I do not own any part of Harry Potter, merely the characters that I created for this story-which is for my own enjoyment!

*Amendment to the Note from Last Chapter: Harry and company will not appear until the fifth segment of this story, however, some characters will be brought in (sort of) before then, I don't want to give too much away ;3


Chapter 2

The Famous Squib

Almost eleven years had passed since that fateful night and Bob and Marge Grant had woken up to find their niece on their doorstep, only minutes after they had heard the news of Lord Zytol's demise.

After nearly eleven years their house was neat and clean, the occasional knitting needles working away on a small sweater or socks, an occasional owl flying in through the window to deliver the mail, a typical Wizarding family. There were even picture frames, the two little girls in them moving in and out of the frames, and smiling happily. The only evidence that there was an older girl in the house was one picture of the entire family, where the older girl in the photo kept trying to exit the frame, though the man in the photo kept a firm grip on her shoulder.

The older girl was different from those in the photo, her hair being a bright red, while the rest of the family had muddy brown hair. The other difference between her and the others was the unusual shaped scar over her right eye, a lightning shaped scar that a person's eyes couldn't help being drawn towards. Besides the one photo, there was no other evidence of the older girl's presence in the house.

Alex Grant was there though, asleep, though not for much longer. Her Aunt Marge was already awake, and was about to make the first noise of Alex's day.

"Get up!"

Alex woke with a start, sitting bolt upright, and managing to smack her head against the low ceiling of her room, the attic. Her aunt rapped against the door on the floor of the attic.

"Get up!" she screeched in her shrill tone. Alex heard her descend the ladder that was need to get to the door, and head into the kitchen, where she heard a frying pan being roughly put onto the stove. Alex rubbed the bump she now had on her head, trying to remember the dream she had been having. She shook her head as she failed to recollect anything about the dream. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she flinched as her hand touched the scar tissue over her right eye. It had become habit, really; she hated the lightning shaped scar over her eye, the reason she was living with her aunt and uncle, and her two younger cousins. She stretched careful of the ceiling this time, and tried to wake herself up fully.

Her aunt rapped on the door again, having returned from the kitchen, "Are you up yet?"

"Yes," Alex called out. Adding in an undertone, "Nearly…"

"Then get down here!" Her aunt snapped. "We're going to go shopping at the mall since Cameron and Julie need some new clothes, and I want to get an early start!" She heard her aunt go back into the kitchen.

Alex groaned. She hated going out in public. Not only did the witches and wizards who were there stare at her, but so did the muggles, who had no idea who she was, which, in some way, she preferred. Alex got slowly out of bed and dug through her clean pile of clothes, pulling a couple spiders off of them. Living in an attic meant you had to deal with spiders among other things…

When she was dressed in a white T-shirt, and black shorts that didn't quite fit right, she headed downstairs, keeping out of her Aunt Marge's way as she made her way towards the table.

Her Aunt Marge was a petit woman, with a hawk-like face, and glare to match as she glared at people down her hooked nose. Her brown hair was always tied into a bun, and she was always wearing a dress of some sort. Having had a muggle for a mother, she was used to such things, and she made sure her children were as well.

She carefully set down four plates filled with food for herself, her twin children, and her husband, Bob, while she plopped Alex's own plate onto the table. Glancing at the other dishes quickly, she wasn't surprised in the slightest to see that everyone else had a larger portion than hers, but this was something else that she had grown accustomed to. It was the norm.

Cameron and Julie came down the stairs, wiping the sleep from their green eyes, the pair of them dressed in black shorts and blue T-shirts. The four-year-old twins hauled themselves into their chairs and started to eat their breakfast of eggs and bacon, though slowly, looking as if they'd fall asleep in them any second.

The twins had the muddy brown hair of their parents, and their mother's green eyes, but otherwise, they resembled their father more than their mother.

Alex's Uncle Bob came down the stairs just then, a once athletic Quidditch player; he was now a portly man, his hair starting to thin, and a cold look to his eyes, or at least he had a cold look whenever he was looking at anybody apart from his wife and two daughters. In Alex's opinion his look always became like the harshest blizzard in winter whenever he gazed upon her.

This morning was no exception either, as he shot Alex one frosty stare, before he kissed each of his daughter's on the tops of their heads, and he finally kissed his wife on the cheek. He commented as he sat down, "Well, Marge, breakfast certainly looks good this morning!"

"Only the best for my family," Aunt Marge said, beaming.

Alex assumed her bacon and eggs had been the first ones made, just due to how burnt they looked, but she didn't dare complain as she ate them.

Julie asked, still looking tired, "Why did we have to wake up so early? Is Alex going to catch golf balls for us again?"

When her Aunt and Uncle stiffened, Alex swore silently. Her Aunt and Uncle weren't very fond of her associating with their precious twin angels, much less showing off any skills that she might have, and flying on a broomstick while catching golf balls that the twins threw was one of them.

