Prologue: Just A Name
September 1st, 1971
"Hazel! James!" Mary Potter shouted from the bottom the stairs. September 1st, first day of Hogwarts for the two. It was eight in the morning and she was yet to hear movement from upstairs from her eleven-year-old twins. She waited for a couple of seconds, and soon heard the thumping of feet hitting the floor. Satisfied, Mary turned and walked back to the kitchen.
James's eagle owl 'Colin' (which he thought was a hilarious name for an owl) sat on back of one of the oak chairs around the kitchen table, following her as she walked to look after the bacon she was cooking once again. She swore that it was going to eat her one day.
When she went to retrieve eggs for breakfast as well, and sighed as she noticed Hazel's stuffed lion on the couch. She always left a mess somewhere. She had had the lion for years though, named it Godric and was very proud. 'Hear me roar' she would proclaim at the top of her lungs at times.
"Are the monsters up?" Mary glanced behind her and saw her husband, Nicholas, saunter into the kitchen. He, tall and black bearded, sat down at the table and picked up the daily prophet on the table. Colin squawked in objection the intrusion into his space. Spoiled bird.
"One is at least." Mary informed him, knowing very well which one it was.
Hazel Potter, eleven-year-old extraordinaire and master of everything (a title she had bestowed upon herself), balanced on the headboard of her brother's bed. James was still sleeping unassuming below her perch.
The twins looked very similar. They had both inherited their fathers black hair that stuck up every which way and could never be tamed (much to the chagrin of their mother) and both were tall but scrawny for their age. They had his smile as well, big and toothy with dimples, with infectious consequences. However, while Hazel had inherited their father's eyes as well, sea green in colour, James had inherited their mothers softer brown which always held an essence of mischief. Still, they looked more similar than they did different… not that you would know it at that moment however.
Hazel, her face concealed, used her feet to put pressure on the mahogany head board, a creak being emitted. She leaned further over until her head was only a couple of feet above James's.
James rustled, still asleep, but the disturbance did its job and woke him up. His eyes fluttered open and with a yawn, he leaned over to his bedside table to pick up his glasses (another difference between the twins). Returning to his position lying down and sighed contently as he went to look at the ceiling.
"ARRGH!" He let out a scream however as he saw what he swore hadn't been there before. A hideous furry monster was above him with red eyes and black and white fur… and a curiously familiar laugh.
"HAZEL!" James complained, but his scream turning into laughter.
"Scared you!" Hazel claimed victory as she flopped down onto the bed beside James who sat up.
"No you didn't!" James contested.
"Scared! Scared! Scared!" She continued, poking her brother in the chest with each jibe.
"Ow," James cowered dramatically but ever so falsely. "Wait till I tell mum you beat me up."
"You get more than that when I win!" Hazel took off the mask and the twins smiled at one another, sitting across from one another.
Smelling the air, James swept back his hair to make it even messier than it was and took a deep breath. "Mum's cooking bacon. Dibs the crispy pieces."
"Good luck getting them." Hazel challenged, knowing they would race each other downstairs for them.
"Eggs too, with beans and potatoes." James was more like a hound when it came to food, Hazel could only smell breakfast-y goodness herself. "What do you think?" As if he didn't know for sure.
"I think you're a dork," Hazel replied getting up.
"I learned from the best." Hazel stuck her tongue out back to him. A 'meow' came from underneath James's desk.
"Did mum bring our robes back up?" James asked, looking around.
"Yeah, they're on your outside doorknob."
Hazel stooped down and picked up her calico cat, mitzy, from her hiding spot.
She then moved to the door and tossed James's Hogwarts robes' towards him. Their mother had kept their robes until then, as she didn't seem to trust them to not get them dirty.
Honestly, their mother wounded them sometimes.
"Won't be plain black for much longer."
James picked them up and got out of bed to put them away for later. Needless to say, 'putting them away' entailed just stuffing them in his bad to get changed into on the train.
"Red and gold!" Hazel's excitement grew.
James nodded in agreement.
Hazel just knew that they were going to be in Gryffindor, the Potters always had been since Hogwarts first started. It was going to be great, she and James the unstoppable team. Playing quidditch, finding hippogriffs, dueling evil, Hazel could hardly wait.
"Hazel and James! Breakfast is getting cold!"
"Found one," James called back to Hazel right behind him. They had just hugged their parents goodbye and were trying (and apparently succeeding) to find a compartment.
Hazel could hardly stand still, a bundle of excitement. Mitzy in contrast, who sat in Hazel's arms perfectly content, didn't seem to give a care as to what was happening. She had heard stories sure, but this was the first time she had been inside the famous train. She had never even gone through to platform 9 ¾ before. It felt like when she had gotten her wand from Ollivanders (well… almost). Her wand sat in her pocket, having rarely left her side since she got it.
