Yes, I am a massive fan of Jurassic Park... it did come out in summer 1993, so why not implement it here?
Harry Potter was without a doubt, one of the strangest people anyone would come across in Surrey. He loved going to school, desperately wanted to do his homework, and of course, was a wizard. The same went for his larger twin brother, John, and his cousin, a muggleborn witch Delilah.
The summer had definitely changed the three of them thus far. Harry and John's faces had lost their childlike roundness, and started to look more adult-like. Harry had grown slightly, but was still somewhat short and skinny. Delilah had shot up in height and was now as tall as Harry, whilst her body was starting to blossom into that of a woman's. John had grown in height a moderate amount; he was approximately as tall as his best friend Ron was six months ago, but had become significantly more muscular, something which he noted to himself coming out of the shower one evening.
He honestly hadn't noticed it. He was always naturally strong, but now it was starting to physically show, causing John to smile. The smile was wiped off his face when he looked more intensely into the mirror, and examined the scars on his chest. There were corresponding ones on his back. At the end of his last academic year, he, his brother and Ron faced off against a basilisk, one of the most dangerous animals in the world.
The basilisk killed John, seizing him in its jaws and crushing his chest. Fortunately for him, he had a fragment of the soul of Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard of all time and the murderer of his parents latched on to his own, and was allowed to come back to life. Most of the puncture marks had instantaneously vanished upon his resurrection (the ones that were deep enough to have killed him).
But what remained were four very prominent scars on his chest and four more on his back. They looked like the remnants of knife stab wounds, but Harry, Delilah and John himself of course knew better (as did a select few others including their best friends, Hermione and Ron, alongside Ron's parents, their headmaster and hosuemaster, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall).
John looked solemnly at his scars once more. They kept reminding him that, contrary to the way he behaved, he was not invincible. Not even close. Pain was no stranger to him or his brother, but this was something different. John had experienced mortality first hand, and while he was trying his best not to let it change him, a small part of him would never be able to forget what happened to him. He would never be the same.
The only silver lining was that, for a short time, he was able to see his parents again. But only for a short time. Even this silver lining was marred by the fact that John now knew what he was missing out on, making his status as an orphan all the more painful - Lily and James Potter were wonderful people, and he'd never see them again.
And finally, for as long as his second life may be, John would never forget the looks on the faces of Harry, Ron, Delilah or Hermione when he returned. He could only imagine what they felt when they saw his corpse.
Shaking those very sobering thoughts out of his head, he headed off to do his paper rounds.
Thirteen year old paperboys in Privet Drive were not commonly seen; the families living there were well off, and the children got all the pocket money they wanted. All of the families bar one. The Dursley family, caretakers of the Potter twins simply disallowed said twins from having any pocket money, and the same went for their daughter, due to their hatred of all things magic.
Hence, John took up the job of delivering newspapers door to door in order to earn some muggle money. He used Dudley's top of the line bicycle to do so, as Dudley never used it, and Vernon and Petunia Dursley couldn't care less what John did in his free time. In fact, given that John spent his mornings delivering papers, they were happy that it kept him out of their hair for a while every morning.
However, one paper in particular sparked a discussion. The paper in question had Sirius Black on the front page headline.
"You can tell he's just the wrong sort. Look how filthy he is." said Uncle Vernon upon looking at Black in the picture. Indeed, his hair was overgrown, stringy and unwashed, his beard shaggy and unkempt, his eyes looking wild, and his cheekbones gaunt.
But Harry, Delilah and John knew better than to think him just some escaped convict. He was Sirius Black, a notorious criminal, a murderer, one of the most wanted men in Britain, if not the most wanted, and one of Lord Voldemort's right hand men, according to anyone who knew anything about him.
"He's been sighted in Dufftown. That's not far from Hogwarts. If our last two years of luck are anything to go by, I don't think that's a coincidence." said John, quietly, leading the other two out of the living room.
"He won't get into Hogwarts though. Like Hermione says, there are all sorts of protective spells and enchantments around the castle grounds, as well as in the castle itself. In any case, I don't think one of Voldemort's followers has any reason to be at a school. He should be looking for ways for him to return to power, and with the diary and the stone destroyed..." Harry said, referring to how they themselves snuffed out two of Voldemort's chances to return.
"In all honesty, the chances are he's in Scotland to stay away from London, where there are more people who'd recognize him." said Delilah.
"Actually that makes the most sense. Shall we just stop worrying about him? I mean there are a lot of murderers running around, and I'd wager Lucius Malfoy is one of them, but he's just hiding it well." said John.
"Yeah, sounds about right." said Harry.
"So let's just ignore all that. You know, Jurassic park is finally out, right?" John asked, a gleeful smile appearing on his face.
"Yeah, but do you even have enough money yet?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah I do. We should head out and watch it. Hell let's just do it now." said John.
