A/N: I sincerely hope Harry and Henry are less OP than in the original. I mean, they're probably still OP in a (study-related) sense... Don't worry, you'll get what I mean as soon as they get to Hogwarts.

CHAPTER 3: Diagon Alley

Warning: mentions of abuse again.

Harry held up his new clothes so Henry could see them. First was a pair of jeans, then grey sweatpants. He got a new set of pajamas too, as well as a black t-shirt and white long-sleeved shirt. And a new pair of glasses. Dudley had broken the old ones by punching him in the face the other day.

Henry (who was fortunate enough not to need glasses), grinned at the grey skirt and yellow t-shirt in her lap. They had no prints on them, which was what she liked best. There was a summer dress too, which she wanted to wear immediately. Sirius had to be the one that sent them the presents. Maybe Remus too, if they were lucky. She had a hard time thinking of a reason for anyone else to magically break in and leave them stuff at night.

The Dursleys were going to London today. The twins were supposed to stay with Mrs Figgs, but she had agreed on calling in sick when they showed her their letters. Petunia looked like she'd swallowed a lemon after taking the call. Vernon cursed vehemently but sighed in defeat and let them in the car with a stern warning.

"I don't want you to do anything strange or dangerous, understood? If you do, I'll lock you up for a week." How he thought to accomplish that when they were starting school the day after was beyond their understanding.

It took an hour before the twins managed to discreetly separate themselves from the Dursleys. Then came the real challenge. Henry didn't remember where in London the Leaky Cauldron stood. It could be here and it could be on the other side. They were looking for a sign with its name as well as any oddly dressed individuals. If they stumbled upon witches or wizards they could point them in the right direction.

"Sirius," whispered Henry. He was standing between two buildings, excitedly wagging his tail.

"Of course," Harry grinned. "Finally we have some use of him." They followed the wizard-turned-dog for almost two hours before they reached the magical inn.

"Good day," Tom the bartender greeted them. "Oh, by Merlin's beard."

"Goodbye," Harry quickly replied and pushed Henry after Sirius. "How do we get past this?" He looked at the brick wall.

"Do you need help?"

They looked at the bartender. "Yes please."

"Are you perchance the Potter twins?" he asked and opened the wall for them. "Remember the combination."

"Thank you." They rushed through without confirming their identity. Rude, of course, but they didn't want people to know. Their scars weren't easy to hide, but at least they could run if they didn't want to answer.

The lively alley was distracting. People in colourful attires walked around with baskets and talked animatedly. The twins held each other's hands hard and prayed to whatever deity existed they weren't noticed.

"Where first?" whispered Harry, pressing himself as close to Henry as physically possible.

"Gringotts." They needed money to pay for everything. Sirius nodded and immediately led the way.

Gringotts was as crooked as she remembered. If it hadn't been for the magic, it had been a miracle the columns held at all. As it was, they went inside after Harry, baffled, commented on the architecture.

"It's the only bank in wizarding Britain," Henry murmured.

"What can I do for you, dear customers?" asked a goblin that looked particularly mean to Harry.

"We're here for our vault, sir," Henry said. "For Mr and Miss Potter."

The goblin looked at their scars for a moment before nodding. "Of course. Follow me." This hadn't happened in the book. The trio curiously followed the nameless goblin to an office, where he put a piece of parchment and a needle in front of them. "I need you to give some blood. It's to see if you truly are who you say you are."

"Alright," Henry said and took the needle. They were quite famous and rich, of course there would be safety measures.

Pricking her finger didn't hurt that much. She pressed her thumb on the parchment and saw the red blood turn golden. It branched upwards like a tree, revealing her and Harry's names, together with James and Lily's and James' parents.

"Your turn," the goblin told Harry. The same thing occurred, which pleased the creature. "Perfect. Please excuse the precautions, Mr and Miss Potter." They nodded. "So, here is your family's vault, vault number 687. Would you like to visit it?"

"Yes please, we'd like to withdraw some money." How much did you need for school supplies? The goblin gladly helped them calculate it and wished them a good day.

