The Potter Twins and the Not-so-Secret Chamber

Chapter Two: The Burrow

"He's insane!" whispered Melanie to Harry the next morning. Her brother nodded in agreement, still looking slightly dazed from everything that had happened.

A man had been paid to fit bars over their window, and Vernon himself had fitted a cat flap in the bedroom door. Harry was told that he would be let out twice a day, but not about what would happen to Melanie.

They found out soon enough when Aunt Petunia came in and dragged her out of the room.

"Since your brother is going to be locked in his room, you'll have to do both of your lists of chores." She was handed an actual list of chores for the first time ever; two pieces of paper stapled together and filled with dozens of things to do.

Melanie dared to ask a question. "How long is Harry going to be locked in his room?"

She received no answer and decided with one more parting shot before she went outside to mow the lawn. "You would do this to your sister's children?"

She's jealous of Lily.

Melanie jumped a foot into the air, literally, before she realized that she recognized the voice.

Steven?

Yes?

Don't scare me like that!

Don't jump suddenly, then. It's very disorientating.

I wouldn't have to jump if you didn't scare me.

Steven laughed.Don't worry about Harry; his friend, Ron, will be here in a few days.

I know that, she snapped. Any advice for the meantime?

Make sure he gets food and guilt your aunt as much as possible,he ended up saying after a moment's thought.

She managed to finish mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and watering the flowers before lunch. The process was definitely less boring than it would have been with Steven in her mind, making sarcastic remarks and trying to crack jokes to cheer her up.

Harry wasn't the only one being fed horrible food. Their food was coming from a can meant for one person and split between her, Harry, Ash, and Hedwig.

"Yum..." she muttered sarcastically. Aunt Petunia split the food, and Melanie ended up with a larger portion than the one split between three appetites.

"I hope Harry doesn't starve," she said louder, directing a glare at her aunt, who pursed her lips and said nothing.Probably wants to make sure that her worker doesn't starve, Melanie thought bitterly as she ate another spoonful of soup.

"Hurry up and finish! You have more work to do!" Melanie sighed, wondering if Aunt Petunia was trying to work her to death. Though, the words seemed like stern than usual, and the red head was sure that she saw her aunt's eyes drifting to where Harry would be more than once.

Crossing off three chores, she sighed again at the long list.

This is going to be a long day...

~.~.~.~.~

"Harry," Melanie whispered. Harry blinked blearily to wake himself up.

"What?"

"Get ready; Ron's going to be here soon." Apparently, she was 'allowed' to talk about Ron coming to 'kidnap' them, but not anything else about this year, which was extremely frustrating.

Harry blinked repeatedly, looking much more confused than he should have. "Right."

Lack of food was starting to get to him. Even if Melanie stole eggs and bread from the kitchen to cook upstairs, it wasn't enough to feed all four of them.

For the past three days, the two of them had been separated by giving Melanie a mile long list of chores and locking Harry inside his room.

They only had time to talk when Melanie was allowed to go to sleep, and almost no time even then. Melanie was usually so exhausted from working all day that she fell asleep almost immediately. Harry, on the other hand, stayed awake for a long time, having slept for most of the day anyways.

Harry grabbed Hedwig and Melanie, Ash. Both pets were brought over to the window and sat in a temporary peace, realizing that something was happening.

"All our stuff's in the cupboard," he whispered.

"Don't worry. The Weasley twins know how to pick locks." As if on cue, Ron appeared just outside their window.

"Ron!" Instead of sounding surprised, Harry sounded relieved.

"All right, Harry?" George asked.

"Can you lecture Harry later?" Melanie said when she saw Ron's mouth open. He nodded and told his brothers to get the bars off.

"Tie that around the bars," Fred ordered Harry. He obliged while Melanie pulled a pen and paper out from under her mattress. It would probably be best to leave a note for their aunt and uncle, even if the note was probably going to be angry.

Dear Uncle and Aunt,

Harry and I will be at a friend's place for the remainder of the summer. We will not require anything from you, but will have taken our stuff from out of the closet.

