Here is the next chapter, and it is detestably late. Harry's childhood did not agree with me at all, and then I lost my notes, and then I found half of my notes so now I have no idea what happens between now and Hogwarts, so I think I might just skip straight ahead if that's agreeable? Does the length make up for the wait at least?

Thanks to star_faerie for beta'ing this for me!

Words: 5,992

Chapter 4

December 1st 1981.

There was no stopping Lily and James as they rushed towards the fireplace. They crowded in together, glancing once at each other before calling "Ministry for Magic" and let the flames that had brought Sirius to them take them away. They were both desperate to know why Peter had betrayed them, why he had almost cost them the life of their eldest son.

Sirius glanced at Albus and then down at the two toddlers abandoned on the floor. "Do you want to go or shall I?" Sirius asked. He was dressed in his usual work uniform, purple double breasted robes that flared around the waist and split down the middle to show his black trousers. The robes of Ministry employees were different colours, coded to the level of the Ministry where the wearer worked; the Unspeakables wore black, the Aurors wore royal purple and the Wizengamot, when they were sitting, wore plum.

"You go ahead, my boy. I'll mind these two. You have work to do, don't you? And I can wait for the news." Sirius nodded once, before turning away from Albus and the twins. He stepped into the fireplace, and with another dash of floo powder he disappeared into the flames. "Well, boys, what shall I do with you both?" Albus asked, leaning down to lift Harry onto his lap. Tarrant reached his arms up, and Albus leant forward careful not to tip Harry back onto the floor and pulled the younger boy towards him. Tarrant didn't want to get onto his lap, but he happily stood beside Albus's knees as the man remained on the sofa, reading them TheTalesofBeedletheBard until Lily and James came back.

XXX

January 3rd 1982.

The first Death Eater trial was about to start. Lily had decided to skip them. Albus had promised to vouch for Severus, and Lily would as well when his trial date came upon them. Peter had been found horrible tortured and half mad, because of this he had been exonerated for his part in Harry's near demise. None of the other trials mattered much to her, none of them affected her family, and so while Sirius and James did their jobs and Remus took care of Peter who was living with them now in Potter Manor (one big happy family) Lily packed up the twins and did something she had been meaning to do for almost two years.

The grave site was tiny. It wasn't even the size of Harry or Tarrant, which made sense since it was the grave of Neville Longbottom. He had been just six months old when Voldemort had hunted him down and killed him. Lily still felt guilty over the relief she felt when she realised that Voldemort had targeted them instead of her family. The Longbottoms were her friends, and members of the Order of the Phoenix. She had contemplated asking Alice to be Harry's godmother for a while, but she hadn't though, because James had asked Peter to be Tarrant's godfather and in return Lily had asked Severus, who was her friend even if James didn't like him.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. She wanted to reach out; to brush her fingers over her lips and then across the top of the stone, but she couldn't without putting down one of the twins. She was carrying them, because pushing a stroller through a cemetery full of grass wasn't practical and she didn't believe in having house elves float her children around behind her. The small oval portrait of Neville giggled, his face crinkling up and his cheeks reddening. It was such a close up that Lily couldn't make out the colour of his hair, and she hadn't ever met him so she supposed she'd never know.

"Baby," Harry said softly, wriggling in his mother's arms.

"Neville," Lily told him. With another wiggle, Harry managed to convince Lily to put him down. He stood shakily in front of the gravestone; pudgy hands outstretched just enough so that the tips of his fingers could trace the words that were written there. "He was loved and he was lost. He will be avenged." Lily whispered, before using her free hand to blow a kiss at Neville's photo. Harry copied her, and Tarrant made a noise of protest when Lily made to put him down as well and so she held him tighter and stood in silence. They spent ten more minutes standing by the child's grave, Lily feeling guilty and pitying his parents, and the twins feeling no more than general curiosity, before she gathered Harry up and made her way back to the apparition point.

In the time she had been gone, two men had been sentenced to Azkaban. But it wasn't Peter, James' friend, and it wasn't Severus, her friend, so she didn't worry about them.

