Chapter 2

"The Vanishing Glass" Hermione started.

"What could that mean?" Ron mused lowly.

"I have heard to incidences when young witches or wizards banish an object in a time of distress. This could be a case of one of the Twins' accidental magic." Dumbledore replied.

Sirius looked over at Harry, who grinned mischievously.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece and nephew on the front step,

Both Sirius and Remus growled at the reminder of Dumbledore's choice of delivery, whilst Molly scowled deeply at the old Headmaster.

but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.

"What! How boring!" The twins exclaimed, putting a hand to their foreheads and pretending to faint. "How could it!"

The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.

Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets

"What?" Was the general statement passed around the room, confusion evident in each of them.

Elva giggled, whilst Harry's grin widened.

— but Dudley Dursley

"Its a person!"

was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle,

"Broken." Harry commented.

on a carousel at the fair

"Which he got kicked out of when he started a fight with someone when they brought the last chocolate ice cream." Elva said lightly.

playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that two other children lived in the house, too.

"Where are you, honey?" Sirius asked his Goddaughter quietly.

Elva just shook her head, burrowing her face into her godfathers shoulder as she squirmed in his lap.

Luna's hand tightened in Harry's hair in anticipation about his home life - she was best friends with his sister, and they had been dating since the Yule Ball in their Fourth Year, but she had hardly hears anything about their relatives and home - apart from that Hogwarts is Harrys home.

Yet Harry Potter and his sister Elva were still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Their Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

"Ohh, I know how that feels." Sirius winced sympathetically. "I hate it."

Remus reached over and punched him in the shoulder at the whine.

"It was mostly your fault you were waken up that way, Padfoot."

Harry woke with a start. Aunt Petunia rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched.

Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and spotted his sister sitting on the floor in the small space between their shared cot

"Shared cot?" Sirius hissed dangerously, his arms unconsciously tightening around the small body of his goddaughter.

Elva stiffened and whimpered slightly at the tight grip, and Sirius immediately loosened his grip, lowering his head to whisper something into her ear, and lifting a hand to press her head to his shoulder.

"What does it mean Harry?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Exactly what it says." Harry shrugged flippantly.

and the wall, reading a book she must have gotten from the library in the muted light from Dudley's old, lost, and then found by them torch. He looked up to the ceiling and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"It wasn't a dream Harry." The twins singsonged.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you both up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harry.

"Yeah." Came the quiet voice of Elva.

"Well, get a move on, I want the girl to look after the bacon, and you, Boy, to set the table. And don't you dare let it burn, Girl, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

"Boy?"

"Girl?"

Remus and Sirius growled, Remus' eyes glowing a brilliant amber.

"Didn't they call you by your names?" Charlie asked, gritting his teeth slightly.

"They made you cook by yourself at that age?" Hermione questioned Elva.

The smaller girl had to push lightly against Sirius' hand against her head so that she could talk clearly before she answered Hermione.

"Didn't you?" She looked quite confused.

"Not without my mum helping me. We used to, and still do occasionally, bake things together. Its one of our favourite mother-daughter things to do." Hermione said.

Elva wrinkled her nose and turned her head until her face was hidden again, but didn't say anything.

Harry groaned. Elva grimaced.

"What did you say?" Their aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing…" Harry replied.

Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten?

"Maybe because you didn't want to remember? If you don't want to, then your brain usually forgets about it." Remus told him knowingly.

Elva giggled slightly at the noise as she heaved herself up onto her feet, being particularly careful of her bandage wrapped wrists, and slipped on a pair of too big flip flops Aunt Petunia had bought her to wear around the house.

"What happened to your wrists?" Dumbledore asked gently.

Elva shook her head at the question, refusing to look up until Sirius pushed her away from him slightly so he could look in her eyes.

"What happened to your wrists, Elva?" He asked.

"You'll probably find out in the books." She whispered.

