It was a dark, shadowy night. Harry Potter stood outside the house, wind blowing through his hair. On his sister's suggestion, he had ventured outside for a breath of fresh air and a temporary escape from the cupboard under the stairs where both he and his sister resided.
They both were twins, one Harry and other Charmaine. Harry was the bold, brave and defying. Charmaine, or Charm was the smart, charming and manipulative one. She was beautiful too, and Harry liked to think that she looked just like mother and he looked just like their father, though of course, they'd never seen them.
Charmaine had silky brunette hair the cascaded down her shoulder like a waterfall, smoothly and gracefully. Nobody would think she lived under a cupboard under the stairs if she wasn't wearing Dudley and Aunt Petunia's hand me downs.
She also had clear green eyes, just like Harry's, and sometimes they sparkled whenever the girl was 'charming' someone.
Harry looked a lot like his sister, except that his hair was jet black, messy and never fixable. He had a stronger frame although, being starved by the Dursleys, he was quite scrawny.
Both of them were known as the 'Cowardly Lion and the Charming Snake' by Dudley's gang at school, which comprised of Dudley, Pierre and some other boys who were crowned as the 'Do not cross' and 'Bullies' by the rest of the school. Not cross them meant 'Don't be friends with Harry and Charmaine', so the children never had anybody for company except themselves and for the time being, they were quite alright with that!
Now, both of them were standing on the dark, windy sidewalk of Privet Drive, arms linked.
"Harry?" A gentle voice murmured.
"Hm?" The boy asked. He had zoned out thinking about the stars in the sky and the weird dream he had had about a man with a long silver beard jumping star to star, which he imagined was Merlin, from the cartoon Dudley had been watching.
"Harry, do you know Sierra, Pierre's sister?"
A wild smirk appeared on the boy's face.
"Dudley is in love with her." He affirmed, despite them just being 9 years old.
Charm gave out a soft laugh and then became serious again.
"I don't think Dudley will love her anymore." She said solemnly.
"Since when have you been so interested in Dudley's love life?" her brother asked.
"Quiet, naughty child-" Sierra said with a disapproving shake of her head. "-Sierra talked to me yesterday."
Harry's eyes went wide.
"Civilly?" He asked in astonishment.
"Civilly."
"What did she say?"
"She asked me about how I was feeling. Said she felt sorry for us, and how we have to deal with that Dudley. Do you know the best part?"
"What?" The boy asked eagerly.
"She offered to be our secret friend. Pen pal kind, you know. And said Dudley was a great pig, and when I joked about him, she blushed and said that she would rather eat her shoes."
Harry burst out laughing.
"Shush. You don't want to wake up the others, do you?"
"No. But it's so funny. She'd rather- rather eat her SHOES!" He cringed with laughter again.
"Stop. Don't you want to know how we'll be secret friends?"
Harry smiled again. "How? Post?"
"We'll be writing letters and then put it in the birdhouse in the park, written in a secret code. She'd do the same for us!"
"That's so exciting!" Harry's eyes lit up with joy.
Charm smiled happily. She loved seeing her brother happy. He didn't have much in life to be happy about, either.
"Is your scar hurting, Harry?" She asked.
"Nope. It isn't. Is your scar hurting?"
"Just a little ache, that's all. It isn't burning or anything." She assured.
They both stared at the sky, glittering with stars. Joy filled them. Tranquillity, in particular, filled Charmaine.
"You know-" Harry broke the silence. "I had this dream."
"Yes?"
"And in this dream, you were wearing a blue pajama. I was wearing a red one."
"And?"
"And we both- I know it's absurd but we flew on a flying motorcycle."
Charm furrowed her eyebrows.
"Interesting," she said. "It's Diddypigs birthday tomorrow, we mustn't forget to get some sleep." With that, she got up and headed inside.
Harry felt like that was abrupt. Nonetheless, he obliged.
"Coming!"
Harry followed his sister.
"Get in," she said, pointing to the cupboard under the stairs.
He went in but didn't close the door.
"Come in?" He asked tentatively.
"I need to get some water. You can close the door."
The boy nearly shut the door.
"Go on," urged Charm.
"Fine," the boy sulked.
A sudden force pulled Charm. She resisted it.
He finally shut the door. Charm gave out an exasperated sigh.
She sat down beside the door, her back slumped. Her eyes were clouded with thought.
She couldn't tell him. He was more powerful. Stronger, smarter, prettier, just- better. Hers was weak. She controlled it with great difficulty. But his? It lashed out without him even meaning it.
"Can't I just be good at one thing? Better at one thing?" She asked herself in her mind dozens of times, oblivious to the truth.
"I just want to be in charge for once." She said with a sniff.
"He's strong, I'm weak." She whispered to herself.
Couldn't she just have this one thing for herself? Just one thing, one thing that would make her special.
Her soft red hair graced her pale, frosty skin as she turned her petite head toward the open door. Part of her wanted to leave it like that so that these unpleasant Dursley's could get robbed, but that was just plain evil. With a peaceful look on her face, she turned went closer to the door.
"Don't." A voice in her mind said.
"Use your magical powers!"
She'd already closed the door, but not locked it yet. With a sigh, she focused on the bolts.
She concentrated, her eyebrows furrowing.
'Harry could probably do this in a second.' A wave of anger struck her. Harry didn't even practice! Harry didn't even care about these 'weird things' that happened. Yet he always would be better than her.
There was a click.
The door had bolted.
She sighed again and turned. Her powers were still working. Thankfully.
Her young heart sang. If not better than Harry, she was at least better than Dudley.
'I shall leave my mark on history, everybody shall know my name.'
Little did she know that she'd already accomplished that at the age of 1.