Chapter One

Shortly before sunrise on the morning of September 1, Harry shook his younger brother awake from within the crowded confines of a boot cupboard.

As these boys were the Potter twins of Privet Drive, waking before sunrise in a small, dark closet beneath the stairs was their version of normal. In fact, as they were about to leave the Dursleys and their "charity" behind, this morning was actually much better than normal.

"Do you think it's safe to make a light?" asked Harry, as he reached for his glasses.

In response, he heard a whispered, "Lumos!" and a pair of hazel eyes stared into his green ones. "If we're quick about it, we should be fine." Evan was grinning as he twinspake, though his face twitched when he moved to sit up. The older twin felt a zing of excitement as they held eye contect but also a warm, prickling sensation across his upper back.

Harry's own grin disappeared upon his noticing this. His green eyes narrowed. "Is your back still hurting?"

Evan tore his eyes away and reached for a strangely wooden matchbox from their shelf. "Not really," he said aloud.

Harry ran a hand through his short black curls. I wish he would stop-

"It's much better than yesterday, Harry. Honest."

"If you say so. Want me to braid your hair?"

Evan ran his fingers through the long strands of red. "Hnnn, no. No, I think I want to mess with several someones today. I'll just tie it back."

Harry hummed in reply, reaching onto their shelf to grab a strip of black fabric and a wooden matchbox of his own.

The twins practically lived in the too small boot cupboard (which hardly fit one boy, let alone both!), let out only for school, chores and bathroom breaks. Despite this, they were given only a cot, a threadbare blanket, and a singular shelf while the Dursleys used the rest of the closet to store shoes and cleaning supplies. Upon that shelf, the twins had some broken toy soldiers (formerly Dudley's), a brown backpack that was more duct tape than cloth, and a few articles of clothing. The clothes themselves were all hand-me-downs from Dudley Dursley, and all of them had "shrunken in the wash," save for a once-brown-and-orange sweater that had somehow changed color and gotten less ugly.

Of course, the clothing hadn't really shrunken in the wash. As Evan was responsible for all of the laundry in the household, he took the opportunity to change the size and colors (though Harry helped, of course) of the hand-me-downs with magic, otherwise they would have been much too big. He had been beaten by Petunia Dursley once she caught on. But, the redhead thought as he pulled on the big, now-black-and-green sweater that had cued her in, it was worth it. Looking less like vagrants had dissolved some of the rumors surrounding the twins.

Today, the two brothers were accompanying the Dursley family to London, where they would then be left at King's Cross station. Vernon would have left them behind, and Petunia had argued that they should, but he was wary of doing so.

In July, Petunia had caught Evan talking to an owl while weeding the garden. Neither twin actually knew how many lashes he'd gotten from Vernon's belt for that, only that the younger brother was locked away in the cupboard for only a scant few hours before it started happening.

It being the letters, of course.

A letter addressed to each boy, stating their exact address (Cupboard Under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey) in green ink. And the number had quadrupled every day, ending up inside regardless of Vernon's attempts to shut them out. The whole thing had culminated in a rather large man, named Hagrid, breaking down the door of the hut Vernon had secreted them away to in the wee hours of July 31. He had wished the twins a happy birthday, explained they were wizards (though they'd already known that), and given them sausages and cake. Then he'd slept and the next day, he'd taken them shopping for school supplies.

He'd also given Dudley a pig's tail, which was the only reason why Mr. Dursley was actually agreeing to drop them off at the train station. The station was near the hospital that had agreed to remove the tail, after half a dozen had thought it a hoax. The overweight man did not want to know what would happen should the wizard school discover that he did not give the twins a ride.

After a bit of careful re-positioning so as to not hinder each other, twins finished dressing. Then they stuffed a few changes of clothes into the rucksack, dismissed the floating orb of light, and hid the matchboxes in their respective pockets.

Just then, the footsteps of Vernon Dursley could be heard upstairs and as he stomped down to the ground floor, dust motes and small spiders were shaken loose from their hiding places and fell upon the twins. Harry brushed his off. When Evan didn't so the same he shot him a questioning look. In return he got an aborted shrugging motion and a mixture of amusement and pain through their twinspeak.

