Magical Twins – Chapter 4
"Julian?" Minerva asked softly, only to add in disbelief, "Harry?"
Beads of sweat suddenly began to run over the child's face as the boy was hit by a panic attack that confirmed her sudden suspicions.
"Julian, listen to me," she said softly. "It's all right. I promise I'll keep your secret. I'll merely inform Severus and Aunt Poppy, but we'll keep it for us. You have to tell us the truth though. All right?"
"All right," Julian croaked, feeling that he could trust Minerva with his life. "There's not much to tell. He's my cousin Dudley; everything else we said was the truth."
"Very well," Minerva replied wearily, resolving to have a word with Lily's sister during the summer.
HP
'Will she find out who our guardians are? Will we have to go back to the Dursleys?' Julian couldn't help worrying continuously. Dudley, who came down with the flu on the next day, noticed that Julian was worrying about something; however, Julian kept the matter to himself so as not to make Dudley fret as well. So far, neither Minerva nor Severus had lost another word about the matter, but when Julian's recovery took considerably more time than Dudley's, Minerva decided to bring up the topic once more.
"Julian, you know that you're our son now and that you'll always be our son whatever happens, don't you?" she asked softly, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
"Did you already speak with Severus and Aunt Poppy about it?" Julian queried, throwing his guardian an anxious look.
"Of course I spoke with them, Julian," Minerva replied thoughtfully. "Have you ever finished reading the book 'Hogwarts: A History'?"
"Yes," Julian replied in surprise. "I love that book and I made many notes into my copy of what the elves told me about the elves' history."
"The elves taught you about elves history?" Minerva queried, astonished.
"Uh, well, we wanted to know everything, including the history of the elves," Julian replied in a small voice. "Were we not supposed to...?" He slowly trailed off, averting his eyes to his covers.
"Julian," Minerva said calmingly, laying a cool hand on his arm, "I'm glad you're willing to learn many things. Knowledge is something very valuable, which no one can take from you. The teachers here at Hogwarts can only teach you human knowledge; use the chance you have to let the elves teach you other things."
"Thank you," Julian replied, sighing in relief.
"May I borrow your book once?" Minerva asked, smiling, causing Julian to grin.
"Of course. I'm sorry; I didn't write very properly though. Uh... Why did you ask if I read the book?" He threw Minerva a confused look.
"Because you're mentioned at the end of the book, aren't you, sweetie?"
Julian remained pensive for a moment. "Did they mean me? You know the... boy..." Seeing Minerva nod, he quickly continued, "I don't want to be that. I'm just Julian, Dudley's twin. I don't want to be anything else."
"That's all right, Julian," Minerva replied soothingly.
"Uh... may I ask you something?"
"Of course, Julian; what's wrong?"
"I know we have summer holidays now, but would it be possible for Dudley and me to still have lessons with the elves? I'd also like to learn how to brew potions, but I don't know if Severus would be willing to teach me. I always had to cook at our former home, and perhaps it's not so different."
Minerva smiled at the enthusiastic boy. "I'll speak with Severus and also with Barney. As far as I know Severus is very strict, but I'm sure he'll give you a chance to show him that you're adept at brewing. I remember that your mother was very good at Potions. Concerning classes with the house-elves, I can imagine that they'd be more than happy to teach you, because they're always bored during the summer holidays."
"Thank you so much, Minerva," Julian replied happily. "Where is Dudley by the way?"
"Professor Flitwick is teaching him some Charms for a birthday present he is making for you," Minerva replied, smiling. "You could ask Severus if he could help you brew drops or something like that for Dudley if you want."
"Oh yes, I'd love to brew something for him," Julian said enthusiastically.
"Well, first of all, you have to get back to full health though," Minerva said, sighing as she felt his forehead in concern.
"I already feel much better," Julian replied, yawning. "I think Aunt Poppy should let me try to get up. I promise to be very careful."
"I'll ask her if you may accompany me to the Great Hall for dinner tonight," Minerva promised, "provided that you rest in the meantime." She gently tucked the child in, observing as he slowly drifted off to sleep, before she went to speak with her friend.
HP
When Severus came to check on Julian, the child used the opportunity and asked if he could teach him how to make drops for his brother.
Severus threw the boy a surprised glance. "Brewing potions is not easy. It affords detailed and exact work. It'll take much time, which you could use enjoying yourself gallivanting the castle. Are you sure you want to try brewing?" He raised an eyebrow at the excited child.
"Yes please; when can we try it out?" Julian replied.
Severus smirked. "As soon as Poppy allows you to get up, you can try. However, don't get your hopes up too much. The brewing of potions is a lot of work."
HP
Two days later, Julian excitedly followed Severus into his private potions lab. He curiously looked around, surprised at how huge the room actually was. He had imagined a tiny, untidy room not much different from his cupboard, but this room was huge. It held a large table with several working spaces in the middle. One of the four walls was completely covered with sinks, another with shelves with potions ingredients, the third with shelves containing phials filled with liquids in all possible colours as well as empty phials, and the last wall held a huge magical window that made the laboratory to one of the brightest rooms Julian had ever seen.
