AN: My first ever uploaded fanfic. Ah! So I noticed that there are a myriad of Harry's twin sister fics out there and it got me thinking. So, this is my spin on the idea. I'm starting off with the Philosopher's Stone and going from there. Please try to keep any criticism constructive and I would appreciate any positive thoughts, so feel free to leave those. Also suggestions, those would be great.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does. Should I claim ownership of my OC. People seem to do that a lot. Yeah, I made her up. Liza too.
Nearly ten years had passed since the fateful night of You-know-who's demise. And for those years Harry and Selena Potter spent their days doing endless chores for the Dursleys and their nights under the stairs of Number 4 Privet Drive. The first sound of the morning for the both of them was the shrill voice of Aunt Petunia.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
Harry jolted upward and Selena slowly rose wiping the sleep from her eyes. The twins looked at each other groggily. Mrs. Dursley rapped on the door again. "Up!" She squawked like a laryngitic parakeet. The sound of the stove starting roused Selena further. Harry rolled on his back and stared at the ceiling. "Are you two up yet?" She harped.
"Nearly," Harry replied before Selena could say anything.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
Harry groaned and Selena threw her face in her hands.
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door
"Nothing, nothing..." Harry mumbled. This time Selena groaned. Her brother had next to no tact. She wondered if he would ever survive this household without her.
Selena stumbled out from the cupboard under the stairs. Mornings were not her forte. She always woke from her Aunt's shrieking, the thundering footsteps of her Uncle, or Harry shaking her before either of the former had the chance. Out in the kitchen she couldn't see any inkling of the table. It was thoroughly coated in Dudley's birthday presents. Vernon and Petunia had gone all out for Diddydums. She could see the computer, a second television, and oddly enough a racing bike. Dudley was the size of a small Beluga Whale. Selena doubted that he could balance long enough to take off.
Much like her brother, Harry, Selena was forced to wear Dudley's hand-me-downs. Where they simply made him look thinner and knobbier than he was, she looked like every day was a sick day. This was especially a pain because Selena loved fashion and she had quite a distinct sense of it. The only outfits she owned were birthday presents from her best friend Liza Garcia. She also lived on Privet Drive. Selena befriended her a month into primary school. Even though she loved Liza dearly and yearned to be away from the Dursleys, she still dedicated much of her time to Harry. She couldn't just leave him alone with them. He would die of boredom.
Her brother, Harry, had messy dark hair, bright green eyes, and strange little scar on his forehead from the car crash that killed their parents. His glasses were held together by scotch tape thanks to Dudley's bullying. Hers were less round than his and also held together by tape, fortunately for her Dudley followed a certain code of chivalry that prevented him from hitting girls. The tape around her glasses was a result of her butterfingers-itis. She didn't look at all similar to Harry. Freckles speckled her nose and the tops of her cheeks. Orange hair fell to her shoulders and her eyes were a deep chocolate brown. She was almost certain that Dudley didn't even know that they were twins. He wasn't all that observant.
Harry was tending to the bacon and Selena was pouring glasses of juice and making Uncle Vernon's coffee.
"Comb your hair!" He barked at Harry as a form of morning greeting. "Girl," He snapped at her, "Coffee!"
"Yes, Uncle Vernon," She obeyed bringing over his steaming bean juice. He slurped a large sip from the hot beverage wetting his thick Stalin-like mustache.
Harry was frying eggs when Petunia and her cousin walked in. Dudley looked much like his father- watery blue eyes, large peach cheeks, and a nearly absent neck, with thick blond hair that to Selena looked very much like a toupee. Harry once confided in her that he thought Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. Liza mused that he was the long-lost love child of Donald Trump and Miss Piggy. She oinked to Selena whenever she spotted the chunky boy. She'd have thought it a little too mean, if her cousin didn't deserve it.
When Dudley finished the oh so difficult task of adding up his gifts his face fell. "Thirty-six? That's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry began swallowing pieces of bacon whole sensing a Dudley tantrum. Selena silently started making her way towards the edge of the room.
Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right"
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty... thirty..."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down with a thump so heavy that the chair shook beneath him and greedily snatched up the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon laughed, "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He mussed Dudley's fair hair.
The telephone rang and her Aunt excused herself to answer. Dudley without a thought concerning his mother and continued digging into presents. Selena watched unamused alongside her brother and uncle.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She nodded her head in the twin's direction.
Dudley gaped horrified. Harry looked like Christmas had come early. While she didn't mind Mrs. Figg and her cat stories, Harry loathed them. She felt a ping of sadness for Mrs. Figg.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates them."
"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia. She turned to Selena, "What about your little friend?"
"Liza? She's on a cruise around the Virgin Islands." Liza had sent her a post card from St. Thomas. Dudley ripped it up, before she could read it. She had to piece it back together like a puzzle in order to get Liza Garcia's message.
"You could just leave us here," Harry added. For just the tone of his voice she knew what he was getting at. If they were alone they could have the TV all to themselves. How glorious that would be, Selena reminisced.
Aunt Petunia pursed her lips like she had just inhaled the lemon from her restaurant water.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.
"I won't blow up the house," said Harry.
