Disclaimer: JKR's... I know... why won't she share?... *Sobs*

"speech" 'thought' "parseltongue" (clarifications) (Author' Notes)

Author's note: just a reminder, anyone who read this before june 2011 should know it has been re-drafted, enjoy

Chapter 2

Only Each Other

It was with a heavy heart that Albus Dumbledore approached Number four Privet Drive, in Little Whinging, Surrey. Albus strode determinedly towards his destination, struggling internally over the choice he was making. Albus' heart was so torn because just the previous night, two bright young people with the whole world ahead of them had died, Betrayed to their enemy by one whom they had entrusted not only their own lives, but the lives of their year old twins, Harry and Anya. And so their enemy, Lord Voldemort, had come for them, intent on wiping out all hope against his terror by killing two infant children, and viable subjects for his prophesied conquerors. and he had rained horror upon the Potter family, striking in the dead of the night, breaking the Fidelius Charm protecting their home with the aid of the spell's Secret Keeper, and he had murdered James Potter in cold blood as he attempted to give his family time by holding the Dark Lord off. And he had not stopped there, ascending to the nursery, where Lily Potter had fearlessly given her life, that her heirs might live.

And they did live, Lily Potter had done the impossible, somehow creating a shield to protect the infants from the Avada Kedavra, and even more, the shield had not only stopped the curse, but had repelled it back upon the caster, utterly destroying the Dark Lord's physical form, forcing him to flee as less than a common ghost.

Albus strode quickly down Privet Drive, using his deluminator to extinguish the street light with a few absent clicks, settling into the dark quiet to await the arrival of one of his most loyal friends, his tall, brightly clothed form blending into the shadows better than one would think. He had only been settled for a few moments before he felt eyes upon him, reaching out with his senses, he recognized the feel of another faithful friend. Turning in her direction he spoke "I should have known that you would be here, Minerva" he addressed her softly, knowing that her currently hyper-sensitive hearing could decipher his statement with ease.

Out of an alleyway, prowled a seemingly ordinary, common house cat, and Dumbledore showed no surprise, at it's sudden appearance, or the swift transformation the feline undertook, shifting smoothly from a cat, into his Transfiguration professor.

"Good evening Headmaster" she greeted him almost coldly, she too had been close to the Potters after all, she too was grieving "you do realize that I've been here all day don't you?" she grumped, irritated at having had to wait so long. The feline animagus moved to stand by Dumbledore.

"Well, you shall be pleased to learn that we should not have to wait for much longer my dear" Albus explained to the bad tempered Scot "Hagrid is bringing them, he will be here before long"

Minerva quirked a brow at the mention of Hagrid, though she considered the gentle half-giant a friend, he was not the fastest spell to leave the wand "you think it... Wise to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"Ah, my dear professor" Albus smilingly started "I would trust Hagrid with my life"

Minerva was going to continue, but it was at this moment she became aware of a roaring sound in the distance. Looking to Albus, she saw his eyes fixed on a single white light in the sky, which was rapidly growing larger, high in the air, accompanied by that strange mechanical sounding roar. McGonagal grabbed hold of Dumbledore's arm in alarm when this... Creature began to fall, right towards Privet Drive "Albus?" she questioned, to which he merely waved his wand, raising a powerful muggle-repelling ward, causing all still active muggles to subconsciously avoid approaching their windows. Realizing that the Headmaster was expecting this thing, Minerva allowed herself to relax, and it was only as the object neared the floor that Minerva recognized the now deafening sound for what it was, a motorcycle engine. She could only gape in astonishment as a truly giant motorbike carrying a larger man screeched to an abrupt halt yards before her.

"Hagrid?" she blurted out, outraged with his method of arrival.

Rubeus Hagrid stood slowly from the muggle contraption "good evenin' P'fessor McGonagal, P'fessor Dumbledore sir" the hairy colossus greeted in his thick accent as he approached in two massive steps, it was then that the woman noticed the makeshift baby-basket, tied surprisingly securely around Hagrid's chest. Minerva lost her stoic poise for a brief instant, as she realized that in that small basket, were the two newly orphaned babes.

"Hagrid, may I-" she began, only to be shushed quickly by the Hogwarts Grounds keeper, not something she was used to, Albus also raised a slightly surprised eyebrow at Hagrid's silencing of the intimidating Transfiguration professor.

"they're sleeping" he told her apologetically "bless 'em, fell asleep righ' as we were flyin' over Bristol" he looked lovingly into the basket/sling that the others were not tall enough to see into.

"I believe that Minerva merely wishes to see them, Hagrid my friend" Albus informed him, also wishing to see the children he had placed himself in charge of.