Harry got slowly out of bed, being careful of his aching ribs

Sirius frowned and looked over to his godson, who was determinedly studying his sock covered feet. Deciding not to say anything, assuming that his answer would be the same as his sisters, he shot a look over at Molly when she opened her mouth.

and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider

Ron shuddered, looking over at his friend in horror.

"Do you have to mention spiders?" He asked.

Harry just grinned at his friend, whilst Elva made a slightly frightened noise in the back of her throat.

"Hated them since second year." She muttered. Sirius only caught it as his chin was resting on her hair, and Remus because of his werewolf hearing.

off one of them, put them on. Both Harry and Elva were used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where they slept.

A loud growl suddenly reverberated throughout the room, originating from Sirius' chest. He sounded frighteningly alike to his animagus form. Remus' face was pulled into an ugly scowl as he snarled at nothing, although his eyes were glaring at Dumbledore, blaming him for leaving his best friends kids with what was now confirmed to be an - at the very least - neglectful family.

Dumbledore's eyes dimmed slightly as he looked between the twins he was only now realising he had failed. He had never meant to place them in what was obviously a neglectful home, but he didn't know where else to put them. He hadn't wanted either of them to end up in Pureblood supremacist home, nor did he want to burden the Weasley's when they already had enough children. Their godfather was thrown in Azkaban before he could do anything, their honorary Uncle a werewolf with no rights to children but their own whatsoever. Harry's godmother insane in St. Mungos, and Elva's godmother missing, presumed dead, after fleeing from Voldemort's followers the same night the Potter parents were killed.

He was startled out of his thoughts when his name was shouted, and he glanced up quickly to see a rage filled Molly Weasley and a red faced, over protective Minerva McGonagall.

"You left them in an ABUSIVE HOME!" Molly shouted.

Dumbledore resisted shrinking away from her, but couldn't stop a flinch at the ear-ringing shout. He almost committed the grievous mistake of correcting her by telling her they didn't know the Potter twins were abused, just neglected. He managed to shut his mouth in time.

"You left two of my cubs in a home that locked them in a cupboard, together, and from what I can see, a family that hurt them. How dare you!? Did you even check in on them?!" Minerva's voice had started of as a dangerous whisper, but by the end had risen to a stern shout.

Dumbledore really did shrink back this time, and cast his dull blue eyes around for some help, only to see that no one was looking at him without glaring.

Sirius had one grey eye fixed on his goddaughter, and the other glaring fixatedly at him. Remus was keeping an eye on Harry, whilst the other, glowing with protective werewolf fury, was glaring heatedly at him. He had a tight hand around a thin ankle of his female cub, and with how hard it was gripping the pale skin, Dumbledore was pretty sure it would bruise and would feel quite sore sooner or later.

Luna's hand in Harry's hair had tightened, and Harry was wincing slightly whenever it was tugged when the girl huffed in quiet anger. Hermione had grabbed hold of Harry's hand so tightly, Harry couldn't feel anymore blood rushing to it, and when he tried to pull it out, it only got held tighter. Ron had a large hand around a thin forearm, tightening and loosening reflexively.

The others just sat in shock for a moment, before the Twins suddenly jumped up and turned to Elva, since Harry didn't look ready to talk, and Elva was easier not to blow up at, even though their anger wouldn't be aimed at Harry if they did.

Bending down to look her in the eyes, they frowned when she turned away from them, burying her face once more in Sirius' shoulder. One of the twins reached out a hand to grab her chin, and turned her face gently towards them.

"Elva. Why didn't you tell us?" They asked carefully.

"George. . ." She whispered to the twin holding her chin.

"We saw your bedroom, though, before fourth year. The bars, and the cat flap." He abruptly stopped at that, and though he had been whispering, he wondered why she looked so scared. He realized why when she glanced over at Moony, though he hadn't changed position from his two eye watch or his hold on her leg, so when she let out a sigh of relief, they allowed themselves to continue their questioning. But she interrupted before they could ask another question.

