Always Second Best

Summary: On Halloween ten years ago, Lily and James Potter were away at an Order of the Phoenix meeting, and Voldemort entered their little house in Godric's Hollow with one intention: to kill the Chosen one. But when he fired the killing curse at Harry Potter, he shot back the spell. Dumbledore got to the house before anyone else, and thinking that Charlus, Harry's twin, is the BWL, gives Death payment for letting him live so long in the form of Harry, thinking he is giving her the unimportant twin, when he is giving her the more important one. Ten Years Later, what will happen when both twins go to Hogwarts?

Disclaimer: I can swear to you on my life that my name is not JK Rowling, and I do not own Harry Potter.

I will try and do as little bashing as possible but there WILL be Dumbledore and Ron and James and Charlus bashing. That's all. Honest *crosses fingers behind back*.Neglect but NO abuse.

Chapter 3

10 Years Later - Death and Harry

'Hit me.'

'I fold.'

'You're no fun at cards! Where's the risk?'

'Risk and winning are two different things. I win. You risk. It's the way of the world.'

'You're just scared you're going to lose.'

'Okay then. You going to fold?'

'Never! Hit me.'

'How are you staying under twenty?'

'Damn. I bust.'

'Thought so.'

'Well, what have you got?'

'Twenty one.'

'I hate you.'

'I know.'

It was this lovely exchange that any spirit passing by in the Other world would've heard, but not many would've paid it heed. This was almost a daily occurrence of the two children who played in the Gardens of Death, and many wished them well.

For something particularly special about these two children was that one of them was not dead. For, anyone to cross over to the Other World, you had to be dead usually, and it was a rare occurrence when you saw anybody with a beating heart still firmly in their chest.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'll go back to the two children. The dead child was unremarkable, with dirty blonde hair that fell to her waist and washed out brown eyes that may have been chocolate coloured once, she was not as beautiful in death as she had been in life, nobody was, but she was still beautiful if you looked properly.

Her name was Flora Fauna Watts, and she had died in 1996 from an aeroplane crash, in which there were no survivors. She had been going to one of her parent's summer homes alone when one of the plane's wings fell off because the cables holding it had snapped. Flora died young, at only six years old. But when she died, she decided to age until she got as old as she wanted to get, then she could stop (she wouldn't go any farther than twenty five). While she was growing up in the Other World she picked up a tendency, when playing cards, to play to win.

The living child was noticeable, not just in the Land of the Dead. He had shaggy black hair that fell an inch below his ears, and it never seemed to lay flat, and dazzling green eyes that seemed to look through you.

His name was Harry James Potter, and he had been paid to Death by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore when he was scarcely a year old to let the old codger to live twenty years longer. He knew this, and made no secret of his hate for the man. But, he had decided five years before that the old coot had done him a favour by giving him to Death, because she was the best mother anybody could ever wish to have. And, he would never had met Flora in the Land of the Living, so he was glad he hadn't had to grow up there.

Anyway, Harry reasoned, you had better teachers in the Other World, such as Shakespeare for English, Einstein for Arithmetic and Caesar for Latin, so Harry could never see the appeal of the Land of the Living anyway.

And with this carefree attitude, Harry picked up the habit of never taking the safe option when playing cards against Flora, always going for the risky way and hoping it worked out alright, and his way of life was very similar. Because, when you play cards, it does reflect what kind of a person you are.

For example, whenever Albus Dumbledore played cards, he lied through his teeth to get the cards and results he wanted until he was happy to put his cards down and show them to everyone, pointing out he, and he alone, had won the game, no matter who had helped him by whispering the other person's hand in his ear.

But I'm not here to talk about Albus Dumbledore's terrible attitude of how to play cards, no matter how atrocious.

After Harry sulking about not winning cards for all of five seconds while he inched towards one of the cushions in the outside day-care that was chucked at Flora's head surprisingly five seconds later, sparking a pillow fight in which Harry's tactics were working spectacularly.

'Help! Mer-' Flora's cry for mercy was cut short when a pillow hit her smack in the face, knocking her over.

Needless to say, when Harry offered a hand to help her up, he was pulled down with the ol' "pull harder than they are" trick that he fell for, in Flora's words: Every... haha... ruddy... haha... time...ha.

-(.)-

And that was how Death found them when she went to find Harry ten minutes later, with a worried expression on her face, clutching a cream-and-dark-green letter in her hand. Death loved Harry as if he was her own son, and he was in every way that mattered, but he was stolen. She had to admit it. He wasn't Dumbledore's to give away, and her conscience was acting up terrifically when she had looked down on Lily Potter's reaction when she realised one of her children was missing. The woman's tears were hopeless, helpless. For ten years she had squashed her conscience and told herself that Harry was fine, and always would be in her care, but then, she had gotten the letter.

It was sent by a tawny owl which when Death spoke to it (she spoke every language, even owl) he said he was the Potter's owl and was told to deliver the letter to Mr H Potter. Death said she would make sure he got it and offered the exhausted owl, which had to fly to the Other Land to deliver a letter, a stay in the owlery, which he accepted profusely.

The Hogwarts Shield was on the back of the letter in green ink struck terror into Death's heart, and she wondered what would happen if Harry ever went to the school which was headed by that cowardly- old-lemon-drop-sucking-twinkly-eyed-podgy-idiotic-coot.

Mr H Potter

West Wing of Death's Realm

The Other World

The Circle Room

Death knew that nobody could possibly know where Harry slept, so the location had to have been written by an enchanted quill, but it didn't let her sleep any better.

