Chapter Nine: Twins Times Two:

Despite Voldemort being back Rose finished out her school year in decent spirits. She had made two new friends, they too were twins and identical just like Fred and George (she was wondering about her attracting twins) but were girls like her and one year above her in school. They were Slytherin but were feared and respected by those there. There names were Fiona and Hestia Carrow, their aunt and uncle were the two Carrows now dead in the graveyard and the girls could not be happier about it. She wished she had made friends with them years earlier as they were the exact opposite of their evil aunt and uncle.

Where the twin death eaters were into every evil act they could possibly do the twin girls were good and noble and fought for what was right. In fact the twin death eater Carrows had been thrown fully from the ancient house of Carrow for their evil ways. Fiona and Hestia's parents, Richard David Carrow and Martha Carrow nee Stone were good upstanding people and ran the house of Carrow the way it had always been ran, it was not a dark house at all. Now that the death eater twins were dead they felt better for it and could bring honor back to their family. There was another thing that the twins had that they shared with Rose from their mother's side (and kept secret for fear of being targeted like their mothers side of the family by Voldemort) they were Parselmouths and were learning the healing arts that went along with that gift.

Now with school out the girls were staying at Grimmauld place while their parents went and cleaned out the home that Alecto and Amycus had shared for years. They had brought in several curse breakers, goblins and the like to clear out the home. It was so bad it made Grimmauld place before the cleanup there look like a light based home. Now the twin girls were seated in the drawing room playing chess together with Fred and George on one side of the board and the girls on the other playing as a team. It unnerved and awed Sirius who was watching them as they played. Both sets of twins were dressed identically, Fred and George in jeans, bright blue shirts and purple waistcoats, the girls were in bright green ruffled paisley shirts, dark green waistcoats and skirts, bright green tights and black shoes. Their brown hair was straight and hung past their shoulders and they were watching the board with merry gray eyes.

"Who is winning?" Severus asked walking into the room.

"We are professor Snape." The Carrow girls said as one.

"Yes they are." The Weasley twins replied.

"That has to be the creepiest thing ever." Sirius said.

"And that is why they are doing it." Severus said, "I can tell who is who of them."

"He can, mum is nice and pretends she does not know but not dear professor Snape." Fred said.

"No he knows us too well." George replied.

"We found out that too." Fiona said.

"Too right, he knew which was which the moment we stepped foot in the common room." Hestia replied.

"Ah well, such is life, oh hello Rose!" All four said as one as Rose entered the room.

"How is your family settling in?" Hestia asked.

"Your aunt alright?" Fiona added.

"Yes, but I fear for professor Snape, he keeps winding her up and she hits him for it." Rose said.

"I merely state the truth, she does not need to get so needlessly upset about it." Severus replied.

It was simply unsafe for the Dursleys to live at Privet drive now as Voldemort had Rose's blood in his veins. So now Dudley had been introduced to magic and instead of jealous and unhappy with what Rose could do and he could not, he was very happy in this new world. It did not hurt that Sirius made it so that electronics could work in this home and so Dudley had not missed any of his shows or video games. Besides his being a huge (and by huge we mean he was trying to see how to make his own Storm-trooper armor) Star Wars fan helped him be cool with everything. That and the magnificent kitchen in the basement which was a dream come true for him.

Dudley loved to eat, and he loved to cook as well, he worked out so he could support his eating habits and not get fat from them. So it took him no time at all to charm the house elves and get them to allow him to cook, he had to promise to not clean up and so the first meal he cooked showed off his skills. There was no doubt he would become a five star chief of his own five star restaurant in the near future. This was the reason that everyone that day sat down to a great meal.

Dudley had got a fine salmon, a huge fish and he had done everything with it aside from scaling it. He had baked it with lots of fresh herbs and butter, made fresh rice with mushrooms, herbs and butter and vegetables, it was a deceptively simple meal, but as any great chief knows fish has to be done a certain way to take it to the next level, and Dudley knew exactly what to do. He had even made a chocolate angle food cake with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream for dessert. The house elves sent up the meal just as Dudley made his appearance and sat with them to eat. Everyone was in heaven with his good cooking.

"This is really good Dudley." Molly said, "how ever did you get this fish to come out so tender and flaky?"

"I could show you, if you like." Dudley replied.

"Not a bone in sight." Fred said.

"Agreed, that is talent with no magic, non-magical are very, very talented indeed." George added, "well look at what they do."

"Oh yes, the trains and planes and automobiles, the vaccines and medicine that puts ours to shame." Fiona replied.

"Yes, we can treat broken bones, bruises and torn skin very well but when it comes to viruses and the like we are not very good at that and magic can only do so much to help us." Hestia said.

"Well, we do a lot to protect the natural world." Ron said thoughtfully, "much of our magical tradition focuses on replenishing the natural world, it's been hard these past two centuries but what with the muggles coming around things are looking up more and more."

"As long as we don't destroy the world." Dudley said, "I don't like how certain things are going right now, if we don't change Europe has less than thirty years left."

"We might have less if the dark dork is not taken care of soon." Rose said.

It was true, despite Voldemort loosing so many of his top people in the graveyard, he still had two that had survived, Walden MacNair (tall and beautiful like all his clan, but unlike his clan he had a heart of evil) and Thorfinn Rowle, a member of a family that had actively fought Grindlewald and did not support blood superiority at all. He was like all his family, tall, powerfully built blond and a handsome man. Yet like MacNair he had a heart of blackness and evil and he, along with MacNair more than made up for the years they had been upstanding citizens already.

Most of the dark creatures that had hidden after the defeat of Voldemort the first time were back and already they were trying to continue where they left off. Yet the work Sirius had done for the past five years was helping, many families that would have died survived and the ministry though still corrupt held little sway over the average witch or wizard. Fudge had, even after seeing the evidence refused to believe the evil dark lord was back. It was the final straw for the magical population and so, they had turned from the ministry and were now waging war on their own against any followers of the dark lord and their families. Already Theo Nott from Rose's year was dead along with his mother and sister. This was not the kind of thing she wanted to see done but war had come and she was in the thick of it along with everyone else.

"We have a friend we want to bring here." Fiona said.

"Yes, but most think of them as dark." Hestia replied.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"She is a Trow." Fiona replied and at the look from Rose, "they are not evil, never have been, but they are reclusive and do not like it when any try to come and take what is rightfully theirs."

"What about them kidnapping the Weird Sisters?" Ron asked.

"They were not harmed and it was a prank really." Fiona said, "you did notice their sound improved after that?"

"Yea, really weird that." Ron replied.

"Not really, the Trow trained them those six weeks they had them." Hestia said, "and yes they can train dragons and use them, but they only use them to ride and self defense."

This was a great relief, if the Trow (viewed as dark because so little was known of them) were going to help, well at least one of them. Trow were reclusive but they were not neutral, not like goblins who, after several bloody revolts and the like had hammered out several treaties that left them in charge of the magical banking world and by law unable to take sides. Like Switzerland they were very neutral but armed to the teeth with every kind of weapon known aside from atomic. No-one had ever broken into a goblin bank and made it out alive (unless they allowed it to keep neutrality but that was a different topic). War was here and Rose was more than ready to learn how to defeat the evil that was threatening to engulf and destroy the world.

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So there is that, another chapter and mostly plotting here and not much going on. Yes, Dudley knows of magic and Rose was wrong about his reaction (she is not perfect), he thinks it is cool and views Rose as Jedi or something like that. Though most of the death eaters are dead that does not mean Pettigrew did not recruit and have a back up ready for Voldemort when he came back. James and Lily were very wrong about him, he is pure evil here.

Anyway, please review!