The Girl Who Lived to be a Nightmare

Summary: What if the Potters never died that Halloween night? What if everyone believed that Rose Potter was the Girl-Who-Lived? What if the Potters became egoistic and favoured Rose over Harry? What if Harry knew all along that he was special and began practising magic at the age of 7?

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the computer that I'm typing on.

Italics are thoughts

Bold is parsletounge or beast speak

Bold and Italics is writing or letters

Chapter 2

The Potter Twins

There is one difference between the strong and the weak,

when life throws something unexpect,

the strong stare it in the face and try to make it better,

whil the weak just roll over and say how pathetic there life is,

and wait for others to fix it for them,

that is the difference between me,

and the rest of the wizarding world

Potter Manor (6 years later)

On the third floor of Potter Manor, a young boy was sleeping silently. If one were to look around his room, your first assumption of him would be a bookworm. He had alot of books on several bookcases, as well as some on his desk. The walls were a neutral beige and the ceiling was white. He had a poster of the Tornadoes on his wall but that was it. To him, this was his own personal library, filled with his own books that he bought. He even had a few borderling illegal books, like all libraries, under a notice-me-not charm done by his Uncle Remus.

Light peaked threw a gap in the curtain and fell on the boy. He began to stir and open his eyes. They were a piercing emerald green. He pushed away some of the strands of his ever-messy black hair. As he did that, a lightning-bolt shaped scare became visible. He was Harry Potter, twin brother of the Girl-Who-Lived, Rose Potter, and while he may be a bookworm, he also lived life for the adventure.

Flashback

The Potters were on vacation in Africa. It was the middle of the night and Harry, who was 6, almost 7, awoke abruptly. He wondered why he woke up so suddenly when he heard what sounded like an animal cry. He quickly shoke off all remaining sleepiness and ran towards the sound. What he saw disgusted him. There was a leopard with her cub, trying to fight off what looked to be about 100 wizards. They were cornered against a rock plateau. Some of the wizards were dead while others were still firing curses at the two leopards. Then Harry saw the mother leopard breath out what looked to be gas. All the wizards close to her who inhaled the gas fell over, dead. Harry gasped in surprise, they were Nundu.

Then Harry did something that was incredibly brave and stupid. He ran out infront of the leopards and yelled, "Protego!" He knew his small shield wouldn't protect them for long, buthe had to try. They were trying to hurt a small cub, it didn't matter that they were considered Dark beasts, they still deserved some love and protection.

The shield flared to life and knocked out all of the wizards that were still standing. Harry turned to the two Nundus and saw that the mother was badly injured. "Are you okay?" he asked.

The leopards gasped, "How is that you are speaking with us?" the mother said.

Then Harry realized that he was speaking to the Nundus and they were awering him. "I am?"

The Nundu cub snorted and replied, "No we're just the little voices in your head." Harry realized that the cub was a female.

"Oh" he said, "What happened?"

The mother sighed, "The wizards had been chasing us for a while now and cornered us against the plateau. I tried to fight them off but there was too many."

"Why were they chasing you?" Harry asked.

"I don't know." The mother answered, sounding very tired. "Can I ask you for a favour, young one?" She asked.

"What do you need?" he asked her.

"My time on this world is not long. When I pass I want you to take care of my cub. In return, I will willing let you take anything from my corpse to be used as potion or wand ingrediants. Do you have a vial with you?" she asked.

Harry was stunned. He wordlessly pulled out a vial from his backpack that he carried with him everywhere. It held an emergency healing draught in it and offered it to her. She declined. He emptied it and offered it to her again. She breathed into the vile and Harry quickly capped it. He knew how valuable Nundu breath was and would protect this vile with his life. "And take this." She bit his right hand sharply. He pulled his hand back and looked down at the quickly healing cut. It was in the shape of a star surrounded by a circle. "It is the mark of a Nundu" she told him, "It protects you from the breath of a Nundu and all other poisons, except a few. Also, it gives you some of the abilities of a Nundu, if you notice, you will now be able to see almost perfectly in the dark and your eyesight has been repaired to that of perfection, even a little bit more."