"What was that about?" asked Harry as they left the building. "He went from grumpy to… less grumpy."

"Because we're valuable customers." Sirius nodded in agreement.

"Sure… that or our money. So, where next?"

"Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions." Today was the day Harry originally went to Diagon Alley, which meant Draco was already there. After much debate, Henry had figured why not go meet the prat and see where it went? If they didn't completely despise each other by the end of it, she might have some use of him.

And she had had a soft spot for him growing up, but that was secondary. She couldn't save everyone.

The dress store was full of clothes and fabrics alike, in all kinds of colour combinations. There were robes not even Molly Weasley would approve off (lavender with bright yellow and red in a checkers pattern? Really?), formal robes and normal robes. Thankfully there wasn't much activity so early in the day.

Animals weren't allowed inside, so Sirius waited outside.

"Hello dears," a young witch greeted them. "Here for school robes?"

"Uh, sure," Harry replied.

"Fabulous. Which one of you wants to go first?"

The twins had a silent conversation in which Harry won. He excused himself and began wandering the store. Henry sighed mournfully and followed the witch to the circular platform in the back. And promptly dropped her jaw at the sight of Draco Malfoy. He looked exactly like a young Tom Felton. He was looking at the ceiling, incredibly bored, and didn't notice when she took a place beside her.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," the witch said and placed a warm hand on Henry's arm. Henry slapped it away and tumbled to the ground.

Disgusting disgusting disgusting ran on repeat in her head. She stared at the surprised witch and said, "Don't touch me," rather rudely. Draco glanced her way, but she ignored him.

"Very well, I apologise." The witch gave her a kind smile and gestured for her to stand back up. "But I need you to take off the hoodie. The measurements won't be right if you wear something that baggy."

Henry pulled it over her head without a word. Relief coursed through her at the sight of the now moving tools. The witch gave her a last smile before vanishing, leaving her alone with Draco and his assistant.

"Are you… alright?" asked the boy in genuine concern.

"Pardon?"

He nodded at her. "Your face, it's… odd."

She raised an eyebrow, which made him flustered. "Should I comment on your ridiculous hair then?"

"It's not ridiculous! It's fashionable."

She snorted. "I noticed magical people aren't really up to modern standards, so sorry for doubting you."

Red spots of embarrassment made it look like he had the measles. "How rude! And what, you're a Mudblood?"

She showed him her most evil grin. He flinched. "Now now, that's quite rude of you. You haven't even introduced yourself."

"That's… true. Well then, I'm Draco Malfoy. And you?"

"Henrietta Potter."

Draco's jaw dropped and the witch stopped measuring him. "Excuse me?" he asked. "As in the Girl-Who-Lived?" Henry nodded and watched in satisfaction how he went white underneath all that blush. "I… I…"

"So no, I'm not a Muggleborn," she interrupted him, "but my mother was. If you don't have anything decent to say, please shut up."

Draco's assistant finished a moment later. He gave her a last regretful look before leaving. Harry took his place. The witch, having witnessed Henry's reluctance of physical contact, asked if he wanted her to charm the tools. The ordeal didn't take more than fifteen minutes.

While they followed Sirius to get a cauldron and phials, Harry asked Henry who the boy from the store was. "I saw him exiting. He looked at me rather regretfully."

"Draco Malfoy," she replied.

"Oh. What's a Pureblood doing talking to us?" She had long ago explained the intricacies of magical blood politics.

Sirius barked and looked at them from over the shoulder.

"Sorry Sirius," said Henrietta absentmindedly.

They got their Potions equipment, as well as a telescope and a set of brass scales each. They entered the bookstore without Sirius (again, no animals allowed) and quickly decided they wanted their own library someday. After finding the course literature, they wandered around the store to find other interesting titles. There were a few fairy tales they discussed if they should buy. The Tales of Beedle the Bard was Henry's pick. Tales of Ages Past was Harry's.

"Never heard of," said Henry and took the book, reading the summary. It appeared to be a collection of older, darker fairy tales. "It's like the Grimm brothers."

"I thought so too. Do we have enough for both?"

They did. They had taken a bit more money than necessary, in case they needed to buy lunch—or stuff like this.

