Chapter 2

As of 31/7/14, the Potter family cat, Mopsy, has officially been rechristened "Flopsy" to avoid confusion with the Potter family house elf, Missy. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

There was an annoying, piercing light. It hurt his eyes and Harry scrunched up his nose, burrowing deeper under his duvet. "M'k t stop." he mumbled, blindly sticking out one arm and feeling around for his pillow which he promptly shoved on top of his head, still under the mound of blankets. Harry dimly registered a sound of curtains being pulled back and moaned in pain when the lights seemed to get brighter, even through the blanket shield that he had constructed.

There was a voice in his room. It was a voice that didn't belong there. "Ree! It's time to get up!", it sang in an obnoxiously cheery tone. Harry groaned again. No. Oh Merlin no.

"Go 'way, Lex. T's too early for this. We 'greed I don't wake 'fore noon, 'member?" Harry grumbled, pulling the blankets tighter around himself, only to have his heavenly cocoon of warmth snatched away from him abruptly.

"But it's our birthday!" Alex continued in his irritatingly chirpy tone, not caring that his older twin was currently turning into the human equivalent of an icicle on his bed, "You promised we'd go to Diagon Alley to pick up our school supplies today!"

It's too early for this. I didn't get enough sleep for this. Harry rolled over and laid face down on the mattress. He'd stayed up quite late last night in the library, since he'd found an interesting charms book and had lost track of time. Now, he regretted it. "But it's not even noon yet!" he complained, closing his eyes again and trying in vain to reach out for the quickly vanishing smoke tendrils of the dream world.

"But you promised!" Alex sang in his far-too-joyful voice that pierced through Harry's sleepy haze like the agonising glare of themorning sun. The younger twin bustled around the room, opening the curtains further and allowing more of the wretched light in.

Harry sighed loudly as he realised that he wouldn't get back to sleep that morning, not with Alex in his room. The calming fog of sleep had completely dissipated and he was awake now, albeit not willingly. Sitting up, he lifted a hand to right a lock of hair that was poking him in the cheek and put as much venom into a glare as he could. "Alex, I hate you."

Alex laughed, "t's not very affective, with your bedhead and all." he leaned over the bed and ruffled Harry's hair, further messing it up, "Love ya too, brother!"

The elder twin shuffled over to the side of the bed and sat there with his legs dangling towards the ground. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked up and inquired, "What're you doing, Lex?"

"Finding you something acceptable to wear, of course." the youngest child replied, looking up from where he was rifling through Harry's wardrobe. "We can't let you dress yourself, not after the disasters of last year."

"I'm eleven." Harry complained. And that means I'm too old to have other people dress me, even if the other person's my twin brother.

"And still incapable of knowing good outfits from horrid ones." Humph

The older twin eyed Alex warily but didn't interrupt his brother. A few minutes later, a muggle outfit consisting of a striped t-shirt, jeans, and hooded jacket was laid out onto the bed. It was the exact same as what Alex was wearing, but Harry's top was striped light green instead of Alex's maroon. He raised an eyebrow at his brother's choices.

"Yeah, it was on purpose" Alex grinned, picking up on the unsaid question.

They looked alike enough, but were really extremely different. The younger twin by 34 minutes, Alex loved company and social interactions, and could speak for hours on any topic that interested him. He played quidditch, seeker, and was naturally more muscular than his older brother, taking after their father physically rather than their mother. Aside from his temper and extreme sense of morals, from Lily, Alex resembled a smaller version of James, glasses and all.

The older twin, on the other hand had inherited both Lily's love for academics and her intelligence, according to Mr Fizzbeatle, the twins' tutor. Like Alex, Harry resembled James, but was slender like his mother and had Lily's almond eyes. He was the quieter child, preferring to sit in the silence of the library or the shadow of the weeping willows outside on the Potter estate with a book on his lap rather than play games of Quidditch with his father, Alex, and Uncle Remy.