Harry had tears in his eyes, even though this Nundu was dying, it helped Harry. He looked at the cub and saw that she was crying too. "If your cub, agrees with your request, I will gladly take care of her until she is able or wants to leave." He said.

The cub looked at him and said, "I will return with you, don't worry about your family, Nundu cubs are able to turn themselves invisible for a couple of days at a time for protection."

The mother smiled and said, "I love you, my cub, remember, you will always make me proud of you." Then she closed her eyes and layed her head on the rock beside her.

End of Flashback

That was a week ago and Harry returned the next day to Britain with his family, his little Nundu cub hidden from sight. He had collected several of the mother's hairs and some of her blood for later use. See the death of another creature had matured Harry somewhat, he wasn't as bouncy and carefree anymore. He had taken his indepedant studies more seriously so that kind of thing could never happen again. Harry had brought the cub to the forest on there property, since if he kept her in his room she would have been discovered and taken away in a matter of hours. He decided that today he would go out to the forest and check up on her to see how she was settling in. He also decided that she needed a name. He had asked the small herd of centaurs that lived in the forest to take after her after she agreed that she wouldn't attack any of the magical creatures that lived there. Even though they swore to protect her, he was still worried about her.

Harry quickly slipped out of pyjamas and into his workout clothes. If anyone were to question where he was going, he could say that he was doing his morning run and other excercises, which was true, he was just taking a small detour. He didn't think that anyone would be up but didn't want to take the chance. He quietly opened the door and ran quickly down the hall, down the stair and out the back door towards the forest. Once he was a ways into the forest he slowed down and headed to the small glade where he hoped the little Nundu was waiting for him.

Turns out that Harry needn't have worried. Sitting there waiting for him was his new familiar Nundu. "Hi Harry!" she said. Originally she wanted to call him 'Master Harry' but he told her that he was just 'Harry'.

Harry looked her over. In the week that they had been apart she had grown from the size of a kitten to that of a large house cat. She had yellow fur that would turn a golden colour when she matured, and black spots. She had bright blue eyes that showed her emotions clearly and were currently lit up with excitment. "How are you holding up?" he asked her.

She answered him immediatly, "It's really great here. The other creatures are so nice to me."

"That's good," Harry was worried that the other animals of the forest would be mean to her because she was a Nundu. "We need to come up with a name for you." he said.

"Okay, do you have any ideas?" she asked nearly jumping up and down in excitment.

"Ya, I thought of some last night. How about Kara, Night, Star, Sky or Shadow?" he liked Sky the best, because of her clear blue eyes, but it was her name and she could pick it.

She thought it over for a few minutes before she said, "I like Sky the best. My mom's name was 'Sunset' and I think that Sky is pretty close to that. I wonder where you ever got the name." She said the last part sarcastically so she knew that he thought of it from her eyes.

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "I'd better head back inside before everyone else wakes up." Sky said good-bye and he headed back to the house after running around the lake once, and doing some push-ups and sit-ups. Then he went inside and back into his room.

Upon entering his room, Harry saw a tawny owl outside his window. Harry recognized it as one of the Longbottom owls. Harry went over to the window and released the latch, allowing the owl entry to his room. It flew over to his dresser and propped it's left leg up. It had a wrapped package tied to his leg that look suspiciously like a book, and a letter. He quickly untied both and opened one of the drawers in his dresser that held owl treats. He offered one to he owl who gobbled it up extremely fast. Then it took off and flew out the window. Harry stared after it and wondered why he could understand and talk to some animals but others he couldn't. Harry quickly shook himself and opened the letter. It was from his best (and only) friend Neville Longbottom.

Dear Harry,

Happy Birthday Harry! Thanks for the presents mate. How did you know that I wanted '101 DIFFERENT WAYS TO CARE FOR YOUR RARE AND MAGICAL PLANTS'? Thanks soo much. Mum and Dad were gonna get it for me but they couldn't find it in Flourish and Blotts. Where did you find it?

I hope you like your present. It took me a couple of hours to find something that I knew you wouldn't have. It cost me 13 Galleons so it better be good. Too bad we couldn't look at it together.