"Oh! o' course, Sorry P'fessors" Hagrid whispered hurriedly, slowly lowering himself to one knee. He was still taller than either professor, but they could see into the basket. Minerva gasped in shock, eyes watering upon seeing the poor things, sleeping peacefully, Anya looked no worse for the wear, but Harry had a nasty slash cut into his face, it began inches over his right eyebrow, before zig-zagging twice and then continuing down his face, over his eye (though Minerva thanked God that it did not seem to go deeper than his eyelid) and over the right half of both lips before ending just under his chin.

Though despite Hagrid's movement, they both slept on through the scrutiny, blissfully ignorant of what they'd lost. They lay in the blankets together, Harry, already much larger than his sister, was lying behind her, his arms wrapped around her protectively. Upon seeing the two innocent children, Albus paused, his heart breaking over what he felt he had to condemn them to. 'It's for the greater good, they cannot grow up spoiled and hated by opposite sides of our world, and they must remain safe at all costs' he reminded himself, shaking away his uncertainty. They all remained as they were, gazing upon the sleeping children with sorrow.

Albus sighed tiredly "come, let us do as we came to do" he solemnly told them, taking the basket from Hagrid gently. turning, he began to swiftly approach number four, the others following him dutifully.

"Albus, as you well know" Minerva began seriously "I've been watching them, I can hardly believe that that woman was Lily's sister, you simply can't leave them here" she beseeched him, having found Petunia Dursley distasteful at best.

"I am doing only what I must" Albus defended "Poppy is in no condition to care for two children, Lily was like a daughter to her. And you know as well as I that the Ministry would never allow Remus custody" he justified "and furthermore, here is where Lily's blood lives on, I can use the blood protection Lily placed upon her children to create nigh on invincible intent wards, none who would mean them harm will be able to find them here, even if they just happened to stumble across them in the street they would not recognize the children for who they are" he told her truthfully, though his heart ached at the withheld information, Minerva had seen the Dursley's go about their daily lives, but she did not know of the undiluted hatred they felt for anything magical. He was in truth, condemning the twins to at best, a childhood of neglect, all in the name of safety.

"But Headmaster, there are so many who would take them in, myself included" she pleaded further as they reached the Dursley's doorstep " there will not be a man, woman or child in our world who will not know their names"

"Yes" He agreed "and they are far better off growing up away from all of that, please Minerva, try to understand my decision" He crouched, gently laying the basket on the welcome mat, and casting a warming charm over them. He remained on his knees as he reached into his cloak and produced his pre-written note to the Durlseys, but as he placed the note in the basket, Harry's Eyes snapped open to stare at Albus, almost accusingly. Anya also woke, her own eyes glittering with frightening intelligence, but she only looked briefly at Dumbledore, before turning her gaze to Harry, who returned the stare with equal clarity, his face somehow softening.

Thoroughly unnerved, Albus waved his wand as he stood, as powerful as he knew they would one day be, they succumbed to his sleeping charm, drifting back into slumber. He heard Hagrid sniffling loudly, with Minerva nearly as upset "there, there my friends, it is not really goodbye after all"

Albus turned back, to take one last glance upon the one day saviors of the light, and shed a single tear, before he and his companions left, not to see the Potter twins for ten years.

**********H&A**********

Anya Potter lay with her beloved brother in the dead of the night, contemplating her life. An impressive feat for a nine year old. Her thoughts had always been mature far beyond her years, as had her brother's. and as she lay cuddled into her brother for warmth on their pitiful little cot under the stairs, the days events came to her in a flash.

The day had been a fairly brilliant day compared to all their others, they had been woken at seven in the morning by their horse-faced and shrieking aunt demanding that they 'get their lazy, good for nothing selves up and earn their keep'. This was nothing knew, for as long as she could remember, they had been expected to perform a ridiculous amount of chores before being allowed to eat whatever the walrus-like Vernon and pig-like Dudley didn't hoover up, though recently Petunia had forced them to start cooking breakfast, making use of stools so they could reach the cooker. Though if Anya were honest with herself, Harry had done most of the work, as he always did, she had long ago accepted that he would do anything in his power to lessen her burdens, even if it meant taking them onto himself.

After they had finished preparing the massive meal, they had been forced to sit and watch the Dursleys eat, waiting until they had finished before being allowed to help themselves to the left overs. Once they had eaten, they were sent outside to do gardening before school, pulling weeds and such, Harry had of course not allowed her to do so, lest she prick herself on a thorn, instead rushing through the work himself, seemingly unaware when he himself came afoul of such thorns.