Still, at a glance, they looked almost the same, their eyes hidden behind glasses and bodies obscured by the folds of their clothing, which meant that they often were mistaken for each other as children. They used to wear the same outfits, or switch clothing halfway through the day and laugh when people got their names wrong. However, they hadn't done that for a long time, not since Alex started gaining muscle and Harry became paler as a result of time spent reading in the Potter Family Library. Though, it was nice to do things for old time's sake, Harry supposed, so he shooed Alex out of his room and shrugged on the outfit without complaint, tying his jacket around his hips.

Toeing his slippers on, Harry shuffled to his en suite bathroom. There, the elder twin brushed his teeth and created a foam beard, giggling the whole time, modelled after a wizard named Albus Dumbledore whose picture he'd gotten on a chocolate frog card. After washing away the toothpaste, he tried in vain to tame his bedhead but was unsuccessful, like most days.

Giving up on the impossible task, Harry walked downstairs to the dining room where Missy was laying out the breakfast, his and Alex's favourite from the looks of it. James and Lily, evidently having just been woken up by Alex, were both still in their pyjamas and were sitting at their regular spots at the table already eating. Harry swiped a glass of pumpkin juice and sat down with a small stack of pancakes which he drizzled a bit of golden syrup onto. Alex, on the other hand, was given an expertly toasted peanut butter sandwich as well as another glass of pumpkin juice.

"Where's Flopsy?" Harry inquired, picking up his fork.

Flopsy was an old cat, a year younger than the Potter twins. They'd gotten her a bit after the brothers had had their first birthday. Coincidentally, her own birthday was on the same day as the twins', and they always celebrated by giving her extra love and attention. Harry had made her a toy mouse a week ago and was looking forward to giving it to her.

Lily glanced around the room. "I haven't seen her since last night. Though, I think she's probably dozing in the library, seeing as she seems to prefer the chairs there lately."

Harry nodded. That was probably partially his fault. He liked petting her as he read, and the overweight cat had taken to staying in that room most of the time, following him around the library as he searched for interesting books.

"So, what do you boys plan on doing in Diagon Alley today?" James asked, swallowing a bite of bacon.

"EVERYTHING!" replied Alex enthusiastically.

"I want to visit Flourish and Blotts; Pansy told me they have a lot of spellbooks." spoke Harry coolly. Alex, sitting beside him, had managed to get peanut butter on his nose, and Harry was trying his best to not laugh at his oblivious expression, which would draw his twin's attention to it and mean that Alex would wipe it off, depriving him of his current entertainment. To his dismay, Lily reached across the table with her napkin and rubbed at it. Alex tried to jerk away but failed.

"Mum! Stop it!" he grumbled.

Lily, having been satisfied that Alex didn't have any more foodstuffs on his face, had sat back in her seat. Alex's nose was pink. Harry chuckled and was promptly elbowed by his twin for doing so, but it just made him laugh harder. His laugh was contagious, and soon the entire family was chortling together.

They stopped when Alex looked up from his pumpkin juice and exclaimed "Look! The window!" Outside, two small dark shapes stood out from the blue of the rest of the cloudless sky. As the family watched, they became larger and larger until Harry recognised them to be owls. As the approached, he could see that they were each carrying something tied to their leg.

"It looks like your acceptance letters have arrived." Lily remarked happily, standing up and opening the dining room window to allow them in.

"Now we can finally have some peace and quiet in the house, since both of you are going." James joked. Alex laughed and Lily leaned over to muss up his hair, though it didn't make much of a difference.

Harry and Alex had stood up to go receive their owls. Harry, having been closer, checked the letter tied to the first owl's leg.

"This one has yours." he said to Alex with an inclination of his head.