A hand grabbed Henry's shoulder. She forced herself to stay stiff as a statue. Harry looked behind them to glare at the rude stranger, only to roll his eyes.

"Weasley."

"Harry!" one of the Weasley twins greeted. "Nice to meet you again. I knew you'd come here."

"Let go of my sister's shoulder."

The boy did, giving them a look of surprise. Henry fervently rubbed the spot he'd touched. "You alright there, Henry?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine."

"Uh. I'm sorry?" He nervously dragged his hand through his flaming hair. "I won't do that again, promise. So, buying books for first year?"

"Yep," said Harry and showed him his stack of books. "And you?"

"Third year." He nodded at the cash register. "Only some of them, though. Wizards never think to update their school books, so we still use the ones Bill had."

"Who?"

"Their brother," Henry replied before biting her tongue.

The Weasley twin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Why, yes, that's correct. How'd you know?"

"Looked through the register," she muttered, looking at the very fascinating stack of books to her left.

Harry quickly joined in on the lie. "We've lived with Muggles our whole lives," he explained, "so we decided to check out the library now that we're here."

"I see!" The boy grinned. "But hm, Muggles? You're Muggleborn?"

"Halfblood," Harry corrected. "Our dad was Pureblood and mum a Muggleborn."

"Oho, don't see that everyday. I'm George Weasley, by the way. I never properly introduced myself."

"You didn't do that at all," Harry pointed out. "I'm Harry Potter, this is Henry."

"Henrietta Potter," she clarified.

"Wait, as in the Twins-Who-Lived?" Harry frowned and glanced at Henry. She gave a tired smile and nodded. "Sweet! Wait until I tell mum about this, she'll go through the roof. What House do you think you'll be sorted in?"

"Beats me. As long as I'm with Henry, I don't care."

"You might want to prepare for otherwise. Just because you're twins doesn't mean you'll be Sorted the same."

"What about you?" asked Harry curiously. "You have a twin too, right?"

"Ah, Fred. Yes, we're in Gryffindor. We're… special though." He didn't elaborate.

"If you say so." They stood in awkward silence for a moment. "Alright, we have to go. Hope we'll see you in Hogwarts," Harry said and dragged Henry out of the store. "That was horrible."

"You like him," replied Henry in surprise.

"You think?"

"Why else would you be so happy?"

Harry pouted. "Because he's nice." He gave a small smile at Henry's giggle. "So, where do we go now?"
"Ollivanders. We need wands." She looked at Sirius. "You coming?" He wagged his tail excitedly and ran up to the front to lead the way.

There were much more people outside now. The clock should be around lunch time, so it was expected, but that didn't mean the twins liked it. They held hands tightly and weaved between people best they could. Henry almost missed the pet store. Thanks to motion in the window, she looked to catch what it was and stopped dead in her tracks. Hedwig! How could she have forgotten Harry's trusted animal companion?

Without explanation, she rushed inside. Sirius walked up to Harry and looked at him. The boy only shrugged.

"What's gotten into you?" he asked when Henry came back with a snow white owl. "Do we need that one?"

"Of course, who else will bring us mail?"

"What mail? We have no one to send us anything!" He sighed. "Whatever. It's pretty."

"She is, isn't she? Consider it a joint birthday present."

He glanced at the owl. It was looking at him curiously. "Can we name her Hedwig?"

"But of course!"

The inside of Ollivanders was dark and stuffy and smelled of ink and wood. It would have been cozy if it hadn't been so dusty and cramped. Every shelf was filled to the brim with wand boxes, dark and rectangular. Every shelf was filled to the brim with black, rectangular boxes.

Hedwig's cage was placed on the floor by the cash register. No one showed up so Harry sat down and leaned against the black wood.

Something was tugging at Henry's chest. Since Ollivander was nowhere to be seen, she followed the strange feeling deeper into the store. It was far bigger than she expected and soon the noise from the entrance quieted down and disappeared.