"Can we get back to reading, please? It's not that bad." She asked pleadingly.

Unable to deny the begging on that small face, Hermione went back to the book, though she kept hold of it with one hand, not removing the other from Harry, and had to grit her teeth to hold in her anger every few minutes.

When they were both dressed they went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.

"That sounds like a lot of presents." Bill whistled.

"Oh, it was." Harry replied.

It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

"All of which he soon broke." Harry commented.

"He broke all of them?" McGonagall asked, shocked.

"How did he break the computer and the television?" Hermione asked, confused.

"He punched the computer screen when he kept loosing at a game, and threw the TV remote at the tele when the batteries ran out." Elva sighed.

"What a spoilt brat." She muttered.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry and Elva, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody.

"That had better not have been either of you." Sirius growled.

Elva shrugged and buried deeper into the man, whilst Harry averted his eyes.

Dudley's favourite punching bags were Harry and Elva,

"OK, he is so dead." Sirius said quietly, almost ready to push Elva off him and get up and kill the teenager himself.

"He dared to hit a girl?" Molly asked, scandalised.

even if his mother had always told him he shouldn't hit a girl, but he couldn't often catch them. Neither looked it, but they were both very fast.

"Too right." Hermione, Ron and Luna said, remembering when their respective friends had ran and they had found it extremely difficult to catch up.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but both Harry and Elva had always been small and skinny for their age.

Remus and Sirius growled at the mention of the cupboard, but calmed down soon enough to say something to their Twins.

"Not just the cupboard. Your mum had always been quite small, and your dad, though he had always been of average height, had been skinny until about sixth year, when he filled out." Remus told Harry and Elva. They both grinned at the mention of their parents.

They looked even smaller and skinnier than they really were because all they had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than Harry was and nearly seven times bigger than Elva, who also had to face the embarrassment of wearing boys clothes.

"Do you still have to wear that that whales clothes?" Ginny asked, remembering seeing both twins in rags at the beginning of every school year.

"In the summer. In third year, we both brought our own clothes when we stayed in the Leaky Cauldron. We can't wear them in the summer, the Dursley's will just burn them." Elva explained.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

Sirius and Remus growled at that, whilst everyone else looked over and examined Harry, who began to look uncomfortable after a minute of scrutinization.

Harry was still relatively small for a boy his age, no taller than 5'6, with a thin face that had high cheekbones and thin lips. His eyes were almond shaped, and the colour looked as if they were reflecting the Avada Kedavra curse. He was thin and slender, with small muscles from Quidditch and chores from the Dursley's. His hair was thick and shaggy, and hung down past his chin, but not quite to his shoulders. He was dressed in thick socks, comfy jeans and a thick green jumper, not the rags that must have been Dudley's clothes. He was wearing different glasses, rectangular ones that were rimmed in dark green.

"You've grown up well, at least." One of the twins remarked.

Elva's face was just as thin, though a little bit more refined, with black hair that looked blue in some lights that was cut to her chin and amazing blue-grey eyes.

Elva's face had filled out slightly, growing into her high cheekbones and thin lips. She was tiny, not even reaching 5' - which Sirius growled at now that he knew the reason why - and very thin. She was slender, with noticeable curves, though not nearly as defined as Hermione's, which Elva found quite annoying. Her hair looked even more blue, which most people pondered over, and reached her mid-back usually, though at the moment she had it in a plait. Her eyes were still an amazing stormy blue, an excellent mixture of blue and grey, eyes that Sirius had always remarked made her look like a Black - which the dog animagus had always loved, ever since her eye colour had developed. She was dressed in thick black tights with loose shorts and a size too big t-shirt.

"You don't look too different. You've always been tiny." One twin said.

"Remember her first year? Barely reached past our waists." The other twin crooned.

"Hasn't grown much, though." Both twins than said.

The only thing the twins liked about their own appearances were their scars.