Owl me sometime soon.

Your best mate,

Neville

Harry smiled. Neville was getting pretty good at making letters hide some of there meesages. He read it over this time ckecking 'in between the lines'. Neville only mentioned the one book that Harry sent him. The other wasn't exactly legal, since you needed to have your Masters in Herbology or were training for it since some of the plants in it were protected otherwise. It was another rare book called 'THE TOP 10 RAREST PLANTS IN ENGLAND, WHERE TO FIND THEM AND HOW TO CARE FOR THEM'. He also hinted that he knew that Harry didn't get these books from Diagon Alley. Neville also said that he went to some less then pleasant stores to find his book. Finally he said that if Harry didn't like the book Neville would smack him up something good since it was so expensive and that he was to owl him when he was able to go to Diagon Alley again so they could 'look at the books together'.

Setting the letter aside Harry tore open the package to the book. He dropped said book in surprise when he read it's title. 'Bloody Hell,' he thought, it was 'RARE WIZARDING GIFTS AND HOW TO FIND OUT IF YOU HAVE THEM'. There was only about 500 copies of this book in the whole world. He decided that whoever had sold this book to Neville didn't even bother to read the title because other wise the price would be over 100 Galleons. He stored the book in a secrect magical drawer in the wall that only he knew exsisted so he knew no one else would know it was there. He decided that he would look at the book tonight when everyone else was asleep.

He looked at one of the few Muggle items in his room, it was a digital alarm clock. It told him that is was about quarter after 7 in the morning. He decided that today he would get back at his sister for covering his face in make-up last year. He thought that the old ice cold bucket of water prank would be a good wake-up call for his sister. 'Let's see how she likes being pranked this early in the morning.' He thought. He silently slipped out his room and into the bathroom. He grabbed the bucket under the sink that was there for emergencies such as this one and filled it with freezing cold water. He walked out of the bathroom and crept into his sister's room.

Rose Potter's room was much different from Harry's. The walls and ceiling were a light pink colour. You wouldn't know that though unless you looked really hard or knew it was that colour. Almost every inch of the wall and even the ceiling was covered in moving posters. Most of the posters were of various quidditch teams including; the Holyhead Harpies, the Tornadoes (both of them were huge fans of the Tornadoes since their Dad used to play on the team), the English national team and even the Chuddley Cannons (Harry always made fun of her for liking the cannons). She also had posters of the Weird Sisters and a few other bands. Various items were scattered across the floor and on her dressers. Anyone who knew the Potter's could figure out pretty quickly that Harry took after his Mum and Rose took after her Dad. In looks it was the opposite except for the eye colours.

Harry walked over to his sister. She had long flaming red hair that fell to her waste and was currently all over the pillow. Both her and Harry had lean builds, Harry more so than Rose because of his work outs. Her currently shut eyes were hazel.

Harry lifted the bucket over his. He took a deep breath and dumped all of it on her sister. She fell out of the bed screaming like a banshee while Harry was on the floor roling with laughter. Within seconds both James and Lily Potter were in the room, read for a fight with their wands drawn. When they saw Rose dripping wet with the bucket right beside her and Harry roling around in laughter, they figured out pretty quickly what happened. They lowered their wands and smiled at the childrens' antiques.

"HARRY!" Rose screamed. "WHY THE BLOODY HELL WOULD YOU FEEL THE NEED TO TIP A BUCKET OF ICE COLD WATER ON ME AT 7 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING?!"

"Language," snapped Lily reflexivly after dealing with James for many years.

All heads turned to Harry. "First of all it's quarter after 7 and-," he started but one look on Rose's face made him decide that if he wanted to check out his book later he shouldn't act like a smartass to her. "Anyway, I thought I would give you an early birthday present. Happy Birthday!" He said, hoping that she would forget about being angry for a minute so he would have a chance run for it.

All anger on Rose's face quickly vanished into a confused look. "It's my birthday?" she asked their parents.

Harry's Dad chuckled and said, "Yes Rose it's your 7th birthday today."

His Mum quickly added, "It's Harry's birthday too."

