Summary: An early morning in July James Sirius Potter opens the door to reveal a girl he has never met before. Abandoned by her family, Rose Dursley is left on the front step of the Potter family, and tries to deal with the fact that she might not be a freak, but rather… magical?

Chapter 1 – A Strange Girl

Despite the persistent rain the last few weeks, July 26th dawned with bright sunlight and summer warmth. Inside of the white brick house in Godric's Hollow, the family slowly woke up. First up, most like all mornings, was the oldest boy. His red hair was still messy with sleep and as he sat up in his bed he yawned loudly. His bedroom was located on the entrance floor and so he could be as loud as he wished, the rest of the family wouldn't take notice. Besides, after that one time he blew up his toilet – purely by mistake, of course, despite what everyone thought – his mom had put a silencing spell on his room to avoid from being awakened in such a violent manner.

Not bothering with breakfast as he didn't want to get side cramps, the scrawny teenage boy just took the time to put on a t-shirts and shorts before he went for the door. He had always been a morning person and in order to make use of the early hours when he seemed to be the only person awake in the whole town, he usually took a run. Besides, he really needed to stay fitted if he wanted to keep his spot on the Gryffindor quidditch team. James Potter was chaser, and a marvellous one at that, something both he and his family were very proud of.

The hall by the front door was as messy as always. The two brothers had been home for nearly a month now and while their younger sister was fully capable of making a mess, she was nowhere near as messy as James and Albus, especially put together. Sleepily throwing away a pair of his mother's ballerina, James located his own trainers in the pile of shoes. They had been white when he bought them, but now they were a brown grey colour and one of the shoe laces had come apart. He supposed he could have fixed it while still at school, or asked one of his parents to do it once he came home, but he always forgot, and besides they worked just as well with only one and a half shoelace.

The door didn't creak as he opened it, which was enough to startle him. Up until this summer, this door had been very noisy to open, but apparently his parents had finally fixed it and it still surprised him every time he opened it. Not that he minded – it made it a lot easier to sneak back in without being noticed. However, the non-creaky door did not nearly startle him as much as the girl that was standing on his front step did. He took a step back, almost falling over as he stumbled on the shoe pile and just barely managing to keep his footing.

"Sorry!" the girl frantically whispered. She was panicked, he could tell by her wide eyes and slightly trembling hands.

Once he regained his balance, James opened the door fully to reveal the girl completely. She looked eerily familiar and for a second he couldn't place her, but then he smiled a little. Although the red hair wasn't the same colour, but slightly darker, the girl could be a copy of his dead grandmother, Lily Evans. She even had the same eyes as James's brother and dad, emerald green and startling, but more beautiful on the young girl than on either his awkward teenage brother or his going-on-bald dad. When it didn't look as if she was about to explain herself, he grinned his trademark smile at her.

"Can I help you?"

She swallowed and blinked and for a second James wondered if she was mute, despite her earlier apology, but then she spoke up. Her voice was bright, very much like his younger sister's', and combined with her oddly bright eyes he had a feeling that she was about to start crying.

"Sorry," she repeated. "I'm looking for-" she read of a paper in her hand that James hadn't noticed earlier "-Mr Harry Potter?"

It was a question more than an answer, really, but James wasn't picky. However, he didn't like the way this was going. It wasn't like it was the first time a stranger turned up on their porch asking for his father, or mother for that matter. More than twenty years after the end of the second wizarding war, and ten since the end of his mom's quidditch career, both his parents were still regarded as heroes and were often asked for autographs or photos, even at their own home.

"Isn't it a little early for that?" he wondered, a little brusquely.

The girl swallowed again. "Sorry," she said once more, and James resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I… dad said to go here. He said to give Mr Potter these letters."

Her voice almost broke and her hand was still trembling as she held it out, two letters in it. James couldn't help but noticed that her skin was as hopelessly freckled as his own, when he stretched out to grab them. The upper envelope was addressed to "Harry", the handwriting messy and unfamiliar. It was the fact that the letter was addressed to his father by first name that made James suspect that maybe the girl wasn't after autographs, after all, and so smiled, if a little awkwardly, at the girl.

"He's still asleep, but you can wait inside while I go wake him up?"

His mother would be proud of the polite tone he used, he idly though. The door was opened wide for the girl to step in through, but she went down back the stairs. Just as James was about to ask why she was leaving, he noticed the trunk by the foot of the stairs. She struggled to lift it up, but it was apparently way to heavy and as her face grew steadily redder – both from humiliation and effort, he suspected – he heaved it up and carried it inside, while the girl thanked him profusely.

"Just wait here and I'll go get him," he told the girl before running up the stairs, two steps at a time.