XXX

She returned home in time to find Albus sitting comfortably in her living room. Peter was nowhere in sight, but Remus was just about to pour some tea. She put the children down, waved her wand over them to remove any lingering grass or mud and then let them toddle shakily in whichever direction suited them. They couldn't get up the stairs and they couldn't get outside. Everywhere else was safe.

"Hello, sir," she greeted warmly, taking a seat beside him on the couch.

Silently, he handed over a newspaper. It was dated for the following morning, January 4th, and Lily read over it curiously before gasping in shock. Remus had already read it, and he looked at her sympathetically before pouring her a cup of tea too.

"A monument?" She asked her old Headmaster.

Her friend looked back at her and nodded. "To honour their Saviour and the parents that sired him. I don't suppose they could have just a statue of young Harry on his own now could they? A baby languishing in a crib isn't very heroic looking nor awe inspiring, but a child grinning at them from his parents' arms with a battle scar on his forehead? Now, that says something."

"He doesn't even have the scar anymore!" Lily shouted. It was true of course. A couple of months after the attack Harry's scar had faded completely, well unless you looked very closely under the right light in which case there was the tiniest of white marks on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. "They didn't put Tarrant in it?"

"The sculptor thought it might be unfair to any future children you and James have to include the Saviour's twin and not leave room for them to be added." Dumbledore gave a soft sigh. He ran his fingers over his beard, untangling parts of it that had become knotted. "I thought you should know before they unveil it tomorrow. It's in Godric's Hollow. The Ministry has also declared the old cottage to be a, well, I would have gone with tourist attraction, but they claim they are leaving it in its damaged state in a sign of respect for Harry's bravery."

"He just lay there. He's a baby! How was he brave, or heroic, or anything else these people are talking about? They act like he's going to save them all and they don't even know about the prophecy. Albus, it isn't fair!" Lily turned, glancing at the back of the room where Harry had managed to pull himself onto a side table and was reaching up the bookshelf for something. She walked over and pulled him off of the table before handing him theTalesofBeedletheBard. "It isn't fair to him."

"I know Lily, nor is it to Tarrant. But that is why we must try as hard as we can to give them both happy, normal, equal childhoods." Albus glanced at the future mate of the Dark Lord, the smiley trusting Saviour of the Wizarding World; the prophecy child who was supposed to somehow defeat Voldemort without killing him, because no one would condone one mate turning on another no matter who they were. But vanquish, Dumbledore thought, that was a different matter. Vanquish he could work with. "You have to take special care to treat them both the same, because the world won't you realise."

He couldn't let the Potters' give Tarrant any reason to join the Dark Lord. The boy had to stay firmly with his family, loved just as wholly as his twin was. Voldemort couldn't be allowed to lure the wrong boy away from the Light, to tempt him and tarnish him and then discard him when he realized he had picked the wrong twin. That wasn't fair and that wasn't right, and Dumbledore wouldn't allow it if he could help it.

"I'll leave the paper here for you to show James and Sirius when they return."

Lily frowned, glancing away from Harry and back to the paper. "When is Severus' trial?"

She hadn't seen him since before she had gone into hiding. Severus was under house arrest at Hogwarts, where he had been staying ever since he had fire called Dumbledore with the news that Harry was the real target and not Tarrant. He would be taking up the post of Potions Professor once he was cleared of charges, and he would be Lily knew because Dumbledore was on his side and so was she and so was Harry. Their Saviour needed his godfather, and Lily had missed her friend something terrible since their fight in fifth year. No matter that they had made up and she had begged him to be Harry's godfather and her Severus Snape again, it wasn't the same. It would never be the same between them until Severus was a free man once more, just like when they were kids, as if none of this had happened. That was naive of her. But she kept the thought anyway.

XXX

February 12th 1982.