Moving to the other owl, Harry gently untied the letter and placed it on the worktop the owls were standing on, stroking his owl's head and chin with the back of his index finger. It tried to looked proud and regal at first, but it soon gave up and closed its eyes, relaxing into Harry's touch. He thought it was adorable. Alex, meanwhile, had tugged his letter off of his owl, earning himself a sharp reprimanding nip in the process for not having the patience to pull apart the knot.

Harry motioned to the owls to follow him, and led them to the study, where their own family owl, Mercury, resided. He refilled Mercury's water and food, and gave the Hogwarts owls some owl treats; they deserved them, after all. The owls drank some water and each gave a small bow to Harry in thanks. Not knowing what to do, Harry petted each of them on the head and opened the window to allow them to leave when they felt like it.

Returning to the dining room, He retrieved the letter with his name written on the front from the worktop. "Harold James Potter", it proclaimed in elegant, flowing script. Unfolding it, his eyes darted across the page as he read:

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. H. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

There was a second sheet behind that with a list of items that he needed to bring and Harry sat down with that, reading between bites of pancake and sips of pumpkin juice.

The rest of breakfast passed rather uneventfully, with a few "pass the syrup, please" and "where did my bloody fork g– oh."s

Dabbing at his mouth with his napkin, Harry set down his cutlery was abruptly yanked up by an already finished Alex who dragged him away from the table.

"It's time to open our presents!" Alex proclaimed with his seemingly never ending enthusiasm.

James and Lily shared a smile at Alex's antics and followed their children to the living room. There, two stacks of presents laid with two enchanted banners proclaiming the recipients, one small and one large; the larger one came roughly up to Harry's waist.

Alex's pile was bigger than Harry's, but that was normal; many relatives of the family only knew of Alex Potter, The Boy Who Survived The Killing Curse, and not of Harry Potter, The Boy Who Didn't Do Anything Spectacular. The Minister of Magic, trying to get into the Potter Family's good graces, often sent Alex magnificent gifts, only occasionally remembering to include Harry. Privately, the elder twin thought that the presents that he had received were probably sent by the The Minister's secretary; The Minister himself probably didn't know he existed. Although he had thought he was used to it, a painful twinge went through Harry when he looked at the two uneven piles of gifts. His vision went slightly blurry and he swallowed hard around a lump in his throat, turning away from the two piles of presents. James and Lily, cooing over Alex, who was already tearing into his presents, wrapping paper and ribbons flying, didn't notice.

Taking a deep breath, Harry traipsed towards his pile and sat down, looking over at Alex. He'd already uncovered several boxes of Honeyduke's sweets, some scattered muggle gift vouchers (from their mother's side), and a modest-sized pile of books that Harry knew Alex wouldn't actually read. They'd go to the family library and the older child would probably end up devouring them. It was a pity though. At a glance, Harry could tell that they were mostly fairly pricy and moderately rare.

Carefully picking up a slim, flat present from his pile ("to Harry, from The Minister, Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Order of Merlin, First Class" it proclaimed in flowery golden script. So, this was one of the years where Fudge had a competent secretary, Harry assumed), said child used his nail to carefully pick away the tape that was used to seal it closed. Unlike Alex, he couldn't bring himself to simply rip at the beautiful wrapping paper that contained his gifts, so he continued like that, slowly and methodically stripping away the tape from his present until, at last, a book was revealed. It was Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart, and Harry grimaced.

He'd read one of the books that the incompetent fool had written before and honestly didn't think that it was worth the hour that he put into reading it, or even the paper that it was printed on. The author in question grinned at him with perfect, blinding teeth from the front of the novel and Harry found him to be completely and utterly insufferable. His hand twitched and he turned it so that the cover now faced the floor; he'd use it for transfiguration practice later, once he'd obtained his wand. Looking to the side, he saw that Alex had added a box each of of Chocolate Frogs, Liquorish wands, and Droobles Best Blowing Gum to the pile, as well as a few atrociously coloured sweaters from some distant aunts on their Dad's side.