He supposed he probably should have offered her to sit down, but as he had no clue whether she was a witch or a muggle, he didn't dare let her inside any room but the hallway where she was standing. He knew that Albus still hadn't taken away the cauldron from the kitchen table, despite his mom's angry scolding, and Lily always left her play broomstick all over the place. Come to think of it, he usually did that too.

On top of all of that, which was suspicious enough for a muggle, the fact remained that the house wasn't exactly unmagical, either. While it didn't look overly big from the outside, it was a lot bigger once you came inside and had a much larger garden than any of the other houses in the muggle neighbourhood. The upper floor was a bigger than it should be, as well, leaving lot of space for several odd and not-so-odd rooms. Passing the white door that led to his brother's room – snorting at the loud snores he could hear through it – he entered the second door to the left, where he could find his parents' shared bedroom.

Unsurprisingly, both of them were still asleep. It was a mystery to everyone who knew Ginny and Harry Potter how they could have given birth to a morning person like James himself. When he woke up at seven in the morning, it was still several hours left till the next person got up, which was usually Lily, or in some cases, Harry. Ginny and Albus could sleep through a bombing, the rest of them used to laugh.

"Dad!" James said urgently, shaking his dad's sleeping body.

"Go 'way!" the grown man said, turning around in his bed to hide behind the quilt.

"Dad!" James repeated promptly took the quilt from his father, grinning at the frown that took place on the familiar face. Then the eyes opened and brown eyes met green.

"James, what did you blow up this time?" Harry wondered irritably as he stretched and started to get up.

"Nothing!" the boy said, "Why would you ask that?" His dad didn't even bother to reply to that. "I was going for a run, but there was some girl outside asking for you."

That got his father out of bed. "A girl?"

James nodded. "Yep, she said her dad had told her to give you these letters."

He handed the two envelopes to his father. While James hadn't recognised the hand writing at all, his dad's face drained from colour. He mumbled something that James couldn't quite make out, and before the boy could properly react Harry had put on a Weasley sweater and was going down the stairs. Curious as always, James hurried after him. However, he didn't have time to ask for further information before they reached the little girl. She hadn't even sat down and when she looked up to meet eyes with Harry, she looked even more nervous than she had, meeting James. The adult gasped at the sight of her, and James guessed he recognised her looks even faster than he had. Being used to surprises, though, Harry quickly recovered.

"Mr Potter?" the girl asked quietly.

"Indeed, and I guess that you're Rose?"

Apparently the girl hadn't expected him to know his name, because her eyes widened before she gave him a quick nod. James noted that this girl actually was quite similar to his cousin Rose and thought it to be a bit strange that they not only looked alike, but also had the same name.

"I hoped this day wouldn't come," Harry said absentmindedly, and both children stared at him. "Never mind," he then continued. "Would you like some tea, and maybe something to eat?" he asked the girl. "I'm sure James doesn't mind keeping you company while I go and have a quick talk with my wife."

James was about to protest, seeing as he hadn't had a chance to run yet, but his dad gave him a very serious look and so he didn't say anything about it.

"Sure," he agreed instead. "If you want to?"

The girl nodded again. "That'd be very nice," she said, very quietly. "If you don't mind?"

And she looked so nervous that suddenly James didn't mind at all. He still had no clue what was going on, but something told him that neither did the girl, and he didn't want to make her more upset than she already was.

"'course not!" he told her with a smile, and to his surprise she actually smiled back, if a bit weakly. "This way…"

He could hear his dad go back up the stairs as he lead the girl through their living room – luckily empty of typical wizard things – to the kitchen. Much like he had suspected, Albus's cauldron still stood on the table, along with his potions book. The girl stared – muggle then – and James scanned his mind for an excuse.

"It's my brother," he finally said, "he's a bit loony, tries to make potions and stuff."

The girl nodded. "My brother is insane, too".

He grinned. "Brothers always are – my mom has five, and they're all barking. Wicked, but completely crazy!"

That actually brought out a giggle of the little girl. "She has five brothers?" she asked, wonder in her wide eyes.

"She used to have six, but uncle Fred died during the la- that is to say, in an accident. That was a long time ago, though, and none of us cousins have actually met him, 'part from Teddy, but he was just a baby so he doesn't really remember. Mom said he looked just like uncle George, only he still had an ear. They were identical twins, you see."

Rose seemed to marvel at his words. "I wish I had an identical twin!" she said eagerly. "It would be so cool! Jack and I don't look anything alike."

Her face sobered when she mentioned who James thought must be her brother. Desperate to get her in a happier mood, he asked her what she'd like on her sandwich, hoping that she wouldn't ask for something muggley that he didn't know about. Luckily, she seemed very content with just cheese, so he made one for her and one for himself while the tea water boiled on the stove.

"Thanks," Rose said as he handed her a steaming cup of tea.