It smelled strongly of wood here. It got so bad a headache bloomed behind her eyes. Row after row of wands she walked past, and she excitedly wondered which would be hers. She hadn't taken the test on Pottermore, but she had taken the Patronus and House Sorting tests. She'd been a Hufflepuff. Would she find herself with the Badgers? Or with the same Patronus? She was fundamentally different from her past self, a girl she could barely remember anymore, but if she was lucky, her Patronus remained the same.

She stopped in front of an unassuming shelf. Her hand reached for the boxes and gradually the tugging intensified until she pulled the only glowing one out. As soon as she held the black thing in her hands, the feeling disappeared. She was about to open the box when a pair of old hands clasped around hers. She screamed.

"Hush now, my dear, or I'll go deaf," said Ollivander with a smile. "I see you've found a wand you fancy. Let's see if we can find some more." Without another word, he disappeared with the box. Confused, Henry went back to a worried Harry.

"What in the world was that?" he asked.

"He surprised me, is all."

"Who?"

"Ah, two young customers. Fabulous." He spread the wand boxes on the counter. "Let's start with Ms Potter. Don't be shy, of course I know who you are. Most curious, that scar you have. Curious, but beautiful."

The scars were symbols of death. She supposed it could be beautiful. When you weren't murdered.

Ollivander gave them a secretive smile and looked at the door. "He's allowed inside, you know." At their wary expressions, he added, "The dog, I mean. There's no reason to keep him waiting."

They shared an uneasy look before Harry let Sirius inside. The dog suspiciously sniffed the air before settling between the twins. Henry began to absentmindedly scratch his head.

Thereafter followed the same explanation from the book about wands choosing their partners and not vice versa before he got down to business. "Let's start with this one," he said and offered Henry a ten inch long chestnut wand with a dragon core. Nothing happened. "Hm, curious indeed… Next one."

The unicorn core matched with rowan shot electricity up her arm. The hawthorn wand sent a shelf into oblivion. Red Oak wasn't an option at all; Ollivander held one out but before Henry could take it, he put it back in its box muttering about "not wanting to die today."

With every rejected wand, the twins and Sirius eyed each other in worry. If it took this long to find Henry a wand, what would happen when they came to Harry? Ollivander on the other hand was having the time of his life. He whispered about "tricky customers" with a smile.

Finally Ollivander opened the box she'd taken. The wand he presented her made everyone's jaws drop. Henry took it and gasped. A warm, familiar feeling seeped from the wood and into her body, coating her in love and security. A quiet voice whispered something inaudible in her ear. She didn't recognise it.

Harry wiped her tear-streaked cheek. "Henry? What's wrong?" he asked gently. "Why are you crying?"

"I… I don't know." She rubbed her eyes with one hand and patted Sirius whining form with the other. "It felt so sad." She looked at Ollivander. "What did the wand do to me?"

The man was full-on grinning. "The wand didn't do anything more than accept you, my dear. Do you know what it's made of?" He leaned against the counter when she shook her head. "Phoenix core, twelve inches… and elder."

If I stole Harry's wand… went through her mind before she remembered it was made from holly. Thank God she hadn't turned into one of those OP original characters from fanfics that stole Harry's spot. She may be his twin but she had no illusion about taking his fame and place as the Chosen One. He could gladly keep them.

"Elder wands are rare, my girl. They're said to be deeply unlucky and the hardest to master. It takes a highly unusual person to find their perfect match in elder, you see. Whenever this occurs, the master is certain to be marked for a special destiny," continued Ollivander and brought her back to reality.

She nodded and gave the wand a sceptical once-over. What a wand indeed. She'd never seen anything fancier. It changed colours from pink to purple to blue. The holster was white and, except for the intricate carvings, smooth and painted with small elderberries in black, blue and dark purple. It looked nothing like the wands described in the books or shown in the movies. It honestly looked fake.

"Can I really have this?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't you? The wand chose you as its companion."

"It's— I mean… I'm not that special." Again, Harry was the Chosen One, she had just hiked a ride on his journey. Like a guardian angel. There was no reason for her to have such a weird wand. She didn't want it.

Please leave me out of this. She never once wanted to be a main character in a story. The stress having to deal with all the plots and subplots would kill her before the villain could.