"Mum and dad won't be happy." said Delilah, looking towards the living room.
"Doesn't matter. What can they do now? I'm basically the size of your dad minus the six tonnes of fat." said John, bluntly, causing both Harry and Delilah to laugh.
"That's terrible!" said Delilah through her laughs.
"The truth often is." said John, feigning a mournful voice.
"So are we agreed on watching this movie?" John asked.
"Depends. Do you have enough money to pay for it?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah, I've got about a hundred pounds saved up." said John.
"Oh what the hell. Let's do it!" said Harry.
While the rest of the Dursley family was occupied by the paper and the television, Harry, John and Delilah snuck out of the house, ready to walk into town to watch what was being billed up to be one of the greatest movies ever made. Certainly one with one of the biggest and furthest reaching marketing campaign, and with a masterful director behind it.
All three of the youngsters came out of the cinema later that evening in shock over the excellence that was Jurassic park.
"I've never seen anything like that." said Harry.
"I could have sworn, every single dinosaur in that was real!" said John.
"Never a dull moment either! You have a scene with a T-rex throwing raptors around, and you have a bloody dinner scene and they're all amazing!"said Delilah.
"I don't think I'll be able to stop thinking about that mov-" John started, before noticing a pair of rather attractive girls around their age.
"Thus ends the age of John's Jurassic park obsession. How long did it last?" Delilah asked.
"Twenty seconds." said Harry, dryly.
They both turned to John, who was already flirting with the two girls, standing in a way that showed off the physique he'd been gradually building.
"Oh for goodness sake. I'll get him." said Delilah, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, I just decided to treat my brother and cousin to watch this movie, Jurassic Park which you've probably heard of." said John. The girls he was talking to obviously liked the generosity, but Delilah grabbed his ear before he could continue, and began to drag him away.
"Ow! Delilah, what the hell!" said John.
"We've got to get home John!" she said, sternly.
John looked to the two girls apologetically as Delilah dragged him away. Both of the girls found it hilarious.
"Thanks for that." said John sarcastically.
"My dad's going to be angry enough as it is, we might as well be home before ten! You thinking with the contents of your underwear isn't helping." said Delilah, bluntly.
"If you say so." said John, rolling his eyes.
"Cheer up John. Hermione and Ron are sending their birthday gifts!" said Harry bracingly.
"Fair enough." John mumbled.
Upon reaching number 4, Privet Drive, the three youngsters did not receive the berating that they expected. They were just ignored, but that worked more in their favor. Being allowed to be left to their own devices was preferable to random scoldings throughout every day. Especially considering the sheer number of chores that they would do if Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia spotted them not working on another chore already.
However, they should have known it was too good to be true.
Uncle Vernon dropped the worst news he could have dropped.
His sister, their Aunt Marge was coming to visit for a while.
"Wait... she's not coming here is she?" Harry asked, slightly panicked.
"Yes she is. And you'll have to be on your best behaviour. All of you." said Uncle Vernon sternly.
Aunt Marge had in essence, conformed with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's views of Harry and John, and even Delilah. What made her particularly unbearable was that she was even more callous and outright cruel about it. She allowed one of her largest dogs to chase Harry up a tree and have him trapped up there for an hour. She used John to test the speed of some of the dogs she was breeding. Needless to say, the dogs were much faster than a nine year old boy, thus explaining the large scar on John's left arm. She also frequently belittled Delilah's because of her looks, telling her she was too skinny and similar comments.
Ironically, Delilah was easily the best looking person in the entire Dursley family. Not that that was something to be particularly proud of, but Delilah was already growing into a beautiful young woman.
John decided to use Aunt Marge's visit as a bargaining tool.
"Alright. I'll behave. On one condition. You sign our forms." said John.
Earlier in the summer, the first batch of information from Hogwarts included some permission forms for students to visit Hogsmeade village on certain weekends, just to relax and do as they pleased. Harry, John and Delilah didn't expect to get the forms signed, but now John had a bargaining tool.
"I'm not signing those ruddy forms!" said Uncle Vernon, stubbornly.
"Well if that's the case... I might have to show Aunt Marge what we can do." said John.
"You're not allowed to use magic outside school." replied Uncle Vernon smugly, thinking he had John in the proverbial corner.
"I don't need my wand. All I need is my broomstick. The ministry can't track those and it's totally legal." said John, smirking.
The vein on Uncle Vernon's forehead became very prominent as he struggled not to lose his temper. He immediately knew that he had lost.
"And of course there are enough ingredients in the garden for me to brew a potion which could have Aunt Marge shrinking forever. All it would take is one drop in her wine..." Delilah threatened. This was of course a bluff, not that the other Dursleys knew any better.
