Author's note: Two things, 1) I'm terribly sorry for the extremely long delay, I wasn't sure if the story was generating enough interest, but because I like what I created in my head I figured I could entertain myself as well as others by writing it down. 2) If you want more sooner, review, it helps motivate me to write quicker.
Disclaimer: I own nothing from the Harry Potter universe, but I will enjoy bending it to fulfill my own fiendish needs…muwahahaha!
Summary: Harry isn't an only child, in fact he has a twin sister, Evelyn, and they are separated the night Voldemort killed their parents. Now everyone in the wizarding world believes that Evelyn is dead, that is until she shows up at Hogwarts. This series will cover how they both come to grips with having a sibling they never knew about, and many adventures and hardships they face along the way.
Chapter 2: The Life and Times of Evelyn Potter
With a flash of bright green light, Evelyn awoke startled and covered in sweat, her long, black hair damp and sticking to her skin and her bright emerald eyes wide from the nightmare. This was not the first time she had had this nightmare, but no matter how many times she had it, she always found herself soaked with sweat and her heart racing. Everything seemed so vivid in the dream, but after she'd wake the images would blur and disappear, leaving her only one image to connect to her feelings of fear, sadness, and pain. The flash of a bright green light.
As always when she woke in the middle of the night, Evelyn checked the time and noticed that it was 11:58. That meant in two minutes it would be July 31, and her birthday. In two more minutes she would be turning eleven, which would cause excitement and delight for most children, but Evelyn is not like most children. With no hope for anything special or exciting happening to her once she was eleven, she rolled over to go back to sleep.
The reason little Evelyn had no expectations for her birthday was because she lived in an orphanage, and had been there ever since she was just over one year old. Helen, the matron in charge, would always tell Evelyn the same story whenever she asked about how she came to be at the orphanage, or anything about her past. The story of finding Evelyn, crying, on the orphanage doorstep one cold and wet November night was always the same. Evelyn was also told by Helen that they only knew the certain facts they did about her was because of little slip of paper with the information scrawled on it. This paper gave the name Evelyn P. and a date of birth, nothing more.
Her life at the orphanage in London had been quite rough. She was always a smart child and had a unique interest in reading and learning. Helen was often quite surprised at what kinds of things Evelyn taught herself, like being able to speak French, but it was more than her intelligence that caused her to be shunned by the other children. They would frequently tease and poke fun at her uniqueness, and call her freak because of the strange things that would happen around her.
One incident occurred when she was seven years old. She had been sitting on the back steps reading her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz, when a couple of the orphanage bullies came striding up the back sidewalk. At first they were too caught up in comparing the things they had just looted from the local markets, but once they were about to climb up the steps to go and hide their new treasures they noticed little, strange and helpless Evelyn reading. They seized the opportunity to torture her by snagging her book right out her hands and began to toss it back and forth with each other. She tried grabbing at it a couple of times, but these kids were bigger than her, so she tried asking them politely if she could have it back. When she made her request the biggest of the boys held the book above his head and asked her what she would give him for the book. She just glared at him. After a moment when she didn't answer he brought the book down. Evelyn thought he was actually going to give it back when she saw him smile evilly, open the book, and grab the top. He was going to tear her book in two. As soon as she saw what he was doing she leapt forward and got a hold on part of the book. She only struggled with him for a moment before he went flying backward into the alley. The other kids ran over to him and helped him up and as they pushed passed her on the stairs they were all glaring at her and calling her a freak.
This was only one instance of many that occurred to Evelyn while at the orphanage, and it's not even one of the worst. In fact there was a period of time when she was about eight years old that she didn't live at the orphanage. She had been so upset by some of the things the other children had done to her that she ran away, and during this time she lived in many different places in England, Ireland, and even France. She learned a lot about how to survive on her own, but also about the hardships that come with it (like having to steal food to survive), and eventually she returned to the orphanage. Her feelings about how poorly the other children treated her had changed since she had experienced first hand the cruelty of the rest of the world, and she now felt that she could handle the petty names that they called her. She had been very selective in whom she trusted before she left, but since then she learned to protect her trust and herself more carefully from others, making her very reclusive.
