Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Harry Potter Characters they are the property of J.K. Rowling.

1. Magical Truth

The Canadian country side swept for miles before Amelia Cross' car as she drove home in the dimming sunlight of the fading summer. The mountains stretched before her as her radio played softy around her and the wind swirled around her from the open car window. She was content with herself. It was her summer vacation but she was taking some summer classes at a local university to better her options later on in life, as she often told her peers, she appeared older than she was and intellectually she was more advanced. She was furthering her education in the medical fields during her break from her real passion and her other life. Summer vacation was coming to a close and the leaves on the trees were already starting to loose there summer green for there new autumn colors, the magic of the season, the simplest and yet the most mysterious of all magics starting to show her true glory. The weather was also becoming colder but the seasons in Canada were what Amelia loved the most. She drove on constantly admiring her native land and its beautiful transformation that reminded her so much of herself and the true colors she would have to hide from most of her peers.

No one could tell there was something different about her, on the outside there was no difference and that was the way things had to be. But there was something very different about her whole family. Amelia's father had died when she was very young of a heart attack. Her mother and father were having disputes about a lot of thing and her father had been threatening to leave, if her mother ever told the children, fraternal twins, about what they really were, tempers rose, screaming got louder and louder and her father's face went bright red with anger. You see Amelia's father was a muggle, a non magical being. He was a doctor, working unearthly hours while her mother taught biology and veterinary medicine at the local community university. They lived as muggles, though her mother was very far from that. Her father's family had a history of medical problems but one night when Amelia was about three, she and her brother had heard there parents fighting. Her father had yelled something about the children and forbidding a move to England to her mother when he stopped in his tracks and fell to the floor. Amelia's twin brother Dominic was terrified at what had happen. The doctors reassured them that it was a heart attack and he had already warned their father of his heart condition, but he had never told their mother of his health risked. The trust had been gone from there marriage for along time. It was a hasty marriage and should have happened in the first place but after a long hard year of trying to explain what had happened to two three year olds Amelia's mother had decided it would be best to stay in Canada where her husband knew they would be safe but she would, when the time arose, tell her children everything about her magical heritage and her past. When the time did come, their mother left it to their own judgment and decision to start another totally different education in the arts of magic.

Amelia's mother was a witch; she had studied in her youth in Britain at one of the best school for witches and wizards but had moved to Canada eighteen years ago and became a muggle teacher to hide herself from the dangers that were rising in the magical community surrounding her school and England. She had studied, like Amelia was now, in the summertime during her breaks at a specialist school and found that biology was very close to her classes on care of magical creatures at Hogwarts. She had changed her lifestyle in Canada and was raising her children as muggles. When the children turned eleven they had received letters from Starysnow Academy for Witches and Wizards in the far north, the one and only Canadian academy for magical studies. It was at this time that her mother finally explained to them what their heritage really contained.

Both Amelia and her twin Dominic had spent six years at Starysnow Academy, located in the far north, hidden among the mountains of snow, in a land kept in total darkness for months at a time and were now preparing to enter there seventh and final year of magical studies. They had spent many happy and sad times there, with friends they had made. And now it was coming to an end, Amelia and Dominic were looking forward to becoming professionals themselves. Amelia wanted to follow her mother and become a professor at a witchcraft school upon graduating. She truly believed that, that was what was meant for her and she looked forward to specializing in either the same field as her mother or the field of transfigurations. Dominic looked down a more dangerous path that scared both Amelia and her mother. He looked to become one to fight against the dark forces of magic, a dangerous profession.

Dominic ran out of the theatre that he worked at and to his car, not remembering that his mother had dropped him off. He was happy to be finished with a day's work with his muggle friends. Dominic was certain if his life didn't lead him down a magical path it would lead him to the performing arts. He was always one to love the spot light, which quite often got him in trouble at school but magic was by far was his life. He was looking forward to getting home and having a magical conversation with his sister because she was really the only magical, person aside from their mother, he could talk to. Dominic and Amelia were extremely close, they were after all twins, and being so had a stronger bond than most people would think. Not to mention the magical aspect of their lives left them with powers only the two knew about. Dominic and Amelia were so extremely close they could read each others minds without even being taught. There is a form of magical studies in which the witch or wizard could read or block the mind from other. It was a form of magic that was extremely difficult for fully trained wizards called occlumency but Dominic and Amelia had mastered this mysterious art at the age of five before even knowing they possessed magical blood. Dominic enjoyed his time with "normal" folks but he was ecstatic about his wizarding background. He knew that his grandparents on his mothers side had fought bravely against the dark forces and now in school he had been studying very hard to specialize in the defense against the dark arts. In the muggle world Dominic studied other forms of physical defenses, in his spare time; he believed that would be useful in both worlds. He wished his sister had the same interest had he did; he worried that the dark forces would return and she would not be able to defend herself, but he was alright with the idea of her specializing in transfigurations and care of magical creatures.