Aren't you glad to get rid of us so early?

See you next summer,

Melanie

She placed the letter on her bed and tucked the pen behind her ear (perhaps Mr. Weasley would like to examine it), just as the bars were ripped away from the window. Everybody went dead silent as they waited to make sure that none of the Dursleys had been woken by the sound.

When the bars were secured in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed the flying car towards the window.

"Our stuff is locked in the cupboard under the stairs," whispered Harry.

"No problem," said George, hopping into their room. "Show us the way." He pulled a Muggle hairpin from his pocket and began picking the lock.

How odd, Melanie thought, seeing a wizard fiddling with a Muggle thing.

"A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick, but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow."

"You were right," Harry said to Melanie when the lock opened with a click.

"When am I not?" She turned to Fred and George and asked, "Could you two teach me that?"

They smiled, anticipating a new mischief-maker. "Sure," they said together.

Between the four of them, they managed to, awkwardly, carry all the stuff. Before they knew it, the four of them had loaded the trunks into the flying car, along with an angry cat. Hedwig flew beside the car happily.

As soon as they were safely in the air, Ron explained how he knew what was happening.

"I knew something was up when you didn't answer any of my letters. I've asked you to stay over about twelve times, and then dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles-"

That was when Harry interrupted him and assured them that he hadn't used magic, it was just a crazy house-elf who levitated a pudding to try and stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts.

That was when Melanie added that it was her who came up with the brilliant idea that got them out of trouble until the darned owl decided to ruin everything and didn't the Ministry of Magic technically use magic in front of those Muggles because of the owl?

"Wow," said Fred appreciatively.

"You've had a hell of a summer," finished George.

They landed the car on the property of the Burrow and both of the Potters looked at Ron's house for the first time.

It was so obviously magic.

Perhaps the building had once been a large barn or something, but extra rooms had been added haphazardly all around. Four or five chimneys had been placed on the red roof, looking as if somebody had just dropped them on. A lopsided sign declaring that this place was the Burrow had been stuck in the lawn, near the entrance. Several chickens were pecking around the grass, and Melanie was sure that she saw something stalking them.

"It's not much," Ron said, looking a bit embarrassed.

"It's wonderful," Harry said at the same time that Melanie declared, "It's fantastic."

"Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly, and wait for mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be all pleased to see Harry and Melanie and no one need ever know we flew the car." Fred looked proud of his plan, which had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

Well, it's practically five in the morning, Melanie reasoned. I suppose that's the best he could come up with. Not that it's gonna work...

"Right," said Ron, stifling a yawn. "Come on, Harry, I sleep at the - at the top..."

He turned a shade of green that definitely didn't look healthy and his ears went red. The other four wheeled around to look at the house.

Standing there, in front of the house, looking furious, was Mrs. Weasley.

Melanie watched as she yelled at her sons and compared this woman with her aunt.

Never had she seen or heard Aunt Petunia yell at Dudley, not even when he'd been caught throwing rocks at passing cars. This wasn't because she couldn't yell. Oh, no. She exercised her vocal chords daily at Melanie and Harry.

Mrs. Weasley, on the other hand, yelled. Because Ron and the twins didn't look overly surprised to see how angry their mom was, thought looking slightly scared, Melanie assumed that being yelled at for doing something bad or dangerous wasn't uncommon.

The way she yelled wasn't mean, like Melanie's aunt. It was strict and she could hear the barely suppressed, 'You scared me; what if you hadn't made it back?' in her voice.

What proved to be the biggest difference, however, was how Mrs. Weasley welcomed Harry and Melanie into their home instantly.

When the twins were brought up to their pigsty of a room and Harry into Ron's, Mrs. Weasley said, "I'm so sorry, dear, about not sending you anything for Christmas. It's just that..." Here she trailed off uncomfortably, but Melanie could guess what she would've said.