"Seriously?" Ron asked his best mate, shocked at the thought that the smaller boy liked his scar at one point in time.

"I didn't know what it meant at that time." Harry shrugged.

"I always thought my scar was cool." Elva mumbled. Sirius chuckled - it was a rather cool scar.

Harry had a very thin one on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning, whilst Elva had one on her left hand that looked a bit like a star. They had had them as long as them could remember, and the first question Harry could ever remember asking Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten his.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."

Everything and everyone in the room froze.

"They told you your parents died in a car crash?"

"Lily and James Potter killed in a car crash? Heh, yeah right!"

"They lied! But what's a car?"

"Don't ask questions?! How are you supposed to learn?!"

"Why aren't you answering the questions? Harry, Elva?!"

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore shouted over all the questions. "You aren't giving either of the twins a chance to answer. If you wish your questions to be answered, be quiet and let them reply before asking another." He lectured.

"Yes they did tell us our parents died in a car crash."

"Yes, I know the thought of Lily and James Potter dying in a car crash is unimaginable."

"Yes, they did lie. And a car is a type of transport."

"Yes, we weren't allowed to ask questions - not that it stopped Harry half the time. We learnt through observation."

"We aren't answering the questions because your not letting us, as Professor Dumbledore said."

"Now it doesn't matter. This was over four years ago now. We're here with you lot, and we learnt what we needed as we grew up, and we are currently learning the rest at Hogwarts and by our friends."

Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

"Was it ever really quiet?" Elva asked thoughtfully.

"Unfortunately, no." Harry replied.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Elva was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked to the twins, by way of a morning greeting.

"Not going to happen~" Sirius sing-songed. Remus chuckled at his dark haired friend, elaborating for the animagus when he appeared oblivious to the confused looks sent his way.

"It's the curse of the Potter men. Their hair is practically untameable, unless its grown long, but they don't usually like that. According to James though, Potter men seemed to think that their hair was a ladies magnet. And having your hair that short, Elva, it seems that the curse was at work at making it look like that, though it would work differently on a female, I suppose, as the curse was meant for male Potters, and there're hasn't been a female Potter in years." Remus chuckled at the interested looks of the Potter twins' faces.

"You really don't hear much about your parents, do you?" He asked sadly.

The twins shook their heads, but didn't say anything, so after a few moments of silence, Hermione carried on reading.

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that either Harry or Elva needed a haircut. Between the two of them, they must have had more haircuts than the entirety of their class, but it made no difference, their hair simply grew the same way all the time - for Harry, all over the place, and Elva's, much too thick to be as airy as it was. Harry had always said she looked a bit like a pixie.

"You still do." Dumbledore told the girl lightly, knowing from experience that the girl didn't like to be compared to the small creature.

Elva glared at him, beautiful eyes indignant.

"I am not that small!" She cried.

Sirius chuckled, grabbing hold of her thin waist and lifting her in the air, proving that, yes, she was positively tiny compared to nearly everyone else in this room, including him, and that if he wanted to, he could probably carry her around all day. She squealed, kicking out her legs. Chuckling, Sirius lowered her back onto his lap.

"You're not only very small, but you've got the small features."

Elva was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. Elva had always told him that that was an insult to pigs, as they looked much more intelligent.

Nearly everyone in the room laughed at that, even Dumbledore and McGonagall chuckling a bit.

"You two have got an awesome sense of humour." The twins gasped.

Snape sneered at the Potter boy, mentally thinking that he would say something like that about his cousin. He could feel his hate melting away though, as he remembered how they had grown up. He averted his own dark eyes when brilliant green glanced over at him confusedly, and glanced at the smaller Potter, only just refraining from sneering at the hold Black had on her. He had never held as much disdain for the girl, her acting too much like Lily and looking to little like Potter for that. But he still didn't particularly like her, just preferred her over her brother.

Harry helped Elva put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Merlin! that's a lot of presents!" Neville exclaimed, wide eyed.

