Chapter 2
At number 4 Privet Drive, in the morning the next day.
Yawning, Vernon Dursley opens the door to the house to collect the milk bottles, normally it is Petunia who does that but today she was feeling a bit cold and does not want to go outside. He bends down to get the bottles and freezes as he sees the crib that lies there. 'Wonder where that came from.' he thought before he lifted the edge of the blanket, he gets even more surprised when he sees the two calmly sleeping babies, both has wild black hair and he thought that they must be twins as much as they look like each other. He notices the letter that lies in the crib that is addressed to Petunia so he takes a hold of the crib and milk bottles and walks inside to place them on the dining table.
"Vernon darling, what is that basket?" Petunia asks her husband when she sees the crib that he placed on the table.
"There are two babies in it, and a letter to you, so I took it in with when I was out getting the milk." Vernon hands the letter over to is wife.
While reading the letter Petunia's face gets whiter and whiter, "It's... It's about my sister, she has apparently gotten killed. They want us to take care of the children."
"I don't like it, but I guess there is nothing we can do about it." He turned to the children and says loudly to them, "Don't you think you will stay here without working your share of the household work!"
Almost two years passed before they where for the first time put to work for the Dursleys...
At the day before the twins third birthday they where told by Petunia that if they wanted any presents for their big day they would have to do some work in the house. They where given a bucket full of mushrooms that they where to remove the dirt from and sort into different piles depending on the quality. After two hours of sorting they where finished and the whole family sat down to eat dinner.
The next day they woke early in the bed they shared. They looked around the smallest bedroom in the house talking about what they would get as birthday presents.
At seven am Petunia opened the door carefully and looked in, seeing that the twins was awake she walked in with a big paper bag that she had tied a red string around. "Happy birthday, Erika and Harry!" She places the bag on the floor before the bed, "I hope you don't mind that I give you a collective present from the rest of us and to the two of you, we could not find anything separate to give to you."
The twins jumped out of the bed and ran over to Petunia and hugged her legs. "Thank you so much, Aunt Petunia! And please thank Uncle Vernon for us!" They proceed to unknot the red piece of string from the bag and open it. Inside they find a huge pile of books detailing all sorts of household work, everything from sewing and knitting to cooking and gardening.
"You're welcome my dears. You may start reading as soon as you have finished breakfast. And you know that if there is something you don't understand in the books you are welcome to ask me." Petunia had for long time put down much work to teach the twins to read. She did not do it because she loved the children, but because if they could read they would be able to cook from the instructions in cookbooks and learn a whole lot of things that they would need for their chores.
The twins quickly ran out of their room and down the stairs, laughing all the way. They make quick work in fixing the breakfast and wait impatiently for the rest of the house to join them so that they can eat and then go up and start reading.
To the furniture in the kitchen two low stepladders had been added not very long ago to allow the twins to reach all the drawers and cabinets so that they could work on their own. Once everyone where ready with the breakfast Harry collected the dishes while Erika moved the stepladders to stand by the kitchen-sink and tapped up warm water. Harry dumped the dishes into the sink and collected a towel to dry them as soon as Erika finished washing them.
As soon as they got ready in the kitchen they ran up to their room where they immediately started reading, sitting each on one side of the bed with the books in between them.
The next years passed pretty much the same, Vernon and Petunia giving the twins harder and more exhausting things to do as they got bigger. Harry and Erika were given one free day a week to do whatever they wanted, and that time they spent the most of in the local library reading and learning, which where the most fun thing they knew.
With time they got old enough to start school, they had skipped the preschool years with by an agreement with both the twins and Petunia. There they quickly became the teacher's favorite students. But with the other students they where called know-it-alls and bookworms and no one wanted to play with them. Dudley, the twins' cousin, and a couple of his friends liked to beat the twins up at every opportunity they got but the twins got a teacher to give them the key to an unused classroom so they could stay out of the way of Dudley's gang. That suited the twins perfectly because it gave them more time to study and learn new things.
The twins paid very little attention to what the teachers taught the other students, and instead sat at the back reading books of their own they could almost always answer any question directed at them. Before the end of the first school year they had convinced some of the teachers to give them extra classes after the end of the school day. There the twins were taught multiple extra languages like French, Spanish and even Sign Language and even blind reading. They were also taught higher grade math, physics, and chemistry, and a couple of other things. When they where not in school they where home doing work in the garden, chores, or sitting in the library reading.
The time flew by quickly for the twins and soon it was the night before their ninth birthday, they lay in their shared bed talking in hushed whispers about what they had done today and what books they thought they would get the next day at their birthday, every birthday so far since they became three they had gotten several books about almost everything. As they had gotten about all that one could get about household work they had also gotten different books, like dictionaries. One entire wall of the room they had were a huge full bookcase. On the floor before it there were also stacks of books that there was no room for elsewhere.