"Aren't you Henrietta Potter?"

"Well, yes, but what's that got to do with anything?"

"Vanquishing the Dark Lord is an admirable feat, especially when you're barely a year old," smiled Ollivander. "As it happens, I didn't craft this wand. It is the last creation, the masterpiece, of my great grandfather. It's never found an owner, until now."

Of course not. You couldn't be the sister of the protagonist without getting at least something extraordinary yourself. If this was a book, the wand would definitely come equipped with some kind of OP plot armour.

"Is it supposed to be blue?" Harry asked and poked it.

Ollivander took the wand from her and held it up to study. "It was painted with crushed blue minerals, dipped into the blood of—" He grinned. "That's not important. The thing is, it's old and comes from a different time when wand fashion was much more important. The more intricate they were, the more prestige they held, especially depending on the materials used to craft and paint it." He gave the wand back to Henry. "What you have here, dear girl, is the culmination of my great grandfather's knowledge. It was the last wand he ever made."

Had she mentioned how ridiculous this was? This unknown wand, never mentioned in neither books, films nor any fanfictions she'd read, was now in her possession. And what a wand! Culmination of knowledge, dipped in creature blood—what kind of unholy magical ritual had been performed to craft this?

Ollivander gave her a last, ear-splitting grin before turning to Harry. "Ah, Mr Potter, shall we?"


They left the wandmaker after what felt like hours, with a new wand each. Neither was particularly satisfied. Henry didn't want to be special and Harry didn't want to have yet another connection to Voldemort.

"How about we switch?" he suggested. "I take that fancy wand and you go duel dear old Voldy with his wand-sibling."

"I don't think it works that way." She still took the wand though. It made some sparkles but wasn't satisfied being used by her. Harry sighed, having achieved similar results with hers.

"We're twins, why doesn't it work?"

"Maybe we have to be identical twins, like Fred and George?"

"Sucks." They pocketed the wands and followed Sirius back to the Leaky Cauldron. No one noticed them. It was weird, but they weren't about to complain.

Sirius sniffed the air a few times and took them on another long winded quest through half of London (according to them at least) before they found the Dursleys sitting at a café.

"There you are," said Dudley snootily, glaring at them. "You've been gone for hours!"

"Where were you?" hissed Petunia suspiciously.

"Got lost. You didn't stop when we called for you, so we had to wander around until we found you." Harry shrugged. "Do we get lunch too?"

Petunia begrudgingly gave them enough money to buy a sandwich each. The twins were grateful for Ollivander spelling their trunks to grow and shrink on command. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to carry around all their stuff. And the trunks had been expensive, too. They were charmed with Expansion Charms to fit more than was possible.

"We're going home after this," said Petunia when the twins came back with food. "So eat quickly."

She didn't have to tell them twice. They were used to wolfing down their food. Petunia must have been satisfied with their speed, because she didn't say anything. Somewhere on the ride home, the twins fell asleep, leaning against each other. Dudley woke them by putting a wet finger in Henry's ear. She shrieked and accidentally punched him in the face.

"Let me out!" she screamed from inside the cupboard. "It wasn't even my fault!"

Harry sighed from the other side. "They don't care, so don't waste your energy." He sat with his back against the door until Vernon finally came to free her.

"Nasty creatures," he scoffed and walked away. "No dinner for you!"

"Who'd want to eat your cooking anyway?" hissed Harry and dragged Henry to their room. "Let's check out our books." They sat on the bed, Harry reading their Transfiguration book and Henry reading the Potions book.

"If it wasn't for Snape, I'd love Potions."

"Who's that?"

"The Potions professor. He's Slytherin's Head of House and mum's old friend."

"How do you know these things?" sighed Harry. "And don't blame your prophetic dreams; this doesn't sound remotely like anything you should know."

"I just do."

"Ugh, fine." He buried himself in the book. Henry sighed but accepted he didn't want to talk to her. This wasn't a secret she could easily tell anyone, not even him. Magic was one thing, reincarnation from another universe another. In this world, it was possible to transcend death. That's what Voldemort did. But for your memories and personality to outvie the boundaries or reality? How did you go about explaining that?

