Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing world of Harry Potter and some of the stuff I write might be unconsciously stolen from good books that I read.
Chapter 2: Tight buns and old-fashioned dresses.
Mcgonall:
The portkey took me to a road opposite a row of houses, one of which had been converted into a shop. I went inside it and two identical girls with features from all the more well-known pureblood families so that they looked like someone had reached into a hat and pulled out scraps of paper to decide what they looked like (Grey eyes and high cheek bones from the blacks, sharp facial features from the Malfoys, pale, freckled skin from the Weasleys and the Potter's messy, black hair that had been cut short to be practical) were approaching
"The store's shut." said the girl on the left in a cold voice.
"I know but I have something very important to tell you and it'll take a while. You may want to sit down." I said.
"Oh, I get it now. You found out that we're Harry Potter fans and thought that it would funny to dress up as McGonagall and tell us that we are going to Hogwarts. Ha, ha. Happy now? Now stop pranking us and get out before we take the chance to test our martial arts skills." she said.
The twin on the right threw a glance at the other one who then threw an apologetic glance back. She reminds me of a younger version of myself. Arabella did warn me that she would be defensive until she really believed who I was but she didn't warn me that she would be sarcastic and smart as well. Then realisation dawns on me.
"Are you two psychics?"
"We're not telling you anything about ourselves so you should go away before we carry out our threat." The twin on the right threw a glance at the other one again who then threw another apologetic glance back.
"Perdita! You don't go around threatening people no matter what!" A man that looked nothing like his daughters came walking through a doorway that must have led to some kind of workshop at the back of the store since he was wearing a leather apron, leather gloves, goggles over a protective mask on his head and a hard hat in his hands.
"But dad..." She said in a much softer voice than the one that she had used on me.
"No, no buts. Nothing ever gives you the right to be that rude! I am very ashamed of you and you are banned from meeting your friends tomorrow!"
"But dad..." tried the first twin (who I now know to be Perdita) weakly and I think that she isn't even trying so she can't have many good friends so I decided to intervene.
"No Mr Simul, I completely understand that it may seem like I was, uh, 'pranking' her. Why don't you call Miss Figg round and she can help me explain?"
"Uh OK, what's your name again?" Asked Flynn Simul.
"It's Minerva, but tell her that I've got the letters."
By now Janis Simul, who looked nothing like her daughters, had come over to watch, and the other twin (who I now know is called Puellae) was staring at me, open mouthed.
"I really do hope that you two aren't in my house! Your manners really do need some work." I said looking at Puellae and then at Perdita who seemed to be following the 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all rule."
Puellae blushed and shut her mouth immediately, mumbling her apologies. She then stared at her as if she was trying to silently communicate with her.
"And some tea would be nice, dear." I said, nodding at Mrs Simul. Perdita's anger visibly flared and she glared at me in in fury:
"Professor or not, you have no right to come in here and start bossing my family around!" She growled, "I hope I'm not in Gryffindor if it produces people like this."
My face betrayed me just then and let out two small slips of emotion: anger and amusement, but then slipped back to my 'usual, complex, emotionless mask' as I heard some kids describing it once. I raised my eyebrows.
"You know, if you carry on like this you two will most certainly be sorted into Gryffindor. In my youth I was exactly like you. However, if there are any slip-ups like this at school, they will result in punishment."
"Hang on. What do you mean 'at school'?" Mrs Simul said in alarm. But before I had the chance to answer her, the deafening bell that they had attached to the doorway (Most likely because it was the only way to hear it above all the caving that goes on in the workshop at the back) rang to signal that Arabella and Mr Simul have arrived. First came Arabella, almost sprinting through the doorway, who was shortly followed by Mr Simul, who seemed to be struggling to keep up with her judging by his bright red face.
"Minerva, have you told them anything yet?"
"Only a bit. Don't worry I haven't you know what yet: I doubt we need to trouble them with that information for a long time." Luckily, I said all of this out of earshot of the twins because, otherwise, they probably would've made it their lives ambitions to find out what 'you know what' was (or at least Perdita would've and Puellae would've tagged along to try and keep her under as much control as possible).
"Uh, so girls..." Started Arabella as if she was going to tell them that their Grandmother had passed away.
"Yes, we've been told that we're going to Hogwarts but neither of us..." said Perdita rather rudely in a voice that sounded very different that the ones she had used on her father and I. It was softer than the one she had used on me but more friendly than the one she had used on her father as if she were speaking to a friend that she trusted but it would've been a lot kinder if it weren't for the sharpness of the words.
"Now see here. Why don't you let someone else speak for once, such as your sister? I don't think I've heard her say a word since I got here." I said sharply.
