Ten years later.
Nothing about the house suggested more than three people lived there; it was clean and sparkly, without a pillow out of place. The picture frames held pictures of a large blonde boy doing random things with his parents, and a few even held pictures of the newest edition to the family; a large pale blonde girl that had reached the age of ten this year.
Dudley and Daisy Dursley were both spoiled brats in the eyes of average humans, often complaining they didn't have enough toys. But their cousins were quite the opposite; although the world barely knew of their existence, the Potters, Harry and Rosalie, were a pair of hard-working children that knew when to speak or not. They were the perfect housekeepers, considering that had been their job since the second they were found on the doorstep of Number 4, Privet Drive.
And even after the Dursley's great schemes to keep the existence of the Potters from the world, they were still there at Number 4, asleep at the moment, but there all the same.
"Up! Get up!" screeched Aunt Petunia into the small cupboard. Both Harry and Rosalie jerked awake in surprise. "Up!" screeched their Aunt once again before walking away. Rosalie and Harry shared an exasperated glance before they both set to getting dressed. After pulling spiders off their clothes, they got dressed and left their cramped cupboard under the stairs to enter the kitchen, which was rich with the smells of frying bacon.
"Make sure not to burn it! I want everything perfect for Dudley's birthday!" exclaimed Petunia. 'Oh, perfect, another day to listen about how awesome his presents are, and another day to hear her complaining that she deserves presents too,' thought Harry and Rosalie at the same time, again sharing a look.
Twin telepathy? The Potter twins took this to a whole new level. They often shared thoughts or feelings without meaning too. And they spoke at the same time almost all the time, like so: "Yes, Aunt Petunia," the twins said in shared monotone.
"I told you not to do that! It's creepy!" snapped Petunia. "Sorry, Aunt Petunia," said the twins, once again in shared monotone. "See? You did it again!" she screeched.
"Sorry, Aunt Petunia, it's a natural reflex," said Rosalie, alone this time, as Harry was busy meddling with the bacon, trying to keep it from burning. Petunia growled irritably as she left to fetch the birthday boy and his year-younger sister.
Harry and Rosalie both glanced at each other before giggling. "Messing with our relatives is so fun!" Rosalie giggled. "And we don't even mean to, either. It's just natural for us to talk at the same time," said Harry with a snicker.
Eventually, their Uncle Vernon and cousins Dudley and Daisy appeared with Petunia at the breakfast table. "Get a haircut!" barked Vernon over his paper. Every week or two, one of their relatives would drag them off to a barbers shop to chop off their hair, but nothing helped; Harry's and Rosalie's hair just grew that way, all over the place, and so far no barber in the city could tame their locks.
Harry carefully delivered the bacon, eggs, and pancakes to a platter, turning off the stoves, as Rosalie carried the platter over to the table, though it took her a while to find room; the entire table was covered in presents, wrapped in overly colorful paper that hurt your eyes if you looked at it too long.
Daisy was already pouting at one end of the table, her eyes resting on all the presents greedily. Rosalie averted her eyes from her cousin as she placed the platter near her. Daisy's temper was often on the edge on Dudley's birthday, and she often needed something to take her anger out on; usually Rosalie or Harry, but only after a chase around the house.
"Thirty-six?" asked Dudley, who had been inspecting the table, counting his present pile as he did every year, "That's two less than last year!"
"You missed Aunt Marge's present," sighed Daisy angrily; she might be stupid, but her intelligence was at least far greater than her brother's.
"Alright, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, his face beginning to turn red. Rosalie and Harry, quickly sensing danger, began to shovel their share of breakfast into their mouths, lest Dudley turn the table over.
"Well, while we're out, popkin, how about we buy you two more presents? Two more," said Petunia, quelling the storm before it broke. "That's…" said Dudley, face scrutinized in deep thought; or, as close to deep thought Dudley Dursley could get.
"Thirty-nine, Dudley," said the twins in monotone, hoping this would give them a freebie for once from a beat down. "Thirty-nine?" asked Dudley in surprise, before nodding his head.
Petunia sighed and said, "Good! We'll get them when your friend gets here."
"That a boy, Dudley; wants his moneys worth, just like me!" cried Vernon with a chuckle.
The Potter twins rolled their eyes before mirroring a look of obedience as Petunia walked by them to get the ringing phone. Rosalie glared at the present pile, hoping the damn thing would burst into flames, but Harry shook his head, warning her it was a bad idea.
Petunia suddenly returned with a look of complete fury. "Bad news, Vernon; Mrs. Figg broke her leg, she can't take them," she said, motioning to the twins. Their aunt and uncle often talked like the twins weren't there when they were right in the room.
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror while Daisy sniggered. Both Harry and Rosalie shared a hopeful glance before returning to their obedient looks. Every year on their birthdays, Dudley and Daisy were taken to a movie, or an amusement park, while the poor Potter twins were left with their mad old neighbor from two streets away, Mrs. Figg, who had a house that smelled of cabbage and a collection of cats that would've been large enough to kill someone allergic to them.
"Now what?" wailed Petunia, falling into a chair with a worried look on her face. "Can one of your friends take them?" asked Vernon. "No. Yvonne is on vacation," said Petunia.
"Should we phone Marge?" asked Vernon. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the both of them," sighed Petunia. Dudley began to cry. He hadn't really cried since his toddler days, but if he screwed his face up and wailed, Petunia would do whatever she could to make him stop.
