Rohini Potter was a troublesome kid. Smart? Yes. A good student? One of the best. Getting on the Dursleys' nerves? Undoubtedly so.
The truth was, Rohini and her twin Harry Potter weren't normal pre-teens: they were two of the most famous wizards of their time after defeating Voldemort, a dark and powerful wizard who had murdered their parents when they were only one year old.
They were now students at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry but had to come back to Private Drive for the summer vacation, living with their aunt, uncle and cousin. Needless to say, they couldn't wait to go back to school. The Dursleys were horrible and extremely mean and there wasn't a single day that passed without an argument between the twins and their Uncle.
Today, it was about Hedwig, Harry's snowy owl. Uncle Vernon had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise.
"Third time this week!" he roared across the table as Rohini served breakfast. She and Harry were forced to do every house chores since they were old enough to hold a pan and a broom. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"
"She's bored," Harry tried to explain for the thousandth time this month. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night—"
"Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, turning purple. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out." Rohini snorted.
"Oh, do you now?" She said, serving Harry some bacon. At least, the Dursleys had stopped letting her brother starve. It might have been because Rohini had threatened them to turn her cousin into a pig and eat him if they made Harry skip a single meal.
"Careful, young lady!" Uncle Vernon said, pointing one of his fat fingers at her. "You still live under my roof!"
Rohini clenched her teeth. He was right; none of them were happy about it, but Harry and she had nowhere else to go. It felt like torture: All their spell books, their wands, robes, and cauldrons had been locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon as soon as they came back. What he didn't know was that Rohini had learnt to unlock doors without magic -a courtesy of Fred and George Weasley- and so Harry and she had been doing their homework in secret at night.
As she sat to eat her own breakfast, Thranduil jumped on her laps. Thranduil was her Siamese cat and a gift for her 11th birthday from Rubeus Hagrid, the kindest man Rohini had ever met. Aunt Petunia pinched her lips, hating the cat as much as Harry's owl. Rohini made sure to keep an eye contact with her as she fed Thranduil a piece of bacon. She swore she could have heard Aunt Petunia hiss.
"I should think you'd be a little more grateful. We've raised you since you were babies, given you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts." Uncle Vernon kept going and Rohini rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure the Dursleys had no hearts to begin with, let alone some kindness in them.
"They are just like them." Aunt Petunia said, referencing to Harry and Rohini's dead parents: Lily and James Potter.
"Freaks." Dudley said, eating his fourth slice of bacon.
"Say the fat butt that spent a whole week with a pig tail?" Rohini spat and her Uncle slammed the table with his hands, making everybody jolt. He looked like an angry, hairy frog and had pieces of scrambled eggs stuck in his moustache.
"ENOUGH." He shouted, looking like he was going to explode. "IN YOUR BEDROOM. NOW. YOU TOO." He added to Harry's attention. The twins hurried to go back to their bedroom, Thranduil hissing at Uncle Vernon before following Rohini upstairs. Rohini slammed the door, furious. Then she threw herself on her bed and screamed into her pillow.
She used to be able to endure the Dursleys' comments but a year at Hogwarts had changed her; she now knew what a real home felt like and came to realise that the Dursleys meant absolutely nothing to her.
"You shouldn't have said that." Harry told her and Rohini refused to look at him. "Dudley is an idiot, don't let him get to you."
"I hate them." Rohini said, her voice muffled by her pillow. "I hate them so much."
"I know." Harry sighed, sitting next to her. "I hate them too."
Truth was, they'd probably feel better if it wasn't for the fact they had no news from their friends. In a month, there had been not a single letter addressed to them. Rohini had tried to call Padma Patil, her best friend, but somehow the phone refused to work when she used it. Uncle Vernon refused to let them go to the post office in case their letters had been lost, which would have been odd anyway since wizards used owls to communicate.
"It's weird. I mean, even Hermione hadn't contact us and yet her parents are Muggles, she know how to use a phone, right?"
"Yeah." Harry said. "Maybe she'd lost our number." He suggested and Rohini scoffed.
"Hermione Granger? One of the most organised person I have ever met, losing something?" She pointed out. "Impossible."
"I don't know, then." Harry sighed. "We'll see them in a month, anyway."
