Author's Note: Thanks for your support! We're both hoping very much that you guys will continue to enjoy this story as much as we are enjoying writing it. -Cassie and Mary
Emma slowly descended the stairs from her dormitory into the Gryffindor common room. Despite the relatively early hour, it was already abuzz with activity. Emma felt perfectly at home in the halls of Hogwarts; she no longer missed the trick steps, she knew which paintings were friendly enough to talk to, and she'd long-since memorized the schedule that the moving staircases kept to. Yet, in Gryffindor Tower she felt like the first year she was. It was foreign territory and she knew almost no one. The girl who seemed to have read every fact that existed about Hogwarts had turned out to be called Hermione Granger, and she was sleeping in the bed next to Emma's in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. The combination of a familiar face and the presence of her cat, Snow, who was already curled up on her bed when she arrived after the feast, had made her first night there much less unsettling.
Now, however, on the morning of her second day as a Gryffindor student, Emma had summoned all her confidence. There was no time to be hesitant; after all, she had a twin brother to talk to.
She found Harry alone, and thought herself grateful that she'd found him that way rather than surrounded by admirers. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. She'd spent an inordinate amount of time the night before attempting to decide what she would say to him, and yet as he looked up at her, she still had no clue what she was about to say.
"Emma," he said. She felt a jolt in her stomach at the sound of her own name from his mouth. She sat down in the chair across from him in a little corner of the warm common room, near a window which overlooked the Black Lake. She glanced outside and caught a glimpse of the Giant Squid in the murky waters, and smiled a little to herself as she recalled the time Hagrid had first taken her to meet the squid.
"Did you know you had a sister?" she asked, the words spilling from her lips unexpectedly; she had certainly intended to be more subtle, but something in her was taken over by the bright eyes and messy hair she'd gotten used to seeing every day in the mirror. Harry shook his head a little bit.
"Not really," he replied. "Well- I did, but I thought you were dead. I didn't even know I was a wizard until my birthday."
Emma gaped at him, momentarily caught off guard by his words. He hadn't known he was a wizard? Emma couldn't imagine growing up without the knowledge of her own magical abilities; it was as much a part of her as the birthmark on her shoulder or her dark hair.
"Oh," she murmured. Her mind was whirling as she struggled to put the pieces together.
"Did you know you had a brother?" Harry asked her, and Emma looked up to meet his gaze. She shook her head slowly.
"No," she told him honestly. "Not even a dead one," she added with a mirthless sort of laugh. There was a beat of silence between them, one that should have been awkward but somehow wasn't. Emma wondered if it was a twin thing- she'd heard that was a common occurrence, although she couldn't be sure since she'd never known she was one.
Emma hesitated. She had so many questions, each of them seemingly more pressing than the last. She wasn't even sure what Harry knew and what he didn't, but she was determined to figure it all out.
"Why did your- our- aunt and uncle only want you?" she asked, struggling to keep from sounding as angry and hurt as she felt. Harry stared at her for a moment, looking vaguely surprised.
"Want me?" he repeated. "They- they didn't," he said. Emma furrowed her brow at him.
"What do you mean, they didn't?" she asked. Harry seemed trapped, and Emma felt a pang of sympathy for him as she watched him struggle to put it into words. Emma got the distinct feeling that Harry was fearful, as if he wasn't quite used to the idea that he was safe. Emma was bewildered by the idea; she couldn't imagine feeling the emotions she saw written on her brother's face, and the fact of their wildly different upbringings was starting to set in on her.
"Were they cruel to you?" she asked softly. Harry hesitated, but ultimately nodded shortly, alongside a sort of halfhearted shrug of his shoulders, and Emma fell silent, observing him across the table. They looked exactly alike, but Emma was beginning to notice the fierce differences between she and her twin. Namely, Harry's lack of confidence in himself. Emma had never thought herself extraordinary, but at the same time she had never doubted her own abilities. Harry, on the other hand, was stumbling about in his own skin, desperately unsure of himself.
It made anger well within her, and suddenly Emma was seized by a very intense desire to give Albus Dumbledore a piece of her mind.
"Come on," she said decisively to Harry, who looked up at her, his expression a little startled. Emma impatiently grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her through the portrait hole and out into the corridor.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, sounding puzzled.
