Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Harry Potter. I think we all know my name isn't J.K Rowling, sooooo...

AN: I definitely shouldn't be writing any of this. I should definitely be focusing on my other story, but this would NOT leave my head. Don't except any updates until after next week. I should be done with finals then. However, if anyone is interested in being a Beta for me, feel free to let me know via PM!

It never occurred to me to look both way while crossing the street in college. This fundamental lesson that was drilled into my mind when I was five years old, for some reason, disappeared from my mind thirteen years later. I was so sure that busses and cars were going to stop for me that I didn't bother to look. I didn't bother to strain my ears and see if there was anyone coming. With headphones in, I was too busy listening to Nick Jonas' latest single to bother looking.

I was the center of my universe. I had my entire life to look forward to – which, for me, included a philosophy class then a five minute walk to my statistics class. I was the future of the world; I was aiming for a degree in business. I could have been a mom, a CEO, I could have been the president. I was invincible.

But, when a boy with curly brown hair is turned towards his blond friend in the passenger seat and didn't see me coming, he didn't stop. When a white Ford F-250 that weights about 5,600 pounds, plus the 410 pounds that came from the boys, doesn't stop, I am not the center of the universe. I am an obstacle. I do not have my entire life to look forward to. I am not going to be the leader of the free world. I will not be a mother. Do you know what I'll be?

Dead.

Or, so I thought.

I wasn't dead immediately. I wanted to be, but wasn't that lucky. I could hear the guys screaming and asking if I was still alive. I briefly saw a boy's face over my own. My left hand twitched, and I was aware I was crying. He grabbed my hand.

"It's okay to let go."

So, I did. I let go and drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew, I was warm.

I can't tell you how painful those first few weeks were, or really what went on in them. I'm not entirely sure. I can't tell you that I could control anything, or that the twitches of my body were through my own conscious movements. They weren't. I'm not even sure when, for sure, when the first movement really occurred. I'm not sure I could tell you when, exactly, I became aware of the fact that there was someone across from me.

I can tell you that, even without my eyes open, I could reach out. There wasn't enough space for the two of us. We'd bump against each other, constantly push, kick, and punch each other. I could feel their hands all over me, and mine would reach out for them, too. I could feel what I used to know were kisses pressed against different parts of me, like my shoulder. For reasons I really can't explain to you, I felt myself doing the same, like their ear. More often than not, our hands would latch together.

This other...thing and I were really close. Every once in a while, I could kind of see what was in front of me. A person, I think. I could hear heartbeats and muffled sounds.

It took me far longer to realize just where I could be. Even longer to accept it. Luckily for me, I had enough time to come to term with it.

I'm not entirely sure if my birth was supposed to be extremely traumatic. I suppose I'm lucky in the sense that, for me and the baby next to me, we were lucky to have a cesarean section. I'm not the first one out. The baby next to me is grabbed away. I feel big hands, but I feel the absence of a hand about my size holding on to mine more. For the first time in nearly nine months, I have the womb to myself. When I do feel the hands grab on to my legs and pull me out, I open my mouth in silent screams.

They became much more vocal once I was put in the arms of someone else. I could hear the other baby screaming still. Taking from their cue, I started crying hysterically, too. I could hear the doctors talking – "A boy and a girl" – so I could only assume that the other baby was a boy.

We are always together, my brother and I. Theodore Nikolas and Dorothea Medeia; from the moment that we were born, we slept in the same crib. The lady, who I could only assume was our mother, - but that was wrong. My mom had wavy brown hair and brown eyes, not black ringlets and blue eyes - never wanted to put us down. The nurses would take us when she'd fall asleep. I never saw my father - my dad was tall and big. When he'd kiss my cheek, his mustache would always scratch my face - but mother told us about him. He was working for someone. He'd be here as soon as he could be.
He never showed up, at least not at the hospital. Considering we were twins, I could only assume that Theodore and I were born probably sooner than the doctor - Healer Aksoy, my mother would say with all the soothing nature of her voice somehow leaving - would have liked. She was still visibly weakened, although very pretty.

It was very mortifying to realise that you have little to no control over your body. I would cry more out of embarrassment than anything else whenever I needed to be changed. Still, I did my very best to only cry when necessary. Well, except for when I realised how they were changing us. I'd realized that I was now born into a British family. I could understand the language, so I knew it was English; what really settled it in was the accent. I knew that, but I didn't really grasp what world I had been born into - what was going on. As disconcerting as it was to realize that I had no control over my bowel function, it was more surprising than anything to realize that the nurses only had to wave a stick for me to be clean once more.

A stick. A wand.

When Theodore and I were finally allowed to leave the hospital - St. Mungo's, mother's tone was both disgusted and grateful - we met our father. The man was older than I had expected for him to be. Mother looked relatively young in comparison - at least by five or so years. He was definitely not affectionate. He took one look at her when she arrived, letting his eyes take her in once before looking down at Theodore and I. It was as if he was appraising us. After he deemed us satisfactory enough, he nodded and dismissed my mother. He claimed he had somewhere to go. With a loud pop, he disappeared. It took me a second after Theodore started wailing to follow in his example.