"You're right. Can't wait to be back to Hogwarts." Rohini said, sitting up and scratching Thranduil's head. Harry and she had been sorted in two different houses: her brother was from the proud and brave house of Gryffindor and she was a Ravenclaw. "I wonder if they found a new professor for DADA."
Their previous Defense Against Dark Art teacher had in fact been one of Voldemort's supporters and tried to kill them at the end of the year. Harry and she had defeated him but Voldemort was still out there, lurking in the shadows and trying to regain his powers. Sometimes Rohini woke up after a nightmare, fearing that he was waiting outside, plotting their murder.
Xxx
"I know what day it is," Dudley said, eating an ice cream while watching Rohini put the dirty laundry into the machine. Rohini sighed.
"Good job, Dudley. Glad you finally learn the days of the week. Can you spell them though?" Rohini asked, not even looking at him.
"Today's your birthday," sneered Dudley. "But nobody thought about you, you didn't get a single gift. Even the freaks at your school hate you."
Rohini clenched her fists. Getting in a fight with her cousin would only lead to a severe punishment and today wasn't the day for it. She tried to ignore him, which only seemed to encourage him.
"I'm right then. You have no friends." Dudley kept going between two loud disgusting slurping noises.
"Oh, Dudley." Rohini said, smiling at him. "What if I told you my friends actually promised to visit me today and turn you into a rat?"
Her cousin frowned.
"You're lying." He said, though he didn't sound so sure of him. Rohini knew she shouldn't push her luck, but she couldn't help it.
"Yes, I am. Actually, they want to turn you into a pig. Much more fitting."
"MUUUUUUM!" howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he dashed off the room. "MUUUUM!"
Rohini smiled until Uncle Vernon stood up at the doorstep, looking furious. Dudley was hiding behind him as well as Aunt Petunia. Rohini crossed her fingers and hoped Uncle Vernon will not get mad enough to set fire to her books and wand.
"Today will be the day I make the biggest deal of my career," said Uncle Vernon, his face now turning crimson as he grabbed Rohini by the shoulders and shook her like a rag doll. "And you, you dare to threaten my little Dudley!"
Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party he and Aunt Petunia were organising that night; some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get a huge order from him.
"Let me go!" Rohini shouted, pushing him away. The portraits of Dudley that were in the room fell and the glass shattered into pieces, making the Dursleys scream. Rohini panicked; they weren't allowed to use magic outside of school or they'll risk to get expelled; she couldn't lose control now.
"Go to your room and don't come out until tomorrow. OUT!" Uncle Vernon ordered and Rohini ran upstairs and slammed the door shut. Harry, who had been reading one of Dudley's old book, jumped.
"What happened?" He asked with a frown but Rohini said nothing, slipping against the door and hiding her head in her arms. "Hey, are you ok?" Harry asked, sitting next to her. Rohini shook her head.
"No, I'm not." She said and her voice was trembling, as if she was on the verge of crying. "Dudley is right: it's our birthday but we didn't get a single card. They can't have forgotten us so easily!"
"I'm sure they have a good reason for not contacting us." Harry said, passing an arm around her shoulder. He used to be an inch shorter than her, but he was slightly taller now. "Maybe it's related to Voldemort: maybe they can't contact us in case he and his followers would track us."
"Oh, I didn't think about that…" Rohini said, sniffing and Harry smiled.
"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" He teased her.
"Yeah, I'm a shame to the Ravenclaw's reputation right now." Rohini chuckled, feeling slightly better. "I'm stuck in our room until tomorrow by the way. Glad to know I'll not have to play the mute niece during their stupid dinner party."
"I'm sure I'll not be allowed downstairs either." Harry said. As Rohini just said, the only time the Dursleys had let them stay with them when special guests were here, the twins had been forced to pretend they were mute to "avoid spreading nonsense".
Xxx
They were playing chess when they heard Uncle Vernon calling Harry downstairs. The boy groaned and Rohini grinned like a sly fox as she beat him once again.
"Checkmate." She said. "You really suck at chess, Harry."
"I'm sure you cheated." Harry grumbled and Rohini huffed.
"HARRY POTTER, GET DOWN NOW." Uncle Vernon shouted so loud the whole neighbourhood must have heard him. Sighing, Harry got downstairs and Rohini decided to do a new game against herself. Hedwig hooted and Rohini bit her lips. She was pretty sure she would be able to unlock her cage using a hair pin, but what if Uncle Vernon realised she had freed Harry's owl?