She didn't want Harry to turn his back on her. He was the only one she had left.

Night came and they readied themselves for bed.

"Henry?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we'll make any real friends? At Hogwarts, I mean."

"Of course." He'd befriend Ron and Hermione, not because of his fame but because of his personality. And she… She had to do her best too. "There are good people in this world, people that look past our reputation."

"I hope so." He fell silent for only a moment. "What happens if we're not in the same House?" They were only apart when Vernon or Petunia locked them in the cupboard, and even then they stayed outside most of the time. To be in different parts of the castle, not sharing the same curriculum… it was unthinkable.

"I… I don't know," she whispered. "I didn't want to think about it."

If they were separated, there was nothing they could do. The Sorting Hat's decisions seemed to be absolute. If she was sorted into Hufflepuff and Harry into Gryffindor, they had to accept it and make the best of the situation. How they were going to do that, however, she had no idea.

"I see. Um… Another thing…" She waited for him to gather himself. Me having this wand… that's not something bad, is it?"

The question hung between them before Henry found her voice.

"Not might be an omen. Who knows how the world works? But I don't think it's bad." Trying to lighten the mood, she poked him with her toe. "Maybe you're destined to defeat him!"

"We already did."

She paused and looked at the ceiling. "Yeah. Sure."

Harry gave her a slightly concerned look, but decided not to press the subject. She'd tell him when she was ready. She always did. He just hoped it wouldn't come back to bite him in the arse later.


The day after, they wolfed down their breakfast and fled the house before Petunia could say anything. Henry wore her new skirt and shirt and Harry his jeans and t-shirt. They ran to the forest where Daycrusher (the boa said that was its name) was waiting.

"Look here!" Henry excitedly said. Harry pulled their trunks from his pocket and placed them on the ground. "Tootsies." The trunks grew.

"Impresssive," Daycrusher agreed. "Are thessse for ssschool?"

They nodded and brought out their books. "Isss it okay if we read here?" asked Harry. It was the only place they were safe.

"Of courssse. I do not own thisss foressst." Daycrusher waited for the twins to settle down before curling into a ball in Henry's lap. She used the snake as leverage for her book.

Potions was the easiest subject in terms of magical use. Many first-year potions didn't require magic at all, and the class felt more like chemistry than anything. The book talked about different techniques being required to handle different ingredients. Most of the first-year ingredients didn't have any special instructions. It was a bit too complicated for a group of eleven-year-olds to remember how to accurately cut and crush five different ingredients, apparently.

There were tons of useful potions and Henry found she looked forward to the lessons. Her only problem was Snape. There was nothing to do about him though. She had to make do with what she had.

Sirius showed up after a while and put his head in Harry's lap. The boy absentmindedly scratched him behind the ear.

"Can't we try out a couple of these spells?" he asked. "I wanna know if I can do it."

"The Ministry traces all use of magic until we're seventeen."

"So… that's a no?" Sirius barked his rejection. "Drat. I really want to try."

"Memorise the wand movements, then." She was busy remembering ingredients and their usages. "Aconite also goes by the name of monkshood and wolfsbane… used in the Wideye Potion and Wolfsbane Potion…"

"Why's it called wolfsbane?"

"Dunno, but the Wolfsbane Potion makes werewolf transformations easier."

"Werewolves?" He promptly closed his book. "Henry, you gotta start telling me about these things."

"But I am."
"Only when I ask! I don't want to be surprised by every second sentence that leaves your mouth. We're twins, so stop withholding information about magic and tell me."

She averted her eyes. "I'm sorry, it's just that I don't think of telling you… because I already know."

"Then start doing it now." She promised with a nod. "Good. Now, please tell me what other creatures exist in this hidden world."

Except for the ones he already knew of (house-elves and certain magical animals), there were werewolves, trolls, giants, unicorns, pixies, dragons, talking spiders, phoenixes and hippogriffs, to name a few.

Harry groaned into his hands. "Unicorns, fire-breathing reptiles and burning birds. Of course they exist." Henry patted him reassuringly on the back. "Not helping."