"Vaniel!" She cried, desperate to sooth us.

I calmed down a lot faster than he did with her bouncing. Perhaps that was why she handed me over so easily to the creature. Vaniel had big bat-like ears. Her nose was the size of a grape tomato. Her eyes were huge and blue, but a diluted blue. I'm not entirely sure what she was wearing - it looked like a tea rag. She looked very small standing next to my mother, but still bigger than both Theodore and I. I definitely stopped crying when I looked at her. If I had any qualms about what world I lived in, they were definitely gone by the time my mother handed me to Vaniel.
I think we were supposed to have had two separate rooms, my brother and I. Unfortunately, that hadn't worked for my mother. We had spent nearly nine months together. Despite my longing for independence, I couldn't help but feel odd when my brother wasn't around me. We cried long and hard when we were separated. I always felt as if I couldn't help it. Something about Theo being unpleased made me want to cry.

My mother, too, was almost as constantly around me as Theodore was. If either of us were fussy, she would peek over our crib. She would lull us to sleep with songs and soft touches. If it were light out, she would feed us. I don't blame her for having Vaniel - or Sidhien, although Sidhien was a male house-elf and not nearly as nice as Vaniel - feed us and clean us at night. I'm sure it must have been difficult for her, but she always tried to hold on to us both. I could still remember my old mother, but Amaltheia, as my mother was named, tried her best. I couldn't help but be endeared to her as I was to Theo.

An Everything that I did, it was a fraction after he would instigate it. I assume that both of us were odd, however, because we rarely ever cried. Maybe he was taking cues from me, though. We switched off a lot. Theo learned to crawl faster than I did, but I said the first word ("Mama" so that her face would light up). I potty trained first, but he was walking and running far faster than either of us could. He would try to take me with him. His hand would always flail for me to take it before he started anywhere. It was just harder for me to keep up.

It shouldn't have been, but it was.

There were still words both of us messed up on, but, at least, by the time that we were three years old we no longer had to have Vaniel or Sidhein trailing after us to make sure we didn't fall or get hurt. Nott Villa was gigantic. Far bigger than I had thought when I was carried everywhere, but it was. Theo and I ("Thea", or so he'd call me) toddled along after Mama all the time. Sometimes, she would take us to parties and social gatherings. It wasn't said outright, but there was a general feeling that she didn't belong at these gatherings.

It was at said gatherings that I learned exactly where I was. Of all the times to be born, it would be in the same year as Harry Potter. How did I know this? At said parties, we happened to make the acquaintance of one Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Theo and I had had small lessons, more like reprimands from Mama, about how to behave. We were quite. We bowed and curtseyed when introduced to new people. Mama had it in her mind to dress us up in small robes we'd constantly trip over, so we didn't move around very much.

This was not acceptable behavior to Draco and Pansy, who constantly sought to tear us apart. From Draco's view, I suppose now that the adults had moved out of the way, Theodore was a boy and should play with him and the other boys - Blaise Zabini and two other boys that were introduced as Gareth Vaisey and Cameron Harper who seemed a little older than Blaise and Draco. Meanwhile, Pansy was adamant that I join her, the Greengrass sisters, and the Carrow twins in having a tea party. It took a while, but we did eventually separate from one another.

I did find that I quite liked Daphne, but didn't care much for the rest of them. Daphne was quiet, almost as quiet as I was, but her sister definitely was not. Despite being two, Astoria constantly babbled and spoke as if she knew everything. Pansy, likewise, took charge of the group when neither Daphne nor I would. They went on and on about different robes and lessons that their parents had them take. I knew Theo and I would be a little behind, but, as they went on and on listing everything out, I couldn't help but feel we were ages behind the rest of our group.

The boys weren't quite running around making a mess of things, but they were playing a sort of game that looked like freeze tag. Theodore was not having a good time - not by the way he scrunched up his nose when one of the other boys would knock him down. He was definitely not the physical type. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore. He stood up, despite Harper protesting, and brushed himself off. He said something cooly to them and strode over in our direction. Pansy was not pleased when he offered his hand to me, but I took it easily and excused myself as politely as I could.

Mama looked more ready to leave the group than either of us were. She, too, did not seem to like the other wives - or, I was right in my prediction that they didn't like her. The only one who seemed to be even a smidgen ready to speak to her at all was Lady Greengrass. She took one look at us and excused herself, claiming that we looked much too tired to continue on for long, and that I had previously been battling a cold.

"It would be terrible if she got sick again."

I'm not sure why I did it, but I couldn't help but somewhat help my Mama's story. I coughed a little into my hand and hid behind my Mama's leg, as if embarrassed.

It was years before she took us to another little gathering. By the time she did, we were more than ready to handle Malfoy and Parkinson.

AN: So, as usual, let me know what you think! This starts off really slow, but I've never done children before, soo...The title means "Death and Birth". Theodore's name means 'Gift of God' and 'Victor' whereas Dorothea's means 'Gift of God' and 'Cunning' for reasons that will later be explained.