A/N: Here's Chapter 1. I am sorry that I was unable to write my planned Christmas oneshot, to parallel this story, but since it was set in 5th year, I decided to wait until at least third year had been reached. Please read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimers: I do not own the rights to the "Harry Potter" series. They are copyrighted to J.K. Rowling, starting in 1997 through 2003-2004. I thank Ms. Rowling for allowing pathetic, unemployed wretches like me mangle her work of art.
Sarah
Year 1, Chapter 1: Birthdays and Letters
Nearly 10 years had passed since Sarah had shown up on the Dursley's doorstep, but Privet Drive looked the same as ever. The sun still rose on the same neat front lawns and brass house numbers. Not much had changed, and not much probably ever would.
Number Four's living room was the same as it had been when Vernon and Petunia had read Dumbledore's letter, except for the pictures. Where had been pictures of a fat, blonde, beach ball wearing revolting bonnets, there were now pictures of a husky blonde boy, and a thin raven-haired girl, both in black, grinning at the camera. They seemed close enough to be twins, but anyone who knew them knew that they were not.
The boy and girl were Dudley Dursley and Sarah Potter, and they both took perverse pleasure in driving their father insane. Yes, their father. You see, Mrs Dursley had always regretted breaking contact with her sister, and had convinced Vernon to adopt Sarah as a favor to Lily. Also, after Dudley was born, she found out that because of a hard labor, she wouldn't be able to have any more children. Sarah's arrival meant that she would be able to raise the daughter she would otherwise never have.
Vernon had been opposed to it, of course, but Petunia had been able to convince him. He didn't have to especially like Sarah, but to treat her like a member of the family. After all, Petunia had her methods of blackmail. Leave with Dudley was the best. After that threat, Vernon usually caved like a badly made basement.
Anyway, Vernon loved his wife and son with all his heart, but, as said before, he wasn't totally fond of his adoptive daughter. He had to admit that she was nice to him in public, but in private, he had been pranked badly. Itching powder in his boxers, Thai pepper in his coffee, and purple dye in his shampoo seemed to be her favorites, and Dudley learned well. Thankfully, Dudley focused on bullies at school, and not on his father.
Sarah bunked in the room next to Dudley's. In Number Four, there were four bedrooms, the master bedroom, Dudley's room, Sarah's room, and the guest bedroom that Vernon's sister Marge slept in when she visited. Needless to say, since Marge was related to Vernon, she didn't like Sarah.
That morning, Sarah had slept in, and was woken up by Dudley knocking loudly on the door. "C'mon, Sarah, get up!" the blonde shouted through the door. The raven-haired girl shrieked as she fell off the bed in surprise.
"Dudley! Don't do that!" She looked up at the clock nailed to the ceiling in case of that frequent occurrence, and groaned. "Why do you have to wake me up so early, anyway?"
"Sis, nine is not early," Dudley retorted. "And mom won't let me open the presents until you're down there with us."
Sarah looked at the door, envisioning her cousin/brother standing there, ruffling his hair in exasperation, and groaned again. Dudley's birthday. How could she have forgotten it? She hadn't really forgotten, since she had gotten him a couple of CDs and some extra strings for his bass, but... well, at least they were wrapped, not like last year.
"All right, all right! I'm coming." She untangled herself from the sheets and cast her eyes around for some clothes. She saw a pair of jeans, relatively clean, and a t-shirt from one of her favorite bands, The Rasmus, sitting on top of a pile of clothes. She pulled the jeans on, buttoning them with one hand as she rummaged for a hair tie to pull her mid-back length hair into a messy ponytail.
She pulled on the t-shirt and ran over to the door. She flung it open and was faced by the annoyed look on her cousin/brother's face. "Come on," she said, and followed his mad rush down the stairs, pulling her hair into the ponytail she favored.
As they ran into the kitchen, Petunia turned from the stove, from which the smells of bacon and eggs were emanating, and smiled at the two.
"Good morning, you two. Glad to see you're up before lunch, Sarah." The raven-haired girl blushed at the mention of her strange sleeping patterns. During the summer, she preferred to stay up late and work on songs for the band she and Dudley had put together with two of their friends, Alexander Smythe and Jennifer Mitchell. Vernon, of course, did not approve, so that made it all the more fun.
"Sorry, Aunt Petunia," Sarah said, sounding embarrassed. "You know how it is. Ideas start flowing and I have to work 'em out..." she trailed off and shrugged. She didn't mean to stay up so late, but the ideas really did start flowing fast at about midnight. Thank god for soundproofed garages.