"Who gets that amount of presents for anything! And he's complaining!" Hermione gasped, shocked.

"That's Dudley for you." Harry muttered.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."

"Their still Mummy and Daddy at that age?" Bill asked, shocked.

"Yep, and in the house, they still are." Elva confirmed.

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.

Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over, and as he hadn't had anything but a piece of toast yesterday, he was starving. Elva, who barely ate anything, just picked at an egg off her brothers plate.

"You hadn't had anything the day before?" Sirius growled.

"Why didn't you eat barely anything?" Remus asked Elva quietly whilst Harry shrugged to Sirius' question.

Elva just tilted her head side to side, in an imitation of a head shake.

"She hardly eats anything at school either." Hermione said suddenly. Sirius glanced confusedly at the girl, but when he saw where the intelligent brown eyes were looking, he too looked down at his goddaughter.

"I don't have much of an appetite, I never really have." She mumbled.

"You didn't each much as a baby either. James got so distraught when you refused to eat." Sirius sighed. "I remember you'd always eat anything with chocolate in it, though. Moony always was the best source for that." Moony glared at his friend, before sighing and shaking his head, smiling at Elva.

"Before your parents died, you'd spent most of your life with me, Prongs and Moony. Harry was almost always with Lily and her friends Alice and Marlene. He was a ladies man from the very start." Sirius winked at his godson.

Moony hit him.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right"

"That is no way to handle a tantrum!" Molly raged.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"

"He can't even count." Hermione whimpered, not believing that anybody that age could be so stupid.

"Dudley's so stupid he makes Goyle look like a Ravenclaw." Harry compared.

Elva glared at him, having never liked him calling anybody stupid. Harry just blinked innocently at her, used to his sisters quirks by now.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled.

"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.

"What bad parenting." Molly shook her head, a look of deep disgust on her face at the thought of a father encouraging bad behaviour.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry, Elva and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in the twins' direction.

"Mrs. Figg? The squib?" Remus asked.

Elva and Harry nodded.

"Why was she there?"

The twins shrugged.

"I had Arabella stationed there to keep an eye on the twins. As someone accustomed to muggle life, I figured she was the best choice." Dumbledore interjected.

"And she didn't notice them living in a cupboard? Or the injuries, like Elva's wrists and Harry's ribs? Any others they might have had?" Sirius growled.

"If she did, she never informed me." Dumbledore replied gravely.

"She was a bit obsessed with her cats." Elva said timidly.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap, whilst Elva blinked in hopeful surprise. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, the twins were left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. Elva didn't particularly hate it, as she didn't have the same dislike of cats as her brother did, though she did find Mrs. Figg quite odd, and didn't like her that much either.

"She didn't smell very nice, and she always talked about her cats as if she were in love. It was very creepy." Elva informed everyone. "But I love nearly all animals, so I didn't mind the cats."

Sirius laughed, drawing her impossibly closer to himself as he remembered her scream when she saw a spider colony in the corner of one of the rooms in Grimmauld Place. It was hilarious.

"I hate cabbage, and I prefer owls and dogs to cats. Cats have never been my favourite." Harry said. Hermione kicked him at the insult to cats, as she had her pet, Crookshanks. Harry glared playfully at her, whilst Ron slapped him gently on the back.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at the twins as though they had planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again. Elva couldn't help but feel the same.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. Elva blanched without them noticing.

Everyone in the room looked questioningly at Elva, who just shrugged and looked away over Sirius' shoulder where no one else was, refusing to answer. Harry looked worriedly at his sister, never having learnt the full extent of what had happened between her and Marge.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the two of them, especially the girl."

"Well, we don't exactly like her either." Both Harry and Elva chorused.

"Wait! Is she the one you. . . ?" Ron trailed off, not sure if everyone in the room knew about it, and not wanting to reveal it if they didn't.

Harry nodded, grinning mischievously.

"What?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"Third book, I should think, if this is about our first year." Elva supplied.

