"So," the Indian girl flashed a disbelieving grin. "Your Merlin's twin brother."

"I am Merlin's twin brother," Harry repeated. He twirled his spoon around his ice cream and looked unwaveringly back at the sisters.

"Merlin's twin brother," the other girl, Parvati, shook her head. "You don't really look alike...and what are the chances of someone actually having a long loss twin brother?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. An hour earlier he had met the Patils while they fawned over his new dogs. That had naturally been followed by a brief and friendly conversation and that by walking to the ice cream parlor. Now they were sitting outside at the umbrella covered round tables with B.D. and Satan sitting beside them. Well, B.D. was sitting; Satan was switching between pouncing onto the girls' laps and biting at Harry's ankles.

"What are the chances that some kid from muggle Kensington is actually a wizard?"

She thought for a moment then rolled her eyes. "Pretty well apparently...," she mumbled.

"So, what does he look like?"

"Well for one thing, Merlin has dark red hair. And it doesn't stick out in ten different directions like yours- in a cute way of course," she reassured at Harry's frown. "He does have green eyes like yours. He's a bit taller than you and a bit thicker. He is the Ravenclaw beater after all."

Harry nodded in understanding. One of the first things that Harry had asked was what the advertisements for brooms were about. They had responded that they flew them for games like Quidditch; yes witches and wizards really flew broomsticks; no those pictures in muggle story books are actually of hags; yes they really eat children; no Harry you're too big to be eaten; and no Harry we're not calling you fat.

"They do have the same mannerisms, though," Padma cut in. "Merlin has that annoying habit of picking at his food and talking for nearly all of the meal time. Then he'll shove as much as possible down his throat when he realizes we have two minutes left and whine about being hungry later. It's the same pattern, everyday, without fail."

"Harry looks like he's doing the same thing, doesn't he?"

Harry scowled, "I do not. I was just pacing myself." He took his first two bites of his French Vanilla to prove his point, then immediately closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"You shouldn't eat that fast, you'll get a head-"

"Thank you, Parvati."

Harry opened his eyes to see Padma with a slight frown. "I don't sound like her."

"Of course you don't, my mistake." Harry moaned as he rubbed his temples.

Parvati smiled, "Maybe you should just take that home."

"I think I'll do that. What were you saying, Padma?"

"Oh, right. You both do that and the way you walk is exactly the same."

"How do I walk?"

"It is like a mix of a strut and a swagger. It's as if you think you own the world and at the same time you're too lazy to do anything about with it so you let it run on its own."

"Or like you're the best in the pack but you're letting everyone else think they're as good," Parvati added.

"So I look powerful, but modest." Harry grinned.

"Or you look cocky and as if you are trying to hide it," Parvati said cheekily.

"That's a more negative way to say it."

"I'm just being honest."

"Well there's honest and then there's just being criti-"

Padma knocked on the table, interrupting them. Her twin gave an endearing pout as the Ravenclaw drew to a stop and put her hand to the side of her head in mock exasperation.

Harry felt something twist in his gut as he watched the two. As cheesy as it seemed, even to his own eyes, the twins movements seemed to go in slow motion. Padma's bangles slid slowly down her wrist, the gold shining against her bronze skin and each chime as they collided echoing. Parvati's pout turned into a smile and suddenly a brisk wind picked up, blowing the wisps of hair around her face wildly about. She raised a slim arm to shield her eyes and groaned.

Harry blinked rapidly as Padma laughed and time put itself right again.

"Sweetie, I think your romance charm is acting up again," Padma said gaily as she grabbed her sister's wrist in one hand and brought out a steel nail file from her pocket with the other. She immediately began scratching away at one dangling piece.

"I knew I shouldn't have bought anything from that old hag at the market! There's no way a good charm could be that cheap."

"Charm?"

"They're small trinkets you can collect on a bracelet," Padma explained without looking up from Parvati's wrist. "Runecrafters shape them and enchanters can put special charms on them. This one wasn't shaped right so it's effects are pretty much shite."

"So far I have a lucky charm, an anti-blemish charm, a joy charm, a tranquility charm, and of course this stupid romance charm." Parvati counted each off with the fingers of her free hand. "You can't have too many or else it will start messing up your spell casting, but I saw it and figured I still have a few to go before anything would actually happen."

"Is the romance charm supposed to act like a love spell or something?"