"He won't. I'll watch him. When have I done anything destructive?" Selena added but they weren't listening.
"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave them in the car..."
"That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone..." Selena's eyes were growing tired from rolling them so much.
And then… the tears came. Dudley began to produce faux tears. Despite his lack of talent, he was quite the little actor. Her eyes couldn't handle the stress.
"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I... don't... want... them... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "they always sp-spoil everything!" He shot them a smug smile through the space between his mother's gangly arms.
And just when Selena thought the melodrama couldn't get any worse, Piers Polkiss and his mother arrived. "Dios Mio," Selena sighed aloud. She caught the exclamation from her time spent with the Garcias. Along with many Spanglish colloquialisms.
"Don't you be speaking foreign filth in this household!" Uncle Vernon chastised.
"It's Spanish," She crossed her arms across her chest. "I was just repeating Aunt Petunia." He narrowed his eyes, obviously not quite believing her.
A half an hour later she was squished in the back of the Dursley's car with Harry, Piers, and Dudley. She and Harry were forced to share the skinny middle seat, but it bothered neither of them. After all, they did share a cupboard.
As soon as they exited the cramped car Uncle Vernon began threatening the both of them, which killed Selena's excitement. This was the first time she or Harry would be visiting the zoo. After seeing animals in only pictures from Liza's family zoo trips, she would finally see them in person. She loved animals. Every time in school they had to get a choice read book from the library, she bought one on animals. Sometimes they were devoted to a specific species, others were based on geography.
The Dursleys never believed Harry or Selena that they wouldn't get in trouble. The strangest things were always happening around the both of them and it was completely unintentional.
One time when a girl made fun of the tight pigtails Aunt Petunia forced her to wear, the girl instantly became completely bald. A boy made fun of her bushy eyebrows and suddenly he grew a unibrow. A different girl made fun of Liza's Spanglish and Selena glared at her. When the teacher called on her to answer a question she only answered in Gibberish. Her parent's might have called an exorcist.
There was also the time when both she and Harry ended up on the roof of the house after being chased around by Dudley and his gang. There was no explanation. It defied all principles of logic. Aunt Petunia had shrieked at them so shrilly that she had laryngitis for nearly all the next week.
During the car ride Uncle Vernon fired off his litany of his complaints. Some of his favorite subjects were Harry, the council, Selena, the bank, Harry, young people, Selena, Harry. This morning he seemed particularly inclined towards motorcycles. She liked motorcycles, Liza's American cousin Tony had a fancy Harley Davidson. It was displayed perfectly in Liza's Vacation Scrapbook.
"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, suddenly. "It was flying." Selena stared at Harry, wide-eyed. He winced at her realizing the grave mistake he just made. Uncle Vernon hated anything imaginative. Which explained his general distaste for Mrs. Garcia, seeing as she was an artist.
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a cellulite ridden tomato with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers giggled like little girls.
"I know they don't," said Harry, meekly. "It was only a dream."
The sun was bright and strong that day and the zoo was packed with cheery families. The Dursleys bought large ice creams for Dudley and Piers. The Van Lady asked Selena and Harry what she wanted before the Dursleys could protest. They both got the cheapest thing on the menu.
Harry and Selena walked a small distance from the Dursleys and Piers, so not to "embarrass" them. They ran around looking at the animals much longer than Dudley and Piers. Their Aunt would hiss at them to keep going. Selena was overjoyed. All of the animals were so beautiful and real. When she looked in their eyes she felt connected to them. She just wanted to reach out and touch them.
They ate in the zoo restaurant. She and Harry shared Dudley's reject ice cream. Everything was going so well and then Harry harried the situation.
After lunch, they visited the reptile house. Selena broke off from the group who only had interest in the "manly" animals. She still made sure to check back to see if they left. Suddenly something caught her eye. A man was standing with a big, hairy spider walking across his hand. Her feet carried her quickly. She wanted a closer look. When she arrived in front of the man, he smiled brightly. "Would you like to hold this beauty?" Selena nodded hesitantly. He nudged it onto her hand. It's many appendages tickled the back of her right hand. "She's a tarantula. Her name's Hecate." She held the creature up closer to her face. The spider moved some of her legs closer to her face. "Wow, I think she likes you!" He removed Hecate from her hold. The worker stuck a sticker to her shirt that read, 'I held a tarantula.' She was excited to show Liza.
Then her happiness dissolved at the sound of screaming. "Oh. Oh no."
Harry was sitting on the ground being death stared at by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. The glass to the boa constrictor exhibit was completely gone.
At home, they sent Harry straight to the cupboard without any meals. Selena stood awkwardly in the living room. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't steal food from the fridge for Harry until later. "I held a tarantula today," She stated awkwardly before retiring to the cupboard.
Sitting on the bed with Harry, she remembered how hard he had it. No one was friends with Harry Potter because Dudley and his gang hated Harry Potter. Liza simply did not care what Dudley's gang did. It must have been hard not having a Liza. She grabbed Harry's hand in hers. "When is our long-lost Uncle from New Brunswick going to whisk us away from this awful place?" She mused.
"What makes you so sure he's from New Brunswick?"
She shrugged, "Intuition."