The Dursleys often spoke about them like this, as though they weren't there — or rather, as though they was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"

"She's alright, actually. She just ignores us mostly. Gives us a snack, puts us in front of the TV and goes of to her office after giving a warning not to break anything." Elva said.

"Well, at least someone was reasonably nice to you growing up." Bill said grudgingly.

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave us here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). Elva perked up, thinking how long she'd be able to sneak out for to go to the library before they got back.

"You're thinking of going to the library when you could stay at home and prank your relatives whilst they're out?" Sirius asked, scandalised.

"You weren't allowed to go on the computer or watch TV, Harry?" Hermione said sadly.

Elva and Harry nodded and shook their heads respectively.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"She always looked like that." Elva muttered.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"They won't blow up the house!" Sirius cried.

"Well -"

"- You never know."

"They might." The red headed twins said.

Sirius glowered at them

"We won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave both of them in the car…"

"You can't leave them in the car!" Hermione shouted. "That's child abuse!"

"I think we have evidence of worse abuse than leaving two children in a car." Arthur muttered darkly.

"That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone…"

"Worrying more about the car then the children. How dare he!" Molly almost screeched.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly.

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"What a spoilt brat!" Charlie spat.

Molly looked like she wanted to protest, but couldn't find it in herself to open her mouth and say the words just on principle.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"Still don't know how they fit." Elva muttered in Sirius' shoulder. The dog animagus barked out a laugh.

"I… don't… want… them… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!" He shot Harry and Elva a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

"What a horrible boy." Tonks said loudly, pursing her lips in a look that didn't suit her current face.

Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.

Sirius made a quiet sound of disgust, whilst Remus closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

Elva knew they were thinking of their once friend Peter Pettigrew, who was able to turn into a rat, and also knew that Piers did have an uncanny resemblance to the horrible man.

He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Harry had experienced that enough times.

"What!?"

"Bully!"

Ron and Hermione shouted, indignant on their friend's behalf.

Sirius glanced over at his godson, and saw the completely unconcerned look on the boys face. He felt a burst of sadness well up in his chest at the thought that the boy had been bullied by what was supposed to be family.

Elva was refusing to look at the boy, memories of the boy trying to kiss her whilst she was being chased

"What?!" Was a general outcry around the room. Even Harry looked shocked.

"I never knew about that!" Harry cried, angry.

Sirius pulled his goddaughter up a bit higher up his body, so that he could clutch her a bit tighter.

causing her to want to hide behind her older brother. Dudley had always found it hilarious that Piers scared her so much.

"What horrible boys." Professor McGonagall muttered in a thicker than normal Scottish accent.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

"Can't cry in front of his friends." Elva mocked quietly. Sirius grinned slightly into her hair at her tone.

Half an hour later, Harry and Elva, who couldn't believe their luck, were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley. The car was usually too small for four people to be sat in the back, especially with Dudley there, but Piers was thin and Elva and Harry only needed one seat between them, even though Uncle Vernon complained about getting in trouble if it was found out.

"Then he shouldn't have let that happen and gotten a bigger car." Hermione muttered angrily.

They were on their way to the zoo for the first time in their life.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken them aside, though separately.

"Why would he take you aside separately?" Bill asked, frown deepening.

"I'm warning you," he had said to Harry, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"He had better not." Hermione hissed dangerously.

"I was at Hogwarts for Christmas, remember Hermione. He didn't go through on that." Harry said, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead at the force of his best friend glare. Luna was glaring as well, though Harry couldn't help but think he was lucky she was glaring at a spot on the wall above Dumbldore's shoulder instead of his head, because he thinks he'd melt under the heat of two glares.

"You do anything, Girl, and you'll be in so much trouble you won't be able to walk."

If it was possible, Sirius would tighten his hold on the girl even more, but as it was if he constricted his arms even a bit more, the poor girl would have been left without oxygen. He opened his mouth to comment, but was beaten.