"I suggest that you don't make drops for your brother but a liquid, which he can put into his milk for breakfast to add a flavour to it," Severus spoke up, questioningly lifting an eyebrow.
"That's right. I shouldn't give him sweets," Julian agreed, knowing that his twin brother was working hard to lose weight. "Okay. What do I have to do? Can we make strawberry flavour?"
Severus placed a recipe on the table in front of Julian. "These are the necessary ingredients. You find them all in the shelf over there in alphabetical order."
Julian excitedly jumped up and gathered the ingredients, before he picked up the knife Severus had laid out for him and set to work, flinching back badly when Severus interrupted him angrily.
"Stop!" the Potions master hissed. "What do you think you're going to do with that knife?"
"Err... cut the ingredients, sir?" Julian queried, anxiously glancing up at the onyx eyes right over him.
"No," Severus sighed in exasperation as he took the seat next to his ward. "As I told you, brewing is not easy. First of all, if you look at the recipe, it doesn't just say 'cut.' Can you tell me the difference between chop, slice, hack, powder, mash and cut?"
"No sir, I'm sorry, sir; can you please teach me?" Julian gasped, throwing the teacher a pleading look.
During the following two hours, Severus held a monologue about the different kinds of magical and non magical ingredients and the various ways to prepare them, gently showing the boy the different methods of how to cut the ingredients.
He noticed in amazement that Julian was listening intensely as if he was telling him the most intriguing story. 'He seems to be more interested than any of the first years ever are,' Severus mused as he observed the child.
"Very well, now try to brew the potion," Severus instructed Julian, knowing that it was fairly easy. 'If the boy is half as adept as brewing as his mother was, it shouldn't be a problem for him,' he thought, closely watching the boy's every move.
Forty minutes later, a flawless pink potion was simmering in the cauldron. "Well done," Severus commended the child, closely sniffing at the liquid. "Now you take one of the larger phials and bottle the potion. Do not forget to properly label the phial with the name of the potion and the brewing date."
Julian happily pressed the phial against his chest. "Thank you so much for helping me brew this. It was much fun. Will you let me brew other things or even help you prepare ingredients or brew, please?"
Severus glanced at his watch. The boy seemed to be very adept, and he could very well use an assistant considering how many potions he had to brew for the hospital wing over the holidays. "Very well," he said finally. "You may assist me brew potions for Poppy. However, we can't do anything more today. Seeing that I already kept you here for three hours, Poppy and Minerva are going to use me for potions ingredients if they don't see you alive and well soon."
Julian chuckled. "But I'm here out of my free will, and I love to be here and help you."
"Nevertheless, you have barely recovered from an illness, and we don't want you to have a setback. You may help me tomorrow morning right after breakfast," Severus replied in a voice of which Julian knew instantly that it didn't allow any protest.
"All right. Thank you so much, sir," he said gratefully, before he retired to his own room in search for his brother.
HP
Two weeks later was the twins' birthday. Julian and Dudley woke up to a huge group of house-elves standing in the middle of their room, holding a huge birthday cake and singing an elven birthday song.
"Thank you," Dudley mumbled sleepily, while Julian still fingered for his glasses.
"We is putting the cake in the Great Hall," Barney informed them, and the elves were gone, before the twins were even alert enough to properly register their presence.
"Julian, get up, it's our birthday," Dudley suddenly shouted, excitedly jumping out of bed.
Ten minutes later, the two boys were dressed and running through the empty corridors of the castle towards the Great Hall, stopping dead in their tracks as soon as they entered the hall. It was beautifully decorated. The house-elves had turned the whole hall into a playground with a huge inflatable dragon that had the function of a slide, several towers to climb and slide down, various kinds of vehicles to drive and fly through the hall and many more attractions.
"Good morning, my sons, and happy birthday," Minerva greeted them, pulling them along to the table, where all the teachers, who had remained at Hogwarts over the holidays, were already assembled and waiting for them.
Julian was much too excited to eat anything but a tiny piece of cake, while Dudley decided to abandon his diet for the day and happily tucked in. When he finished his fifth piece of cake, Minerva turned to the boys.
"Before you lose yourselves in the beautiful playground the house-elves made for you or begin to open your presents," she pointed to a table, on which colourful presents were piled, "I'd like you to follow me into my office for a moment. I have a visitor waiting for you."
Julian and Dudley exchanged a doubtful look. "A visitor for us?" Dudley finally queried, causing Minerva to smirk.
"Follow me," she instructed the boys and walked ahead, leading them to her office.
"Mum!" Dudley let out a gasp, while Julian stepped nearer towards Minerva and the smile vanished from his face as he hid behind his guardian's robes.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too.
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.