Throwing a furious look at Alex over her shoulder, Aunt Marge said, "No, not today, Dearest. We're going to the mall today to get you some new clothes."

This didn't go over well with the twins, who's expressions went from sleepy to close to temper tantrums within two seconds.

"We want to watch Alex catch the golf balls," Cameron said, definitely.

Aunt Marge tried to save the situation, "Daddy can do that for you later, he's a better flyer than Alex anyway."

Alex seethed silently in her seat at the lie that her aunt had just told. It was true that her Uncle Bob had once played for the West Coast Warblers, but he had been a Beater, and he had been hit quite a few times by the bludgers as well, so he wasn't as good a flyer as he once was.

The twins knew this fact as well, their voices indicating that they were close to throwing one of their temper tantrums.

"We want…"

"…Alex to!"

It never ceased to amaze Alex at how easily the twins finished each other's sentences.

"Alex can't!" Aunt Marge snapped. "She isn't supposed to be flying on a broomstick anyway, probably picking the lock on our broom shed like a common Muggle!"

True as that statement may have been, it still set Alex's blood boiling. She rarely asked for anything, and she rarely asked to use the brooms as it was, only to entertain the twins.

At this point, the twins were in a full blown temper tantrum and several pots and pans went flying across the room as they wailed.

"Enough!" Uncle Bob bellowed, startling everyone in the room.

He shot Alex the coldest look she had seen yet, before he said to Julie and Cameron, "Girls, I know you want Alex," he spat out her name. "To show you her flying, but we need to get to the store to get you new clothes, and while we're there, we'll even get you some ice cream, how does that sound?"

Crisis averted. The twins shot out of their seats and bounced around near the door, eager to head out.

Aunt Marge quickly ate her breakfast, as did Uncle Bob, while Alex choked her own down, before they all headed out to the car in the driveway. Aunt Marge slipped into the driver's seat, Uncle Bob, being a pureblooded wizard, had never driven a car, much less seen one before he had married his wife.

Julie and Cameron insisted that Alex sit between them in the middle, both clamoring for her attention as Aunt Marge drove them to the mall. Any regular eleven-year-old would have been driven insane by the pair, but Alex adored her cousins, so she swiveled her head this way and that as each twin asked for her attention. This was also a means of self-preservation as Aunt Marge and Uncle Bob, though they adored their children, couldn't deal with Julie and Cameron's attention seeking habits.

The one habit, or game, as Alex assumed it to be, was one where they kept saying Alex's name, and Alex would turn to look at each of the girls, who would giggle before the other twin called out Alex's name.

The drive to the mall didn't take long, considering that their home, on the outskirts of Blueridge, Utah, a quaint, medium sized town, with its two parts (historic and urban) clashing against each other on either side of the main street.

Alex wished the ride had been longer as Aunt Marge pulled into a parking space in front of the Blueridge Mall, and said, "We're here!"

The twins eagerly out of the car eagerly once they heard the engine stop, while Alex got out a bit more slowly, wanted to delay the moment when she'd be stared at by innumerable people.

She had barely taken a step away from the car, when she felt a hand grip her shoulder, and she heard her uncle practically growl in her ear, "No funny business today, Alex." He released didn't release her shoulder as he steered her after Aunt Marge and the twins.

Alex didn't know what he was warning her for, the twins were the ones that always did accidental magic. As Uncle Bob continued to steer her towards the mall entrance, she couldn't help wondering if she'd be as popular amongst all the witches and wizards if they knew that she was a squib, for what else could she be? She had never performed any sort of accidental magic that she could recall, and her Aunt and Uncle certainly liked to rub it in her face that she wasn't a proper witch. The only, slightly, magical thing she had done was fly on broomsticks in the broom shed, and anybody could do that as her Aunt Marge would say.

If her uncle hadn't been holding onto her shoulder, she would have stopped dead in front of the mall entrance due to how much she hated being stared at by people. Only the fear of her aunt and uncle kept her walking usually, but today, her hatred of it seemed worse, perhaps due to the morning's early happenings.

Whatever the case, Alex, reluctantly entered the mall, and several heads turned at once, their eyes filled with delight, obviously wizards. These wizards refrained from coming near her, however, so that they wouldn't cause a scene, but their stares were enough to make Alex angrier, though not at them, but at her aunt and uncle, who enjoyed parading her around like a show dog. These family outings were the only times that they would "dote" on Alex, pretending that she was just as loved and well cared for as Julie and Cameron, although, if no one was looking, they'd go back to treating her as they usually did, like dirt.

After the first wizards that stared, it became clear that there were only muggles in the store today, due to their stares of shock and horror when they saw Alex's scar. This led to Alex getting her usual treatment of being ignored by her aunt and uncle while they fussed over Julie and Cameron.