"Sorry." She didn't look regretful at all.

"Whatever. Did you know there are spells for virtually anything? Look at this one!" Henry leaned closer and snorted. He had found a first-year spell that made pineapples dance.

"When will we ever use that one?"

"If we have younger siblings or children?" guessed Harry. "It says in the book that some spells have no other function but to serve as examples for first-time casters to train with." Instead of accidentally maiming or hurting someone, schools taught useless spells for the children to get a hang of the practical uses of spellcasting theory.

They kept reading for another few hours before getting bored. They played a bit with Daycrusher and then returned home. Sirius walked them all the way to the front of Number Four before licking their hands in goodbye and running off.

"He's a magical dog, isn't he?" asked Harry.

"Why do you think so?" They entered the house and went up the stairs.

"Because he's weird. Also, what breed is he?"

She shrugged. Henry had no idea what dog he was supposed to be. A big mutt, maybe? Except having long black fur, his head reached their elbows. He wasn't fat, but not thin either. And people were scared of him. Whenever the neighbours saw them walk with him without a leash, they moved as far away as they could.

The rest of the month they spent the majority of their time in the forest with Daycrusher and Sirius. They finished reading their Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts books. History of Magic was dreadful to get through. Henry got two chapters in before giving up and picking up the Herbology book. Harry got five chapters in before falling asleep.

The last day of August, the twins carefully approached Petunia.

"We need your help," they said simultaneously. Secretly they grinned in the shiver that went through their aunt.

"With what?"

"Taking us to King's Cross tomorrow morning."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because otherwise you have to answer Professor Dumbledor why you didn't let us go to Hogwarts."

Petunia dropped the laundry she was folding. Her face went pure white before going red with anger. "How do you know about that?"

"We got letters of course," replied Harry with a cheeky smirk. "Never thought to tell us we were magical, did you?"

"That's not important right now," Henry said with a sigh. "The thing is, we can't get to King's Cross without help."

"I'm not taking you there! They teach you strange things, horrible things, at that place! You're going to hurt us when you get back."

The twins raised their eyebrows in surprise. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you have thus far not been punished for breaking the magical laws."

"If we use magic now that we have wands," replied Henry dryly, "we risk being expelled from Hogwarts. No way in hell we'll trade that place for this."

"Yeah, you don't have to worry."

"And you don't have to see us for more than two months every year. When we turn seventeen and graduate, we don't have to come back here either. We're legally adults by then, so we'll get a place for ourselves."

Petunia quietly fiddled with one of Dudley's sweaters, thinking over their words. Only two months a year for seven years and then they were gone forever? It was too good to be true. And there was no guarantee they would be expelled for harming her family. When Henrietta sent Vernon through the wall, no one had come to take them away. They were favoured and would never be held accountable for their actions.

"No," she said finally. "I'm not risking harm to my family for your sake."

The twins gaped at her. They hadn't thought she'd refuse. "Okay…" said Harry, not completely understanding what just happened. "I hope you're prepared to face the wrath of the Wizengamot for stopping their prized Twins-Who-Lived to get proper education. I mean… I dunno what they would do to you."

Henry was now staring at Harry. Where had he learned to threaten people like that?

"How dare—"

"App app app," Harry interrupted Petunia. "I wasn't done. You see, we don't know what we're doing when we use magic. We can't really control it." Bullshit, they learned how to do that when they were eight. "But they? They're the Ministry; of course they know what they're doing. One way or the other, they will punish you for withholding us from our birthright. We're their prized poster boy and girl—they need us. What they don't need is you."

"One day, you will get your comeuppance," spat Petunia. "Now leave! I'll get you there before ten tomorrow."

"Morning," Henry clarified.

"Ten o'clock tomorrow morning," hissed Petunia. "Now go. I don't want to see your ugly faces until then. No dinner!"

"Whatever." Not like they hadn't survived on less.


A/N: Got the inspiration for her wand from Googlig images. From those beautiful wands came the idea that wand-fashion hasn't always been the same, and that some old-fashioned ones were still up for sale.