She rolled over again, so that now she was looking out the nearest window to her bed. She could just barely make out the moon and a couple of twinkling stars peaking in through the curtains. Looking at the night sky had always held some power over her, almost as if to say that the with a world this big she wasn't the only person who felt all alone, and that in itself was slightly comforting to her, because in her loneliness she wasn't alone.
As she lay there staring at the moon, she was caught off guard when it was suddenly blocked out. At first she was quite startled and didn't understand what just happened, but as her eyes adjusted and focused on what blocked out the moon she could see that it was some type of bird. 'But what on earth is a bird doing flying about in the middle of the night,' she thought to herself and quite suddenly she remembered what she had read about owls and how they are nocturnal, but that didn't explain why the bird was still flapping outside her bedside window. Then she heard a gentle tapping. It was almost as if it were knocking to be let in. 'Well this is quite strange,' she thought as she silently got out of bed and undid the latch on the window. Once she had opened the window to shoo the owl away it fluttered in past her and gently landed on her empty bed. She stood there for a moment, perplexed and staring at the bird, and the owl just looked expectantly back.
Evelyn had never seen an owl up this close before, and she was surprised at how intelligent it seemed. 'Well owls are a symbol of wisdom,' she thought to herself as she took a tentative step towards the large bird. Once she took that step the owl nodded its head a bit then lifted one leg.
'Is that a letter tied to that owls leg? Who on earth would do that?' she thought, but the owl was losing its patience and gave her hand a gentle nip to get her snap to it and get the letter. She was so startled by this she had to stifle the yell of surprise, which would have certainly awakened the entire orphanage. Instead, she gently rubbed the hand the bird nipped, and as quietly as she could, asked the owl, "Do you want me to take that letter off your leg?" The owl gave a big bob of its head in response. "Alright, but hold still, and don't bit me again, okay?" she whispered and reached down to untie the letter that would forever change her life. As soon as the letter was removed the large owl took off from the bed and gently brushed past Evey and out the window, back into the night.
Evey stood there for a few minutes staring out towards where the owl had departed, replaying what just happened back in her head. With a slight shake of her head she turned her attention back to the letter in her hands. She almost dropped the letter in shock at seeing how the letter was addressed. It wasn't that fact that her name was on it, she kind of figured that by the owl at her window, but the address itself. It had the name of the orphanage, the street, and the section of London where the orphanage was located, which is quite normal for a letter, but the part that listed her address as the third bed in the east wing was definitely not usual.
'They know where I sleep,' she nervously thought to herself as her eyes quickly scanned the area. 'They know where I sleep,' she thought again but this time with less fear and more anger. This had to be a prank some of the other kids had thought up, but how did they get their hands on an owl, and such a well trained one at that. She sat down on the edge of her bed still scanning the room cautiously. 'Well, I guess I should take a look at the letter to see what it is they wanted to prank me with, and with a sigh she tore open the envelope. Inside was a letter on a thick sheet of parchment and written in green ink. She held it toward the dim light coming in from the window and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwamp, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
If they were playing some mean joke on her, they would have jumped out by now to have a good laugh at her, 'but they could just wait until the morning, allow me to get my hopes up and really believe in it before shoving it in my face that it was really them. Well I just won't let them,' she thought as she put the letter back in the envelope, not noticing the single sheet that had drifted under her bed, and stashed it until the morning when she could put it in the rubbish bin. She climbed back in bed, and still a bit angry at the whole situation, sadly thought to herself 'Happy Birthday Evey.'
AN: I know it's short, but this seemed like a good break before Evey starts her adventure into the magical world. Coming up…a trip to Diagon Alley and the largest man you've ever seen.