Dominic was the taller of the twins. He was a scrawny yet handsome young wizard with spiked red hair that was died blond at the tips. He had bright brown eyes and a very mischievous smile but the kindest of hearts imaginable. His physical appearance did no justice to his strength and intelligence. He had mastered many counter curses and charms to able him to defend himself against many magical dangers. He had also, in a very short time, mastered many muggle martial arts and defensive arts, he could fight with swords, sticks, fists and feet and take down people twice his height and size. Amelia on the other hand was only inches shorter that Dominic, she was a very beautiful young lady with long wavy red hair that she highlighted with blond as her brother did. She had blue eyes that were always smiling even when she was upset. She was very kind hearted, skinny but not sick looking she worked very hard to keep herself in shape as did her brother. She on the other hand has mastered many transfigurations and was in the process of working on her animagus. She had done it once before with the help of her professor at school and turned herself into an arctic owl and was sure if she could master it her brother would be able to as well. She was taking lessons from him at times in the dark arts, it was not her forte, and he had always asked her for help with transfigurations, the both of them were improving in both arts at extremely quick rates. The both of them had a lot in common. They did many things together and there biggest worry was to take care of there mother who seemed always in a semi state of panic.

Amelia pulled to the side of the road as a feeling of premonitions swept over her. She reached for her cellular phone before it had even rung and held it to her ear, "Hey Dominic," she said with a smile, "Where are you?"

"Coming from the theater," was the response "you have to stop doing that I barely even dialed and you had picked up. People are going to catch you!"

"I'm in the car, by myself, no one will know."

"Wait for me where you are," Dominic said as he apperated into the seat next to her.

"Well that was quick," Amelia smiled and she put her phone back into her purse, "but where is your car?"

"Mom dropped me off today remember" he smiled as he kicked back in the passenger seat and his sister set off again down the high way further and further out of the city limits into the dense Canadian forest of changing colors.

The drive home seemed to go quite peacefully until something struck Dominic. Across a great field of wheat creeping slowly down the side of a mountain was a deep green, sick looking cloud. The cloud did not seem to spread itself out but, more like a serpent slithered down the rock face to hide itself in the dense forests.

"Amelia, look at that!" Dominic yelled as he pointed out the window, "I don't like the looks of that, its not normal."

"That is right by our house Dominic!" Amelia said in a panic stricken tone, "we'd better hurry."

Belinda Cross felt most comfortable in her home that was hidden far from prying eyes in the Canadian boreal forest. It was quite a ways from the city but her children didn't mind the driving neither did she. It was in the house that she now could be herself. Her magic could be used here and so could that of her children. Belinda Bellatour, as she was known in her youth came from a pure blood wizarding family. Her mother was a pureblood from England where she and her entire family before her had studied at Hogwarts. Her father was from France and had studied in Beauxbaton. He met her mother as he took a job at the ministry of magic and moved to London Belinda had in her youth fallen in love with a young wizard at Hogwarts and for most of her school life believed that he would be in her future forever. Sadly that young wizard was taken down a very dark path that terrified Belinda and though she loved him with all her heart she could not survive the dark arts and had fled her home and her love to live in Canada, believing that she would be safe and never again would she be bothered by dark witches or wizards. Belinda was quite wrong in her assumptions the dark lords powers grew stronger and spanned nearly globally. She feared for her life and decided that she would live like a muggle to protect herself. She had, eighteen years ago, been given some relief when a young boy beet the dark lords powers and the future looked bright for the wizarding community but no one truly believed that the dark lord would be gone forever and now news of his return struck all the wizarding communities.

Belinda felt uneasy as she walked through her garden of magical plants waiting for her children to come home. She was bothered at times that her son had taken such and interest in the dark arts and even though Dominic continually assured her it was defense against the dark arts she was uneasy. Her daughter on the other hand had a talent with magical plants and animals like her mother did but was more interested in transfigurations and thankfully so. Often Dominic in his pranksters ways would practice transfigurations on the magical plants in the garden of the Cross house. Amelia would always be the one to notice a botched transfiguration and fix the mishap before something really bad could have happened. But today in the ending summer heat there was something in the air and though she had received owls from her English family and knew of the Dark Lord's return she hoped his powers had not spread as far as Canada. She had for the past months been very uneasy. The wizarding community in Canada was trying their hardest to warn people but there were still those who believed the news to be rumor and went about life as if there were no way the dark lord could return. She rounded the hedges of the house when she saw the children's car barreling down the drive. The car stopped inches from the front gate, "You two should know better than to drive that fast you could be killed!" She scolded as her children got out of the car.

"Haven't you seen it?" Amelia asked in an astonished tone.

"Get in the house mum, just go now!" Dominic said as he rushed his mother and sister into the little cottage they called home.

"What have I missed?" Belinda asked feeling panic stricken

"The dark mark!" Dominic said as he hastily pulled books down from the shelves, "or at least the signs of Voldemort's powers

"That wasn't the dark mark, Dominic," Amelia said rolling her eyes, "it was just green mist!"

Belinda ran to the windows and doors of the cottage and bolted them shut. She stopped suddenly at the last window as a thick dark cloud, sickly green in color, surrounded the house. Her heart sank to her stomach as she stared terrified at the face in her window. The hideous face not quite a snake but not quite human.

"Oh my," Stuttered Amelia as she fell backward into a chair.

"Mum, get away from the window!" Dominic yelled as he pulled his mother back and jumped in front of his mother and sister with his wand drawn.

"Don't be a hero, Dominic!"Amelia screamed

And as suddenly as it had appeared the mist was gone and the yard was sunny again.

"He knows where I am!" Belinda cried as she fell, shaking to her knees, "there is only one man who can protect us children we are leaving for London tonight!