Must be part of his messing with someones, the brunet figured, frown deepening as he realized how bad Evan's back was. He finger-combed his hair back over the peculiar, lightning bolt-shaped scar above his right eye.

A meaty fist pounded on the door and the latch was unlocked.

A while later, the entire household was outside and Vernon was trying to convince Dudley and Petunia to sit in the car.

"I'll not go anywhere with those freaks," Petunia hissed. She jutted out her chin in a way that emphasized her already long neck. Dudley trembled from his place next to her.

"Think of it this way, love-"

Evan and Harry just kept quiet in the back of the silver vehicle. Evan was directly behind the front passenger seat, head down and scrunched up as far as he could be with his sore back. Harry sat beside him, hiding him from view as much as he possibly could- which wasn't much, considering how scrawny both twins were.

When the Dursleys finally entered the vehicle, both Potters twitched and Evan sucked in a deep breath. But Dudley plastered himself to the door on his side and Petunia ignored them. In fact, the car was silent for nearly the entire time it took to drive into London, save for a short series of questions from Mr. Dursley.

"Funny way to get to wizards' school, the train." His eyes met Harry's in the rear view mirror, flicked over to Evan's head and then back to the road. "Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

No one said anything.

"Where is this school anyway?"

Harry opened his mouth to say he wasn't sure, but a tug on his sleeve stopped him. He met Evan's eyes and heard, "Scotland, probably," a pause as Evan blinked sleepily at him and then, "Platform nine and three-fourths."

"Scotland, I think," the older twin says, knowing that the Dursleys wouldn't have heard his brother. He thought back to the tickets Hagrid had handed him. "The train leaves at eleven o'clock from platform nine and three-quarters."

Petunia and Dudley turned to stare at them.

"Platform what?" Vernon asked.

"Nine and three-quarters."

"Don't talk rubbish," the man said. But when Harry glanced up at the mirror, he saw Vernon smile. "There's no such platform. You'll see. Just you wait."

They reach the station at half ten. The Dursleys accompany them to the platform. Neither twin mistook this for kindness. Their skepticism was proven correct after a few minutes.

"Well, there you are, boys. Platform nine- platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"

He was right: there were two big plastic signs reading nine and ten. And between them was absolutely nothing, other than the pillar that held the signs up.

"Have a good term," the big lug of a man said. And all three of them left, laughing.

Harry started to walk towards a passing guard to ask where to go, but Evan pulled his sleeve. "This way." And then he walked through the wall with the platform labels.

Harry goggled. "What- Evan!" Readjusting his grip on the backpack and making sure no one was looking, he stepped forward, eyes closed, convinced he was in for a concussion.

I... haven't crashed? He opened his eyes.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting before him. A sign above him read Hogwarts Express and the time of departure; behind him was a wrought-iron archway with the platform name- and someone was about to crash into-

A hand grabbed his elbow and yanked him out of the way.

"Sorry," Evan called.

The pink-faced girl and her parents didn't seem to notice, simply continuing on their way.

Harry whirled around to face his younger brother. "Evan!" he hissed. "Don't do that!"

"Do what?"

"You disappeared on me!"

The other boy grinned, unrepentantly. "It's fine, isn't it? No one's hurt and we're about to ride a train to magic school! Let's go find a compartment, yeah?" Evan spoke aloud, startling Harry, who hadn't realized they were twinspeaking.

But the brunet had made the mistake of making eye contact with the redhead. Feeling Evan's excitement prompted his to return, so he just shook his head and chuckled. "Alright."

Bypassing families, several of which were in the midst of tearful farewells, and stepping around a multitude of cats, the twins boarded the train and took a seat in an empty booth near the front of the train.

"Alright!" Evan clapped his hands and got up to shut the door. "Let's split up the stuff from our bag and put them in our trunks, yeah?"

Harry shrugged and dug his matchbox out from his pocket. He made a gesture with his right arm and a wand appeared in his hand. "Just tap it and it'll grow to full size, he said?"

"Mm-hmm." Evan had already put his apparently-not-really-a-matchbox down on the cushy, blue-and-green seat and was separating the clothing from the backpack, placing the previously agreed upon articles in his trunk. Suddenly he stopped. "I've just had a brill idea!" He whirled around, half-folded plaid shirt in hand. "Umbrellas!"

