodious voices combining to make a perfect harmony.
"Wh-what, how do you know that? Yoruichi stuttered, shocked, as far as she knew she had never seen these children before, nor had they seen her.
"You need not worry about how we know …"
"We have always known …"
"Exactly who people are; it's a gift of sorts…"
"Or maybe more a curse." They replied in tandem the girl smiling kindly, as though she'd expected Yoruichi reaction.
"I believe there is much to discuss, however, it is late, and we are in much need of sleep. Releasing our bindings has drained us greatly; we need some time to recover our energy. Perhaps it would be more prudent to postpone our discussion until tomorrow?" It was the boy who spoke this time. Then without giving any more of an explanation they left a rather stunned Yoruichi wishing she had a large bottle of Vodka, Firewhiskey, Sake or any other kind of strong alcohol.
They stopped in front of a door and turned to say, "We will sleep here tonight. We shall talk tomorrow." Before disappearing into the room and locking the door.
6 am saw the twins in the kitchenette of Yoruichi flat, happily making breakfast. French toast with every sort of topping you could dream of; maple syrup, berries, banana, bacon, ice-cream, yoghurt and sugar.
"When's Yoruichi gonna come out nii-chan?" the younger twin complained.
"Probably not for a while, she's most likely got a massive hangover." the elder replied gesturing at a sizeable pile of empty sake bottles.
"Humph! I'm waking her up. Get one of those hangover thingies ready, 'Kay nii-chan."
"Fine, fine." the older twin grumbled good-naturedly while his younger sister raced into Yoruichi room. He watched disappear with a smile on his face before looking around and checking that no one could see him. Once he was sure that there wasn't anyone watching he stuck his hand into seemingly thin air and pulled out a glass vial filled a greens liquid labelled 'Hangover Remedy'. He poured out a glass full and placed the vial back into the pocket dimension. When he looked up he saw his sister dragging a very disgruntled Yoruichi, who looked as though she was contemplating murder – if it would let her go back to sleep!
"Sit. Then drink this." The older twin said pointing to a bar stool then gesturing to a glass of the hangover remedy on the counter. "But I'll warn you, it tastes horrible." He continued, just after Yoruichi had downed the contents of the vial.
"Urk, you're right! What the hell's in this?" Yoruichi said staring at the now empty glass.
"You don't want to know." They replied.
"Riiii-ght. You do know that this makes absolutely no sense to me, right?" Yoruichi said hesitantly.
"Yeah, that's why we gave you that. We need you lucid for this." The younger twin said amicably.
Yoruichi just nodded looking lost.
"We should probably introduce ourselves. I'm the older twin, my current name is Setsuna."
"I'm the younger one, and my name's Miyuki! ... For the moment."
"We are, will be and have been many different things, people, and entities. But that is something you don't need to know right now. We reveal things only when it is necessary. So don't expect to know everything about us, you never will. No matter how good you were in the Stealth Force." Setsuna warned calmly.
"Right, so what can you tell me?" Yoruichi asked tiredly, giving up on trying to make sense of her life. She was beginning to think that she should just stop trying to figure the twins out it was only giving her a migraine and, if possible, she was more muddled than when she started.
"Very little; but we will properly explain, when we reach the Soul Society." He paused for a moment then looked at her sharply. "I trust you are still welcome there. If not, we need to know so that we can pull a few strings so that you will be. I don't feel like having to talk or fight my way to the Head Captain any time soon."
"Yeah, I'm fairly welcome in the Gotei 13. But I have to watch myself. They'll shadow me from the minute I exit the Senkaimon. They don't trust me or Kisuke."
"Then we shall be fine. I would suggest you get ready; we're leaving in two hours. Be prompt" Setsuna said curtly before walking into the room he and his sister had slept in the night before.
"Don't worry about what nii-chan said he's just anxious to leave. He'll be fine when we get into the Soul Society." Miyuki added after her brother had left. "But still, you had better get ready. Nii-chan always leaves on time. So he won't wait for you, he'd just drag you there. Or get me to do it." She said after a moment's thought. "Either way, you'd better get ready."
Yoruichi sat there stunned for several minutes after the twins had left, presumably to start packing themselves, before shaking herself out of her stupor. She muttered something about being ordered around by children a fraction of her age then left to start packing her things.
She emerged an hour and a half later, joining the twins in the hallway with all her earthly belongings packed into a two small suitcases. "What now?" she asked curiously.
"Now, we get nii-chan to open a Senkaimon and we'll be on our way." Miyuki said cheerfully. Yoruichi almost asked how exactly Setsuna was going to open a Senkaimon before she remembered the warning from earlier, sighing she turned to the other twin with a questioning look. Setsuna merely nodded and led them out of her apartment and into a dingy alleyway where he opened the Senkaimon.
Although saying that he opened a Senkaimon is strictly correct, it was more that he conjured a passageway through the Dangai Precipice World. He then motioned for the girls to proceed before levitating their luggage through after them and following himself. The gateway closed after he stepped out.
The Senkaimon had landed them just outside the First Division's barracks, in the centre of the Seireitei.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? Yoruichi asked hesitantly, looking apprehensively at the Head Captain office. "I mean, we're right in the middle of the Seireitei!"
"It will be fine, besides brother needs to speak to Yamamoto-jiji." Miyuki said reassuringly.
Yoruichi looked at them in shock. "You know the Captain-Commander!" she said with a look of incredulity and disbelief on her face.
"Yeah, but you'll have to wait until we've gathered everyone for the explanation.
Translation:
1As we were once changed let us go back. Revert! – It changes the twins age (not intelligence), but drains their energy significantly - Latin
Setsuna – Calm snow – Japanese
Miyuki – Silent Snow – Japanese
Setsuna is Harry's new name and Miyuki is Maia.
Seireitei = Court of Pure Souls – inside the Soul Society.
-jiji = kind of like grandpa, I think it might be a shortening of 'oyaji' which means old man, or something similar. Both are very informal
Nii-chan = a form of 'aniki' meaning older brother