Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I would have picked a different ending, never have killed Sirius and I would have forced Harry Potter with Draco Malfoy. But sadly I don't. So all those who love HPDM frown with me. Come on.
No More Sorrow
Chapter One
The bedroom that eight-year-old twins, Courtney and Melody, shared were painted purple trimmed in black. The walls were covered in Anime posters – mostly Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Gravitation – and the back of the white door had pictures from orchestra and drawing class. Two white shelves on opposite walls both held two sets of ballet shoes and dragon statues. On Courtney's half of the room was clean with her clothes folded carefully in her portion of the dresser and a hot pink laptop was sitting on her neatly made bed. Melody's half of the room had a couple of dirty clothes thrown about, her blue laptop resting next to a pile of bed sheets, and her drawers of the dresser were opened with clothes overstuffed.
A pink spotted white cat stuff animal flew across the room and missed its intended target, hitting the purple wall behind Melody. Her twin retaliated by throwing her pillow at her, successfully hitting her in the arm.
"I HATE YOU!"
"I HATE YOU MORE!"
"YOU'RE A POOP!"
"YOU'RE A DUMDUM!"
"SHUT UP," the twins yelled together, their faces mirror images of frustration.
Courtney, the oldest by six minutes, wore a denim skirt that reached her knees, a dark blue Hannah Montana t-shirt that had a full image of said pop star with the words "Rock Star" along the bottom, and pink glitter flip flops. Her rich chocolate brown hair reached her shoulders, still damp from her shower earlier, and her emerald green eyes glared.
Melody wore a black jersey that had the Hogwarts logo on the chest with her first name on the back and the number 25. It reached over her dark baggy denim jeans that hung over the Powerpuff Girls sneakers. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, two strands framing either side of her face as she returned Courtney's glare.
"You put those stuff animals down this instant," snapped a voice.
Both girls dropped the stuff animals that they had been preparing to launch at each as their father entered the room. Green eyes that matched their own gave a pointed glace to Courtney's bed, and the girls sat down on opposite ends of the bed, arms crossed. He had long since given up on his glasses and had gotten contacts for they were much more convenient to raising the girls. He kept his glasses though in his bedside table drawer. Their father ran a hand through his thick, messy jet-black hair, his body lean and tan from years of Qudditch. Dressed in black slacks, dress shoes, and a white button dress shirt it was obvious that their fight had interrupted their father in getting ready for work.
"What's going on in here," Harry asked, trying to push the thought of arriving late for the Aura meeting out of his mind as he squatted down in front of his children.
He knew that Melody probably started it because she had always been more aggressive than Courtney. The first year the twins had been born Melody craved attention and if she didn't have it she would scream until someone picked her up. It was times that Melody needed attention at three in the morning for the first year that he was grateful that Mrs. Weasley forced him to stay at the Burrow until he felt comfortable watching the two on his own. Seven years later and he felt that he had a good handle on the whole twin thing, seeing how Mrs. Weasley could easily confuse Fred and George sometimes.
"That lady wrote another thing about us," Courtney replied. "But it was mostly about me and how Melody was the evil twin."
"I am not the evil twin!"
"You put pepper on my toothbrush!"
Harry grabbed the pillow Melody had picked up and placed it beside him. Fights like this had been going on for the last few months because someone had thought that it wasn't enough to write just about him. Articles were being written about the twins' life in Muggle school and so on; some even going as far as to write about which twin would probably end up doing what and being sorted into what house.
"Melody, Courtney, what did I say about reading the newspaper?"
"Not too because they're only interested in making money off what the world would like to believe we are," Melody answered.
"But Aunt 'Mione said that its good to read the newspaper to keep updated on the simple things in life. She said that it's not good to be unprepared like you were when you went to school," Courtney offered.
"Listen very carefully to me." Harry took his daughters hand in his, forcing the twins to sit closer to each. "You are Melody and Courtney. You are Courtney and Melody. You have your own language that you slip into when your scared and surround by people but you two are sisters. No twin is better than the other because I'll love you both equally no matter what choice you make."
"Even if I become a multi-talented Witch astronaut who brings hope and peace to the world through medicine and protests?"
"And if I become a cute, rich Witch who brings chaos and curiosity to the Wizarding world through music and law?"
Harry blinked at his daughters as they smiled down at him, not sure exactly how to respond. The two had thought about how they would change the way world would think but it was still unnerving for him to hear them think so far ahead into the future. "Let's try and get you guys through elementary school first. We'll talk more about your future plans when you're...taller."
The girls groaned and rolled their eyes. That was the excuse he had be using since they were six and figured out that when he said that he tell him when they were older meant that they could ask the next day. They were one day older they would protest and he would cave and tell them.
"Now I've got to go to work. You'll behave for Tonya," he asked. Both girls nodded their heads. "And no minds today, please. Tonya in tears the last time I had her watch you too."
The smiles that they had on their faces instantly vanished as their father banned them from tormenting the house-elf. Tonya had been watching them since they were three when their father had to go to Aura meetings and he didn't want to drop them off at the Weasley's house. She had purple hair, the girls had dyed it themselves, and big round yellow eyes that always looked hopeful. Harry had found her and brought her home to the girls, needing someone other than Dobby to watch them.