"We're going to see the Headmaster," Emma replied grimly, her stride so quick and purposeful that Harry had to increase his pace to keep up with her as she easily navigated the halls. By the time the pair reached the gargoyles that guarded Dumbledore's office, Harry was slightly out of breath, while Emma remained unfazed. Harry supposed that, after he got used to the long walks from one end of the castle to the other, he too could manage them the way Emma did.
"Pepper Imp," Emma sighed to the gargoyles, who sprung to life and moved aside for her. She stepped easily onto the spiral staircase, barely even taking notice of Harry, who followed her, looking around with a mixture of fear and awe.
As Emma barged into Dumbledore's office with Harry behind her, the headmaster looked up and a shadow crossed his face at the sight.
"Emma," he said slowly, his bright gaze drifting briefly across Harry before looking back to the girl he'd raised. "What can I do for you?" he asked, his calm tone infuriating Emma even more.
"You can tell me why I never knew I had a brother," she spat back at him. Some part of her was beginning to see that the Sorting Hat had known what it was doing when it placed her in Gryffindor- and it was about much more than her desire to be with her brother. Albus Dumbledore sighed somewhat gravely, pressing the tips of his long fingers together thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that...either of you," he said, sounding frustratingly unconcerned.
"Don't say that, Alby!" Emma exclaimed, ignoring the way her cheeks flushed at the sound of the nickname coming out of her own mouth. Her embarrassment didn't last long; she was too fired up and angry to let it bother her for more than a moment. "Harry just told me how our aunt and uncle treat him, and I can't believe you would let that happen to him," Emma said furiously. "And me! I don't know anything about my parents...well, I do now. But you let me grow up thinking they just died in the war; you let me read about my family like they were strangers."
Albus' eyes were disturbingly clear as he gazed at the eleven-year-old twins before him; Emma looking more furious than he'd ever seen her, Harry looking slightly bewildered, struggling to keep himself from gazing around the office in awe. It weighed heavily on his heart, the future he knew they were both facing, not to mention the childhood he'd only been able to spare one of them from. He watched as Fawkes the phoenix soared through the window, heading straight for Emma, who boldly and casually held out her arm on which he landed swiftly.
"Hello, Fawkes," she murmured, slipping from her angry state for a moment in favor of tenderness toward the animal, whom she had loved as long as she could remember. It was only a moment, though, and soon her green eyes were flashing in Dumbledore's direction.
"How could you do this?" she asked, and while his face remained calm, there was some part of the headmaster that cringed at her harsh words, and, even more, her tone. She sounded scandalized, betrayed, as if she would never trust him again. Albus had seen this coming; he'd known that Emma would meet Harry and put the pieces together. Yet, nothing could have prepared him for the way she was looking at him now.
Emma seemed to have gathered that she wasn't going to get any more information just then, and it appeared her desire to be far away from him was bigger than her desire to press him. She murmured something softly to Fawkes, who took flight from her arm at once. Then, with one last scathing look at Albus, she turned on her heel, stopping only when she reached the door and realized Harry was still standing in place, staring silently at the various magical instruments in the room.
"Come on, Harry," Emma said, sounding only a little impatient. Harry jolted in surprise, his gaze swinging around to Emma. He quickly turned to follow her, giving Dumbledore and his office one last glance over his shoulder as he hastened to follow his sister out the door and down the spiraling stairs once more.
"Ugh," Emma groaned in disgust as they returned to the corridors. Harry found himself rather grateful that Emma seemed to have decided their urgent pace was no longer necessary; they were instead walking at a normal speed, and Harry had no problem keeping up with her this time around as they retraced their steps to Gryffindor Tower. "He's absolutely unbelievable!" Emma exclaimed. Harry was slightly scared of his twin sister, if he was being perfectly honest. She was very confident, and she had more nerve than he'd ever though he himself could possess. Even so, he found that there was a part of him that identified with her, saw his own traits within her on some level, albeit one that wasn't quite within his grasp. He couldn't help but wonder; if he'd grown up the way Emma had, would he be confident and brazen like her?