Turning back to his own pile, Harry blinked hard and selected a large rectangular present. "from Lily", the label read. He tested its weight with one hand. Seeing as it was extremely heavy, he guessed it was a book and carefully opened it, taking great care not to rip the packaging or have the tape bring any pieces of the coloured wrapping paper. It was indeed a book. The cover proclaimed it to be about potions, which was a subject that Harry liked to read about. He'd possessed a children's potions set when he was younger, but he had used up all of the ingredients and had purposefully invented a potion that melted Alex's bed and part of the floor when they'd had an argument so James and Lily hadn't had bought him more. It just lay in the attic now. Harry was glad of potions classes so he could apply the knowledge that he'd accumulated over the years. The now eleven year old child placed One Thousand Common Potions and Their Antidotes next to his first gift and stood up to kiss his mother on her cheek in unspoken thanks.

"It's a pleasure." Lily smiled, pleased. Harry smiled back and hesitated a little, half stepping forward, towards her, his arms raising slightly, before stopping and returning to where he was previously sitting. Lily's smile faltered a slight bit.

He picked up his next present ("from James Potter", it said in his father's messy chicken scratch.) It rattled when it shook it, and it did the same when he put it down, when he wasn't touching it. Harry was a bit nervous about opening this present. Like the last time, he carefully slid his nail along the pieces of tape that held it together and cautiously opened it.

It was a collapsable chess set, currently folded in half with the checked board facing out. The black and white board was shiny, and the wood boarder around it was stained a dark brown and polished until it shone. It was beautiful. However, that didn't account for the movement, and Harry, curious, flipped the latch that locked the board in the folded position. Upon opening the board, he realised what was making the sounds. It was a magical chess board, and the pieces contained inside were moving about on their own. A queen stood up and waved at Harry while a black king ran circles around two white prawns and the white king. "Blimey..." Harry breathed, entranced at the sight.

"D'ya like it, Ree?" James asked, kneeling beside his son.

Of course I don't, I bloody love it! "It's absolutely brilliant!" Harry sincerely said, then, surprising himself, he leaned over and gave his father a hug.

"I noticed your muggle chess set was becoming a bit worn, and I saw Mopsy make off with your rook a few days ago, so I thought I'd get you a good-quality magical one. There's an instruction sheet in there somewhere that'll teach you some basic upkeep charms as well as a bag to hold all the pieces." James smiled, patting Harry's back. His oldest son disliked too much physical contact, and enthusiastic hugs from him were few and far between, so the father and son cherished the warm moment.

"Merlin's beard! Mum, Dad, woah! Look at this! Look at what The Minister of Magic got me!" Alex shouted, brandishing a brand new broomstick. The mood was changed, the atmosphere destroyed, and James gave an apologetic look to Harry as he joined his wife in cooing over Alex's new Comet 260. Harry's chest hurt.

Sighing, Harry returned to his pile. There was a fog obscuring his vision and he wiped an eye with his sleeve. Then, he slowly opened a few more presents from close relatives (Cauldron Cakes, Peppermint Toads, and Pumpkin Pasties, one of each, as well as a book simply titledIngredient Encyclopaedia, another called A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions, and the last, Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration). Andromeda sent him a large, scruffily wrapped box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Harry made a mental note to pen a thank you letter to her later.

Turning his head, Harry saw that Alex's food pile had doubled in size in addition to his book pile tripling. He'd acquired even more horrid looking sweaters and even a vase, though Harry had no idea why anyone would send an eleven year old a swirled glass flower holder. Still, his twin's pile was more than double Harry's, and the twingeing came back when he looked at it.

Harry had two more gifts now, and he selected the smaller one first. "Remus" it simply said on the front. It was fairly light and made muffled squeaking noises when he shook it. He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was as he gingerly slid the box out of its brightly coloured wrapping paper. Harry was surprised with what he held in his hands. It was a box; "Ice Mice" it said on the front with a smaller font promising "hear your teeth chatter and squeak!". There was a Honeydukes' logo on the side and, with an amused smile, Harry could tell that he would enjoy those. Making a note to write a thank you letter to Remus too, Harry picked up the last present.

