James and Lily Potter stood in horror at the shadowy figure approaching their door, holding their twin children. James turned to his wife, who was holding their one-year-old son Harry Potter. "It's Him! Lily, take the twins and go," he said frantically passing Lily their daughter, Selena Potter. "I'll hold him off!" he yelled, urging his wife to run upstairs.

Lily bolted up the stairs in terror, clutching her two children tightly in either arm. Behind her, she heard the front door slam open and the sound of her husband's final scream as Voldemort cast the Killing Curse on him. Lily reached the twins nursery and set them both in Harry's crib. Kneeling down she gazed at her babies. Identical twins, aside from their hair colour. Harry's was a wild, untidy black, while Selena's was a dark, wavy red like her mother's, which was tied up in a cute tufty ponytail with a green ribbon. One thing the twins shared in appearance was their identical green eyes, exactly same shade as Lily's.

Weeping softly, she faced her son and daughter through the bars of the crib in a gesture of love and farewell. "Harry, Selena, both of you are so loved. Harry, Mama loves you, Dada loves you. Be strong, be safe." Lily closed her eyes and wished for the skills her son would need: Loyalty and Bravery. She then turned to her daughter with the same gesture. "Selena, Mama loves you, Dada loves you. Be strong, be safe." She closed her eyes once more and wished her daughter the skills she would need: Loyalty and Kindness, but also Bravery. Lily waved her wand and performed an ancient, powerful spell that would keep her twins safe from harm.

The door burst open and Lily flung herself in front of the crib. Lord Voldemort stood in the doorway. "Step aside foolish girl," he hissed, pointing his wand at the terrified woman.

"No…please, not the twins. Take me instead, just let them live. Have mercy on them, please. They are only babies." She pleaded.

"Step aside girl,"

"Don't hurt Harry and Selena, take me instead."

Voldemort raised his wand and hollered the familiar words that killed James. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Lily Potter screamed and crumpled to the floor. Dead, but not in vain, for she knew her children would be safe from Voldemort's wrath.

Voldemort turned his wand on the twins, staring up at him with innocent, green eyes, not understanding that their Mama was killed in front of them.

Showing no sign of mercy, he repeated the words that had left these children orphans. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" All he felt was fire burning in his skin. He felt his soul burning within his body. Lord Voldemort fled the house, leaving behind the twins, who were very much alive, with nothing but a single lightning shaped cut upon their foreheads.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." said the man with long silver hair to the tabby cat sitting on the garden wall. He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the marking the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. "How did you know it was me?" Minerva McGonagall asked the older, silvery grey-haired man.

The man, Albus Dumbledore nodded at the witch clothed in emerald. "My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you've been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating. I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily. "Oh yes, everyone's been celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no – even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."

"I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars…Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent – I'll bet that was Dedalus Diddle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no excuse for them lose their heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore, as though she was hoping we was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense – for eleven years have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."

Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore seemed not to notice.

"It gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who'. I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-Who, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too – well – noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said. "The owls are nothing next to the rumours that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are – are – that they're – dead."

Dumbledore bowed his head. "They are indeed true Minerva."

Professor McGonagall gasped, clutching her heart, remembering Lily and James in their youths. "I…I wasn't sure if I believed it. I didn't want to believe it…oh Albus."

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know…I know..." he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son and daughter, Harry and Selena. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill the twins. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry and Selena Potter, Voldemort's powers somehow broke – and that's why he's gone."

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"It's – it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed … he couldn't kill a little boy and a little girl? It's just astounding … of all the things to stop him … but how in the name of heaven did Harry and Selena survive?"

"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry and Selena to their aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now, besides each other."

"You don't mean – not the people who live there?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at Number Four. "Dumbledore – you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. They've even got this son – I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter and Selena Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for them," said Dumbledore firmly. "Their aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to them when they're older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people are the worst sort of Muggles I have ever seen, they'll never understand them! They'll be famous – legends – I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as The Potter Twins day in the future – there will be books written about them – every child in our world will know their names!"

"Exactly." Said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any child's head. Famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! Can you see how much better off they'll be, growing up away from all that until they're ready to take it?"

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes – yes, you're right, of course. But what of the children? How are they getting here?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she though he might be hiding the twins underneath it.

"Hagrid's bringing them."

"You think it's – wise – to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"Ah Professor, I'd trust Hagrid with my life."

Suddenly, a low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them. Riding the motorbike was a giant of a man. He looked simply too big to be allowed on the bike, and so wild – long tangles of bushy black hair and beard that hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dust pan lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins.

The giant climbed off the motorbike, carrying two small bundles in his huge arms. "Evening Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall."

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorbike?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got em both, sir."

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir – house was almost destroyed, but I got 'em outta there before any of 'em Muggles showed up. Little Harry fell asleep as we were flying o'er Bristol, Selena on the other hand, was coo'n at me the entire ride, reckon she's been wonderin' who I am, she finally fell asleep ten minutes before we arrived, don't wake em." Hagrid said.

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundles. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy and a baby girl, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. The baby girl was quite the opposite, a cute ponytail was done up with a green ribbon in her ember red hair. On her forehead, they could clearly see a matching cut to the one on her brothers.

"Are those where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall. "Yes," said Dumbledore. "They'll have those scars forever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in very handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well – give them here, Hagrid – we'd better get this over with."

"Dumbledore took Harry in his arms, while McGonagall took Selena. "Could I – could I just say good-bye to them, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over the twins and gave them each what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog. "Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "I c-can't stand it. Lily an' James dead – an' poor Harry an' Selena off ter live with Muggles –"

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, rocking the baby girl in her arms. The two Professors gingerly stepped over the garden wall and walked up the doorstep of the Dursley's house.

They paused for a bit at the front door. Professor McGonagall stammered, clutching tightly to the baby girl in her arms, not wanting to leave her with these awful people. Dumbledore looked down at the baby boy in his own arms. "I think," he said, briefly looking back at the baby girl before turning back to her brother. "We can expect great things from these two. But in order to do so, they must work together as a team as neither will last long without the other." Albus Dumbledore gently lay Harry on the front doorstep, while McGonagall did the same with Selena. The twins stirred in their sleep, seeming to sense their sibling's presence and reached out a tiny hand to grasp the others. Dumbledore smiled warmly as McGonagall wiped away a tear from her eye. "Ahh, amazing bond, twins have. They are a team right from birth and that…is a powerful charm in itself." Dumbledore murmured he took a letter out of his cloak and tucked it between the twins and backed away.

For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundles; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out. "Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall – Professor Dumbledore, sir." Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

Dumbledore and McGonagall looked back at the twins, still holding hands on the doorstep. "I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stoped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the two bundles of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry and Selena." Dumbledore murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone leaving behind the two children sleeping peacefully on their doorstep. A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter and Selena Potter rolled over inside their blankets without waking up. Their hands never left each other's and they slept on, not knowing they were special, not knowing they were famous, not knowing they would be woken in a few hours by Mrs Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that they would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by their cousin Dudley.

They couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: To Harry Potter and Selena Potter - The-Twins-who-Lived!