"Promise to be discreet." She told the bird who hooted twice. Slightly opening the door to make sure the Dursleys were still talking to Harry in the kitchen, she pulled out a box from under her bed where she kept diverse little thing such as an hair pin. It took her longer than unlocking the cupboard under the stair, but she finally succeeded. Hedwig began to hoot happily but Rohini shushed her. Then, she opened the window and looked at Hedwig.
"Please, come back soon, ok?" She whispered to the bird before stepping away to let her fly away. It was probably pretty risky, but Rohini was against animal cruelty and the owl had been kept in her cage for a whole month. Watching Hedwig disappear, Rohini silently hoped that she would come back with a letter from Ron, Hermione or Padma. She had reached the point where even a card from their archenemy Draco Malfoy would feel great and Merlin knew he was a real prick, always hiding behind his father's name.
Sighing, Rohini walked back to her bed and pulled out an old picture from her secret box. It had been taken eleven years ago and showed the Potters sitting on a bench in a park, Harry and Rohini on their parents' laps. She looked ridiculous, with a little ribbon in her short hair.
Harry and Rohini looked a lot like their father: same olive skin, same messy dark hair, and same poor eye sight. However, everybody could tell they had their mother's eyes, a beautiful shade of green. They looked so happy, on it. A perfect, loving family enjoying a sunny summer day. They probably didn't know that they will be murdered a few months later.
Rohini sighed. It was truly a morbid thought to have on her birthday. Putting the hair pin and the picture back into the box, she put in back under her bed and yelled; for the split of a second, she could have sworn she saw a pair of huge green eyes staring at her. She must have hallucinated for when she checked again, there was nothing more than a few spiders living under the bed.
"I'm getting crazy, great." Rohini grumbled, passing a nervous hand in her hair. She hadn't cut them in a year and it was now reaching her chin. She would have cut them herself again but Aunt Petunia had hidden every pair of scissors in Uncle Vernon's nightstand.
She had argued that it wasn't fair that Harry did get a haircut (though his hair stayed as messy as ever) but Aunt Petunia gave her a lecture about "acting and looking like a proper lady". It was ridiculous; Rohini's body had begun to change and Rohini was growing more and more conscious about the fact she was, indeed, a girl.
It had been terribly embarrassing when she had woke up one morning three weeks ago with her pyjama pants stuck to her legs by blood. She had screamed, horrified for Aunt Petunia had never took the time to explain periods to her. She had heard a few older Ravenclaw girls talk about it, but Rohini had never thought it would happen so early. She found the concept horrifying: Bleeding because she wasn't pregnant? Of course she wasn't pregnant, she was only 12 years old!
Aunt Petunia had made her do every single house chores for a week when she heard Rohini complained that she'd rather be a boy. She had also thrown away Rohini's unique pairs of jeans and forced her to wear pink clothes or shirts with ugly flowery patterns.
Rohini heard voices outside and grimaced when she realised Uncle Vernon had decided to make Harry clean up his car and mown the lawn. She was tired of the Dursleys treating them like slaves. But as they pointed out oh so often, the twins had nowhere else to go.
Rohini waved at Harry before looking for something to do while she was stuck here alone. Looking into the pile of junks that used to belong to Dudley, she found an unused drawing pad and a few colour pens. Now, she wasn't really good at drawing but it sounded like a nice way to spend time. Using Thranduil as a model, she doodled her cat and added a little witch hat on his head. Then, she tried to draw Padma from memory. It wasn't really close to reality but she thought she'll give it to her friend when they will meet again.
Finally, she heard Harry's light footsteps in the stairs, followed by the bathroom door being locked and the shower running. Ten minutes later Harry came back, looking exhausted and smelling of vanilla.
"Where's Hedwig?" He asked with a frown. "Rohini, don't tell me you let her go!" He sounded panicked.
"Harry, she was going to die from boredom!" Rohini pointed out before the doorbell rang: the Masons were here and it was time for them to play dead. It would have probably been an easy thing if it wasn't for the little creature jumping out of their closet.
"Hello." It said with a little wave. "Nice to meet you, Mr and Miss Potter."
It took all of Rohini's self-control not to scream, her jaws dropping and her eyes wide open it shock. Merlin, things were taking a weird turn again.