Harry sighed. 'Doesn't Dad know that it's my birthday too? Why does he sometimes overlokk me?'. Harry knew that his dad didn't overlook him on purpose. He also knew that it could be alot worse and that both his Mum and Dad could even neglect him in favour of Rose. His Dad seemed to like Rose better because he felt that he had a connection to her through her love of Quidditch and lack of worth ethec. His Uncle Sirius was like that too. Harry on the other hand was alot closer to his Mum and his Uncle Remus since they all love to read and learn, just for the sake of reading and learning. His mum and Remus tried very hard to make sure that Harry didn't feel left out.

His mum noticed his sigh and gave him a sympathetic smile. She knew that Harry often felt left out even though he never said anything to her.

Rose and his Dad however were completely oblivious. Rose jumped up and said, "Yeah! It's my birthday. Mum can we have one of those awsome breakfasts that you make on special occasions?"

"Well..." his Mom said looking uncertain. He knew that she would make it even if Rose didn't ask. She just wanted to see his Dad beg on the floor.

Sure enough, his Dad got on his knees and cried. "Please Lily, please! How would the birthday boy and birthday girl ever survive if you don't grace us with your fabulous cooking?"

Both Harry and his Mum hid a smirk. "Okay," she said. "Only because you asked so nicely. She walked out of the room and Harry took advantage of the silent pause that followed her exit to escape the room before Rose decided to get angry at him again.

Harry grabbed some clothes from his room and had a quick shower. He made sure to go as fast as he could because he didn't want Rose to complain that there was no hot water left. He got changed in the bathroom and went back to his room. He saw that it was only 7:30 and that he only had a 5 minute shower. He tossed his pyjamas into the hamper in his closet and went downstairs to the kitchen, where his Mum had started making breakfast.

"Hi Mum do you need any help?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. She knew that this was his way of repaying her for when she included Harry when he would have been left out. "Do you want to start cutting up some fruit?"

"Okay," he said. While thanking her was one reason for doing this, it was also preperation for when he would have to make potions. He always practiced cutting up fruit, vegetables and meat. Making each slice the exact same size as the previous. He grinded up herbs and spices and poked holes in oranges and lemons so he could sqeeze out the juice inside. He experimented with different knives and different styles of cutting to see which way would get the best result.

Normally the house elves would cook the food, but breakfast and weekends was when they took breaks/vacations and that left Harry and his Mum to do the cooking. Harry grabbed the some pineapple, cantelope, and watermelon from the fridge. 'I think I'll cut the fruit into stars, I've never tried that before.' Harry spent the next little while cutting up the fruit into perfect stars. He didn't need to measure them to know they were the same size. Each side of the star was half of the length of the knife so he knew that each were the same lenght, one inch.

Just as Harry finished cutting the last star, Rose and his Dad came down the stairs. They sat down at the table and his Dad said, "Mmmm, smells good." His sister nodded in agreement.

"Thanks," his Mum said sweetly, "now can you both set the table?" His Dad and his sister grumbled but complied. They didn't feel like facing his Mum's wrath. 'In fact,' he thought, 'I think that I am the only one in the whole world, including Dumbledore, that isn't afraid of Mum when she is angry, and that's only because I'm worse then her when she's angry.' It was true. He had inherited the worst (or best depending how you look at it), parts of both his parents' temper. If someone pushed his buttons right, like with his Dad, he would retalliate about 100 times worse. He also inherited his mother's ability to control his temper until the best time to lash out, her ability to scream in rage for hours, and her ability to hold grudges, forever. When his sister put make-up on his face, he yelled at her for about 2 hours staight. His Dad and his sister both alternated between cowering and fear and trying to calm him down until Harry started yelling at the other. His Mum just stood in the doorway smirking at how her husband who used to be the only one in school who dared to yell back at her in school, cowered in fear from his raging son. He had not spoken with either of them for a whole month before they apologized to him, and even then he acted cold to them for a while.

Harry set the fruit on the table then helped his Mum put the rest of the food on the table. He sat down just as the others did. He sat while he watched his sister and Dad reach for the food, both of them forgetting the toast that his Mum always insisted upon doing every year for everyone's birthday.