"I understand, dear." Petunia said, sounding sympathetic. "I used to write short stories for fun. The ideas always did come at night. I'd fill whole notebooks with ideas, and then pick out my favorites. Those I would write, and the others would just wait until I decided to go back to them."
"Hey! I didn't know you wrote, Aunt Petunia!" Sarah exclaimed. Anyone who wrote anything was cool in her book.
"Yes, I did. Mostly fantasy, but some others. I haven't seen those notebooks in a while. I wonder where they are..."
A cough was heard behind them. Dudley was sitting at the kitchen table, arms crossed, his foot tapping against the linoleum like it always did when he was annoyed or impatient.
"Oh, sorry, bro." Sarah muttered, hand behind her head ashamedly. "Come on, let's see what you got."
With a grin, Dudley picked up the first present, from his father. It turned out to be a video game, Super Metroid for his SNES. "Thanks dad!" Uncle Vernon grunted an acknowledgment from his seat at the head of the table, where he was reading the paper.
From the hallway, the mail flap clicked. "Mail's here." Sarah said. "I'll get it." She stood up from her bacon and eggs and shuffled out to the front door. Three things lay on the mat, a postcard from Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, the monthly utilities bill, and a strange envelope, made of a heavy parchment, and cream colored. Printed on the front in green ink read:
Ms. S. Potter
The Third Bedroom
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
Sarah's heart skipped a beat. Not many people sent her letters. She only had to walk a block or so to see her friends, so they only sent her letters when on vacation. She always returned her library books promptly once she finished them, so it couldn't be a note asking for them back. Besides, she hadn't checked out any books for a few weeks now. There was no return address, so she couldn't find out who sent it that way.
As she walked back into the kitchen, mind elsewhere, she flipped the envelope over to the back. Sealing the envelope was a crimson wax seal, with the likeness of a shield stamped into it. In the center of the shield was a capital H, and surrounding it was a badger, a snake, a raven, and a lion. Sarah shook her head in confusion as she handed the first two items to Uncle Vernon. In her absence, Dudley had opened three more gifts, one of the CD's from Sarah, Blackout by Dropkick Murphys, a book from his mother, some fantasy series, and the bass strings from Sarah.
"Hey, sis, thanks! How'd you know I wanted new strings?"
"You complained enough during our rehearsals about your old ones wearing out. I got the hint." Sarah laughed, then turned her attention back to the envelope. She ran her finger under the flap and carefully pulled the seal off without breaking it.
Dudley noticed her deft handiwork and commented on it. "What you got there? A letter? Who's it from?"
"I dunno," she said. "There was a weird seal on the back." She pulled a letter out of the envelope. She unfolded it and read:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump,
International Confed. Of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Geoffrey McGonagall,
Deputy Headmaster
Sarah looked up at the family in amazement. "If this is someone's idea of a joke, it's not funny." The others stared at her, Vernon and Petunia with pale faces.
"Dear, this isn't a joke. Your mother got a letter almost exactly like that when she was eleven" Aunt Petunia whispered, sounding almost scared of the pieces of parchment in her daughter's hand.
"Mom, there's no such thing as magic," Dudley protested. "It's only in books and movies." He gestured at the book he received.
"Dudley, magic is real. I saw it performed in from to my eyes when I went with my sister and parents to get her supplies." Petunia said, sounding stronger, more sure of herself. "Now scoot, you two. I need to talk to your father."
The two pre-teens stood and walked toward the door. Just as they were about to walk upstairs, Petunia called Sarah back. "Sarah, could I have the envelope and letter?"
Sarah nodded. "Sure, but I can have it back, right?"
"Of course. Close the door on your way out."
As Sarah shut the door, Dudley ran over and put his ear at the keyhole. Sarah, knowing that she wouldn't be able to budge him, and that they'd miss part of the conversation, just shook her head and lay down on the floor, her ear near the gap between the door and floor. Inside, the two could hear Vernon and Petunia having a heated discussion.
"Vernon, what should we do? We never told her about what really happened, like the letter that she had when we found her told us to."
"It's all right, pet. We'll just wait a few days. You told me that they sent one of the faculty to bring your sister to that wizarding mall, right?" Uncle Vernon said soothingly.