She raised her left eyebrow. "It would be called a love charm if it did that. It just creates stupid little effects. You know, the sparkle in the eyes, the wind in the hair. But when it messes up and the wind hits you unexpectedly, it really stings your eyes." She rubbed at her eyes to prove her point. "Oh, well. It's more of a joke, really. Although, I suppose a knight in shining armor bloke might fall for it."

Harry nodded slowly and chuckled. "It causes slow motion too, huh?"

"Slow motion?" Padma sat up and put the small nail file she had been scratching away at the bracelet with on the table. "I'm doing a project on runes this semester and there's actually no rune that can do that, and I've never heard of an enchantment that could. Just a couple of really powerful spells."

"It would be pretty wicked, though," Parvati added as she fingered a charm. "You fix it?"

"Yes, I think so. Whoever put that rune on it had shaky hands." She paused and her face took on a blank look. "What had I been doing? Oh, right." She once again knocked on the table. "You two have known each other for barely two hours and you're already bickering like children."

"I'm not a child," Parvati muttered. Harry took on a similar blank face, then snapped his fingers.

"I was about to ask something before you interrupted us. What I really want to know is-" He cleared his throat. "Who is the cute twin? Me or him? Think carefully. Answer honestly."

"Cristina!" Harry shuffled awkwardly, his arms weighed down with shopping bags and the small krup that was cradled between his left upper arm and his chest. His new wand was settled in his back pocket and his white bloodhound was sitting obediently by his side.

"Cristina!" Harry sighed and gave a quick look around. When he was sure no one was coming up the stairs he quickly banged his head against the door.

"Just what are you doing, Brown?"

Harry spun his head so quickly his neck cracked. "Where did you-"

The old woman scowled at him and shook her walking stick in his direction. "If you hadn't been making all that noise you could have heard me coming. You must think you're at a football game with your hooligan friends. Just like you were back in primary school."

The teenager fought a primal need to growl at his former teacher, "I'll try to keep it quiet, Mrs. Berry. I didn't realize you lived here."

Only one of her hazel eyes squinted as she shook her head. "Like hell you didn't. You pay attention to every thing. You may not have been the one to cause most of the trouble, but I'd eat my cane if you hadn't known before hand about every single spitball-"

"Ma'm, I don't-"

"Every single bogey on the chalk board, every single braid dipped in paint-"

"Mrs. Berry it's been six years-"

"-and every single dead lizard in my desk. You may not have been the cause but I know you knew and were just ignoring it for your own amusement."

Harry waited for a second tirade and continued when none came. "Mrs. Berry, it's been six years. Can't we get past this? You can not peg every single prank on me. It's unethical."

"Like hell I can't! You could have been like your sister. Even now she goes out of her way to be kind. Taking you into her home when you have no place to go. I hope you thank her everyday for this."

Harry bit his tongue to avoid saying that the only thing that was different between them was that Cristina actually caused the trouble while he just observed it and that Cristina wasn't even paying for her 'home' with her own money.

"I do so every morning. Right when she comes home from volunteering at the shelter to change into her wet suit so she can go save the baby dolphins. Then I go to church to pray that one day I may blessed to be as self sacrificing as she is. It hasn't happened yet, in fact I seem to care less and less about the elderly and the clubbing of baby animals every day, but with enough commitment maybe-"

"Shut your trap. You are truly a lost cause," she sneered. She hobbled to the staircase. On the second step she called back, "If you want to knock on the door, how about you put the bags down instead of causing further injury to your head."

Harry waited until her white head was no longer visible before dropping the bags in his right hand and knocking on the door. Bitch. Hopefully there weren't going to be any psycho, Harry hating professors at Hogwarts.

It wasn't long before he heard footsteps coming towards the door from inside the flat. And unless Cristina had gained a few stones since he had left, it wasn't her. Harry's left arm moved slightly away from his body and Satan fell into one of the bags with a yelp just before the door opened.

His eyes widened. "Pop! What are you doing here? I didn't think you were going to be home for a week!...Oh, wait." Harry smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry. How are you, Mike?"

The man's face screamed irritation, but he managed a tight smile. "I'm fine, Harry. I don't mean to pester you, but I must ask; I've been seeing Cristina for a few weeks now and you make that mistake nearly every time I see you-"

"Oh, it's just a passing resemblance. You see, our father is just reaching that age where dying your gray hair looks pathetic. So, I'm just now seeing the gray hair right here," he pointed to his hair line. "Like where yours was when I first met you. I know you've dyed your hair since then, but first impressions always stick in my mind. Anyway, whenever I see you I always think 'Oh, Pop must have started dying his hair again. He really shouldn't do that, it makes him seem like a creepy old geezer trying to score a younger piece of meat. But, I am very happy to see him.' But, then I realize that it's just you and the happiness part goes away."

