Disclaimer: All the characters and main plot belong to JK Rowling and only Catalina and my plot twists belongs to me.
Two Schools: Which Do I Pick?
When I returned from my second year at Beauxbatons, my brother had just finished one of his many punishments. Neither Aunt Tuney, Uncle Vernon or Dudley and even Harry himself would tell me what happened exactly. But I do overhear stuff every once in a while. From what I got, something happened at the zoo on Dudley's birthday. I thought Harry would have learnt to stop provoking our relatives but according to Aunt Tuny, he got dad's genes of mischievousness.
So not only does he look like a carbon copy of dad, he acts just like him too.
Despite that, I believe that Harry acts more like mum. Protective. Understanding. Kind. All traits aunt Tuny told me mum had, all traits I believe that he has too…
"I'm home!" I yelled so the whole household could hear me. I had just come back from the train station so I wanted to warn everyone else so there would be no surprises.
I bet you're wondering why they didn't pick me up from the station. Well you see, at the end of my first year, Fleur invited me to stay at their family manor in France. It was a beautiful landscape. Their home could fit the Dursley home at least three times over! I had owled my aunt and she gave me permission to stay there.
What this did mean, however, was that I hadn't seen my brother for two years. It's sad. I know. But the good thing is that we had been exchanging mail for the last two years. I would owl aunt Tuny and she'd give my letters to Harry who who would reply and give the letter to our aunt who would owl it back to me.
It was a complicated process and difficult at the start because it had been the longest we went without seeing each other. I did lie a bit earlier. Harry and I did see each other last Christmas so it was more like a year and half without seeing each other. I couldn't stand not seeing him for another year so I came home at last… It was a surprise so that's why I warned my family as soon as I entered the house.
"Lia!" shouted a voice from the top of the stairs.
I had a brief glimpse of my twin before he came barrelling into me and we went crashing to the ground.
"Harry!" We sat there in the foyer hugging each other and letting our 'twin telepathy' reconnect.
Okay. Maybe it wasn't really telepathy. But I swear at times we could talk to each other without doing it our loud! It'll happen one day! After all, we are magical!
"Cata sweetheart…" cooed a voice behind us, Harry and I looked up and saw Aunt Tuney leaving the kitchen.
We both stood up and he grabbed my trunk and easily lifted it up the stairs, thank Merlin I had learnt that feather light spell or Harry would be tumbling down the stairs with my trunk on top of him!
"Aunt Tuny!" I smiled back and hugged her. "Hi! How are you? Do you have dinner ready? I could hep you if you like? France was amazing! It was so beautiful… School was good. I'm at the top of all my classes. I'm still on the school team. We won all our games… Fleur says hi so does Gabriell-"
She cut me off, shaking her head whilst smiling. "Oh sweetie, I have cooked dinner. And that does sound amazing but you are going to have to calm down otherwise you are going to start hyperventilating or something!"
I did as told and calmed down. But that didn't prevent me from having such a large grin that it seemed to scare Dudley enough to come near me.
"Come on sweetheart, dinner time. BOY! It's time for dinner!" I cringed as she screamed beside me.
Harry came rushing down the stairs to stand by my side. We smiled at each other before I looped my arm through his as we waked towards the dinner table.
Uncle Vernon and Dudley were already sat at the table when we entered and our aunt was just laying all the food out when we sat down. We started eating the delicious food that I'm sure my brother helped make. Quiet chatter broke out between all of us. Harry and I exchanged small talk as our aunt and uncle doted on their son to eat some more.
Uncle Vernon finally started talking to me half way though the meal by saying, "So how was that academy of yours in France?"
I continued to cut my meat as I replied, "It was amazing uncle! The people were so kind. It was ju- J'adore!" I sighed in happiness before drinking my water signalling that I was done with my meal before continuing, "The teachers were amazing, I managed to learn the whole french language in my first year as well as some latin as well. I joined the school team in my first year which never happens! I was the youngest player in the century! I'm at the top of my classes and I have made friends with most of the school by now."
Uncle and aunty nodded in approval before uncle Vernon responded, "Very well niece. You have made us proud. I am even prouder of the fact that you got a full scholarship a quarter way through your first year. We are very proud of you and I'm sure your parents would have been proud of you too…" He murmured the last bit but I still heard him.
That just made me beam even more.
"Ooooh." Everyone looked at me in confusion as I quickly jumped form my seat and ran up to my room. I yanked my trunk open and grabbed several bags. I ran back downstairs and deposited them in the living room. I hurried back to the dinner table and put my dishes in the sink and washed them. Harry quickly followed suit.
Once we were both done, I turned to the whole family and said, "Once you're done with dinner, I brought souvenirs from France and they are in the living room. Come on Harry, I brought you lots of gifts!" I directed the last bit of my statement to my brother before I dragged him to the living room. As we exited, I heard hurried movements behind us.
