Avian Anarchy
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling or Disney, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, magically powerful Harry. Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.
First thing the following morning, Hedwig urged Harry to go and see Santa.
#My son has barely slept last night and woke up by nightmares every now and then begging his aunt and uncle to not hurt him. Please take Harry to the North Fir Tree and have his memories altered.# She gave Santa a sheepish look, as she continued her tirade. #I can alter anyone's memories and did so to Dudley, but I won't do that to my own son.#
"Fully understandable. Come on, Harry." Santa cast Harry an encouraging look.
With Paws following on Harry's heels, they headed out to the North Fir Tree. Harry eyed the large, white tree in amazement. 'It hasn't only helped Hedwig to turn into a phoenix and Aunt Petunia to become younger and a witch, but it also took the Horcrux out from behind my scar and it gave an ingredient for my wand. It is simply amazing.'
"Are you ready?" Santa's voice brought him out of his musings, and Harry quickly mentally prepared himself for whatever was to come.
He saw the Fir Tree cone head towards himself, before his vision failed. He only noticed that something large and soft kept him from falling.
When his mind returned to awareness a few minutes later, he found himself in Santa's arms. His memories of his childhood with the Dursleys had been completely replaced by memories of growing up on the North Pole together with Santa, Claire, Hedwig and Paws as well as his cousins Annika and Dudley. He knew, however, that their magic had only manifested recently, so that he had to help them catch up, so that they could attend Hogwarts together from January onwards.
Harry looked at Santa in confusion. 'What are we doing here?' he wondered.
"Do you feel better now?"
Harry shrugged, before he smiled at his guardian. "Of course, I feel fine. Thank you Santa and North Fir Tree for whatever it was you helped me with."
Santa nodded in apparent contentedness, and from the Fir Tree, Harry could hear a faint ringing of bells, as the branches moved in the breeze.
"Let's have breakfast. Holly is going to leave to fetch the Weasley twins in about thirty minutes."
"Oh yay. May I accompany him?" Harry grinned broadly, when Santa replied positively.
"Just don't be surprised. Now that Mr. Weasley has a much better salary, he has moved to Hogsmeade together with his older sons," the older wizard informed him.
HP
Annika and Dudley were eager to go on a ride with one of the sleighs, and in the end, they joined Holly, Harry, Hedwig and Paws on their trip to Hogsmeade.
To Harry's relief, neither Annika nor Dudley asked why he had two familiars, while they had none. 'Perhaps, it's because they weren't magical until shortly before Christmas,' he thought; however, he was not certain. He only knew that the North Fir Tree had slightly altered his memory due to some bad experiences, which he wanted to forget. 'Maybe it's the same for them,' he thought, just when they arrived in front of a house, which Harry had not seen before.
An instant later, two red-headed boys stormed out of the house and eagerly climbed onto the sleigh, where Paws was the first to greet them. He eagerly licked their hands, apparently having taken a great liking to the twins.
"These are Fred and George Weasley, my friends, and these are Annika and Dudley Evans, my twin cousins," he introduced his friends, while a small voice from the back of his mind enquired why the two couples did not know each other.
The two couples of twins were ecstatic to meet another pair of twins, and to Harry's relief, they got along very well.
They soon arrived on the North Pole, where they were allowed to have tea together, an opportunity, which the Evans twins used to ask the older twins every question about Hogwarts that came to mind. After lunch, however, Sirius and Remus insisted that Annika and Dudley had to have their first lesson.
HP
The remaining week of the Christmas holidays passed uneventfully. While Annika and Dudley spent the whole day practising magic with Sirius and Remus, Harry spent his time with the Weasley twins and Polly in the potions lab. Every evening after dinner, Sirius gathered Harry, Fred and George in Harry's room to practise the Animagus transformation – much to the entertainment of Hedwig and Paws.
Unbeknownst to everyone but Harry and Paws, Hedwig also tried to become a canine Animagus.
=Do you think I am nuts?= Paws asked one night, after they had retired to bed.
"Why would that be?" Harry cast the canine a surprised look, when he cuddled against his stomach as usual.
=Ever since I saw Remus transform into a reindeer, I wanted to transform, too. Remus would surely be happy if I could keep him company during the full moon.=
#Then you simply have to practise the Animagus transformation just like Harry and I do.#
"Hedwig is right," Harry said, letting out a huge yawn, "and it's very kind of you to try keeping Remus company. You just have to practise together with us, trying to transform your left front paw into the paw of a reindeer."
#Considering that they have four legs just like you, it should be easier for you than for Harry and me.#
=All right. I'll try.= Paws visibly relaxed and began to lick Harry's stomach with fervour.
"Good night, Hedwig, Paws."
HP
In the evening of New Year's Eve, the four heads of the Hogwarts houses were sitting in the headmaster's office enjoying a glass of wine together.
While Severus would have preferred the solace of his private lab or even his living room, Albus had made it very clear that he was supposed to please them with his company.
Minerva was the first to comment on the headmaster's question for news. "Today, two Hogwarts letters have been sent out."
"Hogwarts letters during the Christmas holidays?" Pomona voiced what Severus thought.
"Yes. They were sent to Annika and Dudley Evans."
Severus had to try had to contain his shock and was glad, when Filius asked what he thought. "Evans as in Lily Evans?"
"I am not privy to their relationship with Lily Evans; however,…" Minerva rose from her chair and stepped over to the bookshelf, pulling out the book of all magical children. "Annika and Dudley Evans, born on June 23, 1980. They must be twins. Apparently, their magic only manifested now."