Harry paused from where he was tucking away some underwear and socks. Despite having lived in each others pockets their whole lives, there were times when he couldn't understand what his twin was thinking. "Umbrellas? Evan, what-"

A knock on the compartment door halted the brainstorming.

Evan slid the door open. "Yes?"

There stood a frizzy-haired girl, already wearing the Hogwarts uniform, with slightly over-large front teeth. "Have either of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one."

Harry watched as Evan's face went blank, as it often did when he was angry or in pain. "Is it pink?" the redhead asked. He stared at the girl unblinkingly, which seemed to unsettle her a bit.

"Pink? Evan, really!" Harry said before the girl could answer. Honestly, he's so weird sometimes. "Why would his toad be pink?"

"It could be." Something about the way he said this unnerved Harry, though he couldn't recall where he'd heard that particular tone before, and it seemed to do the same to the girl.

Harry gently, slowly pulled his brother away. "Sorry, about him- he really hates toads, has for years. No clue why."

"O-oh. Well, Trevor could be, I suppose, but I read through most of the course books and none of them mentioned pink toads, and neither did Neville, though he might not have mentioned it if most Wizarding toads are pink. That would be strange, wouldn't it? Surely we would have heard about pink toads in the Muggle world if they were common, though they might be secret because they're magical, I guess."

"What?" Harry frowned, thrown aback by the sudden burst of exposition. Evan, on the other hand seemed to relax the longer she spoke, eyelids sagging down halfway. Although that might have been because the train started moving. Moving vehicles always did make him sleepy.

"Alright," the redhead nodded, "let's go then."

This seemed to surprise the girl again. "Go? Go where?"

Evan blinked, finally. "Why, to see the prefects, of course. We've only just left the station, so we can probably stop by their compartment and ask them to summon-" he paused, face contorting, "-it before they start patrolling."

"Oh! That makes sense. I should have thought of that! It's much easier than asking everyone. Did you know, I came across some extremely rude boys-"

"Um." Harry interrupted, and was surprised when she actually stopped. His green eyes blinked a few times when Evan just looked over with a tilted head and raised brows.

Oh, this is weird. He'd always had at least most of Evan's attention before. This was beginning to remind him of fifth form, when Evan had been acting suspicious. Evan's attention had been diverted then, and all he'd gotten from him was a "It's a secret" before the school librarian was arrested, sacked and never seen again.

A bit confused, Harry pointed at the twins' stuff. "Shouldn't someone stay with our things?"

"Ah. Probab-"

"You can just spell the door locked."

Both twins turned to the girl and blinked at the same time. "That-" Harry said slowly.

"-Makes sense," Evan finished. The three did so and walked towards the caboose. Just before they reached the door behind which the prefects were seated (they were distinguished from the other upper year students by the badges with golden 'P's on their robes), he suddenly realized something. "Sorry, we never told you our names, did we? I'm Evan."

"Harry." Speaking of him, Harry was still rather confused by all of this. He and his brother never really had friends, or even friendly acquiantances back in Little Whinging, never mind a girl deigning to speak with them, so walking this one was... an experience to say the least. Are all girls like this?

"Oh, sorry, that's terribly rude of me. I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger, that is."

"Nice to meet you," the boys chorused.

Then Evan reached up to knock on the door.

An older student, who also had red hair, opened it, frowning at the interruption. "Yes, what is it?"

"We're ever so sorry to interupt," Hermione began, "but Neville's lost his toad, and I've already searched most of the train. Evan," she gestured to him, "suggested we ask a prefect to summon him."

The older boy seemed to perk up at the idea of younger students asking him for help. "Yes, that makes sense. Headed for Ravenclaw, are you? Accio Neville's toad."

"Hmm, no, I was hoping for Hufflepuff." Evan answered. This seemed a surprise to both Hermione and the prefect. Harry shrugged. He and Evan had discussed their Sortings earlier, and the only house they weren't okay with was Slytherin, as neither particularly felt like having to watch their backs all the time; Hogwarts wasn't supposed to be another 4 Privet Drive, regardless of the potential dangers that Evan had mentioned. Personally, he thought it might be nice to be in Gryffindor, though he had mixed feelings about being split up from his twin.