"And how could we forget? We deliver our post by owl! I mean Delilah has her cat which is normal, but what if Aunt Marge were to see Hedwig flying through the window with a letter from Ron or Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Alright, alright! I'll sign the forms if you behave!" said Uncle Vernon, giving in.
"Thanks dad." said Delilah brightly, knowing full well that she was getting under his skin.
The three of them headed upstairs and chose to spend the rest of the evening in Delilah's room.
"Delilah, that was vicious! I didn't know you had it in you!" said Harry.
"I hang out with John too much. Absolutely tragic, isn't it Garfield?" said Delilah, stroking her cat.
"Hanging out with me was always a bad idea, I mean, look at you! You have a personality! Disgraceful!" John shot back, grinning.
"I guess I still have some learning to do before I can out-banter you." said Delilah.
"A lot of learning." said John.
Delilah stuck her tongue out at John.
"When did I become the mature one?" Harry asked.
"When you fell asleep and started dreaming." said Delilah.
"Apply cold water to burned area." John said to Harry, who simply rolled his eyes.
Before Harry could retort, Delilah pointed at four owls outside her window. One belonged to John, another to Harry (Achilles and Hedwig), whilst the other two belonged to the Weasleys and Hogwarts respectively.
The owls had a multitude of packages tied to them.
Most of the packages were birthday presents (they had recently turned thirteen) including a broomstick servicing kit from Hermione, pocket sneakoscopes from Ron and two books from the Hogwarts owl (Hagrid had sent the books).
After reading about how Ron's holiday in Egypt was going (and laughing at the image of Fred and George putting beetles in Bill's stew), they read Hermione's characteristically very long, neatly written letter about how she wished she were in Egypt, learning about the 'fascinating' ancient Egyptian wizards. Ron's account was conflicting with what Hermione said - some of the curses the ancient Egyptian wizards put on the tombs were not fascinating. They were simply downright frightening.
Eventually, they got onto Hagrid's presents.
John picked up his book from Hagrid, but he felt it moving. Harry and Delilah saw that.
"Err..." said John.
Hagrid wouldn't send anything dangerous to them on purpose but his idea of dangerous was nowhere near normal, having befriended giant spiders and bought fifteen foot three headed dogs from men in pubs.
"Open it. I mean, we might as well find out." said Harry, eyeing his own book carefully.
John tore open the parcel, to see a book with jaws. Upon being freed from the wrappings, it snapped aggressively at John.
"What the-" said John, before forcing the book shut. This required both of his arms. The book struggled against him. For something so (relatively) small, it was extremely strong.
"Get a belt, sellotape, something!" John said, urgently.
Delilah rushed to her drawer and pulled out some sellotape. Harry and John held the book down, and Delilah wrapped the tape around the book, repeating the process for Harry's.
"What the hell? Why do we need these?" Harry asked.
John read Hagrid's note, which simply said that they would definitely need those books this coming year.
"But why?" Delilah asked.
"Who knows? Hagrid's idea of... well anything dangerous doesn't make sense." said John.
"What else from the Hogwarts owl?" Delilah asked.
"Oh, our booklists, and what do you know? Whoever our care of magical creatures professor is decided to assign these things." said John, holding the booklists up for Harry and Delilah to see.
Meetings between Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge were often based around Fudge asking Dumbledore for help running the magical side of Britain, given Dumbledore's status and Fudge's lack of competence. However, this time, Fudge was meeting him to inform Dumbledore of a less than savory policy the ministry was now being forced to implement.
They were stationing dementors, the vicious and terrifying guards of Azkaban around Hogwarts.
"I'm sorry Albus, but this is out of my hands. The Wizengamot was adamant, and you already knew as much. With Black having been sighted in Dufftown, it simply isn't worth the risk." said Fudge.
Dumbledore sighed.
"Very well. But if you do this, you will have to allow me to hire Remus as opposed to appointing someone of your own." said Dumbledore.
"The werewolf? Don't you think it hypocritical? Being opposed to having dementors stationed at Hogwarts for fear of the students' collective safety, and yet in the same breath, hiring a known werewolf?" Fudge asked.
"He is not a monster. He is a good-natured and intelligent man, with skills that should be put to use in education." said Dumbledore.
"I don't doubt that. Once a month, however, he loses all of his humanity, and that is unavoidable." said Fudge.
"You forget, Cornelius. We do have a potions master in the castle. Severus does know how to brew the wolfsbane potion." said Dumbledore.
"I don't know Albus... we both know how violent werewolves are towards humans." said Fudge.
"I allowed Remus to be educated here before the wolfsbane potion was even invented. No one was hurt. With wolfsbane potion at our disposal? Why not allow him to become a productive member of society? Why shun him when the means to keep him human are within our grasp?" Dumbledore asked.
Echoing Dumbledore's sentiments regarding the dementors, after almost a minute of awkward silence, Fudge responded.