As Valentine's day was a Sunday this year, which was a notoriously bad day for any sort of celebration since everyone who was willing to babysit had to work the next morning, except Remus who had a date of his own, James had decided to take Lily out on the Friday night instead. Severus, who had been cleared of all charges but ordered to remain at Hogwarts for the foreseeable future, had volunteered himself as the twins' babysitter.

Peter had moved out once the trials were over. Severus thought with a sneer that the man had probably been hiding at the Potter's home because no one would have dared arrest him there. He was living somewhere in the Muggle countryside now, and Remus was living in Black's old home in London renovating it apparently, and Sirius was still living with the Potters' as the live in godparent. Severus wondered if that offer would ever extend to him, though he still had his home on Spinner's End in Cokeworth not that he cared for it much, but it was a better place to live now that his father was dead. An invitation would be nice, unlikely but nice nonetheless.

"So," Severus drawled, pulling his robes closed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What to do with you?" He had spent time with Draco Malfoy, his other godson whose father was fortunate enough to avoid Azkaban for all that he was lying about being under the Imperious, but he didn't really know what to do with children. He cared about these children because they were Lily's, and for Harry specifically because it was him that Lily had begged him to love and protect and cherish. But he still had no idea what he was meant to do with them.

Tarrant and Harry both sat on the ground, eighteen months old, and grinning widely up at the dark haired man who looked as lost as he felt. "Book," Harry told him, "read to us."

"Book, book, book," Tarrant repeated even as Severus moved silently towards the bookshelf. He could run and jump and skip and float above the ground on a toy broom but his speech was terrible. Lily wasn't worried about it though, Harry had been slow to walk but he had gotten there, and so Tarrant would learn to talk eventually as well.

Severus browsed the bookcase, looking for anything that might interest a child. They were all adult books with the exception of Beedle's fairy tale book, and a handful of very childish learn to read books on the bottom shelf that he refused to lower himself to read.

"They don't care what you read as long as you move your finger under each of the words as you do. Harry will follow you and try to repeat the words. Tarrant likes to listen to the sound of peoples' voices."

Severus whirled around, his wand in his hand and pointed at the man who had stepped out of the fireplace. "Pettigrew!" He hissed. Severus couldn't prove that the man had been a real Death Eater, and not forced to serve the Dark Lord through violence, and James and Lily wouldn't hear another word about his betraying them even though Lily still didn't like Peter, but that didn't mean that Severus didn't know, like Remus knew, that Peter wasn't to be trusted. But they weren't his children, and he couldn't protect them from a godparent. "What do you want?"

"I figured you could use some help. You don't seem the babysitting type."

"He is my godson." Severus offered as an explanation.

"And Tarrant is mine," Peter agreed with a chuckle. "Doesn't mean you know what to do with them. Don't think Lily would be too happy if you managed to kill one of her precious children."

"Is that a threat?" Severus hissed, slowly inching his way back to the sofa to where he had left the boys. His wand was still in his hand, but Peter only laughed and breezed past him to the bookshelf. He grabbed a blue book and took it back with him to the sofa, pulling Tarrant up onto his lap.

He started to read, running his fingers under the words as he spoke and ignoring the way Harry, who was standing at his knees, would try and repeat certain words out loud. "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversation in it, 'and what is the use of a book', thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'1" Peter stopped reading after the first paragraph and glanced up at Severus with a smile that was supposed to be shy and hopeful but instead made Snape's stomach twist. "Will you not join us Sev? We can read the paragraphs in turns."

Severus sat down, but he didn't attempt to read. Instead, he kept a close eye on Harry and on Peter and the wand that poked out of his pocket but was never used. "So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her."1 Peter continued with the story, his finger still pointing at each individual work.

"R-rabbit," Harry attempted, pointing at the illustration of the White Rabbit in his vest and tie holding up a gold pocket watch.

"Well done, Harry," Peter praised.

As much as Severus didn't like him, and certainly didn't trust him, the Potions Master had to admit the man was good with children. The children seemed to like him at least, which considering the circumstances probably wasn't a good thing.

XXX

February 14th 1982.