Alex's tolerance level for being paraded around was starting to reach its limit as they headed towards Jule's Delights, an ice cream shop, having already visited Teeny Tots (store for children's clothes), Bargin Joe's (store for hand-me-down clothes, for Alex, of course), Sweet Tooth (a candy store where Aunt Marge and Uncle Bob bought plenty of sweets for Julie and Cameron), and Sneaker Plus (to get shoes for Alex, whose pair was worn beyond reason). At each store Alex had found herself stared at by the muggles, with Aunt Marge and Uncle Bob practically beaming over the attention they were getting, and explaining to each muggle how Alex had gotten such a unique scar, today's story being that she had run into an electrical pole as a child and Uncle Bob heroically rushing her to a hospital. Alex tried to figure out how the muggles seriously didn't realize that the story kept changing by now, but she supposed that her Aunt Marge, who was fluent with Memory Charms, may have been the reason for that.

On the way to Jule's Delights, they passed Make a Cuddle Buddy, a toy store that allowed children to make their own, personalized stuffed animal from many different choices like birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. The flashy look of the place instantly attracted Cameron's attention, who then brought it to Julie's attention.

Cameron asked sweetly, "Mommy, can we go in there?"

"No, sweetie," Aunt Marge said. "We're going to get ice cream, remember?"

"But we want to make a Cuddle Buddy," Julie chimed in.

"No, I'm sorry," Aunt Marge stated.

Cameron and Julie came to an abrupt halt, with Cameron whining, "But Mommy, we want to make Cuddle Buddies!"

Aunt Marge knelt down in front of the twins trying to get them to remember how much they had wanted ice cream earlier, while Uncle Bob kept walking, with Alex following him, not wanting to get involved in one of the twin's temper tantrums.

Without realizing it, Alex was soon walking beside her uncle, who then put his right arm (though roughly) around her shoulders, and she soon saw why.

Two wizards, a tall muscular man with no hair and shrewd brown eyes, the other wizard being slightly shorter than the first, having black hair and a small mustache, approached them.

Alex recognized the men as being co-workers to her uncle, who all worked at the same apothecary, her uncle being adept in potion making.

"How you doing today, Bob?" Asked the bald wizard.

Uncle Bob smiled, "Good, just taking the family out for a day at the mall." He pulled Alex against his side, while she tried not to look like she was being tortured.

"Are you having a good time, Alex?" The shorter wizard, who she remembered was Tim, inquired.

Not needing the warning squeeze on her shoulder from her uncle, Alex replied, forcing a smile onto her face, "Oh yeah, loads!"

Tim smiled at her, "That's good. I'm sure Bob's been taking as good of care of you as ever."

"Of course," Uncle Bob said, stooping to give her a kiss on top of her head.

This was taking the charade too far. Fake hugs, fine. Fake smiles, fine. Fake happy family, fine. A kiss on top of the head was pushing it!

The glass windows in several shops shattered as the twins screamed, something they did when they didn't get their way.

Tim and other wizard glanced at the twins, "Quite a magical pair you got there!"

"You have no idea," Uncle Bob said, though his tone sounded sour. "You'll have to excuse Alex and I!" With that, he shepherded Alex towards Aunt Marge and the twins, before he steered them out of the mall and towards the car.

Once they were on the road, the twins were crying silently, still upset that they hadn't gotten their way, but knowing better than to whine or complain after what had happened in the mall. Aunt Marge was tight lipped with Uncle Bob still looked like he had bitten into a sour lemon.

When they got home, a handsome Eagle owl was waiting for them in the kitchen, a letter tied to its legs, Aunt Marge strode over to the owl, while Uncle Bob carried in the twins. Alex gazed at the letter eagerly, hoping beyond hope that it was a letter for her.

Uncle Bob set down the twins, who were asleep, and noticed her eager expression, "Don't get your hopes up, squib!"

Alex quickly looked away while Aunt Marge opened the letter, and tittered here and there over something in the letter.

Turning to Uncle Bob, she said, "Trixie wants to know what houses we believe Julie and Cameron will be in once they are of age to enter Lutore."

Uncle Bob smiled, "They'll be Slipotts, just like their parents!"

"Indeed they will be," Aunt Marge said, beaming at the sleeping twins. "I guess I'll write to my sister now…"

Alex remained where she was, standing in the kitchen, wishing that Lutore had never been brought up. Lutore was the highly prestigious Wizarding school in America, and she dreamed of going there, just so she could get away from 67 Broadview Road, Blueridge, Utah, the place where she was currently stuck at. She was worried though, since it was drawing nearer and nearer to the start of the school year, and she still hadn't received a letter, though, she supposed that they didn't send out letters to squibs, no matter how famous they were.