As they left for school in their filthy second-hand clothes with their obese cousin, Harry had utilized a new trick to heal the scratches from the prickly plants, he had nearly collapsed in exhaustion afterwards, but they had both been ecstatic, yet another strange talent Harry could use. She did not know when they had first realized Harry had such Powers, though he had spent most of his life working on them, seemingly becoming stronger with time and practice. He said he could feel something inside him, and after much encouragement and advice, Anya too had learned to feel it, an indescribable well of Power within her very being.

The first time she could remember him doing something unusual had been when they were four. They had been in pre-school, and Dudley had stolen both their milk cartons after gulping down his own, Harry had been as furious as a four year old could be, and he had simply held out his hands, and both cartons had shot out of Dudley's stubby little hands and into Harry's own. Harry had gotten quite the the tongue lashing for that one, the usual Dursley-response to anything remotely 'abnormal'. She also remembered the time Vernon had seemingly had a horrible day or something, and had struck Anya across the face hard enough to knock her on her little arse, but the response from Harry: a shove from a seven year old that would not normally have budged a man of Vernon's considerable weight, had been strong enough the send him hurtling arse over tea-kettle across the room, needless to say, no Dursley would dare raise a hand to either of them now.

their punishment for this 'unwarranted assault' was to keep him from school for a month to work like a slave in the seventeen hundreds, telling the school he was ill. She had felt so lonely at school without him, with Dudley hitting anyone who was friendly to her. Her loneliness had not lasted too long, eradicated by the emergance of another mysterious Power, though she acknowledged that this one was as much hers as his. She began to hear Harry's voice in her head, complaining over the chores he had to do at number four and bemoaning how he missed her, Anya had quickly realized that this was not her imagination, and opened conversation in her head with the voice, much to it's shock. It had turned out that they had somehow learned to talk to each other in their heads, regardless of distance. She had later learned that gifts such as these were known as as things like telekinesis and telepathy, supposedly science-fiction abilities. And they had always been able to sense the others feelings, which Harry had found out was called empathy. The strangest ability Harry had, had resulted from Petunias attempt to remove his birds nest of hair almost a year ago, resulting in an absolutely hideous mess of uneven hair, Harry had hated it, 'so had I come to think of it' she thought to herself, but Harry had loathed it, going to sleep in a huff. But the next morning, His hair had been restored, completely grown back, as shaggy as ever. Of course Harry had received another verbal beating for being 'a freak'.

Anya had wondered if he could possibly learn to control this new Power, and had encouraged him to try, and with some practice he had indeed harnessed not only the ability to control his hair length, but all of his softer features, even his scars, though he told Anya that the Scar on his face couldn't really be gone, he could still feel it, almost alive within his very mind.

But regardless, they had gone to school despite of Harry's exhaustion, not particularly wanting to return to number four. They loved school, Harry because it got them away from number four, and Anya because she was damn good at it too, though Harry was no less knowledgeable, appearing to know everything Anya had learned. The first few hours had passed swiftly, and too soon for their liking, it had been the lunch hour, and all the children had been ushered out into the yard. They had done as they always did, wandering the yard, trying to avoid Dudley, Harry had proved more than a match for Dudley in the past, so the fat bully had sought out others, six other boys plus Dudley now spent all lunch terrorizing all the other kids, always seeking them out in particular, doing their best to beat Harry to a pulp, Dudley would have struck at Anya too but for two reasons, partly because his 'friends' had actually had decent parents and 'don't hit girls' had at least been slightly emphasized, but mostly because Dudley knew that when it was Anya being physically abused Harry would go absolutely ape-shit, and no amount of backup could help him then, given that Harry was a good foot taller than anyone else in their year group.

Today Dudley's gang had found them, and they had run as always, but eventually they had been cornered. Harry had been angry, they had been shouting things at Anya this time, he had grabbed Anya to himself and... Moved them. Anya had closed her eyes when Harry had hugged her, taking comfort from his embrace, when she had suddenly felt as though she was being squeezed through a thin rubber tube and suddenly found herself on the school roof with an unconscious Harry. He had somehow teleported them away, completely exhausting himself... And leaving his shoes behind. When he had awoken a half hour later, they had agreed that this merited further experimentation and climbed down just in time for class. Luckily no one had actually seen them vanish, so Harry had avoided another Vernon-yelling.

The rest of the day had been fairly nondescript, they had gone back to number four (neither would ever consider it home) and had another weeks worth of chores to work through, Harry earning a an indignant shriek from Petunia for not being fast enough, before they were sent to their cupboard, some four hours ago, neither had ever needed as much sleep as was normal for their age.

climbing out of her ruminations, and propping her chin on his chest, Anya looked up into Harry's wide awake eyes 'Harry, I'm hungry' She told him across their mental link.