It was only when they had reached Gryffindor tower that he noticed Emma was still complaining about Dumbledore and his oblivious stubbornness, as she put it. As they reached the portrait hole and gave the password, Emma suddenly turned away, muttering something to Harry about the color pink and chocolate before she was gone, leaving her bemused twin to climb through to the Gryffindor common room by himself, shaking his head at his sister.
As their first week at Hogwarts wore on, Harry and Emma both experienced a myriad of new things. For one, they were slowly getting to know one another; it seemed that Harry was never going to stop being amazed by the things Emma knew, while Emma felt increasingly more sick and angry as she learned tidbits about Harry's childhood with her aunt, uncle, and cousin, whom she learned were called Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley Dursley, respectively. Emma seemed to be splitting her time between accompanying Hermione Granger on her many ventures to the library and exploring with Harry and Ron, who didn't seem very fond of Hermione themselves. Emma thought she was rather nice, if a little boring sometimes. On Friday morning, Emma was sitting at the Gryffindor table with Harry and Ron, spreading marmalade on her toast.
"What have we got today?" Harry was inquiring of Ron, who informed the Potter twins that they were in for a double-period of Potions with the first years of Slytherin House. Harry groaned- according to him, he'd already met a Slytherin first-year that he wasn't particularly fond of, though Emma herself had yet to cross paths with the boy in question. It was then that the mail arrived, and Emma watched a familiar school owl swoop down over her toast, dropping a note on it. She quickly picked up the note, making a face at the way the note had become messy with her breakfast thanks to the bird's poor aim. She read over the familiar handwriting quickly, and then turned to Harry.
"Hagrid's invited us both for tea this afternoon," she informed him, and glanced at Ron. "If you like, you can come too," she offered. Both boys readily agreed, and she sent a quick response back to Hagrid- marmalade and all.
Potions took place in the cool dungeons. It was there that Harry quietly pointed out blonde-haired Draco Malfoy to Emma and Ron as they set their schoolbags down beside their chairs. Emma took note of his sneer and the two large boys who flanked him on either side. She got a distinctively bad feeling about all three of them. Professor Severus Snape, a man with a hooked nose and oddly greasy black hair, seemed remarkably unpleasant. Emma had seen him before, of course, but from a distance; he left Hogwarts during the summers like the majority of the teachers, and he'd never so much as looked her direction. Emma was unsurprised by the fact that he didn't seem to know her on sight; she'd never gotten the impression that he liked children very much, which made her wonder why he had wanted to teach in the first place. He began class by taking role, and paused at Harry's name.
"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new- celebrity." He spoke with alarming venom, and Emma noticed that he didn't even bother to look up as he read her name as well. He began to speak about his subject in a reverent tone, his voice barely more than a whisper. Snape had a way, it seemed, of commanding the attention of his class effortlessly. Even so, the actual words he was saying were rather harsh- none of their other teachers had been nearly so mean to them. He actually referred to his normal students as 'dunderheads', which seemed to make most of the class even more unsettled than they were to begin with. Emma glanced over at Hermione, who was sitting on the edge of her seat looking as if she were desperate to prove she was not, in fact, a dunderhead.
"Emma!" Snape said suddenly, and Emma felt her heart rate pick up a little bit as she looked up. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Emma caught Harry and Ron exchanging identical looks of confusion. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Hermione's hand shoot up into the air at an alarming speed.
"You would get a sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death," Emma replied. Snape narrowed his eyes at her a little suspiciously as Harry and Ron looked impressed and Hermione, disappointed.
"Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?" Snape asked, now meeting Emma's defiant gaze.
"In the stomach of a goat," Emma replied calmly.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape asked, although Emma had begun to wonder if he was still trying to trip her up or if he was simply testing how much she knew.
"They're the same plant, Professor," Emma replied, her tone still even as her bright green eyes maintained contact with his dark ones. "Also known as aconite," she added softly.
For a moment, Snape stared at her, something she couldn't identify stirring in his otherwise somewhat lifeless dark irises. Then, he cleared his throat and turned to the class again.
"Well?" he snarled. "Why aren't you all copying this down?"
The room was filled with the scratching of quills as everyone rushed to take note of the information, and although Emma was also writing down the information she already knew, she could feel Snape's eyes on her. Something told her that she'd just done something unprecedented, because she got the distinct feeling that Professor Snape liked her.
