AN: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise. Also, updates will be slowing down a bit as the end of this fic approaches.
Chapter 11: Unimportant
The smallest Potter may have only been nine, but they had figured out many things. For example, their father wasn't just a charming young man working in the ministry, he was the one holding the political power of having the "Boy-Who-Lived" as a son. It may not have seemed like much of a big deal at first glance, but James used it to get what he wanted- like promotions, better work hours, people turning the other way when he was less than charming, etcetera.
They weren't involved in ministry politics and couldn't understand much of what was happening, but they understood enough. One couldn't spend as much time in a library as they did and not learn something, after all. The child found information whether it was ritualistic murder, the inner workings of the government, or how to bake cupcakes properly.
That thirst for information followed them everywhere, though. It was something they brought with them to the parties the Potters were invited to, and the child was required to attend, where people were all too willing to share their gossip with a poor sickly little 'girl' or an unimportant guest who had found them when they were starting to sip their wine a bit too frequently. The child in question rarely used that information for anything more than idle speculation on which political official was the worst, but they certainly enjoyed figuring things out and finding information.
However much they enjoyed finding information from people rather than books, they often didn't get opportunities to speak to people in a setting where fishing for information was easy, or observe people from an outside perspective without repercussions. Whenever the Potters could leave the most minor and sickly of them at home when attending events they were invited to solely because of the celebrity in their midst, they did. Lily never hesitated or stuttered when saying, "You can't accompany us. You may be recovering, but you're still frail and could get someone sick. Besides, it's just political nonsense. Certainly not suitable for someone your age, dear." Never mind that the twin who was their age was allowed to go.
So, when they were allowed to attend events, they did so with as much grace and decorum as a nine-year-old could manage. For all that they lacked in appearance and personal status, they certainly made up for it with enough posh-sounding words and phrases from books they had read.
Throughout their hiding in the backgrounds of parties for the upper-class and wealthy, nobody sought them out. Sure, the other Potters were accosted by people left and right for insight into the family of the "Boy-Who-Lived", but the twin of the "Boy-Who-Lived" was largely ignored. Yes, people may occasionally look for them to make sure they hadn't wandered off of a balcony in broad daylight, but they never looked very hard or tried to check on them multiple times. They were allowed to wander off the moment the Potters had apparated to whatever manor was hosting the event, checked on halfway through it, and then dragged back home to be screamed at for something or another.
It was quite the system.
They went around, observing people trying to one-up one another, without ever being bothered. It was quite a learning opportunity for them, after spending most of their life stuck in their manor's library and sneaking glances at a happy family. They were the most unimportant Potter from everyone else's perspective, and they were fine being viewed like that. It was, after all, why they got away with staying in the shadows and looking at people as though they were animals in a zoo. They went unnoticed for the most part, so sneaking around and finding things they shouldn't became something of an art form for them.
For example, they happened across Lady Zabini slipping something rather suspicious looking into her latest husband's drink while everyone's backs were turned. They saw a multitude of things while hiding from their delightful 'family', from affairs to blackmailing to spiking the drinks. And despite all of their slipping between corners and the glint of their eyes from dark corners, nobody properly noticed the silent spectator to their dealings.
They were, after all, the most unimportant and useless of the Potter children. They weren't even at the top of their parents' list of priorities. In fact, the strangers they had never met at all the galas and soirees likely cared about them more than their parents. Given the fact that they barely cared about the sick little 'girl' at all, well. Everyone turned a blind eye to that, though.
But the smaller twin could always tell themselves it was better to be second to everything else, so they could go unnoticed and unobserved. It didn't matter if sometimes the thing they wanted most was for someone, anyone to care whether they recovered after a particularly vicious fever or not, or if they threw themselves out of a window.
They could fool themselves fairly well, sometimes.
So, they went through life as a silent observer. Never someone to be looked at or interacted with, just someone to ignore and dismiss.