"Just like Dudley Dursley?" Severus stared at Minerva in disbelief. "Isn't that too much of a coincidence?"
Albus frowned. "This is indeed a strange coincidence. Did any of them write to you?" He gave his deputy a thoughtful look.
"No." Minerva shook her head. "Only Harry wrote to me about his cousin. He also replied to Severus and refused to return to Hogwarts before the second of January. I suppose that Dudley Dursley and Dudley Evans must be the same person. However, I have never heard about Annika Evans."
The headmaster absentmindedly played with his long beard, appearing to be deep in thoughts. "I shall contact Arabella Figg and enquire about the Dursleys first thing tomorrow morning."
"Why don't you call her now?" Minerva pointed to the fireplace. "It's not too late yet, and the sooner we can get to the ground of this mystery the better."
Albus leaned into the fireplace. "Arabella Figg's place."
An instant later, the head of the old Squib appeared in the flames, and Albus quickly enquired about Annika and Dudley Evans.
"Albus, I am sorry, but since Harry has moved away from the Dursleys, I am not living there anymore." To the colleagues' disappointment, she could not tell them any more than they knew anyway.
"Oh well, Severus," Albus said, as he closed the connection and returned to his seat, "as Harry is in your house, I'd like you to ask him about the twins."
'That manipulative old coot,' Severus thought and was just trying to hold back a snide comment, which might have been impolite towards the headmaster, when Minerva replied in his stead.
"We'll see where the twins are going to be sorted in any case, and whoever their head of house is going to be can ask them about a possible relationship to Lily."
'I wished Potter had already finished Hogwarts,' Severus thought. 'He's really annoying, just like his pets.'
HP
By the time the Christmas holidays came to an end, Harry and his cousins became very excited over the question where Annika and Dudley were going to be sorted.
"Gryffindor is the best house…"
"… and our whole family has been there…"
"… except for our sister."
"Ginny is in Slytherin with me," Harry said. "It doesn't really matter into which house you're going to be sorted. Oh well, knowing that Snape hates me with a passion, for me, any other house might have been better."
"Says the boy…"
"… who is on the house team as a first-year…"
"… and the youngest Seeker in a century."
"Lily was in Gryffindor," Annika said, "and that Snape boy in Slytherin."
"Do you remember that?" Harry cast his new cousin a surprised look.
Annika nodded. "I remember some things, even if not much."
'Yeah, same here,' Harry thought, nodding in understanding.
HP
Although Holly offered to take them to Hogwarts by sleigh, the six friends decided to board the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross. They saw to it that they arrived at the station early, and while the Weasley twins went to look for their family, Harry, Annika and Dudley boarded the train with Hedwig and Paws in tow. They found themselves an empty compartment, and Harry cast a spell, which Hedwig had taught him the previous evening to enlarge the compartment, so that his friends would fit in together with his cousins.
To his relief, his friends behaved well towards Annika and Dudley, even if the two of them were obviously muggleborn.
Draco looked at them, seemingly deep in thought. "What is your relationship to Harry?"
"Our mothers were sisters." Dudley did not even have to lie.
"And Harry's mother was a witch as well, so perhaps you're not even muggleborn, but your grandparents were Squibs."
Harry stared at his friend in surprise. "Do you really think so? Wouldn't our mothers have known about such a thing?"
Draco shook his head. "Not necessarily. From what I heard, some Squibs don't want their children to know what they're missing, plus there are pureblood families that have several generations of Squibs." He shrugged. "You could ask the goblins some time. They should be able to tell you about your ancestors."
"That's a good idea," Daphne said. "I agree with Draco."
Harry nodded in determination. "All right, I'll go to Gringotts and ask Buckbean, our account manager, during the summer holidays. Thanks for your advice anyway."
'I don't think that's the case, because I believe that Buckbean would have told us about it, provided that the goblins know such things,' Hedwig thought to him. 'Still, you could ask Buckbean about it and have him check out our family genealogy.'
'I will,' Harry promised. Even if it was almost six months that he was bonded to Hedwig, he was still very happy to have her nearby and to be able to easily communicate with her. 'I am really lucky, especially as Mum is absolutely brilliant, even as a phoenix,' he thought, happily.
Annika and Dudley had to endure all kinds of questions from Harry's friends; however, to his relief, his cousins managed to reply adequately, so that no one became suspicious that anything could be out of the normal.
Finally, they arrived at Hogwarts, and Harry ushered his cousins over to Hagrid, who had a boat ready, even if his cousins were the only new students at this time.
"I'll see you at Hogwarts," he told them, before he hurried to join his friends, as they queued for the carriages.
HP
An hour later, everyone was gathered in the Great Hall. Hagrid brought Annika and Dudley to Professor McGonagall, who motioned them to wait for a moment, as they were going to be sorted shortly.
In the meantime, Harry and his friends took their seats at the Slytherin table, happy to be together again. While Hedwig chose to sit on one of the torches near the Slytherin table, Paws thoroughly enjoyed being petted by Harry's housemates under the table.
"He is such a cutie." Ginny giggled, as she gently played with the canine's ears.
'He really loves the attention, especially when the girls fawn over him,' Harry thought in amusement.
He looked up in excitement, when Professor McGonagall brough the Sorting Hat and the three-legged stool into the Great Hall and called Annika to her.
'I wonder where they're going to be sorted. Maybe, they won't even be sorted together,' he thought, before he asked himself, 'Would I want them to be nearby or rather further away from myself?'
tbc...
Thank you so much for the many kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please let me know what you thought about this one and what you expect from this story.
Sorry for the shortness - I just wanted to give you another chapter today. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Next chapter: "The Elder Wand".