"What did he mean by that?"

Everyone turned to look, shocked, at the greasy haired potion master. He was glaring venomously at the book, and everyone could imagine him spitting fire from the heat in his eyes.

Almost simultaneously, everyone turned to look at Elva, only to see her face buried in Sirius' shoulder. Pursing their lips, they went back to reading/listening to the book.

He had said to Elva, horrifyingly purple face splitting into the most disgusting grin she had ever seen.

"I'm not going to do anything," Harry and Elva said simultaneously, "honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe them. No one ever did.

Minerva frowned as she remembered their numerous pleas to her about something and her ignoring their so then deemed small problems. What was she doing, ignoring her students?

Elva peeked over to her Head of House and saw the obvious frown, guessing what the cat Animagus was thinking but not able to say anything to soothe the old woman, remembering all the instances her pleas had been ignored by the first person they were supposed to see if they were having problems in school.

The problem was, strange things often happened around the twins and it was just no good telling the Dursleys they didn't do it.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, their cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Elva, the bank, Harry and Elva were just a few of his favourite subjects.

"He sure likes you two." The twins said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. It worked slightly, but still didn't have the desired effect.

This morning, it was motorcycles.

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." Elva facepalmed.

Everyone turned to look at the suddenly red teenager, and many people copied Elva's action.

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." Elva shook her head, short hairs brushing against her brothers neck.

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than their asking questions, it was either of them talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think they might get dangerous ideas - not that that might be true about Elva. His sister was a weird one sometimes.

Nearly everyone in the room nodded, knowing the many quirks the younger Potter had. Elva had turned so she could see the room, and when she saw the many agreements, she glared at them so hard that quite a few turned away. Smirking triumphantly at the reaction, she smiled at Remus when he turned concerned amber eyes onto her.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he and his sister wanted before they could hurry them away, they bought the twins a cheap lemon ice pop each. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought,

Sirius and Remus shared a glance, both despairing over the fact that their godson and most probably their goddaughter had been so deprived of the usual childhood comforts that they thought a cheap lemon ice lolly was good.

"How in the world did you think it was nice? It was too sour and reminded me of Aunt Petunia!" Elva exclaimed incredulously.

licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.

"Good joke Harry!" One of the twins shouted. The teenagers laughed.

When he voiced his thought aloud, though quietly, he got a poke to the arm and a disapproving look from his sister,

Many people looked at the girl, confused, knowing about her blunt sense of humour, and not knowing how she wouldn't think that wasn't funny.

who then scolded him about insulting the Gorilla's intelligence, though she did agree on the resemblance.

"Ohh!" A few people said understandably, getting it now. Elva smirked at them.

Harry and Elva decided they had had the best morning they'd had in a long time. Both were careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting them - as long as Petunia wasn't looking, because as much as she hated Elva, she didn't believe in hitting girls.

"Well at least there's that." Sirius muttered reluctantly.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and the twins was allowed to finish the first.

"What a spoilt brat!" Luna spat out. Harry looked at her in surprise, not knowing his girlfriend to explode like that. She looked down at his briefly before blushing a pale pink, the brightest colour that would appear on her pale cheeks and looked away, slightly embarrassed at her outburst.

Elva and Harry felt, afterward, that they should have known it was all too good to last.

"Oh no." Was said throughout the room.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon

"Yes!" The twins shouted.

's car

"No!" The twins shouted, and other people deflated as their excitement, too, was crushed.

and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"How rude." Snape muttered, aghast. "You don't treat any animals that way." Those that heard turned to look at him weirdly, but he just ignored them.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

"Good." Snape spoke up again. "You don't deserve any attention a snake would grace you with." He almost spat.

Elva and Luna traded amused grins.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake, seeing Elva's reflection come up behind him to peer over his shoulder, not wanting to crowd the glass for the other visitors. Neither of them would have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least they got to visit the rest of the house, even if it was only for cleaning and the bathroom.

