*The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you." Then she closed her eyes and departed. Every day the maiden went out to her mother's grave, and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came and the snow spread a white sheet over the grave, and when the spring and sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.*
*The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a bad time for the poor stepchild. "Is the stupid goose to sit in the parlor with us?" said they. "He who wants to eat bread must earn it; out with the kitchen-wrench." They took her pretty clothes away from her, put an old grey bed gown on her, and gave her wooden shoes. "Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is!" they cried, and laughed, and led her into the kitchen. There she had to do hard work from morning till night, get up before daybreak, carry water, light fires, cook and wash. Besides this, the sisters did her every imaginable injury – they mocked her and emptied her peas and lentils into the ashes, so that she was forced to sit and pick them out again. In the evening when she had worked till she was weary she had no bed to go to, but had to sleep by the fireside by the ashes. And since that account she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella. It happened that the father was once going to the fair, and he asked his two stepdaughters what he should bring back for them.*
*"Beautiful dresses," said one.*
*"Pearls and jewels," said the second.*
*"And you, Cinderella," he said, "what will you have?"*
"Father, break off for me the first branch which knocks against your hat on your way home." So he bought beautiful dresses, pearls and jewels for his two stepdaughters, and on his way home, as he was riding through a green thicket, a hazel twig brushed against him and knocked off his hat. Then he broke off the branch and took it with him. When he reached home he gave his stepdaughters the things which they had wished for, and to Cinderella he gave the branch from the hazel-bush. Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother's grave and planted the branch on it, and wept so-*
Golden brown eyes darted up from the barely held together book as thunder crashed outside. A small hand clutched at the necklace that hung around a young girl's neck, even as her brother grasped her other hand in an attempt to provide comfort. As the blackette's heart beat quickly inside her chest, the almost eleven-year-old couldn't help but question what had driven her uncle to such a rundown….hut?!
"Just breathe," Harry whispered in her ear as he wrapped an arm around her waist, placing the weathered book carefully down on the floor in front of them.
Neither knew why the letters that had plagued the Dursleys home had become such a bother. Nor did they know why their uncle Vernon wouldn't just let them read one as it seemed that whoever was writing to the twins did seem rather persistent. But there they were, on the eve of their eleventh birthday stuck in the middle of nowhere in a 'house' that barely looked as though it would last the night if the storm outside continued on as it was.
Glancing in the direction of their cousin – who was lucky enough to have gotten the couch – the young blackette let out a silent, though relieved breath when she noted that Dudley was still dead asleep. Her eyes then darted to the stairs that led to the second floor; her ears straining to hear anything that resembled the familiar thumping of her uncle that would tell them that he was awake.
It was only when the sound of the storm was all that the young girl could hear did she relax, her gaze falling back onto the book that her brother had placed on the ground when she had panicked.
"Are you okay?" he whispered, giving her hand a squeeze as he unwrapped his arm from around her and picked up the book. With a jerk of her head, Harry let out a quiet chuckle as he opened the book to the page he had stopped at.
Moving so that she could see the pages as well, the young blackette continued with her reading.
*-much that the tears fell down on it and watered it. And it grew, however, and became a handsome tree. Trice a day Cinderella went and sat beneath it, and wept and prayed, and a little white bird always came on the tree, and if Cinderella expressed a wish, the bird threw down to her what she had wished for.*
*It happened, however, that the King appointed a festival which was to last three days, and to which all the beautiful young girls in the country were invited, in order that his son might choose himself a bride. When the two stepsisters heard that they too were to appear among the number, they were delighted, called Cinderella and said, "Comb our hair for us, brush our shoes and fasten our buckles, for we are going to the festival at the King's palace." Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go with them to the dance, and begged her stepmother to allow her to do so.*
*"You go, Cinderella!" said she; "You are a dusty and dirty and would go to the festival? You have no clothes and shoes, and yet would dance!" As, however, Cinderella went on asking, the stepmother at last said, "I have emptied a dish of lentils into the ashes for you, if you have picked them out again in two hours, you shall go with us."*
*The maiden went through the back door into the garden, and called, "You tame pigeons, you turtledoves, all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me pick. The good into the pot, the bad into the crop."*
*Then two white pigeons came by the kitchen window, and afterwards the turtledoves, and at last all the birds beneath the sky, came whirring and crowding in, and alighted amongst the ashes. And the pigeons nodded with their heads and began pick, pick, pick, pick, and the rest also pick, pick, pick, pick, and gathered all the good grains into the dish. Hardly had one hour had passed before they had finished, and all flew out again. Then the girl took the dish to her stepmother, and was glad, and believed that now she would be allowed to go with them to the festival. But the stepmother said, "No, Cinderella, you have no clothes and you cannot dance; you would only be laughed at." And as Cinderella wept at this, the stepmother said, "If you can pick two dishes of lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour, you shall go with us." And she thought to herself, "That she most certainly cannot do." When the stepmother emptied the two dishes of lentils amongst the ashes, the maiden went through the back door into-*
Harry closed the book with a quiet thud as Dudley's watched beeped the hour. The messy-haired boy looked to his sister as he whispered, "Make a wish, Echo."
