Binaries

By BEWD Sorcerer

Statement of not claiming: I don't own.

AN: I had some difficulty with this chapter. Stupid tenses. Obviously some time has passed between the first chapter and this one. Harry's just thinking back over all he's learned so far.

thoughts

"Out loud speech, English"

'Parseltongue'

:Link Speech: Note: not L33t speak

3. A Pause to Review

The dreams were disturbing and becoming more frequent, coming even during his waking hours whenever he started to drift off. Some were short flashes or even just one image of something or someone, while others could last hours. So far the Dursleys hadn't caught him when he was zoned out, but that could happen any day now.

If it kept up during the school year there might be problems. He hadn't even thought to tell Dumbledore. That man had lost his trust by keeping such important information from him. If he had but known, then Sirius might still be sending him letters, even if they were annoyingly short.

Between all the dreams and the questions they brought up, he hadn't had time to angst about Sirius; in fact, he'd hardly thought about him all summer. Every time his train of thought moved in the direction of his godfather another flashback would interrupt, almost as if to distract him from the fact that Sirius was dead.

Kieran wasn't more important than Sirius nor was Tom Riddle, despite the Prophesy that Dumbledore had told him, but his mind kept wandering back to the dreams.

They were so much like memories, first person perspective dreams that were so vivid that at times it was difficult to distinguish between reality and the dreams. Was he Kieran or Harry?

Memories of days at the orphanage with Tom Riddle were always so depressing and rather morbid, yet there was a strange lightness.

One of the more informative dreams had been when the two had asked the matron about their birth and she told them.

They were twin brothers. Tom was born first and named by their mother after their father and then their mother had died. The helpers had washed and fed Tom, while the matron cleaned up around the body when she had noticed movement within the corpse.

She had taken a kitchen knife and performed a Cesarean, taking the child from the womb directly. The matron had called him 'Kieran', though he was officially named Henry Matthew Riddle to not stand out. Kieran means 'dark one' and the whole orphanage believed him to be a demon because of the circumstances of his birth, but the matron had just shook her head at their superstitious notions. The dream had ended there and Harry pondered once again if these were real or just part of a plot.

The next dream showed when the Nazis had attacked London in the Battle of Britain. The matron had died, crushed by falling rubble as had many of the children and helpers. Kieran and Tom had survived because of their magic creating a barrier, preventing them from being flattened and then enabling them to shift the rocks enough to escape being buried alive in a broken tomb.

Afterwards when they heard that the new matron would be Mrs. Cole, they went and asked if they were going to be allowed to stay at the orphanage. Mrs. Cole didn't deny that she found the previous matron a little screwy in the head because she didn't find anything wrong with either Riddle, but she did acknowledge that she wouldn't – couldn't get rid of the two by law. After they left, Kieran and Tom swore to each other that they'd never get caught doing something bad, so they wouldn't get kicked out.

Because of their continued survival and living arrangements in the orphanage, the two Riddles had become even more outcast, but Mrs. Cole couldn't punish what she didn't see and the other orphans had no such qualms and terrorized them at every chance, enraging Tom and earning his ire.

A child named Billy (who had no last name because no one knew who his parents had been) had openly accused Kieran of being a demon though it was Tom who fought with him, claiming that his brother was no such thing. Billy had then said Tom must be a demon, too, being related to Kieran and all, using some very foul language to insult the brothers further.

Tom had been so angry that he had hung Billy's rabbit using magic that he wasn't supposed to have that much control over yet.

The other children, led by Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop, had ganged up on Kieran, thinking that he had been the one to hang the bunny, leaving the younger Riddle covered in bruises and cuts, with a broken arm.

Tom had been furious and in retaliation he took the two leaders into a seaside cave when they had gone on a sort of field trip and punished them.

They never did that again, in fact they couldn't stand to be in the same room with either Riddle, though Kieran hadn't harmed them in any way, not even when trying to escape the children during their attack.

Tom took something from each of the children who had helped in the attack on his little brother and they knew it, but were unable to do anything about it because of their utter terror of Tom's wrath.

Then Dumbledore had come, discussing the Riddle brothers with Mrs. Cole, while Kieran eavesdropped, not that anyone ever found out.

Dumbledore told Tom about Hogwarts first, then, after not-so-subtly threatening Tom for stealing from the other orphans, he had tracked down Kieran, who reacted coldly particularly when Dumbledore had asked him about Tom.

Kieran was just as protective of Tom as Tom was of him and both had noticed the Leaky Cauldron during their explorations of London, though they had never entered, wary of what kind of business the Leaky Cauldron was.

Dumbledore had offered to go with Kieran as he had Tom, but Kieran, like his brother, had stated they didn't need him.

The dream had ended here, but the next night it had picked up again.

After the auburn-haired man had left, Kieran quickly went to Tom's room and glomped him. They were ecstatic about being wizards and leaving the orphanage, so ecstatic that they went that very day to the Leaky Cauldron and crossed into Diagon Alley, purchasing most of their supplies secondhand because of necessity, though that hadn't made Tom feel any better.

They entered Ollivander's warily, glancing around quickly and trying to not look as nervous as they felt. After waiting a good five minutes, Mr. Ollivander greeted them by creeping up behind them, startling them so much that Kieran darted behind Tom, who stood his ground and glared.

The old wandmaker had just smiled; his eyes just as pale then as they were over half a century later. Out came the tape measure as Mr. Ollivander gave the same spiel about the different wands made, but he also told how long ago they had been made.

It took a long time, but eventually the pale-eyed man pulled out two wands that had been side-by-side. He had murmured that surely it couldn't be. The twins took the wands, waving them simultaneously and causing red and gold sparks shoot out of the wands, lighting up the dimly lighted shop with light so bright that the three present had to shield their eyes.

To say they were surprised would be an understatement. Ollivander told them that these two wands' cores had been from the same phoenix, who gave only those two feathers. Tom's was the same 13 ½ inch yew wand, but Kieran's was the achingly familiar 11 inch holly wand.

Harry jerked awake at this. How he could have the same wand had plagued Harry until he finally firmly told himself that this was all just a trick or trap to confuse and/or hurt him. It must be a plot, a lie, to do… something to him.

He set it aside, ignoring it. He'd be going to the Burrow soon. Maybe the dreams would stop. If they didn't, then Hermione might be of some help.

AN: I may revamp and repost this later on, but for now here it is.