Chapter One

Freedom's Release

3 years ago…

There was a knock on the door. As usual Harry had been forced to open the door for whoever it was. He hadn't gone down without a fight though. That conversation had gone like this:

Knock on the door.

"Dudley, get the door," Uncle Vernon said lazily.

"Make Harry get it," Dudley whined while stuffing himself with food. It was only the second day into the summer vacation and Dudley had most probably gained a new trouser size already.

"Harry, get the door," Vernon said.

"Make Dudley get it," Harry replied.

"Get the door, boy," Vernon said again. When Harry didn't move Vernon pulled out his old Smeltings stick and threw it at him. The stick was dodged skilfully; having to get the door was not.

Harry, now in front of the door, noticed that there were two silhouettes, which meant two people. Then one of them left. Harry opened the door.

A girl, who instantly reminded him of Dudley, stood in front of him. Harry wasn't quite sure why as he looked at the girl properly; where Dudley was big she was small; she was tallish as opposed to being short-ish and the only thing she had in common with Dudley―who was hard on the eyes, had more chins than necessary and was the worst bully at age seven in town―was the dirty blonde hair that fell from her head to her shoulders whereas this girl looked weak enough to be blown away by a single gust of the wind and had a very feminine face. She was also wearing a uniform. White skirt, black undershirt, knee high black socks, a white blazer, a white beret with a black stripe through the centre and one grey stripe on either side of the black one and a grey tie with a crest on the tie and blazer.

The girl walked past him into the house and shouted "Mummy, Daddy! I'm home."

"Dame?" Uncle Vernon shouted from the kitchen, surprise clear in his voice. Harry wondered where he had heard this name before. Wait hadn't she called them 'Mummy and Daddy'? He realised they were twins, which was why she reminded him of Dudley. Probably the reason why she had looked familiar was because he had seen her in photos but he hadn't seen her in real life for a long time.

Harry closed the door but was stopped by a person's foot. He opened the door and was face to face with a girl who looked extremely familiar but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. The girl had the same green eyes, black unruly hair and a pair of glasses as he did while wearing the same uniform as Dame. This girl was carrying a lot of luggage. She unlike Dame greeted him.

"Good afternoon," She then proceeded to walking past him. Harry after closing the door followed her into the kitchen where Dame and Vernon were hugging in front of Dudley who looked faintly disgusted.

"Ahem," all attention went to the girl. "Dame. Where should I put your luggage?" the girl said politely.

"Oh you can leave it in my old room," Dame said offhand.

She nodded and left.

"So who was that?" Dudley asked.

"My, you don't even remember your dear cousin Dudley. Well it's only to be expected," Dudley looked furious, "anyway that was Jace, Jace Potter. Your sister I believe," she directed that at Harry. "Now that I think about it, you haven't seen her or me since childhood. We were all three when we were sent to S.L.A.B.S."

"Slabs?" Harry asked.

Dame, looking positively horrified that her precious and prestigious school had been called 'slabs', said almost two full octaves higher "No! St Lucians Academy and Boarding School. NOT SLABS!"

Harry, sensing a tantrum, turned away from the near hysterical girl and contemplated what she had said. If it was true it would explain why she looked so familiar, he would see her face every time he looked in the mirror, they were identical. Harry hadn't noticed but Uncle Vernon's face had turned a violent shade of puce(?) when Dame had mentioned Jace Potter.

"PETUNIA," Uncle Vernon roared. Jace had been walking down the stairs after depositing Dame's luggage when Aunt Petunia ran past her down the stairs. She stopped turned around and practically screamed when she saw Jace.

After they had calmed down Petunia, Jace was allowed in.

"Good afternoon. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, I am sincerely sorry if our sudden arrival surprised you." Jace said politely. Her politeness had thrown them off. Of course.

"U-Um yes eh," Vernon took a second to gain composure. "So why did you decide to visit after so long?"

Dame and Jace looked at each other. "Well… I just wanted to visit," Dame said. "She came to give you a letter from the school."

They all looked to Jace, each with a different expression. Dudley & Dame: Looking forward to it, Vernon & Petunia: Dread and lastly Harry: Sympathetic. It was obvious they all thought it was bad news.

Sighing, Jace reached into her pocket, pulled the letter out and handed it to Vernon. Who opened it and read it aloud:

Dear Guardians of Ms Jace Potter,

As you know in St Lucians ("They should call it by its full proper name," Dame had sniffed) we have tests in which there is no such thing as full marks*. The average grade for her age is 100 – 150 while our more advanced get 450 – 950. Our highest grade at college level was 127,600. But (Uncle Vernon drew in a shaky breath) Jace has far exceeded this; her current grade being the highest ever in the school, let alone in her age level. So because of this Jace has been given an honorary certificate and we are sad to say we will have to let her leave the school for the Teachers and Professors no longer have anything left to teach her. It is her choice whether or not she decides to stay at the school or not.

P.S. Phone this number with Jace's choice. 089 XXX XX XXX.