"Very well. But Professor Snape had better start brewing wolfsbane immediately." said Fudge.
"He will. Starting tonight. I will see to it myself." said Dumbledore.
With that, Fudge gave Dumbledore a curt nod, and stepped into his fireplace, flooing back to his office at the ministry.
Dumbledore headed to Snape's office to inform him of the arrangement.
"Severus, I have chosen our next defence against the dark arts professor. It will be Remus Lupin." said Dumbledore.
Snape whipped his head towards Dumbledore. He did not look happy.
"After what he almost did to me?" Snape asked, fiercely.
"He was not in his right mind, and you know it." Dumbledore said, flatly.
"Precisely. You think it prudent to hire someone with his... condition?" asked Snape.
"I am speaking to a potions master." said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.
"No... you can't mean it." Snape said, weakly.
"I do. You cannot deny his pedigree for the subject. Moreover, he deserves to have employment. You may have had your differences, but it is not his fault that he cannot find work. He didn't ask to be a werewolf, and in any case, do you think it fair that a fully qualified wizard with a talent for a particular subject should remain without work?" Dumbledore said.
Clearly Dumbledore's own pedigree for making strong arguments shone through.
"Very well. I'll make some wolfsbane whenever time permits." said Snape.
"Thank you Severus. You will help me keep an eye on Harry this year, won't you?" asked Dumbledore, referring to Sirius Black having been sighted somewhat close to Hogwarts.
"Two eyes. And if Black gets anywhere near here, I certainly wouldn't begrudge the dementors for doing their jobs." Snape said, angrily.
For once, Dumbledore had to agree with Snape's more vicious sentiments.
The next day, for Harry, Delilah and John was spent preparing for Aunt Marge's visit. They were cooking, cleaning, listening to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia list off the things they could or couldn't do in her presence, and of course, they were encouraged to spend as much time out of the house as possible.
Not that they were complaining about that.
However, when she actually arrived, they were struck by how they'd forgotten how much of an unpleasant character she was, both inside and out.
She was almost as beefy as her brother, and even had something of a moustache of her own.
"You two are still here then." was her greeting to Harry and John.
"Yes." Harry said, emotionlessly.
"Don't say 'yes' in that ungrateful tone. It was damn good of my brother to keep you. You'd have been straight to an orphanage if you'd have been dumped on my doorstep." she said.
Harry wanted to say that he'd have preferred an orphanage, but the Hogsmeade forms stopped him, as did the fact that he and John had formed an extremely strong bond with Delilah since the infamous roundabout incident.
"Oh, is that my Dudders, is that my little neffy-poo?" said Aunt Marge, before gushing over Dudley who was as much an angel in her eyes as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
"Take her suitcases upstairs." said Uncle Vernon, trying to remove Harry, Delilah and John from the equation, and by extension, the tension in the room.
After they had done so, Delilah started to look visibly upset. There were tears in her eyes.
"Woah, Delilah, what's wrong?" John asked.
"I... I just can't take this any more! They're my parents! I've been relegated to a grunt, moving suitcases, cooking and cleaning! And you're their nephews!" she said, choking back tears throughout her short monologue.
Harry and John looked at each other uncomfortably.
The pair of them often joked about the rest of the Dursley family, since they had never got along, but for Delilah, it was different. She was once treated as a true daughter by them; for her the treatment she currently received was perceived as far worse. Aunt Marge's visit was likely the straw that broke the camel's back. Yet another family member who had stopped treating her like family.
John pulled Delilah into a hug and allowed her to silently sob into his shoulder, and both he and Harry rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.
"I know I must sound so selfish, you two have been treated like this all your lives!" Delilah said, her sobbing voice muffled by John's shoulder.
"No, you're totally justified. For us it's nothing big, but you still remember being treated like a daughter." said Harry.
"It's absolute crap, plain and simple. You know when Aunt Marge is gone and we get those forms signed, I'm giving them a piece of my mind." said John, flatly.
"You'll hear no arguments from me." said Harry.
"I... I don't know, part of me thinks we could rekindle our relationship, so... could you just...not?" asked Delilah, knowing that she would receive an equal amount of displeasure if John did something.
"Even if you could, they don't deserve it. They treat you like crap just because you're a witch, something you never had any say in. I know you wouldn't want to stop being a witch given the choice, but your parents should support you either way." said John.
"When did you get so mature?" Delilah asked.
"I didn't. I'm just not as insensitive as I let on." said John, smiling at her.
"I don't know what I'd do without you two." said Delilah, hugging them both.
"The same goes to you, you do realise that, right?" Harry replied.
"Between you and Hermione, I didn't do any of my own homework before you got petrified last year." said John.
Delilah was now a walking mixture of laughter and sobs.
"Someone had to make sure you passed the year." Delilah said through her tears.