It was odd, the last present, simply because all of the gifts from people who normally remembered his birthday had already been opened. Cautiously, Harry shook it and nothing happened. It didn't make any rattling sounds like the chess set or squeak like the ice mice, and there was no other sounds except for the crinkling of the wrapping paper in his hands. There was no tag either, so it made the purple-clad gift all the more mysterious. Curiosity piqued, Harry opened it like all the presents before that (carefully, without tearing the paper) and slid the gift gently onto the floor.

There was a gift tag wrapped with the gift and he picked that up first. There was a moving image on the front of a cake with flickering candles with the word "Blow!" written in large silver letters. Turning it around in his hand, the back was blank, Harry concluded that there was nothing else to it so he did what it commanded, gently letting out a soft stream of air, his lips pursed in an "o". The tag opened, becoming a card, and some multicoloured confetti flew out and landed in his hair. The shock of the confetti made Harry drop the card and he laughed, picking it up again and skimming over it. "Happy birthday, Harry!" the card read, "Mother told me that yours was today, she's an editor of Witch Weekly and they ran a column for your twin a few years back, and I thought that I simply had to send you a gift. Obviously, I chose it after our conversation a month ago. See you at Hogwarts! -Pansy." Re-reading his card, he noticed her choice of words. Pansy had said "I simply had to send you a gift", not "you and Alex". This was one of the few times in Harry's life where he'd received a gift that wasn't given as a formality to "the other twin" because the actual gift was to go to The Boy Who Lived. There was a fuzzy feeling emanating from his chest that wasn't there before; it swept away the lingering twinges and made Harry feel warm and extremely happy. I have a friend.

He smiled and picked up the actual present. It was a collapsable silver telescope with intricate carvings detailing its surface which was buffed to a brilliant shine. There was not a single scratch on it, and Harry spied an instruction manual with charms to keep said telescope that way. It looked like an antique, and Pansy must have spent quite a lot on it. Carefully, he placed it beside his other gifts, promising himself to write a letter thanking her as well.

Checking Alex's progress, Harry noted that he still had a few more to unwrap, so he picked up his largest gift and started reading through One Thousand Common Potions and Their Antidotes while he waited.

A hand shook him from his passage cautioning the reader against obtaining their own basilisk venom. "C'mon, Ree, we need to get our presents back to our rooms. Diagon Alley awaits!" Alex's voice called in his ear. Their parents were already levitating Alex's pile upstairs– a child couldn't carry that much, it just wasn't feasible– so Harry stood and picked up his small pile of items, carrying them back to his bedroom where he placed them on his desk, for further investigating when he got home.

Hurrying downstairs, Harry toed on the pair of black sneakers that Alex pushed towards him without complaint. James and Lily were there already, and the family went to the study. Lily first penned off a reply to the school, and James knelt down before the fireplace and took out his wand. "Incendio" he murmured, and a fire sprang up amongst the half-burnt logs– Missy or another house elf would put it out once they'd left. The family took turns each grabbing a pinch of floo powder from the box on the mantelpiece and throwing it into the fireplace, clearly speaking the words "Diagon Alley." With a whirl of green flames, they all vanished.

A/N: I'm going to a camp soon, for about two weeks, so I won't be able to update there because I'll be forced to run around outside (blerg.) This is a fairly long chapter, for me at least (I honestly did not anticipate it being close to this long), so it shall be my parting gift to you before I leave for the terrifying outdoors.

I was planning on writing Harry and Alex's birthday as one chapter, but it got really long and I decided to end it here. That means one more chapter before they go to Platform 9 3/4 (in chapter 4, which I have written already). In the next chapter, Harry's going to meet Draco at Madame Malkin's.

Thanks for reading!