11 inches, Alder wood with a phoenix feather core. Ollivander, a quirky man with white hair, had smiled at her when the wand had chosen her with a brilliant display of shooting stars. He told her with a pleased smile that it was going to be a stubborn wand and that she would need to get used to having some spells backfire out of sheer spite from the wand for the first few years.
'Oh,' Hazel had replied, her smile fading as she looked down at wand that had given her a tingly feeling all up her arm. 'I can handle it,' and her smile returned at full voltage. She knew she could, she had been waiting to get a wand her whole life. Nothing could stop her. Hazel gave the wand a little pat and she reached her brother.
She followed James into the compartment and let Mitzy make herself comfortable on the velvet red seat.
James unlocked the window after setting Colin in his cage onto the compartment over the seat. Pulling it down, he stuck his head out and searched for their parents. Hazel joined him and spotted them a little ways down the platform.
"Mum! Dad!" she called, waving them over.
"Have a good time," their dad smiled as he placed a hand on the small of their mother's back.
"But not to good. No toilet seats in the mail James!" their mum interjected, looking at her boy sternly.
"Why me?"
Hazel giggled and explained to James, "Because you'll be the one taking the seat, I'll be the one taking a photo of it." She had her camera in her trunk ready with her scrapbook. She had bought a new one for Hogwarts and all the adventures she would have there.
"None of that either," Mary rolled her eyes but smiled. She knew that if she did get a toilet seat in the mail, she wouldn't be too mad really; just amused. Hazel could see this when she noticed the slightest flicker of amusement in her brown eyes.
The train whistle blew right at eleven o'clock.
"Okay, you two take care of one another okay?" Mary changed tone as she and their dad began to walk with the departing train.
James answered "We will," while they were still beside us.
"Love you," Hazel blew their parents a kiss as the train began to pick up speed.
"Love you too!"
The train left the station then, hiding any view of their parents as they set off north. Hazel and James were still looking out the window, their backs to the rest of the compartment when a knock came, alerting them that someone else was there.
At the entrance to the compartment, there was a boy, obviously a first year as well, with sandy blonde hair. He had several scars on his face and he was already in his school robes which looked a bit more worn then their own did.
Hazel's eyes brightened, their first wizard friend!
"Hi!" Hazel chirped, turning away from the window to greet him. He smiled shyly in response. Hazel paused a bit when, despite looking nice enough, he seemed to step back a little bit. Undeterred however, she continued to smile nicely at him. "I'm Hazel, that's James."
The boy looked quickly between the two. "Twins?"
"And here I am thinking that our disguises were working so perfectly," James laughed a little bit. "But yeah, we're twins, and you are?"
The boy blushed a bit in embarrassment. "Sorry, I'm Remus." He looked at his shoes quickly and then back at them.
"Could I sit here? Everywhere else is full."
"Course," James shrugged, sitting back down.
Remus sat at the opposite end of Hazel's side, still pretty shy but smiling none the less.
'This is going to be great,' Hazel couldn't stop telling herself.
The first years waited apprehensively on the stairs in front of the great wooden doors that Hazel knew led to the Great Hall. She was talking to a couple of girls that she had gone in the boats with. Their names were Grace, a willowy girl with hair to light that it seemed white, and then Audrey who was plumper, with blonde hair and nice smile. Hazel had lost James at the boats. He had gone with Remus and two other boys that had joined their compartment as well, Sirius and Peter, and she had found a boat of only three to go in instead. The boy who had been in her boat as well had been nice, but separated from them at the shore to join a group of kids that he already knew. What was his name again? Lucas?
Hazel and the two girls stood at the front of the others, the three of them nearly having run to the steps.
"Sis, there you are."
Looking behind her, she saw James walking up to her… soaking wet.
"What happened?" Hazel raised an eyebrow. The crew from James' boat followed suit, all equally drenched.
"Boat magically tipped over," Sirius grinned behind James as they reached the top landing beside her.
"No explanation really," James grinned in a similar Cheshire manner.
Chuckling, Hazel turned to Grace and Audrey in order to introduce them to her brother and the other three, but before she could, Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall returned.
"Follow me," The stern looking, 40-ish year old witch ordered.
Before moving off, Hazel took a deep breath and stood up straight.
"ATTENTION!" James whispered sarcastically to her when he noticed her actions. It didn't matter though, Hazel was nearly glued to McGonagall's heals as they moved up the Great Hall.