His brows creased in mild concern 'Oh shit, you haven't eaten since breakfast, why didn't you say anything?' he asked hurriedly reaching to place his hand on the cupboard door, to unlock it with his Powers.

Grabbing his hand to stop him unlocking the door without hearing her out, 'wait, first of all, you haven't eaten either and you never said anything. And secondly, do you think you're up to trying that teleporting thing again?' She queried scientifically, rubbing a hand soothingly on his other arm.

An excited grin broke out on his face, then closing his eyes, he concentrated, only to come up empty, looking back to his sister he spoke disappointedly 'nothing, I don't even know how I did it in the first place'.

'Well, maybe it's like with your telekineses, you remember how you had to be upset or really need it for it to work at first' She advised him logically 'try and think about how we need food'

'Okay' he complied, closing his eyes again and focusing on how he hated his sister missing out on food, and how she needed to eat to stay healthy. As he thought, he was reminded of the time when the Dursleys had starved them for days, and Anya had become terribly ill. As soon as the thought crossed his mind he felt himself squeezed through that tube again, Opening his eyes he found himself on the floor outside the cupboard door, and only mildly tired. Grinning ear-to-ear Harry rushed to open the door from the outside, as soon as he opened it he had his arms full of ecstatic nine year old girl.

Anya was a small girl, with long raven locks and almost glowing emerald eyes, she had pale but healthy looking skin and delicate feminine features, had she known anyone who knew their parents, they'd have told her she looked remarkably like her mother, but would grow to be even more beautiful than she had been in life.

Harry shared a host of her Physical characteristics, though they differed in various ways, his eyes were almost identical to his sister's, shining with determination as opposed to her wild intellect, and he kept his also ink-black hair incredibly short, less than an inch long, he too was unusually pale, but far taller, appearing closer to eleven or twelve than nine, and Harry also looked remarkably like one of his parents, his father in this case, who had been widely thought of as one of the most handsome men of his generation. Harry's most striking feature was the Scar that ran vertically from just below his hairline to just beneath his chin.

'Fantastic!' Anya mentally raved, grinning just as wide as Harry 'can you imagine the things we could use this for? and you're not that tired, so distance appears to factor into it as much as concentration' she finished analytically.

Chuckling in both mirth and excitement, Harry hugged her back 'yes, yes, we'll be unstoppable, but weren't you hungry?' he asked, already leading her to the kitchen, after locking the cupboard door.

**********H&A**********

'Ah, the joys of a full stomach' Harry thought contently after finishing his half of the sandwich he'd made.

Anya giggled mentally and literally 'oh yes, and now we'll be able to do this every night without having to worry about getting caught' they had experimented with Harry's newfound ability, and discovered that so long as as he didn't try to go too far, he could 'pop' around as much as he liked, though he found it far easier to move merely himself as opposed to the both of them, and he was determined to teach Anya this strange Power too, though she remained skeptical.

Harry seeing that his sister was in a good mood, decided to broach a topic he'd been thinking on for a while 'Anya?... I think... I think we should leave.'

'leave?' Anya asked 'as in, run away?... Harry... I'm not sure, I mean... how would we live? We'd get caught, and you know what would happen then don't you?' she reasoned, fearing the life of an orphanage if the police caught up with them, they both knew the Dursleys would never get away with their crimes after close scrutiny.

'No, that's it, we wouldn't' he countered 'with this new thing, no-one could catch us, and you know as well as I do that we wouldn't struggle for food, we could just steal what we needed with our Powers, almost anything would be better than here!... Please Anya... I... We can't stay here, I won't risk you any more, all it takes is for Vernon to lose his temper once when i'm not looking, and then... We could be taken from each other... I couldn't live without you sis...' He pleaded with her, seeing her begin to consider his words.

Anya paused, she tried to consider him. He made good points, they could steal anything they needed with almost no fear of consequence, they could live almost anywhere they chose, locked doors would hold no challenge for them, her only counter argument would be their education, should they leave, their formal education would cease, though she knew they could learn anything they needed from books and the Internet. If she was honest, she was sold when he alluded to the possibility of Vernon snapping and truly hurting one of them, she knew that she also could not go on without her beloved brother, her protector, her companion. And so, having considered his request, she made her decision, changing both of their lives forever.

'... Okay...'

**********H&A**********

Hundreds of miles away, in an Ancient Scottish Castle, Albus Dumbledore was sleeping peacefully, courtesy of his weekly Dreamless sleeping potion, and so was unaware of one of his various, seemingly pointless knick-knacks letting out a keening whine before falling silent, slowly ceasing it's constant spinning until it sat motionless in the old Headmaster's office.

The wards of Privet Drive had fallen.

review people!