The cup was one of the few unmagical ones that he could find. It did have the Holyhead Harpies logo on it, but he didn't think that she wouldn't notice that. For a moment they just sat there in silence, each staring into their tea. Soon, though, Rose hesitantly spoke up.

"I like your house," she said and promptly blushed, but continued anyway, much to James's amusement. "It's very homey and cosy."

"I like it too," he told her and got a smile in reward.

Just as James started to wonder where they had gone, and whether his dad had fallen back asleep, both his parents entered the kitchen. Neither looked very happy, Ginny going on angry, but when Rose turned around to look at them, they both smiled at her. The smiles seemed genuine, too, and then both of the adults took a cup of tea each and sat down around the table as well.

"It's nice to meet you, Rose," James's mom said with a smile, although he could still sense her anger. "I'm Harry's wife, Ginny."

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs Potter," Rose mumbled quietly.

"You can call me Ginny, dear," the woman said to the girl in a manner that reminded James of his grandmother. "Your parents wanted you to stay here for a while, to get to know us."

The last part was said slightly sarcastically, but judging from Rose's expression she didn't catch up on that.

"Why did they want me to get to know you?"

James, too, very much wanted to know that, but right before his parents answered they turned to him. "James, dear," his mother said, "why don't you go for a run now?"

He almost groaned in frustration, but sensed that now wasn't the time to pry for information. Besides, if Rose was going to stay there for a while, he would probably find out, sooner or later. If he didn't find anything out, he would have to "borrow" some extendable ears from Uncle George. Now, however, he left his parents and the girl alone in the kitchen, and in the matter of seconds he was out the house, taking his usual route.

Normally, when James took a run, it would be much earlier in the morning and most of the times he didn't meet a soul, especially not during the weekend. Seeing as it was now later than usual he passed no less than three other runners, as well as two people walking their dogs. He didn't know anyone he passed, but still sent them the customary I-know-what-pain-you're-going-through-lucky-the-we ather-is-nice-though smile and nod, and everyone he met returned them with the same smile and nod.

Apart from the people, he didn't really pass anything interesting. His route started by their house, naturally, and then went through the neighbourhood, past the graveyard and past a big red brick building where he had once attended muggle school, until his parents got tired of covering up for the magic he performed there and put him in a home schooling group with most of his cousins. The same went for Albus, not because he couldn't behave but because he didn't want to learn about "silly things like adding and subtrahacting!" When Lily got old enough they didn't even bother to enrol her but after a year of school with her cousins, the little girl told her parents very seriously that she would either go to the muggle school or no school at all. Although she was very happy to soon be starting Hogwarts, she was sad to leave all her muggle friends behind and tried to spend as much time as possible with them before she left on the first of September.

After the school he turned left and ended up running around the lake where they always swam during the summers, and ice skated during the Christmas breaks. The lake wasn't very big, but the trail around it went up and down and never failed to make James tired. Usually the last part of his route, the one that went past a very tiny mall and then home again, would take much longer than the first part, mainly because he was always so exhausted. This time, when he ran past the mall, he could barely breathe due to cramps in his side. He knew that he shouldn't have eaten anything before he went and silently cursed his father for making him.

The house was still quiet when he came inside again, and he guessed that both his siblings were probably still asleep. Just as he was about to go take a shower he noticed that right there, on the bureau by the door, lay a paper with text on it. Never one to miss a chance, he picked it up.

Harry, it read, and James realized that it must be the letter that Rose had brought with her when she came.

I'm sorry about this, but I couldn't turn to anyone else. I know that you don't like me very much, and I don't like you either, but I can't handle this anymore! She's just like you, she's a freak! We tried to get it out of her, her mother and me, but it didn't work. We got the letter yesterday, the same letter that you got before that giant showed up and I knew then that she can't be my daughter. If you don't want to take her, send her away, but I can't keep her. She's a freak, she'll ruin our family! I don't want her to infect Jack, he's nothing like her but I don't want him to be either.

Dudley

For a moment, James just stared at the letters, unable to comprehend what he had just read. He had never heard of a Dudley, and had no clue how this guy thought he could call his dad and little Rose freaks! As far as James knew, they were both very nice! Then he saw the second envelope, the one he hadn't previously looked at. It had a very familiar, emerald crest on it, and with neat letters it read:

Rose Dursley
Pink bedroom
19 Vicar Lane
Bradford

It was a Hogwarts letter, he realise with a jolt in his stomach. That could only mean one thing: Rose was a witch.

This is going to be a multi-chaptered story, provided that there actually is some interest to read it. Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Are the characters realistic? What do you think about Rose? (And yes, I know that it's silly to name her the same thing as Ron's and Hermione's daughter, but by the time I realised that she is also called that my Rose had already developed and I didn't want to change her name.) Anything about the story that you particularly like or dislike? Let me know!

Next chapter: A very unhappy reunion, the wonders of magic and the story of an interesting school.