The blackette looked down to the roughly drawn birthday cake in the dirt before them, the words 'Happy Birthday Harry and Echo' written underneath. Taking a deep breath, Echo blew it over the candles that were at the top of the drawing – only for both herself and her brother to jump in alarm when the front door thumped, waking their cousin when it happened for a second time and Harry pushed Echo away from the door and out of sight.
Their aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon appeared at the top of the stairs, the latter with a gun clutched tightly in his hands. The door banged once more with a crack before falling back and off it's hinges to reveal a giant of a man.
"Who's there? Ahh!" Vernon exclaimed as the giant stepped inside.
"Sorry 'bout that," the intruder apologised, and Echo's eyebrows furrowed in the shadows as she watched the man grab the door with his hands and lift it back into place.
"I demand that you leave at once, Sir!" her uncle told the giant as he trained his weapon on them, "You are breaking and entering!"
"Ooh," Petunia whimpered as the giant approached the pair, an irritated look upon his face as he grabbed the barrel of the gun and bent the end upwards. "Dry up, Dursley, you great prune," the man grumbled, just as the gun fired and caused all but the man holding the smoking barrel to scream.
The giant man looked around, unphased by the commotion he was causing, when his eyes landed on Dudley. "Mind," he breathed, "I haven't seen you since you was a baby, Harry, but you're a bit more along than I would have expected," he said before gesturing non too discreetly to Dudley's rather plump middle, "Particularly 'round the middle!"
"I-I-I'm not Harry," the poor boy stuttered, just as Harry made his presence known.
"I-I am," he said, looking up to the giant of a man that seemed to know him.
The man tried to cover up his blunder, "Oh, well, of course you are!" he exclaimed before adding with a frown, "But where's your sister? Where's Echo?"
Harry frowned as he glanced behind him, unsure if he should let the man know where his sister was. He knew how she felt around strangers, and the giant that had just knocked down their front door was possibly the strangest the young boy had ever encountered.
"Here," Echo's quiet voice had Harry turning on the spot, having taken the choice from him before he was quick to turn back and face the man when he suddenly exclaimed, "Echo Potter. Well look how ya've grown." There was a warm, genuine smile on the giants face as he looked between the twins, and it confused the pair.
No one – and they meant *no one* - ever looked at them like that.
"Oh!" the man suddenly said as he pulled something out of one of the many pockets of his coat. "Got something for ya both. 'Fraid I might have sat on it at some point! I imagine that it'll taste fine just the same. Ahh," he pulled out a box that did look slightly squished on one side before handing it to Harry, "Baked it myself. Words and all. Hey."
"Thank you," the blacket exclaimed as he opened the box, a curious and eager Echo watching over his shoulder as he revealed a homemade cake that read: Happee Birdae Harry nd Eco.
"It's not every day that your young man and lady turns eleven, now is it?" the giant asked as he made himself comfortable on the sofa that Dudley had been occupying earlier. He pulled out an umbrella from... *somewhere* and pointed the tip towards the fireplace. Echo jumped, hiding behind her brother when two sparks shot out of the end and started a fire.
Harry put the cake down as he eyed the giant, making sure to keep himself between his sister and the man. "Excuse me, who are you?" he asked, his own wide eyes going between the man, his umbrella, and the now lit fireplace.
"Rubeus Hagrid," the man introduced himself, "Keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Course," the man gestured between Harry and his still hiding sister, "You'll both know all about Hogwarts."
"Sorry, no," Harry told Hagrid at the same time Echo asked, "What does hog warts have to do with keeping keys?"
"Hog warts?" the giant of a man repeated as he looked between the two siblings, "Blimey, didn't either of ya ever wonder where you mum and dad learned it all?" he asked, though his question only confused the two newly-turned eleven-year-olds.
"Learnt what?"
"You're a wizard," Hagrid explained before gesturing to Echo as she slowly appeared at her brother's side, "And Echo 'ere's a witch.
"I-I'm a what?" Echo asked at the same time as Harry.
"A witch and wizard," Hagrid told them, "And thumping good ones at that, I'd wager. Once you're both trained up a little."
"No," Harry shook his head as he took a step away from the giant, moving Echo behind him once more as he did so, "W-I can't be... a-a wizard. I mean, we're just... Harry and Echo."