Everyone who had given their excuses earlier that week, using work or a date or illness to get out of minding the Potter twins had lied. Apparently, the Order had been planning a Valentine's party and had been hoping to convince the Potter's to keep their Sunday night free without actually having to come straight out and ruin the surprise. Remus' date wasn't a lie, but he had invited her along to Grimmauld Place where the FideliusCharm had been taken down and Remus had spent months renovating.

Lily spoke with Alice for most of the night, feeling terribly guilty once more because her twins were tucked up asleep in Sirius' old bedroom, and Alice's child was tucked up in the ground. But she couldn't bring herself to walk away and leave the woman standing alone in the corner with Frank, who kept staring straight ahead without seeing anyone else. He only spoke when spoken to, and he didn't seem to really acknowledge the person speaking, but the mind healers had said that would fade with time and magic. He had come out of it better than expected anyway, considering the amount of time Bellatrix Lestrange had held him under the Cruciatus for.

"Lily," Peter called, waving her across the room.

She excused herself, feeling bad for leaving Alice and Frank, and then feeling frantic as she saw the small bundle in Peter's arms. "What happened, what's wrong?" She asked him, drawing in deep breaths to calm herself as Harry began to stir. For a moment, she had feared the worst. Why, she didn't know, because they were surrounded by friends, and Peter was her friend.

"Found him curled up in the kitchen with that house elf. He was awake. He fell asleep easily for me but I thought you might want to know anyway." Peter told her, handing the sleeping child over easily.

"How did he get into the kitchen?" Lily asked, even as she moved towards the stairs. Peter followed her.

"Oh I saw him crying at the top of the stairs earlier and brought him down for a bit. I told the elf to put him back to bed but apparently that meant he could sleep on the floor. I checked upstairs and he wasn't there so I checked the kitchen again. Didn't want to worry you over nothing."

"Nothing? Nothing? Peter you kept my son out of bed without my permission, brought him downstairs, fed him who knows what, and then left him with the crazy Black elf unsupervised? That's not nothing. What were you thinking? What if there had been a fire? I would have gone upstairs for Harry and he would have been all alone in the kitchen! What were you thinking!" Peter shrank back at Lily's words, flushing a horrible shade of red in embarrassment. He looked around the room for help, but Sirius and James were standing side by side looking angry and flustered, Remus looked so very disappointed and everyone else was staring at him in disbelief except Severus who was glaring at him through narrowed, distrustful eyes.

"I'm sorry!" Peter said after a moment, but Lily had already left the room with Harry.

Kreacher popped into the room, glancing around angrily at all of the people who would never usually be invited into a House of Black, and scowled at Pettigrew.

"You is lying," he hissed. "Bad man, bad master's friend. Horrible blood traitor. Leaving little master alone. Kreacher is ashamed of you; he is not liking you at all." Kreacher, who had never been fond of anyone really but Regulus and Walburga Black, had found Peter laying Harry on the kitchen floor still sleeping and left the boy there. Kreacher hadn't been sure what to do with the child, because he hadn't been given any orders and he wasn't the child's nanny-elf, but he pulled off his own tattered uniform and tucked it around Harry to keep the chill from the floor away.

He had found Harry once, walking unsteadily into Regulus' old room on one of the days that Remus had been babysitting him. Kreacher had stood in the middle of the room, with a locket clenched in his hands, watching wide eyes as the child grinned and held out his hands. "Mine,mine,likethestone,sominenow", the boy had hissed quietly at him, holding out his hand for the Horcrux that Kreacher had immediately apparated away with. Remus had comforted the child, and Kreacher had told no one that Harry Potter could speak Parseltongue. But he could, and that made him a worthy master to serve as far as Kreacher was concerned.

Peter trailed glumly out of the room once Kreacher had disappeared back into the kitchen. Alice turned, looking horrified, and whispered to Molly Weasley, "What was he thinking? Just taking the child like that?"

"What if something had happened? No one would ever have known!" Molly whispered back. Her own brood were at home under the care of her eldest sons Bill and Charlie, with the exception of Ginerva who was only a few months old and had accompanied her mother to the party.

