Joanna Potter was on her hands and knees scrubbing away at the kitchen floor with a dish sponge and a bucket of soapy water. That was her punishment from the disastrous morning during breakfast. But she had to admit she had it better than her brother, even if her knees and wrists were achy. At least she was inside on this hot summer day. Harry, on the other hand, was out in the garden.
The reason why she was cleaning the kitchen floor this way was because she accidentally said the "M" word during breakfast ... magic. She honestly wasn't thinking when she said it, it sort of came out naturally. And she wasn't expecting the reaction she received from the Dursleys when she said it.
Since she and Harry had been back from Hogwarts for the summer holiday, Uncle Vernon had forbid either Potter from saying anything that had to do with their world, the wizarding world. Uncle Vernon would rather pretend that it didn't exist, even if Jo and Harry were living proof otherwise.
When Jo had said the the 'm' word, the Dursleys went into panic mode. Dudley starting crying, Aunt Petunia screamed, and Uncle Vernon's face turned purpled as he shouted at Jo for being abnormal and ruining their lives. So naturally, when Uncle Vernon was mad at the twins, punishment was in order. And now Jo sat on the floor of the kitchen scrubbing away, while her brother was outside forced to clean out the garden and mow the grass. It was not how Jo anticipated this day, of all days, to go.
"I miss Hogwarts," Jo muttered under her breath. It was true. She missed Hogwarts terribly. She and Harry were so unhappy being back at the Dursleys and she knew the Dursleys felt the same way. But for Jo and Harry, it was much worse. Jo missed her classes, the books, her bed, the owls flying throughout the Great Hall delivering mail, Hagrid, her friends, and most importantly, the amazing food.
The moment the twins had entered Privet 4 for the summer, Uncle Vernon snatched everything they came home with and threw it into the cupboard under the stairs. Their wands, books, supplies... everything! Even Harry's broomstick. How was Jo supposed to get her homework done now without any of her books? How was Harry supposed to prepare for the next Quidditch season without his broom? But the Dursleys didn't care about that, they only cared that everything Hogwarts related was hidden away and forgotten about. Pretty much how Jo and Harry felt from from their friends all summer, forgotten and ignored.
Uncle Vernon made Jo lock Hedwig inside her cage. He didn't want the twins to send messages out to anyone in the wizarding world. Poor Hedwig had been locked away all summer and she wasn't happy about it. Jo couldn't blame her, she felt the same way being stuck at the Dursleys for the summer, now that she had a life outside of Private Drive.
Just then, Harry opened the back door and almost took a step into the kitchen when Jo stopped him right in his place. "Oh, no you don't," she said to her brother. "Your shoes are filthy and I just scrubbed this entire floor. I will not have you tracking mud into this kitchen."
Harry smirked at Jo. "Really?"
"Oh, my god," Jo said, appalled with herself. "I sound like Aunt Petunia. That is horrifying."
Harry laughed and took his shoes off outside before taking a step into the kitchen. "Better?"
Aunt Petunia entered the kitchen. "Go, up to your room, now. You've done enough for one day. Stay out of my sight." It seemed like she was still angry about the morning. "The Masons will be here shortly and I will not have you mess anything else up for my Vernon."
The twins didn't need to be told twice. They quickly ran up the stairs and to the first bedroom on the right. Their bedroom. Jo guessed that the Dursleys' encounter with Hagrid last summer really messed with them. When the twins came back from Hogwarts for the summer, all of Dudley's toys from his second bedroom were gone. The room had 2 old stiff beds, 2 squeaky dressers, a desk with no chair, and a very small closet all squished into this very tiny bedroom. But Jo couldn't complain. It was definitely a lot spacious than their cupboard and now they each had their own bed.
"Hey," Jo yelped as her brother pushed her into her bed. Harry had grown at least 2 more inches taller than Jo and she wasn't thrilled about it, which meant Harry now had a more upper hand on her. Harry chuckled and then flopped down onto his own bed face first.
"You need a hair cut," Jo said, looking over at her brother's messy black hair.
"Only if you let Aunt Petunia cut your hair first this time," came Harry's muffled voice through the pillow.
Jo cringed and looped her long reddish hair around her fingers. No way would she let Aunt Petunia touch a hair on her.
She and Harry, for being twins, looked nothing alike. Each having completely different color hair, Harry needing to wear glasses, and his odd lightning shape scar on his forehead. The only resemblance the two shared were their green eyes, which Jo loved most. She had learned during her first year at Hogwarts, after seeing her parents in the Mirror of Erised, that the twins had inherited their mother's eyes. Jo looked exactly like her mother, where as Harry looked just like their father. It was hard to imagine that the Potters were related to the Dursleys because the Potters were clearly the odd ones of the bunch.
"Did you finish yours yet?" Jo asked, pulling a card out from under her pillow.
Harry sat up. "Yeah." He pulled open the desk drawer and took a card out too.
Jo smiled at her brother, "Happy Birthday, Harry," she said, handing her brother his card from her. "Happy Birthday, JoJo," Harry responded, giving her her card from him.
And that was all the twins received for their birthday 12th which was perfectly okay with Jo. She didn't need fancy gifts or a cake or a party. Just having her brother around was enough for her.
"Guess the Dursleys forgot this year," Harry said. He stood the card up on their windowsill.
Jo wasn't completely surprised. A lot had changed since being home with the Dursleys. But that was the least of her worries. What hurt her the most was the fact that neither she nor Harry had received anything at all from their friends from Hogwarts, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Even Hagrid didn't send them anything. "They weren't the only ones," Jo said bitterly, placing her card next to her brothers.
"Maybe they're just busy?" Harry suggested. "Having a nice holiday."
