AN This is my first fanfic, and I really, really need feedback. So do unto others as you would have them do unto you; if you read, please review!

1 May 2012

I woke up and forgot for a moment that today was my birthday; I never liked birthdays much. I was born Dahlia Montrose on May 1st, 1998 (That means I'm 14, in case you don't want to do the math). Yes, my birthday is May Day. It's all too girly. And it doesn't help that I'm named after a flower, either.

I crawled out of bed and began to comb my raven-black hair in front of the mirror. I used to have short hair all the years I was growing up, but now I was letting it grow out. It was down to my bra strap now. I drew dark circles around my emerald eyes with black eyeliner and put on light-coloured foundation. Then I pouted my lips and applied dark lipstick to make my pale round face look shocking.

I decided to put on a plaid blouse today. I do live in Edinburgh after all (That's in Scotland), but I didn't feel very Scottish. I paired it with basic jeans.

As I walked downstairs to breakfast, I already knew what my parents would have for me as a birthday present. I don't know how I knew, but I did. Stuff like that always happened to me, kinda like déjà vu or whatever. Anyway, I knew it would be a new ipod, even though I didn't need a new one. What I really wanted was a car, but I guess I'm too young for that.

'Happy Birthday, darling!' said my mum, Joan. She handed me the unsurprising gift.

'Thanks,' I opened it up to find the ipod. Well, it did have a slightly larger hard drive than my other one. A car still would have been better.

Soon it was time for school. I looked at my watch and got up to go. Suddenly, my parents looked grim.

'Dahlia dear,' said my dad, Harold, 'make sure you're quick after school, because we have something important to talk to you about.'

'Sure thing, Dad.'

My walk to school was boring. As I strolled through Edinburgh, I thought of its history and all that had happened here over the years. It all made me feel like I didn't belong.

I got to school a little early and started talking with my friends Marian and Susan.

'Happy Birthday!'

'Thanks,' I said.

Marian shook her head, 'It's too bad you have to go to school on your birthday.'

'Ya, but at least it's the last day, we won't do anything,' said Susan.

'I bet we have a fire drill,' I said.

'Why do you say that?'

I shrugged, 'Just a feeling.'

Sure enough, we had a fire drill, and that's how most of my birthday was spent.

When I got home, my parents were waiting. I had forgotten all about the special talk my dad had mentioned, but luckily I was home fairly early anyway. I just didn't feel like hanging out with my friends after school today.

'So, Dad, what do you need to talk to me about?'

I was terrified for some reason, I started to shake.

'Dahlia dear, you're adopted.'

'Excuse me?'

'You're adopted.'

'Why haven't I been told this before?'

'We were told not to until your 14th birthday,' said the woman formerly known as mum.

'Then who are my real parents? Are they English? Were they English?'

The man formerly known as dad shrugged, 'We don't know, but probably; that's where we adopted you from.'

'I knew it!' seriously, I had suspected something like this for years, 'I knew it! I don't look anything like you!'

'Calm down, dearest,' said Joan. She took out a small glass bottle. Inside it, stuff floated around. I couldn't tell if it was a gas or a liquid. It had a label on it that said: Harry Potter.

'Who's that?'

'No idea.'

I didn't eat any dinner that night. Instead, I spent dinner on Google, but I didn't find any leads as to my identity.

I lay awake all night. I would have cried myself to sleep if I had any tears to shed.

2 May 2012

It was 2 AM the next morning when I realized what I had to do.

I got up and got dressed. This wasn't too hard since I didn't change out of my school clothes the night before. I grabbed my pink rhinestone android phone, my new ipod, and the bottle of mystery substance and stuffed them in a backpack. I took some money from extended family that I had got in the mail for my birthday and put it in my pocket. Then I took out a pen and a piece of paper and started to write:

To Mr. and Mrs. Montrose,

I'm sorry to have to do this to you, but I know what I have to do. I don't even really understand it myself; I just know. Thank you for trying your best; I know you meant well. Don't try and find me. I have to find myself.

Dahlia

I put the note in the kitchen and slipped out the back door.

My feet began to take me to where I needed to go, even if I didn't know where that was quite yet. Before I knew it, I was in a part of the city that I had never been before. Everything was dark and dingy, and I didn't like it. This was not a good place to be at night. I saw a sign up ahead and walked over to it. It pointed to my right and said 'Railroad.' Suddenly it all made sense.

I followed the sign and came to the large building that housed the railway station. My adopted parents had always preferred cars and planes as transportation, so this was all new to me. The station was made of very old brick and looked much for frightening at night than it probably did in the daytime.

I walked over a window to buy a ticket, not that I knew where to.

'How far will this get me?' I handed the man behind the window all the money I had in my pocket.

'A one way ticket to London.' he said.

'I'll take it.'