"Leaving him with that crazy elf?" Sirius hissed, looking furious, "Kreacher could have done anything to him!"

"Well," Severus whispered sounding rather smug, though he was on his way to find Lily and find out if Harry was ok at the same time, "I did suggest he not be invited tonight. But apparently, my opinion wasn't warranted. And look how well that turned out, Potter, eh?"

"Shut up, Snivellus," James sneered, narrowing his eyes. Without Lily around it was just like their Hogwarts days again, but Severus just snorted in amusement and slipped out of the room.

But first, he got one more dig out and then left before James could reply. "I warned Albus of the Dark Lord's true target. Pettigrew convinced Black to change secret keepers. I would have succeeded in saving that boy's life if not for Pettigrew. He's only tried to kill the boy."

XXX

July 31st 1984.

It was the twins' fourth birthday. It would be their first real party, because the family was in hiding when the boys turned one, and they were too young to really care about anything other than cake and presents at home when they turned two and three. But now they had friends and demands, and Lily and James had no choice but to open their house to all of the families of those with children of similar age. It wasn't polite to invite some and not others.

So the Weasleys were there, with four-year-old Ronald and three-year-old Ginerva. Xenophilius and his wife with their young daughter, Luna Lovegood. The Browns were there, and the Patils, the Abbots, a few people and their children that James recognized from school but didn't really remember, and some of Lily's Hogwarts associates had attended childless. And then there were the other families, the ones that they would have preferred not to invite but couldn't without offending them all mortally. The Malfoys, Notts, Parkinsons and Bulstrodes: all Death Eater families all of whom had gotten away scot-free or with very light menial sentences. Their children would be in the same year at Hogwarts as the Potters' own.

In fact, a four-year-old Draco Malfoy had just managed to corner their eldest son. Both sets of parents watched as Draco talked, slow and carefully, to Harry, ignoring Tarrant who stood at his side in silence. They watched as Harry pushed him, shoving the blond backwards to land on his bum. "I'm not talking to you unless you talk to my brother too!" They heard Harry shout, with his hands on his hips and tapping one foot angrily on the floor. Lily had perfected that look years ago, and Harry had copied it from her with much enthusiasm, using it every time someone disagreed with him. The terrible twos for the twins hadn't actually hit until a few months before this birthday and it was still going on.

"But he's not special!" Draco protested, rubbing at wet eyes with the back of his hands.

"Yes he is!" Harry shouted again. "I'll hit you if you say he's not."

Lily was by his side in seconds, even as Narcissa Malfoy bent down to scoop up her son.

"We don't hit Harry. You know that, now, apologise and mean it, young man or you'll go straight to your room once everyone has gone. And I mean that. No cake, no presents, no Tarrant." They were in separate bedrooms now, but Harry usually lay beside his brother while Tarrant slept and Harry stared at the ceiling until he felt tired enough to sleep, and then he headed to his own bedroom. He was still a terrible sleeper.

"I'm sorry. But you shouldn't have said that, it wasn't nice. But I shouldn't have pushed you, and I wouldn't have hit you, honest!" Harry grinned at him, one tooth missing already, as he pushed up the thin wired glasses that were sliding down his nose. He held out his hand. Draco stared at it, sniffing delicately the way his mother sometimes did, before he reached out for the hand, fingertips barely touching.

"Accepted." Draco said, looking down his nose at Harry before he pulled his hand back to wipe down his robes.

"That's not how you shake hands!" Harry told him with another grin, grabbing Draco's hand before he could protest and enthusiastically pumping it up and down.

"That's barbaric!" The little blond exclaimed, looking over at his father for help.

Lucius watched his son with an eyebrow raised. It would have been rude not to attend the party, and it would have been offensive not to have been invited, and he wasn't sure which would have been worse. He and Arthur Weasley had almost come to blows earlier and now they stood in separate corners of the dining room, glaring futilely at one another when the other wasn't looking. Harry Potter was mauling his son's hand, and the other boy seemed to have disappeared from the room during Harry and Draco's fight.