Around twelve that night they finally fell asleep, but they woke up early, at 6 am, that morning feeling fully rested and excited about what was going to happen that day.
After only ten minutes they had gotten so impatient that they decided to knit on the half finished shirts that they had been working on for the last two days they had almost no cloths that were bought except for the castoffs of Dudley, just to calm their nerves.
That is how Petunia and Vernon found them at seven that morning when they opened the door to the twins' room. They entered and sat down at the two stools. "Happy Birthday!" they both said. They waited for a minute while the twins finished the row on the knitting and lowers them to their knees.
Taking a deep breath Petunia started seriously, "There is something Vernon and I need to tell you, we have not been completely honest about your parents..." she sits silent for a while thinking of how to say this. "Your parents where not killed in a car crash, they where murdered."
The twins put the knitting beside them on the bed, and just looked at Petunia and waited for her to continue. "Your parents where murdered... Your parents were wizards and they where killed by a dark wizard called Voldemort." she shivered at the name and at each mention of wizard, "You are wizards too."
Here Vernon took over the telling. "We have not told you anything because we have never liked wizards but we have noticed that you are different then your father. So we have decided that even if we don't like wizards we will take you to Diagon Alley, a wizarding shopping center, so you can buy some books to learn more about them."
"But you have to promise us something," Petunia says, "You must never tell anyone about this or show any magical thing to anyone here, especially not to Duddykins, do you understand?"
"Yes, Aunt Petunia." the twins say at the same time.
"One more thing, about the one who killed your parents, he tried to kill you the same way as he killed them, but somehow you survived and he was killed instead. You two are very famous in the wizard world because of this, the scars you have that looks like bolts of lightning you got the same time as the evil man tried to kill you and everyone will know who you are if they see it."
"Now get ready and we will take you into London where that place is." Finished Vernon and the two adults stood up and left the room.
The twins got up from their bed to open the wardrobe and pick out what cloths they would use that day, almost all of the cloths they owned they had made themselves. They had jumpers and socks they had knitted, pants that they had woven on the looms that were in school... They got the cloths they liked the most, emerald green shirt with silver embroidery and dark green trousers.
They walked over to the bathroom where they showered and dressed. Looking in the mirror they decided to braid each other's hair to one side to hide the scars. At the age of seven they had made the decision to grow their hair long to make it more manageable because when they kept it short it stuck out in every which direction. The braids they made reached just a bit below their shoulders.
Once down and in the kitchen they start making the breakfast consisting of fried eggs, bacon and fresh baked scones.
The twins has almost not time to sit down at the table before Dudley has shoved down his food and left telling that he is going to a friend. The twins and their Aunt and Uncle finishes the breakfast slower. After the twins finishes the dishes, all of them walked out to the car.
After about an hour driving Vernon stopped the car outside a dingy tavern that according to the sign outside is called the Leaky Cauldron. "Would you mind if your Aunt and I do not come with you in to Diagon Alley? We don't like wizards like them, and they don't like people without magic like us. We could meet here outside in three hours, is that alright?"
The twins nods and is almost out from the car before Petunia can stop them, she gives them a small golden key and says, "Here, this is the key to your bank account, your mom gave it to me to keep in case something happened to them, she said that you are the only ones that can use it. You will need to get some money from it to be able to buy anything from the Alley." The twins hugged their Aunt tightly and Vernon was just barely able to tell them not to use their real names or else people will gather around them like vultures.
Harry and Erika skipped happily towards the seedy tavern which they entered. They walk over to the counter and asked the man standing behind it how to get into Diagon Alley.
"Oh, just follow me. My name is Tom, by the way." He shows them out the back, gets out his wand and taps a special brick on the wall which promptly melted down and forms an archway into a bright area with many shops.
"Thank you Tom!" the twins shout before entering the Alley. They wander around for a while before they ask a shopkeeper selling owls of where the bank is. Following the directions they end up outside a huge foreboding building.
They enter and looked around; from behind they hear a scratchy voice asking if he can help them with anything. They turn around to the speaker and almost jumped in surprise when they see an ugly goblin with spectacles. "Yes, we would like to get some money from our account." Harry answered.
"Ah, could you please give me your key?" the goblin asks politely.
Erika fishes out the small key from a pocket and gives it to the goblin who examines it for a moment before his eyes widen, he stares at the twins for a moment before he says, "Alright, Mr. and Miss Potter." The goblin turns to the side and shouts for someone named Griphook to come. He gives the key back to Erika and tells Griphook to take them to vault number four thousand five hundred and twenty seven.
The other goblin lead them to the back of the building where they step into a cart. The cart started going at a high speed down the track for less then half a minute before it stopped with a jerk outside an area filled with hundreds of small vault doors. The goblin points at the correct door and instructs them to just put the key in the keyhole and take what they need from it.
