Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does.
If I did, I wouldn't be writing this.
"Boys, I have something important to tell you" said James, looking grim and shifting slightly.
'This is not good' thought Nathaniel as he looked at James.
He glanced at his brother, waiting for a joke to come at moment notice but it didn't. Charles was quiet, Charles was never quiet, and that was saying something.
It wasn't easy having Charles as a brother.
Many would expect being the brother of the Boy Who Lived was a life everyone would want. Nathaniel begged otherwise. Especially since he was the reason their mother was dead, something Charles never forgot to remind him.
He was born prematurely, 26th of June 1981 to be exact. Their mother was very weak that year for some reason.
Their mother didn't survive the birth.
His father struggled to raise them from there, but with war raging on it was hard on him.
On Halloween night their father choose to take a break while their grandmother Dorea was babysitting them.
When Voldemort, he wasn't afraid to say the name, it was stupid anyway, came he killed their grandmother and tried to kill Charles, somehow, he calls bullshit on 'the power of love protected him' that Dumbledoor says every time something about Halloween is mentioned, Charles survived and Voldemort was vanquished.
From there Charles was hailed as a hero and every bit of attention was on him.
His father started to ignore him more and more each passing day. And when he talked to him he never looked Nathaniel in the eyes.
That he was a walking copy of their mother, fire red hair, piercing green eyes, body build and a femine face certainly didn't help.
He wondered what would be so important that he needed to say it to both of them and-
A stinging hex and a loud
"Hey, Squiby, stop spacing out! It's creepy!"
Interrupted his track of thoughts.
Oh, did he forgot to mention he didn't show any ounce of accidental magic?
If his life before his seventh birthday was bad, then from there it went to hell.
It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for his brother and his best friend.
Ronald Weasley and Charles Potter made it their life mission to make his life hell.
From taunts to pushing him around to nasty pranks, and now that they had their wands hexing was added to the by now long list.
And their father?
He 'didn't' notice. He noticed only the pranking. And even then it was to praise Charles about 'how funny it was' and that Nathaniel should 'losen up a bit'.
Library at the Potter manor became heaven for him. At first he went there to hide from his tormentors -Merlin forbid Charles and Ronald were seen near it's proximity- but then he went there out of curiosity and to teach himself about subjects that didn't require a wand. Astronomy, History, Potions, Herbology, Runes, Arithmancy, languages anything he could get his hand on.
He wanted to prove himself to his family, that even if he was a Squib, he doubted it, but still, what if he was?, he wasn't useless. That he could still do something. That wand waving wasn't everything that mattered.
His efforts were...less then appreciated and ridiculed on some fronts and outright ignored on others.
But he still went back. It was the first time he had fun! He wasn't about to stop. From there the books became his first friends.
At some point he looked up etiquette and other books about social behaviour.
He even found-
"You have a...twin brother, Charles" said James slowly with pensive look.
Nathaniel's eyes widened and his jaw dropped slightly but at least he wasn't outright gaping like his brother.
"I have a brother?! What's his name?! How does he looks like?! Can I meet him?! Where was he?! What is-" screamed Charles and Nathaniel struggled to not wince at the loud noise.
He had many questions too, but before Nathaniel could ask any a cold feeling washed over him and he felt dread build up in his stomach.
'What if he's anything like Charles?'
He blanched at the thought.
A second Charles? He wouldn't survive! One was enough!
"Well, his name's Harry, he uh, you can meet him, uh tomorrow? yeah, he could stay over the summer?" said James clearly unsure.
Then James cleared his throat and said
"Ehrm, what about Quidditch Charles? Wanna play?"
"Sure dad! Can we invite Ron? We're so gonna kick your ass!
And then as if a magic was at play -Nathaniel mentally snorted at the thought- James was like nothing changed, he was his cocky, arrogant, self centered self again.
Later when Nathaniel went to the library he searched some books about twins and begun reading.
Opposite to their Muggle counter parts, twins are born much more frequently to magical parents. When the twins are identical, there is a small chance they will achieve what we call a Twin bond later in life.
Twin bond is a ability that grants the twins to sense each other emotions and vague idea about each others a location.
The twins usually become too dependant on each other that when separated for a long period of time causes them distress and sometimes a physical pain, which happens rarely but happens nonetheless.It is highly recommended to parents of magical twins to not have anymore children for at least a year, if not more. There is a chance of the next child being born prematurely and causing the death of their parent afterwards.
Nathaniel stopped reading. He read it again and again and-
Didn't his parents know this?
He closed the book and went to bed with heavy head.
Before he fell asleep his thoughts were about his brother's twin and what would he be like. At some point he thought about his mother but it was only for a moment.