"Just Echo," Echo piped up from behind her brother, giving the strange giant a narrowed eyed look. Life was hard enough just trying to be her. She didn't want to be a witch as well. Didn't they have boils and ugly hooked noses, stirring potions in large cauldrons with their familiars meowing and causing havoc nearby. Or worse...? Was she going to turn into one of those witches that ate children for dinner?
"I don't want to be a witch," the blackette suddenly blurted out, her eyes wide with the horrors that befell the witches in some of her most cherished fairy tales. Anything was better than melting if it suddenly rained, or even being baked alive in her own oven – not that Echo owned an oven. But still!
"What do you mean ya don't wanna be a witch?" Hagrid questioned as he eyed Echo, probably thinking that the girl had lost her mind. "You can't chose to be a witch or a wizard," he explained, "You're born 'ith it. Tell me, did either of you ever make anything happen? Anything you couldn't explain when you were angry or scared?"
Harry's eyes snapped to Echo, who's own eyes were wide as they darted to her aunt and uncle.
"Ah," the giant said before reaching back inside his long coat and pulled out two letters. Dudley let out a whimper as he handed the letters to Harry and Echo, both glancing at each other as they finally got to open their letters.
"Dear, Miss Potter," the blackette read when she had opened hers, "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Her eyes were alight as she finished reading and she looked to her brother to see the same confused disbelief mirrored in his own eyes.
"They'll not be going!" Vernon's voice cut through the air like a knife, "We swore when we took them in we'd put an end to this rubbish!"
Three sets of eyes turned to the man, and Harry was quick to grab Echo's hand and tug her behind him once more when her hands balled into fists. But as he felt his own anger chase its way through him, he knew exactly how his sister was feeling. "You knew?" he exploded at his uncle, "You knew all along and you never told us?"
"Of course we knew," Petunia interjected with a sour expression, looking at her niece and nephew with nothing but scorn, "How could you both not be? My perfect sister being who she was. Oh, my mother and father were so proud the day she got her letter. We have a witch in the family. Isn't it wonderful? I was the only one to see her for what she was. A *freak*!"
Echo flinched at the word, feeling her brother tighten his grip on her hand as she continued to count backwards from twenty in her mind.
"And then she met that Potter, and then she had you two, and I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as... abnormal. And then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up! And we got landed with you."
"B-blown up?" Echo squeaked.
"You told us our parents died in a car crash!" Harry yelled, even as he tried to comfort his sister.
"A car crash?" Hagrid said, almost as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing, "A car crash kill James and Lily Potter?"
"We had to tell them something," the twin's aunt shrugged at the giant of a man, that seemed to ignite the same fury that both Echo and Harry were feeling in Hagrid at the thought of two of his friends having died in something as simple as a muggle car crash.
"It's an outrage!" he bellowed, not noticing Echo jump at his tone, "It's a scandal!"
"They'll not be going," Vernon stated with an air of finality.
"Oh," Hagrid turned to the man who was still clutching the bent shotgun, "And I suppose a great muggle like yourself's going to stop him, are you?" he taunted.
"Muggle?" Harry asked, and Hagrid glanced at him and explained before continuing with his tirade.
"Non magic folk. Those two have 'ad their names down ever since they were born! They're going to the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world, and they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts' has ever seen; Albus Dumbledore."
"I will not pay for some crackpot old fool to teach them magic tricks!" Vernon argued.
Hagrid rounded on the man, whipping his umbrella out from – oh, he hung it over his belt under his coat – and pointed it at Vernon. "Never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me," he threatened before spotting the twin's cousin stuffing himself with their cake. Turning his umbrella on the boy's rear, another spark left the end and a long swirly tail grew from the boy's backside.
"Ahh!" Dudley screamed as he realised what had happened, causing his parents to scream and chase him around as he panicked.
Harry laughed at the sight of his cousin with a grey pigs tail, feeling that it was rather fitting, and it even had a small smile appearing on Echo's lips.
"Oh, um," Hagrid glanced at the twins, "I'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone at Hogwarts about that. Strictly speaking, I'm not allowed to do magic."
Echo looked up at the man with wide eyes before copying her brother and nodding at the man. She could keep that to herself. It wasn't the worst thing that she had seen, and she had a feeling that whatever Hagrid had done to her cousin would disappear like every other time she had accidently done the same thing.
"Okay," the giant man checked a clock that once again had Echo blinking, wondering how he managed to carry everything. "Ooh, we're a bit behind schedule. Best be off. Unless you'd rather stay, of course. Hmm?"
Hagrid watched the twins share a grin before nodding at him, and without a backwards glance, the trio left the Dursleys behind.