"Well, yes... We didn't know what they meant by 'we await your owl,' so we just didn't respond." Aunt Petunia sounded almost frightened. "Then the Deputy Headmaster back then showed up one day and talked to mother and father. The next day we went to... Diagon Alley I think it was called."
"Exactly!" Vernon shouted in glee. "We don't have to worry about anything. We probably don't have to pay anything. Your sister and her husband were relatively well-off, right?"
"Yes, I think they were." Petunia said. "We just won't reply and they'll send someone to get her."
"Good." Uncle Vernon stood and walked toward the door. The two kids weren't fast enough, and when he opened the door, Dudley sprawled of the floor next to Sarah. The two adults fixed them with piercing stares.
"Eh... hi?" Sarah said sheepishly.
"You two were listening, I assume?" said Petunia, with a small grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Yeah..."
"Then I guess I have some explaining to do. Sit down." Petunia gestured at the kitchen table, and the chairs around it. Vernon walked into the living room, saying that "he didn't need to be there. I can't explain it well."
Aunt Petunia sighed. "I should probably start at the beginning. Sarah, your parents weren't killed in a car crash, like we had told you. They were wizards, and a dark wizard, by the name of Voldemort killed them. He killed your brother as well, and when he tried to kill you, supposedly he just disappeared. That's where the scar came from." she said, pointing at the lightning bolt scar above Sarah's right eye.
Sarah's hand tentatively reached up to touch the scar. "So... they were magical? Is that why you were always uncomfortable talking about them?"
"Yes." Aunt Petunia shook her head. "I know I should have told you, but I couldn't bring myself to do it." she sighed again. "I was really close to my sister, before she went to Hogwarts. Since she was only back for Christmas and summer holidays, I didn't see her much. Over the years the rift between us grew, a rift that I always wanted to fix. Voldemort's attack killed that hope that I had, that the two Evans twins would reunite." With the hardest thing she ever had to say out of the way, she put her head in her hands, trying not to cry.
Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I kind of get it. I'm going to go upstairs and think about it for a while, 'k?"
Dudley, who had listened to the whole thing in silence, said, "Sarah, if you need to talk.." He left the offer unfinished.
The raven-haired girl smiled wanly. "Yeah, I know. Your door is always open. Thanks."
Dudley nodded, trying to grin. "Chin up, stiff upper lip, ok, sis?"
Sarah chuckled at her brother's attempt at humor, and walked out of the kitchen, heading upstairs. She walked into her room and closed the door. Sighing, she lay down on the bed, and turned on her CD player, letting the sounds of The Rasmus wash over her. Perhaps tomorrow would bring some insight to the world she had never known, yet now knew that she belonged to. Perhaps tomorrow....
Fin Chapter 1
A/N: Well, chapter 1 has been finished. Only about a page and a half of it was written on looseleaf, like I usually do. The rest just flowed out of me. Perhaps I will get chapter 2 mostly written today and up tomorrow. Now... to the reviews!
Tiamante Salazar Tameran: Thanks for your kind review. Yes, McGonagall is a man. It just seemed right, for some reason. I haven't thought about other characters with different genders, but there may be. Ron won't be a girl though. No frilly pink dresses even if he was. Not many reviews is a bit of an understatement. NO reviews is closer to the truth. A Pumpkin Pasty for you for being the first.
Shadowface: Yes, that's entirely true. I never thought of it that way. I haven't totally given Sarah's house a thought, but she's probably going to be a Gryff. Part of the planned story for later depends on it. I might have her befriend a Slyth though. Probably the Slytherin Unknown, Blaise Zabini.
Thanky thanky to both of my reviewers! The reviews inspired me to write again. This fic, actually has been a work-in-progress for going on six months now, since summer vacation. And now, some end of chapter stats.
Prologue length: 2496 words.
Length of story as of Prologue: 2496 words.
Reviewers as of now: 2
There's the stats. Since some characters are OCs, I am going to put small bios at the end of the chapters for any new OCs in the chapter. This Chapter... Sarah Potter!
Name: Sarah Madison Potter
Age: 11
Hair Color: Black (streaked with red at 13)
Plays: six-string electric guitar
Favorite color(s): black and red
Musical Tastes: The Rasmus, Linkin Park, Evanescence, Dropkick Murphys
Theme song(s): "F-F-F-Falling" by The Rasmus, and "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence
Hobbies: writing songs, playing with the band (The NightShrikes), sleeping during the summer
Likes: chocolate, her friends, new songs
Hates: classical music, people who think they're superior because they're blond