"You're not allowed in the rest of the house?" Ron asked appalled. Harry shook his head hesitantly.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

It winked.

"But snakes don't have eyelids." Hermione asked, confused, her eyebrows knitted together.

Harry and Elva stared. Then Elva looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. She looked back at the snake and tapped Harry on the shoulder, indicating no one was watching and then widened her eyes at the reptile.

The twins snickered at the girls response to the strange snake.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It
gave the twins a look that said quite plainly:

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?" He flinched as Elva hit him over the head.

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?" Harry frowned as he saw Elva shaking her head at him in the glass.

The teenagers, the younger adults and Sirius all laughed at the siblings' actions. Both stuck their tounges out.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.

"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry lost his balance and fell over on top of his sister, wincing when he heard her head connect with what could only be the stone floor.

Harry and Elva gasped as they were suddenly being looked over for injuries.

Exasperated, they looked over at each other and thought;

'Shouldn't this have happened earlier? You know, when they found out about the cupboard.'

Both shook their heads at each other at the thought.

"You know this happened like, four years ago, right?" Elva asked, raising her voice slightly to be heard.

Everyone stopped what they had been doing sheepishly, before returning back to their seats as they realized the girl was right.

What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

"Why couldn't either of you do that in class?" The Transfiguration professor asked quietly.

The Potter twins exchanged a smirk.

Harry sat up, rolling off of Elva and gasped, his sister following his example less than a moment later; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

Laughter rolled around the room.

As the snake slid swiftly past them, both twins could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigos."

"What a polite snake." Hermione sniffed.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

"Poor man." Molly muttered.

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry and Elva had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for the twins at least, was Piers calming down enough to say,

"Harry and Elva were talking to it, weren't you?"

"Idiot boy." Sirius said harshly.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on them. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say,

"Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,"

"He didn't!" Was gasped by half the room.

before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

"Drinking in front of children! How dare he!" Molly shrieked.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, his sisters deep breathing making his hear move into his eyes every now and then, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food for him and his twin.

"No wonder you were so good at sneaking around when you got to Hogwarts." Minerva said sadly, pressing her lips together as she thought of the reason why they had that skill.

They'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as either of them could remember, ever since they'd been babies and their parents had died in that car crash.

"James and Lily Potter dying in a car crash." Passed many mouths angrily.

He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died, but Elva had told him that she could remember something, even if she didn't know what it was. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in their cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. Elva told him she had the same sort of experience, although her pain was in her hand and she could also hear a woman screaming.

"You remember that?" Dumbledore asked, slightly alarmed. Both nodded, but Elva was the one who responded verbally.

"More after the Dementors Third year." She shuddered slightly.

This, they had guessed, was the crash, though neither he or Elva could imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course they was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house either.

"Keeping something like that from them; how could they?" Arthur said, shaking his head sadly.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation

Sirius frowned, tear threatening to come to his eyes.

coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys and Elva were his only family. Elva was the only one he considered family, however.

Dumbledore's eyes widened at that.

Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know them. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.

"Diggle_" Minerva shook her head almost fondly at the thought.

A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at Elva once on a bus, his sister had told him one dark night in their cupboard. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken both his and Elva's hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry or Elva tried to get a closer look.

"Apperation, Harry, Elva." Hermione said primly.

"We know that now, 'Mione, but we didn't know anything about magic then." Harry said, rolling his eyes at his sister.

At school, the twins had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and the small weird girl with the even weirder name and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

"We do!" The Weasley twins shouted loudly, pouting for a reason unknown to everybody else.

"Alright, who will read the next chapter?" Dumbledore asked. "This one and then food, I think." Ron nodded, agreeing.

"I think Snape should read the next chapter." Elva said shyly.

The book was quickly passed to the Potions professor.

"Alright then." He sneered, opening the book.

"Chapter 3,

'The letters from no one'."