The hall was greater than she had ever imagined. Candles floating everywhere and constellations mapped out above them, the entire room had a golden glow. The room was packed as well, all the students apart from first years at their assigned tables, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor in that order. At the end of the hall, the head table was laid out with all the professors awaiting them. In the center could only be Albus Dumbledore, headmaster for the past 14 years. With a long white beard and fuchsia robes, he easily stood out from the others despite their own intricate and colourful robes.
"Simmer down there sister." She was pulled back by her hood by James who hissed those words into her ear after she had nearly stepped on McGonagall's robe for the third time.
Hazel glanced back at him and lightened her pace slightly. They had reached the end of the hall anyway.
Stopping in front of four steps, they were met by the sight a stool and the sorting hat. It wasn't just the muggle-borns amongst the first years who gasped when the hat opened its mouth and began a song.
Hazel looked back at the first years behind her. She recognized Allyria Umber, a girl whose father worked with her own in ministry courts. She was dark haired and eyed, and apparently the group of boys around her thought she was cute because they were either staring at her or blushing when she glanced their way in annoyance. Then there was Robb Wilde, a boy from down the road from her house. Godric's Hollow was small enough, so everyone kind of knew everyone. She had last seen him at a summer street party that had been held.
"Hazel," Audrey gave her a gentle knock on the shoulder. She blushed when she realized what the girl had directed her attention to. The sorting hat had finished its song and everyone was clapping. She joined in.
McGonagall stepped up beside the sorting hat and pulled out a large scroll from a pocket in her robes.
"I will call out your names in alphabetical order and you will join me up here, sitting on the stool. Then, I shall place the sorting hat on your hat, and you will be grouped into your houses." She gently picked the leather wizards hat up and unrolled the scroll. Starting from the top: "Abbington, Audrey."
Hazel smiled at the girl who ambled up the stairs, completely at ease.
"Ravenclaw!"
"Ackery, Arthur."
"Ravenclaw!"
"Avery, William."
"Slytherin!"
Sirius went to Gryffindor (much to the shock of some of the hall considering that apparently, his last name was "Black"- he did seem relieved though). Grace Duncan went to Gryffindor. Raven-haired triplets Elij went to Gryffindor. Remus went to Gryffindor. Fair-haired Marlene McKinnon went to Gryffindor. Bushy haired Julie McMillon went to Gryffindor. She was sizing up her housemates.
"Pettigrew, Peter."
A minute later- "Gryffindor!"
"Potter, Hazel." Her breath caught in her throat and she shot a smile to her brother who gave her a thumbs up. She could feel her heart beating in her chest.
Sitting on the stool, the hat was put on her head, just barely sitting above her eyes.
"Hmm… interesting," Her eyes shot open in surprise. She hadn't heard the hat say anything besides their houses to the others.
"This is in your head girl, just as it was for the others." Hazel froze again. She didn't mean for the hat to… hear that?
"Sorry," She murmured, but smiling because she realized that a hat had just talked to her.
"The novelty wears off," The sorting hat replied once again, though it seemed to be thinking about something else.
"A good mind and a good openness to fill it… Potential, certainly potential, and oh… what's this? Hmmm, Better be…"
'Gryffindor,' Hazel envisioned in her mind.
"Slytherin." The Hat called out as clear as day.
'Wait… what?'
The hat was taken off of her head and McGonagall ushered her off the stool.
"But…" Hazel couldn't hide her surprise and, admittedly, disappointment. Slytherin? But she was a Potter. She was supposed to be in Gryffindor. She walked confused to her table, or the Slytherin table at least, and apprehensively sat down. She didn't notice that the table was clapping her just as all tables did when they got a new first year.
"Rachel," Still not quite with it, Hazel saw the girl beside her was sticking her hand out. She was tanned in skin and dark in hair with dark eyes. Rachel Chase she must be, another family that she knew had someone working with her father.
"Hazel," She shook the girls hand, but was focusing on her brother. That hat was covering his own messy hair now. His took only a few seconds.
"Gryffindor!"
He smiled but Hazel saw it falter when he glanced her way, her way where she wore a frown.
Not meaning it, but refusing to be bitter, Hazel threw him the strongest smile she could muster. He smiled again and sauntered off to his table. He didn't glance her way for the rest of the meal, and Hazel could guess why. He was probably confused but felt bad as well about what happened.
Hazel looked down her own table as the sorting continued, and her dazed confusion turned almost to fear. She had heard about these families. The Blacks, the Lestranges, the Goyles, the Parkinsons. All of them had kids at these tables. She was a Potter, she couldn't possibly belong there.
Hazel stopped herself. She was such an idiot. She didn't know these people yet, she couldn't barrel into expectations, she could have slapped herself for what she had begun to think about them already. Rachel seemed nice and so did all of the others at the table.