He knew, as a handful other Death Eaters did, that Lord Voldemort's mate was among them. He was one of those boys, one of the Potters. But Lucius did not think it was Tarrant. While the boy was inherently darker, quieter, subtler, accordingly more like a Slytherin than his brother, Lucius knew that didn't mean anything. Pettigrew was a Gryffindor after all. Harry was stronger. Harry was the prophecy child. Harry, unlike his brother, might have a hope of keeping the elusive Dark Lord interested for more than the time the bonding would take. Tarrant Potter was too quiet, too easily ignored. He would make a good spy, Lucius conceded, but a terrible consort. Lord Voldemort would be bored of him within days.

Harry, on the other hand, seemed to be a very interesting person so far.

"And if you were a girl, I'd have to greet you like this," Harry said. Lucius looked up, pulling himself from his musing in time to see Harry dodge forward and kiss his son firmly on the cheek. "I only have to kiss you on the hand when you're older! And if I was French I have to kiss both cheeks, but I don't think you have to kiss both hands."

"My family is French, does that count?" Draco asked, even as he wiped his chin free of Harry's saliva.

"Should I kiss you twice?" Harry asked, his eyebrows furrowed. At his side, Lily laughed lightly, running her fingers through his short brown hair.

"No!" Draco shrieked. "I'm not a girl!"

"But you're French!" Harry insisted, placing his hands back on his hips.

Lily recognized the signs of another tantrum, and grabbed Harry tightly around the waist. She picked him up, tucking him against her with his legs around her waist. "Say goodbye, and go talk to your other guests."

"But they keep giggling," Harry glanced angrily in the direction of a group of young girls, before glancing at the two red headed children, "and they only want to see if I have a scar."

"What about Luna?" Lily nodded towards the small blond girl who was sitting by herself in the corner of the room. She had found the Beedle fairy tale book, and was leafing through the pages looking at the illustrations.

"Hmm," Harry hummed in agreement, wiggling to be placed on the floor again. He held his hand out to Draco again, who took it in another delicate handshake, and then went in separate directions. Draco went back to his parents, and Harry went to pester the girl with pigtails and a strange feathered headdress.

Tarrant watched from the doorway as his mother fussed over his brother and everyone's attention focused on Harry and that little blond boy. No one seemed to notice he was gone except Remus who appeared at his side silently with the blue-bound copy of Alice'sAdventuresinWonderland clutched in his hand.

"Shall we continue where we left off?" Remus asked, as he and Tarrant moved into the kitchen. The werewolf pulled out a seat for Tarrant first, and helped the boy scramble into it, before taking his own seat. He nodded at one of the house elves, and she hurried over with two plates of cake and two glasses of milk and set them down between the two Wizards.

Remus cleared his throat, opening the book at the dog-eared page they had finished up on last time, and continued to read. "The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: 'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. 'There's PLENTY of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. 'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. 'I don't see any wine,' she remarked. 'There isn't any,' said the March Hare. 'Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily. 'It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare."2 Remus closed the book again, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. He handed it to Tarrant, whispering a few words into his ear before he carried on with the story.

"I thought you might like your own copy, cub."

Harry appeared in the doorway of the kitchen before Remus had even turned the page. He watched them both, his bottom lip wobbling and his eyes watering.

"Come in, Harry," Tarrant whispered, holding out the hand that wasn't clutching his new book in invitation. Harry scrambled up onto the same seat as Tarrant, who snuggled against his elder brother's side. Remus continued to read. Harry followed Remus' finger moving underneath he words on the page, but Tarrant watched Harry, thought about Harry even as the words of the story washed over him. Harry had come to find him. Harry had noticed he was gone. Harry always noticed, not as quickly as Remus did, because Remus was quiet and solitary too and Harry was usually the centre of attention, but eventually Harry noticed that he was missing. Whenever he couldn't find Tarrant fast enough from that point, Harry would cry.