Just as predicted, his Mum scolded both of them for forgetting about the toast. "To Harry and Rose and their 7th Birthday!" she said, raising her glass of pumpkin juice.

The rest of the table raised their glass of coffee and pumpkin juice saying, "To Harry and Rose!"

Then they all grabbed some food from the platters. Soon they were all eating heartily. Harry and his Mum both paused in their eating to take a sip of their pumpkin juice. His Mum eyed the way that his Dad was eating in slight disgust. He appeared to be inhaling the food. Rose was, better, but only just. She had learnt some table manners from Lily but only the most basic. Harry and his Mum both looked at eachother and smirked. It was a private joke between them at how much the other two members of the family ate and how they ate it. Harry's Mum alone ate more than the two of them combined, she just used perfect table manners and ate much slower to make it appear that she was only eating a little. She had been using this trick since she was 9 and had taught it to Harry. Harry ate even more than his Mum but when asked about it by his Mum he just said that he was a growing boy. Both of them went back to their eating, trying very hard not to laugh.

It took Harry's Dad and sister about 15 minutes to eat before they excused themselves to play some Quidditch. His Mum rolled her eyes at them when they ran out, not bothering to thank her and Harry for the meal or to clear their plates. Sometimes she felt that James had reverted back to his school days of believing that he was above the world, and it seemed that Rose had inherited the same ego. She thanked whatever gods there were everynight that Harry didn't end up like that.

Then she remembered something. "Oh Harry, I forgot to tell you. You know the Longbottom Aurors? They were friends of ours in school and I invited them over for your birthday. The have a son named Neville about your age and a daughter who is a year younger then you named Katie."

Harry tried very hard to not make his face into one of glee. Instead he made it to look like one of that of insicure. "What are they like?" he asked trying to sound nervous.

His Mum smiled at him. "Oh they are very nice people. The boy, Neville, had his birthday yesterday infact. He loves Herbology. He is always in the Greenhouse that his parents set up for him or reading a book about it. The girl, Katie, is alot like Rose, Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch." she giggled slightly.

Harry made his face go into a look of understanding. He already knew that from when Neville sent him some letters but he couldn't let his Mum know that. "Thanks for breakfast Mum. I think I'm gonna staighten up my room incase Neville wants to see it." He quickly cleared the table and ran up to his room. 'I'm gonna kill Neville...' he thought.

His Mum frowned. Harry always kept his room clean. She thought of possible reasons that he would be nervous before coming to an understanding. That time in Diagon Alley when Harry got separated from the rest, he must have met Neville and already knew him. She smiled and began cleaning up the dishes and preparing for the Longbottom's arrival. She didn't tell him that they weren't going to exchange gifts until the Longbottom's got here so they could do Harry, Rose and Neville together. She guessed that Neville hadn't told Harry that he would be coming, she just hoped that Harry wouldn't be too hard on the boy.

A Nundu is considered one of the most dangerous beasts in the wizarding world. The look like a leopard but can grow to be much larger (at least in my story). Their breath can become a poisonous fog that becomes instant death to those that inhale it. It takes about 100 wizards to subdue onr when it only took 10 to subdue the dragon in Harry's first task in GoF.

This chapter introduces Neville Longbottom. Neville will be an important character in this story but his sister won't be as important. I know that he doesn't have one in cannon but his parents were tortured to insanity before they could have another child. Obviously they weren't in my story.

This chapter also introduces how the Potter family works. Unless you're super thick you would have notcied that James seemed to favour Rose and both of them acted like they were when James was in school. Lily noticed that Harry seemed to be left out because he didn't like Quidditch that much but like to read alot and formed a special bond with him.

Harry is also alot smarter than your average 7 year old, Neville will be too. We also meet Harry's first familiar, yes he will have more, I didn't ask for the name of a Runespoor for nothing. Hedwig will also be his familiar so don't worry.

Reviews would be appreciated and thanks to Hendrick248848 and LITKTTW for reviewing last chapter.

I am trying to remember the names of Harry's year mates but I can't remember them all. If anyone can remember any names can you tell me them. I might review faster. hint

Sapphire Fire Stone