"Girls?"
"Yes, Daddy," the twins chorused.
"Good. I'll see you two in an hour or so." He stood and placed a kiss on Courtney's head before moving to do the same to Melody. He left the room to go to the living room where his Aura's robes were waiting, knowing that the twins would still find some way to make the hotel manager more uptight than he already was.
"Wanna fill balloons with paint and glitter, go to the hotel down the street and drop them on people walking by?"
"What do I get for going along with it," Courtney asked, intrigued by the idea.
"Ice cream on me."
"Any kind I want?"
"Yep."
"Then lets tell Tonya."
"Mr. Potter, explain to me why you were late today."
Harry looked up from the homicide case file he was going over, and licked his lips as his boss, Eric Smith, entered his office. He knew that he would have to explain to him why he had walked into the meeting about the SSA – Serpents Strike Attack, he wasn't sure who came up with the name – ten minutes after it had started.
"Family issues, sir."
"Courtney and Melody read the paper again?"
Harry smiled and nodded his head. Eric sat down in the leather chair across from his desk, his red tie already loosened, and his black Aura robes undone. His dark blue dress shirt had been untucked from black dress pants as soon as the meeting had ended. Many of the women at the office thought Eric was handsome because of his supermodel look with dirty blond hair spiked and "sexy" hazel eyes that gazed out from behind glasses.
"It's putting a strain on their relationship. It's been six months since the first article and if I'm not there when they first read it they'll go weeks without talking to each other. Eric, I'm not sure how much longer it'll be before they completely turn on each other."
"Harry, you know what you need?"
"A better paying job, a bigger house for fights, a boyfriend to help me control the devils I call my daughters, and a nice gay bar so I can find said boyfriend?"
Eric chuckled, low and soft, and Harry couldn't help but grin at his boss. "Not quite what I had in mind. You and your girls need a vacation."
"I can't go on vacation now. My team needs my help with the tracking of SSA and I can't just—"
"You can," Eric insisted. "Take a load off and relax. Go to that island that you've been dying to go to. Your team will be fine without you for a week but your family won't be."
"Eric, I can't just drop everything and leave."
"Go home. Pack your stuff and leave the magical world for a week. You need a connection and without that connection your work is suffering."
"My work is not suffering," Harry said, clearly offended.
"Do I need to remind you of the incident that happened last month?"
Harry mumbled a no and crossed his arms. As part of the plan to get information out of a guy who had direct ties to SSA, Harry was suppose to play the part of a drunk. Apparently Harry got to much into character and was actually full-blown flirting with the guy and had got nothing out of him because he had passed out after snogging the guy senseless in the bathroom.
"One time! It happens once and I'm marked for life!"
"Well, Harry, that's the way it goes. Now are you going to leave or am I going to have to kick you out?"
"I'll go. Thanks, Eric." Harry placed the case files on his desk into a file cabinet. "You're the best."
"I know I am."
Harry grabbed his robes and walked over to the fire. He took a handful of Floo powder and stepped into, yelling home as he dropped the powder.
Harry stared at the sight in front of him as he stepped out of the fireplace. Courtney was curled up at the side of the couch, the remote in her hand, and Melody was at her feet, her head hanging over the seat of the couch and her feet resting on the back. Both girls had paint smeared on their faces, and hands and he could see the glitter in their hair, on their arms and all over the carpet. They had been up to trouble…again.
"Hi, Dad," the girls said, eyes never leaving the TV.
"What are you guys watching?"
"The Suit Life of Zack and Cody," Courtney answered.
"Your not getting an ideas from it again are you," Harry asked worriedly as he sat down in the loveseat. He had been on the receiving end of more than one of the twins' reenactments of the show and he didn't like his girls thinking like the twin boys.
"Nope." Melody shook her head, her face becoming red from hanging upside down.
"All right. So how about a family vacation? Eric gave me time off and we can go to that island for a week. How does that sound?"
"Will there be boys," Melody asked.
"Well…"
"Is there going to be library?" Courtney's eyes sparkled at the thought of spending hours at the library.
"Umm…"
"Will there be a park?"
"A museum?"
"A haunted house?"
"A convention?"
"Okay!" Melody and Courtney stopped, both watching Harry with curious eyes. "I'm not sure what the island will bring so why don't you guys go ahead and pack? And leave Fred and George's supplies here! I'll be checking you for any."
Melody scowled deeply before letting her legs fall to the side to sit up. "That is not right."
"I didn't say it was. And I want you both to write apology letters and paste them outside of the hotel where you dropped the Glitter Paint Balloons!"
"How does he do that," Melody asked her sister as they left the room.
"All grown ups can do it."
He knew that they would spend an hour trying to figure out what to take, a half hour fighting over whose was whose, twenty minutes fitting it all in the suitcase and duffle bag, and another twenty minutes searching through their things to make sure of anything "illegal."
It was going to be a long afternoon.