"I like you,"3 Tarrant whispered, pressing himself against Harry's side.

"I like you too," Harry told him, linking their arms together as Remus continued reading, hiding his smile behind the book.

XXX

September 1st 1986.

It was the first day of primary school. But, as Lily had been informed a few years back when she had first started wondering about where to send her boys for their Muggle education, Wizards had primary schools too. Only Purebloods ever attended of course, having been signed up by their parents once their parents went to Hogwarts, but since James had placed his surname down some years ago, and his sons shared his surname, there was no problem with the twins' going to that school. The Weasleys couldn't afford it, so they taught their youngest from home during the year and the Hogwarts aged children helped out during the summer. Any half-bloods who had taken the surname of the Muggle parent did not receive an invitation because their name hadn't been on record and so were generally sent to Muggle schools or home schooled.

Tarrant and Harry would be attending the Little Institute for Little Wizards for the next five years. Malfoy would be going as well, with the Nott boy and that Zabini child who had moved over from Italy with his mother last year, she had gone to school here before getting married and leaving the country. Crabbe and Goyle, or Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum as Harry had taken to addressing them much to his brother's amusement and their confusion, were almost like baby bodyguards for Draco. The three boys' fathers were friends, and they would all be going to the same prep school. The girls, Pansy Parkinson being the only one that Harry remembered around his age, would be going to the girl's school, and Luna would probably be joining them next year.

They stood in a line at the front of the class, as their names were called. One by one they were called to the teacher's desk, made to give their name and a few facts about themselves before taking their assigned seat. Then the next person was called. Not all of these people would be going to Hogwarts, some would receive Beauxbatons Academy of Magic letters and a select few might even be picked for the Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning. Some might be near squibs with no hope of getting into any school, but all children had to have primary level education whether in school or at home. It was mandatory, no matter their magical level.

Harry was called first, as the eldest and as 'h' came before 't' in the alphabet too. When he sat down, everyone Harry didn't already know turned around in their chairs to stare at him. Some asked him questions, some tried to touch him, but every one of them ignored Tarrant as he made his way to the teacher's desk and gave his name in a soft whisper.

Harry watched him though, paying his brother attention and no one else.

"My name is Tarrant Potter. I am the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived and everyone seems to forget about me. Harry loves me though, and when we go to Hogwarts we're both going to be in Gryffindor together. We'll always be the most important people in each other's' lives."

"My brother is talking," Harry muttered to a boy who kept trying to introduce himself.

The boy was a snooty looking brunette with an upturned nose. He gave a soft laugh and said, "Who cares? He isn't important. I don't want to be his friend, do I?"

"Well," Harry said loudly once Tarrant had taken a seat at the desk beside him. The boy who had been about to speak after Tarrant waited at the front of the class, wide eyed and holding his breath to see what the Saviour had to say. "I don't want to be friends with anybody who doesn't want to be friends with my brother. So there. Now, that boy is about to talk so pay attention to him instead!" Harry folded his arms on his desk and stared straight ahead at the shorter boy who introduced himself as Andrew Staunton, squib.

Tarrant reached across their desks, pulling at Harry's hand until the boy unwound his arms and let them hang limply on either side of the desk. Tarrant took hold of one hand and held on. He didn't let go until their mother came to bring them home at the end of the school day.

XXX

1 – Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 1.

2 – Alice, Chapter 7.

3 – My sister used to say that instead of 'I love you' to my mum and her dad up until last year. She couldn't pronounce certain letters very well.

Thanks for reading. To clarify, since I've been asked a few times, HARRY is Voldemort's mate. Voldemort THINKS it is Tarrant, but NO there will be no V/Tarrant in this story. HARRY is his mate. And they are non-identical twins for those people worried that they might both have Lily's eyes :P

Did you know that Lily was supposedly pregnant when she died and was going to ask Snape to be the godfather in the hopes of mending their friendship? Apparently JK said so. It's always been a conspiracy of mine anyway, but now I feel very validated!