Before anyone could say anything, however, a murky brown and green toad flew towards the four of them.

Harry grabbed it, mostly by instinct, before it could splat against the prefect.

The prefect seemed a bit surprised by this. "Right, well you've got your toad, Neville, hold onto him more firmly this time. Good luck on your Sorting, you three." Before Harry could explain that Neville wasn't with them, the older boy had already gone back into his compartment and shut the door.

The twins blinked at each other, and then at Hermione. "Well, I'd better get Trevor back to Neville, he'll be ever so relieved to see him; he was a gift from Neville's uncle, you see. I'll just head back to our compartment, we had agreed to meet up there aswe're sitting together. Do you want to join us?"

Hermione was in the habit of speaking really fast, so it took a moment for them to parse all of that. Then they exchanged a glance.

"Do you want to?"

"Well, she seems nice, and having friends for the next few years would probably be pleasant. I'll mostly be asleep though, so your choice."

They blinked. "Sure," Harry said. It would be nice to have friends besides Evan, especially if they ended up Sorted to different houses. "Just let us grab our trunks."

They unlocked the door and shoved the appropriate clothing into their respective trunks- after taking a moment to change (Hermione standing watch in front of the door so they could have some privacy), which shrank back to matchbox size at a tap of their wands (Hermione was delighted by this, and then a bit put out once she realized that, no, the twins were not doing magic) and then put Trevor the toad in the mostly duct tape backpack. Hermione led them to where she was sitting, chatting all the while.

They arrived to find a slightly chubby, round-faced boy worrying away at his uniform. "Uncle Algie's going to kill me," they heard him mutter as he paced in the narrow space. "No, Gran will kill me, and then Uncle Algie will exorcise my ghost!"

"Neville?" The boy didn't seem to hear Hermione. "Neville! Calm down, we found him!"

"You did! Oh, thank you-" He suddenly noticed the twins standing just behind her. "O-oh. Hello. I'm Neville Longbottom. Who are you two?"

Hermione said, just as Harry moved to speak, "Oh, they helped me find your toad, Neville, asked me if I'd tried asking a prefect to summon him, it was so silly that we hadn't checked with them first, you know. He's Harry, and this is Evan... Sorry, I don't recall your last name?"

Harry grimaced at his brother, much to the curiosity of Neville and Hermione, but Evan only shrugged, blinking drowsily and swaying in time with the train's rocking. "Potter."

"Oh!" Both Hermione and Neville seemed surprized, and Neville even seemed more nervous, despite his holding the bag that the twins had put his familiar in. "Are you really? I've read about you, Harry, but none of the books ever mentioned you had a brother..." she trailed off, frowning.

Harry's eyes widened in alarm, but after a moment, he slumped and then sat down on the seat with a dark expression. Evan, on the other hand, raised his brows. As he sat, the redhead said, "That's not surprising, as no one's bothered to interview us." Then he yawned, resting his head against the window.

"What?! You mean to tell me-"

She seems so outraged by that, Evan thought. How cute. The thought pulled a smile to his face. Just before he drifted off, he saw Neville sit down and heard, "Don't mind Evan, train rides make him sleepy. Honestly, I'm amazed he lasted so long."

"-sources! How are we supposed to learn-!"

This will be fun.

He did feel as if he was forgetting something though.

'S probably not important.

On the other end of the train, a Weasley and a Malfoy got into a fight, only to be caught by a prefect when Crabbe, Goyle and two more Weasleys got involved. None of them had a chance to see if the rumor about Harry Potter being on the train was true, as the prefect had taken points from all of their houses (thirty from Gryffindor and thrity from Slytherin; despite the first years' lack of a proper Sorting, as everyone knew that Weasleys went to Gryffindor and Malfoys, Crabbes and Goyles to Slytherin) and spent the remainder of the journey lecturing them. Their houses would start the year with negative points. Such a thing had not occurred in nearly two decades, since the year when the students known as the Marauders were in their fourth year.

Word Count: 3,480

Posted: 2/12/2018