There was a moment of silence as Harry gathered his bags and wrapped B.D.'s leash around his wrist.

"Well! Where is my twenty year old sister?"

Mike coughed, "She's, uh, she's in the kitchen."

"In the kitchen?"

"Yes."

"Not in her bedroom?"

"No, no she's in the kitchen."

Harry gave a winning smile, "That's great." He finally moved inside the doorway, roughly shoving the man to the side and forward so they switched places. "Well I'm going to go to the kitchen to see my fully dressed and happy sister. I assume you're leaving since your shoes are at the doorway and you're in the hall."

A peek of a back bone finally surfaced. "Look, me and Cristina are in a relationship and I will not be bossed around by her little-"

B.D. growled at the suddenly threatening structure and Harry swiftly kicked a pair of loafers out the door and into the hall.

"Tell her I'll call."

"Don't fall and break your hip on the stairs."

He slammed the door. What was with this trend of old people messing with his life?

"Does it not bother you that your boyfriend most likely gave Pop swirlies in secondary school?"

"Would it bother you to not try to scare any man you see me around?"

"Does it no bother you that your dating someone who looks like your father? That's disgusting! I wouldn't be caught dead dating someone who looked like my mum."

"He does not look like Daddy! He's just older than my usual men."

"Necrophilia is a crime!"

"Harry!"

"Fine. Fine. Well, does it not bother you that that 'man' is scared of a fourteen year old boy and his dog?"

Cristina took a sip from her wine glass and nodded, "That does bother me actually."

"As it should."

"And while we're on that subject, I can't believe you bought a dog on a whim."

"Dogs," Harry absently corrected as he slid onto the couch next to her. "Why do you get to drink wine over here and I'm not allowed to eat grapes?"

"What do you mean 'dogs'?

"Dogs. As in plural. As in two. As in-oh!" He squinted at his mountain of shopping bags, then pointed. "Open that one with the black and silver stripes."

"The one that's moving?" Cristina gave her brother a wary look, but stood and walked over to said bag. She held each side of the bag gingerly, before quickly opening it. A blur of white and brown shot out. Cristina gave a yelp and fell back on her butt with a thump. "What the hell, Harry!"

"Satan's the hell."

"What?!"

Harry made several grasps in the air to try and catch the dog that was running laps around the furniture. B.D. raised his head slightly from Harry's foot and turned to follow the krup's progress. As it approached its tenth lap, B.D. shot out and caught the scruff of Satan's neck in his mouth.

"Thanks, boy." Harry scratched the bloodhound behind the ear and picked up the krup with the other. He went to stand over Cristina. "It's not quite as smart as mine, but it is cute."

The blue eyed girl reached up and grabbed the small dog. She cradled the squirming animal to her chest and it quickly calmed down. She gave a small bewildered smile. "I said to get me a snow globe."

"Technically, you said 'bring me something back. A snow globe. Whatever.' A magical dog fits into the 'whatever' category." He grinned. "And come on. You know you can't resist cute, small, furry animals. You're too much a girl."

She sighed, "What's its name?"

"Satan."

"Harry-"

"Look at his tail! Someone will come by to clip it off in about a week when it's old enough to lose it. Besides, Satan is just a holding name. It's your dog."

"I can't believe I let you buy me a demonic dog. How about Damien?"

"How about Lucifer?"

"How about Damien?"

"Damien is good," Harry quickly agreed. "Anyway it trained to act differently around non magical people and magical people. As you can see it's nice and calm with you and it acted like it was on speed around me. That way you can know if the situation ever comes up."

"Will it ever come up?"

"I doubt it. But it can't hurt to be prepared, can it? Oh, I got you something else to." To Cristina's shock he dived into another bag, his torso disappearing in the supposedly small area. He came out gasping for breath, but looking otherwise pleased. He held out a slim black box.

"Some girls I'll be going to school with helped me pick it out."

"You've already met girls?"

He grinned. "And I found out I was the cute twin. It was great."

Her giggle died out as her eyes widened. Harry felt a sense of pride as she beamed.

"A charm bracelet? Harry it's gorgeous! You didn't have to get me all these things!"

Harry gave a mocking frown. "I can do what I want." He helped her with the clasp and fixed it on her wrist. His eyes lingered on each charm that he had rigorously picked out and emptied his pockets for. All designed to help make a person's life even better. Happier. Safer.

"Just promise me you'll never take it off and we're even."