'Potters didn't get put into any other house than Gryffindor though', a small voice in her head told her, but she stopped herself again.
'Well, I guess I'll just have to be the first one!' the thought was perky in her mind and she did actually mean it. Afterall, names don't matter right?
Having cheered herself up a little bit, Hazel looked over to James who had been saved a seat by Sirius it appeared. She didn't catch his attention. Worry overcame her again though at the thought of him.
Different houses split them up a lot. They never had been split up really. Her mother and Aunt Reyna (who was in Ravenclaw, but she was a Greengrass) had gotten split up (her mother had gone to Gryffindor) and they barely ever spoke now. Hazel had only met her Aunt on a handful of occasions, and many of them on accident. Apparently they had been close too.
Hazel rolled her eyes at herself, why was she so worried? She was in Slytherin, well then, she was just going to have to be doubly great and make twice as many friends. She was separated from James. So? They would still have classes together and hang out in free time. They weren't going to go all stupid and drift apart.
No, it would be all right. Things were only going to get better than they already were, she would make sure of it or her name wasn't Hazel Potter!
January 1st, 1979
A foolish dream really. Hazel Potter, yes it was still her name, hadn't made sure of it.
She had grown her previously bobbed hair out to her waist. Her sea green eyes were duller and she looked tired and pale.
Six months after Hogwarts and she now sat in the shitty apartment that she rented out of pure spite. Could she technically afford better? Yes, but it was a choice. Very different from the Slytherin dorms and common room that she had grown protective of over the years. She had a rickety old bed, peeling wallpaper, and a damp smell. Not exactly the estate she had grown up in.
Her parents had left her a key to the Potter Gringotts vault, but her pride got on the way of her using it. They had passed away a couple of weeks ago, letters from them before hand still sat strewn around the room, asking her to come to lunch on Sunday. She hadn't been to 'lunch on Sunday' since the last Sunday of her summer before seventh year.
Two weeks they had been dead and Hazel had organized the funeral and had been the only one there apart from a few scragglers. Her brother sent flowers and a quick note profusely apologizing about not being there, but he just couldn't.
Sirius, the man that her parents had taken into the homes sent similar marks.
Just couldn't huh? Hazel knew what he was doing, something for the Order of the Phoenix. He hadn't told her himself, she hadn't seen him since their graduation date. It had been a joint effort of avoiding one another on both of their parts. She had expected to see him there though. Thus, she guessed she didn't really know, but it was probably a good guess as to why he wasn't present.
Oh well, there was a war on, funerals happened everyday.
The Order of the Phoenix had been set up by Dumbledore and Hazel knew all about it. Dumbledore had approached her about it, interested in a certain invention of hers and of the possible uses. Hazel had turned it down. Prideful yes, but she had her reasons.
The invention that Dumbledore had wanted however she still used. It sat on her desk asleep in a makeshift next she had made for it made of twigs and paperclips; her little bird.
It was small and black in color, only a splash of white on its face. Hazel had spent the better part of a year correcting her little birds. She had created them from some roses that had survived the winter at Hogwarts. Beautiful and red they had been and she made them sprout wings. And they say her brother was the star of transfiguration.
This bird could become two, or three, or twenty, depending on how many Hazel needed. She had charmed them to record any voice and play it back, or to see for her anywhere they could fly. They could send messages or retrieve objects, all while undetectable by security spells. That had been the tricky part and had taken quite a few looks around the restricted area of the Hogwarts library to do it, but it had been done. Now, to any spell, no matter how clever or strong, it was just a common bird (even if it was from a rose). Dumbledore had found out after catching her calling the bird to herself. She had never caged it, letting it fly, thus she had gone to seek it out in the woods and he had apparently chosen to follow her.
'Beautiful magic', Dumbledore had called it, truly seeming impressed.
He wanted to use them for war, that much was sure. Hazel wanted to use them for… something she guessed. She had been only interested in the mechanisms and workings of her idea, she had never intended to have them used, or to be used herself in order for someone to acquire them.
She called them with a song, and they answered to her with their own sweet melody and went to her side. That dynamic didn't need to be tampered with.
So this is the story Hazel was in now, not the happy one that she had made herself believe when she had been just a child. To bad that one wasn't true, it had been a nice story she had envisioned, but hey, nowadays, who was it true for?
She didn't keep stuffed lions named Godric anymore. She had shed into a different skin. She might not have claws, but her teeth were just as sharp.
'Hear me roar,' she thought soberly before cynically chuckling at herself as an owl peck came at her dirty window and Mitzy, her old and cranky calico, hissed in annoyance.