HWD-W
(Edited: 18.06.22)
Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, and false namings of real events. "... I had a sister once. A twin. Then one day she just disappeared, and nobody but me remembered her. She had ocean eyes and a kind smile… Sometimes I wonder if she was ever real."
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Supernatural or Percy Jackson. Only the plot.
Warnings: Descriptions of abuse if you are sensitive to this topic or it triggers you in any way I suggest you stop reading or skip the chapter.
1• Runaways
"Harry this way!" Hallie called to her brother as she pulled his arm running in front of him, their cousin and his gang not too far behind them, their taunts fell on deaf ears, and her only focus was getting away from them safely and quickly as possible.
Harry was lagging behind her so she did what she always did when running from Dudley during his "freak hunts", the term he had used for herself and her brother since before they had learned their names during roll call when they had started school.
Hallie slowed to a stop and pulled her much smaller twin onto her back and continued running down the street of the cookiecutter neighbourhood.
Being a girl had saved her from the worst of their relative's punishments while Harry wasn't so lucky, his backside and knuckles were scarred with bruising. Lashed by their Uncle Vernon's belt for every tiny mistake he made, his back may have healed fast but it still scarred. He was all she had and didn't ever want to lose him, ever.
Hallie and her brother both hated the Dursleys for what they did to them, that hate only grew when they realized they had names that weren't Freak at all. They hardly had a chance to live the meaning of childish innocence or a child's ignorance.
Her relatives had called both herself and her brother, Freak, for five years of their life while getting them to do nigh-impossible tasks for children the majority of that time. It had always been Freak do the dishes, Freak tend the garden, Freak do this, Freak do that, Freak! Freak! Freak! Hallie hated it and hated them.
Under their roof, they were fed and watered and provided with a place to sleep. Even if that place was a cramped cupboard under the stairs when there were two spare rooms. Though one of which was reserved for Dudley's toys and the other for Marge their uncle's sister. Who hardly ever visited and when she did the woman would sick her beastly dogs on them.
It didn't matter how abnormally strong she was for how underfed and underweight she and her brother were. The Dursleys were bigger than them and meaner than them.
Hallie had tried talking back once and it hadn't ended well for her, she was lucky to only get away with her jagged scar that went from her elbow to her wrist, a bad break the doctor had said. Though it was a far tamer punishment than when they had tried running away, by the next morning they were back on the doorstep and forced to stay outside for the rest of the week without food.
Hallie was smart but had a difficult time trying to read their school work, Harry had a similar problem only it revolved around his nearsightedness rather than the words on the paper not making any sense. She could see perfectly fine, she just couldn't read as she couldn't focus properly on any one thing. Always drifting off in her thoughts. Then she discovered the Latin section in the public library near the local church.
She was amazed that she could understand any of it and had read most of the Roman Latin-focused books there with gusto; the librarian had even let her keep one about Roman myths and history.
Oddly though that kindly librarian was never seen by anyone besides Hallie and supposedly never existed after that.
Hallie both loved and hated the story of Romulus and Remus. She taught Harry how to read it telling him what each of the words said, in return, he had strived to teach her to read normal English, a far harder task than they had originally thought. With her hyper-fixating on something new every few minutes.
Her ear twitched when she no longer heard her beach ball of a cousin's heavy footfalls or the taunting of his little groupies behind them. Harry was breathing heavily on her shoulder. The seven-year-old sighed as she came to a full stop, leaning on a tree trunk and taking a deep breath letting her brother down from her back to do the same.
"Hel' do you think we should head back now? I mean, Dudley's gone and so're Piers and Gordon. The Dursleys won't be happy if we're late for dinner." Harry said quietly as he regained his breath.
Hallie rolled her eyes "y' mean if we don't make their dinner on time," she scoffed tilting her head to the heavens.
"Harry?" she began hesitantly, her eyes meeting his green. Harry had said her own eyes reminded him of the dark greenish-blue waves crashing against the rocks in the strange lighthouse painting, hung on the far wall of their old primary class wall. Or like the ocean from the telly, having never been to a beach in their life and not having anything else to compare them to. He said they were like swirling pools of green and blue.
"Yeah?" said Harry from his new spot on the ground playing with a blade of grass using the easier-to-say nickname they had thought up.
She sighed again and joined him, "What if, what if we ran away? Like maybe look for a way to the colonies or I dunno... just a place far away from here…" she trailed off whilst fully, thinking of the warmer climate the news had described the colonies as, and the skyscrapers of New York they had seen.
"Hel'..." Harry began tiredly; they had talked about running away since the first time they tried. They figured maybe that had just been a shared dream and there might still be hope for a way out yet. But Harry had all but given up that hope.
She heard that tone only once before and glared, he was giving up! She stood up quickly then and put the full force of her glare on her brother.
"No! You don't get to give up Harry! We've been treated about as worse as those old Roman slaves our whole lives! Aren't you tired Harry? Can't we just... we can't give up now... we have to believe that... that…" she broke off with a broken sob and Harry wrapped her in a tight hug, skewing his glasses on his face as he buried his head in her shoulder mirroring her.
"I know Hel... I know. But... how... How would we leave? We might just end up back here where we started, and Uncle Vernon would tan us... my hide if we showed up on the doorstep again. I know it wasn't a dream we did run away…" Harry asked her with sad green eyes, neither of them noticed the sun sinking lower and lower in the sky as they talked.
Hallie thought about it for a moment then snapped her fingers when an idea popped into her head.
"I know! You could do it!" She said excitedly but Harry didn't understand.
"How?" he asked and she frowned for a second before her smile came back full force.
"You could do that thing you did last year! You know when you teleported us onto the roof during lunch break when Dennis and Gordon were bein' mean to me! It wasn't the wind and You know it!" she said enthusiasm lacing each of her words as she thought about finally leaving this place.
"I mean that's just silly anyway how could the wind carry one let alone two kids onto the roof? There wasn't even a breeze that day!"
Harry had a contemplative frown on his face, he began nodding slowly and a smile was stretching its way across his childish features. His messy jet black bangs bounced as he did.
"Yeah okay, I'll try... " Harry said as he encircled her hands with his own.
Hallie watched silently as her brother's face contorted in concentration, his eyes were scrunched closed and his glasses were slipping down his lightly freckled nose. Then suddenly the world was spinning and she squeezed her own eyes shut. She felt as if she were being squeezed through a worm-sized hole made for worms! Her whole body was being squashed uncomfortably from all sides.
That night on August the third nineteen eighty-seven the twins Hallie Lilium and Harry James Potter disappeared from the suburb of Little Whinging, Surrey, England with a crack. Leaving nothing behind.
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Authors Note:
I'm still not satisfied with this chapter so be aware it might change.