I pushed my brother to sit on the couch as I grabbed the bags and placed them on the centre of the living room. As I went to dive into the bag to find one of Harry's many gifts, our relatives came in. Dudley came in to dive at the bags to before I blocked them. "Sit on the chairs…" I ordered. My strict tone shocked them into doing what I asked.
I coughed before grabbing the first thing I saw, it was a Mickey Mouse teddy, "For the best brother in the world, the only person I could think of when I went to Disney Land Paris on one of our school trip, Harry, Mickey goes to you," I handed him the teddy before grabbing something else, "Dudley, after many months in France I managed to collect many kinds of chocolate so here you go…" I passed him a massive jar of candy that I merged to fill up. "To my uncle, the best of France fashion," I spoke as I hanged him the many ties I managed to buy from the top stores on the Paris streets. "And finally to my wonderful aunt, here you go" I gave her bundles of clothing, dresses, shirts and skirts, some of the best in Paris. "Hope you guys enjoy" as I grabbed the other bags.
"But Callie, there are still a lot of stuff in those bags!" Dudley protested.
"Oh, everything else here is for isles and my wonderful twin." winking at my twin who before the statement looked a bit down since it looked like I had only given him a toy. I dragged him back to my room upstairs whilst carrying the other bags. We spent the rest of the evening sharing events of what happened the past two year whilst I gave him the remainder of his gifts. As soon as the Dursleys came upstairs, we split up so we could go into our individual rooms.
As summer drone don, I spent it with Harry getting to know him all over again. But it all changed when the letter finally came. It all started out a bout like this…
"Get the mail, Dudley," Uncle Vernon ordered Dudley from behind his paper.
"Make Harry get it." Dudley complained.
Uncle Vernon complied with Dudley's request as he replied, "Get the mail, Harry."
"Make Dudley get it." Harry complained. I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Boys…
"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley." Why would you do that?
Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Not long after he left, Uncle Vernon got impatient so he yelled, "Hurry up, boy! What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" Uncle Vernon chuckled at his 'joke' whilst I just shook my head again. Uhhhh… No one here knows a really joke unless if it slapped them in the face!
I tuned everyone out as I sipped the coffee that I made myself this morning. I know coffee isn't good for 10 year old girls but it was something I got used to having whilst I was France, that and hot chocolate. Hmmmm. I could go for a hot chalet and a shopping trip. I need to buy some shoes that match the dress Fleur and I boug- I shook myself mentally, Fleur has brain washed me! Clear your head… Ignore it…
Harry's yell shook me out of my thoughts, causing me to drop my hot drink myself.
"I WANT MY LETTER!" "Ahhhhh! That's hot! Ouch!" We screamed at the same time.
With my scream, Aunt Tuny, stopped her argument and ran to me to help me out. The boys' argument continued. What was going on?
"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, he turned to me before saying "Go get changed Cata!" I quickly left to go upstairs and he slammed the door behind me.
I ran upstairs to my trunk. I looked around and finally found the cream I made last year, an anti-burn ointment. I rubbed it over my burns and waited as it did it's job. I grabbed a powder from within my trunk and ran around my room to find a new pair of clothes and my towel. I went to the bathroom that Aunt Tuny only let me use and locked the door. I filled the tub with water before sprinkling the powder in the water. I stripped and slowly got into the tub. The powder was something I was working on all year. It was supposed to relax the muscles in less than 5 minutes. And it worked. I spent at least an hour in the tub… By the time I came out, I was a prune!
For the next few days, more and more letters arrived. I finally got what they were arguing about. Aunt Tuny sneaked me my Beauxbatons letter and one of the Hogwarts Letters addressed to me.
Two offers. Two schools. Both alike. Yet different. Which do I go to?
Due to my dilemma, I ignored everything else going on around the house until finally Uncle Vernon cracked, "That does it, I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"
We did as told and when packed, I brought a small backpack which carried several of my textbooks, my pouch that I got from Gringotts two years ago and my wand.
We migrated from place to place due to uncle's paranoia.
Finally, uncle stopped his madness and found the perfect place to stay in…
"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"
Uncle Vernon pointed at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. We are so going to be bored of each other by the end of this trip! Thank Merlin that I brought my textbooks!
The inside was horrible and there were only two rooms.
Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. He was the happiest out of all of us! I don't know why though! We are in the middle of no where with no form of entertainment!
As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door. Even with how much our relatives like me, I didn't get priority over Dudley so Harry and I were left to find the softest bit of floor we could find and to curl up under the the blanket that I thankfully brought with me.
I fell asleep next to the dying embers quite easily but I told my brother to wake me up as soon as midnight came so that we could wish each other happy birthday.
BOOM.
The whole shack shivered. I sat bolt upright and so did my twin. We glanced at each other before we simultaneously stared at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in. I wonder who would do that?