Everyone, apart from Perdita who shot a dirty glace at me first, then turned their heads towards Puellae who was silent for a second as if deliberating on what to say before, meekly, saying:
"I don't like speaking aloud that much, nor do I like attention for that matter which Perdie usually says my opinion for me, but if you wish for me to voice my feelings aloud, myself then I'll say that I can't fully believe this without evidence but nor do I think that Bella would lie to us to this extreme." Except she said the whole in one long breath so that Perdita had to translate for the rest of us. Once she had finished translating, I realised that her loudness was to draw all the attention away from her sister and to stop her from having to speak and the dirty look was because I had brought all of the attention to her sister but instead of saying that, all I said was
"You told me you weren't psychics."
"No, I distinctly remember saying 'we're not telling you anything' and then threatening you." Perdita corrected me, "But we do have a psychic connection that allows us to send each other private messages and feel what the other one feels, psychically and mentally and we even sometimes get imprints of cuts and scars or even dirt that the other has. It affects me more though. I can almost always feel what Puell feels and I receive the messages for longer and stuff like that. We even once did tests on it round Bella's."
"Excuse me! You performed tests on my daughters and didn't even think to ask my permission!" Screeched Mrs Simul at poor Arabella.
"No no no, it was nothing like that, and it was their..." but Mrs Simul cut her off with a menacing glare that I made a mental note to question her about later but realised that I probably wouldn't get the chance to. However, the girls' attention wasn't fully focused on their mother's outburst, otherwise I'm sure that they would've helped Arabella, but half of it was focused on me on me: they must've seen my third betrayal of emotion. When I realised that they were psychics, I realised something else as well and my mouth must've fallen open like Puellae's did earlier.
"Now, girls let's get to business. Have you heard the tale of Merlin and the injustices of humanity?" I asked.
"Yes," Perdita said immediately, "Bella told it to us this morning."
"Well, that simplifies things then, well... It's probably best to just say this outright: there are two different universes. It seems that the point that they split at was during that tale which is why it's crucial for you two to have heard it. In our universe, instead of sucking all magic from the world, Merlin stopped all the were-wolves' eyes from being golden except at the full moon and created the blood moon which you don't have here. The blood moon is when, once every hundred years or so, the moon turns red for the full moon and were-wolves are able to keep their minds once they transform. Some people say that Merlin coats the moon in the blood of the many were-wolves that died trying to make the world a better place for their kind. He was unable to help them any further and even this act took almost all of his power to perform and he spent years recovering from it." I said.
"But hang on, if Merlin sucked all the magic from our world, then how did we get admitted to Hogwarts?" Perdita asked, focusing on the correct detail (and being surprisingly quick to get over the fact that there are multiple universes) unlike her mum who just asked:
"There are were-wolves?"
I sighed.
"Not in your universe but in mine and Miss Figg's, yes, there is."
I sighed once again and ignored her. Turning towards Perdita, I said:
"In answer to your question, Albus has this theory that Merlin didn't suck all the magic from the world, but merely blocked it, and, combined, your magic is stronger than his and managed to break through the barrier. It took a lot of spell work from all of the Unspeakables and all of the accidental magic reversal squads and all of the experimental charms unit to stop the barrier from breaking entirely."
Mr and Mrs Simul were sitting on their chairs looking like someone had shown them an incredibly difficult algebra calculation and then told them to solve it. I was unsure of how to explain it in a way that they would understand.
"Don't worry, we'll be able to explain it to them pretty easily." Perdita said, as if sensing my uneasiness. Then, turning to her parents, she said
"Do you remember reading the Harry Potter books to us? And how desperate we were to perform magic so that we could go to Hogwarts?" Her parents nodded blankly.
"Well, it turns out that the whole Harry Potter stuff is real and me and Puell have been enrolled into Hogwarts but it is in a parallel universe and if we were to go there, we would have to move universes but if we do go then there won't be many of the dangerous things that Harry encountered and me and Puell would do anything if you let us go to Hogwarts. Please can we go?" Said Perdita very quickly, her voice getting higher as she went on.
"Um, girls we'll need to think about this properly. First of all, think about what we would be leaving behind, and then there's all the trouble of our shop and our house." said Mrs Simul.
"What will we be leaving behind? It could be a new start for us. We have no family or friends here, apart from Arabella who will coming with us, and as for the house..." but I interrupted her.
"We will supply you with a house that I'm sure you'll love and this house will be used to stage your deaths after we have transported your belongings out by portkey if you agree to go."
"They have a point, love. We could start over in this new universe. You could become a professional boxer or jockey like you always dreamed." persuaded Mr Simul.
"Oh, all right then." She gave in.