"It was just that you didn't know that the famous Harry Potter had a twin." When Mrs. Weasley protested, Melanie laughed, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice, and said, "It's alright. Not many people seem to know that. I bet you also didn't know that I was with Harry when he saved the Stone, and that I helped him?" The mother's expression was answer enough.

"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley rapped her knuckles on the door in front of them, turning away to end the awkward moment.

A sleepy redheaded girl opened it a moment later. "What, mum?" She looked at Melanie, confused. "Is that one of our relatives or something?"

Two people have now mistaken me for a Weasley, and one of them is a Weasley!

"No, Ginny. This is-"

"Wait," said Ginny, looking closer at Melanie. Her face flushed a red to match her hair. "You're not..."

"Melanie Potter? Sister of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived?" At Ginny's nod, Melanie mock-bowed. "The one and only."

Ginny's face went impossibly red. "Oh... Erm, mum?"

"Ginny, Melanie is going to be staying in your room for the remainder of the summer. Melanie, we'll just - there you go!" A small bed had been conjured on the opposite side of the room as Ginny's. "I'll just leave you two to get acquainted. Come down for some breakfast soon."

"Hello. Ginny, right?" The younger girl nodded. "I know you're not mute..."

"Is Harry here?" Ginny's voice was definitely higher than before. Melanie nodded, and Ginny's face, which was starting to turn back to its regular colour, was flushed red again.

"What?" Melanie searched her memories, mentally berating herself for not understanding sooner. "Oh, I see." She waggled her eyebrows. "You like Harry."

Thankfully, the younger girl was saved from having to answer when they heard Mrs. Weasley start yelling again, from the kitchen this time.

"Can't miss the entertainment, can we?" Ginny escaped Melanie's searching eyes and dashed downstairs.

"And you!" Mrs. Weasley could be heard as they went downstairs. Ginny let out a squeak as she saw Harry, self-consciously covering her nightdress.

Ron whispered something in Harry's ear, which Fred heard. He took the opportunity to embarrass Ginny.

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph Harry." Nobody except Melanie noticed how Harry blushed slightly at those words, still not used to his fame.

Fred's expression changed suddenly. "Blimey, I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed and-"

"You will not. It's your own fault you've been up all night." As she was talking, she piled food onto Melanie and Harry's plates. "You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again-"

"Oh, mum-"

"And you two," she rounded on George and Ron. "You can go up to bed, dearies. You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car," she added to Harry and Melanie.

While Harry volunteered to go help, Melanie actually wanted to sleep. She was the one, after all, who had spent the last few days doing their combined list of chores.

This conjured bed was practically a bed of feathers compared to the lumpy, stiff mattress at the Dursleys. This meant that Melanie fell asleep within seconds.

Another summer of being forced to do homework in the dead of the night. Ron calling the telephone at the Dursleys, yelling into it (Ron… Use the phone properly, please.).

Aunt Marge coming to visit (Oh, no…). Harry forced to sit through the dinners until he snapped and inflated their other aunt (She wanted to cheer).

Running away from Privet Drive, but tripping over something and getting taken by the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron (Well that was really convenient, huh?). Sirius Black... Not getting in trouble with the Ministry for 'blowing up' a Muggle (Please, please, please could they get a different Ministry?).

Spending the rest of the summer break in Diagon Alley (A huge improvement). Boarding on the Hogwarts express for another year. The train stopped (Why's it stopped?); something's wrong, something's wrong.

Darkness... So cold so cold so cold so cold - Who's screaming? - so cold so cold so cold-

That's chapter two done. Yay!

Thanks to…

That Elusive Reader: Maybe it was Melanie that did something? Hmm? XD

Dazer95: Aw shucks. Thanks!

Glad you both enjoy reading my story! Reviews help encourage me to write faster. *hint hint*

Kind of a cliffie at the end? Not really… I tried.

I'm probably going to make the chapters longer than the first year chapters. Once we get to Hogwarts, there'll be more Hermione and Ron chapters (hopefully).

~ScaleneGalleons~