"Oh, Dinky Duddydums, it's alright; I won't let them ruin your special day!" she said, trying to calm his wails.
The doorbell suddenly rang several times. Vernon and Petunia shared a look of mingled horror before they went to let in Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss.
And so it was decided that, just this once, they'd be bringing Harry and Rosalie along to the zoo. Rosalie and Harry had to be crammed into one seat in the back of the car to make room for the others, but it didn't matter; they were going to the zoo!
But before they got in the car and left, Vernon pulled them both aside roughly. "I'm warning you; both of you, damn it! Any funny business, anything at all, and you'll be locked in that cupboard of yours until Christmas!" snarled Vernon, getting right up close into their faces.
"We're not going to do anything, honestly!" said both twins once again in synchronization. But Uncle Vernon didn't believe them; nobody did. Ever since they were little, bizarre things seemed to happen to the Potter twins. Harry had accidentally set the living room rug on fire and then put it out without moving a muscle after his only toy fire-truck had been destroyed in one of Dudley's rampages. Rosalie had accidentally magnetized a book in Daisy's backpack after learning about magnets at school; it had taken hours to get all the metal off.
A great collection of people had walked away from a store with blue hair after both twins had gotten mad at Petunia and knocked over a stand of blueberries. Each incident had earned them a long grounding in their cupboard. But no matter what the twins said, no one believed them; they honestly had no idea how the incidents happened in the first place.
The day was hot and humid. Petunia and Vernon bought Dudley, Daisy, and Piers ice cream before they went into the zoo; the lady at the stand had even given the twins some when their aunt and uncle had failed to usher them out of sight in time.
For the first time in their lives, the Potter twins were staring at animals they'd only seen in school books. Harry decided he liked jaguars while Rosalie decided she'd have a pet wolf when she grew up. Everything was fun and nice…. Until the Reptile House.
The Reptile House was in a small pocket of the zoo that Dudley and Piers wanted to see for the deadly poisonous reptiles. There was a great assortment of lizards and snakes. They stopped for a particularly long time outside the boa constrictor tank. It was definitely the biggest snake in the place, but it seemed bored and tired.
"Make it move!" complained Dudley. Vernon tapped on the glass. "Move!" snapped Dudley angrily when it ignored them.
"Leave it alone; it's tired!" snapped Rosalie and Harry when Dudley tapped the glass even louder. "This is so boring," sighed Daisy as she and Dudley and Piers moved along with aunt and uncle. But the twins stayed at the boa tank.
"Sorry about them," said Rosalie. "Annoying aren't they? They just don't know how it feels to be stared at all day," said Harry. And to their great surprise, the snake winked. It actually winked.
"Can you understand us?" asked Harry and Rosalie in surprise. The snake nodded before pointing at the Dursleys with his tail and rolling his eyes as if to say, "Don't worry, people do that all the time."
"Do you talk to people often?" asked Harry. The snake shook its head. "Oh, we've never talked to a snake either," said Rosalie, grinning at the boa. The boa shook as if giggling at her words.
"DUDLEY, MR. DURSLEY, CHECK OUT WHAT THE BOA'S DOING!" shouted Piers, running back up to the boa tank and roughly shoving Rosalie out of the way to the ground. Harry quickly ducked down beside her to help her up.
And that's when it happened. Rosalie glared up at Piers as Dudley joined him, and suddenly the glass to the boa tank was gone. Both boys screamed like little girls as the boa slithered out onto the floor next to Harry and Rosalie.
"Thanks, amigos! Brazil, here I come!" hissed the snake as it slithered away, nodding briefly to the twins. People throughout the Reptile House screamed and began panicking as word got around that a snake escaped.
After about half an hour of panic, the zoo officials finally calmed everything down, saying the boa had disappeared into the sewer system and would have to be caught after a team of experts were assembled.
The head of the Reptile House personally apologized to the Dursleys, even making Petunia some strong sweet tea. "But the glass, where'd the glass go?" he asked in shock.
This little incident didn't go unpunished. As soon as they got back and Piers was sent home, Vernon grabbed the twins roughly by the arms and dragged them to their cupboard. "What happened?" he snarled.
"W-we don't know!" gasped Harry as Rosalie struggled feebly to free herself. "One minute the glass was there, then it was gone; it was like magic!" Rosalie defended them.
Vernon roughly shoved the two of them into their cupboard. "There's no such thing as magic!" he snarled before slamming the door shut and locking it.
Later, Harry held his little sister close as she cried into his shirt. "W-why does this always have to happen? Whenever we finally get some happiness, something comes and takes it away! Why us?" she sniffled quietly, trying to keep Daisy from knowing she was crying.
"I know. It's okay; I'll look after us," said Harry. They had gone through this little routine many times before; after something bad happened, Rosalie would start to cry and Harry would tell her everything was alright.
But nothing ever changed. The days went by, and they were still abused for things they didn't mean to do.
When they were little, the twins had both dreamed of a day when some unknown relation would come and take them away and raise them in a world of excitement and adventure, but that day never came. They were still here at Privet Drive, watching days drag on and on. It was an awful, dreary existence; one they'd rather not have at all.
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A/N: I write such depressing chapters! Anyway, remember; if you want me to update, comment or vote for this story on my profile poll!
-Irene