It was as if she was being mocked in her dreams, and the mocking voice sounded like that of Lily Potter some nights, sometimes that old coot Dumbledore, and sometime, heartbreakingly so, her Harry's voice - asking why he was forever condemned to the Other World, never seeing a living spirit until the day he died.

He'd go against her decision, she was sure. But he needed to talk to living people, see his mother from afar, talk to her. He'd miss Flora, and Flora would miss him, and they'd both decide in one of their little meetings-under-the-hedge that he hated Death for sending him away, even though he didn't really. She knew this from watching millennia after millennia of human behaviour. It saddened her greatly, and she wondered that if one day she truly would have a child of her own, who's actions she could never predict.

But Harry was good enough. No, Harry was better.

So with a heavy heart she approached to Gardens of Death in which Flora and Harry had played in for the past six years, and came across the sight of two rolling and tumbling eleven year olds. One dead, one alive, both just children who never had a chance. Death paused for a moment, and watched them, savouring the view in her mind.

When was the next time she would see them this happy? When would Harry be completely at ease in her presence once again? Not for a while, she told herself, but it'll be worth it.

'Harry?' her voice sounded strained, even to her. Obviously Harry could hear it, because he stopped rolling and tumbling and laughing immediately.

'Yes?' he answered, a concerned look on his face. She didn't deserve him, Death decided, knowing full well that nobody could ever deserve him.

'Can I talk to you?' she asked, tentatively. In reply, Harry stood up and dusted himself off, and said to Flora he'd be right back. By way of him knowing something Death shouldn't, she mimed kicking something. Probably his a*se.

Death lead him to a stone courtyard and motioned for him to sit down. Harry opened his mouth to say something but Death had already started speaking.

'Harry, you know how you were taken into my care?' Death started hesitantly, hating herself.

'Yeah. It was that old coward Dumbledore giving up a baby's life for twenty more years of his own. You accepted me and took me here, right?' the last word sounded worried, like he was scared he'd got it all wrong.

'Yes,' at this Death saw Harry's shoulders relax slightly 'but I need to talk to you about your mother. What do you know of her?'

'You are my mother.' the simple answer broke Death's heart, but she couldn't show it. You turned away patron saints and little kids with down's syndrome one last day in the Land of the Living, and you can't tell Harry he has to go there? Pull yourself together woman.

'No, Harry. Your biological mother, who carried you in her womb.' Harry reeled back as if he'd been punched. He looked as if he was a sheep in the headlights with nowhere to go. He opened and closed his mouth several times, obviously unable to think of anything. Finally he managed to answer.

'Umm, well. She was female, right? Umm, and she, ur, had the last name Potter, but I don't know her maiden name. You said once I had inherited her eyes, so she umm had green eyes. I mean, I- I think.' He knows nothing about his real mother. Nothing, because of you. Said a niggling little voice in the back of Death's mind.

'Harry, that's what this is about. Your mother, your family back in The Land of the Living.' Harry's eyebrows scrunched together like he didn't quite understand, but Death knew he did. Harry understood all too well.

'But, I'm happy here.' another painfully simple answer that ripped Death's heart a little more, just a little tear, just a little scratch.

'I know, I know. But... it's not fair for you to have to stay in the Realm of the Dead for all of your life, while you are alive and not dead... Harry, what I'm trying to say is that you received an acceptance letter to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. And I think... that it would be in your best interests to go. Go amongst the living.'

They stayed still, sitting, for almost ten minutes not saying anything. Whenever Death reached out her hand to touch Harry, he batted he away and moved further away.

'Are you saying you don't want me.' Harry's voice was cold, and hard. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a statement, it was more of a challenge. Asking would be too easy, a statement would be making it final, but a challenge was hard enough. He still gave Death a chance to say she made a terrible mistake and yes of course she wanted him and he could stay in The Other World for as long as he wanted, his whole life long if he so wished.

But Harry was just kidding himself. They both knew that, yet neither wanted to say it first.

'Of course I want you. I want to keep you forever. And I will, once you die, but you need to be in the Land of the Living for your life. We'll all still be waiting here, me, Flora, everyone. But, you need to live first.'

'I'll go.' he choked out 'but I want you to know that I hate you with every fibre in my body.' and he stalked off , leaving a pale and drawn woman who you would never mistake for the all powerful deity Death in a million years.

Now it'll be time for a Meeting-Under-the-Bushes, she thought as the first tear she had spilt in a millennia trekked it's way silently down her cheek.

-(.)-

So, just to get a few thing straight, here is the timeline:

July 31st 1980 - Charlus and Harry are born, Charlus at 11:56pm and Harry at 11:59pm, even though it is recorded as Midnight on August 1st.

Halloween 1981 - Charlus and Harry attacked by Voldemort. Harry is BWL but Charlus gets the credit, and Harry is pronounced dead when Death takes him away to clear Dumbledore's debt. Chapter 1 takes place.

August 9th 1981 - Rose Lily Potter is born.

September 2nd 1985 - Alec Remus Potter is born.

July 1st 1991 - Charlus & Harry receive Hogwarts Letters. Chapters 2 & 3 take place.

July 5th 1991 - Harry & Potters go to Diagon Alley. Chapter 4.

September 1st 1991 - Charlus and Harry go to Hogwarts. Chapter 5.

Hope that helps! Nothing's set in stone but that's my rough plan. REVIEW! ;)