When the door opens the twins gasp in surprise, the entire area inside is completely filled with golden coins, a magic field has been placed over the opening to prevent anything from falling out, and even if the vault only is one cubic yard in size it really is a lot of gold. Erika turns to the goblin and asks, "Could you please tell us how much the coins are worth? How much can you buy for one?" The goblin takes a few minutes to explain the workings of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. After he has finished Harry asked if there is anyway they could get a bag or something to keep the coins in, they were then given, in exchange for a small amount of gold, a small belt pouch each that has some goblin security spells cast on them making anyone who tried to remove the coins except the owners receive a nasty shock.
They thank the goblin profusely for the help and proceeds to fill the pouches with about hundred and fifty Galleons each, quite a huge amount. They shut the vault door and Erika pockets the key. After having taken the short trip back up to the surface they walked outside and asked a wizened old witch where the bookstore was. She answered that Flourish and Blotts lies 'over there' and that another bookstore lies in the dark alley some way in 'that' direction.
Inside Flourish and Blotts they spend almost an hour looking through the books and choosing which ones they are to buy, in the end they have filled five extra-large shopping cauldrons to the brim and more, and they walk over to the counter.
The shopkeeper stands in a stunned silence for almost five minutes before he gets over the surprise of the amount of books the twins wants to buy. He starts to adding up the costs and when he finally finishes he looks doubting at the two of them, thinking that they can't have enough money to buy half of it, let alone all. "The cost of the books is one hundred and fifty galleons" he says apprehensively, fully expecting that he will have to go and return the score of books when the kids leave.
The twins, however, opened their money pouches and counted out seventy five gold coins each and gave them to the man. They looked at the pile of books seeing that they will have serious problems if they are to carry all those by hand so Erika asks the shopkeeper, "Could you keep those books here while we look for a couple of bags to carry them in?" The man just nodded as he was a bit unsure of his voice due to the second surprise that they could pay for the books. Harry then asks, "Could you tell us of a shop which sells some good bags?"
Once they have been given the directions to the other shop they walk over to it. There they study the list that details all the enchantments and prices of all the bags they sell and they decide on a pair of relatively cheap bags with enchantments making them a lot bigger inside and reducing the weight to a fraction of the contents weight. To get one that they can use in the normal world they have to ask specifically about a plain bag without any moving pictures or advertisements.
Back at Flourish and Blotts it is only with a lot of packing, repacking and skillful arranging as well as the use of a fair bit of force that made them able to get all the books into the two bags. They leave the bookstore saying their thanks to the man behind the counter and wander around the Diagon Alley. At one time they pass a dark street jutting out from the main, the one mentioned to contain a bookstore, and they stop a while to study it, it seemed decidedly interesting but when Harry looked at his clock he notice that they only have three quarters of an hour left so they agreed on checking that place sometime later. Instead they make their way over to the animal store.
After some time in there having walked separate ways around the store they converge in the middle where the snakes are.
"Look at her, does she not look beautiful?" Harry pointed at an emerald green snake with its back crossed with black stripes and says to his sister. She nods but points at an other one, "I think that one looks nicer." That snake is mostly silver in color but has an interesting pattern of green figures so dark that they are almost black. Both the snakes are around a yard in length and according to the sign beside the cages they are very poisonous.
Erika sighs and shakes her head, "I wish we could buy them but I don't think Uncle would be happy if we brought them home with us, and he dislikes everything that has with magic to do enough already."
"I agree, he only thinks that freaks have snakes as pets too." He looks at his two-pound-watch he got three birthdays past and said, "We'd better go the outside of the Leaky Cauldron, there is only ten minutes before Uncle said he'd be picking us up.
The kids shoulder their bags and sets out towards the entrance of the Alley, they proceed through the pub and waves to Tom before exiting again. Outside they only have to wait about five minutes before Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia comes with the car, they hop into the backseat and strapped themselves in.
After a couples of minutes of silent driving Vernon clears his throat and says, "When we get home I don't want to see or hear anything that has to do with magic, when you want to read those books you will lock the door with the lock I bought today for you. Anytime the door is not locked I don't want a single thing that could hint anything about magic show. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Uncle Vernon."
"Good. If Dudley finds out anything about this then I will have to punish you, I don't want you to say anything about this to him."
Once back at number 4 Privet Drive the kids gets out their tools and installs the lock to the inside of the door to their room, with that done they went out into the garden to mow the lawn, weed the garden plot and wash the car.
When the car was clean and waxed they went inside and lock the new lock on their door, they proceed to pull out all the books from the bags and put them in the far back of their wardrobe with the book they plan to read first at the top. It's lucky that the wardrobe was fairly large and that it didn't have very many cloths in it or else the books would not have fit in. They start with reading a book on general wizarding laws and one huge book on the collected laws from the three biggest wizard schools, not the most interesting to read but oh so important should something unexpected happen.