I went to the proper platform and sat down to wait. Not many trains came through at that time of night, so I had a long time to wait. I held onto the bottle marked 'Harry Potter' for what must have been hours. Finally, I boarded the train to start my new life.

I still didn't sleep on the train. It was very quiet, and I was the only person in the entire car.

London was very grim that morning when I arrived several hours later. I had just enough money left to buy a cup of coffee, even though that would keep me even more awake. As I drank, I started wandering again.

I passed the Tower of London, but since I didn't have any money left over, I couldn't take a tour, so I just passed by. Then I walked over Tower Bridge and found Shakespeare's Globe, but it was closed.

The day passed on, and it became dark again. I was just starting to get worried about where I would sleep that night when I came to a neighborhood with row houses facing a park. The street was called Grimauld Place, and I sat down between houses 11 and 13. I was feeling very hungry, but there wasn't much I could do.

I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, so I turned to look. A boy about my age and an older lady were walking down the street. I noticed that the boy had neon blue hair, but that wasn't nearly as strange as what happened next.

A house appeared in the middle of the street right in front of where I was sitting!

The boy turned around and saw that I was starring in disbelief. 'Gran,' he said to the old lady, 'I think that girl over there can see the house!'

'Nonsense! She's a muggle, isn't she?'

'I don't know."

The next thing I knew, he was walking over to me. 'Hi, I'm Teddy, and this is my grandmother Andromeda.'

'Dahlia,' I almost said 'Montrose' but that wouldn't be true anymore.

'You can see the house, can't you?' Teddy asked.

'Of course I can! Can't everybody?'

'No. I'm sorry, we thought you were a muggle.' His grandmother said. She looked at me weird, but not in a mean way. It was almost like she vaguely remembered me but couldn't quite remember who I was. She looked exactly how I had always imagined I would look at that age. She had clearly been very beautiful when she was young.

'Um, what's a muggle?' I asked.

'Teddy,' said Andromeda, 'We should take her inside with us.'

I had nothing better to do, so I followed them inside. The house looked pretty normal outside, but inside it was a complete mess. Everything was very dark and its décor was very odd. By the front door there sat what looked like a severed foot that held umbrellas, and weird pictures hung on the wall. It all smelled like dust so much that I couldn't help but sneeze. But despite it all, I kinda liked the place.

I followed Teddy into the kitchen while his grandmother went upstairs. Teddy must have guessed that I was hungry because he quickly got me a hot bowl of soup.

'Thank you,' I said as I ate greedily. I was startled by a noise from under one of the cupboards. Out popped the strangest looking creature that I had ever seen.

'Master Teddy did not need to make the bowl of soup. Kreacher is here to serve Mistress Dahlia,' said the creature.

'How do you know my name?' I asked, but he didn't answer. Insteadm, he just walked off with a feather duster in hand.

'That's Kreacher. He's a House Elf. They serve witches and wizards,' said Teddy.

'Are you a wizard?'

'Yes.' Before my eyes he changed his hair from blue to green.

'And you and your grandmother think I might be a witch?'

'That's the theory,' he grinned at me.

Just then, Andromeda returned from upstairs followed by four other people, two men and two women. I was immediately drawn to the darker haired of the two men. He wore glasses which framed his bright green eyes. Their color looked oddly familiar. The man stepped forward and shook my hand. 'Welcome to my home, Dahlia! I'm Harry Potter, Teddy's godfather, and this is my wife Ginny. These are my friends Ron and Hermione Weasley.'

'Wait a minute! You're Harry Potter?' I pulled out the glass bottle and explained how I got it.

'Those are memories!' said the woman named Hermione. 'Harry, you don't have a Penseive around, do you?'

'There might be one in the attic. Ron, can you go look?'

'Sure, Harry.' Ron ran upstairs and the conversation continued.

'So am I a witch or not?' I asked.

'Well,' said Hermione, 'Let's find out.' She pulled a wand from out of her robes and handed it to me.

I followed my instincts and gave it a wave. To my surprise, a bolt of lightning flew from the tip and hit a nearby picture that was hanging on the wall, cracking the glass.

'Oh, I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to break anything!'

'Don't worry about it,' said Harry. 'Most witches and wizards can't use other people's wands very well.'

'Wait, are you saying that I am a witch?'

'Most certainly,' said Andromeda, 'I'm sure you've had signs of it all your life. Although I don't know why you wouldn't have been registered as a magical birth when you were born.'

'Yes, very curious,' said Hermione.

'But not nearly as curious as how a witch raised by muggles would have memories with my name on them,' said Harry.

'It's quite obvious, Harry,' said Hermione, 'Look at her eyes! And her hair! You two are related, the genetic improbability is far too great.'

'I don't know,' said Andromeda. 'She looks like a Black to me, look at the shape of her face.'

'Well, whichever it is,' said Harry, 'she's found herself a home here.'