"They could at least send us something, you know, acknowledge we exist," Jo said, still not convinced. Jo couldn't believe that they hadn't received anything all summer from their friends. It was like their first year at Hogwarts didn't happen. How could one just ignore everything the four had been through? "We're not the only ones that own an owl you know."
At the mention of the word owl, Hedwig gave a loud screech.
"We, can't let you out, Hedwig," Jo said sadly. She picked up some treats to give to Hedwig, but Hedwig kept nipping at the lock on her cage instead, ignoring the treats. "Besides-"
"Shhh, Hedwig, if Uncle Vernon hears you-"
"POTTERS!"
Jo sighed. "Great, now what does he want?"
The twins went downstairs slowly. They hadn't seen Uncle Vernon since that morning at breakfast when he blew up like a balloon in front of them. Jo didn't want to face him again but knew she had little choice in the matter. When they entered the kitchen, Aunt Petunia gave the twins a nasty look. "He's in there," she said, nodding towards the drawling room, then went back to icing the enormous cake in front of her. Jo's stomach made a noise. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and now it was almost dinner time and boy did that cake look delicious, as much as she didn't want to give her aunt any credit.
Uncle Vernon was standing in the drawling room with their cousin Dudley. He was fixing the bow tow on his son with pride in his eyes. If Jo thought her brother grew, it wasn't anywhere close in comparison to Dudley. Dudley grew twice as large and twice as tall. But if anything, the twins now had an advantage, for Dudley grew even slower. The twins could easily avoid and unwanted push or shove.
Uncle Vernon turned around after he finished helping Dudley with his bow tie. He walked over to the twins slowly with a finger pointing. "I'm warning you. You need to keep that bloody bird of yours quiet or it'll have to go!" he snarled.
"But she's bored," said Jo. "If we could only let her out for an hour or two-"
Uncle Vernon barked a laugh. "What? So you can send secret messages to your freaky little friends? I think not."
"But we haven't received any messages, from any of our friends," Harry said. "Not one, all summer."
"Way to make me more depressed, Harry." Jo muttered under her breath.
Dudley walked over to the twins after admiring himself in the mirror. "Who would want to be friends with the two of you?" he smirked, then slammed his shoulder into Harry as he passed by. It took everything in Jo's power not to retaliate. Who knows what Uncle Vernon would make the twins do then. Besides, she still felt achy from cleaning the kitchen floor all day, she didn't want any other pain added on to her.
"I should think you'd be a little more grateful," Uncle Vernon began, standing in front of the twins now. Jo's jaw dropped. He couldn't be serious. "We've raised you since you were babies, given the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts."
"You also forgot about, oh you know, the beatings, starving us for days, and not to mention breaking about every single child law out there," Jo added, counting on her fingers. At one point, Jo might have been more afraid of her uncle to even say that to him, but she knew Uncle Vernon wasn't the most horrible person out there. Uncle Vernon had nothing on Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard in their time. He was, after all, the one who murdered their parents, almost killing the twins, but somehow failed and gave Harry and lightning bolt scar and both the twins a hellish childhood. If one man had the whole entire wizarding world terrified to say his name, Uncle Vernon's antics were nothing in comparison. After meeting Voldemort at the end of their first year at Hogwarts, Uncle Vernon was the ant to the boot.
"Why you little..."
"Ah, ah, ah," Jo said, wiggling her fingers around, "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo." Uncle Vernon flinched. Harry gave a small chuckle that turned into a coughing fit when Uncle Vernon gave him a glare. Hagrid was right. The Dursleys weren't aware that the twins could not do any magic outside of Hogwarts. And Jo was going to take advantage of that as much as she could. Nothing like keeping Uncle Vernon on edge.
"Not now, bobbins. It's for when the Mason's arrive." Aunt Petunia stopped Dudley from sticking his fat little greedy fingers into the cake. For a brief second, Jo imagined that the cake was for the twins' birthday. But if the Dursleys had gone out of their way all day to not even mention their birthday, the cake surely would not be for them. But a girl could dream, couldn't she?
"Which should be any minute," Uncle Vernon announced. "Places everyone, places." Aunt Petunia and Dudley both came hurrying into the living room. The Potters stood back. "Now, let's go over our schedule once again, shall we?" Jo groaned inside.
"Petunia, when the Masons arrive, you will be...?
"In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."
"Good. And, Dudley, you will be...?"
"I'll be waiting to open the door."
Jo watched the scene enfold in front of her. Sometimes she felt herself become dumber and dumber every time the Dursleys spoke. How were these people her relatives?
"And you?" Uncle Vernon rounded on the twins, bringing Jo out of her thoughts.
"We'll be in our bedroom, making no noise..." Jo began.
"And pretending we don't exist," Harry finished. It was a line Uncle Vernon had them rehearse over a thousand times over the last few days.
"Two right you will. With any luck this could be the day I make the biggest deal of my career, and you two will not mess it up. Am I clear?"
"Crystal," said Jo.
Uncle Vernon narrowed his eyes at Jo just as the doorbell rang. "Go!" he hissed at them. "Up to your room."
As Jo turned around, Uncle Vernon grabbed her arm. "Remember, girl- one sound."
"Let go," Jo said quietly, glaring at her uncle. He returned the glare and let go of her arm. Jo felt Harry pulling her away from their uncle.
"Come on, JoJo."
The twins made their to their room quietly and tiptoed down the hallway just as they heard their uncle boom, "Mr. and Mrs. Mason, welcome!"
Jo opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks. She could of sworn when the twins had left their room, they didn't leave anybody behind. Now, however, there was a small creature jumping back and forth from Harry's bed to Jo's, laughing away.