Yours Sincerely,

Math, English and Science Teacher,

And Ms Potter's Home room Teacher,

Tori Lexton.

There was a long silence as the contents of the letter sank in. Jace, looking a tiny bit smug as she had already known what was in the letter, glanced at everyone's shocked expressions with a satisfaction not evident on her face. She had learned at least that much at S.L.A.B.S. She shuddered as dark memories tried to resurface but she pushed them down with a force. She made it a rule that for the rest of her good long life she would try extremely hard to forget Them and The Followers.

The silence Jace had been enjoying was broken by Dame shouting "What?" and lunging at her father. But Jace also enjoyed watching Dame wrestle Vernon to the ground to get the letter. Dame read it and reread over and over, then she suddenly slammed it to the ground screaming "Forgery!It has to be fake!" over and over.

Vernon dragged his hysterical seven-year-old daughter off the floor into a chair. More silence followed, Jace watched as the Dursley's shared equal looks of discomfort. Vernon coughed.

"Well…. This is unexpected." Vernon said at last.

Suddenly everyone was talking at once. Except Harry and Jace.

"Silence," Vernon roared "We will continue this in the morning." They hadn't noticed but it had already become dark. Calming Aunt Petunia down had taken longer than they had thought.

As the Dursleys moved upstairs Harry wondered where Jace would be sleeping.

"So what would my sleeping arrangements be? Am I sleeping on the couch?" Jace asked Vernon who was pulling Dame out of the chair turned to her.

"You're rooming with your brother," Vernon told her and left. Jace and Harry were all alone in the kitchen. Jace turned and looked him straight in the eye and it was like Harry could tell what she was thinking. Jace was reviewing him in a way. His potential strength, height, brains etc. were all being put together in numbers and measured. He hated it.

"Stop that," Harry said. She stopped but looked confused.

"Stop what?" Jace asked. He guessed she must have been doing it unconsciously but otherwise ignored it.

There was just enough space in the cupboard for Jace's small trunk. As they got into the bed they would have to be sharing, Harry felt the same thing he had earlier like he was being pulled into Jace's mind. He could tell she was happy to be at the Dursley's which made no sense to Harry at all, and she felt that this was her salvation then S.L.A.B.S. must have been hell. Oh now she was thinking of S.L.A.B.S. wait now she's forcing it out and away what could be so bad that she is trying to forget it so hard? Something bad she thought in answer and Harry was pushed out. He sat there as Jace turned in her sleep and wondered if this mind reading thing was part of being twins. Maybe it was one of those so called twin-things. Possibility rate for that: High. Harry closed his eyes and was soon dreaming about things unmentionable to the Dursleys.

It was soon morning and Harry woke to find the bed empty. Maybe it had been a dream? He was proven wrong when he opened the door of his cupboard and the smell of food hit him hard. He followed the smell into the kitchen and was startled to see that all the Dursleys were sitting around the table and Jace was cooking. Wait. Someone other than Aunt Petunia was cooking in her kitchen and she wasn't saying a word about it. He pinched himself hard to make sure he wasn't dreaming. It hurt a lot.

"Definitely not dreaming," he muttered to himself as he took the seat farthest away from the Dursleys. Jace served out the food. Sausages and omelette with vegetables. For once Dudley didn't mind he fact he was eating vegetables. She served herself last. The Dursleys including Dame kept asking for more until their fourth helping when Jace subtly reminded them they still had to eat lunch. Harry had enjoyed his too but knew better than to ask for more he remembered Oliver Twist and shuddered. Harry wasn't too sure he liked that story.

"Ahem," Vernon said loudly. "About yesterday…" Suddenly everyone started voicing their opinions, making sure to sound like they were right. Except Harry and Jace. Again.

"Ahem, I believe the letter said it was Jace's choice," Harry interrupted.

"She is only seven. All of you are!" Petunia nearly shouted. 'She's getting good at making loud sounds,' someone thought.

"She's only seven and got the highest grades in all of St Lucians," Harry earned a glare from Dame for that but he continued, "Jace is most likely smarter than all of us put together."

The Dursleys sat and contemplated that and were surprised to find they agreed.

They all turned to Jace who was starting on her sausages then looked up in surprise. She was too busy eating to tune into their conversation. 'Note-to-self when you want Jace for something she most likely won't do, stick some food in front of her. She is more likely to say yes then,' Harry told himself; he started wonder how he came up with that one and if he would end up making lots of note-to-self notes? Well that is only if she stays. Possibility rate: High. While he had been thinking all this someone had asked Jace whether she wanted to stay or go. Harry waited for her answer.

"Oh," then she grinned. "I'm staying."

Oh the next few years would be interesting indeed, Harry thought as he and Jace watched the chemical chain reaction on the Dursleys' faces.

Author Talk

Yay I've finally done it put together my first chapters

*I got this idea from an anime "Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu" well basically there is a time limit and your given a book of tests you have to see how far and how many you can answer correctly in that time limit the school is also divided into A,B,C,D,E,F but I will explain that later

Please review constructive criticism is ok I'd like to know is this terrible or...not so terrible?